The First Freedom Monday, Jan 19 2009

I may not agree with what you say. But I will fight till death for your right to say it- Voltaire

Flash back to the time when I was a 4th year high school student in PUP Laboratory High School.   It was the 4th grading period and I was astounded when I received a grade of 70% in Good Conduct.   My classmates who were given the tag of “Guidance Veterans” for constantly being sent to the Guidance Office for countless violations (including drinking liquor within school premises) have a higher grade in GMRC than me  (I’m a Student Council Officer at that time.  So I’m pretty sure that I’m a well mannered and respectable student).    I  dig deeper into this and discovered that my all my suspicions were correct.   The teachers who gave me that failing grade in Good Conduct are the same teachers who walked out of our classroom after having a debate with me in the subject they teach.

Ironically, one of them is the teacher who taught me this quotation from Voltaire, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight till death for your right to say it“.

In the State of the Union address in 1941, US President Franklin Roosevelt made the famous, Four Freedoms Speech and listed the four freedoms that all humans should enjoy, wherever they may be in this world.   The first of these freedoms, is the Freedom of Speech and Expression.  This same freedom is protected under the Bill of Rights of the Philippines Constitution.  This same right is being boldly defended by journalists all over the world, some of whom have even died fighting for this.  This right is so powerful that very often, it is the first freedom to be suppressed by tyrannical governments.

Move forward to last Thursday, January 15, 2009.  Local news reported about 4 high school students from Quezon City Science High School were suspended for allegedly posting articles in their blogs criticizing the school’s principal, Ms. Zenaida Sadsad.  And went further by ordering the closure of the school’s  student publications.   I recall one teacher (or is it the principal herself) saying that they just want to teach to the students that with freedom, comes responsibility.

Wanting to find out more about QCSHS,  I searched for the school’s website.  Although I didn’t find any,  I found out that the esteemed school’s motto is  “Scientia et Virtus”.  Science and virtue.

The “science” part of the motto could not be questioned.  As for “virtue”,  this raised several questions in me.   I wonder what kind of virtue will be instilled to the students when their school principal  failed to see the bigger issue, that is the veracity and merit of the complaints being raised against her and her policies and what actions to take to rectify such complaints.   I question the virtues being taught to the students when the highest official of their school,  handled criticisms and issues hurled against her by suspending the students who are just practicing their rights.   I’m uncertain to the kind of virtue that will be instilled to the students in an institution where the school’s principal is the complainant, the judge, the jury and also the executioner.

I am not an alumni of Quezon City Science High School and so I don’t know if they claim or have claimed that they are creators of future leaders.  But if they did, I suspect the kind of leaders they would mold under the condition that they implement.  In 1992, I interviewed a teacher who went on a hunger strike to fight for their rights as an educator.  I asked him, why the defiance?  And he said, “I’m doing this for my students.  A cowed teacher, produces cowed students”.    That teacher will always have my respect.  Now, we have a principal who oppressed the rights of her students, I question the kind of students will she produce.

Finally, perhaps the good principal think that by suspending these four students, she’s merely “educating” them with the students’ tails between their legs.  But I think her action would destroy the spirit of these students which may make them scarred for life.

As I research further about QCSHS, I learned that they added another section and it was named after Galileo Galilei.    It is very interesting to remember that Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church for his essay ” Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, that supported Nicolas Copernicus’ heliocentric system of astronomy.    Because of his scientific beliefs, he was tried for heresy and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.    Now, I wonder, if the administration of Principal Sadsad would like to instill the virtues of Galileo to her students, or the virtues of the early Roman Catholic Church.

Side Note:  Last I heard is the Department of Education blocked the suspension order of Principal Zenaida Sadsad pending the investigation of the Department.  Here’s a news video:

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New Discovery: The Miracle/Magic Fruit Tuesday, Nov 11 2008

In my blog article “Here and Back Again”, I mentioned that I will be making entries about new discoveries that I made.  It maybe snippets of knowledge or information that I have learned either through reading, watching TV documentaries or news, or through conversations or by traveling.    I just want to re-live the spirit of discovery and adventure that I once had way, way back when I was still a student.  And I want to share these knowledge or information to my daughter and to the netizens who would chance upon my blog.  This will be my first article under New Discovery.

The Miracle/Magic Fruit (Synsepalum Dulcificum)

It is just a small, red berry, about the size and and looks like the Philippine Birds Eye Pepper or more commonly known as Siling Labuyo.   When eaten, it is relatively tasteless, but it alters the taste buds that makes the tangy Lime or Calamansi to taste like a sweet candy and vinegar to taste like my favorite apple juice.  This is what give the Miracle Fruit (scientific name Synsepalum Dulcificum) its name. 

