I've tried singing my lungs out, that always got me feeling better. I've tried working on the boards. the appreciation of everybody on there for all the work that I do for them make me feel very needed and happy. I've tried shopping, but I couldn't afford it. ARGH! I've tried watching TV to my heart's content. I've tried eating chocolates, cakes, everything that I've always loved eating. I've tried chatting with friends. I've tried getting my mind off of the "problem". But it feels as if nothing works.
I need a vacation. What do you all think? I wanna go back to that island where I ran away for 3 days and 2 nights. ARGH! I can't afford it right now! Why do I have to be so poor? ARGH!!!!
It's 3:02AM right now... I needed ultimate peace around me, before I could start writing all this. Thankfully, the excitement still hasn't gone away. Right now, I'm looking over the Richness boards, its MySpace, my MySpace, and my AutoCAD drawings. Hahaha, talk about multi-tasking!
Today's school trip was a blast. We got to learn a lot of stuff and the Project Manager of the project talked a lot so we felt really comfortable with him. The project was 7-storey building, 8-storey, if you count the roof deck. They were actually finishing up on the project, it was about 90% structurally and 38% architecturally, done. The columns designed for the building were huge, the columns were 1mx1m in size, and they had a separate building built just for the power generators. The whole site was messy, with a lot of gray mud around.
The owner of the project was Lexmark, a printer company. The Project Manager said the whole project costs about PhP800M (about US$17,391,304.30). We were all pretty excited when they let us get near the Tower Crane. It was being held down by a bunch of concrete blocks, weighing 20 tons. Directly below it, some 20 people worked on fabricating the bored piles. They're made out of steel bars, about 6 meters high but they can be taller, made to look like circular columns, and they have even more bars encircling them around. Here's a picture to help explain what I just said.
That's a pile driver putting the bored pile into the ground. Okay, so what's the bored pile for? Based on what I've learned from the trip, it stabilizes the foundation of the structure that you're gonna be building. Right next to the almost finished building, they have started drilling holes into the ground while pumping Bentomite-treated water, to keep the soil from collapsing where the piles are gonna be. The piles are gonna be supporting a new 23-storey building. I don't know how much it's gonna cost though. But I so wish I get to manage a project as big as that. The Project Manager is managing 600 people including subcontractors. He said that he's already fired a couple of Project Engineers for being too lazy.
This entry might seem very boring to anyone's reading, but if you were there, you would be just as excited as I am even though you don't understand any of what I'm saying right now. We got to take pictures of the huge machines that they used on the site and they gave us samples of the finishings that they were using. I stared at this heavy-looking steel box-like thing that was left on a corner, but it looked pretty new. Then I read whatever was written on it. That's when I found out that it was part of the elevator that they were installing into the building. The Safety Engineer then asked us if we would like to see the inside of the building. Then he told us to not take the hardhats off at any cost. On the way to the building entrance, we passed by the building with the power generators. They were HUGE! I can only imagine how much the Electrical Engineers were making just by installing those generators. When we got to the entrance of the building, he told us we're only gonna be touring the 2nd floor. So we go up a flight of stairs, which was probably going to be the fire exit, because it was that narrow and it was steep. Then up another, then another, and another. Then one of my classmates mumbled, "We're going to the 2nd floor right? Why is it so far up?". When we finally got there, the Safety Engineer showed us the vacant area, kinda like a balcony where you can see the other buildings surrounding the structure. The wind blowing was just fantastic. It wasn't hot nor chilly at all.
A couple of minutes after resting from the climb up, we proceeded to the floor area. They used concrete boards as partitions for the offices.There were a lot of electrical wires around, a lot of people around, laborers, carpenters, engineers, just a lot of them inside the building. Questions popped up everywhere, which showed that the kids were really excited. Then we saw concrete hollow blocks on one corner. We started asking more questions about what was there, and why was it the only part of the building that had concrete block partitions. The Safety Engineer guided us there and we met up with the Head Mechanical Engineer there. Behind the partition was another HUGE machine. It was the main AC unit. It was my first time to see an AC unit that big. After briefing us on how the things worked, we went on our way out of the building. The Safety Engineer then pulled out a cigarette outside the building perimeter and told us about how big the project was and that the company had equipment that costs PhP8M(US$173,913.04) and it was tiny.
After the trip, we were exhausted. My legs were heavy, and I got mud on my pants and shoes. And we still had to go back to school. I had a quiz coming in an hour and I wasn't prepared for it. Heheh, but I got 90%. Bwahahaha! Ok, that was too obnoxious. I'm sorry.
