Tribal Riot

So, this is technically not a rant about roommates, but more about neighbors. If you're interested, then read on.

Roommate Rant

You know, I remember the times when I was growing up and my parents made me do household chores. I remember hating that. But now, come to think of it, I am glad that my parents had the stubbornness to force me to do those things, because in the long run, it was quite beneficial.

Super Lab Master Concluded

This past week was quite hectic. As I said in a previous post, the past week was Super Lab week. We scheduled several appointments for participants to do experiments and earn extra credit. Thus, 4 days and 51 participants later, I have finally finished Experiment 5.

Pad Thai Version 2.0

In reference to a post I did a couple of months ago, I have the same entry title for this one. I suppose there are just a bunch of things that I felt like talking about today, and there isn't really a common denominator except that it happened around my being.

Well, first off, I am happy to announce that the roommate search is over. I found a new roommate, and this new person is from India. From the looks of it, he looks cool, and best of all, not messy. He seems to be quiet, and is also a graduate student. The best thing I suppose is that he is a doctor: he has an MD, so am I supposed to feel safe now? Not that I felt unsafe before. But I just find it a little funny that I will be sharing an apartment with a doctor.

The other day, my friend and I watched the sequel to L'auberge espagnole, entitled Les Poupées russes. Again, I liked the non-linear narrative of this one. Anyway, we were making fun of Romain Duris, whenever he would speak in English, because his English with a French accent is hilarious. No offense to my French readers, but it really cracks me up.

Speaking of being funny because one speaks in a weird accent, I once cracked a joke on my adviser (who is French) during a party. I wasn't even talking to him, but to someone else, when I used the word genre with a very bizarre pronunciation of the uvular /r/. I suppose I gargled. My adviser was within earshot, and when he heard it, his face just contorted and it was so funny, it was the best face of the night.

Change of topic: I just finished my bottle of Givenchy Pi this morning. Wow. It took me 11 years to finish the bottle. I remember getting this bottle in the duty-free section of Osaka's Kansai International Airport, back in 1998. I wasn't even flying, instead, it was my mom who was flying back to Manila. And we happened to be late in heading to the airport: we thought that the flight was on a different schedule, but it changed for the season, and so the flight was leaving an hour earlier than we thought. We practically ran across the airport, and since I had the diplomatic pass (which allows friends and relatives of diplomats to go through security and say goodbye to their travelers right at the gate), I was able to go to the duty-free section and so when my mom finally cleared security and immigration, we went to the duty-free section, I told her what I wanted, and she got what she wanted, bought it, and then she flew back to Manila. I on the other hand took care of the purchases and took them back home to our apartment in Osaka. I didn't realize that that bottle would see its end in Buffalo.

So yeah, that's that. Oh good, as I write this, the sun is coming out. It's been cloudy all week, sometimes rainy even. I suppose I liked that weather, but it was a little bit chilly for June, and so I actually wore my sweater yesterday. But as long as the temperature doesn't make me sweat, then I am fine with that.

Ok, this is the end of this entry, I am off to get a haircut.



(Steel Soldier with Real Person, from my DC Memorials Series)

Mélange

So I watched this funny movie entitled L'auberge espagnole, which tells the story of a French graduate student, who went to Barcelona for one year to study. Why do I find myself watching plenty of films set in Spain recently? Maybe it has something to do with a possible change of scenery?

But no, let's not go there at the moment, given the fact that nothing is sure yet.

Anyway, I saw this film, and although I liked it, I didn't even try to imagine living like the characters. I would possibly not survive in an apartment with 7 other people, with different living habits. In more ways than one, this movie was really a mélange of sorts.

Funny that this word, which means "mix" in the French original, means something different in Austria. My dad would always order a "mélange" after dinner, which refers to some type of coffee.

Anyway, speaking of apartments, I am showing my apartment to someone this coming Monday. Finally, someone answered my ad. Hopefully, I get someone who is decent, and not like the previous roommates that I had. It seems that I do not have luck with roommates, all the previous roommates I had were bizarre, and every time I think that nothing else would be worse than this, but then that would always be falsified. At least I haven't had a roommate which was as bad as a friend of mine's, which somehow apparently turned out to be a drug-dependent loser, who got arrested by the police. That's why I don't want to advertise my place online yet, my primary way of advertising is through posting flyers all over the campus, so that there is a higher chance that the person is also a student, and not someone from who-knows-what.

Speaking of which, I need to replenish my flyers. Unfortunately, I need more tape.



(Abraham, from my DC Memorials Series)

Spring Cleaning and Shostakovich

So, yesterday, I was in the apartment all day long. The reason was because my roommate moved out, and I decided to clean up his wake. I started with my bedroom, and then the corridor, and the two other rooms. I am still not finished, with the kitchen, dining room, and his old room not yet done.

I like my clean bathroom, though. It is now blue, from a former brown. I changed the rugs and the shower curtain, and replaced the curtain liner with a new one.

I am glad that my old roommate moved out. I didn't like his cleaning habits, because there were none. I suppose I do not have luck in finding good roommates. This has been the third roommate that I had, which did not take the initiative in cleaning. He treated the apartment more like a hotel than an apartment. When he left, he didn't even try vacuuming his room. Just that, pack up and leave. But I figured, that would be better, because I would rather be careful in cleaning his room, because who knows what he left in there, the vacuum cleaner might break.

So yeah, I will finish cleaning the apartment, and then look for a new roommate. I am not hoping for the best for this one. But who knows, I might be just here until December, but hey, that's not yet official.

