Brain Contour

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.”

There is a way to know whether you alone or somebody else is using your Facebook account. Facebook security features include a detection of current activities and locations of previous log-ins.

To check if someone is secretly logging into your FB account, go to “Account” then “Account Settings” then “Account Security”. You will be prompted with a window like this:

There is something more in your credit card number than what you think it only is. The 16 digits on your card have meanings. And I just found out how to interpret them. If you own a VISA or MasterCard, the first digit of your credit card number could be either 4 or 5.

Do you want to interpret the rest of the digits? Follow the guide below. It worked on mine. Leave me comments if it also works on you.

Lately, one of my blogs has been badgered by this error message “Error establishing a database connection.” Experience tells me that each time I get an errors regarding my blog platform, the WordPress forum is the way to go. However, this time, WordPress forums served all useless. I have read responses from users to be demeaning. While I admire the free help being offered by these “wordpress experts”, they must also exercise full consideration and understanding, especially for the new users who know nothing and still learning about the blogging platform. Others help by pointing you to other forums and refer you to so many links that you get lost in the process.

In my desire to really solve the problem, after clicking tens of links, I finally stumbled upon an easy step-by-step guide to fixing it. Thanks to whoever made this video guide.

“Error Establishing a Database Connection” — How to Fix This WordPress Error: Part 1 of 2

For people who stammer, there might be some lessons you will learn by watching the movie “The King’s Speech“, the lead role played by actor Colin Firth. The film is about King George VI who was helped by a speech therapist to overcome his stuttering, a speech disorder. In the end, the King was able to conquer his problem and delivered a speech that was dramatic and well-applauded.

The movie has received a lot of accolades from international award-giving bodies. Recently, Colin Firth won the Best Actor award at the Golden Globes.

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”.

So will you ever leave messages or videos on your blog or website before you die? Will you let people know your plan days before you commit a senseless act of violence?

In a recent tragic incident, a 22-year-old shooter named Jared Lee Loughner attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The very troubled gunman left the Democratic lawmaker from Arizona in a very critical condition (as of this writing) when the bullet hit the congresswoman’s head through and through. Five others died and 14 others were injured from the shooting spree. But what was interesting were the messages that the suspect left online.

Based on the videos he made and posted via YouTube, he is clearly a very troubled man. I watched all the videos, and although most of the time I could not understand his point, everything appeared to be anti-government zealotry. He said “In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratifications: the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in God!”

All videos with texts were posted about three weeks before the horrifying attack.

Franzine Cole Salas is my niece. We call her Zee. Everyone in the family knows Zee could sing when we saw her tapping the table while watching a variety show on TV. That was when she was still 2. She is now 6 years old and has been singing in school programs. My younger brother who has more exposure in this kind of talent development, suggested that we should enroll Zee to a voice lesson program this summer 2011. This is one way for her to develop self-confidence especially when performing in front of a crowd.

The last time we recorded a video of her singing was when she was 2 years old. Watch this video of her performing a Filipino song “Hindi ko kayang iwan ka” by Sheryn Regis. She could not read yet that time and had to follow what she was hearing.