re-educating myself

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Last year I took up nine education units to comply with my job requirements. Back then, the minimum requirement was just 18 units but now it has been increased to 30 units. So I now find myself having to take up more which has prompted me get started on it.

The first nine units I took were with an online university like Western Governors University. I realized that it was very convenient to take up an online degree with these online universities. WGU is particularly promising as an online university because their program is competency-based which I think is a must for an online university. Unlike other online universities where a student’s passing grade is dependent on the number of hours spent online, WGU uses the passing or successfully completing of assessments of various kinds to determine the student’s progress. With a university like this, I might even consider taking an additional online degree altogether.

holiday bingeing

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The holidays are fast approaching and as always, most people’s houses will be teeming with holiday feasts. Naturally, there will be a lot of eating as well. Combine these with the numerous events like weddings, birthdays, and baptismals we have to attend this coming December and Andrea might start reading some adipex reviews soon. As for me, I look forward to enjoying ourselves this holiday season. Hopefully, we’ll also have enough to make our own small family feast.

running for fitness

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Andrea has been bugging me to go running with her. She has been running/jogging before she got pregnant and after the miscarriage, she’s determined to get back to it. According to her, she has no immediate plans of looking for the best fat burner pills so we might as well exercise to burn the fat. Well, I’ve agreed to go along with her plan especially since I also feel the need now to be fit and healthy. So in a few weeks’, once we get clearance from her doctor, we plan to run thrice a week and hopefully, we become fit again soon to join runs and marathons.

a human teacher

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There are times when I feel proud and happy to be a teacher. However, there are also times when I seriously consider looking for a different profession, going into software development, opening my own coffee shop, or starting my own invention company.

Because you see, aside from the challenge of making children understand and enjoy understanding the lesson, teachers face the difficulty of behaving like models – the very personification of ideals such as truth, fairness, knowledge, objectivity, and rationalism.

I guess the difficulty springs from the fact that teachers, regardless of how ideal they’re trying to portray themselves to be, are human. And being humans, they, we are not exempted from mistakes, biases, and emotions. God knows how hard we try to become fairness and perfection personified. But the thing is, no matter how much effort we give, we are bound to show faults and shortcomings.

We can sometimes be hasty, nearsighted, overzealous, overly sensitive, overly devoid of emotions, too involved, or completely detached. We can’t help but commit errors, overlook a few things, or sometimes even misjudge a certain person or event.

We are all subjected to these things despite the fact that our profession entails us to be perfect. It’s a very difficult responsibility and a very costly one too because whenever we do show humanity by committing mistakes, we’re not the only ones that pay for our mistakes. Other teachers, the parents, and of course the children too suffer for our mistakes.

It is our curse. It is our burden. It is what makes human teachers.

colon cancer phobia

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I always thought that cancer was bad regardless of whatever case or type it may be. I was wrong. It is worse in some cases.

You see, even though cancer cases are, statistically speaking, typically fatal, there are certain types that give you more than a painful death. Colon cancer, for example, depending on stage, can make you suffer from abdominal pains, constipation, irregular bowel to no bowel movement at all, and so much more inconvenience. Compared to other types of cancer (that are often painful when metastasis has already been reached), colon cancer makes you undergo so many other things that are not just painful, but also annoyingly bothersome. (And I’m not even talking about chemotherapy yet.)

Colon cancer, similar to other types, is hard to detect at an early stage. Usually, the symptoms are observed when the cancer has already progressed which makes it harder to prevent. However, unlike more common types such as lung cancer (whose prevention method usually just involves staying away from the carcinogen), it can be addressed by taking in natural supplements or colon cleansers like bowtrol.

Anyway, whatever the case is, colon cancer or some other type of cancer, I’d still rather not get any.

age of electronic gaming

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When I was young, the only form of electronic gaming consoles we had were those from Nintendo. They were popularly and colloquially known as game & watch. These were handheld consoles which usually featured just a single game and sometimes functions as a clock or an alarm.

Now, there are several gaming  consoles to choose from. The more popular of these are XBox from Microsoft and Playstation from Sony. They’re more than just gaming consoles. Their latest renditions allow users to connect to the internet, watch movies, play music, read DVDs, or even store information. This is why parents such as I, are finding it harder and harder to resist the temptation of getting one for the kids. Unlike before, it is so much more difficult because there are so many things you’re saying no to once you reject  the idea of these game consoles.

However, no matter how you look at it, no matter how reasonable they seem to be, gaming consoles will always carry with them risks of distraction or even addiction. They will always have the potential to ruin studies (by destroying study habits and concentration), cause dispute between siblings, or sometimes even affect budget (not only because of the initial cost of the unit but also because of electricity bills).

I’m just so glad mateo has not reached that age yet. I still have some time to decide whether we would allow him to have one or not. Until then, he’s sticking to books and toys.

cold season

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Christmas is just around the corner. I know since I’ve been waking up in the middle of sleep recently because of the cold. Sometimes, it gets so bad that I have to get out of bed and turn the electric fan off because every time the wind from it hits my back, my back aches. No it’s not rheumatism. That’s just how cold it is now.

You see, unlike andrea, I am not a fan of blankets. When I’m on the bed, I like the freedom to shift to any position without restrictions. But with the absurd cold we’ve been getting recently, I guess I wouldn’t mind cowering beneath one at least until the season passes. Heck, if the temperature gets any colder, I might even persuade andrea to consider getting an electric blanket. Nevermind about freedom…

holiday eating binge

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One of the most appealing part of the holiday season is the food that comes with it. The holidays is the perfect excuse to prepare food that are difficult and expensive to prepare. It’s also an excuse to eat more and binge. Andrea would sometimes jokingly tell me that she’s looking for some fat burner review to read if we’d like to try it so that the eating binge would be guilt-free. Since the holidays is fast approaching, I’m anticipating the good food.

little doll

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Having a baby is almost like having a doll, although I can’t really be certain because I haven’t experienced playing with a doll before. What I mean is that babies amazingly feel like toys that can be dressed up or accessorized. I know because andrea and I both find it entertaining to let mateo try on different apparels – polo shirts, pants,  head gears, shoes, everything.

In fact, sometimes, when we pass by such stores in the mall, we’d playfully drag him inside and let him wear a cap , a pair of shoes or sometimes even some bling bling. He would then proudly step up to the mirror and admire himself while parrading around – a very self-confident baby, that’s for sure.

I’m just not sure how long he’d let andrea and i do that to him because I’m sure he’d eventually learn to refuse. But until then, we’re going to have our little doll try on more things for as long as we could.

the road to fitness

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Starting this week, I’ve started on my resolve to go back to exercising. I used to be really fit way back in high school and college and I miss not getting out of breath after going up several flight of stairs. I’ve joined Andrea in jogging around our subdivision and I also plan to use my weights again. I figured I should do something about my body and health now before I get to a point when I would resort to taking allie. Unlike Andrea though, I have no plans on going on a diet so I might as well  do more exercising.

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