Free DLL for aliens

No freebie here,.Gotta write your own. I attended the district's MAPEH school coordinator's meeting a couple of days ago and a lot of stuff were discussed, activities and coming events which our corresponding schools need to be aware of.



Meetings, I guess like my colleagues, as shown in the photo, bores the hell out of me. Anyway, one of things discussed in the meeting was the fact that many teachers are downloading test materials, reports, teaching aids etc. from blogsites.


Personally I do not have problem with blogsites that share teaching materials. With the titanic paperwork a teacher has to accomplish, anything that would lessen the load is, for me, very welcome. But I found out that these material being offered by blogsites are not the original works of the blog administrator. The materials are collected works of teacher taken from, I could only guess, DepEd seminars and training because most of them are K-12 prototypes especially the lesson plans.




The FB account of the blogsite is also flooded with complaints from teachers who are surprised that their constructed teaching materials are being offered for download for a fee. Aside from the download fee, the administrator is also earning money from ads. The teachers are crying exploitation.


My guess is these blogs are run by someone in the Department who has access to all these materials and prototypes submitted by demo teachers to their seminar or workshop facilitators or trainers. 


Anyway...


In 2010 I attended the national ICT seminar and one of the things discussed there was the Learning Resource Management and Development System or LRMDS. The program was a portal where teachers can share their original teaching and learning materials and share them to DepEd teachers especially to teachers who have no access to materials in their area. So, technically, or in spirit, these blog sites are doing what LRMDS was designed for except they did not inform the constructors of the materials that their projects will be shared and that they will be earning from them. This is an ethical issue that needs to be addressed by the owners of the blogsites.  

Final bit: unless LRMDS is connected to social media like FB, it will continue to collect cyber dusts and spider webs somewhere out there in outer space, In short, it will continue to be invisible and useless to most teachers.

It ain't heavy, it's really heavy

The old days when teachers are human and not report
generating zombies.

When I started out teaching in the public schools, about six years ago, I was expecting an eight hour job. I imagine myself reporting to work an hour earlier at six in the morning and then checking out at four in the afternoon. Preparing lesson plans and then teaching for six hours add the paper works and record keeping, I knew the job would be tedious but manageable for an asthmatic, rheumatic hypertensive person like me. At least I don't get to dig up trenches or lift heavy objects.


Another plus for public teachers is they have this two months paid summer vacation, which I found out is technically not a vacation because we do report to the school on rotation and on call. But just the same, the lull from the classroom stress provided teachers the chance to recharge.

Damn.

I noticed things started to change when former President Noynoy Aquino introduced the Result-Based Performance Management System or RPMS as it is known to us teachers aside from the already progressing K-12 program. The paper works started to get heavy and seminar schedules started coming down from the top usually scheduled on weekends. The aim, according to rumors, was to provide teachers with the necessary certificates to meet the required points in the RPMS. 


Good, I thought but then taking away the weekend from teachers is robbing them of their time for their family. Also, weekends are meant for housekeeping since most teachers are too busy on workdays hence their housekeeping chores accumulate and the weekends are their only time to tend to them.  


I rejoiced when the daily lesson plan was replaced by the daily lesson log. The daily lesson log, unlike the daily lesson plan, required teachers to list their lesson objective/s, references, methods and percentage of pupils that achieved the 75% mark, four fields to fill up.


But today a new  fifteen part daily lesson log was introduced to us. I was looking at it and I almost wept because it was being mean to us teachers. It is not only not teacher friendly, it is teacher hostile. Imagine filling out those blank spaces with God knows what phrases and infinitives. What am I going to write? I was tempted to beg our school head to give us back the daily lesson plan because at least teachers are familiar to it and even with eyes closed teachers can write one, but like us the school head is just an employee, a cog in the ever growing DepEd paper mill. 

I pray that this new administration and the new secretary will return the four part DLL.

Teaching is an eight hour job its just that you cannot separate it from the teacher's personal and family life. I guess that makes it a not an eight hour job. Anyway...

Pak Ganern and the pusher is a lady

Keep them busy with the TV.

