Because I was feeling rockstar-ish during the PressCon, hence the all black get-up and because I just had to have my photo taken with Mayon at the background. I’ll post the details of the PressCon later. Oh, and hi guys! Yep, I’m still alive :)
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Because I was feeling rockstar-ish during the PressCon, hence the all black get-up and because I just had to have my photo taken with Mayon at the background.

I’ll post the details of the PressCon later.

Oh, and hi guys! Yep, I’m still alive :)

Magayon
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Magayon

Touchdown Bicol: ALTPA PressCon Day 1

So today, I and the rest of the delegates from the University of Perpetual Help Laguna arrived at The Oriental in Legazpi, Albay, for the ALTPA-LuzonWide Press Conference which, despite the name, is actually the Nationals since delegates from Visayas also participate haha.

Tomorrow’ll be my contest, Development Communication-English, and as Region IV-A’s current regional champion, the pressure is so effing huge and knowing that my contest’s lecturer and judge is a resident writer from the Philippine Daily Inquirer isn’t really helping haha. Anyway, as what kuya Cheeno advised me a a while ago, I won’t let the pressure get to me. God willing, I’d want a rerun of last year’s Nationals haha.

Hello, guys! :)

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I actually posted the above photo some few months ago, during our publication’s (which I am the Features Editor of) commemorative ceremony for the Maguindanao Massacre alongside the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines. Imagine my surprise when our chief layout artist (who’s a killer photojourn as well) used this as the banner photo for our annual broadsheet release.

It’s actually my first time to have a photo of mine used for the Front Page (which is quite an honor since only the most striking images are used there, according to our chief layout artist).

I actually have three articles here, one in the DevComm section about the COMELEC’s purging of several party lists, a feature/review of the films Thy Womb and Ang Nawawala, and a sports analysis on the Philippine Olympic team.

Here’s a look at this year’s UPHL Gazette broadsheet front page:

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Plus, here are the pages I handled:

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Oh, and hello, guys!

lensandlyrics:

365 days ago. 

Lingon

A song composed and performed by a friend of mine. Gaah, her lyrics just about mirrors what I’m going through right now.

Paw, my friend, aside from being one awesome singer, is also one awesome filmmaker. Check out her short films on her YouTube page.

Follow her:

Twitter

YouTube

PressCon Snaps

The weather is just so effing crazy back in Lucban. It rained for three days straight, with only the most intermittent periods of sunshine. Good place to relax in though.

So I posted about our publication’s recent participation in this year’s Regional Higher Education Press Conference at Lucban, Quezon. This year’s RHEPC was quite, uh, important for me since it’s going to be my last presscon before graduation so I, along with the rest of my co-editors, were more than excited to join in, despite the many problems and troubles our publication encountered before getting to do so. I competed in two contests, actually: Development Communication Writing and Photojournalism, both in the English categories. I was actually very apprehensive regarding the competitions I’d be joining in since I had little training, whatsoever, prior to the competition.  During the competitions, I was actually praying that I’d manage, by any miracle, whatsoever, to garner a repeat of my last presscon, that is, to place in the top 5 in any of my contests, despite the apparent impossibility of me getting to do so. Immediately after my competitions, I would approach Francis, whom I am closest to in the paper, and our adviser, Dr. Yango, and show them my drafts. Despite their constant saying of my pieces’ “win-ability”, I was not swayed and just resigned myself to whatever would happen the next day. The next day, Francis and I, as well as two other co-editors of ours, MJ and Raine, went for an early morning swim at the pool, just to shake off the apprehensions we had about the upcoming awarding later that day.  To shorten the story, since this has run too long for a text post, the University of Perpetual Help/ UPHL Gazette placed sixth over-all in the top performing schools category, out of 40+ colleges and universities in the Southern Tagalog region, what with our receiving more or less 30+ awards in both individual and group categories. As for the individual awards, it was one heck of a roller-coaster ride. Immediately after the group awards, I was already beside myself with nervousness and was just about an inch’s length away from a total nervous breakdown and was about ready to barf whatever I had eaten that morning and the day before. SERIOUSLY. And the fact that my contest, DevComm Writing was among the first few contests to be announced did not help at all. I was just about ready to hurl all the more, since all the people at the 10th up to the 6th spots were the ones who topped last year’s competition (I placed 2nd last year, actually), which all the more aggravated my doubts on placing. When the remaining spot to be announced was First Place, I just zoned out, actually, not minding everything else, when my name got called. Shocked as I was, I made my way to the stage, looking as crazy as f*ck my eyes all bugged up from the tension and whatnot. My colleagues all won awards too, reaping places in the top ten which I am so happy about. My proudest moment prolly though was when my anak-anakans got called out: Faye, Mel and Patrixia for garnering spots in the top three and Maryfe for being number two in the contest for news writing, and Jayson for being fourth place in Sports Writing. I was crying like some nutcase the whole time. All in all, 6 of us are advancing to the Nationals come February, which ups our publication’s number of representatives for the nationals by one.  Soo, that rounds up the reason why I was unable to be on the web for three days now. Blame the presscon HAHA.  PS: I said I prayed that God would grant us a replay of our performance in the last presscon we attended. He didn’t grant us that. He gave us something much better.
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So I posted about our publication’s recent participation in this year’s Regional Higher Education Press Conference at Lucban, Quezon.

