Monday, August 30, 2010

On Time Management

I told myself I was going to sleep already to prepare for my early morning run tomorrow but you know... Just one post and then am going to bed. I do not know how I can keep a personal journal and still blog. I find it hard to type tonight because my right hand is very tired from playing Blackout on my iTouch. *argh!!!*

I just wanted to write about the Time Management talk of Randy Pausch. He had three more months to live and I thought who better to listen to than a person who has lived a life really to its fullest. If you do not believe me then watch or read his Last Lecture.

Here are the things that I took note of:


  • Always have a plan

  • You can change your plan but have a plan first!!!
  • Break down things into smaller parts and then create you To Do list last

  • Do the ugliest thing first

  • It is not about effectiveness it is about efficiency

  • Clean your desk

  • Have a place for everything. Have a filing system.

  • I am an epic fail in organizing things... I always lose things so this is the biggest challenge for me. Cleaning my area and having a place for everuhtheeng!
  • Learn to say no

  • I think I have slowly learned this. :)
  • Find your creative time. A must!!!

  • Find your dead time but also find your most productive time.

  • Doing something at the last minute is always more expensive

  • To delegate, be more specific, specific penalty and specific reward to the person who will be taking the task

  • Don't give procedure, give an objective.

  • If you get sleep deprived, everything falls apart.

  • This is something I have taken to heart. I have decided to forego running if I did not get enough sleep the night before. In fact for the past two days of weekend, I just slept and slept.
  • Exchange money for time

  • Ask for feedback

  • Sort things according to priority

  • He discussed Covey's time quadrant which I am extremely familiar with. I want a planner that has this quadrant!
  • Get a time journal

  • Revisit talk in 30 days!!!



I will revisit the talk in 30 days and see what will happen. :) The last two days were just all about spending tme with the family and well resting as in really resting. I got to exercise a bit today but just for a few minutes. I did not even go to the Barre3 Studio and I did not run either. So tomorrow I am going to run.

i will be leaving for Osaka week after the next so i have to finish all I have to and start reading Machine Learning! So much to do, now more than ever is the time to work on my time management eskels. :)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Lessons from the Buff

Last Thursday, I had a really busy day but I had to squeeze in a talk into my schedule because we were asked by our mentor to attend the talk that discussed how to get your work published. I attended because of three reasons, I was asked, I really wanted to know what else I needed to know to get published and lastly, this was a talk by the youngest full professor, university fellow and on top of all that, someone who reminded me of Marc Nelson because of his physique and his accent. This was the second time that I was going to hear him talk. The last time was during an orientation, I was the emcee and he was the speaker.

Anyway, I did not swoon the entire time (surprisingly) but rather I found myself taking down notes because I thought it was a talk that I really needed to hear. Here are the points that I took note of.

According to him, there are many reasons why you should want to get published:

  • Publish because this is a basic element in an academic or scientific career

  • Knowledge is meaningless unless shared

  • Scientific progress is incremental in nature



He also mentioned that conferences (what I have always gunned for) publish (and he said this was a very loose definition too of publish *eep!*) papers with pretty raw results. Journals on the other hand are peer-reviewed, updated and state of the art. (Though in my head I was arguing how this can be updated if it takes so long for a journal to get published, turnaround time normally is one year and this is almost best case)

He also mentioned that there are different metrics: number of papers published and number of papers that cited your work. Scopus should be able to tell you these things. He mentioned that your productivity is average if your number of articles in Scopus is more or less your age in years. He has 52 and well... I do not think he is beyond 40 so hmm.... This also told me that I am lagging far, far behind. *darn!*

He said that there are a lot of myths in publishing in journals:


  • Publishing in journals is expensive

  • This was funny because it IS expensive but he said it is well worth it.

  • Publishing in journals is difficult

  • Actually it also IS. But he said it is not impossible.

  • Publishing does not have immediate benefit.

  • Actually it also DOES NOT. But in the future, whatever we publish may be useful. He mentioned how lasers were invented in the 50's and back then it was nothing but basic research but now it is used EVERYWHERE!

  • My English is poor

  • Okay...



Of course for me to write something I need to have a good material that should be:


  • Well-conceived

  • Well-executed

  • Well-documented



A journal can be an extension of a conference paper or it could also be a major component of a PhD thesis. He said that if we are going to become serious researchers, we need to really invest time in reading journal articles regularly. He says he reads 10 (TEN!!!) articles form journals every weekend (How does he find time to go to the gym?!) so that he can use these articles for benchmarking purposes and to keep himself abreast in the technology.