Pak Ganern is a clapping game invented by Vice Ganda in the noontime show "It's Showtime". It's so popular that it drives me nuts to see my pupils playing the game during lunch break. I have nothing against the game it's just that the clapping and the laughing disturb my nap. So, lately I gave up stopping my pupils from playing Vice Ganda's invention that I just turn on the TV to keep them busy. If the TV doesn't work, I ask my pupils to play in  the hall.

The game became popular especially among children, a testimony to Vice Ganda's popularity.

crazy as satan

What is Pak Ganern? Lately there's this FB post going around explaining that "Pak Ganern" is two Latin word "Paccracius" and "Ganri" which means "you are inviting satan to be with you eternally.  I'm curious so I googled what "paccrassius" and I'm not surprised to see that it means broom. So, this Latin etymology theory is nothing but a hoax perpetrated by people who, according to Ethel Booba, is possessed by Satan.  

It's obvious that this paccrassius thing was started by some homophobic fundamentalist church people who always find satanic meaning in everything. A few years back there's this backward masking phenomenon where it says that rock and heavy metal songs contain satanic incantations when played backwards. This was a big thing then that pulpits used backward masking to attack rock and metal songs. Of course this is already debunked because what they are really doing is putting meaning in gibberish and not taking out meaning from it.

Anyway...

I am a passionate supporter of Pres. Digong's drug war. The reason is that in our neighborhood shabu is openly sold and used. To live with neighbors who sold drugs is unsettling especially when strangers on motorcycle come and go in the middle of the night and disturb the peace of the neighborhood. What is infuriating is that they do this with impunity because they know the community cannot do anything.  Fear or pakikisama is what they count on.

OA

With the onset of operation tukhang here in Taytay, it's comforting to see policemen knocking on drug pushers and users doors to ask them to surrender. I am not using the word "suspected" here because everyone in the community knew these people are pushers and addicts. They are guilty as hell because many members of the community actually see them sell, buy and use shabu. They look the part, haggard, broken teeth, malnourished, teeth gnashing.

Of course there's this legal doctrine which states that a man is innocent until proven guilty by the court. This is crap for non lawyers like me because this very doctrine is used by criminals to evade and even escape the law. Even when criminals are caught red handed, with the entrails and the bile dripping from their hands, they could always invoke this doctrine and employ lawyers to defend them. The law is full of technicalities that good lawyers are defined not by what they know about laws but what holes they can find in laws. It's not unusual to see criminals walk off because of some unmet requirements in the  police and court process like not informing the accused of his rights, the miranda thing.

The foreign media is portraying the war on drug as if SS Gestapos are knocking on doors and then shooting people on mere suspicion. They are comparing our campaign to what happened in Indonesia where the country's drug campaign was used by the people in power to eliminate political foes as well as to settle personal vendetta.

It's still a long way to go but the important thing, the one that is felt by the community, is that my drug pusher neighbor's midnight visitors has stopped. Yes, the pusher is a lady.

I am still waiting for her to get arrested.

Former pupils and former teachers and memory problem

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I admit, it feels nice to be visited by my former pupils. It means a lot to be remembered.


I recall a few months back, I was riding on my way to work when a motorcycle appeared on my left side with a lanky teenager rider on it. The boy (or maybe the guy because its obvious he's already advanced into puberty) said "good morning sir." "Good morning, " I greeted back and he smiled at me and told me that his mother had just died and that he still could not believe his mother was gone. I was a little taken aback when he told me this because I did not really knew him that well. He was not even in my advisory class.


A lot was going on inside my head then. First, I was trying to recall his name! I knew his face, that's for sure because he's one of my difficult pupils, a teacher does not forget the face of a "pasaway" pupil, but I just couldn't remember him. I have a nasty memory and pupils especially girls used to play tricks on me by lining up in front of me covering their name tags and then asking me to name them none by one, which of course, was not only difficult but almost impossible. Second, I was also trying to figure out what year he graduated. His face is clear but the name, not even fuzzy, it's zero.


