Life is good...

...indeed, it is!
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by PAM

No, it isn't perfect... but, yes, life is good! And that is so much better!  

The blessings received and lessons learned in the past two weeks had been another huge testaments of how good life is - no matter what!  It can be very challenging and extremely harsh, too, sometimes especially when a blessing is on its way and cleansing is needed to make a room for the blessing, or when a lesson is to be learned - as a source of wisdom to draw confidence from when an important event is about to unfold. The important thing is to hang in there... to cling steadfastly to our faith while hoping for the very best outcome... believing that the best outcome, under the circumstances, shall come our way. 

I know, I know... how dare I 'preach' when I get frustrated so often from all the trying circumstances that come from trying to achieve the 'impossible'.  I get physically tired... I complain, er, vent, a lot, I admit!  I guess that that is alright - I become alright after ridding my system of the urge to scream.  It is the easiest way for me to cope with the pressure, deal with frustration.  But thank goodness that there is enough love around me... to help me through the day, no matter how hard. I have enough. With God, and the gifts of family and true friends that He gave me, I have enough.  And with God's grace, we are bathed in optimism.  Our sorrows are drowned in a flood of blessings.  The cheerful fingers of sun's rays find us, even in the darkest and farthest corner of despair.  And the sun shines, no matter what - even only on TV...

🎶 "I reached inside myself and found

nothing there to ease the pressure off my ever worrying mind...

Touch me. How can it be? Believe me, the sun always shines on TV..." 🎶

What a blessing to have lived in an era of very good music - classic in quality and message, they never get old... and they see you through the hardest of times - to bring a smile to your lips. It's a bonus that the singers/musicians get more beautiful with age... such as this Norwegian band, A-ha - one of my favorite bands in the '80s. When they play, they remind you how good life is... rather than singing melancholy songs or upbeat ones with nonchalant lyrics that underscores emptiness, pushing one farther down the consuming abyss of despair.  

Thank goodness for good music!  Thanks be to God for everything that makes life worth living for.

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Video credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the beautiful music.

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When it rains...

...it pours - in sweeping deluge.
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by PAM


Indeed, when it rains, it does pour!  And this week is one for the books for us in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) as blessings poured in, making a complete deluge of joy.  Our hearts were full... and it felt incredible.  Thanks be to God!  

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Quality... in action, and in effect

This week, our university was visited by the ASEAN University Network - Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) for Institutional Assessment (IA).  It was a week-long onsite visit to verify what we submitted in a Self-Assessment Report (SAR), showing how we are satisfying the twenty-five (25) criteria of AUN-QA on Strategic QA, Systemic QA, Functional QA and the Results.  Ours is just the 8th university in the ASEAN region, and only the second university in the Philippines, to undergo IA by the AUN-QA.  

The whole week was a grueling five days of showing evidences that, indeed, we satisfactorily comply with the criteria, and that, as a university that spouses excellence, we even exceed the expectations that define 'quality' in the four areas of criteria

mentioned above.  The Faculty of Engineering - the college that I lead, was chosen by the AUN-QA Visiting Team to be the six (6) out of the 16 colleges/faculties (19, including the Ecclesiastical Faculties) in the university to be visited on the third day of the Team's onsite visit. Therefore, the preparations made our schedule extremely hectic for the past three weeks as we juggle AUN-QA and the on-going online preliminary accreditation process of our six Programs by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and all our already brimming cup of daily tasks.  And yet, the Faculty of Engineering went on 'business as usual' in spite the fact that the officials have been sleeping less and less over the past month, myself included... maybe, myself... uhm,  mostly?  But God is good... and He took care of us over the past week, and the weeks before that.  Hence, we are still standing! #UnendingGrace

Today, in the morning, we heard very positive review by the AUN-QA IA Visiting Team as they issued their Exit Meeting with us, discussing the result of their assessment.  And so, we were all overjoyed... all the challenges of the past how many weeks that culminated to this day were worth all our combined efforts, and we are very grateful.

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Receiving 'a gift'

Our Mechanical Engineering (ME) Class of 2019 did very well in the Mechanical Engineers Licensure Examination, administered by the Professional Regulatory Board (PRB) of ME for the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) of the Philippine government last August 2019.  This afternoon, the Licensure Exam passers all over the country took their Oath as

Receiving an exquisite 'gift'... what a joy!

mechanical engineers, which is again administered by the ME PRB at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).  

As our ME Class of 2019 afforded us the recognition as the fourth Top Performing School in the said Licensure Examination, we received the Plaque and the Certificate of Recognition.  It was their 'gift' to the Faculty of Engineering and to UST... and, to receive it on behalf of the Faculty and the University, it was, indeed, an incredible joy!  Words are not enough to express how proud we are of them... and how happy we are for them and their parents.  

It's moments like this that make us, 'soldiers' of the teaching profession, feel emboldened to keep pursuing excellence, and showing our students the way to the starting point of their own journey of pursuing excellence and happiness... in joyful service of others and of God.  It's too beautiful for words... and it makes us hopeful that, perhaps, our offerings to God, He does appreciate.  And, He shows His appreciation by answering our collective prayer. 

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Another answered prayer

Just when our hearts have become so stout of pure happiness, we received these wonderful pieces of good news just before the work day ended...

Defining excellence... the UST Electronics Engineering way!

...and the Roque Ruaño Building was swept in a massive deluge of indescribable joy!  I was speechless for a few seconds... until I got back down to earth from 'Cloud 9'.  Still, it was impossible to express happiness in words, so the tears made their way out in an attempt for eloquence.  Indeed, they expressed the happiness that was impossible to articulate albeit quite embarrassing!

