Home Alone (nth time)

My sister left me. Two of my older cousins left me, too. The kids here left me. That means I am alone this New Year, the same scenario that is happening for the last fourteen years. Everyone just disappear. Everyone just want to spend the holiday season somewhere else and not with their family. 

Had I learned earlier about their going I could have gone somewhere first, somewhere where? That is a very difficult question you see. I have a midterm exam on January 2 and I had the PDFs printed yesterday. I reviewed my notes, just a few pages actually. So, having a short vacation is not part of the plan.

I want to call her. THE HER. But I was hesitant so I just sent her a smiley, just a smiley. No words. No special message, just an emoticon. LOL. She didn't even reply. How could I be so damn obvious! Holiday delicious ham, spaghetti and coke were my dinner.

Happy New Year folks!

Marquez planned Pacquaio's loss

It was a strategy. It was planned. What people saw as an unbelievable lucky knock-out punch by Marquez was a counter-attack that was years in the making.

The rivalry between these two great fighters erupted eight years ago. While the Saranggani politician was too busy in his career that includes endorsing products, singing, acting and working in the legislative, his Mexican counter part, on his long training days, was carefully planning his sweetest revenge.

When Pacman fell on the floor, facing the canvass, people in the entire world who were watching became silent out of disbelief. After all, he was The Manny Pacquaio. He was never seen so helpless in his international fights, not until Marquez made him 'sleeping beauty' in the ring.

Did Pacman make a mistake? Was he too greedy? Was he too offensive? No, that is his natural fighting style. What we saw in his very recent fight with Juan Manuel Marquez was the Manny Pacquiao of two or three years ago. He was a natural offensive boxer, a formidable K.O. artist.

That is why he was dubbed as the most exciting boxer in the world. In every fight, there is no second that he stops moving to look for an opening. While these are Pacman's strongest assets - speed, power, offense and reflex, these also became his weakness. Marquez used these strengths to turn against him.

On the sixth round, Marquez waited for that one-two combination of Pacman as he always does in the previous rounds. And He succeeded. There is no luck in there. This is professional boxing. This is not a game of luck.

Just like in Basketball, every play is carefully thought of, every play is practiced so many times that players instinctively run to their assigned spots in the court to do what they are tasked to do.

For Manny Pacquiao, Sir I am a big fan of yours. Not because you are a Filipino (because I don't give a damn about nationalism). It is because you are a great fighter. No fighter in the world that could make me dream of being a boxer. I always love to hit people. Haha. I always wanted to box but because of my injured right hand, I had to shift to another sport Badminton.

Sir, you need to fight again. I encourage you to fight again and forget about your defeat. Next year, come back to the ring and destroy the face of Bradley. Go for a fifth match against Marquez, break his nose again Sir. I want you to use the same offensive fighting style but careful enough to watch over his counter punches.

Then after you do all these, PLEASE PLEASE. I BEG YOU. FUCK the face of MAYWEATHER. Destroy him and just put an end to his 'sissy' mouth.

Then, finally. After you retire, just please find JUSTIN BIEBER and HIT HIM for me, will you? He is a one stupid son of a bitch I want to barbecue him alive. Thank you.

Blog it on!

By Ryan E. Gantalao

When the pen and the paper came into existence, the diary was born ─ our old man’s compilation of daily experiences compiled into a leather-bound notebook. When the computer and the internet were invented, diarists and even normal people who love to write rejoiced, because they have found a more secure and an on-the-go modern-day diary that doesn't require much of an effort in keeping their thoughts in secret. Not to mention that they can enable it for public viewing and make the world as their audience.

So, what’s a blog and what’s blogging anyways? For those who are still not aware about this new innovation, a blog is a live journal or a personal online diary which allows the user to share their thoughts, ideals, daily experiences, photos, music, and even videos. While blogging is the act of adding contents on a blog, the same way as when a blogger, a person who owns a blog site and is active, comments on other else’s blogs.

