This is the official quadricentennial song of the University of Santo Tomas, my alma matter. I can’t believe that UST is turning 400 next year and I’m quite excited about it.

Go USTe! We don’t count years, we count centuries!

I wasn’t able to attend this year’s UST Paskuhan, the Thomasian way of celebrating Christmas, since I attended a different event. But some of my friends did.

I was browsing photostream in Flickr when I saw this captivating image of fireworks, I clicked the photo and was directed to the user’s other UST photos. The person take great pictures and she’s a girl!

Anyway, I couldn’t help myself to browse for more pictures and post it here. I was awed by the image of UST.. and I guess I kind of miss my alma matter.

Go USTe!!

Here are the pics:

UST Paskuhan '09 Fireworks December 18, 2009

UST Main Building

Grandstand

UST Grounds Espana, Manila

Fountain of Wisdom

A young doctor hurriedly boarded the elevator as if someone is chasing him.
Then suddenly a hysterical woman in a hospital gown was running after the doctor towards the elevator waving her arms screaming, “wait! wait! hold the door!

Just when the woman was about to get in, the doctor frantically pressed the “close” button.

The stranger inside the elevator, annoyed by the doctor’s insensitivity, glared at him and said, ”I cant believe you did that! You can see she was rushing to get in and you did not even bother to “hold” the door. That was really rude of you, doctor”!

The young doctor, his face pale from disbelief, beads of cold sweat forming in his forehead; turned to the stranger and said,
“ Didn’t you notice the tag on her wrist?” SHE WAS WEARING A RED TAG!
She was my patient and she died a couple of hours ago”

The stranger sensing the fear in the young doctor’s voice; slowly raised her hand so that the doctor can see her wrist.

“ RED TAG? You mean, like this one?”

Happy Halloween everyone!

.. And then I look through the Related Videos section and found these videos. The first one was by Roy, Sugaroy, or Kilay. Next was put together by Janine. And the last one was by Giel.

I actually have videos like these and I think I already posted them here.

Update:
I also like this one. hehehe..

^_^

Wow! was my instant reaction. It was really amazing. The person, Jesse Herrera, who took the picture is a genius. The picture was taken last March 23, 2007 during our Baccalaureate Mass.

Baccalaureate Mass. As cited in wikipedia, baccalaureate is “a farewell address in the form of a sermon delivered to a graduating class”. And what was the sermon about again?? It was about a lot of things but the topic that was retained on my brain is all about change.

During our baccalaureate mass, I’m feeling mixed emotions. I felt happy and relieved that finally all my efforts were paid off but at the same time I was sad and uncertain. Change. Another chapter of my life has ended and another one is about to begin. After leaving the walls of my university what’s next? Honestly, I do not know. Sometimes saying goodbye to the things that we have grown accustomed with is really dreading but we don’t have a choice but to go on with our life unless you wanted to end it. If only we can rewind our life then what I’d be doing right now is going back to the days when I was a kid, innocent, have high hopes, and really happy but then again reality bites… we can’t do that. There are no rewinds or even fast forwards only play… and we have to play it right.

I recall a statement on the “Interview with God” presentation which was shown during our retreat in Caleruega. Here is the Lord’s reply when He was asked what surprises him most about humankind:

That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.

That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.

Change is inevitable. We have to embrace it.

Last Friday we went to UP to attend the Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology, which is held every year. I must say that last year’s youth congress was better than this year. The only talk that I like this year’s event was that of Hon. Francis G. Escudero. During his talk, all eyes and ears were focused on him and there are applause and clapping every now and then. A lot of students took pictures of him. He is a good speaker. He talks spontaneously. I agree on what he said about the condition of our country… the politics, our economy, discipline of the people, etc. He even shared with us his prayer unfortunately I wansn’t able to write it down. I might search for it in the Internet any time soon =D. (Sigh) There’s nothing much to write… so just take a peek on the pics…

Gawi Jives for Five

UST Salinggawi Drives for Five Read the full story here.This season’s Cheerdance Competition, the UST’s premier dance group, The UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe, once again, for the fifth time in a row, dominated the Araneta Coliseum and declared the Champion. Click Here to watch Gawi’s performance. Gawi sets the trend and it is evident on the routine of other schools except UP. This year’s competition was really intense. Some schools have improved a lot. I like UP’s routines but I guess perfect timing and synchronization were not there that’s why FEU got the second place. Here’s the list of the winners from 1995-2006. I got this from Wikipedia.

