two down...

...and a whole lot more to go. Hahahaha. Nonetheless, I had a very productive day.

I've set interviews with two prospective interviewees for my feature article on Philippine Astronomy and I've passed my second-to-the-last story for Journ 102.

That's two of the tasks on my to do list - the second interviewee was due to pure luck; I quite literally bumped into him while walking.

One day done and over with. Ten more to go. Maybe a little more depending on the schedule of my exams, but hey, those are just exams. Hahahaha.

Tomorrow I'm going to present my planned topics for my poverty story. I have three all lined up so I have a reasonable chance of getting one through. I hope.

I also plan on starting on my feature article. I have enough to start on already. It's amazing how ideas can appear out of nowhere at the oddest of times. These two hit me while I was taking a shower this morning.

Now i feel good enough to take a break. It's been a long time since I played a game.

i love me

*This is my final paper for my English 1 class. I'll be passing this today. After nearly five months, I wrote this essay in just a little over an hour. Hahaha. Enjoy.

Upon waking up, the very first thing I do in the morning is to fire up my computer. I spend the first hour of my day checking my email, reading new blogs, viewing new albums, and looking at updated web pages. Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, YouTube, Yahoo, and Google are my breakfast buddies - I actually eat my corned beef and eggs at the computer table, usually while writing a blog post of my own or uploading some of my pictures.

The weird part is that it's the same every day. Sure, the titles change, but the content stays roughly the same: I love me.

It's no longer unusual to see albums on Multiply filled to the brim with pictures of just one face. It's no longer out of the ordinary to read a blog post in Blogspot or LiveJournal about one's deepest thoughts. It's no longer surprising to learn everything about someone from his or her Friendster profile. It IS unusual not to find someone and their story online.

New media and communications technologies have had the effect of connecting everyone on the planet – well, at least those who have access to such technologies. The personal computer, the Internet, cellular phones, digital cameras: all have done much to bring people from near and far away together. Consequently though, they have also had another effect on the youth of today.

Easy access to the Internet in the age of Wi-Fi and DSL Broadband connections plus the proliferation of more affordable digital cameras and cell phones and not a little bit of peer pressure has caused the current generation to put most –if not all- of their lives "out there" where everyone can see.

It's very different from the past. I was watching the movie The Patriot on HBO the other day, and the opening scene showed a post rider delivering letters to the home of the main character. Everyone was excited to see the mail and read the news back then in 1776. In 2008, it has all become a matter of routine. Back then, at least until the invention of the Internet, only the famous or the prominent or the controversial made the news. Today, everyone is in the news – so much so that Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2006 was "You".

A very shocking assertion, right? Wrong. While nearly 99% of the people on this planet do not get featured on CNN, the Internet has given all of us access to everyone else. We can publish our stories, our pictures, indeed our lives on the myriad of web sites which allow us to do so. It's really quite simple. Blogspot, for instance, allows one to sign up and put up their own blog site in three easy steps: create an account, name your blog, choose a template. You get a place to publish your thoughts and your ideas for everyone to see in three steps. That simple. Signing up for every other web site out there and creating your own little niche in the online world is also just as easy.

It's all so easy in fact that we all feel entitled to share everything with everyone, maybe because we all want to be noticed. We all want to be seen. We all want to be heard. As Cito Beltran explained in his article Now Showing: Me for PCIJ.org, cyberspace has become "a surefire way to stardom" limited only by the imagination.

Does a sense of self-importance prevail among the youth of today – our generation?

Go online and see for yourself.

the sound of silence

It's September once again, and stress is in the air. Hahahaha. The first semester is nearing its end, and a lot of papers, exams, projects, and reports are coming our way.

As for myself, I have three huge projects looming for my Journalism subjects. I have to write a feature article about Philippine Astronomy (hard but manageable), turn out a story on poverty (difficult but not impossible), and contribute to a website about the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) system (tiring and expensive, but exciting). All of these will eat up a lot of my time and resources.

Not to mention the stress. The four weeks I have to work on these projects seems a pittance compared to the amount of tasks and chores and research and field work I have to do to turn these ideas into reality.

Computer games, while previously a very good avenue of escape from the harsh realities of life, are not the solution to this kind of stress. In fact, they add to it, eating away at precious time. I have already decreased my playing time significantly, reducing my time in fantasy world to those moments of extreme frustration and rage just an hour or two a day.

