On proposed Internet for LCHS
Sat, 23 May 1998 10:00:44 -0500

As I read the news item on the plan to have a website for LCHS, I am perplexed by the need for a Pentium II computer system if they have the Pentium I running just to be hooked up as a domain. If Pentium I is available and, I presume, equipped with Hard Disk and a CD-ROM Drive, then there is no point to upgrade those parts unless they are incompatible with the Fax Modem drive whether external or internal. All they have to do is buy the MODEM for the Internet/Fax + or - Voice and integrate it to the system.  What matters now is the speed of the modem, so preferably if they could buy the 33.6, or better yet if our ISP there can run the 56.7K, everybody will have fun. Internet depends on this modem while this modem depends on the compatibility with your system to the speed of the modem. Pentium I - 100 is compatible with 33.6/ 56.7 K so if LCHS has this system, they are all set for the website they are contemplating to avail.  I hope this will help the school somehow.

Alexander S. Rodriguez, M.D. (Batch '65), Florida, U.S.A.
gates1@juno.com

Futurenet Philippines
Sun, 1998-05-24 09:52:00

I surfed in thru Yehey Search Engine since your alumni website is listed among the freshest. I have just been to Iligan to conduct seminars for the Internet on TV business and I'm going back there on May 30, Saturday, for another round of demos and presentations.  I'm tapping your organization since most of you are business-minded and the product that we have is setting the trend of what's in for the future.  Aside from the Internet on TV (NetStation Internet terminal) thing, we also have the ViaTVPhone, attached to the TV and phone where you can already see the one you're talking to.  Futurenet Online Marketing Philippines, Inc. is a multi-level marketing company and the income potential is tremendous for a very minimal investment. I don't know how to contact you, guys, so I hope that you'd e-mail me back and give me your phone and address.

Bogs C. Tugas, Quezon City, Philippines
bogst@futurenet.com.ph
 

Dateline Buffalo

By Ernesto L. Yu, M.D., Batch 1965 Ernstyu49@aol.com

Meticulously slurping and regurgitating Larry Sy’s playful, bubbly and electrifying cerebral jumble on the journalistic circus and baffling yo-yo scramble of American English, my marshmallow brain sponged an assortment of first-person experiences that were rites of passage of my being a 1975 newcomer in Roanoke, Virginia, stranded in a new set of rules ... a vulnerable bystander to culture shock.  Unlike the run-of-the-mill jumping Jacks and Jills, what is tossed up into the air may not gravitate in its anticipated form; or what is vocally liberated may signify an utterly different monster.  Here are some illustrations, just in case you plan to invade a nation where toasting and deep-frying plain English words-greetings is but a norm.

Toilet is not a staple in American vocabulary.  Worst, the terminology is a tongue-twister that readily precipitates a bemused look and provokes muffled laughter, as if you come off as a total scum or a day late for your psychiatric evaluation. It makes you second-guess whether your grammar is an atrocious goof or your communication skill is just a tad laced with ambiguities and thick accent!  During days when you direly need this "spirit-cleansing throne" secondary to an explosive gastrointestinal virus or a maximally bloated urinary system, try describing in excruciating details the word "toilet" as a close kin to "restroom", I guarantee you that you'll be the nitty-gritty facility yourself - a cesspool of stinky wastes - before a puzzled green-eyed Samaritan can decipher your critical howl for emergency assistance. Yuck!

When you sneeze and an adjacent someone dispenses a preachy quote, "God bless you," she is not airing out a benediction that you'll sprout a heavenly halo atop your bald spot. It is an inborn American reaction to counter a saliva-contaminating, itchy nose outburst. It is like informing you that here’s hoping that you don't trigger a fatal ionic mutiny in your pumping pacemaker from this forceful, uninhibited oropharyngeal spray.  At any rate, try being a mute recipient to this reflexive remark, like not acknowledging a kind thank you, and she'll fly in a petty rage over your ice-cold indifference and may even rank you as emotionally stunted. The take-home lesson?  Have a reserved slice of gratitude before you unleash a whooping freedom of propulsive expression in public.

