I found this interesting article from the DOST website, entitled “The Making of a Scientist.” It’s interesting for me because 1) it featured Filipino scientists, and 2) the said scientists were all women, and 3) I personally know one of them. Dr. Maricor Soriano, one of our former colleagues when we were still at National Institute of Physics, also happens to be a very good personal friend of ours, and of course Baggy’s former labmate at the Instrumentation Physics Lab. 🙂

Among other things, the article made me realize how important it is for scientists to let other people have a glimpse into what made them into what they are today. I realized that there may be someone out there who may even be inspired to take up science as a career.

It’s not a dead end, nor just an exclusive path for the ultra-genius. I think some of you may still be harboring the notion that science is reserved for the highly intellectual but emotionless individuals. Those who care not for anything else except the noble pursuit of knowledge. Well, it may be true for some, but not for all. I know several Filipino scientists who came from humble beginnings, people just like you and me. They just took the path less traveled.

Let me now give you a glimpse into my life, by answering the same questions as found in that DOST article:

Q: When did you start getting interested in science?

The earliest would be when I was in elementary. I had a natural curiosity for everything. Brownouts/blackouts (unexpected power interruptions) were common in our area, so we would light candles inside our house. It made me often wonder why the moths were attracted to the flame, even if they would die if they got too close. Or why my shadow became bigger as I drew near the flame, and smaller as I move farther away. I wondered why there were floods in our area, why there was a high tide and a low tide. It was the answers to those simple questions that drew me to learn more about things and how they worked. I wanted answers.

Q: Who influenced you to be a scientist?

My dad. He wanted me excel not only academically, but to rise above the rest. He didn’t want me to just take up any mediocre course that would enable me to rake in the big “bucks” but would not fulfill me intellectually and emotionally. He wanted me to choose for myself something that in my heart I really wanted to study. From early on he would say things like it was his dream for me to work at NASA someday, or be someone famous like Albert Einstein. 🙂

And guess what, I chose Physics. It was my first choice when I applied for the UPCAT exam. My dad applauded my choice, although it must have been such an obscure subject for him. He trusted my decision.

Q: How was your interest in science nurtured?

I went to a public elementary school which was pretty competitive in science fairs and interschool science competitions (science quizzes and the like). So early on I had an exposure to science-related activities. As early as Grade Five I experienced how to make an investigatory project in science. I didn’t go to a science high school (more on this later) but I was able to qualify for a science class in another public high school. And although the training there was probably not as excellent as those found in some of the bigger-name science high schools, it nurtured my interest in science. I consistently participated in science fairs and quizzes. My teachers in that small high school provided the right stimuli for me to eventually choose science as a future career.

In our annual yearbook, I wrote there that someday I would like to be a “research physicist.” Yeah, I was that geeky. Well, what else could I say? Be careful what you wish for, lol! 😀

To be continued…

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to blog anymore while I was in Hainan. I was too busy attending lectures and minding my preparation for my own presentation. The said presentation went very well, thank you very much. 🙂 I was hoping to find fellow Pinoys or Pinays there, but I wasn’t able to find anyone. In the program I found that there was supposed to be a presentation from a Filipino, but apparently the paper was withdrawn. Too bad. Too few Filipino scientists, I tell you. Too few. We need to reinforce our numbers! How else can we show the world what we’re capable of?

But I digress.

The only Filipinos I saw in Hainan, quite curiously, were a couple who called themselves “Surfers Band from Philippines” who performed every night at the hotel lobby/restaurant bar. They were pretty good. Syempre. 🙂 In retrospect, maybe there were even hotel staff there who were actually Pinoys, but I couldn’t tell them apart from the Chinese staff. The people there resembled Filipinos, honest! Hainan is the island at the southernmost tip of China mainland, and it is located almost on the same latitude as the Philippines. More than one person actually asked me if I would be going home to the Philippines, knowing how near it was to our location. Politely, I told them that my family is in Japan. 🙂

Anyway, I am home sweet home. Back to the grind. My husband tells me that our little girl behaved extremely well, that she could eat on her own without being spoonfed (yeah, what a brat), and has even begun bathing herself without assistance. It seemed as if she acted like a big girl all of a sudden in my absence.

