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It was the first day of the eco camp. Engineer Leland and I slept in the student center after being awake until 2am printing the IDs and the schedules on the back of the IDs.

I held the stargazing session after the dinner break, and some students mocked another for asking me during the lecture about my favorite star and constellation and what I thought about Halley’s comet.

The same student, when we had finished with the stargazing and were already returning from inspecting the camp prior to lights out, we met on the road between the covered court and the main building saying he got lost.

Apparently he strayed into the soccer field beyond the softball field near the bend in the road where we held the stargazing session, and somehow he was not able to use what I discussed about navigational aids to find his way.

There was another student though who was asking me questions during the telescope session itself instead of during the lecture.

He even brought up about the thirteenth zodiac constellation. When I asked him why he did not speak up during the lecture, he said he did now want to appear to the other campers to be a big geek.

I was able to show them the craters on the side of the nearly full moon, as well as Mars. Saturn we only saw with the naked eye, the same with the Big Dipper, the North Star and the Southern Cross.

Thanks to sports office coordinator Roy for dropping by, by the way, even though according to his text messages with Engineer Leland, he was supposed to go here on his bike last night, not tonight.

The same goes for marketing officer JC, who was also the one who cut up the stars on different colored cardboard papers hidden behind the IDs that the participants used to be able to form their groups.

I did ask her if it was better if we just painted the borders so they would know that it was a star.

Too bad that the last minute changes in the line up forced us to switch puzzle pieces around, and one group ended up not being able to finish theirs on time because they were the one group I missed out on telling that there were exactly eight pieces, not really a good idea that goes with changing group numbers.

I would have been able to handle it, I think, but it is too late to speculate now that we have somewhat uneven group sizes.

One thing that did surprise us is that the groups latched on to the colors of the puzzle pieces they were provided in coming up with the names and the flag designs of their tribes; better than numbers or letters I guess.

Another thing that surprised me was that three of the committee members from the other schools left us on the first day, although another who left in the morning did come back at 8pm.

I would blame that on them expecting the eco camp to be during the first week of May and it wasn’t, throwing off the schedule of the rest of their plans for the end of the just concluded school year.

So much more to talk about, so little time, so much sleep needed.

I’m still talking about Friday. I guess when the momentum of activities takes us over we tend to do a lot, and during the times of relative recess that is when we get the energy to talk about it.

I got some pink cherries, big dry ones with the pits inside. It was only afterwards that we realized it wasn’t punched in, because the bar code reader registered an error that apparently was like Item Not Listed, Press C to continue, and the cashier pressed C but did not see if the cherries were properly tooted.

That was how we called it, because we had no idea how much the cherries were, and we were looking for the price check machines, but none were working. The clerks couldn’t help us when we were looking for the Toot.

Finally we went back to the aisle where we found it, and saw the listing on the shelf saying it was thirty pesos.

What is it with markets that do not put price tags on their wares anyway, relying on the price check machines that do, as in this instance, break down, and sometimes the shelf listing is difficult to find.

But it was the only such item we did find, so maybe it was being phased out; still tasted good though.

From there we had to go to the bus terminal near Festival Mall, where we were sure to get a bus to Santo Tomas.

It was either there or get on a bus going to the LRT station near the EGI mall, and get another sure bus there.

Fortunately it was not as difficult to get through the only apparent crush of people at EDSA as we feared.

When we did get to the Festival Mall area, we didn’t board immediately, instead asking what time the last trip was, because we were planning to do some research, going into a Thai massage place nearby.

When we did finish there was only an air-conditioned bus available, whose ticket fare is sixteen pesos higher.

And this one had only one seat to the right of the aisle and two seats to the left, so they really had to fill up more before they left.

There was more shopping done of Saturday, not really something to look forward to because in the next city where we went to, historically weekends are the times where the lines to the checkout are longest.

Worse, in the grocery that we did go to, there was an anniversary sale, so lines were longer than usual.

We did buy several scents of a new bleach to try out (original, floral and lemon) and of a deodorizer cake as well.

It was also then that I saw sometimes buying a smaller size of a certain product, such as cooking oil, not only ensures the freshness of the later packs that will be opened, but sometimes there are bonus quantity percentages as well that add up when you are planning to get the bigger size.

I also tried the lemon and pepper crispy fry breading. Not that flavorful, but at least I tried it and satisfied my scientist nature.

I’m first going to continue with my discussion from yesterday. As I said, I was at CSB.

I talked to their Social Action Office head, Sir Leo, who happens to have the same name as the person who attended our last meeting, so they were used to some confusion that one person may or may not have received the summons to the meeting (the one I mentioned yesterday) because it just may have been sent to the wrong person and therefore not given the proper attention.

