Hi pipz! I have moved to another site. Check out: http://rexosophy.wordpress.com.

So many articles are written today about Linux and its benefits.  Of course, you would expect that these techies would start ranting about their IT jargon until you'll end up confused with jaws dropping.  In the end, what matters is just one question: "Can I use it with ease?"

This is the basic question I've been asking when trying out different Linux distribution after my Windows XP (Pirated edition) has failed me miserable after it crashed an average of 3 times per month.  This made me greatly consider about all the try-the-Linux-Live-CD commotion...and so I did.

The first set of Linux distribution I tried was an Ubuntu Linux (sorry, I forgot the version but this was 2 years ago).  I was surprised how easy it was.  The GUI was great and OpenOffice seems to be useable. I also tried OpenSUSE, Mandriva, Red Hat, Bayanihan. All seems okay. But I never actually installed them fearing the worse.

Lately, this youtube video made me think twice:


Damn, the GUI is so pretty. And so I made the shift...and so far, no hardware problems, no community support problems, no hassles!  At first, I dual boot it with Windows XP but after two weeks of trying out Ubuntu, I never looked back. I wiped my harddrive clean and installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu 7.04 + beryl (the 3D desktop thing).  Next project is installing either Avant Window Navigator (to make it Mac OSX style) and Gdesklets (like Yahoo! Widgets).

And this is how my dekstop looks now...instant eye candy without having to upgrade my box.

My my...I've been gone for so long! (My last entry was about an article I wrote way back June 2006). I just checked my old e-mails and remembered I have a blog to maintain. I was so busy with life that I forgot to journalize. Excuses...excuses...Ok. I promise to write again.  Hehehe.

So much has happened after 1 whole year. I got a new bouncing...no, jumping little baby boy...our enrolment increased...I just got my first flu shot ever today...a wireless router at home...my HP iPAQ antenna got lost somewhere...and, I have just migrated to Linux.

Yes, the free software bug just bit me...BIG TIME.  Well, i think i'll be posting more about my Linux musings here...I'm so excited...I have spent countless hours trying to learn how to customize my Ubuntu LInux into a better-than-Vista OS. Actually, it is better.

I also have registered to the Linux World, becoming its 450,777th member.  And since I used Ubuntu Linux 7.04 (aka Feisty), I also registered to Ubuntu and became its 16,277th user.

Here are my badges :

    “Do not train youths to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bet of the genius of each.” (Plato)

    Recently, I received a letter of invitation to conduct a workshop for teachers on the Multiple Intelligence theory and its application in the classroom.  The letter describes Multiple Intelligence as the “in” thing now and should be adopted by schools.  I also overhear parents talking about multiple intelligences and how it brought about the discovery of their children’s talents or “smarts”.  Sometimes though, more often do I hear parents asking “ano yun?” than being able to clearly explain the theory on multiple intelligence.

    But what is this theory about Multiple Intelligences?  How did it came about?  How do they affect education and learning in general?

    Let us transport ourselves way back in the late 70’s when a young Harvardian psychology student named Howard Gardner began conducting brain research among brain damage and stroke victims, prodigies, autistic individuals, and idiots.  From his studies, he found out that a specific damage on a specific part of the brain affects a specific learning ability of a patient.  Gardner found out that some brain damage patients have difficulty recognizing music, moving about normally, or speaking logically.  In the same study he also found out that a well developed talent among prodigies shows a high mark in brain activity in specific areas of the brain. 

    This discovery led him to further his studies by mapping out specific learning patterns in the human brain.  In Gardner’s most famous book Frames of Mind (1983), he revealed his discovery of the 7 intelligences and develops this theory towards a broader application in the field of education.

    His discovery of the 7 intelligences totally changed his life as he shifted his research from psychology to education.  Due to the potentials of the theory in the educational setting, this created a wave of ecstatic acceptance among educators since it corresponds to the basic premise that all human beings are equally and inherently intelligent.


    The Multiple Intelligence theory espouses the existence of 7 “intelligences” inherent in every human being.  These are: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, body-kinesthetic, auditory-musical, naturalist, interpersonal communication, intrapersonal communication.

    Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence is the capacity to use words effectively, whether orally or in writing.  Your child is inclined to be a good storyteller, orator, poet, playwright, editor, or journalist because of their knack in listening, speaking, writing, explaining, teaching, analyzing language usage, and so much more.

    Logical-Mathematical Intelligence is the capacity to use numbers effectively and to reason out well.  Your child may become a statistician, mathematician, tax accountant, scientist, or computer programmer since they are good at problem solving, classifying and categorizing information, working with abstract concepts, doing experiments, and working with geometric shapes.

    Visual-Spatial Intelligence is the ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformations from the perceived world.  Your child has good skills in puzzle building, understanding charts and graphs, directing the car in puzzling streets, designing objects, drawing.  He / she will therefore be a future interior decorator, architect, artist, or inventor.

    Body-Kinesthetic Intelligence is the expertise in using one’s body to express ideas and feelings and to perform transformations upon those perceptions.  Your child will likely become an athlete, an actor, a dancer, or a sculptor due to his inclinations towards dancing, sports, acting, and using body languages.

    Musical Intelligence is the capacity to produce, appreciate and manipulate music.  They usually think in terms of sounds, rhythms and patters and are likely to hum around the house.  Your child is good at singing, whistling, playing musical instruments, composing music, and remembering melodies.  As such, they are inclined to become an accomplished musician, composer, music critique, or musical performer.

    Interpersonal Intelligence is the ability to relate and understand others since they see from other people’s point of view.  Children with this intelligence use verbal and non-verbal language to open communication channels with others.  Your child would likely become good educators, psychologists, or politicians because they are skilled in seeing things from other perspectives, listening, empathizing, counseling, co-operating with groups, and conflict resolution.

    Intrapersonal Intelligence allows one’s self to self-reflect and be aware of one’s inner state of being.  Your child usually are able to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, reflect and analyze themselves, reason out with themselves, and understand his / her role in a group.  Children with this kind of intelligence usually are able to answer big questions that begin with how and why.  He will therefore be a future philosopher, priest, or researcher.

    A few advocates of the MI theory contest that there are more than 7 intelligences aside from the ones mentioned above.  Students who show an interest in nature are now thought to have Naturalist Intelligence while those who are likely to become priests someday have Spiritual Intelligence.  Gardner himself even thought about including a pseudo-intelligence called Existential Intelligence—the ability to understand the purpose of one’s existence in the world.  Of course, Gardner remains uncommitted to existential intelligence because of its difficult in assessing this intelligence.  And there are others who parodied intelligence by coming up with all sorts of intelligences such as sexual intelligence, survival intelligence, even football intelligence!

    Just like any other theory, the MI theory of Howard Gardner has also met tremendous opposition from fellow educators and theorists due to the fact that it is just a theory and should not be taken with finality.  In a conference I attended where he was one of the speakers, he revealed that the MI theory is still currently being developed.  Although a number of researches have already been published supporting its positive effects, Gardner further explained that the multiple intelligence theory is best practiced in enriching teaching strategies as it supports the concept of holistic education.

    In addition, Gardner elucidated that each person is packed with all the intelligences.  What makes each person unique is the level of development and the interest towards each “smart.”  It is therefore important to note that each child has the ability to develop all the intelligences and not be boxed by a single intelligence while disregarding the other.


    Sad to say, I have been educated in a traditional school environment, and so do the majority of Filipinos.  It is hard to unlearn the traditional way of rote memorization, teacher monologues, and endless textbooks.  But the pain of unlearning is rewarded by the achievements of our children and the discovery of talents.

    I am glad that, Escuela de Nstra. Señora de La Salette, the school where I work as one of the administrators, advocates the concept of holistic education by adopting and applying multiple intelligences in the classroom.  This is perhaps one of the many reasons why the Lasallian Schools Supervision Office of the De La Salle University granted La Salette School a higher Lasallian Accreditation level by becoming a De La Salle Supervised School.

