Yearly Archives: 2009

A Year in Retrospect

Posted on December 30, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in Events and EXP | Comments (4)

Before the arrival of 2010, I want to share all of my wonderful experience during 2009. In chronological order, here they are.

January

  • I listed five New Year’s Resolution: study harder, be more thrifty, relax more often, look at things positively, and be a better person.
  • I instantly got addicted to Plurk! My day wouldn’t be complete without a plurk update.
  • I started to hate Friendster because their system deleted more than half of my 5000 comments and testimonials.
  • I got tremendously depressed of my midterm examination in General Chemistry I. I posted plurks about it:
  • January 27 | rob is depressed. (tears)
  • January 27 | rob hopes he’ll feel better tomorrow. (unsure)
  • January 28 | rob is still not OK. (doh)
  • January 28 | rob has no reason to be inspired. :(
  • January 29 | rob is on the verge of breaking down. :’-(
  • January 29 | rob is speechless.
  • January 29 | rob wonders what could be worse.
  • January 29 | rob will feel better tomorrow.
  • But apparently, I didn’t get any better. It took me a month to get over it.
  • I started to watch “Flame of Recca” and love other animes. Here’s a plurk about it.

February

  • I We continued, revised, and polished my our thesis entitled “The Skill – Related Difficulties Encountered in Elementary Algebra by First Year High School Students of Colegio de San Jose del Monte, School Year 2008 – 2009.” As a result, I we had to sacrifice leisure time just to finish it on time. Plurks about it:
  • February 3 | rob is researching. (gym)
  • February 11 | rob is busy.
  • February 13 | rob needs to finish his thesis. (goodluck)
  • February 13 | rob is writing his thesis. (:
  • February 20 | rob is still doing his thesis.
  • February 21 | rob is still not done with his thesis.
  • February 22 | rob ay nahihilo sa thesis.
  • Unlike last year, I had no date on the 14th. So much for being single.
  • I finished “A Walk to Remember” by Nicholas Sparks. It’s the third book that made me cry, alongside with “Tuesdays with Morrie and “For One More Day.”

March

  • We got flat 1.00 in our thesis defense and got exempted on our final examination in English Proficiency Instruction II!
  • March 6 | rob shares that he got flat 1.00 on his thesis defense. (rock)
  • I got overwhelmingly high grades! My average reached 1.19 – one of the highest in our university. Hard work really paid off.
Class Card Distribution Day

Class Card Distribution Day

  • The days of B.S. General Education were over!
  • I became a Ragnarok player again. :)
  • Just a few days before April, I got sick.

April

  • My sickness developed from worse to worse. By the second week of April, I was diagnosed with typhoid fever.
  • During the medication, I developed “rose spot” rashes. To see my actual condition, click “Show” below. WARNING: You’re not going to like it.

Show ▼

  • I lost nine precious karma points on Plurk. :(
  • As if to add to my burden, I didn’t qualify to enroll under B.S. Accountancy. I was forced to take up B.S. Chemistry.

May

  • I tried to apply for reconsideration to qualify as a student of College of Accountancy and Economics, as stated here. Unfortunately, I failed.
  • I tried to cope with my failure and convinced myself that B.S. Chemistry was not as bad I as I expected.
  • Movie Marathon!
  • I enrolled. Hello, College of Science.

June

  • I hated my schedule. I missed having half-day classes.
  • First day as a B.S. Chemistry student! It’s not as easy as I expected.
  • I befriended Chemistry, Calculus, and Physics. Who’s the fairest of them all?
  • I decided to organize all of my online accounts. I changed my usernames to “robnuguid.”
  • I also left Plurk and continued my journey on Twitter.

July

  • The stress continued to flood in.
  • 17th Birthday! Nothing special, though. Ithanked 17 groups of people here.
  • July 25 | Happy 17th Birthday to me! -
  • I transferred to a self-hosted blog (this).

August

We love you Tita Cory!

We love you Tita Cory!