He also said that we should know the people, their techniques, their findings and the gaps in the current knowledge. Most importantly he said, know how your work fits into the picture!

There are different types of journal papers it could be a full paper 5-25 pages long or review of related literature that are 15-100 pages ong or it could be as short as 2-15 pages. He said the Nash Equilibrium of John Nash (from the movie A Beautiful Mind) that won a Noble Prize is just one page short!

He also gave us criteria on how to choose a journal:


  • Has the journal published works similar to yours in the past 2-3 years?

  • Does the journal's name appear often in your reference list?

  • Does the journal description scope match your work?

  • Does the journal have a track record of timely review? (Find out via hearsay)



He went on to explain the review process and the documents that must be submitted to journals like a cover letter and the actual manuscript. He also said we should suggest people who should review our journals.

He said when you receive the reviews:

  • Take comments liek a pro.

  • Revise as they suggest

  • Revise along similar lines as their suggestions



He also mentioned keys to success:


  • Invest time in research

  • Recognize the value of novelty

  • Integrate publishing in your research cycle

  • Develop productive collaborations

  • Specialize but do not overspecialize



Finally, he said that we should make research idea-driven rather than activity-driven.

My take away from this session? You can look good and publish too! *wahahah!!!* No, seriously, this inspired me. I do not know about the journal part because I do not think I have the materials yet but at least it got me off my butt. :) I am now in the process of writing conference articles again after a loohong time. :)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Small Packages

Yesterday, I had students walk up to me to thank me, this was in my programming class. It felt good of course, it would feel so much better though, if all of them will pass. *sigh!* I just do not think they gave the subject their all.

In my nonacademic class, I had students prepare a video of their outreach projects and I was pleasantly surprised with what they did and the presentation they prepared. I really love handling this class. :)

Also yesterday, I had a not so pleasant experience. I hope it will not happen again. I really want to put it behind me. I do not want to think about it over and over. I want to see it as a slip up on the part of the other party.

Last night, I got into thinking whether I have a deficiency as a person because really, sometimes, I tend to feel that way. I hope I will feel better soon.

Today, I was able to see the projects of my students in one of my academic classes and I think the systems that I have seen so far were pretty good.

Please Lord, let it just be pleasant surprises from here on in.

Thanks! :)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Confessions of a Manic Foodie

I do not understand why I feel so bloated. I have done Barre3 for two straight days. Almost did it for three straight days today but decided against it today and decided my muscles needed to rest. I might run tomorrow morning if the guard will let me. If I wake up a tad bit late I will have to make do with the gym but I am hoping I can run outside tomorrow because I really miss running outside. I have to run at least 7KM tomorrow. I have to slide back into my old program. My body is beginning to notice that I am slacking. *Aargh!*

It did not help that I ate a lot of food today. I had two packs of chocolate Knick Knacks (in my defense, these were really small packs *hehe!*), I had Chicken Joy for breakfast, a bowl of fruits and yoghurt with sugar syrup (I was going to tell them to leave this out but forgot *excuses!*), Cheeseburger AND large fries *eeep!!!* and if that is not enough I had a Beef Pepper Rice at Sizzling Pepper Steak!!! I soh want to kick my self.

All has been done so tomorrow I must workout. I run to eat. Today I did not run and I ate and ate. Bad!

I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow but I must run. :) I must.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Of Different Ways to Torture Tendons

My thighs and my glutes are in pain right now. Sorry... information over share! I had a great time at Barre3 yesterday because my body has been craving for a really good stretch however, my favorite instructor Dess was extra brutal yesterday, no thanks to my classmate who was overly enthusiastic and was really literally asking for "pain". Needless to say, she got what she asked for.

For the first time, I witnessed a first timer walk out of a session way before we got past warm ups! *hehe!* Maybe her tolerance for pain was not that high. I am in pain still but I might go to Barre3 again today because I still have four classes left and well... I have four days to still go before my membership expires. *arrghh!* I planned my sessions alright it is just that there were many days when my plan did not work out due to my extremely lazy ass. :)

I did not run today because I am anticipating a really long day today. I have many classes and I have Barre3 tonight. I might run tomorrow morning instead. I am actually pondering on the idea of running in the morning at the Fort and then doing Barre3 after. I wonder if that will work... I will think about it. :)

After this week, I do not know if I should renew my membership or if I should just go to The Spa whenever I feel like going. Hmm... I have to really compute and think first. :) It is a bit on the pricey side but even my mom thinks that it's doing wonders for me discrediting my running. I think it complements my running so they work hand in hand. :)

