binibining pilipinas international

First of all, congratulations to Ms. Patricia "Chot" Fernandez for winning the Bb. Pilipinas - International award yesterday at the "Binibining Pilipinas 2008" beauty pageant. :)

It's my first (and in all likelihood last) time to watch a beauty pageant "live". Watching it at the Araneta Center is definitely a unique experience. Even though we could hardly distinguish faces from our seats at upperbox, there's something quite special about being with a bunch of people and cheering madly for a single person (Chot of course).

I guess it would have been fun either way, but having her actually win makes it so much more satisfying. Especially considering our nerves when she wasn't on stage during the "harana" (serenade) intermission number. I think she fainted or something and even had to be escorted to the stage. Well, she did win eventually. So I guess everything ended up ok. Congratulations again.

Also with me there were my T.A. buddies (Mendz, Tanya, and Dean), Friends (Ron, Jaafgie, Anna, Josiah, Roy and Bananie). Most of the others I think are from UPSCA (UP Student Catholic Action), Chot's org.

Honestly, I'm not really the beauty-pageant-watching type of guy (beauty-watching would be much much better :D). I just basically got invited by Jaafgie (Chot's Special Someone). Congrats to Jaafgie too! I have to give it to my "scholastic soulmate" (i.e. classmate since 1st year highschool). He really worked so hard to support Chot. From gigantic tarps, to inviting his friends, giving advances on tickets, and even down to huge painted #2 signs (Chot's number), which from what I heard, he did himself. You're the man!

I don't think I've ever had such a jam-packed Saturday schedule since the semester started. Earlier that day, I had to endure 3 hours of differential equations for my grad subject. Then I was asked to be one of the judges for Squeeeze 2008, UP Circuit's Intercollegiate EEE quiz show. After that, we ate at Volare in Cubao for my friend Wilson's birthday party. Then, straight off to the pageant. I finally got home (bulacan) at about 2am. Whew!

I'll post some picks once I get my hands on some.

yunlang.

my very first cubing video

Here's my first ever cubing video (actually my very first youtube video). We're basically trying to find new and more elaborate ways of procrastinating as grad students. What better way to do that than to spend a few minutes filming yourselves while solving a Rubik's Cube.



I know, 38 secs, it's really slow. So what?!

As most of the folks here in the university has probably noticed, there has been a recent resurgence of this 3x3x3 nerdy puzzle. It has gained so much recent popularity in fact, that the "tambays" and beggars at the footbridge in Philcoa can be seen trying to solve the cube. They sell it for something like 20 pesos or so. That price probably gets you one crappy cube which in all likelihood breaks apart once you go faster than 1 turn/sec. :D

I've been trying to speed my solving up a bit since I saw the Diliman Open held at the College of Science last January. I bought a decent cube from Toys-R-Us and after a few weeks, I've brought down my average from about 1 min to about 40 secs now. Unfortunately, I'm probably reaching the limits of the not-so-efficient corners first algorithm I've been using since high school.

Right now I'm trying to learn something new. In particular, the Petrus method, which they say is quite fast once you get used to it. So far, I suck at it. Probably about 2min for one solve.

So I guess I'll just post another video once I speed up a bit.

yunlang.