Our office building is finally getting a facelift after all these years. Work started early this week. All the moss is being scraped off the concrete juttings which are then given a fresh coat of cream-colored paint.
Although our building looks so much better now I feel rather uncomfortable having people on scaffoldings doing the painting right outside the office windows and being able to look in while we work inside our offices. Since my office windows--which are huge by the way--have neither curtains or blinds I feel like an animal in the zoo. I've taken to turning off the lights and working in semi-darkness or leaving my office to do my work elsewhere.
I also wonder if the people in the upper floors are worried about thieves climbing up the scaffoldings in the evening and breaking into their offices. Their windows, unlike ours here in the ground floor, are not protected by grill bars.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The legacy of a great teacher
I basically spent both Holy Thursday and Good Friday playing my trusty Yamaha P-80 keyboard as accompanist during Holy Week masses and services here at our parish.
As it turned out I found that one of the members of the church choir which sang during those masses was a former member of the glee club of my high school for which I was often asked to be accompanist during my college days. Small world I thought. Compared to the others in that church choir, he was their most accomplished singer and was in effect their leader. Then it struck me that he was like so many others who belonged to the different batches of glee club members I worked with through the years: he had continued nurturing his passion for music long after he had graduated from high school.
And the only explanation for this phenomena that I could find was the training they received at the hands of their music teacher and choir director, Miss L.
Miss L in fact was not my music teacher during my high school days. She only got hired the year after I graduated from high school and I only got to know her when I was asked to be the accompanist of the glee club for a certain choral competition. There was this choral piece by Ryan Cayabyab that the glee club was preparing to learn for the competition and, typical of Cayabyab arrangements, it had a difficult accompaniment. As none of the current glee club members could tackle it, they looked elsewhere. To make a long story short, I was tapped to play for them. Apparently Miss L liked my playing well enough that I eventually became the glee club's accompanist during major choral competitions for a few years.
Anyway--I don't want to ramble on here too much--I must have worked with six different batches of glee club members. But every year was basically the same as I was amazed at how Miss L managed to coax beautiful music out of each of her charges time and again. Looking back, I realize that how fortunate I was then to witness how this average glee club quickly grew into a polished award-winning choral group under Miss L's guidance and inspiration.
There were however a few people who criticized Miss L's technique and approach to teaching music. One of them was the conductor of the very college choir for which I was a regular accompanist at that time. This lady said that it was not appropriate to force high school students to sing like adults and that it was bad practice. They should sing like children and sound like children, she said.
I silently had to disagree with her for such was not the case with Miss L. She didn't force her students to sing. Nor was there a need to coerce the students into rehearsing a piece until they perfected their singing. Miss L's love for music was infectious and through her enthusiasm instilled in her students a similar passion for music. They learned to love singing and what was required to produce beautiful singing and were thrilled with the music they produced as a choir. How often had I seen them, as they relaxed while awaiting their turn at a competition, suddenly bursting into song, harmony and all. And all by themselves without Miss L conducting them. Even other members of competing choirs who were standing around had to smile and be amazed with the group's enthusiasm.
I had never personally known anyone capable of passing on such a love for learning whether it be music or otherwise to her students and to do it so consistently. And I don't think I ever will again.
Sadly Miss L had to leave the high school for greener pastures abroad a couple of years after I myself left to pursue graduate studies abroad. The high school was indeed sorry to let her go and the glee club was never the same after that. All subsequent music teachers they hired could never produce the same results as Miss L did.
It is therefore a fitting testament to Miss L's legacy that this passion for music continued to burn in those whom she had trained, long after they graduated from high school and despite the diverse paths each have taken.
An alumnus went on to study music majoring in voice and is now a professional opera singer in Europe. I also know of several who went on to form their own singing group during their college days and have held concerts at the university's theatre. A couple of them sang during Miss L's wedding a few years ago and I must say they were just as good as the professional singers we see on television. A few are members of the university choir that sings a capella and has competed in a number of international competitions. Some of these same members in fact form a group that regularly sings during one of the weekend masses at our parish. One of my colleagues at work is himself a former glee club member and he heads the music ministry of his church group.