This year’s RHEPC was quite, uh, important for me since it’s going to be my last presscon before graduation so I, along with the rest of my co-editors, were more than excited to join in, despite the many problems and troubles our publication encountered before getting to do so.

I competed in two contests, actually: Development Communication Writing and Photojournalism, both in the English categories. I was actually very apprehensive regarding the competitions I’d be joining in since I had little training, whatsoever, prior to the competition. 

During the competitions, I was actually praying that I’d manage, by any miracle, whatsoever, to garner a repeat of my last presscon, that is, to place in the top 5 in any of my contests, despite the apparent impossibility of me getting to do so. Immediately after my competitions, I would approach Francis, whom I am closest to in the paper, and our adviser, Dr. Yango, and show them my drafts. Despite their constant saying of my pieces’ “win-ability”, I was not swayed and just resigned myself to whatever would happen the next day.

The next day, Francis and I, as well as two other co-editors of ours, MJ and Raine, went for an early morning swim at the pool, just to shake off the apprehensions we had about the upcoming awarding later that day. 

To shorten the story, since this has run too long for a text post, the University of Perpetual Help/ UPHL Gazette placed sixth over-all in the top performing schools category, out of 40+ colleges and universities in the Southern Tagalog region, what with our receiving more or less 30+ awards in both individual and group categories.

As for the individual awards, it was one heck of a roller-coaster ride. Immediately after the group awards, I was already beside myself with nervousness and was just about an inch’s length away from a total nervous breakdown and was about ready to barf whatever I had eaten that morning and the day before. SERIOUSLY. And the fact that my contest, DevComm Writing was among the first few contests to be announced did not help at all. I was just about ready to hurl all the more, since all the people at the 10th up to the 6th spots were the ones who topped last year’s competition (I placed 2nd last year, actually), which all the more aggravated my doubts on placing. When the remaining spot to be announced was First Place, I just zoned out, actually, not minding everything else, when my name got called. Shocked as I was, I made my way to the stage, looking as crazy as f*ck my eyes all bugged up from the tension and whatnot. My colleagues all won awards too, reaping places in the top ten which I am so happy about.

My proudest moment prolly though was when my anak-anakans got called out: Faye, Mel and Patrixia for garnering spots in the top three and Maryfe for being number two in the contest for news writing, and Jayson for being fourth place in Sports Writing. I was crying like some nutcase the whole time.

All in all, 6 of us are advancing to the Nationals come February, which ups our publication’s number of representatives for the nationals by one. 

Soo, that rounds up the reason why I was unable to be on the web for three days now. Blame the presscon HAHA. 

PS: I said I prayed that God would grant us a replay of our performance in the last presscon we attended. He didn’t grant us that. He gave us something much better.

