Snoworld™

⅓ Life Crisis: Knowing Who I Am

2012-02-24T21:44:09-08:00

Your Aspie score: 154 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 41 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie

I did not know they have a “label” for people like me who have a strong imagination and uses it more often than not: Visual-Spatial Learner/Thinker. When I was a kid, I relied a lot on it. Had a hard time in school.

The more I read and know about these things (VSL, Aspergers Syndrome), the more I cry. The more I wished that I had proper education fitting for someone like me, and wished I have known about these things early on to further help myself for the future.

Now at 30, a third (or maybe a fifth – a long-life!) of my life has passed. I could have done a lot of things. I could have ended elsewhere better.

It is very important for a left-handed person like me who is an INFP (Introversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Perception), an Aspie, and VSL to know these things early because we have to adjust, find ways to adapt, and are constantly struggling in many areas of our lives.

Today, my interests are varied and wide. Jack-of-All-Trades-Master-of-None. I sway from left and right. From logic to creative and back. I just now realized it is much harder. Harder because I ended up being someone who I am not. I ended up being someone the people around me, the world, wants me to be.

Time passed and it will never be recovered. I hate regrets and I don’t remember regretting anything. I guess this is the first regret in my life. But it was not within my reach, I had no idea about these things in the first place!

All I can do now is just go back to daydreaming. To imagine. It’s what I do best – to visualize things, to see the future, my future.

But despite all these, I can say that I am still happy with my life and my past. I wouldn’t be here if things didn’t happen the way it happened. I wouldn’t have known great people, even if just online, like YOU.

I probably wouldn’t have developed the attitude of “keep fighting, never give up”. I wouldn’t probably have developed the techniques I use today to “control” my self.

My life was hard, and it still is. I can guarantee to most of you “normal” humans that the life of someone like me is no ordinary life with no ordinary trials and tribulations. It will probably only get harder. But at least now, I have additional weapons because I am now aware of who I am. That nothing is wrong with me in the first place! That I’m not superman (people always tell me: we are not you; you can do it but we can’t), or even abnormal (above normal? Haha).

I’m just like you. As much as you are unique, I am also unique. We are no different but at the same time very different.

Call me eccentric, weird, or whatever word you want to use, that won’t affect me anymore because I now know who I am and what I am. It’s me. That’s what defines me.

So from hereon out, it is time for me to narrow down my interests and find that one or two or three things I want to be known for and excel at it. If you encounter me in your life’s travel, know that, I am an INFP, I am an Aspie, a left-handed (they say we are evil), and a Visual-Spatial Learner.

It is time to take back control and live the life of who I really am. Enough of the world dictating to me that I should be like the rest. It is not who I am. I will do things that best fit us. Not things that best fits the rest of the world.

The post ⅓ Life Crisis: Knowing Who I Am by JC John Sese Cuneta, was originally posted on Snoworld™.

⅓ Life Crisis: Road To A Better Me

2011-09-17T05:56:37-07:00

CC By-SA 2.0 by Quasic

Back in January I had to break something – something very close, dear, and important to me. For a reason, a reason so great I’m willing to risk everything even the possibility that it will be impossible to fix and heal that which I broke.

It’s for changing, learning, and picking up the pieces that I lost through the years. Years that were filled with anger, hatred, distrust, and bitterness. It blinded me. I entered the denial-stage. Changes came, I had to be strong – or so I thought I was. Little did I know, for every change there is an equal and opposite payment.

For example, I stopped being a jealous freak. It went to trash, gone, no more. But it came with a price, a price I had no idea I paid which through the years had resulted into more not-so-good things. I gave up one ‘bad’ trait, I paid an equal and opposite payment, and ended up having more ‘bad’ traits that I was sugar-coating all these years.

So I have to break that something AND someone. Enough is enough. I’m not happy with who I am, I’m not happy with what’s happening in my life. Enough is enough.

Six months later, mission accomplished. I found the bits and pieces of me that I threw away. I found the good things about me that my friends of my younger years loved about me. But once again, it came with a price. A price I have to pay again, for in every change there is an equal and opposite payment.

