ADAMSONIAN

Sticky:

If this is your first visit here, please read the following “iron-clad” reminders on how you can make full use of this site:

• Read the Blogging Guidelines. Read the Blogging Guidelines. Read the Blogging Guidelines.

• Read this one-year-old greeting-slash-modus-operandi. It’s also important.

• Read how to upload YouTube and other videos.

• Read how to upload images.

• Attach a photo to your profile.

• Usage of this site is your privilege as a member of the Adamson University community. Enjoy!

Now, you can REGISTER or LOG-IN.

JB has blogged 101 posts

by Raul Agner

They won’t miss the stench of the filthy estero, or the hazards that lurked within the slum area, like the fire that burned down some shanties and fast tracked their transfer in the first place. Now settled in a relocation site in Calauan, Laguna – where there’s elbowroom for kids to play in and an endless supply of fresh country air to inhale – the former squatters whose makeshift dwellings straddled the banks along Adamson University and three other schools are now better off.

Ergo, they don’t need help anymore? Wrong. The process of adapting to a new environment, the search for a means of livelihood and a whole new set of adjustments are problems they will have to cope up with. They need as much help now as when the relocation was yet being planned and in progress.

The Estero de Balete is a big stream branching west from the Pasig River to a dead end at Taft Ave. It was home to some 48 families living in stilt-propped shacks at the back of the Adamson University (AdU) Gym and Sta. Isabel College (SIC) and beside the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) and Philippine Normal University (PNU). On January 17, 2008, a big fire razed several barong-barong, leaving some 17 families homeless. Adamson University offered a vacant corner within its campus as their temporary shelter.

Read more »

Tags: Adamson Chronicle, Adamsonian, Adamson University

Ramon Millonte has blogged 11 posts

By Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M.

(Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario,C.M. , Dean of Adamson University’s St. Vincent School of Theology, delivered this homily on February 24, 2008, at the St. Vincent de Paul’s Parish in San Marcelino, Manila. The University’s community—from students, staffs, faculty members, and administrators— took part and became one on this occasion. Also present to give their support are former president Cory Aquino, Noynoy Aquino, Mayor Fred Lim, and Jun Lozada.)

Of Water, Mountains, and Husbands

When I was asked to deliver this homily, I immediately read the Gospel for today. I was a bit frustrated. The reading was not only long, it also appeared irrelevant. I asked myself how a seemingly harmless story of Jesus and a woman talking about water, mountains, and husbands can be relevant to the current wave of disgust, anger, and frustration growing among our people. I read it a second time and saw how it painfully strikes at the heart of the events that are happening in our midst. The story of the woman of Samaria is the story of us all—the story of Jun Lozada; the story of the woman in Malacañang; also my story and yours.

Probinsyanong Intsik and the Samaritan Woman

Simulan natin kay Jun Lozada. Jun, nais ko sanang magpaalam kung maari ko pang dagdagan ang mga pangalang ibinigay na nila sa ‘yo. Hindi ka lang ‘probinsiyanong Intsik’ o katulad ng ‘crying lady’. Sa umagang ito ikaw ay magiging isang ‘Samaritan woman’. Forgive my cross-gender and cross-cultural references. Pero parang magkatapat na rin ang pakahulugan ng babaeng taga-Samaria at probinsiyanong Intsik. For the self-righteous Jews of Jesus’ time, Samaritans were mere ‘provincials’ . Jerusalem was the center. Samaria was marginally far-off. But it was not only the geographical location. Samaritans also belonged to a disgusting breed that a good Jew needed to avoid. Kung buhay na si Apostol noon, matagal na silang na-deport!

But how did Jun become the Samaritan woman? Let me cite in three ways.

First, the Samaritan woman was no saint. May tinatago siya sa kanyang buhay. Kung baga, ayaw niya ring mag-testify. Kung kaya tanghali siyang pumunta sa balon dahil wala pang mga tao doon. Wala pa doon ang mga tsismosa. Dahil sino ba sa atin ang nais na maging pulutan ng iba ang ating sariling buhay? Ganoon din si Jun. Kaya nga dumating siya sa oras na dapat wala ang media. Salamat na rin sa advice ni Atienza – dahil tulad ni Jun, may tinatago din siguro siya kahit sinasabi niyang tumutulong lang naman siya, tumutulong magtago.

