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Thursday, February 21, 2008
The results are out! Congratulations to all those who passed the December 2007 Nurse Licensure Exam held last December 1 & 2, 2007. Besfwen Leng2, Ate Lei, Omeng, Caz, Ellaine Mae, Kuya Ace, Mishy, congrats to all of you. And to all of my batch mates from high school who passed the said exam. Especially to Ms Ayn Portia Galamgam, RN who placed top nine. Way to go!
For a complete list, click HERE. :)
Posted at 02:24 pm by ijchua
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Monday, February 18, 2008
As most of you (my dear imaginary readers) can see in my previous
post, I have this subject called “Multimedia Systems.” It’s gotta be one of my
favorite subjects as of this moment and it’s really fun. Our last project was a
mini-magazine and though we had a hard time finishing it, it came out pretty
well. I’m really not that good in layouting and doing magazine stuff since my…uhh…let’s
just say, my “forte” is image manipulation and enhancement, but I must admit, our
mini-mag was better compared to our other classmates’ work.
Now our next project is video editing and special effects. Whoa!
Sounds cool right? Hell yeah! We’re assigned to make this “music video” of the
song of our choice and we get to be the actors/actresses in it. Haha! This is
totally fun. I’m so damn excited I keep imagining scenes that we’d do for our
music video. Haha.
Posted at 07:40 pm by ijchua
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Would somebody please help me? I’m supposed to write
something about the MSU-IIT vs IMCC basketball game last Sunday and I’m having
a hard time doing it. Damn! Where did all those writing “skills” go? Just when
you needed them so badly. *sigh*. You know (I’m talking to my imaginary friend),
it’s really hard to write a news article especially if you don’t have any idea
about the topic. Well yah, I was there that fateful rainy Sunday afternoon when
IMCC overpowered our school, but unfortunately, stupid me got excited and all
with the game I forgot to jot down the scores in a piece of paper. Dumbass!
But honestly, I’m reeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy having a hard time
here, not only in writing this news article but generally speaking, I’m having
a hard time writing something. After that long hiatus in my blog, not to
mention that this would be my first time writing a news article for our school
paper. Come to think of it, I’ve never actually written something for a school
paper before. I totally have no idea how to start that friggin’ sports news. Oh
crap.
Posted at 07:25 pm by ijchua
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
Whew! After two weeks of hard-work (really?) and staying in front of the PC for almost half a day and taking 2am sleeps, our class project finally came to a reality. Without any more blabbings, here is our IT 155 – Multimedia Systems mini entertainment magazine:  Visit My Multiply to see the complete set. Ciao!
Posted at 09:43 pm by ijchua
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
This is the entry that won the title for the First Symbianize Essay Writing Contest Champion.
"Looking Back: A last peek at the year 2007"
2007. The year that, according to that venerable, almost revered guide known as the Chinese Horoscope, would be dominated by "fire pigs", or as I'd like to call it, lechon. A year of patient yet assertive people. A year that, like any other year, promised to wipe out all the mistakes and errors of the previous year. A year that would erase the memory of the "Nicole" rape case and Typhoon Reming from 2006, and even the Hello Garci scandal, whose vile taste still lingered even after more than a year. Truly, like any new year, a year of hope.
The year really didn't start off with a bang. At least not literally. With the intensive campaign of the Department of Health and the gory TV news clips, complete with repentant young boys lying in hospital beds with three of their five fingers missing, not everyone was keen to risk their life and limb just for a second or two of loud sound and bright light. This made for a safer, quieter and, some say, more boring New Year.
The year had barely learned to suck its thumb when tragedy befell Eastern Visayas. Flash floods struck the region, causing thousands upon thousands of families in more than eighty villages to be displaced. A not so auspicious start to the year, to say the least.
2007 was also election year. With politicians bickering, posturing, and jockeying for position as early as the previous year, it is no wonder that wannabe senators and congressmen always seemed to have something to say whenever GMA7 or ABS-CBN (more on those two media giants later) does so much as point a camera or position a boom microphone at them. All in all, 37 senatoriables slugged it out, among them were erstwhile political opponents Mike "Braces" Arroyo and Francis "hindi ako si Bamboo" Escudero.
