League for the Little Children

The last best experience I had in 2009 was when I traveled the next island and realized how necessary it is to protect our children.

I was out of nowhere when I was picked by Kabataan News Network - Dumaguete Bureau to be one of the lucky delegates for Dumaguete City to the week-long United Nations Children Rights Convention: 20 na, Ano na? or the Regional Media Summit held at Mango Park Hotel in Mango Avenue, Cebu City. Not to mention the all-expense paid trip, great food, meal allowances and the free nights' stroll. =)

With me was my constant companion in KNN crimes, Beverly Zena Jane Linao, and fortunately (but unfortunately) 8 other delegates chosen by the Kapisanan ng Mass Communicators of Silliman University.

A full blog post of our trainings and seminars, as well as our outputs will be pasted here in CupAvenue soon.

Meantime, here are our individual photos during our seemingly grand ground breaking activity for the next step of activities we have to accomplish when we get back to out city:


PRINT GROUP
The Weekly Sillimanian
Silliman University, Dumaguete
*Ang mga kambal tuko. These girls produced two stories entitled "Ang Batang Mahusay" and an English story which were later published in their university paper. The strories centered on the Rights of the Child to education.

(Emmarah Contessa Sarreal, Mary Grace Nidoy)






RADIO GROUP
Silliman On-Air
Silliman University

*The prettiest of them all. hahaha! Their output had the tagline, "Bata, ilayo sila sa lansangan," had all of us touched. After the convention, they also aired their outputs over Killerbee 95.1 and their radio program.




(Alton Jave Tenorio, April Joyce Aquino)

PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP
The Weekly Sillimanian
Silliman University
*These girls aren't beauty queens. They're photographers actually. Their photos on children were then shown in posters and in sideshows during the Human Rights activity at the SU Amphitheater last December.


(Eliora Eunice Bernedo, Ebony-Arriane Lautner)







The VIDEO GROUP
U! TV
Silliman University
and Kabataan News Network (KNN) Dumaguete Bureau
*The toughest of them all! These girls collaborated with us on a video segment entitled, "Tingog," which later hit the local programming scene through a segment on their TV program in U! TV.


(Hannah Leah M Pa-a, Kathrine Mercado)


and finally...


--> eto kami, soo sexy!
Kabataan News Network - Dumaguete
we produced, together with U! TV a touching video on the Rights of the Child to participation, letting people realize that their little voices have a say to the present generation.

(Videos, photos, and audio recordings to be published here soon)

(Joel Aba, Beverly Zena Jane Linao)

The Search that was

Beauty, Brains, and Body - these are three essential factors a candidate should possess in pageants like the most talked-about search, the Mr. and Ms. Negros Oriental State University 2010.

Basing these factors in choosing the year's Queen last December 1, i should honestly say, as one of the hosts, that such didn't climbed up to my expectations of quality pageantry. I had the doubt that it may have turned more as an exploitation (as many feminists say).

But honestly, it was not all that... this year's search traversed the boundaries of pageantry (or exploitation) and had successfully surmounted up to the total entertainment expectations of many people who wills to see women and men in the highlights of their lives.

And contrary to whatever exploitation feminists explain, pageants like this will always be a celebration of masculinity and femininity; the celebration of one's success.

*Here are some during the annual search for the Mr. and Ms. NORSU.

Excitements in full swing.

I haven't been this excited ever, I don't know why. The past days have proven that I am such a shithead - i can't help myself. There literally are a bunch of reasons to be excited about this November and December. There's the Christmas, my mother's birthday, my special one's birthday, The State University Founder's Day and my hosting stint(s) that time, and a lot more.

But i won't mention all of those here in this post. But enlisted herein are just some of the excitements that break me down right now.

FIRST STOP: Well if you ask every Dumagueteno what's something exciting in town, there is but only two words: Robinsons Dumaguete. Here's a latest photo posted in the internet:


The mall is slated to open on Monday, November 23, brushing elbows with the Dumaguete Fiesta celebration on the 25th (If i'm not mistaken). This mall is said to be "the first full-service shopping mall in the province of Negros Oriental," according to Robinsons manager, and is said to give Dumaguetenos a different and new "night life.... and a world-class shopping experience."

