Power outage break

Today became one of those typical days when we'd have frequent power outages on campus.

I rushed to work this morning in order to catch my 8am lecture only to find that there had been a power outage in campus since the wee hours of the morning with no explanation on what the cause had been. Naturally my first worry was for my classes scheduled during the day. A power outage during the week is never good news since missing just one class totally upsets my lecture schedule for the semester. (On the contrary, the students would be happy not to have any class.) So on the hope that the power would come back in time, I decided to wait until 20 minutes after eight. When nothing happened, I had no choice but to dismiss my class. Ten minutes after that, surprise! the power came back on. Ah well. Just when I also had posted an announcement for my 10am lecture class that we wouldn't have classes either. But that turned out to be the right decision after all, for we had another power outage that started around 10:30am and lasted for nearly an hour. Then I thought it would be smooth sailing after lunchtime but I was wrong once again. Just as I was beginning my 1pm lecture, there was another power outage! I groaned, my students cheered. Luckily this time, it lasted a mere five minutes (I grinned, my students groaned) and I was able to give my lecture without interruption after that. We had yet one more power interruption later in the afternoon, but as I no longer had classes scheduled then I didn't mind it that much. Except that I had to once again shut down my computer and my air-conditioner (too risky to leave that on with the low-voltage episodes that usually occur on days like these) and the unusually hot and humid weather without air-conditioning made even sitting still at my office desk uncomfortable.

As you can see, this frequent power outage business can be very annoying. It's a real headache and especially frustrating because there isn't anything we can do about it.

But there also turns out to be a plus side to these interruptions at work.

First, I got a bit of time to clean up my office. Having one class after another and endless piles of paperwork to accomplish, I rarely have the chance to organize my things, most especially important papers that should be filed away for future reference (man, I need a secretary to do these things for me!). So with nothing else to do, I finally got to sift through the small (since it's still early in the semester) but growing piles of paper on my desks (yes, desks!), sort them and file the important ones into the correct folders in my filing cabinet.

Second, it allowed me to finally take a break as well from the hectic schedule I have had since the start of classes. I have had barely an hour of rest from having to work on my lecture notes, presentation slides and things related to my administrative duties. Even my weekends have been full since the constant stream of students to my office for consultation or for my signature (paperwork) during weekdays prevent me from working continuously. At least without electricity, I couldn't use my computer and so that meant a break from working on all those lecture notes, etc. ( At the same time, it gave me additional time to grade unmarked quizzes I gave in the past week.) I must say, the power outage allowed me to put those things from my mind, take a deep breath and relax.

Needless to say, I'm in a way thankful for the power outages. I got spurts of mini-vacations in the middle of the week!

Rooting for Roger

My evenings for most of the past fortnight have been devoted to watching the Wimbledon tennis championships on television rooting for my favorite tennis player, the great FedEx, the Basel Dazzle, the Swiss Who Cannot Miss, the Artful Roger.

I consider my preference for tennis an anomaly in this country where the main sports obsessions are the three Bs: basketball, billiards and boxing--soon to be joined I suppose by a fourth B, for badminton. I'm probably one of the few who are dismayed to find that the local channels devote their sports coverage to these. But thankfully, there is the Singapore-based ESPN Star Sports that continues to provide live coverage of practically all matches at the tournament every year.

And when it comes to the television coverage of the Wimbledon, I am extremely fortunate to be in this part of the world. With local time seven hours ahead of Greenwhich Mean Time, matches scheduled to start at 11am London time get shown here live at 6pm. This naturally is perfect timing since it allows me to get through my workday without worrying about having to miss watching matches being shown live on tv. If I had been in London itself, I'd practically be unable to watch everything except the evening matches; if I were in the east coast of the US, I'd get to catch only the early matches and miss the rest. (And I've found that unless you've subscribed to the Tennis Channel you don't get much coverage of the tournament either.) Thus this is the ideal place to be to watch the Wimbledon especially if one wants to see the sport's best player in action.

So here I was every evening, watching whatever tennis match was being shown live (or on a delayed basis, in the case of this year's very rainy Wimbledon) on tv and keeping an eye on other matches I was interested in via the Live Scoreboard on Wimbledon's website. If Federer was on, I'd be sure to keep track of his match statistics via the Live Scoreboard as well , marveling at the growing number of winners he has hit. (Sadly our Internet connection hasn't been fast enough these days to enable me to watch the points replayed on the PointTracker.)

