I was supposed to make a review regarding a new product that I recently discovered and tried. It’s a “cold waxing kit” that goes by the name “No Hair Wax Kit” by JTomas Solutions. Actually, it’s not the same cold wax that waxing salons like LayBare use. Instead, it actually uses sugar to remove unwanted hair (hence, sugaring is the more appropriate term ). But since it’s 11:50 pm already and I’m already drowsy, I’d probably do that next time along with an acne treatment review. Oh well. I’ll sleep for now.

It’s cram time once again and I’m nearing (if not already) in a state of panic. I accumulated a lot of backlogs in readings because of those stupid papers we had to pass for each of our subjects. It’s just so crazy. Last week, I didn’t have a weeknight that I wasn’t doing any paper. This is uber-crazy indeed.

So it’s almost 3 am and I haven’t slept. Not that I can make myself sleep. When I feel all panicky, I get restless and hyper and I don’t get as much sleep as I have to. Besides, I’m still supposed to blog about personalized books. But I can’t seem to rack my brains out. Pffft.

Anyway, I’m thinking about doing a major revamp of this blog. I dunno. I’d probably start doing that next week – that is if I finally manage to have the time after the exams. Whew.

No. This isn’t a simple ‘warm’ greetings for the holidays that is just around the corner. Have you noticed how it’s been a warm November we’re having now? Or is it just me and my deranged physiology? I remember back in the days how I’d cover up in 3/4 shirts, long sleeved blouses and keep my jackets handy as soon as November kicks in but now, the only place where my jackets serve their purpose is inside the cold, air-conditioned classroom.

I’ve always associated the crisp scent of the cold weather with the Christmas cheer. It perks me up and puts me in the mood to do my Christmas shopping. Now that there’s no ‘crisp scent of Christmas’ to speak of, I cannot imagine how we’ll be spending Christmas in this very warm weather we have now.

As all of you should have known by now (unless you lived in a rock for the last couple of years), the shift in climate is affecting everyone and anyone globally. Just a few minutes ago, I finished reading an article on how the climate changed has caused some rare swans to stay in warmer Siberia when they’re supposed to be flying back home to United Kingdom. Seems like some found the climate change to their advantage. Nevertheless, the message is clear. There is global warming and it’s as real as your next-door neighbor annoying you early in the morning. I still can’t believe how there are still a handful who thinks that all these brouhaha on global warming is just a figment of the imagination. I tell you, it’s them who are psychotic.

I wonder how the Persimmon trees are keeping up.

My TV set was turned on to ABS-CBN when the feature on the likes of Mang Nenuel came on air. Mang Nenuel is a “mang-iipot”. “A What?!?!” I said to myself as I turned to take a closer look on what’s on air. Disbelieving to many, but he earns a living gathering and collecting chicken manure from a poultry farm somewhere in Batangas. Without gloves, a shower cap or even slippers for protection, he and his colleagues shovel kilos and kilos of chicken manure from the source (read: right from where the chicken dropped their manure), collect them and put them into sacks. A physically-demanding kind of work that earns them (the “mang-iipots”) P6.00 per sack. That’s 6 pesos per sack that they will be dividing amongst themselves. They’re to fill hundreds of sacks that could fit one huge truck that the “agents” would sell to “traders” and the “traders” would sell to farmers for more than P150.00 per sack. Do the math and you’ll know how much a trader would earn from the physical toils of these poor, underpaid men. I thought nothing would be worse than knowing how much they’re risking their health for a hundred pesos or two they earn on days that they have work (imagine what life they have when there’s no manure to collect), but then when I saw what kind of life they are living each day – in a shanty, lit by a candle and having sardines and rice for dinner, I felt so much worse for whining how I’d survive with only 150 to spend for the whole afternoon.

Sometimes, we get too caught up by our “pitiful” lives that we only see the negatives: how we aren’t earning enough to support our so-called “needs”, how we won’t be able to pay the life insurance quote on time , how we wish we have this new phone/gadget, or how we wish we have a better house or a better car; and forget how our less fortunate brothers have more pressing problems than we do. So I think instead of whining and sulking, thinking how “pitiful” our lives are, why don’t we step back a bit and say a little “thank you” to the One up above for our life’s little blessings? =)

My roommate and I have this rather embarrassing ritual every night. In the midst of the flurry of finishing patient papers, reading required book chapters and reviewing for exams, we make sure that a good 45 minutes of nighttime is spent watching this local tv drama being shown on air. The fast-paced storyline, infamous quotable quotes and the high fashion wardrobes of Scarlett and Katherine which can rival those by the likes of Oscar de la Renta have definitely kept us glued to our seats. But after finishing another episode today, the lingering distaste to watch the series further has become more pronounced so to speak. Inasmuch as I still like the fact that the fast-pace of the story makes every episode unexpected, this whole drama of I’m-on-top-now-later-I’m-at-the-bottom-again has been played over and over again that soon, you’ll just realize how stupid things have been happening lately for our poor heroine. I am not exactly a fan of martyr heroines, but sometimes I wonder when this revenge-or-shit wheel would finally stop turning and set things the way they’re supposed to be for the longer time being. I know dramas are supposed to be this way to live up to their genre, but then, can you really be that unfortunate in the first place? It’s pitiful how us, televiewers, are being taken for a ride. Seems like our intelligence is being put to test as well.

Having realized how the last movie we saw together on the big screen was Cinemalaya’s Imoral (an experience which deserves a new entry altogether), a movie date was immediately drawn out on the draft board. We weren’t sure what good movies are out for this week but we figured out it’s high time that we add another movie in the already very outdated list of movies we’ve seen. The lucky pick was Babylon A.D. at Trinoma and it wasn’t until when Bee jokingly added how the movie date’s going to be like the very first one we had that it occurred to me how it’s been almost a year since we technically “met”. How the two of us ended up together two years after we met online is not really something we hid from the people we knew. In the modern times, a story like this is a classic: a friendship transcending from cables, wires and fiber optics to the “real” physical world is not something novel. But I guess, it’s never passe when things – especially good ones – happen right smack at your face.

The plan was to see a movie, dine out and perhaps drop by the coffee shop where we first met (clue: it’s the one right in the middle of a beautiful garden) – just like the what we did almost a year ago. The fact that it wasn’t really my idea to “relive the moments” to begin with made the plan more heartwarming – you know, the tickle-to-the-bone kind. Sadly the “date that was” was never relived. We missed the movie altogether because the queue at CD-R King was too long. It would have been really funny if we were actually able to retrace our steps to when we “started” and lived the day as we had it a year back (minus the stress, extra flabs that warrant the best diet pill in the market). Disappointing as it was, at the end of the day, the only thing that would have mattered is that at least we were together, right?