It's great to be a kid again.

We decided to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D. I was really excited because it was my first time to experience 3D cinema. Even if it's a bit expensive (Php 250, with free large popcorn or hotdog), it was still worth it. No, don't get me wrong, I won't spoil you about what really happened between Andy and his toys. I will just tell you something about what I felt after watching the third installment of Pixar's most successful animated movie.

The story was again simple, like the previous installments. Despite its simplicity, the movie never fails to convey its message to the audience. The three Toy Story films may share some similar plot lines in having the constant fear of being discarded and unwanted when one turns old, or to obsess with the thought of being forgotten and unappreciated, and almost always comes with a distance to conquer.

The movie involves several themes such as facing consequences of inevitable hopelessness, which will affect most of the audience since they already know how much they care for the characters, friendship and courage. It tackles certain things on how someone turned into a bitter soul due to rejection, tremendous loss and abandonment. Although the light hearted moments balance all of these dark elements in the movie.

While waiting in the line, I heard a lot of kids saying that it was the best movie ever. I was really touched. I was only five years old when the first installment came out. I remembered that I used to say that same statement. It made me feel young again.

Moving on is really hard, but we have to accept that not all things are permanent.

Intimidating

There is a thick barrier between the upperclassmen and the freshmen. As you might have noticed, freshies are like flocks of birds. They work as a group, they walk as a group, they eat as a group and they study as a group. Now, let’s take a closer look between these two groups.

On the younger side, freshies tend to ignore their own upperclassmen. One reason is that, the upperclassmen are intimidating. Another thing is, they have this superiority complex. On the older side, upperclassmen tend to ignore the freshies because they are too sosyal for their taste or too maarte.

Mutualism at its best, not.

Three years ago, when I was still a freshie, I would always smile to some upperclassmen or say “Hi Ate/Kuya” shyly. It’s a bit rewarding if they smile back to you. Now that I’m already a senior, I can really tell that the feeling is very rewarding when some freshies (especially in your own course) smile and/or greet you, say along the pathway or in the corridor. You can easily tell whether a freshie is polite of pa-FC (feeling close).

I was really disappointed when I called some of the Bio freshies and they ignored me.

Oh well, I guess they are all different compared to the lower batches I’ve met for the past two years.

Just so you know,

Sex education isn't about teaching the youngsters to have sex, but rather it's a way to properly orient them about it - its importance and its consequence. It is appropriate for a child to know that he came from his mother's uterus, a special place where the development of the fetus takes place. I find it disturbing when a child thought that he came from a special powder requested by his parents or worse, when he thought that he used to be a clay and his parents molded his body through divine intervention and cooked him in a giant oven. A puerile way of thinking.

The problem isn't about implementing sex education to the curriculum, it is the responsibility of how experts explain it to the young ones.

I just want to ask one question about the church's side: If you think that sex education is liberated, can you give us a few examples of 'conservative' sex?

Now tell me.

Please enlighten me.

Built (not) To Last

...and the worse things have finally occurred. When I went to my sampling site a few hours ago to monitor my sea cucumbers, the pond water was really warm, so warm that it was already considered a hostile environment. I together with Ma'am Ruth's RA (Research Assistant) recorded a short underwater video because she wanted to see the current condition of the pond.

The underwater condition was really different compared to my previous visit. It was really murky, which made the monitoring more difficult. While searching for my pens, he told me that in the 27th of May, they recorded the highest water temperature ever... at 42 degrees Celsius! We directly went to my pens and sad to say, we didn't find even a single Holothuria scabra. We surmised that all of them have died due to the extreme pond conditions.

We already did everything the best we could just to maintain the right temperature of water. We have already increased the frequency of pumping fresh salt water from the sea which resulted to an increased electric bill by up to 300%.

All of our efforts didn't pay.

So now, I have to tell my adviser about this tomorrow. I still have the data since January. I have so many possible solutions running in my mind about this predicament of mine. My data have been in jeopardy for months because of El Niño. My babies can no longer tolerate the intense heat of the pond.

And I expect major revisions starting from the objectives of my study. Major overhaul.
Don't get me wrong, I am not panicking right now.

Freshmeat

You seem very enthusiastic about your academics, and you always have some intellectual and witty stuff to say. I've been a constant reader of your blog, and your point of view impacts on me immensely. I'm about to take BS Bio this coming semester and I'm pretty psyched up and nervous. I would just like to inquire about your first year in UP. I want to be prepared for what's ahead of me, kasi. Do you have any recommendations for incoming freshies like me? How did you survive, and what do you recommend to keep up, or better yet, make good grades? - blaizewolfex

Hello there!

It was three years ago when I first entered UP. Oh god, I still can't believe it that it was already three years ago! Anyway, to be honest I got really scared and intimidated by those loquacious upperclass men of ours. It was really different, given by the fact that I studied in a private institution ran by nuns for almost thirteen years. For one week, everything was awkward. Contrary to popular beliefs (LOL), I am not used to seeing new people. I got even jealous with my high school classmates because almost all of them took either BS Nursing in San Pedro College or BS Accountancy in Ateneo de Davao University - same old faces with a bit of modifications in the environment. Out of 210 students in our batch in high school, only 5 of us took BS Biology in which three of them are currently studying in Ateneo, one in DLSU and one in UP (that's me).

