Thesis Crisis

University of Rizal System Morong Campus

My miserable thesis lost in the university research congress held at Morong, Rizal. I am not expecting anything because my research, as my classmates told me, was invested with saliva. What my classmates meant was that I did not spent anything on my research unlike their projects which are mostly experimental—they spent money on materials and hardware while, they said, all I did was talk. Aaaahhhhhh…they’re right, by the way.

But I did defend my thesis against the panels whose name gave me head ache because of the titles attached to their names like, Ed. D, Ph. D and what have you. One of the panel members was a director of the Department of Science and Technology, and of course, DOST people are utilitarian and a research about an abstract thing like an assessment of student organizations and leadership is not something that they usually pay attention to.

The winners in the research congress were technical stuffs like solar powered and wind generator that is supposed to generate 15 volts and costs around 50,000 pesos to make…my team members were laughing because when we calculated the return on investment we found out that an average electricity consumer would be able to recoup the fifty thousand pesos investment in about a million years, add to that the miniscule ampere and voltage the project could generate…I mean the project is so unrealistic and so uneconomical and so common…solar power and wind generator are not new things. If these guys have invented a gas powered turbine using human and animal gas ( farts), I mean that’s something new and unique. I would even vote for them!

Another winner in the developmental category is an improved ram pump. When I was looking at the title of the research, I kept hearing Alvin and the Chipmunks singing “Come they told me…pa ram pump ram pump. A new born king to see…pa ram pump ram pump.” No kidding! The Christmas song kept playing in my head!

The ram pump is all about using water pressure to pump water, no motor, no power, just the pressure of the water to pump water higher than the source. I was looking at the computations which looked Hieroglyphics to me and it reminded me of one of those ancient inventions that never made it through because of the law of depression, I mean where in the world can you find a water source higher than your house and then use a ram pump to pump your water higher than your house! aor how can you use this for irrigation when the amount of water the ram pump could pump is so small compared to the source! I am not making any sense because it’s all about finding conditions fit for the invention which makes the invention next to useless. There are dams now!

Gave me head ache. Anyway, I’m just being sour. My research did not make it through but I had one consolation; one of the doctors shook my hand and told me that I answered all the questions very well.

I

Field Trip

Our church school held its field trip last Friday (Feb.1), and I had one of the finest days of the year yet. That is despite the fact that I was assigned to be the guardian to one pupil who I believe had an invisible cloak. My gulay, she kept disappearing and for someone whose attention span lasts a second, I can’t keep track of her! (Not blaming anybody anyone here, just talking out loud.) Add to the disappearing pupil is my daughter’s jealousy. Every time I took little Natalie (the disappearing pupil) to rides, I could see my daughter’s face wrinkling up like a dehydrated, dried prune.

Anyway, I did have fun. One of my childhood friends, the father of one of my pupils, was there and we’ve had a long talk. In fact we had the whole day talking about his work and my work. It’s one of those conversations that is more than chit-chat, I think it’s a deep longing for the days when me and my friends were young; remembering the reckless fun we’ve had.

As my friend and I were talking, I found out that this was his first time to be in Star City. And we were like a child again. We rode one oft those crazy rides like the little roller coaster, snow white and the seven dwarfs. I remembered the town ferias we used to go through when we were young. We went inside a haunted house where we scare the hell out of our wives and children, we were the one shouting and scaring and…it’s really fun.

We then saw this big boat like contraption twisting in the air and my friend smiled, I smiled, the next thing we knew we were in the air being tossed around like peanuts. My friend was shouting, “Stop it! I Give up! Oh, human excrement! Ooooohhhh Human excrement! (I’m being politically correct here). I was shouting too and we were both shouting because it was the most comforting thing to do! I tried holding my breath but maybe because of the speed or air pressure, I felt my chest was being dampened by a heavy object. So we shouted.

After the ride, we were like children laughing our hearts out. That was fun. Then we saw this upright roller coaster that twists in full circle, he looked at me, I looked at him and we both shook our heads. Enough for the day, our heart may not be able to handle the experience and we could both die of heart attack.

Renaldo Lapus

Renaldo Lapuz is a filipino. He made Philippine history when he joined American Idol last January. When I saw him sing I immediately knew he was a kababayan.

His song "Brothers" is now famous and there are variety of versions on You Tube from metal to mix to folk and his song will stay in people's head for a long time.

I sing this song to my students and it never fail to elicit laughter from them. They love the song and even the grade 2 is begiinig to hum this tune during my class. So to my kababayan Mr. Lapuz, thank you and more power to you.

American Idol Season 7 -

I like this version

BROTHERS FOREVER - American Idol - Season 7 2008

The original Version

level 42 mark king bass solo

This guy's bass playing awed and still awes me. I wsas in my high school when I saw Level 42's video "Lesson in Love and the arpeggio bass playing reminded of the buil in bass pattern on my neighbors old casio key board. He's good more class and groove than Red Hot CHii Pepper's Flea but less of the raw energy of Flea.

He's the best! I saw Victor Wooten's playing too and whether some say that Wooten is technically better,i love this guy's moves.

Hmmmm…I’m Flattered

I visited the campus last January 28 to check the status of my missing scholastic records. I already wrote a letter narrating what happened to my records so that I will not be harassed (I hope) by the registrars of the other universities where I was once enrolled almost two decades ago. I am happy because our campus’ dean of the school of education endorsed my letter and she even asked the school secretary to have it signed by the campus registrar and then delivered to the clusters’ main campus in Morong, Rizal. Well it’s not a special delivery, really. The campus registrar had some business to do there and my letter was just hand carried by her (I hope that’s what happened because I haven’t been to the campus since January 28). Anyway I’m thankful to the dean of education and the registrar, age and position in the student organization do have some privileges.

I also had my picture portrait taken, complete with the toga, for the yearbook and the graduation program (to tell the truth I felt emotional about the toga). After the photo was taken, the campus research head approached me and told me that my research will be included in this year’s university research congress, this is where they judge the best research and researchers for the school year. I was flattered because my research was chosen to represent the campus for the descriptive research category. It also meant more work on copy reading and revising!

I am scheduled for my final observation on February 26, 2008 and after this, it’s the walk down the aisle…hmmm…err…I mean I will be climbing the stage to receive my diploma.

Then after the graduation it’s work, paying debts and then death.