...PSITS Overload...

Last December 13 and 14 was the annual PSITS Sportsfest or Philippine Society of Information Tecnhnology Students held at Brokenshire College. From the previous years, University of Mindanao, Matina Campus and University of Immaculate Conception was the host campuses of the said event. And from this years 13 campuses, including my own university and the newly added ICT recognize college, the Holy Cross of Davao College, started the PSITS Sportsfest as an exciting one. Though our school didn't really participate this year.

PSITS Opening Ceremony started with a parade. Supposedly, the parade will start at 8 am, but it started around 9:30 or 10. The school's open field and the amphitheater was really awesome. Especially the amphitheater. The stairs, the landscaped benches, and especially the court. It wa really huge and amazing. Para kaming nag-hiking, pababa nga lang. The place, it was perfect. Mas nice pa siya sa forest something ng UM Matina, though the place in UM Matina was also great. Kuya Angelo hosted the ceremony. And by 1 pm, let the game begins. Super daming schools, and ang daming cute as well. Joke. We watched the basketball game between the Brokenshire College and the Davao Del Norte State College. Brokenshire won the game. And I wasn't expecting that I will going to see my friendster friends who are studying in Brok that time. Mas cute sila in person. Joke. UM Matina and UIC followed that game. UM defeated UIC in which our crush from last years PSITS played. Then Lady Vu found her long lost soulmate. A good player of UM. And the wackiest event happened to us that time is when her crush passes by and I teased Lady Vu to him. Parang na-liver spread ata yung guy. He keeps on smiling and smirking on us. Funny. Then that time, hindi na mapalagay si Lady. She wants to know the game but unfortunately, hindi nya nakuha. Yesterdays ITE night was fabulous. Sa daming participants on each event, as in super exciting. Though boring yung ibang participants. The best part of the night was the MTV spoof and the modern dance. Funny masyado yung taga UM and yung bakla who climbed sa taas ng ring and pose their at the end of the song. Maganda man ding yung iba, but I really cant forget how fast the gay climbed the top. And nung time na bumababa na siya, tumataas yung palda niya and we can see his white briefs underneath. That was fun. And during the modern dance competition, the crowd favorite was from STI college. Their dance was really entertaining and at the same time, they really danced very good. Especially the thin guy and the tallest guy in the group who really looks funny on the floor. Whew. How I wish I can see something like that in our Intramurals.

This years PSITS overloaded with fun, excitement, and new found crushes. Hahahaha. Though I was really pissed off by my other classmates who didn't even care to attend the event, okei na lang. Sa clearance lang kami magkita. Can't wait for next years PSITS.

...what comes from your mind with the word...

Christmas..

The month is already December. There are only few days and its already Christmas. We can hear Christmas songs in the radio in an early morning. We can see Christmas decorations not only in malls, but also in our own houses as well. We can see children roaming houses for caroling, and I have never done that during my early age.

But what really Christmas is all about? Is Christmas all about the decorations? Is it all about the gifts or presents? Is it all about the firecrackers and noisiness? What Christmas is really all about?

I attended a fellowship yesterday. One friend invited me and I decided to join. The speaker preaches about Christmas. Since it is in the air right now. He asked us about what comes from our mind when we hear the word Christmas? Then I answered on my own that Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. The other answered about foods, gifts, parties, firecrackers and etc. Then the speaker replied to us by saying that if Christmas is just all about the presents, gifts and parties, would you not be disappointed if you buy a gift that is worth P300 and you received a gift worth P10? Actually, the price is really exaggerate, but my answer would really be a yes.Honestly, I will be disappointed by that. Then he said that Christmas is not about material things, but it is a mission destruction. At first I didn't get the meaning of the phrase. Does that means, the earth will come to an end during Christmas day? A low-level IQ explanation about the meaning of it. Then he stated that it is a mission destruction because it has its own meaning. There are 3 questions for that phrase. The first one, what will be destroyed? The answer would definitely it will destroy the work of evil, and what we called sin. The second question, who would destroy it? Who else? Who comes to the world to save us? Who forgives even though we commit mistakes. No other than, Jesus Christ itself. And the last question, who have the power to feel it? Those people who have faith and believes in the promises of God. So my answer would somehow be an approval of some correctness, but it lacks something. Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ, to save us from every evil. Remember John 3:16, "For God so love the world that he gave us his only son, Jesus Christ. That those who believes in him, shall not die, but have an everlasting life. Amen."

