ack! after much heaving, grieving and rejoicing, it's almost been two FULL weeks since my vacation began! omg! i haven't really done anything -- no essay, no nothing -- yet! (i'm supposed to be submitting three essays on the first week of november! bah!) ... i swear, i'll be getting over 'em by the end of the month. :|

but for now, i'm relishing my dominance of the remote control. what have i been up to on the boob tube lately? (warning: excessive babbling ahead.)

ellie has become a sports maniac fanatic!

even the laziest bums enjoy sports... watching sports, that is. ;)
back then i never would've given a thought to switching into sports channels as an afternoon pastime. i believe the only thing i've watched that's related to sports before was basketball & volleyball. but right now, look who's whooping it up! i don't know exactly why, it just happened! i suddenly enjoy watching those sports stuff on tv! (ok, stop the exclamations --!!!-- .)

since the FIFA epiphany, i've been partial to watching football matches. it's just fun to see them kick the ball and hit those goals. last week, i've seen the English Premier League, and now, it's the UEFA Champions League. although sometimes it does get a little stretched when no one scores. but you'll never know when the action kicks in! just today i saw a great game of UEFA between Portugal and Germany (couldn't memorize the teams -- porto vs hamburg?!), when portugal scored three goals in just over 20 minutes of the game! :)


and what's sprucing up my daily highlights this time around is TENNIS! yup, you heard it right -- i now have come to appreciate the art of 'love'! hahaha... :p i recently caught the ATP Master Series - Madrid and i'm glad i caught the action! i saw three matches: Federer vs. Soderling (tight match!), Nadal vs. Haas (predictably, Nadal won), and the finals with Federer vs. Gonzales (though i wasn't able to finish it -- RF won the series.) i tell you, Roger Federer is a great player! he is flexible, a fast runner, a strategic shooter, and has lots of stamina. another thing is that he's very calm when he's playing. with Rafael Nadal, i can hear him grunting miles away! (haha, that's an overstatement) ... i cannot compare these two since i've only seen them in a game once -- in the French Open this year. it's strange that even if the seemingly invincible Federer is the top-seed in the men's category (World #1!!!), his only losses, finals-wise, this year are attributed to Nadal (he won the French Open). just what is that spaniard made of?! i have yet to investigate... ;)

right now, i'm digging up some facts and figures about tennis ... i can't imagine how i'd live a yearful of tennis games! every month there's always a match someplace, and of course if you're good you're bound to reach up to the finals! barely enough time to relax and unwind... about 2-3 weeks at the most? but well, these guys are trained for it and it's their chosen field... got to make the most of it, right? hmmm. anyhoo, i admire RF (check out his blog) ... i think he's a nice guy (and no, this is not fangirling! *hee*). he was chosen as Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF (i saw that feature on cnn!), organized charity matches for tsunami relief, he's even got Feder-bears! (look at pic ;p) .. those fuzzy beanie bears are product of a partnership between ATP and UNICEF, proceeds to help disadvantaged children around the world. ain't that sweet?

and so, because of all this tennis hullabaloo, i've signed up for a fun alternative: table tennis as my next, and very last, PE! ... i'm actually very excited about it, since some most of the rules in tennis can also be applied to table tennis (hence the name! *crazy*) i've never tried playing it - but because i'm inspired, who knows, i just might be the next ping-pong star! (jubi, watch out! ;p)

the BNP Paribas Masters, held in Paris, will be from Oct 30 to Nov 05! now that's something to look forward to - the rest of my sembreak is solved! *yay*

(p.s. 'love' in tennis terminology is basically the first point you make in a game, equivalent to 0. i know something! *glee*)

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last weekend, the annoying voice inside my head kept pestering me for 'judgment day' and i couldn't shake it off! the agony of waiting was wearing my patience (and sanity) thin and was leaving me in bad shape -- i had lousy bouts of pms & attitude daytime, and lucid nightmares that kept me on the edge. soon enough, i just might tear my head off! so when i heard news that the 1st sem grades are available for viewing at the public access computer of the campus (2 days before the dreaded clearance day itself), i went into the dilemma of going there and getting over it, or lingering for a couple of days more and rot in vain. of course i HAD to choose the former. (i might not be able to view my grades in the internet anyway... they're always late!)

so i came to school monday at 9:30 in the morning, and as expected there were long lines over the 3 functioning 'view grades' computers. it's good that i saw my friends (former classmates) in the middle of one, and i *magically* slithered in. (Harharhar!) ... but even so, in my experience viewing the damned numbers, waiting in this type of line is like waiting for godot. everyone wants to view everyone else's grades (copying it for them, whatever) and that's what makes it long and frustrating. suddenly the fear in your head dissolves into sheer exasperation, legs in a state of rigor mortis from standing and forgetting why you're even here in the first place.