So hopefully, I get to handle projects as big as this one someday.
On June 26, 2007, the whole class went on a school trip for the Project Study course. I'm a Civil engineering student, so construction-related projects are supposed to be interesting for us. So we went to the Southhills Subdivision, which was nearby, but as the name says, up on the hills. There was an ongoing house project for a Canadian citizen, worth about 13.2M in Philippine Peso(about $293,000). Pretty cheap if you are in the US, they were building a 3 storey residential building. And everything was pretty high-end, all the materials used costed about Php50,000. I think when you're in the US, $293,000 gets you an ugly house, from what I've seen on the Internet, and not actual, so correct me if I'm wrong. I think the owner's into Real Estate, buying and selling, or building and selling. From what I can tell, he sure is rich.
Getting there, we hired a Public Utility Jeepney, the most common public transportation mode in the Philippines, but since it was up in the hills, the driver just dropped us off at the bottom of the hill. So we hiked. about 20 or so minutes later, we got to an intersection, we went right. Then it started to rain, it was just a little drizzle, but we didn't wanna risk getting sick, and I definitely do not want the pneumonia back. A couple of minutes later, our guide, who happens to be one of our classmates too, says we went the wrong way, so we go back to the intersection, and we go left. Then she says we're going the wrong way again! We were all, "Argh!!!". We start the hike again. We saw a truck coming up the hill and stopped it. Then we asked if we could hitch a ride, since they seemed to be going to where we were going. The driver said it was ok, so a bunch of us, about 90% of us hopped on to the back of the truck. It was a truck that loaded gravel, sand, et cetera. A few got left behind, because the girls wouldn't climb up the way we did. Haha, I'm 23 and I still climb up trees, so a truck was no biggie. When we got there, the rain got heavier and it was getting chilly.
So anyway, we enjoyed the trip, got to be close to the materials and equipment they used there, and we undestood more stuff about the construction business. There were things that we were ignorant with, but a lot of those got cleared up. My summary on the trip: you really get to learn more when you're there.
So how about the way down? Like earlier, we start hiking down again, we took note of all the houses built there. Most of the houses that we've seen there looked fantastic. And the view was amazing! It would've looked better at night. You get to see the entire Cebu City from there. You could see the bridges connecting Mactan to Cebu, and the Mactan Channel too. When we were a couple hundred yards away from the Subdivision gates, a small Multicab pickup stopped and it was the Project Manager and Architect of the project we visited offering us a ride down the hill. Overjoyed at the thought of not having to hike down the hill for an hour or so, we hop on to the back of the pickup and got settled in. I know it's against the law in the US to ride at the back of the truck, but it's common here.
The pickup starts picking up speed on the way down, and I was geting a very uneasy feeling. My heart starts pounding fast. Then the pickup starts skidding. It does a snake line and our prof starts screaming. The pickup was nearing the cliff and it lookes like we were about to fall over. We could see the trees and rocks below, realizing that we were about to die. The Architect pulls on the steering wheel and helps with the maneuvering. I thought the pickup was gonna stop for a while after the experience, but the drive continued down the hill. I felt like my spirit just left my body.
When they dropped us off near the school, everybody couldn't walk right. I personally couldn't feel my legs. I was just able to walk because I told my legs to do so. My knees shook so badly, when we got back to the civil engineering department, I just had to sit down. It was all so scary and exciting at the same time, since it only lasted for a few seconds, we weren't as scared as we were supposed to be. But after giving it some thought, we ended up scaring ourselves.
Even after that, I'm still not scared of riding in vehicles or going up to high places. I'm just glad I'm blessed enough to see another day.
Ahhh.. What good are they for? They're full of artificial stuff right? It's definitely not the best kind of food. Cooked food or home made food would always be the best. Instant noodles are sold in packs, or little plastic bowls and come in a variety of flavors.
Tonight, I just had a hot bowl of spicy noodles with an egg stirred in. The smell filled the air, making both of my siblings envious. We haven't had noodles in a couple of months already. So my liitle sister gets herself a spoon, not a fork, a spoon, and dips it in my bowl before asking me if she could have some. So I let her have a little. She was just too lazy to cook herself some. And she wanted a less bloated tummy, haha! Not that she was actually bloated, but she wanted to be like me, seriously, I eat a lot and I guess just got kinda used to crunching my tummy everywhere I go that my tummy's, well, flat. Well anyways, it would've just taken her a couple of minutes. *Sigh*Such a lazyass. So how about my brother? He hasn't eaten dinner yet and he finally decides that it was about time he did. In case you're wondering, we don't eat together, we just eat whenever we want to. He finally gets himself away from the computer, he's been watching Digimon Frontier the whole day, to cook himself some noodles and finally eats dinner.