Maybe its time I did something else.

An article from Zenhabits.net, Sound of Silence: How to Find Some Quietude in Your Life, details some ways by which we can have some quiet moments in our life to help us relax and hear ourselves.

I already do most of the things listed in the article. I've restored my old habit of reading. I spend some of my time out in nature. Blogging - well, you can see for yourselves. About the only thing that doesn't apply to me is the item "for those with kids". Hahahaha.

And they work. Having some quiet moments away from the hustle and bustle of everyday work life really helps to relax the mind and the body. I actually feel more relaxed than I should be, what with all the projects and problems and deadlines looming on the horizon.

Now if only I could get someone to jog with me sometime. Hahaha.

Try to read the article and do the stuff its author recommends. You'll be relaxed in no time.

sabaw

A life of all work, no play, and no sleep is guaranteed to turn one's brain into gelatinous mush.

Coffee has replaced the blood that runs through my veins. My stomach has gotten used to churning up stomach acid and nothing else. My feet, legs, arms, and hands are sore. My back aches. My eyes hurt from nearly 24 hours of non-stop use.

Am I a workaholic? Hahahaha. It seems to be that way. Much of my time is spent doing one thing or another - either academic or org related.

It's not that I'm complaining. Well, not that much. Hahaha. I actually get a bit of a rush while working nowadays, especially when I'm out in the field.

I am starting to become a workaholic. Maybe I should slow down a bit. It's a good thing that I'll be enjoying the coming weekend with friends. I just hope that nothing screws things up.

pushing forward

Time travel is a very fascinating idea. Who would not want to go back into the past and see how history was made? Who would not want to go into the future to see how things will be?
Who would not want to have the power to change things by going back or jumping forward?

In computer games there is always some sort of a "save" system. The player can pause the game at any time and "save" his progress. If things go bad, the player can always "load" that save file and start over from that point in the game.
If only life had a save system.

There are many things in the past which I want to witness for myself. As a child, I wanted to go back to the age of the dinosaurs and see with my own eyes my favorite animals. As a teenager, I wanted to go back through human history and watch how wars were fought and won, how civilization evolved and moved forward.

There were times when I wanted to go back in time to correct a mistake, to change an error, or to do things in a different way. With the clear vision of hindsight...

There were also times when I wanted to go back in time to relive a certain moment, to be with a certain someone once again, to be in a special place one more time. Just one more time...

If only I could turn back time...

I don't know exactly what triggered this feeling. Reminiscing. Remembering. Hoping.

Could it have been my experience at the DENR? I spent most of last night tossing and turning in bed, moving in and out of sleep. I actually dreamt of writing that story when I fell asleep. I thought of writing that story when I was awake. Overly grade-conscious, yes, but that doesn't explain why I am what I am today.

Could it have been my time at the Sunken Garden? Staring out at the long green grass, with birds flying all around, and with soft, puffy clouds up in the blue sky... Maybe.

It could have been because I read my old blog posts for the first time in months. I have a feature article to write for Friday, and I looked at my old blog about Palawan to get an idea of what to write for that article.

I soon ended up reading my other old blog posts, reminiscing about times gone by, remembering cherished moments, hoping that I could relive them one more time.

While browsing through YouTube the other day I stumbled upon this little video clip from CNN. This may very well be the closest thing we can have to time travel. Dr. Mallet proposes a "time travel machine" which works by twisting space with lasers, which in effect also twists time thus creating a sort of "loop" through time. The catch, though, is that if we ever get that machine up and running and capable of physically transporting a human instead of just subatomic particles, the farthest we can reach back in the past is only to the time wherein the "time machine" was first turned on.

In the same way, with my blog I can only go back to the time wherein I first wrote in my blog. I only have a personal record of my past -other than the memories locked in my mind- up until my very first blog post.

I can only go back to January 18, 2005. Hahaha. Just a little more than three years. Rereading my old blog really brings back memories. It also allowed me to see how much I've changed over the years.

I want to point out two of my old blog posts. One was about a national issue while the other was about how I thought things should be. Now, three years later, I write about very different things in a very different way.

