my sept 16 post

I read an article about how blogs (Uh, MS Word 2003 is saying, “No, blog isn’t a word!” with red squiggly lines.) are causing this generation to be self-centered. I somewhat concur to what the author said as the large part of the content of many blogs these days are about the rantings and ramblings of pre-teen, teen and post-teen people. Thank Friendster (Uh, Friendster isn’t a word either.), Multiply and other similar websites for starting a blogging culture among the young ones. However, can we blame them for writing (in a whole spectrum of versions of the English and Filipino languages) about themselves as they make the transition from the ideal childhood situations to the almost-real-world problems? Let’s just hope that blogging keeps the teens close to the (safe part of the) Internet, and far from drugs, violence and thoughts of suicide. Perhaps if one person writes about these things in his/her blog (I mean the drugs, etc.), then at least someone in the whole world knows and a solution can be made.

Of course as a blogger, I am for blogging. We just have to tone down a bit with the angst and whining. But it feels good after, right?

We won! We won! At last, after four straight years (five, actually, but I was a student of UP for just 4 years now) of spectacular losses in the Cheerdance Competition, we finally won. Congrats guys! At last, my UP life is complete (or not, I have to have another Eng’g Week! And I have to finish our plant design, among other things). Unibersidad ng Pilipinas!!! Oooooh!

On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: (Jeopardy spoof)
Jay: The answer is “Superbad”.
Britney Impersonator: How is my dancing, my parenting skills…?
George Bush Impersonator: How did [name] describe Iraq so that I can understand it?

Oh, the contact prints have arrived. After nine excruciating booth hours, I finally got mine last Friday. It was definitely worse than last year. I mean, last year’s photos were better. If only I could use those for this year’s yearbook. The photos were, um, just okay. Acceptable.

The field trip. Yeah. That was a bit early. We left UP at 6 am, which means the meeting time was 5 am. Let’s just say everyone except for some tough cookies and, of course, the driver slept through the trip to Mak-Ban. The place was steamy. And I meant that literally. The plant relies on steam from the underground.

Highlights:
-Seeing a real cooling tower that looks exactly like that in Foust
-Learning the (Chevron) Tenets of Operation and corresponding gestures
-Waking Janine every once in a while
-Picture-taking (with hard hats!) and goofing around
-The steam and designing (in my mind) an industrial-scale dim sum cooker using the steam from the plant

I am in big trouble. It is because I am currently doing the job hunting thing and thinking about my career (so, this is the self-assessment part). I am not very sure I want to work as a chemical engineer. It’s boring stuff. Maybe because of 125 and 172. Maybe not.

Career choices (as of now):
-Chemical Engineer, but a fun job, perhaps not a process engineer
-Teacher, but maybe not ChE, high school Physics maybe, but I need Educ units, I think
-Series writer. Like Grey’s Anatomy, which shows life of surgeons, I think I’ll write a TV series about chemical engineers. People would just ignore the jargon and go for the drama, or humor.

Sample:
Person1: (approaches in big steps) There’s a huge leak in the nitrogen line.
Person2: So?
Person1: What, “So?”? What will I do?
Person2: You’re a licensed engineer, top of the class, exam topnotcher. You’ll know what to do exactly.
Person1: Oh, no no no no. You are my supervisor. I am new here. I’m not supposed to make decisions. You do.
Person2: Well then, put a sock in it. (walks away)

I hope it works.