pranked by gadgets

I recently had fun downloading new Windows gadgets for my desktop. Most of them are just "useless" but fun stuffs, some have real use. I have this Fortune Cookie gadget that just tells you stuffs you don't really believe in (but it's fun clicking it and reading what it says). I also have a Magic 8-Ball gadget, which works like the real thing only that you click it instead of shaking, since I've always wanted to buy this toy but thought it was expensive for something with no real use.

So I was bored and thought of reading my fortune from the cookie jar and it said, "Just be yourself, you are wonderful.". [Wow...might as well believe it huh].

Then, out of curiosity of what my magic ball has to say to that, I clicked it and it said, "Are you kidding?"

Oh well...

Purple Soup and Orange Balls for the Rainy Day

So the rainy days has officially kicked off with a typhoon (I don't know the name). We're on public storm signal no. 1 (classes are not suspended) and it's raining cats and dogs outside. It has been raining since early this morning and it looks like the skies have no plans of stopping just yet. The coldness is such a welcome change from the very hot summer days. And you know how our appetite boosts when it's cold. Well, I don't know about you, maybe it's just me. This time I was craving for something hot so we went out to get something to eat and just great coz we came across some purple soup snack (a.k.a. ube nga binignit). Lami kaayo! Then we saw some orange balls (a.k.a. kwek kwek) frying by the sidewalk we couldn't resist. Guba jud ang diet! Hehehe...

Relief at last?

Moments ago, I placed an online order for some sinusitis relief that, according to their ad, is very effective. I hope I don't get penalized (or something) by Google AdSense for clicking on an ad displayed on my own blog. It's just that, it has been what I've been waiting for---something that will ease all the inconvenience and pain I get from my chronic sinusitis. I'll be expecting it to arrive next week and I really hope it will work magic on me.

Thoughts From the Toilet

I recently noticed that some of my most brilliant ideas and realizations came to me whilst taking a crap. *Excuse me*. Funny as that may sound but NO KIDDING!

* One of my colleagues asked me some time ago how to convert a Queue to a Stack (ADT's) with minimum revisions on the code but because I wasn't really paying attention and my mind was busy with other stuffs, I wasn't able to answer her. That night, while I was sitting on the toilet doing my thing (you know) and looking at black ants crawling the wall (which is a long queue), I realized that the answer to the question was very simple...you simply enqueue at the front of the queue (FIFO) instead of the rear and it will now work as a stack (LIFO). And that will take only one line of code to change (index only if the implementation is an array).

* I have been teaching Discrete Mathematics for almost 4 years now. Being one with more experience on the subject, Miss Cathy, who was then starting to teach DM, asked me on practical applications of Mathematical Induction, which is one of the most pain in the a$$ topics for most students because it's highly mathematical and theoretical. I couldn't give a very "pracatical" answer at that time. BUT days ago, I finally thought of it (and I'm wondering why it didn't come to me earlier). It can be applied in programming, for example, if you have a function that takes n as input and outputs the sum of the nonnegative numbers from 1 to n. Normally, what we can easily think of is to loop from 1 to n and have a variable that accumulates with each pass of the loop, which has a time complexity O(n). But since we can prove by mathematical induction that the sum of the numbers from 1 to n is equal to [n(n+1)]/2, then instead of looping, the function can simply return [n(n+1)]/2, and that would be O(1). We all know that O(1) is better than O(n). And again, that came to me while I was taking a crap.

* Our Dean (and pretty much everyone in the higher ups), has been encouraging (and quite urging) us to do research, even the most simple correlational studies because we understand that it's really one of our weaknesses (of the school, in general). I have done one correlational study in the past but it was so simple that I felt it was just an example in the my Elementary Statistics class in college. Then yesterday morning, again while sitting on the toilet taking a crap, I thought of a more complex and (hopefully) has more impact study. I haven't mapped the details yet, but I have the general idea.

* And, of course, the idea to blog about this came when I was sitting on my "thinking chair" doing my thing. Haha.

Cashless Food Tripping

Why did we decide to go on a food trip when we're all broke? Uhmmm...the human instinct to feed oneself (rather extravagantly), of course. Ha!

It was this afternoon that Sir Rafran decided to take advantage of the sale at SM to look for a jacket and tagged Sister Mulan, Richelle and me along BUT actually turned out to be a food trip slash pigout session. He didn't find the jacket he wanted after going through the so many stores and we got hungry. So what's the next logical thing to do? Look for a place to eat...and at a quite fancy place coz our hungers suddenly turned fancy after realizing that we all don't have much cash. So the logical place would be where we can swipe. And just as well coz we were actually thinking about baked scallops, grilled squid, etc. (Rather expensive hungers, don't you think?) We decided to try out The Lamesa, with their "lutong bahay" meals. We ordered pork sisig (one of the best I ever tasted), inihaw na whole squid (the sauce is to die for), beef sinigang, pork barbeque, drinks (iced tea, mango, calamansi), and 6 servings of rice. Wow..for three "small" ladies and a guy (who is not small), that's a lot of food! When we were done, we could barely move with our heavy bulging tummies. And rightly so coz the whole thing costed a whooping 1,200 pesos. Ha!

