Our blog sponsors spelling bee event

Last September 28 the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineering Students (IIEES) MSU-IIT Chapter conducted a spelling bee competition and their president, Jeffrel Hermias invited us to sponsor the event, that is, serve as the quizmaster. We gladly accepted the offer. This is the first time that our blog sponsored a literary event and we were very excited. This serves as an affirmation of our purpose why we made this blog: to promote reading as a way to make more people informed and eradicate ignorance. Furthermore, we needed an avenue to promote our blog and we think this is just perfect.

 We have a book in our collection entitled The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre. Just saying. 

As prize, we gave away one of the books in our collection, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence by Andy Clark to the champion, Ms. April Faith Manabat, a fourth year Electrical Engineering student. We think this might be an interesting read for an aspiring electrical engineer.

Congratulations to all of us. We hope to sponsor events such as these in the future. We believe engineering students do not fall behind in terms of literary skills but such hasty generalization exists. Thus we must work hand in hand to dispel that idea. Let us make them eat our literary dust.

A postapocalyptic novel to welcome the year.

With all the fuss about the world ending in 2012, I figured it would be a good idea to read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy before the year ends. I heard of McCarthy as the author of Blood Meridian, whom the likes of Jessica Zafra enjoy very much and when I saw his name on a novel with an all black cover except for the words 'THE ROAD" printed in red, I immediately picked it up. It turned out that McCarthy really is not for the average reader that I am. I have to elevate myself to a thinking being to appreciate his style. In a McCarthy, you don't just react to the happenings and twists in the plot. It is not a page turner in the sense that you just want to know what happens next. Instead, you immerse yourself in the world he creates and leaf through the pages because you want to feel more. I want to call it as curiosity of what you might be capable of feeling, rather than curiosity of what's in store for the characters. 

Reading the first paragraphs can make you feel like you want to throw the book away. But all you need is elevate yourself from your usual reading attitude that serves reading mangas and tagalog pocketbooks well and you'll get through. Pretty much like Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The book did not explicitly mention the cause of the apocalypse (why America, or the world, was burned) but I figured it might be because of a natural phenomenon (eg solar flares reaching Earth) like the one in the film Knowing starring Nicolas Cage. One thing though, McCarthy is very good at describing the world he created and its stark contrast to the world of the man and his son "sustained  by love."

Eat that.

In addition to scientific journals I have this to devour.

 Finishable, I hope.

Celebrate for math. Happy Birthday, Fermat!

To the few who have taste

 Greetings!

I have a couple of announcements to make concerning you, my dear readers. ( Who still haven't found a way to overthrow my blackmails so you could sever your ties to readership of my blog.)

I have managed, despite my esteemed reputation of barely passing CSC 101, to spice up my blog and incorporate the like button and comments section from Facebook. That is, you can now like any of my posts (or dislike if you will but hey keep it to yourself) by simply hitting the Like button appearing after the title. Likewise, you can post comments at the end of every post.

Words of caution: First, you must have a Facebook account and logged in. (I factor this in because although it may sound highly improbable, there are netizens out there without a Facebook account. Example: Jessica Zafra.) Second, the plug-ins do not appear in the homepage. You must go to the post itself by clicking on its title.

I would like to thank AllBlogTools.com for the codes and the instructions. Still, I must say I have to congratulate myself. Digging into the HTML code was quite a feat. I guess proofreading training back in high school journalism proved eventually useful.

Enjoy reading!

Always,

JanMell, who just bought himself The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive by John Graham-Cumming

Reader beware, you choose your own scare.

Dear First Year Students,

Welcome to college. Brace yourselves for an exciting-but-sometimes-boring adventure. Remember, you can choose your own ending and it is all up to you. Good luck.

Sincerely,

A quote from Alice

"The time has come, " the Walrus said, "to talk of many things:

Of shoes-- and ships-- and sealing wax--

Of cabbages-- and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot

And whether pigs have wings."