The senatorial candidates joined a one-time debate program of GMA7, where they were given the chance to explain their plans for our country. Many of them faltered and showed their true colors. Mrs. Roco, wife of the late political giant Raul Roco, failed to impress many people with her faltering speech and apparent lack of a plan. She instead talked in a suspiciously canny and scripted manner. Pichay, who was said to have spent more than a hundred million pesos, failed to explain how he would recoup his "investment". As of this writing, the current exchange rate is US$1.00 = PhP 40.6955, so that meant Pichay spent at least US$2,457,274.15, a heady amount even for our more successful OFW's. And that was 2007, when the exchange rate was different. Maybe he has a huge Chinese cabbage farm somewhere.
I've heard that a senator's salary doesn't exceed PhP50,000 per month, if it reaches that high at all. How, indeed, would a senatoriable regain the money he spent on TV ads and posters and talent fees for the personal appearances of hunky actors and sexy actresses when the wannabe senator, should he or she win, stands to make so little? Did somebody say pork? 2007 was the year of the pig, after all.
The trend of showbiz personalities vying for a political career didn't stop this election. If anything, there seemed to be more actors who filed their COC's at Comelec. Leading the pack were Cesar Montano and Richard Gomez. Both, and many other actors-slash-politicians, lost. Big time. Many pundits say that that is good news, that the Filipino voter is at last maturing. In fact, the Genuine Opposition won the Senate, a fact that many say is a consensus on President Arroyo's administration. Malacañang countered that their party TEAM UNITY conquered the House.
Even when the electoral dust has settled the badmouthing continued. Of course, no election in the Philippines would be complete without the standard scandals and protests. Accusations of cheating flew everywhere. There's Cayetano vs Cayetano (Alan Peter and Joselito Pepito, not related) and Zubiri vs Pimentel. Alan Peter Cayetano claims that the administration fielded the "other" Cayetano just to dilute the Alan Peter Cayetano votes. Pimentel claims that the Maguindanao vote, where Zubiri won heavily, was rigged. These, in addition to the numerous election related violence, bribes, and murders, it was another election in the Philippines.
And as if to mirror the atmosphere of elections in the Philippines, the one of the Comelec buildings burned down. It can't get more poetic than that, I say.
Perhaps most surprising of all the senatoriables was detained military man Antonio Trillanes. Despite being in prison and communicating only through calls and SMS and even Friendster, Trillanes won against supposedly more popular and electable senatoriables like Pichay and Montano and Gomez and even incumbents Roco and Sotto. Like Jalosjos, why he was allowed to run in the first place when he couldn't attend sessions (he's a prisoner after all) is beyond me.
Trillanes would later make more turbulent waves with the so-called "Manila Pen Mutiny." Showing his penchant for luxury hotels, Trillanes commandeered the Manila Peninsula. The events that transpired, which ate substantial air time on CNN and BBC, are still fresh in people's minds. Long story short, Trillanes and company left the courthouse where they were being held and forcibly entered Manila Peninsula. It took a good part of the day, a tank ramming and breaking the Pen's front entrance, some teargas, and a stand-off between mediamen and the military before everything was finished.
That stand-off between the media and the military is still being debated today. The pictures of mediamen with handcuffs (of sorts) paint a sobering picture. Did the military overstep their boundaries? Did the media abuse their power? Does this remind you of martial law, or what? Filipino bloggers everywhere were typing furiously, dissecting and analyzing the issue with reckless abandon.
Speaking of bloggers, who can forget Malu Fernandez, that elitist snob who dared to defile the OFW name? Her disparaging remarks to OFW's united bloggers and forum contributors everywhere in their hatred of this pig, even if it was her year. Who knows, maybe she was what Chinese astrology said to be the fire pig. Many wanted her burned at a fiery stake, myself included, particularly after her insulting first "apology" which further maligned the OFW's. Her second apology was too little too late. The damage has been done, and she will forever be remembered as that bitchy pig who flew economy class and regretted writing about it.
