We had Chef Manoj to wrap up the HAACP lecture today. The whole class was prepared for the worst, as we heard stories of how the chef would conduct a "Circle of Death", where he would make the class go in a circle and ask each student questions related to the topic at hand. Pity the student who wouldn't be able to come up with a coherent answer. But thankfully, we didn't have that today. I guess he was still trying to size up the class. Chef Manoj is actually a pretty cool guy. Out of all the lectures we've had this week, his class was the most entertaining in terms of the stories and the humor. He definitely held the class' attention lest we have an impromptu recitation. One could tell however, that the students were somewhat intimidated. Some people gave unintelligible responses to questions, while some just blacked out completely (One of my classmates didn't have a clue where he lived when asked by the Chef). But its healthy to be on your toes every so often, I guess.

Not much to write about today. It was just the continuation of our HAACP lecture.

I've been constantly reviewing my manual every single day because of the voluminous amounts of information there is to remember. Right now, my mind is filled up with characteristics of bacteria, viruses, and parasites; 7 Points of HAACP; How to prevent the spread of bacterial microorganisms; The different kitchens in a large-scale food serevice operation; Storage procedures for the chiller, freezer, and dry store room.

All these information crammed into my head. I've never memorized like this since I took my pre-med years ago! I just hope my brain doesn't crash on me anytime soon.

Our lecture on HACCP started today. Its a pretty scary topic considering that we discuss how food gets contaminated by bacteria and such. Its a chef's worst nightmare to find out that people got sick because of the food you prepared. Proper sanitation is something I will have to watch out for from now on.

On a side note, we had a surprise mock-quiz today on yesterday's topic (Kitchen Organization), and I got one of the highest scores in class! I'm very happy about it. I don't know, but I've just been on a natural high since school started. I don't mind waking up ahead of the roosters, I don't mind the hour and a half long morning commute, I don't mind wearing the uniform. Right now, I feel content.

The first day of lecture was great. We had Chef Pauleen, one of the 2 Filipino chef-instructors, as our lecturer for the day. They say that you know within minutes if something is for you. I knew within the first minute that I made the right decision to be where I was today.

We briefly discussed the history of Culinary Arts from Catherine De Medici, to Careme, to Escoffier. My eyes lit up when Ferran Adria, the pioneer of molecular gastronomy was discussed. Its a dream someday to work in the kitchen / mad lab of Mr. Adria, or at least have the experience of dining in El Bulli.

We moved on to a discussion of the different kitchens, and my attention held firm. From Garde Manger kitchens to a Room Service kitchen, I never knew kitchens had different functions. Now I know better.

Finally, we went over the kitchen organizational chart, developed by Escoffier inspired from the military org. chart. To be an Executive Chef seems too far a prospect for me right now, considering that I'm not even in the lowest rung of the ladder yet. Everyone has to start at the bottom, right?

I'm just inspired and very eager to learn right now. I'm going to be like a sponge thats going to take everything in.

Today was a total waste of time as we just had a 10-minute fire drill then we were dismissed. I commuted for an hour and a half, waited for an hour for the class to start, waited for another hour and a half for the fire drill, only to go down and back up again. That was my whole school day today.

My lunch with Pam made up for the nearly wasted day.

I hope next week will be better, as regular class starts. I'm pretty psyched up about it.

I can't wait to become a chef.

We were made to sit through a lecture today on Fire Safety and Prevention. Its an interesting discussion...if the contents of a Portable Fire Extinguisher turns you on. Otherwise, its the same series of pretty boring lectures.

But fire safety and prevention is important, especially since I'm going to be working in the kitchen soon. But having to sit through a harrowing lecture won't make things any easier or interesting at the least.

Anyway, I got to know a bit about some of my classmates, and I did have new acquaintances for the pastry class (I'm holding on to the notion that having friends in pastry will be good for me in the future when we do start eating). I have a classmate who lives a block away from my house. Talk about coincidence! I have another classmate who is a jazz player in a band. Now how cool is that?! I guess meeting new people and making friends was the high point of my day.

I'm excited about tomorrow in a geeky, unusual kind of way. Its the fire drills. I'm really back in school...

Today was the Red Cross Orientation and First Aid Training.

At first it was a bit painful to sit through the class because of the proctor who tried to make his lecture come off as funny and amusing.

First, his lecture was filling to the brim with sexual innuendos. Second, he was seemingly tried to hit on a female classmate and made fun of another who was on the heavy side. Third, his English was not exactly one that you would call understandable.

Some of my classmates were lapping it up though. Maybe I'm just getting too old.

But to his credit, I think the instructor loved what he was doing being a Red Cross volunteer. I go far as saying that I'm probably going to take one of the first aid classes sometime in the future.

That was my school day. I wonder what tomorrow holds when we have the fire prevention seminar.

Today was the first day of school.

Class was due to start at 3 PM...I was there by 1... Call me excited.

I saw a lot of young faces, most fresh out of high school. Great, I could be one of the oldest students in the batch.

Then I saw a fifty-something in the crowd. I can relax now.

The duration of the class was a whole 1 and a half hours discussing the student's manual. Mostly boring self-explanatory shit.

I wonder if it was just me, but the lecturer was just a step above being condescending.

Got my hardbound textbook that can also pass for a lethal weapon. Hardbound and heavy

Got my mug taken for the ID - the last order for the day.

Just a thought - my commute took longer than the actual class.

