Life has been incredibly busy with-a-capital-B over the past few weeks. My calendar was a chaos with-a-capital-C, too! But there were so many milestones achieved, too... and I am very happy, indeed! 🙏 However, I will probably need a month to chronicle all the favorable things that has taken place over the past four weeks or so. One of the 'giddy happy' moments that I've had was two Fridays ago when my Executive Assistant and I paid our new campus in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna, Philippines a visit. The site is about 45 km south of the City of Manila, and it takes about 45 minutes as well to travel from the main campus to the new campus.
I was happy to see that the first building to rise in that 44-hectare second campus of the University of Santo Tomas (UST, or "USTe" to its alumni) is almost complete now. As the Sta. Rosa campus will be the Innovation Campus of UST, that first building is the Innovation Center. It was donated by two of our alumni at the UST Faculty of Engineering through the Jollibee Group Foundation. We hope for it to operate next Academic Year. By then, we hope that another building (or, maybe two) would begin to rise as well.
I took a few photos and short videos, and tried to quickly stitch them to an 'amateurish' video just to remember that visit. Here it is...
This was just a dream...
So, surely, dreams do come true!
The campus is located among beautiful and well-designed communities of Sta. Rosa - away from the signs of environmental neglect of the city. When one stands at the rooftop of the three-level building, it's all green as far as the eyes can see. And, from afar, one can see Mt. Makiling, Mt. Banahaw and the Laguna Lake. It looks like its in the 'middle of nowhere' for now just because it is so vast and the subdivisions around it are just being developed, too. But is only about 10-minute drive from Nuvali and about five-minute drive from the City Center of Santa Rosa City. Surely, there's plenty of opportunities for Namjooning for students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders in the future.
***
BTS: BIG Winners at the 2022 TMA
That was a very inspiring visit to our new campus. It reminds me of how dreams can actually come true... and, as BTS keeps reminding us, we must live our lives thinking everyday that the best is 'yet to come'. Naturally, on our way to Sta. Rosa, we listened to BTS music.
And today, they just won massively again at the The Fact Music Awards 2022 (TMA 2022), winning the GRAND PRIZE... five years in a row! Woohoo! 💜🎉 And they won many more! 💜🎊 I hope to talk about this in another post. For now, here they are at TMA 2022...
🎜 "Dream and hope, and go forward!" 🎝
I will admit, they left a small room for improvement per their own sky-high standard, after
These two... 💓
several months of working on separate projects... but still awesome, no doubt! I have to say though that JKwas spot-on, totally right-on-the-money in every note he sang - juuust beautiful! Per usual, his voice was on 'autotune' - so gifted! He is very reliable in his vocals and stage presence, harmonizing with others so well, helping to bring out the very best in his hyungs' voices - 'born singer', indeed. In fact, I do think he got better again - the raspy quality of his voice is on another level! This evening he was extremely good looking, too. And, RM nailed.every.single.point.in.his.verses - that distinct power baritone of his and that crystal clear enunciation... my word, KING! That pick-up at 1:41 min in the video was fantastic - it can be my meal for a month, and I'd be totally healthy! And he was looking even more distinguished than ever before with that tall stance, heathy-looking dark hair in no non-sense style, and that confident aura about him that makes you want to invest your life's savings in whatever it is he's building - a worthy leader of the BEST group in the world. 'Fine wine getting better with age', and all that! Ahh, these two... really! 💓
And, of course, J-Hope was himself - always a reliable and a delightful performer who knows when to adlib to get the performance to a higher level of energy. He oozes more confidence
Seven icons of this generation - simply phenomenal!💜
on stage these days while looking relaxed, more so this evening at the TMA - 'the JITB effect'. The continuity he provided at 1:52 min mark just brought a smile to my lips - too good! Aw, Hobi... how to be you?!Yoongi took a little while to hit his stride but when he did, it was awesome. This was evident at 2:05 min mark... and then he just went on to slay the whole performance with his usual coolness! Genius, and the rampant bias wrecker - that's SUGA for ya! Jimin struggled a bit... perhaps, from emotions. But he has become very skillful in his singing, he can recover his grip of the tune quickly when it is slipping from his vocal grasp due to emotion (or flirtations! Hahaha...), covering gaps swiftly - smooth, Jimin-aaah! He had special moments, too, and his singing was touching - full of emotions. I'm sure ARMY can feel that Jimin missed them... I sure did, aaaww!
Jin was calm and steady. I don't think there's anything in this world that can perturb Jin these days when he's performing - such a professional singer he is, indeed. He connects well with ARMY when he is performing with that perfect balance of beautiful singing, charm and unmasked hints of emotions. It was just lovely to watch and listen to him - the perfect hyung with his committed and professional approach to singing, performing... and anything BTS! Goosebumps, Jin! 💜 Tae sounded so well, as usual, of course! That deep voice of his sounded like it's coming from a reservoir in his chest seemingly made of stainless steel that returns a million 'mini echoes' as the notes collided with the wall of the reservoir - unique sound that only Tae can make. Is there a scientific explanation to this? He seemed out of practice with his breathing though... or, perhaps, too excited this evening? He was very busy with so many things that did not require singing the past days. So, I hope that he can find enough time to practice making those 'mini echoes' take Busan by storm. We love him, of course... always!
All did their best, and it is MORE THAN enough for ARMY, really! We are overjoyed... and we cannot wait for Busan!!
Great job, ARMY! CONGRATS, Bangtannies! 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 Woohoo!
***
Video credit: (1) I own the first video, and (2) the owner of the second video is indicated in the video itself. Thanks, YouTube, for the video links.
Photo credit: (1) JK and Namjoon: Grabbed from the IG account bts_daily.news, (2) Collage: (i) screenshot from TMA, and (ii) grabbed IG account bts_daily.news. Thanks for the loan.
