It’s beginning to be All About Me!
May 31, 2009
My Facebook and Friendster profiles suck. I have left a lot of blanks empty whereas my “friends” (that’s what they call members who are privileged to snoop on your account) assiduously fill theirs. So, to return the favor, I’m filling out mine. Here’s what I copy-pasted on my Facebook account.
Activities
Reading, practicing spoken Mandarin, doing tàijí qìgōng (太极气功) exercises, surfing the Internet, folding aerodynamic paper airplanes and origami, playing chess, listening to the radio.
Interests
After reading my entries, I think it will become apparent.
Music
Music genres: acoustic, alternative, easy listening, dance, latin, pop, R&B, rock, traditional.
Artists: 12 Girls Band, ABBA, Alex Toh, Arashi, Ayumi Hamasaki, Bob Marley, Fall Out Boy, F.I.R., Jay Chou, JJ Lin, Kitchie Nadal, Lisa Loeb, Namie Amuro, Siti Nurhaliza, S.H.E., Stefanie Sun, Teresa Teng, Utada Hikaru, Wang Lee-Hom, Wilber Pan, Wilson Philips.
*Hahaha! Got lazy so I just copy-pasted lame Wikipedia links.
TV Shows
I don’t watch TV on a dedicated basis.
Movies
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Kung Fu Hustle; House of Flying Daggers; Hero; Eat, Drink, Man, Woman; Infernal Affairs; Love of Siam; Red Cliff; Princess Mononoke.
Books
Types: Nonfiction (autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, travel, social science-related), histories, detective novels, conceptual science and technology
Titles: Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Luo Guanzhong trans. by C.H. Brewitt-Taylor), Animal Farm (George Orwell), Forrest Gump (Winston Groom), The End of History and the Last Man (Francis Fukuyama), Civilizations (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto), From Beirut to Jerusalem (Thomas L. Friedman), The Physics of Star Trek (Lawrence Krauss), Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Legacy of Ashes (Tim Weiner), Seven Years in Tibet (Heinrich Harrer), The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck), Wild Swan (Jung Chang), Hiroshima (John Hershey), Kamikaze (Yasuo Kuwahara & Gordon Allred), Balloon Top (Nobuko Albery), First They Killed My Father (Loung Ung), The Elements of Style (William Strunk, Jr. & E.B. White).
Quotations
So many deeds cry out to be done, / And always urgently; / The world rolls on, / Time passes. / Ten thousand years are too long, / Seize the day, seize the hour (Yī wàn nián tài jiŭ / zhĭ zhēng zhāo xī). – Mao Zedong (1963).
About Me
I’m digging my way to China!
***
By the way, I hate Facebook and I’m not using it (on a dedicated basis) again. It’s too chaotic. I get edgy with the security issues and constant emails. The interface looks unmanageable! Because of that, I’m imposing an indefinite moratorium on accepting friends in Facebook and Friendster and a complete ban on sending invites. It’s not permanent though.
***
Happy birthday to my sister!
Missing Ms. Class Secretary
May 29, 2009
I miss the class’ secretary. Now I have to keep track and do all of this things alone. She had a big capacity for remembering and reminding others of things.
Late registration schedule
3 June (Wednesday)
Damn! I’m not getting Speech 11 (it will be changed to Comm III), I’ll be adding DS 125 instead of 128 (daming nag-enroll e!) and I’m changing my NS 4 schedule to make things more compact and schedule-friendly. Oh well, as if I wasn’t a veteranof this…
Start of classes
8 June (Monday)
I’m enforcing a “No Absence Allowed” rule on myself since I only have 3 days of school each week, and all of my classes are all conveniently scheduled (like, erm, 1 pm?) I only have 5 subjects and none of them approach Soc. Sci. 199 or AS 131 threat level, leaving me a lot of time to enjoy non-school life.
“Independence” Day
12 June (Friday)
42nd UPM Anniversary as the Health Sciences Center
17 June (Wednesday)
Don’t know what happens on this day. And, frankly, I don’t care.
101st UP Foundation Day
18 June (Thursday)
Don’t know what happens on this day either.
Araw ng Maynila
24 June (Wednesday)
Deadline for filing application for graduation for 1st Semester, 2009-2010 graduates
25 June (Thursday)
Yeah, I’m confident of graduating this October. I’m killing myself if I don’t. (About the suicidal remark, just kidding.)
Deadline for colleges to submit tentative list of candidates for graduation for 1st Semester, 2009-2010 graduates
1 July (Wednesday)
UPCAT
1 – 2 August (Saturday to Sunday)
Mid-semester
7 August (Friday)
Ninoy Aquino Day
21 August (Friday)
National Heroes Day
31 August (Monday)
Deadline for dropping of subjects
9 September (Wednesday)
I’m not going to do this.
E’idl Fitr
21 September (Monday)
Deadline for filing Leave of Absence for students currently enrolled
22 September (Tuesday)
I’m not going to do this either.
End of classes
7 October (Wednesday)
My favorite part of school.