And now here is this fellow who sang the Introit and several chants during Holy Thursday mass--and who by the way holds a doctorate degree in biology. He could read notes, carries a tuning fork and was directing us on how to properly interpret Gregorian chant.
I myself believe that I would not have evolved into the accompanist that I am today had I not had the experience of playing for my high school glee club under Miss L's direction so many years ago. Heck, I even managed to train a small group of people to sing a choral piece during cultural night when I was abroad studying.
All this because of a great teacher.
As it turned out I found that one of the members of the church choir which sang during those masses was a former member of the glee club of my high school for which I was often asked to be accompanist during my college days. Small world I thought. Compared to the others in that church choir, he was their most accomplished singer and was in effect their leader. Then it struck me that he was like so many others who belonged to the different batches of glee club members I worked with through the years: he had continued nurturing his passion for music long after he had graduated from high school.
And the only explanation for this phenomena that I could find was the training they received at the hands of their music teacher and choir director, Miss L.
Miss L in fact was not my music teacher during my high school days. She only got hired the year after I graduated from high school and I only got to know her when I was asked to be the accompanist of the glee club for a certain choral competition. There was this choral piece by Ryan Cayabyab that the glee club was preparing to learn for the competition and, typical of Cayabyab arrangements, it had a difficult accompaniment. As none of the current glee club members could tackle it, they looked elsewhere. To make a long story short, I was tapped to play for them. Apparently Miss L liked my playing well enough that I eventually became the glee club's accompanist during major choral competitions for a few years.
Anyway--I don't want to ramble on here too much--I must have worked with six different batches of glee club members. But every year was basically the same as I was amazed at how Miss L managed to coax beautiful music out of each of her charges time and again. Looking back, I realize that how fortunate I was then to witness how this average glee club quickly grew into a polished award-winning choral group under Miss L's guidance and inspiration.
There were however a few people who criticized Miss L's technique and approach to teaching music. One of them was the conductor of the very college choir for which I was a regular accompanist at that time. This lady said that it was not appropriate to force high school students to sing like adults and that it was bad practice. They should sing like children and sound like children, she said.
I silently had to disagree with her for such was not the case with Miss L. She didn't force her students to sing. Nor was there a need to coerce the students into rehearsing a piece until they perfected their singing. Miss L's love for music was infectious and through her enthusiasm instilled in her students a similar passion for music. They learned to love singing and what was required to produce beautiful singing and were thrilled with the music they produced as a choir. How often had I seen them, as they relaxed while awaiting their turn at a competition, suddenly bursting into song, harmony and all. And all by themselves without Miss L conducting them. Even other members of competing choirs who were standing around had to smile and be amazed with the group's enthusiasm.
I had never personally known anyone capable of passing on such a love for learning whether it be music or otherwise to her students and to do it so consistently. And I don't think I ever will again.
Sadly Miss L had to leave the high school for greener pastures abroad a couple of years after I myself left to pursue graduate studies abroad. The high school was indeed sorry to let her go and the glee club was never the same after that. All subsequent music teachers they hired could never produce the same results as Miss L did.
It is therefore a fitting testament to Miss L's legacy that this passion for music continued to burn in those whom she had trained, long after they graduated from high school and despite the diverse paths each have taken.
An alumnus went on to study music majoring in voice and is now a professional opera singer in Europe. I also know of several who went on to form their own singing group during their college days and have held concerts at the university's theatre. A couple of them sang during Miss L's wedding a few years ago and I must say they were just as good as the professional singers we see on television. A few are members of the university choir that sings a capella and has competed in a number of international competitions. Some of these same members in fact form a group that regularly sings during one of the weekend masses at our parish. One of my colleagues at work is himself a former glee club member and he heads the music ministry of his church group.
And now here is this fellow who sang the Introit and several chants during Holy Thursday mass--and who by the way holds a doctorate degree in biology. He could read notes, carries a tuning fork and was directing us on how to properly interpret Gregorian chant.
I myself believe that I would not have evolved into the accompanist that I am today had I not had the experience of playing for my high school glee club under Miss L's direction so many years ago. Heck, I even managed to train a small group of people to sing a choral piece during cultural night when I was abroad studying.
