The Ignite speech and the Speech Choir

The Ignite speech and the Speech Choir is like the last competition that the English Resource Center of Asia Pacific College will be conducting. So it is more like the farewell party for the ERC Faculty members because there will be no English term that will happen this coming June, so I can feel the emotion of nostalgia on the speech given by the head of the ERC department, Ms. Eliz Reyes. Truly it must be hard for her to say goodbye to her ERC faculty because they are not just a group of professors, they are a family for each other and just like for us the ignite speech and the speech choir will be like our own farewell to our first year life in college.

Preparing for the speech choir is hard as always because we are the type of a block with no coordination with each other, we often yell during practice and sometimes get mad at each other, but I could say that preparing for the speech choir competition is more easier than the preparation we had when we joined the chants and cheers last mid-term because we somehow managed to unite with each other, though we seldom have same quarrels we just enjoyed every moment in every practices that we had.

On the day of the competition, we are intimidated the moment we saw other block’s performances especially on SOE blocks (well what will you expect from an engineer right?). 

But thank goodness, we won the third place in speech choir, again, but now we did not expect it to happen because we are so disappointed with our own performance but at least we had a great time and our representatives from Ignite Speech won as a Champion! Aren’t we just great?!. On the other hand the ECE 151 got the first place on the speech choir while the CPE 151 was declared as the champion. All of the blocks did their best, but I guess they lacked the ability of unity that’s why they lose.

Public Speaking

Upon the English term, the students have honed their skills in terms of the English language and Public Speaking. As I observe, those people who are very good at writing are often the ones who plummets at Public Speaking, while those people who are good in Public speaking are often poor at writing. It is Good that Asia Pacific College have this very hectic term named The English Term also known as the hell term, but even though the English terms feels like hell because of the consecutive public speaking projects and the writing subjects, I can see the improvement in me in terms of Public Speaking and English Writing.

Public speaking is one of the most highlight in the all English term because almost all of the events that the ERC has conducted requires a good public speaking skill. Just like the Public Speaking competition they conducted on the 20th of April. The top 6 best students in each in Public Speaking of the first year class taking the all English term has been sent into a trial where they have to declaim their speeches covering the topic about Integrity. In all the students who fought, the panelists chose the best 8 to perform their speech at the APC auditorium. All of them are intimidating because they delivered their speeches very well no wonder they are the best eight in all public speaking subject. Their voice was audible and the intonation and flexibility of their voices are observed, and it is quite amazing to know that despite that their topics are the same, they managed to deliver their different perspective and point of views in a very well manner, the content of their speeches is persuasive and it makes me fight for my Integrity and thanks to them, I learned that Integrity is mine and mine alone, and that I should fight for what I think is right and for what I think is just.

DAPAT TAMA

On this current world, new generation teen agers are lacking of concern on the society, on how to improve their future. Teenagers nowadays are lacking of knowledge about the happenings to their own country, and this may will dictate their future because the new leaders will enthrone the current ones, who are we going to vote for?

It is good that APC conducted a seminar to students to raise awareness on who to vote for and how to vote? On this very mature talk, the speaker thought us the process on how to be able to vote, if a person is willing to vote, unlike a person that I know, but as of me, I am still a minor but I still listened for I know that I will vote someday and I know that I must know who to vote for and how to use a ballot machine.

The speaker thought us many things on what at the characteristics that a candidate worth the place should have, she taught us to be careful on who to choose in the circle of candidates especially on the Presidentiables because will stand as the mastermind of all the decisions we make for our country.

According to her, we must also be careful on who to choose in our Barangay candidates because they or even the district and municipal candidates because they are the one who will handle our place and they will be the one who we can keep in touch with.

Choosing a leader is not an easy task because we are going to put our future on their hands, we will live in their laws, we will suffer from their mistakes if we chose the wrong leader, we will earn benefits if we chose the right one. DAPAT TAMA

Chants and Cheers

Chants and Cheers is a competition of a blocks Unity, Harmony and Oneness.

Upon Preparing for this competition, we have encountered a lot of problems and conflicts. Our Block in unlike the other block, we are the type of a block who is competitive and perfectionist, so every flaws and every errors that our block mates commit every practice turns out to be a root of arguments and problems. Preparing for this kind of competition is hard because most of our block mates are not really good in working in groups, some are not attending practice while some are having a hard time to catch up with the steps, the chants, the beats and the cheers. But altogether, it is Fun because we sometimes just laugh at our errors and I could say that our block became more compact with each other after this competition, because despite of the struggles we had while preparing, working with all our block mates gave us a chance to know each other more because to be Honest, our block is not actually a block: Our Technical Writing professor Ms. Nina noticed that, because she can 

feel that a spark of awkwardness while she is having her lessons, it is true: Because we are not united as a block, all of us have different point of views, one is different from the other. 

On the last day of our practice, we had our open forum; it gave each of us a chance to speak our hearts out about our problems with other members and the leaders. After that, we felt like w are enlightened, and inspired to give our best shot on the competition.

The day of the competition comes, every block performed their chants and their cheers, all of them are intimidating but we keep ourselves from being deistracted.

Our Grammar and Composition, Ms. Minglana, once told us that our block (ABMA 151) is the most responsible ABMA block that she ever handled during her years of teaching in Asia Pacific College, it is heart melting and overwhelming to hear that kind of feedback, and I am sure that we proved her right.

Because we won the third place, we may not be the 1^st placed winner, but being one with our block mates is the most important trophy of all.

Who wants to be a Millionaire? ERC edition

Who wants to be a Millionaire? ERC edition

Is just one of the competitions that the APC’s English department conducted. Ii is the battle of wits, vocabulary, stock knowledge and guts. Each of the first year blocks must have 3 representatives to compete in this competition. In our block, Jerica Valerio, Marlou Macalalad and Kristopher Coquia were chosen as our block’s (AMBA 151) representative to compete in this competition.

The competition was divided into 4 parts: The Easy Round, The Average Round, The Difficult Round and the Face-off.

ABPSY 141

ABMA 151

ABMA 153

ABMA 152

ABMA 132

ABMA 133

ABMA 136

ECE 141

CPE 151

AC 131

and

AC 132

Made it to the average round, cheers and boos echoed in the auditorium. I was so happy that our block made it to the Average round.

But my joy immediately turned into sadness when our block unfortunately did not make it to the next round, which is, the difficult round. But I am still proud of our block’s representative that they gavetheir best. The blocks

ABMA 136

ABMA 152

ABMA 153

ABMA 132

and

CPE 151

Are qualified to enter the difficult round. The auditorium suddenly made its intense ambiance, the audience can feel the intense battle of wits between the blocks.

They are all good, but there are always the better ones. ABMA 152 and ABMA 134 made it to the FACE-OFF Round: In this round, one of them will be the runner up and the Champion.

The questions became harder and complicated than before.

In the end, the runner up place was given to

ABMA 152

Alexis Pascua

Sebastian Decara

Edgardo Siray Jr.

While the declared Champion is the

ABMA 134

Giselle Bandilla

Kim Edward Reymundo

Nicole Santos

ABMAnuod tayo ng bago

ABMAnuod tayo ng bago is a artist talk meant for students who aims to be a great animator and film director someday. (I apologize for not documenting the first part of the talk because I wasn’t able to attend it due to our class at that time)

The first part of the seminar was performed by a Great Filipino animator Tito Romero. It is nice to have in APC. I must confess that I underestimate our Filipino animations, because the frames in every sequence are very poor and it seems too old and I can’t deny the feeling of conviction and guiltiness, to think that I am a Filipino and I don’t support our Filipino artists when it comes to animation and film production, but as what I have heard from Mr. Romero, Filipino animators uses the traditional way of animation that is why their works looks like that. He also stated some backgrounds on how animation started and how animation works before and how animation industries have improved well due to the help of technology. Tito Romero said that there are two types of animation, The Traditional animation and the Computer Generated Animation. When it comes to the quality if the produced animation, animations made by Computers are way better that the traditional ones and I don’t really get it at first when Tito Romero said that he prefers to do his animations using the Traditional style, maybe because he is still preserving the Filipino quality of animations. In the end of his talk, he introduced us to the new generation of Filipino Animations and I could say that the animations I Filipino has improved a lot.

On the last part of the seminar, a professor showcased the music videos made by the APC students.  I am impressed how students manage to do that, so I guess Filipino films will be known someday because of the graduating students from Asia pacific college. 

Ignite Speech: Creative Story telling and Confessions of a Bookaholic

The Ignite Speech: Creative Storytelling and Confessions of a Book-a-holic is just one of the competitions that are part of the English Resource Management’s events (no wonder the ERC is the best).

On the Creative Storytelling, competitors must declaim Filipino Legends and Stories in various ways, some acted in out, some used puppets while some just normally declaimed it (It is quite Ironic that they are storytelling a Filipino story in English). All of the competitors did a terrific job, but one of my favorite is the “Legend of the Javaplum” because they used the silhouette of the paper cut characters to tell the story and also they has the most unique story telling among them all.

The Confessions of a Book-a-holic on the other hand is a competition where selected certified book readers confessed their own insights on what are the positive and the negative effects when you read a book. Though they have the same content of speeches, I can still relate to all of them especially on the part where one of the speakers said that books are portals to escape this ugly reality temporarily and be the main character of the certain story because I, too, read books because it somehow takes me to another world where I am once a lightning girl, a wizard, a robot, a half-blood and a boy looking for a girl that left me without reason. Books are just amazing, but the prices are not so I have to spend my monthly allowance to buy a new book, but it is worth every page of a book and I would love to collect more if my father would let me, I don’t know why he’s refraining me to read books, but I will still collect them because books are the only I think where I can be anyone I want to be and anywhere I want to go.

Paddington Bear

Paddington is a bear from Darkest Peru who went to London to find a explorer who promised to give their tribe a home. 

A long his way he encountered a peculiar family, The Browns, Mr. Brown(The father) did not want him to let Paddington stay in to their house-at first-because he thinks that Paddington is different from them, that he will cause a disaster into their house (which is embarrassingly accurate) and he also thinks that it is absurd to have a bear living in a all-human family. So Paddington bear left the house because he knew himself that he is just a burden to The Browns, so he decided to look for the researcher himself from the Geographer’s Guild (a Guild of Taxidermist). 

Upon his search, he finally traced the address of his explorer, but unfortunately he fell into a trap, because he found himself in the right address but with a wrong person. He encountered the daughter of Montgomery Clyde. The lady was not really bad because she just wants to finish the unfinished job of her father before her father was eliminated to the Geographer’s guild because he did not stuffed the a bears from darkest Peru. When Ms. Honey pot almost succeeded into her evil plans, The Browns came to the rescue (YEY!). The Browns have these silly plans that worked in the end because they saved Paddington from the Evil Taxidermist. This Movie made me realized something: That the blood type, the skin tone, the breed or other varieties of differences are not the things that dictate what a real family is. A real family is not literally composed by blood related beings, it is composed by a group of people whom they love and take care of each other despite all of their differences.

Benjamin Alves in Asia Pacific College

Benjamin Alves is known as an actor and a model, and it leaved me astounded when our professor told us that he is coming in APC to Celebrate his Birthday with APCians, and also, to be a Judge in Slam Poetry Competition.

Slam Poetry Competition is a contest where a pair or a group of students compete by reading their original poems. At first, I was confused when our professor told us that Benjamin Alves is going to judge a poetry competition, so I was like “What does he know about poetry?“ but before I asked this my professor, she told us immediately that Benjamin Alves was a Sum Cum Laude in University of Guam major in Literature.

The participants for the Competition then started to deliver their poems; some of their poems are about unity while some are about equality in the society, but most of the poems are about Love and Heart aches, just like Benjamin Alve’s poem.

I am not really an avid fan of Poetry, but knowing that Benjamin was a Suma Cum Laude major in Literature, I can’t help but lend my ears while he was reading his piece. He said that he wrote that Poem for a girl who broke his heart long time ago, no wonder that his Poem has tons of pain in it  that is why everyone of us can really feel the agony while he was reading his piece, and it turned out superbly wonderful.

When the event was about to end, the facilitators gave the students a chance to take selfies and also to ask Benjamin Alves questions. One of the students asked him the question: ”what is your tips for those who are aspiring to be a writer” his reply makes me want to grab a pencil and a paper then start writing everything inside my head, his answer was something like this:

“Just write, write everything you want because there is no rule in writing, all you need is a pencil, a paper, a wild imagination and a heart to produce a good piece.” 

Enjoy Smoking

NO SMOKING signs prevent smokers from smoking inside the vehicles or inside the private places like: schools, hospitals, malls etc. and we can’t blame the lack of No Smoking signs, cigarette vendors and even the smokers itself is the world is being polluted by cigarettes because according to smokers, smoking gives a certain pleasure to them orally and mentally. But we must not forget the fact that smoking is Dangerous to once health, not only to the smokers itself, but also, to those Second-Hand Smokers who can accidentally inhale the smoke of poison.

According to my research, 33 percent of the people I asked are smokers, while the other 67 percent are the Second-Hand smokers. With that thought, I can further conclude that everyone is a smoker, and majority of them are the Second-hand Smokers, including me, unfortunately. I certainly didn’t choose to a Second-hand smoker - I am forced to, by the people around me exhaling clouds of poisonous substance permeating the air I breathe. It smells like burning lungs.

They’re the murders.

They’re dying.

But I am still the victim of this crime scene, and as a victim, I demand Justice! I demand for smoker’s discipline and concern for us second-hand smokers!

So for the smokers out there I hope that someday you’ll realize that: A Cigarette is as dangerous as a Bullet, the only difference is that, a Cigarette kills slowly – silently burning your lungs to ashes.

Also, if you’re smoking because you want to look cool, then I guess you should stop it, right now, you know why? Because smoking is not a tool to make a person look good, and if Cigarette Companies are trying to decrease the world's population, I guess they should make some more of their products because they are currently doing a great job.

Turn Left Turn Right

Turn Left Turn Right is a Hong Kong-Singaporean movie filmed in Taipei, Taiwan. It is produced and directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai. Starring Takeshi Kaneshiro as John Liu and Gigi Leung as Eve (featuring the following Antagonists: The Great Apartment Wall, Dr. Hu (Edmund Chen), Ruby (Terri Kwan) and the Sari-Sari Store between their apartment gates). The movie was originated from a book written by a Taiwanese author Jimmy Liao entitled, A Chance of Sunshine .

This movie is about two destined people traveling parallel paths: John Liu is a violin player (FYI Takeshi Kaneshiro doesn’t really know how to play a violin. So I would like to commend on how well he portrayed his role as a violinist) while Eve Choi is a translator of a book. Even though their career is completely different from each other, it is amazing to know that, if when we combine their works, we can create a masterpiece out of it: Music. It proves that, no matter how far they are separated they’re still destined to each other. John and Eve finally meet by accident at the water fountain, when he helps her pick up her papers that have fallen into the fountain.

They find out that they had met each other when they were younger at an amusement park, when both their schools had organized a field trip to the same place. Then, Eve had asked John for his telephone number, but the two never got in touch because she left her school bag on the train and lost John's phone number. The two laugh about the past and exchange phone numbers without asking for each other's name (which is very disappointing) before parting quickly because of a coming rainstorm. When they arrived at apartment, they found the paper wet and the numbers smudged because of the rain so they are both disappointed, but due to desperation to contact each other, they forgot to medicate their Flu that they got from the recent rainstorm. So they got sick at the same time, ordered the same food on the same restaurant, got admitted in the same hospital and yet they didn’t have a chance to at least take a glimpse or a single glance due to the walls that blocks their way. Until Destiny comes and worked like an earthquake, destroying the walls and boundaries along its way, I mean, literally, just like in the movie, an earthquake striked destroying their apartment walls and they both FINALLY found each other

Sana Dati ( If Only )

Sana Dati ( If Only ) is a 2013 Filipino romantic drama film written and directed by Jerrold Tarog. The film is the final installment to Tarog's Camera trilogy that includes Confessional (2007) and The Blood Trail (2009). Starring Paulo Avelino (as Dennis), Lovi Poe (as Andrea), Tj Trinidad (as Robert) and Benjamin Alves (as Andrew).

Story:  Andrea was about to get married to Robert obligingly. Her mother forced her to marry Robert because he came from a rich family, and Andrea’s mother believed that Robert is the right guy for her. As a daughter who wants to honor her parents, she did what she was told to. It was supposed to be a normal wedding celebration until the wedding videographer named Dennis showed up and ruined Andrea’s peace of mind. Why? Because Dennis reminded Andrea of someone very important to her in the past: Andrew, her ex-boyfriend. Died because of heart attack with their dream to build their to build a family and a business: an Event shop. Her wedding almost turned into a disaster when she and Dennis sneaked up to the top-floor to settle down and talk for a bit – to escape the chocking situation - to look back to the memories she holds on so dearly. Meanwhile, the groom was left terrified of the thought that his bride might have ran away from before their vows, and he knows that it is not impossible to happen – he knows that part of him dragged her to that fake wedding where she didn’t want to be in, but still, Robert together with his father, the mother of Andrea and The Bride’s Maid searched for the Bride. Luckily for Robert, he found his soon-to-be wife at roof-top, but unfortunately for Andrea, she have no choice but to exchange her vows with this stranger instead of being with someone she truly Love, or at least, a guy of her choice. After all of that, I am satisfied to know that the ending was not that bad: Andrea finally learned to love Robert sincerely. Maybe she accepted the fact that there is no more chance for her to escape, or maybe, she finally got tired loving a Ghost – chasing memories.

Francisco Arcellana

Francisco "Franz" Arcellana (Zacarias Eugene Francisco Quino Arcellana) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He was born on September 6, 1916 in aka Frank V. Sta. Cruz, Manila. He is the fourth son of the 18 children of Jose Arcellana y Cabaneiro and Epifanio Quino.

He was married to Emerenciana Yuvienco with whom he has six children, one of whom, Juaniyo took the same at as gis father and became an essayist, poet and fictionist.

Francisco is studying at Tondo Intermediate School but it was at the Manila West High School (later Torres High School) when  it occurred to him that he has a passion for writing, so he became a part of his school’s writing organization called The Torrest Torch.

And in 1932, he studied at University of the Philippines (UP) as a pre-medicine student and graduated in 1939 with a bachelor of philosophy in degree. In his junior year Arcellana was invited to join the UP Writers Club by Manuel Arguilla. He later on received a Rocketfeller Granted and became a follower in creative writing the University of Iowa and Breadloaf's writers conference from 1956- 1957. He is considered an important progenitor of the modern Filipino short story in English. Arcellana pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form within Filipino literature. On April 2, 1989, the University of the Philippines conferred upon Arcellana a doctorate in humane letters, honoris causa. Francisco Arcellana was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature on 23, 1990 by then Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino.

Arcellana died in 2002. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Seven years after his death, his family came out with a book to pay tribute to National Artist for Literature Arcellana. The book entitled, "Franz," is a collection of essays gathered by the Arcellana family from colleagues, friends, students and family members, including fellow National Artist Nick Joaquin, Butch Dalisay, Recah Trinidad, Jing Hidalgo, Gemino Abad, Romina Gonzalez, Edwin Cordevilla, Divina Aromin, Doreen Yu, Danton Remoto, Jose Esteban Arcellana and others. His grandson Liam Hertzsprung performed a piano concert in 2006 dedicated to him.

Selected Stories (1962) , Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977) and The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990) are Francisco "Franz" Arcellana’s works.

Never been to me (a talk with Jon Santos)

I don’t really know who Jon Santos is, and as I look him up on the internet, it states that his real name isJonathan Adriano Santos (born January 18, 1966), more popularly known as Jon Santos, is a Filipino comedian, actor, and impersonator who has done more than 50 different impersonations such as Ate Vi and Juan Flavor, probably two of his most famous impersonations so I expect him to be someone else, probably Vilma Santos,  Nora Aunor, Erap Estrada, President Noynoy Aquino, Sen. Grace Pore etc. and I am surprised to see him as a normal person, no make-ups and costumes, just himself bare and transparent while sharing experiences about the Journey he took on his life.

