Slip of the Pen

It dies in a blaze of glory and is reborn from the ashes.

An elegant line. Unfortunately, one that can’t be applied to Corsarius.net. That’s for the phoenix.

It dies in an ignominious Fil.ph crash –
there, that’s more apt, though it must be conceded that –

and is reborn from the ashes.

Reborn, in a blaze of glory.


Guestbooks aren’t dead. Feel free to leave a message in the new Guestbook. (That’s why the comments page for this post has been closed — wink wink.)

It’s been an effing long time since I’ve blogged here, and frankly I miss Slippy. Right now I want to post something more than an announcement here, but trust me, this announcement’s quite big.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on this blog for more than a year already, then you’ll remember UP ACM’s stunning triumph in the international scene. To recap last year’s event: our student org beat first-world universities en route to bagging two of the five Student Chapter Excellence Awards given by ACM International. And you know what?

UP ACM has done it again. Yes, yes, the Filipino has won again, bigtime! Read my announcement on Crimson Crux for complete details. Ang galing ng Pinoy!


[If you've been wondering where the hell this corsair has been, this'll sum it up for you: In the last three months, I've went to two major family reunions slash vacations in Kalibo and Boracay, which ultimately resulted in a lot of work piling up. I'll give a little story on Boracay this weekend.]

The 95th General Commencement Exercises
University of the Philippines Diliman

Sunday, April 23, 2006
University Amphitheatre
Diliman, Quezon City

Congratulations to Batch 2006! Mabuhay ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas!

U.P. Naming Mahal

U.P. naming mahal
Pamantasang hirang
Ang tinig namin
Sana’y iyong dinggin
Malayong lupain
Amin mang marating
Di rin magbabago ang damdamin
Di rin magbabago ang damdamin

Luntian at pula
Sagisag magpakailanman
Ating ipagdiwang
Bulwagan ng dangal
Humayo’t itanghal
Giting at tapang
Mabuhay ang pag-asa ng bayan
Mabuhay ang pag-asa ng bayan.


First pic — From left to right, Geo, Jael, Jeric, bespren Ia, and (gasp!) yours truly. Second pic — Me and Ia looking dapper (or so I declare) in front of the Oblation, UP’s trademark symbol.


Update (4/28/06): My article on the sablay, a truly Filipino graduation garb, can be found at CCrux.

Can you imagine the Corsarius writing more than five posts a month? How about fifteen?

For the answer, click here.

Well, it just proves that blog indolence can be overcome by class requirements. For the month of January, we were required in our CW 198 class to publish 50 posts in a filtered blog. Hell, I’m way below that mark, but still, I got forced to blog more consistently.

Do drop by some of my friends’ filtered blogs: Ia’s Qwerky (notebook of the weirdest webapp names), Quel’s Pornographic Sofa (home of harmless fonts that don’t bite), and Jael’s Reductio ad Absurdum (man’s folly exposed through words).

Those words came from the day’s first well-wisher, Ia. She greeted my blog a happy birthday through SMS, at around one o’ clock in the morning.

Yes, you read that right. Slip of the Pen turns one this day! Not that there are many people who’ll care, but damn is December 29 a special day for this kid, er, corsair. This blog is my very first one, which means that Corsarius the blogger has also leveled up from infant to toddler.

The voyage began simply enough. (Now, that’s dramatic.) I was looking for some place to ’self-publish’ my written pieces, or at the very least, a place where I’ll be forced to write regularly. (Unfortunately, ‘regularly’ can mean every other day or every other week.) Ia — the mysterious lady who goes around visiting (nay, stalking!) blogs while not keeping her own — introduced me to the world of blogging several months before December 29, 2004. At first I didn’t give crap about blogs; heck, even the word “blog” is ugly. (Mabantot na salita, in Tagalog.) So it was a great moment of self-contradiction when I published my first post for my first blog, christened Slip of the Pen.

To all the people who visited this blog, thank you very much. And I mean it. Thank you to the people who regularly dropped by in spite of my oft-mentioned delinquence (for the nth time, my apologies), thank you to the people who perused every entry and burrowed deep into my archives (come on, let the birthday blogger dream), and thank you even to those who only chanced upon this page then clicked on “Next Blog” in a jiffy (it’s the thought that counts). I may have used comical wording, but the “Thank you” is serious. I’m dead serious about that.

To reach 10,000+ hits whilst only posting 62 entries (What’s that, almost one post per week? Horrible!) is quite a source of joy and inspiration for me. And so are the precious tags on the chatbox and comments on every blog entry. I like hearing from readers what they think about this and that piece. Maraming salamat. (That’s “Thank you” in Tagalog.)

Allow me to gratify myself, and present the choice picks for the year that was:

• Sketch. In my own words, “For vanity’s sake, here’s a short vignette about this blogger.”
• Inseparable. My poetic attempt at doing justice to Pepoy’s great pic taken in UP.
• Five Acts of Valentine’s Day: A Postmortem. Dissecting February the 14th has never been so fun.
• The Fall. The Corsarius tries supernatural fiction.
• Dead Cats. An old animal rights essay.
• The Mighty Mouse. In the enigmatic Transience’s words, “This is f*cking hysterical!”
• Habemus Corsarium. I am who I am. Or am I?
• Disjointed Prettiness Ahead. I am playing favorites by again quoting Transience: “Pure f*cking literature.” F-words can be elegant, you know.
• The Filipino Can Do It. My org, UP ACM, wins an international competition. ‘Nuff said.
• The Something of Nothingness. Writer’s block obliterated.
• Deviations. Fiction. Not for children.
• Jupiter Falls. Gold lightning, baby.
• Bottling Up the Ink. A good excuse for delinquent writers.
• Poems: Madness by the Candlelight. A trifecta of senseless verse.

