08:16 PM Yesterday, while attending Sunday services, I noticed that the person seated in front of me had elf ears! No, not really pointed, but his ears didn't curve back inwards at the top. The edges were just, you know, straight. I have a friend with one elf ear, but I'd never seen a person with both ears like that. Hm, now if only I'd looked to see if he looked like Orlando Bloom... Ü

Hey people! Please sign my guestbook; I just redesigned the layout.

08:01 PM Two years ago I bought The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, and I enjoyed reading it. Today, while watching E! Philippines, I found out that Matt Damon will be playing Jason Bourne in the movie adaptation. Ü However, it looks like this movie's going to be an, ahem, updated version of the book--does the "Carlos the Jackal" aspect figure in the movie? I know the novel revolves partly around this angle. Aside from that, my mom tells me there was a prior film adapted from the book. I'm off to search the Internet Movie Database for more info.

Oh, yeah... the Star Wars: Episode II trailer's being shown on E! Philippines as well. I first saw it three weeks ago; it's the one with Vader breathing in the background while scenes from the upcoming movie play. Whoa. There's one I'm going to try not to miss...

By the way, I have a webcam! Whee! Actually, it's not just a webcam--it's a video camera recorder with a memory card for still images! It's not mine, though. It's from my dad's workplace, and we're just keeping it safe. I mean, it's not safe to leave it at the office. Ü

09:34 AM Last night's sleep was fitful; I kept tossing and turning, and this morning, I woke up at around 7 AM (I'm not sure because I was wearing those things that cover your eyes so the sun doesn't get in them in the morning), and while I was trying to fall asleep again, someone opened my door loudly and came into my room!

I hope I can upload this (and previous day's) entries. Portland's servers have been offline for quite a while. I'm even thinking of starting to use Greymatter because then I wouldn't need to FTP all my entries. Of course, this will result in using more internet time, and I can't afford that. Hmm...

Link-worthy sites: a friend of mine was talking about reading The Very Secret Diaries of LOTR in an email she once received. I don't know how I got to it, but I found the place where it all began. Also, a few weeks ago I made a Virtual Model of myself; it actually looks like my body (but not my face Ü).

11:13 PM Oh, look at the time! It's exactly eleven hours since I wrote my last post. Ü Today was an okay day; I had a lot of free time because all my work was completed shortly before midnight this morning. All I had to do was submit stuff... I did manage to watch the College of Human Kinetics' Istrit Indakan, which was a joint presentation of dance numbers from all the PE dance sections, from modern dance to street dance to Philippine dance--and the dance orgs affiliated with that college also participated, so it was pretty cool to see the difference between the amateurs and the skilled. I was particularly enamoured with UP Street Dance's rendition of Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real"; I wonder if Macy has anything to do with that, since she was an applicant of that org, last I heard.

Digitalrice mailed me last Saturday, inviting me to sign up for webspace, since I'd given them my email address to notify me if they were going to start hosting sites again. Well, I couldn't think of anything so I came up with the rivendell.digitalrice.com subdomain. Nothing's there yet, but I'm thinking of something... Ü Goodnight, all!

12:13 AM It still amazes me that I can wake up every morning to the same old drudgery of school, research, home, paper--I only know that this time (and every time), it's always God who gives me strength. Last night (the other night, rather), I prayed that I'd be able to ace my Econ exam and in the same day do the required research for Ma'am C__'s PolSci 199 class, which has a paper due today. You know, it is true: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13) I just know that it wasn't my amazing stamina or my unbelievable intelligence (both statements about myself are extreme exaggerations), or any human ability, that got me through yesterday. God really answers prayer; the other night I prayed that I'd be able to complete the paper before 12 AM. Despite a power outage shortly before that time, God's provision came through for me; my mom brought home her laptop, and its battery sustained the last few pages of my paper-writing. God is faithful. I only wish that I'd relied on Him for my earlier schoolwork this semester; maybe it wouldn't have been so disastrous. Ü This is just what I was telling my Bible study group the other week; God is teaching me to trust in Him.

Now, I'm off to bed. I now officially look like Nicholas Cage in Bringing Out the Dead. Hmm... I also got this website off my referrer tracking. By the way, why isn't anyone signing my guestbook?

07:50 PM You know the phrase, "dropping like flies"? Well, it seems that the people I know graduating from Political Science this year (and taking Ma'am C__'s PolSci 199 class) are all feeling the strain under her workload--especially if you're taking another subject under the same Ma'am C__. I say "dropping like flies" because if not for the deadline for dropping that was last Monday, I'd be in line to drop her class. That, and the fact that this course is required for graduation, is stopping me. Hey, I've been here four years; why stop now? Argh.

Sites of linkworthiness: Yam and the City, and the partner site of the official LOTR movie site which offers Elvish sound bytes from the movie. Go visit!

08:13 AM On a suggestion from Clarissa's blog, I went to her host's site, which has a wonderful LOTR-inspired layout, featuring Elvish words and phrases from the movie.

I downloaded IE 6 yesterday, and it took me three hours! I can't see any difference between IE 5.5 and 6, actually. There's no remarkable change in the way I browse the internet--except that I don't have to do right-clicks anymore to save an image to my hard drive. Ü There are more features in the right-click menu, though; I can email or print a pic (just the pic!) from a web page, or go directly to My Pictures. I'm sure I haven't explored all the possibilities yet, and I'm not enough of a tech geek to know the difference. At least I know the version number is higher. Ü

I took this test yesterday... and I turned out to be Frodo. The author of the page seems to be a huge Aragorn fan, because he's the reference point for the rest of the possible test answers (check the HTML out on the main test page).

