2 graduations, and a ball

yup! i attended 2 graduations this weekend, and will be attending a ball on tuesday.

of course, both of those graduations are mine.=)

yesterday was the CoE Recognition Rites. mam wiza (tsk, still not used to calling her that. hehehe. sowee wiza) and sir jp were the emcees for the event. some of the lower batches from cursor volunteered to help with the recognition rites,and in turn, get to see us graduate *coughtuladniegayparamakitasijephcough*. oh, thanks to mami ish for lending me her digicam in my time of need. nyahahaha.

2 out of the 6 (nga ba?) magna cum laudes of the college came from CS! whohoo! one of them's my blockmate (yeay! go al! go block g25!) and the other one's my orgmate (whohoo! go idol chubbs! let's go cursor!). top 3 and 4 of the whole college. so proud... *wipes away an imaginary tear*

and ashusual, picture picture after the ceremony. although we weren't able to have an execom pic because gino, cha, ches and i cant find torya and kd, and when we did find them, kd and gino needed to go. *sigh* sayang.

earlier was UPD's 94th Commencement Exercises. and guess who was the guest speaker? the musicman himself, Ryan Cayabyab! what a treat. =P everyone liked his speech - light, funny, and most of all, short! =) some excerpts from his speech (although not verbatim. hehehe. i'll try to find a copy of his speech):

"... una akong nagenroll sa College of Business Administration, ngunit nalaman ko na hindi para sa akin ang pagbibilang, kung kaya't lumipat ako ng College of Music, major in Piano, ngunit nalaman ko rin na nagpapangap lamang ako na maging tulad ni Cecille Licad. Tinanggap nman ako ng departamento ng Composition and Theory, na kung saan nakuha ko ang aking diploma ng summa. *pauses, listening to the audience's ooohhhsss,aaahs, and wows..* Suma-Sampung taon! *laughter*"

".... ang buhay, parang ikot jeep. kahit ilang beses kang mamali ng baba, okay lang. kailangan mo lamang sumakay ulit para makapunta sa iyong destinasyon. ngunit tulad din ng buhay, kung lagi kang namamali ng baba, ay may sira ka na sa ulo" :P

".. pwede rin namang tulad ng isang toki jeep, kung gusto mong pabaliktad ang takbo ng buhay mo." =)

and after that, he went down the stage, sat down at the piano, and sang a song for the graduates, backed up by the san miguel master chorale. huwaw. my brother recorded the latter part of the song on his phone, i'll upload it later.

fact: Ten summa cum laude will lead some 4,000 candidates for graduation at the 94th General Commencement Exercises of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD).
The top honors are awarded to graduates with a General Weighted Average (GWA) of not lower than 1.2.
Leading the candidates is Juvelene O. Itum, BS Math, with a GWA of 1.14. She is followed by Pamela Claire Marie Lazatin (BA Communications Research, 1.158), Anna Theresa L. Licaros (BA Broadcast Communication, 1.161), Yasmeen Carina C. Chan (BS Economics, 1.163), Mary Grace C. Dumalaog (BS Business Administration and Accountancy, 1.165), Noelle Andrea V. Fabie (BS Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, or BS MBB, 1.17), Rachelle C. Ureta (BS Math, 1.17), Lauro Valente L. Abrahan IV (BS MBB, 1.18), Juan Paolo R. Asis (BS Electronics and Communications Engineering, 1.18), and Christopher A. Young (BS Math, 1.20).
Licaros will deliver the graduating class’ valedictory address.
Of the total graduates, 114 are magna cum laude (with minimum GWA of 1.45) and 495 are cum laude (with minimum GWA of 1.75). (http://www.upd.edu.ph/~updinfo/Pagtatapos05/Summa.htm)

oh, and did i mention that the last time that Engg had a summa was 2001? It was Mr. Neil Ongkingco, incidentally also the Computer Science's Department 1st summa cum laude. being engg's summa cum laude is really an honor. but hey, graduating from the college and the university alone is a big achievement already! :P

and juan paolo asis had a total of *counts* around 4 standing ovations already, incuding the one we gave him earlier. hehehe. he was also part of the EEE department's ACM-ICPC 2004 group.

but, there's still work to do for Engg's Graduation Ball on tuesday, so... hehehe. =)

congratulations to my batchmates! we did it! =)