Saturday, December 16, 2006

Recharging

PRINTF(" Did nothing today except to sleep. ");

LOOP1:
PRINTF("

Coming back to the dorm after having a "sleepover" at May's house, I found out that I was not able to completely shutdown my laptop; thus, left it running the whole time since yesterday. I won't be risking my laptop to overheat so I immediately turned it off. As most of my dorm mates were busy packing up and ready to go to the provinces, I just slept again. I just got up at about 630pm, almost 'dorm alone'.

Engineering Week 2006 is finally over. UP Circuit placed 6th overall, just behind a hundred pts or so from the rival 'ERG'. I was not able to actively participate under Circuit mainly because the events I had 'prepared' for were no longer included in this year's Eng'g week. If only there were Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton and Swimming events, I could have contributed greatly to Circuit.

Even though, Circuit lost to ERG in terms of rankings, I've still seen happiness in ckt peeps' faces. The youthful members were in high morale, not to mention having free meals 'ala IE Club'. Circuit came quite strongly at this year's major events, being included at the top 3 most of the time. As of last year, I think Circuit already belongs to the org-to-beat list. Congratulations!

----------------

As for this year's Maskipaps, we had a bigger stage (whoa! 10 hours installation!) and lots of sponsors! The weather was favorable this time. I have to admit that my brods lack hosting abilities. I could have presented myself as a host, however, I was not present in one of our meetings. I even rarely show up at workdays due to my erratic schedule. I may not be as active as I was years ago, as I am forever grateful at my fraternity, I would still like to help as much as I can.

We had Slapshock for a guest band c/o Dickies. The vocalist even particularly mentioned that before they became popular, it was at Melchor Hall where they had their first public performance. Their famous song, "Agent Orange", had a debut at our very own Maskipaps. It was nice to hear such acknowledgement, as these kind of 'famous' people remember where they came from. Another example of a "maskipaps baby" is Giselle Sanchez, who started out as a host. Sometimes, she even guests at one of our fraternity Christmas parties.

Ever heard of Jeff Pagaduan? Maskipaps ended at about 330am, and for our last performer, Jeff Pagaduan! Maskipaps, being an anything-goes variety show, is a good venue for rising artists to strut their stuff. It started 5 years ago, as Jeff was able to perform on stage. He has no band, only his acoustic guitar and his self. He does not do cover songs, in fact he composes his own. For 5 years straight, he has been our 'official' last performer. He had never requested for an earlier slot. He may have a 'thing' for doing last performances.

I have to say, Jeff does have some talent up his sleeve. In fact, the most important trait that he has is passion. I do hope he can do big next time. He may be the next Noel Cabangon, Joey Ayala, or even a John Mayer. In fact, he is no longer an exclusive last performer for maskipaps. He already 'last performs' at every concert event here in UP, even at the UP Fair! I wouldn't be surprised if he will 'last perform' again at next year's Friday night fair hosted by Beta Epsilon.

---------

After a sleepless night due to maskipaps, I went to Eng'g at about 5pm to catch up with the circuit people. The Lantern Parade was cancelled due to security reasons. A rally was expected in response to the proposed tuition fee increase. There may be threats that had been received as UP officials would surely grace the event as they would assemble at Quezon Hall. Beta Epsilon's Fireworks Display was also cancelled as a result. Maybe we could use it for next year's friday night fair.

Anyway, for the Miss Eng'g event at the UP Film Institute, tickets were sold at about Php20. Unfortunately, tickets were distributed through the orgs to the extent that it was sold out. A lot of us were not able to get hold of a ticket. The Eng'g Student Council underestimated the expected number of audiences. As a result, we were left outside in the cold.

Good thing I was with Gordon, Argel and Jeric at that time. We even accompanied Phoebe, a pretty freshman lass from the college of Music (major in Conducting), as she also does not have a ticket not even a companion. She was a former classmate of Jeric in French class.

With the composition of our group, there was never a dull moment. We always have those gimmicks and stories to talk about to give us enough entertainment for ourselves. We have already felt the same way as the "jologs" are treated every time they were not allowed to enter inside an event. However, it was quite insulting because we were far from being harmful. Despite all of the ill feelings from the start of the event, I'm not going to hold any grudge against the ESC. After all, Stella the ESC chairperson is a good friend of mine. I understand that this was just one of the setbacks the ESC may learn from.

At the time when we were finally allowed to go inside, the place was really in full capacity. We positioned ourselves at the back; found a monobloc chair for the petite Phoebe to step on to have a better view. Phoebe is amazed with the Engineering students because of events like these. The huge participation of eng'g orgs is a major factor in the success of eng'g events including Maskipaps.

