I have escaped damnation

Since I am teaching my students Dante Alighieri's Inferno, I thought I should take a test to find out whether I will be part of hell and if ever, which circle will I belong to. Some of my students have taken the test.

Well, I took the test and am gladdened by the fact that I will not end up in Hell but will be in Purgatory.

Here is a closer look at the results of the test.

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

You can take your own shot and see if you'll be with me in Purgatory, or you'll end up in Hell, or you are beatified and will be in Paradise.

From touch screen to shape shifting

So if our world now is dominated by touch screen phones, cameras, e-book readers, and other gadgets, a PhD student, Fabian Hemmert has thought of a way of making technology "more human."

In his presentation he shared that he would want to have a mobile phone that can change its thickness and a phone that can "feel."

Watch his presentation below. Pretty amazing and mind-boggling at the same time. I wouldn't want to see my phone "breathing."

Survivor Philippines: Magan votes out tribe leader Buhawi Meneses - Entertainment - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

When he voted out Doc Ferds, I knew then on that the Magan Tribe would never win any immunity challenge. With only Elma Muros and Mico Aytona who could possibly provide physical agility during intense immunity challenges or simply provide for everyday sustenance, the Magan tribe will indeed see its last days.

It was great that the team voted out a preemptive and presumptuous leader who had opted to outplay its own tribe. Their tribe is a microcosm of a Philippines that should be: if a leader has created an ill decision only for his own benefit, oust the bogus.

Bad decision Buwi. Bye.

Read more by clicking the link below.

Survivor Philippines: Magan votes out tribe leader Buhawi Meneses - Entertainment - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

I need my peripateia now

The past few months, well actually this whole year has been one heck of a year for me.

2010 had a lot of promises and that seemed positive for me but never quite turned out the way I was expecting them to. They were tragedies in disguise.

The year began with my favorite dog's death and the big relocation. A few months after that, I was assigned to do work which until now I don't know if I am going to be paid for. Thanks for the assignment but this is becoming more stressful than what I had hoped for. Why am I receiving undue and uncalled for stress?

Then when I received our medical examination results, the school doctor told me that my heart has doubled up its size from last year. And just recently, I have been feeling signs of heart attack. If it comes, I just pray that it won't happen while I am teaching. I don't want to give my students a stressful and traumatic event to recall.

After receiving the results, a few weeks after, my mom was arrested in Bahrain because of the lunacy of his former employer who just wanted to see her penalized for mocking his pride. Well, this is probably the only one that was somehow solved.

And the next few months would not turn out better for me as well. Yes, there are good days but they are outnumbered by the tragic days. I don't want to recall them one by one. I am not yet ready to face these hamartias.

So many tragedies. Where is my peripateia? I need an extremely large dosage of it now.

Charice Pempengco in Glee

Because our cable line is cut, I have no way of seeing Charice Pempengco perform and do her thing in Glee.

After seeing this video of her singing , I cannot help but be proud that she has shown another aspect of the Filipino which has long been known but never identified or acknowledged openly on a regular basis. Kudos to Charice Pempengco.

No more HW during weekends - DepEd

Thursday of this week, the Department of Education has released an order that public school teachers can no longer give homework to elementary students every Friday so that students could enjoy weekends playing and bonding with their families.

So, to High School Pasig Paulinians reading my blog, I am sorry but you are not part of this order.

Read more about this here.

My claim to fame video

During my college days, well even until now, I am a very dedicated advocate of environmentalism. And here's the most drastic and most intense move I had done to air my concerns. I can't go nekkid in public so I just worked out some muscles and pulled out posters of, among others, Loren Legarda, nailed on trees.

Here is the video circa 2007.

Environmental group removes campaign materials on trees - Video - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

Shape UP



 Whoever these students are who made comments about the performance of UP during the 2010 UAAP Cheerdance Competition, go and take a look at the points garnered by UP Pep Squad against FEU Pep Squad. 440 points against 421.

FEU's routine was impeccable but not stunning and surprising. If you call wearing pancake skirts and using styrofoam mock-up of buildings as efforts to make the performance lively, I say it has been proven time and again that size DOES NOT ALWAYS matter.

Add to it the fact that we have already seen the stunts, floor exercises, and pyramids that you have this year has been shown in the previous performances of your school. Shape up. Excel.

If you are really mentally-challenged and narrow-minded, you will mention nonsensical, idiotic, immature arguments to defend your side.





lurking

Urges.

Sometimes they are there. Sometimes they are absent.

Urge.

An ambiguous and vague word.

Positive. Negative. Neutral.

Never absolutely wrong. Never absolutely proper.

But now there is an urge that can, if not properly processed, can tear you apart.

Help.

MTV goes Lady Gaga

Amid the rumors of her Illuminati kinship and her anti-Christ symbols, Lady Gaga has received 3 VMAs, including Video of the Year, for her song Bad Romance.

Apart from flambouyant Lady Gaga, Eminem has also won a cpuple of awards - Best Male Video and Best Hiphp Video.

Read more about the Video Music Awards this year here.

Now, more on Lady Gaga's anti-Chirstianity. A blogger has tediously textually analyzed her videos Bad Romance and Alejandro as being anti-Christ.

Check his posts here and here.