With those good things back, the price I paid was – mr. jealous freak is back also. And for the past few days (and weeks), especially today, I am feeling jealous over someone, some people, things that I saw and read a few minutes ago. It’s back and so far I can control it, but for how long?

I can say I am better equip today than before, with what I have experienced in the years that passed. But I do not know how long I can keep mr. jealous freak at-bay.

The challenge now for me is to find an equilibrium. The pre-trash me and the post-trash me are currently waging a war inside of me. In fact back in July, I already had a fit of rage, had been at the lowest in my life, went through the deepest depression I ever experienced, it was total chaos. It took me weeks to get back in control.

It’s a roller-coaster life. Have you been in this state before? Where your two selves are waging a devastating war inside of you for days, weeks, and months (and I hope not years)? How did you manage?

Right now, this is what I am going through. The new me can not be if I will not be able to combine these two me’s. No, I don’t have a multiple personality disorder, I’m an INFP – Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perception. We are deep and we go deep. We think about everything and we try to comprehend every facet of everything.

What do I do? I don’t know. We’ll see. I think writing these thoughts, feelings, and challenges down is one good way of finding a balance – with the goal of merging the two.

Good night, signing out.

The post ⅓ Life Crisis: Road To A Better Me by JC John Sese Cuneta, was originally posted on Snoworld™.

Sintel, an Open Movie Project Created with Blender

2010-10-05T22:20:24-07:00

Blender Foundation did it again with Sintel. A Creative Commons short film created with the #1 3D animation tool Blender (which happens to be a FLOSS).

A great improvement from their second film Big Buck Bunny and the first Elephant’s Dream. It only shows what we can do with a free-of-charge and at the same time Free/Libre Open-Source Software called Blender.

Watch the movie after the jump.

“Sintel” is an independently produced short film, initiated by the Blender Foundation as a means to further improve and validate the free/open source 3D creation suite Blender. With initial funding provided by 1000s of donations via the internet community, it has again proven to be a viable development model for both open 3D technology as for independent animation film.

This 15 minute film has been realized in the studio of the Amsterdam Blender Institute, by an international team of artists and developers. In addition to that, several crucial technical and creative targets have been realized online, by developers and artists and teams all over the world.

Did you know that Spider-Man 2, Friday or Another Day, and History Channel used Blender to create animations?

The post Sintel, an Open Movie Project Created with Blender by JC John Sese Cuneta, was originally posted on Snoworld™.

Baybayin – the Forgotten Pre-Hispanic Writing of the Filipino

2009-06-12T06:23:06-07:00

For my “111^st Philippine Independence from Spain and Colonialism” post, I decided to unearth the forgotten Filipino writing script our forefathers used and called Baybayin.

Before we begin, I just want to note that you need to download a Baybayin font if you want to see our writing script. I personally use the oldest script style Tagalog Doctrina 1593© and the modern Tagalog Stylized©. It is a pain to create an image of each character so I’m sorry if you do not want to install a small font file.

With that out of the way, let’s start our adventure.

The Modern Filipino Alphabet

Today, we are using The Modern Filipino Alphabet or in Filipino Ang Bagong Alfabetong Filipino. We have 28 letters in total, these are: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ññ, N͠g/n͠g, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz.

Aside: On N͠g/n͠g vs. prepositional ng̃ vs. words ending in ‘ng’

The 16^th letter ‘N͠g’ is read as endzi [en-dzi] and pronounced as /ŋ/ as in ping, wing, ringer, and bringer. Also if you noticed, I wrote the letter endzi with a long tilde above the Latin letters ‘n’ and ‘g’. Example, N͠gunit and pan͠gun͠gusap. This was the original and correct way of writing the single-letter – N͠g/n͠g.

