Classroom Science Initiatives

This is the post for the last day of the second month of the third term of school year 2008 to 2009, and it’s not being sent from the campus.

The main event of the day wasn’t in campus anyway, and that’s the audition for the band fest.

@@ Today I’d like to bring up another pet peeve: that of technology assuming what the user wants.

I’m particularly talking about word processing software, and how it believes it knows what the typist likes in terms of formatting bullets and numbering.

Well, it’s not the case, and for a teacher who likes to put two sets of questions for an exam on one sheet, and where numbering of different parts of the test doesn’t indent deeper and deeper with each selection, it’s annoying.

I believe that just like most proprietary software, it’s become so loaded with features that the average computer buyer doesn’t use anyway that it’s not worth the payment.

Maybe I’ll make my own open document maker, where the features one wants can just be downloaded as needed, and isn’t installed in bulk. Maybe I’ll call it Simple Star.

@@ It’s sad how some people are so full of bluster about what they believe to be their rights and how they’ve been offended, but when they are called out to write a formal complaint and put everything in black and white, they back down.

Then they turn around and say that they are disappointed that they were not given the attention they deserved, when authorities can’t act unless there’s a “smoking gun”, and that otherwise, they will have to proceed by the letter of the law otherwise all their efforts to help others could be invalidated.

But I know that in some cases, this is because at some level of their consciousness, they know that there is a possibility that it will be revealed that they don’t have a proper leg to stand on, and that it may even be discovered that they are at fault and not the supposedly “victimizing” party.

Either way, if they step off the plate, then they relinquish the right to be heard.

They can’t run away from a fight and still have the last word in. Their statement doesn’t come off as solid at that point, but as something they won’t stay and defend.

Morning shuttle insight of the day: it’s a bit disconcerting to see a student who normally either comes to class very late or if not is absent boarding the shuttle before 7am.

What’s even worse is if this behavior too little too late, as he has already wasted almost four years of his academic life on grasshopper like behavior (as in the fable with the ant, not in kung-fu master/apprentice terms) in what is undoubtedly the most demanding major in the school and reaped the consequences.

If he had shown this penchant for going to school early before, then maybe he would not have been kicked out of that program. As it is, this could be just grasping at straws and that even attendance couldn’t save him from being kicked out of the new program, if that’s all that’s changed, his attendance.

@@ One thing I’d like to see business simulation games tackle is the difference between a necessary and a fringe expense (pardon to those taking these kinds of things up as a major if I’m not using the right terminology).

What I mean by this is learning to determine between something that must be bought or paid for at the start to increase profit, and what is not absolutely necessary.

@@ It’s weird what kind of things we remember of people after they have passed away.

Like the neighbor I was talking about in a previous post. Since my room faces the street, there were times when I would see him just sitting at a table in their garage smoking at 2 or 3am those odd times that I’d wake up.

Was he already thinking about the inevitability of his own mortality then? Did he prepare for it?

@@ It seems the guardian of Dan has gotten a little bit wise, or at least, circumspect.

It now just says “weighted phrase limit exceeded” without saying what the weighted phrase is.

So I guess now there will be less specific grumbling about what phrases have been banned, and must more general hair pulling and thinking of alternative ways around the ban without knowing what the offending words are.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 27: People will work eight hours a day for pay, ten hours a day for a good boss, and twenty-four hours a day for a good cause! – Unknown

There’s a precursor to the post last week that I forgot to mention, and only remembered now that I’m back at the retreat. Bro. Noel told us facilitators the personal trial the priest he got for that week (who was different from the one gotten during the first batch) spoke about in passing in his homily.

He was driving home one night when, along a two-lane road, he was met by a speeding truck with glaring headlights. He avoided hitting the truck, but something smashed his left passenger side window. He thought it was a rock someone threw.

So he pulled over and got out. That was when he was an old woman lying on the side of the road being cradled by her husband. Apparently, she was the one that had hit his window.

The priest dutifully went to the precinct to complete a report. It was there that he was informed that the woman had died either at or on the way to the hospital.

But the husband did not press charges. This has led the other priests in the rectory to suspect that maybe the husband knows something more, that maybe it was the truck that had hit his wife and just rebounded on the priest’s car window.

