Blog Posts on university life

Slow by Going against the current on May 8, 2012Today was cold. We lunched on reheated food from dishes of two nights ago. Lunch reminded me of those lunches I had back in the Philippines when I never really had to enjoy food, as the sole object of the act of eating is satiation of hunger. I didn&...

Bio clock by Going against the current on Apr 29, 2012It’s totally disrupted. I planned to spend the entire day reading or writing something but I spent it either daydreaming or doing unproductive things. Recently, I’d sleep late and wake up late. I am sleepy the whole day and wide awake at...

Reading series 2: Genres of Discourse by Going against the current on Apr 26, 2012And yet whiteness is not a straightforward object of desire, any more than light is: blackness is desired, and whiteness is only the disappointing result of a desire that proclaim itself satisfied. Whiteness will be disavowed, as a truth that is eith...

Choosing to be happy* by Going against the current on Apr 25, 2012It has been four years or so since I graduated from college, and the past four years left me a bit disgruntled, dissatisfied, and aimless, even angry. At some point I began to question my motives for staying in Manila, teaching Literature (a subject...

Reading series 1: The Pleasure of the Text by Going against the current on Apr 24, 2012The Sentence is hierarchical: it implies subjections, subordinations, internal reactions. Whence its completion: how can a hierarchy remain open? The Sentence is complete: it is even precisely that language which is complete. Practice, here, is very...

Barok by Going against the current on Apr 22, 2012I am yet to figure out whether the word baroque which refers to “a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architectu...

Ito’y para lang sa iyo by Going against the current on Apr 15, 2012Ito’y para lang sa iyo: Babe, Ang post na ito ay aking isinulat para lang sa iyo. Ang oras ngayon dito ay 4:49 ng umaga. Sa mga oras na ito, alam kong natutulog ka pa, kung andiyan sana ako sa atin ay katabi kita ngayon sa pagtulog, tapos tatay...

Early spring by Going against the current on Apr 13, 2012This is my first time in the US. So far, the biggest challenge I am facing is jet lag. My mind is actively working at night and I am sleepy during the day. I have already begun my classes. Nothing extraordinary has happened since I arrived which is a...

First day by Going against the current on Apr 11, 2012I woke up this morning seeing a squirrel from my window; the sight of it was dazzling. It was drizzling slightly. The sky overcast. Sleep the other night was shallow and sporadic. The alarm clock near my head sounded off at 3 in the morning; my room&...

Some indefinite plans by Going against the current on Mar 16, 2012The semester ended with the Third Act of Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths. From here on, my days will be spent checking students’ papers, completing essays in my master’s class, and reading books that have piled up in my room. In the...