Oooh, so interesting. Robinsons Dumaguete will also have more surprises in store such as a pleasant-looking al fresco, located at the back portion of the mall. =)


SECOND STOP: After several months of planning and brainstorming, we finally laid everything down to its finality - the finality of one of my several dreams in my life -- being an events manager.

Together with Foundation University Hospitality Management adviser, Christine (my sister) and her two other comrades from her field; Alton Jave Tenorio, Killerbee jock and Weekly Sillimanian News editor and events host, the most ambitious undertaking i ever had in my life has come: The EVENTS Dumaguete!

For Events and hosting services, contact 0939-185-3844.

Caught on Camera: Away-from-School Mode

I'm back in the net with the realization that i should have updated my blog after hurdling the busy months of October and November. Phew! busy is indeed an understatement... and i know it would never be proper to blab much about the crawling enrollment process, and the mind-paralyzing complications at school.

So before I finally open another seemingly draining semester, I took one of my life's biggest treat: Going to Cebu the fourth time this year for a Regional Youth Media Summit with, fortunately, my best buddy coincidentally picked for Silliman Media delegation. A Macroblog will be posted here about that very unforgettable travel soon.

Meanwhile, before I finally meet the last set of tormenting subjects in college this semester, in this photoblog, i'll take a total shift from a school life mode. I'll let you see some of the most relaxing moments caught on camera. And while I'm keying words for my next post had i realized that there were several unforgettable moments caught on camera that have lingered on the past weeks. .. and fortunately, most of them were just about eating, eating... drinking, and hopping. Here's some of the great things i did the past weeks that were caught on camera.

We had some cold coffee dipping at Gabby's Bistro, one of Dumaguete's best resto.

Took some honey bread-tasting at Noriter Cafe. . .

Joined the gigster rockers at Hayahay during the "NU SKUL NIGHT". (This flick taken before the wild night started)

Took a stroll at Angel Alcala Marine Laboratory formerly Silliman Marine Laboratory...

Went to the City of Cebu as one of Dumaguete's 10 delegates for the Regional Youth Media Summit at Mango Peak Hotel (A complete macroblog will posted here in CupAvenue soon.)

Prior to my Cebu Regional Media Summit, i took another exhausting stroll at Ayala Center Cebu - The Terraces. . .

Had another refreshing coffee dipping at Starbucks, SM North Wing.

And just to take the opportunity of the eerie ambiance surrounding the mall that time, i took a pose with this human manikin, if you call her such, that halloween. Awoooo!!

And yes, FINALLY, oh Lord, when i came home to Dumaguete, a big yet small gift came... my stress reliever after the long, long hopping... my newest pet, Hobby - the rabbit with a PIG appetite. =)

Because Grades doesn't spell Smartness

Pieces from Edges
By Joel Aba
An Opinion Article
Published for the Golden Eagles
College of Business and Accountancy yearly publication
Negros Oriental State University


Learning: Redefined

Have you ever tried memorizing long sentences with the hope of putting answers to your enumeration-type test? Awful, isn’t it? But it could be much awful when you have finished memorizing everything, yet you have not actually learned what it’s all about.

It could be “utmost awful” if you do it for the sake of getting a grade.

In our university, even in our very own college, we students could have no other way but agree to this. In fact, I have even found myself guilty of such. We sometimes tend to memorize the words, but not it’s real meaning, not even the essence of why such words must be remembered.

But this manner of getting a grade has gone way deeper than just passing a subject. This has, in one way or another, destructively caused us to have a bound-to-be-fleeting knowledge of what the subject matter is all about.

A subject, if we define it, is one included in a curriculum and is not only any of the various courses of study in a school or college, but a body of learning. Learning, in the other hand is the acquisition of knowledge or skill. Therefore, trying to memorize everything discussed without properly understanding its real implication and purpose to us and memorizing merely to get a grade is virtually nonsense – or simply, meaninglessness.

