May 8, 2009 (Saturday)

My journey was as follows: home --car--> starbucks taft --jeep, bus--> ayala ave. --walk--> valero street --walk--> glorietta --bus--> megamall --bus--> ayala ave. --walk--> whistlestop, jupiter street.

May 11, 2009 (Monday)

home --car--> U.S. Embassy --walk--> U.N. Avenue cor. Cortada Street --walk--> U.N. Avenue cor. Taft --jeep--> Taft cor. Estrada --walk--> Creations Cafe and Deli (formerly House Blend) --walk--> La Salle --walk--> Starbucks V.Cruz.

I absolutely ADORE walking. :D

Next project: walking from Quezon City (my future home, near Tomas Morato) to Cubao, just to see where the jeeps pass. :D

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In the interest of interconnecting all my correspondences (audiences?) I am trying out importing this blog into facebook notes. Let's see if it works. :)

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that i talk about social contracts.

I've just finished watching the 17th episode of the 5th episode of House, M.D. As usual, it was funny, quirky, and altogether lol-inducing, but it's one of the very rare House episodes - actually, one of the very rare TV episodes - that inspire much thought even after watching it.

Everyone who has watched House knows that he is a jerk of a doctor, but a very good one. He is generally un-nice make him the anti-hero that is the very antidote to all the nice, kind, good-looking boys we normally see protagonisting (yes, i am verbing it) on a series.

I haven't met someone like House yet. But I would really really like to, after seeing that episode.

[SPOILER ALERT] In episode 17, House is treating a person whom they called "Phineas Gage" - of course, me being a Psychology major got a kick out of this allusion. The patient's whole personality changed - he became disinhibited. He literally spoke everything he thought about, which leads to some long-winded answers, a funny/awkward scene with Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and a purely hilarious one with Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), and hurt feelings. In fact, his marriage very nearly dissolved because he said things that he would normally never say to his wife, things that would belittle her self-esteem, among others.

Now, the parallel storyline was about House and Wilson's social contract. Wilson said that unlike other people's friends, House would never cheer Wilson up when Wilson experiences some sort of personal travesty (!). House is the reality check, the wake-up call, that voice in your head that insists that in reality, something's wrong when you desperately wanted to believe that everything is all right. In short, as House himself implied, he is not a hypocrite.

So that got me thinking about social contracts. This being a House, M.D. episode, the patient was all well and back to his normal (i.e. person with inhibitions) self again. But the tension was thick between him and his wife - you can almost see the cogs of the wife's head turning as her husband spoke. "Is he telling the truth? Or is he just being nice? Does he still look down on me, even if he's not saying it?"

So there. Social contracts. You can accompany me and be my friend, as long as you comfort me when I'm down, you make me feel good about myself, etc etc etc.*

I would like to imagine that my life has themes - for example, i have experienced that for one to two weeks, the theme would be angels and niceness and helping people. Weirdly, the reason they developed into a theme was because just about every single thing that happened during the week was connected to the 'theme'. I see people helping each other, I see random pieces of feathers, I see some group declaring a ceasefire.

The theme for this week is social contracts. Having just marathoned The Big Bang Theory, the mystery that is social interactions continue to baffle me. My favorite character there** has, as he say, absolutely no interest in social interactions, and truly does fail when in a social situation.

* after intense soul-searching, i am happy to note that none of the people i call my friends leech off me in this sense, and i don't befriend people just so they can share my misery.

** Sheldon Cooper, in case you weren't able to guess. :D I love him!

valentine's highlights:

- contrary to popular opinion, no, we didn't.

- for as long as i've known, starbucks v.cruz always got into the spirit of valentine's by putting potted plastic roses on the tables as centerpieces. that day, there was none.

- he arrived bearing a bouquet of assorted flowers. (for those who don't know him all that well, he doesn't like carrying bouquets. one can even say he is mortally afraid of it :)) this is but the second time i've ever received flowers from him in the three years we spent together)

- had late late lunch at friday's in makati.

- at around 5pm, we went to harbor square. he had coffee while we were waiting for the rest of my college friends.

- at around 7pm, we saw Michael de Mesa in Starbucks. i did try to suppress my fangirlinstincts by not going up to him to have him sign some random piece ofpaper, but i also did ogle.

- at around 7:15 pm, Pao and Anthony arrived, bearing tickets for the show.

- at 7:45 pm, we went in. got starstruck. Michael de Mesa was accompanied by an unknown girl in her 20s and... Cherie Gil. OMG WTF. fangirl instincts harder to control now.