Anyway, I told them to please, please, please send at the very least one student just so their school is represented.

I guess it really is not a problem of the registration fee, but more of the students’ availability and their having more social action programs they are concerned with because of the national elections pending.

I told them that they should not cotton strictly to the deadline we set, but that we would accept participants’ names until Monday.

So that put off the formal written letter they were planning to notify us about their non-participation.

As for the COSCA office of the main campus, which was at the fourth floor of the Student Personnel Services building (for CSB it was the third floor) I only got to talk to the secretaries present.

This was because most of the personnel (except for the two heads apparently) were at a workshop near Subic.

That was also why they were not able to send anyone to the meeting mentioned yesterday, but at least the secretaries said they knew the list existed, was on the recent documents tag of my contact’s computer, but apparently was saved to a flash drive so it could not be accessed.

But they did say the people were going back that night, so that they would be able to send it by today.

I just left my mobile phone number in case, so that they could inform me of their sending the details already.

From there I went to the G4 area, where walking from SM I saw the Quad theater being torn down.

As I then tweeted to the social networks, there goes another piece of my entertainment childhood.

Well, actually up to a few years ago, where due to the sheer volume of movies we watched, we preferred it to the then renamed G1 theaters despite their relatively poorer quality compared to the more expensive G4 or GB3 cinemas. Not now, though, when 3D movies are all the rage.

I met up with one of my employees then, who had to go home to the east of QC because his brother, who works abroad, told him to give the ATM card to his mom that they use to send home money.

We had dinner at the very first SM basement food court, where he did not appreciate or recognize vegetarian food from BODHI.

Then we shopped for more things for the spa, as well as some personal items, at SM as well.

Today was spent off campus. I had to go to the Brother Andrew building, the twentieth floor, for an eco camp meeting at the DLSP offices. Sadly not as many as we had hoped attended, but what transpired during the meeting provided me with a lot of hope for our proceedings for next week.

I also got to get out some promotional materials. Sure it looks like it’s free for the receiver, but in the end, it will be the establishment that gives the hook and bait that will benefit, well not solely. Maybe I will elaborate on this later, but for now it does look a little bad and greedy, like Wall Street.

From there it was off to the School of Design and Arts where I had to catch one of the two designers of the college school attire for the inputs of our students. It was sort of a comedy of errors as I told her I was at the lobby just as she said she was dean’s office at the fourteenth floor already.

I think I have already mentioned before that this fourteenth floor may or may not be the actual but never mentioned thirteenth floor, but at the same time there is also a mezzanine before the second floor.

Anyway, when I stepped out of the elevator (with its thick concrete walls) that was when I received the message from her that she was just going to go down and that I was to wait for her.

At this point I would also like to reiterate that it was between classes, the two thirty to two forty p.m. cusp between classes.

This is when there are lines in front of the five elevators of students having to go to their classes. Surprisingly it was the line I was in, short compared to the others, whose elevator opened first.

Another thing I should probably mention is that CSB still has classes this week, their exams being next week.

But going back to my story, I was able to take the next elevator going down with not much hassle, except that when I pushed one down button (and of course all the others lit up) it was the light above the fifth of the row that lit up, but didn’t open. Then the second car’s light turned on, and blinked. I guess that was the sign that it was going to be the next car to take in passengers.

One more surprise: even though I had expected that the student designer would not be able to cater to our revisions until two weeks from now, when her exams will be over, she said that she would try her best to get it in my email by the start of next week. I guess because being a graduating student, she does not have that many examination requirements, and that the grad show she mentioned that they were all preparing for until Friday of last week was their major output for the term.

From there I had to visit two social action offices of both the main campus and CSB, to ask them about their list of participants for the Eco camp. First was CSB, closer to the SDA building I was at.

Thankfully, just looking at my ID the security guard waved me in without asking me to leave my card or to have this validation of office visited to be signed. I guess it’s one of the perks of the one mission school.

Sadly, precisely because it is their finals next week, the school has had a difficult time to gather students willing to take their exams early to be able to join. Also, it seems that since the Eco camp was passed on to the Social Action office this year when last year it was the Student Affairs office that handled it, there was not that much fervor at tackling the new job, especially with the elections coming up.

First of all, belated happy birthday yesterday to our CS graduate and erstwhile Digital Arts Club president Dwight!

It was no problem getting you that gift. I know you would enjoy it, and we share the WII spirit after all.

@@And again just to round out what happened last Sunday, I went to the South Woods area from Santo Tomas midmorning.

