can you imagine? i am drinking wastewater!

despite my obvious love-hate relationship with work, i remain thankful when i find reasons to be happy about my job. as i await revisions to the report i just submitted, i am set for another "educational" tour, yes a field trip! this time, to the NEWater plant.

i have renewed interest at work (at least for this field trip na ako lang mag-isa as usual hehe) because for a time, when i was an RA in upm, I worked with water quality testing and i also enjoyed plant visits, although then, the setting was different (environmental and occupational health sa UP tapos public education naman ng science dito sa NIE). somehow, i feel that something is right no matter how i serendipitously ended up in science education research when my education and training is actually in health science [and no matter how kunsumido we get at times because of our boss (see related entry hehe)], something finally feels right. it's like picking up some pebbles on a long journey for no reason and being pleasantly surprised to find that further on, you had to use those pebbles and you picked them up without knowing you will need them in the future.

anyway, going back to the freakish title: look mama! im drinking wastewater! :) for the most part, it's true, because part of the water supply of this tiny nation comes from the NEWater plant (which i will visit on thursday).

although the NEWater plant is not exactly a tourist attraction, field visits outside school is always a welcome break from the long hours i spend just sitting and clicking away on the computer. i did minor research online just so i know what to expect. and i had some interesting findings.

singapore, being a very small nation geographically, has admittedly limited resources. people know that their beaches are man made, kang kong is grown not on watery ponds with soil (to match our local kangkungan) but through hydroponics (growing plants in water without soil). their highest peak wouldn't be so much of a challenge for those who love trekking and hiking either. sa totoo lang, madaming maipagmamalaki ang Pilipino when it comes to our natural resources (lalo na human resources hehe).

one of the limited resources (not only for small nations like sg) is water. and NEWater is one of their solutions in responding to the limited supply. singapore has overcome water shortages despite its limited natural resources. there are four national taps which supply water for the whole of singapore. they have the local catchment for rainwater, imported water from Malaysia, desalinated water from seawater, and the NEWater--which is essentially recycled waste water (reclaimed water).

again, with my limited understanding, if we have the la mesa, ipo and angat dams raw water system as the major water source for metro manila, singapore has these 4 national taps. we have the natural aquifers and an expanse of land to collect rainfall, singapore does not have that luxury. that's why, apart from the local catchment, they need to import water, desalinate seawater, and recycle wastewater!

perhaps i can no longer interest you with the nitty-gritty of the process but i can say the water is clean (although we still boil our drinking water from the tap), wala pa namang ulat ng water-related disease outbreak. but can you imagine, drinking water that comes from wastewater? it's not really that gross when you find out the purification process it undergoes (microfiltration, reverse osmosis, UV disinfection, etc.). they mix the treated NEWater with the other sources. the water for drinking undergoes further conventional treatment that satisfies drinking water standards and the rest may be used directly for industrial purposes. using NEWater in industries also saves potable water from being used in industrial activities.

so there, i feel like i'm having a Batibot entry hehe. pagbigyan ninyo na lang ah, ganito talaga kapag naghahanap ng rason to stay happy with one's work. kasi mayamaya lang as i write this, Apu will again ruin my day.

repost: got milk?

Just a quote: “Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.” – Frank L. Visco as quoted by Bob Ong in “Stainless Longganisa”

Got Milk?

“In time, grass will become milk.” You heard it over the radio, from one of the more sensible disc jockeys on frequency modulation. A flamethrower of ideas was instantaneously set afire inside your head, and your definition of patience went through a minor makeover, making it a little more interesting.

Trying to humor yourself, you came up with your own versions of the dictum and went: “In time…

- pig feed will become pritson.”

- worms will become baticolon.”

- grapes will become wine.”

- barley will become whiskey”

- mice will become siopao.” (now that’s starting to sound obscenely distasteful)

People get the drift all right. (Something stopped you before you could even include: “In time, cemetery soil will become the sweetest mangoes,” and completely lose the drift. Haha.)

Setting aside all graphic telling, you got back to your brainwork (Oh yes, there is brainwork, hehe).You wondered, isn’t being Filipino the ultimate test of patience?

For someone who could not even grow her hair back to a length she can once more pull back, who are you to talk about patience? (Ahem, i have now grown my hair long, only because i do not went to spend too much for a haircut in sg, hehe, kuripot me :-p)

Let us just say, patience is not absolute. You can be patient in some situations and fretful on other occasions; patient with other people including yourself and complaining toward those whom you simply find difficult. In any case, patience is certainly something all people can find a very good use of. Something that could probably work wonders, more than turning mice into siopao (sorry about that). Who would refuse the power to endure something difficult without much complaint?