The Food Trippers:Sir Rafran and Sister Mulan


Me and Miss Richelle

Nasal Irrigation

I feel a lot better this morning. Thank God! For days, my sinusitis has been at its worst, I could barely breathe. I have read somewhere about nasal irrigation as sort of relief for sinusitis, which I finally decided to try. It's not difficult and the materials are as simple as table salt, water, and something to pump the solution up through your nose. I used medicine dropper for it but something that can pump stronger would have been better. I was surprised that it actually worked, at least for awhile. It doesn't hurt, but a little uncomfy. If it hurts, it's either you add more salt or water coz I think there is a concentration that's just right for your nose. The feeling is like when you're swimming in the sea and the seawater gets to your nose. (Noticed how we keep blowing our noses when we are in seawater?) It cleared nasal passages, although I still can't smell anything but at least I can breathe using my nose now (instead of mouth). So I guess I'll keep doing this for awhile. If you have this very irritating (although not fatal) sinusitis, you might want to give this a try.

Sick and sh*t talk

I'm back in Cebu and I don't feel so well. I still have the coughs and colds from weeks ago. I went home last week and got sick with fever (I guess that was flu...swine flu?). It has been 2 weeks or so that my olfactory sense is not functioning. I can't smell anything and it sucks! But I don't know why but my appetite isn't a bit affected. I still eat A LOT. So as a result, I feel sick and I'm getting so fat! How bad can it get, huh? I would have wanted to stay home and rest but we had a very important meeting yesterday so I had to come back sooner than when classes start. And I know that I was supposed to go home immediately after meeting yesterday and rest but my colleagues and I went to SM to have lunch. We strolled after eating, then talked and talked a lot not minding about the time. So I didn't have rest. But it doesn't matter coz I had fun. We ended up having our dinner there and more talks til the mall closed. Now, I'm feeling worse than yesterday physically but I know I'll be fine soon. I just hope it's as soon as Monday when classes for the first semester of school year 2009-2010 start.

The gang at SM:

Sir Rafran and Miss Leah (loveteam of the year)

Cute ladies: Mulan, Me, Richelle.

You might have noticed that I had my hair treated and my eyebrows are thinned (against my will actually). During our 5+ hours of chicka, we have again confirmed the fact that no matter how long the talk is, it all goes back to sh*t. Yes, we ended up talking about fecal matters (and we were at the food court, mind you) and we don't know how we got there.

Off to home

I'm going home to Leyte tonight. I'm quite excited coz my parents are planning on an island adventure trip. Didn't I tell you that they are more adventurous than I am these days? That must be their version of "midlife crisis". Anyway, as long as there's beach, swimming, and food involved I'm all good. Problem is, I have a lot of things to bring on my trip home tonight including a stove and a tent besides a sling bag, a backpack, etc. Huhu. Good luck to me!

I'll tell you about our family summer adventures when I get back online. Ciao!

Swimming makes you fat!

Our swimming lessons is coming to an end as summer also ends. This is by far one of the most enjoyable summers ever. Even if we're busy with school work in the middle of the summer term, we still got to relax in the water with our summer lessons. To me, it's not really about learning to be good swimmers. What really matters is the fun we all have and the break from other serious stuffs. Of course, this activity doesn't count as exercise because...we eat a lot after! And I mean A LOT. What can I say...swimming makes us so hungry that even if we have eaten before, we still grab something to chow after. It's not only about relieving the hunger but a chance for some girl talk. We share thoughts, experiences, talk about "boys", exchange advice, ideas, or whatever it is that girls talk about. The following pics were all taken after our swimming lessons. We call them "afterswim sessions" (yes, pig out sessions).

@ McDonald's Jones

@ Da Vinci's Pizza (we had pizza and coffee...perfect!)

@ Starbucks Crown Regency. We are Saturday regulars already.

@ Greenwich Colon

@ STK. Delicious baked scallops, squid, shrimp stew and adobong kangkong.

So instead of slimming down, we are getting fat!

girl talk and expensive coffee

I love how this pic physically resembles me and Sister Mulan. She is slightly taller and I'm slightly darker. Harhar!

I don't really know why but it seems that girl talk is a whole lot better when we are dosed with expensive coffee. Sister Mulan and I, for example, always share our life updates over at Starbucks (or Coffee Bean or Gloria Jean's) drinking overpriced coffee. We, my swimming buddies and I, also have a weekly coffee and girl talk session after our Saturday lessons at the nearest Starbucks (which is at Crown Regency). So yeah, taking swimming lessons is a lot more expensive than you initially pay for. BUT the fun of girl bonding is all worth it!

(By the way, the pic is courtesy of my new Sony Ericsson T700. Hehe)