I first read about this “magic” fruit in the September-October Issue of the Discovery Magazine.   According to the article, this miracle fruit, because of the way it alters the taste buds, is the rage in New York and several restaurants and bars there, are organizing “flavor tripping” parties.   In this parties, people would eat the miracle fruit and then would sample foods such as lemons, vinegars, Tabasco sauce and then be amazed at how these foods would taste different when eaten after swirling the pulp of the miracle fruit on their tongue.   

One lunch time at the office, my staff were discussing about the fruit that one of my personnel brought to the office.   They said that calamansi tasted like a sweet candy after eating this supposedly magic fruit.   When I heard about it, I know they were referring to the Miracle Fruit and  was pleasantly surprised to find out that this fruit is already here in the Philippines.   

One of my staff, is the daughter of the known herbalist Rey Herrera, the man who formulated the famous Glo-Herbal (it is now known as Ka Rey’s Herbal) supplement.   They imported several shrubs of the Miracle Fruit with the intention of adding thisfruit into the herbal concoction to make its taste more palatable.    I requested my staff to bring some berries (and also to give me a shrub which I plan to cultivate).    We had an instant flavor tripping party in the office.   Calamansi tasted like sweet candy and hot sauce taste like a sweet juice drink.   Kinky thoughts even entered my personnel’s mind when they talked about the possible things whose taste can be changed by this fruit (and laughed that even if the taste will change, the smell will not.   Adult readers, I know you know what they’re pertaining to). 

Upon doing an internet search about this fruit, I found out that this fruit was first documented by a French traveler Chevalier des Marchais during his travel in West Africa in the 18th Century.   In the 1970’s there were some attemps to commercially produce the ability of the fruit to turn bitter and sour  foods to sweet foods but ended in failure.  

What gives this fruit its taste changing ability is the protein molecule “Miraculin” that allegedly distort the shape of the tastebuds so that they become responsive to acids. Thus, it makes bitter, sour, even spicy foods to taste like chocolate candy.    One blog even wrote that the Miracle fruit is “like a candy Willy Wonka would have invented.”    In New York, a single berry cost $2 or more.   If my staff who let us sample the berry for free would found out about this, she would definitely go nuts

I have one shrub of this miracle fruit and hopefully, I will be able to cultivate it successfully.  I don’t have commercial intentions for doing so(for God’s sake, its just one shrub), I just like to have a steady supply of this fruit to tease the tastebuds of my friends. 

Here’s a link of the New York Times article about the Miracle Fruit : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html?_r=3&oref=slogin

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Philippines is 11th in World Quiz Championship Tuesday, Jun 10 2008

Another reason to be a proud Pinoy:  The Philippines ranked 11th in the 2008 World Quizzing Championship.    UK got the top honor by having the highest aggregate score of 500.  Belgium is in second place with 485 points and Finland a distant third place with 420 points.  The Philippines scored higher than Canada and Germany.  The aggregate score is computed by adding the scores of the top three individual scores from each country. 

The Philippine’s champion, Mr. Ramon Lorenzo garnered a score of 113 points and this enabled him to be ranked 90th in the world.   2nd placer Leo Gapol ranked 142nd, 3rd placer Wilfred Ritona ranked 215th, 4th place finisher Dave Oriel earned the rank of 259th and yours, truly, Pierre Cantillero garnered the rank of 304th.   The World Quizzing Championship was participated by 622 quiz champion and quiz enthusiasts around the world. 

For the complete results and ranking, follow this link from the website of the International Quiz Association-Great Britain:  http://www.iqagb.co.uk/trivia/viewtopic.php?t=7048&sid=b9d210962725a97bce99871d1fc46c4b

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World Quizzing Championship-Philippine Leg Tuesday, Jun 10 2008

There’s only one reason why I joined the Philippine Leg of the World Quizzing Championship last June 7, 2008, that is to have a reunion with my fellow quizzers some of whom I haven’t seen for more than 3 years.    I have no pretension of winning or placing in the Top 5 of the said competitions because I haven’t attended a quiz gathering or read a quiz book for the past 3 years.   Because of my sport (muay thai), several megabytes of memory have been erased due to the repetitive blows I would receive on my head whenever I compete or spar.   Moreover, I just arrived a few hours before the quiz competition, from Baguio City wherein I had a business trip.  And in my 4 day business trip, I subsisted on only 3 to 4 hours of sleep every day.    Needless to say, I didn’t took the competition seriously. 

The World Quizzing Championship-Philippines is held in Murphy’s Bar, an Irish pub located in Esteban St. Cor. Rufino, Makati CBD.   Ahhh, an Irish pub, have I mentioned that I have the conviction that its the Irish and not the Brazilians who are the most gorgeous race in the planet?  I will be in my element.

