Hazard Maps Seminar @UP NIGS 12052015

Last December 6, I attended a seminar which was forwarded to me by a former ASP classmate. When I first received the invitation, I couldn't inform H immediately if I could make it since that Saturday was already allotted for the office's center-wide Christmas party, something I shouldn't miss since the theme is Rock Music and all of my fave rock bands are sure to be reinterpreted in the different teams' performances. In the end, my love for maps prevailed. I also wasn't too keen on going to Pampanga to party all night.

It was also the last day of a personal project so I decided to just skip the party in favor of this seminar. It doesn't disappoint. Maybe because I am neither an architect nor an urban planner nor a geologist that's why I was happy to have learned a lot. Because mapping is integral in archaeology simply because spatial analyses are also involved, I was super interested in this seminar. It also gave me a chance to know other uses for mapping and why it is suddenly becoming the "in" thing especially in matters involving disaster risk management and mitigation.

Finally happy to see the great Dr. Mahar Lagmay in person (so I made sure to get a fullbody shot!). He talked about Project NOAH, what the project has done so far and upcoming projects which I am very excited about. I hope I can be part of this project. It looks so cool and I have visited their den in NIGS once when we were toured there. And I so love their sophisticated equipment!!! I regret not taking up Geology in college. #cries

Introduced as Dr. Mahar Lagmay's righthand man, Mr. Oscar Lizardo is Project NOAH's Chief Technology Officer who talked about how the average person can use the database developed by Project NOAH and how to leverage the NOAH app.

Arch. Geomilie Guittap discusses the oft-ignored part in disaster management: how to deliver relief goods to affected communities. Hers is an interesting talk that draws parallelism and notes differences between commercial supply chain and humanitarian relief chain. The speaker is someone I would really love to connect to since she is confidently smart with a beautiful heart. (Inspired by Pia Wurtzbach's response in the recently concluded Ms. Universe Pageant.)

Arch. Nicasio Espina Jr. talked about how risk and hazard maps influence design and urban planning and talked a lot about the CLUP (Comprehensive Land Use Plan). While it is cool that we have the CLUP, I am actually far more interested in how CLUP is used, or is it just another theory sadly unused in practice? (I love hs curly hair! And he resembles Hiro Mizushima, the actor who played the lead character in Kamen Rider Kabuto...)

And so spending the whole day in my beloved alma mater, what else is there to regret? Definitely nothing. Parties end when they end, but seminars make possible the beginning of something wonderful because great ideas are shared on the floor for the benefit of mankind.

That ^, and finally knowing a little bit more about urban planning. 

Tinder

I've been hearing talk of the dating app Tinder even in the office. Some of my officemates have become Tinder buddies so last night I decided to join in the fray. I had my reservations of course,  since the app requires access to many things once installed in one's phone and that is a red flag for me. 

Still it won't hurt to try. I can remove the app anytime anyway, which I did as soon as I arrived home at midnight. So yeah, my Tinder life was shortlived, like a candle in the wind, blown out too soon. I just find it boring to look at photos of men and tap x or heart. Sounds stupid and a total waste of time. The app is based on the assumption that physical appearance is the first thing that catches one's attention. I'm afraid I'm more interested in the non-physical aspects of a person. So goodbye Tinder. I don't need you in my life.

That is not to say that I am bashing the app totally. I know of some who are happily with their current partners thanks to the app. While yes it provides meetup opportunities for singles, one really has to be very cautious since we're living in difficult and dangerous times and well, players are way too many in this planet so I am sticking to my old-fashioned self and explore possibilities with real people I meet in the physical world.

Siem Reap, Cambodia 0112172014

We arrived at Siem Reap around 5AM, still sleepy despite the comfortable bus ride we had with Giant Ibis. We went straight to Hak's House where we had booked 5 nights. The hotel was small and there were mosquitoes about due to the place's proximity to an almost dried up canal, but we had a pleasant stay there. The owner Hak was accommodating and very approachable. Did I say that I love their version of French bread with tomatoes and cheese? And to think I'm not even a sandwich person.