I started reading “Spoiled Rotten America” by Hollywood comedian Larry Miller (which reminds me I have yet to detail here about my latest purchases the past few weeks) then fell asleep until 3pm. No lunch, that is, until that time.

It was only then that I pushed through with what I had posted again in the micro blogging networks about my itinerary for that day, which was to go to Festival Mall. The movie I wanted to watch was not going to start until 550pm, so I went around shopping for stuff for the spa.

What’s funny about that is that on the next day, when I was back in the same mall, and in the same stores, we still go more stuff for the spa, such as an extendable feather duster and a folding laundry basket.

And right now I don’t even remember what I did buy last Sunday, except for the 600 letter stickers that I got for the gift wrapper of my gift to Dwight, and the stencil for letters for notices in the spa.

Ah yes, I also bought several powder detergents. Here it seems that the hard and fast rule that the largest or bulk purchase is the least expensive is not always true. Apparently, there is a market that caters to the medium size consumer, and gives them what seems to be a lot of bonus material, and that is what comes out as cheaper, in somewhat plain calculations, that is.

Besides, if the packs are one use each, then it is easier to quantify whether or not you are consuming properly.

After all, with things like powder detergent, buying in bulk means there will be times when you are consuming more than usual (as is the case when employees will do their own laundry) or sometimes less.

@@ One more thing: is it really such a great event if there was no anticipation built around it, and therefore it is obviously rushed?

This is especially if we are talking about student polls even if not, or especially if not, for student council president.

When was the vote cast? Does it really reflect the likes of the people or just those who care, of which there are only a few?

Yes, it is important to maintain tradition, but is it also just as important to maintain the standards of the previous generations?

Maybe the other generations would rather that the tradition should skip a year than be desecrated by those who obviously don’t care for the values that were advocated before, and reverently.

And since this will be the last time that I will have to do this, even though again it means that their poor planning skills has forced me to pass up another more important (for me) activity,
this time being the college faculty outing, then I can visibly and publicly show my displeasure or indifference.

No movie review for today. Last night was just spent at Shakey’s Pacita Complex eating a basket of mojos and bottomless root beer after I finally was able to give the last Adidas Philippine Flag jacket (at a marked down price) to someone who asked for it, and it fit too!

Just to round out what happened in the previous days, Monday was actually spent at the school of San Sebastian College Recoletos Canlubang, and lunch was at Woodbridge Pizza in Carmel Mall.

I have yet to try the Woodbridge 36 inch pizza, and I hope I will get the chance to do that sometime soon.

As I said in the micro blogging communities, this day I was forced to by the Hello Kitty Uno Card Game at Japan Home Center in Walter Mart Crossing because it was either that or go all the way back to Santo Tomas to get the Monopoly Deal card game. At least it lends variety to what could be played at the settings.

This is because just like last week, hanging out that the Canlubang golf course has become synonymous with playing card games.

Last week we even tried to place bets with candy, but one of us kept eating the currency and just throwing the wrappers around.

Too bad from that hole (or area around the hole near the residential area where everyone has decided to ignore the broken down fence) the whole of Mount Makiling cannot be seen, but the partial view is still awesome.

It was not the main reason we went there though, but for this local eatery called Three Holes (I’m not sure if that was golf inspired) which are actually three stores in one owned by three brothers where one can order at one store and stay at the eating area of another. Fries are twenty pesos each, the perennial summer concoction halo-halo is only twenty five pesos, and the most expensive meal is around seventy pesos.

I wasn’t surprised that workers from the not so nearby industrial park would drive all the way there just to eat.

What’s more interesting is that all their fame is all by word of mouth because the eateries are actually at the back of basketball court bleachers, so it is not seen from any road.

There were some interesting points about our game though, as again I posted as it happened from my phone.

The people I was playing with first of all thought that just being able to yell “Uno” with one card left already won the game.

Of course, this goes against the strategy of being able to lay down all your cards despite warning your opponents.

Also, having been inured to the Just Say No card in Monopoly Deal, they thought that the Skip card had the same function of allowing the player to turn down having to draw two or four cards.

Lastly, one house rule we implemented, which I had learned since the first time I played the game, was that instead of just drawing one card when you pass, you keep drawing until you can put down a card.

Yes it adds to the frustration of getting more cards than you expected when you are so close to winning the game, but at the same time it makes it so much more of a great victory when you do put down that last card.

 Two movie reviews in a row! But what do you expect: I would have watched both of them last Sunday but there was the time constraint element. So I split them up for two days.

I’m talking about Kick Ass, which I know will get the explicit content warning again, but I won’t sugarcoat it.