Some of the best Filipino quizzers showed up for the competition.  Ramon Lorenzo, the famous author of the series of quiz books (Brain Blitz),  Dave Oriel, a known quiz competitor in the ’80s and recently ranked 16th out or more than 1,000 competitors in a quiz competition held in Chicago, Leonardo Gapol, a bemedalled quiz champion back in the ’90s and Richard Pante, 1995 Grand Champion of Battle of the Brains and Atty. Ramon Delas Alas, also a quiz champion and author of several quiz books.    It will be a tough slugfest of the best quizzers in the country.  There were a total of 16 participants from the Philippines.

The World Quizzing Championship was held on the same day all over the world with the participants answering the same set of 240 questions in 8 categories in 2 hours. 

For two hours, electrical firings from the neurons of 16 quiz champions continiously sparked.  When the smoke has cleared, Mr. Ramon Lorenzo emerged as the Philippine Champion of the World Quizzing Championship.  For this achievement, he received a handsome crystal trophy. 

The following are the top 5 of the Philippine Leg and their corresponding scores:

1st  Ramon Lorenzo-113 points

2nd Leonardo Gapol-103 points

3rd Wilfred Ritona- 92points

4th Dave Oriel-86points

5th Pierre Cantillero-80 points

My 5th place finish is a pleasant surprise.  I haven’t done any quizzes for the past 3 years and I’m honestly surprised to still manage to be in the top 5.   The long abscence in the quiz scene and the resulting fatigue from my business trip both contributed to my poor performance.   Mental block has played a big detrimental part in my performance.   Everybody was surprised when I failed to answer this question: Who is currently the longest reigning monarch, having assumed the throne in 1946? The answer is King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.  I do a twice yearly pilgrimage to Thailand for my muay thai training and I was in Bangkok and even wore a yellow t-shirt when King Bhumibol celebrated the jubilee of his ascension to the throne.  Two words… mental block.

Here are some of the questions that were included in the quiz competition:

1.  Almost always starting inin fancy or childhood, this genetic disease causes skin cells to accumulate in thick flakes that adhere to the body and sometimes resemble fish scales.  Which term, describes severe, persistenct problems with dry skin?

2. This literary character sparked the first recorded copycat suicides.  Late in the 18th century, over 2,000 ended their lives in imitation of a character in one of Goethe’s best-known novels.  Unhappy when his love for the already engaged Lotte goes unanswered, who killed himself?

3.  Which Nobel Peace Price Winner was shot in the stomach at his home in February 2008?

4.  What did the Northern Democrats, Whigs, Abolitionists, Free Soldiers and Know-Nothings do after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill?

5. In 1806, some 284 years after the first person of any nationality had done it, Adam Johann Von Krusenstern became the first Russian to do what?

6. The defining measure for a kilogram is ‘Le Grand K’.  Held in a bank vault in Paris, it is a cylinder made of iridium and which other metal?

7. In business, DJIA is better known under what name?

 If you can answer the above questions, then you have what it take to participate in next year’s Philippine leg of the World Quizzing Association. You can join our quiz group who meets every month to do battle…quiz battle that is, to further hone your “quiz skill”.   We call this monthly gathering “InQUIZition”.   There are no fees to be paid and the only requirement to join is the love for quiz bee. 

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World Quizzing Championship-Philippine Elimination Saturday, May 31 2008

My group received the following e-mail from Mr. Steven De Ceuster, the Director for Western Europe of International Quizzing Association (IQA).  IQA established the World Quizzing Championship with the aim of elevating quizzing or quiz bee to the level of other “mind” games such as chess or poker. 

We’ve been in constant touch with this International Group and finally, they agreed to hold a Philippine elimination to determine who will represent the Philippines in the World Quiz Championship.  The elimination will be this June 7, anybody who are interested may send me a message.   Perhaps you have what it takes to be ranked among the legends of Philippine quiz bee, such as Bong Barrameda, Ramon Lorenzo, Leonardo Gapol and Richard Pante.

By the way, I am not competing (or might take the qualifying exam just to know the type of questions) because I am preparing for my muay thai fight this June.  And I also have a business trip from June 4 to 7.

 

“I am Steven De Ceuster from Belgium and am IQA Director Western Europe. I currently handle the applications from new possible member countries.

  

We were intrigued by your query and would like to know more. You seem pretty sure of the skill level of your countrymen and it would be great to have another strong country participating. Please be
aware though that the top ranked players from previous years are professional quiz players and probably cannot be compared to participants in pub quizzes in your country.

  

I guess you already read about the IQA on websites, but let me repeat some of the sites on which most of the information can be
found:

 

-        IQA UK: http://www.iqagb.co.uk/trivia/portal.php

-        IQA Belgium: www.iqa.be

-        Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Quizzing_Championships

 

The most interesting event for you guys would be the World Quizzing Championships that will next take place on June 7^th. I added some smaple question in attachment from a previous event (this was however not the final version of the
questions, some syntax or other errors might still be there, don’t worry about them; because it are sample questions they will not be perfectly balanced over all subjects / regions).

