On Your Mark

Marinating your manuscript simply means not reading your draft for a long time, say a month? A lifetime?  Before reading it again and realizing it is such a huge mess. It borrows from the concept of marinating foods in which you soak the meat in a combination of oils and spices to add more flavor and to tenderize the food. Apply this in writing and you’ll be surprised at the duplications, redundant phrases, words, fillers, chunks of irrelevant chapters, plotholes, and emotional chapters that cannot even trigger a single tear for a reader. I read this concept from Robert’s Rules of Writing written by Robert Masello . And I can say that this process really works. My WIP is now on my fifth draft and everytime I finish writing to the end of the chapter, I would just set it aside and discipline myself to never read it. The purpose of this is to strip off the illusion that you have written the best version, because who among us writers think that we have written a garbage ri...

Befriending a person is easy. One can just crack a silly joke, share a heartfelt story, compliment another’s outfit and yes, you get the idea. Being close to them? That is a different story. It is not something that can be done overnight. It takes a long time and investment of mutually earned trust. It may involve some fights, or years of misunderstanding before eventually realizing that you’re starting to really like the person. But difficult as it may be, I may have insights that can help you pull a friend closer to you. Of course, it involves a lot of coercion and torture conversation exchange—preferably a face-to-face one, where you could directly feel their emotions on the manner of how they speak, where there couldn’t be any barriers of communication and you can actually understand the tone of their message. A hearty conversation is essential in keeping your bonds strong. It’s like the more you share the more seeds you plant in them that will grow and eventually...

Even though I resigned as a teacher months ago, hindi ko pa rin maitatangging nami-miss kong magturo. ‘Yung turo lang ha? Hindi kasama ‘yung other things na nakakabit sa work na ito, *cough* paperworks, *cough* lab manuals. There were moments na bigla ko na lang maiisip na, “Ay, ito, magandang pa-activity ito sa mga students ko next time,” when I know I shouldn’t even stress myself about it dahil iba na rin naman ang sakop ng new work ko. Madalas ay nanghihinayang ako kung bakit hindi ko nagawa ang ilan sa mga iyon. Kaya kung teacher ka at nagkataong naghahanap ka rin ng way para gawing masigla ang inyong klase, I may have some valuable information for you. Admit it, boring ang pure lecture lang. No one wants to hear a teacher drone on and on about a subject topic. Well sure, I can’t blame you for doing that dahil papa’no mo nga naman maipapasa ang information sa klase kung hindi ka magsasalita sa harap? But please naman, do it in a fun way! Let your students be enga...

I bet you thought I'm already involving myself with the software development process of the company, with sweaty hands, sleep-deprived eyes, and over-caffeinated blood — but no, I'm not there yet. My first week in my new job was focused only on my training, on getting me familiarized with their workflow process and in their environment. Since I'm new, no one in their right mind would allow me to tinker with their high-quality product. They must first evaluate where my skills stand and whether I'm really ready to be assigned those work-related tasks. But that's not saying I'm just sitting there idling in front of my laptop. The complete silence and shame of doing nothing would surely kill me. So I immersed myself in intensive training in order to catch up to them. On my first day, our team lead programmer tasked me to read a few books. Some of which were about cleaning codes and effective java programming. I was actually hoping that I would only get to r...

Choosing the programming career was one of the huge steps I made—since I came from the academe world. So when the software company called to invite me for an on-site exam, it racked me, I wasn’t able to sleep well for straight days as the idea of me coding in front of them terrified me. What if I wouldn’t be able to answer it? What if it’s something I am completely unaware of? And then that day came and I was right. It was totally something I wasn’t expecting. Please note that I am only trying to get an entry-level kind of java programming job, so when they asked me to write a REST API documentation for the scenario they made, I was like, “Shit, I’m in danger.” Nail-biting was never included in my mannerisms, but in that moment, you could imagine me doing that. I was expecting more of coding problems involved in hackerrank.com, where it mostly tests your logical thinking skills, utilizing the basic java utilities existing, such as rotating the contents of an array or recur...

Excelling in school isn’t always defined by sheer intelligence only. What sets the smartest kid in your class from others is his study habits. So if you wanted your name to be included in the top 10 in your class, don’t just study hard, develop smart habits, and you’ll surely find yourself crawling or even skyrocketing towards success. Listed below are some habits I’ve researched or even implemented during my school days: 1. Studying when you’re mostly focused Don’t force yourself to study when you don’t feel like it, but that’s not saying you should only study when your heart is set on it. What I mean is, identify the time when your concentration is at its peak. For me, it’s always set around 9PM-12MN. For others, it might be earlier like from 6PM-8PM or in the early morning, from 3AM-5AM when everyone is still asleep yet. This way, you’re upping the chances of remembering every term you read in your reviewer. 2. Avoid cramming During my college days, I ten...

Writing is not just for writers, bloggers, or journalists. If you haven't yet realized, good writing skills should be everyone's concern, kahit pa sabihin mong hindi iyon ang everyday job mo, the fact remains: you'll never escape it. If you're a student, may times na kapag wala nang maituro si teacher at may 30 minutes pang time sa inyong klase, bigla-bigla siyang magpapa-essay (may sa-demonyo eh no?). When you're applying for work, madalas tini-test ng company ang iyong written skills and english proficiency sa pagpapasagot sa iyo ng mga questions na ise-send nila via email. When you want to brag on social media and needed a great caption, you are already writing, and of course, you wouldn't want to embarrass yourself by posting shitty writing. Syempre, kailangan mo ring ipakita na may alam ka rito. One way to make yourself stand out is by knowing how to write eloquently. Still not convinced? Writing is one way of showing who you are. If you're dr...

Programming belongs to the most hated subjects of IT students. And I don't need to conduct a survey for proof. Sa loob ng two years kong pagiging IT instructor, pagsinghal pa lang ng mga studyante ko sa oras ng lab activities namin, alam ko na. Well. Worry not! Dahil likas akong mabait, bibigyan ko kayo ng mga tips para imbes na kamuhian ninyo ang programming, ay baka ma-in love pa kayo rito in the long run. 1. Master the basics. There's a reason why your teachers keep on repeating the if-else and for loops topics in every subjects na meron kayo, kasi, fun fact: kakailanganin niyo talaga iyon sa software development. A lot of times, actually. Your subjects are structured step-by-step. Usually, C++ basics lang muna, then Object-oriented programming concepts, Data Structures, and so on. Wala namang tangang magtuturo ng advance agad. Malamang by leveling process iyan. Kaya para makatagal ka sa college, kailangang basics pa lang ng programming, master mo na; dahil ...

I mostly refer to myself here. Pero kung unemployed ka rin, aba'y welcome to the club! Tayo ang bumubuo ng kasalukuyang 5.1% unemployment rate ng Pinas! Charot. I know, I know, it's nothing to be proud of. But hey, let me tell you this: It's not the end of the world! Kanina lang, sinimulan ko nang kumilos para sa next career ko. Pumunta ako ng Alabang upang i-scout ang mga kumpanyang target kong applyan. Balak ko kasing mag-change career na. I plan on pursuing the appropriate job for the course I graduated in. Magja-java programmer na ako. ( Yay!) Almost two months na rin akong tambay. I allotted one month to finish writing the first draft of my novel ( writing, by the way, is my real passion ), two weeks on self-editing it, and another two weeks refreshing my programming skills. Ilang taon na rin kasi mula nang huli akong nakagawa ng system. Noong fourth year college ko pa. E simula nang maging teacher ako, na-limitado lang ang pag-poprogram ko sa kung ano lang ang...