A Newbie Here

Welcome to Sep Chronicles – a personal blog of Sep. I will discuss here any of my interests that might also be your interests. As for these interests, I have typical ones. From movies, music and computer games to web-surfing, cartoon series, digital photography, electronic gadgets, others’ blogs, stories, etcetera, etcetera. Most of all, you can read about my views on some ideas or concepts – whether it is of great importance or not. ;)

Regarding movies, I usually rent or borrow a videodisc than to see it on movie theaters – I have never been to a movie theater, as I know :) . To date, I appreciate A Walk to Remember, Blue Moon, Jumanji, Gladiator, and Spirit. Why I want to see these movies at home? I can do whatever I want and choose any food other than popcorn. Whahaha!

Music. I want to listen to Backstreet Boys’, Mandy Moore’s, Aaron Carter’s, Blue’s, and Michelle Branch’s sort of music. I also listen to different genres like alternative, rhythm and blues, and ballad. But, I am not an avid fan of anybody. I don’t go to concerts, buy their memorabilia or have their posters in my room (toink, don’t have my room, eh). I just buy music albums to listen to their music. Right now, I only have five original music albums (not pirated ;) ). I bought those two (Backstreet Boys’ Black and Blue and Never Gone special edition packages, that’s value for my money, hehe). The other two came with a special edition cassette tapes (Blues’ All Rise and One Love). The last one was given to me (Avril Lavigne’s Let Go). My PC and MP3 player satisfy my cravings for listening to these tunes.

Computer games? Whoa! Got one? Well, I am entertained with popcap games – Zuma, Feeding Frenzy, and more. I also enjoyed playing the Pokemon Crystal using Visual Boy Advance Emulator for PC (surely enjoyed after playing the game for seven straight hours). I think there are more games to come. Though, I don’t play games similar to Counter-Strike and even online RPGs – games that are too violent or too expensive.

My web-life includes my online community accounts – Facebook and Friendster. Too bad I don’t post it anywhere since I only add people I personally know, for now ;) . I am also working on a website that serves as a lounge of my course-mates. I also created a blog for it. I wanted to start more and more online community sites, but I am not sure what for or when will I start. Perhaps, to meet new friends and I will start as soon as we can have our Internet connection at home (so, it means ‘never’, hehe). But, I am not so active on the net. On average, I log-in thrice a month. Some months, I never visit the net. Perhaps, having this blog may change that scenario.

I also love to watch cartoon series specifically Avatar: The Last Airbender (tada! sound effect yan ;) ). I also enjoyed watching Pokemon. I don’t like Naruto very much as other cartoon series enthusiasts do, but it’s a fine cartoon. I am watching it sometimes. Since I cannot always catch Avatar on television, I just bought a DVD (sorry guys, nothing but a pirated copy). Unfortunately, it’s incomplete. So, I have to watch it online (angmahal pero, kasi nagrerent lang ako, toink). I got excited when I saw original DVDs... but got disappointed again when Book 1 has five DVDs, as I can remember. How could an entire Book 1 of Avatar can fit into one pirated DVD and not on original DVD? Hhmm...

Digital photography is just a newfound love (wheeh, in-love ako ;) ). Before, I used to shot photos using our analog Canon camera. Now, using my digital camera, I snapshot at almost anything – the printed photos (mostly an output of my analog photographs), my pups, the sky, the moon (oops, halatang lunatic, hehe), anybody, and myself (no choice eh). It’s worth the time. I don’t really have a passion for it but I’m lovin’ it, hehe. Thanks to my Sony Digital Still Camera S700 (DSC-S700)! Thanks to the Philanthropist (tama ba?) who gave it to me. ;)

Anyone has interest on electronic gadgets, just like me. Be it a cellphone, an mp3 or mp4 player, portable gaming systems, or a digital camera, everyone has reserved a space in their brain (or am I dreaming? oohhww). I have the basic cellphone, a basic mp4 player, and a basic digital camera that push my interest even to the high-end gadgets in town.

