EurasiaChem 10 Take Two!

Whew. Last days, last days. it will be a mixed feeling of excitement and nervousness as thousands of chemists will troop to the Philippine International Convention Center for the 10th Eurasia Conference for the days January 7-11 this coming year.
Heck, although it would seem a bit awkward of me, a physics student, to go there and have "fun" (for lack of a better word to use) with them, I am just looking forward to the experience that I will gain from it.
I think there will be some sort of trade fair, let's see, ah.. T2ECH Fair I think where the non-participants can go.
Well, for the participants.....Ahem..PHP 5,500.00 for the students. (Cheap isn't it?haha)
Gotta secure the overheard funding before Friday next week.
For those who are quite interested in looking at what the conference is all about, you can view the Souvenir program at:

http://eurasiachem10.philippinechem.org/assets/EuAsC2S-10_souvenir_low.pdf

You can check out Poster 13 on Page 54. (Laughs!) I admit, I am a bit of a show-off.
So, I wish you guys all the best for this New Year. Less for those who took more last year (does that statement makes any sense?haha).

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Let us all check out for the upcoming Essay Contests this year. Added experience for those who are fond of writing. =)

EURASIA Chem 10

We're at the last days of the year. Hmm. Well, I borrowed ten books from the library and I hope to get them done before classes start again. Quite agitated by how calm one of our teachers seem to deal with us. I can vividly sense the air of sneer and pride about what's happening in class. Well I just hope the faculty of thy mind would not one day be struck by a lightning.

Gifts are gifts. But...to such an extent? I DON'T THINK SO.
And so setting aside my contempt, I think I just have to prepare for the next conference stop. I feel quite out-of-place since it is all about a different field but I would just want to gain experience from it.

Money, money, money.

Need them now. (And a job please? Ha-ha).

Into the Realms of the Curfew

There come the times when we find things exciting, surprising or at times even appalling. The recent event gave me a feeling of a navigator in a time travel coupled with the mixed feeling of dread and excitement.

The past week has rendered me quite a weak person after all those mind-boggling concepts and a million times skirmishes with yellow papers to be passed to our indifferent professors. On that particular Thursday, I found the occasion to snooze for a few hours and hungrily filled in the dull hours sleeping. But sleep did not come as comfort but rather as a mixed experience of nightmare and unwanted daydreaming.

Late in the afternoon, I witnessed clogged roads in this part of the province. Which was highly unusual given that it was only Thursday. If something have happened (which in fact is true as any one of us know now), then I did not notice it at that time.

Four hours later I found myself in semi-deserted terminal with the intense cold wind all around. I filled in the time again, this time observing the place with my tired eyes. There were the food stores with those infamous incandescent lamps lighting their spaces. There were two young giggling women, running to and fro, chasing each other. There were also a group of men, most likely drivers, absorbed in their cards, of what game or gamble I could only make a wild guess. Then there was the lone crippled man, standing by the light in the waiting shed. Buses were parked in the dark corners of the place, waiting for the next working day to come. The place is a picture of innocence, like a small child unaware of its surroundings. And at the very moment, I was part of that innocence.

Later I was running through the highways of the neighboring province, looking out to the trees and houses clothed in shadows and coldness. At the back of my mind was the feeling of dread, injected to me by the news that have finally reached me. An attempted coup d' etat in Makati. And an incoming curfew for all of us.

[I decided to fulfill a long-standing promise and dropped off to where life was suppose to be. But all I found was a closed store barred from the main highway by a steel tube with the “No Parking” sign. The store was obviously deserted and it offered no room for any condone to sadness whatsoever. I was bitterly expecting things to happen but ended up having nothing to see but those lights from that gigantic sign. I have wished the person that have stood there outside was the goal. And on the side of the highway was too. But of course reality have bitten like the cold that have already penetrated my light brown coat-like jacket. In desperation I pulled out or rather did the only resort I could think of that time: write onto the the shed by the drive-thru and let the drizzle mix with the tears. (Enough of the drama lines.)]

And so later I have amassed the full story, thanks to the TV news and that Voice biscuit that saved me from a full empty stomach. But I reached my final place minutes after the mark decreed by the Forces. And you could but feel it all around you, slightly penetrating your skin with dread, like the very streets where you feet stand are glowing charcoals tickling you. I was in the place and time where no one is permitted to be. I've just entered the realms of the curfew. Now describe to me your own experience.

I made it home safely and enjoyed the profound silence that have enveloped the city.

Photo Credit: www.chessbase.com

Magnetic Tapes Live On

Who said that magnetic tapes have already met their demise? Well, this is not to convince myself of the fact that indeed, cassette tapes have passed the period of fame and glory and to justify to myself at least that the existence of the bunch of cassette tapes in my shelf is still worth boasting. (I'm just waiting for the time when cassette tapes would become antiques items that people would flock to where I am and ask me whether I could let them see what cassette tapes look like.)

Anyway, to make things short, I am again currently listening to a dug-up tape (beside the Coheed songs I've been immersing myself to for the past few months) released just five years ago.

It is simply entitled Nirvana and it contained a collection of the most memorable songs of the famed grunge band. The accompanying paper (is that called the inlay?) was filled with a short narration of David Ficke on how the band, fueled by the creative mind of its front man Kurt Cobain, rise to stardom until that fateful day in '94, when Kurt was found dead in a garage. It also essentially gives us the feeling on how their music have touched and shaped, well, the music scene at least in that part of America.

For me, it gave me some sort of pride, having a legend beside me at home. I particularly like the live recording of one of the songs, just forgot the title. And also the 'classic' Sliver. I've been hearing that song since childhood and so it struck me as something familiar and close at heart.

I am no half-way through my hunt for tapes and tapes and tapes. Not only do they come cheap, (actually bought old rock band albums for as low as 10 in Mandaluyong) but also give you the intensity that one seeks in listening. Well, I could enumerate a thousands advantages of those iPods and Mp3s but tapes give me satisfaction in a unique way. Joy stand-alone. =)

3D WALKTHROUGH

3D WALKTHROUGH.
Visit the new Interactive section of the Makati Standoff site at www.inquirer.net/specialreports/makatistandoff/vr.php

for 3D walkthroughs showing government troops and armored personnel carriers after the successful assault on the forces of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
The Makati standoff ended after government troops lobbed tear gas into The Peninsula Manila lobby and an armored personnel carrier rammed the hotel's main entrance.

from Inquirer.net

DOWN WITH

Okay. And so there came an announcement that have literally pulled down my esteem.
Well, life pushes through and must strive to finish the course.
We'll put up the night lights for further studies.
(Puffs smoke.)