I was meaning for a long time to blog about the existing 3D building models in the Philippines found in Google Earth and the Google SketchUp community, but Mike Gonzalez beat me to it last year by listing his top 10 best Filipino 3D sights in Google Earth. I agree with his assessment that U.P. Diliman has the best set of 3D models right now. Bacolod is also getting some 3D-modeling love so if Mike ever updates his list, I’m sure the City of Smiles will get prominent placing.

So, instead of doing a rehash of Mike’s post, I’ll just give a virtual tour of the 3D models in U.P. Diliman. If you have Google Earth, go check them out now!

By the way, all of these models in U.P. Diliman, the models in Bacolod, and many other models in Metro Manila, including the Edsa Shrine and the Rizal Monument, were created by Juan Carlos Ayeng, an engineer who hails from Bacolod. He has created all of these models on his own free time. Give props to this man, please!

The first model we’ll explore is Quezon Hall, the first grand building that will greet you when you enter U.P. Diliman from University Avenue. This is colloquially called the Admin Building and it is where the main office of the university and the U.P. System as a whole is located. Included in the model are the two checkpoints along University Avenue, the amphitheater behind Quezon Hall where the university graduation takes place, and the University of the Philippines’ foremost symbol, the Oblation. You can even see the plaques surrounding the sculpture in the 3D model though the resolution is not enough to read the text. Also note the yellow-black striping along the curb.

Next is Gonzalez Hall, home of the U.P. Diliman Main Library and the Institute of Library Science (where fellow blogger Juned graduated from). I’ve also included a detailed shot showing the photo-textures of the main door. Impressive, ain’t it?

The next building is Ang Bahay ng Alumni. This is where the original branch of Chocolate Kiss—my most favorite restaurant in U.P. Diliman—is located. It’s too bad that Juan Carlos didn’t model the interiors, which should’ve been visible from the outside.

This bright maroon building is Villamor Hall, popularly known as the University Theater. This is where many concerts, plays, the Miss Earth coronation nights, and other grand events are held.

Next door to the University Theater is the U.P. Carillon Tower and the U.P. Film Institute. The Film Institute is where many independent films get a special screening. Interestingly, it seems that Juan Carlos took photo textures of the building on October 16, 2008 based on the signage shown to the extreme right of the screenshot above. If you’re curious, the films screened that day, as seen on the signage, were Brillante Mendoza’s award-winning Serbis and the comedy My Monster Mom.

Last, but not the least, is U.P. Diliman’s UFO church or the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice. This is possibly the most detailed 3D model in U.P. Diliman because the interior is modeled as shown below. You can see that the church pews were also included! Fortunately, the art contributed by five National Artists to the church were modeled.

First is the church itself which was designed by architect Leandro Locsin. Second is the double-sided crucifix and altar created by Napoleon Abueva. Both crucifixes are included in the model (though as flat images only). Third is Arturo Luz’s River of Life, which can be seen as the flooring along the main aisles. And last are the stations of the cross murals by Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok. Unfortunately, Juan Carlos only took a picture of the crucifixion station so we can’t see all 14 murals in Google Earth.

In addition to these models, Juan Carlos has also modeled the Sunken Garden grandstand, the grandstand of the track and field oval, the Shopping Center, and the U.P. Coop building, which has a small supermarket.

So there you have it. A quick tour of the 3D models of U.P. Diliman created by the talented and OC Juan Carlos Ayeng. Here’s hoping that he can finish the rest of the buildings.

I’m a night person. There, now I admit it. Despite having a regular daytime job and usually sleeping at night, I like spending my free time in the evening and I am in most creative phase late at night. I’ve blogged about my preference to get away from it all while the sun is out a few times before and those entries were full of emo-ness which only serves to highlight that I really, personally love the nighttime.

I like how the night brings out the beauty of the city. I guess hiding all that chaos and pollution under the shroud of darkness is one benefit of the night. One of my dreams is to live in a condo unit around 10 to 15 stories up the building where I can have a glittering view of the Metro at night. I hope to achieve that dream someday.

