I’m turning twenty in 10 days or so.  I almost forgot about all about that.  Not that it really matters anyway, since I stopped caring about birthdays as soon as I grew too old to hold parties at McDonalds.  Sometimes I expect something special ought to happen on my birthday, but nothing ever does, and all it ever turns out to be is an excuse to ask my parents for an expensive gift.

Still, I am turning 20 - isn’t that supposed to be a milestone of sorts, like that time when girls turn 18 and blow their parents’ money on a really grand party?

Hm. 20. No thanks to that extra year I took in grade school,  I’m older than most of my friends - my batchmates in college.  Once I turn twenty, that one-year age gap will be more pronounced; there won’t be a -teen in my age anymore.   I guess that’s supposed to make me feel bad and old, but it doesn’t.  I bet I won’t miss being a teenager much, anyway, not if those years were the dumbest you’ve ever had.  And especially not if those dumb years are the only years you’ve had so far. There isn’t much glory in being young and stupid.  I’d rather be old and sure of myself than young, bumbling and whiny - although that last part probably won’t change, hahaha.

So I’m guessing this coming-of-age shiznit deserves a celebration.  Take a break from the hustle and bustle of school (which I am hating right now) and just unwind with the people you love. Actually, I’m thinking of taking a couple of high school friends out to lunch or something.  Most of them study in UP but we never get to hang out in school, so this’ll be an excuse to see them after so long.   But they’ll probably be busy, and I probably will be, too.  And my college friends… well, they have as much free time as I have, which isn’t much to speak of.  So no plans. Yet. Who knows.

In other news, Blogger is a fricking RETARD for suspending our group blog for “violation” of their Terms of Services.  They thought our blog was a spamblog. Stupid! We can’t even add entries, which sucks because I would really really love to rant right now.  I’d hate to go all emo-shitty again, so let’s just leave it at that.

1.  Psych majors cannot read minds, but I think being exposed to psychological thought makes us adept observers.  That means, while we aren’t the absolute authorities on human behavior, we can make very good (and almost accurate) inferences on what you’re thinking based on how you act.  You see, humans are painfully predictable. For example, we can tell when you don’t mean what you say, or if you’re trying to say something indirectly (in other words, hinting).

And because of that, I can’t help thinking in psychological terms when I’m in a social situation.  I don’t know if I’m explaining it correctly, but when I notice a particular behavior from someone, I always myself why he/she does that.  Then I come up with theories to rationalize their behavior.

Of course, I keep my observations and conclusions to myself.

2.  In everything I do, I almost always have an ulterior motive.  Not all the time, but there are times when I want the things I do to benefit me in the process.  I guess that makes me selfish.  Oh well.

3.  I am a diet soda addict. Ask my friends.  There isn’t a day when I don’t drink a diet cola.  After drinking, I drink a lot of water to wash the cola taste down.  Yeah, I’m weird like that.

4.  I am very, very anal about time.  I hate it when people are late for meetings.  I hate waiting.  I hate postponing things (but I do procrastinate a lot. Like right now. Ha ha.) I myself am rarely ever late, and when I arrive late I usually have a really good reason.

5.  The surest way to piss me off (aside from being late) is to not reply to my text messages.

Tagging whoever

Okay, the reason why I rarely update this blog anymore is that lately, my life’s been revolving around Psych 118 (Field Methods in Psychology). Nowadays I hardly ever do anything that’s not related to it. Not even “Egay” could come between me, my groupmates, and the paper we had to finish by tomorrow. The load and the sleepless nights have gotten me so worked up that I lost 5 pounds in a week - the same 5 pounds I tried to lose all semester last year. So I thought I’d spare you all from my academic angst, because you’d hate to read what I have to say when I’m as tired as I am right now.

Luckily, my groupmates and I finished our research proposal today, and we’re submitting it tomorrow. I won’t have to worry about 118 for another… 3 days or so.

