Aw.

As we grow up, we meet new people. Some become mere acquaintances, some become our friends. Sometimes, we git hit by a wave of luck and get to meet people who are destined to be a huge part of our lives, and if we're really lucky, these people never leave our lives. Problem is, sometimes we can't distinguish who is supposed to stay, so it happens that we force people to stay, when they're really not supposed to, and we let people leave, when we're supposed to hold onto them. :/

Oh. Yeah. Forgot about this.

I'd forgotten that I had a blog. Huh. I think I should start writing again. I missed it. Being in UP has exposed me to astounding writers - people whose mastery of grammar and vocabulary, style and prose, and gimmick and satire have inspired me to write. Yeah, yeah. I'm not as good as they are, but whatever. Trying. Yeah.

It's been a little over two months since school started. I've never been so ... confused in my entire life. The schedule I have makes my life look so relaxed. But the class, oh God, the classes, are exhausting. There are times when I'd be sleeping the whole afternoon after an especially tiring bout of morning classes, or I'd sleep too long and miss my Italian class. Gah. Maybe it's cause I keep on procrastinating? Tsk. Fine. The abundance of activities here in the campus make up for the brain crushing classes. There's always a party/event/whatever somewhere on campus. It's unbelievable. Just this week we had ACLE, and there's this shoe sale thing somewhere. (Idk where it is, idc either). Next week, there's this ice cream eating contest. Can you believe that? Ice cream eating contest! A game where there are no losers.

Hmm. I think I ought to start working now. It's Thursday. One more day, and then I'm free. Yes. Sleep. Mhmm. Good night, world.

Why, yes please.

The Cyclotrope from tim Wheatley on Vimeo.

Teach me? :D

An experience I will never forget.

International Schools CyberFair, now in its 15th year, is an award-winning, authentic learning program used by schools and youth organizations around the world. Students conduct research about their local communities and then publish their findings on the World Wide Web. Recognition is given to schools for the best projects in each of eight categories: local leaders, businesses, community organizations, historical landmarks, environment, music, art, and local specialties.

[source: http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsncf/aglance.cfm#OverView]

CATEGORY 2: Community Groups and Special Populations
Design a website that showcases unique, interesting or specific community populations.

[source: http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsncf/categories/]

This competition became a way to bridge the gap between us and the regular section, namely, 3 Mapagmalasakit. Erika and I became friends with our groupmates Bingbong Olowan, Jim Bugtong, Ronald Camut, Rico Lagazo, Denmark delos Santos and Kenneth Joaquin through all the time we spent together gathering data for our project. This competition was a great experience for me, because I found friends in my 3A groupmates. I don’t normally ride in the same circles as Bingbong or Kenneth, and this competition became a way for us to become friends. Although we had quite a hard time communicating with them mainly because of our different schedules, we made sure to talk to them during recess and lunch breaks, also chat with them whenever they were online.

Through this competition, we also had the chance to get to know people and organizations that we had no previous idea about, such as the director of the organization, Mrs. Marlene De Castro, and the organization itself, the Baguio Center for Young Adults.

On the day of our interview, the BCYA volunteers let us inside their office, which was decorated with posters and fliers, pictures and slogans of different things related to their cause – to spread awareness and change within the youth of Baguio. They were very helpful, giving a detailed explanation of their history, their programs, and a lot more. They even lent us their CDs with images and videos of their programs and recent events. They are really supportive of our efforts, and of us.

The days that followed became days that were filled with collaboration among us members, and we soon started to spend more time together as we worked on our project. As tiring as it was, I wouldn’t want this CyberFair experience to be forgotten.

Valentines, huh?

Hey Friend,

It’s already February 14, Valentines’ Day, and here I am, writing you a card.

I don’t really know what to expect; after all, I just met you a little over a week ago, and now I’m practically tripping over myself, falling for you.

I’m sorry, is it overwhelming? Well, I didn’t plan any of this, believe me. I simply wanted to make friends. I just sort fell for you. I didn’t’ expect things to happen so fast.

You must be used to having girls go crazy for you, but I get giddy when I read your texts, and simply thinking about you puts a huge smile on my face. I really like you, and the sweet feeling I get when I talk about you brightens up my day.

I know that me asking you is a bit unconventional, I’m gutsy that way, but I ought to try…

Will you be my Valentine?