In a way, I miss how I was able to write about issues and current events. I miss how I was able to articulate a call for change in my blog. Over time, however, I became disillusioned. Nothing was happening anyway, and I realized that I was writing about the same things, the same people, and the same problems over and over again. And I don't want to keep on repeating myself. About the only change I can expect is the change that I can effect as a student, as a future journalist, as an org president, as a future president.

Change. The only thing constant in the universe is change.

A lot of things have changed. Over the years, I have changed.

Time travel is a fascinating idea, yes, but why pine for a way to go back into the past when one can move forward into the future?

I want to see the past as much as anybody. I want to go back and change things if only could. But would I really want to change history?

I am a different person today. My experiences in the past have made me so. The people I met, the people I left, the mistakes I made, the success I enjoyed, the choices, the decisions, the conflicts - everything has contributed to what I am today.

The past will always remain the past. "Past is past", a friend once said. You can reminisce all you want. You can remember all you can. You can hope to change what you've done or to go back to what you were all you want, but the past will always remain the past.

You cannot do anything about the past. You can only keep moving forward into the future.

Learn from the past. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your success. Keep pushing forward.

I remember now. I watched Meet the Robinsons on the Disney Channel last Sunday. "Keep moving forward".

objective achieved

It's not often that I get to write about overwhelming success in this blog, so this is a very special occasion. Hahahaha.

I got the story at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) this morning. Talk about good timing; the story was quite literally handed to me as I arrived at the DENR building.

There were protesters right in front of the building. According to one of my Journ 102 classmates, they had just started their program a few minutes before I arrived. The protesters were farmers from Bukidnon who were rallying against an allegedly illegal memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the DENR and a development company.

It was a very exciting experience. All my fears were allayed. There was the story right in front of me. There were multiple sources right in front of me. I was not alone.

We got over five pages worth of interviews from three different sources over the next hour or so, plus a copy of the MOA in question. About the only thing we didn't get was a statement from a DENR representative. However, with three days before the deadline we have more than enough time to get the other side of the story.

Whew. I love this job!

Haaay... It's been a very exciting day. Tiring, yes, but exciting. Exhilirating, even. And all that happened within the space of just two hours. Hahahaha.

Of course I still have to put the story in writing. I still have to verify much of the information I got this morning. I have to read that very long MOA. I have to go back for the DENR's side of the story. Hahaha.

One little baby step at a time.

I've accomplished my first objective for the week. Hmmm... Maybe I should try to think of everything I do as part of one of my computer games. Hahahaha. Now that would be one hell of a good motivational strategy - for me, at least.

Yes, I am grade-conscious. Maybe a bit too much. Ever since I got that tiny hope of graduating cum laude I have become more obsessed with seeing a "1" on everything that I do at school. Hahahaha.

So far, I've been doing quite well this semester. I just have to continue getting high grades. Grabe ang G.C. ko na talaga!

Anyway, I still have a long way to go before you see "mission accomplished" as the title of one of my blog posts. I have to work on the story itself. I still have a feature story to write. I still have that exam to pass on Thursday. I still have the International Year of Astronomy to worry about.

But at least I'm moving forward.

***
A special thank you goes out to my classmate, Ryan, for getting most of the interviews, and to Erika for the pictures.

first of september

Monday morning. Tinatamad nanaman ako. Hahahaha. Someone please just wake me up when September ends.

I don't have any class today. The only thing I have to do right now is to scoot down to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to get an environment story for Journ 102.

Sounds extremely easy, doesn't it?

It is easy, except for the fact that I have absolutely no idea what to do once I get there. Hahaha. This is not the House of Representatives, where you can simply ask for a bill or barge into offices (no, I'm just exaggerating) to get interviews. This is not a police station, where the blotter is accessible to anyone and police officers are just lounging around waiting to be interviewed.

I should be leaving now, but I'm still here. The official excuse is that I'm still drinking my morning cup of coffee. Unofficially, I'm scared once again. Hahahaha.

Nevertheless, I have to do it today. The deadline is on Thursday. I have to do this today. I have to get that story today. Today. Not tomorrow, today. Did I say that I needed that story today?

So. Fear of the unknown will not stop me. Fear of being alone cannot stop me. I want to get a high grade on this one. (Grabe ang G.C. ko na) Hahahaha.

Anyway, it's time to move. Sorry for yet another "me" post. Hahahaha. Chaaaaarge!!!