All this because of a great teacher.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
30-second notes
I've just created a new blog where I intend to post short notes. After all in life the little things also matter. From now on I will be reserving this one for my longer ramblings. :)
Friday, March 14, 2008
A busy beginning to a new decade
Today was my birthday, the beginning of another decade in my life.
I didn't get to enjoy it that much unfortunately with all the meetings, classes and thesis defenses that I had to attend practically all day. Such are the disadvantages of having a birthday in March when the semester is about to end with all the exams to make and grade and thesis advisees to attend to.
Anyway, it began with a birthday greeting via Yahoo! messenger from a friend Joanne so far away in Singapore. It popped up as I logged in. I had a short chat with my sister as well who also greeted me happy birthday.
Then I had my usual 10am-1pm lab class which fortunately ended early around 12:20pm. My students in this class always seem to be in a rush to finish their lab exercises. They obviously want to get their classes for the week over and done with and start the weekend as early as possible.
In my search for lunch, I found myself hopping from one fastfood place to another hoping to find short queues so that I can get some lunch right away but to no avail. There must be a group of students or other tourists visiting the campus today; I've never seen the fastfood restaurants so full on a Friday. Anyway, as much as I don't like their food, I had no choice but to buy a spaghetti-and-pizza meal from the Greenwhich kiosk where the fellow looked forlorn behind a pile of styrofoam containers of the stuff with no customers in sight. I decided then and there that eating sweetish Filipino-style spaghetti and pizza topped with cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella would be one of my sacrifices for the Lenten season.
After stopping by the Mini-stop to buy a bottle of C2 tea and a Gardenia Twiggy--there goes my Lenten sacrifice!--I rushed back to my office to gulp down my lunch before rushing off to my one o'clock meeting at the next building. I was late but I didn't miss much. Fortunately the meeting was brief and I got back to my office with a good ten minutes to spare before attending a long series of thesis defenses for that afternoon.
The thesis defenses turned out to be enjoyable as the student's projects were varied and interesting. It was a long afternoon however and I only managed to escape at 5:45pm--there were still some five students who had yet to present their thesis--to attend to mass.
I was really late for mass. Actually, I completely missed it since I arrived while communion was ending. Sigh. My one consolation though was that I got to go to confession and pray the Stations of the Cross along with the other parishioners who were there. (I got momentarily distracted when one of the readers read a phrase from one of the prayers as "abdominable inflictions" instead of "abominable inflictions".)
Back here at home with my parents, we had ice cream and cake (chocolate cappuccino mousse roll) for dessert.
And now here I am at my laptop dead tired and desperately trying to stay awake to finish typing this entry.
It had been quite a birthday.
I didn't get to enjoy it that much unfortunately with all the meetings, classes and thesis defenses that I had to attend practically all day. Such are the disadvantages of having a birthday in March when the semester is about to end with all the exams to make and grade and thesis advisees to attend to.
Anyway, it began with a birthday greeting via Yahoo! messenger from a friend Joanne so far away in Singapore. It popped up as I logged in. I had a short chat with my sister as well who also greeted me happy birthday.
Then I had my usual 10am-1pm lab class which fortunately ended early around 12:20pm. My students in this class always seem to be in a rush to finish their lab exercises. They obviously want to get their classes for the week over and done with and start the weekend as early as possible.
In my search for lunch, I found myself hopping from one fastfood place to another hoping to find short queues so that I can get some lunch right away but to no avail. There must be a group of students or other tourists visiting the campus today; I've never seen the fastfood restaurants so full on a Friday. Anyway, as much as I don't like their food, I had no choice but to buy a spaghetti-and-pizza meal from the Greenwhich kiosk where the fellow looked forlorn behind a pile of styrofoam containers of the stuff with no customers in sight. I decided then and there that eating sweetish Filipino-style spaghetti and pizza topped with cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella would be one of my sacrifices for the Lenten season.
After stopping by the Mini-stop to buy a bottle of C2 tea and a Gardenia Twiggy--there goes my Lenten sacrifice!--I rushed back to my office to gulp down my lunch before rushing off to my one o'clock meeting at the next building. I was late but I didn't miss much. Fortunately the meeting was brief and I got back to my office with a good ten minutes to spare before attending a long series of thesis defenses for that afternoon.
