Great expectations

At the beginning of this school term, I asked my students in a course that I was teaching for the first time to write down their expectations for the course. My intention was for them to write down something like "I hope to learn more about so-and-so" or else "I want to learn how to so-and-so so that I can so-and-so" in order for me to get an idea as to how to deliver the course. At least when I was a student, that was how we students interpreted the phrase "expectations for the course."

But I was in for an big shock: nearly all of my seventy-five students wrote down what amounted to expectations on how the course will be handled. Many wrote, "I hope our teacher will be considerate" or worse, "I expect lots of bonus quizzes." There were even some who said, "I hope to get a good grade in this course". As I read all these written on the forms I provided my students, I began to wonder if this was what students nowadays have become. If it was worth teaching this course at all to students who simply chose to take the course as an easy way to get good grades and not to learn. I would have been less surprised if this were a required course but it isn't. It is a course taken by students of various curricula as an elective. Are Filipino students so lazy nowadays that they take a course in order to get a good grade and not to learn?

I'm afraid that bad start spoiled the rest of term for me. And to make things worse, I gave them an exam last Friday and graded the exams over this three-day weekend. Majority didn't get a passing mark. To think that the exam results in my other courses (required courses, that is) have never been that bad.

I tell you I am extremely disappointed. I had so looked forward to handling this one course because I considered it a challenge to teach a course to students with diverse backgrounds. And now I getting bored teaching this course knowing that my students are not interested in learning about what the course has to offer.

A road blessing and a poster idea

That accident prone stretch of road here was blessed today by our parish priest. I passed the procession on my way home today. The procession included two carossas, one with the statue of the Blessed Mother (it's Our Mother of Perpetual Help on Wednesdays here) and one with the statue of our patron saint, St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

I suppose people think the place is cursed or haunted and I have indeed heard stories of people seeing strange things along that road. Whether those accidents are caused by ghostly sightings or not, I still think people should observe the speed limit and traffic rules. Anyway, if one suddenly sees a ghost while driving along that road during the lonely hours but is driving reasonably within the 50kph speed limit, a collision with a tree at that speed probably wouldn't be as horrific as those of the fatal accidents in the past.

By the way, the car wreck has been moved to a spot across from the police precinct here. That's always where they've kept car wrecks temporarily in the past--I suppose while investigation on the car accident is ongoing. Anyway, the accident seems much worse now that you can see the driver's side of the car. It's one horrific mangled mess of metal and glass with the roof practically smashed in on the driver's side. I now think the car rolled and hit the tree while on its side. Tsk tsk. I feel like taking a picture of the wreck before it is taken away and using the picture some kind of poster that I'll put up all over in campus: "Let this be a lesson to drivers everywhere: Don't drink and drive. Always observe the speed limit and traffic rules."

The fourth thirty-six

Okay. I've identified another thirty-six favorite photos on Flickr. Of course, the novelty has slightly worn off and I've become busy again at work as well, which is why it has taken me a little longer to accumulate this many to form another batch of favorites.Some of the photos in my own small Flickr collection have slowly made "progress" so to speak. My limeberry photo is no longer the most "interesting" according to Flickr (51 views, favorited 2 times, 2 comments). Instead it's my photo of the Cagsawa Church ruins which has gotten the most comments (23 views, favorited 2 times, 4 comments). Likewise my photo of a jellyfish at the Vancouver Aquarium has been viewed more times than the limeberry (55 views, 1 comment). Then the photo of my cuddly toy stuffed piggy wiggy is starting to catch up with the rest as well.

All this aside, I find it really interesting to see which photos appeal the most to other people and in some cases these are surprisingly not among my own favorites. Take for instance my photo of trees taken in Stanley Park in Vancouver which in my own opinion is not as interesting as my other photos of trees. And yet it is the one most viewed among my tree/forest pictures. I suppose it's because of the unusual lighting. But then again, it probably seems interesting enough if one sees only its thumbnail but not so when viewed in full. This may explain as well why it has not been favorited so far despite being viewed many times.