In the meantime, I am back in my office, listening to Dmitri Shostakovich while I read my articles. His string quartets are really awesome in case you are curious.



(Silver Cubes, from my National Gallery of Art Series)

Endurance Test

If there were a button or a magic wand that I can use to make things disappear or make things speed up, I would possibly do that. But then, that is not reality, the reality is that those things do not exist.

This time of the year is rather stressful. There are plenty of things that have to be considered, and I suppose the trick is considering them in a fashionable and orderly manner.

I suppose the first thing to be considered is my finances for next year. I need another year to do research for the dissertation. I am done with my coursework, so that is already taken care of, and I am graduating this June with a master's degree, earned on the way of earning a doctorate. Thus, the upcoming year will be focused to the dissertation research and it alone. With regard to that, I need to secure funding for one academic year. I have already applied to some funding sources within the university, in case the department does not give me funding. The department has been sort of hinting that I would get at least a semester's worth of funding, but I hope that they give me more than that. Looking at the track record of people who came before me, maybe that is a possibility, but I am not putting all of my hopes in there, so I am covering my ass as much as possible by applying to other sources.

Another thing to consider is the dissertation proposal. I am supposed to give a first draft by the first week of May, since it will count as satisfying a course requirement for a class I am taking. Hopefully, I can find time to research what I am doing for it and draft it on paper. As a preview, my dissertation will involve the psycholinguistic aspects of inference generation regarding causality. Let's leave it at that for the moment.

Those perhaps are the two big things that are mulling inside my head at the moment. There are other things as well, for example, the fact that there are people scheduled to meet with me every day, in order to do the experiment that I have designed but is done not for my research but for the professor who I am a research assistant to. I schedule about twenty people per week, since after all, I am paid to do twenty hours of research per week. I could schedule more, but then that would amount to neglecting my own research, and I have my own deadlines to keep.

I also need to find a new roommate. My current roommate is moving out at the end of May, so I need a new roommate at the beginning of June. My current roommate thinks that the rent is expensive for him, so I don't blame him for that. I guess it is a good thing, however, since he isn't the best roommate I had. Come to think of it, of the three roommates that I have had, the best one so far was the first one, when I was still living on-campus, but I remember that I complained about him too much as well when I was still living with him. I guess I just have high standards and people do not measure up to it that much. I tried to mention the things that I do not like to my roommates, such as leaving the toilet unflushed, leaving crumbs on the sink, among other things, but then, I am not their parent, and after a few times mentioning these, they should have known that these are not so good habits to keep. They're also adults, so I suppose it is simply true that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

I also need to deal with my visa situation pretty soon. My current student visa will expire in June. I am still a student, so that doesn't mean that I will be staying here illegally once June passes. However, that means that if I need to get out of the country, I have to get a valid visa in order to get back in again, thus, if I have an expired visa, then I would be trapped here. I don't like that situation, so I need to somehow go back to Manila sometime and renew it. I will do that once I know of my financial situation for next year. If I only get one semester, I might as well wait it out and stay here until the end of that semester, then go back to Manila and see what I can do from there. If on the other hand I get a full year of funding for next year, then I will definitely try to find a way to go back to Manila and renew my visa during this summer so I can get in and out of the country legally and without being hampered. But as of now, I still do not know what will happen next year so that is still unanswered.

I hate this situation in which things are left unanswered. Things are hanging, and so they can be frustrating sometimes. I also hate the fact that I have to live on a year-by-year basis. But then, what can I do, this is just a means to an end. I am starting to hate school, and I am slowly accumulating the itch to graduate. Hopefully, that is sooner than later.



(Embassy of Lesotho, from my Embassy Row Series)

The Irony of Living with a Pig

I have to warn my readers that this post is a rant post. If you are comfortable with it, then continue on, otherwise, there’s always Google as a website where you can glean further information that would potentially interest you.

So, the reason why I was silent these past few days was because I was working my butt off cleaning my apartment. As you all know, I was living with a roommate, who happened to be a pig. No, scratch that, or else I might be sued for libel. My roommate, or rather, former roommate, had pig-like habits. Well, let me explain.

This morning, I spent my whole waking hours scrubbing the tile floors of the house. The house had carpeted parts, hardwood parts, and tiled parts. The carpeted and hardwood floors were not a problem, but the tiled floors were rather dirty. It needed scrubbing. So, I filled a pail of water and mixed disinfectant with it, and took some clothes, ripped them apart, and made rags out of them. I then used my hands, my fingers, my knees, and my feet in order to scrub the tiled floors of the house. And guess what I found? Mud. The water turned into mud.

Now, why would this be of extreme concern? Well, if not for my roommate spilling things like sauce, cooking oil, and other liquid items, then the dirt would not be too heavy. If only he would have the effort to mop them up as soon as they occurred. But no, he let it dry. And if I would not open my mouth and complain about it, he wouldn’t do it I am sure. Why do I know that? Well because one day, he spilled his rice, and I still saw the spilled rice two days after. He only cleaned it when I told him that he spilled his rice. If that was his attitude towards spilled rice, I am pretty sure it would be the same for other things that are spillable.

What else did I find? Upon examing the nooks and crannies of the floors, I found dried-up cheery seeds. Now this has a story behind it. My former roommate loved eating cherries. We also had a garbage can in the kitchen. What he usually would do is eat cherries, and spit the seeds into the garbage can. Now, guess what? Sometimes, it wouldn’t go inside, due to bad aim. Obviously, it would just fall along the sides of the can, but he wouldn’t bother putting the seeds into the can by picking them up! So now they are all dried up in the kitchen, and I had to take care of it.