Sometimes, we tend not to know the true meaning of Christmas because we are blinded by the worldly things around us. We tend to be busy shopping new things, buying gifts, and preparing the food we will eat for that day. And if that are the things that reminded us about Christmas, how about the people lives in the streets and orphanage? And how about when we are in our deep crisis that time, meaning the people behind that can't afford to celebrate Christmas? Isn't it nice to keep in our hearts that Christmas is all around us. God created us alike his only son. So why not show love and respect to everyone. Hugs and kisses can make one cry with glee. And it can also be a gift that no money can buy. Lets just celebrate Christmas on a simple way. The whole family and loved ones together and praise God for giving us his son to save us.

Have a Merry Christmas to everyone!

...AssignMent 3...

In doing strategies or strategic planning, each individual or part of a company that does the planning is really up into a purpose. And what are those purposes in it. “Planning is everything. Plans are nothing”, that is according to Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke. For my understanding about the quote, for me it means that we can really plan for anything. We can directly create or have our planning for ourselves. But in the end, after we have decided the planning, in the end, we can’t really have the activities to do the plan. Like for example here in USEP. Every professional professors and teachers here do have their conference and meeting about the strategic planning for the school, but once it was been designed or talked properly, at the end of the discussion and after the technical paper was made, there are still no implementation for it. The words and discussions are being taken for granted. Meaning, the planning was still useless since it was not been implemented properly.

So what are the purposes of strategic planning? For example, in our own self, we do have dreams and visions in life. Before us able to conquer those dreams and visions, we must first start by step by step process on it. We must have first decided on what our goals to achieve the dream. We must first plan. In strategic planning, especially in businesses and industry, the main purpose of it is to set the overall goals for the business and to develop a plan to achieve them. It involves stepping back from the day-to-day operations and asking where the business is headed and what its priorities should be. For global speaking, there are lots of purposes why strategic planning must be done. First, the purpose of strategic planning is to reduce risks. Planning increases the likelihood of project success by providing insights into the project’s risks. Some projects are so risky that the business may choose not to start once they have learned about the risks. Other projects may contain features whose risks can be contained by early attention. The discussions that occur while estimating raise questions that expose potential dark corners of a project. Next, is to reduce uncertainty. Throughout a project, the team is generating new capabilities about what is inside the business or the company. They are also generating new knowledge—about it, the technologies in use, and themselves as a team. It is critical that this new knowledge be acknowledged and factored into an iterative planning process that is designed to help a team refine their vision. Next, is supporting in the decision making. Plans help the business to make decisions. How does an organization decide whether a particular project is worth doing if it does not have estimates of the value and the cost of the project? Beyond decisions about whether or not to start a project, estimates help them make sure that they are working on the most valuable projects possible. Strategic planning also helps in conveying information. A plan conveys expectations and describes one possibility of what may come to pass over the course of a project. A plan does not guarantee an exact set of features on an exact date at a specified cost. A plan does, however, communicate and establish a set of baseline expectations. Far too often a plan is reduced to a single date, and all of the assumptions and expectations that led to that date are forgotten. In relation with planning supports in decision making, it also acquires establishing trusts. Frequent reliable delivery of promised features builds trust between the developers and the customers. Reliable estimates enable reliable delivery. A customer needs estimates to make important prioritization and tradeoff decisions. Estimates also help a customer decide how much of a feature to develop. Customers are reluctant to make these types of tradeoff decisions early in a project unless the developers’ estimates have proved trustworthy. The other purpose of strategic planning is to improve the chances of reaching desirable possible outcomes, to create the future, not to predict it. In this statement, the business can acquire benefits from it. First, the business or industry is prepared for contingencies that could prevent it from attaining its goals. Since planning is on creating future, and not to predict it, there are consequences listed on the strategic plan. The SWOT analysis may be or should be the basis on preparing the strategic plan. Identifying the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and strength for the future basis of the industry or the businesses. Next, is to prepare a framework for the organization’s orderly growth and progress. Since strategic planning is a short term basis, the organization must identify the framework for there success and progression. The framework also identifies the past standing of the organization so that they can mold a good strategic plan for the next years. Lastly, have a strategy for the allocation of resources in a manner that will allow the organization to meet its goals. Planning is not always about budgeting, planning for the future, and always thinking about what should be done. It is also about how and what are the resources to be used for it. Planning may be implemented along with the resources available or resources that might be available. In planning also, the people around the business must identify what are future technological gadgets to be used aligned in meeting its goals. Other inputs, strategic planning identifies where the organization wants to be at some point in the future and how it is going to get there. The "strategic" part of this planning process is the continual attention to current changes in the organization and its external environment, and how this affects the future of the organization. This form of planning includes: Taking a wide look around at what's going on outside the organization and how it might effect the organization (an environmental scan), taking a hard look at what's going on inside the organization, including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a SWOT analysis), establishing statements of mission, vision and values, establishing goals to accomplish over the next (usually) three years or so, as a result of what's going on inside and outside the organization, identifying how those goals will be reached (strategies, objectives, responsibilities and timelines) Strategic planning determines the overall direction and goals of the organization. Consequently, strategic planning influences numerous aspects of the organization, including what: Products and services will be provided by the business and how those products and services will be designed, organizational design and roles are needed by the organization, performance goals are established for positions throughout the business, board committees should be developed (in the case of corporations), resources are needed to reach those goals, and consequently, how much money is needed to procure those resources -- ultimately, the goals determine the content of various budgets.