But the rector had prevented the priest from going to the funeral, worried about the sentiments of the rest of the woman’s family and even the neighbors.

The rector accompanied the priest to the wake though, at least once for the priest’s own peace of mind.

Why did I mention this? Because I believe that it was this frame of mind that made me witness to the most recent accident. I believe in the superstition that if you’re thinking of yellow Volkswagens, you will see them.

Not because you’re looking for them, but because they’re foremost in your attention.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson: February 23: Get your major purpose clear, take off your plate all which hinders that purpose and hold hard to all which helps it, and then go ahead with a clear conscience, courage, sincerity and selflessness. – Anonymous

@@ February 24: A really great man is known by three sign: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, and moderation in success. – Otto Von Bismarck

@@ February 26: The world’s greatness is measured by authority and lordliness, but divine greatness is a meek and gentle influence. - Anonymous

This is the longest, as far as I know, that I have not been able to post when it’s not a continuous vacation. Last Saturday the events at the retreat were fully engaging, and yesterday, I was only in school for an hour and a half before leaving.

@@ Morning Shuttle Insight of the Day: There is a stretch of road we pass, 400 meters in length, where there are a total of 10 speed bumps we go through.

Sure, I get it: they want to deter over-speeders, but there is such a thing as excessiveness.

One suspicion: maybe the baranggay officials, whose hall the street passes in front of, got a big commission from the cement supplier on the contract for a minimum purchase.

@@ Just a side note about the Junior Senior Prom that happened in school Saturday night.

Apparently, the students have been asking their parents to pressure the school into having the prom held off campus. The brother president responded though that if it’s to be held in some hotel ballroom that they will have to be the ones to organize it (and, presumably, also shoulder any additional expenses that might be incurred, estimably in the thousands).

That’s why it was held in the LC1 covered court for “maximum” school support.

@@ Another nearby death: last Friday it was the father of the family of the neighbor right in front of us.

He complained of a stomachache on that day, and was brought to the hospital. That night the doctors were surprised to discover massive organ failure.

My mom’s suspicion: that he had been suffering internally for a long time without telling anyone, until that day. Let’s hope that this means he prepared for the eventuality.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 21: Even if we fail to accomplish the objectives we set, we will be infinitely better off in the seeking than we can possibly be in the waiting. – Zig Ziglar

@@ February 22: Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. – Warren G. Bennis

@@ February 25: All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. – Deuteronomy 28:2-3 NIV

More idiotic robotic frustrations: besides the irritation I mentioned yesterday from a website I frequent, there’s also another website that has a log in, and at the same time has a check box if the user wants the connecting machine to be remembered. Except that it doesn’t actually remember.

Despite having clicked that check box for a little more than a month now, I still have to log in every day I go there. So I guess that control doesn’t work.

@@ I’m showing “Contact” right now in my astronomy classes, directed by Robert Zemeckis.

I have seen it several times before, but I still find a lot of nuances in the work that I didn’t notice previously.

I still believe that this and “Forrest Gump” are his best works being on the same level, I believe, as anything Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Terry Gilliam, Christopher Nolan or Peter Jackson have envisioned and executed, before he fell into the mire of motion capture computer generated films with unfocused eyes.

Somehow these soulless representations of people still don’t have the heart his other human characters do.

@@ There was a text message from the college secretary saying that according to Brother Kenneth, there will be no classes on Monday. I don’t know if this is about the EDSA celebration, but the unexpected long weekend is very welcome.

Well, as much of the weekend is actually considered free time for some of us, since it’s the third batch of the college seniors’ retreat until Sunday lunch.

@@ And just in case word hasn’t gotten out yet, and we want this to be as well publicized as possible anyway, the MYMP/PNE concert in school on March 6 with the band fest contestants as the front act is pushing through.

The tickets are four hundred pesos each. Up to Friday next week there is a buy 10 get 1 ticket free promo.