In spite of all the bitching I do, I actually enjoy 118, and mainly because I have great groupmates. Sure, sometimes you get sick of being with the same people every damn day, but I just gotta love these two for making even the most stressful things fun. It’s still too early to get all mushy, though. We’ve gone through hell and back already but the semester’s only halfway done. The real work has yet to start. Once the proposal approved, the real psychological research begins. But so far, so good. The pain is not only shared, but halved. Into three. Ha ha ha. I love them.

And because our research is about blogging, it’s only fitting that we’d create a group blog! Hahaha. We even combined our names to symbolize how fricking united we are:

Marenzcine Andadiego!

Mar(ielle)(R)enz(Ra)cine An(geles)Dad(o)(Man)iego

Cool, huh?

So this will probably be the last time I’m mentioning 118 in this blog. From now on, the three of us will be chronicling our field research ups and downs in our group blog. Everything - from the triumphs to the suicidal tendencies - will be there.

Oh, comments really lift our spirits. So when you drop by, don’t forget to say hi.

Please, please let there be classes tomorrow. Schoolwork’s going to pile up . I can’t stand it anymore.

EDIT @ 11:34 PM: NOOOOOO… STUPID WEATHER!!!

EDIT: Alright, that’s it for now. A big, big thank you to everyone who responded. You guys were a big big biiiiig help, believe me

If you are a Filipino blogger, we could really use your help by answering this survey for our Psych 118 class. It won’t take much of your time, and you’ll be doing a good deed by helping stressed university students like us. Thank you so much!

Click here to get to the survey.

If you have any comments or questions, you can email us at sikolohiya118@gmail.com

–

Good day! We are a group of Psychology undergraduate students from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. For our final study in our Psychology 118 class (Field Methods in Psychology), we would like to explore the blogging phenomenon in the Philippines. This survey will give us an overall view of what a Filipino blogger is.

We would like to assure you that we respect your privacy, and will render all results anonymous. All blog URLs will be deleted after this study is completed.

If you have any questions about this survey, please send email to: sikolohiya118@gmail.com Thanks for your help!

Angeles, Lordan Lorenz S.
Dado, Marielle L.
Maniego, Racine Denise C.
Department of Psychology
University of the Philippines, Diliman

It’s times like these when I feel like my life would make a really interesting story. If only I possessed a gift for words, I’d write a highly-fictionalized, sci-fi-ed account of my life thus far, psychological turmoils and all.
It will be my magnum opus. A futuristic horror/psychological thriller set in a dystopic society. Then I’d sell it to a publisher. It would fly off the shelves. Some big movie company will buy the rights and turn my life story into a Hollywood film, with some oversexed actress cast as me. I’d be filthy rich, then. Living in the absence of worry.

Unfortunately, these days, the only things I’m writing are research exercises for Psych 118. So, damn, this really blows.

Who else is having a pleasant semester? I am.

In the words of Racine, my dear groupmate and partner in almost everything school-related nowadays, Psych 118 is a time-consuming, unforgiving bitch.  We have 3 papers due within two weeks, and no, that span of time is not enough. But complain is all I ever do.  It’s what I signed up for, after all.  In any case, I’m glad my groupmates are two good friends that I love dearly, even if we tend to be crabby with each other at times -  pardonable, given the circumstances.  Hahaha. We’re practically taking the same subjects this semester, so essentially we’re bitching about the same things.  We die together. Hahaha.

I only got an hour and half’s sleep last night, writing two papers for one of my Psych classes.  And to think I had started them both last Friday.  What the hell.  Well, at least I got more sleep than a friend of mine who stayed in the UP Main Library until 12:00 A.M., then moved to McDonald’s Philcoa, got home at 3 A.M. and only slept for about 20 minutes.

Whoo.  I never realized how tough college/psychology is until this year. Hahaha.

Yeah, sorry for the lack of updates, but really, I think it’s good that you’ve all been spared from my rants on how tired I am all week.

I’d love to tell you more about how stressed I am, but I really must sleep now.  But something tells me I’m going to be blogging regularly again because… we (my friends and I) are going to do a study on bloggers for our Psychology class. Hahaha.  So yeah, wait for that one, because if you’re a blogger yourself, chances are I’ll be needing your help.

See ya!