My birthday and a very busy September

You may have noticed by now that my most recent column article at Pinoy Weekly includes an announcement of my birthday tomorrow (September 21).

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ll be 39 tomorrow (or in less than six hours as I write this). Just for the record, I don’t have any plans yet and, as of this writing, my wife Joy cannot afford to be absent from work. Very much like me, she has a lot of things to do. 

Y Speak logo (retrieved from Studio 23 website)And as regards my “things to do,” this month is quite busy for me. Quoting from the poet Elizabeth Browning, “let me count the ways”:

  • September 1 (Saturday): Joy and I attended the Tribute to Teachers 2007 where Dean Luis Teodoro was one of the four honorees. If you may recall, I wrote about the story behind his receiving this prestigious award. I think I owe my friends at IBON Foundation an apology for not making it to the second launch of our book.
  • September 3 (Monday): I had a taping at the Miriam College for a soon-to-be-aired episode of Y Speak (Studio 23) on cyber-ethics, blogging and online journalism. This episode is hosted by JC Cuadrado and Patricia Evangelista. Aside from me, the panelists are Mori Rodriguez (Studio 23 supervising producer), Atty. John Paul Giba (ACCRA Law Offices senior associate), Dr. Noel Mcrae (Miriam College communication arts professor), Therese San Diego (Miriam College student leader) and Bianca Dominique Tan (Miriam College student and blogger).
  • September 7 (Friday): The August 2007 (New Media) issue of Plaridel: A Journal of Philippine Communication, Media, and Society was successfully launched. As you know, I help edit and supervise the production of our College’s refereed journal as director of the Office of Research and Publication (ORP). Feel free to read the press release about this event.
  • September 10 (Monday): I did board work for Usapang Media, the weekly radio program of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) aired over DWAD. Our topic was the state of campus journalism.
  • September 12-14 (Wednesday-Friday): I traveled for two-and-a-half hours from Kamias to Batangas City and made it just in time to catch the 10-hour boat ride to Odiongan, Romblon. From Odiongan, I went to the Looc National High School (LNHS) in Looc, Romblon, the venue of the 2007 Regional Training of School Paper Advisers and Campus Journalists organized by the Department of Education (DepEd)-MIMAROPA. I gave a lecture on copy reading, headline writing, news writing and sports writing to 228 campus journalists and faculty advisers. Yes, the travel from Manila to Looc and back was very tiring but the experience was undeniably fulfilling.
  • September 22 (Saturday): The day after my birthday, I am scheduled to give the welcome remarks for a journalism workshop at the Jose Rizal Elementary School in Pasay City. This activity is organized by the Union of Journalists of the Philippines-UP where I serve as faculty adviser.
  • September 27 (Thursday): Given that I decided to do one-on-one consultations with all of my J 199 (Research in Journalism) students in the afternoon of this day, I accepted the invitation of The Torch, official publication of the Philippine Normal University (PNU), to give a seminar on editorial writing at the annual journalism training it conducts for various public and private high school campus journalists.
  • September 30 (Sunday): I will travel to the southern part of Metro Manila to speak on column writing at the regional congress of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines-Southern Tagalog (CEGP-ST). For security reasons, I apologize if I cannot publicly disclose the venue.

Lest I forget, you should know that on top of all these activities, I handle three courses this semester, do administrative work as ORP director, write a weekly column for Pinoy Weekly and occasionally help edit the issue of Bulatlat Online Magazine.

So don’t be surprised if you won’t see me on my birthday. I think I’ll just stay home and sleep the whole day. Isn’t that a good idea?

8 thoughts on “My birthday and a very busy September”

  1. Happy Birthday po! ;) God bless and I wish you good health and more success.

    Reply: Thanks for the greeting! I got the package from PBS. Thanks a lot!

  2. sir, pwede po ba ko makahingi ng advice, kasali po ako sa contest s district nmin, pwede po b pki tulungan po ako.. lalaban po ako sa copy reading and headline writing, kung ano man po ang matutulong nyo.. mraming salamat po.

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