It will be held at the covered courts, which means that at most there is two crosswise basketball courts between you and the artists, better than at the Big Dome for the same price.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 20: To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone. – Hyrum W. Smith

Commitment is a line you must cross… it is the difference between dreaming and doing. – Bernie Fuchs

Morning Shuttle Insight of the Day: Okay, about that Integrated School scholar that has not been riding the shuttle since Monday, I just learned that it’s chicken pox. That’s a huge relief, and I’m sure he can make up for the absences.

Also, I’m going to emphasize on the importance here of looking back. There was one kid who wasn’t outside his house when we passed by. The driver just continued on.

If it weren’t for his classmates peering from the rear of the shuttle, he would not have been seen coming out of their house after we had passed, they would not have been able to tell the driver and he would not have been able to catch up.

@@ Sometimes there are incidents that literally wake us up and remind us of the urgency of life.

Last night going home at around 11pm, I was jolted out of my nap by screeching tires and my fellow passengers gasping. Suddenly our jeep also stopped.

Looking out the back of the jeep, there was a white pick up truck with a camper shell on the other side of the road that suddenly revved his engine and sped away, to the shout of several bystanders. I had the presence of mind to look at the license plate, but despite the relative nearness, it wasn’t readable.

What that pick up had also been blocking from my sight was the pedestrian he had struck, who was lying across the road. He wasn’t moving.

When the driver of the jeep I was in decided he had seen enough, the other persons on foot around the scene had already approached the victim of the hit and run and were lifting up his head. The whole experience stayed with me even after I went to sleep last night. The surprises of life can be so abrupt.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 19: The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine. – Mike Murdock

* I so agree with this. It’s in the habits cultivated regularly that shape our big tasks.

It’s highly improbable that someone is a slacker for most of their academic years and suddenly changes into a hard-working tireless paragon upon graduating.

The same is true with learning to get along with people; that’s what being assigned to different groups in class work is for, to be able to learn to adapt.

If you’re that selective of compatible team members this early, you won’t make it in the work place.

Morning Shuttle Insight of the Day: Changes in routine are the benchmark when something is wrong.

A student who doesn’t ride for a day can be dismissed as being sick for the moment.

One who doesn’t ride for two out of three days (last Monday and today, I don’t know about yesterday, and I am not familiar enough with my other co-passengers to ask), and you already get the dread that something may be seriously wrong, particularly if it has been said that this student and his family have been discriminated against in the past due to their religious stand.

Here’s to hoping it’s nothing serious that can’t be remedied by a few days’ bed rest.

@@ Happy birthday to former student newsletter editor-in-chief and now yearbook editor-in-chief Lauren, one of the students with the best disposition I know.

She has already done a lot for the school, and I know she will make the school more proud in her career.

@@ It’s irritating how some website developers can’t see how user unfriendly their homepages are.

There’s a link I go to that where there is log in. The programmers thought that it would be nice if the page recognizes that an old user did not log out, and would show that “you are still logged in as [username]. Click here to log in as another user.”

The problem is that from that point, there is no link to the main page so that you don’t have to log in again.

So what I usually end up doing is that I click on the “log in as another user” button, then log in again as that user it said I was already logged in as, just to get to the applications page.

In other words, right now, that declaration page that I’m still logged on is virtually useless.

And the problem in dealing with robots like this is that if what you’re asking is outside their programming, it’s like a fly just banging its head against window glass.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 18: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

One of the things I have been forgetting to mention about the Science and Math week held by the Integrated School last week is that they have renewed the paintings on the floors of the gazebos, already faded from the work done two years ago.

I hope they have digital optic documentation of the old paintings as well as the new ones.

@@ Another major event for the IS is the junior senior prom to be held this weekend, the same time as the annual math wizard contest sponsored by the Rotary Club.

According to the Director for Administrative Services, Sir Mar, there is a conflict as to the use of the facilities with another group to use the campus on those days.

@@ And without us noticing it, we start to spend our lives apart from our close friends, only finding out thanks to the wonders of modern technology and wireless updating.

Here I am spending my nights and weekends in the province of native coffee and chocolate (which up to now I haven’t sampled since staying there) and I find out that Justin and Chat went to the summer capital of the Philippines for the Valentine weekend.

I would have liked to go there again, especially with them, but of course, time does not permit right now.

