albert camus – BRYOLOGUE

As usual, I am typing things through a stream of consciousness. I would have wanted to be more structured with how my points are presented on this ‘radical’ move, but most of my entries trying to make a strong point are done as an internal monologue anyway, thus the name ‘bryologue‘. What prompted me to totally quit Facebook? A more direct answer might have been exasperation with the general public, but I have this perfect opportunity to elaborate on the motivation.

First of all, I did not have an Instagram account, not until four weeks ago. I am still using a BlackBerry phone, and as we know, it does not have a native Instagram application. I got really curious with all the brouhaha on the likes and hashtags, and it seems that it is a prerequisite for people around my age to have one. I might be missing out on something. I have a no-name Android tablet my father gave me a year ago when he went home, which I primarily use for reading Ebooks. The 4 gigabyte memory card capacity was rife with PDFs and Epubs. I am ashamed to say this, but I finally gave in and created an Instagram account just to get over the curiosity of why people are crazy about it.

Albert Camus’s “L’Etranger” realized on Lego pieces

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A week after my adventure to fix my requirements in the university, I was back earlier to get some of the papers that require shorter waiting time. According to the OUR, my Transcript of Records won’t be due until the 29th and I can’t do anything but trust and hope that they will release it on the said date. I desperately need my TOR on the 31st.

I first went to the Shopping Center to have one of my classmate’s book photocopied, then I took the TOKI jeep to the Registrar. I was really hesitant because I have no idea how the route would be, and the last time I have taken this jeepney during my undergrad, I was made to walk from Mathematics to FC because the driver told everyone that it was his last stop. I was forever traumatized. LOL Anyway, I reached the Registrar to claim the Certified True Copy of my undergraduate diploma. I must admit, I was expecting that it would be just a photocopy of my diploma in a bond paper, but I did not know they will be using the same fancy paper as the original one. The only difference was the university seal. In lieu of the foil material bearing the seal in the lower left-hand corner, the CTC just had a dry seal indicating that it was a “Certified text of the original”. I also got my True Copy of Grades from CAL and CSSP, just in case.

Before leaving school, I dropped by the BookSale in AS Walk to see if they have interesting books for sale. I saw a very old copy of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan but I did not buy it. This was the same place from which I previously bought a now-lost copy of Albert Camus’ L’Etranger and I was hoping to see other French novels as well. While perusing the Language, Arts & Poetry shelf, I saw these two books::

Upon seeing Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris, I suddenly remembered my classmate who made a thesis around the book. She was having a hard time with the book because it was admittedly a handful to read even in English, and to do it in the native language that it was written was way harder. The other one was Voltaire: Romans et Contes, which was far easier to digest in the manner that it contains shorter stories, compared to Hugo’s. The best thing about these books, they only cost Php 120 each. I think I had a great bargain.

Two days ago, I expressed my desire to buy more cotton shirts for the upcoming summer season and I had unexpectedly begun earlier. On my way to work from school, I decided on a whim to kill time and challenge myself to look for interesting finds in the big Ukay complex in Cubao.

I ended up buying three shirts for a ridiculously low price. The white Graniph shirt with the old-school camera print was sold at Php 35 (not even close to a dollar). Then I bought from another stall this cross-eyed Abraham Lincoln shirt for Php 89 and the shirt with the Atari logo print for Php 59. The overall total: Php 183 or barely US$ 5. ^_^

Tomorrow, I will be returning to UP Shopping Center to get the ‘original’ book (as it was also a photocopied book) and hopefully return it to Tin. =D We will also be watching Ang Lee’s The Life of Pi tomorrow in Trinoma after eating dinner in Mashitta. I also wanted to watch Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty but maybe we can have room for that next weekend. Of course, I’m also most excited on the 16th — Les Misérables will be finally screened here in Manila!