Have been Busy for Nothing Lately

How clever was I was to ditch the annual UP Lantern Parade in hurrying to go home. I live inside the campus and it was sad to leave while seeing the festive tradition was about to start. Honestly, the bus trip schedule wasn't really intended to avoid the happy activities for the month. I was forced to take the sched because I did have more choice. I needed to go back home.

There is really nothing much exciting about the reason because I am staying away from fun. It was just that there are a lot of things to do. I will have to submit 3 major requirements in different subjects by the start of this upcoming year.

However, this certain confidence saying "I will have things done early" is getting eaten by my realization that I am not doing today anything relevant to what I planned. Maybe I get too much time spent on the Internet. Perhaps, i still need to manage the precious time.

Anyway, there is nothing much interesting... hahaha. It is all about me again this time. I don't know what is happening to me... i hope i could post my magazine-type exam in sociological theory subject.

Internet Explorer Loses Popularity

Now, this is not a news headline nor a hype we hear from the television. Instead, this is just an observation on what people use as their browser nowadays.

Well for me, when I had a new computer just last June, the first thing I did was to download Mozilla Firefox. Firefox wasn't new to me that time. I started to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox when I was in 3rd level high school. That was about four years ago... I was still using dial-up connection. There are of course reasons why I found still am still finding Mozilla as useful than Internet Explorer.

The main adavantage that Firefox had given me at that time was its tabbed browsing. It greatly helped me get rit of the clutter on the taksbar. Also, having a slower connection, I was able to switch back tabs to watch pages loading simultaneously. With that, I was actually saving time.

It was just new nowadays that more and more people use Firefox. Well maybe because it is fast and more safe to use. Internet Explorer are more risky to vulnerablities in terms of privacy and unwanted software. There has been a shift of preference which is to abandon Internet Explorer because in most internet cafes they already inlcuded desktop shortcuts of Firefox and even to some, made it as their default browser.

Right now, I am experimenting on Apple's Safari Browser which already opened for Windows users. One of the impressive things to look for in this browser is its good-looking and clean typography. The text on the pages looks better in safari than internet explorer and firefox. However, it is still on its beta distribution and still for trial for end users.

For a time now, I haven't used Internet Explorer. And I think this will be IE's destiny.

Being Down!

The last parts of the semester have always driven me nuts. I see a pattern that whenever these times come, I always have more reasons to get lazy and not to do work, out of the piling school requirements. And I always have these pitiful realizations on my self that really make me feel down.

I don't know how can I get a way out of these. The more work I have queued, the more I hate to start at least a piece of the tasks. Anyway, writing for me doesn't need to be rushed. I am always looking for a fresh start. After all, the semester is ending and academic requirements have to be done somehow. Good luck to me!

UP students, I hope you are feeling me.

Which belongs to the university? to UP?

This question has been really hot among discussions with some students, in my experience

Does CBA (college of business administration) deserve to be in the University?

Background:

• The purpose of universities before was to produce knowledge. Seems like these days the meaning of a university changed into an institution which provide only diplomas for the professions.
• Can CBA help for the benefit of the university and the country; or for the transnational corporations waiting for docile graduates to work for them?
• The current officials of UP admin were from this college. How do they see the university? Didn't Roman and Cao focus only on the perspective of economics and efficiency while neglecting important aspects of university life and the core role of UP in Philippine society?

TOFI's humming beneath the floors

A friend texted me one day during the summer term this year, which has just ended days ago, that he was a facilitator in the freshman advance registration. He said that he saw and heard a woman, which he speculated to be a mother of an UPCAT passer enrolling in UP, pleading on the registration or assessment desk for a down payment of her son/daughter's tuition.

To those who might not know, the tuition increase in the campuses of UP was approved (though with questionable processes) by the BOR last December. This was said to be applicable to the incoming freshmen and transferees having the student number 2007 above.

The tuition rose from more or less P 6,000 to more than P20,000. The rate per unit has risen from P300 to P1000 (Diliman,LB,Manila - average STFAP bracket).

Well, I will not play on the numbers. I just want to express the sentiment that it is a mistake to say that UP will affect only those 07 students--the belief that the upperclassmen who have been excluded from the proposal's scope, will be totally unaffected. I guess not.

The freshie registration was held in Melchor Hall. It was observed that most who enrolled had come from the high class, the majority. Another funny gossip was that, a maid was being asked by the student facilitators or the UP staff in charge where is the enrollee. The maid answered that the enrollee was in boracay or abroad for vacation. Well, pretty normal in a private school I guess, but from how I have been culturally brought about in UP, freshmen have got to deal with their own matters in the university.

Dorm Hell
A lot have gone furious about the change in admission of dormitories in the campus. Well, a proposal was passed to put the job of admitting all years level for the dormitories to the Office of Student Housing. Before, dormitories were the ones to accept applications and admit students.

However, a lot of students already residing in the dormitory will be displaced due to a change in the standard or indices in ranking the deserving students for the privilage. Also, the freshmen were already been accepted by dorms other than Kalayaan. Before the results of the new dorm admission process, a considerably large number of freshmen already have been enlisted in Ilang-ilang, Yakal, etc.

So, why were the freshmen, a chuck of their number, put in the upper class-men dormitories? Well, of what I had heard, it was a form of an aid for the students who will have problems in residence because of the cost of the tuition. Well, the problem might not had been the residence but the tuition fees.
We were made to believe the about the effects of this TOFI among the upper-classmen.

Well the only issue is that, we will always be affected by the effects of TOFI. More and more come each day--from the real-time manual enlistment (just turned out to serve the benefit of some), to the dominance of BAA students in student privileges, no ID no Entry,unexplained increase in misc fees, displacement of students from the dorms, and the admin's incrementing neglect on providing fair privileges for the studentry.

Still we struggle or at least believe in that struggle to make UP an equitarian and just institution.

I'm in my hometown right now. I am a little bored. These following days I have a lot to write and blog about but I don't get the drive or even the attention to write the thoughts down. I know writing skills tend to fade out. It is such a waste to have ideas not being expressed--at least even in my blog which I doubt to be having readers.

I really find it depressing not to be able to express myself in my genuine intent. I could only try in term papers or scholarly papers. God, it is really frustrating.

I don't have the drive to write these days...

i am coming back to manila