Facebook Stalk

(Note: the names in this blog are real, they were my students before)


Back in the Philippines, friendster is the most popular networking site. Sad to say, friendster is a dying breed.

Although friendster was one of the first in social network, the company can't catch-up with the big dogs, myspace and facebook, in terms of growth. But these are not the reasons I have a facebook account. It started when one of my students (His name is Alberth, Albert with an H) was asking me to make one.


At first, I was hesitant but eventually made one because Alberth coerced me every time I see him in the gym. But in the end, especially during the time when the grades are uploaded to the University's system, it became our (with my students) way of communication. Instead of receiving grievances and thank you through emails, notes are posted through the walls of facebook. In the walls of my facebook where Ryan, a Filipino-American, wrote how he enjoyed watching Rex Navarette's DVD (pronounced Dee-bee-dee).


Since it is an effective way of communication, I made a group in facebook so my students can join. In this way, posting an announcement is like posting in a bulletin board -- everybody can read the particulars anytime of the day in the comfort of their own rooms (Amanda was right, facebook is a viable and practical way to do classroom business).


During the semesters, facebook is a life-line, and when the classes end, when it's time to bid adios and sayonara, good-byes are ended by tagging, "I'll just facebook you". The phrase is equivalent to saying "I'll keep in touch". Remember when Xerox, Kodak or Band-aid became a verb, such as the phrase "xerox the paper" meant "photocopy the paper" (at least back in the Philippines, that's what it meant), facebook is now a verb. I'll wait when the linguists enter the word facebook to a dictionary.


Goodbyes also are tagged with words such as "I'll facebook stalk you". Facebook stalking may sound like a joke but it wasn't for one of my student Ashley. She told me she deleted her account because her high school classmate was stalking her in facebook, leaving remarks to her wall. The remarks became offensive. Isabel commented that people spend way to much in facebook. "It's addicting", Erin added.


I will stalk facebook. What I mean by that is I will wait and see when the facebook company becomes public. If the stock price is right during its IPO (Inital Public Offering), I'll buy some. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg will be the new Bill Gates, at least in my opinion. The company is expanding too. Have you ever heard of dogbook or catbook? And besides, I want facebook to stay around, I want to know in the future if some of my students live to their promises, that is to be a neurosurgeons.

Physician's Assistant

I hurt myself playing basketball. My shoulders have limited range of motion, so I set up an appointment with a Physical Therapist at the student health center. Instead, a Physician's Assistant (PA) came to the rescue.

I have nothing against a PA, but being a PA doesn't make you an expert in shoulder injuries. I have to explain what is really going on: my range of motion (ROM) is limited, I'm protecting my shoulder in certain ROM.

In the end, he referred me to sports injury specialist (One of my dream job!!). I just wondered about the United States and the way they handle health business. People do specialize (Pediatrician, Neurosurgeon and all these experts), but in the end, they also un-specialized, such as Physician's Assistant (PA) or a nurse aid. Is the U.S. just lazy that every field needs an assistant?

Just my perspective.

The Projects

The projects is a derogatory word for a dwelling. In the U.S., it's a housing project based on family income. I brought this up because, from the nice Windmeadows gated apartment, we are going back to a place subsidized by the government, the University Housing.

The place is family oriented though, if there are some consolations. But my new place is old. The ceilings, the rooms and bath. I left Windmeadows last night, and I can really feel the difference. And I was so tired moving I ended up sleeping in a sofa of a friend.

Just a thought, back in the Philippines, I moved only probably 3 times (in my college and work days). Here, I been in the U.S. for almost 6 years only and almost every year I moved (4 times already).

After returning my keys to the management (gym, mail, gate and home keys), I turned to the beautiful pool beside the club house. It's summer, and gorgeous girls in bikinis are working at their tans, worshiping the sun and relaxing.

Too many books, very little time

The good thing about Gainesville is that the place is a university/town/small city. This means that the place is a crossroad for people in their journey for education. When people come and go, books are left behind.

Friends of the Library (FOL) is an event in Gainesville (Fl) where you can buy cheap good books. This semester, I got a text-book for analytical chemistry. Once in a while, you need to read the basics of your field. On the list are books for tennis, baby books and something about Relativity (visualized discussion of relativity). One of my favorites is the paperback version of "Bourne Ultimatum" by Robert Ludlum.

"Bourne Series" is my favorite movie (and I believe Jason Bourne is America's favorite assasin too). The other book is about LASER, the story behind the inventor and the 30-year war for patent and royalty of his inventions. I'll be working with LASERs so I said to myself, why not read it then.

