Managing Blogs

I started blogging when I made my Multiply account. After a while I decided to shift to Blogger.com. I didn't have any particular theme then. I just wrote what I had in my mind at the time I want to write.

When I was asked to make a group page in Facebook for our college alumni, I decided to share news about  our college through blogs. Initially I linked my personal blog to it. Later on, I realized that some posts should are not for the whole alumni to read. I decided then to create a new blog: Campus Life. I got the title from a the college magazine, when the article is about the events in the college.

This year, I realized that there are some things I wanted to post on Facebook just to "get them off my chest" but may be misunderstood by some "friends." I realized that I already have so many, and so varied roster of friends in Facebook that I have to post things that are more general. Even my usual way of expressing things can be misunderstood. I therefore decided to create yet another blog. This time I experimented with Wordpress. I entitled the blog as Wit Tweet. These are shoutouts that I would rather not post in Facebook.

Finally, I created another blog entitled Design Notes. This is more for me, to help me understand what I'm studying. I always find it helpful to summarize in my own words the topics that I lecture. Since I tend to lose notebooks, I decided to post them online. Some people might also find it helpful.

So I now have four blogs to manage. Good luck to me. But I thinks I can make this work.

I also realized that I also need to manage blogs that I want to follow. I realized that clicking "follow" on the page doesn't really help. I needed the blog site to send me the new posts through my email. Luckily I found out how I can do it. I am now following two blogs so far. One blog is by an advertising students whose works I admire, the other is by a landscape architect whose posts I find very educational.

I really like it when I have time to write and read.

Staying Connected

I just finished migrating my old blogs from multiplly.com to blogger.com. Thanks to Multiply for informing its subscribers about its plan to remove its media services and offering an easy way to download all the posts made in their site. The only difficulty I had was to decide where the blog posts were going since I ended up with two blogs in blogger.com. I decided to move anything related to CAFA to the CAFA LIFE blog and everything else to this one.

I just realized that I started blogging in 1997. The first blog is about a thesis of one of my undergrad.students. At first I thought it was because of my thirst for intellectual discussions that moved me to start the blog. Now I think that it was because I was preparing for the time that those students will be graduating and leaving the school. Their batch was the first and only batch that became close to me. For the rest of the students I may end up with a few friends among the the batch, but for this one I got close to almost everyone.I'm not saying that I have become a part of their group. In fact, towards the end of their stay in the university, the whole batch was avoiding me because of the controversies around me.

The next batch (2006) was actually close to me as well, but not as much. When I started feeling the cold shoulders of the older batch I could have chosen to fall back to this batch. Instead, I decided to stay away. I actually ended up going to school for classes only then going back home immediately after. I then started hanging out with only a handful of students who remained good friends even after they graduated.

Anyway, going back to the issue of the blog. What I realized is that the blogs were my way to stay connected to friends who have been separated from me but who want to stay in touch. Before this "realization" I was at a loss on why I should continue writing. I thought I needed to share things or seek acceptance or challenge a discussion. When I was blogging in Multiply, my posts were more "intellectual." When I started in Blogger, my posts started becoming personal. When I "left" Multiply and started on Facebook, I decided to just talk about CAFA and use this as update for the group for alumni that I made on Facebook.

Now, I'm finally decided to maintain the two blogs. I certainly don't want the alumni to read my personal thoughts. This decision also means that I have to continue writing. I feel happy about this decision.

Ed's Thanksgiving Party and After Party

The Party

Last March 26, I was invited to a thanksgiving party. It was organized by Ed Dilla and his family. Ed just recently graduated in college. He was my student in some subjects throughout his college years. His friend and thesis partner, Maiko, told me that Ed was under me in a total of five subjects.

The party was held in Montebello. I got to meet Ed's relatives although we didn't really mingle because I was with his batch mates all the time. It was funny because I was in a table with his batch mates who backed out from their thesis. I'll be meeting them in the upcoming first semester.

When the party ended, there was talk of an after-party party. On impulse I told everyone that I will not be joining them.  I was actually afraid of joining them in discos. I only dance if I do a lot of rehearsals, I don't dance impromptu. Besides, at this age, any awkward thing I do can get recorded in video and uploaded in the internet for the amusement everyone. For some reason I actually ended up joining them, and I didn't regret it a bit.

We had a few round of drinks in Pier One in the Walk, I.T. Park, then we went to BTC for a videoke jam session in what was Pod5 before. Afterwards, Robert suggested we have some hot chocolate drink in a place "under the flyover." We didn't expect it to be a sidewalk stall but we still had fun. We parted then because it was already 1am. I know it's still early for the kids but I still have work the following day so I went on ahead. Apparently they also went home after me.

We had a lot of fun! I wondered afterwards whether it would be my last to join them in these types of activities. Formal parties, maybe, but after-parties? I guess that's why I recorded this event is because I have an inkling that there won't be any more activities like this for me. Anyway, I'm very thankful that Ed invited me. I actually felt honored especially because I don't get invited that much =)

The After-Party

Start Blogging

My life revolved around the university so much that I'm starting to feel like this is already a disorder. I want to have a life outside the university! haha! I even changed my blog to CAFA Life!

I decided to create this other blog where I can write anything outside the walls of the university. There are many things I want to share or write about that does not necessarily fall under the category of the other blog. For now, I have to work on how this blog should look like so I get a little inspired writing on it. Haha!

HCDC Grand Alumni Homecoming 2011

After a long wait, the day for the Grand Alumni Homecoming of my high school alma mater, Holy Cross of Davao College, finally came. The activities organized by the school were very simple: a fun run at dawn and the main program in the morning that ended with a fellowship lunch. My batch mates, however, decided to hold our own batch reunion party in the evening.

The fun run was very successful. Those who registered gets a singlet. Only five of my batch mates attended: Nilo Luciano,Hector Barnes, Davis Lasat, Ronnel Saligumba and Alex Mandin. The experience must be very tiring because only Hector and Davis made it to the program later in the morning and he arrived around noon already.

The main program started with a Holy Mass followed by the honoring of the jubilarians, election of officers and finally the fellowship lunch. Batch 1961, the golden jubilarian, have decided to host the event. They were given medals and certificates during the honoring of the jubilarians while the silver jubilarians, my batch, were given pins and certificates. At the time the pins and certificates were given only the following batch mates were present: Radley Barrientos, Nilo Luciano, Rommel Jaron, Marvin Acuna, Wilbert Santos, Roel Malabute and myself. The others arriving afterwards, by the time for the Fellowship lunch the number has doubled. The following guys arrived Arnold Satorre, Alain Fornolles, Davis Lasat, Hector Barnes, Edward Ely Yap, Rene Gil Gallardo, and Chip Estampa.

The fellowship lunch ended late but the next activity for our batch is at 6:00pm. Davis and some guys decided to spend the time in Calda Pizza along Legaspi St. We had pizza and beer as more batch mates arrived. The group of Jorge Hong, Arciaga, Albert Clarito, Rogelio Dignos and Jonathan Sienes arrived. Fred Aguila, Ed Gloriani, Chito Miguel, Ronnel Saligumba, and Troy Rosal also arrived later.As we were leaving for BBQ Boss, Richard dela Torre arrived.

In BBQ Boss, Troy Rosal arranged for an acoustic band. Radley had to construct a stage in two days time to accommodate this. Aldrin Oliva donated a lechon although he failed to show up because he had to meet up with his brother who arrived that night. The following guys started arriving that night: Joel Aguilon, Efren Malimbag, Teddyboy Garcia, Robert Floyd Salise, Ronald Magayano, Anton Aguilar, Berwyn Lira, Arnulfo Alvar, Froilan Diampa, George Jumamoy, Edgar Canda, Baldwin Floresca, Glenn Trinidad, Nerio Penanueva, Meneleo Balolong, Dennis Flores, and Nicandro Martinez.

 While I was in Holy Cross that morning, I managed to talk to Mr. Cruzada and Ms. Separa (now married) and invited both of them. I also got the cellphone numbers of Ms. Mogote and Mr. Dingding. I also invited the school photographer Boy Ugay for the evening get-together. All of them arrived, including Mr. Rosete. Everyone was very happy to meet their mentors again.