I love driving around the city after midnight since the roads are devoid of traffic. I actually tend to stay somewhere after work instead of going straight home just so I can have a breezy ride back to my house.

I enjoy sunsets much more than sunrises. Sunsets are often spectacularly beautiful and I guess the fact that they are harbingers of the night is a bonus. And I really enjoy how the nighttime brings a brief respite from the summer heat.

I like being creative late at night when people are asleep and everything is quiet. I also have a particular love for 24/7 outlets. Hanging out at BoNa Coffee in Alabang is a personal favorite as well as having late-night dinners at Jollibee, Chowking, or McDonald’s along Macapagal Boulevard (all of which are open 24 hours).

Even though I like how quiet and silent things can be during the night, I also love partying and clubbing late into the wee hours of the morning. I also prefer meeting friends for dinner and enjoying whatever gimik comes to mind. You might say I love the nightlife.

Silent or loud, alone or with friends, I’d rather have either at night.

I don’t actually mind doing activities during the day (I actually brave the sun and heat during our OpenStreetMap Mapping Parties), but if I were given the choice to do something that doesn’t require sunlight, doing it during the night is hands-down the winner for me.

I’m a night person. Are you?

Instead of creating an extensive report of the Ortigas-Mandaluyong Mapping Party like what I did with the Marikina Mapping Party, I decided to just show the actual fruits of our labor, namely before and after looks of the map. If you want a narrative, Ian Lopez has helpfully blogged about the event from his perspective.

The reason why we selected Ortigas Center and parts of Mandaluyong is because Ortigas Center is lacking in details and parts of Mandaluyong still don’t have roads. Compared to the Makati Central Business District, Ortigas Center was quite blank and this doesn’t befit the country’s second most important business district. As for parts of Mandaluyong, there was extensive cloud cover in Yahoo!’s satellite imagery so OpenStreetMappers couldn’t trace roads. Thus, GPS tracks needed to be collected for these areas.

Just like with other Mapping Parties, we “sliced the cake” and originally came up with five slices. But during the morning meet-up at Starbucks Metrowalk, we decided to divide slice #5 into two. The final six slices and the assigned people were:

• Northern Ortigas Center - me

• Southern Ortigas Center - Rally and Ian (with his mom)

• Metrowalk and Ortigas Home Depot - Marloue

• Greenfield and Pioneer - Jayzee (with his wife)

• Northwestern Highway Hills - Maning

• Northeast of Boni - Bart (and Rica)

Now for the goods! The maps below show how OpenStreetMap looked like (left side) before and (right side) after the Mapping Party in selected areas.

Yahoo! had the pre-Metrowalk imagery so this relatively new commercial area east of Ortigas Center was a blank canvas ripe for the picking. Now it looks at par with most maps of Metro Manila.

Aside from several buildings to the north near Robinsons Galleria, the portion of Ortigas Center north of Julia Vargas lacked building outlines. After the Mapping Party, that is now rectified. Who would’ve thought that this part of Ortigas Center had tons of parking lots?

Southern Ortigas Center had several buildings already so the trick is to complete them. In addition, the Shangri-La Complex had some loving and refining from its previous crude depiction on the map.

The area surrounding Pioneer is in the midst of many real estate constructions (such as SM’s Light Residences) and these were now properly added to the map.

Clouds thwarted the tracing efforts of OpenStreetMappers so some on-the-ground inspection with GPS loggers was in order. Now the road network in this part of Mandaluyong is looking pretty complete now.

I declared in Plurk, “sorry, The Matrix, I love you and all but you have absolutely nothing over Inception. *Absolutely nothing!*” Yes, I do think the movie Inception is that good. It’s been getting pretty good raves from the movie critics (though not to universal acclaim, since some movie critics just want to buck the trend and to just be critical ) and it’s already gotten a rating of 9.6 with more than 2,500 votes over at IMDb so I’m definitely not alone in my regard. I knew I wanted to see this film the first time I saw its trailer and the good reviews and raves from other people I know that have already seen the movie had me itching to watch Inception as soon as possible and I did so last night. I often watch movies a week or two after they have been locally released to avoid the crowds, but for this Christopher Nolan masterpiece, I made an exception.

