Notebook

Before I bought a Toshiba notebook, I first checked its price online. From Asianic Distributors Inc., I got this info.


Toshiba Satellite L300-A512

Toshiba's great value, quality laptop serves all your basic computing needs and offers you great performance packed with some astonishing features. Intel Pentium Dual-Core proc T2390 (1.86GHz), 1GB, 120GB HDD, DVD Burner, 15.4"TFT, Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Edition

Price: P 35,990

Technical Specifications:
Part Number: PSLB0L-08802E
Processor: Intel® Dual Core M Processor T2390 (1.86GHz, 533MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache)
Chipset: Mobile Intel® GL960 Express Chipset
Memory: 1GB DDR2 (512MB x 2)
Display Screen: 15.4" WXGA (200NIT) CSV TFT display, resolution 1,280 x 800
Video Type: Intel X3100 Graphics
Video Memory: up to 251 MB of Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0 (8 MB of dedicated system memory, up to 250 MB of shared system memory)
Hard Disk: 120GB SATA HDD
Optical Drive: Integrated 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
Weight: 2.57kg
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Edition
Network Interface: Built in 56k Modem, Built in 10/100M LAN
Wireless LAN: Built-in 802.11b/g
Card Reader: 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
WebCam: Integrated webcam
Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion Battery Pack (3-hour battery life)
Speakers: Stereo Speakers, 16-bit Stereo with Intel® High def
I/O Ports: Three USB 2.0 ports, External display (VGA) port, Headphone/speaker/line-out jack, Microphone-in jack, Ethernet (RJ-45) port, Modem (RJ-11) port304

I expected that here in Bicol the product would be sold at a higher price. However, I was surprised to learn that its cost was just the same. So yesterday, I purchased one.

What Role Does Envy Play in Organizations?

I've come across a very interesting article on the Internet about envy. The paragraph below is excerpted from it.

"The role of envy as a catalytic emotion suggests that envy in organizations might more generally lead to sensemaking that reframes the situation, to positive action which elevates the envier, or to negative action which brings down the envied person. The latter two possibilities highlight the difference between two forms of envy that have been identified both in social constructionist research (Armon-Jones, 1986) and in more traditional psychology (Bedeian, 1995). First, action taken to achieve or obtain that which is envied would be associated with what has been referred to as ‘nonmalicious envy’ (Parrott, 1991). The focus of non-malicious envy is on rectifying the envier’s deficiency in some way (Neu, 1980). In contrast, action taken to diminish what the envied person enjoys, by depriving them rather than by improving the position of the envier, is rooted in ‘malicious envy’ (Parrott, 1991)."

Read the full article here.

The Third Jewel

The essay below is something I learned, memorized and delivered in class way back in high school. Fr. Rene, our teacher, gave each of us a copy and required each to recite this. Thus, I saw almost fifty versions of this piece. Since then, I have always remembered this.

The author, Fr. Horacio de la Costa S.J., speaks of two jewels: music and faith. If there is a third one, it could probably be literature of which this essay is an excellent example. I discovered online that this was written in 1943 by the author ,then a Jesuit seminarian, in a Japanese concentration camp for the intermission of a play entitled Fiesta (Mercado, 2003).

JEWELS OF THE PAUPER
by
Horacio V. De la Costa, S.J.
There is a thought that comes to me sometimes as I sit by my window in the evening, listening to the young men’s guitars, and watching the shadows deepen on the long hills, the hills of my native land.

You know, we are a remarkably poor people; poor not only in material goods, but even in the riches of the spirit. I doubt we can claim to possess a truly national literature. No Shakespeare, no Cervantes has yet been born among us to touch with immortality that which is in our landscape, in our customs, in our story, that which is most original, most ourselves. If we must give currency to our thoughts, we are forced to mint them in the coinage of a foreign tongue, for we do not even have a common language.

But poor as we are, we yet have something. This pauper among the nations of the earth hides two jewels in her rags. One of them is our music. We are sundered one from another by eighty-seven dialects; we are one people when we sing. The kundimans of Bulacan awaken an answering chord in the lutes of Leyte. Somewhere in the rugged north, a peasant woman croons her child to sleep; and the Visayan listening remembers the cane fields of his childhood, and his mother singing the self-same song.

We are again one people when we pray. This is our other treasure; our Faith. It gives somehow, to our little uneventful days, a kind of splendor; as though they had been touched by a king. And did you ever notice how they are always mingling, our religion and our music? All the basic rites of human life – the harvest and the seed time, the wedding, birth and death – are among us, drenched with the fragrance and the coolness of music.

These are the bonds that bind us together; these are the souls that make us one. And as long as there remains in these islands one mother to sing Nena’s lullaby, one boat to put out to sea with the immemorial rowing song, one priest to stand at the altar and offer God to God, the nation may be conquered, trampled upon, enslaved, but it cannot perish. Like the sun that dies every evening it will rise again from the dead.

