Re: MYTHBUSTERS (on the SR REFERENDUM)

I received this message from a classmate through a class ygroup, and I replied to clear up some "myths" they apparently "busted". I just want to question some things they mentioned here and help explain things to you if you have received a similar email.

Here is the complete excerpt, and my reply follows each "myth".

Just to be clear, I am not doing this because I am favoring any political ticket. I think it should be made clear that the SR Referendum is a STUDENT ISSUE. It has nothing to do with what political party we are supporting. There shouldn't be a divide among us, not when student representation on the highest policy making body of the university is at stake. (I know the election's drawing near and everything, but you [and the authors of this mythbusters thingy] should realize that the SR referendum hasn't anything to do with that)

MYTHBUSTERS

Myth # 1: The question in the upcoming referendum is "Do you still want student representation in the Board of Regents?".
Observation: The Student Regent herself, in a statement released last January 16, stated that the one and only question in the upcoming referendum will be: "Do you approve of the existing Codified Rules on Student Regent Selection (CRSRS) as rules and qualifications to govern the selection of our student regent to the UP Board of Regents?" [Yes] or [No]
Status: Busted.

On "Myth" # 1: I never knew that there were rumors circulating about what the question will be, but right now, I think the question is pretty much final. And there is a rationale why it is the question decided upon by the OSR.

Myth #2: The Office of the Student Regent will be abolished if the NO vote wins in the upcoming referendum.
Observation: The upcoming referendum may only have an effect on the rules that we use in selecting the Student Regent. In no way may a vote of NO by us in the referendum abolish the said office – a position created by law and which may only be abolished by a subsequent law.
Status: Busted.

On "Myth" # 2: Yes, the OSR will not be abolished. But the question is, will there be a regent to hold office? So, what will we do when the referendum fails? Do we ask Shan to stay until we can draft a new set of rules? She can only possibly hold office as SR as long as she's a student, but what happens when she's no longer a student and the rules are still not final?

Myth #3: The students will never have a CRSRS (Codified Rules on Student Regent Selection) if the NO vote wins.
Observation: The UP Charter (sec. 12 [1.g.]) specifically states that the Student Regent shall be chosen by the students in accordance with the rules and qualifications approved in a referendum by the students. Nothing in the law states that a vote of NO will bar any rules for selecting the SR from being set. A NO vote is a edict by the students that they reject the old CRSRS as the rules in selecting the SR, and therefore is a command that a new one must be proposed before them for their approval.
Status: Busted.

On "Myth" # 3: There was never a claim that there will be no CRSRS if "NO" wins. However, it certainly puts a lot of uncertainty to the selection process itself. For one, the proposal of certain parties for "NO with amendments" is practically impossible. Why? If students already reject the old set of rules by saying no, how can they move to amend it? What will probably happen if "NO" wins is that, we will draft a new CRSRS which will, again, be subject to a new referendum. There can be no new student regent until this new set of rules are approved. If "YES" wins, meanwhile, the student regent selection will take place this year and we will elect a new regent. Then, by October, the General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) may propose the very amendments that they are requesting in their call for "NO with amendments." Isn't it more logical to say yes now and propose amendments afterward, instead of saying no with all the uncertainties of what may happen if no wins (e.g., new rules subject to referendum, admin intervention, no student regent)?

Myth #4: There will no longer be any Student Regent if the NO vote wins.
Observation: We again look at the law. The UP Charter (sec. 12 [1]) states that the Board of Regents shall be composed of, among others, one Student Regent. By law (Lecaroz v. Sandiganbayan) a public officer is entitled to stay in office until his (or her) successor is chosen and has qualified. In other words, the current Student Regent may temporarily hold over her position until her successor is selected through a legitimate set of rules.
Status: Busted.

On "Myth" # 4: As I've already said, yes, the current SR may indeed hold over the position. But what if she's no longer legible for the position [i.e. she's no longer a student]? Who will take over while the rules are still being drafted? And that's where the danger comes in, since the whole process of drafting a new set of rules will invariably be time-consuming (it will, again, be subject to a referendum), that we are not sure if Shan will still be around by the time a new set of rules are established. And without the CRSRS (new or not), we have no official mechanism to select a new regent.

Myth #5: Assuming that the NO vote wins, if the current Student Regent graduates or resigns from her post, it will be the administration who will select her successor. Our independent representation in the BOR is in danger from attacks through admin-intervention.
Observation: Let us quote Section 12 (1 [g]) of the UP Charter: "One Student Regent, to serve for a term of one (1) year, chosen by the students from their ranks in accordance with rules and qualifications approved in a referendum by the students;" There is no question that the law mandates that only the students may choose the Student Regent. Any act by the administration to appoint the SR will surely be annulled by the court due to it being contrary to law.
Status: Busted.