Interest on others’ blogs helped me come up with an idea to make a long-lasting blog (hope so). A blog that I can update more often than my past website projects. Hhhm, I am thinking of reviewing other blogsites here. I browsed a blog about a corporate woman’s life and interest – it is full of information, as the writer is full of interesting qualities. The other one is about anything, and he writes his own article (i.e. all-original, sikat na itong blog na ito nafeature na sa Blog-O-Rama ng Manila Bulletin, pati yong blogger sikat). The other sort, is also anything-under-the sun. Though, it’s not all-original. But, it’s useful for computer students. Actually, I wanted to see more sorts of blogs.

Although, I am not a good writer, I still write stories. Sometimes, without much lessons to learn (pampagod lang ng mata, haha). I wanted to learn writing better stories and I want it to learn by myself instead of reading a book about it. I wasn’t paying much attention during our Writing in Discipline subject. So here’s the result, hehe.

And what about etcetera, etcetera? Don’t ask me. I am about to discover it, yet. As for you, thanks for reading this post. I really appreciate it a lot. As for me, hopefully I can return next month for an update, whahaha. I am also hoping that I will have the spirit to keep this blog up-and-running. Bye y’all! Oops, that wouldn’t make it. I mean, later y’all! Hey, don't forget to leave a comment. ;)

Very Basic HTML

Hypertext Markup Language, or simply HTML, is a collection of objects, or better known as tags, that defines each part of the web document. We can create a webpage document using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors, or any text editor, like Notepad. Here, I would like to show you how to code and not how to use a certain WYSIWYG editors which automate some codes. Let's do the sample-then-explaination approach. But, to cater the needs of the real beginners, let's touch a bit about tags. HTML uses markup tag beginning with left angle bracket (<), the tag name, (e.g. BODY), then the right angle bracket (>) (i.e. <BODY>). Usually, tags are paired - the starting tag and the closing tag. The closing tag is similar to the starting tag except the slash (/), which looks like this </BODY>. The paragraph tag (<p>, handles text as a paragraph) does not require a closing tag. The line break tag (<br />) does not have a pair, since it only creates a next line of entry for other HTML component. Though it can also be written as <br>. But, I prefer the first form. I don't know why, hehe. :) Sample 1: The Form

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Whahaha, My Sample Webpage!</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1>Hello World</H1> <P>These are texts within a paragraph.</P> <P>This is another paragraph. <BR />... Within the paragraph is a new line.</P> </BODY> </HTML> Note: Tags are not case-sensitive. So <HTML> is the same as <BODY>.

Encode the above sample into Notepad. Then, in saving specify the file name (e.g. sample.html or sample.htm will work the same) and select All Files from the Save as type pulldown menu. Then click Save. From that example <HTML> tag encloses the rest of the code. The <HEAD> encloses the codes intended for the browser and sometimes hides something from the user. This is where you can write CSS (cascading style sheet - needs another article ;) ) and different scripts. You can also call other files here. <TITLE> tag contains the title of the document and is written in the title bar of the browser. <BODY> tag contains the information to show the user. It includes numerous paragraphs, a heading (and subheadings), images, links, and more objects. Properties of <BODY> (I usually use)

• bgcolor - specifies the background color of the webpage.
• text - specifies the color of the text used within the webpage, except for components which specifies its own text-color.
• link - specifies the color of a text containing a hyperlink. (hyperlink - when clicked proceeds to a specified file)
• vlink - specifies the color of a text containing a hyperlink which already was visited.
• alink - specifies the color of a text containing an active hyperlink.
• leftmargin - margin of the document on the left.
• topmargin - margin of the document on top.