Isa sa mga sinasabi ngayon ay ganito: “Bakit ba kayo naniniwala kay Lozada? Kasabwat din naman yan, a?” Jun, para sa akin, mas mabuti na lang kasabwat ka, dahil kung hindi ay sasabihin na naman nila, “wala namang alam yan, e. Dahil hindi naman namin ‘yan kasama.” And that is the storyline they are pursuing in the Ombudsman hearing: that you have left early on in the negotiation. That is why you do not know how it reached $329M. But above all, I thank God that you are not a ‘saint’ – that you had wallowed with them in the dark. It was the experience of that darkness that disposed you for the light. It must be really cold in Hong Kong that you began to long for warmth. It must have been so lonely that you longed for home. It must have been so arid that you started to ask for water. Then, unexpectedly, you were led to the well. There, a man was waiting. Hindi po ‘yon si General Atutubo! This brings me to my second point.

Read more »

Tags: Adamson Chronicle, Adamsonian, Adamson University

Ramon Millonte has blogged 11 posts

I was not, I was, I am not, I do not care. Beware you people passing by, as you are now, so once was I, and as I am now, so must you be — Prepare for death and follow me.

See and Enjoy the classical faces of Death.

Tags: danse, macabre, death

white garapata has blogged 12 posts

[Emailed and written by Dennis Torrecampo (Adamson Chronicle editor-in-chief, 1991)]

Spider-Man’s dad Uncle Ben (as reminded by Deity) couldn’t have said it better: With great power comes great responsibility. The same can be said about writing, regardless on which medium it is communicated. There is a huge responsibility attached to each message that is magnified several times for the audience that reaches it. That message defines the writer and his choice—stand, ideology, viewpoint, and character.

Left in the wrong hands, the message loses its value, relevance and at times beauty. Used correctly, words liberate minds (the speech “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King and Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere easily come to mind), guide lost souls (picture Chicken Soup for the Soul, “Desiderata” and the likes) and salve the pains of a broken heart (think Pablo Neruda and his mastery of love poetry), to name just a few.

Such is the enormity of its power that those who wield it carry with them the privilege of captive audiences or a readership that internalizes the messages and breathes life into each written or spoken word. A writer’s vision is now expressed and realized—a timeless inspiration that lights the flames of revolutions, defines nations, builds relationships, and promises hope.

Manipulated to serve concealed motives, on the other hand, words can also deceive, enslave and confuse. These are sins of omissions (half-truths) and commissions (blatant lies) meant to prop up an image of wellness despite a crawling cancer, of false hopes and paper-tiger strength in the midst of crises after crises. Tolerated for long, it conditions the public mind to believe the mirage before them and to accept wickedness as normal occurrences.

No one wins in this set-up except those who choose to steal, kill and lie about the truth for a living or survival. A writer’s silence, or worse, complicity at these times is a disservice to the responsibility of reporting the truth. Once discovered as an accomplice, the writer loses his or her credibility forever.

It is at these trying moments when one’s worth as a writer is challenged the most. Genuine writers question the drama being played before them and then dig deep for facts that are otherwise hidden or propped up by the razzle-dazzle meant to cloud the real issues. Their innate skill at finding the truth, of separating bluff from beef, is just the beginning. The real action is their choice upon the discovery—will the truth silence them into cowardice or connivance? Or will it embolden them to write and publish the unvarnished reality?

Professor Dumbledore said it best when he told Harry Potter that “it is not our abilities that define who we truly are. It is our choices.”

Tags: Adamson Chronicle, Adamsonian, Adamson University

JB has blogged 101 posts

I’ve been taking down some posts lately because of their complete disregard for the Blogging Guidelines.

Also, I’ve noticed that most users would only want to leave very short messages and not really “respectable” blog posts. So I’ve installed a new shoutbox on the sidebar, which will hopefully serve a few new things:

• allow registered users to communicate or chat live with one another;

• allow users who love communicating in “txtspeak” to express themselves freely without me hounding them about the very unpopular and so-easily-ignored Guidelines;

• the shoutbox also gives a deeper sense of interactivity for users.

I had been avoiding to install this feature because anonymous f*ckwads love posting steaming piles of BS on these things. As a measure, only registered and logged in Wordpress users can post messages. We’re still observing how “secure” this really is or how effective in stopping spam or BS messages, so there might be problems cropping up later on.

For the meantime, feel free to use it and see if you can find it to your satisfaction.

