MILESTONE

Graduation day.

It was the day we've all been waiting for. Suddenly my constant whining about school stuff and about how sleep-deprived I was during my five years of college became nothing when compared to this. March 25, 2009 was definitely well worth the wait. :]

On the day that marks a great milestone on my simple life

I remember feeling like something has come to an end. After all, going to school was something I've done for seventeen years, I was happy, relieved, excited and hopeful. This marked the end of getting up in the mornings to put on our white and green uniform, it marked the end of our fifteen minute walk from the entrance of the university to our college building. It marked the end of countless problem sets, laboratory reports and exams. It marked the end of lunch with my closest friends at the canteen then in the student's lounge, huddled together in our group sharing stories, laughing and most of the time cramming for assignments and quizzes until the bell rang. It marked the end of our barkada bonding after class, our movie dates, shopping with the girls or patiently waiting for the boys while they bask in on computer games. This marked the end of my 5 minute- powder break turned 15 minutes chikahan session with the girls in the CR while the boys wait by the door; I will never forget their exasperated what-took-you-so-long looks when we finally had the urge to come out. :]]

I will surely miss my dearest friends and the rest of the ECE 51. They are the very reason why I still look forward to going to school everyday despite the very heavy workload that awaits us each day and a serious form of fatigue that goes along with it. It sucks that the two belonged to a single package.

I will definitely miss my professors, and I will always be grateful to them for giving us the benefit of their wisdom.

The most important lesson I've learned isn't about the stuff I learned from textbooks or laboratory experiments or from the long hours of sitting in class. It is the lesson I've learned through meeting the people who touched my heart.. and still do until now! :]]

What Pays Off?

I:
officially became on vacay! a week ago.
wanted to blog weeks ago but kept procrastinating because I know this entry is going to be looooong.
and most importantly..
I:
got pass thesis and case study and pre-board exams!
am graduating on March 25!
am finally done with school for good. :)

Here's a rundown of the important events that happened while I was taking a Blog-leave.


February 6: Final Defense

The original schedule was at 8'o clock in the morning but at 8.30 we were still 2 panelists short and our thesis adviser was nowhere to be found. Luckily, we managed to find the right substitute for the panelist who called in sick and even though we started late, everything went smoothly as I hoped. We passed with minor revisions on the paper.

Minor revisions and more than a thousand bond papers later...



February 26&27: Pre-board Examinations

These were the 2 days everybody was dreading. You're lucky if you have good history on the previous comprehensive exams, but if you don't (like me and everybody else), the pre-board exams were clearly a matter of life and death. It sucks that these two days can put your chances of graduating on time in jeopardy. And unfortunately, for most of us, it did.

March 2: THE Results.

At around 4 in the afternoon, we were asked to enter the Dean's office one at a time for the dreaded results. At that moment, we were immediately branded into two. Those who passed and those who did not. Immediate relief awaited those who passed while sadness and disappointment greeted those who did not. During that time, I just felt that I can't be happy, it's enough that I am relieved for most of my dearest friends passed too. But seeing those people who cried because they didn't make it , even those I don't even know and haven't spoken to during my five years of college was heart breaking enough. I reserved my happiness for later and tried to comfort as many people as I can, especially those who are my friends. It's very hard to see them like that. I mean, we all did not sign up for this pre-board thing. How can they just drop a bomb like that thinking that everybody can handle it just fine. We were working on our thesis, doing internship and case study and we still have academic subjects, for Christ's sake! It's easy for them to say that all we need to do is study hard for the pre-board but I don't think anyone can be fully prepared especially if he has to juggle everything else on one hand including the fear of not graduating on time. Yes, it was easy for them to say that all we needed was to study hard, but I don't think they even thought about the pressure they were inflicting. And if they were in our shoes, I doubt that they could handle it.

March 6: First job interview.