How you write it? <BODY bgcolor="#CCCCCC" text="#0000CC" link="#006600" vlink="#00FF33" alink="#00CCFF" leftmargin="30" topmargin="30"> Note: Colors are expressed as hexadecimal. The form is #rrggbb (rr - red, gg - green, bb - blue). But, you can also write specific colors, like blue, green, red, yellow, etc. (oh, I'd like to write about this stuff! ;) )

<H1> tag is used to display headings. The number after the letter H specifies the priority of the heading. The lower number, the greater priority. So, <H2> is a subheading of <H1> and <H3> is a subheading of <H2> and so on, up to <H6>. But, I usually used up to <H3> only. The property of heading tag I use is the align, which can be specified to justify, center, left, or right.

How to write it? <H1 align="center">Hello World</H1>

<P> tag (paragraph-separator tag) is used to display paragraphs. This is where the text-content of your webpage is written. The property of <p> that I usually use (except for the style property :) ) is the align property, just like in heading tag.

How to write it? <P align="right">This paragraph is aligned to the right.</P>

<BR /> tag inserts a new line or break within two stream of texts. It does not result to an extra space, unlike the <P> tag. Just use it as is (i.e. <BR />) to create a new line before the next text, image or any object. Now, let's add more tags. <HR> - adds a horizontal rule or horizontal line. This, too, has no closing tag. <ADDRESS> - used for displaying the author of the page and its contact information. But I never used it (o baka nakalimutan ko lang, hehe :) ). Commonly it is placed at the bottom of the webpage. <A> - called the anchor tag. It allows you to go to other webpages or jump to specific part of a page. Properties of <A> (I usually use)

• href - hyperlink reference, you write here the URL (uniform resource locator) or web address of the file you wanted the hyperlink bring (dadalhin, pero hindi literal ;) ) the user. The syntax is: type://host.domain/directory/filename. Example: http://citsphere.blogspot.com/index.php or you can just write http://citsphere.blogspot.com, it's just the same.
• target - where the page requested be opened. It can be opened in three ways: _blank (opens in new window), _parent, _self, or _top. I do not use the last three, since I am not sure how to use it. Perhaps, it can be used if you plan to use frames. You can also define where the page is going to be opened.
• title - when you place the mouse cursor over it, the text you specified will be displayed. It is helpful if the text of the link does not explain where the hyperlink would bring the user.
• accesskey - are shortcuts. If you have many links and the user does not enjoy (enjoy? :) ) using the mouse, this is a good property. The user will just hold Alt and type type the letter of the key.

How to write it? <A accesskey="C" href="http://citsphere.blogspot.com" mce_href="http://citsphere.blogspot.com" target="_blank" title="Go to CIT Sphere Official Blog">CIT Sphere Official Blog</A> Note: The user will use Alt+C to go to the CIT Sphere Official Blog with the address, http://citsphere.blogspot.com. The page requested will open in a new browser.

To add graphics we will use <IMG> tag which does not have a closing tag. You only need to specify the URL of the image (e.g. http://citsphere.blogspot.com/images/sphere.jpg - a fictitious URL), the height, width, and alternative text. The alternative text will be helpful if the user wanted to know about the image even if the image failed to load. Blinds can also benefit from it with the use of browsers with text-to-speech capabilities. So, I already discussed the properties of <A> tag I usually use, hehe ;) .

How to write it? <IMG src="http://citsphere.blogspot.com/images/sphere.jpg" mce_src="http://citsphere.blogspot.com/images/sphere.jpg" alt="CIT Sphere Logo" height="300px" width="300px"> Note: The image specified is found at http://citsphere.blogspot.com/images/sphere.jpg and has the alternative text, CIT Sphere Logo. The specified height and weight are both 300 pixels.

Let's touch a bit of <TABLE> tag, because I can't squeeze its discussion, for now. This tag enables you, as a creator, to organize data into a table or a small portion of a spreadsheet.

