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Showing posts from May, 2014

Solve: Why Math is Hard?

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Before I became a nurse, teacher, licensed real estate appraiser, I became first as a mathematics lover. Some consider me a geek then, but I was not, I just simply love the logic of mathematics. Now, I can say my mathematics skills have deteriorated significantly, when I am confronted with numbers, I do not leave my chair not until I somehow figure out what could be the problem. So, why then mathematics is difficult to many of us? Is there something can be done? Mathematics is much more than counting and simple arithmetic. It is a cumulative science in which new results are built upon and depend on earlier results. Humans have accumulated a huge amount of mathematical knowledge – far    more than a person can learn in a lifetime, even if the person spent all of their time studying mathematics. This history perhaps will give us the impression the necessity of mathematics. We may not appreciate the subject, but it useful because without it, the world will end up in chaos, for sure

Stop the Abuse!

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Man's selfish nature can be excessive that the need to dominate over vulnerable entities is apparent, merely to gain benefits from it. This is very unfortunate but abuses committed recently have increased at a historic levels, even though most cases are unreported and denied. Understanding how this happens is crucial for everyone to avoid being abused and mitigate risks of becoming a future abuser. This article hopes to shed light on abuse regardless of form and type, and bring awareness to this. Understanding abuse is not merely dividing the world population in the dichotomy of the abusers and the abused. It is more complex than that. When a person abuses another or become abused, that person becomes vulnerable to be involved in another abusive encounter in the future, either as the dominant or the abused party. The person's vulnerability to abuse depends on the experiences he or she get from the world. The more selfishness a person encounters, the risk of engaging to abus

Dealing with Ambivalence

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Has there one time in our lives when we felt so confused about something or someone? It felt then that we have at least two options and we do not know which is better. Worse, we deal with someone, who seem uncertain of what he or she wants in life. That feeling is called ambivalence. What seems to be cause of it? How can we deal with it if that happens to ourselves or to others? Conflicting beliefs and emotions are the cause of ambivalence. This happens, when we sometimes see taking actions in either way results to the same thing and we can not find a compromise between options, or we anticipate disadvantages to be significant such that loss still results regardless of which action to take. It results to an extraordinary confusion and anxiety to someone that sometimes results to one not being able to function properly in life. People tend to withdraw and avoid both situations, resulting for someone to play safely. Some individuals seek advices from trusted people, which may in turn

The Butterfly That Can Not Fly

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In a beautiful garden, a man found a cocoon of a butterfly. It has a small opening in it. Very eager, the man sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then, it seemed to stop making any progress for although it appeared as if it had gotten so far as it could, it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly using a pair of scissors by snipping the remaining bit off of the cocoon. The man saw as expected the butterfly emerged easily from the cocoon but to his dismay, the butterfly it had a swollen body and small shriveled wings. Moreover, the wings never enlarged and expanded to be able to support the body. From then on, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around and never was it able to fly. The man in the story did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body

Saying Goodbye

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I wonder why saying goodbye is considered good. Most of the time, goodbyes never feel like something is good, unless you have a definite time of making hellos again after goodbyes. It is just putting a period in an article, not knowing whether there is another page that follows it. Pain, regrets and feelings of optimism usually follow after goodbyes. The word GOODBYE ends with BYE. In this article I will put meaning to goodbye using the the last three letters of the word. I hope this could somehow explain the things we feel and put light on how to deal with it, when confronted with a difficult one. B - BEST WISHES AHEAD The primary object of saying goodbye is hoping everything turns out well after making an end or separation in any form. We try to smile, even deep inside our hearts, truly saying goodbye hurts. Smiling is an act of courage and hope that in spite of the situation, things will go better. Saying goodbye could be as simple as greetings after work. It is jus

3 Aspects of Happiness

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Sometimes, we wonder why people act a certain way that we do not understand. In these situations, we wonder whether these people are happy. Because if they are happy, we just give them the support that they need, even though we do not entirely understand what is it. Happiness becomes a reason of our tolerance of the actions of others, and perhaps accept those actions whether it is right or not. Then, what is indeed happiness? In this article, I will present three aspects of happiness. When we say aspects, these are synonymous to areas, divisions or parts. This means that happiness is a sum total of these aspects in the simplest way to explain it. Although the lack or deficiency in one aspect may not mean the person is unhappy, optimal fulfillment of these aspects is important. It is also worthy to note that happiness is a subjective, volatile concept. It can be felt, somehow describe in a continuum from low to high, but can never be quantified. EXISTENCE A person becomes happy be

Love Compared to Real Estate Properties

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Love encompasses everything from attraction, mutual need satisfaction, communication, trust and everything related to the establishment of a strong happy relationship. On the other hand, real estate refers to land and all properties found in it. Primarily, love is based on subjective feeling that creates a strong foundation for anything beneficial to most number of people, while real estate is a totally different from love, since it seems to be materialistic. However, both concepts have a common ground, that is value. Real estate can be appraised to its value, while love has also value. In fact, finding the right person for someone is like the long search of a real estate property that suits to one's needs and financial capacity. So, how are real estate properties appraised? How is this related to love? The most common approach in determining the value of a house and lot is the market data method. This way uses data of sale prices of similar properties in the surrounding area

Evolving lessons of a nurse-teacher.

