Birds And Tights

Speech Choir and Ignite Speech Competition
(Thursday April 21. 2016 - Auditorium)

           Today, is a very important day. It is the main event of the English Resource Center and everything we've been doing for the whole English Term has been leading up to this moment. It is also important because this event marks my last post on this blog and truly, what we've experienced today is something worth blogging for. One last time.

           But before the main event (Speech Choir), first I would like to talk about it's little brother, the Ignite Speech Competition. Our representative was Beatrice Baylosis, she talked about "fangirling" about Korean Popular Music and the ways on how exactly to "fangirl." 

Beatrice Baylosis with her speech about fangirling.

           She had a lot of competition, Kristine Mangle from ABMA-155 who talked about her favorite things , Jem Yucoco from CPE-151 who talked about the difficulties of having curly hair, Liam Acosta from ABMA-154 who talked about being alone and there were many more. 

Jem Yucoco, talking about the difficulties of having curly hair.

Liam Acosta, with his speech about anxiety and being alone.

           Fortunately, even with all these adversities and competitors, Beatrice was able to get the second runner up place.

           Now, we move on to the main event.

           As you may know from our block, we are the living embodiment of procrastination and this is certainly prevalent until this last event of the ERC (Speech Choir and Ignite Speech). The piece that we were going to use was given to us weeks prior to this day but with our procrastinating skills and large amount of workload,  we were not able to fully prepare ourselves for the competition. Although we practiced at times, this was hardly enough compared to the amount of practice we needed if we wanted to win.

Some of my blockmates, wearing their "battle masks."

         History repeated itself, how we practiced for the Chants and Cheers Competition awhile ago, was almost like how we practiced for the Speech Choir. We only memorized at first then incorporated movements and formations very later on, there were fights because we couldn't get along, ideas weren't truly expressed because of creative differences, last-minute preparations, etc. 
Basically, just like our practice for the Chants and Cheers and when our block was assigned to "merge" with ABMA-155, everything became two times more difficult.

The winners of the competition, having their photos taken.

ABMA-152 with their speech choir performance.

         One major difference was our costume. On the Chants and Cheers competition, we wore a body-hugging upper garment, a military-style camouflage t-shirt to be exact but in here we wore a tight lower body clothing, called "leggings" to be exact; hence the title.

ABMA-151 performing their interpretation of "The Caged Bird."

         Just like from the Chants and Cheers competition, there were last minute preparations made before we started to perform, we had a lot of competition with good costumes and awesome interpretations and we had the quintessential "last practice minutes-before-the-competition."

         Finally just like from the Chants and Cheers Competition, we didn't get a place. Still, every single one of us enjoyed the experience and that is what's most important in a block section, it's having fun and having a stronger relationship with one another, whatever challenges may come.

         

This Integrity Thing

Public Speaking Competition (Wed. April 20, 2016 - Auditorium) 

          In our "All-English Term" for this school year 2015-2016, we had two Public Speaking subjects. 

          For the PUBSPE2 (Public Speaking 2) finals some of us had to do the "Ignite Speech", wherein the speech (Can be about any topic) is accompanied by a powerpoint presentation that changes slide every 15 seconds, in this project the speaker is only allowed to glance at the presentation from time to time. For the PUBSPE1 finals some of us had to do the "Integrity Speech," in here there is only one topic that can be used and the speaker has to prepare a speech that will last for 5 minutes with an additional 30-second grace period with no powerpoints and whatnot.

         Here's the catch, our professor chose which project we would do. He said that the majority will do the "Ignite Speech" but there will be a select few that will do the "Integrity Speech" because I guess that's more difficult.

         So from the title of this blog you could probably tell what our professor chose to be my final project for both his Public Speaking classes and it wasn't only me, there were 7 others chosen for this. Hint: it's not the "Ignite Speech."

         Now, making a 3 to 4-minute long speech about any topic is one thing but making a 5-minute speech about a given topic is another. First of all the given topic was a quote by Albert Camus, "Integrity has no need of rules." It was all fine but there was one problem, I knew little about this "integrity thing."

         But with a stroke of luck and two overnighters. I've managed to make my speech, I gave it to sir the next day, he asked me to make some revisions and I made them, then gave it back to him again the next day. After a week he asked the 8 of us to recite our speech in front of the class and all of us were able to successfully recite our speech.

         You would think that it all ends here right? Well, it doesn't. In fact, this is only the beginning.

         This was all part of the Public Speaking Competition that happened on April 20, 2016 at the Asia Pacific College Auditorium. You see, the 8 of us were to compete in this competition representing our block, ABMA-153 against the other freshmen SoMA and SoE blocks. The 8 of us were just anxiously waiting for the day of the competition so that we can finally have our final grade for our Public Speaking classe(s).