Illuminated This was my entry for the Photojournalism-English Category contest that I joined in at the Association of Tertiary Press Advisers of Southern Tagalog (ATPAST) - Regional Higher Education Press Conference last January 9-11 at Batis Aramin Resort in Lucban, Quezon. This year’s photojournalism contest was quite hard (and very different) compared to last year’s since we were only allowed to shoot six consecutive images (they check the EXIF and the camera data), which will all be printed, with one to be submitted as the “best” by each participant. This photo was taken at Kamay Ni Hesus shrine. I found this kid looking up at a statue of the Black Nazarene and a lot of the other participants were taking photos of him. I decided to do so as well, but thought about doing something different. While the rest were taking photos of him in the 5:2 angle, I decided to mix things up and take a photo of him from another perspective. During the layouting of the photos later that night, I was shocked since out of the 6 photos I submitted, only 5 got printed, prolly because of some system mix-up since there were 6 photos in the memory card when it got returned to me that night. Anyway, this photo eventually landed me a spot in the top ten, in seventh place, out of 30+ participants. A shocker, since I barely had training haha. Anyway, I’ll be representing Region IV-A in the upcoming nationals this February. I’ll post more details and photos from the conference soon.
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Illuminated

This was my entry for the Photojournalism-English Category contest that I joined in at the Association of Tertiary Press Advisers of Southern Tagalog (ATPAST) - Regional Higher Education Press Conference last January 9-11 at Batis Aramin Resort in Lucban, Quezon.

This year’s photojournalism contest was quite hard (and very different) compared to last year’s since we were only allowed to shoot six consecutive images (they check the EXIF and the camera data), which will all be printed, with one to be submitted as the “best” by each participant.

This photo was taken at Kamay Ni Hesus shrine. I found this kid looking up at a statue of the Black Nazarene and a lot of the other participants were taking photos of him. I decided to do so as well, but thought about doing something different. While the rest were taking photos of him in the 5:2 angle, I decided to mix things up and take a photo of him from another perspective.

During the layouting of the photos later that night, I was shocked since out of the 6 photos I submitted, only 5 got printed, prolly because of some system mix-up since there were 6 photos in the memory card when it got returned to me that night. Anyway, this photo eventually landed me a spot in the top ten, in seventh place, out of 30+ participants. A shocker, since I barely had training haha.

Anyway, I’ll be representing Region IV-A in the upcoming nationals this February. I’ll post more details and photos from the conference soon.

So once again, I am up late, whiling away the hours in front of my laptop, doing the most inane of stuff: browsing NatGeo and Discovery Channel and the Phil. Daily Inquirer websites for any interesting news from around the world and listening to my friends’ demo tape (they’re really good y’all). I haven’t been really able to update this sad excuse of a blog as much as I’d want to since I’ve been really, really, bogged down by a whole shizzwork of office duties HAHA. Anyway, despite the fact that this is sorely late for a “Greet The New Year” type of post, I’d be proceeding anyway.  2012 has been somewhat of a great year for me: I am almost done with college, I have managed to operate an uber-pretentious snot of a blog for a year, became an editor for the student publication, finished internships, snagged a major award for writing at both regional and national levels and of course, met new friends. Three days from now I’ll be once again, pitting my already dull and pretty much non-existent writing and photography skills against some 50-odd participants in the regionals to be held at Lucban in Quezon Province. 2013 being my last (I hope) year as an editor, I really am hoping and praying that I’d get a repeat of last year’s happenings, though I know that all of that rests in the hands of that Big Someone From Up Above. Aand, as to what my mug has in relation to this blabbering, I do not know. Good night, friends. Cheers!

So once again, I am up late, whiling away the hours in front of my laptop, doing the most inane of stuff: browsing NatGeo and Discovery Channel and the Phil. Daily Inquirer websites for any interesting news from around the world and listening to my friends’ demo tape (they’re really good y’all).

I haven’t been really able to update this sad excuse of a blog as much as I’d want to since I’ve been really, really, bogged down by a whole shizzwork of office duties HAHA.

Anyway, despite the fact that this is sorely late for a “Greet The New Year” type of post, I’d be proceeding anyway. 

2012 has been somewhat of a great year for me: I am almost done with college, I have managed to operate an uber-pretentious snot of a blog for a year, became an editor for the student publication, finished internships, snagged a major award for writing at both regional and national levels and of course, met new friends.

Three days from now I’ll be once again, pitting my already dull and pretty much non-existent writing and photography skills against some 50-odd participants in the regionals to be held at Lucban in Quezon Province. 2013 being my last (I hope) year as an editor, I really am hoping and praying that I’d get a repeat of last year’s happenings, though I know that all of that rests in the hands of that Big Someone From Up Above.

