What do you get when you have eight students, countless weeks, one website, slow school net connections, freezing computers and a nearing deadline?

Two words. 

I won't deny the fact that the whole CyberFair experience was dead on hectic. I won't deny anything I've said in the previous blog entry either. I did enjoy the experience...for the most part.

Let's take a look at the whole shenannigan from the very beginning.

PART 1: GETTING STARTED

Alright! We're official entries in the CyberFair competition! 

At this point, I was excited about that fact and wanted to get started on the website already. The ideas were still fresh and time wasn't that pressuring yet, so the first week was pretty much easy going. We chose the Baguio Center for Young Adults for our entry (category 2) and tried to contact them already.

PART 2: MEETING THE GROUP MATES

Since only two people would come from our section, the other members would be from our neighbor, 3-A. This was fine by me because that meant more hands to help. 

At the beginning, we didn't know who our group mates were, so to be honest, I was surprised and a little worried when Sir gave us the little 1/4 sheet of paper that contained the names of the people who picked the same category as we did. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against those people, but I knew that they weren't exactly the responsible types. My thoughts were somewhat confirmed when I saw that they wanted to feature 'Igorots' in our website.

It was pretty obvious that Igorots was a very, very, VERY vague topic, so we talked to them about changing the feature. They easily agreed and so our website was destined to be dedicated to the Baguio Center for Young Adults.

PART 3: WEBSITE CREATION

My fellow 3-Sci group mate, Clarence, already began with the buttons and the basic framework of the website while I tried to find some content. When it was clear that there wasn't any in the web, we decided to try to hold an interview with BCYA. They have not replied to any of our multiple e-mails, so I was a little worried about that. 

Thankfully, the interview was successful and we had a lot of material. However, that interview was probably the last time I heard from our 3-A counterparts. Well, for the most part. According to Clarence, a few of them helped her, but as far as I was concerned, there was none. I was starting to get frustrated at this point because it seemed like Clarence and I were the only ones working on the project.

PART 4: THE FRUSTRATION CONTINUES

Since the project narrative had to be in a video as well, all of us had to stay after school and shoot a couple of scenes. Unfortunately, only three out of five of our 3-A group mates showed up, and they were a real test of patience. 

About fifteen minutes into the shoot, they were already complaining about how they had to get home already (the time was about 4:00 at the moment). We did their scenes first, but there was a lot of complications. I guess they were a little nervous in front of the camera, but I won't deny my feeling of anger at the time when we had to keep repeating scenes due to mispronunciations, laughter from the other group mates in the background, or simply refusal to cooperate. In the end, Clarence and I ended up repeating some of their scenes.

PART 5: NEARING THE DEADLINE (Well, the very first assumed deadline)

A couple of days before the pseudo-deadline (February 26), Clarence invited all of us to her house so that we can finish the website already. Sadly, our group mates did little to nothing while there and I seriously felt like them coming to Clarence's house was a waste of time.

PART 6: WEBSITE COMPLETED! (English part only)

Mercifully, the deadline was extended and the website managed to get finished. However, that was just the English site and we still needed a Filipino version. Clarence already did some of the translations, but some of the news articles and other parts still needed translating, so that's when we called in our 3-A friends. I felt elated that they took on the job enthusiastically, but my earlier feeling of appreciation evaporated when I realized that they just used Google Translate. The frustration flared again when I found myself editing their translated work.

PART 7: THANK GOODNESS FOR ANOTHER EXTENSION

With both the English and Filipino sites finished already, you have no idea how I was happy and relieved I felt that the trouble was all over. However, there was still the matter on the Bibliography page of the site. I already made one, but it was only in English. When Sir said that there had to be a Filipino one and that the people from 3-A would have to create it, I felt doubtful considering their previous translation escapades. I wrote out instructions very clearly, concisely and specifically so that they'd know exactly what to do. I even drew visual aids of the end result. Sadly, the work didn't get done. 

I felt a mix of emotions at that point: Frustrated, worried, and panicked. Thankfully, the deadline was extended to March 8. Our 3-A group mates decided that they still wanted to take on the job, which is good because that meant I would just have to wait for them to finish their translating (I specifically said that Google Translate was condemned and that I would know if they used it).

All in all, I felt like this whole CyberFair experience was a big monsoon. I won't deny that the start was disastrous, but I'm satisfied with the end product. I'm even more satisfied that 3-A wanted to do some work as well. 

At the moment, I feel supremely tired from not sleeping for two or three consecutive nights just to finish the website, so I'm glad that it's done and over with.