  • Pres. Cory Aquino died. I was one of the lucky few who had the chance to attend her wake. The photo on the right was me with Marianne on August 3. I blogged about it.
  • I won a domain (robnuguid.com) ! Thanks to xis.in.
  • I also stumbled upon this video. Go watch it.
  • Midterm examinations! I managed to score good, at least according to my standards.
  • PLMayers garnered a 99% passing rate on the Physicians’ Board Examination. Here’s a tweet:
  • August 27 | Congratulations to the College of Medicine of PLM for garnering a 99% passing rate. Go PLMayers! -

September

  • Our block had our first goal together: speech choir. We performed a piece entitled “Reverse Creation” by Bernard Bachman.  We did… uh-mm… well.
  • I also became busier than ever because of school.
  • I got my very own PLM sim card.
  • Typhoon Ondoy. Need I say more? Here. I made it home alive.

October

  • I got in love with the simplicity of Carol, a PBB housemate. Add it to the fact that she’s a pharmacist (a brother of chemist).
  • Final Examinations = FAIL.
  • Class cards were distributed. Despite the fact that I got low grades, I still managed to get a GWA of 1.23 – the highest in our department to the best of my knowledge.
  • I applied for a scholarship program but failed.

November

  • The second semester started! I was surprised to see our magnificent room, as I explained here. Here’s GA 205, our beloved room!

GA 205

  • I got a little sad to know that Softball would be my last PE. I aimed for Badminton but I didn’t make it to the quota.
  • I also got the courage to confess, apologize, and admit something to her. Tweet:
  • November 2 | Finally got the courage to confess, apologize and admit something to someone. -
  • I made a future decision: I would work at CERN. -

December

  • Christmas Season!
  • On our block Christmas party, I got two awards: Mr. GC and Most Punctual.
BS CHEM II - 1

BS CHEM II - 1

  • I completed this year’s Simbang Gabi.
  • I celebrated Christmas Eve with her.
  • I write this long (and boring) entry about my life.

How about you? What happened to you in 2009?

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in Events and EXP | Comments (2)
Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

“Time is the best Christmas gift.” – Fr. Ted

An Unordered List

Posted on December 21, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in College Chronicles, Rants and Raves | Comments (2)
  1. I wish this vacation would never end. I cannot entertain the thought of returning to school two weeks from now. Lots of school works are to be submitted on the 4th day of January. And I am not in the mood to start any of them right now.
  2. I’ve successfully transferred all of the posts from my previous blogs to here. I’m currently finding a way to include comments.
  3. Guess what? I’ve found a way to re-order my meta data. But I’m still thinking if it would work. I don’t want to initiate an action that could produce horrible and irreversible results.
  4. You can now ask me anything and everything but nothing (what?) here.

OK! This is a random entry.

Leviathan

Posted on December 19, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in Online Odysseys | Comments (4)

Codes

Codes

I made another unsuccessful attempt to tinker with my site yesterday. I braved another pain-inducing moment with HTML, CSS, and PHP codes just to kill time. The sight of complex codes alone was enough to make me vomit and throw holy water and garlic to my computer screen. Nevertheless, I tried.

I’m not a computer major – or nowhere near it – but I’m fond of making futile efforts to fiddle with codes in order to “enhance” my blog design. Sometimes, a mere addition or deletion of a code or two produces excellent results. But based on my own experience, it deploys an instant catastrophe frequently.

And so, the tedious process had begun long before I knew. I spent a total of three hours playing with cumbersome codes. I almost made an irrevocable mistake that could ruin the whole design. Blah. Blah. Blah. Then, I got tired. I realized that my allotted alacrity and vigor for the day was totally consumed. I automatically stopped and was surprised to see what I’ve done: nothing. Despite all of those tinkering and playing, I reverted back to the original design.

Here’s a list of what I really want to accomplish:

  • Change the “Leviathan” header logo with “Lone Voice”. Done!
  • Re-order the date, categories (Posted in), tags (Tagged), and Comments (Responses) on the main index template and single posts.

That’s it! If you know how to do those, kindly help me out.

Thank you and Merry Christmas in advance!

The History of Simbang Gabi

Posted on December 15, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in Essays and Compositions, Facts of Life | Comments (7)

Simbang Gabi

Simbang Gabi

We cannot deny the fact that “Simbang Gabi” (also called Misa del Gallo) has been an indispensable part of the Filipino Christmas Tradition. Starting December 16, Filipinos, usually with their families and friends, rush through the nearest church to attend the mass which starts as early as 4:00 AM. This scene would continue for a total of nine days, until December 24. It has been said that if you completed the nine consecutive masses, your Christmas wish would be granted.