But within 24 hours of my arrival, guess what, she was immediately back to her old self, relying on good ol’ Mom for tender-loving care and assistance. All of a sudden she “forgot” how to eat by herself, or bathe herself. Oh well. Hey, I don’t mind at all. 😀

It’s simply great to be home.

Beijing touchdown: July 12, 2007.

First impression: Construction, construction, and construction everywhere. Looks like the city is really getting prepped up for the Olympics next year. In fact there is a subway under construction right at the Beijing airport, and this is supposed to be finished in time for the Olympics.

In a word? Beijing is HUGE.

Huge, as in eight-lane freeways, tall skyscrapers, the spacious Tian’anmen square, the massive Forbidden City, and the sheer length and grandiosity of the Great Wall. Beijing is all that, and more.

And then there’s people. People – tourists and locals alike – they flock to Beijing like a swarm of bugs attracted by the scents and sights of the city. Thanks to my Chinese companions, I was able to experience some of the things that I would probably never have the heart to try alone. Here are some of them, plus a few of my observations:

• Riding the subway
  • Subways here are quite manageable, particularly if you’re already used to subway systems as in Japan.
  • Tickets are sold at the window, manned by persons. Apparently magnetic tickets have yet to make an appearance here. The tickets are also handed over to persons guarding the entrance gates. In my opinion, the subway in Seoul is more advanced in comparison. At least they had a vending machine for tickets there.
  • I couldn’t quite figure out how much the necessary fare was. I did not see any fare tables. But maybe I just missed them?
  • At the platform, there were no waiting lines of people. Everybody just sort of flocked to the door and squeezed into whatever space available.
  • There was a guard at the platform who made sure that everybody stayed behind the yellow line. He barked orders at anyone who dared to lean over too far. Feisty.

• Riding the bus
  • This appears to be the most convenient and cheapest form of transportation here. Imagine paying a minimum of 1 yuan!
  • Buses are crowded, anytime of the day. Hardly surprising, eh?
  • I got the biggest shock of my life when riding the bus. I was sitting, and there was this girl standing over me, holding onto a rail while the bus was moving. Nothing particularly unusual until my gaze caught her exposed hairy armpit in all its black glory. I have never, and I mean NEVER, seen a woman with hairy armpits before. And here I thought all Asian women shaved their armpits. Wrong! How’s that for culture shock?

• Eating
  
  • By now I’ve sampled quite a number of hitherto unknown dishes, and thanks to the sheer resiliency of my digestive system, I seem to be doing fine. 🙂 I’ve been properly warned about drinking water, so I stick to bottled mineral water only.
    
  • Peking duck – my sister calls this “rubber ducky” because of how shiny they look, and indeed how “rubbery” they taste – this is true at least for some of the Chinese restaurants in Japan where we tried it. Fortunately, I found out that it is not how a genuine Peking duck should be. The meat is rather soft, and the soup made from Peking duck is quite delectable. Quack! 🙂

A few other observations:

• Vehicles drive within their designated lanes. I think the traffic enforcers in Metro Manila would do wise to impose this traffic rule. If they can do it, why couldn’t we?
• All taxis and buses I’d ridden drove within reasonable speed. They seem quite disciplined when it comes to speeding.
• On the other hand, there are still traffic jams here – but not as bad as the ones I’d experienced in Metro Manila.
• I haven’t seen the sun entirely for the last two days that I’ve been here. Fog or smog, I couldn’t tell the difference. Heh.

I’m set to go to Hainan island tomorrow. My newfound friend says it’s cleaner there. Hainan is semi-tropical, and is famous for beach resorts. It will be an entirely different adventure there. So…stay tuned! 🙂

I’m on my own again.

