SPEECH CHOIR AND IGNITE COMPETITION

The Speech Choir and Ignite Competition by the English Resource Center were held on the 21^st of April 2016 at the Asia Pacific College Auditorium. The event was an alternate performance of Ignite speeches and Speech choirs. Our block, ABMA 153, was the first to perform for the speech choir. Though we didn’t have much time to practice because of our preparation in building our floats, I believe that we did well. During our performance, I can see that some professors were having goose bumps. The audiences were listening and everyone is silently watching us. And after the performance, everyone clapped. On that moment, I felt that we’ve won the hearts of the crowd. I wasn’t never anymore as I watched some other performances including the ignite speech. Our block mate, Beatrice Baylosis, was a finalist for the ignite speech. Her topic was about: “How to survive being a fan girl”. Trice loves K – POP so much that she uses it s her topic. Her slides are even full of Korean singers and artists. Then, the time for the announcements of winners has come. Trice won as 2^nd runner up. We are really proud of this smart girl. And for the speech choir competition, our group didn’t win though some other blocks were yelling for our block name during the announcement. Also, other students who watched the competition thought that it was us who will win. Our professor, Mr. Daroy, even told us that we are the winners on his heart.

PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION

The Public Speaking Competition of the English Resource Center was held last April 20, 2016 at the Asia Pacific College Auditorium. Chosen representatives from Engineering and Multimedia Arts students who are taking English classes this term were part of the said competition. At 8 in the morning, semi – finals were held at different classrooms. Then at 10 am, the names of the finalist were announced at the auditorium. Part of them is our block mate, Tyron Santos. The topic of their speech is: “Integrity has no need of rules”. The speech should only last for exactly five minutes. Tyron started his speech in greeting us in different languages. Also, he translated integrity in different languages as well. Tyron then explained to the audience what integrity was, based on the dictionary, Wikipedia and on his own understanding. He doesn’t end his speech without leaving our minds with the clear understanding of the word integrity. He is very witty with his speech. Tyron really catches the attention of the audiences. There were questions by the judges after every speech. Tyron makes us laugh with his humorous answers. He makes the whole ABMA 153 proud. The announcement of winners will be announced on the next day. 21^st of April 2016 comes, and everyone’s waiting for Tyron’s name to be called on the winners of the Public Speaking Competition. And as expected, he was called and was the 1^st runner up. He makes us even more proud. The whole block was yelling and shouting his name.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE – ERC EDITION

Every year, the English Resource Department of Asia Pacific College is organizing “Who wants to be a Millionaire – The ERC Edition”. Selected students from Multimedia Arts and Engineering were the contestants. The said game has three rounds, it is: the preliminary round, elimination round, and the final round. They had ten teams and they were grouped into threes. The representatives for our block are: Crystin Therese “Azul” Espenilla, Elizabeth Beatrice Baylosis and Tyron Santos. The whole block was there to support our friends. Whenever they got the correct answers, most of the boys on our block were shouting “easy!” On the preliminary round, our representatives are one of those teams who got the highest scores. They make it to the next round. We are as happy as them. They are the pride of ABMA 153. They did well as the game goes on. So we kept shouting and cheering for them. Then they made it to the final round. I am quite confident that they will win because I know Azul is smart and loves to read, Trice is an intelligent girl, and Tyron is very knowledgeable. Then the final round went so fast, as I remembered it only has five questions for them to answer, and they only got two correct answers. Our hopes are high, but sadly they didn’t make it. But still, the whole ABMA 153 are still proud for them. Then the game continues, the jury decided to have another round. I think it is between an ABMA block versus an Engineering block. It is the engineering block that won, but still the other team had a consolation prize. Everyone was happy for the result of the said game. Another event was successfully done by the ERC Department.