 

Before that there will also be the 2^nd Trans-Atlantic Quiz, which is a UK-USA challenge (but other countries can participate too), with an emphasis on Anglo-Saxon culture. The TAQ will take place on March 15.

 

If you want to know more, please contact me.

 

 

Let me elaborate a bit:

 

(Take care: lengthy e-mail coming up)

 

 

Let me first give you some information on the IQA and the upcoming 5th World Quizzing Championships.

 

The IQA was founded a couple of years ago by quiz enthusiasts from different countries and has grown over the years to include more and more countries. Most members of the IQA are representative from the official quiz
federation of their country, or if there is no official federation, of the biggest quiz organisation of their country. Founding members were the UK, Belgium, India and Estonia, who were later joined by the USA, the
Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Finland, Norway, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Liberia, Lithuania and
Australia. Talks are underway with Canada, Ireland and Latvia. People from other countries like Rumania, New Zealand and Argentina have participated in events but as inidividuals rather than official reps of their nations.

 

The aim of the IQA is to elevate quiz to a similar status as other mind-sports like chess and bridge. For that reason we have been working with quiz organisations from around the globe to develop and run international events. Until now 9 such events have taken place: 4 times a European Championship and 4 times a World Championship (plus a test event in England in 2003) and once a Trans-Atlantic Quiz (TAQ). All the time with increased media
attention.

 

At the moment we are particularly active in organising the next World Quizzing Championships (WQC) that will take place on June 7^th of this year.

 

 We would be delighted for a quiz organisation to organise a leg of the next WQC in the Philippines, possibly as a first step to membership.

 

 

1. WORLD QUIZZING CHAMPIONSHIPS  (WQC)

 

 

1a. What is the WQC?

 

The WQC is an inidividual written quiz that is organised around the globe at the same time. In
Western Europe the time is 3pm to 5pm on June 3rd (which means it will be morning in Canada, evening in India, late evening in Malaysia; for countries like Australia where this would be past midnight, a difference of max 3 hours is allowed).

 

The quiz consists of 240 questions, to be answered in a maximum allowed time of 90 minutes. The questions are divided over 8 categories of 30 questions each, as listed below:

 

* Culture            comprises    Fine Art, Architecture, Religion/Mythology,…

* Entertainment                   Pop Music, Classical Music, Television,…

* Media                           Film, Literature, Comics, Language,…

 

* History                         History, Current Affairs,…

* Sciences                        Exact Sciences, Social Sciences, Flora, Fauna

* World                           Geography, Technology, Transport,…

* Sports                          Sports, Games, Records,…

* Lifestyle                       Food&Drink, Fashion, Tourism, Design,…

 

The total score of an individual is the sum of the best 7 categories. So the worst category can be dropped (this was originally done to attract more women to the competition so
they could drop ‘Sports’ and now it is part of the rules). The result on the worst category however will be taken into account in case of an ex aequo.

 

To assure fairness, the knowledge of English (or any other language) should not be a deciding factor. That’s why for the WQC all questions will be translated to the native language of the participants. In Belgium most people get the questions in Dutch, in Finland in Finnish etc. They will all be allowed to answer in there native language too. The only question that remains is who will do the translation of your local language (Tagalog?). You can also opt to use English as lingua franca as they do in India.

 

1b. How is the local organisation done?

The people participating in the event, will have to be assembled in one venue to ensure there is no foul play (like working in groups, taking more than the alloted time, using reference works or the internet). Possibly a proctor will be appointed by the IQA.

 

The first thing to do is to designate a country representative. This guy will coordinate things in that country and will normally not participate. IN later stages, he/she could be involved in the
voting for the question selection (see 1c).

 

So what then needs to be done, is renting a venue, advertise the event among the country’s quiz players and get the inscriptions going. If you are able to get a cheap venue  that would be great.

 

In that venue, you’d need a PC to be able to e-mail the results as soon as possible after the completion of the quiz. We also use a computer projector to make it a bit nicer, but that is not a necessity.

 

Obviously, a big
country can have multiple venues (India will have at least 4 this year: Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Calcutta, the USA may have 10 this year), but in every venue we need a trustworthy person to oversee the event and send the scores.

 

The idea is that within 1-2 hours after the end of the event the complete scores are e-mailed to some central location (normally in the UK) where they are all processed and the results are then re-distributed to the
various venues so everywhere the result can be announced.

 

 

1c. Where do the questions come from?