Completing the line-up is a book related to electronics (when you work with LASERs, you should know the basic of electronics) and eBay.

"For all the things I lost, I missed my mind the most"

I watched the movie "Hackers" again. Surfing for scheduled programs to record in my HD TV., I came along with the old movie Hackers (starring Angelina Jolie).

The saying "For all the things I lost, I missed my mind the most" came from Ozzy Osbourne, the typical rebel-rocker of the 70's from the band "Black Sabbath". I'm not a Sabbath fan, I'm just amused by his saying, implying "sex, drugs and rock n roll" kind of lifestyle.

Hackers are viewed by people as rebel too. But in this case, they are the aloft and genius rebels that are anti-social. They are the ghost of the Internet, literally. They don't sleep. The walking zombies of our society, powered up by caffeine.

As life goes on, we as a society evolved to battle bad hackers: those kind of geniuses for the money, stealing identities. On the other side of the coin, there are good hackers. These are the kind of people who are curious.

Eventually though, hackers of the planet will grow-up, just like Ozzy Osbourne. They will settle and have families, and think about what have they done to the society.

Allergies

Although people from the snowy region welcome spring with very open arms (and why not, February's bitter cold is nasty), spring time for me is a torture: running nose, red eyes and sneezing, makes my life miserable.

I assumed before that allergies are for the weak (weak immune system, that is), and when I came here in the U.S. five years ago, I never had allergies from pollen. I told myself, pollution from the streets of Manila made my immune system strong. No need for anti-histamines, such as Claritin.

My immune system grew weak or the pollen counts in Florida increased, because about 2 years ago, I developed symptoms of allergies. It's either my system became weaker or pollen increased, I really don't know. It's probably not the two reasons I stated, much more a combination of both.

As long as it doesn't interfere with my work, I stay away from Claritin. So far, my strategy works. I just increase my tissue paper consumption and my travel to the restrooms.

Reality TV

Reality TV is probably dying. People are frustrated watching "reality" on TV anymore.

As I was scanning the channels, I came upon a show called "Keeping up with the Kardashios" (or something). As I was watching, I concluded, the show was clearly under the supervision of a director. It wasn't smooth flowing just like any other real life.

Better watch March Madness even without Florida.

Frustrations

The thing about research is that most of the time, you are frustrated with the outcome. Scientific method is not an algorithm or flow-chart everybody follows. Research is not just a map to follow, because most of the time, you are frustrated. It's part of research, you're expecting the road, but in reality, it's not there. You formulate your hypothesis again.

My frustration started early morning when I was expecting good results but never came. Afternoon passed by and nothing good happened. So, I just shake the day off, work again probably wednesday.

Patience. Infinite patience. It's a virtue you should have if you embark on a career in science.

by: free.tibet1@gmail.com

Love moves in mysterious ways

Few days before February 14 this year, I received an emails from my friends from the Philippines. They were organizing a date for dateless individuals, or planning to. It was sort of consoling themselves for being loveless in the day of love. Sound pathetic, but the situation resembles that of a senior high school girl frantically looking for a date at a senior prom. Re-imagine Pretty in pink the movie --but not the teen age girls but ladies looking for a mid-life romance.

May, a long time acquaintance, emailed me an article, asking me if I still remember what I wrote. If blogging existed 7 years ago, the article will be in my blog. The unpolished article was about love and trying to explain love through science (and that explains why I'm in graduate school, I like science but I'm not geeky). After reading and examining my long lost article (thanks May), I realized how 7 years made a difference in how I write and how I presented my ideas.

Anyway, in the span of 7 years, I still wonder why May is still loveless. She's cute, hot, easy to get along with and some other superlatives you can think of. If I was betting money on among my friends, gambling on who will tie the knot in 7 years, May is one of my friends I'll put money into. If I did, I lost.

At the rate life is going, I think she's not frustrated and will soon find one. Love moves in a mysterious ways, just read on the link (this one's for you May, Divine or Mayang, whichever you want me to call you). I got it from the Reader's Digest Feb Edition.
http://www.rd.com/love/valentines-day/what-they-did-for-love-true-love-stories/article.html

Temporary inconvenience

I went to my mechanic to do some oil and filter change, so with the car's over-all check up. Everytime I go to this guy, we discuss things not related to cars (but most of the time, about cars). It was last October when I paid him a visit, and as far as I can remember, he was to contemplating to divorce his wife.

He still remembered my advice ever since, that "there are no problems in this world, only temporary inconvenience". I told him to stick around and work the relationship out. The moment he saw me, he remembered the temporary inconvenience thing, what he cannot remember is his counter argument to my advice.