I’m leaving today. Traveling alone has its perks. I’m more mobile, I have less baggage, and I can actually catch up on my reading lag on those extra hours of waiting. But the concept of being A-L-O-N-E on this trip does kind of makes me sad. I’m simply not used to it anymore. 🙁

This also happens to be my first solo flight to any Asian country for the first time in YEARS. Nope, I’ve never been to China. The last time I was ever on a plane bound for an Asian country was when I first flew to Japan in 1996!

But…duty calls, and I have to make this trip.

On the bright side, I’m pretty sure that China is worth seeing, and the exposure I’m bound to have there would be worth all the time and effort. So definitely I’m going on an adventure! It’s just a four-hour journey, and the time difference is a measly one hour (just like the Philippines).

Do keep me company on this trip. I’ll be “twittering” as I go, so you can follow me. The HTML badge below is on my sidebar as well. 🙂 It will be oh-so fun!

Of course, I hope to blog from a different world, different time zone. I’m crossing my fingers. For now, excuse me while I go prepare my stuff. 🙂

We never met in person.

Out of the blue, one day I got a friendly call from Ms. Tonette Binsol. I don’t know how she got hold of my cellphone number. But someone like her had resources, and lots of connections. People connections. So it was not really surprising. Just the same, I was flattered that she knew me at all.

The call, as it turned out, was made in order to convey her request for me to remove the link to an interview article featuring her at Philippines Today. Of course, I asked her why.

Hesitatingly, she tried to explain. I couldn’t exactly remember what the main reason was – all I could remember was that the article raised the hackles of some people, and she thought that removing the article in question was a solution.

For the life of me, I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. The interview was done in good faith. It only sought to reveal the person responsible for several cyber-NGO projects, to raise public awareness of the projects that she and fellow Filipinos were involved in. She was the prime mover for the Tulong Pinoy Movement, the brains behind the Iskolar Pinoy project, OFW-Shien network, migrant school for Filipinos in Japan, plus a host of other civic-oriented activities. The list seems endless. Indeed, she was the epitome of a relentless, selfless person who strived to help others in need.

She sought to be heard. She was in practically every mailing list available for Filipinos working and living in Japan.

So what was the trouble all about? Perhaps because sometimes, the greatest among us becomes the most susceptible to criticism and rejection. Sometimes the most diligent among us becomes the object of disdain and ridicule. Or simply perhaps the ones who are most willing to do the job can excel on what the rest of us can’t and won’t do. It’s easier to stand back and criticize mistakes than to do the job yourself.

She emailed incessantly. So much so that moderators of our mailing list decided to put her in our banned member’s list. For us, there was so much seemingly irrelevant information in her emails, things that did not really concerned the lives of the students and scholars in Tsukuba. And wouldn’t it always seem that way, if one did not really give a damn about the advocacies promoted by another person of a different ideology?

But no matter. She found other channels, other ways to disseminate her information and advocacy campaigns. She was…relentless.

I removed the link on the current front page of Philippines Today, but nevertheless kept the article in question in our archives. That’s the reason why it still comes up in search engines. But Tonette Binsol didn’t seem to mind anymore. I supposed that she was too busy minding her affairs and those of other people she wanted to help.

It came as a complete shock for me to hear that Tonette Binsol joined her Maker today, July 10, 2007, at 10:26 am. She succumbed to severe brain infarction brought about by aneurysm.

Why is it that the most productive among us have the shortest time on earth? Why is it that those who only wanted to live for others have their lives viciously taken away from them?

Like that link which I had removed from the front page, Tonette Binsol is gone. But her heritage, the inspiration she imparted to other people, and the testimony of her life will definitely live on. Her links, real and virtual, will remain alive.

And like that article which still remained in our archives, Tonette Binsol will live through the lives of the people she had touched.

Perhaps she didn’t always do things right, and perhaps not everyone is satisfied with what she had done. But tell me, who should be the rightful judge of that? From where I stand, she did great things that only few of us could ever hope to emulate. And for that, she is damn special.

