seeing the light

after two weeks of being in the dark, i finally saw a glimmer of light this evening.

i finally "re-learned" how to compute for the market price of bonds. been having problems with my advanced accounting super major subject because i can't seem to remember how to compute for this and for many other accounting concepts. i'm too shy to ask my classmates to teach me because i'm not chummy yet with any one of them.

you see, i've just gone back to school after a four-year AWOL on my Accounting course. the last time that i was enrolled was on summer of 2002. during that 4-year period, i earned my keep by being a full-time employee in an accounting firm. my studies was the farthest thing in my mind then because of the many frustrations that i felt on those last few semesters of my college life. i've been putting off enrolling because i became so wrapped up in my work. but this semester, i finally muster enough courage to re-enroll and hopefully finish what i started.

many changes in the accounting world have happened since i left school; it felt like i was a freshman again on the seemingly becoming-more-and-more-complicated world of accounting. do you honestly think that i would remember the complex lessons? fat chance. so now i have to depend on myself to cram "everything" that i have to re-learn in just a few weeks; the same "everything" that my classmates learned in their 3 years in UP.

sometimes i felt like giving up. but i know that this is my last chance. if i never make it this time, there'll be no second chances for me. in fact i have to quit my job to be able to concentrate on my studies. this is far more important to me than any other opportunities that i have to give up at this time.

for others, bonds is just peanuts. for me, it signals that i still have hope. that i can still catch up with my classmates on my advanced accounting class no matter how hard or winding the route to learning that i've taken. bonds is just the beginning of the many lessons that i will eventually re-learn. it's never too late to finally see the light.

paradigm shift

i'm currently reading the book A La Carte: Food and Fiction edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa. it's a collection of short stories that deals with food. Reading this book makes me hungry for pancit molo, nilubak, dumplings and other mouth-watering delights.

one short short story featured here is Hanging Rice by Carlos Cortes. it's about puso (rice cooked in heart-shaped octahedron woven out of coconut fronds), a Cebuano way of cooking takeout rice that are sold by hawkers. he is wondering why he never came across puso while he is in manila where rice are cooked the conventional way. i liked the last paragraph of this story which goes:

"It was a revelation, and the implications of which still boggle his mind. Puso therefore isn't quintessentially Filipino: how can it be when it's unknown in Manila? Or this: Manila's racial memories are imperfect; her people no longer know how to make hearts of rice; they have given up many things once considered essential."

ang galing di ba? food pala evokes many emotions to different people; for a few, food is religion. i haven't finished reading the book but i'll recommend it to people who knows how to appreciate good food and good fiction. for its price (Php 195), it's like eating in your favorite carinderia where food is cheap but you end up gastronomically satisfied anyway.

back to Hanging Rice, its author was described in the endnote as someone who works for PAL and has written two books of fiction, but "hasn't written anything much as 911 has sent him into a paradigm shift." i vaguely remebered this phrase from my high school Earth Science subject in MaSci. Can anyone tell me what paradigm shift means?

malas

tomorrow, july 13, is a friday the 13th. pero ngayon pa lang parang naadvance yung friday the 13th ko. my anthro group was supposed to submit a paper on our CASAA observations. there's someone assigned to consolidate all write-ups pero naubusan siya ng ink ng printer niya. to cut the long story short, i volunteered to print the paper. she told me na late na niya maisesend sa akin. it was due for our 8.30am class this morning. so i waited until 1.30am for that darn paper. you see, we don't have a printer yet and i just plan to print it on one of the internet shops in our neighborhood. akala ko til 4am bukas ang mga internet shops pero as it turned out, wala na akong naabutang bukas. so much for volunteering. na-late pa ako ng gising kasi akala ng mother ko na wednesday pa lang ngayon. ngeeh! buti na lang may bukas ng internet shop sa shopping center at naiprint ko rin in time for my class.

hindi pa diyan nagtatapos ang kamalasan ko. pagkagising ko kasi, sumasakit ang tiyan ko. may LBM pala ako. uminom na ako ng gamot pero hindi umipekto. hindi naman pwedeng umabsent kaya pumasok pa rin ako. pero after my first class, i decided na umuwi na lang kesa magkalat ako sa UP! na-try nyo na ba ang magka-lbm habang nakasakay ka ng jeep? yung humihilab ang tiyan mo at kulang na lang hilahin mo ang sinasakyan mo? totoo pala yung mga napapanuod natin sa mga commercials. buti nakaabot pa ako ng bahay. thank God.

hay naku, basta marami pang nangyari ngayong araw na ito convincing me na nasahod ko ang minor jinxes for this day. minor lang naman kasi if you think about it, marami pang mas nakakatakot at nakakapanglumong kamalasang pwedeng mangyari sa isang tao. buti na nga lang ganun lang nangyari sa akin. buti na lang din nasiraan lang yung unang jeep na nasakyan ko. buti na lang din pinabababa lang ako ng UP Pantranco jeep kasi ako lang ang pasahero. mga ganung bagay lang. at LBM lang naman ang worst na nangyari sa akin. at least ganun lang.

my only consolation, i get to sleep the rest of the day and natapos ko na rin sa wakas yung The Inimitable Jeeves book by p.g. wodehouse.