There is, on the other hand always to look forward to, the nebulous “someday”.

@@ On Thursday last week, at the gas station across from Paseo while waiting in the shuttle, apparently, Jose Mari Chan used the restroom. I was looking, and I saw the resemblance, but at first I didn’t think it was him because he looked so much older than any of the public photos I’ve seen. But he was waving to people, and finally it was confirmed by the gas station attendants, who are experts on that kind of thing.

I wonder if he would have consented to a photograph that I could give to TV, and if he washed his hands.

@@ Congratulations to SC president Cedric for winning this inter-school brain challenge for the first time in three years. Before it used to be a team competition, now it’s individual.

That success is all yours, Mr. V. Don’t let anyone else take it away from you, except maybe for the woman behind every great man, which is the only difference this year for you.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 17: Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Morning Shuttle Insight of the Day: when other people know our routine and we don’t know that other people know our routine, we can be put off track.

That’s what happened this morning. At one of our stops, we were supposed to pick up a student.

But instead of the student getting on the shuttle, an adult who had been waving since we approached the bend opened the door and got on. The driver asked him where he was going and he said to the school. I guess it’s either the father of the absent student or a family member who may be applying for a job.

@@ The centralized air conditioner of most of the offices on the ground floor of this building is off for almost a week now. This is because the cooling tank beside the basketball court is going major maintenance, the first time in six years.

Good thing that our air conditioners here on the upper floors have been de-centralized.

@@ What is it with People: who live vicariously though the accomplishments of others?

They rub it into others’ faces that the success of their apprentices is also their success.

They’re even noisier about the victory than the actual winner, who is usually quiet and humble.

But as I mentioned in the most recent post, if the apprentice fails, they wash their hands of the person.

I don’t think it’s actually possible for them to have more frustration in life, and to be more cowardly than wanting to accomplish something but not wanting to take the risk.

And they’re not fooling anybody. It’s not solely because of them that the win was attained, nor were they in any way “inspiring”.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson February 14: We need to have a [sic] challenging goals for ourselves that require us to stretch ourselves in order to attain them. – William H. Bennett

@@ February 15: I am certainly glad that what is impossible with man, is possible with God. – Joyce Meyer

@@ February 16: All that stands between your goal and the deeds you hope to do, and the dreams which stir your restless soul – is you! – Mac-Sim-Ology

One of the many things that the movie “Mean Girls” and the net has taught us is that even though you find at least one other individual who shares the same views as you, even though the rest of the world may be against you, it doesn’t mean that you, the minority are correct and everyone else is wrong.

Take, for example, child pornography. I wouldn’t be surprised if such close-knit groups can find each other on the web, and find comfort in the shared persecution.

Sure, they could be united in their common struggle, but the general populace’ fervent prayer is that one day they will wake up and say, “Hey, wait a minute, what we’ve been doing all along is wrong! Let’s stop and change our ways!”

On another level, there is “Mean Girls”. They may believe that what they’re doing is not as condemnable as child pornography, but just because there are others who share their views doesn’t mean that what they’re doing is right.

Still on a totally different spectrum of existence, just because someone is alone and doesn’t have any friends also still doesn’t guarantee that they will realize that what they’ve been doing all this time is wrong, and that maybe there is a good reason people are avoiding them and always not agreeing to their suggestions.

So if one person could be that insensitive, dense and unmindful of do-unto-others, what more several people who can come up with all sorts of justifications for their actions, as well as unconsciously subscribing to the philosophy that “people will do in a group what they believe individually to be stupid”.

Add that the fact that these people have cultivated a defense mechanism called revisionist history, where when called upon on the incorrectness of what they did, will automatically invent things on the spot instead of admitting they were wrong.

Another failing on their part: wanting to be the instigators of an action, so that they can say that the success of those they have called forth is also their success, but the failure of those same people are not their fault, but a “disappointment”. So they’re still always right and others are always wrong.

@@ It’s also funny how something as base as greed (such as wanting to sell something) can force someone to talk suddenly and appear friendly to those they would otherwise ignore.

What they don’t realize is that that false PR act is very transparent after all that previous apparent arrogance, and makes people want to buy from them less.