Hello main blog. Despite calling you my “main” blog I am aware that you are probably jealous at how kode.play hogged all my attention this past summer. It was unavoidable, being that I had to blog about my internship and that the posts created were inevitably technical in nature. But it’s over now.
I’m not sure that the posts will be back to my normal one-post-per-month quota though. I’ll be doing my thesis/special problem this year. And have I told you that, through some turn events, I’ll be doing this solo flight? (Anak ng…special problem nga) This early on, I’m taking leave that I may miss more posts.
(But wait! I got a back-up plan. In anticipation of some middle-term plan I’m hatching, I’ll be posting, instead of my usual tirade of words, a photograph of the month, taken by yours truly. That should be pretty easy for me to meet and squeeze in a schedule expected to be full eh?)
I never really planned to do my thesis solo. Maybe I did but that was only at the start of my college career; when I saw how chaotic things can get I started considering doing it with a group, a consideration I held on to until I received the email welcoming me to the research lab I applied to. My name was there, at the top, alone in it’s line, unaccompanied by those whom I contacted as group mates—a solo flight ticket. “Chad,” says Neil, a gifted artist I hang around with, “if you need a crying shoulder anytime this coming year, we’re here.”
In my renewed sense of optimism and belief in reasons reason does not know, I can’t help but feel that doing my thesis alone is a challenge especially meant for me. Back in high school, I always dreamed of the time I get to make a system on my own, large enough to make a decent dent on a CD’s 700MB worth of storage space. I don’t know how large do theses get but I’m pretty sure I’ll be exceeding the line count of the spaghetti behindGradeGrid or the 1087 lines of code behind the programming language I created for my Programming Laguages class. Well, here’s my shot at immortality, I say.
Months back, I said that my internship will probably be the longest three units of my life. Over at {kode.play();}*, I have a record of how many hours did I spend for my internship. I clocked in around 281 hours and 52 minutes in around 7 weeks. I created a timer program that will keep track of how many hours do I spend working on something, inspired by an internal tool from Azeus. I’ll be timing how much time will I spend on my thesis. Anyone wants to bet as to which will be longer, internship or thesis?
Stay beautiful, it’s a new beginning ~ The Chad Estioco
*Yep, I changed the styling of kode.play, to make it more geeeky. Rawr.
P.S. On “awsomazing”: For some time now, I’ve been watching my use of the word “awesome”—everyone is using it it’s become cliche already. I’ve been considering “amazing” as a replacement as it sits well with my alliterations and communicates the same meaning. However, it doesn’t have the same bang as “awesome”. So, I’m stealing from taking a leaf out of Jason Mraz and be using “awesomazing” from now on.
Wonder how long before the internet catches up? Anyone for another bet?
So, Lantern Parade again. It wasn’t as funtastic as expected, I’m afraid, nor does it stand in comparison with my previous two. It rained before the parade started. Maybe there’s something with the water that broke down part of the spirit.
The Parade went as usual for the early part, with people crowding over this lantern and that. But as it wore the lantern lines broke in segments and it wasn’t very exciting anymore. And there was too much ideology involved. Not that you can wash that entirely away from something so UP. But, again, too much compared to my previous two.
But then I over speak. A post about the Lantern Parade is a post of pictures, of course. So here they are.
An early drizzle, which soaked the grounds as well as the AS steps, the effect being that those who opted to watch at the AS steps spent the night standing (or so my sister tells me). Which makes me wonder why…
…are they sitting down, here at the Engineering steps? Sure some of them had monoblocks and other what-have-you’s for dry sitting-down but most of them had none. And they sat down, monoblock or no monoblock.
Anyway, this was CSSP’s lantern/float before it rained. I don’t know what’s up with CSSP this year but they seem to be in a particularly celebratory mood; they even had sportsfests and pageants (a la Miss Eng’g, in my opinion) this year. Whatever the celebration may be, cheers to them.
See those crayons? They melted thanks to the rain, so unlike real crayons which melts with fire, not water.
Aside: This zebra is so cute. There were other balloons of this kind there, from SpongeBob to Dora, but I only managed to take the picture of this zebra. I’m not very fine with the lighting for this one but according to my sister, this shot is the cutest. Here are some more shots (whose lighting I like but are not very favored with my sister in terms of the cuteness factor).
An early show stealer is our very own Pep Squad. I can’t do their awesomeness justice just by telling you what. And no picture, even one worth a million words, can tell you what poetry their motion wrote. So here’s a video instead.