I can't remember also his counter argument, however; he stuck around with her wife with some conditions. Now, that's not love anymore if there are conditions. My car was ok though.

To Denver

Actually, I'm not going because my wife is expected to deliver our baby this June, the same time the conference in Denver.

The conference is about Mass Spectrometry, the tool I used to detect and analyze chemicals. I wish I could be there and visit Denver, but I'm just tired of travel. I've been to the Philippines for a vacation and the travel beat me down bad.

I'm looking forward though for the next conference or conferences. For now, I'll gather more data and collaborate with other researchers. Who knows, I'll be going to Netherlands for special research at the FELIX (free electron laser for infrared experiments) institute (cross fingers), one of the few institutes with free electron laser.

Reversing Reverse Culture Shock

"So you forgot how to live in your own country", my research groupmate concluded, after telling him I experienced a reverse culture shock during my month long vacation in the Philippines.

Psychologists tend to over analyze everything, and I thought culture shock is just a made-up word. (Examples of these words are "overweight", "obese" and " morbidly obese". Can you distinguish the key differences? South Park made fun of these words). These words don't mean anything until it hits you.

Culture shock, in a not so text book definition is a "feeling of confusion and disorientation when one moves from a familiar environment to a new setting where language, food, clothing and even the culture of the people are different".

MY REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK. December of 2007, after 5 years in the US, I experienced first hand the Philippines again. My friend was right, I forgot how to live in my own country. I forgot how bad the traffic was. I can’t even imagine driving in Manila highways. My cousin summed it better: if you can drive in Manila, you can drive anywhere in the world. True.

If in the U.S., red light is a stop, in Manila, it means 3 more cars can pass through. If in Boston, using a signal light to change your lane is a sign of weakness, in Manila, there’s no lane. Every space available in the road is occupied, by vendors in the sidewalk and motorcycles in the middle (motorcycles are called ‘insects’ of the road).

Before, I knew that time in the Philippines warp. I forgot about the concept of Pilipino time when my brother was teasing me for being early for a dentist’s appointment. In the U.S., 5 minutes early for an appointment is considered late, because you have to fill up paper works. In addition, being late is rude, tantamount to showing no respect to other people's schedule. In the Philippines, however, it’s better to be late in order not to waste your time waiting. To paraphrase: It’s better to waste other people time, than waste your time, waiting for being early.

I just stayed in Manila for a month and I’m still in the state of shock, but, I guarantee you, I can recover. Give me a few weeks and I will be driving like Manila drivers do, give me a few months and I will be jay walking in no time (in Pilipino time fashion).

MY CULTURE SHOCK. Rewind five years ago. August of 2002, when I first arrived in Orlando to study for the fall semester. I was amazed how clean the place was—not polluted and less traffic— relative to Manila. Pedestrians follow their lane, automobile respect the pedestrian lanes.

Although I was excited, I started to see the differences between my new environment and my culture.

In general, Americans are unbelievably wasteful: my roommates, more often than not, don't turn off their ceiling fan or TV when they go to work/school. They use automobile all the time, even throwing their trash to the dumpster.

And in the dumpster, especially at the end of the semester, I see a lot of good computer tables, chairs and sofas, ready to be discarded. Americans move a lot, and they often throw away things—even if it’s still reusable—than pay for shipping.

I questioned their eating habits. How can they survive with burgers and fries during lunch time and dinner? I’m so used to rice, vegetables and meat (even breakfast). Is it me or them?

Changing gear to sex, Americans do have an active sex life, at least in reference to my roommates who were college students. There were several times that I woke up in the wee hours of the morning because of the moans from sex at the other room. Picture this also, a bed rocking at high noon. Can they just be discreet?

I’ll campaign (since I can't vote), for senators who are willing to pass a bill requiring college apartments to install sound proof rooms. If they can require smoke alarm to every apartment, they should sound proof the room too. Waking up in the middle of the night from sex moan, squeaking of a bed and a head banging in the head board, is equivalent to slow death.

One peculiar thing to me because it's the exact opposite for Pilipinos, is that Americans worship the sun to, work on their tan. Pinoys pay for whitening products (such as lotion or vitamins) to whiten their skin. Americans consider walking under the sun with an umbrella wierd; I look at Americans lying in the pool side sunbathing as skin cancer.

Before, I have the impression that Americans are so polite, until I realized that "How are you?" or "What's up?" are considered greetings equivalent to "hi" or "hello". It's rude to say "What's up?" and not expect a response. It's hard to comprehend those things being an alien in a strange land.

After 5 years in the U.S., for sure I recovered already from the culture shock. But did I assimilate the American way of living? I don’t know yet.

