Whatever Things

The problem with men and women is the fact that they make problems out of themselves.

Men think they're superior over women and that superiority , most likely, makes the women go crazy over them. Women nag most of the time and are noise to men's ears but those naggers are the sweet ones who just care 1023 times. Sometimes men hook up with a women for display. They want to be in with what's trendy today. They don't focus musch on the "will-we-really-work" but instead reason out the word "companionship". Most women are vain; vain to the extent of only selecting from a wide range of good-looking men. They think they must look good all the time and in order to look good they must go with people who also look good. They belong!

What is so annoying with both sexes is the metanoia that will make them forget their names. People do cahnge for better or for worse but in just an instant? Doesn't it make you feel bad to see your special someone turm into your worst nightmare that day after he or she said goodnight? That's one of the mysteries in a just starting relationship. Yesterday, he made her smile and laugh to tears as they spent the whole day together. The next day they met each other but never said a word. So what's the piont in all of this when you will never change?
Just when you thought girls talk too much...

When boys get together they never miss the "backbite" pitstop. Yes, they do backbite worse thatn you can imagine. Girls on the other hand are fond of using codenames so that it would woukd be easier to talk about things in public. And there are some boys who really hate it. Girl go like " Mr. Sun and Ms. Moon is so and so" Who cares about the sun and the moon anyway?
But everyone fing it so hard to say sorry. Pride will always be on top of our heads. Saying sorry, for some, is tantamount to stripping off their identities. Pride can really kill. Boys say all the darnest things from loving you forever to giving you Polaris. That's a problem. But girls believe their every word. That's double jeopardy. For me, there is no problem at all if you do not make one.

Fears Conquered

Our fears and weaknesses need to be conquered
Most of the people are afraid of ghosts, roaches, spiders, snakes and some dark and other creepy things. I can't say that I'm not afraid of them too, but let's just say they're not on my list. There are many kinds of fears but what I personally fear is very unique.
Ever since I was born, I really love music. I even have a picture of myself in my diapers with headphones as I lay beside the radio. My parents said that I began to sing when I was two. (but it doesn't mean that I sound good)I joined the choir at church when I was five. I bought my very first tape when I turned six. It was a Christian tape for kids. In short, music became a part of my life. If you ask, how it would be
connected to fear sit tight I'm going to need you to keep reading this.
A part of me makes me insane
I don't know but there are some songs that freak me out especially the ones which exhibit broken chords. Like the song Losing Grip and I'm With You by the famous Avril Lavigne. I think everyone in the family is hooked to music but I am the only one who is, at the same time afraid of it. I am also afraid of being alone even if I'm in a public place with a lot of people and no one seems to be a friend. It also freaks me out. My mom as well as my Dad knows that fact and would never try to leave me unattended. But as time passed by,I
learned to handle being alone. It will never be me being a loner. It also doesn't mean that I'm sure of finding a lifetime partner in the near future.
Solitude can also be found in relationships. I'm happy being single. As long as I have God,my family and friends beside me, most likely my love life will never be lonely.
Lost in confusion
I remember a day in my elementary years when one half of the students in our class were going to Family Park. We all had to follow the buddy system. We all had our buddies to go with. My buddy that time was my friend Brosel. When we toured around the place. It was so good and beautiful that we found ourselves lost. Even if Brosel was there, I couldn't stop myself to be afraid. I wanted to scream but neither our teacher nor our my classmates were thereto help.It would be useless. It was just me, Brosel and the forest that was about to eat us alive. So what I did was to pray for guidance. And after a few minutes we heard our other classmates laughing like there was no harm to worry on. The sound was quite near so with all our might, we followed their sound. Fortunately, we found them. When we were ask to write something about what we experienced the next day, Brosel wrote, " Each one of us has the right to be found." They all laughed at her because she was like making stories and building a new constitution but she fought and still fights for that right she just made. I smiled because I knew that if I just didn't believe in God, I might be really lost in confusion with what is happening around me. I can conqure my fears if I just believe in God that he will comfort and guide me. Well, I'd better end now. I still have to make 15 blog entries. Bye.