“Something difficult” could mean, knowing yourself, finding your direction and purpose It could also mean enduring people’s nuances (your wife’s nagging may just be her way of showing she cares, husbands must be laughing; your boss’s seemingly unreasonable demands; your best friend’s mood swings; your mom’s rigid discipline, etc.). Perhaps this “something difficult” could be persevering in your one true passion and continuously improving your craft with a good amount of steadfastness.

Then again, patience could simply be about living your life through all its complexities.

Even when you seem to run in circles, the idea remains encouraging: “In time, grass will become milk.” (april 2006)

repost: got something in your eye?

let's talk about tears.

luha (ni nick joaquin)...larnes (ni voltaire)...lacrime (ni machiavelli)...lagrima (ni miguel de cervantes)...

lacrimal excretion/product...(ni Meredith Grey/Gregory House/ Dooogie Howser)

tears of joy, tears of frustration, tears of pain and grief, tears of anxiety, tears of denial, tears of unknown origin (idiopathic tears?), crocodile tears (luha ng buwaya)...

tears for fears (hehe)...

When was the last time you had a good cry?

Cry.



Crayola (ika nga ni Charvie).



Perhaps tears and crying aren't all that bad. After a tiring day, you go to some place closest to what may be your sanctuary, slump your end and just cry it out. May be you're overwhelmed by bottled-up emotions. Is it inexplicable gratitude, a nagging feeling of unworthiness, or a persistent unsatisfied yearning?

Whichever causes your tearducts to hyperactivate, a good cry will always be as soothing as your favorite drink-- calming to the nerves. Of course, eye-lubrication is already a given. Just don't over do it.

There are certain things, important instances, and significant people, who deserve your precious tears, if it could be helped, use sparingly, or only when deserved.

Tomorrow's Wednesday...in two days, the week will be over... and you are happy.

Teary happy.

repost: anonymity

i know somebody who's good at recycling. not for the environment but something else that should not be recycled (hmmm...) :-D anyway, as i have some free time today, i read through my previous posts, the much older ones, and will repost some, hehe. para sa mga wala ring magawa sa kasalukyan.

i enjoy reading my previous entries (kahit na yun mga wala pang multiply) because it brings me back to that particular ay i was writing it. (tingnan ninyo, friendster pa ang uso rito, hehe)

this one is on anonymity...

***

there are certain things you wish to do in anonymity.

you're probably thinking acts of goodwill and charity; perhaps these are the more conventional righteous answers. but i'm pretty sure there are many other things you are dying to do anonymously.

• think friendster. "view page anonymously". there are those who even open a mole-account for their stalking-sprees. that is if they do not hack their sister's account and use it to view stalkee pages without restraint. (who's guilty and who thinks he/she is the victim? hehe)
• remember the "what will you do if you can be invisible for a day" icebreaker question? common answers are: follow somebody you really like around (still a stalker-related-activity); sneak into...(wait a sec, it's getting pretty obvious how one can be too familiar with all these stalking ideas, haha!); eat all the comfort food you can get your tummy for free; stalk Gregory House (and we're back to stalking...hehe).
• realizing your cartoon/anime-voice-talent-dream-job. when one is behind a different character, he/she must feel like it is okay to set oneself free from inhibitions. who would have thought that your timid high school seat mate was the voice that made mojacko and a string of other characters on tv?
• ever posted a secret in post me a secret?

the more meaningful acts of kindness one wishes to do in anonymity are brimming with nobility, but the trivial ones can get candidly funny.

even if this one's the corniest joke, just for the purpose of closing this entry, (hinila pa ito sa grade two archives sa stc): "nay, may nakita akong writer ang galing galing, ang dami na ng naisulat." "talaga? sino?" "kilala niyo po ba si anonymous?" -- the composer of this joke chose to stay anonymous.

muni muni na naman

i put together pictures of my friends from upm. i was laughing when i noticed that most of them were taken either at robinson's manila (di na namin masyado inabot yun bagong midtown) or inside my room when i was working in up. at madalas, may pagkain hehehe.

ang bilis lang ng panahon. most of them will soon be doctors. may isa pa nga kong batchmate na pumasa na ng bar exams. from public health undergrad nag law at attorney na ngayon. meron naman enjoying himself with his music and epidemiology.

ako, heto lagi na lang nagmumuni-muni...hehe...

