Down to memory lane

I know, I’ve been raving a lot about LSAT but I can’t think of any other topic for now, since I’ve been sick for two days and all I did was play until cops arrive and disappoint me so much I want to smash the screen. Why LSAT again? Well, the moment my condition went to a tolerable state, I immediately went to work by arranging all photocopies of lectures, readings and notes. Went straight to dumping PH104 readings, still deciding on POS100 readings, and kept my majors’ readings, notes and also TH141 readings and notes as my professor in that subject, Sir Bobby Guevara, said that the readings are worth the time, even outside the school. After that, I stumbled upon the messy folders containing the documents of LSAT. I had to rearrange them so that all the unnecessary stuff should go away. First, I figured out that the use of folders isn’t a good idea and had the documents placed in envelopes. So when I took everything out, it was like going back through those times.

 

First, I stumbled on these papers. These were the sample assessment pages being printed during dry runs. I was laughing and ask myself why the hell I took these papers home. It seemed to be a couple of pages from the image above but the papers are about an inch thick. Usually, the assessor’s name is printed on the assessment page and interestingly, there are names that are not familiar with me, with my three years of stay in LSAT. There are also names that I know very well.

LSAT is one of the places where that term “Kuya” echoes a looooooooooot. It is also one of the places where its meaning goes one step higher. I don’t know why, but I feel that I am doing my job responsibly, not just on the team but as a “Kuya”, simply because a lot of people call me. Maybe some call me like that because of oooold age but few people make me feel important with that term. That’s why I thank LSAT for that.

There are also funny memories in LSAT though a handful were captured in pictures. Here’s one:

Here’s a fellow Team Head, Ervin, writing his name on this paper the wrong way. =))

 

Say everything you want, bitter, emo and so on. But for me, this is one of the things in my life that I cherish the most. Just as a former LSAT Team Captain said, LSAT was never like this before and things was so strict. the three years of my stay here was just unforgettable, including the year that passed being the team’s captain. Now, my last term is coming up and I don’t know if people would still like me to be into this sort of thing. I am not so sure if I am doing the right thing or if I am doing well the things I need to do. I guess all I have to do is look for the right decision, right move, and whatever people say, at least I gave my best. I’ve been searching for answers my entire life as to how to get myself into the right track and I guess this position in the team taught me a lot of things I need to know. It’s such a big blessing to me. 😀

Morning

Yeah, mmmmmmorning. I woke up today at 1am. I immediately slept once we got home last night. I was so tired and couldn’t figure out why. Which left me unable to look at the report on one of my major subjects…. When I woke up, I went to get my laptop and opened it, seeing that the router was left open. First thing I did was read some news and saw Japan’s worsening situation. I, then, opened the tv to watch the news about Japan while I look at the report which in the end, I cannot quite understand. So I guess I’ll ask help later on. After seeing the news being repeated, I turned the tv and my laptop off and took a shower. After getting dressed up for school and fixing my things, I’m now here writing this post with some good morning tunes….

Fascination of Lights: The Philippine Pyromusical Competition

Yup, it isn’t my first pyrotechnics presentation but it was my first one with music synchronization. I am always fascinated with the growing and improving arts in pyrotechnics. Much more when I discovered that they now use electronics for launch timings. The only thing that was preventing me from having fun was the rain. Yep, the rain was not a hindrance to the show since it is just light. But for shooting stills, it is not good. I have to wipe the lens everynow and then because umbrellas don’t work due to the light breeze present in the venue. To show you what I mean:

 

See the light spreads from each flares? Water droplets on the lens filter caused that

I used the same camera as before: Canon 400D. I asked my brother to switch his lens (because it’s his camera) from 50mm prime lens to the kit lens. I was aiming for the 18mm focal length so that I can shoot wide images and capture most of the fireworks. A friend also showed me a tutorial on how to shoot fireworks and good thing, I found the tripod used by my dad before but it was not high enough. However, bringing the camera any higher than it’s usual mount will make it unreachable for me. HAHAHAHA~! So I guess my dad’s tripod is enough. I set the ISO to 100 to get the clean shots, aperture to f/8 following the tutorial and most importantly, the shutter speed. 😀 Everything made sense at that particular moment and I was thinking of something similar before I get to see the tutorial. In the end, it was the shutter speed and stability that decided the outcome of the pictures. It is kinda hassle to change the camera settings during full, 15 minute fireworks bursts and I just aimed to get good shots, never mind if I did not get them all. It was a good practice since this is the first time I took shots of fireworks seriously. One problem though, since it is raining, quite a good amount of moisture was present in the atmosphere. That meant a difficult dispersion of smoke produced by explosions. To make sense of what I’m saying, it looks like this:

Just like hot springs…only glowing. 😀

In the shot above, it happened that it looked good with the smoke but with other fireworks, it’s a disaster. It’s really baaaad, the effects are baaaad not for viewing but for shooting.

Nevertheless, the presentation was awesome, especially the one from Japan. Canada was also spectacular but with less excitement. It was a good, overall experience from getting to the venue and going home. 😀

The Midnight Drive

I joined my father on one of his visits to his work during midnight. It was on Robinsons Manila and became his photographer for that night. I did something like this way back during his first entry to his job now, entering the famous malls Megamall and Shangri-La, for example, during its sleep. So nice to see how quiet such places that are usually noisy. The best part of this journey is the driving. Dad usually go out around midnight and when the time came that I got my student permit, I go like a freak along EDSA. 😀 This time, we got the new family car and tried to unleash it, this time in Manila.

I love driving so much but what caught my attention was not the driving but what I saw during the drive. Manila was very spectacular during the night. There are empty roads but at some areas, it’s still bright with street and neon lamps. The traffic lights are bright and couple that with empty roads, it is like having the Manila road network all to yourself. There’s a lot to see and to think about while driving around Manila. You’d wonder why the Metropolitan theater is not operational anymore and what glamour can it contain if it’s working right now. You’d imagine what would it be like if you flat out along Manila streets. It’s so nice with the moderate winding of the roads. You’d also realize that what kind of poverty discussed in the classrooms is actually apparent during these times. The children on streets, prostitution and such, those are the things that I considered a joke until I saw those for real. It’s so spectacular to see these and that’s why I would like to drive around once again.