The thesis defenses turned out to be enjoyable as the student's projects were varied and interesting. It was a long afternoon however and I only managed to escape at 5:45pm--there were still some five students who had yet to present their thesis--to attend to mass.
I was really late for mass. Actually, I completely missed it since I arrived while communion was ending. Sigh. My one consolation though was that I got to go to confession and pray the Stations of the Cross along with the other parishioners who were there. (I got momentarily distracted when one of the readers read a phrase from one of the prayers as "abdominable inflictions" instead of "abominable inflictions".)
Back here at home with my parents, we had ice cream and cake (chocolate cappuccino mousse roll) for dessert.
And now here I am at my laptop dead tired and desperately trying to stay awake to finish typing this entry.
It had been quite a birthday.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
FedererExpress van and an idea
Sometime in January just before the Australian Open started, I read about a group of Australians tennis fans who created a mobile "shrine" to their favorite player, Roger Federer, and appropriately called it the FedererExpress. I also found out that this group is the one that hoists the banner that reads "Shhh! Quiet! Genius at work" at virtually every tennis match that the Swiss plays.
I also have my little idea as an avid fan of Roger although of course I have no means of realizing it. It's a small coffee shop or cafe probably called the Federer Cafe. It will serve bagels and breadsticks (wink, wink!) and strong coffee called Federer Espresso.
So there it is. An idea.
I also have my little idea as an avid fan of Roger although of course I have no means of realizing it. It's a small coffee shop or cafe probably called the Federer Cafe. It will serve bagels and breadsticks (wink, wink!) and strong coffee called Federer Espresso.
So there it is. An idea.
Friday, March 7, 2008
My piggy-wiggy on Flickr Explore
Ooooh. I have something to be happy about today.I've just discovered through my dna on Big Huge Labs that my photo of my piggy-wiggy made it to Flickr's Explore for 26 July 2007.
That's only my third photo to make it to Explore. But the previous ones--the one of our lemoncito shrub and that of the jellyfish over at the Vancouver Aquarium--dropped out while this one is holding steady at number 323. Not bad.
By coincidence, piggy-wiggy was given to me as a farewell gift by Tina who celebrated her birthday a few days ago.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Gameshow greed and crab mentality
The popular US-based tv game show Wheel of Fortune finally made its debut on local television this year.
It replaced another popular gameshow Deal or No Deal that was showing in the evenings at prime time. While I found this gameshow exciting watch, I wasn't really a fan because I became disappointed and disgusted with most contestants' decisions which so obviously showed their greed and total ignorance of probability. Common scenario: Php1M is still on the board along with other amounts smaller than Php1K. The banker offers Php700,000--which is really a huge amount in such a poor country--and yet the contestant decides to ignore that and go for the Php1M even if his chances getting it are just 1 in 6. Invariably contestant ends up not getting the Php1M anyway.
So when this Wheel of Fortune came along, I thought it would be a welcome change and finally showcase the people's better qualities. But nope, was I wrong.
One will probably have observed that a common strategy by Wheel of Fortune contestants in the US is to buy vowels if chances of naming a consonant that is found on the puzzle are small. They know that having a vowel on the board often helps them solve the puzzle even if it cuts down their winnings. But here I have noticed that contestants avoid buying vowels and prefer to continue trying to guess more of the consonants. What an obvious ploy to avoid losing any of their earnings!
And then worse, whenever a contestant spins the wheel, the other contestants clap their hand as others do elsewhere but then--here's the shocking part--jeer at the same time saying, "Lose turn... lose turn!" or "Bankrupt... bankrupt!" Such crab mentality. How sad.
It replaced another popular gameshow Deal or No Deal that was showing in the evenings at prime time. While I found this gameshow exciting watch, I wasn't really a fan because I became disappointed and disgusted with most contestants' decisions which so obviously showed their greed and total ignorance of probability. Common scenario: Php1M is still on the board along with other amounts smaller than Php1K. The banker offers Php700,000--which is really a huge amount in such a poor country--and yet the contestant decides to ignore that and go for the Php1M even if his chances getting it are just 1 in 6. Invariably contestant ends up not getting the Php1M anyway.
So when this Wheel of Fortune came along, I thought it would be a welcome change and finally showcase the people's better qualities. But nope, was I wrong.