Most probably just as Federer went through his early round matches, I pretty much watched his matches with little anxiety, confident that he'd come through with relative ease. I noted however that his game seemed to lack the fire that it used to possess years ago and he was hitting a lot more errors than usual. I attributed this to the fact that he lacked matchplay after skipping his traditional warm-up event at Halle. Thus instead of being relieved when I learned that he received a bye to the quarterfinals via Tommy Haas' withdrawal and consequently got a "holiday" (further extended by rain delays), I became more concerned. Sure enough, he dropped a set when he faced Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarters after waiting six days to get back on court. I relaxed again though when it was Richard Gasquet and not Andy Roddick whom he had to meet in the semis. There, he overpowered the young Frenchman who was clearly exhausted from having to play matches on consecutive days.

And the finals against Nadal last night? I had to make sure that my bottle of Tums was within reach. I knew that although Nadal had to play matches on consecutive days like Gasquet, he was so physically fit that he would not be tired and that, on the contrary, he would be battle-hardened coming into the finals. Thus as I had expected, he fought nail and tooth to wrestle the title from Federer's hands.
And what a roller-coaster ride that finals match turned out to be. It was a typically warm evening, but I was feeling cold from sheer nervousness. I'd have a few brief warm spells though whenever Federer got the upperhand and especially when he took the third set in a tie-break to eke out a two-sets-to-one lead. (Those tie-breaks are such nail-biters!) But some minutes later, I was in utter despair when Federer fell behind 0-4 in the fourth set. Ugh! I believed then that all was lost.

When Nadal did take that fourth set 6-2 and clearly had the momentum going into the deciding set, I couldn't take the tension any longer. I turned off the tv and crawled into bed (it was past midnight by then), knowing that I wouldn't be able to stand watching Federer lose on his beloved grass and see Nadal triumph in his place. However, I tuned into Wimbledon Radio just the same to listen. Although I couldn't bear to see Federer's disappointed face again, I needed to know what happened.

Just as a I feared, Federer struggled to hold serve in the beginning of the fifth set, falling behind 15-40 twice; the radio commentator was shouting,"This could be the end of Federer's reign!" To my amazement and relief, the champion rose to the occasion to save all four break points and hold serve each time.

But that, I found, wasn't the end of Federer's surprises for the day. I remained in bed, listening anxiously and trying to doze off at the same time, only to suddenly sit up when I heard that he was up with three break points on Nadal's serve! The radio commentator's voice was rising in the excitement, the crowd cheering in the background. The next thing I knew, Federer had broken and was up 4-2 in the fifth. Then a few minutes later, 5-2! I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I jumped out of bed and turned the tv back on. I had a gut feeling that Federer would try to break Nadal's serve to win the match and I dared not miss championship point! There were just a few more anxious moments when Nadal earned a couple of game points before the absolute thrill of witnessing Federer hit a winner at his second match point and collapse to the ground, victorious once more to the applause of all, including Bjorn Borg who was watching from the Royal Box.

Now, that definitely was a match and an evening never to be forgotten.
Photo credit: CHRIS YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images

The bigger picture

Soon after breakfast this morning, I was looking for something to watch on television when I came across this documentary on the Discovery Channel that was apparently about the inventor Charles Goodyear.

Just like many other inventors during those difficult times, Goodyear struggled for years and was frequently short on funds to support his experiments with natural rubber before he came up with an invention that literally changed our lives. Sadly, it was something that couldn't improve his own family's living conditions as they also suffered together with him before he reached did a breakthrough. His wife even urged him to take on a regular job but since Goodyear recognized early on the potentials of his invention, he persevered. He knew that even if couldn't help his own family then--Goodyear himself died before the age of 60 from the effects of working with the chemicals he used--the results of his research would eventually lead to many applications of rubber that would in the future improve the lives of millions. And he knew he and his family would reap the rewards later on. Indeed, the products that results from his work include tires improved transportation (can't imagine what it would be like riding in a vehicle with wooden or metal wheels) and more importantly rubber medical gloves that saved lives by preventing the spread of bacteria. He was also finally awarded a pantent for vulcanization (although after a hard fought court trial). Goodyear saw the bigger picture.