This was a funny experience. I can't believe I did not take this seriously. I did not even think about the things that they might ask and how I should answer. I didn't even cracked an Electronics book open to prepare for the technical exam. It didn't even cross my mind. I just accepted their invitation, (I was lucky I was among the 6 people who passed their first exam) sent them my resume via email, then went to my first job interview unprepared. Hahah!
My excuse?
My mind was already in vacay! mode that time. And I'm not planning to land a job immediately, I still have the actual Board Exam to prepare for.
At least now I know what to expect for my next job interview. And I learned a lot of lessons, believe me. :)

March 7. Senior's Night: Black and White Party.

My friends and I are not exactly the type who go to events like this especially if the Student Council organized it. It's not that we have anything against them, it's just we think there are better things to do. Always.
But the Senior's Night was an exemption. After all, this was for us seniors. And we just couldn't miss the chance to be together in a Black and White Party. We are about to separate ways, so this may not happen again.


However, one bad thing about school events is that they always have a curfew. It was not even long after we got into party mode that the organizers were already calling the night off. It was a good thing we had a back up plan. It was a road trip to Tagaytay plus partying and dancing until 4am. :]]

So what if wearing heels sucked big time? I was just too happy that we were together.

So, what pays off? Patience and hardwork pay off. And love of friends pays off too. Suddenly, it doesn't matter if college life has been difficult, at least I have them. And I intend on keeping them, for good. :)

Another cup of coffee please...

I don't want this month to end without a single post so I'm multitasking. This involves shifting my browser from thesis stuff to Facebook and Pet Society, to Fashion Wars and to my blog. It's been a while since my last post. But nothing much have changed, really. I'm still caught up with tons of school stuff. If there's one thing that has changed, it's my rekindled relationship with my over-sized coffee mug.

The fact that I have a lot of experience in the area of sleep deprivation plus my constant practice of pulling an all nighter definitely did come in handy during these times of thesis cram sessions. Though I am done with my second set of 200 hours of internship (this means I'm supposed to be free during Mondays and Wednesdays) my whirlpool of daily activities did not even changed a bit. Back then, most of my free time are spent in Billy's place doing our thesis. Now the days when I'm not supposed to be in school were still spent in school since we have to do a lot of testing procedures and consult our thesis adviser every chance we get. And then each day after class, Billy, Archie and Merce stay at my place until almost midnight for our thesis. I try to catch up on some Zzzs while they work and then I start working on the paperworks until morning after they left.
To make my long story short, I am currently back on zombie-mode. I'm having a hard time listening to my professors during class. Unfortunately for my Broadcasting subject, it's on the exact time that my sleepiness is at its peak and falling flat on my face from some serious form of fatigue was all I could think of. But I can't sleep during class. especially if I'm seating at the front row!

I still have loads to tell! And I promise to make time during one of my Thesis101 overnight sessions. That is, if I still have an ounce of sanity left.

Lo and Behold!

... the new me.
***
Yes, I am currently undergoing a transformation. Thanks to the countless sleepless nights and to the very few non-sleepless nights characterized by my 3 hours of sleep a day, I am about to become... (drum roll) a corpse bride.
Not that I'm getting married anytime soon. It's just that I'm currently dealing with a serious case of eye bags and being on my first day back to school does not contribute much on my plan to take action. There's just so much to do, so much to learn and so many things to deal with. Perhaps what keep us going is the fact that the end is drawing near and we are (hopefully) graduating!
This is it.
Welcome to our final semester. Now the only thing left to do is to leave no room for mistakes and make sure that the 'final' semester stays just that.

final(adj.)- last, concluding, finishing, ultimate, closing, end

Life goes on.

MONDAY.

It's our second anniversary! Archie and I spent the day in Science Discovery. Luckily, there were only 2 customers when we arrived so we found an excuse to act like 5th graders enjoying their educational field trip.


We played this game about some gross stuff in the human body. I think I got 7 out of 10 questions right. That wasn't so bad, especially if you're going up against Archie whom I now call the 'Grossness Expert'.