The tilde was used to signify or show that the two Latin letters ‘n’ and ‘g’ are actually just one, single letter – ‘n͠g’. Another purpose was for easy reading and pronunciation. However, there is a rule to be followed and this is where it gets very confusing. If the word with the Latin letters ‘n’ and ‘g’ are pronounce as /ŋ/ then it is the single-letter ‘n͠g’, put a long tilde over ‘ng’ if you like. On the other hand, if the Latin letters ‘n’ and ‘g’ in a word is pronounced as [ŋɡ] like in linger, finger, baranggay, then it is not the single-letter ‘n͠g’ but two separate Latin letters ‘n’ and ‘g’.

Here are examples that will help in understanding the difference:

‘ng’ as /ŋɡ/
1. linger /lɪŋɡɝ/
2. finger /fɪŋɡɝ/
3. baran͠gay /baraŋɡay/
‘ng’ as /ŋ/
2. bringer /brɪŋər/
3. singer /ˈsɪŋə/
4. ringer /ˈrɪŋə/
5. ping /pɪŋ/
6. wing /wɪŋ/
7. nan͠g /naŋ/
8. pan͠gpan͠g /paŋpaŋ/

In the late 19^th or early 20^th century, standardization of the Tagalog language (which led into the birth of the separate Pilipino/Filipino language), changed the meaning of the single-letter ‘ng’ from /ŋɡ/ to /ŋ/. When ‘ng’ used to mean /ŋɡ/ the spelling baran͠gay was both a Tagalog and a Spanish word. When ‘ng’ changed to mean /ŋ/, all Tagalog words with the former /ŋɡ/ pronunciation were changed to /ngg/ in spelling. The Spanish word baran͠gay is now spelt as baranggay – and without the long tilde.

When the language Pilipino was created (and later renamed to Filipino), the use of the long tilde to signify the single-letter ‘n͠g’ in words disappeared. The old spellings prior to the standardization were also accepted as a Pilipino/Filipino word. Hence, the Spanish word barangay is now also a Pilipino/Filipino word (but not Tagalog) – without the long tilde; ironically, the Tagalog word baranggay slowly disappeared from use as well (and if you use it, you’ll more likely encounter people telling you how you got the spelling wrong).

Pre-Standardization	Tagalog Standardization	Modern Pilipino/Filipino
baran͠gay	baranggay	barangay

Another reason for including a long tilde above the single-letter ‘n͠g’ is to identify if it is single-letter ‘n͠g’ or the prepositional word ng̃, the latter pronounced as /naŋ/. This prepositional word is actually the shortened form of nan͠g which is itself the shortened form of the words na an͠g. A similar shortened form is mg̃a which is actually man͠ga.

The correct way of writing the shortened forms of nan͠g and man͠ga is by including a tilde above the letter ‘g’, as in ng̃ and mg̃a respectively. For what purpose? To tell the reader that it is a shortened form of a longer word, especially when it comes to ‘ng’. So, by seeing ng̃ the reader will know that it is the prepositional word nan͠g/na an͠g and not the single-letter ‘n͠g’.

There are also words like Pampanga and barangay without any tilde because under the Pilipino/Filipino language rule these words are pronounced as Pam-pang-ga or Pang-pang-ga; and ba-rang-gay respectively. Although under the Tagalog language rule, a long tilde is required as was shown earlier.

One more thing to note before we move on, someone once told me that the pronunciation and syllabification of Pampanga is Pam-pan-ga. This is wrong because the word and name came from the root word pampang/pangpang (pam-pang/pang-pang).