I believe we have much to learn from people like Goodyear. I've heard and seen too many people here in this country work for selfish reasons and with little foresight, people who do something to get instant gratification and disregard the long-term consequences of their actions. These range from those who are most visible in politics and show business down to even the less fortunate. I suppose I need not mention names; anyway they are too numerous. But at least consider for instance, years ago when I heard the shocking news that someone was mining the famous Chocolate Hills for limestone and land filling. Imagine that! One of the natural wonders of our country being destroyed all for monetary gain. Don't these people ever think of how that would affect the tourism industry--not to mention the people in Bohol who benefit from the tourists who come visiting--if these unusual land formations disappeared completely? And suppose those weren't the famous Chocolate Hills but some other resource that can never be replenished or at best will take years to replenish. Like trees. Don't they ever think of what would happen if they cut or burn down all the trees growing on the hills and mountains? Even if they're not aware that the lack of trees will increase soil erosion, don't they ever think that by cutting/burning all the trees there will be nothing left for the next generation? You know, I don't think they ever stop to consider that at all. (I believe that the Filipino generally has no conscience and is KSP; but that's another long story, worth a blog or two.) Look at what happened in Ormoc way back in the 1990s. I thought by then that that disaster would open people's eyes to the potential dangers of illegal and indiscriminate logging. But nope, the same thing happened again just more than a year ago in Guinsaugon. I could go on and on about unlearned lessons and deliberate ignorance but the mere thought of wasted lives and resources just makes me boil with frustration.

It's no wonder the country has been going nowhere for the past few decades. Despite vows to be more disciplined and calls from all sectors to eliminate graft and corruption, I think our poor country will continue to go nowhere. Our people maybe hardworking, but they tend to work hard for the wrong reasons. And if the country ever does go somewhere, with people who remain stubbornly narrow-minded, the likely direction will inevitably be downwards. All because we refuse to see and acknowledge the bigger picture.

Obanyaki, Flickr, a hot cup of soup and a beautiful backhand

It's the end of another work week and time to look back at the things that made me smile.

1. My workweek did not begin too smoothly as last Monday I began to suffer from a headache which was most probably caused by the anxiety of having to deal with another round of administrative duties this week. It was with great relief therefore that I set off around noon to buy my lunch. As I approached the entrance to campus, a welcome sight greeted my eyes: the obanyaki cart in its old location. Wow! I didn't expect that. I thought it was one of the few businesses that folded up after a year of trial. Needless to say, the sight almost completely chased away my headache and I bought the usual Php20 worth of obanyaki.
2. I had been considering using Flickr for storing my digital pics but was reluctant to open an account there since I already had one with Yahoo! Photos filled with hundreds of pics I had uploaded over the past five years. That point of indecision was cleared up this week when I received news that Yahoo! Photos would be closing this coming September and that those with accounts had the option to transfer their pics to another online photo sharing account such as Flickr. So I finally will get to use Flickr after all!
3. Last Wednesday, I had to miss lunch to work on some documents needed urgently by another unit. I just munched on a few crackers to stem the hunger and hurried to my lecture class at 1pm. After class, I made myself a cup of soup from one of those small packets containing one-serving of soup powder to be dissolved in hot water. Nevermind the high sodium content and MSG. It was the first cup of hot soup I've had in ages!
4. I've yet again been mesmerized by the beauty of Federer's game and knack for shot-making. I just saw him make a beautiful curving backhand slice in his quarterfinal match against Ferrero which the latter could only push wide. Too bad I can't recall exactly when during the match he made that amazing shot.
   

All in moderation

Among the top articles under Health News in Google these days are a number about the benefits of eating dark chocolate! Being a dark chocoholic--I find milk chocolate too sweet--this is certainly good news. But at the same time, the topic has become rather tiresome since the fact that eating chocolate can slightly lower blood pressure, reduce the chance of a heart attack, blah blah blah, was after all made known about five years ago. While I do eat a square of dark chocolate once in a while to satisfy my chocolate cravings, I don't intend to increase my daily dosage so to speak. After all, eating too much chocolate means high sugar, fat and calorie intake.