The set of 240 questions, divided over 8 different categories, is made by an international team of professional or semi-professional question setters. At the last WQC the team comprised of one person from the UK, one from Estonia, one from India, one from the USA, one from Sri Lanka and one from Belgium (yours truly). The team makes sure that every subject is represented and also that the questions are fairly spread geographically (for instance special precautions are made that not too much emphasis is laid on Anglo-American culture, but that also questions on for instance French, German, Spanish but also African and Asian subjects are fairly evenly represented).

 

The questions that were set, are then sent to the country responsibles (if desired) who can vote what questions actually will make the quiz (we normally make 3x too many questions) and in some cases can veto questions which they deem would give an unfair advantage to any given country.

 

All the questions are originally set in English, but are translated to the native language of the quiz players (Except in India, where because of the multitude of languages English is used as lingua franca).

 

For this year’s event we are already far in the making of the questions. The voting will probably take place around April.

 

1d. Previous events

From 2004 to 2007 the WQC took place in venues
ranging from the Manchester United Stadion, the Silverstone Formula-1 circuit to a living room in Kuala Lumpur.

 

  

I look forward to your reply.

  

 

Kind regards,

 

Steven De Ceuster

IQA Belgium

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Stupid Moments Tuesday, Jan 22 2008

There are times wherein we wish we have a remote control to stop and rewind our life just to erase or correct any remark, comment or question we made that is so idiotic, that its embarassing.  

 I had mine last week when I had a chat with our Belgian neighbor.  He has been using the threadmill in my house and to say thanks, he gave me a bottle of merlot.  Then we had a chat about the difference between living in Belgium and in the Philippines.   Then suddenly, trying to make a good impression about my knowledge about Belgium I remarked, “Leopold III is still your king, right?”  My Belgian neighbor, who is such a nice fellow, had blank stare, perhaps thinking how he can correct me without offending me.  He just said that their current monarch is Albert II but Leopold III is his father.     Then he went on and said that after Leopold, he was succeeded by Baudouin then he was succeeded by the current king. 

Damn, here I am, a self confessed quiz enthusiast and was looked up by some as one of the best quizzers during my time and I don’t know who’s the reigning monarch of Belgium.    Perhaps the repeated blows to my head (because of my sport) has taken its toll and erased a few megabytes of memory.

Beck and I had a good laugh when I told her about this incident.  But to equalize things I reminded her about her own stupid moment.  She’s also into quiz and trivia and competed in the TV show, The Weakest Link way back 2002.  She was asked, “What P is the river that can be found near the White House?”  And she answered, “Pasig River”.   This of course is on camera and this clip was used numerous times to advertise the show.  It was even quoted by Nestor Torre in his column in Phil. Daily Inquirer.  Needless to say, that thousands if not millions of Filipinos have watched this.  Beck defended that she answered Pasig River upon hearing the worrds “What P is the river” and didn’t finished the question.  She of course know that the correct answer is Potomac River.  Well, how can you argue with your wife.   (My daughter is also teasing her mom because she knows that Potomac is near the White House and added that Theodore Roosevelt would take a daily swim, naked, in the said river)

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Laws of Quiz Bee Monday, Jan 14 2008

One of the unexplained things in meeting college/high school friends, especially those whom you haven’t seen for several years, is that you would always reminisce and laugh about the adventures and misadventures  you had as a student, even though you’ve already talked about it several times before.   Met my college best bud, Glenn yesterday and as expected, the 8-hour talk is mostly about remembrance of things past (Thank you Marcel Proust).   Glenn is also into quiz competitions and is a weekly champion in Channel 9’s Battle of the Brains (BOTB) in 1997.  I am most thankful to him for organizing the reviews and trainings that helped me achieve my double victory in 1997. 

When Glenn and I were in college, we were part of this group of quiz geeks called The PUP Quizzer’s Circle.  There’s only one way to join this exclusive club, you have to be in the top 3 of the quiz competitions it regularly organize.    In short, its a society of nerds and geeks.   In a few years from 1993-1999,  geeks who compete in BOTB are given celebrity status  in my university. . .  an adulation that is comparable to what are feted to UAAP basketball players.   Perhaps its because we don’t compete in UAAP and NCAA and its the only way that PUPians could see their schoolmates on TV.  Honestly, I don’t know what’s the big fuzz about appearing on TV.  At that time, I’m doing it for the honor.

Glenn and I talked about some of the laws or rules of thumbs we formulated in competing in BOTB.     Some it were made out of fun, some were made by observing the show and the competitors,   some are applicable only to PUPians.  We made it just to make our review and training livelier (like, duh, when does reading and memorizing entries in encyclopedias exciting?).    I promised Glenn to make an article about this laws of quiz bee. 

Law of First Thought:

The first answer to enter your mind is usually the correct answer.   

Most of us have encountered this.  We are asked a difficult question then an answer came to our mind.  Then we hesitate and at the last second, changed our mind and gave another answer.  It turns our that the first answer we have is the correct one.   This law may not be correct at all times but very often, this is true. 