Baybayin – the Forgotten Filipino Writing Script

ᜀ

ᜊ

ᜃ

ᜇ

ᜄ

ᜑ

ᜎ

ᜋ

ᜈ

ᜅ

n͠ga

ᜉ

ᜍ

ᜐ

ᜆ

ᜏ

ᜌ

ᜁ

e
i

ᜊᜒ

be
bi

ᜃᜒ

ke
ki

ᜇᜒ

de
di

ᜄᜒ

ge
gi

ᜑᜒ

he
hi

ᜎᜒ

le
li

ᜋᜒ

me
mi

ᜈᜒ

ne
ni

ᜅᜒ

n͠ge
n͠gi

ᜉᜒ

pe
pi

ᜍᜒ

re
ri

ᜐᜒ

se
si

ᜆᜒ

te
ti

ᜏᜒ

we
wi

ᜌᜒ

ye
yi

ᜂ

o
u

ᜊᜓ

bo
bu

ᜃᜓ

ko
ku

ᜇᜓ

do
du

ᜄᜓ

go
gu

ᜑᜓ

ho
hu

ᜎᜓ

lo
lu

ᜋᜓ

mo
mu

ᜈᜓ

no
nu

ᜅᜓ

n͠go
n͠gu

ᜉᜓ

po
pu

ᜍᜓ

ro
ru

ᜐᜓ

so
su

ᜆᜓ

to
tu

ᜏᜓ

wo
wu

ᜌᜓ

yo
yu

ᜊ᜔

ᜃ᜔

ᜇ᜔

ᜄ᜔

ᜎ᜔

ᜋ᜔

ᜈ᜔

ᜅ᜔

n͠g

ᜉ᜔

ᜍ᜔

ᜐ᜔

ᜆ᜔

ᜏ᜔

ᜌ᜔

You can see above what I call the Baybayin Card. It is what I use as reference when I am writing something in Baybayin until I learn it by heart. Obviously, I used the modern alphabet arrangement that we are familiar with today, in other words it is not the original arrangement of Baybayin (if there was one).

That’s it! There’s our Baybayin alphabet.

The Kudlit

I know what you have in mind, how about the vowel sounds e, i, o, and u? How do we write these? First, we have to remember that in Baybayin, the vowel sound ‘e’ and ‘i’ are the same, ‘o’ and ‘u’ as well. To tell the reader that it is ‘ko’ in the word ako, our ancestor adds a kudlit below the character ‘ka’ (ᜃ) to make ‘ko’ (ᜃᜓ). To write ate, add the kudlit above the character ‘ta’ (ᜆ) to make it ‘te’ (ᜆᜒ).

It’s easy to remember, vowel sound e/i place the kudlit above; while the vowel sound o/u the kudlit is placed below. Got it?

The curious case of Virama

Our ancestors were using this writing system for hundreds (maybe even thousands) of years before the Spaniards landed in our shores and claimed that we were uncivilized and without a writing system (a common belief taught and passed down to support the claim that Philippine history began in the Spanish colonization). One of the proof that the early writers (and other historians today) were wrong was the fact that the Spaniards have to introduce the virama in Baybayin just to communicate more effectively to the locals of the islands. In other words, we have a stable and solid language and writing system. Clearly, we were not uncivilized, barbaric, people when they found us.

Virama is a cross sign, one could argue that it was because of the Spaniards’ Catholicism religion, that is added below the Baybayin characters except ‘a’, ‘e/i’, ‘o/u’, ‘ha’, and ‘n͠ga’, to tell the reader that the letter ends as a consonant or without a vowel sound. This was introduced because in Western languages, a word may end in a consonant but in Baybayin it must always end with a vowel.

Baybayin is a writing system based on the languages spoken by its users. The spoken languages of the ancient Filipinos were all syllabic which can only be of V or CV syntax. For example, ama is VCV (Vowel-Consonant-Vowel). But words like mabuhay and kapatid are CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant). In the Philippine languages, these words are pronounced and written as mabuha (ᜋᜊᜓᜑ) and kapati (ᜃᜉᜆᜒ).

With the introduction of the Spanish virama, the vowel in ‘ya’ and ‘da’ can be cancelled out and the reader aware of it. Instead of ᜋᜊᜓᜑ (mabuha) it is now pronounced and written as ᜋᜊᜓᜑᜌ᜔ (mabuhay) ᜃᜉᜆᜒ (kapati) is now ᜃᜉᜆᜒᜇ᜔ (kapatid).

The virama is a sensitive addition to Baybayin in today, modern times. There are Filipinos who does not accept the usage of virama for various reasons. There are also those who are in favour of, or are neutral with its usage. Personally, languages both in spoken and writing form, develops over time. If we want to revive the use of Baybayin in our time and the future generations, we have to accept the changes introduced in the past and introduce new additions to catch up with time.

