Tag: May 13, 2010

A MAELSTROM of campaign advertisements for that precious vote.

Long before the campaign period officially kicked off last February 9, candidates had already been bombarding Filipino voters with just about every campaign material you could think of: TV and print ads, jingles, baller IDs, shirts, stickers.

How these ads will actually work for specific candidates will have to wait till May 10.

Christie Que, head of the school’s advertising arts department, says public relations (PR) and advertising go hand-in-hand on matters like political campaigns with one goal in mind—to familiarize the public with a certain candidate.

JUDGMENT day for candidates in the May 10 national elections is fast approaching, and politicians are banking more on their campaigns with catchy jingles and celebrity endorsers. But what clicks and what doesn’t for Thomasians? Here are some of the answers.

Among all the candidates’ commercials, which one is your favorite?

I like Manny Villar’s commercial jingle, nakaka-LSS (last song syndrome) kasi eh [I like Manny Villar’s commercial jingle because it sticks into my head].
- Sarah Gaba, second-year, Nursing

I like Gilbert Teodoro’s. His commercial is different from the others’, and it has a unique theme. He looks very capable and intelligent.
- Caryl Vegamora, first-year, Commerce

THIS summer, beat the heat in a different way. Try these “cool” alternative sports which will surely take your mind off the unbearable weather. Tired of the usual sports? Ultimate Frisbee, Dragon boat racing or mountaineering is probably for you.

A growing trend

Ultimate frisbee is usually played in an open field where players catch and pass a plastic disc called Frisbee. The game is composed of 14 players split into two teams whose aim is to send the disc to the goal and earn points.

However, players must keep the disc from falling to the ground while passing it around and stay in their position within 10 seconds.

A team wins after reaching 15 points, or at least the highest score after the 80-minute game.

ISSUES of moral deterioration, rapid globalization, and materialism have tested the spirituality of the Catholic laity over the years. Now, adding to the list are the unresolved controversies in the priesthood, which could topple their waning faith.

This year’s UST Theology Week with the theme “The Catholic Priesthood: Then and Now,” primarily focused on the loss of the priesthood’s “natural esteem” and “ecclesial conscience” brought about by the different controversies that haunt it, as well as the great influence of contemporary philosophies of new age religion. The week-long celebration ran from April 12 to 16 at the UST Martyr’s Hall.

YEARS AGO, I bumped into a familiar face while I was walking on campus with a friend.  I never bothered to smile, nor did I do anything to call his attention.  After he walked past us, I told my friend that he was my brother.  With doubt and confusion, she asked, “Kuya mo siya? Ba’t hindi kayo nag-usap?”

This was always the question people asked me about my overlooked encounters with my brother.  And I always answered that we were not close.

IN MATTERS of faith, technology can go hand-in-hand with tradition.

The Catholic faithful have recently put technology to good use and provided an avenue for evangelization with the increasing number of religious online services that aim to deepen the faith. This recent Holy Week, Filipino Catholics saw the advent of a new technological transformation—the birth of an online Visita Iglesia.

Launched last March 29 by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in their official website www.cbcponline.net Visita Iglesia Online gives the visitor a virtual tour of some of the seven famous churches in Metro Manila, enabling them to carry out the age-old tradition of visiting the fourteen Stations of the Cross with the click of a button.

DOZENS of FXs have passed you by. You’ve been waiting by a lamp post along Roxas Boulevard for half an hour. The sun has set and the multi-colored lights are on. People are walking to and fro staring at your Hawaiian polo-shirt as they pass A bronze-skinned boy with a gap between his front teeth snickered and gave you the loser sign. You sighed and checked your watch. It’s 6:45p.m. Your cousin’s recital is about to start. You are so stubborn. You shouldn’t have gone to Siargao.  

WITH social issues constantly pressing in on people, it is expected, even natural, to escape.

Writer Carljoe Javier justifies the need to get away from the busy world in his work And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth (Milflores Publishing Inc., 2009).

A dozen essays for a dozen reasons to be good looking and famous, And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth describes the current condition of a luxurious culture through the author’s experiences.

In “Life of the Party,” Javier introduces himself to his readers as a person who still experiences the problem of prepubescent boys when it comes to socializing, especially with girls. He says he fears people would think he is boring the moment he opens his mouth to talk.

WHILE scrubbing away dirt stubbornly etched on my ankle, shouts were heard reverberating across the hallowed walls of the bathroom. I stopped midway from scrubbing and turned the faucet off.

“Damn it! I allowed her to stay and I’m still the one who doesn’t understand?”

“I just wanted you to talk to her, to make her feel at home. She is still my daughter.”

I can hear the sharp scrape of a chair against the wooden floor as I sense my dad stopping her from doing any more damage to the house.

“I’m leaving!”

A small suitcase was left opened on the bed. Hoarding a good number of clothes enough for three days away from home, she stuffed them all inside, zipped it, all the while occasionally glaring at her husband.

THERE was a time when “middle-aged techie” was an oxymoron.

Three-time Don Carlos Palanca award winner Jessica Zafra shows the readers the face of the comfortable future in the latest installment of her Twisted series, Twisted 8 ½ (Anvil Publishing Inc., 2009). With twenty-seven essays that describe how technology has shaped the mindset of today’s society, Twisted 8 ½ uses the experiences of the author to show how “Generation X” has been so different from the generation of her teens and twenties.