05:50 AM Thank God for Google and its caching bots!

Remember when I said I'd accidentally wiped out the latter half of the entries for the month of June? I don't know how, but Google has a cache of the entries I lost. Ain't life grand? Ü It's practically a miracle.

11:33 AM Whatever happened to the beautiful people at Wedgienet?

08:16 AM Humor me here, people, but I'd like to count my blessings. Ü

All month long I waited for my relatives to give me birthday gifts, but only my parents and a friend gave me anything at all. I know it sounds materialistic, but it seems like my birthday never happened without the gifts. I guess my gifts these year aren't the tangible kind that I can wear or spend or eat; instead they're made of love, and that's more than I could possibly ask for. My extended family is such a great gift in itself; every time I see them it's one big party, even without the birthday cake and the candles.

Of course it's always a party when they're around because we love to eat, but I think we don't go after the food more than we go after the camaraderie we share when eating together. I just realized that July was filled with such gatherings, and I learned a lot about each one of them, especially my grandparents, just by sitting there listening to them.

I have such a cool family.

12:46 PM For some strange reason, my computer keeps shutting down Trillian. I have to install mIRC, AIM, and ICQ manually. Ah, the clutter...

I'd like to answer the Friday Five, even if I'm a day late. I like these questions. Ü

1. How long have you had a weblog?
   As far as archives go, my first blog started in November 24, 2000.
   
   
2. What was your first post about?
   And I quote: "My first entry here and I don't know what to do with it! ^_^"
   
   
3. How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one?
   A lot of location changes, from Pitas, to F2s, to a host, to Port5, and finally here at Dijurido.net. One merge of two blogs, two name changes.
   
   
4. What CMS (content management system) do you use?
   I tried Pitas, then Greymatter and Blogger, but I keep coming back to my old code-by-hand technique.
   
   
5. Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog?
   Yeah, but I usually go after their journals. This thing you're reading, by the way, is not a weblog, but a daily journal, with occasional links to other pages thrown in.

10:12 PM I was browsing last Sunday at a Clinique counter, and for some reason they had framed Kurt Vonnegut's commencement speech at MIT and placed it on top of the counter beside the perfumes. On reading it, one line in particular jumped out at me. It said not to be ashamed if you don't know what to do with your life. Well, the next time someone asks me what I'm going to do for a living, I'm going to burst a vein in my skull, hemorrhage until my brain pours out my ears, and then spend the rest of my life as a vegetable. At least I won't have to agonize over the fact that it's been three months since I graduated with a bachelor's degree.

I've said I was planning on entering a graduate studies program, but I don't feel sufficiently ready to take on that field of study. Honestly I don't see myself spending the next two years of my life poring over books and sitting in classrooms yet again, but what is my alternative? My parents have made their pronouncement: they will not allow me to work. Not just yet. They won't allow me to spend time idle as well, so they tell me: I have to study. Study what? Anything. Pick something out of the air.

But what if I still don't know what I want to do? Sometimes I feel so trapped in other people's expectations. When people find out I've finished a degree in Political Science, they immediately assume that I'm going to pursue law. When I tell them that's not the case, they press onward with more questions that I can't answer. I truly don't know yet what I'm going to do with my life, and I don't think being pressured to make a choice--any choice--right now will help me.

09:49 PM ...Aah! My eyes! Seen first at Click Mo Mukha Mo, but received through email today. Ü

10:10 AM Yesterday was my mom's birthday. I can't recall whether it's her 45th or 50th with all the teasing my relatives did. I had enormous portions of grilled beef, lamb, and fried chicken. It was just simply food heaven. We still have lots of leftovers, which I think I'll be having for lunch. Ü

Also yesterday, some guy living diagonally across us in a bodega (a small storage room; this one had a door leading directly onto the street) exposed himself to my aunt, who is attractive and young. When my mom and my uncle went to investigate, that guy slunk away and pretended it wasn't him who dropped his pants. My parents spent the rest of last night being really annoyed at that lewd occurrence. "What if he suddenly grabs one of you while you're walking outside?" they said. "We have to find out who he is and what he's doing living there." He might be some squatter who isn't supposed to be there. How frightening. And we live in a gated, supposedly secure community.

10:40 AM Today I won my first game of FreeCell! I had never tried it before, so I didn't think I could understand the mechanics of the game. Now I think it's a better game than Solitaire. It's great for whiling away the time waiting for all my email to be downloaded.

