For practical purposes, I will also get myself a 3/4 or knee-length
winter coat and perhaps winter boots as well. Yes, I know, it's the
height of summer, but that's a good time to start rooting through
vintage and second-hand shops. This is a hefty purchase, so I'm
treating it as an expensive birthday gift that will help ensure that I
have future birthdays. ;)
My friends are organizing a little Skype party for me tomorrow morning
(evening, their time). It's nice to be loved! =)
I'll blog some more tomorrow, but in the meantime, let me post letters
to two people who made all of this possible.
Dear Mom,
I really think that we should celebrate our moms during birthdays. It
must not have been easy raising me, and despite the fact that I seem
to be sorta doing well on my own (at least I can cook adobo!), a mom's
job is never truly over, is it? <hug> I wouldn't want you to ever stop
being my mom. I like having a mom: someone I can ask questions,
someone I can tell stories to, someone I can even disagree with every
so often because I know we're going to make up really quickly. Thanks
for teaching me so many things about life. I love you, mom. Happy
birthday!And it _is_ a happy birthday. I'm really happy that I was born, and I
think a lot of other people are happy too. I hope to make thousands
and thousands of people happy about that, and thankful that I had such
a wonderful mom.<hug>
I love you. =)
Dear Dad,
You always tell me, “Remember, I gave birth to you!” I paid attention
during my biology classes, so I know that's not _literally_ true—but
it's truer than people might think. You _did_ give birth to me.You showed me what it's like to dream and to pursue that dream.
You showed me the sacrifices people make to do what they love, and how
they can help the world by doing so.You showed me how to excel.
You showed me how to tell stories and how to get people excited.
You showed me how to get myself out of scrapes (and, err, how to get
myself into them, sometimes).YOU GAVE BIRTH TO ME TOO!
I love you. =)
My parents totally rock.
]]>Or so he thought. When he asked me to add a couple of pictures to the
website, I laughed and told him to do it himself.
He looked at me skeptically. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,”
he said. Having just heard G-nie Arambulo’s stories about all that
code in the Dreamweaver class she took, my dad wasn’t keen on mucking
about with all of that geek stuff.
“No, no, it’s simple! Here, let me show you.” I showed him how to log
on and edit his page. The other photographers perked up and hurried
over, jotting down notes.
“How do I remove images?”
“Do you know their filenames? Delete those lines.”
“How do I upload a new image?”
“Make a small version of your portfolio shot first. Maybe 77 pixels
like everything else? Then add an Attach: line over there, save, click
on the link, choose the file and upload. Tada!”
“Can I have categories?”
“Sure! Just add a little text. Then you can copy and paste things. You
can drag-and-drop, or you can use the keyboard to copy and paste like
this: Shift-down, Command-x, move, then Command-v…”
“Can I select separate lines?”
“Ummm, no, I don’t thi… HEY! Wow. The Mac’s way cool. What’s that?
Command- and then select?”
My dad set to work, saying, “We’re going to have food brought in.
You’re not leaving until we get this done.” He sounded stern, but I
could tell that he was excited. “Can I add something about my
interests?”
“Sure! Here, let’s write something about Mali. Just edit the page and
add your text before your featured photos.”
John K. Chua has over 30 years of experience in advertising
photography. In his spare time, he takes care of an elephant.
“In fact, you can give Mali her own page. Just add double brackets
around ‘elephant’.”
“Okay. Now walk me through this website, step by step.”
We went through all the pages. He added more detail to the About Us
page, listing cool equipment I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Seeing
him engrossed in organizing and adding to his portfolio, I snuck
back upstairs.
“Sacha, please come down to the main office.” Caught!
“The images are still too big.”
“Hmm, let’s see what we can do…” I remembered that Adobe Photoshop
has a “Save for Web” feature. It suggested saving the picture as GIF
instead of JPEG. GIF’s color limitations weren’t obvious at that size,
and the image quality was acceptable. A few clicks later, we got it
down to 12 KB: just a few seconds on any Internet connection.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” said my dad,
mock-annoyed. “Now I’m going to have to do all of the pictures again.”
I grinned sheepishly. “Oops, forgot about it.”
When he turned back to the rest of the files, I bounced back upstairs.
Now the website’s in the hands of the people who know the most about
the business. Yay! Technology to the rescue! Wikis totally rock!
Further resources:
The cultural festival is preceded by 9 nights of merry-making, dancing
and chanting at the Market Plaza. The Imbayah will be officially
kicked off with an opening ritual or “Baki” to be held on April 28 at
1:00 PM in the Market Plaza, followed by a concert at the ICS gym. On
April 29, a dancing parade will be held starting at 7:30 on the ICS
grounds. An agro-industrial fair will be held at the newly-constructed
Municipal Market Building, followed by musical competition, a variety
show, and a street party. April 30 opens with a street dancing contest
at 7:30 at the LGU Extension Office in Ilogue, ethnic games and craft
competitions, and various races to be held at the Market Plaza. At
7:00 on May 1, hiking enthusiasts can tackle the Bannawor trail. This
will be followed by more competitions and the closing ceremony.
Visitors are invited to come experience Banaue at its best. For more
information, contact Jerry U. Dalipog, municipal mayor of Banaue.
(or get in touch with me or my dad.)
]]>