A lesson never learned

I was on my way to campus last Thursday morning and was about to speed up to my usual 50mph as I drove through a two-lane stretch of straight road when I spotted a yellow barrier placed across the opposite lane some 500m down the road. As I neared the barrier and was forced to slow down because the cars ahead of me were slowing down as well, I saw to my horror a car wreck just behind the barrier. There was a campus police officer signaling to cars in my lane to stop to let cars going in the opposite direction to go around the barrier and come through. When we were finally given the signal to go ahead, I tried to take a good look at the wreck. The car was a black Toyota Altis. It was facing in the direction I was going and horribly wrapped around one of the many pili trees that lined both sides of the road. The car appeared to be brand new, the windshield was shattered and I noticed that the front air bags had deployed.

Later that day I learned that six students were in the car and were driving home a friend to a subdivision in the outskirts of town after a night of partying. The driver was killed outright and that one was in critical condition in the ICU of one of the local hospitals. While I was told then that the rest just suffered cuts and bruises, I just learned this morning that it was the front passenger who landed in ICU and that one of the others shattered his/her leg.

As the subdivision they were driving to was just beyond the place where I live, I figured that the car had skidded after the driver failed to negotiate a turn in the road and spun around and broadsided the tree on the driver's side, explaining why the car was facing toward campus. And the main reason for the accident was, as it turned out, nothing that surprised me at all: they were all tipsy--driving under the influence of alcohol!--and were understandably speeding through a road where the speed limit is 50kph. Not to mention that the road was probably slick from the incessant rain we had that evening. [P.S. I also later learned that the speedometer of the car was frozen at 90kph--way over the speed limit!]

It is an all too common cause for accidents here where speed limits and traffic rules are ignored and people drink and drive with abandon. I'm sure there are traffic rules here against drinking and driving, speed limits, etc. but as usual the problem is always the lack of enforcement. And because of this, people ignore the laws because they can get away with breaking the law. There is nobody to catch them in the act and so they dare break the law.

This is probably at least the fifth accident occurring in that stretch of road that I have heard of in my lifetime. All cars involved have ended up crashing into one of the many trees along the road. It is certainly very tempting to speed through a good 1.5km stretch of road where there are no major intersections (just a few turn offs leading to buildings built along the side) and no road damage like potholes and cracks to force you to slow down. In this case, it was all the more tempting to floor the gas pedal since it was 3am and there were no other cars in sight. I make it a point to maintain a maximum speed through that area within 50-60kph. But even so, I'm still passed by other cars whose drivers have obviously chosen to ignore the 50kph speed limit and drive at least 15kph faster than that! To make things worse, they usually choose to pass me right when there's a curve in the road! Ouch! Haven't these people been taught not to overtake along a curve where you can't see the oncoming traffic?!

In general, I'd expect that if Filipinos here had a conscience, they would be more obedient. They would obey rules and behave better. But then, no. It appears that the Filipino has no conscience and would go on breaking laws as long as they don't get caught. I believe this is the main reason why while they live here Filipinos behave so badly but that when they go abroad, they suddenly become very observant of the rules and laws. Why? Because they know they will be caught and punished in that foreign country.

It is a sad thought isn't it? As this latest fatal car accident has shown for the umpteenth time, Filipinos will choose to refuse to learn a lesson unless something bad happens to them.

Shopping and a mini movie marathon

I finally got to pick up my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday! Yipee! Now I can curl up in a chair and enjoy reading my own book at my own pace. I got to buy other stuff as well like a much needed USB-to-parallel adapter cable so that I can attach this laptop (Dell Inspiron 640m) to our Canon inkjet printer. I also found that Delifrance has their own version of the kopi bun I bought at the airport when I left for Toronto. The dough isn't as good though but it should do.

I also had my fill of movies yesterday at least for the current summer season. I was able to watch Disney/Pixar's latest animation Ratatouille which turned out to be really cute. I'd say it totally deserved the 96% overall rating it got at www.metacritic.com. The quality of rendering was much more superior than any I've seen so far. But at the same time the animation didn't detract from the charming and heartwarming story about a rat with an unusual talent and ambition to be a cook.

