Orange and Oblation

**originally published January, 2010

Friday's Blogging For Fun. Our group is doing an alphabet meme, and this week, we are doing letter O. I had been thinking since last week about letter O, and could not come up with an interesting "O", until the word Orange came to my mind,

Orange Hue @ Sunset, San Diego, CA

Then, today, my eldest brother shared to us the great news about my nephew as one of the 50 Oblation

Scholars ( out of the 70,341 examinees) of the University of the Philippines. My nephew is graduating in high school this March 2010 ( Philippines end of school year), and coincidentally, he is also one of the top 20 finalists of the Philippines Math Delegation out of the thousands representatives from different high schools in the different regions of the Philippines. When he was in elementary, he was one of the Philippine Delegates for the elementary level to the World's Math Olympiad held in Singapore. Though he did not bring Philippines a medal that time, but for us then, his representation of the Philippines to a Math Competition in an international level is already enough achievement. So, to my nephew, our big congratulations and good luck also for the coming Math Olympiad. The top 20 finalists will continue to vie for the top 4 to represent the Philippines in the coming World's Math Olympiad.

Now, back to "Orange". Here are some more of my collection of orange photos.

California Poppies, Toothrock Trail, Poway, San Diego County

Sunset, San Onofre State Beach, San Diego County

Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona

And here is more about orange and oblation. :)

Orange- like yellow, is a happy color :)

Physiological Effect: Orange has proven to be a stimulus of the sexual organs. Also, it can be benefitial to the digestive system and can strengthen the immune system.

Psychological Effect: Orange has shown to have only positive affects on your emotional state. This color relieves feelings of self-pity, lack of self-worth and unwillingness to forgive. Orange opens your emotions and is a terrific antidepressant.

 Oblation -  is a term used for a solemn offering or presentation to God. University of the Philippines is the premier institution of higher learning in the Philippines, and its symbol is the "Oblation", which is a figure of a naked man with arms outstretched and face pointed upwards. The University of the Philippines symbol of "Oblation" is based on the second stanza of "Mi Ultimo Adios", written by the Philippines' national hero, Jose Rizal. Each year, they award 50 Oblation scholars, to the top 50 UPCAT qualifiers. To the 50 best entering UP freshmen, to maintain their Oblation Scholarship, they must not have a grade below 2.0 ( or no grade below 83%), no dropping of classes and no incomplete standings.The Oblation scholars enjoy such benefits as waiving all school fees, a book allowance of P2,250 pesos per semester, a P3,000 monthly stipend and a STFAP-patterned transportation allowance. Oblation scholarship is only good for 4 years.

** 3/12/14 Update: My nephew is able to maintain his Oblation Scholarship, he is now in 4th year of a double major pursuit: Metallurgical Engineering and Computer Science. Next school year, he will no longer enjoy the benefits of an Oblation scholar, for oblation scholarship is good only for 4 years, and engineering is a 5-year course. Though he has two majors, but he will be able to finish both without adding more years to his college.

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