Transition state = high energy, PV = nRT

Today on Facebook, my college batchmate posted a link to her new blog entitled "transition state = high energy".

That definitely caught my attention obviously because I think she got the idea from my comment on her post. :)

In a chemical reaction, it is in the transition state where the highest energy is needed.

Similar to life, whenever there is a transition taking place it takes a lot of energy to cope with the transition. Be it a transition from school life to work life or from bum life to work life.

Also on Facebook, I remember a friend posting this as her status:

It's no surprise that I figured that outright (hello, chemistry major!). And I love the statement! This is from the ideal gas equation PV=nRT, where P is pressure, V is volume, n is the number of moles of gas, R is the gas constant, and T is the temperature. Do the Math and you'll find out that "nakaka-[nRT/V]" translates to "nakaka-PRESSURE". This friend is studying for her upcoming board exam and trust me, I can completely sympathize with her.


I hope I'm not making noses bleed here... :)

Injecting some foreign language phrases into my vocabulary

To start off, my favorite Waray word is “ambot”, which means “ewan” in Tagalog. Having two Waray friends as my closest friends in college didn’t help me much in learning the language. Not that I’m not interested or anything. It’s just that we always talk pretty much in the same language, either English or Tagalog. And so, sad to say, “ambot” is the only Waray word injected to my vocab.


In contrast, having an almost 4-month vacation in Austria and being able to mingle with people of different nationalities there, I’ve learned quite a few of the basic phrases in various languages aside from German.


TURKISH
Nasılsın? How are you?
Iyi. I’m good./I’m fine.
Para yok No money
küçük small
büyük big

SERBIAN
Dobar dan! Good day.
Kako si? How are you?
Dobro. I’m good./I’m fine.
Šta radiš? What are you doing?

ALBANIAN
Mirëdita! Good day.
Si je? How are you?
Mirë. I’m good./I’m fine.
Faleminderit. Thank you.

Baklava — My classmates often mention this in class. I’ve known this as a kind of sweet/pastry but I never got to see nor taste it.


DISCLAIMER: I am only writing according to what I remember having learned from my classmates. Ergo, I am uncertain as to the accuracy of the aforementioned words and letters/characters and their corresponding translation. :)

Chris T. on Twitter!!

Eeeekkk! Oh-em-gee! I am now following Chris Tiu on Twitter. How cute. :o

I'm free

It puzzles me how I get weirder everyday. Like how I looked like I got my dream job as I went out of the Marine Science Institute building today — teary-eyed, smiling face and all. Man, I know it’s nuts but I was really elated a while back after my meeting with Ma’am Gisela. Totally unexpected that it turned out perfect, just not the way I imagined it would be. And soooooo, I am soooooo freeeee!…Oh, and jobless, by the way. :D

Ouch!

My back…my shoulders…my arms…my neck! Shouldn’t have practiced playing the violin that seriously. I didn’t push myself that hard, did I? See, I’m trying to play it perfectly but I ain’t perfect. Sadness. If not for my aching body parts, I would have played for an hour more or so. Good luck to tomorrow’s class!


Plus, I’m sick. Blame it on rainy days. This better be not THE virus that’s H1N1! I’m crossing my fingers…

The chicken in me

Just what is it with me?! After all my melodramatic overanalysis of things, crossing Rubicons and stuff, I ended up chickening out in the end. Booooo! Loser. I’m guilty as charged!


After 3 days at work, I decided to pull the plug. As to why I did it? It simply does not suit me and feels like I’d not be happy doing that job for a year. Maybe I can’t put up with the challenge of a project as big as it is or maybe the people, heck. Anyway, I know that in the future I’d be sorry I turned it down. I’ve had my dose of wasted chances. As a matter of fact, thinking about the past year, I realized how unthinkably I’ve passed up several opportunities. However, I’m more attached to the present than neither the past nor the future.


It’s actually hurting me that I can’t think of anything at all that I really want so bad in life. I came across this article that says,

True satisfaction comes from doing what you know you were created to do.

But the question lies on what am I really created to do. Still need to do some soul searching.

Happy birthday, Chris Tiu!

July 15.

