SMT Days

Hello World!

Lovely day isn't it. I know several people who have been reading this blog have some specific questions, so let's not dilly dally...

1. Dayon man guid ang Alumni Homecoming? (intro Alumni Homecoming song).
Fr: Someone i met sa Sigabong Concert last Saturday. Sorry, lipat ko sin-o ka parts. Dulum to bi and well, uhm, gapalandulum na pananawan ko (read: *hic)

- Yep. Sa foundation day... Hope you old guys come. My sincerest thanks to Ma an Araneta for springing for my ticket and Jani Villaroman for GROing me around. I didn't know there were so many pisaynons in the Hamili Brotherhood and Hamili Sisterhood.

2. Why Lawaan Crawler?
Fr: chemist*three

- Its cause i was made to crawl around the grounds of this here Pisay Lawaan Campus when i was still a snotty nosed COQC applicant by my overly eager (sadistic) officers. Good thing we were not wimps then.

3. What are the recent developments/activities?
Fr: my imaginary friend

- Several Actually. We just finished SMT days last Saturday morning. You know, the usual crap, exhibits, visitors, forums, blah blah... Its been that way since this school rose from the rice fields of Bitoon. But it was a grand time during the Science Camp. Silly kite flying, messy cooking. Hey, dem kids could actually cook something edible. And we had a campfire (ano pa bi?). Some students think the 15 minute silence was kinda corny though. One said that someone was actually hyperventilating even though the instruction was clearly to breathe deeply.

Also, we had no class yesterday. Yey. That qualifies as a major development down here. And again no class on Thursday and Friday. For teachers anyway. Teachers day you know. Ow sorry, Faculty and Staff Day, to be politically correct. But the way i see it, sometimes the Staff on the Faculty and Staff Day was added more as an afterthought. Do kids really give a damn for the staff beyond the monthly queue for their stipends or the occasional visit to the clinic for an imagined bellyache? Heck, when i was a student i didn't.

We have a pair of students going to Manila today for the National Intel Science Fair competition. My bestfriend Harold is going with Christine Marcelino and Glen Dale Fantonalgo as coach. Jessa Tulio is going to represent Western Visayas for a national chemistry quiz something. Sorry, the only announcement i hear right yesterday at the flag ceremony was the suspension of classes. After that i was deaf. Too bad for Jessa though she's going to miss the prom. And she had a nice dress all picked out. What would you do if you were in her shoes? I heard it too is a nice pair. You ask me, I think there are more important things than quizzes, like proms.
But that's just me talking senselessly.

4. uh, im confused as to the identity of the blogger, is this you, sir ed? [since may ej...] or one of the other teachers sa pisay?
Fr: tisnart_irrewt

Is this you my squeaky paolo? I just cant ignore that squeak thing. By the way gingkatay ko na ang ginghatag mo na piggy bank. Netted only 700 bucks. Drat. We all call our piggy banks here paolo and im so sorry, thats one less paolo already. Fallen on hard times you see. I can see your grammar is still good even though you say youve had two sems without english huh? and you have words like albeit, man im proud of you.

5. How goes the world of professional alumni daw?
Fr: Chemengineer

- Hmm... Tough question. I know several handsome teachers, a banker, a diver, several in the tech industry like lexmark, HP, intel, blah blah. Do you really want a list or just some gossip? I heard some are already parents. Sin o pa na batch ang wala pa mga fathers and mothes there? pigaw... hehe, lango2 lang. take your time.

THat's it for now. My stomach is already in a vibrating alert. I would have posted some pictures but my card reader is busted. I will update this post, promise. Some interesting reading for you
by the way.

----------------------------------------------------------
Yell Louder When You're Wrong
Abridged
Bruce Fleming January 17, 2007

Today’s topic is testosterone and its discontents. The notion of "discontents" is taken from Freud. It means weaknesses that are a constituent part of strengths, an Achilles heel that doesn't go away. The strengths of maleness-summarized as testosterone, the magic elixir behind it all-are pretty clear. We men are taught to be scrappers. We take on all comers, establish dominance, keep the dominance for as long as we can, rising to ever higher heights-and then what? That's where the discontents kick in. They make the old guys calling the shots defensive, prone to see enemies in anybody who crosses them, ruthless in dealing with the next generation that doesn't see things their way, and convinced that only massive immediate force can deal with any challenge. I'd say that the fact of waning testosterone just when men reach the pinnacle of their power is the source of many of the world's problems in politics, business, and perhaps most especially, the military, the organization that prizes force and testosterone even more than the others.

In the animal kingdom, we see the same state of affairs, only more clearly. In Jack London's immortal male fable, The Call of the Wild, the lead wolf will of necessity one day be picked off by one of the younger male wolves, and he knows it. The repelling of challenges is a question of literal survival: you fend off younger males in order to live. Might doesn't make right, it just makes life. In our kinder, gentler human world, things aren't so aboveboard. Part of the way we repel challenges is by putting on a show of moral force: the people in power (that's us) are there because we deserve to be in power. Those who challenge the status quo are committing a moral outrage. It's a democratic form of the divine right of kings, asserted most strongly in periods of crisis. How dare they?

What's the alternative? More women in positions of power, perhaps-though the female form of these discontents may be a tendency to produce shrill battle-axes, estrogen no longer kicking in. Younger people of both sexes in leadership positions, perhaps? For mature men, the alternative to this sorry state of affairs is to hold power because you actually deserve to have it. If you deserve to have it, you can explain yourself. You understand that not everyone will agree. You can actually win hearts and minds, not just force people to do things because otherwise it's going to hurt. That kind of tolerance of otherness isn't a sign of weakness, but in fact of strength. Too bad it's in such short supply.


If you want to read the whole article, well, tough luck i forgot which site i found this thing. I have it saved on a word file though so just email me and id be glad to send it to you. If you are a young, single and unattached attractive female, id be happy to provide my cell phone number too. Mea maxima culpa, in vino veritas. *hic