I nearly forgot to review for a quiz because of all the times classes were suspended over the past two weeks. I only had this gut feeling that I had to be doing something, so I took a look at my notebook and got the scare of my life. That's why, boys and girls, it's good to read ahead. It's even better if you have a giant calendar on your wall that tells you when the next big exam is coming.

10:09 AM Coca-Cola Philippines seems to be releasing its popular diet softdrinks brands in plastic 1.5- and 2-liter bottles. The last time I was at Landmark Supermarket, they had Coke Light, and then yesterday, they had Diet Sarsi (which is really good rootbeer). This makes us happy, yes it does.

My sister is now baking all sorts of things. Last night she tried to make butter cookies, but she added milk to them so now they're milk snaps. Ü I can't eat them because she used real sugar, and for my diet to work I need to avoid sugar in all its forms.

I remember posting about this last October 18, 2001. Here's the post, dredged up from my blog archives, for your enjoyment, JM.

Trivia question: what connects Noelle to the UAAP? Answer: she was classmates with the courtside reporters for Ateneo and La Salle.

I'm not kidding. Back in second grade, I attended International Christian Academy. In my section, II-S, there was this girl named Patricia Laurel, who was very nice. We were both very good students, competing for first honor in class. The next year, I entered a different school, a much smaller school with a population of about 110 students from grade school to high school. It was called Christian Harvest Academy, where I met this girl named Georgina Rocha. We were classmates all the way up to fourth year high school. We were batchmates--the only two girls in a class of six graduates.

George and I and the rest of my high school barkada (peer group) lately have been seeing each other regularly because of Bible study. It's great, really, because she was the one who kept sponsoring annual Christmas parties and her birthday get-togethers in the three years we've been out of high school, so that we all could keep in touch. Ü

08:34 AM I just want to thank Benj for logging the most number of referrals this week to my site. Congratulations, man! You have a lot of readers who are also interested in your links list. Ü

I ran across this blog that has referred to my site twice now, through BlogSnob. It's called Girls Are Pretty and it's got some quirky humor that got me laughing. Yet another site found through BlogSnob clicking is Fetching, a blog by two roommates. Simple design, but I like what they write. Watch out for the excessive drinking, though, haha.

And lastly, Stop! Promo Time!

10:37 AM Way back when I was in Grade 1, little boys were running around shouting, "By the power of Greyskull, I am He-Man!" during recess, and little girls shouted, "By the honor of Greyskull! I am She-Ra!" A movie had come out starring Dolph Lundgren, called Masters of the Universe. I never saw it in a theater, but apparently it had the top-of-the-line special effects then, because the kids were all ga-ga about it. I can remember vividly one lunchtime when Patty Laurel and I were tapping stuff out on her lunchbox, saying, "We need to call Dolph Lundgren!"

Why the sudden reminiscing? Well, last night, HBO showed the aforementioned movie. It all seems so dorky now. He-Man had these bulging muscles and his sword, but he never used the sword until the last scenes, preferring to use his blaster thingamajig. Why the movie had to be set in present-day Earth as well also bothered me, when the cartoon series was set on the planet of Eternia. However, now I understand what Patty was tapping out on her lunchbox: it was the set of tones to bring someone back to Eternia. Whatever. In any case, it was so weird to see Courteney Cox much younger in the movie, as well as Robert Duncan McNeill, who played Tom Paris in Star Trek: Voyager.

10:02 AM It's still overcast today, but I don't think classes are suspended anymore. However, due to class schedules, UP students don't usually have classes on Wednesdays. Hence, my sister and I have not been in school for five days now, counting Saturday and Sunday. Ü

I tried my hand at baking last Sunday, trying to substitute soy flour for regular flour and Sweet 'n' Low for sugar. It works, actually--my cinnamon cookies are really good. Unfortunately that means my stock of Sweet 'n' Low packets from Starbucks has dwindled. Solution? Go to Starbucks again and scarf their artificial sweeteners. Hehehe.

My sister is taking up Spanish classes this semester, so she insists on practicing Spanish even in public, so she can keep her developing skills sharp. It's fine for a while, really, but it gets to the point that I begin to imagine salespeople looking at us funny. Anyhow, I've been trying to help her, since I took 12 units of Spanish in my time. Hopefully I can refresh my conjugation skills and maybe become a little more fluent in that language.

