laurganism.com |

No school for us again! I don’t actually have anything due for tomorrow, but no school is always good news. I just wish they’d happen more often during hell week. Surprise no school days always occur when I’m bored and itching to go to school to hang out.

Political situation in the Philippines isn’t getting any better. People are still wangsting on the streets, and even the apathetic majority is starting to get real paranoid. I’ve been getting these crazy rumors over Y!M all evening. Take this one, for example:

Due to the unexpected events this evening, there is a spreading rumor that there will be a rally in the Katipunan area tomorrow at around 7:00 in the morning. The whole stretch will be barricaded by military officials in order to keep these protesters off the streets. Try to avoid the area at the said time. Please pass.

And this one:

may magdalo text message ako nakuha: ingat daw sa cell sites at govt buildings, baka pasabugin starting midnight. (Translation: A text message from Magdalo: Stay away from cell sites and government buildings. People might plant bombs after midnight.)

Somebody’s status message on my Y!M friends list also said something about martial law being established by midnight today, but s/he must’ve removed it because I don’t see it now. I suppose there may be an inkling of truth to these rumors but even so, I think everyone’s just scaring themselves for nothing. The right thing to do is wait for the news, then panic and prophesize doomsday.

Speaking of the news, the Daily Tribune (I didn’t even know we had one O_o) was raided by the police on Saturday morning before they could circulate the day’s newspaper. Some documents and papers were confiscated, offices were sealed, and police stood guarding the door. I learned about this when the current KATIPUNAN Editor-in-Chief, Miko Samson, sent our Yahoo groups a message about a rally tomorrow in front of our school as a form of protest against what happened. I quote: “Let us gather as a community of journalists, of students, of
teachers, and of professionals committed to freedom and yearning for the truth. Let us gather to promote dialogue, to air our sentiments, and to unite to uphold our fundamental freedoms.”

In response, I sent the group the following message: “What does that hope to accomplish though? No matter how we wangst in the streets about how we’re so ‘oppressed’ right now, it’s not going to make the police leave the Daily Tribune office.”

Nobody has said anything to that yet; everyone’s busy making statements and such. Oh wells.

I must admit, the invitation to participate in a mass movement and be political and pro-active sounds so appealing to the idealistic pseudo-hippy in me. Come on, I want some action and excitement too. But the whole thing is so dumb. Do they really think that things will improve if they annoy the governmentwith their little demonstrations and bitch to each other about how sucky it is to have no freedom of the press? When they read out the statements they have carefully prepared, is anyone from the government going to attend and listen? Is anyone in the government going to care and do something to change that? I don’t think so. And if a bunch of rallies is all that would take for a government to fall to its knees, then I’d be very scared for the Philippines. This isn’t a democracy anymore. It’s an oligarchy.

Really, I was a bit more proud about being an Atenean when they were still apathetic conyos instead of the precocious bunch of conyo, UP-activist-wannabes that they are now.

Technorati Tags: Magdalo, Philippines, Atenean

My mother spent thirty minutes waking me up this morning for school, and when I finally got up and took a shower, she screams that there is no school because some idiots held a military coup.

I didn’t really care because I was still sleepy, so I crawled back to bed and slept for a few more hours. When I woke up, the President already declared a state of emergency or Proclamation 1017.

Let me give you a layman’s understanding of all the events that led up to this:
+ Sometime last year, somebody found a tape of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) speaking to Election Comissioner Garcillano. Apparently, she was trying to cheat her way through the elections.
+ People freaked out and insisted that she step down from office because she cheated–even though there wasn’t any proof of that.
+ Because of all the rallies people were holding, GMA made this law that people have to get permits from the Palace before they can hold rallies. People got even more upset, because it was a violation of their human rights, or whatever.
+ I woke up this morning to a coup.

OMG we’re liek, so opressed!!!~!!oneone
Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: state of emergency, Proclamation 1017, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

As a general rule, I try to avoid playing RPGs and PS2 games during the school year. As it is, I’m already having difficulty balancing my academic, extracurriculars, and social/love life. There’s just not enough time for a video game life, what with papers, exams, deadlines, and bumming around at school doing absolutely nothing.

However, I’m too much of a geek to completely forbid myself the pleasure of video games in the middle of the semester. Every now and then I allow myself to indulge in simple, downloadable games to get my mind off stress and, er, have a reason to procrastinate. Last year, I couldn’t stop playing Kingdom of Loathing. A few weeks ago I was really into the PC version of Risk–a board-game like game where the main objective is to conquer the world. I also managed to download a copy of the Oregon Trail, which used to be my favorite game when I was a kid. But I eventually got sick of the two games and got around to actually doing some studying.

Today, I am unbelievably addicted to Insaniquarium.

Like most addictive games, the concept behind Insaniquarium Deluxe is very simple. The objective is to raise guppies, collect as much money as you can from the coins the fishes drop, and keep the occassional alien from killing all your fishies. The main game mode is the Adventure mode, where you have to raise a certain amount of money to get through five different stages. After you complete every stage, you receive a marine pet that helps you raise your fish, collect money, or battle the aliens that invade the aquarium. Yes, there are aliens. O_o They can be very annoying when they kill off most of your fish but then I’m kind of glad that they’re around. A game’s no fun if there isn’t any real adversary to battle off.

There’s actually a little strategy involved because you have to choose the best combination of pets to include in your aquarium. There are around 20 pets, but you can only use up to three of them at a time. Each pet has a different ability. For instance, Prego the Fish gives birth to a guppy every now and then, saving you the trouble of buying a new one every time. Meryl the Mermaid makes the fishies drop coins faster. My favorite combination is Prego, Zorf the Seahorse–who automatically feeds the fish, and Stinky the Snail–who helps me catch any coins that I might have missed.

God, I sound like such a dork.

There are two other modes aside from the Adventure mode. The Time Trial mode is where you have to collect as much money after a given amount of time, and Challenge Mode is where you have to deal with price inflation and difficult aleins. I haven’t tried the latter yet, because I just downloaded the game last night and am still concentrating on collecting as much money as I can to improve my Virtual Tank.

The Virtual Tank is basically a virtual aquarium. The money you earned from the three pervious modes can be used to buy guppies, carnivorous fish, exotic fish, and acquarium accessories. It works just like an actual aquarium: you feed your fish and with time, they’ll grow in size. It’s really funky because you can use your Virtual Tank as your screensaver and it’s nice to just kind of stare at it and watch your fish swim around. The best part about it is that there are no aliens! I think there’s an option that allows aliens to enter the acquarium but why in the world would I want to do that?

Lucky for me, next week is going to be light–no homework, exams, or articles to write, for once! I suppose it’s best if I play Insaniquarium to death now so that when hell week comes around, nothing can distract me from being a productive student.

Technorati Tags: Oregon Trail, Insaniquarium