The assignment of rooms.

         Then the day of the competition came, the long wait is finally over. The organizers of the event had a systematic way of deciding who would compete with whom for the elimination and final round. This was certainly not in favor of us, the contestants.

Me (in the middle), with three of my blockmates waiting patiently.

         There are about forty contestants and there are four rooms, those forty contestants would be scattered equally and randomly on those four rooms, that is the elimination round. Two of the best contestants from each room would be picked and those eight people would then become the finalists who would compete with one another in the auditorium, facing a large audience, while using a microphone. Writing this part of the blog makes my hands shake.

My point-of-view inside one of the rooms in the Elimination Round.

         As if like magic, I was chosen as a finalist. Unfortunately I was the only one from my block that was chosen to compete for the final round.

         I won't go in to detail about the speeches of my seven other competitors. but I can say that I was already blessed and thankful for even being part of the the finalists. Now, all of my hard work and sleepless nights paid off because I was able to get the 2nd place and this experience has certainly thought me an important life lesson, that a little hard work and perseverance can go a long way. 









        

The Giant Head Triumphs

SoMA WEEK FLOAT COMPETITION

          This was it. The moment we've been preparing for. For almost month, all of the first year ABMA students have been preparing their own floats with the theme "Philippine Mythology." There were friendships broken, time consumed and materials used, generally all of us were beleaguered.

          But this was it, the first day of the School of Multimedia and Arts Festival has come and main event on the first day was the Float Competition. Aside from the floats, this was also a competition on who can do the best performance that will coincide with the floats made.

ABMA-153 Group A (Agtawak)

ABMA-153 Group B (Zigbin) Tied for the second place with the Agtawak.

          The competion was difficult, we were up against four sections and each of those sections were divided in to two groups, except for two, which was ABMA-154 and ABMA-155 because there were only a few students in those sections.

The champion, ABMA-151 Group A (Ibong Adarna)

          Everyone made such cool floats and all of them aligned with the theme, so it was difficult to tell who was going to win. The floats of the first block, ABMA-151, were the majestic "Ang Ibong Adarna" and the fearsome "Bakunawa Dragon." ABMA-152 had the two biggest floats which were the "Tiyanak" and the " Si Pagong at si Matsing." I can confidently say that our (ABMA-153) two floats were the most terrifying, the "Agtawak," a zombified hybrid of the "Agta" and the "Wak-wak" and the float from my group the "Zigbin," a zombified "Sigbin" creature. The last two blocks, ABMA-154 and 155 made the "Si Malakas at si Maganda" and the "Sarimanok," respectively.

ABMA-151 Group B (Bakunawa Dragon)

          In the morning, all of the blocks and their floats, took part in the Float Parade from Asia Pacific College, going along Lapu-Lapu Street and back, this parade showcased the talented and creative skills of first year ABMA students. When we came back to APC in the afternoon the show wasn't over yet, instead it was time to show off the performances of each of the blocks.

ABMA-152 Group A (Tiyanak)

         It was certainly a diverse competition. There were different kinds of performances, some acted, some sang, some danced and some did a little bit of everything. 

ABMA-152 Group B (Si Pagong At Si Matsing)

          After the event, the finalists were announced. The five block who made it were: ABMA-151 Group A, ABMA-152 Group A, ABMA-153 Groups A and B and finally, ABMA-154. After a few days the winners were announced on the SoMA Awards. ABMA-154 grabbed the third place, ABMA 153 Groups A and B were a tie in the second place and ABMA-151 was the champion. 

The third placer, ABMA-154 (Si Malakas At Si Maganda)

ABMA-155 (Sarimanok)

Why I Hated James Bond For A Day

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE: ERC EDITION

          The College Week is an event at Asia Pacific College where almost all of the students look forward to. It has a plethora of activities for everyone, activities that are designed to engage all the students and personnel of APC and to celebrate the spirit our unity as one school.

         Also, the College Week celebration this year (2016) was particularly special as it also celebrates the Silver Anniversary of Asia Pacific College.

          There were many activities that happened during the College Week celebration, activities such as talks from industry professionals, sports competitions, the APC Epidemic - where people  dress up as zombies and chase other people that are trying to solve the puzzles in the event and of course the highlight of the College Week, which is the Mr. And Ms. APC Pageant Competition.

          But out of all the activities during the celebration, there was one that really stuck out for me. It was the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: ERC Edition," the only event in which I was directly a part of but didn't want to join, I was only chosen by my professor in Technical Writing because a lot of my classmates suggested me when he was looking for participants.

