Understanding Suicide: Interview with A Guidance Counsellor

The occurrence of suicidal attempts, whether a failure or not, undeniably casts a shadow over the image of MSU-IIT as an institution dedicated to molding students into quality citizens. Just two years ago, two IITians attempted to end their lives. Although not much was said about them, it is said that the suicides were due to family problems and academic pressures.
“Suicide as a form of aggression…is inflicted on oneself [to express] revenge,” guidance counsellor Maricar Koppin said. A person, she explained, commits suicide because he or she has a low coping mechanism against various stressors, like the pressures from the family, peers, and academics.
Societal problems, peer and family pressure could be talked about within them. Academic strains, however, should be dealt by students themselves. The school cannot take the pressure away from students to adjust because it lowers the school’s standards. “Pressures must be dealt with”, stressed Koppin.
Instead of adjusting to the student, MSU-IIT provided guidance counsellors for every college. “We don’t give advice; [instead] we dig deeper.” Our present emotions are cultivated by our past. The problems of those who commit and attempt to commit suicide might root back to his or her childhood days. “The present is only an effect of the past… [there’s more to it than merely the present emotion],” she said.

The school also requires second year students to take the Personality or Problem Checklist, and at the end of the checklist they are asked if they want to see our guidance counsellor. “Unahon to namo ang ga-answer og yes, then we evaluate others [we see as needing to see their guidance counsellors],” Koppin said.
Parents have the main role in cultivating into their children’s minds not to resort to such drastic measures as suicide. “The parents must observe their children continuously”, Koppin said. According to her, the parents should not use abusive words on their children. “Ma[igo] man ilang self-concept, which lowers their self-esteem. They’ll start having depression and will be having irrational thinking”.
Instead of using abusive words, they must encourage and challenge their kids. After all, the parents can sometimes cast them into tons of pressure, even in academics. “Mangasaba man gud ang parents, labaw nang mabagsak ang anak”. Encouraging them to do better instead of condemning them for their failures helps a lot.
The two suicidal attempts that occurred emphasized both family and scholastic pressures received by students. Although they vary, reasons also include poverty, family row, or love problems. Generally, all of those who wanted to end their lives sought to escape from the pressures of reality.
Although many individuals wanted to take their own lives, most people and religious institutions here in the Philippines condemn the act.
But then, committing suicide is a personal option. After all, in the end, it’s our decision that counts. Yet, is it the best choice?
Is the world really better off without you?

Secure your Life with Bushfire Shelter

Bushfires are quite dangerous to people living in or near the mountains, where the large forest have trees that are quite flammable. A lot fhave died because of tiny accidents where a teeny bit of fire from something as small as a live cigarette butt fired up half of the mountain.

Although rescue teams have been highly trained to contain the fires, the danger of not escaping from the bushfire alive is still a big threat. There are a lot of instances when people have actually luckily escaped from accidents like this, and and such survivors' stories have been published many times in popular publications such as the Reader's Digest. Really inspiring, right?

But not all of the survivors' stories are due to luck, or things like that. There are people who have secured their lives from forest fires by acquiring bushfire shelters. They are those people who have recognized the fact that one's life is not something that you can just leave to your luck. You have to at least do something to be safer.

The price of a bushfire shelter is cheaper compared to the price of the lives that you can secure with it, including your own.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra- a review

“Breaker: Thousand's of miles across and ten stories thick, locating McCullen's base will be like finding a needle in a coal mine.
Ripcord: Haystack.
Breaker: Oh, right haystack in a coal mine.”

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Finding a needle in a haystack or coal mine is hard enough, but I can’t see the sense in finding a haystack in a coal mine!

Yes, amidst all the exhilarating action scenes, there are some goofy scenes , and the movie almost got that perfect balance of excitement, fun and adventure that I greatly admire in Transformers 1 and 2. I’d gladly recommend the movie to everyone who loved the Transformers movies for the humor and thrilling action.

Due of personal time constraints, I haven’t watched GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra in the theaters, but I made sure that I’d get to see it soon. Well, I’ve just finished watching the movie, and I say G.I. Joe was a great action-packed adventure, with the graphics and effects are so realistically done. And the cast, the actors are really good. Channing Tatum was definitely gorgeous in that military uniform, and even in that hi-tech suit! Dennis Quaid is still so good-looking despite the age. And I really love the character of Zartan, with all the ease and confidence he sports as he assumes the role of another individual. Arnold Vosloo perfectly portrayed the role of that cool impostor.

