My Socially Constructed Reality

Single loyalty. I saw these words in the latest memo we've got from the `top.' But I thought it was redundant. I believe that loyalty is meant to be rendered ONLY TO ONE company or person. I never heard of loyalty to two bosses. That's absurd. ********************************* During our faculty meeting, I heard one of my co-faculty read the handbook: it says, "the faculty should maintain highest level of excellence at all times." Another redundancy there. Is excellence not the highest level one can achieve? Does excellence have levels? So what could be the "highest" and the "lowest" level? ********************************* I never meant to be honest to Mike, Jel and Ella. I unintentionally told them that I was disappointed of them. That I felt quite bad when I knew they're seeing another adviser. I couldn't explain how exactly I felt. But words came out of my mouth. I just realized I was confessing in front of them. I f...

Presenting the universities in our country: UP - University of the Philippines PNU - Para ngang UP UST - UP Sana Tayo ADMU - Ayaw Daw Mag- UP DLSU - Di Lumusot sa UP CAT FEU - Failed to Enter UP MAPUA - Meron Akong Panaginip, UP Ako... SLU - Sana Lang UP CEU - Cannot Enter UP ST. PAUL - Sana Talaga Pumasa Akong UP CAT, Lord... PUP - Pekeng UP Happy UP Centennial! (Para sa mga ka-UP ko lang to!)

Subukan ko nga... 1. Fist choice of course in UP: AB Mass Communication-Journalism at UP Baguio 2. Second choice: BS Psychology at UP Diliman 3. Third choice: Wala. 4. Saan natapos: UP Baguio, kulit! 5. Bakit sa Baguio? Ang totoo, hindi pa ako nakarating sa Baguio noon kaya pinili ko yun. Malay ko bang papasa ako... 6. Ilan kaming pumasa mula sa Araneta University : Sa batch namin, tatlo lang ang naging UPian 7. Nag-aral ba ako sa UP Diliman? Oo, isang summer lang. Nakipag-away pa nga yung grupo namin sa pila noong enrollment. Ang dami kasing taga UP Dil na sumisingit sa pila :-( 8. Sinong da best professors? Sir Jimmy Fong, Sir Rolly Fernandez (kahit mababa magbigay ng grades), Ma'am Mendigo at Ma'am Rodriguez 9. Bakit sila ang DA BEST? Si Sir Fong , every sem yata teacher namin. Super sarcastic but very professional. Si Sir Rolly ? Ahmmm... ang suki namin sa pagbibigay ng 2.75 at 2.5. HIghest ko sa kanya was 1.5 lang. MInsan lang nangyari. Talag...

What I get out of writing: fulfillment and money. Yeah, who said there's no money in writing? I must be lucky because I got a 25-thousand-peso contract on book writing. For something unexpected, this is really good news :-) Just what I've always wanted: enjoying writing and earning at the same time . The truth is that I never expected to get such amount from writing the first parts of the book. At first, I was asked by the editor to write a 48-page Grammar book but when I submitted the whole thing, she immediately liked it because, well, it's well-researched, appropriately contextualized on Phil. setting and even the layout is already done upon submission. Anyway, from 48 pages, the proposal became 112 pages. It was fine with me because it's not really a very difficult task. I have the materials and it's easy to search the net for materials. Besides, I have been teaching English 1 and ESL for years now so it would be easy for me to write a book on Grammar...

Here's the link from the FUTURE EXPLORATION NETWORK.

THE INTERNET IN THE ACADEME: TOO COOL TO HANDLE OR TOO HOT TO AVOID?

A lot of thoughts ran through my mind while I was staring at the Manila Bay with my daughter, Steffi. LIFE, INDEED, IS JUST LIKE LOOKING AT THIS VIEW . We may like what we see, we may not like it, but in the end, it's how we see life that makes the difference. As my mom once told me, " LOOK AT LIFE AS HALF-FULL , not HALF-EMPTY ." The last time I saw the Manila Bay up close was when I was in elementary school -- we used to live in Manila then. Manila Bay wasn't as polluted as it is now. I was also expecting to see the well-publicized "Baywalk" but it was no longer there. All we saw were the garbages which were definitely an "eye sore." We were supposed to wait for sunset at the bay but we, instead, stayed there only for a few minutes. We couldn't stand the foul smell of the garbages. Manila Mayor Lim must do something about the pollution problem at the Manila Bay -- his governance, can only be as polluted or as pleasing as this bay whi...

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS is such a heartwarming film that will lift your spirit after making you feel so down. It's a story of a man who, against all odds, did everything just to "make ends meet." He had no job, no supportive wife, but he had a five-year-old son who served as his strength. While making his way up to being the "chosen intern" in a big company in New York, he had to struggle financially in order not to make life miserable for his son. Because of lack of money, he experie nced sleeping in public restroom with his son and finding refuge in a religious shelter. He didn't want to do it but he and his son had nowhere to go when he was sent out from the apartment due to delayed payments. The movie was inspired by the true story of CHRISTOPHER GARDNER who is "the owner and CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holding s with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco"( http://www.chrisgardnermedia.com/) Gardner's story i...

