Requiem, Randy Pausch

Early this year, I learned about Randy Pausch, who, despite being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given about six months to live in August 2007, remained upbeat and positive about his condition. In fact, he gave what he called his "Last Lecture", which focused on his sharing what wisdom he'd picked up over the course of his life, to a packed audience at Carnegie Mellon University, where he'd served as associate professor. It was a great hit, and he was invited to give the Lecture as inspiration to other, notably on Oprah. "The Last Lecture" was published about a month or two ago by Hyperion Press.
It was with great sadness that I learned that Randy had succumbed to the cancer last July 25, 2008, almost a full year since he was diagnosed with the terminal disease. Still, he had managed to survive longer than expected, and spend as much time with his family before he passed on.
Requiem, Randy. Thanks for reminding us what is truly important in life.

You can watch the video of the Oprah lecture here. The complete 76-minute lecture can be found here.

The Dark Knight

I managed to catch “The Dark Knight” last night at The Block. For the longest time, I’d been awaiting this sequel to “Batman Begins” which was a wonderful reboot of the Batman franchise. I’d heard that Heath Ledger was picked to play the penultimate Batman villain, the Joker, which was a surprise, considering that I’d never seen Ledger play anything but hero-types.

Then, I saw the first stills of his version of the Joker, and I was hooked, and eagerly anticipated the movie.

Then, all of a sudden, Ledger died last April from a drug overdose. It threw the entire movie anticipation out of whack. How would his death affect the release of the movie?

The studio responded with an outburst of hype, with all sorts of critics making their predictions, and as PVP’s Scott Kurtz noted, giving out the accolades and awards even before the movie was released.

SPOILER ALERT

It appears that my fears about the movie were unfounded. The movie just blew me away.

Where to start? Perhaps it would be good to comment on the story, which focused on the Batman’s first encounter with the Joker and the relationship with District Attorney Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Two-Face. While dealing with both the Joker and Dent made the movie long (two and a half hours), it was necessary to establish both characters. The Joker was able to project his agenda of madness, and we were able to see Harvey’s descent into his own madness, and emerge as the twisted Two-Face.

What made the story special is that it paid homage to the comics by including various motifs and images that translated the comic panels to the big screen. Key among these are “The Killing Joke” which was Alan Moore’s take on the complicatedly bizarre relationship between the Batman and the Joker, as well as “Officer Down”, where Commissioner Gordon was seriously wounded. The climax where the Batman saves young James Gordon is yet another iconic image from the comic books, although I can’t recall where exactly the story came out.

Of course, liberties have been taken with some of the details, such as how Harvey Dent became Two-Face, but that’s to be expected in a comic-to-movie translation. It’s just not possible to condense all that history and still make sense. The writers, however, make the story running fairly smooth, that one doesn’t really notice all the time that has passed.

Complementing the story was the music, which helped heighten the suspense as well as provided a lot of the emotional backbones to the scenes. Without the music, I think the movie would just be a run-of-the-mill comic book movie.

Of course, the stellar cast helped make the movie special. Heath Ledger, in a posthumous performance, gives his very best into the character of the Joker, literally taking the character, and making it his own. His Joker isn’t the suave and nattily dressed Clown Prince of Crime that we see in the comic books. Ledger’s Joker is more insane and more terrifying with the slapdash of clown paint. With the low-toned wheedling voice, stooped posture and quirky mannerisms, Heath Ledger ceases to be Heath Ledger in the movie, and truly becomes Batman’s arch-nemesis. It’s just tragic that he died so young, film-wise, else I would be looking forward to what other depths of the Joker that Ledger could’ve explored.

Christian Bale is both grim and comic in portraying the dual identities of the Batman, able to affect the grim and gritty costumed vigilante, as well as the foppish Bruce Wayne.

The supporting cast is also great, from Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), to Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent) to Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth) to Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) to Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes, replacing Katie Holmes-Cruise). Oldman and Eckhart are particularly gripping in the climactic scene.

Director Christopher Nolan is careful to give attention both to the villain and the hero, rounding out the characters, and fleshing out the story. In doing so, he has come up with a sequel that is every bit equal in quality to the first movie, if not better. “The Dark Knight” is an instant classic, and worth watching.

Word of warning, though: I didn’t check the rating but it is definitely not for kids, unless you wish to give your children nightmares of Ledger’s Joker.

