According to Grey and Tina, my chinese name is supposed to be read like this: PAN ZHE XI. This is how it looks like.

Of course, saying it is fine. Writing it is plainly a pain in the ass.

PAN is supposed to be my surname, which really amounts to nothing except it sounds a little like my real surname. ZHE means Philosopher. XI means rare. Hanep. Pag binasa ng tunay na pilipinong bisayang bata (disclaimer: no grudges against visayans, just stressing a point), parang Dye-si. JC. Galing talaga.

Ang galing. Di naman ako chinese. *laughs*

Tina’s thesis-mate asked me yesterday if I was chinese. She was apparently the principal of a chinese school in Wack-wack. Not even a little bit chinese? she asks. Yeah, sure. No secret handshake but there’s a bloodline prerequisite.

So I’m thinking of a good excuse to bring up everytime someone asks me some question like that again. Although my Lola was half chinese, I didn’t inherit anything remotely chinese (No, affinity with Meteor Garden telenovelas is Taiwanese, you dork), so I’ll just invent things up: my dad and my mom were half chinese, but they had to change their surname because they wanted to naturalize. Pagtakhan. Formed from the name “Han,” which is our real chinese name (which suspiciously sounds Jap). My dad hated his parents so he left home to go to the Phils with my mother. At this point I’d have to cry so I won’t have to disclose anything to the listener. Then I’d say that I was really chinita, except my dad had my eyes surgically fixed so I’d lose my chinese traces. Yep. He hated his parents THAAAT much. (my grandparents ripped off his Marlon Brando poster for insubordination which pissed him off, big time) Which also explains why I didn’t learn any Mandarin words. Nor do I have a chinese name. I also took some pills to condition my skin to look like I’m Filipina-tanned.

Heh heh. Good enough, no? Now call any chinese principal and I’d willingly retell this anytime.

Grouchy Wednesday morning, believe me. I feel I couldn�t be cheery enough. I wasn�t able to sleep last night because I was still troubled, not with my difficulty of breathing (which stopped miraculously minutes after I talked to Jace) but rather with the shock hanging over my head. Spent the night listening to new tapes I�m thinking of converting into cds (and no, JP, don�t tell me that�s piracy) which, come to think of it, agitated me more. I settled for Lifehouse�s Stanley Climbfall to soothe me in the end.

I asked Jace to wake me up at 5am for my 7am class, but I texted him instead at that time telling him he doesn’t have to wake me up; I didn’t sleep anyway. I tried to sleep while I’m on my way on the FX but I still couldn’t. I don’t blame NU107 which was blaring in my ears. It was a diversion.

I sneaked inside my classroom 45 minutes late. Found out the instructor still haven’t checked the attendance, to my relief. But also found out I wasn’t in his roster of attendance. Darn it. I don’t know why I even bother to enter this class. Some of us probably know more than he does, and I don’t even know this lot. I just blocked with this section because I got lost in the adding/dropping part last enrolment.

Tina just texted. She was asking if I was okay. Had to smile. Last night, while on the verge of collapsing, I was trying to mutter the names of some people nearest to me that could/might give me temporary strength. Jace. Jace. Jace. Tina. Tina. Tina. Couldn’t think of anybody else. If anybody could save me at that moment, I couldn’t even think about my own parents probably running to rescue me. Tina and Jace might not be able to save me either, but their memory somehow made me smile. That’s enough.

I have to list more people that could save me when I’m in distress. They can’t save me outright, or even deliberately won’t, but at least their memories will. If ever I have another case of panic/hyperventilation, at least if ever my heart fails to function or if my vains snap quickly, I’d be smiling. That would be good enough.

ps:

Jace, I really can’t thank you enough. I can’t promise to pay your possibly high phone bill because of me last night (from Bulacan…it’s the same rate nationwide, right?), but I do promise to never forget you for the rest of my life because at the moment I was the least strong, at the moment when I declared myself to be lonely, and at the moment I was so vulnerable, you just kept on whispering at the other end of the line. You’ll never know how much comfort that gave me. Thank you.

Check out http://www.thirdcharm.blogspot.com. That is George’s blog; his latest report included that of the year’s controversial news about De La Salle - Dasmarinas’ losing its University title. Well explained, really.

