Speech Choir Competition

Speech Choir and Ignite Competition

Ah the Speech Choir competition, so stressful. We didn’t have that much time to prepare for this competition since we had the floats to worry about and we also had projects to handle, but we still managed to do our very best.

We only had at least two weeks (?) to spare for practice and during those two weeks, most of the class aren’t really present for practice which leads us to accomplishing absolutely almost nothing. It’s a good thing that we finally got out stuff together and worked as a team.

Most of our problems were because we had nowhere to practice and we don’t want to risk other blocks seeing our presentations and stealing our movements, so we had to look for other places. This leads us to another blockmate’s home – which isn’t really that near and this causes yet another problem because another block that consists of only 6-7 students is merged with us and though it’s fine with us (ABMA 153) to go to other places because it’s already familiar to us, it’s not fine with the merged block because they haven’t been there before.

These problems could be resolved though, since we still practice for the speech choir during class hours which makes up lost time they consumed not being able to practice anywhere else.

Now on the day of the presentation, I think we weren’t really all that nervous, we just wanted it over with. Now don’t get me wrong, we are all excited to perform but we also know that we wouldn’t win against ECE and CPE since they won last time during the chants and cheers competition a while back.

And our predictions were right, ECE won the second place and CPE won the first place. Now we’re not being salty or anything here, we’re all happy for them. This experience serves as a lesson for us to learn, we had to just try harder the next time around. Besides, two of our blockmates won third place  and second place for the Ignite Speech and the Integrity Speech respectively.

SoMA Week

SoMA Week celebration

Ever since I first heard about this certain week, I just couldn’t contain my excitement because I was so eager to join such a wonderful event at APC. And as the third term started, I was more than prepared to face the SoMA week.

Now a few weeks into the third term, we were required to make a float. Simple as that - well, maybe not so simple. You see, actually making a float was extremely hard and time consuming. Though it may be tiring, it can also be enjoyable since you get to work as a team with your blockmates.

Our block was separated into two groups – Group A and Group B. The theme for the floats is “Filipino Myths and Legends”, or somewhere along that line. Since we are still just one block, we decided to match each other’s floats, meaning that the way our floats should be designed should be related to the other.

Now fast forward through weeks and weeks of hard work, buying materials, painting, and many more, we finally finished our floats and now all we need to do is to cook up a simple performance. And again, our performances overlap each other because we still consider ourselves as one team regardless of being separated into two groups.

On the first day of the SoMA Week- or should I say, SoMA Days – was the day of the float parade. Thank goodness it wasn’t that hot outside or else we could’ve all died (just kidding). We had to parade our floats from the APC parking lot to the end of Lapu-Lapu St. and from there, we had to take our floats back to the parking lot for display. Once we finished the parade, we had to get ready for our performance, which I personally thought was the best performance out of all the others.

Now on the third and last day of SoMA Week, the winners of the float parade were announced. The results made us all happy and sad at the same time. We won the second place – both groups A and B from ABMA 153.

But the most important thing to all of us is that we got to enjoy our first SoMA celebration with each other. And so we partied all night – well, only until 9 pm – at the BOMBA night where students get to bring out their wild side and dance to the beat.

Benjamin Alves - Poetry Reading at APC

Benjamin Alves, a filipino actor, visited APC for the first time for a Poetry Reading session and to celebrate his birthday with the students. Other than being an actor, he is also a model under the management of GMA Network.

Before the event started, we were greeted by a very lively host who gave us a rather entertaining intro.She really livened up the room with jokes. We also played Pinoy Henyo. And then after a while, announced that Benjamin Alves was coming up next so we sang "Happy Birthday" to him which made him very happy. He thanked all of us and said that he was thankful to be invited to such an event. I had a video of this, but sadly the file was way too big to be uploaded.

During the event, we had other students from different courses to read some poetry which they've made by themselves. The three groups were amazing and you could really feel the emotions they were trying to convey to the audience. Benjamin took to the stage and thanked us again. He also told us a bit about himself, and what his dreams were when he was younger.

After the poetry reading, we had some snacks to eat and some juice to drink while Benjamin took some photos with students who approached him, he also took pictures with his cakes that were displayed on top of tables at the front of the room.