                                            -Lewis Carroll, Alice Adventures in Wonderland 


An open and inquiring mind sees everything under the sun, including those which are hidden and even those which are deemed inconceivable.

The Cheshire Cat from Alice Adventures in Wonderland.

For quiz show geeks out there, the real name of Lewis Carroll is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson who wrote the story for kids. But it doesn't end there since it has also captured the imagination of practically all ages. This makes Alice in Wonderland required reading, even for engineering students. As a matter of fact, Science, Technology and Society lectures have reference to the social parodies of Alice, which places the book together with Thoreau's Walden and Pirsig's Zen and the  Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, to name a few, among the best in their discussion of the role of science and technology in the society.

There is a copy by Bantam Classics which incorporates Alice and the sequel, Through the Looking Glass, in one book. If you're going to tell me you'd rather watch the movie instead, or there's no need to read because you already watched the movie, then accept my look of combined disappointment and derision.

Of velociraptors and tyrannosaurs

It's not something to be proud of. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and its sequel, The Lost World has been there for decades and I've only read them recently. However, it did not diminish my amazement. It's like being a child again. Eras ago, when I was still a child (probably even before these dinosaurs), I would often wonder about these strange creatures. Phenotypically, we might be relatives. That was probably why.

The writing wasn't phenomenal but for Crichton's creation, Ian Malcolm. The assertive mathematician who specializes in chaos and complexity theory became endeared. He is, to quote, "a gadfly who stings the plot to life," providing the passages I love to quote. It was only Malcolm who appeared in both novels. (Dodgson of course, but for purposes of bias I dare not include him.) Of course Sarah Harding is incredible (JZ would be fascinated with this superwoman) and the kids, what can I say, they are always part of the marketing ploy.

My favorite aspect of the book is how it provides deep insights about history, culture, and life in the context of extinction and survival. In this way, the book touches upon the enigma that is human existence and its cessation. Coupled with disgusting and tales of gore (evisceration is ubiquitous), the books are indeed riveting. At least for me, I can completely relate to the Gaussian distributions, computer interfaces and so on. For others, it may well be regarded as another one of the avenues for learning.

When all caution and censorship have let go: The Story

In connection to my previous post regarding inspiration that denotes lifting the lid of the unconscious, Jostein Gaarder, in her masterpiece, Sophie's World, tells us a story in illustration of the importance of the artist to not let reason and reflection control a more or less unconscious expression. (Warning: It's a very serious and sad story.)

Once upon a time there was a centipede that was amazingly good at dancing with all hundred legs. All the creatures of the forest gathered to watch every time the centipede danced, and they were all duly impressed by the exquisite dance. But there was one creature that didn't like watching the centipede dance- that was a tortoise.'

'It was probably just envious.'

'How can I get the centipede to stop dancing? thought the tortoise. He couldn't just say he didn't like the dance. Neither could he say he danced better himself, that would obviously be untrue. So he devised a fiendish plan.'

'Let's hear it.'

'He sat down and wrote a letter to the centipede. " O incomparable centipede," he wrote, "I am a devoted admirer of your exquisite dancing. I must know how you go about it when you dance. Is it that you lift your left leg number 28 and then your right leg number 39? Or do you begin by lifting your right leg number 17 before you lift your left leg number 44? I await your answer in breathless anticipation. Your's truly, Tortoise."'

'How mean!'

'When the centipede read the letter, she immediately began to think about what she actually did when she danced. Which leg did she lift first? And which leg next? What do you think happened in the end?'

'The centipede never danced again?'

'That's exactly what happened. And that's the way it goes when imagination gets strangled by reasoned deliberation.'