The origin of Simbang Gabi can be traced back in 1660, during the early years of Christianity in the Philippines. During the season of advent, missionary friars held masses for nine consecutive days as preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. In addtion, they decided to celebrate these masses at dawn, when the roosters (or gallo) announce the beginning of the day. Thus, the name Misa del Gallo (literally, Rooster’s Mass) was introduced.

The masses are celebrated early so that our Filipino ancestors, who are commonly farmers by occupation, can still manage to attend without abandoning their fields. It has been a routine that Filipinos would walk or ride their carretela (carabao sleds) and head to the nearest church at 4:00 AM. After the one hour mass, they would proceed to their fields and work. They follow this routine until the day before Christmas.

That is how Simbang Gabi or Misa del Gallo became a Filipino Christmas Tradition. Up to these days, it is still observed, as this tradition is passed from generation to generation. It may mean differently to different individuals but one thing remains true: Simbang Gabi is an important part of the Filipino Culture and a heart-felt devotion to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Google Wave Invites

Posted on November 29, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in Online Odysseys | Comments (11)

I am giving away eight seven six Google Wave invites. Interested? Just comment on this post with your email address and I’ll do the magic. :)

Again, I thank the good Samaritan who sent me an invite.

Number Blunder

Posted on November 25, 2009 by robnuguid| Filed in College Chronicles, Essays and Compositions, Rants and Raves | Comments (9)

Numbers have a good way of manipulating and controlling my life’s direction.

I was writing an entry last week at 5:00 PM when a stark realization came into my mind: I still have something to do. I ended my keyboard monologue instantly and went to my room to meet up with my Calculus book. I was embarrassed to know that he (Calculus) missed me. To make up for the absences of each other, we talked about our own journey together. Memories of limits, differentiations, integrations, maxima and minima were automatically brought up. He even mentioned something about his twin brother, Analytical Geometry. He kept on talking and before I knew it, he had begun a long, sermon-like orientation about our newest goal together: transcendental functions. Then, my time came. It’s now my turn to answer his questions accurately. That’s my assignment, by the way. And then I closed him.

Halfway down the stairs, a sudden thought occurred to me: Analytical Chemistry. Like Calculus, she (Analytical Chemistry) is fond of seeing me. Although she‘s a new-found friend, both of us make subtle efforts to keep our tacit promise to meet regularly. Her life is dominated by numbers as well. We talked about gravimetry and precipitations. I also answered some of her problems, with the help of my calculator. In times of crises, friends must always help each other. I had managed to solve some before I quit. Not so long after, I bid good bye despite her reluctance.

I stared at the wall clock (without seeing the time), and saw something not-worth-seeing-but-worth-remembering: batteries. As far as I could remember, regular batteries carry 1.5 V. Ah…V. Wait… V! Voltage! You guessed it right. I spent another reunion. This time, my guest was Physics. It (Physics) made an abstract introduction about the electric fields of point charges. It was even grateful enough to tell me about Coulomb’s and Gauss’s Laws. With the help of my calculator, I caught a brief glimpse of what it‘s trying to say.

For the third time, I exited the confines of my room to go back to the computer and escape this incongruous, makeshift reality. But as soon as I sat, a disturbing phenomenon happened.

“Matulog ka na. May pasok ka na bukas. Kailangan mong bumangon ng alas-kwatro.” (Sleep now. You still have classes tomorrow. You need to wake up at 4:00 AM).

To cut the long story short, I didn’t finish my supposed-to-be blog entry. But I was still happy in knowing that I had, at least, survived my journey with numbers. I would not be able to see them again, at least for the night. I opened the door and was met by the voice of my brother:

“Kuya, pa’no nga ba ‘yung pagsosolve ng logarithm at natural exponent?” (How do you solve for logarithms and natural exponents?).

Ah, numbers!

P.S. Sorry, I don’t have the time to return comments nor exchange links. But keep all of those coming and I’ll try to give justice to them (return comments and links) as soon as possible. Thanks!