For example, the majority of Filipinos today can not tell the difference between Filipino and Tagalog languages. Filipinos does not even know what is the difference between a language and a dialect. Even worse, many Filipinos doesn’t want to accept the historical fact that the preposition ng̃ is the shortened form of nan͠g which itself is a shortened form of na an͠g. The worst of it all, instead of developing and enriching our own languages, we are destroying it slowly but surely. That is why I personally believe that we have to accept the changes introduced in the past and add appropriate, valid ones to catch up with time. We have to continue developing this writing script of ours. We have to enrich it so future generations will use it again – even if for pastime only at first (revival has to start somewhere).

Anyway, we are getting off-topic and political… so going back.

I want to write my name in Baybayin!

Before you start writing in Baybayin, especially if you are going to put a tattoo on your body or create a logo for your company, there are rules and guidelines that must be followed, lest you end up with the wrong word.

Rules in Writing Baybayin

Baybayin, as its languages it was based on, are syllabic. Thus, spell your word as it sounds.
Drop all silent-letters, you don’t need those.
Originally, if the letter ‘r’ is between vowels, it is written as ‘d’ in Baybayin, otherwise use the character for ‘l’.
Today however, it will be confusing. As I have said, develop and enrich the writing system, I suggest that you use the character for ‘ra’ that is present in the Bikolano Baybayin.
The consonant letter ‘h’ does not exist in Baybayin. The letter ‘h’, without a vowel after it, is always a silent letter. If you don’t believe it, try to pronounce a word with an ‘h’ that has no vowel after it.
Do not use automated/machine Baybayin translators/transliterators. You’ll likely end up with the wrong word. Learn Baybayin, it is easy.
Last but definitely the most important: if you are not sure with your translation or transliteration attempt, then GO ASK someone knowledgeable in Baybayin and language rules.

How to Translate and Write Baybayin?

Translate your word into any Philippine Language (we have a lot!)
If there is no direct translation, translate the meaning of the word instead. This is an Asian practice and applies to us as well.
If there is still no appropriate translation, time to transliterate. Again, spell it as it sounds (I can not stress that enough).
Follow the rules above of course.

