User:Titopao

Made-up quote of the moment: Wikipedia is not the Plaza Miranda. (original source) --- Tito Pao 13:19, 29 March 2007 (UTC) (quick stats) (stats) (created articles and redirects) Compact toolbox Real-time 'recent changes' monitoring

About me
My name is Titopao. Translated into English, it means Uncle Pao. My moniker was coined by one of my nieces, based on one of my first names.

I was born in the City of Manila in 1981. My mother said that I was named after Pope Paul VI and Blessed John Paul, who made his first visit to the Philippines in 1981. Interestingly, during the years 1978 (year of Paul VI's Manila visit) and 1981, the name Paolo/Paola, Pablo and Paul/Paula (and its derivatives) were in vogue. As a result, I've always had classmates named Paolo.

I live in a relatively quiet barangay in the bustling town city of Meycauayan, Bulacan since my childhood (I'm against the cityhood, though). Thus far, it is the only place I have called home.

Grandson of a former college dean and son of a former college professor, I have read my first book at the age of five years old. I have never stopped reading ever since.

I had my elementary and secondary education in Meycauayan, Bulacan. I took my tertiary degree (in Computer Science and Information Technology) in one of the well-known institutions at Manila's University Belt district, which is walking distance from the President's residence at the Malacanang Palace.

During my student life (from high school to college), I had been involved in different extracurricular activities, which include being a writer, an editor, a theater actor, a pianist/accompanist, a chorister, a composer/arranger, a répétiteur, a choral conductor, and a researcher of local history among others.

During college, I also worked as a graphic designer. After my graduation, I worked in an information technology firm in one of the financial districts in Metro Manila. At present, I am working in another company, also in an information technology firm.

I am still active in the music ministry of my parish church, although I still have plans of pursuing serious and more advanced musical studies. I got married in 2010 :)

My Wiki interests
As a polymath, I am interested in sharing what I know. If it's something that I barely know, I will research it, so what I learn in the process gets shared. The articles I've created and I'm watching somewhat reflects what my interests are, more or less, but this doesn't mean that I'm not interested in articles from other fields.

I tend to do a lot of copyedits even on the articles that I pre-wrote before posting them on the Wikipedia. This indicates my inclinations as a writer and as an editor. The bulk of my edits consists not only in correcting typos and punctuations, but also in making the articles better-reading. In other words, I try to make them not suck...especially if most of it was written by a student from Manila's University Belt with a passable grasp of English.

I also revert vandalism and any other unhelpful edits. In addition, there is a 99% chance that I will leave a user warning on the offending editor's talk page of the editor responsible for these edits, even if it's from an anoynmous user. In my experience, this almost always stops the questioned edits (see the January 25 edit history for Ateneo de Manila University for an example of this). Personally speaking, this is influenced by my current line of work, for which I am not inclined to disclose and for which, I believe, no one else would be interested to be working in (if they would only know how stressful it is).

Articles created
On Wikipedia, I usually edit articles about or relating to my own country and articles about music (in particular, choral music (it shows). The following articles were created by me:

Music-related

 * Hangad - a Philippine-based choir that has won an Awit Award (the Philippines' counterpart to the Grammy Awards). I also created articles for their five albums, viz.:
 * Hangad (album)
 * Hangad a Capella
 * Pasko Naming Hangad
 * The Easter Journey
 * A Wish for Christmas
 * In addition, I also created the Template:Hangad albums template, for easier navigation through all albums.
 * The Jesuit Music Ministry - currently a stub. Hangad's publisher/producer and, arguably, the most influential religious music publisher in the Philippines; songs by their :composers are being sung in Holy masses in the country (including Sunday TV Masses on various stations), their MTVs are on TV stations, and their songs are even covered by pop artists.
 * The European Choral Grand Prix - one of the most prestigious (and arguably the toughest) choral competitions in the whole world..."toughest", because you have to win one of six contests before competing in this one.
 * Andrea Veneracion - In the Philippines, when people think of choirs, people often think of the Philippine Madrigal Singers. And when you say Madz, the first name that almost always comes up is their founder's name. IMO, this musican single-handedly revolutionized and created the Philippine choral scene for the last 40 years. It goes without saying that Prof. Veneracion is one of my personal idols ;)
 * Mark Anthony Carpio - Prof. Veneracion's designated successor. Naturally, he deserves his own article ;)
 * Jay Cayuca - violinist extraordinaire ;)
 * Karl Roy - Filipino rockstar par excellence. Rock in peace!
 * Bodjie Dasig - "Ale, nasa langit na ba ako?..."
 * Francisco Feliciano - one of two new National Artists of the Philippines for music. "Ding-gan, ding-gan, ding-gan..."
 * Seong-Jin_Cho - Did I mention I was a Chopinist? ;)
 * The Company (vocal group) - I was really surprised why no one ever thought of creating an article about one of the best vocal groups in the Philippines. So...I fixed it ;)

Filipino songs

 * Anak - yes, that song by Ka Freddie ;) It's currently a stub, but I think this deserves more discussion, as it's arguably one of the most translated OPM songs.
 * Awit sa Paglikha ng Bagong Pilipinas - currently a stub. Created because of a red link on Lupang Hinirang. This song was a former national anthem but is less heard, partly because of its association with two unpopular regimes (see article to find out which). I personally know this song from a recording made by the Philippine Madrigal Singers
 * Bayan Ko - arguably the most popular patriotic song in the Philippines. This song figured in some of the most significant protest movements in the Philippines, from the American occupation (when it was composed) to EDSA Dos. This is often mistaken as a public domain song (it is, in fact, under copyright)
 * Sa Ugoy ng Duyan - the de-facto National Lullabye of the Philippines :P

