13. Virgilio S. Almario

Virgilio S. Alma is better known as his pen name, Rio Alma, is an award winning poet and critic and also a outsatnding translator, editor, teacher and cultural manager.

Alma was born on March 4, 1944 and grew up in Camias, San Migueal de Mayumo, Bulacan in a rural subsistence farming community. From this humble begining, he co
mpleted his degree in A.B Political Science at the UNiversity of the Philippines.

His poet career started in the summer of 1963 where he succesfully started Filipino modernist movemnet in peotry alongside Rogelio Antonio Lamberto. In 1967, he came out with hus first collectio of poetry and peoplas and some Makinasyon. Ten more collections followed including bilingual selected peoms from 1968-1985. His poetry was then  published by the UP press in 1998 in a two volume collection titled My First Millenium.

Besides being a prolific writer and advocate for literature, he is also a devoted educator. Begining his teaching career at lagao Central Elementary  from 1969-1972. In 2003, he was appointed Dean of College of Arts and Letters at the University of the Philippines. He also provides workshops of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA) which is an organization of peots who write in Filipino.

List of Notable Awards

Philippines National Artist
University if the Philiipines Centennial Award
Amado V. Hernandez Award
Balagtas Award for Poetry and Essay
Palanca Award for Poetry
Poet of the Year by the Commision the Filipino
Southeast Asia Write Award
Bulakeno Honor Award of Fold (1993)
Gawad Guide Arts (1992)


Poetry Collections 

Kung Bakit Kailangan Ang Himala
(University  of the Philippines Press, 2007)

Tatlong Pasyon Para sa Ating Panahon
(University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2007)








External Links
http://www.upd.edu.ph/~updinfo/octnovdec08/articles/almario.html
http://tagaloglang.com/Philippine-Literature/Filipino-Poets/virgilio-almario.html

12. Parasyte (Part 1)

I have never been into manga or anime or really anything to do with that sub-culture. Not that I have prejudice against the people who love it or anything, I just never found it interesting. So the idea of watching Parasyte wasn't too appealing to me at first.

After watching the movie, I have to admit, I am pretty impressed and could only imagine that the manga and anime are probably better and more in depth then the movie itself. 

Parasyte is a Japanese is a science fiction action horror film, perfect for the Halloween period I must add. The plot follows the life of a teenager, Shinichi, who's right hand has been infected by an alien named Migi. The aliens enter the humans through the ear canal in order to take control of their brain which then control their bodies. Migi fails at taking control of Shinichi so they both have accept the fact that without each other, they both will die. Eventually they learn to work together and kill other aliens that were after Migi and Shinichi, just like Mr. A. 

The storyline was quite interesting but also confusing at times. But I guess that would be natural for me because I have zero experience with manga and anime. I have to applaud the CGI and special effects that created these aliens. They surely did not have the same budget of big Hollywood film but they sure did an amazing job with the special effects. Simply proving a good point the 'less is more'. It wasn't too much but just enough. I'm sure the CGI gave justice to the writers and illustrators who created the 'parasyte' alien. I liked how every alien was different in the way there face opened to show a monster with sharp piercing teeth and multiple eyes. Truly disgusting and terrifying. 

For me the best part of the movie is the real world themes that they taught me. One that a love of a mother is undying and forever-lasting and secondly with the over-consumption and use of natural resources, humans are killing themselves slowly. This seemed like a re-occuring theme throughout. Especially at the end when the main 'boss' alien says that his mission was to kill off all humanity. Also this is seen when the female protagonists watched a scene of TV that showed the over consumption of natural resources. 

I would have never thought that manga's had important messages in it as well. The undying love of a mother was portrayed through Shinichi's mother, who was always there for her son. She loved him unconditionally and the loved was portrayed beautifully. Even when Shinichi got infected, he was obviously troubled and took the anger out on his mom, but she just let it go. When she got infected by Mr. A, another powerful alien, Shinichi was heart broken and broke down in front of her, telling her how much he loved her and how sorry he was. The ultimate test was the one of the last scenes where Shinichi was facing off Mr.A who was in his mothers body. Migi fell asleep and couldn't help him, so Shinichi was on his own. His mother though supposed to be dead, came through the infection and killed Mr. A, therefore killing herself. Shinichi praised his mother for saving his life. A truly touching way to end.

The last scene created great anticipation and suspense for part 2. It's going to be a war. Humans vs Aliens. Though my original sentiments assumed that I wasn't interested, I can now say I am looking forward to part 2. 

11. I am OCD

I am a obsessive compulsive dancer (OCD). Yup!! You read that right, 'dancer' not the disorder. I just love to dance anywhere and everywhere. 