He said he cleaned his room before he left, and yes, he did clean it, but it still isn’t clean. Notice the different use of the same word here, one is a verb, another is an adjective. You can clean something without achieving the end result of the thing being clean. He also left some more clothes. So what I did was I cut up his clothes and used them as rags to clean the house.

That was today. I still have to vacuum his room, since I highly doubt the effectiveness of this work. I also have to clean the refrigerator, since after turning over the things in his side of the fridge, I found some dried up liquid underneath the planks. He left some food as well, and I never hesitated to throw them away, due to the fact that some of these have exceeded their expiration dates, and some are just plain unhealthy.

I have to recount his episode with the vacuum cleaner. It was still early in the semester last year, when I told him that we should take turns vacuuming the apartment. I told him that the vacuum cleaner was hidden in the closet, and it was intuitive in how to use it; just plug it, and turn the switch on. Now, I have this upright vacuum cleaner, where there is this button that one should depress and so the upright portion will bend over, so one can vacuum the floor comfortably. However, when you store it, the upright portion will bend 90 degrees with the mouth, and so you can store it in the closet. Obviously, that position isn’t the position one vacuums in, but my roommate wasn’t aware of that. He told me later, upon using the vacuum, that the vacuum is very hard to use, because of the bad posture in which users must assume when using it. I then told him of the lever, and he was so surprised in seeing it. I asked him whether he had an inquisitive brain, and if so, if he is using it. I then told him that I suppose that maxim is true, the one about not being able to teach old dog new tricks. He replied by saying that it is indeed true, in fact, he was still a puppy and yet he couldn’t learn new tricks anymore.

I suppose I never had good luck with regard to roommates. I thought that I had the worst roommate when I got the Japanese guy three years ago in my first flat. I was wrong. This was worse.

The sad thing is, I as a roommate am uncomfortable reminding him constantly of his duties. I don’t want to hear myself over and over again saying, “Hey, vacuum the apartment. Hey, throw out the garbage.” I am not his parents. I don’t have the authority to nag. He should know these things by now. But apparently, that is not the case.

The same thing with personal items. We shared some things together, things like the ones we both use in the kitchen, such as cooking oil and sugar. If I see it being depleted, I would buy one, and the next time it would be him. However, there are things that I do not see as communal, but he does. Things such as my toothpaste, my shaver, my comb. We both have different toothpastes, but whenever his is depleted, he uses mine. I suppose it would be ok if it were just a single incident, and the next day I see a new tube, but that is not the case. He acts like a sloth when it comes to grocery shopping. He thinks it is a tedious endeavor. So, I notice that the cap of my toothpaste is open, when in the morning I left it closed. I noticed that there are strands of hair that is longer than mine in my comb. In the end, I moved all my things to my room, and only bring them to the toilet when I would be using it.

So there, this is my roommate rant. I suppose I am now glad that he moved out, and I will be finding a new one. Hopefully the new one is better than the previous one. In either case, I suppose I only have a year left in Buffalo, and hopefully, I will be moving somewhere else after this year, and by then I would seriously think of living solo.



(Colorful Trees, from my Letchworth Park Series)

Vicissitudes-Inducing Ignes Fatui-like Eschewals

The title may be a bit complicated, but this entry is basically an introspection on my being an escape artist.

I realized quite recently that I can be an escape artist, in a weird sense.

I guess it has been a reflex of mine to daydream whenever I find myself in a not-so-ideal situation. I've had a few of those in the past days.

I rarely blog about my roommate, compared to the rate I did two years ago, when I had a Japanese roommate who sucked. This time, my roommate is way better than that, but I still have some reservations.

I will not put emphasis on his "misdemeanors," because I don't want to concern myself about it right now, but instead, I want to blog about my survival instinct about it. I guess I just daydream of the time when I would have a pad of my own, where I rule the place, and I am the boss. I dream of a place where I would return and not find the sink half-clean, with fish scales all over the place. Don't get me wrong, my roommate tries his best to do his part, but it is just not as thorough as I can do it. I dream of a place where I would not remind whoever it is that it is his turn to vacuum the place, since I did it last week. I dream of a place where the dishes are placed in order and exact precision in the cupboard. I dream of a place where the knives are all placed in the right order, with the blade facing upwards not downwards in the knife-holder. I dream of a place where I can insist on my desires and preferences. But alas, I am not yet in a position to do that.

I see myself in him, only I see the version of myself when I was in fourth grade. I remember the time when it took me 3 hours to finish washing the dishes back in Manila. I remember my mother telling me how bad I am at washing dishes, with all the grease still intact. And now, I see myself, my previous self, embodied in him.

Enough of that.

Yesterday, I went to the library. I carried my statistics book, my notes, and my folder for that class. I decided that I would go to the library, find a quiet place, and sit down and do my homework. Even if I have an office, I decided to do it in the library. In this way, there would be no distractions.

Don't get me wrong. I do love the class, where I am brushing elbows with different terminologies that I haven't encountered before, such as the Satterthwaite's Procedure, the Newman-Keul's Procedure, the Tukey-A Procedure, in addition to the numerous different statistical tests, such as the Student's T-Test, Hartley's F-Max Test, and Cochran's Test, among others. It's just that the homework is a bit too tedious and I get distracted whenever I am in my office.