- at 8:05pm Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah: Ze Muzikal started. what can i say? you absolutely HAVE to see it.

- oh yeah, Dodong was hot.

- at around 9:30pm there was an intermission. we went outside to have a quick cigarette and she was there again. OMG WTF. elegance personified. next to her i felt like a worm, even if i was holding a bouquet of flowers. :))

- 9:45, show resumed. when it ended, the crowd gave a standing ovation to all of the cast.

- looked for Michael de Mesa and Cherie Gil afterwards, but they mysteriously disappeared. tears.

- after having my picture taken with Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah (Eula Valdez) and Queen Femina (Kalila Aguilos), we went to jollibee, where i waited for my father.

overall, one of the happiest valentine's i've ever EVER had. it's not because of Michael de Mesa and Cherie Gil, or even because of Zaturnnah.

it's because this Valentine's was marked with and by flowers. :heart:

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observation:

when i was carrying my bouquet, i did attract the attention of other women. they, too, were carrying bouquets. they were furtively glancing at mine, as if deciding if theirs was better-looking than mine was.

whatever they say, i got the best bouquet in the whole wide world.

the past few weeks were quite eventful. it was as if, after years and years of restraint, the revelations all said in unison, "to hell with it!" and crashed into me.

that doesn't make it NOT fun. :))

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my schedule for this term:

Tuesday - Advanced Psychotherapy - 6:00pm-9:00pm (M313[?!])

Friday - Forensic Psychology - 6:00pm-9:00pm (J308)

Saturday - Statistics for Psychology - 8:00am-11:10am (Y604)

possibly a bad schedule. but we'll see. :D

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The New Poetry Handbook
by Mark Strand

1 If a man understands a poem,
he shall have troubles.

2 If a man lives with a poem,
he shall die lonely.

3 If a man lives with two poems,
he shall be unfaithful to one.

4 If a man conceives of a poem,
he shall have one less child.

5 If a man conceives of two poems,
he shall have two children less.

6 If a man wears a crown on his head as he writes,
he shall be found out.

7 If a man wears no crown on his head as he writes,
he shall deceive no one but himself.

8 If a man gets angry at a poem,
he shall be scorned by men.

9 If a man continues to be angry at a poem,
he shall be scorned by women.

10 If a man publicly denounces poetry,
his shoes will fill with urine.

11 If a man gives up poetry for power,
he shall have lots of power.

12 If a man brags about his poems,
he shall be loved by fools.

13 If a man brags about his poems and loves fools,
he shall write no more.

14 If a man craves attention because of his poems,
he shall be like a jackass in moonlight.

15 If a man writes a poem and praises the poem of a fellow,
he shall have a beautiful mistress.

16 If a man writes a poem and praises the poem of a fellow overly,
he shall drive his mistress away.

17 If a man claims the poem of another,
his heart shall double in size.

18 If a man lets his poems go naked,
he shall fear death.

19 If a man fears death,
he shall be saved by his poems.

20 If a man does not fear death,
he may or may not be saved by his poems.

21 If a man finishes a poem,
he shall bathe in the blank wake of his passion
and be kissed by white paper.

the past few weeks were quite eventful. it was as if, after years and years of restraint, the revelations all said in unison, "to hell with it!" and crashed into me.

that doesn't make it NOT fun. :))

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my schedule for this term:

Tuesday - Advanced Psychotherapy - 6:00pm-9:00pm

Friday - Forensic Psychology - 6:00pm-9:00pm

Saturday - Statistics for Psychology - 8:00am-11:10am

possibly a bad schedule. but we'll see. :D

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Instructions:

* Next to each number, write the name of the person who fits the description.
* Answer one question with one name.
* Don't reveal the questions to anyone who isn't doing the meme. Thosewho want to know what the questions must do the meme on their ownblogs, on pain of wrath from the meme gods.

1. Twinkle
2. Nuel
3. Adrian
4. Sunny
5. [a grad coursemate]
6. Mati
7. Marian (cousin)
8. Guen (D.)
9. PB
10. Pao (V.)
11. Regi
12. Rizza
13. Omu
14. Arun
15. Bugie
16. I (Tan)
17. Stan
18. Cindi
19. Dandi
20. Kuya Pao
21. Arun
22. Regi
23. [Papa/Tita]
24. AJ
25. Pao (V.)
26. Kevin (N.)
27. Bugie
28. Asia
29. ... [no one]
30. i miss you all :D