Expressing my opinions

I learned the hard way that expressing your opinions is not always the best option. Why? You might ask, well, simply because, just because you have opinions it doesn¡¦t mean 1. That one, your opinions matter or two, your opinions makes any sense at all. Or plainly because, not everyone likes to hear your opinions, whether it makes sense or not. I am going to revisit a time in my past that reveals¡K Okay, that was sappy. I¡¦m just going to tell it like it is, with tons of snide comments. Okay, remove the word snide from the previous sentence. Heck, I¡¦ll let you be the judge of things. So anyway, here¡¦s the thing. Wait, wait, first off, if anyone involved read this¡K When I was in third year high school (okay maybe that wasn¡¦t really that long ago), I was the assistant opinion editor of our school paper. And as that, I wrote this article that offended some students and also some teachers. And my adviser had to talk to me about it, as if I need guidance or something, honestly that was what I felt, as if I have done something dreadfully wrong, like kill someone or something or is psychologically disturbed in a Goth-I-hate-the¡Vworld type way, and it turns out that like I said some people were offended by the said written article. Why? I really don¡¦t know, I mean, I was just expressing my opinions, right? But anyway, that was not what happened. What happened was, I was (one thing you should know about me is that I am a sentimental person, esp. when it came to things like my work, which on most occasions means my art works, and the whole article thing was a one-off) crying my eyes out, without really knowing why (in fact, just typing this darn thing makes me teary), without knowing what I did wrong. If you asked for those persons involved, those who hate me that is, they¡¦d probably give you another story, because I guess some of them were truly offended. I won¡¦t be telling you what the article is about anymore. I was crying my eyes out while hugging a stuff pig, by the way happened during my birthday, which explains the stuff pig (it was a gift from my friend, Joyce, who I¡¦m happy to say, stood by me all the time). The worst thing is I actually apologized to the teachers who were offended. Well, it turns out they weren¡¦t really offended, they were just expressing their concern. This is the part that makes me feel like I am a juvenile delinquent, which I¡¦m not. Okay, I seem really pathetic now, ranting about something that happened more than a year ago. But I can¡¦t leave out the part that is truly ironic and funny and evil at the same time. The said article was never published in the paper, in fact, when those offended people read the article, they really weren¡¦t supposed to do that. The adviser of the school paper never even read the article when it leaked (I think this is the most appropriate term I can think of). So those people, who were, aghast, fellow staff of the school paper, got in trouble. Maybe I shouldn¡¦t have written that, that would further offend those priori offended people. But hell, they were much too coward to tell it to my face then. They most likely, wouldn¡¦t tell me now. Not that I see them anymore and probably never will. (Man, do I bear a grudge) So anyway, when the adviser of the school paper did read it, he thought it wasn¡¦t offensive at all. So¡K huh? What was I so worked up about? And then one of the other teachers who were offended but I didn¡¦t apologize to, because I don¡¦t even know her then, and she didn¡¦t knew me, actually didn¡¦t hate me the following year when she did become my teacher. In fact, she once said that I am one of the very few students of her classes, meaning the rest of the people are too absent minded to be present. Okay, the article had something to do with the students in the intensive class, and me being a regular, well, obviously means that I am not smart enough. But based on what happened then after, sort of proves that even though I am not smart enough at least I¡¦m attentive, okay doesn¡¦t prove my smarts. But it does prove that I am not half bad, which of course, it my opinion, I really am not that bad, considering the fact that I got into the school where most of the smarts are populating, and some of the smarts didn¡¦t get into. Also, I actually got into an honors course, which means they only accepted the top 15% of those who applied- definitely boosted my ego and ha! It is amazing how I can cram so many words into such a short story. So what? No one¡¦s going to read this anyway¡K By the way, the following year, I¡¦m not Opinion editor, obviously. Instead I had to positions instead, I was the Features editor and Chinese section editor (but this job is a no-brainer because it is usually given to the next Chinky eyed person and all I have to do is publish whatever essay the Foreign Language coordinator gives me). More to say about that: I never published any of my own essays in the Chinese section. The funny thing is, I won a Filipino-Chinese essay contest under the Chinese category, while those other essays which I published in the school paper were also entries to the contest but didn¡¦t win anything. Am I the only one who finds it funny, heck, I got Php. 1000 for it and it was published in one of the actual Chinese newspapers, which for me isn¡¦t really a big deal either, because tons of my essays have been published one those newspapers and I don¡¦t even remember what I wrote when my mom hands me a copy of it. Anyway, will anyone actually read this? Bored to tears CCS students probably. Or maybe not. This will forever stay in my hard drive with not a single soul but me as an audience. Sad¡K Truly, madly, deeply, sad. Right, back to what I was talking about, by the way, did you know that I was actually the best member of our school newspaper staff last year? This is not a self-proclamation; I actually got a certificate for it. Ha, again! Right, back to where I was. I¡¦ll keep all my opinions to myself. Since, I¡¦ll probably be the only reader of my blog, so I guess it is okay to publish everything here. Also, if anyone ever did read this, whatever you read here stays here. It means not badmouthing, plagiarizing or what-nots. Respect others if you want others to respect you. Listen to what others got to say, it might actually make some sense. Blogs are about free expression. So keep it free. P.S. I can type 31 words per minute not that it¡¦s much of an achievement.