12:10 PM Red for a layout may seem to be a bit behind the times, because the 14th has already passed! This is just to make sure that everyone knows I did not make this layout for Valentine's Day. In fact, I command you readers not to think I made this for Valentine's Day. Ü I was thinking of adding a new section, but since I'm going to be pretty busy from now until the last week of March, I don't think I should put in an "Essays" section. I wouldn't have time to write anything anyway...

My Bible study group went out last night to watch a movie at Glorietta 4. Supposedly. When we got there, I couldn't believe my eyes; the whole place must have been stuffed full of underage hiphop wannabes and stick-thin models. JAG (the fashion brand, not the TV show) had this event scheduled inside one of the cinemas. To compound matters, we were going to watch Kate and Leopold, which had already been sold out except for the last full show at 12 AM!

Since we had planned to eat dinner anyway, we went to Don Henrico's. Let me tell you that the branch in Glorietta has notoriously slow service. The Captain Crunch Fried Chicken made up for it though... mmm! And the waiter gave us too much change and didn't come back for it anymore. Whee!

At 11 PM we went back to the cinemas to buy tickets, and then all of a sudden everyone had to go home for some reason or another. We ended up at the park across Hard Rock Cafe waiting up to 1 AM for people's rides to arrive, and then went home without doing what we had wanted to do.

Last night, I must admit, really bummed me out. After a week of stressing over an exam and several papers, I really expected to be able to kick back and relax, and maybe have some fun. Unfortunately, I hate crowds (such as the one JAG's show generated), and we had to sit at separate tables during dinner, so I didn't get to talk with my friends as much as I wanted, and finally, my parents had allowed me and my sister to watch the 12 AM screening, but nobody else was allowed.

01:03 AM This whole week has been one hassle after another. I just finished yet another paper, and there's another one due on Friday, the same day as an exam in another subject, etcetera, etcetera... Things certainly don't change in the university; teachers have that uncanny ability to create new requirements at roughly the same time and schedule due dates for roughly the same week. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. Ü

In other news, I've been trying to learn Elvish, specifically Sindarin, one of the languages used by the Elves in Lord of the Rings. It's the subtitled language; Quenya, the language Arwen uses to create the Fords of Bruinen floodwaters, is a sort of Elven-latin and isn't used in everyday conversation. As if I can use Sindarin in everyday conversation.

"I amar prestar aen, (the world is changed)
han mathon ne nen, (I can feel it in the water)
han mathon ne chae (I can feel it in the earth)
a han noston ne 'wilith (I can smell it in the air)."

I'll have a new layout up by Saturday. Ü

06:15 PM I finished the entire Lord of the Rings set late last night. Return of the King was actually shorter than the other two books; to get a more complete picture of the ending, you'd have to read the appendices--which is exactly what I did. Ü By and large LOTR has been the best thing I've read since last year, when I bought Vector by Robin Cook. That's not really saying a lot because I haven't had much time to read anyway, but I still highly recommend LOTR. It's such an amazing journey and a complete world in itself, and when you've gone and finished it, you feel like going back to the beginning because you might have missed something of the sights and ways of Middle-Earth. Ü

On to other things before I start obsessing... I'm stuck with this layout! I have no idea what to do next; I'm afraid to surf aimlessly for images that might prove handy in making a new layout because I know that my prepaid internet time is on its last legs. What to do? Well, please bear with this pinkness for about another month or so; I've got a lot of studying to do as well and I won't have time beyond today to do a redesign--and that's out of the question right now.

12:20 AM I just want to greet my dad a Happy 52nd Birthday! Ü We pigged out at Saisaki, as was planned--but something happened that we did not quite intend.Anyone remember the Side A concert my org sponsored this past January? Well, tonight my sis and I were hanging out while our parents withdrew some money from a nearby ATM. All of a sudden I saw this familiar shirt walking toward me; I knew it was Joey G. from Side A (he had been wearing that shirt immediately before the concert), so I whispered to my sister, "Side A!" And little by little in the milliseconds that passed, I realized that he and the rest of the band were looking at me and smiling! When I met his gaze, he said, "U.P.!", which is where he remembered me from (if anyone's been paying attention, I study at the University of the Philippines Diliman, or U.P. for short, and the concert was held on campus grounds as well). Bashfully, I raised my hand, gave them a little wave, and said, "Hi!"

Of course, after that, my sister and I could hardly contain ourselves. I just can't get over the fact that he actually remembered me. And if anything, I didn't expect him to greet me. Whoa. Lucky break.

By the way, I've finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm moving on to The Two Towers tomorrow, and then maybe after that I can tackle Return of the King over the weekend. I never thought that the movie would be different from the book--I mean, a dialogue in the movie between Frodo and Gandalf that happened when they were at Rivendell actually took place in the Book while they were still at the Shire. Additionally, the journey from the Shire to the boundary between Gondor and Mordor seems to happen over a span of only a few days in the movie while it actually lasts several months in the book. And Arwen... what should I say about Arwen? Ü

My Hobbit name is Daisy Took from Grindwell, but since I identify more with the elves, my Elven name is Dimturiel (links courtesy of Brownpau). By the way, I'm Legolas.