Well, there is always my laptop and the Internet in my office. I then put on my escape artist hat again, and surf the web for the different places that I would want to go. If I want to be distracted, I would just go to websites offering tours to far-away places. In the past, the places I have checked and traveled to virtually included Registan in Samarqand, Uzbekistan; Xibalba Caves in Coban, Guatemala; the earthen carved churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia; the Buddhist stupas in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka; the Inca citadels in El Valle Sagrado, Peru; the salt pans in Salar de Uyuni near Potosi, Bolivia; the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan; among others. There are simply too many places to go.

And having a wall with postcards pushed into it does not help. In front of me is this push-pin wall where I display my small but growing postcard collection. I have started this small collection of mine from the time my family sent me postcards from places where they have been to. I also asked friends to send me postcards whenever they would go places, and I myself buy a few postcards here and there, whenever I would find myself out of town.

A few years from now, when I am a faculty of a sweet university, I imagine myself having an office, whose wall is full of postcards from all over the place. I'll be a linguist-cum-deltiologist by then.

Ok, back to reality.



(Tall arches, from my Basilica de Voto Nacional Series)

The Mystery of the Key

Friday (yesterday) was a surreal day for me. It was rather long, and had quite some bits of happenings that are worth telling.

First was the lab meeting that I attended. A close friend of mine was presenting her research, and although I had a conflicting meeting in the Student Union (therefore requiring me to leave early), I still made it a point to show up and show support. She was presenting, and two of the semanticists in the department (one being our adviser, the Frenchman, the hilarious guy who is proficient in mouth yoga; and another one, a German bloke, with weird hair and an eccentric personality) just went arguing over and over. It was rather hilarious watching them lock horns.

Anyway, after 45 minutes, I got up and slipped quietly out of the room. I then proceeded to the Student Union to attend another meeting. I wasn't too eager for this one, given the fact that this was pure business. But this is something I had to do.

Anyway, at around 5:00 PM, a few friends of mine headed to Starbucks to get some coffee. It was windy, so I got my Ecuadorian killer sweater (complete with knitted llamas and a sun with a smiling face). Apparently, my sweater attracts quite some attention. A complete stranger tapped me in the shoulder and asked where I got it, and when I told him that I took a bus ride in the middle of the Andes Mountains to go to this small town of Otavalo in Ecuador to get this killer sweater, he told me that he was from Peru. I told him that I am planning to visit his country in the near future. He remarked that I am a "brave man" for flying to South America and backpacking solo. We then exchanged numbers later because he said that I might be interested in some Latin events that the students from that part of the world sponsor.

Speaking of that, I seem to have a strange fondness to anything Latin American. My idea of exotica seems to be tied to this cultural nucleus, and there are preferences in my life that can be tied to this. One example is the radio station that I am listening right now, which is the reggaeton station in Yahoo!

After that, I went back to my office and did some work. And when 7:00 PM came, we all headed to the Student Union Theater for a free movie. We watched Fracture, which was a rather engaging legal/thriller film. I liked the way Anthony Hopkins portrays the villain. I guess he is very good at it.

Then, after the movie, we were about to go home, when we realized that it was pouring hard. Good thing that one of us had a car, and so we tried to fit inside his small sedan. I had two ladies on to my left and right! Kidding aside, we decided to proceed to the Lake Effect Diner, which was an eating place near in my neighborhood which seemed to be a time-warped place, stuck in the 60's. Here you can order breakfast, lunch, or dinner anytime.

Then, we dispersed a little before midnight. But when I got to my house, I couldn't find the key, which was supposedly left by my roommate in the mailbox. Earlier, he told me that he left it in the mailbox because the fact of the matter is, there are two people living in my unit, me and my roommate, but the landlord was slow in providing a second copy for my roommate. The maintenance person apparently changed the locks but there still is somehow a copy lacking.

Anyway, the bad thing is, I cannot wait for my roommate. My roommate went to Ithaca, NY, which was 3 hours away (one-way) from Buffalo, to watch a football game between Cornell and UPenn. So, I went to my Argentinian friend and asked him to put me up for the night, all the while trying to solve the mystery of the missing key, since my roommate was insisting that he left it in the mailbox. And when I checked it, all that was there are some spare screws. So I was thinking that some stranger took our keys. And my cell's battery was low.

My Argentinian friend was kind enough to let me sleep in his living room. He had an airbed that I was able to use. Anyway, at around 7:30, I woke up, and got back to my house. Now the weird thing occured.

I had a copy of the first key, which enabled me to go inside the house, but I didn't have the second key, which would enable me to go inside my unit. This was the one that was supposed to be left in the mailbox.

But when I looked at the door, it was open.

I ran up the stairs, since a big red flag was raised in my head. Everything seemed to be wrong. I plugged my cell to the socket, since it was already dead. I tried calling my roommate's cell, but he wasn't answering. His door is locked, which isn't the usual case. Another red flag. I tried knocking at the door, but nobody was answering. I know that he is a deep sleeper, but he may as well be stabbed by some killer.

My bedroom was still closed, and locked. I opened it, and checked all cabinets. Everything was still inside. I checked the kitchen. My knives were a bit disarranged. I checked the garbage for signs of cooking, as to whether my roommate was in the house or not. I checked the bathroom, felt his toothbrush as to whether it was wet or dry. I was trying to call him all this time and knocking at the door as well.

Finally, he answered. So he was there after all.

But the mystery of the lost key wasn't solved yet.

I then went to the dry cleaners to dry clean my two coats (it is starting to get cold already, so I should do this before winter comes in full blast) and then proceeded to school. We had the arrangement to pass the two keys at school, since I was leaving the house earlier but coming earlier as well.

