Thesis it!

Well, I've been crazy busy this past few months or probably, this school year because, like I said in my previous post, senior year was indeed toxic. The endless paper works, shooting, editing and to top it all off, the degree paper making!!! It's physically, emotionally and financially draining.

As shared by my friend Cheri, which she also found on 9gag.com

True to this acronym, I think thesis was really something college students dread in doing or atleast something that they don't look forward to. The never ending revisions and meeting deadlines was I think two facts that really contributes to this perception. Well, in fact, thesis is a thing you could be proud of after you made through all the rough roads. 

As for me, I did my thesis alongside my thesis mates who were really my good friends, there's Nica, Chesca, Larah, Cheri and Toni. I know that you must think how we still remained friends after this, well, I really don't know! Haha! I kid!

Kidding aside, a tip for those who are still to do their degree paper, choose a topic close to your heart or atleast something that you're interested in. This way, you'll be engaged in doing your thesis and at the same time having fun. As for us, we chose to do our research in a Mental institution. Not only is the topic interesting but we are also crazy in our own way. Hence, our title...

We've had countless overnights, some are planned and most are not, countless visit to the mental homecare, countless printing and photocopying and other countless stuff. 

I'm not joking when I told you this is also financially draining. Aside from the money we threw in for the party for the patients, were the donations and thank you gifts we gave to the mental homecare and their staff, the printing of the 250++ pages of our thesis and multiplying it by ten (Each copy for us six, A copy for our adviser and three for the panel.), soft binding it, then reprinting all of it after the revisions and finally book bounding it. Aside from that are the money we threw in when we hosted a defense and all we spend in overnights and countless cab rides.

This is a portion of the rough draft.

Take note: Writing your degree paper is, obviously, not a joke, so it is important that you're with people who'll make it more fun.

Well, if you think that thesis writing was stressful, defending it takes it to a different level. We were literally shaking on our toes as we discuss and defend a paper which we made for a year. Good thing we were the last group to present that day.

First was the group of Hannah, Clara, Shin, Sandra and Glester.

Next was Irene, Steve, Rommel, Tim, Migs, Odang and Benj.

And finally, it was our turn. It feels so good that the panel took a time to make us laugh while in front. It just means that we did a fairly good job.

 

We're actually third to present on the first of the four days of thesis defense. Here's a rundown of that day...

I still attended my classes in the morning... Sucks for me. Then, I went to the copiers and had my OJT journal bookbinded. After that, I went to Nica's to meet up with the rest and get ready.

Here's Chesca after a shot of good luck. Chos!!! 

After getting ready, Jamir was kind enough to take us to school. Parang ang layo eh noh? 

Then, the waiting begins...

 

 

With our lovely thesis adviser and second mom, Ma'am Agato. Her advisees won best thesis two years in a row. You could imagine the pressure that was put upon us. Haha!

It's time!

Chesca for the Chapter I, Introduction, Frameworks, etc. You know the drill.

 

Larah "ayawpaawatsasynthesis" Carolino and Toni for Review of Related Literature. Haha!

Nica for Methodology

 

And me and Cheri for Results and Discussion.

 

Here's our group with our adviser and Sir Nunez.

Our make up artist for the day: Cheanne! Thank you for all the support you've given us. Alamoyan!! Mas kinakabahan ka pa sakin! Haha.

And what's came after was a celebratory dinner at Banapple!

Toni and Bryann who have been our honorary 7th member of the group. He's been very helpful whenever we try to get a hold of Toni. Hahaha!!!

After that, we satisfied our Milk Tea cravings at Gong Cha!

We've had so many hardships in making this thesis, and that's why when I saw this after all the revisions, I can't help but shed a tear.

Much more came Graduation Ball, when we were announced as Outstanding Degree Paper!!! I feel so proud just of the fact that this was hard earned.

Thank you Lord for this and for all the people who helped to make it happen!!!

