A Recap of 2013

2013 has been a meaningful year for me. It wasn’t a year to explore places or travel destinations, but a year to explore my curiosity and knowledge.

Last year, I was able to collect and to document my daily adventures. This year, I tried my best to keep track of the important things. Most of them are positive thoughts, while others were difficult but challenging. Here are some of  my highlights of this year:

Personal

• Started using a 0.4 pen instead of a 0.3 pen, preferably Unipin, for handwriting (a big deal for me)
• Getting used to having a short haircut almost the entire year (even tried a quasi-Miley Cyrus haircut)
• Failed to plan a children’s birthday party during my birthday (one of my to-do lists for this year)
• Taught some of my friends (and relatives) how to play the violin
• Celebrated my birthday with someone’s home and away from my family
• Struck conversations about politics, academics, martial arts, career, basketball, etc. to my students and colleagues at work
• Had a quasi-long distance relationship; ended up single at the end of this year
• Improved my grammar and personally correcting myself
• Discovered my new favorite ice cream flavor – green tea!
• Locked me outside my apartment 3 times
• First time since the last time (2009) I met Ciarra in Taft, Manila last April
• Finally met my little sister, Aurika
• Voted during the May 2013 elections
• First time I wrote a lengthy letter for someone as a birthday gift
• First time since the last time I bought flowers for someone
• Finally got my Unified Multi-Purpose ID from SSS
• Bought Zelly (a cactus) as my companion last August 2 (and still alive)
• Did not vote during the October 2013’s barangay election
• Ate a bowl of Gelatissimo’s Coppa Bambino by myself (never going to do it again)
• Met Regine’s mom and dad, separately
• First time I played the violin in front of my class
• Finished my contract on my apartment unit this December and will be staying in Cavite during the first quarter of next year
• Celebrated Christmas and New Year with the family in Cavite

Travel

• Destinations were limited mostly in the Metro
• Visited SM Southmall (4 years since my last visit) last March 30
• Went to Blue Coral Beach Resort in Batangas for our faculty’s team building last April 26
• Went to Chokiss at UP Diliman for lunch with Regine last July 6 (almost 2 years since the last visit)
• Visited Fairview last November 9

Health

• Lose some pounds but also gained this year (from 165 to 168)
• Wasn’t able to complete the goal of my target weight (65 kilos)
• No hospital confinement/s
• (Still) avoided drinking alcoholic beverages aside from red wine
• Did not donate blood
• Avoided drinking soft drinks only 60% this year (I’ve been drinking Mountain Dew almost the entire month since November)
• Joined Herbalife’s 10-day nutrition program twice – early and late of this year
• Ate Korean meals for almost an entire month
• Maintained my usual weight of 75-76 kilos; BMI still average
• Spent most of my time eating in fast food restaurants while staying in Manila
• Participated in Yakult’s 24^th 10-Miler (~16 km) run last March 17
• Started jogging with my running buddy TJ during the first quarter of the year
• Visited the dentist for an annual checkup
• Had my diet plan from July to August: no soft drinks, no artificial-flavored drink, no rice, no fried foods, and no French fries
• First time being rejected for blood donation last July 6
• Ran my first half-marathon (21k) during Sante Barley’s Domination Run last November 24 at (Aseana City – Cavite Expressway route)

Events

• Celebrated my parent’s 25^th anniversary at Cyma in Eastwood Mall
• Attended an Accenture event on Windows 8 development last January 23 at Makati Shangri-la Hotel
• Watched Fre’re, a Benilde animation film, last January 24
• Participated in a coastal cleanup drive in Batangas with CBA officers last January 27
• Participated in Benilde’s first IT Summit last February 2; assigned for PowerPoint, videos, and projector
• Watched the Pyro Olympics event in Mall of Asia with the CBA officers last March 2
• Went to my cousins’ ballet recital at the AFP Theatre last March 3
• Participated in the beta testing of Benilde’s new website last May 14
• Went to a Jason Mraz concert with my sister at the Araneta Center last May 14; saw my favorite DJ Jessica Mendoza in person
• Visited Kach and Ciarra’s PopHaus exhibit last August 31
• Celebrated my brother’s 25^th birthday at Sambokojin, Ortigas, last September 7
• Attended the CSB graduation last October 26 at PICC; ate buffet lunch with faculty in Saisaki (first time)
• Participated in Benilde’s outreach program at SOS Village, Alabang, last November 23
• Attended Microsoft’s Partner in Learning Program launch last December 9
• Attended our program’s Christmas Party last December 18; first time participated in a bingo game and won 2 prizes