TURN LEFT, TURN RIGHT

The story in the film “Turn Left, Turn Right” is based on the book “A Chance of Sunshine” by Jimmy Liao who makes a cameo appearance in the movie. The film is about two people, who’s always near each other but doesn’t seem to cross paths. They live in the same building which is separated by a wall. The guy was a musician, he plays the violin, and while the lady was a translator of a publishing company. They accidentally met at the park when he helped her in picking the papers that fell on the fountain. As the talked, they found out that they’ve met when they’re young. Their schools had field trips on the same place, at the amusement park. On the way home, before he got off of the train, she asked for the guy’s number but unfortunately left his bag on the train. They just laughed upon knowing what really happened on that day. They exchanged numbers before parting ways because the rain is coming. They even forgot to ask for each other’s name. The next day, they both got flu. When they check for the numbers, they’ve found out that it’s unreadable because it got wet during the rain. But they still try to call random numbers. They accidentally called a restaurant, so they decided to take an order because they don’t want to leave their houses because they’re waiting for each other’s call. The waitress made the delivery. She fell in love with the guy as soon as she sees him. She found out that the guy and lady is looking for each other, so she told him that an old woman was living next to him. The guy and lady was both sick and was taken to the hospital. The doctor who took charge of them happens to be the old schoolmate of the lady who’s been in love in her for years. After they were discharged from the hospital, the doctor stayed at the lady’s house, but she didn’t want to. He got heartbroken, and met the waitress. They decided to be a couple. They took revenge on the guy and the lady who broke their hearts by sending pictures to the both showing they’re at the same place but never have met. But then the waitress felt sorry for the guy, she gave him a number, told him to call her if he needed a friend. The guy and the lady soon found a work abroad. On the day they’re about to leave, an earthquake strikes and destroyed the walls that separate them. And finally they found each other.

SOMA EVENT – FLOAT PARADE

The annual event during the School of Multimedia Arts’ opening is the Float Parade. All the freshman blocks who are taking Applied Project classes are obliged to compete for the said event. Our preparations in making our floats took more than two months. Our block, ABMA 153, was grouped in two. Team A was led by Crystin Therese “Azul” Espenilla, and Team B was led by Elizabeth Beatrice Baylosis. The theme for this year’s event is: Filipino Mythical Creatures. Our group, come up with an idea where in we will merge the features of Wak wak (huge bird that haunts pregnant women and eats their babies) and Agta (half human and half tree creature that haunts woodsmen or travelers). For the other group, they decided to make a Zigbin for their float. We will be having a performance after the parade. The day before the event, was our first and last practice for the performance, we didn’t get to prepare much for we are focused in creating our floats. On the day of the parade, everyone seems happy and proud of our creations. Of all the blocks, ours are the only who performed as one. The audiences seems amused, they laugh and shout in awe as we performed. Everyone’s entertained. Also on that day, the judges announced the Top five best floats and performances and will reveal the winners on the last day of our SOMA Festival. Both of the groups on our block were called. I must admit, we are the happiest on that day. And on the last day of SOMA Fest, the whole block attended SOMA Awards. The announcement of winners come, ABMA 154 is on the third place, for the second place it’s a tie between us ABMA 153-A and ABMA 153-B. Though we didn’t win the first place, we are still happy because the whole block won. And whatever results will be, ABMA 153 will still be friends.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

The Phantom of the Opera is a movie adaptation of a 1986 musical. The story begins when an opera house ghost starts terrorizing the casts, crews and the rest of the personnel in the opera house while taking lessons with a chorus girl. He succeeded in driving the lead soprano and her friend crazy, so they leave. But the soprano doesn’t want her role to be stolen so she went back when the chorus girl was able to take a sing lead during one night. The opera ghost keeps on demanding them to give the chorus girl lead roles. Meanwhile, the chorus girl of the opera ghost was in love with the Vicomte de Chagny, while he is in love with his student. The Phantom was acting violently by their love and kidnapped the chorus girl to be his bride forever.

