Brain Contour

Miss Earth USA

Read what she posted:
“I hardly made it to manila and we already attended a ridiculous tv show. So annoying!!! These people want to touch you and be with you all the time!! I can’t understand a word they say. I can’t wait to go back home. This country is so dirty and noisy. I’m scared to eat!!! What a mess. On a lighter note I don’t see any real competition. Will keep you updated my loves”

Thinking of home.

I have been in and out of the Philippines many times. Most of those times, the travels were short — like those few days in China and a week in Singapore. My more than two years of residency in the Netherlands had brought good memories worthy of treasuring, and a whole lot of curious town folks who could not help praising how my look had changed while abroad. Although there was nothing that I changed in myself, except for cutting my hair short, I was told by many that my living abroad made me looked “fairer” (whatever that means…).

Most Number of Facebook Users

I was tempted to produce a map showing Facebook users in the United States by States after seeing someone posted a map of the world in terms of Twitter users. Here are my results based on the Facebook Usage Statistics for August 31, 2010.

Eric in Nebraska's Sandhills

Here I am, taking the seat at the corner, the only elevated area of the coffee shop. I never take this seat unless nothing else is available. I always have this unusual feeling when elevated, like being stared at (although I do not possess the charming looks people would want to even take a glance at), jeered at (I’m thinking too much), and pestered by rowdy and vicious juveniles (alright, let me jog my memory — crumpled. paper. hit. face. New York. coffee shop). Crush out the last one, it is very unlikely that it could happen in Brookings.

A friendly competition between rival universities is common and healthy. Sports, for instance, foster and engage friendly competition and cheers between group groups. While each team may want to become the more popular and stronger squad, it is the boosting of comradeship and interactions that must come first.

Abby Duling on The Volante

Whatever that begins as a friendly competition must end as it is. Human as we are, we are all competitive in nature. However, we should not allow this human nature to fuel hate in us. Abby Duling, a columnist of The Volante, the student publication of The University of South Dakota, may not know what friendly competition is all about. In her column “Home of the Coyotes, not the bunnies“, she encouraged violence against specific innocent parties, in this case the students of USD who wear SDSU gears. The “incitement to violence” is clearly described by Ms. Duling’s statement, “All of the people walking around campus with SDSU gear need to be kidnapped, smuggled into the dome and then hurled onto the floor at halftime. Then all of their SDSU backpacks, binders, pencils and SDSU lanyards need to be thrown in after them.”

The start of the New Year means the start of a new semester. The past days, I bumped into a number of new international students who moved aimlessly around the residential hall and the GIS department where I work, sporting the one unique appearance you’d never doubt for something else. Okay, save your breath, I had the same look when I first came to this town – tolerantly apprehensive, conscience-stricken and bugged up.

This is me promoting the Philippines!

Not counting the predestined academic catechisms, the infrequent chat I had with some American friends, would, most of the time, lead to the proverbial question of “why I have to take my PhD study abroad”.