Judo Musings

One of the benefits of me deciding to participate in the exchange program between the grade school and the high school is that it gives me a chance to think things over, particularly regarding the high school judo club, which I’d founded when I started work as a high school teacher.

Judo has been an integral part of my life, ever since I took up the martial art in order to defend myself against bullies, during the summer between grade school and high school. Aside from the obvious physical benefits, I learned about the spiritual side of judo as I grew in it, and its value system wasn’t distant from Christian and Ignatian values. It required us judoka, (the Japanese term for a practitioner of judo) to be disciplined in our actions, to show respect for our elders, and, above all, to only use judo as a last resort, when all other means have failed.

It was that last bit, hammered into me by my older “brothers” and “sisters”, as well as my sensei in the UP Judo Club, that kept me from getting back some of my own from those who had tormented me in grade school. Of course, the mere knowledge that I now knew how to defend myself was probably enough for the bullies to pick on someone else.

Even when I was a junior member in the Club, I always assisted in the teaching of the skills to the new members. It wasn’t surprising, then, that, when I got to college, I wound up spending my free time in the dojo, helping my sensei in her P.E. classes. By doing so, I continued to grow in judo, as it is through teaching that one truly learns.

There was no existing judo club in the high school when I was a student, so I remedied that by starting one when I came back as a teacher. My first members were mostly those who came from my English classes; the practices would be held at the P.E. dojo in the college covered courts.

Soon, as my students became more skilled and experienced, the high school club participated in the various tournaments sponsored by the Philippine Amateur Judo Association (PAJA), with a number of successes. Several continued their training when they became college students, and formed the backbone of what became the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s judo team.

Over the years, the club has had its ups and downs. Often the problem was the acquisition of judo tatami mats; for the two sets the high school had, improper storage led to the irreparable damage to the mats, forcing us to adjust the training time and time again. Despite this, the judo club has endured.

Now, however, the problem is within me, as I find my passion for judo on the wane. Maybe I’m getting older, or maybe it’s just not possible for me to continue my own training, due to either time constraints or other more pressing priorities that I have to attend to. Whatever the reason, around two or three years ago, I found myself asking whether I still had the desire to continue moderating the club. I would take each year one at a time, often musing during the year that it would be my last. But then, I would think of my students and who would replace me, and decided at the end of the year to come back for another year of training.

But now that I’m in the grade school, as part of the exchange program contract, I’m not the moderator of the high school judo club for the first time in seventeen years. Part of me is actually glad, for now, separated as I am, I have a chance to do some discernment and reflection as to what would be best for me and the club. Maybe I can rediscover what it was that made me passionate about judo as I go through this school year. Anything’s possible.

Sulpicio Must Pay

So far, these are the main facts swirling about the embattled Sulpicio Lines:

• The owner have filed suit against almost everybody connected with the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars: against Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) for allegedly failing to inform the ferry of the approaching typhoon; against Del Monte Philippines for allegedly failing to inform Sulpicio Lines about the dangerous cargo of endosulfan, which was loaded onto the Princess of the Stars; and against the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), for allegedly holding an illegal and biased investigation. The last suit has since been junked in court.
• According to Lloyd's of London, a prestigious insurance firm, Sulpicio Lines has been involved in 45 accidents dating back to 1980, with seven instances of sinking.
• Thus far, during the Congressional inquiry into the matter, the focus was on the supposed failure of the various government agencies to prevent this tragedy; the inquiry has yet to grill the owners of Sulpicio Lines.
  

From the looks of it, owners of Sulpicio Lines will continue to attempt to wriggle out of this predicament, banking on either socio-political allies to shield them from liability, or eventual public indifference, especially if another hot news event occurs. And, despite the fact that they have the blood of thousands on their hands (adding up the various tragedies for which Sulpicio Lines' ships have been responsible), the owners will sleep soundly, knowing that insurance will take care of the indemnity of the victims' families, and that those few cases that will be filed in court, will be buried under years of litigation. In fact, for the previous tragedies they've caused, only a few cases have already been decided, and these have taken 10-20 years. Thus, it looks like Sulpicio Lines will be able to continue their merry path of drowning their customers, if not in Philippine waters, then in Philippine courts.

It is important for us that we don't let ourselves be lulled by these irresponsible owners. We owe it to the victims to let the owners know that we believe that they are responsible for this and other tragedies.

Steps must be taken so that tragedies like this will stop. The first step is to nail Sulpicio Lines down in court, and find them liable as they should be. Next, the various cases involving the victims of previous sinkings must be speedily expedited, if possible.