Slangs have spiced the English language ever since the original cavemen mastered the art of tribal grumbling without performing craniotomies on each other or tackling life’s weight with mutilated gonads (ouch!).  Along this trend of rationality, we learned to refine our manners and civilized our modus operandi on friendly persuasion.  We utilize diplomatic slangs (milder adjectives) in describing the disabilities and negative traits of our comrades.  Examples: "cockeyed" for cross-eyed, "old fart" for grouchy senior, "Viagra-poppers" for dirty matadors, "Picasso body" for ex-convict.  Thus, if your blind date is erotically dressed in your imagination by your matchmaker as "foxy, tubby and very down to earth", head to the next exit door: it could be a prelude to a rendezvous with a "pretty overweight hunchback".  Bare Naked Ladies are blondish singing sensations comprised of an all-male team.  Typhoon Soling is a potently bitchy man in testosterone overdose.  Baywatch is, in reality, watching the babes.  Larry (Agape), three cheers for the inspiring stimulus.  Why the odd number and not two or four best wishes?  This is Buffalonian dialogue, as good as it gets.
 

Briefs from Down Under

By Leonardo "Eddie" Tan, Batch 1966 edtan@idx.com.au

Every now and then, I play host to some of our friends and visitors from back home and some Iliganons now living in different corners of the world. It is always a great pleasure for me to act as their tour guide to show them my adopted city - Sydney, which is the number one tourist destination here in Australia.

What I always notice is my visitors always inadvertently take my driver seat. And I always offer them the car key and say - "You want to drive?" And my guests would always exclaim - "Oops! Wrong side!"

I don't blame them. This is not their fault. Australia is a different world. This is because our vehicles here are configurated as "right hand drive" and we drive on the left side of the road.

I often wondered why we don't adopt the same rules or manner of driving on the same side of the road throughout the whole wide world.  And I found out the answers a few months ago through our weekend newspaper.

I learned that about a century ago when the motor vehicle was still in its infancy, the roads were just empty but a few horse-drawn carriages which plied occasionally. The word traffic jam was not invented yet. There were no strict rules then as to which side of the road one may choose to drive.  In those days, the new horseless carriages were custom-built. A customer may order his vehicle to be a right hand drive or the reverse, whichever was convenient to the owner.

However, many years before the motor vehicle was invented, the city of London had an ordinance which decreed that carriages should be driven on the left side of the streets of the city. Why "left side" particularly?  Because of some narrow streets there, many pedestrians were complaining about the injuries they sustained from the rig drivers whipping their horses.  Most of the rig drivers were right handed. And when the carriages passed through the right side of the narrow streets some passers-by on the sidewalks were also hit by the long horse whips used by the right handed drivers. Thus the rules in London became the norm in England and spread to the other kingdoms of Great Britain and its colonies.

USA around this time had no strict rule yet with regards to which side of the road they would drive.  It was Henry Ford who first introduced the mass production of motor vehicles with his very successful Model-T. This was no longer the custom-built ones and Mr. Ford fixed his products with a "left hand drive" to avoid any patent dispute with his English competitors. Now that his Model-T were starting to flood the cities of America, it was only then that rules were made and the Americans chose to drive in the right side of the road which was only natural with left hand drive cars. The French were more sympathetic to the Americans than to their English rivals across the channel. So they adopted the American way and it spread to continental Europe. Except Sweden who followed the English standard until 1965 when they had to change to conform with the continental traffic rules.

And what about Japan?  Were they influenced by the British way? Apparently not. Instead it was the Samurai sword. The samurai warriors had their long traditional sword on their left side as again most of them were right handed. For ages, these warriors walked on the left side to prevent their weapon from touching the incoming sword of another samurai. Hence the Japanese also drive on the left side of the road.

A Filipino friend of mine here in Sydney told me that he left behind his beloved Harley Davidson motorbike back in the Philippines. I asked him - "Why?" He said because we are a right hand drive country here! What?!!
 

Sentimental Journey

By Henry L. Yu, M.D., Batch 1969

Flashback: Once upon a time, there was a young man who was called the black sheep in his family.  While his brothers and sisters had their faces glued to their books at home, the young man was out with his barkada on the streets.  He was sent to Ateneo but before he could finish Engineering, he decided to join showbiz, against his parents' wishes.  He succeeded as a movie actor and became a successful producer as well.  Then he entered politics and became a successful mayor, too.  At 33, he is a very successful young man.  (Taken from Expressweek Magazine, Feb. 21, 1974 issue.)

Of course, I'm talking of our Philippine President-in-waiting, no other than Joseph Estrada.