    As a response to this educational philosophy, I constantly remind the teachers to discover and tap the inner “smarts” of the students.  Of course, it is important to also remind the teachers not to focus too much on only one or two intelligences as there is a danger of stereotyping the student.  MI theory provides 7 potential paths to learning and multiple ways in presenting lessons to facilitate effective learning.

    Learning should not be limited to just reading and memorizing.  Learning should be a fun experience where students look forward to.  It should be multi-dimensional, such as that of the MI theory, and should tap the inner strengths of the pupils. This is even a good way of breaking the monotony in the classroom environment by singing, dancing, orating, and others.

    There is wisdom why priests and the religious sang biblical verses in their breviary.  They learn the bible by heart.  Ask them a verse and they sing the biblical text.  Not only do they pray twice when they sing, but they learn it by heart when they sing.

=================

This article was written for the LENS Magazine, a quarterly local magazine of Dagupan City.

It has always been my dream to write as a regular columnist in a newspaper may it be a local or in a national broadsheet.  But the truth of the matter is, the latter comes as a far-fetch dream.  What is reachable for now is the first as only a handful of people love to write in the province.

3 years ago, Joey invited us to write for his father's newspaper, the Ang Mantalaan, a local newspaper in Surigao del Sur.  And so we did.  Because of it being premature, it didn't prosper and progress into a full blown writing career.  And so my dream of writing continued on...

Living in Dagupan, and living 5 hours away from Manila, has been such a big change for me.  Not only do I miss traffic so much but I also miss Manila's heat and road stench.  I am now enjoying my rustic, laid-back life...and so I'm back to writing...and writing in Dagupan's local paper, The Regional Examiner.  In addition, I just formed my very own school publication...the Quill...which I'm planning to turn into an infectious writing bog ready for an epidemic of writing and reading appreciation.  Hehehe...dreaming again.

Anyway, this is just some sort of introduction so I can begin posting my weekly column in my blog.  Most of these are educational reflections regarding the Philippines.  Some are familiar, some are new. Some are complaints, some are suggestions...In other words, my piece of making a difference in our country...I hope.

After almost 5 years of waiting, Arthur Golden's classic book about geishas is finally made into a film.  And yes, I'm one of those who's eagerly waiting for this book to be made into a movie.  Yup, this is a "girly" novel...but I actually enjoyed reading...especially about how Sayuri was devirginized in a ritual called mizuage.  Hehehe.

Now, there's a lot of classic books immortalized into movies and I've read quite a few them.  Sometimes though, the film does not capture much what is being relayed in the novel.  And that's pretty disappointing.  Although I enjoyed the movie, there are a few disappointing things in the movie...

For one, why do chinese dominate the roster?  Alanganin tuloy yung portrayal ng Jap moves ng mga geisha...pati nga ung mukha ng mga Jap, ibang-iba sa mga Chinks di ba?  Compare mo nga sa Japanese AVI idols collection mo...ang layo kaya ng pagmumukha nila.

Here, let me show you:

 

O ayan, pinagtabi ko na ung original concept geisha ni Arthur Golden at obra maestra ni Rob Marshall.  Just stare at the two pictures for 5 seconds, pansin mo na kaagad ang kaibahan.  Need I say more? hehehe.

If you ask me, I'd say that you have to read the book first before you ever watch the movie.  You'd miss a lot of interesting details sa story...usually when Golden explains this or that...most especially about how Sayuri got devirginized. Bwehehehe.

Anyway, below is a tag from www.youtube.com.  I'm sure you'll love the spoof.

 

Finally, I can enjoy songs from my youth breathed to life anew with the latest of what OPM rock has to offer.  These are songs that has accompanied me in my youth and has been so much part of me that every song the e-heads sang invokes a spirit of youthful delirium.

Yes, I just bought JAM 88.3's ultraelectromagnetic jam...a revival of eraserheads' greatest gathered by the latest OPM rock sensations and spicing it up with their own influence.  So sad wasn't able to mingle with kids in UP during its release.  It would have been a helluvan experience for me...syempre pa headbang headbang at pa sira ng mukha para mukhang metal. Tapos, suot ng t-shirt na itim tulad ng mga palaboy na black squad na tumatambay sa kalye kung alas diyes na ng gabi.  Tapos, maintain ung agitated-look-na-hindi para magmukhang nakatira kay shabs-shabs o kaya nakatoma.