My first impression was that anyone who loved Wanted would fall out of their seat in this movie.

Not the adaptation part: I know Wanted was not as faithful was the comic book version written by the same guy, but I hope Kick Ass was. I could just see the lines spoken in the movie and the shots being lifted directly from the page, at least I hope so. I won’t know until I read it, and this is one of the few instances where I want to read it because given what actually made it to the screen, I know that there are a lot more deeper nuances that got left out of the script.

It’s also surprising for me that this film, just like Wanted, didn’t seem to have all the violent scenes spliced, even though it was more graphic that in Wanted, and even though Hot Tub Time Machine was heavily cut.

And speaking of the Hot Tub, it’s funny that these two films that I watched consecutively both feature Clark Duke.

Now onto the performances: I believe that Mark Strong was a better, more-believable villain here than in Sherlock Holmes, although his choice of roles, as listed in his IMDB page, shows he may prefer them.

For McLovin from Superbad, someone now as iconic as Stifler from the American Pie series, it was a good new yet comfortable role, as well as provided a unique reason why and how a person gets all the gadgets as a superhero without having to go the Bruce Wayne route of orphanage.

Adam a.k.a. Kick Ass was serviceable, but really wasn’t the high point of the story for me. He just adequately moved the story forward as well as provided a good counterpoint about having a secret identity – two in fact counting the deception with which he allowed the girl to believe at the start. But at least their love story didn’t feel shoehorned in the plot or contrived; I liked it.

Nicolas Cage and his ever weird hair played a sympathetic character for once, at least from the movies I’ve seen him in. The closest I can think of that he came was in Matchstick Men, where again he played opposite a young girl that was his daughter. Okay, maybe it’s how I relate to the character then.

Hit-Girl was the best. I didn’t recognize her in the wig and the mask, which I guess was the point of the costume, but I’m glad that she’s out of the horror film mode of the Amityville Horror and Wicked Little Things (whose mutilated local nomenclature I already forgot) that I previously saw her in.

Besides that, this movie now shows that there is an audience for the Dark Knight film, with the downhill Batman and the female Robin.

But will it be made? I hope so, since this film already references Sin City and I choose to ignore The Spirit as part of Frank Miller’s repertoire. Let’s just remember he did write 300 as well.

These flicks give me hope that non-traditional comic books have a future in Hollywood, and hopefully will get more people to reading them beyond being single afternoon browsing entertainment.

I finally got to watch Hot Tub Time Machine yesterday, after several attempts since Thursday.

It wasn’t until yesterday morning that I finally got the strength to leave the spa and just add the movie to my itinerary back to the spa after passing by the house to get and drop off some stuff.

It’s weird. From the description in an online magazine, which I do not have the time or the inclination to look for right now, (okay, I did, but it does not help my case any rereading it
{http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/movies/21tub.html?scp=2&sq=hot%20tub%20time%20machine&st=cse}) I thought the movie was about four friends who, using barely legal mind altering substances while immersed in a hot tub, get to relive their memories in their HEADS talking about it booze wise – or foolish.

Apparently though, it was literal, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that they could have dragged Michael J. Fox into the picture to complete the irony, besides John Hughes veteran John Cusack.

Yes, there was basically a riff of Back to the Future especially since Crispin Glover was there, and Frequency as well.

It’s also funny that they also brought up Red Dawn, and the Russian paranoia angle seeing that it is going to be remade.

They didn’t take the whole pseudo scientific trappings that seriously, since it was clear from the start that they were definitely not following all they did the last time they were there, and it was a no-brainer at that point on that they were not bound by such rules, except for the young guy whose mother was there as a teenager. Still it was pretty funny to see Rob’s character Lou giving in to destiny, especially since it involved allowing himself to get beat up by the Ski Patrol.

Rob definitely stole the show here. His bits, acting like the older version of Sean William Scott’s character in the American Pie series, got the most laughs out of the audience where I watched.

John’s story, admittedly taken from one of his younger roles, was a bit of an enigma in whether you are supposed to change anything in your past or not, because at the start for him it seemed to end up the same way whether he broke up with his girlfriend at the time or not, indicating fate.

I’m glad to see Craig Robinson shine, especially in the band scenes, something that I was only able to see him do in that one episode of The Office where they were supposed to make a commercial.

It was a bit out of left field for him to suddenly announce in the middle of their trip that his wife was cheating on him, since there was no foreshadowing whatsoever when they introduced her at the hospital, but maybe that was the fault of the un-judicious distributor cutting again to get a lower rating.

Okay, I admit, the same as with a lot of the online reviewers, that it could have amounted to something more.