He kept on talking though most of his words were drowned out by the booming sound of his motorcycle's open exhaust pipe. I glanced at his face and I could feel his sadness. I said my condolences and told that everything will be ok. I inquired if he's still studying and I was relieved to hear that he was enrolled. I think the conversation lasted a minute or maybe even less, when he said goodbye and sped off.

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Anyway, when I arrived in my classroom and sat behind my table, I though about what happened and I also thought about my past teachers. I still remember my teachers from kindergarten to grade six. Most of my high schools teachers, sadly I have forgotten. There's Ms. Calderon, Mrs. Gonzaga, Mrs. Gatchalian, Mrs. Santiago, Mrs. Gozum, Mrs. De Jesus, and Mrs. Pinon, I still remember them.


Thinking about my former pupil, I guess the teacher - pupil relationship is still there. Maybe he thinks that I could still remember him the way he remembers me and judging from the way he spoke to me, maybe he felt he was still talking to his funny and crazy music teacher who likes to joke and made fun of his pupil's surnames. But from my perspective, it's a different thing, I am now speaking with a teenager on his way to adulthood and not a ten year old--a lot has changed.


And this is one of those things that frustrates me, my poor memory. Just yesterday, I was on my way to the bank to withdraw my salary when I heard my name being shouted. I stopped my motorcycle and there's this high school student running towards me with a wide smile on his face. "Sir George!" He shouted. He was one of my last year's pupils and I couldn't even remember his name! He talked as if we were in class the afternoon before. He asked for a ride which I gladly obliged and along the way we met some of his classmates and also my former pupils and I couldn't also remember most of their names.


Anyway...


I have come to realize that I am quite popular. Hundreds of children and many who are already on their way to adulthood knew me because I have taught them. No one pupil graduates from the school without passing through me because I taught the school hymns and other graduation songs, so even if they did not attend my classes, they learn the graduation ceremony songs from me.


So, riding in jeep, walking down a street, riding on my motorcycle, I get greetings, smiles, hellos, and if not greetings, at least I get that "I know you" look from some of people and I just smile back because chances are, they are my former pupils.

Gardening stuffs

I'm still not done cleaning our garden. I cut the grass using garden scissor which is time consuming and laborious. But the repetetive action, the smell of cut grass and Wes Montgomery's guitar in the background made the task relaxing. I guess it's the feeling of being intune with nature.

Now my feet and legs are itching. I guess that's why it's important to wear proper clothes when gardening like long pants. rubber boots, gloves etc. But in this summer heat... Anyway, the culprit is this weed. I don't know what this is called in English but locally we call this "lipang aso". A contact with the leaves produces itch and irritation comparable to and bite. Before I knew about this plant, I always thought that I was bitten by ants or other insects until my mother told me about lipang aso.She had this childhood story about naughty boys rubbing lipang aso leaves to girls' panties that are drying on clothesline.

The eggplants are already producing fruits and maybe in a week or two the rest of them will also be fruiting. I was hesitant about planting eggplants because I have rheunatism, knee and ankle gout to be specific. I have had excruciating flare ups and the culprit are foods with high uric acid contents. Eggplants, because it contains little seeds which is almost impossible to separate, is considered a high risk food. But many vegetable contain seed like string beans, gourds, okra, peas, etc. I mean, if I avoid all these vegetables I may end up undernourished or worse I could starve. Anyway, vegetables do not contain that much uric acid and according to what I have read the body can easily process and eject or flush out uric acid from vegetables and what is really bad is uric acid from animal innards.

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Yellow Bitter Gourd and Bonsai etc...

I don't know if it can be called a garden, forest or jungle is more appropriate. My bonsai materials are being outrun by weeds and maybe after I'll work on them later.

Anyway, I did some cleaning in our garden, pulled out weeds and swept the yard, a task that took me the whole morning and still I'm not yet done. The sun is already at its peak and the heat is unbearable.

I'll take a rest and continue maybe at three or four in the afternoon.


Even my bittergourd is affected by the el nino phenomenon. The extreme heat of the sun caused this young fruit to turn ripe prematurely. It has not been even reached it's teen age years (imagining the'yre human beings). I was waiting to harvest it for cooking sauteed bittergourd or ginisa but it grew old too fast.