If eating burgers and fries in your car is a measure of assimilation, then I’m not yet fully assimilated. I don’t do it often. If knowing the rules of American Football or starting to call burger, coke and fries “fine dining” a measure of assimilation, I’m close. I still eat a lot of rice though.

I hate to admit this but I been throwing my garbage using my car, and greeting strangers"what's up?!" without looking at the person and not expecting a response.

WHAT IS MASS?*

One of my committee members*, who make a living doing Mass Spectrometry, once told me that one of his hobbies is scour the internet for definitions of 'mass'. He dealt with mass all his life and wants to know what really mass is. Pretty geeky but real. (On the other hand, one of my friends look for other variations of the Murphy's Law from the net.)

Honestly, have you ever wondered what causes the scale to read 150 lbs or so at your bathroom scale every time you stepped into the platform? It is adeceivingly simple question but science hasn’t really pinpointed what causes mass. Our definition of mass is primitive. Newton relates mass to force and acceleration (F=ma), while Einstein's famous equation relates mass to energy and speed of light (E=mc2) . Schrodinger has a complicated and intimidating equation butstill the equation still relates mass to something.

So what is mass? Mass is a mess (1). According to Ernst Mach, we only measure mass as ratios and one scientist jokingly concluded that "mass is what makesthe large sofas hard to push" (2). Again, we still didn't answer the question "what is mass?". I likened that question to a scene in the movie "Anger Management", when Jack Nicholson, the therapist, posed a question "Who are you?" to Adam Sandler. Sandler answered " I am Dave Buznik...." then Nickolson interupted "I didn't ask for your name". When Sandler continued telling the therapist he's a businessman, Nicholson interrupted "I didn't ask what you do". Sandler was irritated.

No doubt, the question "What is mass?" irritated the science community. So once and for all, they collaborated and try to find the "Higgs Boson", The "Higgs Boson"is allegedly responsible for mass. The Higgs came about from the ideas of theoretical physicist Peter Higgs. Theoretical physicist makes a living by making upsome things, and since "Higgs Boson" is a made up thing supported only by beautiful mathematics, everybody is hoping that it exist and can be detected experimentally.

Using particle accelerators to smash particles into pieces, the race is on to find the Higgs Boson. Fermi Lab and CERN were given the responsibility to finish the job. We are left hoping that this piece of the puzzle can answer basic questions such as "What is mass?", or "Are there mini-black holes?" And most importantly, the findings will answer the question why John Lennon was assassinated.

* Dr. Powell gave a presentation, of the same title as above, last year, Oct. 29, 2007, in a mass spectrometry class . The materials came from his discussion.
(1) K.D. Padgett, Physics Essays 3, 178-82 (1990)
(2) K.C. Cole "The hole in the Universe"

Strange (Gym) Rats

"Lab rats can produce data and scientific reports, I don't know about gym rats"-unknown


It was my first time to be back at the gym after a month, and it made me realized that the gym is a peculiar place to be.

The first strange thing that bothers me inside the gym are those guys wearing sleeveless without muscles to show off. These guys, to make it worst, wear Nike dry fit body-hugging shirts to show muscle definition. There's one problem: it defines the bulge of their stomach. Times had change, times had change. If you don’t have something to show, don’t show it off. You don’t get ‘muscle points’ and a beach body by wearing those kind of apparels.

Same thing to ladies too, when they try to show off their abs, but it's not flat. Are they trying to show their back tattoo or belly piercing? It doesn't matter since the disgusting bulge of their stomach steals the thunder.

You may have noticed this before, when people leave their towels on the floor. I hate that because it’s so unhygienic. In rare cases, some dumb ass do their bench presses without a shirt, which is equally unhygienic! Does it make you stronger when you take your shirts off? One good thing though when you are work out in the gym, is that it's a place to rub shoulders with superstar athlete. One time, I saw somebody in his flip-flops. I thought slippers are not safe, and then realized that the guy was Tim Tebow, the prized quarterback of the school, working out somebody. I pardoned him already for his mistake.

When I was working in the gym before behind the desk, I thought the only requirement is that you know CPR and AED. I was wrong. Technical questions didn’t escaped me: heart rate monitor acting up, a question if Chinese food are healthy, ACL and spine injuries, the difference between decline vs. incline press, what’s a METS, a phone call inquiring for a test for AIDS and a guy asking about a rare genetic disorder called celiac disease, because he has one (eat gluten free food man).

