A-B-M-A! 153!

Chants and Cheers Competition

          Last February 5, 2016 my class had to compete in a "Chants and Cheers Competition." This is what happened.
           
          My palms were sweating, knees weak, arms are heavy. On the surface I looked calm and ready. But in reality I was trembling with anticipation and excitement at the thought of performing in front of a whole audience in an auditorium. I stood there together with 24 of my other block mates, we were all nervous, I can tell, as I looked at each of them breathing heavily and wiping the sweat off their face. 

          I told myself, "This is it. It's either go hard or go home." I was especially anxious as I was the one assigned to start off our performance. So I stepped on to the stage together with my block mates, then I shouted.

          But before that, let's go back a little while. About two weeks before the event.

          So the information about the competition was given to us about two weeks prior. My block mate Azul Espenilla was tasked to lead the class, while I was assigned to be the co-leader. We kept reminding everyone to submit their own ideas for us to be able to finish the actual chant and practice as soon as possible.

          And then we made the chant, but only with a week left before the competition. If it hadn't been for our Grammar and Composition professor; Ms. Joie, who forced everyone in the class to make a contribution for the chant since it was a seatwork, we couldn't have even joined the competition in the first place.

Our piece, written on the whiteboard.

          So with only a few days left, we had to memorize the piece and assign various tones and styles to it, to truly make it a competition piece. We tried everything, from making each individual recite it on their own, to writing the whole piece on the whiteboard so everyone can memorize.

          And we did, we memorized the piece. But, we still didn't have actions and movements incorporated in our formation, and the problem was it was only a day before the competition.

          As it was the day before the competition, it was all hands on deck as we needed to get everything ready, we still didn't have costumes, props, and movements in our chant. So one of my classmates volunteered to buy all of our costumes, and the other volunteered to bring the musical instruments we needed. We practiced until 9 pm, polishing our performance and modulating our voices, thankfully, everyone cooperated.

My block mates before we performed. They were the same after, only frowning.

My block mates, enjoying themselves before we perform.

          So fast forward to the day of the competition. It was the day we had to perform what we worked so hard for, it was the day to face the crowd with strokes of green acrylic painted on our faces while wearing our skin-tight camouflage shirts.

          We were the third ones to perform out of the six contenders. While we were waiting for our turn we couldn't help but glance at each other. We felt like soldiers looking at each other before going in to war.

          But then it was our turn, it was game time. Like I said on the third paragraph, it was go hard or go home. This moment was important for me as it was a moment for our block to become as one, something that rarely happens.

          So I stepped on to the stage together with my block mates, then I shouted. I won't go in to details about our performance, but I can tell you that it was mediocre. We had time to prepare but we didn't, perhaps we still lacked the unity we needed, but our unpreparedness still got us the fourth place, which if I may say so myself, isn't so bad.

          As I was performing with them on the stage, I realized something. These are the moments that I should treasure, because I will miss them when I grow up. We chanted with our hearts and cheered with our souls, it was a crazy and wonderful experience. We may not have won the competition, but we learned a little more about ourselves, and that for me is our victory.

        A-B-M-A! 153!

          

Cylinder of Death

THE REAL ENEMY

          It is a small cylinder of finely cut tobacco leaves rolled in paper; it  is ignited at one end and allowed to smolder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth. This small cylinder also carries a plethora of serious health risks such as heart and lung diseases. 

       The tobacco smoke from this cylinder contains 7,000 chemicals, and about 70 of them are known to cause cancer. These "cylinders" are also called cigarettes, and according to research, smoking one cigarette can take 10-14 minutes of your life. 

        So in short, smoking is basically a slow way to kill yourself, but from where I study it's just a hobby.

          I study at Asia Pacific College (APC), and of course like all colleges, its population is composed mostly of students. It is alarming to see that most of these students smoke more than their teachers and professors, it's like a competition about smoking, where the students are getting the upperhand.

          But in reality, there is no competition. Because everyone loses.

          With everything being almost accessible to the youth nowadays, it's not hard to imagine that a majority of college students are smoking, with some of them being underage, as in below 18 years of age. This is a sad fact, as it reflects our culture of indulgence and lack of self-discipline, with the number of these "underage smokers" growing day by day, is there still something we can do?

        Fortunately, not all hope is lost. Almost every college in the Philippines has something to combat this smoking addiction. In my college we have the "APC Anti Smoking Campaign," which is doing its part in reminding everyone in our school that you don't need to smoke and that it's a choice, whether to smoke and risk yourself of diseases or avoid smoking and live a healthier life.

        And trust me, smoking is a risk that you wouldn't want to take.

          But in the end, it's just a campaign, the real battle is within the smokers themselves, whether they would able to stop, or give in to addiction. Whether they would risk their own lives and the lives of the people around them, or choose to live a healthier for the benefit of everyone. 

         The APC Anti Smoking Campaign is fighting an on-going war against smoking, it is up to you to choose your side.

        

          

          

RIO ALMA

One Of My Childhood Heroes

          Back when I was a child, about 3 to 7 years of age, almost every week my mother would bring me home a story book. I had a lot of books when I still young but the books that my mother brought home for me were special, they had clever, interesting titles and stories that were also accompanied with wonderful illustrations, but most of all I found out that all these books were made by one publishing house, Adarna Books. And the founder of Adarna Books; the organization that was essentially part of my childhood, is none other than Virgilio S. Almario.

          So in his honor, I wrote this short biography of the man who filled my childhood with wonderful and imaginative stories.

Virgilio S. Almario

          Virgilio Senadren-Almario better known by his pen name, RIO ALMA, is a Filipino artist, poet, critic, translator, editor, teacher, and cultural manager. He was born on March 9, 1944, in Bulacan. His parents, Ricardo Almario and Feliciana Senadren, worked hard to raise their family out of poverty.

