UP Centennial Lecture Series (Part II)
Today, I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Baldomero M. Olivera, the second speaker in the UP Centennial Lecture Series via video telecast at the SEARCA Umali Auditorium here UPLB. He was conferred Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by the university at the UP Film Center at the UPD amidst well decorated alumni, directors, regents, chancellors, students and of course some special guests.His lecture was entitled, FROM CONE SNAIL VENOMS TO DRUGS: THE SCIENTIFIC ODYSSEY OF A UP GRADUATE. Being a zoology major, his topic on conotoxin as a potent neurotoxin that could replace morphine as a pain reliever interested me. His flag species, Conus magus, which is particularly abundant here in the country, has a remarkable venom that can do something similar to a combination drug therapy.
Why This Blog Doesn’t Tell You How To Make Money
  When I tell friends that I have a blog, the question is automatic: “Do you make money out of it?â€Â  Well, no. Look around: as of this writing, I don’t have ads. I don’t have sponsored posts. For one, I don’t know how. For two, I used to be just like every aspiring writer who wrote only for the money.
  Before blogging became synonymous with fast money, we bloggers have been derided for being, well, bloggers. Pseudo-journalists, maladjusted psychological stripteasers, manic-depressive self-mutilators. Nowadays, it’s different: blogs start to spring up like mushrooms from the void, all with the intent to make money online. I’m starting to get a wee bit disillusioned nowadays: as it seems, it’s all about the money.
  I sure like to get to know about things like pay-per-click and pay-per-post if only to maintain my site for the next few years or so. I myself am interested in making money online, but like I said, I am getting very disillusioned. Is blogging really about the money? Do you blog – heck, do you even write – just because you want to have money?
Excerpt:
Then, one day out of the blue, I realized what I’ve become. I wasn’t the “writer†I was working hard to be: I was no different from a hired killer, an assassin, a mercenary. In college, there were no more essay contests: I was too old for those youth-oriented contests that I used to win and make money out of. I was – and I still am – not good enough to win that most elusive dream of mine, the Palanca Award. My obsession with money led me to a rut: back in the college paper, money was not always at-hand because we ran into budget overruns. I had to write editorials, columns, and feature articles without the promise of a stipend.Â
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Bad Luck, Multi-Thinking, and Compulsive Hoarding
There was a leigon of so called bad luck that made its way into my life recently this day….
It happened when I was going to get my back-pay from my company…
New Year Weather Forecast for 2008
As a child I was once told by someone who I cannot remember anymore that the weather for all twelve months of a certain year is determined by conditions of the first 12 days of that year.
Following that logic, a cloudy January 6 would translate to a very gloomy month of June while a sunny 12th would mean a very hot weather for December.
Of course, this method is questionable and a very unreliable means for forecasting weather. But what if it were not? Well, there’s no harm in trying. So here’s a weather forecast for Metro Cebu (or Talisay City and Cebu City specifically) for the year 2008.
Who Would Have Thought?
It’s crazy how a single person can change your ideals in just a snap. When you thought things are already mapped out in your life, someone comes along and changes everything. When you thought that there’s nothing better than living a single life, here he comes, making you realize that life is better when you have a person to go home to, a hand to hold while riding a jeepney, a person to kiss after along day of work and a person to love all the days of your life.
Forgive me, when I’m in love, I say words that I never thought existed.
Have you ever been with someone who literally knocks you off your feet? A person who takes your breath away? A person who makes you head over heels crazy? A person who had you at hello? A person who completes you? And those other chic flick lines which I find stupid, cliché, shallow and plain pathetic. (Now I so hate Jerry Maguire)
Guys, those feelings are R-E-A-L! If only I could find the right words to explain what I am feeling right now. It feels like I’ve started to live life again. Suddenly, I felt an urge to live life for myself and not just for my family. I never knew life could be this better. When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with a person, you want the rest of your life to start NOW. The feeling is so overwhelming that you wake up every morning asking your self what you did to deserve someone special. Someone you never thought you’d ever have and someone who makes your life beautiful. *sigh* If having him would feel like this, I shouldn’t have let him in. The happiness he brings is just too much. It’s over flowing and I couldn’t contain it that sometimes, I just want to cry.
I believe and I know that whatever God has planned for us and for whatever the future may bring, everything’s going to be worth it.
He’s worth it. I’m keeping him. I love him and i can love him over and over again.
The Other Boleyn Girl: My Most Anticipated Movie for 2008
I just finished watching the trailer of “The Other Boleyn Girl” in YouTube and I could not wait to watch that movie. With spectacular casts, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson (two of my favorite female actresses) and Eric Bana, a historical plot, and great cinematography, this movie will surely make it to the top box-office hits.
How I earned my first $ 58.90 in 6 days
Let me go straight to the point on how I managed to earn a few bucks from blogging. I was just so lucky to hit the jackpot and managed to exploit other valuable services to boost my site’s earnings. Check my traffic rankings, it’s so low. Check Google’s PR for this site, still so low. Do you think a PR 2/10 rating alone can help you attain this? Maybe not or maybe yes.
Meet Larry Gamboa in person
I have heard so much about him. He is the author of the bestselling books Think Rich, Pinoy and Grow Rich, Pinoy. Apparently, he has applied Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad principles to the Philippine setting and have earned millions through real estate investing. Read more at Pinoy Seminars.
Arresting bloggers
Some bloggers stop us from our daily routing of “merely” clicking on their Entrecard widget; we simply MUST pause to read and/or admire their engaging articles and posted pictures.
But there has been one blogger who has been literally stopped by officials in his country from blogging. They jailed him for speaking his mind and telling the truth.
Help free Fouad Al Farhan here.
Seven Weird Things About Me
1. I have gerontophobia.
I don’t hate or fear old people, but I strongly fear getting old. Every birthday since my 20th has been a struggle. And I’ve mentioned before that I want to die when I’m 45.
2. I have ridiculously small feet.
Don’t ask what size.
Needless to say, buying shoes is not one of the things I enjoy. Folks from my mother’s side have small feet but not as insanely small as mine. They wash their hands off me and blame a great grandma from my father’s side. She died even before I wash born but my relatives insist that she had feet like a baby’s. She was Chinese, so it was probably due to footbinding.