1995 – UST ~ UP ~ FEU ~ Ateneo ~ Adamson ~ UE ~ DLSU ~ NU
1996 – UST ~ FEU ~ UP ~ Ateneo ~ Adamson ~ UE ~ DLSU ~ NU
1997 – UST ~ FEU ~ UP ~ Ateneo ~ DLSU ~ Adamson ~ UE ~ NU
1998 – FEU[1] ~ UP ~ DLSU ~ Ateneo ~ Adamson ~ UE ~ NU
1999 – UP ~ UST ~ FEU ~ Adamson ~ Ateneo ~ DLSU ~ UE ~ NU
2000 – UP ~ UST ~ Ateneo ~ UE ~ Adamson ~ FEU ~ UE ~ NU
2001 – UP ~ Adamson ~ UST ~ UE ~ Ateneo ~ FEU ~ DLSU ~ NU
2002 – UST ~ UE ~ UP ~ Ateneo ~ FEU ~ Adamson ~ NU ~ DLSU
2003 – UST ~ UP ~ FEU ~ Ateneo ~ Adamson ~ UE ~ DLSU ~ NU
2004 – UST ~ UP ~ FEU ~ Ateneo ~ Adamson ~ DLSU ~ UE ~ NU
2005 – UST ~ UP ~ FEU ~ DLSU ~ Adamson ~ UE ~ Ateneo ~ NU
2006 – UST[2] ~ FEU ~ UP ~ Adamson ~ Ateneo ~ UE ~ NU

Notes:
[1] The University of Santo Tomas Salinggawi Dance Troupe did not join the Nestle cheerdance competition but instead joined the Lipton cheerdance competition which they won.
[2] The De La Salle University Pep Squad did not join due to the suspension of their varsity teams.

Number of Championship per University

UST – 8
UP – 3
FEU – 1

Click here to see more pictures of the Cheerdance Competition

UST vs UE

Yesterday I went in Araneta with Christian, Jam, Roy, Cheska, and Weng to watch the game between our team (UST) and UE. It was so much fun! The first and second quarter we were up by twelve or so but when third quarter took place, I became disappointed with the UST players. How can they let those bloody warriors get close to their score and worse outdo them by four. Hay! Things get really excited when fourth quarter took place. Thomasians were yelling ‘Beat UE!’ and in the end of the game we won =D (Buti na lang!). On the first game by the way Ateneo won, so I guess we’ll see you in the finals Ateneo! Go USTe!!!

The experience was really great. I had so much fun plus I met new friends. And although we did not get the First Place at least we have some magazines and enjoy ourselves. I will surely miss the practice and the company of the CS people… they are so funny (in a good way)!

I’m looking forward on the events that might happen after graduation. I’ve got so many plans and I do hope that things will go my way. And oh by the way, I’m back in the gym. The countless sleepless night and takaw days take their toll on my weight and it really depressed me. There was a time that I can’t even fit on my uniform.

I haven’t played the piano lately because of my responsibilities in school. The last time I concentrated on the instrument rather than academics I wasn’t able to finish our laboratory exercise in COBOL. I think I have to prioritize school stuff over other things and speaking of prioritizing academics, our preliminary examination was scheduled this coming August 15 through 17. I have to make sure that I will get high scores on prelims to make up for my not-so-good scores in quizzes.

So there…, I think that’s all for now. I gotta run. I still have to do some stuff.

As of now, our topic has been approved and we’re working on chapters one to three. We’re planning to start the programming of the system second week of July and I hope that we’ll be able to finish it by December so that all we have to do by January is to find bugs in the system. I’m planning to have a part-time job because I’m so broke. I wanted to buy so many things without asking my parents for money… I want to buy those things on my own but since its our thesis I think its not possible for me to have a part-time job and thesis at the same time and besides I don’t want to risk my academics again, so I guess those things will have to wait until I graduated from college.

By the way my mom bought me a laptop last June 22, her birthday. I not expecting her to buy me a laptop especially on her birthday. I was really surprised… I almost forgot to greet her. But anyway, I’m so grateful for my mom. She’s the best mom of all moms…. ^_^ Love you Mom! Although, I do not usually express it verbally, I hope that my actions are more than enough to express how much I love you…