Happy Birthday to my birthday-mates Clea, Merry, Ted, Ella!

To those who texted, emailed, ym-ed, plurked, multiplied, facebooked, greeted me last night during the victory party (di ko na kayo iisa-isahin dahil ang dami dami dami n’yo, overwhelmingly!); to my family, wonderful slatemates (Titus, Lee, Jose, Barbie, Sheena, KKK, John, Anika, Gabby, Rinno, Laura, BJ, Austin, Dhadi, Ching, Jan, Gino, Angela and Raymund), CSA, KAISA, Absolute Cousins, APB, Bloggers/ Online friends, ISA, LEAD, Manila Foodistas, MATTER, PALS, PDA, PRIME, START, UP friends, Xavier friends, at sa mga posibleng nakalimutan ko [sorry])

Malugod na pagpapasalamat, sincerest gratitude to everyone, 謝謝你們！Sa walang sawang pagtiwala, pagsuporta’t pagtulong. I have been really blessed with great friends and acquaintances. I really treasure you all! *sniff* hehe

P.S. Being 21 is no different from being 20, or 18… What matters is how you live your life, and what will be your legacy. (magiging 21 din kayo! bleh! haha) Carpe Diem!

P.P.S. A bit of trivia for all…today’s Square Root Day. Fun! haha

Today’s 中秋節, the Mid-Autumn Festival or more commonly known as the Mooncake festival to younger generations of Chinese descent. This is the time of the year when the Filipino-Chinese community are busy celebrating the festival by playing the famed dice-game.

Back in my younger/grade school days, we always play the dice game in school. But as we grew older, we didn’t get to play it anymore, but instead, we had alternative activities, such as painting contest, and other related contests and activities to celebrate the occasion.

Now that we’re already in college, in the UP Chinese Student Association,  this time of the year signals our annual event of Mooncake Dice game for both Filipinos and other interested people  and Chinese students to play the popular dice game and enjoy the culture.

Today, my Gua Ma came down from Dagupan to be with us in Manila. She brought us some Mooncake too. I love this time of the year because the supply of Mooncakes overflow — I just love to eat 月餅！

I knew Fr. Mena when he was the Treasurer of Xavier School. Though I’ve only gotten the chance to talk to him and get to know him better only when I was in 3rd year.

The strongest memory I have of Fr. Mena, besides the batch mass he did for our class during my 4th year, was that he is a man with a passion.

He has this huge collection of stamps, which I really admire. During that time, when he displayed his collection in the HS LRC, I was a frequent visitor. I was amazed at the enormous set of stamps, which covered more or less 13 countries from around the world. Ever since, I became more thrilled in expanding my collection. Thanks to Fr. Mena, I learned to appreciate the stamps that I have in my collection even more.

For more, I got really excited, and was very thankful because he shared his collection (excess) to the students who want to have stamps or who want to collect them. I remember that he had this whole big 2-3 foot box full of stamps.

Besides the stamp collecting, he was passionate about Xavier. His years of service to Xavier and, of course, his book, Luceat Lux, says it all. Without Fr. Mena, I personally think that Xavier wouldn’t be what/where it is today.

Early last Monday morning, the 14th of July 2008, Fr. SANTOS MENA, SJ joined his Creator after years of fighting cancer. He was 79 years of age. Upon his request, Fr. Mena returned to Spain to stay in the Jesuit Infirmary in Salamanca, Spain, where he received the medical care that he needed.Born in Cevico-Navero (Palencia), Fr. Mena entered the Novitiate in Salamanca on 30 July 1947. Soon after entering the Society, he was assigned to the China Mission. He was ordained a priest on 18 March 1962.

A memorial Mass will be held in honor of Fr. Mena today, Friday, July 18, 6:00 pm at the Xavier School Multi-Purpose Center. Alumni, colleagues, and friends of Fr. Mena are all invited to honor this great missionary who spent most of his life serving in Xavier School.

Notes of condolences may be sent to his sisters, Ma. Socorro Gonzalez Mena (Cisneros 6, 2 Izqda., 34004 Palencia, Spain) and Ma. Angeles Gonzalez Mena (Apartado de Correo 733, 34080 Palencia, Spain).

I’m actually really happy right now to find out that Gian took the duty as head of the Appreciation Day Committee. The Appreciation Day Committee or the A-day Committee is responsible for the events for that single day in the last few weeks of September (September 26 for this year) wherein students recognize and feel proud of their teachers and other school staff and employees.