Soon after eating some snacks, we were offered some freebies. So my friends and I decided to get in line to get some free stuff. I got really close to him and got to shake his hand.

Before the session ended, we were given the chance to ask him some questions, which in turn, he would answer. Some questions were serious and were aimed at tips on taking a profession you really want, and some are just humorous. 

After all of this, I could really feel that Benjamin is a very down to earth guy. It's nice to see that even though he's an actor- a very popular and a very good-looking one at that- he's still a very genuine person. And there should be more people like him in this world.

APC College Week

This was the first time I've participated in a celebration like the APC College week, since I'm just a freshman. This is special week for the students in all courses where there are all kinds of fun events that you could participate in. Events like the, "Who wants to be a Billionaire?", "Killer Karaoke", and many more. The most popular one was the "Zombie Epidemic", which most of my block mates were able to join. In this event, you are in a small group with other people and you must try your best to solve clues at each floor of the school building, all the way up to the top floor, which was the 12th floor.

There were some booths as well, The Virtual Reality booth, the Gaming Genesis free-to-play booth, the Japanese culture booth where you could play traditional Japanese games, and lastly, Onesimus, where you could get a shirt customized to your liking. There were also a few food stall where you could buy the food you want. The only stall I ate from was the Cren Top burger stall, since they had a black bun burger, which piqued my curiosity.

And also at the Japanese culture event, I played at all of the games, but sadly I didn't win a single game (lol). But I still enjoyed it because I was there with my friends, and that's all I need.
Besides, I bought this really big cotton candy, which was worth it.

Though I didn't get to join the Zombie Epidemic event, and all the other events since I was helping at the Gaming Genesis booth from the start till the end of the week. Still, I had fun because I met and made new friends that liked the things I did.
Safe to say, this was one of the best events I've ever participated in, and I'll gladly and eagerly wait for next year's celebration.

Oh, and by the way, here's a picture of my block mate with Saitama.

Movie Review: "Turn Left, Turn Right"

Movie review: “Turn Left, Turn Right”

I, together with my block mates watched a movie in our school’s audio visual room. It was titled “Turn Left, Turn Right”. At first, I thought it was a horror movie because of the title, but thankfully it wasn’t.

“Turn Left, Turn Right” is a Taiwanese film aired in 2003 which was based on a book named “A Chance of Sunshine”.  The story follows a man and a woman who live in buildings right next to each other, though somehow, they never once met each other since they were separated only by a concrete wall.

The man, named John, was a violinist who works various jobs in hopes of getting lucky and become a famous master violinist. The woman, Eve, is a translator working for a book publishing company.

The two accidentally met by the fountain at the park. When Eve dropped her papers into the water, John offered to help which also caused his music sheets to fall into the fountain as well.

The two dried their papers out on the open area of the park and introduced themselves to one another. They soon found out that they met many years ago when their schools had a field trip. They decided to give other their numbers, but parted rather abruptly due to an oncoming storm.

