When UP Diliman made headlines for having more than fifty percent of this year’s graduating class finish with Latin honors, it raised a lot of eyebrows from both members of the UP community and outsiders. Author Butch Dalisay who teaches at UP has weighed in on the peculiar issue, attributing the seeming generosity of the prestigious state university with Latin honors to the relaxation of academic policies brought about by the COVID pandemic. Citing a few studies critiquing the Latin honors system, he’s on point in saying that the time has come to find a better way of recognizing and rewarding academic achievements. In general, the problem also exists at other education levels.
Category Archives: Asides
No AI was used in writing this blog
When the AI revolution broke out, my timeline was flooded with AI ‘gurus’ with all the praise, tutorials, and hacks to maximize it for work and in particular writing. Never mind that most of these ‘experts’ were once ‘crypto bros’ when cryptocurrencies were all the craze.
Anyway, I kept an open mind and even got excited about AI because for a moment I was hyped with the prospects of how beneficial these neural networks would be for me, thinking at long last, this could help me get back to regularly publishing content again.
When I finally got the chance to try out ChatGPT and Google Bard to write a draft blog post, the thrill quickly evaporated. It’s not that the results were bad, heck I said to myself “I finally found myself an editor”. It’s just that the reading of the output felt like it was no longer my work. I could not find my voice in it, immediately I knew it wasn’t my work anymore. It felt unauthentic.
So that was how I quickly reverted back to my own words and writing process. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t turn me into an AI naysayer as there’s genuinely some value in using it. Maybe I just used the wrong prompts and need to learn more about how to better use it, and I will. Just not for my writing.
Instead, AI has helped me with ‘spit-balling’ ideas and supplementing online searches, which pretty much suits my needs. As for my writing, it’s still just me, my notes, and a blank screen or piece of paper.
Thirty-eight
After almost a decade, I’m celebrating my birthday back in my hometown and in the house where I was born. The move from the city has been full of challenges but there’s not been a single day of regret ever since. With the worsening climate crisis, getting away from the urban jungle has been a gift for the family.
While the writing, podcasting, and building scale models are still on hiatus, the anxiety from not being able to continue with all of it has been less severe. In fact, the anticipation of getting back at these has been a positive force as it has helped me stay focused on settling down back home and getting through the difficult times.
The other day, the thought of adding more books to my home library was so tempting that I couldn’t help but consider it. Moreover, I am determined to make a good start on my reading list for 2021.
Call it baby steps if you will, what matters is I’m still moving on a trajectory rather than standing still.
While not much has been published on this blog since last year, the advocacy on social issues has been consistent on my social media accounts. The next step is getting it all synced with this blog as centerstage and happening on a regular cadence.
There was a mention of a health concern in last year’s birthday post, to which I’m glad to report that a very positive step has been taken to address it thanks to a wonderful, brilliant, and caring doctor. The prognosis is very good overall and there’s a very strong chance that by my next birthday, I would be in a much better state. I intend to talk about it more on this blog in the coming months.
To everyone who will take the time to send me a greeting today, a big thank you!
Thirty-six
The Earth has taken thirteen thousand six hundred and forty days to go around the sun since I have come on board. What a journey it has been so far.
Three hundred sixty-five days (plus three) ago, I was at the office, sharing good food with my friends and colleagues which coincided with our team’s return to full operations after several months of being shut down by the pandemic.
This time around I’m just at home with my family as the pandemic is still far from over and has taken quite a toll on all of us. Monsoon rains and a magnitude 6.7 earthquake earlier in the day made this annual event something definitely unique and worth remembering.
The projects started last year – the podcasts and newsletter, have been all but neglected and it’s been a struggle to get back at it. So it would be fitting to finally break the blogging hiatus with this update. It’s not that I have completely stopped writing, I simply stopped publishing. Most of what I’ve written since May has been kept in a personal journal and a note-taking app that has been steadily being filled up with notes, ideas, and rough drafts of upcoming pieces that I hope you’ll enjoy or at the very least find interesting.
Aside from nearly half a year’s worth of content-in-development, my book collection has grown quite considerably. One of the goals for this year is to finish a book per month. With four months left, the to-read pile has really grown.
Looking back, and in the context of the pandemic, I should not be too hard on myself as making it this far, in good health, and sitting on a big pile of drafts is still quite an achievement knowing that there are others that have had far worse.
With that in mind, I have decided that as I will get back to regularly publishing content starting today, part if not most of it must be of help to others. Content that will enrich their knowledge, or perhaps help them with their own struggles and contribute to their own success no matter how big or small.
So I hope you’ll stick around. Together, I’m quite positive we’ll all make it through to see better days.
GCash Customer Service – No More Chat Support
In a bizarre and anti-consumer move, GCash has stopped offering customer support via chat. Back in February, you can reach their customer service team via chat from within the app which was great because they don’t have a dedicated hotline.
Sadly, that is no longer available, instead, we now need to create a ticket in order to reach out to their virtually non-existent customer service team.
While almost every other business has enhanced their customer service efforts by embracing social media, GCash has went into the opposite direction and made it harder for customers to get help. They still don’t have a dedicated hotline, no presence in Facebook or Twitter and now the only way to reach them is by creating a ticket. Frustrating!
If any one from GCash is reading this, how can you be so unkind and unhelpful to your customers?
Disclaimer: This blogger is not connected to GCash