Is there anything to write about? Of course there is. As a matter of fact, there’s a whole lot more to write than by just sharing your daily experiences, in which most of you find boring. You can write a review of your favorite book, song or the latest movie that you have watched. You can even write about your love story ─ you know what I mean, the time when you and your boyfriend/girlfriend met for the first time and how you two found your way into love ─ and let the world read your tale of romance.

Not just that. In blogging, you are able to express your stress factors and emotions, one way of improving a person’s physical and emotional state. According to a research conducted by James Baker & Susan Moore, which was published in the journal Cyber psychology& Behavior in 2008, “Higher levels of social integration suggest that bloggers feel greater belonging to a group of like-minded people with interests and ways of thinking similar to their own.”

Blogging is a nice way of releasing the inner emotions that you have, especially if you don’t have someone as an outlet for those emotions. It is a medium of expression of which most people of today use so that they can share their day to day life experiences. In other words, blogging is a modern diary in live journal protocol that enables other bloggers or internet goers to come across your blog and read your blog entries.

It provides an individual with positive interactions, and social support and friendship, thus, bringing like-minded people together. Blog authors can express subject matters that make life difficult. In this way, habitual social interaction thru blogging can reduce social isolation and emotional stress.

Getting yourself started

Within the past 10 years, there are a couple of blog hosting sites that have branded their own name in the blogging industry. These companies include blogger.com, wordpress.com, tumblr.com, livejournal.com and xanga.com. The good thing about these blog hosting sites is that they host your blog sites for free, and they also provide you with a free blogging platform which has its own blogger settings and tools that enables the user to maximize his/her blogging experience.

Here in the Philippines, the most common blogging platforms that are being used are wordpress.com and blogger.com. However, I suggest blogger.com because all of their tools are absolutely for free, that includes editing the design of your blog site and adding of cool widgets, unlike wordpress.com inwhich you are only limited to a few customization options unless you purchase a domain, which costs 4-5 dollars a month, adding up the hassle in installing WP platform that needs a bit of website administrator skills in managing the site.

All you need before signing up in blogger.com is a gmail account. Well, if you don’t have one then you need to register at gmail for free. After that, you go to www.blogger.com and fill in the information that they require in getting your blog started.

From there you can start exploring the world of blogging, and can try new trends and design for your blog. You can go to btempales.com or blogcrowd.com for free blog templates designs. Then after that, you are on the way in making your very first blog entry! You need to take not that you are the author of your blog and your entries should either be boring or interesting. Well, you decide since it’s your blog anyways.

In a way, you can also choose a theme for your blog. It can be humorous, scientific, sports, fashion, love, entertainment, personal or just a general blog, like mine where I usually post entries that are ‘nonsense’, so to speak. But you know, people will love your blog if you have the same interest with them. With this, the chance for you to develop your social activity online is big, and meeting different kinds of people from different parts of the globe is possible.

Why Should I blog?

There are many reasons why a person should blog. Apart from expressing your thoughts and opinions, blogging, throughout the last decade, has transformed into a medium of social media. In other words, blogging is a form of citizen journalism. That means you are not only limited in expressing your thoughts and opinions with regards to your day to day experiences but can also participate on province-wide or nationwide issues that affects a larger number of people.

The thing is, your blog is your own voice. When you feel that you are being oppressed or unheard or just plain sad, you can write about it directly in your blog and just feel happy about it upon doing the act. It is your own personal views on how you see the world around you. There is much in blogging than what your Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk accounts can do, that includes the unlimited number of characters you can use in every post.

There are no rules in blogging, thus, you can write whatever you want. You just need to make sure that you are writing under the proper ethics of being a blogger, especially when you are writing about delicate issues. Through blogging, you can make a difference to a larger number of people who are unaware of what’s really happening around them. You can become there source of new information and knowledge.

Another reason why people should blog is because there is money in blogging. You heard it right, there is money in blogging and this comes from writing reviews about a certain product that are being introduced online. You can check on it on Google. There are many companies out there which pays bloggers in writing product reviews, or what they call as pay-per-post.

There you go. I hope this article will encourage you to start your own blogging hobby. You need to bear in mind that there is always something to write about, and you don’t need to be a famous writer to be able to write. You can be a writer in your own rights. All you need to do is to find time in writing, and add your thoughts in your blog after a tiresome day.