Integration period
8 – 9 October (Thursday to Friday)
Final examinations for graduating students
12 – 13 October (Monday to Tuesday)
Sorry classmates… but then isn’t an early semestral break always good?
Deadline for submission of grades for graduating students
20 October (Tuesday)
Deadline for colleges to submit approved list of candidates for graduation
13 November (Friday)
I’m going to make sure my name appears there.
Commencement exercises
21, 22 or 23 April 2010 (Wednesday, Thursday or Friday)
I’m attending only if I get a scholastic award. If I don’t (and it is very probable), why bother? These days, graduating (and all its attendant enterprises) is a greater luxury than attending the classes required to reach it.
Wishing myself success! 祝我成功! Zhù wǒ chénggōng!
About Me and Reading Station
May 28, 2009欢迎你来我的网站阅览车站!
Welcome to my website, Reading Station!
My name is Jeric Lawrence Mangalonzo Mina.
Reading Station is a blog about my personal experiences and thoughts and my passion for anything and everything under the sun (and the moon and stars too!)
I live at Bacoor, Cavite, Philippines. I am a BA Social Science (major in Area Studies) at the University of the Philippines Manila. My reading interests are in the fields of history, anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, Asian studies, Asian literature, Mandarin Chinese, philosophy, environmental science, human ecology, public health and Oriental medicine. Aside from reading books and practicing spoken Mandarin and Chinese calligraphy, I also enjoy doing taiji qigong exercises, surfing the internet, folding paper planes and origami, and watching movies. I don’t know what I really want to become in life, if there’s one thing for sure, I want a career that will make the best use of what I know and what I can do, and make me happy knowing that what I’m doing will improve the lives of many people.
Hope you liked my site and found it useful. 太谢谢你了! Thank you very much! Also feel free to correct my bad Chinese!
La rentrée
May 25, 2009I don’t want to sound GC (that’s grade conscious for you), but I’m currently stocking up for the coming semester. Hahaha! I’m reading a lot of e-books and journals that have something to do with the subjects I’m going to take: Natural Science 4 (Earth: Our Habitat), Natural Science 50 (Molecules to Man), STS (Science, Technology and Society), and Development Studies 126 (International Aspects of Philippine and Third World Development). I’m also going to take Speech 11 (Voices of Literature) and Badminton, but I don’t I think I have to “study” them in the same sense as I’m doing with the others.
On the outset it seems that I had much choice regarding my subjects (including their schedules!) NS 4 – I really didn’t have much choice about this. I remember logging this in my ESF just because of its cool course name. A friend told me that NS 4 is similar to Geology 11, one of the subjects I took when I was still in Biochemistry. I have a Tarbuck book (the standard DPSM textbook on earth science courses) and my Geo 11 notes are still intact and legible so I wouldn’t be having much trouble with this subject. But that means a redundancy in what I have learned. If I had my own way, I’m would change NS 4 to NS 5 (Sustainable Development) instead. Too bad, my preferred NS 5 professor’s (Prof. Lacdan) schedule is in conflict with my other subjects. Looks like I’m stuck with this one.
NS 50 – Hahaha! I’m taking this subject because I feel like giving justice to my Biochem “past”. Honestly, I wonder why I ever got the Biochem slot, I mean, I’m not that intelligent, and I’m betting all my money that my lowest UPCAT scores were in the Math and Science portion of the exam. NS 50, from its course description, is more of conceptual overview of or introduction to biochemistry (biochemie sans les mathématiques, hope I got the translation right). When was still optimistic, approximately the first 2 months of my college life, I toyed with the idea of becoming an immunologist or something like that. There’s no remote chance that I’ll ever become one, but that I still like to read conceptual books and articles about the immune system, infectious diseases, epidemics… I hope we get to cover topics like that.
STS – I think it’s required of all students. The only choice I have, aside from its schedule, is the professor. And between Prof. Solano and others, it’s Solano, hands down! He was my Math 17 professor, and I’m forever indebted to him for giving me a passing grade (yeah, yeah, the computation of most DPSM grades are strictly objective, but there’s got to be some professor factor since I failed under my first Math 17 professor unlike in my second one). I don’t know how he handles the subject, but bet it’s going to be fun (his conduct of Math 17 was quite cool for a morbid subject). My target is to get a well-deserved 1.25+ in order to redeem myself. I’m no longer content to be just second – second poorest performing student in class, that is! Hahaha!
DS 126 – I’m taking that subject to fill the minimum required number of units to graduate with honors. Or should I say, to get a 10% chance of getting a GWA equivalent to 1.75 flat. My present GWA (I only computed the subjects in the BA Social Science curriculum) is around 1.78. I need to strike 1.5+ in all the 4 subjects I’m taking this semester just to reach 1.75 or overshoot a little (like… 1.74?) I don’t know if it’s possible and if my failed grades in NSTP and ComSci 11 would be the “disqualifying factors”. But then, even without the laude, relevant DS 126 knowledge and experience is always welcome.