Oh, the simple pleasures of life. Who knew that instant noodles could actually be one of them? Instant noodles can warm you up on a cold night and is always good for a snack. But they're only good if you have them every now and then, in my opinion.
What do you think? :)
Name: Wilhelmina
Current Age: 23 going on 24 in June 2008
Occupation: no longer a bum
I'm a computer and Internet addict who just got into blogging, which is one of my many hobbies. I am currently located in Cebu City, Philippines, and I love doing brainy stuff. I don't shun reading like a lot of people. I love books, I've loved them since I was old enough to hold them. I like to sing, but I'm not about to boast that I'm a great singer or whatsoever. I love music, movies, and Mathematics.
Yes, I must have such a boring life for a lot of people since I'm not a clubber. I enjoy nature tripping more than going out at night. Swimming and running are the best sports for me. I like eating healthy food, even if I can't afford it at the moment. Jeez, eating right costs money, man. It costs more than just having a cup of rice and some chicken or some veggies.
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So here I am again--- writing.. Like anybody sane enough is gonna come by here and read this. Haha! After about two months of not doing anything productive, it seems as if my life has finally come to an end. Try watching American Idol the whole time, and watching the reruns for the entire week! Yes, doing that can get you real chunky. I gained a few pounds, but I'm ok with it. I'm gonna end up losing the extra weight in the next couple of months anyway. I don't wanna shed the extra pounds right away. For the ladies out there who wanna do so, it's ok, just as long as you do it with caution and the right attitude. Okay, back to AI... I live away from my parents for college, been dong so for five years now, I have my little brother and my sister with me, leaving our parents home alone together. That actually makes me sad, because they're both middle-aged and they don't have company at home anymore. So we make an effort to call them everyday just to ease the loneliness. About two months ago, well, almost, the three prodigal children come home. My brother stayed for about just a week, because he had summer school to attend. So what do you do at home when you don't have a job, because you're in school full-time and your parents don't want you to work at all even on summers? This is pretty much what I did the whole summer. I wake up at 8:30 in the morning, go to the kitchen to get some breakfast (bread and tea), bring the breakfast to the TV room and watch Mirmo, then at 9, I watch Gakuen Alice, then at 9:30, I watch Jackie Chan Adventures, at 10:30, I watch Detective Conan. After all the Anime' watching, the TV's finally turned off and the radio's turned on. Then all I do is sing along to whatever's on. Yeah, I know, it's the saddest thing I've ever read too. Just imagine living it. T-T
It was my first time to watch AI-- ever.. Err, maybe not the first time, but it was the first time I watched the show in full. In case you're wondering why, it was because somebody on the show had almost the same aura as someone that I know. Who? Chris Richardson. Shared the same aura as someone special to me---very special. I know, you might be saying that I could be just another one of his fans or whatever. Sure, I think he can sing pretty good, he looks good too. But I'm not really one of those people who would actually swoon in front of him. I watched the show because I was missing somebody dear to me very badly and he made me miss that person less. I even asked my mom if he reminded her of that person too. And sure enough, my mom said yes, she said, "He's like a younger Robert.". I jokingly replied, "He is younger mom, by 3 years.". So like every Chris Rich fan out there, I got on Wikipedia and read a little on him--okay, I read everything on that site on him. He was born on the same day my brother was born, only he's three years older than my brother. So I watched the show until he got eliminated. I didn't feel like watching the show after anymore. I didn't even watch the reruns anymore. I was just bored, but the show was coming to an end, so I still watched until the finale. I was kinda disappointed though, I wanted to see what the contestants were made of, not the guest stars. For crying out loud, it was their chance to shine, their moment, but I guess that's what the tour's for. But since I'm not in the US, I won't get to see their shows, unless somebody's actually willing to record their shows and put it up on a video streaming site like youtube. *Sigh* Yes, I need a life.. Somebody give me one.
Yes, I am. I'm a dork who likes to write, a dork who likes to sing whenever she feels like it, even if I might not sound too good. And I'm a dork who badly needs something to do other than sulk and feel like wasting myself away.
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