KENNETH PORIO | the blog

Looking back. Somehow I want to move on. I want to continue. But it isn't working. There are questions floating on my head. Things left unanswered. I want to know. I want to finish. I want to live the life The life I deserve. But there is something. That year left me hanging. I have to look back. Know what I was doing. All this time. Oh, I want to know. Where is it? What is it? Who is it? How can I get it? Lord, I need a friend. Someone who will understand. This question left unanswered. Please help me. I'll look back. That I may find that friend. Hoping to look forward once more. KENNETH

From the King James Bible. A Prayer for Help in Trouble  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 1 How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever?  How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?  As my college days are waning fast, I went into this trouble when I faced adversities over my academic performances. Distractions came with me to prevent me from focusing my studies. And it hit me. It hit me hard. It let me forget that the Father never forgot me and hide His face from me. I went into deep emotional trouble in relation my family, my friends and peers, and my faith in God. 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?  Time after time, I get frustrated over myself everyday. I may have achieved something but everything else aside from it let me think I am a failure. I may smile before you, but deep inside the enemy has been exalting over me throug...

It has been a time since this craze has been popularised. Surprsingly, this form of music and dance culture was established through the Bisdak ( Bisayang dako ) culture in Mindanao, and is being given a frown among those who are unfamiliar to its sound and its impact among Filipino southerners. With its heavy beats, scratchy basses, and high-pitched synths, combined with odd sound effects and Bisaya lyrics and dialogue, no wonder it has been ingrained in the minds and bodies of the low-income class youth of Mindanao. This is called "budots" . To give you a preview, let me share you this clip. Atrocious as it sounds to those who aren't familiar with the music and the dances incorporated with it, budots has interesting elements that have been well-combined to create an identity that spans across the hip-hop and techno music genre. It's been identified as "a crossbreed of European techno music and bad hip-hop, added with some nasty attitude." The...

I have just turned 21. It's been another year for me. Now it's time to start new things. New things to look upon. New things to explore. New things to enjoy. Thank you Father for all You have done. This is for You. Cheers! KENNETH

Things have been going well for me this last semester of mine in UPMin. My schedule's not so tight anymore, although I still have my Special Problem to manage. Only two CS major courses are left for me: Networking, and Automata Theory. Oh, well, this semester has been proven quite challenging for me, since I'm having a new Special Problem adviser. It also happened he is my batchmate who graduated on time. So, it's a bad choice between being comfortable with him as a batchmate and being awkward having to communicate as a faculty member. But nevertheless, I have to do my big part to finish this project of mine once and for all. My job with Himati coincided with my SP as well, since my topic involved the publication. After being a video blogger for two terms, I decided to move on and become mainly the Online Services Developer for the student publication. It's quite stressful having to communicate with the staff regularly to gather their feedback about my project....

My blog's now six years-old ! How the years have gone! This personal blog of mine may be quite inactive because of my work, I will not hesitate myself to post things that I am happy to share with in these past years. For six years, this is where I share my stellar, wonderful life. It has been rocky, but I look ahead of a great journey. Thanks for those who believed in me, and I am grateful for it. Move on! KENNETH

In celebration of my blog's Sixth Anniversary , I present to you a new series of Animations for you to enjoy. All of them are produced through Xtranormal on YouTube. My first animation is called The Serious News , a non-conventional news bulletin, hosted by Fred and Anna. Here they present news and current issues in a way you will enjoy. My next animation is called The Office  Show , hosted by Jane and Andrew, where they discuss business news, and trends in the corporate office. My third series is called My Urban Life , about a man named Jacko, sharing his life in the streets, and how he loves his girlfriend Ashanti. So, don't miss all the excitement with my animation series. Enjoy!   KENNETH

CNN's Kyung Lah talks to a local woman seeking for pagpag. CNN International has been running reports on the Philippines through its Eye On... series. The week-long coverage will cover the best sites of the Philippines, the emerging economy, its governance and current issues like poverty. Speaking of poverty, the news network broadcasted this report by Kyung Lah about a practice that is happening in the depressed slums of Manila. Pagpag is a Tagalog term which means "to dust off." But in the context of these poverty-stricken communities, pagpag is food thrown off by restaurants that are being recovered by these poor people and are being re-cooked for their consumption. Dennis Villegas made an excellent write-up on pagpag and how it has been affecting the urban poor community. This report clearly shocked a lot of Filipinos who could afford to subscribe to cable television and watch CNN. Reactions from social media indicate this is a report that ...

This is Part 2 of a series of posts about the curious case of celebrity among Philippine athletes. You are encouraged to read Part 1 of the series. Volcanoes strut their stuff shirtless. In my previous post , I introduced on why do a number of Filipino athletes are treated like celebrities. In the example of the Philippine football scene, the recent successes of the Azkals national team came fruit due to talented and incidentally good-looking players. In basketball, the arrival of Chris Tiu and Kiefer Ravena in the national side started a new generation of gwapo in the hard-court since the Alvin Patrimonio generation. Now we continue the series with the case of our rugby and racing scene. The Philippine Volcanoes and the Explosion of Rugby Ned Stephenson of the Volcanoes in Bench undies. Rugby football or simply "rugby" is little-known in the Philippines. It isn't as prominent or as widely-preferred as football or soccer, although they are both orig...