Diplomacy won’t work

A matter-of-factly, China is not only bullying Philippines but also other members of the ASEAN. ASEAN countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, are contesting other territorial domains in South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). This time, diplomacy will never work. The dispute among territorial domains aroused three decades ago when China claimed ownership of the said maritime territories without the approval of its neighboring nations.

China will never stop bullying third world countries unless they get what they want. They will never take diplomacy as means of getting the issue fixed. China has always been the ‘hard-headed’ of all the ASEAN nations. A couple of years ago, to settle maritime disputes, the United Nations Convention proposed to all ASEAN countries the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea and the UN Law of the Sea. All agreed except China. Moreover, the said country has already given its statement that they will not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice so as diplomat talks.

US has currently made a statement that in order to come up with a positive conclusion of the issue, all affected ASEAN countries should make one stand. The maritime issues of today, if not addressed thoroughly, might affect the relationship of all Asian countries in the future. The Philippines has done so, during a very recent ASEAN Convention, a statement was to be addressed in the said conference that is related to the maritime disputes in the region. Unfortunately, Cambodian delegates blocked the proposition, thus, Philippines was never heard again. Cambodia is the chair of ASEAN and a known ally of China.

“China is, to put it bluntly, a gorilla…We are mosquitoes and China is a dragon. Mosquitoes just buzz around your ear, you slap them and they’re dead… We cannot engage its economy.  We cannot engage in an arms race with (the Chinese). If we lack the power, then we use our brains.” This is the solution given by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago over the territorial disputes of Panatag Shoal and Spratlys Island between ‘mosquito’ Philippines and ‘giant dragon’ China.

We need help from our Western Allies: United States of America, Australia, Europe, and other powerful Asian countries like Singapore, Japan, and South Korea.  “You don’t want to give China power over a … maritime territory that represents 10 percent of the fisheries catch of the entire world, in the sea lane where half of world’s tonnage passes.”

U.S. and our country have a Mutual Defense Treaty. US will rescue the Philippines once an external attack by a foreign country is confirmed. Moreover, there is a pending Mutual Defense Treaty in the Senate between the Philippines and Australia. We need to get that. That is our only chance of surviving the bullying of China. That is the reason why China did not attack Philippine vessels in a recent encounter when our patrolling marine officers arrested Chinese citizens fishing inside our territory. That is also the reason why China only puts paramilitary vessels in the said marine area instead of war ships. Western countries need something from us. We are oozing with natural resources. They will protect us. WE ARE BIG BECAUSE WE HAVE ALLIES.

‘Blind eye’

Seriously, if I have 4.8 million pesos in my bank account, I am going to spend my semestral break in Boracay. I will buy a house and lot near the beach or perhaps a second-hand Ferrari car. Four point eight million pesos with nine zeros. That is a lot of money. But that is not too big for a state university which has a population bigger than 15,000.

                                                             

The university has traded a thousand dreams for a blue, lifeless mechanical luxury. This was the belief of most students and parents after the only state university in the province has decided to officially close its maritime course offerings not so late in September this year. The news itself was devastating. But not really devastating at all since the university has purchased a 4.6-million bus before the closure was announced.

Why was the new NORSU bus a big issue for the parents whose sons can no longer continue their maritime education here in the university? CHED declared its closure because the school failed to comply with their requirements. I mean equipment and qualified teachers. The parents believed that the school was not responsible enough for the welfare of its students. It was their initial reaction for the issue. Who can blame them anyway? They worked hard, to send their sons to college only to find out later on that the university who promised to fulfill their dreams had no choice but to fail them, to sink their boat, to break the hearts of a thousand CME students.

Transferring to another school sounds easy, sounds good. But for a parent whose job is only to sell goods at the canteen, to drive a pedicab, and to do whatever they can to have an income, that is just financially hard. No nearby state university can offer a maritime education as cheap as NORSU.

The former university president said that NORSU is business, that spending the funds wisely will ensure a good future for a starting business. With this, he is able to turn a rusty vocational school into a university. I believed in him. Why invest millions if you cannot get something in return, right?