I didn’t think that it would come this soon – but I now join the rest of the Filipinos in Japan and around the world in mourning the passing of one of the most influential Filipinos I’ve ever known. May her legacy leave on.

Goodbye, sayonara Tonette – and may you find eternal peace and rest you rightfully deserve.

When Aya turned three, I considered bringing her to the photo studio for the traditional shichi-go-san photos – a perfect opportunity to take souvenir photos of her wearing a traditional Japanese kimono. But on the day when we finally went to Studio Alice, a photo studio near our place, it was full of people and the staff were too busy entertaining their customers. We decided to just leave and come back next time.

Days and months passed by, and I completely forgot about the shichi-go-san.

Days before Aya’s 5th birthday, I realized that two years had already passed since I last thought about bringing her to the said photo studio. I didn’t want to wait like we did last time, so I called the store and made an advanced reservation. A smart decision! 🙂

Well, as you can see from the pictures above, it was a rather successful photoshoot. You may view the rest of her pictures at our Flickr album.

So what is the shichi-go-san, anyway?

According to Wikipedia:

Shichi-Go-San (???, literally “seven-five-three”) is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three and seven year-old girls and three and five year-old boys, held annually on November 15.

Here is a more detailed description found at Kids Web Japan.

What I couldn’t figure out, though, is why this “rite of passage” does not seem to include five-year-old girls. Would anybody care to enlighten me why? However, it seems to me that the photo studios are not really that particular about a kid’s actual age. Having photos taken at a studio to mark the occasion is different from actually observing the tradition at the temple.

Well, personally I’m not so much concerned about the tradition as I am about taking home those wonderful photos to gawk over and treasure for years to come. The whole deal didn’t come cheap, but I didn’t mind at all. I’m a parent, so don’t blame me for splurging on my one and only daughter once in a while. And it’s for her birthday, after all. 🙂

Aya’s lovely photos now adorn the walls of our living room. The package includes blow-up photos of her wearing a traditional Japanese kimono (my choice, so it’s red!) and a Western-style gown (her Lola’s choice). And because we went there on her birth month, we also got a few extra goodies.

Next time I’ll write about our experience at the photo studio. The whole experience is worth a separate blog post, believe me. 🙂

I got double-tagged by TeacherJulie and Pining to blog about the songs when I was 18. Eighteen! That is so 20th century, lol. But here they are:

Baby Baby – Amy Grant

I actually have Amy Grant’s CD, Heart in Motion, which features this song. Such tender lyrics, quite fitting for a mom singing to her newborn baby – which was said to be her inspiration for writing this song:

Baby, baby
I’m taken with the notion
To love you with the sweetest of devotion.
Baby, baby
My tender love will flow from
The bluest sky to the deepest ocean.
Stop for a minute
Baby, I’m so glad youre mine, yeah
You’re mine.

However, her MTV shows her frolicking with a guy, and nothing suggests that this song was actually created with a baby in mind. Btw, where in the world is Amy Grant nowadays? Does anybody know?

More Than Words – Extreme

Saying I love you
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It’s not that I want you
Not to say, but if you only knew
How easy it would be to show me how you feel
More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me
Coz I’d already know

How can I ever forget this song? It blasted from the radio of every commuter jeepney I rode back then. And if that wasn’t enough, it was played over and over in the malls and stores. Any guy with good guitar skills and a voice would sing this song, just to impress the girls. And for good reason: this is such a romantic song. Those lyrics. They just drip, they can make you woozy with emotions. The whole song simply oozes with love and romance. Everyone, take out your lighters, and watch the video here:

(Everything I Do) I Do It for You – Bryan Adams

I can’t help it – there’s nothin’ I want more
I would fight for you – I’d lie for you
Walk the wire for you – ya I’d die for you
Ya know it’s true
Everything I do – I do it for you.

