In the Pensieve

SPOILER ALERT!

Harry Potter rose into fame when I was ten years old. It was his first year in Hogwarts, I was in the fourth grade. Everyone at school talked about him, his friends, and their adventures. Items were sold, and quiz bees held in his honor. Put off by the popularity more than not having friends to borrow from, I didn’t read the book, nor watch the movie.

A Defense of Samplex

An open secret in the college, it has been passed from batch to batch, under different names for stealth. Its manner of acquisition consists of cooperation within the batch involving discreetness, memory, and exam questions. Its purpose is to help students study for exams. Since our professors, who were once students like us, know about its existence anyway, the concealment strikes me strange. Accompanied by this secrecy is some individuals' condemnation of the system in question as morally impermissible, myself once included.

Kumusta?

A philosophy major once asked me, “Kumusta ka?” I gave the expected cliché, “okay lang” and he went on raving on how a UP student shouldn’t ever answer that question with “okay lang.” He didn’t remember what a UP student’s reply should be, or why that opinion is justified, but he, apparently, shared that view with one of our philosophy instructors, Ma’am S (Please ask her if you can; I still want to know why).