/Bully-ean Algebra/

I would like to apologize for the nature of my blog entry titles. As we progress week after week in the IT lab class, I found the topics getting more difficult. After binary arithmetic, we delved into Boolean algebra. I first encountered this while I was a fourth year highschool student, still eager to impress my Physics teacher who cared less about the subject than about her looks. So I got used to illustrating logic gates and solving them.

But I have never imagined simplification.

Don’t get me wrong—simplifying logic operations enable us to cut our computer costs and to speed up the data processing time of our CPU. Computers are just that awesome. But it takes a lot of patience and power to analyze and simplify things. Just like in real life, wherein we wish for simpler things, only to be thrown on the most complicated ones. Also, oftentimes, it is easier to understand complexities than the simple things. Life is like that. Boolean algebra is, also.

But just because we could understand more of the complexities, we stop trying to uncover the complexities of the simple things. No. I believe that it is a valid pursuit to make things simpler, to make it understandable (though this is daunting and cumbersome). After such, we appreciate reality better. We accept it.

Life is a bully, but this does not stop us from wanting to be alive and happy. Boolean algebra is also a bully, but this does not stop us from learning and knowing how to solve and simplify logic gates.  At the very least, this is true for me.

Another reaction: A Forum on the National Situation

The class was surprised when our instructor told us to attend a forum at a Christian school nearby. I was intrigued—what kind of forum would it be? I did not have any other thoughts afterwards until we reached the, ahem, room. Apparently, it is a church. And inside, Liza Masa, the guest speaker, was discussing the economic and political situation of the Philippines.

The first part of her discussion was on the country’s seemingly improving economic performance. However, numbers do not always tell the truth. The increase in our GDP was caused by the development of the real estate and construction sector and by the service sector which is still intensifying.  But these sectors do not contribute to our economy in the long term scheme. It seems to me that these are just patches that could wear out anytime. They are like band-aid solutions. Moreover, these do not make up a real economy.  As I understood it, real economy composes of some parts which produce. This is a crucial point for a country’s economy to grow. However, production is not our problem; the problem lies in how these products are utilized.  Add this to the fact that both industrial and agricultural (most especially) productions are receiving less attention compared to the BPO industry.

The second part centered on the country’s political situation. Mrs. Masa discussed briefly the Mamasapano case. I don’t think that this is the appropriate venue to discuss the case at length. Suffice it to say that at the end of the day, PNOY and other public officials must be held accountable for the massacre. They should answer to the Filipinos. They should stop playing the blaming act and man up. (If you want to know more about the case, you can search for the whole BOI report which was just released.)

But for me, the highlight of the forum was a question that came from an instructor. She asked about us. She asked what she, as a teacher, should do to ‘awaken’ the youth from apathy. This impacted me in two ways: first, it impressed upon me that some, if not all, are as clueless as us in regards to what we should do. Second, it reiterated to me Bovard’s and Bauman’s words: that is, in a consumerist society, there are no citizens.

Observe very closely and you shall see students busy fumbling their smartphones. Young people are more immersed in latest fashion trends than getting involved in social and political issues. Students are more interested in buying FRA shirts or attending parties than going to forums and educational discussions. Ultimately, we became more of consumers than citizens. We became customers of our own desires instead of becoming servants of our people. This, for me, is the greatest tragedy.

I do not argue that we do not consume. That's just absurd and impossible. However, back then, we only consume for survival. Now, we consume to quell our desires and wishes. We consume to satisfy ourselves. We slowly become more and more selfish to the point that consumption became our comfort zone. We begin to disregard the common good for our own good.

But it's too late to go back to the time when consumption was only for survival. Having a life in the form of consumption became a part of being human and there is nothing wrong for wanting to be human. But let's not go to the point when consumption starts to consume us. Let's take the time to look around and 'have a life with others'. Let's aspire for the common good, always.

/Binary Arithmetic: Not Again/

Binary. We meet again.

As I've mentioned in my last week's post, I was never friends with number systems, let alone binary number system. And ta-da! To my surprise, binary numbers cannot only be converted to other number systems but can also be added or subtracted. As Ma'am noted, if we are to begin or terminate a process in our computers, the CPU should add or subtract binary numbers to execute the process (I am currently punching keys right now, and this requires adding binary numbers. It's just awe-some how adding or subtracting binary numbers translate to what we see on the screen, isn't it?)