I must admit, every second of the movie sends thrill down the spine, it was almost like what I felt when I watched Transformers 1 and 2. Time and time again movies like this really amaze me, because every time I get to see one, the effects get more and more real to me. It really is one great action-packed movie, and no time was wasted on too much dilly-dallying. This is what you can really call “action-filled”! There were a lot of crashes and destruction of buildings, cars, and other stuff, I expected that in a movie like this. But when I saw the Eifel Tower slowly collapsed, I was still stupefied. Of course, it wasn’t true, but I actually thought, “what if that really happens, how would the people react to it?” They’d be flabbergasted too, obviously!

Nearing the end of the movie, I thought everything was already revealed, but then the last scene on the president reminded me that not all bad guys have been caught. The ending of the movie is wickedly cool. I really like Zartan’s character as the perfect impostor. Only his whistling could give him away, but I doubt that too. It gives the feeling that it’s not over yet. Something darker and more dangerous might come.

Are we sensing a part two? Might be. The movie is a good watch. And if there’s part two, I’d want to watch it too. Zartan might be a bigger threat than both McCullen and the genius doctor combined. Oh, I'm anticipating a part two...

For more information on the movie, I suggest you visit the Internet Movie Database.

Review on “The Inconvenient Truth”

The world is but a stage. But if the stage is ruined, what will happen to the actors? This is what I was contemplating after watching the documentary film entitled "The Inconvenient Truth" three times.

What really drives me into watching the film is the comic presentation on global warming by the characters from the Simpsons cartoon. It’s funny, highly entertaining, and even though it doesn’t present the heavily scientific part; it gets into the moral issue quite in a very good way. I mean, not all of us are really interested about the hard facts, I’m not even sure if I understand half of the facts in the movie, but I really got the main issue here. That the world is changing, and it is not really for the better, as we always want it to be. Sometimes, modernization doesn’t really mean a good thing, especially if we ignore the fact that we really heavily on Mother Earth for our existence, and through modernization, we are harming and rapidly destroying our own existence. Al Gore is right. This isn’t a political issue. It is a moral one. And it might also be a social one.

Humanity has for a long time ignored what might be bad for our existence, for the sake of having a more efficient way of living. Development through modernization. Well, that’s how the developed countries reached their developed status, right?

Now, the film shows what we are really missing, which is the real issue for today. If I remember it correctly, someone told me that the main issue we must face isn’t really terrorism, but the threat to our own existence—global warming. And rightly so.

Al Gore said something like, “There might come a time that our next generations would ask, ‘Why hadn’t our earlier generations thought of this problem before? Why hadn’t they awakened earlier?’”. Now this is really more of a social issue. If we won’t do something now, until when might humanity survive? Are we creating our own hell in this little planet?

The documentary actually presented the issue in a unique way. Most of the scenes are presented in a reporting style, I think it must have been presented with a program like that of MSPowerpoint, and inserted with some scenes which further advanced the assertions of Gore. The report presentation is a good idea, so that the scientific details can be included. If it had been presented in a way as that of a common documentary, the hard data would be abandoned and useless, and it would be impossible to present them that way, because most of the hard data used by Gore are graphical. Without those data, it would seem that Gore’s documentary is just an outburst of his loss in the political arena, and not a very big issue that humanity must face. I actually watched the making of the film, and I saw that lots of preparations are made to perfect it. Of course, seeing that they would only have one take to do it all, excluding the inserted scenes.

The film seems to be a protest to the humanity, Mother Earth calling for help. As of the present, I am actually hooked with an online social/architectural game in the computer called My Minilife, and there, it seems that I wasn’t the only one who was made aware of the big issue. When I launched my creation I entitled “Mother Earth’s Cry for Help”, just after I saw the movie the second time in HBO. I was glad to see comments stating that they are also concerned with the global warming issue. I had that faintest idea that they too were able to watch the film documentary, although I didn’t ask them for confirmation on this little deduction of mine. I was pleased that not everyone is apathetic about the issue.

Gore’s movie calls for everyone to participate in helping Mother Earth recover its grandeur once again. I guess, with all the fuss that everyone’s helping, it goes back to the sincerity we exert with the effort. Or else, we won’t be able to solve the issue, or to sustain it, once it is (if it will be) solved.

*****

I've written this for one of my subjects when I was in my first semester as a senior. Just gotta share this with you all...

Movie Review on “She’s The Man”

(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD)


She really is the man!

''She's the Man” is an incredibly wacky comedy that I have gone nuts for.