They got back to their apartments, happily at first, but then became upset since both their papers became smudged and were unreadable due to rain water. They both spent days, and even weeks, trying to find one another by trying to decipher the numbers that were left and began calling random people in hopes of getting through each other.

~~~~~~~~~~

Long story short, they finally found each other after an earthquake which caused the concrete wall between their apartments to crumble into pieces.

Now after watching this wonderful movie, I have a much better respect for people who exert so much effort for the people they love.

Shoutout to the people who never give up on their loved ones, keep doing you.

APC Anti-smoking campaign

APC Anti-Smoking Campaign

We all know someone who smokes on a daily basis, right? Whether it be a family member, a close friend, or maybe someone who you happen to just pass by every day. But it does not matter if you know the person or not, you should at least be concerned for their health.

According to various websites, smoking can cause so much harm to your health. One of the main health threats caused by smoking is lung cancer.

Written in Wikipedia, lung cancer, also known as Lung Carcinoma, is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If this is left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung by the process of metastasis into nearby tissue or other parts of the body.

This is mainly caused by smoking tobacco, and also often caused by a combination of genetic factors, and exposure to radon gas, asbestos, second-hand smoke, or other forms of air pollution.

Lung cancer is the number one case of cancer deaths in both women and men worldwide according to MedicineNet.com. There are two types of lung cancer, which grow and spread differently, are the small cell lung cancers (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC).

Treatment of lung cancer can involve a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy as well as newer experimental methods.

If you know someone who smokes, and this person is someone you hold very dear, tell this person to stop. Tell them that it is not good for their health. Also, you could try and persuade a stranger, tell them about the bad effects of smoking, tell them that they’re cutting their lives very shortly.

And if you yourself are smoking, tell yourself – “Is doing this going to benefit me in a way?- I mean if smoking is your way of getting rid of stress, there’s got to be another, and albeit, healthier way, right?

Think of the consequences it’s going to cause you, the treatments you’ll need if you get complications, and more importantly, think of the people you’d leave behind.

So stop smoking now, and help raise awareness.

Chants and Cheers Competition

The Chants and Cheers competition

Yesterday, Feb 5^th, was our Chants and Cheers Competition. A competition where there are 6-7 rival blocks competing against each other. Here, we showcase our block’s strengths, hardships we’ve overcome and over all, our unity though chants that rhyme, much like those cheerleaders on television that we usually see.

Now, our journey through the past few weeks wasn’t easy, during the first few days or maybe even the first 2 weeks, we were all pretty chill because we’ve already come up with a first and second stanza and so we didn’t bother adding in a few more. 

The next few days we were just practicing the tune we were going to use for the chant. And still, at this point we were all still relaxed and focused on other random things. A few days more, things started to heat up a bit because some of our blockmates had other things to do than practice for the competition and of course, our leader was not so happy about it. Their excuse was “But we don’t have anything to do as of now, we’d rather go home than waste time” now that’s not what’s exactly said at that time, but it’s somewhere along those lines. But things simmered down after a while and everyone was okay again.

Fast forward to a week before the competition, we finally finished a full chant which consists of at least 7 or 8 stanzas. All we had to worry about was the tune, which we finally figured it together, and the actions that we were supposed to do while performing.

Now the day before the actual competition, we had just started to practice our movements or actions, and obviously we didn’t have much time.

During the day of the competition, we all wore the same camouflage type shirt and had face paint on our cheeks. And when it was finally our turn, I could sense that everyone was nervous, well so was I.

When we were on stage I kind of felt that the emanating nervousness diminished because we all just started to live in the moment and we all did our very best and showed everyone how united as one we all are.

Though, sadly, we failed to claim a spot in the top 3. But we all had fun during those few weeks, we found our strengths within one another, and finally we all grew closer to each other.

And I think that’s enough for everyone.

Plagiarism is a crime

Plagiarism.

 What exactly is plagiarism? Well, according to Wikipedia, and various other sites I’ve read from, Plagiarism is the stealing and publication of another author’s thoughts, ideas, or expressions. In short, it is like stealing something and claiming or presenting it as your own.

Here in APC, it is strictly implied that plagiarism of any form is deemed unacceptable and if guilty of the said offense, you will be sent immediately to the guidance/disciplinary office. This could lead to suspension.

Plagiarism isn’t only limited to schools, it could happen in offices, government speeches and most commonly, in written books by famous authors copying words from one another.

Personally, I have not encountered plagiarism face to face. I may have heard friends and/or classmates having a few words from the internet for their reports and whatnot, but it has not happened to me.

I’ve always tried to compose my own writings and refrain from copying from other people’s work because I understand the feeling of working so hard on something and then someone comes along, steals your idea and then boast about it, claiming it as theirs. It’s very frustrating to say the least.

