Plurk + Facebook = <3
I just migrated to Facebook after Friendster had a problem with missing friends. For now, I am sticking to Facebook. And just recently, my plurks can now be read by my facebook friends using the new API.
However if you don’t want your Facebook friends to read your plurks, you can always check “Don’t post to Facebook” option.
Why I teach?
While I was in my class the other day, one of my students asked me, “Sir, why did you become a teacher?” I did not respond to her question for a couple of minutes. Instead, I just smiled at her and continued with my discussion.
The moment I stepped out from the classroom, I reflected on her question.
Working as a supervisor by day and a teacher by night is not as easy as it sounds. Juggling my precious time is no easy feat especially when I get off from my 1st job at 5 in the afternoon and rush immediately to my second job. Tardiness is not an excuse. A minute wasted because of tardiness is a minute wasted from a student’s learning.
So why did I choose to become a teacher? Let me first present some facts about our country today.
A lot of Filipinos students right now are taking Nursing and Business courses. It’s a reality, right? Everywhere you look, nursing schools and review centers are sprouting like mushrooms.
According to CHED’s Statistical Bulletin last 2004-2005, 19% of tertiary students all over the country, both in private and in public/state colleges, are enrolled in medical and allied health courses, 22% is enrolled in business related courses, and only 15% is enrolled in education science and teacher training courses. However, the number of nursing enrollees is increasing each year due to the demand of nurses abroad.
If this trend continues, less and less students will enroll in other courses, particularly and most importantly in education science and teacher training courses. Consequently, we will have fewer teachers in the future. In fact, our country is starting to lack competent teachers.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why there is a decline in terms of quality in nursing education despite its sudden “boom”. According to CHED, the 2004 Nursing Board Exam had a 49.40% national passing rate. A year after, it slightly went up to 51.69%, but gradually decreased to 45.17% in 2006 and 45.44% in 2007.
In addition, a survey from the Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) showed that 85 to 90 percent of nursing faculty members in our country are planning to work abroad.
The question now is: who will teach these students if our teachers continue to leave the country? I’m not just referring to teachers who teach nursing. Some of my teachers in IT, in fact, already left or are planning to leave the country.
Basically, I am doing my part. Even if it’s just in a small way, I am serving my students, my community and, ultimately, my country, as well. Even though teaching is not financially rewarding compared to other white-collared jobs, seeing the spark of learning in my students’ eyes is just enough for me. I believe that I am contributing and setting them to a right path towards success both in school and in their lives.
So why I chose to teach? Simple. I want to make a difference. If you also want to make a difference, teach. Together, we can make this country stand in its own feet again. There will come a day when we don’t have to go abroad to work and earn money. Our teachers will soon retire from their jobs. Some will leave this country. But we can’t blame them. We shouldn’t allow that someday our students will face an empty blackboard with no teacher to teach them. It’s time for you to make that move and make a difference. Teach.
Philippines Dictionary Project launched
What started out as an experimental program to a local public school in Negros Oriental, the idea of book loans suddenly grew into something bigger and better.
Ms. Nina Patawaran, a dedicated supporter of children’s literacy in the Philippines, together with Silliman University and with the support of the Department of Education, recently launched the Philippines Dictionary Project last November 7, 2008.
The project aims to provide dictionaries to poorly funded public elementary schools in the form of a book loan.
However, interested schools will be asked to pay a rental fee of PHP 500 per school year for the 50 dictionaries to be lent out, which will help defray Silliman University’s expenses particularly with the protective book covers.
The project uses the Scholastic First Dictionaries (ISBN 0439798345). It’s fully illustrated but has a few words in it. It also doesn’t use the convential phonetics found in most dictionaries.
Source: The Scholastic Store
Scholastic First Dictionary. Source: http://www.scholastic.ca
Selected public elementary schools will now be able to access these high quality, age-appropriate dictionaries that would otherwise be unavailable in their respective communities.
I had the chance to talk Ms. Nina Patawaran and she said that some of these dictionaries were even donated by some of her friends coming from different nationalities (Greek, Brazilian, British, American, etc.). She even had an officemate (a janitress in their office) who donated one dictionary for the project.
It’s nice to know that the rest of the world is helping for this project. Whether you’re rich or poor, Filipino or not, you can help in this project. If you guys want to be part of the Philippines Dictionary Project, you can contact Ms. Nina Patawaran at philippinesdictionaryproject@gmail.com or Chiara Cruza of Ayala Foundation, Inc. at (+632) 752-1101 or email her at cruza.cl@ayalafoundation.org.
Cash donations go to the Ayala Foundation, Inc., an established non-profit organization in the Philippines. Donations in kind are also welcome.
NOTE: My Disclosure Policy
On Loving
This is my first and hopefully my last blog about love. I’m not comfortable writing about love but this is definitely worth pondering on. A friend of mine posted this in Friendster.
“True love is a rare gift, which not all of us find in life and most love sayings agree with this perspective. This is true especially in a romantic love context. Love does not imply joys all the time, in fact, we come to know from love sayings that love has both seasons within it autumn and spring.
