butchie

i only have 2 weeks more to go and i still have 5 books to read and many practice exams to answer and practice on. i need a miracle.

There are still 5 books left to read in 2 weeks. Hopefully, I will be able to read them all. :(

I will return the other borrowed books after i have finished with my pass-major-exam goal.

wasn’t able to study because i had to eat breakfast, take a bath then go to work. arrived at work at 7:47 am. have a lot of things to do. hopefully, i’ll be able to go home at around 5:30 pm so that i can study at home.

ganbarimasu! :)

i studied a bit, ate an early breakfast, then went to office early. hopefully, i will be able to go home early if i finish everything by 5:30 pm. :)

since it rained last night, i will start tomorrow and continue watering my plants every other day since then. :)

every time i’m about to complain, i should do something productive instead. that way, i get more work done (not necessarily office-related work) and less heartache. :)

1. pass major exam
2. finish personal project
3. return all borrowed books

i’m through my poetry (or something like it) phase. :)

i’m not really the domestic type. but lately, i realized that i should learn how to cook for my own survival. i can’t keep relying on the nearby carenderias to supply me with food. there have been many times when i badly wanted to eat something but i couldn’t because it wasn’t on their menu. or they have it but somehow, it doesn’t taste good (must be because they’re scrimping on the ingredients?). i also can’t keep praying that one of my housemates would cook a meal for the entire household so that i, too, could get to eat some “real food” for a change.

so here’s the survival cooking (self-learning) course i designed for myself:
1. saute
– sauteed baguio beans (a childhood favorite) and/or sauteed vegetables
– other saute recipe that’s not too complicated

2. soup
– chicken soup
– pork soup
– beef soup

3. main dish
– pork adobo :D
– chicken adobo

4. pasta
– chicken macaroni with lots of cheese and maybe some pineapples
– home-made pancit canton (yup, not the instant type) with lots of meat and greens
– any white pasta*

5. salad
– Caesar’s salad (so that i don’t have to go to KFC to get my Caesar’s salad fix)

6. dessert
– buko and/or mango pandan

• optional

after i gave the list a once-over, i became worried that it might be a tad too ambitious for someone like me. anyway, my priorities are the saute, soup, and adobo recipes. after i’ve gotten the hang of cooking, i might venture on to cooking the other things on my list, and then if i can push myself further, i might even learn to whip up something that sounds sexy and complicated like risotto, souffle, etc. yeah. ri-ight! :))

i’ve already started on the sauteed vegetables, by the way. my first attempt (sauteed baguio beans) was really bland (because i forgot to add some ginisa mix, or MSG). i even had to force myself to finish eating the whole thing so that it will not go to waste!

my second attempt (sauteed assorted vegetables, still with my favorite baguio beans), on the other hand, was something that i could eat without grimacing. hehe. anyway, i never said i’m cooking to satisfy the discriminating palates of other people, right? hehe. :P

and i did the sauteed baguio beans and vegetables without looking at a recipe book! (hah! i even manage to make that sound like an achievement XD maybe i should get out more)

anyway, a note on my recently acquired inclination to cooking: initially, i wanted to keep this a secret. i planned on doing my cooking “experiments” only when all my housemates are asleep or are not around the house so that they won’t have to witness my disturbing cooking attempts. experiment number 1 was an “undercover mission” success, save for the part when my housemate came home late from overtime work and thus discovered the “residues” of my experiment on the pan. my housemates knew of my second attempt because they woke up from their holiday afternoon nap earlier than i anticipated. one even jokingly asked if i had a boyfriend. harhar. anyway, the thing is that i recently had this unexplainable desire to be “self-sufficient”. for me, self-sufficiency means being able to take care of myself, which includes feeding myself without relying too much on others.

self-sufficiency sounds too noble a goal for the likes of me, methinks. i can laugh at the absurdity right now. for the time being, let’s just pretend that i have the ability to see that goal through. :D

after learning how to cook, i think i’ll learn how to swim. then i might take up basic carpentry, electricity and plumbing, buy my own computer, and then i’ll be all set to live on my own! well, maybe i’m just getting a little bit carried away with the carpentry, electricity and plumbing part.

well, good luck to me! :)

is both promising and disappointing. promising because i was able to get a potential project. disappointing because i flunked a major exam. hopefully, after giving myself this day to “grieve”, i will be able to emerge a stronger and wiser person. and hopefully, i will be able to say at the end of this year that “yeah, i survived!”. :)

woke up early today. maybe it’s because i set the alarm volume to the maximum level. or maybe because i was anxious to meet someone for a potential project. either way, i’m glad i woke up early. i hope my punctuality made a good impression with the person i met this morning. :)

two days ago, i ambled to the HR officer in charge of releasing the JLPT results to ask about my JLPT score. i was ready to accept my failure, knowing that i have not studied well because of my hectic work schedule (too much OT made it very difficult for me to find time to study). i was shocked to find out that my score is exactly the passing score for JLPT: 60%! it was incredible! a minute after i went back to my cube, i went back to HR to make sure that the result that was given to me was really mine. and it was! there really is such a thing as a miracle… although i can say that i’m not worthy of it… but miracles do exist.

my next challenge now is getting a good score in the upcoming Japanese placement test that will be held next week. by “good score” i mean that i will try to get a decent score (nearly passing to passing mark for level 3), not necessarily getting the level-3-OK-now-ready-for-level-2 score. i don’t mind taking level 3 lessons again because i still can’t say that my “actual” japanese language skill is worthy of being labeled as level 3. hmmm… though i must say, if i can take level 2 lessons this year… that would be nice… :)

despite many setbacks (OT’s, very little time for studying my lessons, late submission of assignments, failed tests T_T), i was able to pass all three subjects for the first sem. yey! ^_

if you came here
just to show me some sympathy,
leave

don’t stare at me as if you would
a beggar on the street
whose sight fills you with a false sense
of compassion

i don’t need your pity
i can whip it out of thin air
if i wish (but i don’t want to)

while i suffer to make ends meet
even just barely
(yes, life may seem a bitter pill
to swallow most of the time)
i pity you more
for you will never be able
to taste all of life’s flavors to the full
life will always be served to you
on a silver platter
thickly coated with the sugary sweetness
of your wealth

that i’m postponing taking one of the exams to next year because my current schedule won’t allow it. hopefully, i’ll still be able to pass the other exam this year. :-?

this is a bad entry for a first entry. but i have to face the truth. with the current work schedule i’m having, passing the first exam (which will be held on october) does not seem likely. i usually do overtime during the weekdays (sometimes, when i do have time during the evening at home, i still stay up late to catch up with my nihongo assignments) and i attend MCS classes during saturdays. my sundays are spent on doing the laundry and sleeping. maybe i’ll take the exam (that’s supposed to be on october this year) next year. i still have high hopes about passing the other exam though. sigh. hope i can survive this year. T_T

already enrolled for a Master’s degree in Computer Science. i’ve hurdled two quizzes (don’t know the results yet though) and i hope i can keep on going. :)

floating on water
beautiful in solitude
lily in the pond

hope somehow the birthday greetings from 43Ters brightened her day.