 Although we were not able to cook up a program, the acoustic band entertained us a lot especially when Roel Malabute took control of the microphone. Joel Aguilon also sang a few songs after the crowd called out for him. Nilo Luciano celebrated his birthday the day after so by midnight he started the celebration by singing a few songs as well. Most of the group left around 2am.

After the Rain

FLOOD! That's what comes after every rain here in the Philippines! Never mind if the rain is heavy or not. The drainage system here is really disappointing.

In Cebu, the first storm for the year is about to hit come Wednesday. The heavy rain a couple of weeks ago has left our local government scrambling to clear the silted rivers. As a result, what would take years to remove squatters took only a day or two, without much ado. Also, public schools are being condemned since they trap students during floods. New classrooms are being promised for the next school year... Well, well... word has it that the rain will go on until May, wet summer for the sunny Philippines. So I guess these developments are acceptable to everyone. Even those whose houses were demolished.

I just wish that they would do something to keep those demolished houses from rising up again after the sun peeps out for a week or more. A river is supposed to have three meters of easements at both sides. This means that no one should build on that easement. To do so would be like building on the road. The problem with these squatters is that they think that if the land is owned the government, then it should be given to them for free.. that they have all the rights to it (all to themselves!). Anyway, the local government here made plans to develop that easement into a park or something, following models from Singapore. This is the best time to do it... unless they want to be assured of the best kickbacks...

The proposed schools for next semester also caught my attention. In my previous blog I referred to a competition to design the Millennium School. The winning design is supposed to be ideal for the current situation. Someone should tell the mayor to consider studying the prototype.

This is also the time to see how we can harvest the rain since there will be plenty of it. There are so many things we can do productively instead of complaining about the rain and calling for the sun (which will change to complaining about the sun and calling for the rain when it starts to get hot).

Strictly Davao

I’m from Davao City. This place is well known for the Durian fruit, the Philippine Eagle and the Waling-waling orchid. It is well reputed for its cleanliness. It is also known for its notorious mayor, Hon. Rodrigo Duterte. He is no longer the mayor after the last election, he is now the vice mayor while his daughter is the mayor. I guess it is safe to say that nothing really changed.

 I really don’t know how “notorious” Mayor Duterte is and I will not bother to find out. My interest revolves around some city ordinances he introduced which I find… amusing.

The first one is the ordinance that banned the use of pyrotechnics during Christmas and New Year’s eve. At first my family reacted against it. We later realized that we actually benefited from it. My sister, who is a doctor, is now able to join us during these holiday celebrations, and we don’t have problems anymore about cleaning up the mess caused by pyrotechnics the following day.

The other ordinance is the no-smoking policy. I learned about it just before deplaning when the stewardess announced that the Davao is a no-smoking city, which means you can only smoke in private places and some designated public spaces.

Lately, my nephew, who formed a band, told me that there is an ordinance that banned minors from being part of a band. My friend who owns a restaurant also told me that there is a liquor ban at 2am. One time, after midnight, the mayor visited a place which is a popular place for people to hang around for some beer. When he noticed that there were minors around he ordered all the establishments closed, even those establishments that close at 11pm. 

I listen to all of these with a lot of amusement but nothing compares to how the mayor reacted to our parish priest who campaigned against him and his daughter. In some strategic place in our parish he put up billboards that has these words “PIKAT NIMO PETE” (I really don’t know how to translate it in English) and a drawing of an eye. (see photo)

The whole thing reminds me of a book I enjoyed reading: Don Camillo and His Flock. Don Camillo is a parish priest of a small town in Italy, and he is always at odds with the mayor, Peppone, who is a communist. I’m not saying that Duterte is a communist. The story is comical and the conflict between the two characters is very, very amusing.

I think all of these laws are doing the people of Davao a lot of good. The fact that the Dutertes were elected to the mayor and vice mayor position is a sign of the people’s agreement to their policy. I hope everything else goes well.