There are also challenges in Information Strategic Planning. Here are some as I found in the net that tells the challenges in strategic planning in developing countries. First is data. Finding data is a real challenge because there is available statistics is far below those available in developing countries. Most companies try to keep any financial information and consider them secrets. It is not possible to know the demand in last year of a certain product or service. People are not used to market research and they don’t want to talk to the marketing people. Next are employees. Most employees and managers are not aware about the value of strategic planning and they may consider it waste of time and something that is applicable in developed countries. Followed by owner. Many owners of successful companies believe they don’t need to do strategic planning and they do not know that their success will go one day when there are more competitors or there are changes in the market. Then the manager’s selection. Most company’s managers in developing countries are experts in the technical process of the organization but they are not well educated in management and thus they want to focus on what they know and neglect what they do not know. Accordingly, strategic management does not fall in their area of interest. Then the qualitative analysis. Strategic planning needs a lot of forecasting and qualitative analysis besides the quantitative analysis. Many technical managers are used to neither the qualitative analysis nor the forecasting. The phrase “I am the manager”. The strategy shows a guide for decisions, so, an employee may, sometimes, tell the senior manager that his decision is against the company strategy. Thus the manager avoid having a strategy to keep his freedom to decide whatever he likes. “Analysis” versus “Intuition”. Most people do not think that a manager should do analysis or have done for him they think that some people are talented to take the right decision without doing many calculations or having subordinates make a study for them. The common challenge is the Implementation. To get every manager follow the same strategy is not an easy task. The Investors. Having a clear strategic plan and clear goals for the future (other than increasing sales of the current products) does not affect the stock price because most of the investors do not care about those issues. And lastly, the security. Most managers feel that everything is a secret and obviously they think that no one else should know the strategy and thus no one else should make a study for our strategic plan….and there is no strategy. Maintaining the strategic plan is also a challenge in any sectors of any businesses. Strategic planning, the what and the why of planning, is often overlooked by organizations who concentrate on tactical planning, the how of planning. The resultant business plan is overwhelmed by tactical initiatives and pet projects. Alignment with a strategy to attain the organization’s goals is achieved by accident. Strategic planning is often seen as unnecessary or at times, not even contemplated in an environment benign to the organization, e.g. high levels of market growth or monopoly situations. In my experience, a strategic plan based on basic critical thinking is a precursor to developing a competitive advantage where often none has previously been seen. Flexibility is also a challenge of a business. Not all businesses do have a strategic plan. Like small scale businesses. And mostly strategic plan is a short term planning only. That is because of changing environment. Since we all know that strategic plan can’t be implemented because there is a change, so it’s a challenge to an IT professional who does the research to make his/her research or plan to be useful. The other challenge is the uncertainty. Strategic planning helps a business evaluate market opportunities. To do this effectively, the process includes collecting and analyzing information about the business environment, understanding internal strengths, and developing a set of 'key assumptions'. Optimal strategies are designed based on all of these factors. As the environment changes, so should our plans. One way to assess whether it is time to conduct a new strategic planning process is to check your list of 'key assumptions' on an annual basis to see if anything has changed. The other one is the cost. Big industries and businesses don’t have the problem of cost in regards of improvement in their business. But in small scale business, cost is a great factor. With all the activities that make up running a business, setting priorities in the context of a plan is important. Without a plan, the limited resources of a growing business will tend to be scattered in many directions, netting results that take longer and cost more. The other challenge also is the organization dynamics. An effective planning process will help to get people talking, and ensure that the business owner/CEO benefits from the ideas of his/her team. A good process is designed to build confidence, support and commitment among all involved. Even if only a limited group is included in the process, the completion of a strategic plan provides a great opportunity to communicate the company's direction and core values to employees. The use of an outside facilitator can greatly enhance the effectiveness of a planning process and keep the process on track. There is often a strong tendency of those participating to focus the discussions on today's problems. An outside facilitator can help to broaden thinking and make sure that new ideas and directions are generated.