... and i'm right. after 3 excruciating hours of fanning from heat and mentos-popping (can't remember how many i've eaten... i'm immune to the Extreme Mint flavor!), it was finally our turn to see the magic numbers. guess what? *drumroll*

... I PASSED!
(oh yeah, my entry's title already gave me away. but still! *happy dance*)

i am so thankful. (thank God! thank my prof! thank my parents for keeping it up with me! thanks to my friends for the support!) my grades are actually good, notwithstanding that. too bad i couldn't make a "1" with humanities (arguably my favorite course this semester -- just 1.25 :o|) but i'm glad that i was able to make the other courses a bit higher from the finals. (i actually got a 2 in statistics! and i thought i died. *yeah!* plus a 1.75 in handball! hahaha ;p) ... although i believe i'm already off the DL's this time around (but who knows!), i'm fine with that. i'm not really asking too much, am i? i just have to study harder next semester. redemption here i come~~

i'm no longer worrying. i had a mini-celebration today with the folks (we all got to finally breathe. i was such a homewrecker the past week!)... let the normal flow of activities resume! :)

tomorrow clearance will be a fluff, but enrolment is another i'd have to deal with.

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WOOHOO! HAPPY 200TH POST!!!

shifting from the gruesome weight of my last entry, i would love to keep things on a lighter note this time around. who says i don't like a vacation? ;)

i have three weeks in exact, but i'll snip the first 8 days off for self-reflection (if you know what i mean). so much time on my hands, huh? i got 2 john grisham novels i haven't read, salvaging books i bought that has been gathering dust since summer, and the optional harry potter re-reading in case i'm bloody bored. then there's essays i'm thinking of writing for Gawad Ustetika and the Varsitarian... i haven't heard from Encanto, which means i died in the competition. (there's still the fighting spirit though! ;p) ... days and nights of couch potato madness all up for grabs... *wink*

and as planned, i now have the time to update the blog. i wonder if the self-inflicted chaos last week brought my trusty tagboard to the ground?! if so, i'm sad about not being able to read the tags (if there were any) since the 9th -- in lieu of it, i have the Cbox installed right over there -->> so feel free to post your comments & whatever = i love comments! :D

(about switching to blogger beta, i'm mulling over it. maybe not right now.. i'm fine with what i have.)

... and even if some of my friends are still on the verge of delirium, given they're waiting for own sembreaks to start... i would really love to catch up with you guys & gals! let's meet on an agreed date and knock ourselves out! :o)

public plea: to des, anni, shuri, bern, pau, oz, et al -- WE.SHOULD.MEET!! (^^;;;

oh yeah, i just watched "the departed" (sorry oz, my folks beat you into dragging me to watch haha) last sunday. it's a good film, with a dream cast and a clever storyline. i actually laughed in most parts of the film. dramas can be strangely funny. rats. ;)

another movie i'd like to see, aside from "the banquet" and "world trade center", would be "the prestige". (here goes movie pimping ~ haven't watched a decent film in months!!!) ... it's about two rival magicians competing for trade secrets which in the long run turns them into murderers. set in the turn of the century london, its stars hugh jackman and christian bale (as the leads), scarlett johansson (as stage assistant and uh, the love interest of both *hee*), michael caine, and david bowie. (david bowie?! oh yes.) lovel love love ~~~

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vacation is becoming a hoot for me, even if it has just started. though i know this awkward feeling will soon pass (given my inclination to "yes! no homework!" vegetating), right now the crumminess of it still comes to hover in my mind.

after exhausting all of my mental faculties last week for the final exams, the whole thing has left me physically & emotionally drained. i've practically slept my nights off without any reservation, waking up the next morning with a recurrent headache. i've had crazy dreams the past 2 nights, one of a kindred encounter and the other a horribly possible nightmare. in my lucidity i haven't recalled dreaming for weeks until these. maybe, it's just an aftershock of all the stress i went through in the finals.

actually, i hurdled well in the exams. i studied, put up several all-nighters and made sure i remember every thing i could before they gave the papers. i daresay i fared better in all my course exams than i did in the prelims, quizzes combined. i really needed the grades because i suffered badly in the first half of the semester. i hope my efforts paid off.