I learned to him that we must listen to the noise ringing inside our hearts, a noise that manifests our passion. Listen to it, obey your passion and you will not regret it because doing what you love makes you the richest person in the world. At first, the journey will be as hard as the baby tries to walk, but when it is right and it is what you really like you will find it worth-taking. Of course, there will be circumstances but that must block us while taking the road to our dreams. He mentioned a powerful quote that strikes me; “Win the war before it begins” and it made me motivated and dedicated while doing the things that I really like, although sometimes life seems hopeless and hard, I will fight to reach my dreams. And of course we must leave a place for God. For he is the root of our strength and the ruler of our ways, for without him we will not be able to do anything.

He also mentioned about the Universe’s plans, that we must also consider it because maybe, the universe’s plan may not be in line with our personal plans.

But most of all, we should know that the enemy is always us: our pride, our weakness, our fears, our ego. Because most of the time

Mobilizing the Millennials: a Medial Literacy Seminar

Asia Pacific College conducted Media Literacy seminar about how to be a better Socially 

Responsible Prosumer (Producer-Consumer). 

I was amazed to know that the speaker is a former Media and Communications Officer of Save the Children Foundation, and is also a Executive Producer in GMA News Hourly Bulletin and a former Supervising Producer in GMA News Special Assignments Team: Toni Tiemsin. It was such an honor to learn about media from a person who is truly knowledgeable about it.

The Seminar starts with a video introduced by Miss. Kareen the RAMpage head. The video was  about the things Ferdinand Marcos made to improve the Philippines, Hospitals, LRT, Schools, Theaters, etc. and a video clip which tells the story about Ex. President Ninoy Aquino’s death. Followed by a very confusing video that shows different accurate and reliable facts about the story behind the EDSA’s People Power revolution. It is true that I don’t know any of that aside from the things that our History Professor taught me during my elementary and high school days. Mr. Toni Tiemsin said that we are the Millennials. According to Google, Millennials are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends; most researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. He also mentioned that the Millennials are the Me-Me Generation. Why? Because it is awfully true that most of the millennials are self-centered and we are not using our power to do things which benefits our fellow men. The power that I am talking about is our power to use social media networks. I know it may sound cliché, but let us not underestimate the power of Social Media because it has a large part of the world nowadays, whatever we post on our Facebook status, whatever we tweet on our Twitter accounts; it can reach through the whole world.

If, you post something on your account which benefits others, imagine how many people or how far your advocacy can reach? We Millennials are a wields a great POWER on our hands. Using it to benefit others, our nation and using it as an instrument to fight for good is what being a Responsible Prosumer is.

Movie Review: Parsyte (live action)

The Movie was based on the Manga and Anime series titled Parasyte (Kiseijuu-Sei-no-Kakuritsu). I anticipated the anime version of Parasyte so I can’t help but compare it to the live action. As usual, most of live action movies originated from anime disappoints me, because they used to edit-out some parts from the original anime series. But when I watch the live action of Parasyte, I am slightly amazed on how they produced the movie quite similar to the anime series except for the

bloody effect I guess. And I can’t wait to watch the part two soon.

The name of the Protagonist is Izumi Sinichi. One day, a parasite tried to enter conquer his brain to take full control of Sinichi, but along the way, Sinichi stopped its annihilation by tying a earphone to around his arm tightly, that’s why the parasite only took full control on Sinichi’s right hand making him a half human half muntant unlike other parasite that infected a host’s brain successfully, and he called it Migi (Japanese word for right hand).

What made me fall in love with this story is Migi and Sinichi’s friendship, though I know that Sinichi had no choice but to bare with it, but still, even though they are from two different worlds they still worked together as a team, if Sinichi dies, so is Migi, that’s why Migi protects Sinichi at all cost. And also the awesome combat against the other human-eating parasites is breath-taking. This Movie also reminds me of our world’s current status, we are the parasites devouring the earth, consuming everything we could take from it until it breaks down, but still we can’t live without it so we must protect it too at all cost just like Migi protects Sinichi.

This movie still have so much more to show knowing that this only the first part. This made me cry, seriously, this gave me nightmares, and hardcore entertainment. I don’t want to spoil anything. I recommend you guys to anticipate the second part and watch its anime version, you won’t regret it. Also, a quick tip if you want to watch a live action movie and you already watched the anime version: Never ever compare them, if you don’t  want to disappoint yourselves, try to forget everything you watched from the anime series and focus on the movie instead.