Cracked nail and brain explosion

Overslept. More or less, I had about 13 hours of sleep last night. That’s to make up for my sleepless night the day before. Had to rush for my violin class so I merely slipped into my flip-flops and forgot that today is a lab day. Good luck to my feet! Well, starting yesterday everyday would be more or less a lab day except for weekends.


On the way to class, I noticed my cracked index fingernail. Wuhuhu, thanks to violin, which I’m loving, come what may. As soon as I make my first step inside the College of Music building, I can already feel the music! C’mon! Hearing the sounds coming from various instruments while walking along the hallway and corridors, wow, really puts me in high spirits. That’s why I always look forward to Tuesdays because of my violin class. Now, just how great is that? Save for the hassle of carrying my instrument in a jeepney. Still, just the same, no big deal for the hassle. 30 minutes of playtime is just awesome, getting better by the minute.


Enough of my cracked nail. The first two days of my future job was a blast! I say future job because it’d not be official til Thursday. Tomorrow’s Maria’s last day. Hopefully, I can make it through the hang-ups and eventually get the hang of it. Haven’t really felt the boss, though. I only met her once and she will not be visible at work til tomorrow. Oh, shoot! Which means…when she get back on Thursday, which is my official first day at work, I’d finally “see” her! And…she’ll finally have the chance to ambush interview me! Brrrrr…goosebumps! Back to my first two days, I was really overwhelmed by the responsibilities of my position. Information overload was the name of the game. In between Maria’s discussion of things, I find myself either spacing out or almost passing out. I was exhausted to death that for almost 8 hours a day for 3 days I was being told of this and that and these and those. Yeah sure, there are some of those things I already know of, but still there are more things that I need to familiarize myself with. That makes me think twice about doing this job. Yet another aversion to newness attack. Good luck!

Might be crossing a different Rubicon

Change of plans? Maybe. I’m at a loss.


I can’t believe I’m actually drinking coffee right now and planning not to sleep just to do some researching (yahoo-ing, I typed on the yahoo search bar) on “isolation and purification of bioactive compounds from marine organisms”. This is ludicrous defined! I thought of how ludicrous it is just now that I had to stop my searching (I’m only on the 6th page, item #1 of all search results: 51/38,200 results. Uh-oh. Sheez, I’m not planning on looking through all those! Maybe I should stop at page 6 while I still can.) and take time to blog about it.


It has been a long time since I last did this kind of academic routine. And my facebook status?

“can I really say goodbye to bum days??”

What what what? Starting yesterday, life’s giving me merely three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) to savor my freedom. Since I left my last job (which was mid-December of last year), I have been ultimately on a holiday-freeday-happyday mode, however you may call it. (That includes learning the German language and how to play the violin.) Might be hard to get it out of my system…but, bring it on! It’s just that things turned out to happen so abruptly — almost shocked me to death! Here’s how…

July 7, Tuesday
- received an email from Matet that there’s a job post at the Marine Science Institute for university researcher position

July 8, Wednesday
- thinking time…

July 9, Thursday
- finally sent an email of application to Dr. Gisela Concepcion
- received a reply from Dr. Concepcion telling me to see her Friday morning at her office
- started to research on the Philippines PharmaSeas Drug Discovery Project

July 10, Friday
- got interviewed by Dr. C. for I think less than 2 minutes, with asking my general weighted average (GWA) as the highlight of the “interview”. Here’s a paraphrased summary of our dialogue.

Dr. C. : You’re Raphlin?

Me : Yes, Ma’am.

Dr. C. : Yes, ok. Here’s Maria. She’ll show you around and tell you the things you need to know. Ok, so what’s your grade?

Me : (Ano daw?! Anong tanong? Grade? Oo, grade daw. So GWA? Oo yata. Ah wait…ah ok. Ngayon ko ba kelangang sagutin? Andami kayang tao dito…si Sir Gino, si Sir Louie, at kung sinu-sino pang di ko kilala. Capital O-M-G! Ang alam ko ambaba ng GWA ko eh…ano nga? Ang alam ko nasa recommendation letter ko yun from Ma’am Amor…wait…ah ok.)

