08:43 PM Hey hey I've got great news! Well, probably not good news for the drivers of Metro Manila, but it's good news for me. This student permit is the first step toward an independent Noelle. Freedom from unneeded early morning wake-up calls, freedom from "I can't go because my dad can't drive me" situations, freedom from the drudgery of being a pedestrian! Happy, happy, joy, joy... Ü

Of course it means a likelihood of my wrapping a car around a post, which is a scary thought, but that's what driving lessons are for. I'm hoping my parents sign me up for some next week, but I'd be happy with a few laps around the neighborhood in the meantime.

10:49 AM I've been up to a lot of things, netwise, even though I haven't written an entry in almost a week. First of all, I found a new forum to terrorize--uh, I mean, to frequent. Ü It's the Smallville Torch Forum. What commonly happens in the forums I'm part of is that I will post quite often for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly disappear. That's what happened with PeX and RBJ Boards. Of course, that was because they were general interest boards which took a long time to load and there were too many posts to read, not all of them on the topics in which I'm interested. The TST Forum, however, is singularly focused on the show Smallville, of which I'm a new fan, so I'll be around regularly. After all, I'm one of those people who live for spoilers. Ü

I also found two virtual makeover sites. They're not as well-stocked with hairstyles as the InStyle.com one (which doesn't work on my comp anymore), but they have makeup. Of course, I don't use makeup, but anyway here are their links:

• I-Village
• Revlon

Here are a few hairstyles I tried on myself; I wonder if blondes do really have more fun? Of course, there's my favorite, My Virtual Model, which I've visited frequently before, updating my weight so that the virtual model of me will show how my body currently looks.

So, there's been a lot of "I love me" surfing this past week. But hey, I believe a concept of self is essential if you want to determine what your goals are in life. As for me, my goals right now are to grow my hair out, lose weight, and study hard.

09:52 AM School for me began last Thursday. When I enrolled, I had some inkling that all but one of my classes would start at 5pm and would last until 8 pm, but the full weight of such a change in schedule didn't hit me until I was actually in one of those classes. Last week I would have said I was a night person but now I say I truly want to do things in the daytime. I realized I'm not the sharpest pencil in the case at night. Ü There's nothing I can do to change my schedule, though, because all the class offerings are at night. So I'm going to make the best of it--after all, there are some pretty interesting people enrolled in my classes, with different backgrounds, and I can probably learn a lot things from them, not just from the teachers.

I must say, though, that I am excited about what I'm going to take up this semester. My class yesterday was held at the College of Mass Communication's TV studio, and one of my new acquaintances in last Thursday's class said that BC 203 is Broadcast Writing. Last semester they had written and produced a demo telenovela (soap opera) series, so I find myself intrigued. Too bad the professor won't be around until early December. In the meantime I don't have to come to class on Fridays; all we have to do is write up a research paper on what is in demand now in media, as compared to the demand ten years ago.

So, actually this masteral schedule is pretty lax. My problem is how to get from my house down South to the campus up North without having to wake up early in the morning to hitch a ride with my dad. I'm not allowed to commute and I don't know how to drive, so...

10:26 AM Last Wednesday I enrolled for my masteral classes, then went to a certain mall with my mom and sister to do some grocery- and window-shopping. At the supermarket, I was suddenly approached by one of the Ponds promo girls who manned a counter there, and she asked me if I was willing to be one of their Ponds Eyecatchers: they would get my picture taken and then displayed at their counter, plus I would get a gift certificate of 1,000 pesos for Ponds products. Since I use their products anyway (that antibacterial facial wash works wonders for pimples), I asked my mom if she would let me and she was cool with it. The promo girl also asked my sister if she would like to be an Eyecatcher as well, because of our "flawless" complexions.

Then the woman in charge came up to us and asked the promo girl which one of us were chosen. When she found out we were sisters, she immediately said that only one of us could be taken up to be photographed because their policy didn't allow people who were related to be both Eyecatchers. She asked which one of us was older, and I was. And she knew I was the first one they asked to be one, but she asked if my sister would instead be the Eyecatcher. I was fine with that, since I admit my sister Marielle is a more striking beauty than I am. I said that it was okay, but my mom went silent for a while, and then she said, "Hindi na lang--Never mind." So neither of us became Eyecatchers; we left those ladies at their counter.

Marielle and I discussed things, and we came to the conclusion that our mom didn't want to put us in competition with one another for trivial stuff like this. We also realized that had our pictures been taken and placed at the counter, our faces would be seen by people trooping through the supermarket, and we'd look like people desperate for some media exposure--which we're not. Besides, it was late in the day and we didn't feel like trooping away to be photographed anyway--and what would we do with a thousand pesos' worth of Ponds products?

I then realized that if it weren't Marielle whom they were choosing over me, I would have felt insulted, and that just made me irritated. We avoided the Ponds counter afterwards.

So, there you have the story of my life; I've always been almost famous. Ü

07:55 PM For the past few days, I have been out of the house on outings that have nothing to do with school or work, which make them pleasure outings. While most people in Manila are just returning today from a long weekend spent in the provinces (due to the All Saints' and All Souls' holidays), I'm one of those who remained in the metropolis and went to malls even when half the shops were closed. I had a lot of fun hanging out and drinking coffee with people I didn't know could be that entertaining, mainly because I'd never hung out with them outside Bible study (which is fun in itself already). It was nice to know my company was desired, because they invited my sister and me out for coffee again in the succeeding days.

We managed to make ourselves almost-regulars at Greenbelt 1's Starbucks branch, since Greenbelt 3's branch is always full. Today, though, we found ourselves at a loss at where to get our caffeine fix. It was raining, so we hung out at Seattle's Best Coffee (SBC), a rival coffee place, despite rumors that their coffee stock was expired. True to expectations, the coffee there tasted a little funky and we ended up craving Starbucks brew even more. Ü Of course, our pockets could no longer handle the brutality of getting another cuppa, but we soaked up SBC's airconditioning and occupied their soft leather seats for far longer than we would have if we were just there for the coffee.

My sister and I also spent last night at a hotel where our mom is checked in (reason: a brainstorming workshop for the company where she works), and since there was nothing else to do but watch TV in the room and make use of the facilities, I did just that. I have to say that was the first time I was in a gym where the equipment could count the calories I'd burned. The funny thing was that the others who were using the gym at the same time I was did far less than what I was doing before they quit; of course, they were almost all middle-aged overweight male Caucasians, so I didn't get much competition, which was fine for me. I wouldn't want to look out of shape. Ü

11:37 AM I don't believe in celebrating Halloween, unlike Charles who greeted me last night via text. In fact, I don't even like the idea of dressing little kids up as ghouls and demons, or opening one's doors to them. I don't think people think about the symbolic meaning of it all.

All Saints Day, though, is a different thing. It's not so much a commemoration of death as a celebration of life. We're reminded of our mortality and remember that being alive is a gift we should be thankful for every day. Of course, I won't be squeezing in with the crowds at the memorial parks today, since it'll be a nightmare of traffic and sweaty bodies, but rituals don't matter--what would a dead person in his grave do with the candles and food placed on top of his stone? In our own way we remember our departed loved ones.

In other matters... I'm reading King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, on which the movie of the same name is based, starring Richard Chamberlain in the Allan Quatermain role. While reading the book I noticed the racism displayed by the main characters. I'm sure that the book, targeting a white demographic, reflected the views of Europeans during that time. I just laugh it off, being of a far more enlightened present that believes in the equality of all races. The story is the thing I'm interested in, but the book is also an anthropological record of ethnocentric attitudes, which are found in all human settlements. Ü