Guess What?! It's Gonna Be Me

There are only a few people who really know me. Myparents, my best friends and my dog. I do have friends
but again, only a few know me very well. I don't
pour out myself to anyone, that's why if you want to
know me very well, you are lucky because I'm about to
open up myself to you.
Since I am in a rush to somehow finish this very exhausting blog, I'll
just write the rare and some common things about me. My name is Doanne Lyre Landero Montecastro. Doanne came from my parent's names. Do from Dominador and Anne from Annie Jean, my mother's name. Lyre came from an instrument because they said that I will love music and make it a part of my life.
And that's exactly what happened. I loved music at a very
early age. I find bliss in it. But I fear it. This is something even I cannot understand. There are some kinds of music that causes trauma on me. I find it difficult to detach myself from it and all I can do is cry it out. There is another weird thing about me. I eat rice with water on it. I prefer this over soup if I'm just at home. Yes! I do this every time I eat a meal
with rice. Before, I was afraid to do it in school
because people might think that I am weird and too different to comprehend. But I said to myself, there's no harm if I try and maybe introduce it to others. If they can't adopt to me doing it, it's enough that they accept the real me. I tried it with Mariel, Grace, April, Ella and Shedyl
as my lucky witnesses. They were like, "What the..." But then said, "Okay, you have your own unique style in eating,go on with it." Sometimes my friends ask me about my happy past so I share my unbelievable but true adventures like climbing the mountain, reaching the top ( a cliff ) and my bigger classmates had to bring us down safely one by one. I always go for adventure since I was in grade four. When I was in grade six, my goal was to visit all of my classmates houses before I graduated. Whew! That was close. And I finished my goal just right before the big day. Daryl's house was the last I got to see. I can also say that I am an active person and that I do things beyond my parent's imagination, like when my cousin visited us and he taught me how to "hitch" a ride at the back of a cargo truck. I've always
wanted to do that. I just laugh at myself whenever I recall those days. It was one of my cheap thrills.
By the way, I was born March 30, 1990 at Cebu Doctor's Hospital at about 6:30 in the morning. When I was still a toddler, we lived in an apartment at the back of CAP building at Jones Avenue. Then when I turned five, we moved to Sindulan, Mabolo. When I started school, we transfered to New Frontier, the place where my family resides now. We had to move three times because of my father's job or ministry.
Okay, that's a lot about me already. If you want to find out how rice and water taste, you can chat with me if I'm online at bluenike_06.com. http://friendster.com/dlyreil is the url to find out how high school life is sweet at UP High. So I'll have to leave. Until next time.

Teach Me If You Can

UP High annually celebrates the Know Your School Day which is an event that gives the teachers a break from their noble careers. Students get a chance to substitute as faculty and staff of the University for a day. It is also a good way to know how people work in school. You get a chance to know UP High’s system of teaching. The KYSD has been a tradition in UP High and every year it gets better and better. Actually the KYSD runs for a couple of days. It isn’t only for a day. Sometimes runs for two to three days. It also happened before that the KYSD was held in a week. But the duration doesn’t matter because the success of the KYSD, with the help of the Student Council, is consistent. In my four years in UP, I never had a chance to be a teacher in the KYSD probably because I never had the passion for teaching even if my mom, dad and aunt are teachers. I didn’t want to teach. I always wanted to just be a student - a learning student. The first time I experienced this event, I was amazed because my classmates were so in to becoming little Madam Gallos, Sir Montaños, Madam Logartas and many more cute things. Of course, the freshies were the devotees of this event. Imagine the excitement we felt. It was an honor to be a teacher. You’ll be of higher rank over your classmates so you can scold them for being noisy like you when you are a part in class. You have authority over them. If I know, almost everyone wanted to become a teacher for a day. It was always good to know that at our very young and feeble age, we had the guts and skills to teach people of our generation. I can still remember Richard and Juna teaching us Geometry. At first we didn’t really understand the existence of the arc. But they really tried to explain how the arcs work and they were successful with it. How did we know? Well, we became third year students. Somehow, I remembered Aiko as a student-teacher in Social Science and Computer. (I’m not sure of that) I don’t know but Aiko loves teaching SocSci. It was good news for us because Sir Montaño doesn’t come to class that regular that’s why we can have a good discussion of the history of the world. I think Grace tried to be a Biology teacher even if she’s better at Math.April Rhiz was my seatmate during Chemistry time so I witnessed her preparations for her Chemistry discussion about RedOx. Lately, Chairman and Jann discussed a topic for Calculus called Related Rates. While writing this, a flashback of Ella teaching PE came into my mind. She gave a joke one time about her application for the certain subject and we laughed at her. The next day, we were having PE with Ms. Sarmago. But after two years, Ella felt that she was not contented with the PE teacher position so this year she made sure that this year she would be the Professional Division Chairperson and she did! It feels different when your co-student is teaching you. Sometimes you really don’t understand what they’re trying to teach you. But most of the time, we understand the new lessons because the new teachers know what we find hard about the lesson so they make sure that we don’t struggle. We also are stimulated to learn because we are most likely on the same line of thinking especially on the choice of words. Student-teachers can express more what they’re trying to say. We don’t easily get bored because they know when to throw jokes and ice-breakers. But after the day, we still get back to our student instincts. We still play and laugh our hearts out. I still prefer being taught than to teach.