The Sniff Sniff (Pee yuuu! People Stink.) section was also a lot of fun. I had to force Archie to try all four stations just so we could find out which stinks the most. (evil grin) Funny, he didn't even tried to say 'You've got to be kidding me!'

Imagine smelling all these:

I should have taken a picture of him after each sniff. :D

Fortunately, Archie has survived, saying that the Foot was a total nightmare. But an hour and a half later he was still complaining about the smell which unfortunately chose to linger on his nose a bit longer. Poor Archie!
We also helped this poor man get his organs 'right'. By that I mean placing his organs on the right places. Now, would you want your kidney placed on your left thigh? I don't think so.

We also tried the Flight Simulator, visited the Virtual reef where had an encounter with Mr. T the talking fish, then we went to Robot Inc. and had pictures taken with some cool robots. Then finally, at 2pm we were off to the Planetarium to watch the show. I really had a blast. :) It's fun to act like kids every once in awhile. I mean, being in a serious relationship does not always mean that you both have to be serious all the time.

TUESDAY.

.. was the moment of truth. I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to fix my schedule for next sem. It's good that things are starting to fall back into place. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I guess the only time I'll stop getting all fidgety is when I'm finally sitting in class and there's no conflict whatsoever in my schedule.

WEDNESDAY.

I spent the entire day with Pito. Since Louise and Renz are in school, I'm all Pito have left as his playmate. It's really funny hanging out with him. He's only turning two but he speaks almost just like Bea who's six years old. I just have to be careful about what comes out my mouth when I'm with him. He has this tendency to be a human tape recorder who repeats whatever it is that he heard you say in an instant.

Pito: Bye Ate Arnee!
Arnee: Bye Pito!
Pito: Bye Pito!

Yep. Just like that. :)

SOS

Okay.
I know whining about how I hate school right now won't do much good but... Oh God I can't help it!

Tuesday.
First examination of the week was a disaster. Really. I couldn't imagine anything being more messed up than that exam in comm. system design and analysis. Just thinking about the exam questions make my stomach churn. And thinking about how I answered those exam questions makes me want to dig a hole in the ground and stay there for the rest of my life. It was a total mess! I now officially hate satellites! And elevation angles. And azimuths. And Earth stations. I hate them. :(

Thursday.
ECE Laws wasn't one of my favorites either. First item was ENUMERATION (55 pts.) wtf!

This time, weekends aren't as appealing as before. I still have to squeeze the following to my ever so precious 48 hours where I can just relax.

Okay. So here are the things that could potentially ruin my life.


1. Inverter circuit
2. Boost converter circuit
3. (stupid. stupid.) Stepper motor controller circuit (I'm still clueless about this one, don't have any idea what this is all about)
4. Microcontroller lab report for Look-Up Table using 7 segment LED display
5. Report for Microcontroller Laboratory Project No. 1 (7 segment LED with increment and decrement)
6. Report for Microcontroller Laboratory Midterm Exam. (Number 3)
7. Microwave Link Design Project
8. Prepare for Long exam in Power Electronics
9. Project on Navigational Aids Lecture Part I
10. Project on Navigational Aids Lecture Part II
11. Powerpoint presentation for Thesis Proposal defense next Thursday.

sigh.

If anyone's planning an escape route from all these, please, please, sign me up! Or I might as well consider digging that hole and staying there- not forever but until next weekend. After all, I still have my life to live. I am just so not up to it right now.

It's the Nightmare vs the Jackpot

Let's talk s-c-h-o-o-l.

My first three days were so unforgiving. I mean, I was only back three days and I've already got enough things to do to last me the whole semester! (This is where the exasperated sigh comes in.)
I am going nuts.
First, there's the whole thesis thing. Plus the outside plant communication system design, plus lots of homework, and lots of programming to learn. C'mon! And it's only our first week!
(optimistic side butts in)
Think about it. 365 days from now, you'll have nothing like these to worry about. No more thesis making, and lab reports and homework. You can have all the good times you want.
(another exasperated sigh)
Oh yeah?
Board exam.
Ring a bell?