The comparison to The Matrix is very apt. Both explore themes of alternate realities that only occur in the human mind. The Matrix does so with simulated stimulus to the brain while Inception uses the subconscious human mind through lucid dreams. In addition, both are highly original stories developed by their directors and I’m guessing that like The Matrix, Inception will also become a landmark film. Though Inception will not popularize any new cinematic effect like The Matrix’s bullet-time that has been copied to death in subsequent films, I’m pretty sure that future movies will take inspiration upon the layers of complexities that Inception has gloriously weaved.

Inception tells the story of Dom Cobb, an “extractor” who, with a team of people, enters people’s dreams to steal their ideas and secrets. While extraction is a pretty normal form of corporate espionage in the alternate universe of this film, what the film explores is the idea of “inception”—planting an idea into the mind of a target, making him think that the idea was conceived by him alone. The characters in the film attempt to do this inception using the mind-blowing concept of a dream within a dream to plant the idea deep into the subject’s unconscious mind. (I agree with the movie’s premise of a viral idea and I know that if I don’t want somebody to think of something, don’t give them an inkling of it in the first place! )

Despite the complexities of portraying dreams within dreams, Christopher Nolan managed to do so in a really masterful way that doesn’t make the film hard to follow at all, despite blowing your mind a few times. While Inception is definitely of a blockbuster-grade material with plenty of action, extreme car chase scenes, elaborate set pieces, lots of bullet time, and several explosions, what I like about it is it’s all very intellectual. Most summer blockbusters are mindless but Inception is not—it’s mind-blowing—and I would have to say that that is the best kind of blockbuster. In addition, the movie’s last scene leaves you hanging, thinking, and pondering over the whole movie.

While I might understand why the Academy Awards snubbed Nolan’s The Dark Knight for Best Picture and Best Director nominations, I really can’t imagine them turning down this absolute gem of cinematic goodness. If James Cameron’s Avatar was a frontrunner for last year’s Best Picture Award because of its grand and breathtaking visual treat, Inception definitely surpasses it in even more aspects. Christopher Nolan can dream of finally receiving an Oscar Award for Best Direction and I’m guessing that his dream, Inception, is the key to making that a reality.

Here’s an update on Wikimedia Philippines (WMPH), which I’ve blogged earlier this year. The organization has had two members’ meetings already. The first one was the first Annual General Meeting held last May 15 at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in Intramuros and the second was the Second Quarter Meeting held last Saturday, June 19, at the UCCP Shalom Center in Malate, Manila.

I must say that both meetings were great learning experiences. While most of us in the organization are avid contributors to the Wikimedia Foundation projects such as Wikipedia, very few of us have any experience with setting up and running an organization and most especially with conducting meetings in a parliamentary manner. We, the Board of Trustees, made a lot of mistakes in planning and handling the meetings and we’re just glad that the rest of the members were very understanding.

I’ve had the experience being the chairperson of my org in college, but that definitely didn’t prepare me for the “big leagues”. My college org conducted its affairs in a really informal way and we never did adopt any formal rules of conduct more detailed than our org constitution and we didn’t follow any method for doing meetings and deciding on matters of substance. So the recent WMPH meetings were the very first time I encountered doing things the formal parliamentary way and with the famous Robert’s Rules of Order. We all know about making motions, seconding them, and voting thereafter, but I didn’t know that there are actually exact procedures and steps for them. Thanks to our member, Tony, who’s an experienced parliamentarian, many of us in the org learned quite a lot from him. I actually quite like the formality of it all.

As for the projects and activities that WMPH would be doing, one sure thing is that we will have a Wikipedia Day in January 2011 to celebrate the tenth birthday of Wikipedia! Yes, the free encyclopedia we all love (and hate) will be ten years old this January 15! How time flies! Wikipedia Day 2011 will be celebrated together with the Wikimedia Foundation as well as all the other Wikimedia chapters all over the world. Hooray!