But this truth does not extinguish the value of what memorizing brings us. Memorizing is good, and it is at its best, if and only if, associated with internalizing the facts printed or copied on our notebooks.

Just like how we learned our ABC, we have tried in pre-school memorizing all the 26 letters of the English alphabet. But memorizing alone is not the real essence of why remembering the alphabet is a must. The practice of using them to produce and spur out some phrases that breeds to sentences, to paragraphs, and to speech is the main objective of such memorization – the “real and essential learning.”

And just like going to school, and answering our paper exams, we need to restructure and redefine the process of how we learn – trying to understand what it is all about, which is primarily the golden rule in learning. Questions like, “Why do I have to study this?” and “What learning could I get from this?” or “How will this confuse me and sharpen my mental abilities?” are the right questions in redefining and reassessing our learning process at school.

Our teachers in the College of Business and Accountancy are all armed to instruct us. It is up to us to remember their instructions by heart and mind, and hopefully resuscitate them in the future, not just memorize them and “gone with the wind”.

Only then will we say that the words, “I have truly learned”.

To Whom it may Concern

"For some people, the best way to hide homosexuality
is to act homosexually.
Laugh at it. Jive with it until it covers up.
Because they simply know reverse psychology...
but sorry guy,not a very brilliant idea."

What a Talent! (Cup One)

If you think you've got talent, think again.

....cause you are about to find out that saying "having a talent" is way far from this "REAL Talent" of Ukraine, Kseniya Simonova. Take a peek at this amazing artwork of Ukraine's got talent 2009 Grand Champion who took the world wide web by storm! The video of the other equally talented contender of Seminova will be posted here in CupAvenue soon.

A mix of everything.

Dear Diary,

It's October 13. and I've got a lot of rants today, diary. Not only because I felt dismayed of the final examinations going on, but because i haven't actually written much to you lately.

Today, I memorized a 100-page photocopy for an examination in International Marketing, only to realize that only a page of it came out. And yes again diary, i missed that only page. Fortunately dairy, i flunked together with most of them, and we are getting ready for a so-called Martial Law 2010. Isn't that cool?

But now that it has ended, diary, I felt a perfect mixture of everything under the sun: pressure, stirring emotions, worries, failures, successes, excitement, itching knees, flattery, love, missing feelings, and all that. This, however, resulted into a myriad of puzzle to me today.

Yes. diary. I am puzzled. I am so puzzled how responsibilities crash this week, and i am even puzzled how, amid my busyness, i was able to handle the pressures so far, that i still have time at this point to write for you.

I also am puzzled, diary, why i felt so in love despite arguments and heated conversations that have taken place the past weeks. Yes, diary. It felt so draining that i know i have to consume all the energies of the world to compensate. I think there's a need to never believe in quarrels anymore. They all end up in "sorrys", diary. And hugs too!

I am also puzzled, diary, why my bestfriend felt so confused when in fact, there's no big heck with choosing between a handsome guy and an appealing guy. She's got a long, long hair, diary... i hope she could still walk without stepping on it. She will also pose for our university magazine on Saturday. What a disaster!

I am also puzzled diary, why some beasts could be so different. You know, they become so desperate of getting a month-long debt to the extent of texting my Mamah and Ate one Friday night. Oh, how i felt so embarrassed, diary. I never want to feel that way again. Thank God I've paid it and may that shut the beast's dirty mouth now.

Now i guess i have to constantly update you. I felt a little lighter now... I think i will no longer be puzzled by the end of this week. I will soon be seeing two-point-zero scores to my grade sheets, and that will all be fine. The Martial Law 2010? I leave them all to God Almighty, dairy. 'Till next time.


Puzzlingly yours,
Joel

At Philippines' Grandest Mall

I was thinking all along that Mall of Asia was the best mall I've seen so far... But i realized that size doesn't matter now. What matters is how perfect it is... And yes, "The Terraces" of Ayala Center is Cebu's newest landmark that hit my jaw and dropped it! Really 5-star i should rate, with the best people, and the best ambiance.. Truly amazing!

What a great weekend that was.
(more photos at www.facebook.com/joelaba)