I'm doomed.

***
Wednesday.
I was almost late for school. Thanks to my stupid alarm clock which chose to be fully dysfunctional right on my first day. Met up with Archie then we went to school together. School's a good 15 minutes away from my house, that's minus the 10 minute exhausting- and -sweaty walk from the gate to the classrooms.
I could have jumped up and down and thanked the God of Good Timing when I saw Ikot La Salle near the gym. That is, if I had coupons then but I didn't. My bad. I thought they were strictly implementing their 'no coupon, no ride' policy so we had to choose the 10 minute exhausting-and-sweaty (I think this needs emphasis) walk. Later I found out that you are allowed to ride even without a coupon, because you can just buy a coupon right then and there. wtf!
I thought seeing my friends again was making up for my exhausting and sweaty morning, that was until Sir Reyes entered the classroom and I realized that it was a nightmare all over again.

Note: My mean self is about to take over, but please keep in mind that my normal self still has a lot of respect for the guy. Well, yeah. Sometimes.

You see, he handled our Industrial Electronics Laboratory last semester. He's really smart but the semester still didn't turn out good. In fact, it was a nightmare. He gave out tons of work load with so little time to spare and after spending so much time and money for his 'projects' and writing 20 pages long reports in engineering lettering, he'll be happy to give you a 2/10 with an evil smirk on his face (consider yourself lucky if it's a 4/10). He's like a hungry cat hunting down small, helpless rats. So we always try to get out of his way as much as we could, afraid to be eaten alive. I mean, if you still want your free time, you'd better hide from this professor!
So when I saw him enter our classroom, I knew right then that I won't be too fond of Wednesdays.

Luckily, our Wednesday class was only until 11.30, so Archie and I had lunch together then went to Fun House where I saw this cute memo clip. We didn't have enough tickets for the memo clip by then so we bought tokens and played Slam-a-Winner. We always have a contest on who gets more tickets. It was clear that I've lost when Archie hit the jackpot on his first try! That's 125 tickets in a flash! And I was very disappointed when my ball landed on 1 but the machine still gave out 125 tickets.

Lucky me.


We got enough tickets for my memo clip and a small toy car I brought home for Pito. :)

19 months and still counting..

It's been a while. I've been busy with my on-the-job training that I did not have time to blog for five straight weeks. And the semester's fast approaching.. I don't know.. maybe next time it will be five straight MONTHS.
After completing 230 hours of on-the-job training in a telecommunications company , I spent the whole Monday afternoon finishing my accomplishment report. Then I went to school to submit all my requirements early this morning. I even had some one on one with my practicum coordinator. He asked lots of questions about what I did in the office and in the field, my daily activities, the things I think I contributed to the company and blah blah blah blah.
The office has been my home for almost a month, and coming back to school today was.. I don't know. Weird? I saw some of my classmates and it took me a while to remember their last names. Funny. I guess my memory gap's starting to affect my social life.
I'm not trying to be melodramatic but coming back to school today after quite some time was like knocking some sense into my head. We're going on our final year.. and SOON enough I'll walk a different path. SOON, it'll be about goodbyes and separating ways. Okay-- now I'm being sentimental.
What I missed most about school was my friends. I saw Ann and Ria today and all we did was talk non-stop. Each was trying very hard to catch up with each other's life. I know it was just four weeks but I bet you know how we girls are. ^^
Then I went to the mall to meet Archie. We had lunch, went to the movie house to see Speed Racer. Whew. I think I strained my eyes trying not to blink the whole time. The movie lived up to its name. Everything was moving way too fast, which was good. I really enjoyed it. Each time with Archie is a blast. And today is extra special, for this is the day WE turned 19. ^^ Hugs and kisses for you muffin. xOxOxOx