Speech 11 – I still have an AH subject to finish. “Voices of Literature” sounds easier yet classier than “Speech Communication in English”. Again that’s me, choosing subjects on the basis of their course names! Hahaha! That gives you an idea how haphazard I am when it comes to decision making.
Badminton – I don’t know why I chose that. Maybe it was because avoiding a Philippine Games schedule under Prof. Israel (Prof. Israel was my professor in 2 of my PE subjects – remember that in UP, we are only required 4 PE subjects). Which reminds me – I gave away my badminton rackets last year in a charity drive.
So I’m reading and reading… I hope that gives you some idea why I named this blog Reading Station. I want to reach my target grades, but I’m not making a study-hard promise. All my college life I made it my incoming semester’s resolution not to cram or have good study habits but I eventually break it come the first 3 weeks of the semester. 1st semester, 4th year – I passed a crappy thesis proposal not worth a minute of formal thesis defense. 2nd semester, 4th year – I submitted an equally crappy essay on globalization and a book review (followed by 97 question marks and 102 exclamation points) on the last day of submission having done them the night before. God (not that I really believe in Him) knows what sort of cramming and instant paper generation short of plagiarism I’ll be doing just to meet deadlines this semester, which should be my last.
Better than promise that, I’ll just strive to live up to my motto: “I may not the best person in what I do, but I’m always at my best in what I do”. How about that, a motivational statement and lame excuse rolled into one!
La rentrée means back to school in French. Don’t ask me to pronounce it – I murder spoken French pretty well.
My heart is bleeding for itself
May 22, 2009Last night I went to our family doctor for my medical clearance, a requirement for enrolment. My doctor (he is actually a pediatrician) has been looking after my health for nearly 15 years. In the past we went to him only when I get sick (or really sick – it usually takes a 40-degree fever and bloody discharges to convince my parents that I need medical help) but since I have begun to have recurrent episodes of ___, he had been giving me a routine body check. A routine body check includes the accurate taking of body measurements and temperature, visual check, a 20-minute check-up, and of course, pulse rate and blood pressure. It’s really simple and I never thought that they were that important (I mean, I would have found out something was wrong with me before those instruments did). They were just the formal ones and the only ones I can afford given our financial difficulties.
After taking my weight, height and body mass index (it’s really easy to compute – just divide your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters), he took my pulse rate. My pulse rate was at 70 which is normal. He then took my blood pressure. My blood pressure was 150/90 (normal is 120/70).
My doctor found that my blood pressure was very high. I had been registering higher-than-average blood pressure since last year but my doctor told me that they were still inside the normal continuum and were probably the results of overwork, tension and anxiety. A lot of factors contributed to my higher-than-average blood pressure then: my medications, school work, and issues to deal with. However, I have stopped taking my prescription drugs 9 months ago and have no school work to pressure me. As a matter of fact, I had been resting too much that I’m tired of sleeping, eating, using the PC… I’m tired my lazy katuga routine.
My mother has high blood pressure and two of her close relatives died from heart disease at a relatively early age. Heart disease runs in her family (not my father’s – they have no history of strokes or heart attacks). My doctor told me that my high blood pressure is probably inherited and aggravated by my lazy lifestyle and unhealthy diet (we now have a carinderia – go figure). I feel so unlucky when it comes to my health – I inherited from my mother’s family my imbalanced brain chemistry, pulmonary tuberculosis and now high blood pressure.
I was depressed. I felt weak and couldn’t answer my doctor’s questions clearly. He said that I try a low-salt and low-fat diet and do brisk walking every morning. He sensed that I was become too anxious for my own good – he assured me that I’m not yet going to die of high blood pressure, it is not critically high and I could do much to reverse the trend without taking medications (I’m averse in using drugs to cure myself). After all, I’m young – my body can still take the extra strain. But not for a very long time.
My doctor signed the form but cheated my blood pressure. He said that it might attract the attention of medical counselors in school and make my enrolment more complicated especially as I’m enrolling for a PE subject; he told me that badminton doesn’t sound to be an unsafe form of physical exertion in my current condition. My “official” blood pressure is 130/80. Except for that, my organ systems are still normal. Nevertheless he told me to watch for kidney trouble (if I get pains at the back, painful urination and abnormal discharges), pains at the back of my head, frequent spells of dizziness and palpitations. I am scared but my doctor told me that anxiety would do me more harm than good. A healthy diet, exercise and most of all, peace of mind, is what I need and can do to improve my situation. And lastly, on a light note, he said that he wasn’t slating me in his hypertensive clients list yet (hypertensive is above 140/90 but he said he’ll make an exception with my case).
I’m not saying I have recovered from the shock of yesterday’s news but I’m trying. It’s always a state of mind. My body, more so my mind, can’t stand another state of calamity. Surely I don’t want to die yet or die clutching my chest and gasping for air but more than that, I don’t want to die with a troubled mind. My goal is to die smiling, to die content that I have lived my life in the best way possible. I can’t die smiling yet so the struggle to get better and increase the number of my future birthday celebrations.
Have a heart for your heart!