Oh yeah? How about doing the laundry for me? Or cleaning the house? 😛

Seriously, this is another romantic song, and Bryan Adams’ raspy rendition makes it sound even more emotional. Like someone being tortured martyred for love.

Personally, I don’t really think this was an appropriate song for the movie Robin Hood (starring Kevin Costner, back then with more hair and less forehead). I just didn’t think that the love story angle fit into the whole prince-of-thieves concept. Oh well.

Watch the video, and see a really, really young-looking Christian Slater (also with more hair and less forehead). 🙂

When a Man Loves a Woman – Michael Bolton

Oh wow. Is this post dripping already or what? I remember watching at SM the movie of the same title, starring Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan, the queen of romantic comedies. Unfortunately, that movie only proved to be a rather poor vehicle for Little Miss Sunshine of Hollywood. I mean, come on, Meg Ryan as an alcoholic, abusive wife and mother? The storyline was terrible. Ugh.

So can you guess what year it was? 🙂

Ok, now I’m supposed to tag 5 people. So let me call on Kathy, Sheila, Wil, BW, and Zherwin.

The rules:
1. Go to www.popculturemadness.com
2. Select the year you turned 18
3. Get all nostalgic over the hit songs of the year
4. Write about it
5. Pass this tag onto 5 others

How should one measure blog growth? Yuga, one of the most famous bloggers in the Filipino blogosphere, suggests the following indicators of blog growth:

• # of subscribers
• Technorati ranking
• Alexa ranking
• Ratified.org

Sure, rankings are good. It gives you an idea of how far up or far down you are with respect to other bloggers. And if it is indeed your goal to climb to the top – whatever “top” represents – then a quarterly or biannual evaluation would be in order.

Numbers are good. In fact, I deal with numbers everyday. In my field of work, I measure certain parameters in order to determine whether I’ve succeeded or not in my goals. I get measured myself. I am evaluated in terms of output, which in concrete terms translates to the number of publications, patents, workshops, conferences attended. It is a way to determine my efficiency and range.

I’ve only one complaint about this type of evaluation. Focusing on numbers doesn’t reveal who I really am. For instance, the number of publications doesn’t really indicate if I’m a good scientist or not. It basically boils down to the question of quality over quantity. There are Nobel prize winners who produced only a couple of publications in their lifetime, and yet they changed the world. Would my patents for some gizmos be worth anything if they didn’t make our lives better?

For me, blogging is a hobby. A way to unwind. A way to express myself. Now why the hell should I deal with numbers when it comes to something I consider as a hobby? Isn’t it enough for me to deal with all those numbers at work already? I’ve long deplored the fact that cold, hard evaluation of someone’s performance is a decidedly masculine way of doing things. You don’t get evaluated as a person. Just cold, hard numbers.

If I gave you my Alexa ranking, for instance, would that really tell you how much of an impact I’ve made on your thoughts? If I gave you my Technorati ranking, would that tell you about the quality of my blog?

What I’m saying is, blog growth should be measured based on an individual’s goals. I think every blogger should first consider what goals they want to achieve with their blogs. Evaluation should then be done in consideration of those goals.

Here I am blogging early in the morning. This is a departure from my usual habit, that of blogging either right after dinner, or late at night after everyone else is asleep. Rarely do I blog in the mornings. There just isn’t enough time in the morning. Everyone is rushing off to leave the house, myself included.

Listen to this article

I realize, though, that blogging is taking too much of my time. It’s taking away time that I could just spend whiling away, relaxing after a hard day at work, or just spending some quality time with my daughter whom I don’t get to see during the daytime, or for at least 10 hours every working day. That’s what happens when I blog after dinner. And when I blog late at night…well, I usually end up spending more time than necessary, and I end up with puffy eyes the following day.

So like it or not, morning seems to be the best time. Blogging can be addictive, yes. But we should exercise some control and discipline on our habits. That is one of the reasons why I put “blogger” towards the last when I describe myself. Although it may be hard to realize for those of you out there who’ve only known me through my blog, offline I’ve a larger than life role as a wife, mother, and yes, researcher. It’s hard enough to juggle those roles. And when deadlines approach, I find myself excusing from blogging altogether.

