Aja Lapus

Category: School

  • The Aftermath

    Yes, I know this is a story long overdue. I’ve had three very long mornings of derangement and two evenings of sleepful nights—very, very unusual for me. Bagyong Milenyo made sure of that. We lost power the morning of September 28. By the morning of the 30th, we’ve used up all stored water for bathing (since our village relies on water pumps and we do not have a big water tank at home). After going to school, I immediately went to my grandparents’ house in Quezon City instead of going home since their power was brought back just a day after the storm. My mother brought me clothes enough to last me for the weekend, and though electricity came back to our house the night we were on my grandparents’ house, I stayed there for two nights since I haven’t been with my cousins for a long time. Four days without blog hopping and mail checking dented me internally. *exaggerating*

    But that wasn’t the only aftermath I’ve encountered. Guess what the other one is …

    Well, I currently am taking Differential Equations, a Math subject, this semester. After Math? I would still take Differential Equations. Yes, I failed it this sem; my *curses* professor announced it right after the last class of the semester. T_T

    Hmmm … looking at the bright side. I am exempted from taking the final exams since I would still fail anyway. No need to bother studying that right now. *tee-hee*

  • Capturing Moments

    Being one who has interest in photography but never actually learned from another on how to do it, I just take whatever photo my simple digital point-and-shoot camera could take; copying the manner of how other photos were taken, and not taking into account the features my camera possesses. [Raindrop photo taken during the seminar] In fairness to me, some [non-photography inclined] people say that I, most of the time, take good pictures—well, on automatic.

    Having the chance to attend the Basic Digital Photography Seminar of the Engineering Student Council, I then learned a lot about the insides of a camera. Representatives from Canon taught us how aperture, shutter speed, exposure, flash and all other things work together [or separately] to produce a certain quality of photograph.

    Photo exhibiting a macro focus on the flower foreground.

    The seminar was just a short one, as most of the time was spent printing them. [For free!] But the Documentation Committee who managed the seminar took my [four] prints to be placed on a future exhibit. I still have the digital copies of course. Take a look at my Flickr set.

    By the way, my nose bled when they were setting up their equipment. They displayed three Canon Digital SLRs with one having almost the same price as a used car! They also had a two printers with them. One of which prints borderless postcards directly from the camera. *holding onto my nose now*

  • Ignition Afterparty

    Last Sunday night, the UST Engineering Student Council held an acquaintance party entitled Ignition: A Blast to 100! The party featured dance numbers from the Engineering Dance Troupe, the ESC Executive Board, the organization presidents and the ESC Adviser, Sir Butch Carbonell. Other performers include the Engineering One Voice, a comedian-slash-comedienne, and popular local bands such as Sugarfree and Urbandub, among others.

    ESC Web and Technical Committee Being one of the organizers of the party, I became tired even just midway through the night as I was stationed at the second level of the venue for the control of the technical stuff such as presentation shows, and lights and sounds. My feet almost killed me running up and down the stairs just to make sure everything goes according to plan. I even did some spontaneous non-technical stuff such as carrying food from the parking lot outside to the backstage inside for other staff and for the bands.

    Nonetheless, there were benefits of being an organizer as well. [even though the huge number of people squeezing their way from point A to point B did make steps worse] For one, I have accessed the backstage for some photographs and autographs from Ebe of Sugarfree and Urbandub. Here's my Organizer ID signed by Ebe. And, I was spared of my 200 bucks for a ticket to the party.

    My so-called afterparty was not that good though. The one supposed to drop me off at my house was picked up by his parents, ergo no car to drive on his own. I couldn’t commute alone at midnight for about 2 hours feeling tired and sleepy—I’d wake up naked in the middle of nowhere then. Good thing Kuya Bert let me stay at his and his friends’ apartment for the night. But before that happened, of course we couldn’t leave the head organizer of the party alone in the dark waiting for his ride to pick him and his stuff up, so we waited … and waited … and waited until the ride came at about 2:30 in the morning. And we arrived about 3 o’clock at Kuya Bert’s apartment. ‘Twas the first time I’ve slept at a friend’s house—I didn’t even have clothes to change to for the next morning. But still, sleep was so great and I woke up being able to feel my legs.

    I still haven’t collected all the photos I was in from my friends, so just watch out for updates on my Flickr album. [I didn’t want to be a theif’s eye candy bringing my digital camera with me when I will just be riding public transportation to go to the party more than 20 kilometers away from my home.] So, I just borrowed from whoever brought one. 🙂

    Update (1 September 2006) : View all photos on my Flickr Ignition set.

  • 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. 😛

  • 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 … 🙂