09:38 AM There hasn't been that much rain here in my part of town, although classes are still suspended. In fact, the sun is shining quite brightly here. Why is it that every time a typhoon warning is issued, the next day dawns bright and beautiful instead of tempestuous and stormy? The next time a storm hits, I don't think they'll be so quick to issue a suspension of classes; but then that day might actually be quite rainy. This is quite a supreme irony, much like the fact that every time I bring a jacket to school because the weather is cold, the sun starts beating down on me and it doesn't rain. Ü

10:30 AM The rain has been battering Metro Manila for several days now. Last Saturday, some parts of Magallanes looked like Venezian canals instead of roads.

I've been watching a lot of Discovery Travel & Adventure Channel lately. I've always been intrigued by the idea of international travel. Having never been out of this country, I wonder what it would be like to see new sights and meet new cultures, taste new dishes and do new things. I watch Ian Wright do his thing on Globe Trekker (formerly known as Lonely Planet) and I catch myself hoping I can do that someday.

A girl can dream, can't she? Ü

On to other things: apparently my ISP is overloaded by the sheer number of people staying home today. After a week of rain, the Commission on Higher Education announced that there would be no classes today on all levels. And then the rain refuses to fall.

09:56 AM Thank you to David, Reggie, Macy, Lie, and Clarissa for signing my guestbook to greet me a Happy Birthday. Ü

My birthday was marked by a typhoon, and in the day I spent at home that Thursday, I had to go through a brownout (a localized blackout) and was totally bored out of my wits. It tutrns out a telephone pole at the corner had blown something, and it took the phone service crew 7 hours to fix!

By the time I had left the house with my dad and sister, on our way to pick my mom up to have dinner, I was completely bummed and not in the mood for a movie. Instead we stuffed ourselves at National Sports Grill at Greenbelt. There was this dish, called "Sluggers", that was made of huge slices of mozzarella cheese lightly coated with breadcrumbs and fried, then served with a meat-tomato paste on the side. It was so good! So was their Ty Cobb salad and Gold Coast wings. My sister had the Angel Hair Pomodoro, and she claims it was divine. The servings were absolutely huge, but the prices are cheaper than Friday's or Tequila Joe's. All in all, a very satisfying birthday celebration--small, private, and with lots of food. Ü

One thing about my birthday this year, though, is that a lot of people quite forgot it. Maybe because in the past few years I was more visible since my birthday would have been on a school day. Now, since my class schedules only take up two days of the week, nobody would have much remembered. Ah, well.

09:17 AM It's my birthday! My 19th birthday! Whee! I'm still alive and kicking after almost two decades, and for that I should be thankful to God. Ü

Anyway, my parents and sister left for work and school around four hours ago. I only have classes on Tuesdays and Fridays, so they didn't bother to wake me. They did, however, print a cute "Happy Birthday" sign and tape it to my mirror, which is the first thing I saw when I woke up. It was so sweet, and I was touched.

I'm off to eat breakfast, and then to wait for them to come back home so we can watch Minority Report. Oh, by the way, in the US, the date is July 3, meaning Tom Cruise is actually celebrating his birthday on the same day I celebrate mine.

10:55 AM I've gotten over the initial dismay about wiping out June 17-30 in the archives, but that's okay--I don't think they were very important entries anyway, although I'm a sentimental creature and I love everything I create. Ü

Speaking to people fazes me. Well, more accurately, speaking to people I don't know in order to make a business dealing scares me to death. This is why I offer to stay behind and save a table when I'm in a fast food outlet with some friends--so that I don't have to face talking to the person who takes my order. This is also why I don't really like asking people for directions, or being left at home to pay a bill collector, or even calling up an office to inquire about something.

Call me strange or timid, but this is something of an issue for me. I'm heavily dependent on other people to do the talking for me. I do have to get over this fear if I want to get into the graduate studies program at the College of Mass Communication. There'll be an interview--yet another thing I dread--and it's something of an incongruity if someone trying to get into a communication program is herself inept at communicating. Ü

02:24 PM I can't believe it. I just wiped out half of June's entries. I am in total shock and I need to get over this. All blogging for the day will be suspended. Thank you.

I'm gonna cry.

01:35 PM Noelle is...

• an extremely intelligent young lady
• very bright
• star of stage, screen, and television
• Executive Vice President
• not like other girls
• available
• what every guy wants
• an experienced player

... and many others. I'm not making these claims about myself; these are just a few of what Google turned up when I did a search on the phrase "Noelle is". I can't find the history item for the website where I got this idea. Darn it.