Actual Examples

Mabuhay (en: a Filipino greeting; or to live)
- ᜋᜊᜓᜑᜌ᜔
Salamat (en: thank you)
- ᜐᜎᜋᜆ᜔
Ninuno (en: ancestorr)
- ᜈᜒᜈᜓᜈᜓ
Iniibig Kita (en: I love you [deeper way of saying I love you in Filipino])
- ᜁᜈᜒᜁᜊᜒᜄ᜔ ᜃᜒᜆ
Mahal na Mahal Kita (en: I love you very much)
- ᜋᜑᜎ᜔ ᜈ ᜋᜑᜎ᜔ ᜃᜒᜆ
Baybayin
- ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔
Alibata
- ᜀᜎᜒᜊᜆ
Sherlene [Siye-lin] (a first name)
- ᜐᜒᜌᜒᜎᜒᜈ᜔
JC [Diyi-si] (a first name and nickname)
- ᜇᜒᜌᜒᜐᜒ
John (Juan) [Hu-wan] (a first name)
- ᜑᜓᜏᜈ᜔
Sese [Se-se] (a Chinese family name)
- ᜐᜒᜐᜒ
Cuneta [Ku-ne-ta] (a Spanish family name)
- ᜃᜓᜈᜒᜆ
Jeremiah (Heremias) [He-re-mi-yas] (a first name)
- ᜑᜒᜍᜒᜋᜒᜌᜐ᜔
James [San-ti-ya-go] (a first name)
- ᜐᜈ᜔ᜆᜒᜌᜄᜓ
Mayaman [Ma-ya-man] (en: rich)
- ᜋᜌᜋᜈ᜔
Maharlika [Ma-ha-li-ka] (en: noble)
- ᜋᜑᜎᜒᜃ
Malakas [Ma-la-kas] (en: strong)
- ᜋᜎᜃᜐ᜔
Lakas [La-kas] (en: strength)
- ᜎᜃᜐ᜔
Filipino Ako (en: I am a Filipino)
- ᜉᜒᜎᜒᜉᜒᜈᜓ ᜀᜃᜓ
Maganda (en: beautiful)
- ᜋᜄᜈ᜔ᜇ
Jesus [He-sus] (God’s Name)
- ᜑᜒᜐᜓᜐ᜔
Fatima [Pa-ti-ma] (a Catholic name)
- ᜉᜆᜒᜋ
Kasulatan [Ka-su-la-tan] (en: Writing)
- ᜃᜐᜓᜎᜆᜈ᜔
Kontrata [Kon-ta-ra-ta] (en: Contact)
- ᜃᜓᜈ᜔ᜆᜍᜆ
Liham [Li-ham] or Sulat [Su-lat] (en: Letter)
- ᜎᜒᜑᜋ᜔
- ᜐᜓᜎᜆ᜔
Pampanga [Pam-pang-ga] or [Pang-pang-ga] (a place name)
- ᜉᜋ᜔ᜉᜅ᜔ᜄ
- ᜉᜅ᜔ᜉᜅ᜔ᜄ
Ilocos [I-lo-ko] (a place name)
- ᜁᜎᜓᜃᜓ
Barangay/Baranggay [ba-la-n͠gay] or [ba-rang-gay] (an are sub-unit)
- ᜊᜎᜅᜌ᜔
- ᜊᜍᜅ᜔ᜄᜌ᜔
Gwapo [Gu-wa-po] (en: handsome)
- ᜄᜓᜏᜉᜓ
Roberto [Ro-be-to] or [Ro-ber-to] (a name in en: Robert)
- ᜍᜓᜊᜒᜆᜓ
- ᜍᜓᜊᜒᜍ᜔ᜆᜓ
Paul [Pol] (a name)
- ᜉᜓᜎ᜔

Final Words…

Baybayin (or Alibata as is wrongly taught in schools), is a writing form used by the ancestors of the Filipino people. It is not restricted to the Tagalog language only, the script was used in other Philippine languages like Kapampangan. So feel free to use your own Philippine language when translating your word or name before writing it in Baybayin.

Additionally, if you are going to use Baybayin as part of your organization’s logo or as a tattoo, be sure to ask an expert in Baybayin first. I am not an expert in Baybayin script, I only rely on my own research, answers to my questions from the experts, and of course my interest in our culture, language, and history. As such, do not come back to me and blame me that people were laughing at you because your tattoo was wrong or that you spent a lot of money for your logo only to find out later it was wrong.

Finally, if you want me to translate in Baybayin, just leave a comment below. However, I will only give you a font-based Baybayin script which I strongly discourage you from using as your tattoo or logo – get an artist for that.

And no, I will not translate literary works unless I like your work, for example a poem or a love letter or maybe if there’s a compensation Also know that I might post your work publicly as an example (with written, email agreement between us), and that it must be your own literary work.

Something to think about…

When Dr. Jose Rizal wrote/said the famous “Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa malansang isda“, he was partly (or mostly) referring to Baybayin. According to some historians, during the time of Dr. Jose Rizal, the Tagalog language and other Philippine languages were widely used on the islands, from casual conversation to even subjects in schools.

If it was, then he was referring to the written form of our language(s) – the Baybayin script. Which during his time, the knowledge and usage of our own writing form was declining rapidly – to extinction – in favour of the Latin script (i.e. A, B, C, D, E) which the Spaniards introduced and taught widely in our schools.

What do you think?

Other Online Resources for Baybayin Study (for your convenience)

Baybayin – the Lost Script
Baybayin, The Ancient Script of the Philippines
Alibata
Nordenx – A Filipino game developer and font designer
BaybayinScript – if you want a tattoo…
Baybayin.com – online translator (be sure to read the warning)
Alibata: Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network
Tagalog, an Extinct Philippine Script

The post Baybayin – the Forgotten Pre-Hispanic Writing of the Filipino by JC John Sese Cuneta, was originally posted on Snoworld™.