Quizzer’s Law of Misogyny:

If you are going against a female competitor/quizzer, rejoice.  You have good chance of winning.  

Please note that this law is applicable only to the college level of BOTB.   If anybody has observed the said show, or any general information quiz bees, there are only a few female competitors or and much fewer who actually wins.   Perhaps females are more focused on their college studies while the men are more scatter brained.  In the first place, quiz bees is suppose to be an extra-curricular activity.    Because of this observation, we concluded that female quizzers are easier competition compared to the men.  I know its bad, its very misogynist, but its just an observation. 

Quizzer’s First Law of Reviewer/Reference:

If your competitor is using Ramon Lorenzo’s book Brain Blitz, rejoice.   You have very good chance of winning.  

Most, if not all newbie quizzers have read the series, Brain Blitz.  You are not a real Filipino quizzer if you haven’t read this book.  These booklets are just about 50 pages thick. Though filled with information that are usually asked in quiz shows, these books are not enough to be used as a sole reviewer/reference book for a quiz competition of a high level such as BOTB. 

 Sorry, Butch.  No offense meant.  I am not saying that your books are bad, on the contrary, in fact, I have a collection of your books and you haven’t signed them yet.   (Ramon Lorenzo is a personal friend and he’s an icon for Filipino quizzers.  He has inspired several batches of quizz competitors, myself included, its an honor to be his friend)

Quizzer’s Second Law of Reviewer/Reference:

If your competitor is carrying thick volumes of Encyclopedia Brittanica, Colliers Encyclopedia or any encyclopedia, rejoice.  You have a good chance of winning.

Let’s face it, nobody is that good to memorize all entries in an Encyclopedia.  Plus, quiz shows doesn’t ask you the entire definition and explanation of a term and they usually use desk encyclocpedias for reference.   So if your opponent is suffering from kyphosis because of carrying those huge volumes of encyclopedia, chances are he’s a newbie and thus, doesn’t pose a good threat. 

Quizzer’s Third Law of Reviewer/Reference:

If your competitor is using American Spectrum Encyclopedia, Barron’s Encyclopedia, Hutchison’s Encyclopedia or any Desk Encyclopedia, pray.  You are in for a tough battle.  Especially if these books are very worn out. 

The books listed above are some of the official reference of BOTB.  So, if your opponent is walking around with those books under their arm like a Baptist pastor, you might be in for a tough fight. 

Quizzer’s Law of Origin:

If your opponent is from UP, UST, DLSU, or ADMU, pray hard.  You will be in a tough battle.  

Need I say more? Most of the top quizzers hails from these universities.  Though, from time to time,  excellent quizzers would come from Lyceum and PLM. 

Quizzer’s Principle of Being Handsome:

If you win in BOTB, you are.  If you don’t win, you’re not.

Might be hard to accept, but most quizzers are geeks.  And geeks are not known for being girl-magnets.    At that time, and specially in my university, if you appeared and won in BOTB, you somehow achieved celebrity status that the opposite gender would kind of notice you more.    So if somebody wins in BOTB, we would often tease him as “gu-guwapo na rin sa wakas and magkaka-girlfriend na”.  

Victor’s Law of Variation:

This is not actually a law, but a joke.  We have one member, Victor, who suffers from malapropism.   Malapropism is the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with different meaning, usually with a comic effect (Thanks Wikipedia).  But Victor goes a bit further.   One example is when he answered “The Grapes of Warts” (it should be The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck) and he protested to no end that its a variation.    In one quiz competition, this question was asked “What was the password of the Japanese forces for the bombing on Pearl Harbor?”  The answer is Climb Mount Niitaka.  Victor answered ClimbMount Niitacha and he delayed the quiz because he endlessly protested that its a variation.  It’s not. 

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Love in the Time of Cholera Wednesday, Nov 21 2007

 

Yesterday, after an important meeting with a scion of a business clan in UCC The Fort, I decided to drop by at Fully Booked at the Bonifacio High Street to look for a book.  I thought of buying a book that is in the wishlist of the person who, without knowing, influenced me to blog and write again and give it to her as a way of saying thanks.

One thing I couldn’t avoid each time I visit a bookstore is that I end up buying more than I intended even though I already have a long list of unread books at my personal library.   I have a lot of unread books that if I will read two books a month, it will take me almost two years to finish them.   Still, I ended buying another book, entitled 1,000 Places To See Before You Die, aside from the the Lonely Planet guidebook that I will give as a gift. 

On display at the new release section are copies of my favorite novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  It has a new cover and it is now a made into a movie with Benjamin Bratt as one of the lead characters.    I resisted from buying a copy for a myriad of reasons and among them, Beck tore my first copy out of rage. 