That same day, we headed to Apsara Angkor Hotel to register. There were already a lot of people. Due to lack of sleep, I dozed off a number of times during the plenary, which was sad because the speakers talked of the development of Cambodian archaeology. From the explorations by Westerners (French mostly) to the abrupt halt in archaeological endeavors in the Pol Pot regime, to the revisions in curriculum in archaeology, the plenary session was very informative for me since I don't remember including Cambodian archaeology in our class discussions.

The next four days saw us attending different sessions based on our research interests. There are of course boring lectures but I was lucky to have attended really really interesting lectures on archaeometry and cultural heritage management. I especially loved the presentations by Japanese and Chinese scholars and I realized that their contributions in archaeology are largely overshadowed by Western achievements primarily because of language barriers. Most of the presenters couldn't speak English very well, but looking at the flow of their research methodology, one can say that they are at par, if not better than most Westerners.

I was also fortunate to have conversed with some Chinese professors. When I asked them if they were going to present a paper, they said yes and invited me to their session. I was elated to hear that their session focused on scientific analyses of artifacts, something I have taken a liking to. The use of the latest technology to analyze artifacts is just appealing to me who loves doing lab work so much. (At that point, I wondered again why I didn't pursue a science course... Sigh! I could have dabbled in many experiments!)

Wednesday was reserved for a whole day tour in the Angkor Wat Complex. The intricately detailed carvings are just super awesome that they left me speechless.Many questions formed in my mind, like how many people built the magnificent structures, how they knew which material to use, which technology was available at that time, what led the rulers to commission the construction of such a massive temple complex. I also wonder how the laborers fared in the whole project. Were they slaves subjected to cruel whips or were they highly skilled craftsmen who join together under a ruler, or a mixture of both?

It was in Angkor Wat where a friend and I met a Chinese American girl who was travelling Mainland Southeast Asia all alone. We chatted a bit and afterwards, decided to meet up for dinner somewhere in Pub Street. We had a five-meat dinner composed of chicken, pork, beef, squid, and crocodile. I didn't know they also eat crocodile meat here. The first time I heard of crocodile meat was last year when I went to Palawan, and boy do I love the sisig version!

The last day of the conference was for me the best. It was when I saw the presentations of Chinese scholars and they were really brilliant! While at the session, all I thought about was how to grab a scholarship and be under the tutelage of expert scientists in China.

The last day I also got to chat with an Australian professor who remembered me. She was ever a lovely woman, very chatty and very nice. She lectured of geochemical characterization last year at ASP and she remembered me as the girl who "was good with computers" because I ran xPRF tests in rapid succession hoping to get the most of their visit because we don't have that ultra cool portable machine. She asked me if I also did GIS and I answered no. GIS is something I'd really love to learn given the opportunity to go back to school since I am fond of maps and mapping. Then again, it sucks not to have much funds for schooling. Tsk... SIGH!

Our last night in Siem Reap saw me and my friend having a relaxing time with fish spa (2 USD each). It was a bit surprising at first to feel the fish pecking at your feet but eventually it was fun and very relaxing.

I wish to go back to Siem Reap and explore more of their food. Also, we didn't get to explore other places due to lack of time. Of course we wanted to attend as many sessions as we could since we paid 75 USD for it. The price may be too high but it was all worth it. I was more than inspired.

On Friday night, we boarded the night bus to Ho Chih Minh.

Read about our Phnom Penh trip here.

Elfen Lied

I was an undergraduate student when I first heard of Elfen Lied . Back then, otaku friends would recommend it to me since they know I love blood and gore. Everytime I try to watch the series though I would be repulsed by the seemingly harem-romantic drama series. (I seldom look for synopses in the internet for fear of spoilers...) It turns out it's much more than that. A few months ago, a dear college friend gave me a copy of the entire series insisting that I watch it because it's not what I thought it is. 