"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." - Marshal l McLuhan Canadian Professor and theorist Marshall McLuhan was the one who thought of the INTERNET making "global village" possible even before the Internet was discovered. Also famous for THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE theory, McLuhan deveoped the media TETRAD which can be used as a tool in understanding the interaction between people and media. The TETRAD is anchored on four significant questions: (1) What does the medium enhance/extend? (2) What does it make obsolete? (3) What does it retrieve from the past? and (4) What does it reverse into if it gets "over-extended?" How do we apply the TETRAD to the Internet as a new medium? 1. The Internet enhances communication among the people around the world. 2. The Internet makes snail mail obsolete. E-mail offers faster correspondence. 3. The Internet retrieves the use of text, either in research or simply communication with other people. 4...

All right -- I blog and I tell my students to read blog entries about our topic in their professional subjects. But I fail to address one problem : the digital divide. The use of blog in the academic setting reminds me of the "haves and the have-nots" in the university. Some students are updated on the lesson since they have Internet access at home. Some have not even visited the blog even once because they can't find a perfect time to access the Internet at the Cyberspace. Some would not want to spend money for Internet surfing at the Internet cafes. See? The blog requirement in my class tells me that "not everybody" is into the Internet era. This keeps me thinking of what I can do to bring all my students to "another world" where learning is faster, yet more complicated. And, according to this site, the issue is not just whether students or people have access to the Internet, but whether they want to "connect" with the rest of the...

I actually don't remember the exact date I started blogging. And definitely, this is not my first blog. I never knew what a blog was until I read the final paper of my BS Nursing student ( Pocholo Abelio Henson ) in my English 2 class. I forgot the year -- but Potchi was still freshman then; he's in fourth year now and graduating on March. He mentioned in his review of Angels and Demons that he liked the story and so he was inspired to blog about the book in his blog then. He wrote his blog address so I became curious. I did check his URL that day while I was checking other papers and computing for their grades. And guess what, I immediately liked the idea of blogging so I started to construct my own. However, my first blog didn't last for a year. After I posted hundreds of entries, I regretfully deleted the entire blog. I did that because of the hate-feelings I had when I found out that one of my students told someone in the campus that I blogged about her. Y...

Jobstreet.com reports that the salary range for college instructors is from 10 to 18 thousand pesos a month. Here's the web page showing the data. The number one entry shows that a 46-year-old college instructor who has been teaching for 22 years but only has a Bachelor's degree earns Php15,000.00. What can I say? OMG ! Thank God I can earn a lot more than that almost fifty-year-old instructor who also teaches here in Central Luzon... But the salary data for faculty suggests that the college faculty earns more than that figures. Here's the data which shows that faculty can earn as low as 8 thousand and as high as Php 22,000.00 only. The figures are still relatively low... ************************************************* It's already 3 a.m. I'm still in front of the computer -- facing nine windows which I alternately read and click on. I've read a lot of things in my three-hour "virtual hopping" from one site to another. Where have I virtually...

This day, I thought of a possible topic for my dissertation. I want to start writing the proposal. I'm thinking of qualitative research this time. The thing is, there might be no research expert in AUF grad school who understands quali research in Communication/Public Administration. I will surely miss Dr. Heasley -- the former dean of Grad School at AUF who meticulously read my master's thesis and required me to read so many research materials before I finished. And of course, Sir Wilson's memory will live on as long as there are theses or researches for me to write. Sir Solis was my former thesis adviser who passed away a couple of years ago...

You lie. You get dumped. You tell the truth and you go home with 50,000 dollars! This is the idea behind the show NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH which is currently popular in Colombia. As mentioned in this website: The format of "Nothing But the Truth" is as simple as it is cruel: If the participants truthfully answer 21 increasingly invasive questions, they walk away with $50,000. I don't think a machine -- polygraph--could tell who needs luck, or money-- the most. What else could the contestants want from the show but the pot money? Imagine, they'd go for money instead of for their own dignity. However, this show might prove that, after all, "honesty is still the best policy -- and the road to thousands of dollars!" Sitting in a chair with machine is still much more comfortable than jumping and doing stunts in FEAR FACTOR, which also gives away money as reward. By the way, I think the best contestants for such kind of show are the government officials . The F...

" We must take sides . Neutrality helps the oppressor , never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor , never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant . Wherever men and women are persecuted because of race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe." -- Elie Wiesel , Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor

After a long while, the class was suspended. We've been having classes continuously, with no break, except if we take official leave. Today, at least, we've got the whole day to spend with our families. I'm sure, both teachers and students are enjoying this rainy day at home -- where life is less complicated and more convenient...

Before I performed I was very nervous because there were many people who attended the show. When I got the lapel, I was hoping I won’t cough while singing. Because on the first show we had, I still have cough. But when I performed I am so lucky the audience were just students who are studying in AUF-IS. I hope that on the next show, the audience who were watching will not laugh at my curly hair. Performing is really FUN AND GREAT! -- STEFFI