The novel is a story about Florentino Ariza’s unrequited love for the naturally haughty Fermina Daza, that spanned for more than half a century.   And the title itself has been interpreted in various ways.   I first read this novel way back 1996 and have wished that this should be made into a movie.     My apprehension with the movie is will it be able to capture the essence of the novel and the writings of Marquez?    The novel is full of poetry and magic that I find it unfathomable to put the novel’s words into film.  They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but no amount of film can capture the beauty of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ prose.  

My first copy of Love in the Time of Cholera has its own colorful if not foolish or tragic story.    It started with a young man who, like Florentino Ariza, suffered unrequited love from a young lady.  The young lady, despite being wooed for 3 years, accepted another person’s love.  Accepting defeat, he gave her a copy of the book Love in the Time of Cholera.  In the book, he wrote a dedication and stated that he will still love her despite of everything and in the face of everything.  The young lady eventually gave the book to her boyfriend,  who is my friend Donn, when they broke up.  Likewise, she wrote a dedication inside the book.  Donn had another girlfriend and gave it to her.  When they parted ways, the girlfriend returned the book to Donn.   Recovering from the breakup, Donn gave me the book since I mentioned to him years back, that I want to read the said novel.   He requested that I should keep the pages wherein dedications of the previous owners are written because its part of the book’s history.  And he joked that the book is cursed.   At that time, Donn’s words didn’t fell like a warning of what will happen years later.    Snared by the charm of the novel and by the story of the book itself, I vowed that I will never let the book to end with me and that I will pass it on to someone who will also pass it on.    The desire to pass on the book became more intense when the novel was featured in the movie Serendipity.  Nine years after that distant afternoon when Donn handed it to me, the book was torn into pieces and burned by Beck because I’ve been blinded and foolishly gave it to a person  whom I thought was an ingenue but was in reality full of deceit. 

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Bragging Rights Monday, Nov 19 2007

Saturday, November 17, became a regular working day for me and my team due to the fear inspiring phone call from The Boss.   Saturday is suppose to be my bonding day, with my daughter but due to the circumstances, she has to come with me to the office.  At least, coming to the office is a welcome thing to her because she can surf the internet and view her favorite sites.    Then after lunch, I have to bring her to her Kumon class at Shangrila and then returned to the office to oversee my team.  Two and a half hours later, I picked Arphie at Kumon. 

Today’s the November leg of the monthly InQUIZition, A monthly gathering of quizzers who are mainly from PUP.  The venue is as EDSA Central mall which is just across Shangrila.  I have to drop by to get the book my friend Chito borrowed two years ago.   The book’s title is “The Order of Things”, a book on how things in this world are organized into hierarchies and pecking order.   Around the closing months of 2005 was the last time I competed in InQUIZition,  in that year, I won in 8 of the 12 monthly gatherings.  And on those 4 months that I lost, its because I didn’t attend the quiz.  I’m not bragging, but anybody can check Richard Pante’s record.   I still love doing quiz bees, but events, responsibilities and a change in interest (mixed martial arts) have veered me away from the thing that gave me my 15 minutes of fame. 

Arphie and I went to Megamall to have some quality time.  She wanted to have the High School Musical 2 freebies given away by Timezone so I have no choice but to load Php550 in my card.   I chanced upon a group playing on the Super Trivia game and I thought of joining to test my skills and to gain some powertickets.   Of course, I won round after round after round of the game.   When there’s nobody playing but me, I would go back and play with my daughter, constantly checking if somebody will sit and play the SuperTrivia.   During medieval times, knights would often stand guard at cross roads or bridges waiting for another knight whom he can challenge and have a duel.  At that moment, I felt like a knight waiting for a challenger who can add powertickets to my Timezone Card.  Sounds, petty, but quiz for me is a serious matter, and so is the bragging rights that comes with winning. 

I have lost track of how many rounds I played the game and how many swipes I made on my Timezone Card, as long as powertickets are added to my card.  But sad to say, I lost one round.  To a group of students who would confer among themselves first before giving an answer.   The turning point in the loss is when I incorrectly answered this question, “What city in the Philippines, is dubbed as the Rome of the Philippines due to the number of its seminaries and its popular cathedral?”   My first thought is Lipa City, but in a nanosecond, changed my mind and pressed Cebu.  Well, guess what, its Lipa City.  I violated the Quizzer’s Law of First Thought, the first answer to cross your mind is usually the right answer.   This law, was formulated by me when I was coaching Claret High school for their BOTB grand finals.     I have other laws about quiz bee and I think I have to made another article about it.

The Super Trivia doesn’t really give you a good measure of your knowledge because its a multiple choice format.  And choosing the right answer from just 3 choices gives you 30% being of being correct, which means you can guess your way to the game.  Choosing is different from giving the correct answer without the assistance of multiple choices.

