Life’s Trifles

   
    It’s a long 12-hour flight, I squint my eyes.. we’re almost
there, the sun though still burning bright. Hurtling straight towards the
night, into the dark embrace of twilight. On the horizon, I catch a glimpse of
the coast, standing out against the deep blue of the ocean.. then, as if on
cue, darkness suddenly envelopes like a shroud. Into this, I stare out.. as
what once was.. I can only make out.    

        As least, that’s what I thought would happen, hehe. I left Manila at 10 in the evening for a flight to cross the
Pacific, cruising at 650 miles per hour relative to the ground and scheduled to
arrive at San Francisco
at 8 in the evening. Since the Earth rotates from west to east with a speed of
1035 miles per hour at the equator relative to the day/night boundary, I would
be hitting the day/night boundary at a relative speed of 1685 miles per hour! I
had expected instant darkness, like the day being switched off to night, hehe.
As it turns out, it was the summer solstice at that time, and that meant much
longer lengths of day. It was still bright at 8pm when I landed, quite
surprising. Sigh, guess I wasn’t able to fly into the twilight. Maybe next
time, perhaps I’ll choose a much later flight.=)

    Hi peeps! It’s been almost a year since my last blog entry.. so much has happened since then.. so much to tell. As a change from the previous norm of my writing, I’ve decided to no longer create cognitive energy expensive, excessive word articulating, huge initiative requiring entries on my blog. It’s just too much trouble, and also probably the reason why I wasn’t able to add here in the first place since then (haha, wuz lacking perhaps then in the 3 qualities I said..?). And what would an example of otherwise the previous norm be? Unimportant non-sense, haha.
    Ok, have you guys ever been fry high? High, defined as that sickly feeling you get when you imbibe too much beer. That heavy feeling in your stomach, loss of motor coordination, and the strong urge to puke. Well, back to my subject. I’ve always loved french fries. I just can’t seem to have enough, when I take them as movie snacks or just munchies at the mall. Seeking to gorge myself flat on one my favorite eats, I purchased a 4.5 pound package at the supermarket, cooked a 500+gram serving at home, and stuffed my face silly while watching cable. After finishing that serving, I couldn’t believe I was fry high, hahaha. Basically what happened next was what you would expect to happen when you get stoned. I’ve also done a much more expensive version of this high when my officemates and me had our work-anniversary dinner at Saisaki at G3. That time I camped and swiped all the tempura from the buffet, around 15+ pieces in two trips, stuffed myself more than full, and got.. tempura high, hehe. Anyway, if your going to try to get fry high, I suggest that you use premium oils when frying (canola/sunflower/olive), to avoid those nasty trans-fats. Cheers!=P

Ever since my waning college student days, i’ve always envisioned myself beeing a total geek in the technical world of the computer and electronic hardware and software industry, being holed up in a dexter’s lab like office, doing research and development on whatever cockamamie contraption or software thats put on board.. (nerd alert!).. well, kidding aside, I’ve always been a techie at heart.

     My path, however brought me elsewhere. I remained at the university and took a career in teaching, being hired by the institute wherst I graduated from and started teaching physics and the more geeky applied physics to the eager young minds of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. Even though, we as government employees, received pathetic compensation for our services, the prestige and honor of being a public servant to the country’s premier university was the true purpose of our servitude. Sacrifice… the true heroes of our country are the one that give truly, with little regard for reward. Well, it also helped that our residence being right next to the university swayed me into taking the post. Before that, I’ve always been fascinated in teaching(in college that is, the rambunctious nature of our primary and secondary school youth is not for me), being the boss of the classroom and being able to impart knowlege and influence to a multitude of people coming from all corners in the philippines.

     It really was a marvelous experience… the anxiety(hehe, I love high anxiety situations, sarap ng feeling sa tiyan.=P) and apprehension of facing a whole lecture class of students(about 80 kids per lecture), the delighful use of verbal communication(public speaking), the attention, the state of being known to a lot of people, and most of all the respect. And I also didn’t drift far from my interests. I still became the afformentioned geek doing research and development on nerd stuff on my dexter’s lab desk like desk(see gallery for details) and I got promoted to Instructor3, weehee!

     Alas, reality smacks me hard in the face. I can’t be a teacher forever. New paths beckon me to take them.. the IT world or the post-graduate studies in business perhaps? But in anyway you put it, it’s always difficult leaving something you’ve been attached to for so long. I’m just happy to think of back then, recalling gratifying memories of my extended college life. Goodbye, my beloved university. Who knows?.. maybe when I achieve my farfetched goal of getting a masters and doctorate in physics and engineering before culinary school, I might just go back to the starting line of my professional life and retire as a professor, wahaha, nerd! Wehehe, small % lang, pang nice guy high to.=P

     There come times in our lives that we come upon crossroads. Circumstances may bring this about or maybe you probably had an epiphany.. that the world is’nt limited to your little corner of existence of where you currently are. Life’s too short to waste when the going get’s pointless. It however, may not always be planned. To choose a new road brings the excitement of newness and also the anxiety of uncertainly. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and accept whatever comes your way. For me leaving my beloved UP Los Baños as an instuctor is hard, having grown much into the profession, its perks and joys, the priveledges… the honor. Toting only the prestige I had working there, I must move on, however hard, not looking back. I’m just very thankfull that the road I chose led to a new stead where was able to hang my hat and heave a sigh of relief ang glee, here in the IT jungle of Makati. I’m sometimes bewildered with my fate, the lucky dice strikes again. I just hope that when I come upon a crossroads again, I would again take that lucky leap of faith to beyond yonder and at the end, look back… and revel… tracing my path back to my humble beginnings.. to where I am now. -Jam