School load(ed)

One of my virtual classmates posted this article in our discussion board:

"Adult in session"
It provides tips for adults going back to virtual classrooms.

In my post on going back to school, I mentioned that a lot of people asked me why I am up taking up my current course (Master in Distance Education) which is so different from my line of work. And I told them that I took it because i like it and it will make me happy. I never realized though the price of happiness!

The course load is heavy – lots of assignments and readings (geez! tons of online books to be read!) and I had culture shock at the start of the school year. Actually am still adjusting up to this date. The pain in my head, neck and shoulder that has been hounding me since February also makes me so exhausted and lessen my concentration (good thing that after a long time and frequent visits to health providers the pain has finally lessened even if not completely gone). My commitment as team leader in our prayer community has also compounded the difficulty.

Sometimes I would ask myself why go through all the stress, it won’t even make me rich. Then I would think about our course project – designing a course online, the prospect of bringing it “live” in our office… of actually implementing it… and I get excited! I am not even sure if management will allow me to put it through but I will worry about that later… I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed while working on the project.

We are only on the first part of the project… the development will take till the completion of the course. I still have to work on it a lot. My presentation is so “simple” compared to those of my classmates (a lot of them are really going to be good teachers… hmmm… some of them are teaching already) and I am finding myself to be a bit stubborn. The course guide already prescribes proper procedures yet I still do it my way… the way I’m comfortable with, the way I would actually be putting it online. I can’t seem to force myself to follow the criteria for grading (Arghhh… stubborn me) but despite it… despite the difficulties. I really envision myself putting up my assignment online. I don’t really know what’s going to be the reaction of my target learners – the Branch Managers in our office BUT I’d like to share the technologies I’ve come across with. I see how it is going to help our company if people try to move out of their comfort zone – that “status quo” mentality and forge ahead.

Guess, if I look at my load and status now with regards to my course it ain't really rosey... but when I look ahead and envision what's to come then the smile starts to appear on my face... sometimes you don't really look on the price but just savor happiness...

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

On my way to work in the morning, sometimes the taxis we ride in are tuned in on a news commentary site "Dos por dos" (two by two). The things they talk including text messages sent in by listeners could be bad... sometimes nerve wracking... but at the end they would play their closing song "Somewhere over the rainbow" in ukelele.

Then I would close my eyes to listen and suddenly feel good. They don't play the whole song but you let it linger in yur mind... just humming the melodies inside...
Despite all the bad news... all the bad things happening. You know that there is still so much goodness left and when the music touches your soul you somehow smile and thank God for a wonderful world despite all...

Ice Rain

It was hot today and I was out most of the day.

I wondered if i was just having hot flushes for i really felt hot (arghhh!!!) but my sister told me that it was really hot.

I was also in our chapel for our Christian life program busily attending to all the needs when suddenly it rained real hard, you can hear the loud tip tapping of the raindrops in the iron roof of the chapel. Some of the children (sons, daughters, nieces, nephews of the participants and service team) ran towards the grilled opening of the chapel and iIhad to stop listening to the speaker while I assisted in looking after them when somebody shouted "yelo" (ice!) and there were ice that fell with the rain. They weren't falling gently but it was like they were being thrown from above.

I've heard that it rained ice also on other ocassions in our country but it was my first time to see ice fell here... and to touch the ice. Of course there is a logical explanation to the ice falling with the rain in warm countries like ours and I am actually tempted to search for the cause but on second thought, i think I'll just marvel at the occurence. It was awesome and it felt really nice, and when the rain finally stopped after a long time, the temperature dropped too (now, don't ask me the actual temperature before and after the rain, I never really could tell how warm or cold it is... all i can say is that it was hot and when the rain stopped, it finally felt nice!)

Other people were amazed too and they asked if eventually we will have snow too.... hmmm.. snow in the Philippines??? Well sometimes you never know :-)

Frozen

I was searching for a file in my office machine when I came across a logitech email video from the back up of my old hard drive and suddenly fun memories flashed back to my mind. I made the email-video in December, 2001 on a trip to Hongkong. I couldn’t upload the video so decided to just make a copy of the screen (file) for posting here. I was actually just saying “Hello from Hongkong” in said video clip.

Internet shops have not mushroomed yet at that time in Manila but there I was in Hongkong with my friends and I come upon free internet machines in malls, pretty much like ATM machines. I have seen a similar machine in Australia a year before but you have to pay for the service, but the ones in the Hongkong mall were free… totally free!!! Way cool!!!

I thought it would be great to try it and send email back to family and friends. My friends with me in Hongkong were not excited about it, only I was. So one time when we were finally done with our shopping for the day they went to the hotel room which was just at the top of the mall (many malls and hotels are interconnected in Hongkong that you don’t really know anymore where one ends and another begins) and I looked for an available machine. And I tried it, I was able to send a free email… cool!

Then I saw another option, there was a camera and you could take a picture or video and send it too! Geez, I’ve never even tried web cam in the Philippines and I got more excited, so I took a video and then some shots. If I did not like the shot I would delete it immediately and take another, then suddenly the machine froze with my big face still on the screen. I suddenly felt like it was a mug shot! I had to delete it before I get off so I tried to “unfreeze” the machine… it wouldn’t do! My face was stuck there!

I was there a long time trying to figure it out determined not to leave until I remove my face on the screen. Many of the shops were already closing, there were not much people passing me by and those I tried to ask assistance from would wave and gesture that they did not speak English. Ahh… what am I to do???

Finally someone from the mall came, can’t remember if it was security or management and I asked help. He unplugged the machine, waited a bit then plugged it back and it went on again. I checked if my face was still there, it was gone. I was a relieved. I stopped sending emails and ran (hehehe.. not really run but just walked fast) to my hotel room. My friends were asking me why I was gone a long time but I did not tell them immediately feeling embarrassed.

You would have thought that I would not attempt to use the machine for fear from such happening again… but I would find myself still drawn to the machines on subsequent days. I’d look at them until I finally convinced my friends to try it out also. Though they were not really excited, they tried it too (hmmm… probably just to humor me) and the four of us compressed as we posed in the internet machine's camera making sure all of our faces fits the screen and we made a short video which we sent to our email addresseses as souvenir. I couldn’t find that video anymore or the other photos I sent (which I copy furnished my email address) all I have is the one from my old hard disk.

And it certainly brought a smile in my face!

Not a frozen smile but one happy smile!

Beyond cruelty!

I was on my way to work and the radio in the taxi I was riding in was tuned in to the news. They reported the killing of 14 marines in Basilan with 10 of them beheaded.

Beheaded!

Just how cruel could people be???

To fight for the cause you believe in is justified, sometimes you have no choice but to die or to kill. But killing should only be the last resort… in defense, to protect a right, because no matter the difference in people’s belief, people are people. They have dignity, they are precious.

To kill another human being is already bad enough but to cut them up is beyond cruelty!
Could you still call the people who did this human?

I don’t know what to wish for them…
Yes, I know…
But my thoughts at the moment are not Christian thoughts…
I am angry!!!
Oh God, have mercy on us!