That win gave these students some sort of bragging rights because they’ve been observing me play and finally,  they beat me.  But that win also became costly for them because they played several more rounds in trying to replicate their victory but as they say, lighting doesn’t strike the same place twice.  They ended up losing more load in their card.  Call me a braggart, conceited or arrogant.  But when it comes to quiz bees and trivia, I know where I stand. 

My family and I had our dinner at Iggy’s Grill.  Their TV set is tuned it at Channel 7 with the show “Kakasa Ka Ba sa Grade 5?”, the Philippine version of “Are You Smarter than a Grade 5?”.    The contestant for that night’s episode is Atty. Enrique Dela Cruz, he reached the Php500,000 level but have to drop off because he can’t answer the question for that level.  The host, Janno Gibbs mentioned that the highest level so far attained by a contestant.  I told Beck that I beat Enrique Dela Cruz 14 years ago when we squared at Channel 9’s Battle of the Brains.  Its my first time to join the said show but it’s already his second.  In that episode, I bested Enrique dela Cruz and another UST boy, Jose Rizal Coteng.  Joey Coteng eventually became the Battle of the Brains Grand Champion in 1996.    I became the grand champion the following year.  Years later, my wife and Joey became colleagues at Eli Lilly and nobody believed my wife that I’ve beaten Joey Coteng at BOTB.  I just told her to tell them to ask Joey who gave him his only taste of defeat at BOTB.   Joey and I are good friends by the way but we sort of lost touch as we went through with our lives. 

Now, the bigger question, will I join the Channel 7 show?  Yes, if I find the time away from office and my sport. 

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Moore’s Law and Lions for Lambs Tuesday, Nov 13 2007

November 11, a lazy Sunday morning.  Beck and Arphie went to church and to MOA and since she doesn’t want me to go with them, or perhaps doesn’t want me around, I have to content myself being at home for the whole morning.   Good thing that Miguel Coto, the boxer whose style I’m trying to copy when I compete, is fighting Shane Mosley and is airing at Solar Sports.  As expected, my favorite boxer carried the day winning by unanimous decision.   I only stayed long enough to finish watching the match, after which I went to Megamall to buy a new laptop for me since my one year old HP PC is starting to conk out and I want to give it to my daughter for her studies.

I bought an NEC laptop with Intel Core Duo Processe 2.2Ghz, 200GB memory, 2GB DDRAM and dedicated video card.  Geez, I speak like a technogeek even though I’ll be using the laptop as a glorified typewriter for e-mails and word docs, spreadsheet and of course, Medieval 2.  The game wherein I can live my frustrations of being a leader of a country and general of an army.   The NEC is surprisingly cheap,  for its high specs, it only cost me Php80k.  An Acer laptop of the same specs would set one back for about Php97. To think that NEC is a better brand and has better quality compared to Acer.

Buying this laptop made me reflect on Moore’s Law.   Formulated by Gordon Moore, former president of Intel, and coined by Carver Mead, it simply states that every two years, the number of transistors that can be cheaply placed on an integrated circuit doubles.    Which means that every two years, computer speed doubles while at the same time, reducing its costs. 

Moore’s law has a profound impact on consumers and businesses alike.  Year after year, consumers can buy faster computers at cheaper prices. But this has drawbacks to the consumer as well.   If we follow the law, it means that 3 months after purchasing a top of the line computer, the computer will be around 10 to 15% slower than the new computer models that will be out in the market.  One example is when I purchase an HP last year, two weeks later, Intel released the Core Duo.  Rendering the Pentium processors obsolete.   Businesses is also severely affected by this.   As the price of computing power falls, meanwhile the cost for computer companies to develop faster computers escalates.    So economically speaking, is Moore’s law sustainable in the long run?  And practically speaking do consumers need faster computers when it is just used for e-mails, word processing, spreadsheets and of course, blogging?   Moore’s law only applies to computer hardware, I never heard of a software equivalent of the law.  So here’s the dilemma, do softwares and the  computing power it demands also develop exponentially to justify the speed of the development in computing power?

But then again, I am just a consumer with no power to debunk the law.  I’ll just enjoy my newly acquired toy and wait until two years later when it will just be an archeological artifact just because of computer companies trying to keep up with Moore’s Law.

Since I’m in Megamall, I decided to watch Lions for Lambs, a movie about the US’ GWOT (Global War on Terror) and attemps to dig at the human consequence of a complicated war.   It has been more than a year since I last watched a movie alone and the feeling’s surreal.   The movie is a big disappointment specially that it starred Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, who is also the director of the movie.  I thought that the movie is about conspiracy theories like A Few Good Men and JFK.  Instead its like a long college debate on the rationales of war.  The movie has a good premise, but the writers failed to take advantage of it.    Come to think of it, how about I write a screenplay of a conspiracy theory involving Moore’s Law and the Global War on Terror? 

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