Bitter gourd or ampalaya is good for the health. The Department of Health did studies on it and officially listed it as a bonafide medicinal plant that is good for fighting high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases.

I have noticed that healthy food usually taste awful and most of the times are bitter, take for example serpentina a weed that has been traditionally used by asians to cure number of diseases. The leaves of serpentina is so bitter that boiling two or three pieces of its small leaves in a liter of water makes the resulting tea almost undrinkable. I guess that's why they call it "king of bitter" in English.

If bitter food is good for us, why is it that evolution or the creator did not program our taste buds to like them. I mean, instead of having sweet tooth, why not have bitter tooth. Why do we not have this uncontrollable urge to eat bitter foods especially when we feel down or depressed instead of diving in and devouring fatty and salty junk foods and consuming tons of chocolates and gallons of sodas, beer, ice tea etc.

Maybe it's because the change in our diet in the last century kind of reprogram our sense of taste. This is evident by the proliferation of candies and sweets. Sugar was once a rarity because of the difficuly of processing it from plants. In fact the ancients used honey as a sweetener but becuase of the invention of manufacturing and processing plants sugar became common, so common that it became one of the most common food ingredients.

I saw a documentary about the aetas and they have this natural knowledge of medicianl plants in their environment. They have specific plants for specific ailments and diseases that are proven effective that even the US military trained their special forces with the aetas on jungle survival. These herbological knowledge of the aetas is inculcated in them through thousand of years of adaptation to their environment.

I guess we all have these natural and instinctual herbological knowledge. Sometimes it's obvious like the lagundi which is good for cough, crush the leaves and you'll notice it's minty smell and taste. Even animals know what plants are good for them and they eat them instinctively.

I guess we, the modern humans, lost this innate knowledge when our sense of taste evolve into the mst based,  sweet, fatty, greasy, salty  etc. orientation that it now has.



I got addicted to bonsai that to came to a point where almost all the space in the yard was occupied by bonsai materials. Bonsais are beautiful to look at, they are great works of art specially if you see them in exhibitions. But before they become works of art, they are nothing but stumps. It takes years to grow branches and more years to train and wire them. This is why many bonsai hobbyists keep and train many bonsais to keep impatience in check.

Anyway, I stopped acquiring materials because I'm starting to get overwhelmed.



Looking at my growing bonsai material collection, a friend asked me what they are good at. I was tempted to engage him with a lecture on the art and the philosophy of bonsai but his question hit me: ge's right. I am not rich and my salary as a teacher is barely enough for our budget. My friend suggested I plant vegetables instead. To tell the truth his suggestion was good and utilitarian. I looked around the yard and then moved my bonsai materials to the edges of the lot so as not to occupy too much space and I started to plant vegetables.

Anyway...
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Banana Smoke

Buying bananas. We love bananas. Going bananas.

I read about this new diet called the banana diet. The dieter is supposed to eat two to three pieces of banana before eating a meal. The idea is to fill the stomach so that when you eat your meal you can only take a small portion. I have tried it but it didn't work. I guess if you want to lose you've got to discipline yourself to eat the right portion.




I have been sneezing these past few days and in my experience frequent and violent sneezing is a sure sign that my asthma is acting up. I guess it's because I had been burning dead leaves these past few days and the inhalation of the smoke trigerred my allergies. I keep telling myself to avoid burning leaves but it's irresistible especially after sweeping the yard. The pile of dead leaves beckons me to light them.




As usual, I took my ventulin via the nebulizer. I have been feeling better but because I would be playing bass guitar with the band in the evening, It was pre,-emptive.

On the stage.
We were on the stage playing and the heat of the spotlight was so intense that the lead guitarist and I were sweating profusely. The glare was also overpowering.

I was shocked when the smoke machine started pumping smoke in the stage. I moved away but the stage was so small and there's no place to go. Anyway, it's a good thing we only performed three songs, about ten minutes.




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Haircut with Danny the Barber

I went to the barber to have my hair cut.   I saw in the mirror that white hair were starting to envelope my head. I am getting old.




