Just National Screeches?

Hours from now is the hopefully last SONA or state of the nation address of President Arroyo.

At her hopefully last year of administration, what do you think should we still expect at her SONA?

In terms of the economy, it’s undoubtedly true that she was able to improve at least the numbers. Nevertheless, it is conformed that the main point of improving the economy is to be able to improve the lives of her citizens and that she failed to do. Even though her TV ad have the capturing line – “ramdam ang kaunlaran”, I as a citizen is not an isolated evidence of poverty thus, it is undoubtedly true as well that she failed to convert the numbers onto reality.

And so, it is national screech to hail for legacy projects that will make the people’s lives better.

In connection, I am hoping that she’ll be passing the cheaper medicines bill in her last year of stay in regime and that she won’t be persuaded by the promises of the pharmaceutical companies. The bill is one of those promising legacy projects that could definitely help Juan Dela Cruz and probably one of the best footprints she could left in the history of her regime.

Other than a promising legacy project, I am expecting that she’ll be talking about her political stand on the constitutional assembly or charter change as well. It is not strange for us, Filipinos, to know a lot of national issues concerning the president and most of us know that she could never be criminalized or be taken in trial for the very least. And so, putting your feet in her shoes… would you let go of power, if you know that the vulnerability would need you to face such issues of yours?

And so, it is a national screech for people to have the assurance that she will be putting end on her regime on the right time, place and event.

Also, I am expecting that she’ll be saying something about the improvement of the state of education in the Philippines. Probably my very concern would be the slow but progressive commercialization of the University of the Philippines. The rising tuition fees of the university is one of the signs or manifestations of commercialization in which the government subsidy is being removed and diminished in time, which is unacceptable. It is unacceptable because it is one of the best university in state that is used to be affordable to most of the people and also it is a state university therefore it is just but right that it would be reachable by the people of its state.

All of those expectations could probably be summarized as help. All we need is help, a form of help that could be felt by every Filipino.

UP STATSOC Freshies Day

UP Statistical Society held a freshies day activity few minutes ago and it was a whole lot of fun. Our batch was well bonded through their activities.

The first activity was a getting to know you activity wherein each of us (freshmen) should have a creative way of introducing ourselves. Some danced; some were too shy, some spoke in other language and many more but what I did was a bit of singing. I sung FAME like this: “remember my name! Van!” After that, I sung the phrase – And I’m from Block O-3 – in my own tune and as usual, I did a lot of slurs in it.

After that, the first game was Stat En Ek Ek. It is a quiz game with any topics available under the sun. They asked about the important staffs in UP, movies, Statistics and a lot more. My favorite question is probably the middle initial of someone (I forgot who he is.). That’s my favorite because I was able to answer it correctly by just wild guessing. LOL

We played a hybrid game of charades and pass the message. Also, we played Bahay, Baboy and Bagyo in which I ended up making some consequence.

The whole duration of the activity is full of energy and fun and there are more things to expect esp. the “Hawa thingie” and also the Freshies Week.

FIRST WEEK IN COLLEGE

My first week in college was a blast. I would say that it was a blast because all of my professors are cool and very conversational. Starting it of with my Math 17 professor, Sir Allan Junio is such a cool professor. He teaches with fun and one of my favorite is when he makes analogies of math and life. One of my favorite is when he showed that the set containing the letters of trashes is the same as the set containing the letters of hearts (LOL) and that the set containing the letters of tears is within the set containing the letters of hearts (LOL).

Next would be Mrs. Herrera, who we first thought to be strict but ended out to be very conversational and cool as well. One of the things that I will never forget about her is when she said that she’s teaching a GE course because the best teacher was required to teach in BIO1 (LOL). Her class is full of information and fun and she never fail on keeping our attention to the course and also, it is very evident that she knows what a student needs and experiences.

The rest of my professors are cool as well. My professor in English1 is very talkative in a very positive way in other words she delivers English so well. My professor in Stat114 is cool as well. She speaks direct to the point and also she got a lot of surprises in our class and I really don’t have any idea on how long I will be surprised. My Socio10 professor is cool as well because Ms. Cases is the only teacher I have that let her students decide on most activities and that includes grading. We also have debate in her class and I’m still clueless but ecstatic on what we’ll do in her class. My PE class is also cool though I still don’t know who will be our professor in that class but nevertheless bands and balls as a PE is very profitable.

Aside from my professors, new set friends also constitutes onto my brain blasting first week. Most of my new friends are my blockmates and most of them are staying dormitories. (LOL) My classmates are also cool though I don’t know most of them yet.

I’m still looking forward to harder challenges in a college life and so I always keep myself equipped with a healthy body and mind.

Enrollment and Biostatistics (Studying Data in our lives)

I just came from a very excruciating and tiring process of an enrollment and being a first timer makes it even worse. The long time of waiting made me feel hungry and sleepy. Luckily, my patience is just long enough to survive it. But prior to hunger for food was hunger for knowledge. I was hungry for knowledge on my degree, BS Statistics, because of the mind nurturing and eye opening orientation of the school.

The school’s orientation told us everything we need to know about what our lives would be in college. It was said that life in UPD’s school of statistics would definitely be a long winding rough journey to success. It was also said that if will be able to survive, all of our hard work would definitely have well returns, for finding a job would just be as easy as picking a fruit from its tree. The facilitator even told us that most companies are even the one who hunts for us as soon as possible. By that, I just proved to myself that the rules of life would be give and take. Give your best today and you’ll take the best tomorrow.

Aside from the job opportunities, the orientation gave us knowledge onto the flexibility of the degree. It was taught that statistics has an application on any field that has data. And so, it has economic application, psychological application, business application, pharmaceutical applications etc. but what I like the most is the biological applications, which is called biostatistics. Biostatistics has the most impression in me because this solves my problem of being pressured to choose between the two things that I like, which are Biology and Statistics. Also, the orientation gave me a big relief by introducing biostatistics for I have been having second thoughts of pushing it through and biostatistics is just strong enough to motivate me to continue. The orientation just made me feel more thrilled to learn more about my degree and finally, I got a chance to have an equal dose of statistics and biology.

Biostatistics might be able to measure and analyze data and uncertainties related with living things but for sure it can never measure how much uncertainty in life these living things has. Also, I could just always say that statistics might be the smartest fortuneteller for it can still never tell what fate had stored for us next. Lastly, despite of all of this, statistics esp. biostatistics would truly be the smartest thing I could choose for myself.