What the hell is wrong with PLDT myDSL?! We lost our freakin' dial tone and I'm here at a computer shop throwing away money just to work on my freelance writing job. For f*ck's sake, you're ruining businesses, PLDT and you even forced me to get my hair cut! Coincidentally, my uncle was at the same barber shop where I was at and thankfully he paid for my awful cut just before he left. If mine were a billion-dollar industry hooked up to PLDT for its Internet service, I'd definitely sue PLDT's ass in court and it'll compel you to offer your majority shares to a black market like Mozambique, literally speaking as a punishment. My sister texted me saying that there is already a dial tone, is this some kind of a lame joke?! But fine, I let her pass for now, she might be telling the truth for the time being. I'll update this very short entry soon...

Continuation...

Ok. My sister actually told the truth hehe. Internet connection is back and I paid 150 bucks for renting a computer at Netopia. It sounds a little harsh at 150 considering the fact that I only consumed two hours. This was due to the membership fee I urgently have to pay just to save myself from the staggering hourly rate of just using the Internet for research in case I'd stay there for quite long(which I had actually anticipated). I should've given up nothing. My sis texted me late. Just right after wrapping my research up, there she came texting me saying that the dial tone was back. And what a waste of time, energy, and money really. I could've waited for the connection to revive but since I've always been behind lessons in school, I got no choice but to act immediately.

I've just found out recently that I committed a major grammar lapse. It's not that I'm sort of a grammar freak, but it is just damn unforgivable to commit a grammatical error which even a grade school bully who fools around in English classes is very much aware of, I presume. I've only realized recently that the past tense of slide is actually slid and I had thought the whole time that it was slided wahaha. Whenever my father is making some affidavit, I've always been on his back to overhaul the whole affidavit itself, from its coherence right down to the punctuations even. And one time as he was writing an affidavit, he asked me to describe in English a parked car that went sliding down on a steep slope and eventually came crashing down through the hollow blocks (by the way it was our car hehe). And I instructed my Pops to write that it SLIDED down on a steep landscape wahaha. SLIDED!! As expected, MS Word complained through its red "razor-like" underline haha. Grabbed the nearest grammar book across the desk, checked the verb slide, and cried my eyes out haha. Just can't accept it!

Breaking news! PLDT has just called to inform us that the cause of the line disruption was due to cable theft which happened at the same night I was disconnected here at our squatter-infested neighborhood. Junk shops, don't buy from these conniving craps. So it wasn't all about PLDT's erratic service after all. My apologies to PLDT as well as to Mozambique for poking fun at you both. It's just fun, nothing seriousness hehe. Readers btw, start to watch out for the grammar slip-ups of this spurious writer.

I think I haven't shared in this nook that aside from my daily struggles in taking a shower, I've also been struggling to 'start off' my studies. Conclusion is: they're directly related considering this tidbit that I can't think properly without taking a shower first. So I haven't started studying yet 'cause I still stink at this moment. One reason, at least at this very point, why I struggle to get 'it' on is that time is now my pal. I've got all the time in the world to prepare 'cause I still have two days left before my first exam. Talkin' about complacency hehe. Another reason which I think is more valid all these times is that I have this adrenaline rush which goes well to my advantage. I've discovered that my mind is working at its zenith like a carabao when I cram a bit. So don't dare disturb me at the night before the exam as the music entitled "Me and my carabao mind against the world" is playing against the rustic backdrop. Well speaking about rustic backdrop, let me ask you this: who among you leaves home at least a quarter to 6am for an 8am appointment? Well, maybe those who go back and forth the metropolis just to attend whatever affairs they have. And that's quite understandable. But for those who've been applying a 2-hour allowance and living in a not-so-faraway place just to arrive at the destination in the nick of time, hmmm that's quite laughable. Ok, that statement is not quite funny until I say this: I'm living in a quasi-pseudo-semi province. It's a f*ckin' bogus for a simple reason that I live in Quezon City which formerly was the capital of the Philippines. But I live on the edge of the city surrounded by vast green pasture but without the cattles and all those sh*ts that the only sign of economic progress is the overwhelming presence of those beer houses. The traffics(yes, in plural form) are horrible. To add a prop to this rustic dilemma of mine, I always take the bus in going to school just because there is no other choice. Public utility vehicles here on the freakin' edge of the city could barely keep up with the enormous number of talented workforce and persistent students(ahermmm) waiting in line during rush hours. So I usually take the bus since there's no sight of even a single jeepney going to Quiapo. FXs, on the other hand, have already been loaded most of the time. Finally getting on the bus is pretty relieving at first until commuters from everywhere continue to embark on it as if it were some sort of a magic bus with infinite seats. As if it were some sort of a honey in which a swarm of bees feasts on it. An overcrowded bus is definitely not a good sight especially for the girls whom I've seriously been worried about. For Christ's sake, you'd not even get a general idea about what's on the mind of those creepy-looking strangers(I enjoy the benefit of the doubt btw among the creeps) who ogle at those pretty kolehiyalas during moments like that when your mind is too damn preoccupied about getting at your stop on time. And if I'm not mistaken, those strangers like pushing their way through crowded places and an overloaded bus is their window of opportunity to fulfill those dark fantasies. Ok, I'm writing nasty now.

And I'll go now to take a shower hehe...

