Taking a break from work

So what's up with my life lately? I just celebrated my birthday last Saturday and got an awesome Nintendo Gameboy SP from my mom. My sis gave me this cool Rin Tosaka action figure from the Anime Fate Stay Night. It's just a shame that I'm not able to fully enjoy those gifts since I've been cramming my 200 hours of OJT time in just a span of a few weeks. I need to finish it in time before the school starts. I'm working at the Quality Assurance Laboratory of Pure Foods, by the way. The plant is located in Marikina City which is convenient since I know that place like the back of my hand. The QA department normally hires licensed chemists and engineers but I think a person with a MAC degree is qualified as well. Although there might be some restrictions to what such a graduate can do since they are not licensed to sign forms and make recommendations.

Why Buy Rice?

First of all, I'm not endorsing other rice alternatives nor am I discouraging people from consuming rice. I like rice and you can pretty much guess it's a part of my diet since I'm Asian. However, I want to talk about the alarming rate at which the government is importing rice from other nations. Just recently, the countries from the Indochinese region banded together to form the Organization of Rice and Exporting Countries or OREC. Rumor has it that they are planning to regulate the price of rice in the international market just like how OPEC regulates oil prices. It's clear why this is happening. The global food crisis is still not over and it looks like it will stay here with us for a while. And what does the Philippine government do about it?

What I've been working on recently

Since the semestral break last year, I was working on a novel inspired by ideas I learned from my Philosophy classes. I couldn't explain what kept my imagination running to produce a novel 15 chapters long. I think writing is a great form of release from all the depressing truths of reality. At least when it comes to writing, I'm able to create my own world, my own rules and decide on the fate of every single character I give life to. After all, story characters are at the mercy of their writer.

I finished the entire novel last February but I was only able to publish it online a few days ago due to the many school activities and the bad internet connection that caused major delays. For the lack of creativity, I named some of the characters and places in the story after my college friends. But not to worry. I only used their names and not their personalities. There is nothing personal about this novel ;) Got any comments? Saw some typographical errors? Feed-backs are most welcome.

Click HERE to access the novel

Something I always wanted to do

We all have a childhood dream and more often than not, these dreams are far too wild and outrageous to achieve. Some people are actually lucky enough to achieve theirs. I'll be honest with you. Working in an office or laboratory and playing around with science is not my actual goal. But due to a lot of practical realizations, it turned out to be the next best thing. When I was a child, I always wanted to be an aircraft pilot. But not just any pilot - a fighter pilot. Civilian aircraft pilots have too much responsibilities that I don't want to handle like taking care of live cargo, which we often refer to as human passengers. Fighter pilots, however, handle jets that are small, highly maneuverable and, best of all, insanely fast. When you fly, there is only the heavens above you and the earth below you. The sky is practically your own playground. Because of the vast space the sky offers, you can go breaking sound barriers and do sharp dives, climbs and rolls.

But despite all the adrenaline rush, flying has its own hazards mainly plunging towards the earth and crashing. This is why I resort to the next best thing - playing flight simulator games. With the arrival of supercomputers and sophisticated software, simulated flight becomes as good as the real thing. The only difference is that there is no risk of crashing and you can redo your flights as often as you like.

We all have a childhood dream. What's yours?