-----------------------------

This was a Valentines' card I  meant to give to a friend of mine, but I never gave it to him. I could've gone to him in person and given it to him, but I didn't. No, I wasn't shy or anything, neither was I afraid of him tearing it up; a thought just came to me that day. It was that I would rather have him as a friend, than as a boyfriend (or Valentine, whatever). You see, it would be awkward if I gave it to him. We became friends not long ago, and I didn't want to ruin that dynamic. I think I made the right choice, because now that I'm not blinded by my infatuation with him, I can see that we can become really good friends if I just stop going crazy whenever I see his name on my phone.

Hey, Friend,  if you ever see this blog post, text me right away, ok? We'll have a lot of laughs about this :)

Project Citizen!

For the past few days, we've been obsessing about making our entry for the first-ever North Luzon Project Citizen Showcase. You see, since the start of its run here in the country, it has only ever been held in Manila, so we were excited to learn that, finally, we Northerners could participate.

This was just last week, February 1, 2011, where we went to school for our write-shop and documentation. All of 3Sci was invited to come that day, but we missed a few. It was also Adrich's birthday that day, and as of that day, he is the oldest in our class. :D

Well, we TRIED to work on our project.... But as the saying goes, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." So, we had a little fun, failed a few times, but in the end, we got down to work. :)

Here we are, (Christian, Cris, Drich and I) playing a game on my iPod Touch as we waited for Patrick to critique our work. As little time we were given that day, we still finished a lot of work. From studying laws and policies passed, to thinking of a new policy, we were able to put our heads to good use.

3 Sci really worked hard as a team to finish our project, and we were glad to have had fun while we were at it. We never fail to enjoy our time spent together :)

DOOMSDAY 

- the day of the competition proper, Februaury 5, 2011, at SLU-LHS Function Hall.

Here we are, waiting for our lunch. Unfortunately, Jeremy was in another place at the time, practicing his lines. He was too busy to join in. :( Anyways, here are some of the speakers, Marc, me, Patrick and Erika :D

 And our presentation :) Marc was in charge of the introduction, Jeremy on the background, Erika on the existing policies, Patrick on our proposed policy, and I on the action plan. We had three judges, one of which was Sir Bradford Villamar. Patrick, Erika and I are very familiar with him, because we were students under the Young Louisian Writers, which was moderated by Sir Brady then.

 Of course, we had the full support of the class. :) And guess what? WE WON! We're going to the Nationals, and we are all so proud of ourselves. I really think that our presentation was going to lose, but then I was wrong. We were actually announced first as the winners, and we got a lot of freebies from that day. I really was a fun day for all of us. :)

 

 Here is one of the winning teams, the 4th Year team of Baguio City National High School. They deserved their win, because we saw part of their presentation, and they really were good.

I personally found new friends in BCNHS, the third year team. Andra and Genjo :) Some of their students were actually my classmates in elementary, and I enjoyed seeing them after so long. I catched up with Meghan, and said hello to Angelo :D

-----------------------------------------

CREDITS TO: Marc Pulmano for his father's awesome camera, a very fine DSLR :))

Motivation, eh?

What motivates us? I was recently viewing random inspirational talks on Youtube, and I stumbled upon this little gem of a video. I don't know, I just feel like I had to share it. This is how all motivational talks should look like, with visual aids, I think it makes it easier to understand. At first, I was only focusing on the drawings (I still am a kid, low attention span and whatnot), but I decided to just listen to it. It does make sense, that different people have different motivations. My motivation, for example, is to get better at what I do. I don't look for prizes, although the occasional recognition is a prize on its own. I do, however, appreciate it when people compliment on my output. It makes me feel good about my work, I guess. I want to learn new things, to try more styles, to develop what little talent I have. Simple as that.

Wait, wasn't I just here?..

By now, maybe you've established that I'm quite an animation fanatic. So, yeah... Knock yourselves out with this cool video. Mind-blowing, and not only because of the science aspect of the video, but also because of how it was animated. I'm thinking about doing one of these in the future, I plan to learn how this was made. Rotoscope, I presume. (Ha, I'm talking like I'm an expert on these things.) Anyways, check it out peeps.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

I recently read John Maxwell’s blog post about fear, and I was inspired.

Discover the foundation of fear

-Has anyone ever asked you “Bakit ka natatakot?” (Why are you afraid?), and you could only say, “Basta” (just because) or, “Nakakatakot e” (it’s scary) ? Well, it’s not really a good answer, it’s barely an answer at all. Who would be afraid of nothing? Some people could be afraid of nothingness, but that’s a different story altogether. People just can’t be afraid of nothing. Maybe you’re afraid of spiders, but you’re not afraid of the spider itself, but afraid of the feeling of it crawling on you. There might be very brave people out there, seemingly fearless, but everyone has a weak point. My point is, everyone has a fear, and to overcome it, you must first know where the fear comes from.