In some instances, you find wierd of the wierdests, such as a half-blind student walking in a treadmill but his’ seeing/guide dog is sleeping beside; person doing a lat pull down while talking to a phone; a guy kissing his bicep muscles after a hard bicep curls. Here’s the best: a university that invented Gatorade but banned people drinking Gatorade inside the student gym.

In the end of the day, you go to the locker room. Then you hear this guy bitching about exercise challenging people around him, “who said exercise is fun, people who said that are hypocrites, I just finished and it was not”.

That’s weird. Ask a triathlete why he loves to burn calories and sweat it out, they're not hypocrites.

Written Exams and Coffee

Preparing for my last written cumulative exam (out of 8), I followed my routine for the past months: a visit to my favorite starbucks coffee shop, check the library for references and then sit on my favorite study table at the science library. Then I'll be reading for the next 8 hrs. A full time job. Although I hate to take exams, I don't mind studying, that's why I can't believe I'm paid to study (and do research, teach undergraduate students).

As I was paying for my coffee, I heard the guy next to me asking for the "strongest coffee" starbucks can offer.I don't need the strongest kick to study for this exam, because this will be my last (mosdef, most definitely). Besides, I only need a half pass (Grad school is wierd, they have whole pass and half pass), and to top everything, I am allowed to bring a "cheat sheet". The "cheat sheet" will be my small notebook, with all the formulas and thoughts I gathered from the readings.

Sturbucks and preparing for an examination is perfect combination. Trust me, I'm a professional graduate student. Without coffee, my attention span decreases to an hour, instead of 3.

New Year 08

Everybody usher in the new year differently. Mine is simple and traditional: I write resolutions and keep them. How? I compose goals for the year in bold letters, stick the reminders on a huge corkboard in front of my bed so everyday of the year, I can see my goals. Psychologists call this "constant feedback". By being constantly reminded by your list, you are more likely to achieve the goals you set.

I don't have a wallet, only a money-clip. Sandwiched between the money-clip are my credit cards, my school ID and my driver's license. In addition to my yearly goals, buried between my credit cards is a small note with the list of my yearly and lifetime goals.

During the waning moments of the 2007 BCS Championship, University of Florida head football coach Urban Meyer was reading a note from his pocket. When a reporter asked him after the game what the note was, he replied, "It's too personal to discuss, but I had kept it for almost five years now in my pocket". I bet my whole life that the note is a list of his goals (and one of it is surely winning the BCS Championship). He's a psychologist, an expert motivator and a world-class coach, he knows the strategies in achieving goals.

So what are my goals for the new year? It's to personal to discuss. Did you make a list for yourself?(and by the way, things that I usually do during the first week of a new year are:

a. Change my passwords. Passwords are like underwears, you constantly change them, and just like any underwear, you don't show them to anybody :)

b. Clean my computer desktopc. Back-up my data. Transfer all the previous year's data to an external hard drive.d. Check my bicycle gears and breaks.e. Read magazines I missed during the previous year. Clean my email mailboxes.among other things)

The Face of a Nation

After a long 11- hour flight from the Philippines (at the other side of the globe relative to the US), I arrived groggy at the Los Angeles International Airport. I waited impatiently for my papers to be updated by the Immigration, US Custom and Border Protection ( I can't remember the agency's real title).

Lining up waiting for my turn, I wathced the TV for advisories. From the TV tube came a black person barking orders to visitors how to fill up the declaration papers. You need to declare foods, agricultural products and money more than $10,000 before entering the US. This is one way to protect the nation from unknown diseases. From the TV announcement again was a white person talking about border patrol and then a hispanic lady adding some comments. The advisory ended with a slogan saying " US Custom and Border Protection, the face of our nation".

I then realized, the face of the US nation is actually faces ---because the U.S. is a melting pot of cultures. When it was my time to be interviewed, it didn't bother me that the officer didn't spoke perfect english. Officer Nguyen is Asian, specifically Vietnamese. It didn't bother me when he didn't understand my english telling him I'm a graduate student in analytical chemistry.

Since I was beaten by the long travel, I made some mistakes filling up the papers. Out of boredom, officer Nguyen jokingly asked me with authority on top of his Vietnamese accent, "You don't want to make mistakes in chemistry right? You don't want to mix things that will explode?". Of course I will not. But because probably of my accent, he heard otherwise, and I insisted I'm an analytical chemist, who detects traces of the dangerous materials instead of making it.

After the officer stamped my papers, took my fingerprints and photo, I was out to get my bags from the carousel, preparing for my other ordeals: another 4-hour flight to Chicago and then a 2-hr flight to Florida, my adapted State. It will not surprise me to see the many faces of the United States along the way, in the airport, the coffee shop, and intersate 95.