In fact, I am rarely moved to change my eating habits just because so-and-so was suddenly found to significantly reduce the chances of so-and-so disease or health problem. Haven't we always avoided drinking too much wine because of its alcohol content but then hear nowadays that a daily glass of red wine is good for the heart? Then wasn't high consumption of coffee harmful due to its caffeine content? And then, whoa, it's good after all for the liver and the heart! Wouldn't we love to hear that our favorite sinful dessert was actually good for our health? Take for example butter, extra notorious for its high saturated fat and cholesterol content. A few months ago, my aunt who loves butter, can't stand having margarine on her toast and is rather gullible when it comes to news in science and technology proudly announced that she read that butter is actually good for you. Then she happily proceeded to put an alarmingly huge pat of butter on her dinner roll and began extolling the benefits of butter. All of us at the dinner table at the time would have suffered through another monologue had my cousin not immediately shut her up by saying that one simply has to eat anything, whether it's good or bad for your health, in moderation. I couldn't agree more. While a lot of a bad thing is definitely harmful, too much of a good thing can be just as bad or even worse.

So for me, I choose to continue having my usual meals as much as I can under the difficult circumstances--that is, preferably with a good helping of vegetables (can't get along without my veggies!) and fruit juice (softdrinks are a definite no no)--ending occasionally with something sweet like a cookie or a slice of cake (if we have any in the fridge or pantry) or a square of dark chocolate for dessert to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Observers from beyond

Sometimes I would rather watch documentaries on the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel than watch movies on HBO or Cinemax. Among the numerous types of shows being shown, I enjoy those documentaries that deal with solving mysteries about certain people or events in the past. One relatively recent example is the documentary about what caused the early death of the Egyptian pharaoh Tut. When I watch these investigative type of shows, it amuses me to wonder about what the people concerned think about it all as they watch us from somewhere beyond. Are they grinning about the historians' and archaeologists' various theories, perhaps even impressed by how these scientists manage to draw conclusions from such tiny clues and details? (I can imagine God watching us with some mixture of pride and anxiety as we uncover the mysteries of life and the universe.) Or are they banging their fists on a table somewhere yelling, "No, no, no! You've got it all wrong!"

Slide presentation graphics, Nestle Freze and McDonald's greetings

Okay, time for some glad things:

1. I have been spending most of my time at work making slide presentations for the lecture class I am teaching for the first time. This is the part I enjoy most about teaching: making instructional materials. That covers making slides and handouts; deciding on the format, fonts and colors; customizing animations and making graphics to accompany the text as example or illustration. As always, I make the illustrations using the drawing tools available in whatever presentation creation software I'm using at the moment (OpenOffice 2.0. nowadays if I'm working at my PC at work). This week I found pleasure in making two slide graphics that I'm extremely proud of. It was fun making the graphics mainly because it was a challenge trying to figure out how to assemble basic shapes to form a figure/object.
2. Last Friday, I bought Nestle Freze/Granita (minus the bits of coffee jelly, an additional Php16!) at the Mini-Stop convenience store just outside campus to have with my McDonald's McRice chicken burger (my lunch that day). Ahh .... there's nothing like the stimulating taste of coffee and an ice-cold drink/dessert on a hot day.
3. You know how here in the Philippines, you're greeted (yelled at is more like it) by an eager-to-please employee at the counter with "Welcome to McDonald's" every time you enter a McDonald's fastfood joint here and then there's an appropriate farewell when you leave the place as well. For me it seems to be done too automatically for the greeting/farewell to sound sincere. Take for instance this morning's episode when my father and I decided to eat breakfast at the local McDonald's while waiting for my mom to have her hair trimmed at a nearby beauty parlour. I went ahead to order our breakfast while my father attended to something in our car in the parking lot. I was about to approach the counter when I suddenly remembered that I needed my father's senior citizen card to get a discount. (The usual store policy is for you to present the card before you place your order.) So I turned on my heel and proceeded to walk out of the place. Just as I was exiting the doors, I heard an employee call out after me "Thank you for coming to McDonald's!" I couldn't help chuckling at that once I got outside.