In our own self as well, we do have a strategic planning that was been planned accordingly. Now, it is our choice on how to implement it, how to maintain it and how to make it flexible in change without putting us into much cost.

...AssignMent 2...

What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and IS plan? 1000 words

Last time during the reporting of the previous reporters, one of them discussed about the problem regarding information systems strategic planning, one of which is that the business plan must be aligned with the strategic plan. So what is a business plan? There are lots of explanations of what is a business plan means. One of those meaning is that a business plan is a written document that details a proposed or existing venture. It will typically explain the vision, current status, expected needs. From the website wikipedia.com, a business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals. The business goals being attempted may be for-profit or non-profit. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on service goals, although non-profits may also focus on maximizing profit. Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan. Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers. External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit's services. For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks. Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans. Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department. Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may also address the project's place within the organization's larger strategic goals. And if we tend to ask the relationship of the business plan and the strategic plan, let’s now define what a strategic plan is.

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors. According to other source, strategic plan is a document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives. It is also a process of comprehensive, integrative program planning that considers, at a minimum, the future of current decisions, overall policy, organizational development, and links to operational plans. And according to the project management club, strategic planning is a basic document for planning of different projects of the programme and their sub-projects. It is based on the content of the Financing Memorandum (FM) and the Monitoring and Evaluation Matrix attached to the Financing Proposal and translates the two documents into detailed operational terms. A satisfactory strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow managers and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally. During our Management Information Systems 1, we have gone doing business plan on a certain company. The information and other facts of that business plan was been discussed accordingly to the in-charge of the said company. Of course, according to our instructor, we may lift up the company or put it down according to what we have decided to do. As what I have stated above, strategic planning must have the SWOT analysis. In to our preparation and to our research about the company, we have then listed some of the weaknesses and strength of the company. In such way we can decide how to build up a company. Actually, we haven’t give our Information Systems Strategic Plan to the company we have chosen. Not because we might cause those troubles, we are sure that the strategic plan we done are according also to their progress.

From the relative discussion of the difference of the two and the similarity and how helpful one to other, we can now define the relationship of the two. As what Hannah has said to her article, strategic planning is part of the business planning. Strategic planning have three question with connections to the business planning. First is what must be done. Next is from whom can we do it. Followed by the question, how can a business excel. From the third question, it can be defined more likely in a question, "How can we beat or avoid competition?". A business plan also acquire those questions from their first approach to the industrial world. So it simply means that the strategic plan is an alignment of the business plan in which it may be a problem on doing strategic plan of a company as well. Strategic planning requires more understanding because this may result on bringing a company down. But more likely, a strategic planning can be a result from a business plan. So the relationship of the two? Business plan is much with the connection of a strategic plan since they are the helpful tool for the improvement of a business.

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration in IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?(at least 1000 words)

Strategic planning must be align with the business plan. Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors. According to other source, strategic plan is a document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives. It is also a process of comprehensive, integrative program planning that considers, at a minimum, the future of current decisions, overall policy, organizational development, and links to operational plans. And according to the project management club, strategic planning is a basic document for planning of different projects of the programme and their sub-projects. It is based on the content of the Financing Memorandum (FM) and the Monitoring and Evaluation Matrix attached to the Financing Proposal and translates the two documents into detailed operational terms. A satisfactory strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow managers and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally. In align with that, strategic plan must be reliable and suitable for the need of the company.

In doing a strategic plan, it is not really known to everyone that there are frustrations that may trigger. Frustrations in a way that it may cause depression and stress to the professionals and users that are doing it. In doing an Information Strategic plan, it is really a must that the user and the professionals doing it must first determine the company’s background and other facts and information that can help and then again be a useful tool for the planning.