          At a young age, Virgilio had already displayed a proficiency in the literary arts, in an interview he recalled that he was only 5 years old when he wrote and recited his first poem. But his young age was a slight hindrance as all of his other classmates were older than him, so in most activities he was counted as "saling-pusa." His teacher then had to pass a letter of recommendation to the Department of Education in the Bulacan Capitol for him to qualify to study at a much younger age.

         Despite his youth, he topped his class. And in 1950 he was tasked to deliver a piece for his first grade graduation ceremony as valedictorian at the Camias Elementary School in Bulacan, something he did with great ease as he was already able to read and recite verses at this young age.

          He finished elementary from Camias Elementary School in 1955 and secondary from San Miguel High School in 1959. Growing up in Bulacan among peasants, Almario sought his education at Manila and completed his degree in A.B. Political Science at the University of the Philippines in 1963. His life as a poet started when he took master’s course in education at the University of the East where he became associated with Rogelio G. Mangahas and Lamberto E. Antonio. He then attained a M.A. in Filipino in 1974 from the University of the Philippines.

Rogelio G. Mangahas

Lamberto E. Antonio

           Together with Rogelio G. Mangahas and Lamberto E. Antonio, they spearheaded the second successful modernist movement in Filipino poetry.

In the years of martial law, he set aside modernism and formalism and took interest in nationalism, politics and activist movement. 

         Over the years, he has become a prolific artist in multiple areas of the literary arts. As a critic, he critics dealt with issues of national language and the severe self examination of self and society. Aside from being a critic, Almario also engaged in translating and editing, translating contemporary poetry and novels from the likes of Nick Joaquin, Euripides, Lope K. Santos, and Jose Rizal to name a few. And as a writer he has written more than a hundred poems and stories as well as numerous essays on literature and history published in national and international publications. 

          His works have garnered local and international attention, earning him multiple awards like Centennial Award for Literature by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1998 and ultimately the National Artist for Literature award on June 2003, there are many more but it'll just be a huge wall of text.

          Virgilio S. Almario is still one of my childhood heroes, his body of work has instilled the minds of Filipinos with the sense of nationalism, something that we lack nowadays. He is an artist that has gone beyond the perfection of his craft, and at 71 years old, he still fulfills his responsibility and role in Philippine culture, a moving force of the Philippine literary arts. And as an aspiring artist, I look up to him as a model, a teacher, and as an inspiration.

References: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgilio_Senadren-Almario

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Virgilio_S._Almario

          

          

         

Plagiarizing is Killing

                Plagiarism: An Act of Murder

          Plagiarism is the act of of stealing and publishing the materials of other authors without their consent, this includes their expressions, ideas, concepts, and their original work in general. 

          Plagiarism is applicable to all medium, in writing you can steal sentences, phrases, or maybe even a whole paragraph. In photography you can publish photos that aren't even yours and label them as your own, in film you can take scenes from other films without the filmmaker's consent or worse you can publish a whole movie and label yourself as its filmmaker. In painting, drawing and other forms of visual arts, the same thing goes, you can take an artwork and wrongfully label yourself as its maker.

That is plagiarism. Stealing, publishing, then killing.

Maybe your asking, why killing? Don't worry, I'm going to explain.

          You see, when you plagiarize you don't just steal other people's work them publish them without their consent, you're also doing something to yourself, in fact something worse.

You're killing your creativity.

          By just stealing the works of others, you're losing the effort to make to make your own content, you're not taking the time to craft your own masterpiece, you're not using you're own talents, thus you are killing your own creativity. 

          Creativity is the phenomenon whereby new and imaginative ideas are formed. It is within all of us, it's one of the qualities that make each of us unique. So when you plagiarize, you also kill the opportunity for something new to come in to this world.

         

          Plagiarism is a crime, it is an academic dishonesty, and a serious ethical offense and when you plagiarize, you're not only a thief, but also a killer. Plagiarism is all around us, it can be done by anyone, and you might even be doing it right now without you realizing. But it's not too late.

Stop plagiarism, stop the killings, and together we can prevent the extinction of creativity.

  

TS

This is me.

This is Tyron Santos.

Tyron Santos, in an akward "looking up the ceiling" pose.

     If I would describe myself in one word, it would probably be "artsy." Ever since I was in the kindergarten I already had a relationship with the arts, particularly - drawing. Drawing was interesting for me because it was easy to get started, you just had to get a piece of paper; a pen or a pencil; a good, sturdy chair and table; then you can draw.

    Drawing allowed me an escape from the realities of life. It's nice to know that whenever I feel forlorn or bored I could just get a piece of pen and paper, and create my own world.

          Drawing was my love interest up until recently that I've started to take a liking to the art of cinema. As a child I've always loved watching movies and like drawing, they allowed me an escape from reality, but I never saw them as art, for me they were just sources of entertainment.

          Because we are now living in the digital age, movies and other media have never been as accessible as they were before, naturally I had easier access to films, I could just go to a website, select a film, then watch it online. Then I started watching a lot; I also watched the processes it took to make a single movie and it enthralled me. That was when I started to appreciate cinema as a serious art form, and in the future I would want to collaborate with other people and make a motion picture that would also entertain and allow other people to go in to this world.

          I want to be a filmmaker.

          Now let's go back to the word that would describe me the best, "artsy." I'm saying this because whatever art form interests me today or tomorrow, it's still the same, I'm still the artist I was back in kindergarten, and over the years I have also been interested in other art forms like painting and photography, but it was drawing and filmmaking that captivated me the most. So whatever happens, one thing is sure to remain.

         This is me. I'am Tyron Santos, the artist.

"Dream of Freedom" a photo manipulation by Tyron Santos. 

"Dream of Exploration" another digital artwork
by Tyron Santos.