But for those who need a recap, this is what happened.

System schools, like that of University of the Philippines, follow a certain grand charter that�s applicable to all of the schools under its wing. However, that charter acts only as the charter for the system, not for the individual schools. Now, in order for a school to stand on its own as a university, it then has to have its own charter. Inside the De La Salle System, the only schools who have its own charter are De La Salle University � Manila (DLSU-Manila), and De La Salle University � Araneta.

Apparently, De La Salle � Dasmarinas has been carrying the University title since before (its former name, being De La Salle University � Dasmarinas), yet it still doesn�t have its own charter. Due to that, the school had to apply for its University name retention, which the Commision on Higher Education (CHED) promptly denied, due to being deficient in 4 fields.

Technically, De La Salle � Dasmarinas is not a University.

However, this is the very same statement that most of the population, headed by most of the faculty and administration, deny vehemently, claiming that we are still a University being an overflow from DLSU-Manila�s charter. And that we are still a part of the De La Salle University System. But this declaration is proving to be misleading. First off, for a school to be an overflow of another school, they have to be 1) an extension, and 2) not a separate entity. Such is the case that happened with AMA�s being approved of the University status. When AMA�s main campus held the name University to its name, an AMA school here in Cavite followed suit, also attaching the University to its name thinking it was applicable to all the AMA schools. Later on, CHED had to point that out, and AMA Cavite promptly took off the University name and replaced it with �Cavite Campus.�

Therefore, in order for us to be an overflow of DLSU-Manila, we have to be proclaimed as an extension. However, DLS-D is claiming to be a separate entity, which is the main reason why the school is applying for its own University status. The use of the University title is therefore, illegitimate.

This is the very same issue that�s been occupying the gossip line of Lasallians for the past week. Since the release of Heraldo Filipino Vol 19 Number 01, July issue, people have been riding on the bandwagon, trying to place different opinions on the subject. The most popular is that we (Heraldo Filipino/I being one of the two writers who composed the banner headline, with the help of our News editor Maycee who practically re-overhauled the news article) could have written it in a rather positive angle. They claimed that we downed the school when we could have uplifted it.

Most of us from the publication were trying to laugh it off despite the obvious emotional and professional plus academic tensions. What are we going to write? our Editor-in-Chief asked, write down, �We can be a University?�, coupled by laughs from my editor. No matter how you put it, you cannot place a good side to a bad subject. In the first place, why should one sugar-coat such a thing?

People are claiming we�re biased. Students are saying we wasted their money. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the accusation of the century.

First off, we presented both the facts: the administration�s side, and the students� side. We placed rather hopeful comments from the admin, while we placed the disgusted comments of the students. The end of the article was even hopeful. And we printed what we believe the students deserve to know. We told them the truth. The majority of what comprised this school is us students, and we were given obscure facts: some said we were doing it to conform to the university system (because there�s the De La Salle � Lipa, De La Salle - Canlubang), others said we didn�t lose the title, just improving it. If HF were not going to give them the facts, who would?

Heraldo Filipino is created by the students FOR the students. We did it for them to know the truth that they deserve. These students paid good money because they were assured DLS-D was a separate entity, a real university first and foremost, with only the school being a part of the Lasallian system as a huge consolation. If there are students who were angered by the news, then the people who were covering their ears ought to know what these people feel.

We are not downing the school. Like the vast majority, we are also hoping. We love the school. We are Lasallians, after all.

What�s going to happen next, we can only hope it�s a good one.

Tagal na nitong nakapending. Ngayon ko lang na push yung info sa ibang lists.

If you would check out my links sa ilalim, nandun yung links ko ng spongebob at BRock. Kung tinatamad kang tingnan yung baba, eto yun.

It’s my pet project. Nakakatamad nga naman ng photos lang, kailangan naka magazine format. Para it keeps me busy. Para it keeps me from rambling. hehe.

Yun lang. Advertisement lang naman ito actually. Puntahan ninyo. Tapos, bargasin ninyo. Para masaya. Haha.

Happy….

…birthday to…

you.

*laughs* Hi Jace. Happy Birthday. Kailan naman ang libre mo? Bilis, tayong tatlo ulit!