2010 UAAP Samsung Cheerdance Competition

This year was all about props, props, props. But UP Pep Squad's minimalistic but comical interpretation of their theme coupled with breathtaking, smooth choreography has indeed topped the FEU Tamaraws Pep Squad's Ninja inspired routine and the overkill done by the pancake skirts and the styrofoam buildings.

This year's cheerdance championship could have been taken again by the Tamaraws. Their stunts were awesome and their signature, breathtaking floor routines are so astounding they could have nailed the 340, 000 pesos with just that. But they chose to overdo the routine by placing dancers inside pancake skirts. Everything was already pointing to the championship grade but the needle pointed somewhere else when the Tamaraws squad had chosen to be OA ("overattired").

The UP Pep Squad's performance is simply just too smooth to take in for everyone we were all left saying and probably shouting "More! More! More!" Despite the distasteful use of the banderitas as dancers' skirts, the Pep Squad has indeed proven that when a marriage of gymnastic skills and stunning choreography happens, championship is just right around the corner.

But kudos to both squads because they were truly, in the real sense of the word, the only ones who have offered something innovative.

I believe that the UP Pep Squad won the championship because of these reasons: 1) the music and the choreography flow smoothly; 2) the physical agility and coordination of the dancers; 3) the pyramids that the UP Pep Squad has shown are far more difficult and "fresher" looking compared to that of the other teams; 4) they need not use gargantuan props in order to send the theme across the audience and the judges, and; 5) the routine, as it was being performed, just gave you chills and made you want to scream the school cheer; and that is simply what the cheerdance routine should do. To cheer up the audience.

Anyhow, here are the winning performances from this year's Samsung Cheerdance Competition.

The UP Pep Squad

The FEU Pep Squad

Now, there's reason to be apologetic

Last night, investigators have finally closed in on the possibility that the victims in the Manila bus hostage crisis could have been shot and killed by our very own policemen.

Here's an excerpt of that news from Inquirer.net:


Probers eye police fire in deaths 

‘Victims not shot at close range’

By Marlon Ramos, Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:49:00 09/10/2010

Filed Under: Grandstand Hostage, hostage taking, Police

MANILA, Philippines—Police experts have given testimony that appeared to contradict the account of the driver of the hijacked bus that the Hong Kong tourists were shot at close range but stressed that the possibility that friendly fire may have caused deaths remained inconclusive.

Read more....

Photography Talk with Jeff Cua

Powerbooks is holding photography workshop to be given by multi-awarded Jeff Cua. This will be held on September 18, 3 p.m. at Powerbooks Greenbelt. 

I pasted a copy of the mail they sent me for the rest of the details. See you!

Photography 101 with Jeff Cua

This  workshop is designed for the beginning photographer wanting to learn how to get the most out of a digital camera. Explore the basics of photography and get a better understanding of exposure and basic composition.

Jeff Cua has successfully led hundreds of students to love and pursue photography as a hobby and even as a profession with his “Creative photography seminars”. Under him are several awards such as San Miguel 2005 photo contest and awards from Camera Club of the Philippines. His works have been featured in magazines and exhibited in different galleries in Manila, including the Ayala museum. Currently he is the resident photography teacher of Informatics and has dedicated his time designing programs to suite the needs of different photographers.

Join us on September 18, 3PM at Powerbooks Greenbelt. Registration is free. Plus, participants will get a 10% discount voucher valid for a month on all Powerbooks branches.
See you there!

birthday soon

In almost a month's time, I will be celebrating my 25th year as an animation of this world. I've gone through so much. Wait, I will not be dramatic.

I just realized I needed to diet some more if I want to be able to wear these clothes to celebrate my birthday. It would be a great pleasant surprise too if I will be able to get some of these clothes as gifts. *wink*

laugh trip

Found this spoof of 2NE1's "I Don't Care" on my Facebook Most Recent Wall Post from my cousin.

Had to pause the pause the video several times because I was laughing too hard I sneezed out all the food I had this supper. This shows how creative Pinoy's can be. I wonder who made this.

Anyway, check this video out

hoping against all hopes

Just found this cute photo in my Tumblr dashboard reblogged by a friend from teammanilalifestyle.
I have lots of dreams for my country. Hopefully, this will happen soon.

got too much

I've got too much in my mind right now.

I can't even think of what to write about.

I've been having nightmares.

Trouble sleeping.

Argh.

Leave me.

pouring my heart out

To say goodbye if I need to…

Tim Decano

Know that I shall exist in those thunders and rains

I will miss you whatever you do

You made me young again through and through

But I guess I am not yet meant for you

You made loving so naive, so innocent, so blue

Yet so easy, so fluid, so true

Thank you for the wonderful days

Of colorful hues

For your smiles and your kisses

Removed my blues

I don't want this night to end

If it's the last I'll be with you

Forever in my heart

Your name shall resound

In the walls of my heart

I shall keep hidden inside

What we have shared

Emotions you evoked

Happiness we laughed about

Kisses that we stole from each other

Hugs that we solemnly gave one another

And now that goodbye

Is the last thing we'll share

Let this moment remain

In eternity's bliss

Let these last words be etched

On the slates of our lives

Of our hearts and our souls

Our longings and desires

Forever

happiness

truths

smiles

hugs

tears

kisses

caresses

But this night shall end

‘Cause of our earthboundness

Then your happiness I wish for

I shall whisper to the deities

true love and true bliss

I shall seal with this last kiss

To say goodbye if I need to by Tim Decano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.