I watched it two months ago (and just finished today). The opening song blew me away the first time I heard it. WOW! It's the same song that played in the background at the end as flashbacks are shown. Despite having an echi side to it especially in the first few episodes (which is one thing I don't like in harem animé), the series is actually a poignant tragedy about the result of biotechnology, a Diclonius capable of producing vectors or arms which can be potential weapons. The promise of graphic violence is not a disappointment and add to that a psychological depth and this animé makes for a wonderful series. Philosophically, this series touches on human nature, morality, and biotechnological ethics.

The characters are thrown in a tangled web of conflicts. The main character/ anti-heroine Lucy (a.k.a Nyu/ Kaede) suffered mocks and taunts from bullies because of her horns and as a result learns quickly that the world cannot accept an abnormality like her. Having experienced the pain of being isolated and having a special friend in the form of a dog maltreated and killed in front of her just to make her sad, she in turn develops hatred for mankind. Her childhood shows the humanity of an innocent diclonius prior to transformation in contrast to the cruelty of normal humans. Things are about to change when she meets Kohta who briefly shared with her wonderful memories of the joys of human companionship. And it is no wonder that she falls in love with him. She committed a grave sin however when she begins to mistrust Kohta and in a fit of rage and jealousy, killed Kohta's father and younger sister Kanae. It is revealed at the end that though tormented by this unforgivable crime, she lives on to seek Kohta's forgiveness.

Years later, now grown ups, Kohta seems to have no recollection of the horrible past when he met Nyu (the innocent side of the grown up Kaede). Kaede seems to have developed a split personality: she is known as Lucy when her bloodthirsty and vengeful side takes over, and as Nyu when her innocent side manifests. 

Lucy is not the only Diclonius in the series. She seems to have been the cause of other Diclonius, having infected men with her genes upon contact. One of her tormentors, Kurama, was afflicted and his wife gave birth to a horned daughter who is supposed to be killed as mandated but was not. She grows up to be Mariko, a seemingly sweet and fragile child who can unleash significantly more vectors than Lucy. She was killed together with her father shortly after their reunion.

Another Diclonius is Nana, first appearing in the series as an agent sent by Kurama to kill Lucy. She later on learns more about the value of life thanks largely to Mayu, a cheerful young girl who ran away from home after repeated sexual abuses from her stepfather. Both Mayu and Nana are interesting characters in that they retained their innocence and never succumbed to the desire to exact revenge against their oppressors but instead, try to find a place where they can find happiness. Nana is very obedient to Kurama whom she calls father. 

Scenes from the final episode:

father and daughter reunited

moments before father and daughter are killed by a bomb implanted in Mariko

Kohta and Kaede´s (aka Lucy) first meeting

Kohta and Kaede´s childhood moments

Laptop Gives up on Me Again

Early this morning, when I turned on my laptop, I was greeted with a window to change my graphics card settings. Curious, I navigated the window and changed a bit of the settings. Then I proceeded to blogging, determined to finish blogging about my first trip to Vietnam. (I was already lagging behind my schedule.)

An hour later, my screen display flickered. I thought it was just my battery about to go empty so I plugged in the adapter. All of a sudden the screen display turned black. Something's wrong so I restarted my laptop and tried to see what's happened, to no avail. The screen kept on flickering and everything would go black. It happened many times during my attempt to log into my systems.

I just bought my machine two months ago during a sale. I should have known that something is not right when an electronic gadget's price is slashed by more than 50%. Now I will have to find a reputable laptop repair shop and have my machine fixed.

In the meantime, I'm using my sister's machine. My blogging activities will lessen dramatically because of this present ordeal. On the other hand, while it is tempting to whine and complain, I am controlling myself not to cry injustice when there are far more people who are burdened with graver problems. I leave everything to luck and fate, as usual. (And I hope I get my machine up and running again.)