          Everything was fine until the day of the competition came, it was March 8, 2016. My heart was pounding even though I didn't want to be a part of this competition, there was still pressure from my blockmates and my professor because they chose me and my other two blockmates to represent our block.

         It also didn't help when I found out that this was a competition for all the students in the school, which meant that we weren't only up against first year students but also against higher batches. *Sigh...

Mr. Lapira and Mr. Yuzon preparing the stage for the semifinals.

          The competition had three rounds (Easy, Medium and Difficult) just like the original "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," the only difference is that this is the "ERC Edition" which means that all of the questions will somehow be related to English. I assumed that we were going to be eliminated from the first round, it's not that I didn't have faith in my teammates but because in my experience, in school competitions involving all levels of students, the higher batches tend to win.

           To my surprise, we were able to reach the top five in the semifinals and for a moment I thought to myself "Wow, we could actually win this..." Then the final question came, the question which would decide if we're going to compete with another block for the trophy in the final round, the question that would earn us enough points to be crowned the second placer or the first placer if we won.

                The question went a little something like this: "In which publication did Ian Fleming first published his novel Dr. No?" The choices were "Oracle," "Playboy" and two others that I forgot.

Me (In the black shirt), realizing what I've done.

          Since I'am a person who is fond of movies and I have seen the movie adaptation of Dr. No, I thought this was going to be a breeze, but it wasn't. I ended suggesting "Oracle" to my teammates instead of "Playboy" and this costed us the chance to go in to the final round.

                Long story short, that is how James Bond made my sad for a day. We lost the competition but we gained something in the process. Now I know that even as first year students we could still go toe-to-toe with the higher batches and more importantly, the experience reminded me that there is still a lot that I don't know; the reason why trying to learn something new everyday is now one of my core philosophies in life. 

          

Andrew Cesario's Birthday Celebration

BENJAMIN ALVES POETRY READING AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

          Last March 18, 2016 seemed like a normal day for my class and the only exciting thing that day was that it was Friday but little did we know what was going to happen. It was already our last subject, Expository Writing and the time was 1:35 pm, all of us knew that in a few hours we would all be going home, relaxing but instead of having a class our professor asked us to go to the Multipurpose Hall 1 at the first floor. He said that there would be an event but he didn't tell us specifically what event, so we went there hoping for a surprise.

The birthday cakes, all lined up.

          When we got there, we were surprised. There were lights and cameras everywhere, food stalls on the side and almost all of the first year ABMA students were there along with some Engineering students. In addition, there were birthday cakes on the side and they had these small posters beside them that read "Happy Birthday Benjamin Alves!" After seeing all the things inside the MPH-1, two questions immediately came in to my mind, who is Benjamin Alves and why is he celebrating his birthday here?

          We searched for a place to seat, my block mates scattered all around the hall, while me and seven of my block mates were left with the front row seat because I guess no one wanted to sit there. The host of the event was Ms. Tessie, a comedian from GMA, she entertained us with jokes and funny comments while waiting for the birthday celebrant. Then Benjamin Alves came in and suddenly I remembered,he was one of the main actors in a previous movie we watched, "Sana Dati" but still I was asking, why celebrate here at Asia Pacific College?

          Benjamin Alves came up to the front and thanked everyone, he thanked the GMA Artists' Center for coordinating with Asia Pacific College to make this event possible and all the students and school personnel who attended his birthday celebration. Later on, several students came to the front and read their poetry and from that moment I knew that aside from being a birthday celebration, this was also a poetry reading event. 

Benjamin Alves, reciting his poem.

          Of course, Mr. Alves also gave his share of poetry, it was a love poem. I couldn't remember the whole poem but what struck me the most was the last line: "Love is the most perfect thing, even if it's never." He mentioned that he is an English Literature graduate, which explained his English proficiency.

          Overall the event was a blast, there was food for everybody, we laughed and got to take pictures with Mr. Alves, there were fun activities and everyone just had a good time.

           

RPG Metanoia: Really, a Philippine Game-changer

RPG Metanoia: Film Review

          Everytime the Christmas season would come here in the Philippines we would always look forward to an event called the Metro Manila Film Festival,here they would showcase films made by Filipinos for Filipinos, ranging from different genres like horror and action comedy. Now in the 36th Metro Manila Film Festival way back in 2010 a film was released, a film that initially didn't capture the attention of viewers but marked a significant history in the history of Philippine Cinema.

          That film is RPG Metanoia, the first Philippine full length CG-Animated feature film and today I will be giving my review on this movie.