sa dulo ng bahaghari

we all know that rainbows are often seen when sunshine follows after the rain. (from wikipedia, it says, that "rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind a person at a low altitude angle (on the ground)." its basic underlying scientific principle is refraction, which i will no longer talk about hehe :-)

we've always had occasional rain showers here. i do not really know if there is a distinct dry and wet season here in sg. last february 25, after one of the afternoon rain showers we had a little show in the sky. here are the pictures of the "light spectacle" in our otherwise uneventful campus at NTU. (but no, LIFE at NTU is not uneventful afterall...the week after, there were two consecutive suicides--a foreign student and a research staff--both males.)






what is there at the end of the rainbow? in irish folklore, they say it is where the leprechaun keeps his secret pot of gold. in reality, what the rainbow brings us is a little more than a pot of gold. it brings a sense of awe about the simple beauty that surrounds us--one that we simply have to be in the right place at the right time to be able to see.

we sure experience occasional "rain showers" in our lives as well. some even have to battle huge storms. but we can always find comfort in looking forward to the next time the sun shines (because it surely will shine again) and even unexpectedly bring something beautiful, just like the rainbow.

i heard it's been raining in manila. akala ko ba summer na?

because today is friday...

i am here to ramble on. :-)

i just finished the paper i am supposed to submit on monday. I knew i'd finish it this week but told my supervisor i will forward it on monday instead (miss lebron: for his perusal, hahaha!). i wanted to have fresh eyes come monday, so i can edit before submitting.

it will be my 7th month here in sg, this coming april 23, and i remain grateful for keeping a job despite the difficult times. i do not love my job. well at least not the kind of love that you feel excited going to work each day. at least i do not (yet) hate it. essentially, the "work" i do is one of the things i love, writing. but the one person i work with dude, man! (randy jackson tone hehehe), can sometimes drain the last drop of positive energy i try to keep.

after you read this, you will appreciate the job that you have and the people you work with more. and you will love your boss even better.

i am under one supervisor, we shall name Apu. and for this particular project, i work alone. by alone, i mean there are no other research assistants (RAs) working with me. Apu has several other projects with different RAs one of whom is my friend.

but i digress. working alone on a project can be good and bad. the good side, i get to set my deadlines and in fairness to Apu, he agrees with the deadlines i set. (at the back of my head, he should, kasi i do most of the work really, even when he's the principal investigator [ PI- not the bad PI ok? :-p ], for the 7 months i've been in the project, he never came up with something you'd expect from a supervisor, not even a proposal for his own project, when i am only hired as a research assistant, not a PI)

i tell my friend our boss is Val, si Val na walang malay. being under a supervisor like him does not help me try to find direction in the things i do. he keeps asking for review papers because we (his RAs) think, he's eyeing a promotion (he recently got demoted) and he can only secure one if he keeps his "paper mill" running. wala siyang malay sa mga projects nya to put it bluntly. he always tells me, there is not enough funds (kasi we have not yet come to make a proposal just yet, which i understand). and evey time he calls for a mtg, it;s the same thing he says. the same empty promises of putting me (us his RAs) up for a scholarship.

what i would like is a supervisor who knows what he wants to accomplish. not someone who leaves his crew to do all the thinking. it makes me wonder, what put him in his place to begin with. they say, it was because he knew politics. he knew the ropes of being with the right people at the right time if you get the drift. i just feel sorry because i know that i am someone who seeks motivation from the people i work with, and i am left with Apu. good luck naman :-)

my friend's predicament is something worse, because she's working with a partner (under Apu too) who steals her ideas and refuses to cooperate. her partner, we shall call Wanda, is the typical colleague whom you might call a suck **s. yun bang ma-bibo. she always took credit for things she didn't do. and Apu is unaware, because he is Val.

I know that I may sound like a ranting brat. there will be those who'd say i'm lucky to have a job. while i do not discount the fact that i am indeed fortunate to have work that pays good (although my friend and I both know we deserve better pay, kasi expereinced na kami ng pumunta rito, lalo na siya they take advantage of the fact that we are foreigners) Our blood boils every time Apu tells us that we only have a general degree (vocational sa atin) and not an honor's degree, when i completed a full degree, and my friend even has her Master's! whatthegrrrr!

i told you that after you read this, you will learn to appreciate your work and your boss even more. i'd say it's really different working with kababayans. kahit papaano, i felt the genuine malasakit of my supervisors in the many jobs i had in the Philippines. some people can think so highly of themselves (Apu does it well) that they end up in a totally different plane.

i am hanging in here. i am asking for more patience because i told myself i wouldn't want to keep changing jobs just because i know there is a lot in store outside this university. i wanted to keep my self still. but then i hear steve jobs' subdued speech echoing over and over, he said: keep looking. don't settle.

for now, i'd say i am settling for a little more time, and keep looking again when the perfect time comes. so help me God. huwaaaaah!


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!!