Another early show stealer is Architecture, with blocky costumes of architectural masterpieces.
This girl needs an award for the mere effort of standing through the whole length of the parade, keeping balance (with some help, I’ve been told) in face of road bumps.
It’s all white but with detail as fine as that, this, too, deserves mention.
None of the next handful of lanterns struck me in particular. I think some of them was more driven by ideology than by art.
Engineering—my college—was a big let down, I’m afraid. It started with a particularly crowd-whoa-drawing contraption which looked like a horse’s skeleton with a rider too small for it at the top. Then the rider pedals the bike and the contraption moves and the crowd is amazed. It was followed by electronic (read: Earth-friendly) jeepneys. And then a long march of Engineering organizations which didn’t display anything much aside from orange shirts courtesy of Meralco and org banners.
Upon entering UP, our Dean then told us the story behind our College’s Lantern Parade performance. There was a time when no one gave much damn on our lantern. Then she gave the ultimatum that, if our Lantern Parade performance remains lackluster, Eng’g Week* won’t be held next year. And the rest is, as they say, history. I don’t know how true this story is, me being unaffliated, but I think it is time to amend that order to something that will require the orgs to show something worth watching. Just my two cents.
Anyway, we jump to the show stealers of always, the ever-awesome College of Fine Arts.
I can’t help but feel that their parade is shorter than usual this year. I didn’t see any of the people I know in Fine Arts. But still, they’re awesome.
It’s not much of a shot on my part but this style of lantern is something I find so nice.
King Blastoise you’re so awesome and you’re waving at me!
I’ll tell you a secret and please make sure that King Blastoise here won’t know ’cause he’s so freaking awesome I wouldn’t want to anger him. Back in those days when I spent the day beeping on my high-tech Tamagochi that is Pokemon in the GameBoy Color, I’m not really a very huge Blastoise (or, for that matter, water-type) fan. I’m more the fire type kind of trainer. When Oak/Elm asks me to choose, I always chose Charmander/Cyndaquil which eventually evolves to Charizard/Typhloshion. And then my rival will choose the water-type, Squirtle/Totodile, which grows to Blastoise/Feraligatr. And you know what? I always beat my rival despite the type advantage. I always hard-boiled Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise in his shell. Even if he beats me, I’d turn the GameBoy off without saving so that my loss is technically non-existent. Then I’d turn it back on and train some more before having another go at cooking some hard-boiled pokemon. Now you know why I wouldn’t like King Blastoise to know.
You didn’t tell King Blastoise? Great! Hey who’s that Pokemon? What did you say? YOU TOLD GYARADOS?! That explains why he’s rushing towards me!
Close…
…Open
So far I’ve shown you my shots in more or less sequential order. However, I just had to save this one for last, as this is probably the loveliest sight this Lantern Parade. They actually appeared somewhere between King Blastoise and Little Mermaid in a Shell. Kudos to AV Com (which, I’ll take to be Audio Visual Communication?) for this fantastic piece.
King and Queen of the Sea lords over this year’s parade (and I like my shot too).
They’re such a lovely pair don’t you think?
And of course, fireworks…
We started the day with water rain and end with fire rain? Hmmmmm…
I actualy have some footage of this year’s fireworks display. The thing is, I haven’t much time to upload them as internet speeds here in the Philippines isn’t very fast. That’s also another reason why I’m two days late posting this, instead of the usual one (The Parade happened December 17). We’ll see.
Be like Fine Arts. Know how to stay awesome even if it rains.
~Your Skymeister 😉
*Eng’g Week, and here I lift from the Engineering Survival Guide, ay ang “pinakamasayang at pinakanakakapagod na parte ng taon!” I’m aware of the error in the construction of that phrase but it isn’t mine. I’m just quoting my trusty Guide.
December 18 went to the Parade, to the Lanterns, to the Fine Artistry of amazing talents. I saw a lot of people whom I haven’t seen for quite sometime now. It’s nice to meet people, especially if by chance. They catch you off guard with a greeting or a smile and the next thing you know you’d be having conversations again and laughing. Then, their lantern moves, the parade goes on…
Not that it’s not nice to meet people in a planned manner. Much like adrenaline, they keep you standing. Later on, you sit in front of your computer and blog about the whole running-to-and-fro-to-get-pictures business and realize that it was such a tiring experience if not for the people-adrenaline that kept you up. People will never cease to amaze you, indeed. Surround yourself with them, in their own terms.
