now, it's dedicated!

I woke up pretty early today. And yeah, it's a unique enough event to deserve mentioning.

I flipped off the covers prematurely this morning for a 9am exam at NEC Technologies, a Japanese company most Anime fans would be familiar with. The alarm rang at about 7, leaving me an hour to haphazardly put on some clothes and another hour to pick my way through the unfamiliar realm of saturday morning traffic.

A sadistic headache escorted me to the bath. That, stray thoughts about the Bridge to Terabithia, a half-digested platter of buffalo wings & a Twilight Zone DVD were the guilty residues of the fun night before. I grit my teeth, put my pants on and walked out the door with my half-ass resume and a thoughtful box of HP my adorable sis left for me.

The company was in Fort Bonifacio, in a cheerful yellow building there that made me think of lego on steroids. I was early so I sat in an embarrassingly-noisy leather couch and worried. My friend prepped me on what to expect: utter C++ hell disguised as an NEC application exam. I tried to calm myself down, reviewing notes on Bubble sorts and other Com-Sci stuff you learn in college and never really get to use in real life. I ended up worrying some more.

Of course, all the while I looked calm, secretly hoping the 2 people I'm taking the exam with notice my eerily placid face and start worrying themselves. I guess that worked coz they seemed to be holding each others hands. Never mind that they smile too much, that their a guy and a gal or that Valentines was 2 weeks ago.

After 3 hours, some propaganda they call "company introduction" and the application exam, my feet stepped out and casually strolled along the overcast streets of The Fort. My head though was floating around in the clouds musing about working in Japan, acceptable 6-digit salaries and maybe the Nobel prize for inventing the next big thing since tissue paper.

I couldn't help but smile at the shiny future my parents got me for my very first birthday, so then and there I decided to finish my thesis for 'em. What parent wouldn't love such a practical gift?

Panda's consumed: 3
Yan-yan's regretfully consumed: 1
Panda of the day: 8. Archery
Nostalgia of the day: "*p = &x;"