To Gie -- our colleague in teaching

She's someone who will never give up in any challenge.

She's my first Senior Project advisee back in the late 90s. If I'm not mistaken, she's the first one to finish the Senior Project requirement in the history of the Department of Computer Science of Ateneo de Naga. She's also the first editor of the Computer Science student publication named Bits and Pixels. She's the first CS graduate who accepted a teaching position in the Department of Computer Science. She's the first Region 5 Chapter President of the Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators.

She's a well loved teacher and a well loved colleague in the College of Computer Studies. She's a well loved daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend to us. We will surely miss her.

There's no more fear, no more pain. When you surrendered your soul to God Almighty, only love remains -- love that we will remember in our hearts.

Building our dreams - bit by bit

We wished to have our own home for a long time. Late last year, we finally started building one. The groundbreaking went without fanfare. The "trabajantes" even asked us if we are to celebrate the groundbreaking with lechon and pancit. Since we don't have any money to spare -- we have to disappoint them.

Our architect -- vis-a-vis -- our project manager is very efficient. The second floor of our house is already partitioned. Next week, our house will have roofing. Possibly, the stairs will also be in place next week.

Building a house, we realized, is not easy -- even if a husband and wife have decent jobs. You have to cough up a huge amount for house-bonds and for starting up the construction. In fact, the bank will not release your loaned money until X percent of the construction is done. I envy those OFWs who have the dollars to have their houses built. I have been thinking lately, that if -- a big IF -- I stayed a little bit longer in the US, I might have the money to finance the house construction without resorting to loans. Now, a substantial part of our net pay goes to mortgage.

Hopefully, we can transfer to the new house before the summer vacation.



State of construction, late December 2007



Planning for the construction, November 2007

Metaphor of absence

Last friday, a faculty's cubicle is empty. Nobody bothers. Another faculty declares that it is not unusual. For a long time, she's quite hard to find whenever it's her birthday.

This time however is different.

She's migrating with her husband and kids to Canada this October. Her absence last friday is a foreshadow. I think the college will miss a friend. The college will miss a faculty who for a long time worked hard in keeping the department intact and running smoothly. The college will miss a faculty who always submits her grade reports on time (actually, most of the time earlier than the due date). She mastered teaching discrete math with linear algebra and computer-aided statistics. She always come to class prepared. There was a time I worried that she's working too hard and that her blood pressure might shoot up because of n concerns in the department (btw, n approaches infinity).

I wish her and her family all the best in their adventure at the other side of the world. I have been there and life there is quite good.