Then, about an hour earlier, I got a text message from my roommate. Apparently, one of the five tenants downstairs borrowed the key from the mailbox. But the fact is, when I was asking the other people downstairs as whether they took the key from the mailbox, they said that they didn't know, but they didn't ask their other roommates.

So, there you go. Mystery solved. We now have two keys each for each of the two doors that we need to open.

Sometimes, things like these happen. They surely make your life exciting.



(La dirección al sur, from my La Mitad del Mundo Series)

No Culture

I went home early yesterday, since I knew that there were going to be someone at home to change the lock. And when I got home, there was the maintenance guy, and he was changing the lock.

Going home early also provided me the time to finish the novel I was reading. It was a very whirlwind and engaging novel. It was about the philosophy of sex, seen from a guy whose girlfriend cheated on him. Anyway, it was an existentialist novel.

So, I returned that book to the library, and I started on a rather thick book, entitled The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I had picked this book up from a bookstore back in June when I was in Manila. The last time I read a book by Rand was something like 3 or 4 years ago. I read it while I was in undergrad. I read Atlas Shrugged and I loved it. I loved it to the point that I made it a point to visit the Atlas Statue in New York City in the Rockefeller Plaza in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

So, I am starting on another Rand novel. Hopefully, this turns out well too.

Some days ago, I wondered about my attitude towards things that are foreign. I seem to have no culture. What I mean by that is that I do not have some sort of deep attachment to anything Filipino. Not that I abhor things that are Filipino, but I don't seem to relate to them. Rather, what I do is I pick up random cultural things that I encounter wherever I may be.

Like yesterday. Yesterday was rather cold, and so I decided to wear my poncho to school. And it was perfect for the temperature. I had a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of slacks, and on top of it I wore my blue llama poncho. It served its purpose well. Yes, some people were looking at me, but who cares? I am not Latino, but so what?

And when my roommate saw it when I got home, he told me that I was very Ecuadorian.

Maybe some of you may recall that I have an international lay-out with regard to my office space. It is utterly bizarre how I am like a sponge, absorbing random things about different cultures. It is the case that I cannot think of anything that would produce culture shock to me. If something strange occurs to me in a foreign land, I just interpret that as that is the way that they do things, so there is nothing wrong with it.

Maybe my brain has been desensitized with the many varieties of culture there are.



(Morainville, member of the French Academy of Sciences, from my La Mitad del Mundo Series)

Quirks

I am not inspired to write a themed entry for today. Unlike sometimes, when one feels a strange surge of emotions, and people write moving entries in their blogs. I don't remember writing a non-traditional blog entry, except for this entry when I decided to dabble in erotica. Mind you people, it is not porn, but erotica. The difference between porn and erotica is its purpose: if the material is made to arouse or otherwise turn on the viewer, then it is porn. On the other hand, if it is a form of art, then it is erotica. Madonna's album of a decade ago is a totally different matter, though.

So, I'll just write a collection of happenings, both small and not-so-small, for today. Vignettes of my reality.

For one, I think I crossed the point of no-return for an upcoming endeavour. Hopefully it works out well the way I am envisioning it.

Yesterday, there was an annoying girl in the bus. She was talking on the phone but it seemed that she was talking to the whole bus. She attended the Fall Fest which apparently is an annual event here in the university, where some artists come and perform their stuff. But she said that it was getting hot, and if it gets hot she gets cranky, and then a drunk girl steps on her toes, and then she wants to have her nails done across the street from her dorm, and then she complains that her car is broken so she cannot go around, among other things. Yeah right, cry me a river. And then when it was about time to get off, the bus halted, and she stood up, and then the bus moved again, so she fell straight to me. She then shouts "Oh my god! Oh my god!" I hated the way she over-dramatizes the situation, as if she is one big diva. One thing is sure, she is a drama queen.

I sometimes observe these undergrads, and how pitiful they are. They are showered with all sorts of gadgets by their parents, making their world perverted and skewed. They think that they cannot survive life unless they have the latest iPod or cell phone. They have all sorts of technology to pamper and entertain them. Even in airplanes, they think that spending 3 hours in a metal tube sitting doing nothing is hell, and they would bring all sorts of gadgets to entertain themselves. If they want to sleep, then they would bring a neck cushion, making the ordeal bearable. I don't think they realize that there are less fortunate people out there, that would jump at the first opportunity to be even inside a plane. These people don't even consider sleeping upright a problem.

Sometimes, the world is strange.

Or I guess it has always been strange.

I need to throw away a pack of bologna from my fridge. It isn't mine; it was bought by my roommate's aunt for us. But as much as possible, I don't eat meat, and my roommate doesn't like bologna due to the fact that "there are no visible meat fibre" in it, so I guess it stayed there in the fridge until way past the expiration date. So I have to take that out and clear the fridge.

Speaking of expiration dates, the Director of Graduate Studies sent an email to certain people, me included, that the deadline for the qualifying paper is looming. I should finish the qualifying paper by the end of this academic year, and I have to make a public presentation of my research in the Colloquium within this semester. As far as I know, I am on schedule. If I do everything on time, then this requirement will be satisfied. Once that is satisfied, I will then be officially a Ph.D. candidate. And once I finish my coursework (which after this semester, I still have 7 classes to go), I will be ABD, also known as "all but dissertation".

Times flies fast. That is one realization that I always get and is mirrored by several of my blog entries. Recently it has just been the opening of the semester, and now we are already entering Week 3. And there are only 15 weeks in the semester. That means that one-fifth of the semester will be over already after this upcoming week.