My sister and I also plan to swim this Friday. I hope we really get to do that. :) It would be a great sister and sister bonding though my brother claims I am extremely antisocial when I swim. :)

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Aiza-lute Aiza

I now really like Aiza. Her voice is amazing. If you think her records are good, wait until you hear her live. She is also very versatile she can do ballads, rock, name it. She was also very down to earth and I really like how she interacted woth her audience. I am really glad that I went to see her perform. Now more than ever, I like her. She also performed my fave song. *sigh*

Tonight was just magical. Still I had hoped she would sing another fave of mine, then agqin that is fine too.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Read Eat Pray Love

I love this book.

I was able to relate to Liz Gilbert.

I now want to learn how to meditate and be quiet because like her I have trouble quieting my mind. I am a bad listener. I just talk and talk often not even able to listen to myself think.

It's a book I could read over and over and not grow tired.

It has a sequel but I am not sure if I am mentally and emotionally ready to read it yet. I hope to be able to read it in a year's time though.

Palawan-derful

I seem to not be able to organize my thoughts right now so I will just write a list. :) I went to Palawan with my colleagues to give a talk at a conference and we were able to do these given our limited time:

1. We got there at around lunch time and so we decided to have lunch. We at Balinsasayaw along Rizal Ave. and while I did not like the Balinsasayaw Express a medley of seafood with their special sauce that tasted too catsup-y for me, I liked their Bird's Nest soup and their chopsuey was okay as well. I also liked their kinilaw ang grilled fish. :) Fresh seafood is Palawan!

2. Ate at Badjao Grill. The restaurant is located in the middle of the bay, it's on stilts and you have to walk on a really long bridge amidst the mangroves... It was really beautiful there. The food was also good. I loved their Fish Taosi with Tofu and also their Kinilaw! *yum!* Their Salt and Pepper Squid was a bit on the salty side though. I also ate Puso ng Saging in Coco Milk. It was my first time to try it and it was good. I also had hot calamansi juice with Palawan honey! *yum!*

3. Ate at Bona's Chaolong and this is a very special place, not only because they serve really good Vietnamese Chaolong Noodles but also because Pho Hoa got their recipe from this place. Pho Hoa bought the recipe from them, their noodles are very cheap too! 45Php, best eaten with French Bread. Vietnam was occupied by the French for a time you see so they have been influenced by the French in their food, and even education system.

4. Ate at Kalui's. Best place in Palawan hands down. You have to reserve many nights in advance because they are always full. They update their menu everyday and they have the best food. Be sure to order the Set Meal of the Day when there. The Sashimi was also guhreat! We ate the meal barefoot because that is just how they do it there. Must not miss this restaurant!

5. Went to the wet market to buy loads and loads of cashew nuts! :) Also got interesting Squid Chicharon. Have not tried these yet though.

6. Ran 5KM at their Bay Walk. It felt great to run after a long time. :) It really felt good though I felt like I can still run some more after running 5KM but we had to head back because we had to prepare for our island hopping from Honda Bay.

7. Went Island Hopping at Honda Bay. This I enjoyed immensely. It is just so much joy swimming and watching the fishes! *sigh!* I love Palawan for this and I want to go back to Palawan for this. The boatman asked me if I were a Badjao because I swim so fast and so well... even better than him *hehe*! I have tan lines again! *woot!* I love my tan lines! :) I love the sea really... I cannot get enough of it. I also appreciate that my left arm does not hurt so much anymore! *yehey!* I think the Barre3 helped me. The Pandan Island was really beautiful because it has powder-fine white sand like in Bora. Snake Island is beautiful because of the big fishes there. Starfish Island is a bit forgettable. Luli Island was beautiful not because of the diving board but because of the assortment of the corals. I felt so sad though because many of the corals were dead but the ones still alive left me in awe of the beauty of these. For a moment, I thought about learning how to dive. :) Hmm... Maybe someday. Who knows.

I really feel lazy right now... :) don't feel like writing at all but I do not want to forget these places just in case I find myself back in Puerto Princesa again. We stayed at Fleuris and it's a nice place with free WiFi so if you plan to go there it's a great place to stay in. It is in the heart of Puerto Princesa and from there everything is walking distance. :) Then again I do run 10KM now *hehe!* so my friends tell me they do not want to believe me if the place is walking distance *hehe!*.