PARASYTE

Originally, Parasyte was a science fiction horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki. During 2014 and 2015, the manga has been adapted in two live action films in Japan and also an anime television series adaptation. The movie focuses on the story of a 17 year old guy name Shinichi Izumi, who lives in Tokyo together with his mom and dad. One night, creatures called Parasytes appeared. They enter noses and ears of humans, and takes over the brain. A parasite tries to crawl into Shinichi’s ear, he was wearing headphones so it failed. Then it takes over his right hand instead. He named it Migi, the Japanese word for right. Since they’re one now, they started battling the other parasites who attempts to kill other people and have them as food. On the last part of the movie, Shinichi visited his mom. But she seems weird so Shinichi followed her as she walked. They went to an abandoned place. He tried to talk to his mom, but she discovered it has been attacked by a parasite. Shinichi and his mother fought, both of them got hurt by each other. Then the parasite pretended to be the mother of Shinichi. He realized that his mother was now gone and decided to kill the parasite.

 

PADDINGTON

Originally, Paddington is a fictional character from a children’s book. He is a bear from Peru. In the movie, a geographer went to Peru. In there, he met a family of bears, they can speak English and loves marmalade. The geographer names the two bear: Pastuzo and Lucy. As he went back to London, he gave his hat to Pastuzo. The geographer told the bears that they should go and visit London. Years later, as the bears lives with their nephew, Paddington, an earthquake strikes in their place. They hid underground, and the next day, Pastuzo is nowhere, but what they found is just the hat. Lucy decided that she will just stay to the Home for Retired Bears and stows Paddington away on a ship and go to London to find for their geographer friend. As he arrives at London, Paddington thought that he can have a home with the help of the geographer, but he failed. Luckily, he met a family at the train station. At first, Mr. Henry, the head of the family, wanted Paddington to stay at their place for a night only because he caused series of accidents at their home. But his children made him realize that Paddington has a pure heart. He then helped Paddington to find the geographer he was looking for. They even went to the Geographer Guild’s office, pretended as employees and they discovered that an expedition was undertaken by Montgomery Clyde. They used the phone books to look for the address of all M. Clyde’s in London. Meanwhile, a taxidermist becomes aware of Paddington. She hunted Paddington immediately, she even went to the Brown’s residence when Paddington was left alone and causes part of the house to get burned. Paddington felt bad for what happened, he decided to look for the geographer by himself. When he finally locates the house, he discovered that the geographer died years ago, and the lady taxidermist was its daughter. She tranquilized Paddington and brought to a facility to perform taxidermy. Meanwhile, a neighbor of Brown family informed them that he discovered that Paddington will be stuff. They rush to save Paddington and succeeded. The Browns then decided to adopt Paddington.

MOBILIZING THE MILLENIALS AS SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE PROSUMERS

Millenials are also known as the Generation Y. Based on Wikipedia, there are no precise dates for when the generation starts and ends. Most researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. So basically, we are part of this so – called Generation Y. A talk was held in Asia Pacific College where in they invited a guy from GMA News. He discussed how us, millenials, act and should act on social media. People these days depended happiness on likes and shares on Facebook or any other social media. Some are even posting rages, frustrations and negative thoughts without thinking that it was not necessary and it’s inappropriate. It seems very immature. Others were posting pictures, selfies, which reveals their almost naked bodies, then captioned it with bible verses. People these days lacked the ability to think first before doing anything. 

BENJAMIN ALVES – POETRY READING AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Benjamin Alves is a model and actor of GMA Network. He is a nephew of Piolo Pascual, also an actor but under the ABS – CBN Network. Benjamin Alves starred in the film Sana Dati with Lovi Poe, Paolo Avelino and TJ Trinidad which was directed by Jerrold Tarog. He also played Manuel Luis Quezon in the movie Heneral Luna, which was also directed by Mr. Jerrold Tarog. Benjamin Alves’ birthday was on March 31, and he celebrated it with the Asia Pacific College’s students. It was a surprise party from the GMA Network. They had games, foods and gifts for the students. I never thought Benjamin Alves was good in poetry. The participants from the slam poetry shared their pieces during the party, and Benjamin Alves was the judge. Everyone was good, so he decided that everyone was a winner. He even shared his own poem with everyone. It was about love. He really sounded in love. That girl must be very lucky. A guy who’s not just handsome would dedicate a poem for her. He must be smart as well. After the party, he stayed at the school for a while, letting the students take a picture with him. At the parking lot, I grabbed the opportunity to take a photo with him. He seems nice, he even asked me if our class were done and I said yes. The next day, as I checked his instagram account, I saw that he posted a picture at Asia Pacific College with my classmate Beatrice. I immediately send it to Trice, I was so kilig for her!