One will probably have observed that a common strategy by Wheel of Fortune contestants in the US is to buy vowels if chances of naming a consonant that is found on the puzzle are small. They know that having a vowel on the board often helps them solve the puzzle even if it cuts down their winnings. But here I have noticed that contestants avoid buying vowels and prefer to continue trying to guess more of the consonants. What an obvious ploy to avoid losing any of their earnings!
And then worse, whenever a contestant spins the wheel, the other contestants clap their hand as others do elsewhere but then--here's the shocking part--jeer at the same time saying, "Lose turn... lose turn!" or "Bankrupt... bankrupt!" Such crab mentality. How sad.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
On Federer's recent first round loss
My favorite tennis player, Roger Federer, has just lost to young Briton Andy Murray in three sets in the first round of the Barclay's Dubai Tennis Championships. This is probably the first time he has lost in the first round of a tournament for a fair number of years.
He had previously lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open to world number three Novak Djokovic and had back-to-back losses to long-time nemesis David Nalbandian late last season.
To many this string of recent losses is shocking. But to me, it's just another blip as any other loss is. Of course, it's always sad to hear about the champion getting upset by so-and-so player. But what choice do we have? He's the number one tennis player in the world right now and any loss to any other player--who are all (surprise!) ranked lower than he is--will always be an upset.
At the same time, I am also very much aware that we can't expect him to win every match he plays. The fact that Federer had been virtually winning every tournament he played these past four years or so is already in itself an incredible achievement. The great Pete Sampras himself couldn't do that! My mind however cannot fathom how he can continue playing at such a high level for several years so should be unrealistic for me to expect him to win everything.
In fact a loss here and there is normal for a tennis player or any athlete for that matter. It just so happens that this is Roger Federer who has demonstrated that he is capable of raising the bar impossibly high--call it "creating a monster" if you will. Even his so-called "mediocre" 68-9 win-loss record for 2007 was the best compared to everybody else's in the tour. It's just not as good compared to his own jaw-dropping records in the years previously: 74-6, 81-4 and 92-5. And that in three consecutive years no less!
So I'm not sitting here stunned and staring into space nor losing any sleep tonight. After all, Federer has nowhere else to go from this "slump" except upwards.
Photo by: Julian Finney/Getty Images
He had previously lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open to world number three Novak Djokovic and had back-to-back losses to long-time nemesis David Nalbandian late last season.
To many this string of recent losses is shocking. But to me, it's just another blip as any other loss is. Of course, it's always sad to hear about the champion getting upset by so-and-so player. But what choice do we have? He's the number one tennis player in the world right now and any loss to any other player--who are all (surprise!) ranked lower than he is--will always be an upset.At the same time, I am also very much aware that we can't expect him to win every match he plays. The fact that Federer had been virtually winning every tournament he played these past four years or so is already in itself an incredible achievement. The great Pete Sampras himself couldn't do that! My mind however cannot fathom how he can continue playing at such a high level for several years so should be unrealistic for me to expect him to win everything.
In fact a loss here and there is normal for a tennis player or any athlete for that matter. It just so happens that this is Roger Federer who has demonstrated that he is capable of raising the bar impossibly high--call it "creating a monster" if you will. Even his so-called "mediocre" 68-9 win-loss record for 2007 was the best compared to everybody else's in the tour. It's just not as good compared to his own jaw-dropping records in the years previously: 74-6, 81-4 and 92-5. And that in three consecutive years no less!
So I'm not sitting here stunned and staring into space nor losing any sleep tonight. After all, Federer has nowhere else to go from this "slump" except upwards.
Photo by: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Sunday, March 2, 2008
A homemade birthday e-card for Tina
Tomorrow is a good friend's birthday and I'm sending her this e-card.I thought of sending her the usual birthday e-card from the Hallmark website. But then I thought I'd make my own when I realized that my photo of the March ceramic angel would make a good graphic for a birthday card--at least for someone born in the month of March. After all, my mother gave the angel to me as a birthday gift some twenty years ago.
Anyway, I adapted some happy birthday verses I found on the Internet and also had fun experimenting with Adobe Photoshop to blend layers and apply some lighting effects. By the way, I found the rich damask background at the Inspiration Gallery.
I hope Tina likes it. :)