... in which the Fool tries to juggle hobbies unsuccessfully

I never imagined how difficult engaging in multiple hobbies can be. I mean, I've always just categorized all my hobbies under the word "gaming" and ignored a lot of the terminologies and other stuff associated with them. After all, who'd be crazy enough to engage in all of them at the same time, right?

Well, look no more. I'm the fool who went out of his way to try to check up on all his hobbies at the same time. Aside from playing card games, and console games, and network games, and role-playing games, and what-not, I still check up on some of my other interests such as anime, manga, and other people's records. Granted, looking at other people's records isn't exactly stressful (one might even say that it's very... relaxing), but when your taskbar has several windows waiting on you, each one of them opened up to a specific site not related to everything else, well, sooner or later, you'd find just how difficult it is it concentrate your thoughts on just one single topic.

On the other hand, concentrating on only one particular subject will also force your mind to disregard every other unrelated topic. Which is irritating when you have a lot of topics to check up on.

Take for example today. I started with checking my email as usual, then proceeded to look at everybody else's blogs (which were relatively unmodified), then proceeded to open several windows, each dedicated to different games: one was on the Vs. card game, another was on Super Robot Wars, another was on D&D, another was on DotA, and yet another was on Naruto, the manga.

Everytime I switched from one window to the next, I could feel my brain going sideways, trying to understand what was happening, how the robots suddenly could perform team attacks at the opponents base while rolling d20's. Its disconcerting, I know. Much more when you realize that you understand everything that is happening, and then figure out that you're reading something else already, and convincing yourself that they're all not connected to each other...

Confusing? I'll bet. Think of it this way, you're watching a Disney cartoon about Cinderella, and all of a sudden while she's on her way to the ball, she finds that her coach, a dwarf that only knows how to whistle, is taking her on her way to Agrabah, while singing something about the Circle of Life. You understand everything that's happening, but can't really figure what's wrong, immediately...

Sigh, this must be what people call, brain-overload... Or something.

Right now, I'm trying to shake off the idea of Sakura being a 4-cost Naruto character with a super ability fighting off hordes and hordes of treants in Eberron... Brrr...

I think I'll just go back to my multiplexing lessons. Try to sort out the various input signals coming into my brain and making sure my cerebrum can receive each incoming data stream into the proper brain pocket...

... in which the Fool enjoys a strange holiday

I've never realy appreciated holidays before. When I was still in school, I just thought of holidays as more ways to say "I'm going to school to do a project" (which usually was the case, although there were times when I would just sneak out to watch a movie with friends). These days, holidays mean, no traffic, no crowds in network stores, and shorter travel times.

The thing that makes this holiday strange though, is the fact that it was announced a holiday a day after the president insisted that it wasn't going to be. People have been a little confused on whether its really going to be a holiday or if its going to be a "office decision" holiday. I mean, make up your mind properly, would you??

... I was supposed to tell more stories. But the thing with reading other people's records while writing on your own, you tend to get distracted. Hey, I'm only human, with my own weaknesses. When I see something interesting in other people's blogs, I can't help it if my own brain suddenly shuts off just to enjoy a few minutes of bliss...

Anyway. I'll try to trudge on despite the obvious lapse in my brain right now.

Last Saturday, I went to Ateneo in order to get our yearbook (that's been 2 years too late now...) and to attend to other activities (meeting up with Jenny, attending IC's surprise party, etc.) I've already seen the previous years' yearbooks, but I would think that ours takes the cake. The thing is HUGE, probably designed to look like an encyclopedia set (a novel idea really) with 5 books, 4 of them representing each of the Schools, and the last featuring the organizations that dot the Atenean land and thoughtscape. Maybe its just me, but I thought it would be better if they had also put in pictures of the various faculty instead of just their names, and with absoultely no description at all. Its just not a yearbook if you can't see your teachers there as well (at least, you can't call it a yearbook if the picture of that one single faculty, the one that ruined your school experience, isn't there to be cut out, burned, scratched out, drawn over, photocopied and posted on wanted posters, or any other thing you could think of).

Its also annoying that the new-fangled CD option that lets you see the yearbook on your computer wasn't included. Maybe they people intended it to be released later this year, where you have to pay a little more just so you could enjoy it at home or whatever. Personally, I think there weren't a lot of people that gave out their own multimedia stuff to have fit inside the CD. Also, I don't think I've seen the page where they were supposed to print the answers to some classic questions as "What is the one place that you have not gone in the Ateneo" "Who among the faculty would you want to have as a classmate" and what not. I don't think the makers of our batch's yearbook got to that part of their plan, they suck. And to think they needed more than a year just to get our yearbook out.

(As I said, I seem to be rambling from one topic to the next and not making a coherent thought at all...)

Just a little bit of trivia, the batch after ours, managed to get THEIR yearbooks, earlier than WE did. So, just imagine our irritation...

I just spent the evening of Saturday thumbing through the hundreds of pictures trying to look for people that I recognized. Thankfully, I was able to call out at least one person from each volume as I leafed through the pages. Meaning, I wasn't as introverted as I thought I was. Its just too bad that I didn't bother to count how many I indeed recognized, but I doubt that it would go past 100.

But enough about the half-ton yearbook. Its been dissed several times over by various other people even before I got my copy. Clearly, there have been a lot of people that were disappointed with it, especially with all the new features they were promised during that hectic week of preparations. I guess I'm just more willing to let it go, and wait for the time that they will release the damned CD's.

What I really liked about Saturday was IC's party, he was very quiet about it, not giving any reason as to why he wanted to treat everybody out. I mean, the reason probably was so obvious after a little bit of thinking, but he just didn't want to say it out loud. I'm thankful that he actually invited Jenny as well, seeing as they're not really very close friends, but still, the gesture was greatly appreciated. To IC: (thumps chest) You Da Man!!!

The thing is, as soon as Jenny and I arrived, Aaron, Terence, and Adnan started playing all sorts of tricks at me, as if ignoring the fact that I was there, and concentrating solely on entertaining Jenny. One might say even, trying to impress her. Knowing that they were friends (really, they are.), I knew that they had no malicious intent... But still, seeing what they did....

Well, I could feel something not nice coming up from within my heart.

Of course, I fought it down. Everyone was a friend there, and they were just having fun (obviously at my expense) but it was ok. Even Hubert and Jun joined in on the merriment for a while. But eventually, they had their fill. And eventually, I regained control as well.

Everyone was having so much fun in the party. Even Domon wanted me to cut his chicken and pizza and spaghetti for him (perhaps he likes it when some guy puts food on his plate) but I declined. It would be unfair if I made his chicken for him, while all my other friends didn't get the same treatment from me. I swear, either these guys don't know how to get their own food, or they don't know how to get their own food.

Of course, the guys didn't stop picking on me until Jenny left, when we were finally able to play DotA in relative quiet.