Here's another installment of my Oswaldo Guayasamin Series again. This is a mural on the ceiling. The ceiling is actually open, and the sun can shine inside. Notice the way all the people are trying to reach for the light.

Homage to Kolmogorov

This morning, I didn't set my alarm clock. I just let myself be woken up by the rays of sunshine flooding my windows. Although, in a rather disappointing note, my body clock woke myself up at around 6:00 AM, when the sun isn't out yet, so I grabbed hold of my watch, noted the time, and shut my eyelids back.

About an hour later, as the erythrocytes, leukocytes, and the thrombocytes were flooding the corpora cavernosa, I decided that it was finally time to wake up. So, I languidly walked to the way of the bathroom, and washed my face.

I didn't have a class for today, so I took my time in breakfast. I fried an egg, peeled a banana, and consumed it together with four loaves of bread, a small slice of brie cheese, and a spoonful of grape jelly, washed down with green tea.

I also made lunch in the morning. I made some linguine with crimini mushrooms and parmesan cream sauce. Very rich.

It was around 8:10 when my roommate opened his door and decided that he should wake up as well. He apparently has a class at 9:00 but he was rather not intent in going to school, somehow the motivation wasn't firing. Anyway, he just made some sandwich and packed it in his bag, and went in the shower ahead of me. As I said, I don't have a class for today, so I wasn't in a hurry to go in the shower.

Speaking of the shower, I find it a bit odd that there are four types of soap bars in the shower, but there are only two people using it. I use one of them. My roommate may be using the other three, but it seems that entropy is not working in the soap bars. I better ask him whether he is using them or not, and if not, I might end up using them.

The thing is, my roommate seems to have a rather delicate body. He has a rather narrow selection of foods that he considers tasty, and so, if the food is not in that category, it either ends in the trash or eaten by me. The reason is, I don't want things to go to waste. His aunt and uncle bought a large stack of staple items, like canned goods, tuna, corned beef, among other things. But, my roommate doesn't eat them. He told me that if I want to, I can help myself to it.

The soap in the shower is also related to this. It seems that he bought the soap bars, all from different manufacturers, and my theory is that upon first usage, he found them to be unsatisfying, so he bought another one, and another one. So I will ask him about it, and if he is not using them, I might end up using them. My body isn't Marie Antoinette's, I don't mind.

I find it amazing how different our personalities are. He talks on the phone a lot. I hear him conversing with other people, shooting the wind over the phone, talking about mundane topics. I on the other hand only use the phone when I really need to tell somebody something. He is afraid of heights, I on the other hand is very excited of climbing mountains again this coming May. He has no sense of direction, I on the other hand can find my way even in a foreign country.

I just emailed my Russian friend this morning. I sent him some documents. If it looks good for him, I'll be excited. I know, this paragraph doesn't make sense, but it's suppose to not make sense. At least for now.

My Israeli friend taught me how to make matzah ball soup. It tasted good, the way he made it. If only I can replicate it. Well, I'll try it in my kitchen some later time.

So, one thing that is not random is the continuation of my Oswaldo Guayasamin Series. Let me show you the man himself.

Hmmm...

I only got about 6 hours of sleep yesterday. Not really good. But not my choice either.

I was doing my laundry about 10:00 PM yesterday. I was supposed to just leave it in the basement once I get it in the dryer, but somehow the first floor neighbors decided to do laundry as well, so I know that there is a load of clothes waiting for the dryer once I finish. And since I didn't want my clothes to be handled by other people, I patiently waited for them to dry, about an hour later.

Speaking of the first floor neighbors, they are a somewhat interesting bunch. They aren't that noisy, just average. They are five students from East Asia, but I somehow inferred that they are immigrants here in the US granted permanent residence. I somehow deduced this from my conversations with them a few days ago.

Anyway, I don't have anything to complain about them, except for one thing: garbage. They produce a rather large amount of garbage. And not only that, their garbage stinks. I do not know what they put in their bags, I do not know what their eating habits are, and surely I do not know what their garbage-producing habits are, but they seem to be the bunch who cooks food but not finish it. Thus, there are plenty of leftovers that end up in the garbage can. And since the garbage is only collected once a week, these large garbage bags end up in the driveway, subject to the elements of nature. And if it is subject to the elements of nature, it stinks.

I guess my main annoyance is the fact that for five people, they produce an unusually large amount of garbage. Even though the bags are translucent, I can figure out that there are plenty of paper plates and paper bowls, making me think as to whether these people actually use real plates and bowls or not.

Anyway, it is surprising that I am ranting not about my roommate but about other people.

Ok, that's all for today, I have to go back to work. I have plenty on my plate right now, so I better stop at this paragraph. But before that, here is another shot of my Oswaldo Guayasamin Series. This is a sculpture that he did, I believe.

Blah

Some good news first: I think I’ve found a roommate.

A friend of mine referred someone to me a week ago. He is a new guy that will be starting graduate school this Fall. And he comes from the Philippines as well. But the thing is, when my friend referred him to me, I already was entertaining some other prospective roommates. However, it seemed that those people didn’t work out, so I contacted this one.

We emailed each other, and one night found each other online, so we chatted. It was actually weird that we might have bumped into each other while I was there in Manila, because I was in the same campus as he was. Anyway, so yeah, I guess he will be my new roommate. And somehow I am not frightened, nor am I dreading that thought. Unlike two years ago, when I had that slob of a Japanese guy as a roommate. When every other entry in this blog was a complaint about him.

Anyway, so that is settled. I already gave him my phone number and address. And tentatively he will be coming here around the middle of August. So I guess I have the whole house by myself until the next month.

