For one week:
- I’ve become the most cursed, most “invectivised” and perhaps most ridiculed person in UPLB. Oh yes, I should be in the Guiness book. Of any blame put on the UPLB SystemOne Online Change of Matriculation would be blamed on me, that goes to show our level of maturity of the users. Can’t blame them though, the misconfiguration is definitely my fault and I already apologized for that, no need to be sulking about it and move on.
- I left my WoW server to be with another server. It’s not as glamorous as the WoW server, and I might just as well stayed at home and played all day long, but no, I left that hedonistic gamer lifestyle to pursue an idea. Oh yes, it WoW was like a mistress, but I left her for someone who needed me and I stood by her the whole time, afraid something bad happens if I be far away. Now that last week’s affairs are over, at least for my part, I came back to my WoW server, maybe I’m on a relapse, but it’s strange to think, I just don’t feel like a Dwarf Hunter with a Rare scorpid for a pet anymore. No matter how much I want to try and play all day, I play WoW like I taste bland food I end up tasting a little.
- For the whole week, my office room became my home, and my apartment became my public bathroom. I had this division/barricade installed in our office room because my roommates have been dragged into this madness. Carla, who is nearest the door, may have felt like a receptionist, everytime people comes to see me they ask her who this ‘Duldulao’ /Dulds fellow is. Except during those power outages, my Ubuntu box and Miko’s PC were open the whole time, it’s good they did not crash out on me because that would have driven me real mad.
- Except when I had to go home for hygienic purposes, I’m either at my office room, pacing the hallway or checking up on the server in the network room. I realize I did not venture that far from those places all this time. I had my food either brought to me or I brought into the office on the way from home. Strangest thing though, I lost my appetite the whole time, the cats and probably mice that became my roommates ate all of them from the trash bin because I remember putting the stale food in and discover the last stale food I put in it is gone.
- What is the longest period that you did not sleep? Counting from the June , about 8:00 in the morning up to Tuesday, 4:00 AM, then I woke up at 6 to go at it again, and had just about one hour sleep every day ever since. It’s the data given to me, those were the root of my concerns and the cause of my troubles. I assumed they were correct and most of it are. I have not realized nor analyzed the restrictions and rules bound on those data especially on recommended courses would cause problems. I didn’t have time to plan on what to do for the Assisted Enlistment Area, thus the first day chaos. I dragged my whole institute into this, and I thank them for the valuable support they have given. The following enlistment days, some level of order have been enforced. I am also thankful some students (some of them my former students) and some people from the USC, CAS CSC came to help also.
- I might have to go check on a gastro doctor. My stomach seemed to have had an out of body experience all those time. Now that the ball is no longer with me, it decides to come back and I am voraciously hungry ever since.
- My Internet Messenger contact list grew considerably. My GAIM went like 32 chat tabs and more and I have to cycle through all of them. I had the speakers and earphones disconnected, I swear I heard a beep chorus. I’m being called by people I do not know.
- My Inbox got full of messages, I had to answera little over 500 messages in one sitting. Then with the current issues and such, I forgot about that inbox altogether starting wednesday.
- I specifically asked for people with pleasing personalities from each department to help with the Assisted Enlistment. They delivered of course but I have had not the chance to see them in action myself, only during when I had to notify them about something and I thank them for their time and effort. It bothered me though that our lab aircon gunked out.
- My sister who is in Japan for a PHD (she graduated inUPLB also) checked in to remind me our parent’s wedding anniv was last week and I totally forgot about it, I remembered my Ma had a text message and I didn’t bother to answer. In one of my resting hours she asks me “Do you have hazzard pay?” To which I answered “Almost half of UPLB probably hate me by now, yeah, and no hazzard pay.” The two students who were with me at the time asking me on an unrelated project, kind of asked how much I make as an instructor. I told them my payslip is on display at may table. It never really was about the money.
- I had to do damage control on the misconceptions of people and of course on the effect of loading incomplete or faulty data. I reminded myself to continue writing that Disaster REcovery Manual for Computerized Enlistment I always stop writing about. People tend to blame the first thing that they see. One student blogged for example “SystemOne gave just 9 units…”. I would have liked to have replied, “The OCM did not assign those units for you. IT just displayed what was distributed to you beforehand and now you have the chance to change it.” There is this one guy also who blogged on lining up on the Assisted Enlistment Area to check on a petitioned subject, I would like to have replied “Aren’t you supposed to be lining up at the department teaching the course?” Apparently, to him, it is the software’s/system’s fault that the department has not yet responded to the request. I might just as well say “whattanoob!” [Devilish laughter].
- Other notable blog entries: “SystemOne U R Goin Down”. “…The entire student population of UPLB wants to SCREW it!” Really now. Isn’t that a bit exaggerated? I mean you fail to note “I” am a member of the student population. What does that make me? The people who are content with it don’t blog about it, I mean most blogs are about incessant rants of people who have nothing but rants. It is nice to receive amidst all the troubles, reassuring virtual-tap-on-the-shoulders delivered in one liner emails. It made want to smile and want to go at it more.
- It’s a bother to explain to people about the university’s resource problems. All you students can bring all your mothers to pressure the university to giving more sections AND WE WILL STILL HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. Who’s going to teach you? I mean what the hell, it would be best if you bring your parents and have them donate money for use as salary for teachers. That would be nice, instead of having them reprimand people as if they have the power.
- I thank all those who came to support our efforts, those who volunteered to do something to make a burden much lighter. I feel I came out of this ordeal with a sense of victory. Despite the glitches and the temporary failures, I personally proved this thing can work. It is nice to think that while we were rowing this boat, some came to help us paddle. Others just rocked the boat and that wanted me personally to paddle more. I know that we will do this again, because to not do this now that we have momentum would be a big misstep to us as an organization. TO the boat rockers, how’s about we just get them off the boat next time >:) [Devilish grin] .
- I’m a sucker at crowd management. It is good people in my institute and the OUR are there to compensate for that skill lacking.
- All in all, I am content at what happened, a learning experience is always a welcome experience. We identified problems we can only see in action [ that things in theory isn't what they are in reality ], and already have solutions in mind for those problems. We identified some weak points and we will be addressing them in due time. I don’t know what we might have sacrificed here, I am sure there were some who were left in the water, but then, what change does not happen without sacrifice?
- To those who still are not convinced about anything, I ask you to have a step back and leave your preconceived notions for a moment to see a big picture. The name “SystemOne” has a very big picture behind it, a very big idea. The OCM you see is just a small portion of it. Behind that big idea is a target: you. I will be explaining soon enough in a separate forum, what this picture is and what it means to you.
