The Things I Do for Love

December 17, 2008 is supposed to be a good day. I woke up to greet my mom a ‘Happy Birthday’. My sisters were also having their Christmas Party in school. It was a promising day, until… “What a wrong timing…”, my mom said. She was the first one who greeted me with so much remorse. “Your grandfather is gone. He died just this morning.”, she added. I felt sad when I heard it. My grandfather died on my mom’s birthday. I wonder what she was feeling. She didn’t tell the rest of my family that it was her birthday. My whole family is really sad. There was no happy face today. We all know that my grandfather was sick with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but it was not the cause of his death. Rather, it was due to pneumonia. I miss my grandfather. My sisters and I call him “Lolo”. He was a kind man. Lolo would always take chances in raffle promos in the town plaza. And when he won, he would give the prize money to me and Krichelle. However, we got separated from

Starbucks Coffee is my favorite place to unwind. Nothing beats the aroma of coffee wafting through the air, the smiles of the baristas, and the world class drinks. That is my sanctuary on earth. When I heard that Starbucks Coffee has finally opened in 18th Lacson St., Bacolod City, I was very much excited! Wow! Starbucks is here in Negros Occidental! I don’t need to dream of going back to Cebu just for me to have a Frappuccino! Really, I miss my favorite Toffee Nut Frap. And now, all I need to do is ride a bus for one hour and (voila!) I’m there! As Gleenece once told me, “Wow, Kandace! You couldn’t come to Starbucks. So, Starbucks took the initiative to come to you! Hahaha!” Yeah! And with this, I’m very thankful. I have always prayed to have my very own Starbucks in Negros Occidental. I mean, Starbucks followed me in Cebu and in Manila! Now, I’m pretty sure that Starbucks will follow me everywhere I go. It’s really true, happiness is easy to find. I have always wanted to experience b

Chemist Board Exam Blog Series Part Ten The Big Surprise All of us were very happy when September 11, 2008 came. A whole load of pain was taken from our hearts. We were all relieved of the pressures of the Board Exam. Even if we didn’t know when the results will come out, it didn’t stop us from enjoying our time in Manila. As Ian told me, “What you will do now will not affect the results.” A lot of us, including me, decided to go to the popular place called Divisoria. I was with the group of Jeb, Marvin, Gleenece, Bely, Jurgen, James, and Ate Ercel. We rode a jeepney going there. After a few minutes, Ate Ercel said that we reached the place. A lot of stores were completely covering the road that no jeepney could directly pass through. On entering the place, we were greeted by a horde of stuffed toys! There were pigs, Looney tunes characters, Naruto and other anime stuffs. I was so amazed at the place that was Divisoria. It was truly a shopaholic’s heaven! I heard that they se

Chemist Board Exam Series Part Nine Two Exam Days It was Mama Mary’s Birthday the day before the Board Exam. We celebrated that by attending the Holy Mass. And when night came, my friends (Gleenece, Jeb, Marvin, Warner, Josephus, Jerome, and Jason) and I gathered in Room 8 for a cramming session. Our mentors checked out on us from time to time. We were really scared but we didn’t let it conquer us. And by 10 PM, we headed off to sleep. We had a wakeup call at 5 AM. Rrrriiiiiiiing. It was my cellphone’s alarm ringing. Its volume was on maximum. But it wasn’t really needed. I didn’t have a good sleep that night probably because I was scared for the Board Exam that day. The cold shower surely waked me up! And that was all I needed to get my adrenalins running. Finally, it’s September 9, 2008! All of us were wearing white tops. That was the uniform that PRC has ordered. It was a pleasing day: a good humid weather with no rain. The bus’s air conditioner heightened the coldness o

Chemist Board Exam Blog Series Part Eight More Prayers Sharing the same home could really make friends bond together. Back in Manila, my friends and I considered Pius XII Catholic Center to be our temporary home. In there, we discovered a new side of ourselves that is rarely explored –us being more religious than we look. Nothing is sweeter than home! For personal reasons, I never planned to share my pilgrimage and set of prayers to my friends. “They may not find it significant.”, I thought. However, I was surprised one night when Gleenece, Jeb, and Marvin invited me to prayer. Well, I thought that it would only entail the Holy Rosary. So, I decided to go with them, the Holy Rosary was part of my prayer routine after all. In our four years of being friend, we rarely discuss religion in our group. But during that night, they revealed a religious side of themselves. They introduced me to a new prayer: The Novena to St Jude Thaddeus. Wow! I saw that prayer in Sto. Rosario Church

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well: Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not

Chemist Board Exam Blog Series Part Seven In Manila September 7, 2008 marked our journey to Manila for the upcoming board exam. My friends from the Chemistry Review Center and I had fun in the Mactan International Airport while waiting for our scheduled time to fly. After a week’s vacation from reviewing, we missed each other very much. We took pictures of ourselves and the landscapes that surrounded us. Some of them said, “This could be my last photo in Cebu.”. They came from Davao and will be directly heading back there after the Board Exam. All of us were both happy and scared. Happy because we will be staying in the Philippines’ metropolis for five to six days! But the tension of the Board exam scared our hearts! Passing the exam would determine our future in the scientific industry. After about an hour’s flight to Manila, we safely arrived at NAIA Terminal 3. We immediately found Warner, Josephus, and Jerome waiting for us. They were our friends and they had their flight an