Computing systems this era raises high in a short period of time. Though our country is a 5 year behind than those countries abroad, still using internet is a common tool for someone like in communications. And more likely in a business, it is also a trend of using internet and intranet in their operations since it can help progress their company. Now a day, an even small scale business also acquires using internet and computers for their daily routine. That is because it can help them improve their skills and at the same time it can lessen the work load since using computers doesn’t requires much time. Relatively, why I’m discussing those computer trend marketing in such a way, since that industry now a days is a computer based industry, lot of professionals and users must be aware of using computer in such a way that it is one of the basic tools for doing the planning.

As what I have stated in the first question of this slide, during our Management Information Systems 1, we did a strategic planning in one of the pronounce company in the city today. Not only here in Davao is this company well known, also to the other sites of the city. During our discussions with the group, we have decided to have each an individual task. From that then, we can focus on our topic. But that was one of the problems we have encountered. Misunderstanding. That is one of the frustrations we have. We didn’t know what to do and on the other side we don’t know the topics of our other group. At the end of the compilation, the report of one is not related to the report of the other one, and in vice versa. We then realize our mistake after we have compiled the technical paper. So how can we let ourselves give the technical paper to the company we have if there and else we don’t understand what we did, how much more to them. If such case, we are then called to be the professionals who done lousy approach to the planning for the company we are required to have the plan. Then the user also, such a way that there were the people involved in that strategic plan, are then also approach us lousy for the mistake of some persons. Like what I said above, strategic plan must be reliable so that the company must excel in accordance to era.

Another frustration that may trigger in the planning of this IS plan is the time. Time problem is not only for this kind of situation. Even in our other subjects, we do have difficulty in time management. Stress may occur if we hear the word “deadline”. That can cause cramming that can cause also mistakes. Time management may not be a frustration if and when it was been managed accordingly. But also time management requires more budget than of any other. Since this planning is suitable and a provider for the company, there is also a satisfaction that it can really cost big. Like our technical paper before. By committing mistakes, another big cost is at stake.

That frustrations I have stated is only my point of view. Since I have encountered strategic planning before, I have then encountered such frustration things like that. And that frustration I have encountered might then encountered by those professionals.

...An IT ProfessiOnaL...

The greatest dream I want to achieve is to become an IT professional, someday. And I believe that it’s not only me dreaming of becoming one. But then, seeing me of that dream to come true is really a great achievement. More likely, a big satisfaction to myself.

During my pre-school years, as stated in one of my article in my blog, my ambition in life is becoming a nurse. I really don’t know what comes out from my mind that time. Since I’m still six years old that time, idolizing nurses and doctors are really in demand. I’m fond of watching eat bulaga, a noon time show in GMA-5. One of their segments is the “Little Miss Philippines”. And as the cute little girls would answer the question what would you like to be when you grow up? Mostly would answer of becoming a nurse or a doctor someday. Why? It is because they want to help little kids who are poor and can’t afford to go to the doctor for their check-up when they are sick. Isn’t it touching to hear it from a six year old cute little girl? Well, that maybe was my reason why did I want to become a nurse. Then years after, my ambition became a teacher. My grade 1 teacher taught us very well. In reading comprehensively and writing neatly and correctly. She taught us to spell, to count, to make friends with others, and most of all, to discipline ourselves. Every noon, all of us, me and my teacher, go to sleep together. Then in the afternoon, we play together. I really learned a lot from her. And idolizing her makes up my mind of becoming someone like her in the future. Since then, I learned to love teaching too. I’m fond of teaching my nephews and nieces who are younger than me, mostly, Mathematics and Spelling. Well, during those years, I do have higher grades in math. That was my forte. I don’t know what happened now. My dream of becoming a nurse lives through till my high school years. Though, comparing my grade school teachers and my high school teachers, I’ll prefer the grade school ones. But still, I do have a favorite teacher in high school. She was our 4th year physics teacher. She really does love teaching. And like our professor quoted to us last Monday, she lives to teach. We treated her as our adviser though she was not. It is because, she was the one giving us enthusiasm in teaching and encouraging us to graduate at the end of the year with honors. Unlike our adviser who always feels us down and useless. But unfortunately, she died due to her asthma month before our graduation. She did not witness us receiving our diplomas on which we really do think she will be proud of.