MOVIE REVIEW: SANA DATI

Sana Dati was a film directed by Jerrold Tarog. This movie was an official entry at the Cinemalaya 2013. The film was about Andrea,  a woman (played by Lovi Poe) who has to marry a Robert, a former politician (played by TJ Trinidad) whom she does not love.

The movie started on the wedding day of Andrea and Robert. Having Dennis (played by Paolo Avelino), the videographer, hired by Andrea ‘s aunt, do an interview with her. Asking questions about the couple’s love story, how they started, and message to his soon to be husband. At first I thought Dennis and Andrea are secret lovers. But as the movie goes on, there were flash backs, revealing Andrea’s past memories with a guy that seems the one she truly loves. His name was Andrew (played by Benjamin Alves) also a videographer, they met at Pangasinan, and chose Andrea over his family even though it breaks his mother’s heart. Eventually, he died because of heart failure. As the movies goes on, we learned that Andrew was Dennis’ brother. Dennis doesn’t want to bother Andrea or make a scene on her wedding either. He just accepted the job after Andrea’s aunt call him. The wedding was delayed due to Andrea. She stayed at the top of the hotel with Dennis, talking about Andrew. Robert discovered she was there, and talked to her if they will continue the wedding. After the wedding, Andrea is asking Dennis to run with her, but Dennis decline, he didn’t show up to Andrea. The last scene of this movie was Andrea travelling to Pangasinan to visit Andrew at the cemetery. Then came Robert who’s been following her. Asking Andrea to go home with him. On their ride back to Manila, Andrea finally Admitted that he already love Robert.

CARLOS P. ROMULO

Who is Carlos P. Romulo?

During January 14, 1899 in Intramuros, Manila, a woman delivered a baby who nobody expected to be one of the Philippines’ greatest diplomats in the 20^th century. His name is Carlos Peña Romulo.

Little Carlos grew up in the town of Camiling in the province of Tarlac. He was a son of a guerilla fighter of the Philippine revolutionary government under late president Emilio Aguinaldo during the Filipino-American War, and also was able to experience the brutality during the time of Americans when his grandfather was water tortured by American soldiers and that left an impression on him for being a nationalist.

He became a reporter at the age of 16. He became a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32. He was also the co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines. He also served as a general in the US Army and the Philippine Army. As an educator, he became university president. And last but not the least, he is most known for being the President of the UN General Assembly.

He was also named as one of the Philippines' National Artists in Literature, and was the recipient of many other honors and honorary degrees. His most famous published work is “I Am A Filipino” which first appeared in The Philippines Herald in 1941, a month before he wrote the first series of eight articles that made him won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for journalism, where the famous lines “I am Filipino born to freedom, and I shall not rest until freedom shall have been added unto my inheritance – for myself and my children and my children’s children – forever.”

Sources:

http://carlospromulo.org/2009/04/i-am-a-filipino/

http://carlospromulo.org/bio/

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Carlos_P._Romulo

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Carlos-P-Romulo

CHANTS AND CHEERS COMPETITION

The Chants and Cheers competition was held last 5^th of February 2015 at the Asia Pacific College Auditorium. Our block, ABMA 153 competed against our co – Multimedia Arts student and some Engineering students. The block ABMA 151 won 3^rd place, they are representing the pink team. They’re a large group, so I think that helps a lot for the loudness of their performance. For the 2^nd place, I am not sure what block is it, but they are Engineering student, performing with light off. They are representing the white team.  They seem more like an ABMA student than us. They used the lights and props artistically. And for the 1^st place, or the Chants and Cheers Champion, it is also an Engineering block. Representing the red team. Those two blocks, the 2^nd and 1^st placers seemed friends, they are cheering for each other before announcing the competition’s winners.