Yesterday, I left home early to pay for my tuition before taking my first exam in Advanced Accounting. I was waiting at the passenger terminal and surprised at what I was seeing. At that time, it wasn't a rush hour yet quite surprisingly, passengers were starting to stack. All of a sudden, here came my another silly bud from high school. He lives meters away but because of the unusual rush hour, he didn't mind walking straight ahead the terminal and then we finally bumped into each other after roughly 4 years. Since our silliness was the only thing which bonded us in high school, we greeted each other like crazy though the craziness settled a bit 'cause for Christ's sake, we've already grown a little matured and apart at that hehe. He sparked off our light conversation in a very unusual way (at least unusual for others). Instead of saying, "How you doin?" or anything similar to that, he said, "I heard a news about you that you flunked (balita ko bumagsak ka). Then I honestly said, "Yes" and we giggled. Damn Bri, try to apply for a reporter's job and put on top of your resume your number one skill and that is spreading the news of my sourest downfall hehe. Anyway, there were awkward seconds since I was tempted to bring in the news I heard about him and that is about his 'special somebody' and I thought it was too early to start that way and too personal for our inane connection. So I decided to keep my damn mouth shut and just let those awkward seconds sink in for that moment. And believe me I'm not used to awkward moments like that and when those instances start to pervade the whole atmosphere, I'd do whatever it takes to fill the gaps. And I did manage by starting to ask where he was going. He said that he'll get his licence and I gestured my hand resting on a steering wheel. Then he said, "No, I'll get my professional license to practice aircraft maintenance (kukuha ako ng lisensya para maging ganap na mekaniko). Ok, that tagalog version was kind of funny haha. But that profession I believe is not only rare but it financially pays off high. I think with utter smug (hehe) that it only takes a decent mechanical reasoning to literally make the aircraft fly as well as to absolutely guarantee the safety of the passengers as it flies towards the heavens haha. But like I've said, it's a relatively rare undertaking and the wage, in effect, should be generously handsome. When I affirmed the fact that I failed, we giggled for different reasons. I giggled at the fact that I'm officially now the most dim-witted among our circle and I presume that he giggled, on the other hand, out of sheer surprise. Then I quickly added to somehow justify my failure and save myself from complete embarassment that I've been taking up Accountancy. His face turned a bit stunned indicating something like this, "Why in the world did you take that?!" And I took that astonishment from a friend who has a superior IQ hehe.

Tracing back my footsteps all the way down from high school when I included myself voluntarily in a silly circle of friends, I can vividly recall that I prefer doing hands-on 'school' activities over thinking or downright memorizing to say the worst. My hands-on-oriented disposition is collectively evident in the computer programs I made, literary pieces I wrote, and the tannin I extracted from a lanzones seed to industrially produce an ink. And at the same time, flunking Math. So I can hardly believe why I'm currently at a completely different track right now. I imagined myself becoming a civil engineer, a lyricist, a computer programmer, writer, philosopher, political scientist, and economist but NEVER did it occur to me even in my wildest dreams to professionally practice the science of Accountancy. Try to invite me once in a 'mall stroll' when we're about to watch a movie, eat at a fast food or play bowling and I'm the only business student in the circle just for instance. I bet you'll have this natural tendency to ask me to do some 'mental math' to determine how much we have to pay for these money-wasting 'chill-outs' before maxing out our pockets. Question: Would I perform such transactions in my head? Well, I'll try the best I can but modulate your expectations from me down low 'cause I'm not accurate at doing mental calculations. Thing is, I'm poor at this skill. In a 56 minus 20 question, expect me to get my handy calculator out of my bag just to be sure. And that is how I basically distrust myself everytime I perform basic Math operations in my nut. This is apparently substantiated by history.

When I took my very first Accounting exam (Basic Accounting prior to taking up the major), I miserably flunked the test. My score was way below 50 percent. I think it was mainly nervousness that widened the distance between my dismal score and the passing grade. I'm literally afraid of numbers. My cousin (already an Accountant in the US) once told me while she was still living here at our house that Accounting is not really Math, it's more of English. Reading comprehension to precisely say. That convinced me a bit but it still fell short to influence me to take up an Accounting course for College. Naturally because I convinced myself harder that I don't have the appropriate Math skill to even lay a foundation for an Accounting career. That first exam on Basic Accounting just validated that belief. That time I was practically hanging on those grade adjustments our Accounting prof eventually made. Embarassed to say that I think I passed my first Accounting subject out of generous adjustments. The second Accounting subject I took the next sem was a pretty fine grip on my part, barely passing it with a grade of 2.75. Ma'am Betticon was my prof for the second Accounting subject. She's been an 'industry' among the faculty who teach Accounting and a consistent prime motivator of many Tomasian CPAs over the years. She has this review school and most of my classmates who passed the qualifying exams for an Accountancy major reviewed in her review center. Even Ma'am Betti failed to influence me to review in her center yet I decided to take up the qualifying exams just for kicks and for a try. I did review all by myself but this wasn't really a concentrated effort. I just trusted myself that what I reviewed for the final exams would hopefully make the 'experience' of taking the qualifying quite fulfilling and at the same time enjoyable. So there was no formal schedule to prepare myself for the upcoming qualifying that time, just a schedule to prepare myself for the final exam with a purpose to pass the second Accounting subject. I was brave enough to take the quali 'cause I believe that there would be no loss on my part if ever I failed to qualify. That could've been another validation to my belief that I s*ck at numbers. "The hell I care, this is not where my talents lie," I mumbled. So it wouldn't really hurt that bad had I failed. But very surprisingly, I passed the qualifying with a mixture of utter disarray and an increased self-worth. No doubt I was happy the moment I was first informed that I did hurdle it via a text message from someone who didn't appear in my phonebook saying congratulations. History continues and I failed a major subject in the Accountancy program that caused a year-delay to my graduation rite.

This pretty much answered the question in great detail why my failure has been such a big deal among my silly circle of friends in high school and that circle is not even exhaustive hehe. Partly stunned at why I failed a major and partly stunned at why I even took it. But then again I enjoy my stroke of luck and I hope this would bring me towards the end.