My Socially Constructed Reality

My dear Stef, I'd like to write you a letter now because I noticed you've grown a lot. . . Let me tell you why you make me happier every day. Remember the first time you woke up early and prepared breakfast then packed my baon for school? That day, on my way to school, I thanked God because I felt so lucky for having a now almost grown-up daughter. Ang sarap pala ng feeling kapag may anak na nag-aasikaso. Really. I never felt that in my whole life. When I take care of you and Cha and Danie, masarap din pakiramdam ko kahit pagod, pero ibang happiness kapag anak na ang nagpapakita ng pagmamahal. Thanks for your care. I appreciate it a lot. I feel your love every day, every night, every minute, even when I'm at work. Tuwing ititimpla mo ako ng kape, it's not just coffee that you give me, but your love, and the coffee becomes sweeter and more special. Thanks. Kahit sa coffee na pinapadala mo sa YM, ok na rin sa kin -- lol -- basta galing sa inyong mga anak ko. For ...

This morning was the interview for the Search for Model Faculty of the Year. The members of the panel include Dr. Archimedes David, VP for Academic Affairs, Dr. Nicanor Austriaco, former VP for AA, and Ms Lorie Canlas, VP for Finance. Well, what can I say? I actually enjoyed the interview but there's a doubt somewhere in my mind, that it was a good shot. I'm competing against two doctors. One with Ph. D. degree and one a real doctor who teaches at the School of Medicine. Then Ma'am Lorie kept telling me to finish my Ph. D. degree. I have no idea what it meant, or if it has meaning at all. Among the things that they asked was how my research, Charles' thesis, I mean, contributed to my growth and to the improvement of my teaching. I already forgot my answer... ha ha. She asked me how I return to AUF community the benefits that I get from attending the seminars. I gave her three answers, and I thought she was satisfied with my answers. Sir Archie didn't ask much. Bu...

Life in the academe is like a canvas. When one enters the academe as a faculty member, the canvas is just a plain surface waiting to be painted on. It is then up to the faculty to paint on the canvas, to create a design, and to choose what color to use. It is only through painting that the canvas comes alive. In conquering the white space, colors can do the trick. The color purple symbolizes royalty and good judgment. It is a combination of red, the warmest color, and blue, the coolest color. My personal preference for the color purple is a statement that may be effectively conveyed even in the absence of words. Just like preference for a color, in my case purple, a teacher needs to advocate something. This advocacy radiates and can eventually have impact on the people outside oneself. Ideally, the teacher’s advocacy must be aligned with his or her expertise. Student empowerment . Freedom with responsibility . Media Literacy . Originali...

The urge to resign as vice chair is here again. This time, I am more serious to become regular faculty, instead of handling administrative tasks. What prompted me to think about resigning again? Well, for the record, I have long wanted to leave admin. task but knowing that there's no one to take the place, I am staying here. This feeling of resigning just popped out of my mind when I talked to Tonette Orejas the other day. I was trying to convince her to teach part-time. And fortunately, seems like she agreed. Actually, a few years back, I also talked to her, with the same pitch -- asking her if she would consider teaching. And I got a yes back then. And now, I still got a yes. We just have to settle scheduling problem. She said she's only available to teach on Saturdays. But when I asked our dean about considering her to teach though she's got no Master's degree, the dean reiterates the "policy" that says, "No MA, no way." I...

Scars - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

I was invited as guest on May 5 in the program "Work Ko 'to!" at 104.1 DWAU. We talked about my jobs as faculty member, writer and ESL instructor. Edmar del Mundo was the host. Guest co-host is Marife Velasco. Smile! My AB Comm. 3 students: Kaori, Kelly, Daniel and Marife

I'm currently writing my dissertation. Well, yeah, I'm finishing this dissertation so I could get a doctoral degree. But at the back of my mind, I still ask myself, "Who needs a doctoral degree?" Honestly, I'm trying to finish this doctoral degree just because I think it's long overdue. It's just like an unfinished business that has to be done so as to "clean the slate" for me. Personally, I don't think this is the best thing I need. If I need this doctoral degree, I could have finished years back. For a time, I thought getting the doctoral degree is the best way to have salary increase. That was exactly the reason I enrolled in Ph. D. program here in AUF in the year 2005. Back then, I needed some increase in my salary and the only solution I saw was to finish a doctoral degree. Along the way, however, I found side jobs, e.g. writing online and teaching ESL to Korean students, that could make me earn more than double, or even tr...

My dissertation proposal is a case study of the conduct of the Automated Election System in Angeles City. I had my proposal defense last Saturday. Fortunately or unfortunately, my proposed method was technically not approved by the panel. The details on what happened during the proposal are posted on my dissertation blog: www.election2010angelescity.blogspot.com . What can I say? Hmmm.... I was a bit dismayed because the panel could not appreciate qualitative study. I am optimistic that there's so much to learn from a qualitative study that uses multiple sources, e.g. diff. types of interviews, observations, document reviews, and collection of artifacts. Unfortunately, the panel thought a case study of Angeles City-COMELEC's implementation of the Automated Election System won't have any significance at all. In short, they turned me to conducting survey and supporting the data with FGD. They suggested a regional coverage, the whole Central Luzon. One of the panelists ev...

I've become too strong. Sometimes I wish I were weak. Being too strong makes me lose myself. The stronger I become, the harder it is for me to pick up the pieces. I can't go on living my life this way...

The holy week was not really holy for me. This was time of the year when I played hard. Really played hard, as in trying to make the toon level every time I logged in . And to help my toon level up, even my husband and my daughter would play with her. This year, my toon is DanieGanda. Danie, for the record, is my daughter's nick name. But I thought of adding the word "Ganda," which is a tagalog term for Beauty. DanieGanda is a human priest in the normal mode. As the rule in Shaiya, a player won't be able to create a character in the hard mode [here, toons are stronger] without first reaching level 40 in the normal mode, which is a level lower than HM. When DanieGanda started, she was power leveled by king-kruller, whom DanieGanda met while my daughter was playing the toon. King_kruller was als o Danie's first friend in Shaiya. At the moment, he's already level 58, UM. The experience was good for Danie was able to meet players from different walks o...

My husband's toon: Chachu04 My toon: DanieGanda

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." "The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." -- Randy Pausch

First of all, I’d like to mention that Zeus Salazar was the first scholar that has made a mark on my being, when I was in college. I would never forget how much his idea of “p antayong pananaw ” had sunk into my system. My History professor, during my first year in UP, inculcated in us the value of having history written by Filipinos, and not by foreign authors. That was where the idea of “ pantayong pananaw ” centered on. And of course, I’d always remember this because it was in this subject where I got a grade of 1.0. Well, in UP, students normally say, “Only gods deserve 1.0.” Of course they were only kidding. Zeus Salazar. He knew exactly what Filipinos are like: They would resort to any way just to avoid hurting a fellow Filipino . This is very Filipino, and this is what I sometimes don’t like about Filipinos. In the workplace, when you start voicing out directly how you feel about certain issues, the “normal” ones brand y...