But if I had no choice but to look up something on the internet, I try my best to understand what’s written and then write my own opinion about it or leave a reference link leading to the page I got my idea from. In that way, I am not claiming the idea as my own.

Long story short, refrain from plagiarizing any type of work done by other people, whether it be a report, a speech, a short book, art pieces and such. Because these people have worked hard to gain recognition for this certain achievement they’ve done, and to have that successful feeling taken away from them by someone who was just behind the shadows is truly horrible and disheartening.

Don’t plagiarize, kids.

As always, stay in school and learn what you have to learn.

references : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism

Filipino Author: Bienvenido Lumbera

Bienvenido Lumbera

He is a Filipino poet, critic and dramatist. He is also a National Artist of the Philippines and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communications and many more.

A little background check on Mr.Lumbera: he was born in Lipa on April 11, 1932. His parents died when he was but a mere 5 year old boy.  He received his Litt.B. and M.A. degrees from the University of Santo Tomas in 1950, and then his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 1968.

Taught Literature, Philippine Studies and Creative Writing at the Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, the University of the Philippines Diliman, and the University of Santo Tomas.

A few of his works are the following:

Poetry - Likhang Dila, Likhang Diwa, 1993; Poetika/Pulitika, 2008; Ka Bel.

Literary criticism – Revaluation: Essays on Literature, Cinema, and Popular Culture, 1984; Tagalog Poetry, 1570-1898: Tradition on its Development, 1986; Abot-Tanaw: Sulyap at Suri sa Nagbabagong Kultura at Lipunan, 1987.

He has also been the author of numerous textbooks like, Pedagogy; Philippine Literature: A History and Anthology; Rediscovery: Essays in Philippine Life and Culture and many, many more.

To be frankly honest, I have not read at least one of his books but this is not the first time I’ve heard of Mr. Bienvenido Lumbera. I used to hear about him from my grandfather who, sadly, passed away many years ago.

Also, during my elementary and high school years, we have studied a bit about Filipino authors, and to say the truth, I am not that interested in local authors and books, I am more drawn to international books. But this does not mean that when I have the chance to read a locally written book, I would read it. I would read it because I would like to understand these authors and delve into their emotions that they have written on paper.

references : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bienvenido_Lumbera

Jon Santos in APC - Feb. 11

Jon Santos - "Follow your passion.. I did"

Today is the 11th day of February and we were instructed to head towards the auditorium of our building. For  there will be a speech by Jon Santos about his unique journey.

Now let's talk a bit about Mr. Jon Santos. He was famous for impersonating many politicians, celebrities, and the like such as Ate Vi, Sherap Estrada, Sen. Meeryam Defensive, Krissy Aquino and much, much more. 

He has been doing these impersonations for almost four decades, and he has been renowned as "The man with many faces".

Jon Santos gave a very wholesome and serious - though at some point, very funny - speech. He told us about his elementary days when he used to copy the movements of his teachers and mimicking the way they speak. And about his college days when he used to study about Economics. 

He told us that the path leading to his career at the present didn't really involve much of what he studied while he was in college, but he was able to use his knowledge in much more different ways.

Now during his speech, he gave us ten things to remember when we are finally about to choose our own paths in finding suitable careers, most of which I can't remember anymore.

But a single sentence caught my attention. Just one sentence engraved into my mind up to this moment:

"Learning what you love will make you the richest person in the world"

This one short and simple sentence left such a huge impact on me. Learning more and more about the things you love doing and being able to do these for an income, would absolutely be just the best thing in the world. No matter how hard things get, being able to do things you enjoy the most, well, you wouldn't really complain, would you?

That's it for today. 

If you've read through all my blabbering, thank you.

Self-introduction

Welcome to my very first post on this blog, first, let me properly introduce myself - my name is Chelsea Jan and I am 17 years old. I graduated from Philippine Pasay Chung Hua Academy.

I was born into a small, but very loving family consisting of my older sister (and her Austrian husband), my father, and my step-mother. I've got amazing friends as well, who are always there for me during the darkest and brightest times of my life, and in return, I do the same for them.

Like any other normal person in the world, I have many hobbies and/or things that often catch my attention.

I guess I'll try and explain each and every one of my interests then, so here we go:

I am an avid lover of music. I love bands like Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy, and Linkin Park. I am also a fan of boybands, my absolute favorite is One Direction.

I love pets. I've got six dogs and two cats at home and I love them all very dearly. I try to grab all opportunities I come across just to pet a cute little dog. I don't care much about the dog or cat's breed, I love them, just the way they are. 

I absolutely love, LOVE eating. Come on, there's nothing wrong about loving food right? The only time it becomes wrong is that you've completely ignored eating healthily and eating all kinds of junk food. I exercise every night to balance my weight, because I wouldn't want to get too fat.

I browse the internet for quite a few hours, going through my social media sites like Tumblr, Twitter, 9GAG, and Facebook. I also used to have a blog on Wordpress, but I forgot my username and password so I am not able to access it anymore.

So, I guess I have to end it here. I have more of my interests to talk about, but there are far too many to talk about in just one blog post.

Anyways, thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it.