          RPG Metanoia revolves around an avid MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) player named Nico (voiced by Zaijan Jaranilla),  who lives a normal life as an eleven-year old boy but as soon as he plays the MMORPG Metanoia, he becomes an unpredictable fighter armed with a magical yoyo and uncanny speed and agility in his skill set.

          The plot starts to unfold after Nico lost a bet wherein he wasn't allowed to enter the computer shop anymore, forcing him to resort to traditional Filipino games played outside for entertainment and joy. This became an advantage as playing outside actively with his five male friends (who also have different characters when playing Metanoia) made their friendship stronger, they also made friends with a girl named May (played by Mika Dela Cruz) whom Nico started having feelings for later in the movie.

 

           During the course of the movie, Nico is guided by his parents (voiced by Aga Mulach and Eugene Domingo respectively) his mommy supports him in everything he does while his daddy understands him more as he is also a player of Metanoia.

          The main antagonist of the movie is Cel (voiced by Vhong Navarro) , the owner of the aforementioned computer shop who is also a very mysterious guy. Cel is also a player of Metanoia but his intentions are devious, he seeks to control it's world.

          I won't give out the full details of the plot, that is for you to find out but I will still give my 2 cents about the movie.


          Personally I appreciated the movie, for both it's technical at creative achievements. Being the Philippines' first full-length 3D-Animated film, it looks fantastic, the film was in production for almost 4 years which gave the creators enough time to meticulously render and animate the detailed world of RPG Metanoia in 3D.

          The film was able to incorporate the Philippine  cultures and traditions while at the same time creating it's own world. This blending of Filipino culture with the science fiction adventure theme of the film resulted in a great movie.

          But of course no movie is without flaw and RPG Metanoia has a lot in terms of it's technical aspects. Particularly the sound design. Even though the film won Best Sound Recording and Best Original Theme Song at the 36th Metro Manila Film Festival I felt that the sound was lacking.

          There were times when I was looking for some sound effects that would have elevated the story but unfortunately they weren't there. Some dialogue sounds were not in-sync with their characters on-screen. Sound is one of the most integral parts of a movie and this film could have paid more attention to it.          

The different characters of RPG Metanoia.

           To conclude, I give the film a rating of 7.5/10. Instead of focusing on its technical flaws, I will be commending its achievements. This film is a milestone in the history of Philippine Cinema where it proved that Filipinos can create detailed and interesting animated films on par with those made abroad. The films also explored the possibility that we can create animated films about our culture that won't be "corny" and that we can be proud about them.

Parasitic Beasts pt. 1

          Parasyte is a science-fiction horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki and published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga has been adapted into two live-action films and an anime television series but for the purpose of this blog I will be focusing on the first live action film adaptation of Parasyte, since it was the one shown to us.

"Parasyte" movie poster.

          In my experience, live action adaptations of anime or manga series tend to be bad. They fail to capture the magic of the series; the actors can't recreate the qualities of the characters they're portraying and the length of the movie limits the story giving no time for story and character development.

          As for "Parasyte," I can't say if it was a good or bad adaptation since I'am not familiar with the source material, so for this blog I will be reviewing the movie from a moviegoer's point of view and not from an anime fanatic's view.

Shinichi with the parasyte "Migi."

          The movie is an interesting mix of genres, being a science-fiction horror action film with a little bit of comedy in it. The story centers around the invasion of parasitic aliens who take over human brains and feed on other people, after taking over the brain they are able to control the body of their host. Our protagonist Shinichi Izumi (played endearingly by Shota Sometani); an average high school boy is able to stop a parasyte just in time before it was able to reach his brain, this results into the creature being stuck in his right hand where it controlled that instead.

          Since it failed to take over its host completely the alien knows that in order to survive his host has to survive. He therefore decides to join forces with Shinichi to battle other parasytes who try to kill his host. Shinichi aptly names the alien "Migi" which means "right" in Japanese. Shinichi later fights his own battles with the two having an advantage in both being able to act independently and work as a team.


A parasyte, about to consume it's victim.

          That is basically the plot of the film, of course the two of them will face more powerful parasytes but I will not be going into detail about them because  I want this to be a spoiler-free movie review.

          Overall, from a normal moviegoer's point of view, I give the movie a rating of 7/10. For me the story was a bit rushed, not giving enough time for character development; a problem that I hope would be fixed in part 2. Still, the acting and visuals were on point. The actors did a good job on portraying their characters, they were naturals. The visual effects were handled by the masterful Takashi Yamazaki which gave the creatures their rightful rubbery and creepy look.

           The movie is satisfyingly entertaining in it's story and visuals, not failing to give the viewers the dark yet entertaining body-horror film it promised.

Shinichi and Migi.