Anagram Appeal

Logology, the term coined to refer to the study of words that underscores their letter patterns rather than their meaning, probably appeals to everyone. Three of its components are anagrams, palindromes, and isograms.

Few of the interesting anagrams I've encountered are as follows:

astronomers = moon starers
eleven plus two = twelve plus one
astuteness = taut senses
the meaning of life = the fine game of nil
the centenarians = i can hear ten 'tens'
a decimal point = i'm a dot in place
listen = silent
the detectives = detect thieves
indomitableness = endless ambition
the eyes = they see
a gentleman = elegant man
butterfly = flutter-by

Want some more? See here.

I searched the Internet for an anagram generator, found one and then tried my name. These are some of the results:

Are ye Solomon?
Someone royal
A moon so leery
A see-only room
Moose on relay

If you want to anagrammatize your name also, click here.

Murphy's Law and Its Corollaries

MURPHY'S LAW:If anything can go wrong, it will.

COROLLARIES:
1. Finagle's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will - at the worst possible moment.
2. Hanlon's Law: Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.
3. Callahan's Principle: You can't argue with stupid.
4. Zymurgy's Law: Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a bigger can.
5. Hoare's Law: Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out.
6. Dirac's Law: The speaker who knows least speaks the longest.
7. Sturgeon's Law: Nothing is always absolutely so.
8. Bye's Law: Anytime you wish to demonstrate something, the number of faults is proportional to the number of viewers.
10. Missett's Law: The further back from the traffic light you are, the sooner you will see it green.
11. Jensen's Law: You can never find what you're looking for, until you stop looking for it.
12. Muphry's Law: If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you've written.
13. Silverman's Paradox: If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.

MIT

In his Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT), Howard Gardner posits that there are 8 intelligence areas. These areas are as follows:

VERBAL-LINGUISTIC
A person in this category:
excels in reading, writing, telling stories, memorizing dates, thinking in words;
prefers to read, write, talk, memorize, work at puzzles; and
learns best through reading, hearing and seeing words, speaking, writing, discussing and debating.

MATH-LOGIC
An individual with this intelligence:
excels in math, reasoning, logic, problem-solving, patterns;
prefers to solve problems, question, work with numbers, experiment; and
learns best through working with patterns and relationships, classifying, categorizing, working with the abstract.

SPATIAL
A person with strong visual-spatial intelligence:
excels in reading, maps, charts, drawing, mazes, puzzles, imaging things, visualization;
prefers to design, draw, build, create, daydream, look at pictures; and
learns best through working with pictures and colors, visualizing, drawing.

BODILY-KINESTHETIC
A person in this category:
excels inathletics, dancing, acting, crafts, using tools;
prefers to move around, touch and talk, body language; and
learns best through touching, moving, processing knowledge through bodily sensations.

MUSICAL
An individual with a high level of musical intelligence:
excels in singing, picking up sounds, remembering melodies, rhythms;
prefers to sing, hum, play an instrument, listen to music; and
learns best through rhythm, melody, singing, listening to music and melodies.

INTERPERSONAL
A person in this category:
excels in understanding people, leading, organizing, communicating, resolving conflicts, selling;
prefers to have friends, talk to people, join groups; and
learns best through sharing, comparing, relating, interviewing, cooperating.

INTRAPERSONAL
A person who is strongest in this intelligence:
excels in understanding self, recognizing strengths and weaknesses, setting goals;
prefers to work alone, reflect, pursue interests; and
learns best through working alone, doing self-paced projects, having space, reflecting.

NATURALIST
An individual who:
excels in understanding nature, making distinctions, identifying flora and fauna;
prefers to be involved with nature, make distinctions; and
learns best through working in nature, exploring things, learning about plants and natural events.

The Internet teems with tests that determine which one of these eight intelligences is predominant to you. Determine your top three intelligences here.

Who Will Be the First Pinoy Idol?

One of the shows I watch on weekends is GMA 7's Pinoy Idol. Last Sunday, the three finalists were already revealed: Jayann, Gretchen and Ram. Two of my bets, Kid and Daryl, unfortunately did not make it. But, of the three remaining hopefuls, Jayann, in my opinion, deserves to win as the first Pinoy Idol.

Here is the list of songs she rendered in the show for the past weeks:

June 21 (TOP 12): Natural Woman
June 28 (TOP 11): Whine Up
July 5 (TOP 10): Better Days
July 12 (TOP 9): Pangarap Ko Ang Ibigin Ka
July 19 (TOP 8): Laging Naroon Ka
July 26 (TOP 7): Akin Ka na Lang
August 2 (TOP 6): You
August 9 (TOP 5): Finally

The Old Man and the Sea

Alexander Petrov's Oscar Award-winning animated film (1999) based on Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize-winning novella (1954) of the same title