People to Avoid When Asking for Advice

When asking for advice whether it be for life problems or in school it is best to avoid two types of people: The Critic and The Fanatic. These people have nothing good to offer. Oftentimes they are far too self righteous to give any sound advice.

Let's begin with the critics. Critics have an eye for detail and are quick to see your flaws. Not too shabby but beware! These people tend to exaggerate those flaws in order to reduce you or your work to a pile of rubble. They pounce at your weaknesses and are quick to make fun of them. In the end they have nothing useful to say because they got too carried away with their demolition job.

People should also be wary of fanatics. They live to convert people's souls to their side. They may seem like good listeners but they've closed their mind long before you made your first point.

Watch out for these people at all cost! They can only make life more miserable for you than it is now.

Sometimes it's even better to talk with your dog every once in a while. Dogs will never disturb you when you're speaking. They just listen and they love you for who you are warts and all.

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Illustrations Cited:

Exclamation Point from Operations Manuals
http://www.manuals.deere.com

Politicalcartoons.com
http://www.cagle.com/artists/Wolverton/main.asp

Close Minded Bible Hugger by JadedInNowhere
http://www.jadedinnowhere.deviantart.com

Frustrating Journals

The hardest problem I constantly encounter in my research would be the process of selecting the right journals to include in my study. There are thousands of journals ripe for the picking but only a handful are worthy of inclusion. Only those with the best content deserves to be cited.

The thing is you need to read the whole article in order to determine it's worth. Reading a scholarly work takes tremendous time and effort. It usually takes me more than an hour to have a critical reading of an article.

What is most frustrating about journals is the possibility that it's content will prove useless in the end. To think you spent all that reading for nothing?!? Perhaps that is the reason why including abstracts became a necessary requirement for all submitted articles. It gives the reader a glimpse of the hole they want to jump into.


Researchers have to be wary of abstracts as well. Authors can make the soundest abstracts and yet fail to deliver the content. I believe that it would be better if researchers glance at the sub headings of an article and read 1-3 sentences each heading.

This may not be a fool proof way of reading the most worthy journals but it will definitely trim the competition down. At least it's better than wasting time reading an entire article which in the end will not prove useful. Editors should come up with a policy requiring authors to formulate descriptive headings. This way readers will have a better chance of reading articles that may truly be useful to them.

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Illustrations Cited:

Coloniarmanormotel.com
http://www.colonialmanormotel.com/Default.asp?ID=1183

About.com: Political Humor
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/n/k/1/political_abyss.jpg

Good Internet Writing

A conversation with my tech savvy sister made me rethink my ideas on writing. I realized how writing blogs is different from academic writing that I'm used to. Both are two different things.

Academic writing involves too much details. Texts have to be crammed with arguments and examples.The result is usually a cramped, boring text.

Blogs on the other hand should be made for light reading. Texts should be short and concise. Take the reader in mind by making texts readable and entertaining.

I have outlined her suggestions for good internet writing:

1. Limit paragraphs to 3-5 sentences.

2. Paragraph lines should be confined to 12 words.

3. Always use left indent when writing.

4. Make texts big enough to be read on screen.

I admit that these suggestions are a tall order. It simply restricts the flow of ideas. However, this is the internet. The eyes can only take too much radiation.

Blogging is all about sharing experiences in the open. You can't share anything to anyone if your texts are a pain to read. Making texts readable is the least an author can do. Only then could interest and meaningful sharing can happen.

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Illustrations Cited:

Florida Sunlink Project
http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/presentations/fetc2004/writing.html

Thinkquest Library
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/penny.htm

A Collector's Psyche

Ever since I started graduate school I developed a great love for reading and collecting books. At this point I have more than a thousand volumes of books in my personal collection with titles coming from diverse fields such as philosophy, politics, history, economics, psychology among others. I especially love collecting Filipiniana books because such books are extremely rare especially once such books have been sold out. Philippine publishers do not usually publish a new edition of a certain book unless the title is very popular like Reynaldo Ileto's "Pasyon at Revolution" (Ateneo de Manila University Press) which was originally published in 1979 but still continues to be printed up until 2003. A total of 6 printings since its original publication. Sad to say but it is very rare for Philippine books to be reprinted once its first edition is off the press. The most common reason for this is that only few Filipinos are interested in academic books and it takes years for book sellers to sell out their initial inventories. If sales are slow it takes considerable effort on the part of the publisher to recuperate publication costs. They prefer to publish salable titles rather than academic titles which I love because popular titles like novels (especially those written in Tagalog) are easier to sell than academic tomes.

Given the rarity of Filipinianas I purchase my favorite titles almost immediately whenever I get the chance. I don't care if I ruin my week's or even my month's budget as long as I can get a hold good titles especially the old ones. I have been so engrossed in my collection that I have practically visited every major and out of the way book stores that specializes in Filipiniana in the Metro Manila area. You name it and chances are I've been there. I have even come to a point when my fiends ask me where they can find a certain title or better yet, if I have a copy of a book they are looking for. Academics do help their own.


What seems to be the driving force in the desire to collect? I sometimes amaze at the way how I am both able and willing to deprive myself of many things and to even brave the elements just to get a hold of a book which may be purchased by a fellow collector like myself. I guess collectors are able and willing to endure and even to sacrifice much for their collections because they feel an insatiable desire to preserve things which they consider of value. A lot of people keep things that are of value to them as well but perhaps collectors feel a certain responsibility to preserve their valuables for the sake of posterity. They feel that what they have is something that is of value to future generations. Their collections is posterity's link to the past. A 2000 edition book may not be worth much now but 10 years from now when the book is long out of print it immediately becomes a collector's item which will allow future generations a glimpse of how people used to think and behave in the distant past.