I thought the freshmeat's, ehem, freshmen's life was hard but I quickly adapted to my new environment. Luckily, all of my classmates were brilliant. I gained new friends and even understood a bit of their own culture (most of them originated from different parts of the country). Also the upperclass men were accomodating. And then I just realized that my life here in UP is more awesome compared to my high school classmates despite the nearest mall is about an hour away. If they are getting used of seeing the same cars, buses and buildings in their school, I on the other hand is getting used of seeing cows and goats grazing on the grassland.

Every UP student has its own declension. You see, to acquire knowledge isn't just focused on getting constant high grades, it's the challenges that everyone has to undergo! Remember that mistakes are inevitable. What separates a person from others is the improvement made after a mistake is realized. When you fail in an exam, reevaluate yourself. Did I study well? Have I reviewed the subject thoroughly weeks before the exam? You had to have a personal assessment. It will help you a lot.

Also, you have to set your goals straight. If you want to achieve something, you have to persevere. Avoid distractions like the INTERNET, DVD and the likes. Don't worry, you'll gonna have some time for your leisure once you finish all those things related to acads. Also, do not CRAM. Cramming never helps, swear.

Lastly, when the going gets tough, get TOUGHER. Life in UP is really challenging, I tell you. At first it would be hard for you but after a month or two, you'll get used to it.

Hope this helps! :)

Future Tense[s]

After watching four episodes of Scrubs (First Season), I just realized that this is the job that I really wanted, to become a medical doctor. Despite its comical approach, I still appreciate it. Life after medicine is a million times harder than studying it for four years. You don’t have to deal with the cadaver anymore, it’s gonna be a real thing. You have to be alert when dealing with your patients. The scenario will be totally different once you set your feet inside the emergency room. Everything is chaotic. Everything is challenging. Every second wasted is also equal to a life wasted, a life that should have been saved.

Watching these medical drama series like House MD, Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs really inspires me to take medicine after graduating college.

But after that, I still want to take Doctorate studies in Molecular Medicine or Molecular Physics. You know, it feels so great when you have a nameplate something like this:
Dr. Renz Marione M. Bulseco, MD, PhD

Of Blogging

Blogger, Livejournal, Tumblr, Wordpress… it doesn’t really matter.

A blog is like a diary. You write all the things about your daily experiences -mundane or extraordinary, your goals, your wishes, book and movie reviews and everything under the sun. Only that in blogging, you are willing to share this to random people over the internet.

Your primary goal, whether you like it or not, is to create an audience that will read about a piece of your life. They can freely send comments, suggestions or even constructive criticisms. Now here’s the real thing: You can not control the number of people reading your site. It’s really fun, actually. You meet new people online and talk about your interests.

Blogging is also a perfect stress reliever. There are some instances wherein the only way to release your anger is to write and publish it. You have the freedom to choose whether to be sarcastic or to be straightforward. But, things get worse when a small group from your audience emerges. They judge you base from your posts. Bashing is rampant nowadays. Bullies have the power to become anonymous, much like wearing an invisibility cloak. We can’t undo this kind of notion, but I guess we always have to remember that the realm of internet is easily misinterpreted. You know, like emoticons. They do not really denote or dictate the real emotion. I may type this emoticon :) but the truth is I’m not really smiling. The realm of internet is always deceiving.

Always remember that a person’s posts do not really actuate his true personality.

Freshmen Orientation Blues

I went to school to facilitate the Freshmen Orientation here in UP Mindanao. So the program went well although there were some minor technical glitches during the presentation of different facilities of the school.

I together with my colleagues (in USC) were talking about something when suddenly a mother sat beside us and interrupted our conversation. Talking about being rude. So anyway, these were the exact words:

"Alam niyo ba, yung mga anak ko galing sa (insert name of local school here) at nakapagtataka talaga mga speakers niyo. Diba UP dapat super magagaling ang mga speakers! Dapat they should have an eye contact sa amin. Eh napapansin ko eh parang hindi masyado interested ang mga tao rito... Nakakahiya [sic] kasi sa mga students eh lahat ng mga students dito mga honor students!"

So we explained our side.

Even the BEST speakers in the world have their own flaws too. What you are trying to insinuate is impossible Ma'am. Also, in fairness to the facilitators they were not boring. As you can see this morning, a lot of parents and a few students raised their questions regarding the lifestyle in UP. It is clearly evident that majority of the audience were interested. Speaking of eye contact, I can really say that they are talking to the AUDIENCE and not in front of their PowerPoint Presentation. They are professionals and they're already used to this kind of things.

Apparently she got pwned by our answers. Still, she keeps on blabbing the same thing and we just stopped talking to her.

There were two questions in my mind at that time, but I opted not to ask her because I think it's very rude despite her approach to us.

Are you a UP graduate? (or worse, are you even a high school graduate?)
Do you have an expertise in the field of speech communication?

Even if she answered YES to both questions, she's still wrong. First, she was rude. She didn't even bother to say "excuse me" before she raised her 'concern'. Second she wasn't listening to us at all. So it was useless to defend our side, knowing that she won't listen. I know for a fact that the two aforementioned questions were rude but she was insulting us.

I do NOT have any problems when people want to raise their concerns, questions and suggestions to us. It's just the way she approached us was really wrong. If her approach was nice, then I won't be writing this for sure.

PS: Tangina lang, kaya naiinis talaga ako kasi nagugutooooom na ako tapos gagaguhin ka pa. JIRITS.