A possible project we were also thinking of doing is to tie up with the local GLAM industry (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums), such as the National Museum, to expand the free content about the Philippines’ historical heritage. Another possible activity is the Wikipedia takes the City concept pioneered in New York City. In this activity, Wikipedians go around an area and take photographs of notable landmarks and buildings and then release the photos under free and open licenses.

So, now that you’ve read about what WMPH has been up to, are you interested? Do you support the spread of free and open knowledge and educational materials? If your answer is yes, why not join Wikimedia Philippines now?

Two Sundays ago, I ate dinner at the Tomas Morato branch of this coffee house called Baang Coffee. I wasn’t actually planning to eat at Baang. My original target was Kozui Green Tea almost next door and I wanted to try out Kozui’s cold soba and green tea concoctions after reading positive reviews from foodies online. That planned excursion was however canceled when I couldn’t tell whether Kozui accepted credit cards or not (my cash flow was a bit crazy that time and I needed to use my card). Good thing I went to Baang and saw that they accept Visa and that’s how I ended up there!

Since I was raring to have iced green tea because of the Kozui plan, that’s what I got at Baang Coffee. I also ordered a plate of their carbonara—this dish being a safe choice for me. (I also kinda gauge how good some restaurants are by how tasty their carbonara is.) Well, their offering didn’t disappoint. The green tea was quite delicious and yet unlike the usual bottled green teas. Their carbonara (Filipino-style, not Italian) was excellent. It had the expected usual sprinkling of Parmesan cheese as well as the requisite bits of bacon. The white sauce was creamy and they didn’t drown the spaghetti noodles in it.

Since I’m not a coffee person, I didn’t order any coffee at all so I can’t comment on their brews. But as a café, Baang is a pretty decent place. The shop consists of two floors and they have the usual al fresco area. They have free Wi-Fi (unsecured so you can actually piggyback on their network) and there are several power outlets inside. They don’t mind people who stay long as evidenced by this barkada I saw on the second floor playing a board game. It seems that Baang Coffee is a nice alternative tambayan or even a mobile office. I’m definitely considering this as a place to stay for a while if ever I’m in the area.

(Now to try Kozui again….)

I mentioned in my previous post that I’m involved in two non-profit organizations and that I’ve blogged about one of them already: Wikimedia Philippines. Well, the second one is OpenStreetMap Philippines. If you’ve been following my blog for quite a while, you should know that I’m an enthusiastic supporter of the OpenStreetMap project. So I’m extremely pleased that we now have a local organization that can help with promoting OSM here in the Philippines.

Shown to the right is the Certification of Incorporation issued by the SEC. On it is OSM-PH Inc.’s birthday: May 28, 2010. However, we only got the documents last week on June 10. In addition, I am the designated initial President. Hehehe.

OpenStreetMap Philippines Inc. was formed in order for the local OSM community to have a legal organization that can engage with other entities like government agencies and local government units, mass media, educational institutions, NGOs, and the like. Having an organization is much better since it lends more credence to our project than if individual people talk to them.

So are you interested? Well, we the incorporators still need to deal with post-incorporation tasks so the org is definitely not operational yet and cannot admit more members for now. But rest assured that you’ll hear more about the organization on this space.

Since vaes9 is my first official blog, I’ve now been blogging for 6 years already having written my very first official blog post 6 years ago today. I am still continuing to churn out blog posts (like yesterday’s feature article on the Pamintuan Mansion at Vista Pinas). While my blogging volume here at vaes9 has significantly decreased these past several months, I will still continue to blog things about my personal life as well as on tech and mapping topics. I actually have quite a lot of things to write about except that finding the time is extremely difficult!