I feel a great deal of pride and accomplishment every time I discover an out of print book. It's just like finding a long lost treasure in some distant wasteland. Sometimes I feel really bad that I never got the chance to read the books that I get to buy. People just have so much time in their hands. My personal collection did provide an invaluable resource for many of my papers but my to-read list leaves much to be desired. I'll just have to cut some slack and get more work done. Maybe someday when I get to produce a work that i really worthwhile my collection will receive the recognition that it rightfully deserves because it helped in bringing about something that a lot of people finds most helpful in their lives. I think this is he reason why a lot of personal collections like that of Elvis Presley memorabilia are still adored to this day because in a way such items were able to reach out to other people's needs at certain points in their lives in more ways than one.

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Illustrations Cited:

Columba Publishing Co.
http://www.columbapublishing.com/FramingCollectibles.jpg

Pasyon and Revolution by Reyaldo Ileto published by Ateneo de Manila University Press (1979/2003)
http://www.ateneopress.org/images/PASYON%20AND%20REVOLUTION.jpg

Egypt Cartoon
(http:/www.nyu.edu)

The Misuse of Sources

Including the references consulted in one's research is a standard practice in the academe. It is a way of acknowledging and paying respect to scholars who gave ideas on how to go about one's work. Some people, out of ignorance or pride, tend to forgo citing their references and end up as plagiarists. It is only fitting then that we take some time out in at least jotting down good ideas found in every good book read before forgetfulness sinks in.

The need for citing references is all the more evident in scholarly journals. References that were consulted for the work can be found either at the end of the article or as footnotes. Citing references can be quite useful for readers so that they may be able to trace the paper trail which enabled the author to arrive at the conclusions that were reached in the article. Such information is most useful for verification purposes.

In the Philippines intellectual property rights is a most recent phenomenon. Despite its recentness it is reassuring to know that almost every academic in the country observes reference citations. Virtually every article is brimming with references!

Despite the virtues of reference citations I am quite disturbed as to how references are used in many articles. A quick count at some random article will reveal that there is an average of at least 7-10 references consulted for each work. Sad to say but despite the sheer number of works consulted there are times when the authors fail to do justice to the works they cite. Imagine citing big names like Plato only in passing without even contextualizing nor justifying the citation. For some scholars having an extensive reference lists with big names in them is enough for an article to qualify as "scholarly." This is obviously the case in the the social sciences and the humanities.

This Really should not be the case. Scholars should spend more time reflecting on their sources rather than merely citing this or that source with half baked ideas. It is worth knowing that the Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who is popular for revolutionizing Analytic Philosophy only had less than 10 books in his possession (Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Malcolm and Wright). He was not fond of reading but the little he read, he read well. As a result he came out with one of the most insightful works in Western Philosophy given his very few limited publications.

Perhaps it is best that we learn from Wittgenstein in treating references. Whatever reference at hand should be read and read well. After all, articles are written for the innovative insights that were supposed to be communicated and not the number of references cited.

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Works Cited:
The following images were derived from the following sources:

http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/2006_02_16-28_archives.html
http://aerade.cranfield.ac.uk/newsletter0503/journals.gif
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199247592

For further reading in Wittgenstein's life please read the excellent book
Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Norman Malcolm (Oxford University Press, 2001)

Why I Love Teaching

A few days ago I just finished my classes this summer and I am now in a long hiatus to finish my dissertation. It's funny how you come to think of the most unusual things when you're not doing much. Perhaps it's because one's mind tends to wander when one gets bored with the daily grind.

I never seriously asked myself before why I love teaching but it all became clear to me one day when I was cleaning my room. As I was filing my records from last summer's class I took notice of the index cards my students submitted in class. Memories of last summer filled my head with the happy moments we shared at the time. I really can't believe that it's all over and that I will not be able to be with my students again.

Why do I feel this way? We were only acquainted for a month but why do I miss my students? What have they done for me to feel a great yearning for them? Is this yearning related to the job of teaching or the company of being with students?

The answer to all these questions is quite simple. I miss and yearn for my students because I love them and that loving someone does not require a reason for it to exist. It's just the way it is. It may sound cheesy but a perceptive student once wrote that I treat students as if they were my friends. How true. Every time I enter the classroom I don't see students in there but young peers or siblings. My main job there is to teach them to be good people and nothing more. When the semester ends and I see an improvement (no matter how little) in the way how they think and act then I will be very happy. Though such things are quite different to quantify by usual methods all it takes is some sensitivity and a little intuition for one to determine if you've made a mark. Though I am not sure if all my classes are successful in achieving my goals but seeing 2 or 3 students improve for the better is good enough for me. Rome wasn't built in a day after all.

The reason why I love teaching is because it gives me an opportunity to be with such young people. I am very happy why I'm with them. I always make it a point to challenge them in every way both intellectually and physically because it is a way of making them think big. This is the reason why it's common to see me competing in brawn with many of my students because I want them to learn confidence in dealing with people. There's no better way of developing confidence than in a competition.

I'm really grateful that I was given a chance to become a teacher. Someday I'll return to being one when everything is in order. For now I pray that the Almighty may keep my "dears" safe and that they may be properly guided even when I'm not around. Someday in their own good time they may be able to do things that can make this world a better place.