I was once the head of it when I was back in 4th year high school, and I am proud to say that since then, all the heads of the A-day Committee (Sherwin, Rod, and now Gian) was with my team back in 2006. Go Gian! Continue the Legacy!

Related Articles:
A-day 2005 Photo Gallery
A-day 2005: Buhay Superstar!
Appreciation Day 2005

Pinoy Dream Academy scholar Rafael Ting, more known as Inaki, is the 13th pick among the 25 “dreamers” (Pinoy Dream Academy scholars).

Only 16 lucky dreamers will get the chance to be included in the Academy and be mentored and taught by only the best - headed by PDA Headmaster Ryan Cayabyab, Voice Master Kitchy Molina, Performance Master Joey Javier and Voice Mentor Monet Silvestre.

Pinoy Dream Academy is a Philippine franchise from Endemol, the brains behind the Big Brother and Deal or No Deal local franchise. It is their goal, with Pinoy Dream Academy, to give “pop star hopefuls a chance to be a step closer to their dream.”

We can follow them at PDA Überture with Host Billy Crawford every 5:30pm Mon-Fri, PDA Primetime with Host Nikki Gil every 9:30pm Mon- Fri, PDA Performance with Toni Gonzaga on weekends at 7:45 PM.

Xavieran Pride! Woot! LUCEAT LUX!

I was reading through the posts of my contacts in Multiply, when I saw Kog’s “My Week So Far”. Since Kog is an alumni now teacher in Xavier High School, I was curious enough to take a look on how he has been doing “so far”; also, I knew that a lot of new stuff were added to the classrooms, and I just wanted to have a glimpse of what’s new.

Behold and be Amazed — I consider myself privileged to have studied from Xavier, and to have had a good Jesuit education. But I must emphasize that what they have now is like 5-star-hotel compared to our 3- or 4-star amenities before.

Before, we were situated in the Jesuits Residence Wing, where we had our wooden tables and chairs, and 2 air conditioning units. We were luckier back then; the batch after us were transfered to the high school building, where they all suffered/ endured the heat because they didn’t have air conditioning units. After that year, they reconstructed and did a face-lift to the fourth year classrooms. But now, they were successful in implementing the changes to all high school classrooms.

And here is our classroom, H4B, back then at the Jesuit Residence wing. Focus on the second photo — that’s our adviser, Simoneil Mendoza, using the computer with a tv screen inside a “wooden box.”

Photos By: Sean Tiu

vs

This is the new classrooms that they have in the high school building. *drum rolls* Now they all have a locker outside the room. (shucks - we didn’t have those!)

Photo By: Kog

They already replaced all the wooden chairs and tables, and gave them plastic. I say I still love the wooden/ natural/ earthy feel to it. Before, our tables had locks/lockers right below the top of the table. You can put your stuff inside; and now, obviously they can’t anymore.

Photo By: Kog

This is what I envy. Grar! They have a screen and LCD projector built in their classrooms (think: DLSU). For more, they have speakers inside their classrooms. To top it all off, welcome to the winter wonderland — better air conditioning system.

Photos By: Kog

Oh I forgot, have I mentioned, Mac Labs! FTW! (for the win) Okay, I’ll stop here, right? *hehe*

I promise this would be the last. Move your attention to the small piece of paper on top of the MacBook. “Gadget Pass” — yes, you’re not dreaming of hallucinating. During our time (not so many years ago), we brought in our digital cameras/ SLRs/ laptops/ video cameras freely. It seems that they cannot do that as much as they want or as freely anymore. Xavier’s probably thinking of “equality among peers,” which I think is just right.

Photo By: Kog

I’ll be gone starting today until Sunday, so don’t look for me. If you want to contact me, e-mail me, and I’ll check it by Sunday evening. If it’s really really really (check: really) important, you can text me at my Globe number. Don’t expect me to reply. I’ll savor this three-day retreat :3 Signing off.

I pray that I may…
See you more clearly,
Love you more dearly,
Follow your more nearly.

Photo by smiles4angels

My uncle just messaged me and showed me the text in the application TextEdit. I never knew this existed in my MacBook until today. I was amazed, really! I took a screen shot of it:

Dear Kate,

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.

Take Care,
John Applessed

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