Teaching

• First time I substituted classes for my colleague last January
• Participated in a 5-day iOS development/boot camp at CSB Hotel last January 28
• Had 3 thesis advising groups last 3^rd term; all groups passed
• Attended my first SMIT Council meeting last February 8; ate a buffet lunch after at CSB Hotel
• Attended my first Information Systems (my course!) curriculum meeting with faculty last February 23
• Attended my first Learner-Centered (LC) boot camp at Balay Indang from March 21 to March 23
• Updated my lesson plan for Web Development 1 and 2; Upgraded teaching Twitter Bootstrap from version 2.3.2 to 3.0, and HTML5 along with CSS3; all websites are now responsive by default;
• Finally had sessions on how to deploy a web application on a domain during the 1^st term; required my students to own one
• One advising group was a finalist for Best Capstone Project during the 1^st term
• Attended the SMIT, CA, and CAPROJ2 general assembly last June 7
• Attended a seminar on Effective Questions and Presentation last June 28
• Had 4 thesis advising groups last 1^st term; all groups passed
• Went to PHINMA Training Center in Tagaytay with SMIT faculty last July 19-20
• Attended a seminar on UML (Use Case and Activity diagrams) with Visual Paradigm last August 2
• Attended a seminar on Business Analytics last August 14
• Attended the 2^nd International Information Technology Conference last September 14 at Ateneo de Manila University; met some of my colleagues from Microsoft
• Attended a seminar on IT-BPM last September 18
• Had 4 thesis advising groups last 2^nd term; all groups passed
• Got perfect attendance record for 3 consecutive terms
• Got outstanding evaluations from my students throughout the school year
• Encouraged my students to join Codecademy, LinkedIn, and StackOverflow
• Trained my students to improve their presentation skills; conducted mini-authorship exams as a preparation for their capstone projects after 2 terms
• First time I caught my students cheat during one of their quizzes and let them confessed right away
• Let me be accessible more for student consultations and thesis advising
• Conducted mock authorship exams and mock presentation aggressively this school year

Social Media

• Redesigned my portfolio and blog website again
• 11,300+ tweets on Twitter, with 623 followers
• Got a Klout score of 62, 1 score lower from the previous year
• 1760+ check-ins, 2 mayorships, and 39 badges on my Foursquare.com account
• Added 300+ new Facebook friends (most are my students)
• Erika Padilla, a courtside reporter, and a celebrity replied to my tweets about web development

Leisure / Gaming

• Watched Parental Guidance, Hansel and Gretel, Mama, Warm Bodies, Oblivion, Iron Man 3, Furious 6, Epic, The Hangover: Part 3, After Earth, World War Z, The Bling Ring, Grown Up 2, Jobs, Pacific Rim, Kick-Ass 2, On The Job, Elysium, This Is The End, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Oblivion, Catching Fire and Frozen in cinemas (these are the only movies I remember)
• Watched movies that were recommended by people: The Dictator, Atonement, Wicker Park, Like Crazy, The Devil, Identity, Liberal Arts, The Breakfast Club, Amelie, Taken 1 & 2, 500 Days of Summer, Death Note 1 & 2, One Day, Cash Back, This Means War, Perfect Pitch, Scott Pilgrim, Art of Getting By, Spring Breakers, A Beautiful Mind, To-Do List, The Hunger Games
• Finished watching the Samurai X Series, including OVA
• Finished watching the first season of The Newsroom
• Spent almost 5 months at least twice a week visiting Duke’s Coffee place
• Finished watching The 70’s Show, from season 1 to 4
• Finished watching the Liar Game 1 and 2 series
• Watched Project X with my cousins last October 12
• Finished watching Parks and Recreation, from season 1 to 3
• No improvements from my FreeStyle account (1^st character – SF, Level 39), but I still play this game since 2005
• Won a handful of prizes playing in Timezone’s crane games

Career

• Completed Directories Plus (DPLUS) kiosks deployments for Robinsons Ermita
• Had the opportunity to design and to develop a website prototype for Resorts World Manila
• Updated and finalize an e-commerce website for Themes & Motifs
• Developed a website for Studio C Interior
• Developed a website for Mr. Choi Kitchen
• Developed and designed a prototype (kiosk system) for a food manufacturing company
• Updated the website for InfoAsia
• Developed a website for Charis Foundation
• Had a foreign client/partner for the development of various projects
• Haven’t enrolled for a masters degree program yet
• Graduated from the BizSpark program, a start-up company, is now 3 years old!
• Did not took certification exams
• Currently teaching in my third year in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde as a part-time faculty, teaching programming subjects and advising students for their capstone projects.
• Applied to become one of the Partners In Learning (PIL) ambassadors to Microsoft (hopefully, I can be part of the program)

Programming

• Expanded my knowledge in Crystal Reports and regular expressions (thanks to thesis advising!)
• Launched GlootList as a social experiment last April 20 (made the website overnight)
• Expanded my knowledge in HTML5 and CSS3 (I still need to take the MCTS certification exam.)
• Participated in my first hackathon (Angel Hack Manila 2013) last June 8-9
• Created a developer account for Windows Phone and Windows 8 thru the BizSpark program
• Did not publish Windows Phone or Windows 8 apps
• Updated and improved Idea92’s learning management system (myGuru)
• Had mini-hackathons for my advising groups for their capstone projects
• Started fiddling with SignalR, ASP.NET MVC4/5, KnockoutJS, and AngularJS
• Started using Subversion and TortoiseSVN for version control; committed projects to Assembla.
• Got 1931 reputation points (as of writing) in StackOverflow.com, with 78 badges (3 gold, 20 silver, and 55 bronze)
• Spent some time in CodeCademy, with 896 points and 35 badges
• Attended a seminar on Building Web Applications with ASP.NET MV4, organized by a community of Windows developers

Speaking Engagements

• Conducted a refresher seminar on CSS at DLS-CSB, organized by CBA, last February 20
• Conducted a seminar on C# last October 30
• Conducted a seminar on WordPress
• Conducted a seminar on Web Development last November 20

I want to thank everyone for making all these experiences and moments worthwhile. Let’s make 2014 an awesome year! (More updates to follow)