After watching the 11:30am showing of Ratatouille, I had ten minutes to catch the 1:30pm showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix two theatres down. The movie was rather fast-paced just like Goblet of Fire which meant unfortunately little room for character development. Tonks, for instance, didn't seem as cool as she was in the book with her metamorphosing abilities. It wasn't too clear either that Mrs. Figg being a witch was quite a revelation to Harry. And there were major changes made to the story, which for me as a purist, is a big disappointment: we didn't get to see St. Mungo's and Neville's parents and it was Cho Chang and not her friend who betrayed Dumbledore's Army. I also missed the scene where Petunia receives a howler from Dumbledore in the beginning. And it looks like everyone who went with Harry to the Department of Mysteries at the end heard the entire prophecy while in the book it was Dumbledore who let Harry alone hear it (with Harry telling only Ron and Hermione much later in beginning of the next book). The backstory omissions made by Cuaron in Prisoner of Azkaban were more forgiveable in comparison. To make things worse, the theatre sound system wasn't that great either despite the higher ticket price (Php20 more than the Ratatouille ticket price probably due to reserved seating) and the fact that the theatre is supposed to be equipped with an SDDS surround system. So I didn't enjoy this fifth installment of the story as well as I did the first three, especially the third one. But then the book wasn't exactly my favorite in the series either.

St. Jean Marie Vianney feast day

Today is my favorite saint St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney's feast day. He's the renowned Cure d'Ars, the patron saint of parish priests and well-loved for his humility, perseverance and humble acceptance of God's will. Here is rather brief write-up about him on Catholic Online:

Universally known as the "Cure of Ars," St. John Mary Vianney was ordained a priest in 1815. Three years later he was made parish priest of Ars, a remote French hamlet, where his reputation as a confessor and director of souls made him known throughout the Christian world. His life was one of extreme mortification.

Accustomed to the most severe austerities, beleaguered by swarms of penitents, and besieged by the devil, this great mystic manifested a imperturbable patience. He was a wonderworker loved by the crowds, but he retained a childlike simplicity, and he remains to this day the living image of the priest after the heart of Christ.

He heard confessions of people from all over the world for the sixteen hours each day. His life was filled with works of charity and love. It is recorded that even the staunchest of sinners were converted at his mere word. He died August 4, 1859, and was canonized May 31, 1925.

There are much longer and detailed accounts of the life of this beloved priest in the online Catholic Encyclopedia as well as in the archives of the EWTN libraries. The definitive biography by the Abbe Francis Trochu published by TAN books has long been on my wishlist. Goodwill Book Store used to have a few copies of this book a few years ago but the price then was beyond what I could afford. Now that I have a bit more money, I'm quite disappointed to find that it's no longer available there.

My limeberry photo on Wikipedia!!!

Guess what?! My macro shot of our limoncito/limeberry bush will be on Wikipedia!

David Badganani, a volunteer editor at Wikipedia, contacted me about using my photo in a brand new article he had started about the limeberry plant. (I had noticed that he had tagged my photo as one of his favorites.) Of course, I was thrilled. Imagine using my photo as a "representative photo of that species and fruit"? I never dreamed that that photo which was taken on a whim just test the macro mode of my then brand new Fujifilm Finepix F30 would have gone that far. And to think that I just happen to include that photo on my free Flickr account because I thought it turned out to be one of my better photos. (It's nothing compared to the many stunning photos on Flickr naturally.) Then coming across that "What plant is that?" Flickr group also proved to be serendipitous. As I already have said before, I posted the limoncito photo there since I had no inkling what the plant was really called and hoped somebody would be able to identify it.

My Harry Potter alter ego

Ha-ha. I took this Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? online quiz over at QuizFarm.com--just for fun, of course--and got the following very intriguing results:

You scored as Severus Snape.
Well you're a tricky one aren't you? Nobody quite has you figured out and you'd probably prefer it stayed that way. That said you are a formidable force by anyone's reckoning, but there is certainly more to you than a frosty exterior and a bitter temper.

Severus Snape ... 80%
Ron Weasley ... 75%
Remus Lupin ... 65%
Ginny Weasley ... 50%
Harry Potter ... 50%
Albus Dumbledore ... 45%
Hermione Granger ... 40%
Draco Malfoy ... 40%
Sirius Black ... 30%
Lord Voldemort ... 15%

At least I'm most unlike Lord Voldemort!