Addicted To Coke

That's right. I'm a certified coke addict. And please, hear me out first before you make any judgements =p

Anyway, I'm not talking about the drug cocaine. I'm talking about Coca-Cola. Well, I should say I'm addicted to cola since I'm also craving for a Pepsi. Last Saturday, I think I drank 4 cans of cola. That's right, 4 cans!! And yesterday, I drank 1 can of Pepsi for lunch, 1 can of Coke before going to church and 1 regular-sized cup of Coke during dinner at Long John Silvers. What is wrong with me? The last time I had this addiction was during high school. My lunches at the school canteen weren't complete without an 8 oz bottle of Coke. But when I went for my university studies here, I found myself addicted to, guess what, Mandarin Orange Tea. And slowly, my cravings for Coke have diminished over the years. But now, it's back! I have noone to blame but me, and the damn Coke machine in the office selling a can of Coke for only 80 cents! That's 10 to 20 cents cheaper than those sold outside! Waaah! Right now I want to grab a can of Coke. But I should learn to control myself. Olan, control, control, control! Ok. I think I'm going crazy. Maybe it's caused by all these cola in my system. Whatever.

Wow. September is coming! Yay! But what's so special about September? Well, it just makes me feel that December is coming. Do you see the logic? It's Septem-ber so it's already near Decem-ber. It may seem stupid, but that's how we think of September in the Philippines. Maybe we think that way because of the importance of Christmas in every Filipino's life. Just the thought of Christmas makes me go crazy and excited. Oh how I love to go home now! But sadly, my flight back home is still on December 16. My IA will end on December 9 and I still have to do some URECA stuff after my IA. But at least, I get to see my family during Christmas, and that's good enough for me.

I'm ending this boring piece now. I have to... what am I supposed to do? Nah, I'll just wait for my supervisor's meeting to finish. Or whatever it is.

Bored. Bored. Bored...

Maybe I'll just grab a can of Coke

Or Not! =P

Bisaya Blues

I'm in the buhaton right now, getting laay at the moment. Hehe.. Pasensya na sa mga di marunong mag-Bisaya. And I'm so sorry for those who don't understand any of the Filipino dialects. You can look up any Cebuano dictionary to know what I mean. (Hint: Type "Cebuano dictionary" in Google then click the first link. It's a very good dictionary)

Anyway, I've spent the past few hours trying to relearn my native dialect which is Cebuano or Bisaya. I grew up in Davao City, where Bisaya is widely spoken, although many people can be heard conversing in Tagalog. Davao is some sort of a melting pot of people of different ethnicities. And thus, with the mix of people in Davao, it's not uncommon to hear its residents, including former residents like me, speaking some sort of a hybrid of Bisaya and Tagalog. Most people have actually given this hybrid sort of language a rather unsophisticated name, the Davao Tagalog. Some people may simply call it BisTag. And having lived in the city for 15 years, I have mastered the art of screwing pure Bisaya and Tagalog and speaking the, shall I say, lingua franca of the city. Thus, although I understand Bisaya and Tagalog, I cannot speak nor understand clearly deep Bisaya and deep Tagalog. And unfortunately for me, after 15 years of living in Davao, my parents have decided to go back to their home province, Agusan del Norte, a place where Bisaya, and I mean deep Bisaya, is widely spoken. I can speak straight Bisaya, but my relatives just keep noticing how screwed my grammar is. Even my parents are surprised that I don't speak Bisaya the right way. And there are those words that I can't understand! I have to constantly ask my mom what this word or that word means. There was this one time when my grandma was telling me some story. She was enthusiastically telling me about what happened to her and her family during the war, and although I found it very interesting, she said a lot of words that were sooo deep that I also have to think deeply what they meant. I just couldn't stop her. It's rude to ask your grandma to suddenly stop while she's talking to you. So I ended up translating some words on my own, not sure whether I made the right translation. There was also one time (it was years ago) when I was talking to the phone with my uncle. I told him "Angkol, paadtoon na daw mo ni mama diri(Uncle, mama wants you to come here now)" Then he suddenly laughed. I was wondering why, so I asked him. Then he told me that my grammar was wrong. It should be paanhion instead of paadtoon. As he explained, the root word adto means go there, while anhi means come here. And since I was telling him to "come here", I was obviously wrong. But I didn't know it that time! I knew the words anhi and adto, but I didn't know how to properly use them. So as you see, I'm a total Bisaya screw up. :P

But over the years, I've managed to add some words to my Bisaya vocabulary. My friends from Davao are even commenting that I speak Bisaya too deeply. And I'm quite proud of it. It's my way of commemorating my ancestors, most of whom have come from Cebu and Bohol. Although I'm proud to be a Filipino, I'm even prouder to be a Bisaya.

But still, there are words that I haven't learned yet. Checking the dictionary, I came upon these words:

pailub - perseverance
ligdong - gentle, formal, honest
maharuson - violent
kinampay - violet
madalag - yellow
hibangkaagan - culture
bulong - medicine

Wow. I never encountered such words before. It's good that I know them now, though I doubt I can use them. They're just so new to me. Hehe

Anyway, I've been also trying to learn the Butuanon language. It's a dialect spoken by the natives of Agusan. It's similar to Bisaya, but much less common. Some linguists even say that it is a dying language. I've only heard it once in my life, and I never got to hear it again. Anyway, here's the link to the only sort-of-dictionary I found in the internet: www.butuanon.org. Have fun :P

That's all. My work time's almost over. Need to go now.

Adyos! Mabuhi ang mga Bisaya! :P

An Update of Sorts

Ok. Here's a quick update bout me:

1. I'm on Industrial Attachment this semester. I'm attached to PolyOne. It's in Tuas, so I'm quite satisfied (although it wasn't my first choice). I like the work I do there, although it's tiring sometimes. I basically deal with polymers. I do testing, moulding and other stuff. And polymer science is my favorite materials field. So I'm really happy with what I do in the company.

2. Umm.. Should I even mention this? Ok. I was in the Dean's List. I was really shocked when I found out. When I came here in Singapore to study, I didn't think I'd be in the DL. My only aim was to pass. And that was it. But now, WOW! I never knew I could achieve something this great. It was really a blessing from God. And because I was in the DL, I was invited for the Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus or URECA program. It's a program where a student is made to do a research project with a professor. And we get paid! Finally, I could save up some money for my PC loan. But actually, the main reason that I decided to join this program was to have something to write in my resume. I just thought it would be helpful when I get to find a job, or when I apply for my postgraduate studies. But nah, the money factor was still important. hehehe

I think that's it. I'm really sleepy now. And I have work tomorrow, so I better get as much sleep as I can.

Bye!

A New Beginning

Wow. I never considered myself to be a "blogger". I was a loyal Diaryland user (I've been with them for 3 years!) But nah, everybody's using Blogger now. So I'm just going with the flow. And wow, Blogger is definitely easier to use than Diaryland. No need for complicated html codes.

I'll definitely stay here ;)

So...

Welcome to my crappy thoughts