This is a series of posts about the curious case of attractive Filipino athletes in the international scene. Part 1 discusses football and basketball.  James and Phil Younghusband, modern sports celebrities of Asia. Admit it. We Filipinos have the best-looking athletes in Asia . We seem so blessed with talented people who happened to be raised with a foreign parentage on either side (father or mother), grown up somewhere else (particularly in Europe), and speak a different language other than those we used to speak. Lately, with the emergence of the Philippine national football team , fondly called the Azkals , it seemed there was a sudden boom of athletic talent and national pride that is topped with a certain sex appeal no sport pundit ever expected. Our country was soon littered with sport stars-slash-sex symbols . In RJ Ledesma's recent column on the Philippine Star , where he interviewed Loyola Meralco Sparks and national team striker Phil Younghusband (right of ab...

There were times I just couldn't stand the stress of being in front of my dear lappie, typing and surfing the Web all day finding solutions to my dev problems. I mean, how can you survive staring at that Notepad++ window seeing those eye-straining lines of colour-coded code depicted in oh-so-boring Courier New . Like, can we just change the font to a more legible one or put some colourful character to it as a background? Or at those times when you were desperately looking for a decent WiFi connection around the city for you to download the latest IDE release, the latest XAMPP package, or the recent Ubuntu Linux version, wasn't it painstakingly done? That 800 MB installer through BitTorrent won't cut into your mobile broadband stick's data cap. What a shame. Or fixing the problem with your slow, outdated computer, making stress of repairable defects. The headphone jack is loose, the LCD screen border just cracked, you hardly press the Return key. Can't hel...

It's been a long time since I've been blogging here. I've been so busy working with my Special Problem , juggling with my academics, communicating with people in my new-found online communities, and enjoying a great journey in living my last few months of my college life in UP Mindanao. I've moved on from the messy layout of my blog, and I'm now reverting to one of Blogger's default layouts - which is the dynamic views layout. I want a fresher, more streamlined experience for my readers. Something easier on the eye. My blog will turn 6 this May, and I want to make it early to create this change. As days go by, I'll be sharing to you more of my thoughts about my life in UP, the Pinoy football scene, current affairs, and so much more. So, how do you look at life? Hoping it stays fresh. KENNETH

A hundred years on, his face still binds in the consciousness of Barcelona, and now lives in the new generation of Pinoy football players and fanatics. Twenty-six years ago, the Filipino people united together in EDSA to peacefully put an end to a regime that has put the Philippines in chains for three decades. But there was an event that was long ignored by Filipinos in the sporting world. A hundred years ago, a Filipino made an impact to the nation as the youngest player to debut in one of the world's most prestigious football clubs. His name: Paulino Alcántara . On February 25, 1912, at the age of 15 years, 4 months and 18 days, the Filipino-Spanish mestizo , capped his first game for F.C. Barcelona, one of the world's most famous, most wealthy, most influential and most revered football clubs, that currently boasts the likes of Lionel Messi of Argentina and Cesc Fàbregas of Spain. At a tender age, the Ilonggo-native not only capped for the team, but also score...

Wonder why everytime these men flock together, fans flock together as well? Blame social media. (credits to jonny ) On that night on December 5, 2010 , when the few Filipino football fans who have watched the Philippine national football team win against the national team of Vietnam, the then-defending Suzuki Cup champions, they logged-in to Facebook and Twitter and passed the good news of victory around the Internet. Minutes later, the national team’s well-known and well-loved monicker, the “ Azkals ,” became a trending topic on social media, and Google searches of almost every player of the national team surged. People started to get interested with the men who became a new source of Pinoy pride. A year on, the Azkals and the sport of football became one of the most talked-about topics in the Philippines today. It’s all because of the Internet . Since the 2010 Suzuki Cup, anything related to the Azkals and Philippine football trends in social media regularly. Why do I cr...

Many Filipinos wondered why the Philippine national football team, fondly called the Azkals , had to have these good-looking, highly skillful men. Many question why these mixed-breed players should be there. Why the need? Improve the style of play? Definitely. Make the Philippine team win games? Surely. Raise consciousness of football in the country? Yes! But... make shrieking, swooning female fans? I'm not sure of that one, but it's strange but true . In this world called football ( soccer to some), there are the poster boys that would grace the conscious and the unconscious minds of football fans, whether they play the sport or not, support the national team or not or root for one club or not at all. These men have all the skills plus the looks that attract them. And the Filipino diaspora is lucky enough to produce offspring with traits that only heaven could buy to get it off. Traits that are inherent of the mixture of different genetic makeups of different races. Trai...