1 testimonial to reject or approve

This will be in a formal manner so please bear with me.
It was a room full of tension and anxiety. The air could be considered humid and saturated because of the hard breathing everyone was doing. We were eager to push smiles but it was difficult since it was our first day and we barely knew anyone and in the midst of all of this…
“She’s cold and she’s cruel but she knows what she’s doing…” Something anonymously powerful struck the platform with a “Good morning Madam. Good morning classmates. I’m Ella Beverly Sarmago and I’m proud to be your classmate!” And we were all like “What the?!” I could perfectly and vividly imagine how she looked and what she was on. She was wearing blue cargo jeans and a spaghetti top with white and green stripes. She really defined “sexy and hot” We all stared at her as she took her seat;the seat behind me!
She was oozing...oozing with confidence! She greeted everyone that surrounded her. You could then see that she was a carefree person and that she has so much to share. She was just that natural and from the on she showed us what she could do and can do for the better. Ella constantly surprised us with tidbits of who she was. It was because she was loud.. Loud in the sense that she speaks of her beautiful mind and she contained liberalism with good reason. But I found out something different when she smiled at me. Because in that smile I saw melancholy. I saw that Ella differed from those loud and liberated women who didn't care that much of others and focused only on what they want to say. She was indeed human;weak and tender at heart. I was that bad for not seeing that hurting piece of Ella's vulnerable heart. Ella was deeply crying inside. All I wanted was to reach out to her but honestly, I couldn't because I didn't know how. There was this big wall that hindered me from touching her. There were these times when we laughed our hearts out and sang to our very last breaths but I didn't get the time to talk to her heart to heart. I prayed in the evenings that Ella would somehow be awakened from her sadness just like a princess who slept for a thousand years. I knew I could not be her prince so I just whispered my wishes for her to the wind hoping that the wind will sing them to Ella's long waiting prince. In the middle of our struggles, I saw her as she grew into the lovely lady we see now. She remained humble. Humble because she she still had the valuable time to say her “Hi's” and “Hello's” and the “I like what what your wearing today...” But still, she wasn't that happy. I already heard of her hurtful past when destiny permitted us to talk about it one day. And I admire her for being so strong because I know it's never easy to let go. Ella may appear firm and strong outside but she needs that certain touch to change her life and make it more beautiful because Ella deserves it. JP may not be that
prince Ella is waiting for but I know that somehow he has made Ella feel different toward life. Someone has seen the beauty within her. Someone made her feel special in a way.
This maybe too mushy for you to handle Ella but I mean everything I wrote. That's what I see in you. I had always seen the good heart in you and I hope you will not forget that you have it. Use it to share good to others. Thank you for always believing in me. You make me special.

Inside my Memory Box

Addressed to Ella’s “Memories in a Box”…

As young as twelve, I saw high school as a stage of teen problems, drug addiction, bad peer pressure, fraternities and boy-girl relationships. Ridiculous isn’t it? That shows my being narrow-minded and the conservative environment I was surrounded with. I wanted to skip high school, jump to college and finish my education. I never knew what pleasure and fun awaited me.

It was in my second year in UP when I realized how awesome high school was. And it was then when my memory box was born. I filled it with every bit of memory I could have. So what do you think is inside this memory box of mine?

What consists of this flashback trunk are just simple stuff like my first year library card (I think it was only required in that year because it didn’t exist in the following years); some parents permit for a certain school event (just shows that either I didn’t come to the event or the guard was asleep); the doll-key-chain Yolike gave after the Christmas break; a 19-forgotten paper chat with Jabert about his crush; my very hi-tech calculator that broke down after three months of extensive use; bracelets given by Eldee and Stacey; the pink pillow given by the juniors during our last promenade; my vulnerable flute; and the red silk we wore around our waists when we won the Dayegon Contest. By the way, these are only those that can be seen on the surface of the box. Underneath are more memories.