On "Myth" # 5: "One Student Regent, to serve for a term of one (1) year, chosen by the students from their ranks in accordance with rules and qualifications approved in a referendum by the students;" the charter says. But since the rules will be discarded if "NO" wins, who could say what would happen? We might say that the chances of the administration appointing a regent is pretty slim, but there is still a possibility that there will be no regent until the new rules are finalized if the "NO" vote wins.

Myth #6: We will have no Student Regent to represent us if the NO vote wins and the current Student Regent eventually graduates or resigns because the process to select the SR has been rejected by the students. No rules = no process = no Student Regent shall be selected.
Observation: The UP Charter has also given us a remedy for this situation. Section 12, paragraph 2 of the said Charter states that in case of vacancy, such shall be filled in the same manner as provided for her predecessor. In as much as the current Student Regent may temporarily hold-over her post until her successor has been selected through a valid set of rules, the current CRSRS may also be temporarily retained as the rules to select a temporary Student Regent until an official one has been selected through a legal set of rules.
Status: Busted.

On "Myth" # 6: Sure, you can do that. But isn't that hypocritical—using a set of rules which have already been rejected by the students (if, again, NO wins)? So what's the point of rejecting a set of rules you are willing to use in case of emergency? Why not just say yes and move for amendments later?

Myth #7: The councils failed to recommend their amendments on time. The deadline for filing amendments is set by the CRSRS on the first day of October. No proposals were given to the OSR before such date.
Observation: It may be true that the first day of October is indeed the deadline for submitting proposed amendments under the old CRSRS. However, we must also take the following into consideration:
a. The practice for the past ten years is for the GASC to convene twice annually: once in October to approve the CRSRS (and any amendments proposed thereto) and again in December to select the SR by implementing the rules approved during the October session. The wisdom behind setting the October 1 deadline, therefore, must have been to ensure that all proposals are submitted before the October GASC session. For everyone's information, the October 2008 GASC was unilaterally cancelled by the SR due to the upcoming referendum.
b. The Student Regent circulated letters to the local student councils indicating her intention to visit each one of them from October until December, to consult on what must be done in the referendum. It is not difficult to imagine that any rational student council at that point believed that the SR's agenda at that time, among others, must have been to seek suggestions on the probable referendum question. Considering that the at the SR's scheduled consultations with the said councils the October 1 deadline would have already lapsed, one may logical infer that the October 1 deadline must have been also suspended together with the October GASC session.
c. Article V, section 1 of the CRSRS mandates the SR to inform all student councils, through official memo, of all pertinent information vital to the process of selecting the Regent. A new law was passed commanding that the rules for selecting the SR must be passed in a referendum. A rational SR must have concluded then that the councils are in a state of limbo on how to go about selecting the said rules. The presumption of regularity has been shattered. Yet, despite this state, the SR still failed to inform the student councils that the October 1 deadline still stands.
Status: Plausible.

On "Myth" # 7: I don't think the SR alone should be blamed for the fact that the GASC meet in October failed to materialize. The new Charter has indeed thrown student institutions in limbo. But had the meeting/deadline for amendments happened, would it have made any difference? (As far as I know, the amendments being proposed by several groups now has been presented over and over again in the GASC in the past, but they never were approved.) Does this justify your decision to vote no and try to railroad the amendments you have failed to enact in the past (I won't even dwell on the ludicrity of the amendments being proposed)?

Idle hands are the "devil's" work. I think I believe it

I haven't done anything for my academics. I feel so idle, so wasted this weekend. The last two weeks had been pure hell, with me working on my schoolwork several hours before each deadline. It sucked. Big-time. But I find I miss the workload.

So far, I have re-read three novels (or was it four?), translated the titles of my stories to Japanese (plus the Romaji transliteration) and three other European languages, read another chapter of TRC and Adarushan no Hanayome (why I follow the latter escapes me), placed new hit counters for each of my unheard-of blogs (the one you're reading right now), watched the latest fansubbed episode of Daa Daa Daa, downloaded a song I couldn't get out of my head since yesterday, read the same old arguments of C!Syaoran/R!Syaoran loyalists (this time, I'm staying out of the debate — I have decided to just wait and see what CLAMP comes up with; I just hope they DON'T listen to either side and come up with an ending which would please us all. But I think that isn't possible—C!Syaoran fans seem to want bloodshed), transferred several music files to my player, played new games I got hold of today...yeah, I'm definitely the idlest person on Earth today.