On Layouts and etc.

I think I am more concerned on the layout of my blog than the actual content. My current blog have changed its layout n times, and I am still not satisfied with it. Maybe because being a Computer Science student plus supposedly being artistic and creative, I expect a lot from myself and whatever that I¡¦ll be posting be original. I don¡¦t want to just copy and paste something from Blog Skins, which I know a lot of bloggers do. Also I have something against Blog Skins, not the whole lot though. I think I¡¦ll express my concerns now. Here the thing, some, I¡¦m not saying all of them, but some of the skins, simply take graphics of the Internet and not duly giving credit. Okay, I¡¦ll be more specific, I am talking about the online art group, DeviantArt, where I am a member of. Some layouts contain works from the deviants (this is to address the members of DeviantArt, and not really saying that they are deviants in the sociological sense), and instead of crediting the artist themselves, the credit goes to simply DeviantArt, which implies its whole online community, which is of course, wrong. I know that some of the patrons and those who submit layout for blog skins must be upset now; they have every right to be. But bear in mind that, maybe some of the deviants might have felt the same way. Peace to everyone, am not really looking for a fight or a stand-off, I¡¦m just expressing my opinion. Links: http://www.blogskins.com http://www.deviantart.com

Jumping on the blogging bandwagon

The blog, what I thought was just a hype that resembled Friendster. But I was wrong, about both. The Friendster frenzy didn¡¦t end nor did blogging. In fact, I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon right now. At the start of the first semester I found it strange that some of my classmates spend most of their time blogging, (I think this would refer to my infamous friend, Paul and Gel). Of course, I may have overlooked the fact that the reason why these people are in the College of Computer Science is because they spend 24/7 in front of the computer and have pale skin and dark circles under their eyes to prove it. But I digress, blogging, as I soon found out is not a way of self- expression. Except it is kind of strange that strangers can read it, though, especially if you write about your crush and your crush happens to reads it, that can be awkward (this by the way, happened to my friend, Kris). Okay, I have digressed again. Back to where I was, blogging is where people can write about whatever they want, from the most mundane to virtually anything. Aside from backstabbing people, because it means the people you backstab can read it too. And when tagging, sometimes even if you don¡¦t write your name, people still have ways to finding out who tagged the offensive message. There¡¦s such a thing as IP logger you know, and they are not kidding when they say that they know who you are (my friend, Xan, actually said this in her blog, and true to her word, she even displayed my IP address below the line ¡§I¡¦m not kidding¡¨). So I¡¦m back to blogging. MB¡¦s Technews¡¦ Annalyn Jusay interviewed the first Pinoy blogger in her article today, and the first Pinoy blogger¡¦s comment on today¡¦s blogging scene, ¡§And it annoys me that written language itself is being destroyed by text lingo,¡¨ also ¡§Save the vowels¡¨. Praise her. Even though, I myself may have been through that phase in my blog too. I am over that, though. For now, anyway, while I¡¦m taking up Engltwo in school and has to practice my English. So this is probably going to be the first or the second entry of the new blog that I am thinking of creating, either that or it is going to adding to the rest of the entries of my current blog, the life of a self- proclaimed genius. I am thinking of changing or making a new blog because, I want to be a professional blogger and the stuff in my previous entries just doesn¡¦t cut it. I think I am addicted to blogging, even though I lack internet access at home and can only go online at the school¡¦s computer lab, which is totally fine, because that is sort of like my second home anyway. This entry and the other one is actually typed at home in Microsoft Word and they will probably be posted whenever I get internet access. Pathetic aren¡¦t I? Writing pages and pages of coherent English sentences and having to end up with no audience, such a shame really. But the heck, blogging is about self- expression and it is good enough for me that I let these things out, it doesn¡¦t really matter if anyone else reads them. Also this helps me practice my typing skills, and my English too! Yeah for me! I am probably the only one cheering. P.S. I think I¡¦ll probably try WordPress. Source of the aforementioned article: Jusay, Annalyn S. (March 6, 2006). Revisiting the First Pinoy Blogger. Manila Bulletin Special Supplement Technews Blog-O-Rama, v3n49, p. D4.