Next time I find myself in Palawan I will make sure I go to El Nido! :)

BTW, if you are going to Palawan, pack Off Lotion in your bag because they have Malaria and Dengue mosquitoes. I had to buy from there because I forgot to bring Off. :) All is well though.

I love Palawan! I cannot say it enough!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Cebu-tiful

So here I am in a hotel room called Fleur in Puerto Princesa. Who would have thought that I would actually be able to come here. Slowly, I am able to see the beauty of the different islands of the Pearl of the Orient that I can, with so much pride and sometimes shame, call my motherland. Just last week, I was in Cebu where I stuffed my face with their sumptuous roasted pig, beef ribs, fresh scallops, prawns, crabs, fishes that I cannot name for the love of me, shellfishes that I also cannot name but ate ... We stayed at the Marco Polo and every morning, in the four days that I had breakfast there, I only ate the same thing. A plate full of danggit, mangoes and chocolate croissant. They have really great chocolate croissants and if I were only to choose one food from their buffet every morning, it will have to be chocolate croissant.

I got so stressed out in Cebu though because I had to prepare my slides last minute, present a paper and moderate a workshop after which I even took down minutes for the business meeting where the participants were so impassioned that it was so hard for me to catch up. Of course this was towards the end of the day and my brain just decided to move in slow motion. Trust my brain to do just what it is not supposed to do at a moment so important. After the day, I was soh stressed I felt like I was going to explode into pieces if I did not run so when I got into the hotel room, I changed into my running gear and off to the gym I went. I only had a bit more than half an hour to use the gym so I was only able to run 5KM. I wanted to run 10KM but the gym had to close.

The following day, we got left by our plane because it took us long to eat and also because there was a street dance party and there was a terrible traffic jam. *sigh* It was my first time to get left behind by the plane. It was soh bad that I was still in denial fifteen minutes after the plane took off...

But the Cebu trip was not all that bad. I got to eat at Charcoal Grill that wiped off the AA Grill and BBQ from the top of my list. The super bubbly aunts of my colleague took us there and they were just so fun to be with! They also took us to a bar near Forest Ann, I forgot the name of the place though... Ack! Memory gap! Abuhan was also great, they had yummy Pochero and Lapu-lapu in Pepper Sauce! :) We also got to buy Merceditas from Home Bakers which made yummy little Brazo de Mercedes, these delicacies came highly recommended by my colleagues aunts. I was also able to go to Plantation Bay where I got to taste really good burger at Kilimanjaro Grill. The Fiji Restaurant also has the yummiest dessert, three types of chocolate in a chocolate mousse! My mouth waters just thinking about it... too bad I had to eat it in a rush because I was moderator. There is another grill restaurant that we tried but I did not get to enjoy the food there so hmm... not because the food was not good but because I had something else to do. I got to eat Balut though. I have not eaten Balut in more than two decades I think... It was not bad at all. :) Oh yeah, I also got to try Laguna Cafe and their food was also good! They say they had the best chicharong bulaklak but we were not able to try it there... I was able to try their Tinolang Manok, seafood platter and many other fattening food that are but a blurry memory and layers of fat in my body now... *argh!* Golden Cowrie also offered great food. I loved their Fish Basket and their Kinilaw was also great!

Talking about all these food is making me want to eat again! *haha!* I have so many pimples right now. I do not know if this is because I switched to another moisturizer brand because I ran out of my Shiseido Day Moisturizer with SPF 15 and my Shiseido Hydrating Toner. I am now using my Murad Hydrating Serum and believe it or not Shiseido Men Revitalizing Serum so I can moisturize my face. I have huge pimples. They say it could be due to the stress I got from Cebu or it could also be from the nasal steriods that I have been taking in for my allergies... Hmm... I hope they go away soon. *arrrgh!*

I hope I can run here in Palawan though I do not know where I can really run and if it is quite safe for me to run around here.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

All (Net)Worked Up!

I had a great time in my class today! :)

For the first time in my six-hour class we did a bit of programming and it was good. It felt good to be able to see encapsulation and de-encapsulation really work before my eyes... *giddy!* I also learned how to hack *wahaha!!!*! I am absolutely thrilled! :)

Networking is happinezz! :)

Tad Bit Under

I am feeling a tad bit under the weather today. It started yesterday. After the recognition ceremony of my sister, I went back to my meeting in school and then afterwards throat became a bit scratchy... Now I am not sure if this is me getting sick because of a virus or if this is just an allergy again. I do not know which medication to take. I do not want my sinuses x-rayed again. I think the human body can only take much X-ray... I had enough when I had my root canal and then a chest X-ray and then the sinus X-ray. So last night I took my allergy meds and hopefully it will take care of this scratchy throat.