What happened? Why I ended up of becoming an IT student? So easy. Joke. During my 4th year in high school, the technology trend is really in demand. Meaning, becoming one of the future technologist is not one of my ambition. I did not even dream of becoming a scientist, technologist pa? But, studying in USeP is one of my dream on which it did came true. So hearing news and intrigues all around our place, I did try to be one of that lucky enrollee to be enrolled in this course. That was fortunately. When I was still freshmen student, those higher years are always threatening us. They always are telling us that we really do pick a wrong choice. Maybe yes. But now, it’s a big no! Dealing with this course is really a challenge for me. Especially during those years who I thought that quitting is the best way. But for me, quitting makes me a loser. And I don’t want to be called a loser on the path I chose. So what now? 4 years in IC and in USEP was a destiny. Maybe, I was destined to be here. Destined of suffering such sufferings. Joke. Now, as a third year, regular IT student, char, I’m decided to go my way. Pursue this tragic course, at first, is one of the greatest achievement a can have. Since, I suffered a lot from this course, what more can me happy? Of course, to see my parents happy as well. At last, their only daughter would graduate. And can pursue the dreams they want to have after being disappointed on my 2 elder brothers who got married at an early age.

So what’s next? After graduation, work. And what work that can be? Since this is still a dream, and there’s no bad thing about that, why not dream big. And that would be seeing me as an IT professional, who works in a prestigious company. The name would not matter as long as it is well known company. Maybe google or Microsoft. That would do. Hahahahaha. Dream big. Isn’t it? 10 years from now, maybe. And how do I see myself 10 years from now? Since my dream is to become an IT professional, maybe I’m working in my dream company. Since I defined myself worthy of it. Maybe, I have eyeglasses, working on a company with working fee enough or big enough for me and my family. Maybe at this moment, I’m doing my other sidelines, doing programs and research for big companies too. Or maybe, I’m at my house, doing those jobs I haven’t finished in work. Or maybe, I’m at overtime right now doing researches, design, presentation for the report the next day, or doing paper works. In other words, I’ll be working the whole through out. And what are my strategies on achieving those big plans on mine? First, I will strive even more on my studies. In my observation about myself for the past years, I really like planning and dreaming big. Actually, that’s not bad, isn’t it? The only bad thing about that is that I’m not doing anything. Like in my programming subjects, I always admire my regular classmate and my other classmates since they are good in programming. And I keep on telling them that programming is hard. Hard, hard, hard, and nothing to do because it’s hard. And I keep on depending on the teacher’s points of view and hand-outs. That’s what I observed to myself, until now. Then I told myself that they are good because they keep on practicing. I always keep depending on our laboratory class, not even practice it before the lab. Or even after lecture class for that case I will know how the programs run that way. And every time we do have machine problems, more likely, I practice and do it on my own, but if I can’t finished it on my first time, what pops out from my mind is that my other classmates already finished it. I’ll just copy it and change the variable names. Even in written quiz. If I’m not on the mood to study, I just tell myself that I’ll just sit beside to those who study the topic. Just finding it out that I’m not learning. Though, at first I am, but at the end, I’ll end up not even remembering what our lesson before. Like last semester, in our database 3. Though I did something, honestly, I still don’t know the other codes for it. Since that time, I promised to myself that I will study hard, even harder, as long as when my brain can function and how long as it can takes. Then I’ll practice more. I will not depend only on my teacher’s points of view. What I also observed is that I can stay longer in internet doing nothing rather than practicing what I have learned during the lesson. Other thing is that I will have time management. Every year, every semester, I always pass assignments on time. But then, before that, there was no enough sleep then cramming takes place. We always are doing that in our programming subjects. We always are doing that every last minute. And finding ourselves haggard the next day. Though, some of those programming subjects really need to be “puyatan” in tagalog. Then, as what I mentioned above, self reliance. We can’t always trust anybody, or somebody. We can always trust ourselves. And I believe in the saying, let man do his job, and God will do the rest. So if I just trust myself, do my best out of everything and in God’s will, I know I can survive anything. Then, do have confident. I do have self esteem at many times, but when pressure and fear comes my way, I’m becoming a negative thinker. I do have fighting spirit as well, but as what I said, fear really does over takes. Next, have focus. I always have hard time on self focus. Since there are lots of other things that enters our mind. That’s one of my main objective in life right now, “first things first!”.