How to write it? <TABLE> <TR> <TD>Nel</TD> <TD>Sep</TD> <TD>Cors</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD>Co-Founder</TD> <TD>Co-Founder</TD> <TD>Webstaff</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD>Member, 2003</TD> <TD>Member, 2003</TD> <TD>Member, 2003</TD> </TR> </TABLE> This is how it looks like:

Nel	Sep	Cors
Co-Founder	Co-Founder	Webstaff
Member, 2003	Member, 2003	Member, 2003

Note: <TR> - table rows; <TD> - table cell, or where you write the data. From the example, we created a 3-by-3 table. We create table this way - define the table, define the row inside it, define the cell (or cells) within that table row, define the next row (or the next rows and inside it, are cells again). I hope, the sample clears what you don't understand from my explanation. (hehe, it should be the other way around)

That's it for now. :) But here's a sample that uses the discussed HTML tags.

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Just Another Sample</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgcolor="#CCCCCC" text="#0000CC" link="#006600" vlink="#00FF33" alink="#00CCFF" leftmargin="30px" topmargin="30px"> <H1 align="center">Hello, Pangit!</H1> <P>I am not sure why I call you pangit. Perhaps, I don't have a better sample to show.</P> <H2>Why</H2> <P>One of the reasons of creating a webpage is to show important information you have to the online people. Most of the people, though, just advertise themselves to gain friends (and sometimes, enemy).</P> <P align="right">To date, a .htm file is not as widely used as before, on the net, because of advanced web-programmings' presence. These web-programming language, like PHP and ASP, can handle dynamic contents. So, it is used on database-driven websites. Still, the HTML tags are important to web-programmers because PHP, ASP, etc still use it - it's the standard. But, for bloggers or users of friendster or faceboook, a knowledge of HTML is not importan, but a great advantage.</P> <H2>How</H2> <P>By reading the entire article, you will have the basic knowledge.</P> <H3>Research</H3> <P>Another way to learn is to search on the web.</P> <H3>Ask your friends</H3> <P>Friends may also teach you how to create a webpage, without a charge, hehe</P> <BR /> <IMG src="http://citsphere.blogspot.com/images/sphere.jpg" mce_src="http://citsphere.blogspot.com/images/sphere.jpg" alt="CIT Sphere Logo" height="300px" width="300px"> <TABLE> <TR> <TD>Nel</TD> <TD>Sep</TD> <TD>Cors</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD>Co-Founder</TD> <TD>Co-Founder</TD> <TD>Webstaff</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD>Member, 2003</TD> <TD>Member, 2003</TD> <TD>Member, 2003</TD> </TR> </TABLE> <HR> <ADDRESS>Copyright © 2008 Joseph C. Aquino<BR /> <A href="mailto:citsphereorg@yahoo.com.ph" mce_href="mailto:citsphereorg@yahoo.com.ph" title="Joseph's E-mail" accesskey="E">citsphereorg@yahoo.com.ph</A><BR /> <A href="http://citsphere.blogspot.com" mce_href="http://citsphere.blogspot.com" target="_blank" title="Go to CIT Sphere Official Blog" accesskey="B">citsphere.blogspot.com</A> </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>

Copy the code again, and save it as sample2.htm. Be sure to select All Files under Save as type pulldown menu. Try to alter the code and see the effects... I learned that way. I hope it works on you. ;) Oops, before I forget, you can use <!-- (before the comment) --> (after the comment) to hide a comment. Sample: <!--hi, this is a comment, you are not supposed to read this, user.--> Be sure to leave a comment to let me know I am sharing something correct. Thanks!

Survivor Philippines

Finally, it's here. We're just counting days and we can watch our very own version of Survivor. Starting Monday, September 15, 2008, we can watch Survivor Philippines at GMA 7. As for the updates and my official feature on such event, I'll just post it next time per your request :) . For the meantime, please visit the blogs under my custody, hehe. CIT Sphere CIT Sphere WP Sep Impressions Thanks for reading this post. The comment form is open for you to type some text. :)

My First Post

It's obvious! This is my first ever post on this blog. So, I'm inviting you, for the meantime, to visit the blogs under my custody, hehe.

• CIT Sphere
• CIT Sphere WP
• Sep Impressions