Congress, which has been lacking in upgrading and updating our maritime laws, must pass laws with stricter restrictions and sanctions against erring companies. It must clarify the roles of the Coast Guard and Marina, so that the finger-pointing of responsibility will stop.

Most importantly, the President must exercise political will and get all of this done during her term, instead of dropping it off on the lap of the next administration. Otherwise, the owners of Sulpicio Lines will see that they can get away with murder.


Other interesting commentaries on the issue:

Do We Still Have a Few Good Men? by William Esposo

From badly-run, Sulpicio Lines now borders on madly-run by William Esposo

Sulpicio has own law of the sea by Amando Doronilla

MV Scandalous - Inquirer Editorial, July 14, 2008

Sucking up to Sulpicio - Inquirer Editorial, July 13, 2008

Ateneo on a Roll

After three games, it’s clear that the favorite for this year’s UAAP men’s basketball tournament has to be the Ateneo Blue Eagles. After three games, they’ve already faced two tough foes, both of them being the finalists in last year’s tournament, La Salle, which won the championship, and University of the East (UE), which had swept the elimination round prior to being beaten by La Salle.

I managed to catch the final two quarters of yesterday’s match with UE, and was impressed by the tenacity of the defense, as well as the size of the Ateneo players. While the UE Warriors put up a good fight, Ateneo managed to keep them at bay down the stretch, winning 63-58. Rabeh al-Husseini, in particular, was a force to reckon with, scoring 18 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. Prized Ateneo rookie Ryan Buenafe showed a lot of composure and grit, playing hard and gutsy basketball.

It’s still a long way off to the championship, but if the Blue Eagles and their coach Norman Black can keep from getting complacent, with the last three games as evidence, it’s likely that Ateneo will be in the thick of the fight for the crown.

Speculative Fiction 100

About a week ago, one of my friends posted a list of a hundred books that one should read. The list is nothing new, as I’m willing to bet that there are dozens of those lists circulating, each one with its own take on what makes up necessary reading.

Going through my gaming collection, I stumbled across InQuest Gamer# 35, wherein the staff lists down their 100 books/series of the best speculative fiction ever; the series are in quotes. Keep in mind that this is 10 years ago, so you may want to add your own favorites to the collection.

I’m posting the list below, and the rules remain the same:

1. Boldface those books/series that you have already read.
2. Underline those books/series which you loved.
3. Italicize those books/series which you want to read.

Enjoy.

1. “The Lord of the Rings” – J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “The Chronicles of Amber” – Roger Zelazny – Only the first book (so far)
3. “Ender” – Orson Scott Card – Only the first book (so far)
4. Neuromancer – William Gibson
5. “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever” – Stephen R. Donaldson
6. “Foundation” – Isaac Asimov
7. Dune – Frank Herbert
8 “Elric” – Michael Moorcock
9. The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
10. 1984 – George Orwell
11. “Hyperion” – Dan Simmons
12. The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
13. Tigana – Guy Gabriel Kay
14. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
16. The Sword of Shannara – Terry Brooks
17. The Anubis Gates – Tim Powers
18. Lightning – Dean Koontz
19. “The Uplift Trilogy” – David Brin
20. Ringworld – Larry Niven
21. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
22. “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” – Fritz Leiber
23. A Princess of Mars – Edgar Rice Burroughs
24. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
25. The Stand – Stephen King
26. Le Morte d’Arthur – Sir Thomas Malory
27. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
28. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress – Robert Heinlein
29. Watership Down – Richard Adams
30. Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
31. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
32. “Helliconia” – Brian Aldiss
33. “The Book of the New Sun” – Gene Wells
34. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
35. Mindkiller – Spider Robinson
36. Blood Music – Greg Bear
37. The Green Mile – Stephen King
38. Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice
39. Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein
40. “The Chronicles of Narnia” – C.S. Lewis
41. The Illuminatus! Trilogy – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
42. Watchers – Dean Koontz
43. The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
44. Emphyrio – Jack Vance
45. The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
47. Mythago Wood – Robert Holdstock
48 . Animal Farm – George Orwell
49. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
50 . “The Wheel of Time” – Robert Jordan
51. It – Stephen King
52. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
53. Timescape – Gregory Benford
54. “Pern” – Anne McCaffrey
55. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
56. Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett
57. “Fionavar” – Guy Gavriel Kay
58. “Earthsea” – Ursula Le Guin
59. “2001” – Arthur C. Clarke
60. “Xenogenesis” – Octavia Butler
61. A Fire Upon the Deep – Verner Vinge
62. Conan – Robert E. Howard
63. “Mars” – Kim Stanley Robinson
64. Midnight at the Well of Souls – Jack L. Chalker
65. A Spell for Chameleon – Piers Anthony
66. “The Gap” – Stephen R. Donaldson
67. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain
68. Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat – Harry Harrison
69. The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
70. “Dark Elf” – R.A. Salvatore
71. West of Eden – Harry Harrison
72. A Fine and Private Place – Peter S. Beagle
73. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
74. Dying Inside – Robert Silverberg
75. “Dragonlance” – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – but only the first three trilogies were good
76. “Lensman” – E.E. “Doc” Smith
77. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
78. The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
79. Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
80. “Space Trilogy” – C.S. Lewis
81. The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
82. Gun, With Occasional Music – Jonathan Lethem
83. “Lyonesse” – Jack Vance
84. Catspaw – Joan Vinge
85. Crystal Express – Bruce Sterling
86. The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
87. To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer
88. The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris
89. Downbelow Station – C.J. Cherryh
90. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
91. The Songs of Distant Earth – Arthur C. Clarke
92. “The Four Lords of the Diamond” – Jack Chalker
93. “Swords” – Fred Saberhagen
94. Way Station – Clifford Simak
95. The Kraken Wastes – John Wydham
96. Snow Crash – Mark Stephenson
97. The High Crusade – Poul Anderson
98. Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll
99. Carrion Comfort – Dan Simmons
100. The Postman – David Brin