Danny has been my barber since I was in high school. He was one of the barbers  at the demised Christian Barber Shop.

My childhood hair cut was done by Ka Bider the neighborhood barber who was so old that he couldn't see patches of unshaven hair on the nape. His shop was an open air affair, a balconahe of some sort. The place was a kitchen, a dining area, it was a common area for three or more families and the things that identifed it as a barbershop were the barber's chair, mirror's and of course, sexy pictures of women promoting alcoholic drinks.

In high school I started to look for a more respectable barbershop, not that Mang Bider is not respectable, but I'm already in my teens and crew cut was not my thing anymore. Christian Barbershop was a novelty for me. It was airconditioned, well lighted, and the clean painted walls featured pictures of male models sporting the latest "new wave" hairstyle of the era, think Tony Hadley, Simon Lebon, George Michael, Depeche Mode, etc. The place looked more like a beauty shop, which boys and men didn't go to to have their hair done back then, than a barbershop.

The shop didn't last long and when I asked Danny why, he told me it was due to mismanagement. I guess another factor that contributed to the demise of the barbershop was the rise of the franchise beauty shops in the malls that cater to both sexes.

Danny has moved to the AMA barbershop which also folded until finally he had his own shop.

Two decades of haircuts. I can only imagine how much hair Danny had snipped from my head.

This is called "Suki" a patronage relationship in the Philippines that is synonymous to friendship that sometimes borders on to family between a vendor and a seller, a relationship that is fast disappearing because of the impersonal and professional marketing technique used by malls and commercial establishments.

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Trying out Mobile Bloggin

How do I do this?

I finally got a smart phone. I was motivated or forced to get one since my neighboor, my brother, shared
with us his wi-fi connection which made access to the internet very cheap, theres a bit of a quid pro quo, negligible, really.  Also, I got tired of begging my daughter and my wife to lend me their smart phones.

I am trying out the blog app. I haven't posted on my blog for a long time because my PC ,an old pentium 4, is so slow and the modem stick slower that I stopped using them except to write reports for work and to compute grades for my pupils. It's unsettling to realize that this tiny phone possesses more computing power than my old HP PC.

It will take some time to get used to typing using my two thumbs. It's frustrating because I keep hitting the wrong letters and since the space bar is near the period, a dot keeps on appearing between words which I have to keep deleting. I'm sure with practice I'll be able to type words faster. The controls, sorry for using an old analog word, is easy to use and though I had to stop for a while to figure out how to use features like the Oppo swipe thing, I believe I don't need to read the manual.

The blogger app is good, easy to use. I just can't figure out how to edit the photo caption and how to move the photos.

I guess I should welcome myself to the mobile computing age.

792 Km and counting...

This is my bike. I know it's kinda gay but I have been riding this horse for almost eight months now. I bought it using my performance based bonus last September 2015. 

It's Jietebike. I searched the internet  to find out something about the brand but nothing came up. I guess its a Chinese or Taiwanese brand or worse it could be a pirated Chinese brand which makes it a pirated, pirated version of a pirated brand.

It's cheap. The tires wear out like pencil erasers. I have already replaced the tires. The gear shifter is showing wear and tear and its shifting down gear on its own. I guess the shifter's  spring is loosing its tension. But it does its job well. I have grown attached to it. 

Since experiencing chronic knee pains, I have shifted to cycling for my cardio. it was not an easy change. I am overweight and because the weight of my body is now concentrated in one area, in the seat, my butt hurt like hell for the first few days. It was so painful that I had to replace the seat with a comfortable well padded saddle. 

In the long run, I realize why bikes have small seats: the larger the seat the larger the contact point between the buttocks and the leather, the more chaffing. After an hour of non-stop pedaling, my ass starts to feel hot. But since I don't do mountain or distance cycling, I just take a rest for a few minutes, walk a few meters bow legged to dissipate the heat. 

According to the app I'm using, I have already clocked 792 Km since I started recording my rides, this was in February. I guess, if I count my pre-app rides the total distance would be more than 1000 km. 