Digicams are also nice and amazing. In an age of instant things, this is one of the few that really piqued my interest. Fortunately, unlike last year, I did not forget to bring my camera along with me. And so words relinquish control on to pictures. See what beauty I caught of UP Lantern Parade 2009.
This picture is equivalent to 3.14159265358979323846… and so on and so forth
Peeking through, stepping through
Fine Arts, as usual, as expected, took the show. This guy is just one of the many. Fine Arts makes me drool with envy. You got talent I can only dream of.
Ever since I was kid I wanted to draw. I remember, back in the days when both my parents worked, they’d leave me with a sheet of bond paper and an 8-piece pack of crayons before going to work. I’d spend all those material resources drawing. I always ended up drawing circles, although in circumspect, with all my geometric/mathematical training, they were more oblongs than circles. Everyday I’d resolve to do something not so circly, to no avail. I think it’s hardcoded in my genes, drawing circles. My whole childhood art (self-)education ran in circles, with me drawing oblongs.
Eventually, I’d exchange pencils, colors and papers for computers and digicams. The photograph below looks so Dave McKean to me and it is posted here straight from my camera.
Even in the Latern Parade, I seem to be still carrying what I learned from lessons in abstraction eh?
And of course, the Lantern Parade won’t be complete without fireworks…
Enmeshed in green…
BOOM!
An Electrifying Shower
Awed by awesome things, I feel grateful. An awesome way to end an awesome year, I say. This Christmas is clearly to the awesome things…
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. It’s my mantra for the day. Have an awesome merry Christmas!
UP is like an invitation-only swimming pool on a blazing summer day. The moment you learn that you have received an invitation, you get so excited you’d want to jump straight in. And jump straight in you do, not minding the initial discouragement provided by long queues. Your body makes a cold splash into the surface and underneath you go. The water is cool. You smile in between segments of underwater respiration. You cherish the smooth feel the enveloping water gives. Wonderful.
And when your lungful of air is over, you break through the film of the surface once more, this time around attacking it from below. You look back and you realize that you’re already quite far from the shore. Must’ve been quite a dive eh? Then someone taps you and points forward. You see sharks. You try to turn back but then this person who pointed the sharks points to a sign saying “No swimming backwards”. Most likely, your parents are sitting near this sign as well, egging you on. You look at the sharks. You look at the sign. Repeat until satisfied. Repeat until you arrive at the conclusion that there is no other way but to get out of this pool in the proper state, id est, unmangled by the sharks and still breathing, still capable of continuing LIFE. This is where you realize that your initial excitement is nothing but the manifestation of hidden feelings of self-hatred and disgust stemming from the sociopathic urges you’ve had and repressed as a child. Not wonderful.
If my imagery allows, Physics is like another pool inside this UP-pool. Physics IS NOT a shark. It is another pool (inside this this pool, yes) which you are just so excited to toss yourself into at first glance but realize that you want to get out of this freaking hell alive as soon as possible. Erm no…Physics is an eddy current that seemed wonderful at first sight, further reinforcing the conclusion that your initial excitement is nothing but the manifestation of hidden feelings of self-hatred and disgust stemming from the sociopathic urges you’ve had and repressed as a child. Who else, aside from an atoning sociopath, would find the idea of tossing himself into an eddy current exciting? Dante shouldn’t have bothered describing the grotesque, the disgusting. He should’ve made them study Physics.
Despite that, Physics remains to be a wonderful foil for our intuition as well as for mathematical induction. Mathematical induction won’t always work in Physics. Mathematical induction is a poor way to conclude your experiments in Physics. Physics defies first impressions and base cases.
Physics is one of the things we should be thankful for. When was the last time you thanked gravity for rain fall? I thank friction for making rappelling possible, angular momentum for spinning kicks and electronics for computers. One of the good things inside this eddy current is that you get the right perspective to appreciate these simple gifts from natural laws.
Thank you friction!
What is the direction of the induced electric field in the reference frame of the rod shown in the figure at the right?
Up
Into the page
Out of the page
To the left
Nonetheless, with all the gratitude it makes me realize, I must admit that Physics is one subject that I’d like to get done with as soon as possible. And can someone please help me with the problem mentioned above? I do not need a solution just an answer. I have a guestbook ya’ know…
Or I have better idea:
Physicists I’m warning you (and mathematicians too). Ours is the final laugh.