Now the bad news: Buffalo sucks.

Buffalo sucks in the summer. I mean, where is everybody? Is this what happens in a college town? That when in summer, everybody disappears? I hate it, I get bored by it. I cannot work. I mean, I really try hard to implement the mind-over-matter maxim and still get things done every day, but it is not like when there are people here. I guess I want competition. I want to be able to see that I am accomplishing something while others are not. I guess I cannot compare myself to other people and so I do not see myself moving, and I am not being properly motivated. Selfish, I know. But isn’t that instinctive? That one wants to be better than the next bloke?

I remember those dog races, where there is a rabbit going around the race circuit, and so the dogs would chase them. If there is nothing to chase, then nobody would move, right?

Anyway, it just reinforced my thought that I wouldn’t want to settle down in this city. I mean, Buffalo is a great city for studying. I guess the environment for pursuing an advanced degree is fabulous here. It is quiet, peaceful, and not a lot of distractions. However, that is that. I don’t see myself settling down here and finding work, buying a house in the suburbs, and enjoying the weather of Western New York.

Sometimes when I find myself in times like these, I daydream. What if I lived in Berlin, Germany instead? How would my routine be?

Anyway, enough of that depressing talk. I found this article over the web about a new fear: the fear of not flying. I guess it shows how people live nowadays.

So, here is another picture again from my Quito Centro Historico Series. This shows the Palacio Arzobispal from another angle.

Making my Home Sweet

I did some home repairs yesterday. Simple stuff, like replacing burn-out bulbs with ones that are really white, not just sort-of white. It changed the atmosphere of my house totally.

For today, I have some ironing to do. I bought some extra hangers to use, due to the fact that I did some shopping back in Manila and so there were new stuff to hang, so I had a bit of a hanger shortage.

I'm still looking for roommates. One potential roommate is looking at the place today this afternoon. If he doesn't check out, then another one will hopefully be living with me, although this other one is not yet in the country. He is a new graduate student also from the Philippines, and was referred to me by a common friend.

My shrunken heads are staring at me here in the office. Why do I take a glance at them every now and then? Sometimes I have the feeling that they have been moved or something.

Ah, enough of the fantasies. I have some encoding to do. I need to convert my paper encoding to an electronic file in Excel, so I can do mathematical computations with them at the press of a button.

So, here is another of my Quito Centro Historico Series. This shows the Presidential Palace. It is the building on the left side. A lone taxi passes by in front of it. The cream-colored building in the background is the Palacio Arzobispal. Apparently, it used to be the archbishop's palace, but now it is a collection of shops and restaurants.

Cringe

I had another bout of insomnia last night, so I was finally able to go to sleep around 3:00 AM. Because of that, I woke up real bad. I was woken up by the daylight, around 6:30 AM. But I wanted to go back to sleep because my head felt like it was being split in two. So I pulled the covers and went back to sleep, albeit very lightly.

Some good news. I think I have found a roommate for my apartment in Buffalo. I posted an ad online, and someone replied. Actually, three already replied, but the first one seemed the best choice. We are still emailing each other back and forth, but it seems that the deal will come through. He is also a graduate student in the same university, starting this Fall, so that makes things simpler.

Today I went to the supermarket to buy some stuff that would be needed here in the house, like dog food. I also bought some ingredients for the last meal that I would be cooking.

While in the supermarket, I saw this (noveau-)rich family, complete with a maid, doing their grocery shopping. The mom was talking to her son, in English. Oh I so hate that. Then she talks to her husband in Tagalog. The child thus fails to learn the native language.

During my trips to the university here, I sometimes encountered a student in the department, who speaks only English. When he was asking something about my experiment, he asked me in English. I replied in Tagalog. Why would I speak in a foreign tongue to a fellow countryman? How absurd!

There is a graduate student in Buffalo, also from the Philippines, who has a wife and child. They talk to the kid in English. Why? In one way or the other, the child will learn English. I do not deny that English is one of the major lingua francas in the world right now. And there is nothing wrong in using it. However, sometimes their use will then obliterate the existence of other languages.

Some linguists just sit back and do nothing about this. They say that I shouldn't be a purist and go against the natural course of the world. But for me, it is diversity and preservation that is important. Some people here are against inventing new words for new terms, saying that it is like putting the language in an ivory tower. For them, it would be easier to borrow the term than invent one.

But the Japanese were comfortable with inventing a new term. When the telephone was invented by Bell, they coined the term "electric conversation" which is the literal meaning of the characters they use for "telephone". What's wrong with inventing new words so that the language would be modernized?

I guess that's where politics comes in. The issue of the medium of instruction here in the Philippines has come and gone. That's why I shun applied linguistics. There's too much politics in the field. And nothing has been done for the benefit of the people. Studies have proven that children learn better if taught in their native language. But there are still subjects in grade school that are taught in English, and not the native language. No wonder we trail behind.

Ok, enough of the soapbox. My head is reeling already. But then, that may be the result of the homemade coke-and-rhum that I mixed for myself. I didn't want to give away this half-empty bottle of rhum, so I bought some coke and lemons, and made myself a Cuba Libre. I guess it will also do me good, since I am getting a bit drowsy now.

Ok, here's another of my Old Fort Niagara Series. Here is the grand dining hall inside the fort. They apparently used this room as a meeting room as well. Enjoy.

Animosities

Sunday, yet I find myself in the Lockwood Library.