but that's just three-fourths of the story. i am in tenterhooks with one course. it's no surprise, considering i was beyond satisfactory at it from the start, but for the moment i am definitely hanging in the balance. i tried my darndest to stage some kind of comeback through the exam, practically living in the library after school hours to review. i barely slept, digesting everything in, trying to understand all the techniques and theories involved. but the exam we took last saturday, the final examination, was like the last day of our lives. i never thought the exam would be this difficult. i squinted my eyes and squeezed my mind, wondering what should i do. what is my plan? i haven't any.

i hope that i did what i was supposed to, on at least half of the test. my classmates & the batch were all frantic and harrassed, complaining that the exam was really hard ~~ i prefer not talking about the rest. for now, i leave it all up to the mercy of the authority and the heavens. the next nine days would be rough, but i already accept whatever verdict fate holds for me. i've shed the last tear and i will not cry anymore. i will just have to do better the next time around.

have a great semestral break, folks.

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i don't know why i haven't clocked in an entry for nearly a month. everything that has happened since seems to be such a blur, i thought i wouldn't have made it through the enormous blackhole that was august... but here i am, coming to the final week of the first semester, ridiculously sleepy. wtf! :)

as i usually do after blog withdrawal episodes, here's my redemptive post:

growlin' hot!

to start off with a high note, a huge CONGRATULATIONS to UST for winning the uaap men's basketball plum! although i admit i'm also a sycophant loyalist for admu (since '01), nothing beats school spirit! watching the games on tv basically ate away most of my afternoon leisure time (and sanity!) last month -- screaming, praying, praising to the high heavens for a victory long coveted. indeed, nothing is impossible. we did win, and to me it still feels like a dream.. a really sweet dream. (now if only they wouldn't raise those fees once we're thrown back to reality.)

meet the homicidal propsman

preparing our class play for literature, in the classic sense, was a pity when it started. but the 2 weeks that led to our presentation last sept 27 entailed a lot of stress, anxiety, sacrifices and impaired relations on everyone's behalf. (for that our section didn't join the quiz bee anymore, since it conflicts with the sked. awwww too bad.) hoping we could stage the whole thing well that afternoon, we worked through the entire thing on one rehearsal! and believe it or not, i actually only knew my job as a propsman ON the day itself! it was such a frantic rush moving things for the scenes... i even had a big bruise on my leg moving 'em! but i guess it all paid off. we all get a perfect "1" since our prof loved the play! :) she says that our class worked with 'great chemistry', and i second that. :)

hell hath no fury...

... like a man 'stormed'?! milenyo surely beat the hell out of the country when it came on full force sept 30 - day after our play, whew!, leaving us on a four-day electric disruption, non-ideal class suspension, and terribly early sleeping cycles. our house was quite battered, the streets were so messed up, and i felt like an ugly, miserable skank throughout the duration of the blackout. my cellphone died on me on the first day, but i'm very glad my music player kept me company... or else... xp ... it was this time that i discovered panic! at the disco (crazily LSS-forming), and my favorite song in those dark boring nights would be "chasing cars" by snow patrol. (and oh, "save room" by john legend!) .. i hope no storm like this happens ever again.

handball.. no regrets

our PE ended this tuesday with a practical test on making a goal... you don't have to know if i fared well on that ;p .. the thing is, handball season's over! we are the 'champions' with regards to the games (4-0 sweep! -- thanks to my teammates esp zizou!), which means my final grade will be totally fine. honestly, i think i enjoyed handball more than the other 2 i had last year... felt the vibe of playing, baby -- running around, getting the ball (and flouncing it! haha). it's very enjoyable, i tell you. now what will i sign up for next sem -- the last PE ever? i'm mulling over table tennis.

finals, finals, finals: 100 or bust

i have exactly seven days to salvage whatever self-respect i have left to still manage a DL status... because in the rate i'm at right now it won't happen. my 'a' is in such a terminal wreck i don't know how to rescue it through the exam -- which the prof said would be very, very difficult. i'm really going to try my darndest even just to pass. after that, i can breathe.

.. with that, i know i won't be able to post again until the start of sembreak, so for all of my alteregos here, good luck with the exams! *zapping off*

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it's october 3, late afternoon on this side of the world. i'm such a bad girl for not updating for nearly a month :p ... there's just too much going on and you can't blame me! (fixing this up soon)

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