big. fat. chance.

OKAY, now: the last two weeks of the summer vacation (like i have one). all the outings are packed in that time frame when the rainy season's here. next week, office outing: trip to Corregidor + overnight camping (lying down next to dead soldiers). week after next, dash's inviting to have another go: the girls' Bum Around Day (BAD, just my coinage) at her place, definitely yes. then the family trip on the last weekend of May to coincide with my pa's birthday. no venue yet. i missed Pahiyas this week. mark salvatus left for indonesia, another exhibition. he's supposed to be host, the hotshot visual artist/pride of lucban. hahaha. tsssh, too bad, and i was really looking forward to that. saved ten film rolls for that trip. oh well. maybe next year.

i did get to accomplish something the past weeks: learn a few things. basic Filipino Sign Language thanks to the Philippine Deaf Resource Center, who had been conducting free FSL classes in UP. it's great and i'm looking forward to volunteering for their art-related (theater and visual art) programs. [on the lighter side, i already know how to say "your classmate stinks, can you pay me twenty bucks?" and "your sweetheart is handsome, can i borrow him?" in sign language.]

onward, they say. i see this year as my year of 'raketeering,' to save up for the master's thesis that has yet to be thought of (and to just have fun doing what i like, really). no topic, but i'm sure it will have a 'media' bent, because all my electives have something to do with media, globalization, and ict. i'm really just floating around (okay, more like flitting), though jim's offering some help if i do something connected with the tondo project. i could also do something along the line of the music+creative cultures research with mervin and rj (still in the works though). plenty, plenty. great prophecies. grand visions.

...and grand gestures. it could be quitting a job, or a relationship, when it's not working for you anymore. or not quitting at all when everything else says you should. for the sake of giving an example coated with drama and sentimentality, it's throwing away that ridiculous ring, that promising letter. it's going the other way. on very, very special and wondrous occasions, it's showing up unexpectedly with a glorious offering, a gift of self, while expecting nothing in return.

then we'd all go read Mauss and learn that there's no such thing as a freebie.