About a year ago if someone came up to me and said that 'dancing will be a great passion of mine', I would have laughed him off and said "yeah right, sure". But now I'm sitting here writing this post and just in disbelief of actually how passionate, almost borderline obsessed I am about the art of dance. This reminds me of the first time I went to my high school for an interview about the subjects I wanted to take, specifically the elective courses. I remember the teacher asking me if I could sing or dance; I jokingly and with utter confidence said a big 'NO'. I eventually choice visual arts and film class. No need for performing, just film editing and drawing, I presumed. 

I've always been interested in dance, from watching a exquisite statuesque of a ballerina to the raw staunchness of a crumper. Watching videos and live performances, I admit I got slightly jealous but it was accompanied with great admiration too.

Like I said, I've always had a certain interest in dance but I danced like I had to left feet. Just like anything you like, though you are bad at it, you try try again. For me I think the scariest part for me was stage fright. I still get it till this day and I am still working on how I can overcome it. I can certainly say that's my biggest weakness. I get stage fright from playing sports to public speaking. I'm usually very talkative and social but when all eyes and attention are on me, I freeze up and sweat profusely. Long story short, I was really bad at dancing.

I first started around November 2014. I joined Slimmers World Gym at Pasay Road, Makati to have a healthier lifestyle. One night while working out I noticed that a Urban HipHop class and I remember watching mesmerized on how cool it looked and how the instructor, Marvin Palustre moved, that night I told myself I would try it out the next day. I went back the next day, very fidgety, nervous and apprehensive. To say I was timid or shy was an understatement, I was terrified. I quickly went to the back left corner, trying to hide so hopefully no one would see me and judge my terrible dance moves. Just like expected, I danced with two left feet. Though I was terrible, I soon discovered that I actually really liked it and I just stick with it. Like the saying goes, "At first you don't succeed, try try again" and "practice makes perfect", well I stuck with it and I can say I am glad I did for I am honestly 200% better then I started. I learn quick.

From that day onward, I joined all the dance classes from zumba to quickstep and of course urban hiphop, all in the attempts to better hone my craft and generally improve from ground zero. And it did work, I have improved a lot over the past year.

Around February of 2015, there was a slight dispute at Slimmers World that caused the firing of my favorite choreographer, Marvin who taught Urban Hip-Hop. We (his loyal students) decided that we did not need the gym to still enjoy our dance, so we found a studio in Makati and started having regular classes every Saturday. From there, we met other crews and other dancers and made great friendships. With this, I was able to learn from and experience different genres of hip-hop with many amazing world class Filipino choreographers, all bettering my skill.

My favorite genre so far is sexy hip-hop with Marc Devon, who is a former G-Force dancer and choreographer. I could probably say that is my forte right now, but again I am just learning so maybe I will experience something new and like that better. I also really enjoy choreography styling by Adam Alonzo. Adam is a world choreographer who just recently came from a tour in Japan and India under the Urban Camp. His style is slow sharp movements, very technical and precise. Its difficult the for amateurs like myself but he is an amazing choreographer and breaks it down so that we can all catch it easily.

Posing with Adam Alonzo 

Dance class with Marc Devon, former G-Force dancer and choreographer

My first public performance was with dancers I met from the studio we danced at every Saturday. It was a annual "social media day" celebrated around the world and this year an organization, pinoyexchange.com, wanted to have a flash mob dance to initiate the event. A flash mob is basically when a group of people unexpectedly form in a public place and perform a piece to entertain, it draws in the crowd and creates buzz. We practiced for about a week and were prepared for the event. I was terrified because I had never performed in front of people before, and I was planning to invite my family to watch me, which was more nerve wrecking. The sun was blazing and I was sweating but we performed and it went off without a hitch. I was truly proud of myself.

I was just recently part of a documentary film, Traslacio, as seen in my previous post, as a dancer. It ws a great priviledge and I learned a lot. Read more on it here.

I am truly grateful I started dancing. Though it may have been a bit later then expected, I have learned  a lot and have gained a new passion in my life. Cheers to more and more years of dance. 

10. School of Management Week (SoM)

The School of Management (SoM), formally known as School of Accountancy and Business (SoAB), commenced on the 26st of October through to the 30th, which saw 4 courses celebrating throughout the week. This included; Business Management (BM), Accounting (AC), Marketing & Advertising (MA) and Tourism Management (TM).