Me : Ma’am, GWA is *.*

Dr. C. : Ah ok, pasado naman. Ok when can you start? If possible, sana ASAP.

Me : Ok, Ma’am. I can start on Monday. (Shoot! Sure ba ‘ako?! Bahala na.)

Practically, it took me about 10 seconds to answer the killer question.


Now I’m thinking if my getting that job was matter-of-factly and deliberately thought over by Dr. C. I guess not. Who knows? She might just have been preoccupied by a lot of things that day. I really wanted to tell her that I don’t have enough experience in bioassays and stuff and ask her if that’s fine. Not a chance. It’s really weird that I’m hoping for a reverse of fate that would disqualify me for the job. Feeling the pressure of having two of our chemistry instructors as workmates and considering how big (!!!) the project is, I can’t help but be browbeaten. Ok, so I’m chickening out and all, yes. Nonetheless, I have to constantly remind myself and accept the fact that “Hey Raph, this is the next level, this isn’t high school nor college anymore.” You have to STEP UP! As Melai puts it,

“Wala ng madali sa mundo.”

In reality, my problem may just be a grain of sand in a sandbox-sized problems of the world and I may be overanalyzing things here, but that’s the most rational thing I can think of to simply say to myself, in a consoling manner,

“You can do it!”

…and frankly,

“C’mon, get out of the box, coward!”

I figured that I am probably scared of falling short of people’s expectations. More often than not, I’d rather not try at all than fail. I’m just not cut out for the saying,

“It’s better to try and fail than to have never tried at all.”

Passing by Papemelroti, this one struck me bull’s eye,

“Everybody makes mistakes. That’s why they put erasers on pencils.”
-The Simpsons

So much for the quotable quotes, I should get back to business. I’m crossing my fingers for this different Rubicon I’m trying to cross.

Chillin' with Guji

Saturdays and Sundays, 5pm-8pm at Mellow 94.7. At last, DJ Guji! First saw Guji in an afternoon series of ABS-CBN, Bud Brothers. His character portrayal as Rei is so adorable that minutes later I find myself actually google-ing him already. And here’s what I discovered about Guji. That he is, in fact, a DJ for real! And so last Sunday, I got to finally hear him on his show. It’s pretty much…err, yeah, chillin’ time. Although when I tuned in to the show, it’s almost nearing the end so I didn’t really gauged how good or fitting it was for me. I still have to see in the future.

Diploma

Nahaaks!! Just got this last Friday, more than a year after graduation. Who’d have thought that this piece of paper…is just a piece of paper?! And one more thing, I never thought it would be written in Filipino. :) Nah, anyway, I had it translated for my graduate studies applications.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

I just learned how to play this song in my violin class today, which was my second session. I am so happy and I’m pretty much getting the hang of playing the violin! All thanks to my nice and brilliant teacher, Ms. Crissie. Keyword for the day: RELAX. Keeping this in mind for the rest of the session, I was able to play pretty well. In fact, the teacher teased me about playing in the recital at the end of the semester. Whoah! And I bet I’ll be playing together with 7-year old kids. No way! Haha. But of course, occasional squeaky sounds can not be avoided by a beginner. :) Way to go!

Crossing the Rubicon

I am about to cross the Rubicon. Actually, I just made the first step. My Mom called and I told her that I have decided to go there by September. This is definitely a big big move in this time of my life. Uncertain if I am making a right move, I am willing to take the risk. Just thinking that I’d eventually leave Mama, Tatay, Ninang, and the rest of the gang back home makes me cry buckets already! Like right now, I am. The kind that actually hurts my eyes because of the salinity of tears…


It can be helped, but sometimes it really can’t be helped. I have to move on with my life. Spending my time more than a year after graduation without accomplishing that much makes me feel like a dumbass. Nevertheless, I am just so glad that I got to spend time with family and friends. If only I can do that for the rest of my life, not having to earn a living at all, and still live with dignity. Deep inside, I know that’s what will make me really happy…just spend time with Mama and the gang. Oh shoot…how I wish I was born FILTHY rich! But, life says it just has to be this way. Go by the book. To the letters. In time, I’ll prove life wrong.