Love sayings make the affect of joys and sorrows of love all the more strong. Love saying talk about all sorts of experiences in love, good and bad simultaneously.
It often happens that we fail to discern between true love and obsession or lust and in this case, we find lots of love quotes explaining deceit in love. You can find lots of love sayings lamenting the loss of love while at the some time, there are endless quotes which celebrate the joy of.
The numerous love sayings confirm the infinite aspects of love and experiences of different lovers. Despite the endless experiences and expressions of love, it is a universal emotion and it remains the same in all sorts of love; all love saying articulate the same essence of love only the expression is different.
Coming up with your own love sayings is a great way to express your personal perspective towards love. Love has many aspects and everyone has a particular view about it, as they describe in their personal love sayings.”
I see you nodding your head. True, eh? Leave your insights.
Flyff PH Iblis Knight Porsche007
Flyff PH Iblis Server Porsche007 115-M Knight in action. Thanks to Jordz252 for the video.
Dumaguete WiFi Spots
If you’re looking for places that offer Wifi access in Dumaguete City, you will find that there are only few business establishments that offer it for free unlike in Davao City where free WiFi is fast becoming a lucrative business strategy.
These are the places around town that I’ve been in to that offer free WiFi access:
1. Jollibee Perdices Branch – This branch is located at the heart of the metro near Lee Plaza. It will require you a password to connect to their WiFi. Just ask any of their service crew for the password.
Rating: Very Good.
2. Jollibee North Road Branch – Located along North Road Highway (near NORSU). You also need to ask the password from any of their service crew.
Rating: Very Good.
3. Sted’s Convenience Store – Sted’s doesn’t have WiFi but you can get a signal when you’re there. Conveniently located just across Silliman University.
Rating: Reasonable (Signal strength is sometimes low and you need to reconnect from time to time.)
4. McDonald’s Dumaguete Branch – This is located near the Cathedral Church and does not require a password.
Rating: Good.
5. D’Minimiks Grill – Located along Hibbard Avenue beside ABS-CBN. Good food. Good ambiance. Good Internet connectivity.
Rating: Good.
6. Happy Freds – Located along the Boulevard. Haven’t gone to this place, yet.
Rating: Unknown
7. Gabby’s Bistro - Located in Bantayan, Dumaguete City. Near Florentina Homes.
8. Cafe Antonio - Ask around. Everybody knows where Cafe Antonio is.
Got more FREE WiFi spots around Dumaguete City? Please leave a comment.
UPDATED: January 9, 2009. Added two more WiFi hot spots.
Breaded Porkshop
A few weeks ago, I ate my lunch in a nearby convenience store near my work place. While I was busy deciding what to eat, my attention was caught by this big tarpaulin (instead of the beautiful waitress patiently waiting for my order) showing their value meals.
Yesterday, I went back to the store to check if they somehow changed the tarpaulin. Much to my surprise, the oversized menu was still displayed (hopefully to attract more customers and not bloggers like me). I don’t know if their manager already noticed it or if it was displayed/printed intentionally but they’re sure proud of it!
Anyway, here’s the picture.
If you want to see it for yourself, be sure to drop by at Sted’s Convenience Store – Silliman Branch. Bon Appétit!
On UPS and Generators
About a week ago, Friendster users were shocked why most of their friends were missing or deleted. Days later, an official announcement from the Friendster team revealed the real reason behind the problem.
According to them, “There was a building-wide power outage at the QTS/Globix Data Center in Sunnyvale, California, USA where Friendster’s servers are co-located, along with about 50 other customers. As a result, the memory caching of data was affected. Since Friendster has 85 million users, the cache is taking a considerable amount of time to build. Once the cache has been completely built, all friends will re-appear.”
I checked the net about the validity of the news and found that it was, indeed, true. You can read the entire stuff right here and here.
The UPS and generators did not do there job. So blame it to those UPS and generators, people!
According to this website, “The Santa Clara facility was back on generator within two hours, but Friendster remained offline for more than 23 hours over three days.”
That troubled me most. Just imagine how a power outage that lasted for two hours can make a big difference or ultimately wreck havoc into a system of a particular company. This clearly questioned Friendster’s system’s reliability.
Hopefully, Friendster can learn from their mistakes. As for me, I’m switching to Facebook.
Browsing Mobile Internet using Firefox
While iPhone has Safari, Blackberry has RIM, and Windows Mobile has Internet Explorer Mobile, Mozilla recently set its sight on mobile phones. Mozilla just released it’s new browser for mobile phones. Although Fennec (named for a type of small fox) is not yet widely available in most phones, the Nokia N810 Internet tablet comes pre-equipped with Mozilla’s “alpha” version of Fennec.
Rumor has it that there are plenty of bugs and some interface problems. Hopefully, Fennec could be available to most consumer phones by early part of next year.
Friendster down?
Friendster is pretty messed up lately. Missing friends. Every now and then maintenance. Rumor has it that a computer virus or a computer hacker named H4XOR is responsible for the 4-day maintenance of Friendster.
But please, do not believe the text message that’s circulating lately. Me hates losing my friends but me also thinks that it pays to read.