Philippine-related

 * Goldilocks Bakeshop - currently a stub. I created this to support the inclusion of Goldilocks under the Culture subsection of the Philippines article
 * Julio Nalundasan - currently a stub. The man who almost put Ferdinand Marcos behind bars. To be more precise, Apo Macoy was convicted for Nalundasan's murder, which was overturned by the Supreme Court.
 * List of UP Diliman student organizations - removed from the main UP Diliman article (to make it neater) and then rearranged everything. AfD'ed
 * Leo Echegaray (also accessible through the full legal name, Leo Echegaray y Pilo - currently a stub. Created because of a red link in the article about Artemio Panganiban
 * University Belt. Anyone who's familiar about Manila knows what this is, and it's arguably one of the most important districts in the city: many major universities are on this area, and it's also literally a stone's throw away from Malacanang. (By the way, my university is found here!)
 * List of UP Diliman student organizations. I created this one because the original list was included in the UP Diliman article and, at one time, occupied about 60% of the entire article about the university! Happily, some posters now list their organization's names on this page rather than on the main university article, although I still believe that the list will have to be cleaned up at one point. AfD'ed
 * Ronaldo Valdez. Yes, that guy who played Bea Alonzo's dad in I Love Betty La Fea :P
 * Johnny Delgado. Written a couple of hours after his death was made public. It was a pity that a highly acclaumed actor of his stature didn't have a Wikipedia article, so...there. My tribute to one of the Philippines' finest actors. He will be missed :(
 * Joseph Galdon, SJ - Former professor and dean at the Ateneo de Manila University and book author.
 * Robert Arevalo - Filipino film actor. The perennial supporting actor.
 * Ginger Conejero - yes, that news reporter :P
 * Young Critics Circle - widely covered, but VERY underrated, award-giving body for Philippine cinema
 * Mario O'Hara - one of the greatest, and perhaps one of the most underrated, Filipino film directors who ever lived
 * Roldan Aquino - the perennial goon, criminal, dirty politician/policeman or hoodlum in Pinoy films from the 70s to the 200s
 * Msgr. Sabino Vengco - Filipino priest and prolific author-theologian
 * Mario Dumaual - the friendly, unassuming but legendary showbiz reporter of ABS-CBN
 * Cedrick Juan - the 2023 MMFF Best Actor, who portrayed Fr. Jose Burgos in the film Gomburza
 * Manny Castaneda - a well-known actor, director and screenwriter

Watching/Editing
Articles that I did not create, but am currently watching and cleaning up on a regular basis, are:
 * Lupang Hinirang - in collaboration with other interested editors. If you're not familiar with this, this is the national anthem of the Philippines, much like the Star Spangled Banner of the United States and France's La Marsellaise
 * Jose Corazon de Jesus - the poet, not the actor (no relation to him)
 * The three UP Diliman-based choirs (note: I also have these two links on my watchlist):
 * Philippine Madrigal Singers (The Madz)
 * University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors (UPSA)
 * University of the Philippines Concert Chorus (UPCC)
 * Anything else that is choir-related. Naturally.
 * Towns in the province of Bulacan...specifically, my hometown (it's now a city, btw) and its neighboring towns (Marilao, Bocaue, Sta. Maria, City of San Jose and even Valenzuela City---which, historically, used to be in Bulacan)
 * Anything related to Philippine entertainment. Most of the time, I try to make each article less of a fan write-up (and, unfortunately, there's a lot too many of there, so you can imagine how difficult and thankless this task is). I usually get hits and complaints (for recent examples, see Talk:Ely_Buendia and Talk:Super Twins), but that is to be expected anyway.


 * Tambayan Philippines/Election watchlist/2010 - list of potential hot spots, with the elections only 8 months to go as of this writing :P

Wish List
Naturally, because of the edits I made, I found out that I would need to create more articles that are related to my interests. Among the articles that I'm wishing to write in the not-so-distant future are:


 * Awit Awards someone did! Thank you, whoever you are!!! =D - the Philippines' version of the Grammy Awards
 * The International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM) - most choirmasters are members of the IFCM
 * World Youth Choir - a program under the IFCM
 * Jesuit Music Ministry (JMM) already created! Under the JMM, the following articles may also have to be created:
 * Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ - currently the most prolific JMM composer. Best known for Hindi Kita Malilimutan---which, incidentally, is his first published composition.
 * Fr. Eduardo Hontiveros, SJ was already created! - Fr. Manoling's predecessor. In the 70's and 80's (in the mid-80's at least, as far back as I can remember :-) Fr. Honti's compositions are everywhere, to the point of being cliche (see Papuri sa Diyos)
 * The Bukas Palad Music Ministry - one of the JMM's leading artist-groups, an entirely different group from Hangad, but also won an Awit Award on its own right. I'm also planning to write articles for their different albums, but it might take me more time, so the best thing for me to do at this point is to start an article about them and about their popular songs/music videos (for example, I Will Sing Forever and Humayo't Ihayag (lit. "Go forth and proclaim")
 * Individual articles for each individual contest under the European Choral Grand Prix (namely, the choral competitions in Arezzo, Debrecen, Gorizia, Tolosa, Tours and Varna)

If you'd like to help me out with creating these articles, or if you can provide me with more information about these topics to get me started, I would really, really, really appreciate it =))