FUN FACTS:

- We chose our topic because almost all of us are bipolar

- A day before the defense, we met up for review but we ended up sleeping.

- At the mental homecare, some of us have crushes with the patients.

- We call ourselves now BB Babes because of what the panel told us in our defense.

- We had a one peso coin on our foot during the defense to remove the nervousness as per advise of a professor.

- The patients in the homecare knew us by name esp Chesca! Haha!

- On our thesis defense, Sir Sison, who is a panelist, told Chesca that she belonged to the mental homecare. Haha!

- When Cheri and I met up at UST to print our final thesis, I made her walk three streets surrounding UST. Haha! Sorry Che!

- Burger King had been our second home. We literally lived there in the duration of our thesis. Haha!

- In one of the overnights at Cheri's house, I broke the lid of their toilet bowl.

- Most of our laptops have broken batteries. So, we abuse every socket and power there is.

- We are required to bring our own laptops, hence, the more sockets needed. Haha! We often joke that we should bring an extension cord at Burger King!

- Because Ma'am Agato told us to copy the format of a specific thesis, we ended up looking and using for the font Century Gothic. Haha!

I told you thesis could be fun!!!

My Babes, My Friends

In my previous blog post, you could just imagine the hardships of being a senior student, add to that, were the minor subjects which is probably the reason which made senior year as an irregular student, a living hell. So, first, I'd like to thank these people who made me have fun amidst the trials, hardships and pressure, senior year was asserting to us. 

Cheri, Cheanne, Nica, Larah, Chesca, Toni, Lance and Joyce, Thank you! That though we really do not know what to call ourselves collectively (B+B Babes, which was a product of our thesis defense, Gandalicious Babes, which was Chesca's jologs attempt to name us, Impulse Babes because of the sudden nerve impulses or sumpong each one of us gets, or simply Babes, which is what we call each other.), we still found a common ground to be the best of friends. The fact that we were the proof that a group of friends doesn't need a label or name to form a friendship, made me realized that this one is really for keeps.

Larah, who was the pioneer of blogging on my phone. Haha! Which was probably the premonition of what happened on the cooking show production. Haha. Anyways, this senior year, thank you for trusting me with your secret (you know what I mean) and I'm so glad you were able to come out of it stronger.

Cheri, the evil queen, your constant bullying and violence was made bearable by the friendship that we've shared. We come a long way, considering you were one of my first friends when I transferred, I could still remember the landmark incident and the fool I made out of myself. Haha! Three years after, Thank you for making sure that we're on equal ground as we both had our dumb moments.

Chesca, the mother of the babes, your natural leadership skills was probably the reason why we consider you as our mother. You've proven yourself to be there whenever we need you and make us feel protected by all means of harm and for that, I'm thankful. Okay, except when you have your nerve impulses which is kind of scary at first but eventually, we grew into it. Haha!

Lance, you are probably one of the talkshit people that I know but you've proven again and again that you're a great friend. Thank you for constantly accompanying me in my breaks and entertaining me with those juicy gossips.

Toni, you're probably one of the sweetest girls that I know. You've shown us that you were more than a pretty face as you have a good heart. Thank you for still believing in me even if I kid you many times before.  

Chiyenne, your relentless nagging about your weight served as an inspiration for me. Haha! If only I could put that inspiration into dedication, I'll probably start losing weight. Anyways, thank you for letting me be myself and always looking out for me.

Joyce, your certainty of what you want to become made me realize the dreams that I've wanted to achieve. Because of you, it dawned upon me that we are never too young to chase after our dreams.

Nica, you are probably one of the sweetest and most fearless woman I know. You are the perfect example of "mabuting kaibigan, masamang kaaway" type of person and you taught me that no matter how sweet you are, you should be ready to fight whenever a situation needs it.

Thank you babes! I've never told you how lucky I am to meet you, much more to be friends with you, but I am. I was never a showy person, I don't vocalize my feelings until the situation really calls for it. So this, my blog, is my way to show you my gratitude and love for you guys!

