Destination Davao: Ready, Steady, GO!!! (Part 2 of ?)

Conventions are usually good sources of new knowledge about whatever field an individual engages himself or herself with. I’m sure each of my colleagues had achieved some kind of learning as a result of this convention experience. Of course, not wanting to lag behind, I, too declare that I have learned something impeccable in this convention…

NEVER.CRAM.YOUR.PRESENTATION. E-V-E-R.

No matter how busy you are or how sick you are, do something about your presentation—and I don’t mean just the slide presentation but the ENTIRE content.

Gist: Our presentation is a part of the symposium on youth research, and me and my former students (let’s call them N and P) were supposed to work on “peer groups and the youth”, a.k.a “The Barkada”. Because P was busy killing herself to get a M.D.-M.B.A degree, N and I were left to take care of things. Well, how that turned out was, as I’ve said, was something I’ll never ever do again. N and I spent the first day of the convention creating the content (don’t you just hate it when after a rush of brilliant ideas, none of you bothered to take note about it and afterwards, none can remember what each other said? >_<) and the morning of next day, polishing the slide presentation. Yes, our “boss”, DSM, knew what we were up to (...wait—what?? SHE KNEW?!? O_o). In the end, our presentation went fine, we (actually, I) did go over the time limit but all was good, I think.

So kiddies, the lesson here is when you see the other big kids preparing for a presentation DAYS BEFORE the actual event, it’s best that you do the same, lest you want the convention to literally breeze through without you knowing it.

Um, right…on to the pics. There’s not much (and you know why).

Day 1 of the convention. Upper left panel had to the 5 of us making a fool out of ourselves before sporting a "professional" front at the convention proper. The upper right is us getting acquainted with our first snack meal (some of which I would miss due to cramming T_T but I was determined to get the bigger meals! Hell, I’ll be missing most of the lectures—there’s not way I’m giving my food away ; ). There’s a new addition to our whacky fivesome and that’s the one beside P—let’s call her R. The lower left pic was taken during the host dinner by Brokenshire College, and beside it is the gate of the resort the main function/plenary hall can be found. Things would’ve been peachy keen if only the chairs didn’t sink when planted on the grassy areas—it felt like quicksand sometimes.

This is my co-presentor, N. Left pic was on Day 1—those nippa hut cottage thingies witnessed how we tried to look like we know what we will talk about the next day. Middle pic was Day 2, presentation day and it looked like we winged it! (Though seriously, even if it looked like we did, I do not recommend cramming like that). Right pic was, IIRC, taken after the symposium was over—I mean, seriously, you think we could grin like that if it was prior to presentation?! (unless I’m wrong and this WAS indeed taken before we started—to which my brain can no longer function well enough to explain why I don’t remember when that happened).

Finally, the big kids from the land of green. All of them have been affiliated with the Psych Department at one point. I won’t do a roll call on who’s who—unless you, dear reader, fancy anyone in particular (to swoon over, or simply make fun of), then, ask me who he or she is.

So that’s part 2—told’ya it was short. Next update, maybe in a few days or so, would document what the big kids are really like when they are miles away from the department…without their wiser mentors.


To Be Continued.

Destination Davao: Ready, Steady, GO!!! (Part 1 of ?)

This will be a series of entries documenting my recent trip to Davao, mixing business with pleasure! ;P The Psyhological Association of the Philippines held it’s annual convention there and most of the big kids at the department went to present either their own or a department-collaboration research project. I went for the latter. It’s hitting two birds with one stone—I get to present and go somewhere I’ve never been to before. This would be the first of a series of pic spam entries, sometimes with a dash of crack—I’m not even sure how to blog this entire Davao thing and I’m afraid I will go crazy if I get too OC about it. So, without further ado, I present the first part—where me and some of the big kids prepare for Destination Davao.

Here we were at NAIA Terminal 3 waiting for our flight. ‘We’ is operationally defined as [left pic: P, A, J, S] and [right pic: P, T, A, J]. We’re acting like complete noobs in the place, taking pictures here and there—actually just practicing our photography skills and celebrating the legitimate break we had from work. Of course, in order to look credible at the slightest, we had to prepare. Or at least look prepared. Wait, P is prepared and S is, what the…reading a book?! That’s leaves me—looking cool and collected when in fact, this is the first related literature I’m reading!!!

So we arrive at Davao and we were so amused to see a welcome banner for participants of the convention. We just had to have our pictures taken so S politely asked a ‘manong/kuya’ who was passing by to take our pictures. ‘Manong/kuya’ politely obliged, and looked like she didn’t mind that she was referred by such honorific label. I could’ve sworn (and S, too, I think) the dude who looked like a ‘manong/kuya’ sounded like and could very well be a girl. Anyway, it was at this point that perhaps, some serendipitous Davao moments began. For one thing, T, P, S and I were able to hitch a ride with the shuttle bound for the venue of the conference. A was unable to join us because prior to this (when we were figuring out how to get to our lodging), he joined our other colleagues in a cab bound to our hostel and the four of us were to follow in a different cab. But then, T saw her friend who fetched one of the speakers from the airport and with some small talk and headcount, we found ourselves in the van headed for our hostel. In fairness to A, he was the first to reach the hostel since we had to make stops in two inns to drop the speakers off.