Rewind.  Circa 1960s.  I was then in grade school at LCHS.  In particular, I remember June 22, 1964 when I was in grade five with Miss Josefa Demeterio as our teacher-in-charge.  I was nominated as the class president.  In those days, we would blush and reluctantly declined the nomination.  But just the same, I became the president of our grade five class.  Alice Ngo was our vice president, Adelfa Tan was secretary, Chiok Hian Dy as treasurer, Betty Bernardo as PRO, and Felicitas Ly as sergeant-at-arms.

One of the most adored movie actors in my youth was Joseph Estrada.  I remember watching practically all his movies, notably: Markang Rehas (1962), Geron Busabos (1964), Ito Ang Pilipino (1966), and Patria Adorada (1969).  All these have won for him the Best Actor awards as far as his movie career was concerned.  Oh, just how I adored him to the point of collecting his pictures which I cut out from Kislap magazine or the Daily Express newspaper.  I have always been an avid fan of Tagalog movies ever since I can remember.  There was Amalia-Susan, Fernando Poe and his lo-waist gang, the Stars '66 of Sampaguita Pictures, etc.  I was very up to date when it came to this matter, sharing my obsession with my classmates way back in LCHS. I have seen how this and that movie star started from a mere introductory role to being a supporting cast, to his/her solo starrer, and the box office hits that this and that star has made.

I was 15 years Joseph's junior.  So, he was in high school in Ateneo when I was born in 1952.  In the prime of our youth, nobody ever thought that Rita Gomez would later die of cancer.  That Susan Roces would become Mrs. Fernando Poe Jr.  That Gloria Diaz would be Miss Universe 1969. That Pilar Pilapil would be an active born-again Christian.  That Vilma Santos would be mayor of Lipa City.  The list continues ad nauseatum ...

And now, who would ever think of my idol, the Joseph Estrada of my youth, to be mayor of San Juan, to be a TOYM awardee for Public Administration (1972), a senator (1986), a vice president of the Philippines (1992), and now as President of the Philippine Republic?  Neither his classmates in Ateneo Class 1955 nor his very own family.  But things do happen in accordance to His will.  As the Book of Psalms puts it:  "It is man who plans his life, but it is the Lord who directs his steps."
 

(In response to the suggestion of Rene Tio from Cagayan de Oro City for more stories about experience and culture, I am spontaneously writing this article this morning, May 25th, Memorial Day, U.S.A..  Rene, thanks for reading our articles, and for your encouragement.)

These thoughts are dedicated to all those who have served and died for the U.S.A. and also to service men and women all over the world, friend or foe.

Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday of May to honor those who have served in the United States military.  It is a significant holiday.  Parades and memorial services, and the display of the Stars and Stripes are hallmarks of the celebration.  It is a holiday for government workers.  It is one of the busiest traveling periods of the year as it is a 3-day weekend.  It is also the unofficial beginning of summer.

In the past, the day did not mean much to me other than an extra day off work.  THEN I joined the U.S. military.  A few years later, with a few days notice, I was ordered to active duty to serve in Operation Desert Shield, soon to become Operation Desert Storm.  I was in shock.  I cried for I feared for my life.  A few weeks after undergoing survival training, I ended up in the desert of a foreign country.  I was actually in a war!  Not even in my wildest dreams (in Bisaya)!

In less than 100 days we heard the welcome news.  "The war is over!"  Those were the sweetest words!  I had survived the war.  It was hell for me.  I returned to civilian life a different person, harder but wiser.  I couldn't talk about my experience for months and when I did, I was emotional.  However, time does heal.  Now, I have come to treasure that experience.  It has made me stronger and has helped me realize how fleeting life could be.  I also learned much about people.  I started to really live "my way".  Now, I not only smell the flowers, but I also plant my own garden.

This afternoon, for the first time at home, we will raise Old Glory in our front yard in the new 20 foot flagpole in honor of those who served and in honor of America.  We will play The Star Spangled Banner on tape and I will stand at attention with my right hand over my heart in my red, white and blue outfit.

For as the song goes, "...for the flag still stands for freedom...I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me...I am proud to be an American...there ain't no doubt I love this land...God bless the U.S.A.".

EDITORS' NOTES:

Tinago Falls: Due to space limitation and the memory size of this issue, the second part of "Tinago Falls: Iligan's Hidden Wonder" by Charles O. Sy will resume next week.

Alternate web edition:  Due to recurring technical difficulty of uploading to the IligaNet server lately, the Spectrum web site edition on our alumni home page may not be posted regularly.  In view of this, web edition readers may view our latest issue on the following alternate web site, where a more up-to-date preview of the Spectrum is posted every weekend: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/2972/spectrum.html