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When people ask me what was your job before? I answered I worked as a nurse and a teacher before for almost 4 years. Upon hearing this, they have a different kinds of reaction, but the way I understand their reaction, it was more of disbelief and doubt. Yes I worked as such. I never regret any moment of it. I am quite young and some may even think I was not yet fit for the job. Honestly speaking, I considered that seriously. Feeling people doubt you because you are young as a teacher challenged me a lot to do better. I was thinking I was getting better but somehow I lacked something. A different perspective in life, a different flavor. This has contributed me to go abroad and leave my job in the Philippines. Worrying, ofcourse is always a result of the decision of leaving your comfort zone, but now I realize I need to see things in a larger perspective. From my present standpoint, I could see myself before very contented with my chalk or my white board marker, going to school, do

Welfare State like Norway - Philippines?

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It has been several months that I have been living in Norway, a rich welfare state. I have seen Norway is indeed blessed with natural resources like fish, oil and with other industries. On the other hand, the Philippines has no significant oil deposits, but has a massive supply of minerals, marine and agricultural products. I could not refrain myself but compare this two resource-rich countries. What most interests me with Norway is that it is a welfare state. This concept of equal distribution of wealth among people, I hope that exists in the Philippines, even at a lesser extent. It made me ask myself if it is possible. If so, how will it change the Filipino society. A country of 100 million Filipinos. The richest Filipinos are one of the richest in the world, while poverty rates are steady at a high level in decades. We Filipinos blame it to many things and worse, majority of us just accept the fact that nothing can be done in our lifetime about this deplorable situation. How

Emotionless

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Emotions affect the way one think, which in turn affects all the things that happen to someone. I have always believed on this. Since I was very young, I developed gradually the process of becoming "emotionless". Is this possible? How could this affect one and decisions in life? Subjectivity is a term that relates to emotions. When we become so happy, we feel too elated that we want the feeling to linger more. Some even think that being happy may cause one to worry for something sad that may happen afterwards. I was once part of these few people, who believed on the temporary nature of happiness. Now, no more I believe on this, for becoming successful involves one to believe that life of abundance is possible. This can only be achieved if one focuses on goals in life and repeats this continuously in the mind, regardless on, whether it may be possible or not. Unfortunately, extreme focus is not an easy task. This involves one to be very objective on things, leading to

Happy Long-Term Relationship

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In these challenging times when finding the right person to trust and to be with is hard, having a long-term relationship is significantly more difficult. Divorce rates are high throughout countries, which legally allows couples to do so. For those who are not even married, relationship does not simply last that long. Are there things needed for relationships to work? We have heard many stories about success and failure of long-term relationships, but there is a need to tackle this topic thoroughly. Firstly, let us define what long-term relationship is. The exact duration on when to consider a relationship long-term varies from one case to another. In this blog, we will be referring long-term relationship as a bond not dependent on time, rather depending on meeting essential conditions for it to exist. Since long-term relationships are not perfect, all these conditions may not be met but most of these must be achieved and fulfilled optimally. What are these, these are the fi

Crab Mentality among Filipinos

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Many times people get accused of possessing the Filipino negative trait of crab mentality. It is  a state wherein people act like crabs when put inside a basket or a container, pull each other down for them to get out from it. One must further dissect the magnitude of the problem and reasons behind it to distinguish ways on how to deal with it and perhaps minimize it. One of my Facebook friend said that crab mentality among Filipinos is already a disease. The way she said it, it seems crab mentality can no longer be cured and is highly contagious. It is quite true because based on my observation, we can notice crab mentality everywhere. One time I made a comment in Youtube about one issue that lead some Filipino netizens to react. I was expecting they will provide further valuable insights about what I said. I have no problem with others disagreeing with my thoughts, given that everyone is entitled with their own thoughts. Suprisingly, one of those who commented, criticized my u

Making a Difference

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At sunset, a tourist was walking down a deserted beach. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed the man he saw was a local native. The native was leaning down, picking up something and throwing it out into the water. Time and again, he kept hurling things out into the ocean. Curious, the tourist approached even closer, he noticed that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing back them into the water. Puzzled, the tourist said, “Good evening friend. I was wondering what you were doing.” “I’m throwing these starfishes back into the ocean. You see its low tide right now and all these starfishes have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen,” the native replied. “I understand” the tourist said, “but there must be thousands of starfishes on this beach. You can not possibly get to all of t

I am a Champion!

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This speech was delivered at SOCOTECH Nursing Program, Agusan del Sur Capping and Badging Ceremonies 2012. Have you once said to yourself, what if everything we want will come true? Imagine?! Having a house and car of your own? Getting the job that really suits your character while enjoying your time with your loved ones who are in good health. Perfect?! Possible or impossible? There are some instances that we can really say to ourselves: “That can never happen! It’s gonna end up just a dream Anyway, Libre naman ang mangarap!” Right? In this capping and badging ceremony, for sure the parents and candidates are anxious whether they can make it. For the candidates, you may have told this to yourself, “Kaya ka ha nako ni? Dili man nako choice ang mag-nurse. Kayanon lagi! For the parents and the relatives, “ Bahala na. Basta magtinarong lang gid siya.” Ladies and gentlemen, can you relate to these statements? Very common, I must say. Seldom you see a student nurse wh