I was not able to run all week! Very bad! I felt so sleepy throughout the week! Darn! I just could not convince myself to get up. I always end up thinking I did not get enough sleep so I won't run. Darn. Bad. I miss running. I miss the adrenaline and the feeling of getting all exhausted and then sleeping in bed.

*sigh*

I want to run this Monday because I am not sure if Cebu will permit me to run. Schedule there is a tad bit hectic. I hope to go to Taboan though to get my supply of yummy squid rings and then Lechon from Cebu *harhar!*!

There are other errands that I need to run too! Finally, my first ever purchase online arrived via airmail yesterday! Kewlness! I purchased it using the money I earned from blogging online! How kewl is that?! :) I have to go to the post office to pick it up! *woot!*

I also need some documents processed as well... This is something that I think I was unconsciously trying to put off because I am still too tired from the last time I did this but I have to get this started if I want to go anywhere... *sigh*

In my PhD, I need to come up with a mathematical model already. Boy, I am moving at snail pace... Not the pace I am gunning for but with so many documents to check I really cannot do much.

Wow sorry, did not mean to vent out here. :) Life is good though... Life is good. :)

Thank You Lord. :)

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Barred

I was able to do Barre3 this morning! Weeh!!! :)

Happy day!

Our instructor was Des again and I really like how she challenges us to do new things. I think I am really improving or at least my core is. I do not know about burning calories this week though because I have not run again this week. Too lazy and I think my muscles and joints need a break. I am thinking if I should run tomorrow since I need to be early in school for a meeting anyway. Speaking of, I better get crackin' if I need to finish.

I think I am ready for my six hour class this Saturday whooppee!!! Just a little bit more and I am done. :) I might get another class next term. I suppose it's alright because I would not have to prepare for too long because I already prepared this term anyway.

Hokay... Must get back to work.

Just remembered today that I forgot to hear mass again because I checked documents. *sigh*

In any case, thank You Dear Lord for the day! :)

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Showing Off! :)

The results are out. Well they have been since last Monday but I was too lazy to blog. Actually, too busy. I have spent the past few days checking soh many papers, I dare not quantify them lest I would feel the exhaustion.

I clocked 1hr and 11 minutes for the 10km! :) That's not soh bad considering I felt like I was getting tummy cramps in the 8th km and considering I had to take a few sips of Powerade every now and then for fear that I might get dehydrated or get a heat stroke and die. I have read what happened to the Milo marathon runner who died because of dehydration and we have to learn from him otherwise he died in vain. I pray for the repose of his soul but more importantly for the children and the wife whom he left behind.

I think I am running better now because I followed what my "coach" told me. To land on my outer foot and roll inwards. :) I also recently got an Adination Passport and while I am very interested in joining so I can get some coaching and I could meet other runners, I do not think my schedule would permit it. They run during night time while I prefer to run during day time since most runs happen during the mornings anyway. I prefer to swim at night actually. :)

I have to prepare for a six hour class still and if I have any hopes of doing Barre3 tomorrow, I better finish preparing already. Barre3 would be perfect if it were nearer the school really...

Leaving for Cebu and then Palawan very soon. Thank goodness I will not have to go to Tagaytay anymore! :) Then one week before finals and then it's the final exams and then after that it would be giving of grades and then it is off to another trip! Weeh!!!

I know I love riding rollercoasters but I do not mean to turn my life into one. I wonder how I will run and do Barre3 druing these busy days...

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Open Arms

I had a wonderful day because I got to hold an adorable boy in my arms today! He has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen and the most darling smile. I used to just smile at him whenever we meet and then I learned what his name is and not before long he was asking me to hold him. Aww... He always lights my eyes up and makes my day better. He energizes me and wipes all the exhaustion away! *sigh*

I hope to see him again tomorrow and hope to hear him chuckle and laugh and feel his heart beat next to mine! He cried when I said goodbye. It was hard to let him go but I had to lest I take him home with me.

He is the cutest seven month old I have ever met!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Run and Rave

Ran 10 KM all the way yahoo! I passed by the drinking stations for Powerade because I sipped some liquid just so I will not risk getting dehydrated. I am pleased with how I performed. I think I could have gone faster but I was not sure if I can make it 'til the end if ran too fast.

I do not think I will go back to 5KM. I will try 10KM at The Fort next.

Exciting!!!