It's not like I want to be idle. For one, I can't do what I really want to do because I have little privacy in front of my PC for what I think I should be doing. Meanwhile, I can't put myself to doing the pottery thingy because it's beginning to bore the hell out of me, aside from the fact that I'm already sick of the whole project. I haven't yet read Twilight for class (I'm putting it off for as long as I could). I don't have a program concept yet for my interview program, much less an interviewee (okay, just worked up the guts to ask someone thru text and yes, she accepted! One less work done for me). I need to do an OBB and a CBB for that, too. And I also need to get moving for a music video which remains sorely abstract until now, and the deadline's near, too. And that concept paper for Comm140's one week overdue. And the report, too (I haven't yet read the paper I chose for my topic).

Yeah, and not to mention come February, all hell breaks loose. Darn.

Okay, I was overcome by inspiration that I will end this post and get to work. Here and now.

UPCAT 2009 Results

UPCAT results out now at http://upcat.up.edu.ph/cgi-bin/results.cgi.

Raving on pop culture and a certain...prof.

I once tried and failed to read the Twilight series. For one, I have never been a huge fan of vampire flicks or literature. For another, I didn't like Stephenie Meyer's writing style. The first few pages bored me to death (or perhaps I was just sleepy at the time, and I didn't give it the benefit of the doubt because I'm not really interested in its story). And so, I didn't join all the hype over Twilight. Then again, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and in my book, Meyer's style just doesn't compare to Rowling's.

But now it seems that I have no choice. It's now a requirement for my scriptwriting class to not only watch the movie but also to read the book before next Friday. Talk about trying and failing to avoid consuming Twilight media products.

Since the whole point of the exercise is to see the differences in film adaptations and the literature they were adapted from, I think she should give us a choice of which film/literature to read/watch and review. There are lots of those—Harry Potter, for one, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Secret Garden, Secret Window, The Mist, Princess Diaries, War of the Worlds, Devil Wears Prada, Bridget Jones' Diary, (Shopaholic is having a movie as well, right?)...because this is all part of a trend, media convergence.

Ah. I'm ranting because I really don't want to read/watch Twilight. But then, I don't think I can escape this one. As if, with everything that's happening within and outside the walls of UP, I can find the time to stop and consume a bit of pop culture.

*She (my professor) just said something about political economy again. Yes, it's true that the economy determines the culture and politics of a country. But economy isn't determined by the physical technology and innovations we see today—progress isn't defined by bullet trains or the latest gadgets.

In fact, the emerging culture today is that of over-consumption—a result of the surplus economy of the country. We are urged to consume more and more (to wit: cellphones crop out every month or so, urging you to discard your old one for the new one) because corporations are producing more. We are the market for excess products. And we are so saturated with them that soon, they will no longer have a market for their products.

Let's not be brainwashed into believing that the Philippines is progressing just because we are flooded with first-world products, just because "globalization" is giving us an illusion of progress. The Philippines is still a third-world country. 75 percent of the population are considered poor. I can give you facts and figures. We only see a fraction of the scene, and pop culture tends to limit what we see to the middle class (but if you think about it, everyone's in crisis, even middle-class, seemingly problem-free people).

Grr. I don't really like the way she sees things. Subjectivity is passe in my book. It's a shallow way of looking at things. I just hope she doesn't become my thesis adviser. I hope. (Right now I'm worrying about my pre-thesis class because we haven't discussed anything new just yet)

Don't mind me, I'm just ranting. And discoursing a bit.

Profound passages from The Bluest Eye

Background: I'm reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye right now (Nobel Prize for Literature). I liked some insights on several passages about race, class, discrimination, poverty and private property. And I'm going to quote them here.

I hope someday I can write socially relevant stories without romanticizing anyone. Right now I am working on an original fiction which still remains stuck as of present.

The following lines are uttered by the character Claudia, who serves as narrator of the story.

"Our peripheral existence, however, was something we learned to deal with — probably because it was abstract. But the concreteness of being outdoors was another matter — like the difference between the concept of death and being, in fact, dead."

"Knowing that there was such a thing as outdoors bred in us a hunger for property, for ownership."

"Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs — all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child wanted."