PS: I've made a lot of friends in college (eg Clara, Cielo, Jo, Shin), this blog post was for the closest friends I have in my senior year.

Senior Year

Hello blogger world! It's so nice to be back. I know this was a long wait considering I've been planning to move here (blogspot) from tumblr come 01.01.12, but due to all my responsibilities and school works, I really couldn't squeeze it in. Senior year was, sure as hell, toxic, brain boggling, heart breaking and money draining. Fortunate enough, all of these were made bearable by the people who were with me along the way. 

These are my friends, B+B Babes, who I'll be talking about in my next post!

Anyways, here's a rundown of what I did in my senior year.

I've already blogged about my internship at Radio Veritas during the summer but that's just for radio, my school requires 300 hours both TV an Radio internships, which means that I still have to complete my other 150 in TV. Luckily, I was given the chance to train in a prominent company such as ABSCBN. I was assigned at a Current Affairs Program called "Failon Ngayon" which was hosted, obviously, by Ted Failon. I'll probably blog about my kapamilya experience in a separate post.

Since, first semester already started, my time was divided into going to ABS to train and school for my classes. I felt like I was a working student going back and forth to school and the station.

As I've said, the major challenge of being an irregular student is having minor subjects. There are times when you would wish to pass in these subjects more than your major subjects. A very good example of this is.......

Nihonggo! I actually memorized these both! Hiragana on my first semester and Katakana on my second semester. The harder part, for me, was learning the vocabulary and the grammar.

This year was also a year of shooting and editing. We've done TV and Radio Productions before but this was a time for doing videos and films.

We've done a promotional video. 

This was actually the first video that I've edited and I'm actually not proud of it! Hahaha! The chroma was just wrong and the shots were not that great.

Then, we did a cultural video of Ongpin. 

Sorry I couldn't upload the video because the file size is enormous! Haha! Anyway, this video was really what I'm proud of! It was my first try to use Adobe Premiere, since the promotional video was done in another software. It took me a day, literally since I started at around 4pm and ended at 7am, to put it all together and another 8 hours to polish it.

Next, we did a documentary about air pollution which we won 4th place among our batch. Sadly, we didn't have pictures of it. :(

For the first semester, our last shoot production was a film we did from scratch for less than two weeks. It had a working title of "Tres Marias: Ang Tatlong Babaeng Walang Magawa" since we really didn't know what to name it.

Getting all their things for the shoot.

An outtake of the scene of Tim

After a long day of shoot.

The boys, who we will always be grateful to. All but Shin were not in our group but still they opt to help us out and supported us in this film.

Me at 3AM and awake for over 48 hours.

Cheri catches some sitting time while waiting for the others.

Before we even started the shoot at MOA, this was around 10pm.

The last shoot for the day and the ending scene of the film.

The movie ended up with the title....

Tres Marias stuck since we didn't know what else to name it. Haha! Anyways, we won Best in Production Design for this! :) Kudos to our very keen team who were very particular with the colors, wardrobe and locations!

Though the film was last shoot production we did for the first semester, we still had our production number for the Spectacle Awards. Spectacle Awards is an award giving body to the films made by the seniors. 

Here are the picture as each film's production cast made their entrance.

GuRO

Ang Sala

Behind The Scenes

Tatlong taong Isang araw

15th of February

Hablot

 

And ofcourse, Tres Marias.

In between gaps of the awards night, we had our production number. Our batch was divided into four.

 The Popstars

Thriller 

Lady Gaga

And us, Burlesque 

 

And that concludes our first semester. The second semester actually focused on our thesis, which I'll blog in a separate post. 

We also did a the making video of our film

So, that concludes my senior year! It sure was busy but I must say, I really enjoyed it! And it's because of that, that I could say that I am in the right course!

You? What's your senior year like or what you think it will be?