The excerpt that is in the first page of my reserved notebook

"Writing is a craft, like any other: playing the violin, skating, batting at cricket, billiards, wood-carving--anything you like; and mastership in any craft is attainment of the end to which the craft is devoted. A craftsman is excellent in his craft according to his degree of attainment towards its end, and his use of the means towards that end. Now the end of writing is the production in the reader's mind of a certain image and a certain emotion. And the means towards that end are the use of the words in any particular language; and the complete use of that medium is the choosing of the right words and the putting of them into the right order."

This was written by Hillaire Belloc on his introduction to the work of P.G Wodehouse to which a Wikipedia entry of him says:

".. writing style is notable for its unique blend of contemporary London clubroom slang with elegant, classically-informed drawing-room English. As in: "I once got engaged to his daughter Honoria, a ghastly dynamic exhibit who read Nietzsche and had a laugh like waves breaking on a stern and rockbound coast."

and to which H. Belloc says:

"..almost always reaches perfection."

Weekend Wodehouse is a compilation of his works ranging from excerpts, letters, condensed novels, and anecdotes that presents the laughable or the humorous. Perfect buddy for long waits.  

A Must Read

I am not exaggerating in any way. I agree with one review of this book saying that if ever you read one book in your whole life, this must be it.

It's philosophy made easy. It's an igniter of the inner philosopher in everyone, no matter how simple minded  you may seem to be. All we need, as the author puts, is the faculty of wonder. Actually it's a novel about the history of philosophy, condensing 3000 years of Western thought from Pre-Socratics to modern existentialists intertwined in a plot revolving around the unusual life of a little girl named Sophie. The novel opens with a qoute from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe saying, "He who cannot draw on 3000 years is living from hand to mouth."

Other books from Jostein Gaarder:

The Solitaire Mystery

The Christmas Mystery

Vita Brevis
Through A Glass, Darkly

I read the first two, and I must say Gaarder has a knack for originality. The Solitaire Mystery advises us to not make the world a habit, and Through A Glass, Darkly introduces a new concept on the divine.

Must reads!

Meet yourself in...is that hell?..

On one hand, Mitch Albom's the five people you meet in heaven is simply riveting. I am not really an emotional person, but Albom's command of simple prose feels like it's dragging you and saying: For God's sake, cry!, for which I vehemently refused, but not without a certain uneasiness. Plus, Filipino readers might be familiar with some parts of the novel. (I will not spoil it, I will not, I will..haha) The Philippines is mentioned in the book, including words like "inas" whom Albom translated as Mommies, "sundalong" as soldiers (I could have written Albom and said FYI, DROP THE ng..), and our National Costume also takes a scene. (umeeksena, Eddie: what are you wearing? Filipina girl: Oh, this? Ukay-ukay...)




Tuesdays with Morrie? Ugh. No effect. Dying is not a dilemma. It's what comes after dying that's haunting humans. If ever there is such a thing. In this novel, Albom says there is.

On the other hand, I badly wanna have a copy of this book. My friend Jessica once again displays her wit, and the extraordinary craft of the English language, with this piece. I've read a random sampling of the 500 in her column in the Philippine Star, (that's Emotional Weather Report), and I can't help but, yeah, agree. Some of them, the teacher who said you'll never reach anything, the bully, the professor who made math intolerable for you, the neighbor who never stopped yelling since they got their videoke machine, and many more. ALthough, probably in the course of reading it I might meet myself in hell.



500 vs 5. Apparently, hell's population is bigger.

A billion different angles

"Some of the angels in heaven believe that every single eye that sees God's creation is God's own eye. For who has said that God does not have many billions of eyes? Perhaps he has scattered billions of small photocells over creation so that he can see what he has created from several billion different angles. Since humans can't swim many hundred yards under the sea, he has given the fishes eyes, too. And humans can't fly, but at any given time a living carpet of bird's eyes is lying below the sky, peeping down at earth. But this isn't at all. Sometimes, it happens that a human being lifts his eyes towards his heavenly origin. Then it's as if God sees himself in the mirror."

(excerpt from Jostein Gaarder's book

Wonderful.