Raffy of Circuit, was the biggest bet because 'he' turned out to be a pretty candidate. Though he was not able to win the crown in the end, his 2nd place finish over ERG's 3rd was another morale booster for the org.

Engineering weeks are usually ended by the orgs through their own Christmas parties. It was good to see some of my '01 batchmates who came by at the Miss Eng'g event. Some of my batchmates decided to take a detour out of Circuit's party, and instead crash into some 01's home. Kiko'splace may be cramped up because of ckt mems' HUGE presence for the night so a detour was needed. Actually, being still in EEE, I should be with the ckt party along with Elma, Yugs and Roma to interact with the younger mems. However, I've decided to stick with my batchmates where I am most likely to be 'in'.

As entered May's home, we were greeted with lots of sweets from May's Xmas giveaways. Teejay should have treated us as promised but was unable to because he had nowhere to withdraw some money. Good thing there was Arpee (Teejay's twin?) the philantrophist who was kind enough to buy cheeseburger and fries for us. After consuming my burger, I dozed off. Nice couch, May! :P

I was able to open up my eyes the following morning while May's parents were going out of the house. Since I didn't know what to do and I seem to be the only person awake, my shy self dominated and made me sleep again to escape the scene. Didn't even attempt to say good morning just like what Dyan did. hehehe. Thanks to May for your hospitality!

");

IF (continU_read == '1') goto LOOP1
ELSE IF (read_enuf == '1')
PRINTF(" After the much tiring Engineering Week, indeed, SLEEP IS INEVITABLE ");


*/This is such a long post (and I nearly lost all of it after tweaking with some of the color font!). Anyway, it may be possible that I shall update again only by next year! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! */

posted by ScIoN 11:52 PM |


Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Puppy Love

Let us all welcome Charity to blogland. I know she has been a lurker for quite a while, till she get to have her own blog at last! I guess she too agrees that livejournal is not a cool host name for her blog. :P

Her latest post features her puppy which she believes is an 'Askal' yet with invisible chow-chow features.

I have loved dogs ever since I was a kid. They are the most sensible animals I can think of. I admire their honor and loyalty towards their man. Unfortunately, the latest set of dogs we had had suffered much because of worms in their system. Ever since those elementary years up to now, we never had owned a dog.

Since I am a man of "arbor", I readily sent Charity a message inquiring for puppies. As of now, she had said that there may still be available puppies at her grandparents' home at Antipolo.

I am now having a dilemma on how I should keep the puppy. Since I'd be going home this Xmas break, its a perfect chance to have a puppy for pasalubong. However, a part of me says that the puppy should be MINE; therefore, it being with me here in the dorm.

I think there is a rule (unwritten?) prohibiting pets inside the dorm. At times, some people still manage to bring turtles or hamsters and take care of it inside their rooms. I am just not sure if anyone had dared taking care of a puppy.

I think I can. Remember, I got this 2-man dorm room all by myself. Plus, it is conveniently located at the end of our wing (Central). Thus, no other person would pass by my corner unless they have business with me. I just really hope there won't be any "chu-chu" floormates who would just do it because of envy. If I just place him in my corder, I suppose there should be no problem.

I could imagine myself with the puppy. I'd love to walk it out within UP during Sundays. I guess that would be one of my weekly habits, aside from hydrating my cactus (my bday gift from Jaemie-san).

So, shall I take it (home) or leave it (at the dorm with me)?

posted by ScIoN 2:26 AM |


Saturday, December 09, 2006

My busyness

I have been quite busy for the past few days. It's not that I'm complaining; in fact, I actually like it. It is because my kind of busy-ness complements my "3-units-only" schedule for the semester.

Instead of just bumming in front of my computer the whole day, I get to do something worthwhile to fill up my schedule. So far, I still find myself relaxed since there are no work overlaps yet.

After our brief stint at ASTI, I was approached by Ma'amTata for some outside project. It has something to do with FPGA interfacing, probably with some microcontrollers or other peripherals. More details would be discussed on Tuesday, as I'm going to meet the guy who needs help in his project.

Since I am not yet enlisted in any other kind of job, I still have control of my schedule. It's just bad that I couldn't earn big by just being a student assistant. At least I have time to hone my skills and back up my EEE knowledge through rackets like these.
===========================================
I have just attended UP AME's Matsuri ('festival' in Nihonggo) with Det-san. Special thanks to Allan for handing over his ticket (worth Php100)to me. The festival started at about 130pm and ended with some fireworks display at 10pm.

For most part, we were a bit out of place among the otakus out there. If only we were a group present in the event, we could have been more trigger happy with the camera. In fact, Det's cam was only used at the near end of the show as we were able to meet up with Weng-sensei and Jaemie-chan (who just came by at about 930pm).