Viola Johnson (Amanda Bynes) is exceptionally good at soccer, considering that she’s a girl. She’s got a hunk boyfriend who’s also a soccer player and the girls’ soccer team which she captained is constantly winning. Everything is going around smoothly… then she makes a very bizarre decision when her school decides that they have no room for the girls’ soccer team. She dumps up her boyfriend who agrees with the coach’s decision of dissolving her team and not to let them try out, and plans to get back and prove that a girl can beat them - by disguising as her twin brother and play soccer at his new boarding school, who will be playing against her school for the first game of the season. Her brother Sebastian has gone AWOL as he tries to create a musical career in London. And that’s where the situation starts to complicate for this exasperated soccer captain.

The boys in the dorm at first, thought that “Sebastian" (who is secretly Viola) is a little weird. However, with the help of some gorgeous friends, she gets a reputation as a hit with beautiful women. Then she begins to get the hang of being “the man”. But she still has to face challenges like finding some time to take a shower when there's no one around and explaining why she had tampons (They’re for nosebleeds, you know. a very effective way to stop the blood. My nose bleeds easily.—Viola).

Her roommate, Duke Orsino (Channing Tatum), captain of the Illyria soccer team, offers to help her become good enough to be a starter for the coming game if she will put in a good word for him with Olivia. Big problem: Olivia is fascinated with "Sebastian," especially after she reads the real Sebastian's lyrics. For the meantime, the twins' mother expects them both at the Junior League carnival fund-raiser. Sebastian's pushy girlfriend has to be kept at a distance so she does not figure out what is going on. Plus, there's the coming big game.

Bynes is a very talented and charming actress with confidence of someone who is a born comedienne. She handles the predictable complications well, from the quick changes in the carnival's pranks to the faked grimace and moans when she gets hit in the “crotch” with a soccer ball.

Director Andy Flickman wisely kept the energy high. The introduction, a soccer game on the beach, sets a bright and energetic atmosphere that keeps things lively as all of the characters and plot points come together for a happily ever after ending.

I have observed that some of the character’s names are somewhat similar to Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. Channing Tatum’s character was not named Count Orsino yet the name Duke Orsino still exudes royalty and has almost the same meaning. Sebastian’s school, Illyria comes from the name of the land where Olivia (of the Twelfth Night) arrived after surviving a shipwreck. Indeed, the whole story really is inspired by the Shakespearean play. The situation where Olivia disguises as her brother is akin to that of Shakespeare’s.

It is important to note that the movie is a Rated-PG13. Parents should know that the film includes some crude language and some comic implied nudity. There are also few brawls and scuffles. But one strength of the film is that while the characters talk a great deal about who is "hot," the film's strong point of view is that the priority in relationships is emotional intimacy, not the physical. Another strength of the movie is its casual portrayal of inter-racial relationships. While at first an unattractive character (Monique, played by Alex Breckenridge) is played for laughs, in the end, even she is treated with respect and affection.

Families who see this movie should talk about what led Viola to change her feelings about her ex-boyfriend and. What was the most important thing Viola learned? If you wanted to pretend to be the opposite sex, what would be the hardest part? Teens should also ponder about how important it was that Viola and Olivia valued themselves enough to make sure that they only spent time with boys who would value them too.

"She's the Man" is one truly hilarious film that kept me on a constant laughing fit. It's one that you'd surely enjoy too. Happy viewing...

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I've written this article ages ago, but I haven't posted it in my blog. Well, I guess it's time it got posted. Thanks for giving this an excellent grade, professor!

God did not Create Evil

Watch this video, and you'll see how it is proven that even if we see evil everywhere, God, in fact exist, and that evil does not exist because he made it.


Does cold exist? No. What we know as cold is in fact only the absence of heat,
Does darkness exist? No. Darkness is only the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness.
Evil, we see in the same prespective. It is the result of the absence of the love of God in man's heart.


Albert Einstein is my favorite genius of all times, this I'm sure of. And this video makes him more admirable!

Click here to watch the video I'm talking about.


Enjoy!

God is good. All the time.

Fashion Weirds

Mind you, I'm no expert when it comes to fashion, so I won't know how to explain expertly over every tiny detail in fashion. But I do have some grasp on aesthetics. Everyone has. That I have to believe, since even Mother Earth has designed itself quite beautifully even without man's help, and you can see this in the rain forests and in other natural areas not destroyed yet by man's selfishness.