Tomorrow: Red Cross Training. I wonder if they'll ask us for blood donations. I hate needles.

Everything comes to a head tomorrow - the first day of the rest of my life.

Finally...the path in the forked road has been chosen.

Lets find our happiness, shall we?

I saw the film Stand By Me the other day, a coming of age tale of friendship and self-discovery adapted from a Stephen King novella. After watching the movie, I felt an emptiness that resonated from within that has kept me in a funk that I haven't been able to fully shake off as I write this piece. In the movie, 4 young friends go on an adventure the result of which can be one of two things - its either the bonds of friendship will be broken or it will be strengthened and preserved for as long as they live. Its a very touching tale, one that will make an individual examine his own life to reminisce of the precocious and carefree stage in life called youth. As I look back on my own youth, I realize that such memories do not exist for me. And it is because of this fact that I am somewhat saddened. But wait, the aforementioned statement may seem to harsh that it might lead readers to form the conclusion that I had a deprived childhood or I might have even been abused. No, none of these things happened. What I am drifting at to be able to say that I missed out on some significant events of my youth is this...

I have never had a childhood friend - that buddy you've known since you were wee tots growing up, that person you shared your toys with, whom you played with and fought with, that kid you shared your early childhood insecurities and anxieties with. I don't know, maybe my idea of having a childhood best friend may be as idealistic as how I view life. But its a thought that has always been nagging me at the back of my head for intermittent periods in my life. Why was I not able to cultivate a friendship from my youth? As I ponder on this thought, I realize that most of the friends I have now, those whom I consider to be good friends, were from relationships that started not so long ago - from when I was already into my adolescence? What does that tell you about me? I don't know, honestly. Was I not a congenial individual when I was young? Did I isolate myself from having social contact with people? Was I such a loser when I was a child? Unfortunately, these questions are very tough to answer now for the simple reason that I don't know how I handled myself back then.

I don't know, maybe this "problem" is not supposed to be a big deal. I bet that to most people, its not. But to me however, it is, because I think I would have turned out differently from what I am today. Would I have been more confident, more sure of myself, more outgoing? I guess that's water under the bridge now. I'm not saying that its a regret in my life that I would wish to turn back, but more of a realization that maybe I missed out on something that would probably have made an indelible mark, a significant impact.

There, I'm feeling much better now. I just had to get that out of my system.

This idea for a blog entry came to me while I was sitting in a Starbuck's in Katipunan early this morning, while waiting to pick up my school uniform. I realized that I haven't written anything about movies in my blog, despite being the avid movie watcher, frustrated movie critic, and die-hard DVD collector that I am. I can't believe that I haven't professed my love of movies in this blog, ever!

So here I am, making a list of my favorite movies of all time. I believe you can tell a person by the kind of movies he/she watches. Let me know what you think of me after reading this list. I must admit that my taste in movies tend to fall under mainstream films. I don't pretend to watch art films just for the sake of bragging that I'm a cultured individual, although I have seen a few high-art films (and most of them have left me scratching my head most of the time). And I don't think that people would choose to watch art-films if they were the only form of media left in the world. That's just pretentious. I still think that the primary purpose of watching movies is to be entertained. So without any further explanation, here are my top 10 favorite movies that I wouldn't mind watching over and over and over.

1. The Lord of The Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of The Rings - The Two Towers
3. The Lord of The Rings - The Return of the King
These 3 films, I have to watch back to back to back. There's no other way to watch this masterpiece. When these 3 were released separately, I always watched the first showing of the first screening day. I cried at the end of The Return of the King partly because I realized that it was all over. The Lord of the Rings will mak you believe that anything can be done in the world of movies.

4. Seven Samurai - The best Kurosawa film in my opinion. Although this was a black and white film, the characterization and story-telling make up for all the color that the movie didn't have. This is a very enjoyable piece of film-making. If you're new to Kurosawa, I suggest you see this movie first.

5. The Shawshank Redemption - Watching this makes you feel like the luckiest man alive, especially after seeing what Andy Dufresne had to go through while incarcerated in Shawshank prison. Although based on fiction, this movie gives you hope even in the darkest of situations.

6. Cinema Paradiso - I'm not a big fan of romance movies, but this film made me want to fall in love. I cried at the scene when the boy - now an old man, watches scenes of different kissing and romance sequences that his old friend compiled for him. Truly heavy stuff

7. Kill Bill Volume 1 - This was the movie that introduced me to Quentin Tarantino. I had never heard of the guy before seeing this movie, but after this movie, I became a fan. I remember being enthralled and amazed at the black and white fight scene at the restaurant, as well as the anime sequence examining the origins of the Oren Ishii character. Really cutting edge stuff (no pun intended)!

8. The Sixth Sense - Who could ever forget the twist ending in this movie? I remember watching Sixth Sense in the theater with a bunch of friends, and we were seated in the front row. I remember a friend of mine crushed his drink cup (with the contents inside) when the kid ghost with the blown off head turned around.

9. Forrest Gump - Another inspiring piece that leaves you with a feeling of happiness after every viewing. This is a feel-good movie in the truest sense of the word.

10. The Godfather - Who doesn't love the Godfather?! The film that started the gangster movie trend. I also love The Godfather Part 2, but c'mon, without the success of this one, the second movie would'nt have been even made. I thoroughly enjoyed the final scenes when Al Pacino's character executes a revenge hit on their enemies.