At what I have written her, one thing is for sure, I’ll better change myself. Change for the best or worst. It depends on if I followed what I have written and planned or I just taken it for granted. I remember the homily of our professor last Monday, we planned to fail. Hope not. It’s just a threat to us that if we just keep on planning and not doing those we planned, maybe our professor was right, we just planned to fail. And remembering what he told us that it is not only me who failed, it is also our parents. And I really don’t want to fail my parents. After failing from my elder brothers, I don’t want to fail them for the last hope they have. Though I know that it would not happen just happen that easily, but at least, I didn’t failed them. And I will keep my promise of not failing them.

Dreaming big is like reaching for a distant star. But who knows, nothing is impossible in this world. Even Apollo 11 reaches the moon, who knows, I can also reach that distant star. Not only for me, but also for my family.

...CryinG mOmentz, Agen...

Hmmmmmm.. Lots of my friends know about all the guys I loved. Charmus.. Well actualy, they also know about a guy who I fell inlove with even if we only lasted for 10 days?? Hmmmm.. Yah.. I know that you will tell me that I'm a not so born stupid or what. Well, that's me. Simply an emotional girl who tends to love easily and will cry for a guy until someone replaces that guy. Joke. Ewan ko. This is the second guy who I cried for months. And to think, 10 days lang kami. Well, ganyan talaga ang life. Hmmm. The first guy I cried like this was my first love. And he died last year. From that day I never believed in first love never dies. Joke again. Well, what made up my mind writing some corny stuffs here bout that guy?? Hmmmmm. Let me think. Its just I saw his picture from the net. Toinks. Picture lang yan ha.. Actually, we have seen each other about 6 months after we broke up. We broke up March 18 of this year. That was the birthday of one of my closest friend. Were in the church at Obrero that time. We are about to witnessed the presentation of our friends also. Hmmmm. During the time he texted goodbye to me, lumabas ako ng simbahan and keep searching for him. Napagkamalan ko pang siya yung guy na malapit lang sa akin. I went back to the church disappointed and without any sounds, I cried. I want to cry everything inside me that time. Char. But really, ang sakit ng heart ko that time. And untiol now feel ko pa talaga. Toinks. Hahahaha. Just joking because really, my tears. Lalabas na talaga luha ko. To think na talagang picture lang yun ha. Nakita ko na. I remember following the statement I have stated above. That was October. We were doing our final project in one of our subjects. Then I decided that I must go home. I went home at 1 am. Then my fellow friends offered na ihatid ako sa may kanto. Then unexpectedly, he was there. With his friends as well. Hmmm. My heart really pumps hard. And feel ko talaga na lalabas na puso ko. Walang biro. Joke. Aw. Then, as I went home, I keep thinking for his face. It changed really. Though unexpected ang pagkikita naming yun, ewan. Parang ang tagal ng oras na andun xa, waiting for a ride home. Wish ko nga that time na hindi na lang siya umuwi. And I really wished that time na mag-usap kami. But that never happened. During the time ng papauwi nako. With a friend na inihatid ako sa bahay, hindi ko napigilan ang umiyak. And that cry was really painful. I guess. Shock talaga friend ko that time. Char. After that, I told myself na baka yun na ang last. Pero bakit until now?? Hahai.. Miss him guro. And I admit to myself na until now I'm still inlove with him. Though, tagal na nun, pero wala pa ring pumapalit. Char uie.

I'm okei na.. Hindi na ako naiiyak. Nakz naman..

...Get DisTracted...

I didn't come to school today. Since we only had one class this afternoon and it will only take 1 hour for it, and I'm not sure if our professor would really meet us. So I decided that I will not go to school and just work with my assignments for tomorrow. But unfortunately, I was been distracted by my colds. I was sneezing all time. And it was kinda of boring day today that's why I dont like surfing the net as well.

By the way, I would like to tell you about my dream last night. Since I didn't come to school, I haven't had time to talk to my friends about the scary dream I had. Yesterday, there was one news about a showbiz personality who died because of "bangungot". Then in my dream, it wasn't me who died. It was my friend. I saw her lying on the coffin. And everyone was crying except me. Then I found out that I was wearing red that night. According to my mom, if you will wear any red dress in a "lamay", it means that you are happy since that someone died. But in reality, if that someone will die, I will definitely cry. Since that someone was been part of my life and she became a bestfriend to me even for a short period of time. And I really dont want to lose her. Who is she?? Well, nevermind. It was just a dream either. And according to old sayings, until now, many of us believe in this that dreams are opposite to reality. And I hope that dream would only be a dream.

Hmmmm. I'd better go back surfing the net. Whether I like it or not.