We, ABMA 153, representing the green team, didn’t win on the said competition. But for me, it’s just okay. We did our best and this competition made us closer to each and everyone one of us, for we are always together especially during practices. After the competition, we ended up happy, teasing and blaming each other for the loss. I must say, the Chants and Cheers Competition is a successful event. This competition every English Term ended up happily.

MOVIE REVIEW: RPG METANOIA

RPG Metanoia was the first full length 3D Filipino made animated film which is an official entry for the 2010 Metro Manila Film Festival. It won 3^rd Best Picture, Best Original Theme Song, and Best Sound Recording during the said film festival, also won Best Sound at the 2011 Film Academy of the Philippines, and nominated for Best animated Feature at the 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It was rated General Patronage by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

No wonder that RPG Metanoia won several awards and been nominated for it is produced by the Star Cinema, Ambient Media and Thaumatrope Animation. The storyline is good. It presented the Filipino’s traits and cultures, the modern Filipino family and children as well. The dad who’s working abroad and a full time mom who’s taking care of their children. Also this children who are spending most of their time in front of the computer, playing and raging over this addicting games instead of reading books or playing sport or any physical activities.

In terms of the animation, sadly but it did not meet my expectations. I can see several times that the blinking of Nico’s mom is not synchronized. Movements weren’t that smooth. The settings are nice, though sometimes it appeared dark, the lighting wasn’t consistent. The environment seemed well planned for specific scenes. And for the character design, I am loving the steam punk theme whenever they are turning into their avatars on the online game. Steam punk with the touch of Filipino designs are great!

Looking forward seeing 3D movies made by Filipino artists in the near future and also hoping to be part of those projects. This kind of animated films are the reasons and my inspiration to pursue my dream to be a great animator.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG_Metanoia

JON SANTOS IN ASIA PACIFIC COLLEGE - FEBRUARY 11, 2016

“Make your passion your profession, and work will become a game.”

 –Ranchodas Shamaldas Chanchad, 3 Idiots. This 2010 movie’s famous line is suited perfectly on our school’s guest speaker last February 11.

Star for all Seasons Governor Vilma Santos – Recto, Rosana Roces, Armida Siguion - Reyna, President Joseph Estrada, Senator Loi Estrada, Sharon Cuneta, Bro. Mike Velarde, President Fidel V. Ramos, President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, Senator Juan Flavier, Senator Miriam Defensor - Santiago, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, Senator Grace Poe, Queen of all Media Kris Aquino, Korina Sanchez, Anne Curtis, Miss World 2013 Megan Young, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alozo Wurtzbach, 8 -Division Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao, Dionisia Pacquiao, Apl de Ap, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Oprah Winfrey are some of the famous personalities Mr. Jonathan Adriano Santos has impersonated. He is well known as Jon Santos, the Philippines’ most popular actor/ impersonator since the 80’s up to the present.

During his talk at Asia Pacific College, he narrated us students how his passion started. From being an Economic student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, to having a part time job while studying, to being the apprentice of Willie Nepomuceno and Tessie Tomas, and up to this time he had achieve his goals.

Given that he is a comedienne, it was expected that he has this jolly personality. But also you can really see that he is genuinely happy on his life now. Although he experienced the struggles in his life before. The lessons in life I have learned from Mr. Jon Santos is to be contented, love yourself and family, never give up on achieving you goals and dreams, always be happy, be the reason of happiness to everyone, never regret on things that made you happy and life is a continuous learning process.

