Sweet World of Joan

This Summer I got to enroll in a Basic Baking class at a vocational school, it ran for a whole month with 30-hour class per week. I got to bake cookies, brownies and bars, buko and egg pies, tarts, emapandas, butter macaroons, chiffon cakes, brazo de mercedes, a to-die-for dark angel cake, ensaymadas, sweet rolls, basic breads and even pandesal. We even had lessons on basic cake decorating, it was expensive but worth it :-) As far as I can remember I always love to cook and bake. During my teen years I was in charge of the kitchen every weekend where in I subject my family to my "experiments". Most of my experiments came from TV cooking shows and recipes cut out from magazines. There was even a time that I even baked a chocolate cake for a friend in college who lived in Antipolo, it was a 12-inch round cake with a chocolate whipped cream icing and nips for decoration. Our barkada traveled from my home in Cubao to their place for a lunchtime celebration and when I opened th...

That's what my husband calls me these days, eversince I graduated last wednesday, May 10 with the degree of Master in Information Technology(MIT), all our conversations end with "Yes Master!". I know it is his form of endearment and at the same time it tells me how proud he is of my achievement. Looking back I try to remember the reason on what made me pursue a masters degree, it started on 1999 I was still single then having taught for a year in PUP. The first reason I remember in taking up my masters was for professional advancement and my friends invited me to enroll so that we can be classmates. My Stint in UP . . . I first enrolled in UP in 1999 taking up Masters of Science in Computer Science, unfortunately I stayed there for only a semester, it was hard for me commuting to UP in the afternoons and going home at night on a rainy season, its difficult to get a ride in a jeepney and the school calendar is identical to the one where I am teaching. Imagine having to tak...

May 5, 2006, 7:00pm Cheers to my batch mates! Here I am in front of my pc, drinking ice tea toasting to my Computer Engineering students who graduated in Folk Arts Theater this afternoon. (I would love to drink red wine tonight but due to the hot weather I decided to stick to iced green tea even if I still have the strawberry wine I bought from Baguio last January :) ) I usually don’t write dedications or congratulatory messages to my students who graduates, for I see students graduate almost every six months but somehow I felt the need to reach out to them one last time. I consider this batch special for two reasons: 1. I consider them my batch mates, (whether I like it or not :) JOKE LANG) for I am also set to graduate this May 10 @ 1pm at Bulwagang Balagtas (together with Engr. Tenerife (MIT) and Engr. Abas (MSIT) ) with the course of Master in Information Technology. At this circumstance we are forever bonded as the Graduating Batch 2006. 2. This summer graduation also marks t...

It is the day after Easter, I find myself sitting in a room with fellow educators attending a seminar-workshop with the topic Blogging 101. Blogging is a bit familiar to me before this day, although I read and scan other people's blogs and not participate at all and now I can be one of them. On a day when some people still have hang-overs after a long vacation and here I am exercising my brains on something new thinking what have I gotten myself into? I reminded myself that I am in a seminar – workshop, looking for its meaning in the dictionary: Seminar - a form of academic teaching, at a university or offered by a commercial or professional organization, in small groups where students are requested to actively participate during meetings. A workshop is also a gathering or training session which may be several days in length. It emphasizes problem-solving, hands-on training, and requires the involvement of the participants. So both activities involves active participation, so here ...