Okay, the discussion is getting out of hand so let's go back to the topic. Fashion weird. Take that by its literal meaning. Take note, not every weird are hideous, just eccentric or out of the ordinary. But well, that's how fashion rules, right? you have to be unique to catch attention. So here are some things that I see as...err, strange fashion items.

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Here's the "heel-less shoes" from Hottogs. It actually looks cool, Egyptian looking or something like that. And it looks gorgeous. But can you really walk with that shoes on? I wonder if I wouldn't trip on my first step wearing that. Better leave it on the "good walkers". =)



Here's a rather uncool fashion item. I may be too conservative in saying this, but this just plainly sucks. I don't really see the sense of having anyone to wear this. Is this just something they tried to enhance their breasts? They'd better get their enhancements on the clinic, and not by wearing something like this.


Now, here's something that is not polite. I know, it is being the trend nowadays to use the most profane words as if they are the coolest words ever, but I thought that surely we could reserve our rather unhappy notions to the talks and letters. But here's something that might just be for those who are "trying to be cool" but "looked like a fool" as sang by Avril Lavigne.

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These, and many more unusual items flock the fashion industry. As I've said, not all that oddballs are hideous. I really like looking at the heel-less shoes, though I wouldn't dare wear it.
It really is amazing how unpredictable we can be. Humans are just perfect geniuses, if being a genius means wildly eccentric. Everyone wants to be unique. But I do hope they'd limit themselves to the aesthetically acceptable (the shoes is impractical, but is still acceptable). I have always thought that fashion is all aesthetic. I'm still holding on to that thought.

Musings of the Heart: Forever Single?

Everything this week is good and well...until my professor in my Persons and Family Relations told us that if a girl who is single doesn't get married before she takes the bar exam, she'd probably be single forever.

OUCH! That's hard. I am one of the girls in class who are still single, and I don't really plan on going single forever. Errr...should I be afraid?

*Chuckles...

Oh well. It's not as if I'd go to the club and be a bitch. I haven't really found the person who'd be willing to take my imperfections. I'm not looking for the perfect guy, because I'm not really that perfect. I guess I never did know what I'm looking for.

Honestly, I'd have ignored this thought if I were not studying law. But I am, and I guess though I hate to admit it, my professor's got a point. I could see this happening, but I can't see that girl to be me. However, I can't ignore that huge possibility. Uhm...

This is the most disturbing thing I've heard of yet, and I think this is even more disturbing than having to fail a subject, because one subject can be taken again, but life can only be taken once. Shucks! I so hate it when I have to think of it.

I'm afraid of being single forever, this much I'd admit. But I don't want to abandon my dream of becoming a lawyer too. Can't I have both? Or do I have to choose one only? Because if I have to choose, then I know I'd be forever miserable because I haven't had the other.

Gosh. Discontentment.

Could you understand it when I say I am just a human?

Contemplation

You rush to work or to your classes in the morning and rush back home at the end of the day, full of complaints on the day’s labor most of the time. But have you ever taken time to see the sky—really see it, and reflect how beautiful it is to be back again to the world of the living, after a few hours of being asleep, after a few hours of trial death? Have we ever stopped and taken time to feel the air whose embraces sustains our lovely existence? Hmmm... I bet you’d reason out that you’d be late if you do that. Indeed, we used to have no watches in the past, but we conquer time. Now we attach these precious timepieces to our wrists, but we don’t have time anymore.

Life is full of troubles that we fail to see the beauty of it—the beauty that even a baby sees. Have you seen the eyes of the baby as it takes to every little thing it looks upon? You would see the curiosity, the thirst for knowledge and learning that the tiny eyes bares. As it grows up, the eyes loose that spark of fascination and interest as it get used to everything.

Huh! As if everything remains as it is, as if everything is a routine. But nothing remains the same. Even the slowly blooming flowers, or the crazy pattern that the bees follow as it serenades the swaying petals…These things change. Everything, everyone. The universe, the world—life. There has never been a boring pattern. But we seem to have lost our interest in enjoying life the way a baby takes pleasure in looking at his mother’s gentle face and listening to the tender cooing voice.

We aim to learn about life, and the things around us. But as we do so, we have reduced the mystery and charm of the rainbow and say it is but a refraction of light. We are actually loosing our grip on life.

Life has lost its magic as we lose the spark of interest in life. By that time, we only see it as a dreary existence or –co-existence with uninteresting bulk of matter that can move and speak and think for itself. By then, we have been reduced to thinking zombies whose only pleasure is on thinking about ourselves.

If only we could look through the eyes of a baby again, life will be a wonderful and beautiful magic once more.