Aand, as to what my mug has in relation to this blabbering, I do not know.

Good night, friends. Cheers!

mikerebuyas: So these are just some of the books I bought (and received) this year. If you’ve been a follower of mine since like, forever, you would know that books, aside from photography and food are some of the things I hold in high regard. You can deprive me of movies but not books, honestly speaking HAHA. Here’s a list of roughly all the books I bought, received and ultimately, read, throughout the year: Life of Pi The Westing Game Stargirl Para Kay B (O Kung Paano Dinevastate ng Pag-Ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa Atin) The Best of This Is A Crazy Planets Speak Looking For Alaska The Flood Pet Sematary The Skeleton Crew Holes Paper Towns An Abundance of Katherines Freaks and Revelations Bridge to Terabithia The Perks of Being A Wallflower Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children The Catcher in The Rye
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mikerebuyas:

So these are just some of the books I bought (and received) this year. If you’ve been a follower of mine since like, forever, you would know that books, aside from photography and food are some of the things I hold in high regard. You can deprive me of movies but not books, honestly speaking HAHA.

Here’s a list of roughly all the books I bought, received and ultimately, read, throughout the year:

  • Life of Pi
  • The Westing Game
  • Stargirl
  • Para Kay B (O Kung Paano Dinevastate ng Pag-Ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa Atin)
  • The Best of This Is A Crazy Planets
  • Speak
  • Looking For Alaska
  • The Flood
  • Pet Sematary
  • The Skeleton Crew
  • Holes
  • Paper Towns
  • An Abundance of Katherines
  • Freaks and Revelations
  • Bridge to Terabithia
  • The Perks of Being A Wallflower
  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
  • The Catcher in The Rye

mikerebuyas:

Edge of Glory

So I made about a ton of brownies yesterday, just in time for the New Year’s Eve celebrations. I was just supposed to make the standard chocolate fudge brownies but I found out that since I’ve made too much batter and not enough baking pans, I decided to switch things up a bit and make some butterscotch-chocolate swirl bars.

The recipe I used uses the following:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon refined salt
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • left-over chocolate fudge brownie batter

So what I did first was to melt the butter over medium heat in a steel pan and then just added everything else into it, with the exception of the chocolate batter.

Slightly cook the mixture over the fire for like a minute or so and then remove from heat.

Prepare the baking pans by greasing them with butter or nonstick spray. Spoon in portions of the butterscotch mixture alternately with the chocolate one (kinda like a chessboard) then finish off with the remaining butterscotch batter. Swirl a rubber spatula to make the patterns.

Pop into an oven and cook for 15 minutes (standard gas oven) or 6 minutes (microwave). Insert wooden toothpick into center to check for doneness and when fully cooked, invert on a wire rack and allow to cool. Slice into bars. 

Serve as is or with dulce de leche sauce.

PS:

These were the heaviest, densest brownies I’ve ever done. Pair this with coffee and I swear, it’s heaven :))

Sunday Snaps

Went to Nuvali to attend the Light Up Nuvali/Sky Lantern Festival event earlier tonight. I got out of the house at around 6 pm, to catch the lantern parade at 7. However, the damnable traffic jams around BelAir Sta. Rosa delayed me for like an hour or so, which caused me to miss the said event. I arrived at the venue at around 7 and just looked for Ivy.

Ivy, however, had to leave early (she was with her family) so I just wandered out alone. I went to this gig at the dockside and this band was playing. I didn’t get the band’s name but they were so good. They played a mashup of Edge of Glory and Where Have You Been, among others.

Ended the night at Starbucks, had coffee and then went home, HAHA.

Sunday In Snapshots

  • Woke up to find a golden sunrise. 
  • Nothing says hipster more than a vintage Keith Haring shirt IMHO :))
  • Been listening non-stop to the highlights album of the Les Miserables film. Am getting so stoked to see it next year :)
  • New (secondhand) books! Bought Pet Sematary and Skeleton Crew for next to nothing. Received The Catcher in The Rye as a gift :3
  • Finished reading Life of Pi. Will definitely watch the film version soon :)
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