I figured that I'd go on and revise my paper for publication today, during the afternoon, as it would only take me half a day, and so I would get it over with and pass it on to my native-English-speaker-classmate-slash-fellow-grad-student who would then proofread it to check my stylistics. Well, no matter how good my English apparently is, it is still lacking since my not-so-anonymous reviewer advised me to ask a native English-speaker to check my work. By the way, the reason I said not-so-anonymous is because it is supposed to be anonymous, but then, the comments were sent to me in MS Word format, and although the editor sent it to me, not the reviewer, when I pointed my mouse towards the Word file, the properties suddenly appeared as a pop-up screen, and voila! I saw the author of the file! But then it doesn't matter anyway. Why would I be personal when I don't personally know the reviewer?

I only have one more week of class and an additional two weeks of stay here in Buffalo before I depart for Prague. I can't wait. Especially when you have a roommate that starts to act weird.

I haven't been ranting about my roommate for a while. But then something happened this past week that made me go uh-oh...

Yesterday, around 4:00 PM, I started vacuuming my room. It is his turn to vacuum the house. But then, he is rushing to catch the bus for the mall. So I hurriedly caught him and told him to vacuum the house, since it is his turn. I told him to do it once he gets back from the mall, after he bought his usual supply of microwaveable pizzas. So, after a long pause, he said yes.

When he got back, I again grabbed the opportunity to strike a conversation with him. I told him excitedly "One more week!" He just ignored me. Well, he was plugged in with his iPod, most probably listening to his collection of Bruce Springsteen. But then, he just swung by me as if I wasn't there! Now that was an uh-oh moment.

So I went up to my room, closed my door, and started my ironing, and I heard him start the vacuum cleaner and clean the first floor. When he was finished, he went up, and BANG! The sliding door which when opened, revealed the storage where we keep the vacuum cleaner and the boxes of some of our stuff just went with a thud! And since it was perpendicular to my room's wall, it just gave me the shudders.

Now, is he mad at me?

Well, there was just one thud. It was never repeated.

That's why I am excited to move out of my apartment and move into my new apartment next August, when I am alone, solo, and so I won't have the feeling of living with a total stranger. We never connected. We were never friends, not even acquaintances. And here are the reasons, at least, from my point of view.

He is ten years older than me. I am 23, he is 33. His interests are different from mine. He shows no hint of being responsible. He doesn't know how to take care of the house, let alone clean the toilet that he is using. The weird thing is that I feel like I am the adult in the house and he is the over-grown child. I feel like I am living with a teenager stuck in the 80's. Well, I was a teen in the 90's, and since he is 10 years older than me, that makes sense. All he does is listen to his iPod, and whenever he goes out, he plugs his ears with those white sound cords of his. But no regard for the house. He doesn't know how to cook. He doesn't take the initiative in vacuuming the house, if I don't vacuum, he won't. I am sick of it. I am sick of telling him what to do, and prodding him to do his share in the work.

But then, all I have to do is wait. Wait for three final weeks. Then it will be over. I won't have the feeling that I am sleeping with the enemy anymore.

I Will Spread Havoc

Apparently, the pinging headache I had two days ago turned out to be the initial symptoms of the flu. Yes, right now, I have the influenza. My head is aching, my nose is running, my limbs are aching, my throat is sore, and sometimes I get the chills at night. If I didn't pop some pain relievers then I would be in such a mess.

What a great way to spend spring break.

Now my plans are so delayed.

I am supposed to finish writing a paper, but then, due to my condition, I couldn't even start. I still have that pack of tests that I need to grade. I finished the two sections, but the essay parts, I haven't started yet.

I guess the only thing that I am happy for is that this influenza hit me when classes are not in session. If classes are in session, then that would be worse.

So here I am in my room, coughing. My roommate is out for vacation, travelling again. If he were here, then he might catch the flu too.

Un odore che difettoso devo resistere a

I hate that smell again.

My roommate, as usual, the one who does not know a single thing about cooking, shoved another instant pizza in the microwave. And I hate the smell of it. I hate the smell of the frozen dough that is slowly rising in the microwave. When he opens the microwave door, the smell of that horrendous thing creeps into the apartment heating system, and it goes into my room. It dilates my nostrils and it makes me wince.

Very different compared to six hours ago.

I cooked Alfredo Blue for lunch today. It is a version of Fettucine Alfredo, but with a twist. It has blue cheese in it. And no butter. Alfredo Sauce usually is made with butter and heavy cream, however, I only used heavy cream, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, and blue cheese. Amazing.

Why is it that men typically do not know anything about housework? As if the house interior is the domain of the female. Good thing that my parents thought me to do things both inside and outside the house. So that I would survive.

I talked to my parents over the internet for about two hours today. It seems that they are sure of moving to Prague next month. Remember that my dad is a diplomat? Well, there seems to be an opening in the Prague post, and it seems like he is being transferred there. If that is the case, then Prague would be the destination for my summer trip, when I visit them.

Another consequence of that move, is that the city that the family will visit will change again. We usually plan our trips based on where we will originate. When we were still thinking of originating from Vienna, we were thinking of Casablanca or Berlin. But then, since our point of origin would be Prague now, thinking of the flights coming from Prague Ruzyne International Airport, I have suggested that we fly and visit Oslo instead. If that is the case, then that would be the northernmost city that I have been to so far.

It is indeed exciting to think of the possibilities of travel. Maybe the reason why I became to be in this field is because it presents the opportunities of travel; attending conferences, presenting papers, among other things.

Well, I still don't know whether I would be in Prague, since they are still not 100% sure. We'll see in the next few weeks.