Compared to converting it to other number systems, binary arithmetic was not that difficult. I also enjoyed it more because the activity was by partner and not by group in some form of an intra-lab quiz con. Ha-ha.

However, when it came to checking my answers, I got a little confused. After arriving at  final answers, I was not complementing it so I thought that they were incorrect. I was just thankful that my partner had the presence of mind to remind me of the right process of checking it. After which, we left in peace.

I hope we got a perfect score.

A Side Project: Manila 1945

I have been putting this off for a few months now but then I realize that I really need to improve on my writing. Reading all the books I’ve read for the past weeks, I also realized that the authors of those books would not be able to write magnificently as they do without practicing. This reaction paper series would be my side project so that I could be a better writer. This is also the best time to do this as I am also writing my thesis. My first reaction will revolve around the documentary Manila 1945 which was jus shown a while ago at DL Umali Auditorium.

The documentary Manila 1945 chronicled the cruel events of the Japanese occupation during World War II. Beginning 1941, the Japanese has relentlessly attempted to alter our thinking by propagating the idea of friendship between Filipinos and the Japanese. This propaganda, however, miserably failed as the ideologies we inherited from the West became a permanent feature of our collective psyche. Also, the cruelties inflicted upon us during the early stage of their occupation led us not to believe their intention of liberating us from the Western powers. These cruelties escalated to massacres and unjust treatment of Prisoners of War. During such times, all wondered if these fellow Asians were really human.

Being a documentary, its “nakedness” really got me. Its beauty lies on how unpretentious and ‘real’ it is. If we would compare this to war or post war films which were just interpretations of history, this documentary was bare—stripped out of any production, just pure stories. Documentaries are not interpretation-free as filmmakers deliberately cut or add scenes or change their sequencing to fit the narrative he/she wants to project. But that is how far the filmmaker can go.

But the most beautiful part of all of these is how the documentary was able to unsettle the audience and forced them to confront the atrocities of our history. We were urged to take a second look at 1945, urged us to reflect on its implications to our generations. As what Dr. Nick Deocampo said, the consequences of the war could still be seen in the present. It is now a responsibility of our generation to look for those consequences and face them. In this juncture, another question arises: why bother facing them, anyway?

The Filipinos and our collective way of thinking has been formed, reformed and deformed by numerous cultural wars wherein we were victims. These cultural wars, I contend, contributed to our confusion when it comes to our national identity. This confusion is cumbersome and is difficult to ask, let alone face. What we do is we turn away from the daunting task of resolving this confusion and let ourselves float. Without an identity, we float aimlessly.

To emphasize that point, that daunting task includes facing the wrongdoings in our history. Our generation may have resolved that what happened that time of war doesn’t concern us anymore and so there is no need for us to partake on it. However, as one shall see on Private Wars, another documentary that we have watched, not facing this perpetuates our growing uncertainty.  It’s like looking at the mirror and seeing a blank faced reflection. Without a resolution, how can we move forward? How can that face have a face?

As a concluding remark: if we are to move forward as a people, we must face our dark history and come to terms with it. That’s the only time we can truly be free from the clashes of our past. That’s how we can be a people.

Remember

Remember my eyes.
Remember how they looked at you.
How they wept.
How they bled.
How they blinked a few times.

And how they pierced through you.

/Oh Binary (Oh Blimey)!/

After some swift explanation from our instructor in IT, our class started preparing for our upcoming lab exercise. The movements were normal.

But nothing was normal no more when Ma’am announced that we’re going to have a group exercise. To make matters worse, it was going to be a quiz con. And more horrifying was that it would revolve around number systems.

Overloaded whammy. Firstly, I do not work well in groups. Secondly, quiz cons are not my thing. Thirdly, I do not like binary numbers, let alone number systems. However, the fact that without them, information cannot be stored in computers just amazes me. Basically, the binary number system is the language of computers.

To cut the story short, our group did not get the highest score—heck, we were in the bottom. But it did not matter to me—the loss, I guess—because it challenged me to do better next time. I searched for some number systems exercises to prepare for the upcoming exam. I hope it would do me good. I’m still trying to work my way around it. 

Note: Image from www. instructables.com