Anyway, last year’s fifth anniversary blog post is still very much relevant so you should read it if you haven’t done so yet. That blog post is a memoir of sorts and I hope to post a follow-up four years hence on this blog’s tenth anniversary. Yes, I think I’ll still be blogging by then. I find it satisfying to chronicle the significant things in my life so that I can look back at them in my old age with fondness. Hehehe.

However, I have to say that blogging is definitely not my “main” hobby anymore (at least for the moment). I’ve branched out into various other things, both online and off. These include web development, mapping, and promotion of open content, and I’m now heavily involved with two non-profit organizations, one of which I’ve already blogged about. I’m a very busy man (aren’t we all?) and it’s a great feeling especially when you accomplish things that matter to you, right?

So here’s to more years of vaes9! And thank you for reading.

Occul—what? An occultation is an astronomical event wherein a heavenly body passes in front of another and hides it from view. That’s what happened earlier tonight: an occultation of the Moon and Venus. Most people saw the very close conjunction (an astronomical term signifying that two objects appear near each other in the sky) and appreciated the beauty of a “star” on top of a crescent moon. You can actually see plenty of pictures and status messages about this relatively rare Moon-Venus event and there were observations that it reflected some Islamic flags or that it looked like a one-eyed smile. What most didn’t know (and missed) was that the “star” was actually Venus and that the occultation itself is much more interesting scientifically. (In addition, the Moon and Venus are the 1st and 2nd normally brightest objects in the night sky so this occultation is actually quite special.)

I didn’t know that there was an occultation actually and I was just lucky that I went out of my house to go to Alabang and saw that beautiful sight in the twilight sky (see the image on top taken with a cellphone camera). Because of the position of the Moon and Venus, I knew that this wasn’t just a conjunction and that an occultation would also occur. So I quickly went online along the way and checked the expected time of ingress (or disappearance): around 7:36 p.m. I also noticed quite a few people on the road looking at the Moon and taking pictures. I arrived in Alabang at around 7:25 and waited for the occultation. Funnily, there was also another guy near the parking area with a camera propped on a tripod taking pictures as well.

Despite the lack of a stable base for my cellphone, I took several pictures to document the occultation. Then at around 7:37 p.m. I saw bright Venus gradually grow dimmer and dimmer and then finally disappear from view in a matter of seconds. You can actually see in the last photo above a dim remnant of Venus before it was completely obscured.

Unfortunately, my viewing condition is very not ideal. I didn’t mind too much since I have never really observed a Moon-planet occultation before despite my general interest in Astronomy. The best way to observe the occultation is with the help of a telescope zoomed in on the planet. Shown below is how it might have looked like when you can zoom in. (These images are generated from Stellarium.)

After four long years of planning, meetings, online chats, and legal discussions, I’m very pleased to announce that Wikimedia Philippines Inc. is now a SEC-registered non-stock, non-profit corporation incorporated under the laws of the Republic of the Philippines! Hooray! And because of our SEC recognition, we are also the second official Wikimedia Foundation local chapter in Southeast Asia after Wikimedia Indonesia!

Shown to the right is a picture of WMPH’s SEC registration and WMPH’s “birthday” is April 12, 2010. If you’re interested, you can check out the text of our Articles of Incorporation and By-laws.

As stated in our AoI, the organization was formed in order to help the Wikimedia Foundation promote its projects here in the Philippines and to champion the cause of free and open-content reference tools and educational materials locally. While the English Wikipedia is by far the largest and most successful project of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Philippines also aims to promote participation in and use of the other Philippine-language editions of Wikipedia such as the Tagalog Wikipedia and the Cebuano Wikipedia. Aside from that there are also other projects such as Wikibooks (open-content textbooks), Wiktionary (multi-lingual dictionary and thesaurus), and Wikimedia Commons (free and open media files) that deserve our attention.

You know that Wikipedia has helped you a lot. Now it’s time to give back by supporting Wikimedia Philippines! Go be a member of WMPH (we’re still hashing out the membership requirements) or just start contributing to the Wikimedia projects. And we are planning to have a simple launch event coinciding with the first annual member convention this May 15. Interested? Just comment away and I’ll keep you in the loop.