2007 was a sad year in too many ways. Almario Villegas was shot dead in a hostage confrontation over land. Jun Ducat, another hostage taker, took a bus full of children hostage as the world watched. What was more distasteful (or you may insert whatever adjective you want) was the self-aggrandizing "help" of the then wannabe senator Chavit Singson and incumbent senator Bong Revilla, who clearly violated police protocol during the Ducat drama. Your guess is as good as mine as to Singson's and Revilla's agendas during that time.
Intense typhoons also ran amok. Chedeng, Dodong, Egay, and Hanna, among others, pounded the country, leaving behind a destructive trail that one sees every year. What makes these tragedies so sad is that each and every year they come and we see them, so whether we like to or not, we are more desensitized every time.
Another tragedy in the form of a bomb struck the House of Representatives, which killed four people, including a congressman. Security concerns at one of the bulwarks of Philippine democracy were raised after the bomb. Another explosion rocked Glorietta, killing eleven and injuring more. The Ayala group, who commissioned foreign forensic experts, declared that the explosion was caused by a bomb, and thus absolving Ayala of any responsibility. The police, on the other hand, insist that the cause was not a bomb but something else, therefore absolving the police of not doing their job of preventing terrorist from terrorizing the city. What really happened?
Who can forget Cris Anthony Mendez, the alleged hazing victim who died? He was a student of the University of the Philippines, supposedly a haven for intellectuals who should know, above all others, what they are doing. Yet he died. Was the cause hazing, or did he die of some other way? Only time will tell. Meanwhile his Friendster account is still flooded with comments from loved ones and friends.
Ironically, the Year of the Pig wasn't all that good for the pig itself. The Department of Agriculture declared a hog cholera outbreak in Pampanga and Bulacan. Come to think of it, a pig with hog cholera has symptoms of fever. And a pig with fever is hot, as if it's on fire. Once again, the fire pig, ladies and gentlemen.
2007 wasn't too shabby for the most popular Filipino. Of course I'm talking about Manny Pacquiao: boxer extraordinaire, sub par TV host and actor, and all around Filipino celebrity. Aficionados everywhere lamented that Pacquiao, dubbed the Mexican Killer and undoubtedly one of the best boxers Philippines has ever produced (and we produce only the best boxers), was felled by the dainty Darlene Custodio. And his "supporters" allegedly channeled his campaign funds (much of it was his own money anyway) into their own pockets.
The election was to be Pacquiao's only loss of the year. He downed Jorge Solis in eight rounds, and defeated Marco Antonio Barrera in a convincing unanimous decision. Like an angry bull seeing nothing but red flags everywhere he mercilessly beat his opponents.
His foray into show business started with the seemingly obligatory San Miguel Beer commercials, and only late 2007 he starred in his own movie "Anak ng Kumander", an entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival. Sadly the movie earned a "mere" PhP 2.5 million. A pittance, considering how much he makes for his commercial appearances and fights and pay-per-view shares.
There were some interesting showbiz news during the Year of the Pig. Angel Locsin, who was synonymous to GMA7, moved to ABS-CBN. Diehard Kapuso's said "good riddance", while Avid Kapamilya's cried "welcome home".
That wasn't to be the only Kapuso-Kapamilya fued. A Wowowee segment, Willyonaryo, showed Willie Revillame pulling two numbers from a single container. Joey de Leon of Eat Bulaga pounced on this and fanned the flames that would become almost legendary. Wowowee vs Eat Bulaga. Willie vs Joey. Youtube videos. Enough said.
The GMA7 vs ABS-CBN fight would escalate even further with allegations of cheating thrown everywhere. The story is still so thick that it has yet to be unraveled to this day. Who really cheated? Did both ABS-CBN and GMA7 target the metered homes intentionally, or did they just happen to hit the metered homes accidentally in a blanket marketing campaign? To all this I say: good thing there's cable.
There is so much more about the 2007 (Enchanted Kingdom ride, Erap pardoned, Rod Strunk suicide, etc) but I'm tired, and I have to find more good stuff at symbianize. Besides, I already reached the 1500 word limit. So here's to a better 2008!
Posted at 10:28 pm by ijchua
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