Anyway, the festival's main attraction was the cosplay event. Cosplayers were loitering around the vicinity, accommodating pictures with the otakus. Det-san hated those stage mothers who have been chaperoning their "sexy" cosplayer daughters. Too bad, I can't post and brag any pic with some cute chic in it.

This December, I have to spend money on so many things. Consider Engineering Week; money rotates fast especially with those daily night events. Also, I still have to buy my new glasses (with multicoat), and a hard disk enclosure.

Money. Money. Money. Go Big Time please!

posted by ScIoN 10:31 PM |


Friday, December 08, 2006

Stint @ ASTI

Finally, the VHDL-based FPGA design seminar is over! Being one of its lab assistants was one worthwhile experience. I get to learn and improve more of my skills in VHDL & FPGA.

The trainees are faculty members of different universities here in the Philippines. This is where we, (Dean, Elma and I)the students, became teachers while teachers became students. I enjoyed this kind of role-reversal. Imagine these teachers being looked up to by their students in other universities, while they (teachers) look up to us for the training. I kinda felt some natural high.

Soon enough, Hardware Design Languages would be incorporated into the Engineering (ECE/CoE or even CS) curriculums of other universities. Being part of UP-Intel Microlab, we were the major proponents of it. Para sa Pilipinas! (in this case, at least we are to be payed for as student assistants :P)

The "Legendary Sannin" (3 student trainers of the seminar)

Labels:

posted by ScIoN 12:33 AM |


Sunday, December 03, 2006

JLPT Level 4 (2006)

This morning, I went to La Salle - Taft to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT - level 4)of the Japan Foundation. For the last 2 wednesdays, Weng sensei was kind enough to give us reviews in preparation for the "shiken". For our latest mock JLPT exam wherein we answered the exam given on 2001, I had fairly passed the test. I was able to do it without even reviewing any notes.

We must be able to obtain a 60% mark in order to be certified. One nice thing about the exam is that there are multiple choices. However, there are so many items and some items are multiplied to a certain factor in order to get the raw score. This gives us difficulty in getting a high grade.

Surprisingly, this year's JLPT turned out to be quite difficult. There were terms used that I was not familiar of; the "choukai" (listening portion) was much more difficult; all in all, the items were very tricky. I'd say there is a big difference between the previous JLPT's from this year's.

Last semester, I was deciding on whether or not I should take the JLPT. Before, I was thinking of its opportunity cost. Now, I guess I could consider it as sunk cost.

Or not.

Let's just wait for the results in March 2007. It's still too good to be hopeful.

Labels:

posted by ScIoN 2:59 PM |


Friday, December 01, 2006

Geek Fest

The impending super typhoon Reming did not stop us from attending yesterday's opening sessions for the 7th National EECCE Conference. Our thesis, was presented by my groupmate Eugene, as it was a '1 of 4' candidate for the conference's best student paper. Our thesis, Dual Core Capability of a 32-Bit DLX Microprocessor, was pitted against the works of a UP EEE Phd student (his MS thesis), a UP EEE Professor on study leave for her Phd in Australia (also her MS thesis), and a group of La Salle students.

Ma'am Pedrasa eventually won the award for best paper. Since she was not around, the thesis was presented by her adviser, Dr. Festin - currently the department chair of UP Engineering's Computer Science Department. Her thesis talks about Value-based Utility for Jitter Management, a method used for QoS.

Even though our thesis did not win it, we were very honored to present that day. If only our rivals were not that 'big time' we should have won the competition :D. Judges were composed of a Phd professor from Ateneo, Richard Tyo (Principal Architect from Intel) and Mark Finn (Chief Product Engineer from Cypress Semiconductors). This gives us a thought that our thesis could have a chance in the upcoming University Research Competition.

This year's ECE Conference seemed to be more enjoyable as the presentors for the first day were very good and introduced interesting topics. I guess I enjoyed the event because I am now able to relate with what most of the speakers were talking about. Parallel sessions were moved to next week since typhoon was to be expected this weekend.

For that day, I was also able to sign some papers for a 1 week stint at ASTI where I would be an FPGA training seminar lab assistant. Elma actually would be the lecturer for the training. Usual rates for student assistants still apply so I won't be earning that much.
At least I get to do something worthwhile for now.

posted by ScIoN 7:23 AM |


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Location: Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines

ScIoN is a former Systems Engineer in Japan who specialized in industrial imaging and digital hardware design. He is now back in the Philippines pursuing graduate studies in Finance at the University of the Philippines - Diliman.



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