Aja Lapus

Author: Aja

  • Destiny

    I’ve been recently watching DVD re-re-runs (sic) of “destiny” films (specifically, Serendipity and My Sassy Girl) these past few weeks. They topped my hit chart almost instantaneously. I also remembered watching years ago an Asian film entitled: Love on a Diet, which also has a similar meeting–parting–meeting-again setup. This kind of movie really draws out the soft side in me, or rather the dreamy part of me.

    Now, on to the topic:

    Destiny — something, or rather someone we all look forward to. It builds us dreams and hopes that another person is bound to be with us for the rest of our lives. Oh, it’s so good.

    So, what if you found somebody and fell for her? But, destiny gets in the way. Yes, (it is obvious that) I believe in destiny. I also believe it tears hearts apart, wrecks peoples lives, shatters hopes and dreams for a person they thought was their destiny — just like what happens in the movies, without the happy ending. Ugh. It’s so sad.

    But I make my own destiny.

    So, if you are reading this, let me just tell the whole world:

    I’d make my destiny with you. 🙂

    It’s all about choices.

  • Fighting the inevitable

    People encounter problems no matter how much we try to prevent them — they are inevitable. But we shouldn’t avoid them; we should face them. It is with fear and anxiety that many people try to run away from their problems.

    Just remember, there is something we all have but we usually ignore …

    A quotation I received through email said:

    Stop telling God you’ve got big problems.
    Tell your problems you’ve got a big God!

    … Yes, a big God!

  • It’s time for some change

    We all have our own problems and we, sooner or later and in one way or another, would know how to take care of them. I just don’t know why I keep myself from solving them. Then, I remember I keep asking God about things I want to be able to do, but one little line from a favorite movie made me think again. It was when God said:

    People want me to do everything for them. What they don’t realize is that they have the power. You want to see a miracle? Be the miracle.

    I’ve watched the film, Bruce Almighty, for over five times now. I hope now it strikes me for good. I really won’t tell what changes I need to undergo. But I hope writing this article would make me remember everytime that there are people expecting me to change. Yes, I really want to…

  • Are you one of them?

    I’ve read a front-page article about pupil illiteracy in the Philippines from the August 17 edition of The Philippine Star — a daily newspaper in nationwide circulation. The article, entitled Only 6 of 100 Grade 6 pupils ready for high school — study, showed statistics of disappointing value. But, I am not going to talk about it here.

    Only 6 of 100 Grade 6 pupils ready for high school—study I guess, you’ll say, But, why did you start with that topic? Oh, I have a reason. I think Sandy Araneta, the author of the article, is one of those “pupils” not ready for high school! She said in her first sentence, Fewer than one percent of Filipino students are high school and college material… Fewer than one percent? I thought you’ve just said 6 of 100 in the title? Six of 100 is 6%. And, all of the other numbers you mentioned inside the article referring to the Grade 6 pupils stated 0.6 percent, or only six out of every 1,000!

    Please, please, try to make it right everytime. I would also like to mention your editors though I do not know who they are. Yes, we make mistakes, but (all of) you are writing in a nationwide newspaper and your Math and proofing aren’t even correct! I think that’s one evidence to really say illiteracy is widespread in the country.

    To the writer and editors from The Philippine Star: I’m sorry for the harsh comparisons and descriptions written here. I admit I was a little bit exaggerating.

    Note: Image scanned without permission from August 17 edition of The Philippine Star.

    Note: The incident was reported by email to the webmaster of philstar.com. In response to that, the webmaster told me that the editors were informed about the error they have committed.

  • Neophyte

    After learning so much HTML and CSS, I felt like I was ready for something more, something dynamic. I became interested in server-side scripting (one is PHP) but was unable to learn it myself because of its natural complexity compared to markup languages. I know its tag starts with <?php and ends with ?> but nothing more except for the obvious if-else statements. I think that is one reason I joined TomWeb for they told me beforehand that I need to learn ASP (another server-side scripting language) from their 35-hour (plus) training.

    I’ve been blogging and making websites for so long. I already knew WordPress long before the time came that I was able to use it. I have been using Blogger for those months without WordPress that its very people-friendly interface made everything a snap for me. But like what I have said earlier, I need something more than just HTML. I happened to be a self-proclaimed technophile, now I know I still have much to learn. When I was trying to utilize every feature of WordPress after I had it installed, I bumped in to something familiar and unfamiliar at the same time — PHP.

    This new domain I’ve bought is a very good experience for me. It helps me develop my interests and, of course, my knowledge about things going around the Web. It also rekindles my interest in self-studying PHP. Well, I don’t know any more reason why it is a very good experience; I just don’t want to terminate this paragraph so soon. 😆

    So, yeah, I am a technophile and a neophyte at the same time. I hope you have no problems figuring that out. I, for one, have none. 🙂

    I think this would be a good quotation: Everyone has to begin somewhere, so… begin.

    And, by the way, I have finished the primary template for this web log. I just haven’t finished its comments part. And since I so love comments, I will postpone template change until I figured out how its PHP code works so I could put it in the new template. 🙂