Then I came to realize. Did he mean that the new NORSU bus is a good investment? Did he mean that the new buildings inside the university are good investments? For display, yes. But for the students who lost their chance to attain a college education because the school failed to meet the requirements of the government, the future has again become too distant. Something is wrong with us, with our system. Let us not compromise the welfare of the students next time.

Is it possible that instead of the bus, the school should have spent the 4.6 million for academic purposes? Invite qualified teachers to teach in CME and other academic programs who lack qualified instructors. If they refuse to teach because of the modest salary, let us give them free lodging, food, and transportation every time they come here. This investment is not as bad as the multi-million worth of stagnant vehicle in display which will later on rust, and if the driver is not too careful enough or if fate permits, will scatter into pieces below the cliffs of Sipalay, Negros Occidental.

The United States made a statement that Philippine seafarers are on the “white list.” This means that we are doing well abroad. We Filipinos comprise the largest population of seafarers in the world.

Shall this be the time that the NORSU administration focus more on academic programs that are in demand in numerous industries and stop giving a ‘blind eye’ to our needs?

You should know that I am a student majoring in Geology, a very demanding job in the mining industry today. But not even once I was able to hold the arm or to peek at the eyepiece of a polarizing microscope here in the university. I was able to experience one during my on-the-job-training but I can hardly recall how to use it because I did not grow up with such kind of equipment here. And oh, it is just worth more or less 200,000. Two hundred plus geology students would be happy to have that.

The E-martial law

As soon as possible, I suggest that you download as many torrent files/free downloads as you can while supplies last because once the new cybercrime law reaches the peak of its demands to the netizens (citizens of the internet) of the Republic of the Philippines, it is going to be too late and you will run out of internet freedom. Unfortunately, latest movies, songs in the hit chart, games, and reference files will no longer be available for downloads in the internet. Even though this idea is just an initial assumption of some concerned citizens, this is likely to be true because the said cyber law is derived from an international law which prohibits websites from hosting movies, songs, software, and electronic files with legal patents or copyrights.

Perhaps the law itself is reasonable after all. It can be noted that the film and music industry have lost millions of dollars because of piracy. A few days after an original track, software, game or movie has been released, a pirated version is already available and is ready for download. With this, the entertainment industry has been very adamant in eradicating piracy, this time, by means of cyber law. No more file-sharing and torrent downloads.

I understand the entertainment business sector, why they want this law to be implemented so badly. But one of the lawmakers in the congress made a rather ridiculous explanation on why cybercrime law is necessary. He cited a good example—social networking sites. I mean Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Blogger and others. According to him, these social sites can be a medium of libelous intention towards others [libelous came from the root word ‘libel’ which means to state a false statement towards others; to make people think bad about them]. The actor-turned-senator said that a Filipino who posts a libelous “shoutout” on his wall is a crime. Worse, people who are going to like his post are criminals too.

Are you getting my point? The Department of Justice and the Philippine government, after this law is imposed, can easily ban Facebook and other social networking sites in just a snap of a finger. That is how bad this cybercrime law could be. That is how ‘kill joy’ our politicians could be. Is this possible? Yes. It can be noted that a country in the Middle East banned all websites that are affiliated to Google, after Youtube, a Google-owned video hosting and streaming site, hosted and streamed an anti-Islamic video about Muhammad.

But is it really our fault? Why give us the blame when in fact we are just receiving these files second hand? Does buying or downloading a pirated copy of ‘Ice Age: The Continental Drift’ makes an ordinary citizen a criminal? I don’t think so. Just because they cannot put the culprits of the cyberworld behind bars means they are allowed to cut our freedom of the internet. Instead of limiting internet freedom, why not trace the hackers/crackers/pirates and hand them over to the authorities? The Philippine government can do that… or perhaps they cannot. Government websites and servers are repetitiously hacked by a group of local hackers early this September who are against the cybercrime bill. Our government talks about cyber crimes big time yet their computer system can be easily entered and compromised by a group of Filipino hackers so easily like they are just logging into their Facebook accounts.

The bottom line is that I am against it. You should, too.