This is what our room looks like. *start sarcasm* OH-EM-GEE!!! There are beds!!! And we have a bathroom, too! *end sarcasm* This sure beats lodging at ‘Field trip from Hell’ hands down. We stayed at Bahay Alumni, operationally defined as AWESOME PLACE TO STAY when you’re in Davao. It’s practical with free breakfast at that! Amenities are complete and it’s not too fancy but just enough to get you by. I suppose the only critique I have, and maybe the others also, is how the toilet and bathroom are separated and why the latter does not have towel holders. For me, I guess I’m used to seeing the toilet and the shower together, where one can change near the toilet area immediately after shower. Also, as P had put it, the whole set-up was rather ‘effortful’ and it did took some getting used to. But it wasn’t bad, actually, it was more…challenging ; ). Funny, how the main concern was all about the toilet and bath and not the fact that we’re a mixed-gendered group in one room. Suffice to say, we were all disinhibited of whatever inhibitions we had after day one—labasan na ng mga kikay at vanity kits, and I ain’t referring to just the girls in the room. :D

After settling in, we went out to dinner at Penongs. Dude, great place! Cheap food, big serving, very tasty! We were obviously enjoying ourselves. ^___^. YUM.

This wasn’t exactly how the day ended (oh, boy, it’s sure wasn’t ; ) since we went to People’s Park afterwards. I’ll blog about that in a different entry, and until I’ve sorted which pictures to post. :P


To Be Continued.

My All-Neu went for a check up…

And it took 6.5 HOURS!!! Had to bring it to the casa as advised to check on it’s basic idling. The diagnosis was that the idle servo is supposedly malfunctioning and replacing it would cost 14K!!!

O_o! WTF…?

I took it home. There’s got to be another cheaper way. I ended up looking into ‘basic idling’ and ‘idle servo’ on the net and despite the abundance of mechanical jargons, I now have a vague idea on how it works and what alternatives to be done. Now on to find someone who could do it…

PS. I’ve always wondered about mechanical engineering…
PPS. Oh, and why can’t car knowledge be acquired from previous extensive exposure to Initial D?
PPPS. The name ‘ALL-Neu’ came from the short cut of the blurb ‘All New Lancer’ back in 03. A colleague always referred to my car with that even if it was, um, 05 or 06. So the name kind of got stuck. I just got the German spelling of 'new' but retained the English pronunciation.

Special Post: Replies for those who left a comment about the entry: “The Fugly, the Bad and the Good Enough”

Because I checked my blog really late and was surprised with the number of those who cared to look ^-^ And since this entry is a bit passé and I doubt people will look at the comments so I’ll directly address them here.

TINTIN: The learning there is to help students realize that society and technology work hand in hand and have mutual effects. It’s really a nice set up, it’s just the effin’ accommodations that kind of ruined, or maybe, derailed whatever learning there could’ve been. Hehehe, I never really cared so much about Haros since usually they are portrayed as cute mascot robots but this orange one is actually functional! And whoever made this icon made me laugh.

RIA: You know, I actually checked your blog and see if you really used the phrase “field trip from hell” before I made my post script entry. Remember, reliability is key, LOL! Oh, and I’ve been lurking at your blog for some time now. One of these days, I will delurk : )

=3KAT: Er, I already replied in your blog so…^^;

PAULA: Thank you for sympathizing. Actually, there were complaints but I won’t elaborate on those anymore. It’s just that on our part (the “big kids”), complaining would probably just agitate the situation. Positive psych, yeah?

CHOCO: Well, I ranted in my own alien-ish way, haha! Yup, I did feel better after a week (see post below). That experience was kind of like an unexpected uppercut that blindsided me. I didn’t expect much and yet it ended up like that.

Field Trip from Hell Post Script

I never got to update what controversy occured after the field trip from hell because the week following that, I got sick with the flu and was rendered completely useless for almost a week. It basically f*ckd up my schedule and almost made me incredibly paranoid if I would be well enough to go to Davao for a conference. Thankfully, I was up and about the week after I got sick and tried to make do with the week and a half I have to fix my schedule. I was all completely pissed off because of the precursor of my illness when I found out one of the colleagues who also went to hell got sick and was unable to go to Germany for a workshop. Even if the organizers will pay for his expenses, he had to buy the tickets first and reimburse later; but because he was unable to go and bought the tickets, I don't think he can get a refund. The ticket isn't that cheap either. I still didn't like the experience of getting stuck in some resort that aggravates anxiety and stress instead of reducing it but it's best to move on...and think of a sinister come back later, hehehe. Kidding. It's time for the good stuff.