To initiate SoM (School of Management) Week, previously known as SoAB (School of Accountancy and Business), the students lined up in their respective courses, and marched along Lapu-Lapu Street and Galleria de Magallanes. The different courses under SoM dressed in individual colors to represent their course: Business Management in Red, Accountancy in White, Marketing & Advertising in Blue and Tourism Management in Black. The walk was quite long and also unexpected because there weren’t clear directions given to the students. Also the morning sun was quite hot caused us all to profusely sweat. A marching band from a local school led the parade, which consisted of the playing of drums, cymbals and chimes accompanied with flag spinning girls. The marching band was quite exhilarating.  The band attracted bystanders throughout the entire parade and also gave the students a sort of energy to keep on going. The parade lasted just under an hour.

After the parade was the official opening speech by the executive director of SoM, Ms. Vicky Nanagas, and the unveiling of the banner which officially changed the name from SoAB to SoM. With the official mumbo jumbo out of the way, it was time for a bit of entertainment and celebration. While the students waited in the parking lot, the MC’s introduced APCDC and the crowd suddenly erupted with excitement and applause. The male dancers dressed in white dress shirts and black pants came running out. However the hype was short lived because the boys weren’t ready with their music, so it ended up being an awkward entrance. After a good 5 minutes of waiting, they were ready with their music. Their dance piece went off without a hitch and proved to be a success. With the crowd behind them, they danced and strutted their moves, proving they were the best. One of the lead dancers even did a spin on the parking lot surface, which I thought was quite painful. The piece lasted a good 2-3 minutes. They gave their last pose before their exit as the crowd applauded in admiration. After the dance by APCDC, the MC’s then introduced the contestants for Mr. & Ms. SoM. Each course cheered on as the names of the respective contestants were called up to introduce themselves after a mini catwalk. Probably the liveliest group was the competition between the AC and TM courses. They really got behind their contestants and screamed their heads off as they were called. Each contestant after completing their catwalk, introduced themselves and their course. Another performance that was also performed was the winner of he 2015 Cheers and Chants Competitions’ cheer from MA (Marketing & Advertising).

 Personally, I was part of the Basketball and Volleyball men's team representing BM. The first basketball game was between MA. We confidently won that game by a large margin, 52-21. They seemed no match for us. So we humbly waited for the next scheduled game would be the next day on Tuesday. Unfortunately on the first game, our uniforms were not ready so we didn't really look the part, but Tuesday came and we were all decked out in our flashy new uniforms with our individual surnames plastered on the back and a big BM in the front. We looked fly.
Tuesdays game was between TM. We were geared up to play a tough game because they had a few key players that we knew were good. Fortunately we beat them again with a comfortable margin, leading throughout the game. The final score was 42-36. With two wins under our belt, we were informed that we would just go straight to the finals on Friday so that was about two days of rest for us. Well deserved I must add. It was in this day that I was informed that we had no BM boys representing volleyball. Shocked, I quickly scrammed to make a team to compete, unfortunately I was too late on Tuesday and we ended up forfeiting the game. We had to wait for the next game which was scheduled for Thursday.

Wednesday came and I was informed to attend a seminar about Cultural Diversity organized by BMAG, I obliged. The first speaker was amazing. He was a representative from Alveo and seemed to have a natural instinct for delivering speeches during seminars. Then he mentioned he gives training and it all made sense. He got the crowd involved and I was captivated throughout the entirety. The second speaker had impressive credentials and a good message to bring across but in all honestly she was quite boring. I tried my best to pay attention and she did teach me a few things, especially what to expect in a ever growing, global workplace and being sensitive to other cultures. The seminar was a success and I even got to win a free movie ticket from the hosts. Following the seminar I took part in Running Man. A game similar to that of the Amazing race organinzed by BMAG. I was in a team of six and unfortunately we did not win but came 4th which is not so bad. I had a ton of fun but it was serious hard work, there was one point we had to run up 8 flights of stairs.

On Thursday I played volleyball and was quite excited. I love playing volleyball and missed playing it also. We managed to tale the win over TM, however since we forfeited our previous game, we couldn't progress. I still had a ton of fun and wished we had more games for volleyball. Friday came and we were scheduled for the grand-final basketball game playoff with AC. The game was close and we had tough opponents, however we came uo on top. We lead throughout the game and won. The final score was 45-38.

The final event I attened was the Mr. & Ms. SoM. I really enjoyed it and ended up cheering for the BM contestants eventhough I did not know them personally. The night was quite long but it was entertaining too. The winners were well deserved I think. A long was it was and I was exhausted and starving, I couldn't wait to go home.


All in all I think that SoM week was a great success and I am looking forward to the upcoming College Week and SoM week next year.