These included the copy of the songs in the CD gives as a token by the juniors; raffle tickets I bought because it was compulsory but I didn’t hand it over during the draw; the immortal Jonathan Livingstone Seagull; the cross stitch that wrote “Dany” and up to now I don’t even know who Dany is; letters from Christille, Byron. April Mae, Jann, Jabert and Stacey; another keychain from Arvin(he gave key chains to all who were in Bocobo); candies and lollipops(I collect every sweet someone gives me unless I am really in need to eat it); the box of peanut kisses Richard gave me when I turned sixteen; the wallets I used in my third and first year; the blue scoop I used to eat the thirty-peso-worth of ice cream at MV Duolos ; the mini Harry-Potter-organizer that lasted only for a year; the bottle of sand we gathered from an on-the-spot outing to Pepito’s beach; Chinese Checkers we won in exchange of the tickets we collected from playing at Timezone; the slightly-used map of the world for our SocSci 1; Math 1’s “Annual Statement of Account”; a bookmark from Gracielle; the bag I got for Christmas from the Royal-Family-Christmas-Tradition; message in a bottle given by Jann; the classic polvoron Nico Martin distributed; the candles warmed us during the freezing promenade; assorted coins from Madam Gallo; the dice I found on the street one cold and sad night; the Hilton ball pen

Nico lended when we had one of those nerve-wracking Calculus tests; my so-called “soulmate” bracelet (the one I found twice in my stay in UP); the amazing UP Handbook; my very first watch; Statistics booklet (I always keep it because this was the only Math I was confident with); a ticket to the Oedipus Rex (starring Ella and Gabby); my favorite SocSci 2 notebook; a poster for Hale’s very first concert here in Cebu which was posted on the walls of the waiting shed; Madam Lapa’s table of elements; Carol-of-the-Bells lyrics; UPCAT requirements; and the most valuable material memories-pictures!!!!

And from what has been written above, you can now imagine how full and memorable my memory box is.

So, what’s inside your memory box Ella?

Ethanol From Potato, Sweet potato and Taro

A Comparative study on Ethanol content from potato, sweet potato and taro was conducted by Research II students of the University of the Philippines High School in Cebu. The said study was conducted by Mariel Stephanie Alvizo, Juna Rose Dinglasa, John Albert Metoda and Doanne Lyre Montecastro.Here is a summary of the study.
Our country mainly depends on foreign products like energy from oil and petroleum. We get most of these from the Middle East. We are directly affected with the increasing rates of these energy sources especially that we experience inflation here in the Philippines. People have come up with ideas of using alternatives for petroleum; alternatives that are cheaper than but still as good as petroleum. Then biodiesel came up. Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent, processed fuel derived from biological sources (such as vegetable oils), which can be used in unmodified diesel-engined vehicles. One of the raw materials needed to make biodiesel is ethyl alcohol commonly known as ethanol. Ethanol is found in starchy and sugary plants. The plants used in this project are under those which are starchy. These plants are the root crops potato, sweet potato and taro (commonly known as gabi). The researchers also used decided to use these root crops because of its availability in Cebu. This project aims to measure the ethanol content in the three root crops. These root crops were boiled, mashed then blended separately. Yeast was added to the blended root crops. The root crops underwent the process of fermentation for 30 days. Fermentation is the conversion of sugar to alcohol using yeast under anaerobic conditions. A more general definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of carbohydrates into alcohols and acids. After the fermentation process, the fermented root crops were subjected for distillation which is the process of separating liquid from another liquid. Ethanol must be separated from water at this rate. When evaporating, the temperature must not exceed 80 degrees Celsius because if it does exceed, it will become water. This process took the researchers 15 hours per root crop. The gathered samples are contained in a Florence flask. To test if the gathered samples are really ethanol, the researchers used the flame test. A thimbleful of the sample was lit to see if it really was ethanol. Sweet potato showed a bigger spark than potato while taro didn’t spark at all.
In the first trial, ethanol gathered from 100 ml of sweet potato was 7.9 ml, 0.8 ml from potato and 1.5 ml from taro respectively.
In trial 2, the volume of ethanol extracted from 100 ml of sweet potato was 7.1 ml, from potato was 8.6 ml and from taro was 9.5 ml. The mean volume of ethanol content from sweet potato is 7.5 ml; 4.7 ml from potato and 5.5 ml from taro. From the results, the researchers concluded that sweet potatoes yielded the greatest amount of ethanol and that it is the best source of ethanol among the three root crops. And from these conclusions, the researchers came up with recommendations like the promotion of biodiesel as an alternative for petroleum for sectors like the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Science and Technology. They also recommended the establishments of companies that allow the production of ethanol to the investors. And lastly, they recommend the improvement of the study to the future researchers.