When Person3 asked me whether Person1 is my new Person2, I was taken aback at the thought of it.
I believe that each person in my life has a special place in my heart. Although their role could change as time passes by, no one should serve as a replacement for someone.
When I mentioned this to somebody else, he then called Person2 my flavor of my semester and Person1 as my previous flavor of the semester. And then another person who overheard it from the adjacent room (tsimoso!) then added later on that Person1 would probably a classic flavor just as Rocky Road was once an ice cream flavor of the month but now is found almost everywhere.
This talk of flavors of the semester is funny but sad. It commoditizes friends as something that just passes your time or just gives you enjoyment. The term treats them as if they are something that you feed off of.
I am reminded of this time I asked someone why he is my friend and what has he done for me for him to deserve my friendship. It is so wrong to ask such a thing because friendship is not what others can offer you but what you can offer them.
Flavor of the Semester
Gossip
I have been guilty of gossiping and it has to stop. Having been the focus of such rumors, I now know how it feels to be hurt by gossiping.
The sad fact about gossiping is that a lot of people actually consider it a fact. Alas, it has been taken to a whole new level by some people by talking about the rumor in public as if it is some fact that they themselves found from the person involved. Gone are the days when it was just one to one and not announced at some farewell party of a person.
Rumor #1: I got kicked out of NUS due to residency and very low grades. NUS policy states that engineering students is 6 years for those who matriculated before last year. The maximum residency is now 5 years. For one to be kicked out, one has to get an CAP of less than 2.0 for three consecutive semesters or less than 1.5 for 2 consecutive semesters.
Rumor #2: I have enrolled in the University of the Philippines. I have not even talked to the Registrar of said school. Nothing was final before I came over to Singapore to pick up my stuff.
Rumor #3: I am very sad about all this. Fine! This is not an actual rumor that's going around but it is not true. I am very optimistic about my future and I am not afraid of what will happen. Moaning is of no use because what I have done is already in the past and I couldn't take back.
Meet Dave, A Very Special Love
Meet Dave is one of those movies which if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie. Although it wouldn't be something I would recommend other people to watch, I had fun watching it as we almost had the entire theater to ourselves and could laugh as hard as we wanted to.
The human falling sort of in love with the alien space craft was something that bothered me at first but I eventually had to accept that it was the personality of the whole crew that made him "love" the human-shaped space craft.
Venue: SM Fairview Cinema 3
Time: 13 August 2008, Wednesday, 03:00 PM
Who: Mia (sister)
"A Very Special Love" is a run-of-the-mill Filipino love story movie about an uptight boss and his underling who fall in love and lived happily ever after. Sarah Geronimo's performance as a lovestruck assistant was good and made me believe her role. The story allowed her to show a wide gamut of emotions that I didn't see in the much-panned Lastikman.
I loved how they showed a person can get really tired after some time of just continually loving the person without the love being reciprocated. I hate it when a person just gets being hurt and still continues to let it happen to him or her.
Venue: SM Fairview Cinema 9(?)
Time: 10 August 2008, Sunday, 06:20 PM
Who: Galilee
Care
Two weeks ago, I met up with a friend that I last communicated with seven years ago. I remember him to be one of my closest friends in high school.
It was so awkward mainly because we didn't exactly resolve the issues that caused us to stop communicating. However, he didn't want to talk about it anymore and just wanted to focus on what is now.
After the meeting, I realized how guilty I should have felt when he got kicked out of high school. The year we stopped communicating was the year he suffered through Chemistry, which happened to be my favorite subject that year (3rd year), even going to competitions for it.
But then, he was not the only one that that happened to. Another close friend got kicked out a year after we were not friends because of Algebra, which was my favorite subject that year (2nd year). A room mate I had in 1st year left the school because he couldn't cope with the curriculum.
So much for a helpful friend. But that was high school, I was so different back then. I didn't care much about other people. Now, I do care but I don't know if I like doing it. Caring about people usually means getting hurt.
Spotted
I think I have this gift of spotting people because of my very roamy eyes.
Datu made this comment yesterday that everytime I am with him, people we both know suddenly show up. I don't think it's because I have some magical power but because I can easily spot people even if I've met them last five years ago.
It may take me a few seconds but I do know when a face is familiar. So when I see a familiar face in the crowd I usually smile at them because most probably I really know them. It's better to be safe.
Last night, for example, I was with Ate Kitte at Trinoma. Julito passed by and I was the only one who recognized him. The last time we both saw him was more than a year ago. We also didn't expect him in the area because he lived very far away. It took some amount of stalking before we finally confirmed that it was him who entered the Marks and Spencers shop.
Mamma Mia
The only reason I watched Mamma Mia was because Galilee paid fo my ticket.
Most of the people in the cinema, if not all, were women above 50s. The women sitting in front of us were so happily singing along to the songs most of which I probably heard in passing because my father played them at home.
The concept of marriage and romance presented were a bit iffy for me, although it could be the prevalent concept in society.
Meryl Streep's disturbing dancing around made me think about how I should be acting my age. Just last Sunday, a 10 year old thought I was a 12 year old. When I told him I was 22, he said I was cool with a hand sign. Could it be the way I act or just how small my body frame is?
By the way, in response to Ivy's question on why I list the people I watched the movie with, my reaction to and reason for watching a movie usually depends on who I watch it with.
Venue: SM Fairview Cinema 12
Time: 26 July 2008, Saturday, 02:40 PM
Who: Galilee
Late
Most everybody knows that the trait I hate the most in anyone is not respecting my time (i.e. being late).
I was supposed to meet someone in SM San Lazaro which is in Espanya Manila at 2PM. I arrived at the supposed meeting place at 2:03PM, doing a lot of running just to minimize my lateness. I already informed the person that I'll be late by at most 5 minutes at around 1:53PM. I always inform the person I meet up with if I am running late which almost never happens and would never, as in never, exceed ten minutes.
Thirty minutes later and two messages from him that he'll be late, he finally messaged that he's already there. He described the meeting place and I figured out he must be in some other branch of the meeting place. I called him up and found out he is in another mall, SM City North in Quezon City which is forty five minutes away. Apparently, we confused each other with the series of messages that we sent each other.
Tears really fell down my cheeks because of something I couldn't explain. It was not only due to the whole confusion but also to an earlier incident which lead to me be late by those three minutes. The FX driver dropped me off at the wrong place. Then people who I asked told me the place is very near leading me to walk almost 1 kilometer (~0.95 km).
I eventually had to go to the other mall, taking a jeepney (because I didn't have any other choice, or so I thought) which I absolutely abhored.