Admit your fears

-“Natatakot ako.” It’s pretty simple to say, easy actually, but some people won’t (or can’t admit this), and I actually feel sorry for people who don’t let their emotions out. If a person is trying to keep up an image of the “strong guy/girl who’s not afraid of anything,” I suggest that they give it up. As I said before, everybody gets scared sometimes, and it’s only natural. A person who can’t admit that they’re scared to themselves, then how on earth do they expect to defeat their fears? How can you battle something that you can’t even confess is within you?

Accept the frailty and brevity of life

-There are simply some things in life that we can’t stop from happening, but that doesn’t mean that we should just curl up in a corner and wait for the disasters to come roaring at us, it means that we have to find a way to avoid having to deal with these unstoppable events alone, or unprepared. Come on, people! Wake up!

Accept fear as the price of progress

-We’ve heard it before, “it’s a scary world out there.” Ask any adult, ask your parents, ask your older friends…. I doubt anybody can say that their life is easy, no matter how privileged they are. It’s a risk to live every day, and it’s hard sometimes, but after all the rain, out comes the sun, right? It’s progress, to learn new things every day.

Develop a burning desire that overcomes fear

-You ought to find something worth fighting for while you’re at it. If you have an ulterior, positive motivation to fight your fear, I bet you’re gonna overcome it that much sooner. If you ask me, finding a goal or an inspiration, makes working hard easier.

Focus on what you can control

-John Maxwell said:

I can control my attitude, but not others’ actions.

I can control my calendar, but not others’ circumstances.

And it’s not what happens to me, but what happens in me.

What he said is true. You can’t control everything, but then again, you don’t have to. Simply doing what you can is good enough. Being the best at what you do may not be what some people look for, but you don’t have to please everyone. Seriously, chill.

Focus on today

-You can’t go back to yesterday, neither can you fast forward to tomorrow. You can’t make everything work for you, it’s impossible, no matter how many connections you have out there. Don’t you think it’s scary thinking about the future? What? You’re not? Why, aren’t you brave.

Put some wins under your belt

-As I write about it now, I realize that the more pain you go through, the stronger you become. It’s as if all the fears you defeat melt together and become an invisible shield that makes you stronger. I don’t know, ha ha ha. If you face one thing, then the next challenge won’t seem as hard. Somehow, the more obstacles you pass, the better you get at overcoming them. It seems that “practice makes perfect” applies to fears.

Do it now

-The more you think about what you’re afraid of, the more stressed you become about it. If you try to actually overcome them, maybe you won’t keep on fretting about them. Nothing comes from simply worrying about things. Sure, you can just wait for your fears to go away, but I doubt that doing that will work. What you need to do is move, take action, make decisions.

_________________________________________________________________________

It took me time to make this blog post, and now, as I proofread it, it occurs to me that I am essentially making one point: to overcome your fears take a lot of effort, but these efforts make all the hard work worth it. Facing your fears is hard, scary, even impossible for some, but still, you have to conquer it. No cowering about. Just do it.

Game of the year.

COGS
Developed by Lazy 8 Studios.

Cogs is an award-winning puzzle game where players build an incredible variety of machines from sliding tiles. Immersed in a steampunk world with stunning visual design, Cogs is beautifully made. It has 50 levels and 3 gameplay modes. Pretty addicting, if you ask me. Developed by Lazy 8 Studios for PC, Apple's iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

We've all agonized over the solution to a sliding tile puzzle at some point. There's always a couple of pieces that just don't want to co-operate, and then once you've got those in the right position, now others have moved out of place. Really frustrating for people like me who rarely have the kind of patience for this type of game.

All elements of play are in full 3D, although only on specific levels can the user rotate the playfield through a whole 360 degrees. With this kind of game the graphical style isn't exactly the most important element, so it's reassuring to see so much effort being put into looks.

Of course, with this kind of setup, the material is bound to be limited and later puzzles less varied, but Lazy 8 have managed to squeeze every idea possible out of the genre and then shadow any acts of repetition with clever objectives and outcomes. Not every puzzle features cogs, with some using pipes and the like.

Cogs is also rather difficult. As much as I love puzzle games like this one, I was actually frustrated by Cogs. I had to unlock stars by finishing the puzzle with the shortest time possible, with the least number of moves I could.

All in all, Cogs is a great game. I highly recommend it, and at a price of $9.99, I think it's a steal. Then again, if you aren't that sure about buying it, you could always try the demo version.