Already I can see several books/series that I would’ve liked to have added to this list. They include:

“A Song of Fire and Ice” – George R.R. Martin
“Discworld” – Terry Prachett
“Alvin Maker” – Orson Scott Card
“Harry Potter” – J.K. Rowling
“Prydain Chronicles” – Lloyd Alexander
A Swiftly Tilting Planet – Madeleine L’Engle

Quick Hodgepodge

Yep, it's been a while since my last post, mostly due to the fact that I concentrated on doing other things, particularly checking the various quizzes of my students. Aside from that, I'd been suffering from writer's block, as nothing really jumped up at me to get me going and writing.

* * *

It's not like there's been a lack of topics lately, though. The Ateneo men's basketball team managed to put away a hard-playing La Salle team, to start off this year's campaign to capture the crown, which has eluded coach Norman Black since his arriving at the Ateneo.

In addition, Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Rina Jimenez-David wrote in her July 1 column that the Ateneo fans apparently taunted UST fans with banners saying that UST's tuition was only the Ateneans' allowance. Jay Nacino, a classmate of my brother, wrote a letter to the Inquirer, saying that Jimenez-David had erred, that another school was responsible for the banner.

Having watched the UAAP games on TV, I'm not in a position to judge, but I know that Ateneo officials would come down hard on any Atenean doing such a thing; when former Blue Eaglet BJ Manalo was playing his first game for La Salle, Ateneo officials immediately ordered offensive banners questioning Manalo's loyalty to be taken down. If Jimenez-David can show proof of what she wrote, then fine, but if not, then she should retract what she wrote and apologize.

* * *

In the national level, Sulpicio Lines' owners appear to be doing everything possible to avoid being tagged with the liability of its biggest ship capsizing during the fury of typhoon 'Frank', by throwing lawsuits left and right, its latest target being Del Monte Philippines, for allegedly failing to inform them that their 'rush cargo' was composed of the dangerous pesticide endosulfan. They've also filed suit against weather bureau PAGASA, calling it negligent for not informing them about the storm's shift in path, as well as filed a motion to stop the ongoing Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) investigation, saying it is illegal and inquisitory.

I think the more the owners try to shrug off responsibility and liability, the more they look guilty. While I do not agree with rumors saying that the government might take over the shipping firm, I believe that the owners of Sulpicio Lines should be punished harshly, considering that this is their fifth ship to sink in the span of two decades. If they get off lightly, then there will likely be more sea tragedies in the future.

Books!

Found this on Tin's site:

The directions are simple:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien – shouldn’t this be 3 books?
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling <-- shouldn't this count as 7 books?
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - Only the Gospels, Genesis and Revelations
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - some of the tragedies
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis – shouldn’t this be 6 books
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Isn’t this already part of the Chronicles?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Which one?
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo