Aja Lapus

Category: Me

  • 3-day Seminar at Cardona, Rizal

    School has obviously been busy—I haven’t posted anything in a while. Managing time for school, work, friends and family have been really challenging. And, during this past weekend, I didn’t actually have any weekend at all. We went to the Leadership Training Seminar of the Engineering Student Council in Kuhala Bay Resort where most officers of different organizations from the Faculty of Engineering, including us ESC committee heads and assistant heads, have been invited.

    The first day was somehow more talk and less play, and our team, the yellow orange group, wasn’t winning anything significant from the games. Then came the 2nd day where the whole afternoon was spent on the Amazing Race which lasted until dark. After eating dinner that night, all nine groups plus the hosts (ESC Executive Board) performed in the Cultural Night for some entertainment. The Cultural Night was where every team should perform anything entertaining may it be singing, acting or dancing. Our team was picked to be the last one to perform and that was already 1 am. We expected everyone to be bored since the activities prior to that one really made us tired and sleepy. We even thought what we planned was corny but we still pushed through to the performing it. Ate Joyce sang, while three others danced and all others did a skit after Kuya Dennis introduced us. To our surprise, while we were performing, everyone was laughing hard and one judge even commented that they have, saved the best for last. We won 200 points for that, which placed our team in third overall during the third day awarding ceremonies.

    I could really say that the place was great except of course when the rain accumulated in the roof of the building where we stayed and soaked the roof with water then dripped everywhere, which flooded our room. Good thing I placed my bag and things on the bed and not on the floor saving me of my clothing.

    I can’t find my infrared adapter for my desktop [maybe Ate Lei took it] thus I still could not transfer my photos from my phone—I will as soon as I could get it.

    As for the things I’ve learned during the 3-day seminar: I’ve learned that I could be a good comedy actor having a role of someone who is sleepy like the one I’ve portrayed during the Cultural Night. I’ve been commended a lot of times as Bitoy—and I haven’t got any problem about that. 😛

  • Fast Pace in Slow Motion

    I have a new layout, everybody. Obviously. I hope this one wouldn’t turn out dull like the second version. I have a reason for that static title, maybe I’ll tell you a little later. I’ve done this for four weeks. Yes, four weeks! I got so busy with many things but fortunately, one [this] is finished. Now, I have more time for the others.

    This is somehow broken in Internet Explorer. And, I am in no mood for hacking CSS yet again for that pesky browser. Get Firefox! I’ve been telling you for years! The upcoming Windows IE7, which is already downloadable in Beta, is still no match for it—at least for me.

    There are a few somethings still lacking from this Web site. Just as a checklist, it includes:

    Maybe I’d just post the story behind the title in the Site Information page. I really can’t think right and write right right now. See? 😆

  • So much work, so little time

    One word: über-busy.

    I’ve just realized having so many dreams and interests could really stress a person out—well, at least for me. Well, after two weeks of unannounced hiatus, I could finally tell you some news.

    1. I’ve got the Head position in the Web & Technical Committee of the Engineering Student Council. Wish me good luck on this, guys. It’s so much work I haven’t imagined. I’ve only applied for the Assistant Head position, but after two chosen candidates [for the Head] declined, they picked me. Many projects to come. 🙂
    2. I’ve got accepted to work on XHTMLized. Current project: none. I’ve got to finish ESC work first. 😀
    3. My Princess got a blog! And, I write here, too. Please read: Mixed to Perfection. Thank you! Shoutout: I love you, Princess!
    4. My interest in spreading Web standards could possibly be official. Though up to now it still isn’t, I’ve already told Molly that I’m interested in joining the International Liason Group of The Web Standards Project. I hope other Filipinos come and join. This would be a great opportunity for everyone who’s into standards. 🙂

    I know I am forgetting something. Haha! It would just have to be on the next entry. I have to start making my project proposals and the projects themselves. Until next time!

    Raindrops on my car window. North Luzon Expressway, 6 May 2006. Oh yes! I remember: I’ve already gone out swimming with the Tan Clan (my mother’s side of the family). I’ve got only a handful of photos because it was so much fun being in water after so many days of extreme heat exhaustion. Ironically, it rained so heavy the afternoon we were coming home from the province. *sweatdrop*

    BTW, I’ve finished my upcoming layout about a week ago. It’s the content that it is lacking—about eight user pages are still unfinished, but the WordPress layout is done. I don’t want to activate it just yet because I think I have the tendency not to continue its development if I implement the design so early. Well, I may ask you though: “Finish it first!” or “I want the new design now!”? 😛

    Back to work, now. One by one by one by one … 🙂

  • A Different Kind of Easter Bunny

    First of all: Happy Easter, everyone! I seemed to have forgotten to greet you on my last entry because of certain excitement and happiness — proves Easter is a happy season. Well, I actually didn’t go right to happy mode when I woke up on Easter Sunday, I could not sleep for hours rolling on my bed trying to get the best sleeping position [or it may be because of something else]. All I know is I haven’t got sufficient sleep.

    As celebrities and other families celebrate their Holy Weeks on trips and vacations, our family usually spends it on fasting, abstinence, and heavy exercise. 😆

    This is the heavy exercise: Since our house was extended, I didn’t have time and space to arrange and clean up my things the best way I could. I ended up having the dirtiest room in the house or possibly the neighborhood. Ehehe … Anyway, since my room is the farthest from outside [or the facade of] our house besides from being the dirtiest, it was the first one we cleaned up. Now I have the cleanest room of the house! Yeah! And that’s not all. We moved my computer and television here from the library–et-cetera room beside mine. Again: my computer is in my room!

    But, I still haven’t finished tidying up everything that was left in the living room since we put everything there to be sorted out. About two days of cleaning still unfinished. Ehehe … I told you it was really a mess! My Easter bunny is a dust bunny. 😆

    Well, let us get out of that thought now. I’ve got a lot of plans for this website. I think it’s time for a redesign and restructure since my site info and about pages are becoming bloated and I am starting my web development career. I still haven’t got ideas for the design but I’ve finished the blueprint for the structure of the new version of this website.

    Oh, I’ve thought of an idea for a domain name but I’ve asked only from a handful of my friends. I still want some ideas for it so I will be putting off publicizing my idea a little later.

  • On Freelancing

    Everyone has to start somewhere, right? I know I started markup programming since I was 14 years old. Now, I think I have the skills and knowledge to make money from it. Well, actually, I knew months back that I could start making money with my work but I really do not know where to start. One major thing that stopped me was my lack of skills in image manipulation and design — I just do my XHTML really good. And since I thought possible customers were more into design than markup, I stopped a while until I have the skills — the skills that I still do not have that much even right now.

    Then I have encountered XHTMLized. There I saw an opportunity that I could just make the XHTML out of the customers’ designs that they can’t turn into beautiful markup. I have done this for a volunteer work with TomWeb on the UST Nursing website and with my friends’ blogs, and now I know I could do this for a fee.

    XHTMLized starts their service at $149 — that is PhP7600 on the average! Wow! I can not make that money even with my 4 months’ allowance! Now I am definitely starting my career!

    Well, I still won’t stop volunteer work for my school [TomWeb] and for my college [ESC WebTeam] and for my close friends, but for other people that need me: I am going to think about how much it would cost first. 🙂

    I know I’ve done free service a lot in the past few years but please consider that I am in dire need of finances right now. And, if I am not going to start making this as a career, I may not be able to start making this as one in the future. I need support for this from you [my friends and readers], maybe you could refer me to anyone who wants to build a business out of a website [those are usually the ones willing to pay for good design and markup] or someone who has just a lot of money and wants a good XHTML+CSS design.

    Here are my specifications about my work that may be of interest to those who are thinking of availing my services:

    • I use XHTML 1.0 Strict, unless the design restricts me to do so then I’d use the Transitional DTD.
    • I use XHTML purely for content, using CSS for design.
    • I would accept designs in almost any image format [JPEG, GIF, PNG, preferably PSD for Adobe Photoshop].
    • I would also accept designs in HTML or XHTML that the owner wants to be cleaned up for better Search Engine Optimization and accessibility [for text-only browsers and screen readers].
    • I would make the XHTML look similar [there is no same in rendering between different browsers] in major browsers — Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Mozilla Suite, Netscape Browser; and if possible, Camino and Safari.

    I do not intend to compete with those people at XHTMLized. I just want to start my career. Besides, I’ve linked them twice already — my thank-you’s for giving me the idea.

    Here are my details if ever you wanted to contact me privately; or just post a comment below if you don’t mind telling it in public.

    Thank you!
    — Aja Lorenzo Lapus, freelance programmer.