I actually have a post concerning the just-over thesis exhibit you people have been hearing so much about on here. It’s a little rant-y and might attract attention, so I’ll hold off on posting it after I fix bandwidth issues (I’m nearly out for this month) or after this month is over (which, I realize, is kind of far off). In any case, I’m in between pretty grateful and pretty upset.

If you’ve spoken to me in real life recently, you probably know what this is about.

I was on my way to the library when I noticed the shadows that the signage made and found them really pretty. I had to walk across a wide expanse of space to retrieve my camera from where I left my stuff¹ and when I came back out, the sun was in hiding.

So, I waited for it to come out.

Hi, clouds. You’re real pretty, but get outtatheway!

And then, the sun came out.

Pretty.

———
¹ Lesson Learned: You must bring any sort of recording device wherever you go. Think of everything that you will miss!

Yesterday was the first day of Flux, which was the exhibit of the thesis projects of the ID (Information Design) students of Ateneo. I think it also opened Humanities Week, which is pretty cool. Here are a few photos:

Father Javellana and Dra. Vilches cutting the ribbon.

Paulina making last minute edits.

Tracy making a LED lantern! Over at Meggy Kawsek’s area.

Made one, too. :)
(Photo taken by Glen.)

Children’s books by Kim Ng.

Paulina’s personal lightsaber duel.

Kris Caguiat’s thesis.

Mine!

I have some more (but not a lot) of photos over at my Flickr, if you guys want to see.

The exhibit will be ongoing until Friday, I think. :) The works are mounted over at the area behind the stairs on the first floor of the Rizal (or, old) Library.

You know, kind of like a cupboard.

LOLJK. I just finished my thesis, is all. I mean, that’s all. Nothing special.

I have loads more to say, and obviously, the insides of this book(let :( it’s really short) has more pages. But I am still swamped, so this little update will have to do. I just wanted to say IT IS FINISHED because I really was getting a little desperate because it seemed like it was going nowhere… but here it is.

And thesis, if I may say so, it is absolutely lovely to see you.

Due to the immense dissatisfaction plaguing my life, I have decided to jump aboard one of those make-yourself-better, achieve-more, you-can-do-it practices that have been circulating all over the Internet. It’s called “Mission 101″ and is essentially a self-imposed challenge to tick items off a list comprised of 101 things you mean to do in your life, in 1001 days. I don’t really want to get into it right now (the neety-greety and whatnot), so here’s an external link to the LiveJournal community dedicated to the progress reports of participating members.

I’ve attempted this a few times (once in 2008 and another time in 2009) but I found myself abandoning it or not really “giving it my all,” so to speak. This time, I’m going to really have a go at it, though. I’ve listed 48 items right now, and they can be found over at the ‘ongoing’ tab of my Listography account. Here’s a few items I have:

• Learn at least three constellations
• Watch The Big Lebowski
• Submit a story to McSweeney’s
• Write a letter to Jonathan Safran Foer
• Graduate

I’m still in the process of making my list, so if you have any good suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below. I’m super excited about this, to be honest. Stay tuned! I might blog about the shenanigans I get myself into. Or not. They could be potentially embarrassing things.

STROKES SHIRTS UPDATES: Winners, if you were wondering where your shirt is, they are still at my house because I haven’t sent them, yet. Patience, please. :) I’ve given Kasey’s hers because I saw her in school one time. So, there. You’ll get them soon. I just need to get other things out of the way.

The reason why it’s such a huge file is so that I won’t forget. Hello, 2010. Very glad you could finally grace us with your presence, seeing as 2009 absolutely sucked.

Now that I think about it, though, I have no idea why I thought that 2009 was a suckfest. Nothing really drastic happened to me (except for our dog dying) and to be quite honest, 2009 had a lot of milestones for me, in terms of personal goals and markers. I guess the stress just kept on piling up, and there was collective unrest perpetually present in everyone I’ve spoken to. In the last few months of 2009, people were practically begging the days to go by faster so that they could start over. Like the coming of the new year meant that the sucky cards they were dealt with would automatically change to absolutely fantastic ones.

All in all, I think I actually kind of liked 2009 because that was when I came to terms with who I was. I became less pretentious and more comfortable with myself, which is a little funny because someone called me out for being pretentious. But I digress.

I’m not going to do those year-end posts, where people list their favorite records or favorite films, because I have a knack of getting into things late, and also of forgetting things. I guess I am lucky that Last.fm keeps track of my listening habits. Here are the people I most listened to in 2009:

1. Pavement
2. Animal Collective
3. The National
4. Vampire Weekend
5. Elliott Smith
6. Voxtrot
7. Mark Mothersbaugh
8. Brand New
9. Bob Dylan
10. Okkervil River

The films that stuck out were Adventureland, Up, (500) Days of Summer, Inglourious Basterds, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Watchmen and Paper Heart. My favorite books were John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” and “An Abundance of Katherines,” Dave Eggers’ “The Wild Things,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Penelopiad,” David Levithan’s “The Realm of Possibility” and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Galápagos,” “Slaughterhouse-Five,” and “Cat’s Cradle.”

I know that doesn’t say much about what my year has been like, but it’s nice to go back and try to remember. 2009 sucked, on the whole, but I think I don’t feel its suckage as much (as I did at the time these things happened), because there was a fair amount of growing up involved on my part.

And all I can really do in 2010 is to try to be better, and that is, I think, the most I can really hope for.