Cycling has its advantage over walking. It's faster. Hmmm...well in my bike's case, because of the small wheel diameter, it's a little faster than walking, depends on the pace. I could feel the wind. And because the knees movement is circular, there's practically no impact on my knees since my weight is distributed to the wheels.  The effort, on even surface, is forward motion; there's no jarring downward stress on my knees.

One thing about riding this bike is I get a lot of puzzled look from bikers and occasional pedestrians. I could only guess what they are thinking of, they're trying to figure out what my bike's brand is and why the hell am I riding a small feminine bike.

Maybe not...

Pondering Duterte

Behave Digong!

Scrolling down on the homepage of my Facebook account, I couldn’t help but notice how active and rabid Mayor Duterte’s supporters are. This despite the many times the good mayor has offended the sensibilities of many people. Nothing’s sacred to his foul mouth from rape victims to his Holiness the Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the state of Vatican,  Servant of the servants of God, His Holiness Pope Francis I.  

Duterte was so irritated by the traffic caused by the papal visit that in an interview he cursed the pope calling his mother a whore and that the country would be better off if he would leave the as soon as possible, this because Duterte got stuck in traffic.

Of course the Catholics condemned Duterte and asked for an apology which the mayor gave but it was not, as it appeared to me,  a heartfelt apology. I think to Duterte an apology is useless once the word was out of his mouth and that he is willing to take the consequences of his offending remarks. 

But what is surprising is that there are Catholics and clerics who are still supporting Duterte’s candidacy. Even among the Evangelicals there are many ministers who openly support the mayor’s bid for the presidency.

What is it about Duterte that made him appealing to many Filipinos?

Well, I’ll dip into my ass and think of something…

1. His anger.

Duterte is one angry guy and it could be felt every time he appears on TV. He is trying to make the Filipinos think and feel that his anger is powerful and that when it is turned to the criminals, it could wipe them out the face of country. Personally, I think his anger at criminals and drug lords do produce results. 

2. He just doesn’t care what others think of him.

Because of that alone, I feel a certain affinity with the guy. This attitude gives him that aura of impunity from the press and detractors which buckles most politicians in the country. He has this sense of freedom that enables him to speak whatever comes out of his mouth first, without thinking about it and without batting an eyelash, which most politicians would envy, or maybe not. Of course, as a president this behavior could lead the country into international diplomatic row and maybe even armed conflict. Just imagine him calling the Chinese president a son of a whore or Hillary Clinton, if elected in the US, one yummy piece of ass. But I think the thought of of the welfare of 100 million Filipinos on his back would tame him somehow, or he could hire a protocol officer who has the presidential license to knock his teeth out when necessity dictates.

3. He is not beholden to anyone.

I think this is one of his best selling points. Unlike most candidates whose supporter are big name businessmen and political king makers, Duterte, it appears, has no big boys behind him. Of course I sometimes wonder where the money for his ads comes from. But judging from the posts on Facebook and the anecdotal testimonies, it seems he has strong grass roots and moneyed supporters. 

4. His sense of humor

I like the guy. He speaks like a tambay. He behaves like a tambay. Anyone in the slum areas could look out of their window and hear Digong talking. He is not an urbane, ivy leaguer trying hard to be WASP person. He behaves like your and my neighbor, actually he behaves like me. Of course not literally, I'm just stressing the identification. He could be your beer drinking father or uncle who could make everybody laugh with offensive jokes and habitual cursing.

But behind this gutter talking, politically incorrect, ass kicking. thug façade is a keen lawyer’s mind and an outstanding administrator attested by multiple awards and recognitions here and abroad.  And he sleeps using mosquito nets.

Will I vote for Duterte? It’s tempting. Well,  I'll give you a wink instead.  I will tell you one thing, I think many Filipinos are tired of clean looking, smooth talking, over educated traditional politicians who mostly are trained thieves and outstanding plunderer. This is my fifty cents worth of advice: let us not be fooled by the trapos sweet, calm, generally empty but well thought of words and in the same way let us not be fooled by Duterte's impulsive, gutter talk. Think.