"When I learned how repulsive this disinterested violence was, that it was repulsive because it was disinterested, my shame floundered about for refuge. The best hiding place was love. Thus the conversion from pristine sadism to fabricated hatred, to fraudulent love."

"I learned much later to worship [Shirley Temple], just as I learned to delight in cleanliness, knowing, even as I learned, that the change was adjustment without improvement."

"We didn't initiate talks with grown-ups; we answered their questions."

Hajime no Ippo Season 2

I'm not a great fan of shounen anime, but I really liked Hajime no Ippo when it aired in the Philippines. In fact I have the fansubbed versions with me, including the movie (which, by the way, I haven't watched yet).

I learned that Hajime no Ippo is one of the longest-running manga in Japan. Kind of like Detective Conan in the anime (is it still ongoing?).

And I got a pleasant surprise for fans of the anime because a second season of Hajime no Ippo (Hajime no Ippo: The New Challenge) is currently airing in Japan! :)

Here's the download link for the first episode (I'm not sure if it's already fansubbed or if it is a raw):
http://rapidshare.com/files/181152138/Hajime_No_Ippo_The_New_Challenge_1.avi

And I still wait for TRC and XXXholic. Even Daa Daa Daa. Wait. I better check out if the scans are out now. (they're not. Grr.)

That's all for now.

Fanfiction Updates... and an explanation

I just realized that 10 or more of my fics have not been updated. Some date back to a few months ago, while some date back 2007. 2-0-0-7. And it's 2009 now.

But I'd just like to clarify that those stories, unless otherwise specified, are NOT ON HIATUS.

"Slow doesn't mean dropped," a fansubbing group said. I can say the same. I'll update them as soon as I can.

If you're rooting for a story to be updated, please tell me through email, FFNet's IM service, or through this post. You can ping me on YM as well. Just let me know.

And if you're annoyed at me or anything, you can message me as well. But let me tell you this: annoyance will get you nowhere with me. My time to write FF stories is a bit limited, especially now that school will interfere once more. It's just a hobby which takes my mind off things.

But believe me, I'm doing my best to update quickly. In fact, right now, I should be worrying about a demo production, a product concept and two videos to edit and instead I'm doing this entry.

Here's the list of stories, according to level of priority:

RECENTLY UPDATED FICS:
When Love and Hate Collide - Eriol x Tomoyo, 3 chapters, ongoing. (Sequel to Everything You Want)
Catch Me If You Can - Sakura x Syaoran, 5 chapters, ongoing.
Sweet Deception - (My current pet story) Sakura x Syaoran, Eriol x Tomoyo, Meiling x Touya, 13 chapters, ongoing.

FICS WHICH ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE UPDATED SOON, EXCEPT FOR THOSE ABOVE:
My Happy Ending - Touya x Meiling, 6 chapters, ongoing. (Sequel to My Husband's Wedding)
Memories - Sakura x Syaoran, 9 chapters, ongoing.
Gangster's Paradise - Sakura x Syaoran mostly, 9 chapters, ongoing.

STORIES ON THE BACKSEAT (NOT FORGOTTEN) AT PRESENT, BUT WILL BE UPDATED:

CCS:
Finding Love
Stolen Moments
Chasing After Love
Of Hearts and Symphonies: A CCS Songfic Collection
Beloved Enemy
Cold Fire

Daa! Daa! Daa!
The Untold Love Story
Oneshot Romance Collection

FMP!
I Guess That's Love, Sore Ga Ai Deshou (Filipino language)

STORIES CURRENTLY ON HIATUS, OFFICIALLY:
Fated (CCS)

COMPLETED STORIES:
My Husband's Wedding
Everything You Want

STORY PLAN (TO BE UPLOADED SOON):
The Making of My Husband's Wedding: A Parody (Refer to my FFnet profile for an excerpt)

A STORY I LONG WANTED TO WRITE BUT STILL NOT EXECUTED:
When Summer Ends (Again, refer to my FFnet profile for the synopsis)

Feel free to contact me about them. IM, email, comment, YM. You can curse, you can request, you can ask. You can even suggest if you want me to write another story or oneshot (or if one of the unwritten stories in my profile caught your eye). Anything. You can chat with me for ideas.

By the way, I'm still open for beta reading, so you can also contact me about that. Preferably the fandoms I frequent, plus Harry Potter perhaps.

Just don't be too abusive in your messages, or I'll definitely retaliate.

And lastly, my gratitude for reading this post, for still watching out for an update on my fics. Just for being there, reading and (for some) reviewing my fics. You don't know just how much your support uplifts me.