Fortuna dies natalis, Lapsus Calami!

I must apologize to those who’ve patiently dropped by this space from time to time. I admit, the past months have not been the glory days for my relatively young journal — I wrote ZERO posts for September and a measly FOUR pieces (including this one, which shouldn’t be even included!) for October. Me bad.

While Slip of the Pen has been chugging along with scant fuel, Crimson Crux — yep, that other tech-oriented weblog — has been doing fine. In fact, I’ve actually managed to make a DOZEN posts for it this month.

Fear not, this imbalance will be soon rectified by the Corsarius, and blogging equilibrium shall be attained. For now, allow ol’ thick-faced me to shamelessly promote my other blog, Crimson Crux. (Little boy voice: Do drop by, please? Haha. And if you do have the time to visit, just let me know so I can repay the favor.)

ICT ROADSHOW 2005
UP Diliman
College of Engineering (Melchor Hall), 3rd Floor, August 9-11 2005

Three days jampacked with Exhibits and Symposia on exciting ICT Trends and Technologies! Freebies to be claimed, and prizes to be won!

For more info, visit this link. I’m one of the event’s handlers, and so you can contact me at pykimpo (at) gmail (dot) com for inquiries.

Here’s a couple of announcements from the Corsarius:

1) My personal website, The Corsarius, has moved to http://kimpo.fil.ph. The same goes for the online version of The UP Parser, which you can now find at http://upparser.fil.ph.

2) The multi-awarded Association for Computing Machinery - UP Student Chapter (UP ACM) is now open for membership. The application form can be found here.

3) For those interested in the progress of our thesis — secure video streaming from a server to a mobile device, both real-time and non — you can visit our group blog, The JSP.

4) Lastly, Slippy* now has its own WAP companion site! For more details, visit my other blog. Here’s a few screenshots to sate your interest:

*My nickname for this blog, Slip of the Pen. Catchy, I think.

Out with the angsty Corsarius, usher in the exuberant one.

WE DID IT!

Imagine this scenario: a newly-reinvigorated Filipino student organization based in UP Diliman’s Computer Science Department, struggling to pool enough funds in order to hold its activities. It’s just one of 750 international student chapters of the prestigious US-based Association for Computing Machinery, a Third World chapter at that. It joins the annual Chapter Excellence contest composed of five categories. With last year’s winners all hailing from the USA, the Philippine chapter’s members are just pleased to have done many things for the school and community, never mind the impending loss. And so a month of intensive evaluation within the ACM International HQ passes. The Filipinos are already looking forward to another productive year, again, never mind the impending loss.

But it wins. Not just one, but two categories. Two out of five. One Filipino chapter, three North American chapters. David and the Goliaths.

Implausible? Look at the image below.

Well, the UP ACM proved otherwise. The UP ACM proved that the Filipino can.

We in the Executive Council of the UP ACM — Association for Computing Machinery University of the Philippines Student Chapter — was informed just hours ago of our triumph. I tell you, it was a moment of ecstasy. A totally unexpected moment, that is. Chapter members were shaking hands, making high fives, screaming (shrieking?), even becoming teary-eyed. Professors were congratulating us. All were smiling their lips into kingdom come.

I can’t write into words the emotion — amalgam of emotions? — I feel right now. Basta. All I can say is that I am so proud to be a Filipino. I am so proud to be a UP student. Those sleepless nights filled with the furious sound of my fingers assaulting the keyboard have paid off. Having written the majority of the essays (winning essay 1 | winning essay 2) we submitted to the contest, I feel like I’ve won a Palanca or an Olympic gold medal. And I’m sure all of us are feeling that way.*

Congratulations to my fellow Executive Councilors (Chapter Chair Ardee Aram, Vice-Chair Mai Sibayan, Treasurer Jonas Roque, Externals Head Jeric Cantos, Education Head Ma’am Riza Batista, Ex-Officio Members Ma’am Joyce Avestro & Kuya Harvey Viray, Sponsor/Adviser Prof. Rommel Feria), UP ACM members (yes, all 90+ of you), and last but not the least Secretary Sophia Lucero (who shared my duress during the homestretch of the essay preparations). Certainly, a job well done — kudos to you all!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Unibersidad! Mabuhay ang UP ACM!

[UPDATE: UP ACM's victory has been published online in INQ7.net! For more updates (plus UP ACM's 'official' press release), please read my latest post in Crimson Crux.]

*And why shouldn’t we? Bagging one category = 500 US Dollars. We got two categories. Now, that’s some dough!

No, I’m not getting fat! Rather –

It’s official. The Corsarius, yours truly, now has his own website.

Curtains up!

Though up and running for several weeks now, I wanted to tweak the site until I was satisfied with it. Now, I believe it’s ready for full public ‘consumption’.

But that’s not all. Very recently, I’ve started a second blog, christened the Crimson Crux. It will house my ’serious’ writings and papers. Don’t worry. Slip of the Pen will still be my darling.

So if you have the time, please drop by these two sites. I’d really, really appreciate it. Thanks!

[I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to my bestfriend, Sophia, who designed these two sites. She is what I'd call a webmistress extraordinaire. I'm just the content guy. I've got near-to-nil layout and graphics skills. Again, thank you so much, Ia-chan!]