ATSPAR (III) contenders must hear a ****

“There are two major types of contenders joining a writing contest: those who expect and those who don’t… But what should both realize after the contest?” (My response to ColdExpress’s “ Meet the Natives”)

ATSPAR III preludes ALTPA in a regional level. The latter is in Luzonwide level and is being held in February of the subsequent year, few months after its regional counterpart during November. For the benefit of those who live outside this archipelago, these two are writing contests held annually for campus journalists. The words “tertiary schools press conference” can be extracted from these acronyms, which technically means they’re intended only for college students. Meanwhile, ATSPAR III has celebrated its tenth anniversary this November.

THAT NOVEMBER 2008 DAY I’ll never forget. The azure November sky was crystal clear, the atmosphere was unruffled, and the temperature was tepidly blended. Although being consternated about the results and feeling nauseous, I was still certain that I will hear my name and see myself once again, going in front of the faceless crowd of campus journalists, receiving my opulent medal of either bronze or silver, and being applauded by all and sundry. Afterward, I thought I’ll be seeing my banner flogging in front of our university’s main building. And so I expected that from Edwin de Leon too. These were then my expectations…

Onion salads with a pinch of Disney lesson

OUR CAMARADERIE WAS LIKE the closeness between a Spiritual Warrior and a transformed Media Puppet—it happened like the peeling of an onion.

Last June 6, my spiritual birthday, I found out that Robert already had his Facebook.com account, which I presume he had created this May. (I actually thought he'll never create a Facebook account because he said such an account would aid in the programming of every person's RFid in the future.) So I invited him using my Facebook account, which is linked to my official blog (this blog).

The next day, I read a message in my phone from Robert Rivera. He was asking me to delete my June 1 blog entry about him and Michelin in relation to the Pioneer because he doesn't want to appear as a presumptuous person. I’m not supposed to delete the entry since Mitz was touched with the article; however, I still concurred with Bert.

Somewhere in the Mind

“To balance a message with views of thy self, and place it on a scale in the mind…”

IT IS EXACTLY 10AM. You’ve been waiting more than an hour for a seminar that was supposed to begin at 8. Then the first speaker comes. He is wearing an odd coat made up of tweeds and tattered wools. He begins speaking… then he finishes his talk with the statement, “Students today don’t know how to think, read, and write!” Would you agree with him? Come to think of it…

If there is one universal truth in the world, that is, people judge the messages they receive. How do I know? Social Judgment Theory tells me so. Once people receive messages, they weigh its content based on their own opinion. If their opinion is the opposite of the message, it falls in the Latitude of Rejection. Meanwhile, if their opinion shares the same views of the message, it falls under Latitude of Acceptance. Or what if they don’t bother to care? Well, that would fall under the Latitude of Non-Commitment, or the Neutral Latitude.

The Social Learning Theory

“…FROM OBSERVING OTHERS ONE forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” – Albert Bandura

This concept was formalized by the said source in his Social Learning Theory, which states that "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling” (Bandura, 1977).

Memoirs of R18

CRYSTAL LIGHTS WERE HANGING from the ceiling, reflecting a prism of diamond-like brilliance. Balloons were festooned on the stage, fronting sets of chairs and tables, which were adorned with linens, for a supposed-to-be-big audience. The audience, however, wasn’t that big… It was never big. If it was, then we might have been hallucinating....

R18 was a concert organized by Cram Productions. This production team is composed of everyone in the ABMC IV class batch 08-09. It was headed by Edwin de Leon with Gypsy Salazar and Michelle Ann Frazier; all of them are my classmates.

Selective exposure and the hindrance to the Palawan trip

SOMETIMES, WHEN PEOPLE TALK, they try to make a one-sided impression....

To pursue this trip to Palawan of chosen staff in The Pioneer, I’ve had many hardships before I finalized its assurance. I’ve been scolded by the administration for omitting one of our signatories in the letter for disbursements; I’ve had dilemmas regarding the plane tickets, and oodles of other encumbrances.

However, the most arduous part is this: My Palawan days will be on February 11-14. Forlornly, my interview for TOS-AUF for Journalism (The Outstanding Student of AUF for the Category Journalism) has been scheduled on February 13. So my interview date coincides with one of these days.

The other side of sunrise

EVER THOUGHT WHAT'S on the other side of sunrise? Aside from the joy that you feel as you watch its cascading orange glow, what else can you think about? Puzzled? Well, I tell you what for me: On the other side of the world, the people who find enthusiasm in watching sunset snivel as they see it totally vanishing…

Most of the time, people find pleasure in a lot of habits that they do. Just like when they talk, laugh about others’ mistakes, judge their friends, and so forth. It seems like they can never be contended in seeing a pink parasol worn by a guy, ‘til they criticize it and shout, “baduy!” Or like when they give a friend some couple of spiders though they know that he has arachnophobia.

Mushrooms on a pizza

TOPPED WITH LONGANISA AND tocino – all over a divan of mozzarella cheese, onions, chili fingers and savory mushrooms, which are all embraced by an oven-baked rolled-edge crust, and sprinkled with flavorful garlic – a delightful pizza was served on a platter on the center table where ten people are dining. Everyone love mushrooms except you…

Now how good was that?

Deux méthode

“DEUX MÉTHODE” – THE FRENCH TRANSLATION FOR “TWO METHODS/WAYS!

If you are disquisitive why I am talking about “deux méthode”, then I say, “The reason is simple: I’ll be talking about Elaboration Likelihood Model, and it has something to do with the two ways.”

The “Elaboration Likelihood Model” (ELM) converses about the two ways people make decisions and hence get persuaded. The first is when people get motivated and able to pay attention, and they take a logical, conscious thinking to decision-making. This can lead to permanent change in their attitude as to adopting and elaborating the speaker’s arguments. The second is like this: When people do not pay attention to persuasive arguments but are swayed instead by surface characteristics. How is that?