Tags: Adamson Chronicle, Adamsonian, Adamson University

JB has blogged 101 posts

You can now attach your own good-lookin’ photo to your profile, which appears near your blog post’s title.

• To upload, just log in (assuming you are already a registered user) and click Profile.

• Scroll down till you see the Your Photo section.

• Select a JPG, BMP, PNG, or GIF image about as big as a 10-peso coin, then click Upload. Hope for the best.

Try it.

Tags: Adamson Chronicle, Adamsonian, Adamson University

JB has blogged 101 posts

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have experienced the smell of space. Now this sounds strange, that a vacuum could have a smell and that a human being could live to smell that smell. It seems about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a definite smell. Being creatures of an atmosphere, we can only smell space indirectly. Sort of like the way a pit viper smells by waving its tongue in the air and thenpressing it to the roof of its mouth where sensors process the molecules that have been adsorbed onto the waggling appendage. I had the pleasure of operating the airlock for two of my crewmates while they went on several space walks. Each time, when I repressed the airlock, opened the hatch and welcomed two tired workers inside, a peculiar odor tickled my olfactory senses. At first I couldn’t quite place it. It must have come from the air ducts that re-pressed the compartment. Then I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces. It is hard to describe this smell; it is definitely not the olfactory equivalent to describing the palette sensations of some new food as “tastes like chicken.” The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes. That is the smell of space.

– ISS Science Officer Don Pettit, a red-blooded dude

They said it is a very unique smell. As they pulled the hatch open on the Soyuz side, I smelled “SPACE.” It was strange… kind of like burned almond cookie. I said to them, “It smells like cooking” and they both looked at me like I was crazy and exclaimed: “Cooking!”

– Anousheh Ansari, world’s first space tourist, who happens to be a chick.

JB has blogged 101 posts

For those who have a good working vocabulary, you may now use your awesome talent to feed hungry people around the world. FreeRice donates an unbelievable amount of 20 grains of rice for every correct answer you make! See, you only have to make 1,450 right answers to give someone the gift of 1 pound of rice! It’s almost like you’re actually working!

Tags: Free Rice

JB has blogged 101 posts

Note: The following article is one of my works from being a part-time web content writer.

Blogging is not only a road for social networking. To other people, it is a tool for finding opportunities to make money, making web logging not just a mere hobby, but a lucrative investment.

The financial reward of blogging is one of the primary motivations why bloggers are vent with their thoughts in creating blogs sprouting like mushroom in one’s backyard. It is amazing how internet enthusiasts are spending lots of time posting and updating their own blog. Some are already making dollars; others are still beginning to understand its basic rules while waiting for the double digits to come up in their Paypal or credit cards. The Internet has become a hub not just for information superhighway, but also a money-generating investment that can provide a steady source of income especially for people that are hooked online and are subscribed to a steady connection.

The joy of blogging is in its dual role. It is an effective way of having a part time job like web content writers and editors and software programmers. On the other side of the coin, it can create more revenue if one can set up its own site and maintain it by himself while attracting and building its own clientele. It comes as no surprise that many bloggers take refuge in the interweb and do online writing seriously.

Earning online in blogging can help a person build a positive attitude towards money. As with any kind of job, one learns the real value of money and motivates a person to strive and develop the work attitude, like beating deadlines. Also, choosing to earn money online keeps a person in charge of his own schedule. Selling thoughts and ideas with the promise of generating money online also kills boredom and procrastination while chasing dollars on the web.

As blogging need no technical expertise of any programming language, generating income online gives you financial freedom. The beauty of blogging is that it is very simple to do once talent and style is acquired. A person writes and sells his ideas in the interweb without much complication and restriction. The key is to understand visiting readers — their motivation, interest, and passion in order to develop a style that will keep them coming back. A blogger can attract more readers and gain heavy traffic to his site by studying his readers and treat them, in a financial sense, not just readers but customers. More visiting readers mean having a good marketing sale of your blog.

But the lack of physical office does not separate a blogger from the rules of basic work etiquette. Self- discipline and resourcefulness will always remain the key ingredients in becoming successful in this chosen endeavor. The modernity of this type of employment compared against the conventional office people does not exclude the necessary attitude and personality that one expects to an employee. It is important to create and maintain a good impression, and this can be achieved by treating one’s blog site as a work lifeline and produce the best articles all the time.

Tags: blogging, internet

white garapata has blogged 12 posts

« Previous entries