Not a very good movie

“A VERY Good Girl” was not a very good movie. I almost fell asleep while watching it. Which is a comment that I couldn’t use for “Meg 2: The Trench,” the B-movie that had it all: sharks, action, a male character that had more than nine lives, even higher than that of a cat.

On the other hand, “Five Breakups and a Romance” was surprisingly nice. I mean, Alden Richards could act. It’s already a given that his co-star Julia Montes could act. But Richards? Hmmm.

Richards’ character mentioned “quantum entanglement” and the audience might have been caught in it if they were willing enough to be entangled with anyone.

Space.com defines “quantum entanglement” as “a bizarre, counterintuitive phenomenon that explains how two subatomic particles can be intimately linked to each other even if separated by billions of light-years of space. Despite their vast separation, a change induced in one will affect the other.”

Urban Dictionary’s definition is simpler: “Those moments/times when someone and you have the ‘connections’ ‘awareness’ simultaneously, although separated by great distance. Like string theory, it is ‘felt’ but not necessarily visible.”

Wait, what’s string theory? Whew. Let’s leave it at that. And I can explain my hesitance to go further in this search for meanings through this joke from Fr. Jerry Orbos’ “Moments” column (Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 29, 2022):

“Did you hear about a man who had such a strong sense of mission, and who was so passionate in solving problems, such that whenever he saw any vehicle with the sign ‘4×4’ he would go write: ‘4×4=16!’”

I can definitely relate with the importance of the multiplication table. Or even the fraction multiplication table, that is, if there’s one.

Who would have known then, when I was still memorizing the multiplication table, that one of the benefits of math is the ability to correctly limit my daily caffeine intake?

Since caffeine gives me insomnia, I always have to ask a cafe’s wait staff to please reduce my coffee order to a half shot.

So, there I was on a Thursday afternoon, hopping from one cafe to another, with a half-shot order of Spanish latte at each venue, when I suddenly had a Realization 101: that anyone ordering a half-shot coffee should be good in math.

That afternoon, for example, I had a total of one shot already since one-half plus one-half equals one.

Now, what if our ganap that day began at breakfast where I’d have my first half-shot coffee, and what if we had dinner and post-dinner coffee for which I’d order another half-shot, that would have been two shots if added to the half-shot coffees I had for lunch and afternoon snacks.

And there I’d be at midnight, wondering why I couldn’t sleep, that is, if I were bad in math.

If I were the eccentric coffee lover, ordering one-third shot at the first cafe, one-half shot at the second, one-fourth at the third, and so on and so forth, with more odd fractions of coffee as the day progresses, I’d need a calculator to ensure I’m still limiting my caffeine intake and would be able to sleep early and soundly later.