In fact, if it were up to me I could build a whole season of a TV series around the premise much like I wish there was ANY show about time travel and changing the past. But I’m satisfied with the result, seeing the effort they did go through to recreate the era.

@@ Lastly, I have no idea why, but my last post was deemed explicit content again. Was it the mention of Jail? I don’t know. The rules of putting up content at thoughts dot com are still beyond my ken.

Twenty seven percent. That is the school’s passing rate for the most recent ECE board exam.

It’s higher than last October, which was around seven percent, only slightly lower than April last year, which was twenty eight percent, and higher than two years ago, which was twenty percent.

Out of that, eighteen percent are those who took the exam again, out of which nine percent were conditional last time.

The other nine percent are first time passers, which represents also cum laude receivers at their graduation.

Another nine percent though could be given to those cum laude receivers who did not take the exam, being already very happy with their relatively high paying jobs for new graduates without the license.

Anyway, special congratulations go out to JR, Francis and Ian for their supreme efforts finally paying off.

@@ I will now go back to talking about Monopoly Deal the card game. We have been playing it for a week now, and there are some things that make the winning a bit too easy, which we have tried to rectify.

First of all, the Deal Breaker card, which allows a player to grab a whole complete set from another player, cannot be used on the last set of properties that will allow a player to win. This was agreed to by all.

We are still in the process of determining whether this will also apply to the last turn or round that a player will win, where he or she plays the Deal Breaker card first unopposed by the Just Say No card, then goes on to complete two more properties in the same round. At the very least it has to be well calculated if we allow that because a player is only allowed three cards to use per turn.

We also, in the spirit of Uno, decided to come up with a Jail card that has the same effect as Skip or Reverse in the aforementioned game, which is to deprive a player of at least three turns when he or she is about to win, or looks near winning in the eyes of the other players (meaning at least two sets already).

When jailed, a person cannot put down cards, and can only draw one instead of two. And just so that it would be like the board game where rolling doubles will get them free, here a player must be able to put down two money cards of the same value to his own bank to get out of jail.

Variants we rejected were paying the money to the person who served the jail card, and possibly already from the bank on the table top and not just from the hand, and disallowing the Just Say No card to cancel the jail, since we have no idea how to convert the Get Out of Jail Free card.

Okay, I know. I know. It’s not a perfect match and neither is it the best equalizer, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Another thing we clarified is that properties (especially the railroads and the utilities that some players find no use to complete) cannot be used as money like some of the action cards, but can be used to pay debts.

After all, there are wild cards that are part lots part utilities, so that wild card can still be used to win the game, since wild cards already in play can be rearranged at anytime during one’s turn.

I was out of the office again today. Blame it on social eating, and the pressures of conforming.

But what is interesting is that by the late afternoon, too late to go to work that is, I was feeling better.

In fact, I was feeling good enough to play badminton at a court beside a hospital not five minutes away from my place of business.

It is somewhat ironic that I have been around the area for more than a year and it was the first time that I had gone there.

Chalk it up to promises of playing with the people there not having been followed through until now.

The rates are great. You pay a hundred pesos, and that is unlimited for the whole day; as in you can leave and come back.

Of course, if you chose a day where there were also others who availed, someone will be waiting to play until one of the four courts cleared, but the rubber floored courts are well worth it.

For the first time, I also got to play to a blaring radio, which somehow also helped my speed and rhythm, somewhat.

Another thing I missed out on all the time that I had not even visited the converted warehouse which was about a hundred meters from the highway was that there was a pool beside it that could be used overnight.

The rate was two hundred pesos for swimming between 6pm and 10pm, and three hundred pesos from 10pm to 6am.

According to the caretaker this already includes the use of the cottages and the rooms as well as being lent a grill for our cooking needs.

In fact we were told that if there were at least eight of us (maybe even fewer) they would close out the place for us exclusively reserved.

The pool, by the way, is split level, meaning that there is a part that has the water level completely level with the ground and another above that slightly raised that flows down to the lower pool.

Maybe we could even play badminton up to 10pm then go for the overnight swimming, after having shed some pounds sweating.

Another thing I realized is that I have to set the company outing for this summer again; me, the boss.

This would be the easiest for us to set it at this pool to save on transportation. Thinking about the included expenses for food that we can just buy in the market and cook for ourselves, the cost is way down than if we went to a resort and paid for everything including the meals, even if it is a buffet.

All I can say to close right now be that the possibilities that I am seeing in this place are growing and are more attractive, although I would not be surprised if that is just because of my perception changing.

Perception, something I can talk about in another post, really is changed by the people you hang around with.