We are, indeed, very proud of our Department of Electronics Engineering (ECE) and our ECE Class of 2019 for this incredible achievement!  We salute the topnotchers, #1 Neil Kenneth T. Mendoza (ECE Class of 2019, magna cum laude) and #10 Jay Patrick M. Nieles (ECE Class of 2019, magna cum laude).  I will not forget this incredible year for these kids and for our ECE Department.  As Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and a true believer of our faculty members and students' excellence, I am amazed beyond words and truly humbled... and I thank God with all the gratefulness that I am capable of for another answered prayer.  These are all for His greater glory!

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Saturday photo

Happy, and lucky... that's what we are.

It has been a very tough week.  The work was heavy, and the target was challenging... but the results were satisfying... and good.  Well, at least, it felt good - for me, and these kids who also went through the same experience of accomplishing a challenging task this whole week.  And, it felt good that, at the end of it all, I have them to celebrate the week that was... and that they were looking forward to spend some quality time with their Mother #2 the way I was looking forward to catching up with them as well.  

God is good... and so is life.

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About the photo:  This was taken at the Fisher Mall Cinema in Quezon City after catching up over casual dinner and just before watching the film, "Joker". 

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Singing...

...from the soul.
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by PAM

Yeah, it's been one of those days when the situation is pushing you to sprint, take off... and fly... but your tank is empty, and you're just off 'on a wing and a prayer'.  What to do?  Just keep... soaring, perhaps?  After all, you've got all that you need - a wing... and a prayer.

"Take these broken wings

And learn to fly again

And learn to live so free..."

When did it all start?  Why do people wish to clip your wings... prevent you from flying, keep you from soaring, undermine your courage, put off your fire and feed you to the ashes?  Jealousy?  Nah... they have more than anyone else, especially the ones they wish pinned on the ground with broken wings.  Human nature?  But why... isn't man good by nature... because its Maker is good, and the breath breathed to it by his Maker is one of boundless kindness and love?  As such, isn't it easier to be happy for someone than to be wishing ill of someone because we all are good by nature?  Isn't it easier to be generous and indulgent than being bitter of others' happiness and success?  Love... why not just give love... and kindness - the pair of wings that make the giver and the receiver soar freely and happily?  Ah, perhaps, it's love, too... but sometimes, 'love hurts'.  Perhaps, it is kindness, too... it's just that 'you gotta be cruel to be kind - in the right measure'.

"Today's another day to find you

Shying away

I'll be coming for your love, okay?

Take on me

Take me on..."

Hmmm... a sweet invitation to love, to be kind - some sincerity, lots of truthfulness, tons of consistency in love and in wanting the same love - over and over again... amid all the trendy impermanence that the world these days embraces and espouses.  

And this song by that wonderful Norwegian band, A-ha, "Take on me"... aah, so timeless - even in this slow rendition rather than the original danceable tune.  And so, I'm totally 'smashed' again! It will take a while - I'd be 'hunting high and low' for some brilliance like this these days, but I am quite sure that the search would be in vain.

"So, I guess I'll be hunting high and low

There's no end to the length I'll go to...

Hunting High and low

Do you know what it means to love?"

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Video credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video links.

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Mood...

SUPERMAN

(It's not easy)

Five for Fighting

I can't stand to fly

I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find

The better part of me

I'm more than a bird, I'm more than a plane
I'm more than some pretty face beside a train
And it's not easy to be me

I wish that I could cry

Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie

About a home I'll never see

It may sound absurd, but don't be naive

Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed, but won't you concede

Even heroes have the right to dream

And it's not easy to be me

Up, up and away, away from me

Well, it's all right, you can all sleep sound tonight

I'm not crazy or anything

I can't stand to fly

I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride

With clouds between their knees

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me

Inside of me

Inside me

Inside me

Inside of me

Source of lyric: LyricFind

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Video credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video link.

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Wednesday Nostalgia...

...because it's been a while.
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by PAM

I've been missing taking at least one thousand steps per day.  The last time I did that - walk a thousand steps - was almost seven years ago.  Those were the years when I was still actively engaged in research while I enjoyed what I love doing the most, at least, professionally - teaching. 

I miss those days.  Those were 'nice', productive, exciting (in a kind of subdued way) and really enjoyable days... not to mention healthy days, given the guaranteed one thousand steps I took everyday as I walked back-and-forth from the Roque Ruaño Building (or Engineering Building), where I teach, to the Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences (RCNAS) at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex (TARC) in my university.  Except when it was raining cats and dogs, or when we were having a sweltering day, those walks were truly enjoyable. The outdoor air cleared the mind... and the laughter of people around engaged in a myriad of activities made me aware of how I was a part of a world that's alive and happy!  I would usually bump into someone... stopped to catch up for a few minutes, 'gossiped' a little and laughed a lot... before walking hurriedly to either rescue my experiment in my lab at RCNAS or try to be less than 10 minutes late to my class.

Yesterday, I savored the chance of re-living those days, like walking down memory lane... and it felt good.  Nah... it wasn't just good, it was very good!

Ah, that familiar walking route...

...through walkways that are lined with trees
and plants so thick and richly green...

...leading to this 'hallowed' hall where ideas become
an unforgettable experience!

I am actively engaged in research again!  After six long years... I am back to RCNAS, and I love it!

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About the photos:  I took these photos as I walked from TARC to the Roque Ruaño Building, after spending hours at the RCNAS.

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