Nakakatuwa ngang i-look back ang high school memories with e-heads.  I remember ayoko nung 1st album nila...hindi ko kasi naiintindihan ung medyo upbeat na music nila.  Ung 1st year pa kasi ako, metallica, guns n' roses at bon jovi na ung pinapakinggan ko.  Eh ibang-iba ung kanta ng e-heads sa 1st album nila...tapos, parang jologs pa.  But after a while, nakakatuwa palang kantahin at ang dali-dali pa ng chords.  During that time kasi, neophyte pa lang ako sa paggigitara at sakit sa kamay ang chord na F.  Sa e-heads, ung chords ng sikat na kanta nila naglalaro lang sa variations ng G, A, D.

Aba, after a while, memorize ko na lahat ng lyrics at chords...at natutunan ko na rin ung F...tapos, sumunod na ung B, Bb, at ung ibang chords na tinotorture ang pointing finger.  Gumaling na ako sa gitara dahil sa eraserheads!

And i finally find myself waiting for CIRCUS.  Tapos, sumunod na rin ugn CUTTERPILLOW at ung FRUITCAKE album...

Tapos nung pumasok ako sa seminaryo, un na rin ang time na lumabas ung JULIE TEARJERKY album nila...tapos, bigla ba namang nagdisband ang mga gago.  Sayang, sila pa naman sana ung nag bulldoze sa OPM landscape during that era.

Oh well...memories.

Salamat nga pala JAM 88.3!

Today is such a great day to be Pinoy!

Imagine...Filipino athletes bagged 63 gold, 44 silver, and 50 bronze medals!  That's a total of 157 medals and a 1st placer at that! 

I could only imagine the problems of those in PSC now trying to figure out where to source millions of pesos as financial rewards to our heroes.  With our draining coffers, I say, let the politicians cough up millions for our athletes!  (pera naman natin un eh...hehehe) Let us reward them not just with the germs from handshakes but also something to fatten their pockets.  They have toiled and sacrificed a lot for that gold.

Talking about gold, this reminds me of that Thaksin guy...the sore loser from Thailand who spoke bitterly about us cheating.  Thaksin spoke: "If the SEA Games continue to be like this, then it will become less popular because they have put a priority for medals over athletic spirit."  Damn, that's a loaded statement.  He ought to apologize and not delegate it to some old secretary general who's willing to take the shit for him.

(It's a good thing though na hindi elections ung tinutukoy niya, else we're guilty as charged. hehehe.)

If you happen to be in Dipolog, or just passing by the city, always make sure that you visit one of the Rizalianas most revered site...Dapitan...Jose Rizal's place of exile.

Today marks the 1st week of my tenure in my new office.  Yes.  Finally, I have transferred to a better office after three (3) years of being hooked (and I mean literally) with an office which lauds slavery. hehehe.

I have a new table, a new laptop (siyempre hindi sa akin), new officemates (ka-age ko), new environment.  Siyempre, kasama na rin ung new "avenues for better opportunities."  It really is fulfilling to note that I didn't apply for this job but actually was "invited" to be part of their team.  Naks! Sorry for blowing my horn...but, this just hit my ego big time.  bwehehehe.

So, here's a pic of my new table...wag na muna ung sa office kasi bawal ata i-post sa internet without the permission of my boss...of course, due to "security reasons."

I don't know if it's worth comparing to the first pic I posted sa blog na ito.  Medyo magulo un eh...dito kasi sa bagong opisina, "paperless" daw.

**********************

Last week, I met my replacement...newly grad guy from a university in Makati.  Funny how that guy reminds me of myself three years ago...young, driven, and thin.  Hehehe.  I'm hoping though that my time here in my new office would give me the time to study for my MA comprehensive exams, and, hopefully, finish my thesis.  Medyo hindi kasi ako slave dito eh. ;-)