 Source: https://allaboutargao.wikispaces.com/Jon+Santos

ANTI-SMOKING CAMPAIGN

Congress of the Philippines Republic Act No. 9211, AN ACT REGULATING THE PACKAGING, USE, SALE DISTRIBUTION AND 

ADVERTISEMENTS OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, Section 5 states: “Smoking in Public Places - Smoking shall be absolutely prohibited in the following public places: a. Centers of youth activity such as playschools, preparatory schools, elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities, youth hostels, and recreational facilities for persons under eighteen (18) years old.”
Personally, I wasn’t aware that the Asia Pacific have this Anti Smoking Campaign. Every morning as I pass thru the parking area of our school, I always see group of students, professors, and school staffs who are smoking. Also there was this rude vendor who sells cigarettes, candies, street foods, etc. on that school parking area. Some of my friends and classmates are smoking in the parking too. Sometimes I am observing the people around. The area is mixed of people who are smoking cigarettes and vapes, some are just like me, a non smoker who go there just waiting for their friends. Usually the answers I’ve got whenever I ask why are they smoking is because they are stress from the school works. Good thing the Magallanes Village had lots of trees around that keeps the air clean, cleanses what we breathe.
Based on my knowledge, those acts should not be allowed. For what is stated on the law, it is prohibited. As for my opinion, I think that the school should not allow the rude vendor be still on the parking, assuming it is his territory, and selling cigarettes to the minor. Although I’ve heard that he has permit from Brgy. Magallanes.

I support any Anti Smoking Campaign. For the government warning says, “Cigarette are Addictive", “Tobacco Can harm your Children", “Smoking Kills" and “Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health.”

PLAGIARISM

"Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. " says Lemony Snicket.

Plagiarism is the act of claiming someone's work or idea as your own. It is taking another person's property without permission or secretly. Plagiarism is stealing. Stealing is a crime. And crimes are illegal.

As I am writing this blog, I am trying to define Plagiarism by my own words, without looking at the dictionaries, encyclopedias or in the internet. For what this is what our professor has been practicing us. Since I have ideas regarding plagiarism, I am now exercising to avoid it.

As an artist, we are also victims of plagiarism. I have experienced this before. I spent nights designing our team's uniform. Seeking advices and ideas on my father. Confident on the output of my hard work. On that day I was expecting to win an award, I was surprised that the other team has the exact uniform design as ours (but just differ in color). I talked to this girl, she is insisting that it is their creation. I do not feel any sincerity in every words she said. I know she is lying. I know I should have won. During that night, I cried a lot. I told my father what just had happened that day. Of all the people, he knew how much effort I exert for that design. I put my heart in every artworks or creation I did.

In my opinion, those who commit plagiarism are those who do not have the guts or confidence that they can create something meaningful. Something they would be proud of. They do not believe in their own selves of making original works.

SELF INTRODUCTION

"There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be". My favorite quotation from John Lennon, as I find this suited to me. I am Kim Zerha Mallo, 22 years old, Multimedia Arts student of Asia Pacific College, majoring in Animation. I am very passionate about arts. I grew up being surrounded by artist. I must say that it runs in our blood, for my father and brother are artists as well. Maybe that’s why I never thought that this skills are special talents. I remember making and sending sketches for my dad, who’s working abroad, as a hobby for me and my siblings. Also, I am making sketches of human portraits, comic characters, animals and different creatures. I took up animation courses years before entering Asia Pacific College. Had training at Holycow Animation Inc. and been a DOST-ICTO and Animation Council of the Philippines scholar for their 3D animation course. I am very eager to learn more about animation and that’s the reason I choose to have this as my college major.

Another thing I love is music. I enjoyed listening to different genres. I love boybands. I grew up listening to them during the 90’s, especially to the Boyzone. I started listening to them because of my dad. He is a fan. And our favorite member was Ronan Keating, he is not just good looking but has a really wonderful voice as well. For years now, I’ve been fan girling to One Direction. I was then influenced by my younger brother, Jairus. It started when I allowed him to add random songs on my playlist. From then on, we also started to play their songs on guitar and sometimes perform it during parties and some other occasions. One Direction had their concert last year here in the Philippines. And fortunately, I am able to watch them perform live.

I must say that I am lucky enough to do what I love and love what I do. And I’m claiming that this will be the start of my happiest days.