So what if you get a really low score on that MP, at least you tried.

I just read this article on MB's Technews section, entitled "Student Projects¨ by Albert Tagaban. In the article, he talked about how some students would pay him to do their programming projects for them. He says that when you do this, nobody benefits from it, not him or, obviously, the student. In fact, it is much better that you try to do your own projects. He also said that programming is hard, and teachers or instructors as he calls them, can't teach the student everything that they need to know, but of course, that doesn't give the students any excuse. There was something he said that really got to me, I quote, "Of course, it's tough the first time around but once you get used to it you will proudly say that you can do any project that may come your way. Of course, most projects require extensive research, but what the heck, you¡¦ve gone through it once or twice and I know you can do it for the nth time.¨ (That line really reminds me of the time, Bea, MG and I been to the library to research on our case study in Dasalgo.) The reason why I mentioned this article is that it got to me. I guess I've always known for a fact that a lot of college students pay people to do their projects for them. In fact, one of my friends from high school, Marc, actually offered to pay me for helping him with his case study. But the thing is, hell, you pay tons of money for you to learn this stuff from school, what a waste it would be if you won't even learn anything because you don't even do your own projects on your own. So what if you get a really low score on that MP, at least you tried. My mom, after seeing me cramming for my last MP (MP, by the way stands for Machine Project, you'll be hearing this term a lot) until the death of night, said that it's okay even if I failed the course, I can just retake it, because for her it is enough to see that I already did my best, even though my best is far from being good enough. Other things, the part when he said what instructors teach is not enough, I really think that it is true. I mean, in Objectp, we are expected to have mastered in Compro1 and Compro2. But the thing is, some of us, me actually, barely passed those subjects. So even though I got the gist of those subjects, I can't say I mastered them totally. The segmentation fault is still a problem that I can't get over with. Also the subject being Object Oriented Programming in Java meant that the emphasis is on OOP concepts and not Java, which also meant that other Java concepts are something that you have to read up on your own. Because, programming languages are very broad, they have so many predefined functions and you have to read through them yourself. They are these APIs though that gives you a summary of everything. In Objectp, we don't have a textbook, which is why we really have to a resourceful bunch and download those free e-Books from Sun or ultimately rely on our CCS Frosh CD, which includes loads of cool stuff, ranging from applications to tutorials to sample MPs. Another subject which requires research is Dasalgo, which stands for Data Structures and Algorithm, by the way. We (Bea, MG and I, whoever poor soul we drag with us) spent loads of time in the library researching on those algorithms and pseudo codes, because somewhere along the line we realized that the Internet is not the key to everything. I can't say that I am a programmer yet, because there is still a long road ahead of me. But all I can say for now is, I am aspiring to be one and I am not going to rely on other people to do my projects. If I'm going to write a thesis on the lack of implementation of the copyright law in the Philippines esp. on digital books (of course, also digital contents in general), I might as well do it right and cite my sources, also in case I get charge with plagiarism. Source of the aforementioned article: Tagaban, Albert. (March 6, 2006). Student Project. Manila Bulletin Special Supplement Technews HardCode, v3n49, p. D4.