Don’t get me wrong. I love blogging. It just takes too much time. If only there was a way to blog our thoughts without having to sit here in front of the computer. If only there was a way to bloghop without leaving the confines of my bed…or toilet. lol

So what about you? What are your blogging habits? Do you blog early in the morning or late at night? How do you determine what time is best for you?

I don’t have to convince anyone about my being weird. My wicked sisters are totally convinced that their Ate is one of the weirdest persons on the planet. Read on to know why they thought so.

Lest I forget, this is in response to SexyMom’s tag (also known as a meme): write 6 weird things about yourself.

1. I’ve never had my ears pierced.
   Mom didn’t have my ears pierced when I was little. Then I decided for myself that I’ll never have my ears pierced…ever. I think it goes against what I consider to be natural. To “mangle” my earlobe just in order to put a piece of metal there, for purely aesthetic reasons…well, I don’t get it. And I’ll never get it. If you ever saw me on occasions wearing earrings, trust me, they’re clip-ons.
2. I was a female magnet for attracting weirdos.
   I attracted a whole bunch of them. But I won’t go into the sordid boring details.To those who tried courting me and might be reading this blog – yep, I definitely thought you guys were weirdos. And one of you was a wacko who actually thought I was in love with him, heh. In your dreams!
3. I’ve developed an acute perception of smell.
   I think this came about because of certain circumstances in my life, and I do think that pregnancy had something to do with it. They say that women develop a heightened sense of smell during their pregnancies. It was true for my case. But it seems that it has never left me, because until now I can still pick up scents like a rabid dog. Sometimes it works to my disadvantage, because I’d smell funny things that aren’t even smelled by other people. One time, I entered one of our lab rooms and smelled something funny. I immediately called one of our members to check it out – and although he claimed to have smelled it the moment he entered the room, a few minutes later he wasn’t so sure anymore. I ended up feeling like the boy girl who cried wolf. I opened the room and let it aerate to eliminate the smell.
4. I don’t have the tolerance for wearing heels and other ladies’ shoes.
   I’m a sneakers person. I’ve had excruciating experiences wearing heels, which I am forced to wear during formal events like conferences. Those are death shoes for me. Two of my toes “died” when I was forced to wear them for more than 12 hours straight. Let’s not even talk about the blisters on my heels! I’ve come to the conclusion that I have Shrek feet, and no amount of squeezing will ever make my feet conform to those shoes. Nowadays, whenever I go to conferences, I bring my shoes with me. As soon as my presentation is over, within the soonest possible time, I switch back to my good ol’ sneakers. Never mind if I was wearing a suit!
5. I still keep my two premolars which were removed when I had braces.
   I think of them as my “sacrificial lambs.” I had to lose them in order to gain my wonderfully sweet, orthodontically corrected smile. They remind me that sometimes, we have to lose in order to gain. It’s a wonderful lesson in life. Anybody wants to see the premolars? They’re still wrapped in gauze. The original gauze.
6. I’ve never had a girl buddy. Don’t ask me why, but all of my close buddies were male. I don’t want to over-psychoanalyze myself on this one. I’m just stating a fact.

   I had a close buddy in college – we did a lot of things together. We jogged around the academic oval at UPD, we ate at Rodic’s, watched movies at SM City, spent long hours discussing religion, politics, teaching, students, quantum mechanics, relationships, life in general. We spent hours at the library studying together.

   His name is Baggy. I later married him.

I hope you had fun reading. 🙂 I’m tagging the following people:

Karmi – the new kid on the block, now blogging from Chile. I’m touched that she has been inspired to blog.

Dimaks – fellow Tsukuburg resident and TsukubaDai student.

Bill Mitsuru – one of the finest writers in my blogroll. So let’s see how “crooked” you are. 🙂