July 25, 2004

all for the sake of imposed memories

What the Aegis Yearbook Committee is trying to do is to impose upon us our memories. Not that it's bad; I would really want to have something to remember college by. It just struck me that this is what they are doing. All the hassle and fuss about file-naming conventions, font sizes, fonts, margins, deadlines, fines, photo shoots and what-have-you all suggest a bargain: "Do what we ask of you, and we will provide you with enhanced, organized, flashy and highly emotional memories. None of those nasty red-eyed digital pictures you and your friends take with each other. None of the usual drivel and crap. None of those cartoonish and childish scrapbook entries. And you get to see the pictures of your Atenean crushes, as well! You will not regret it!" Hmmm... sounds like TV Home Shopping to me. "But wait, there's more! Just add 150, and you'll get a certified Aegis CD!"

Sigh. Is it so obvious that I was harassed from all that they were asking from me? And to add to that the guilt that I felt upon inflicting my negativity to other innocent people.

First Victim: Ben. I asked Ben to create a Photoshop collage for me. I went to his house and invaded his privacy just to "guide" him throughout the entire process. At around 1 AM, he was done. But it seemed that I had a lack of college pictures. So I asked the

Second Victim: Sam to search some pictures in her computer. She found some and uploaded all 6 MB of it. It took 30 minutes. Sam had not had any sleep for the past few days, and this would have been a perfect time for her to sleep. But unfortunately, I had her waiting for the uploading to complete. Bad. When it was over, Ben and I downloaded the pictures, which took all of 30 minutes. Ben was also sleepy at this point. When the collage was done, someone had to flatten it into JPEG (another requirement from Aegis), and unbeknownst to me, the

Third Victim: Katsan was waiting all this time to do just that. It was around 230 AM by this time. Some problem occurred while downloading and uploading the files, so that added to the agitation of the entire Scooby Gang. At long last, it was over. That was what I thought then.

The day after, I had my 1x1 ID pictures taken in Kodak Katipunan, just in front of Ateneo. Since I had class at 230 to 430, and thinking that Kodak would close at 300, I asked the

Fourth Victim: Mark to get the pictures for me. That in itself would have been OK, but unfortunately, while Mark was just a street-crossing away from Kodak, a heavy downpour of rain stopped him dead on his tracks. He remained in the guardhouse, wondering what in hell should he do now that he's stuck and didn't have an umbrella. Unbeknownst to me (again), he asked Ben for help. Ben, who was wearing a pretty formal outfit for a career talk he co-headed, rushed to the guardhouse with an umbrella. The rain was so hard and the wind so unpredictable that the umbrella failed to protect him. By the time I returned to the org room, Mark and Ben were both there, wet and depressed.

I tried my darndest to make up for the negativity I have imposed on these people. I wish I could do more. Sigh. All these for the sake of imposed memories.

posted by kerwin ray :: 12:42 PM :: ""