The "Patriarch of the Library", the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is ceasing its print run. To be quite honest, I was actually not surprised by the announcement.

We used to have tomes of the 14th edition in our home library, and despite its sheer size and overwhelming bits of text, I was comfortable with using it at an early age. Of course, even at the time, I would be careful about the content: I know very well that I wouldn't be able to visit the Soviet Union anymore nor that the capital of the Philippines was the city of stars, Quezon City. (By the way, Britannica actually listed Baguio as one of the capitals of the Philippines in its Micropaedia entry at one point in its publication. I suppose this is still partially true, as the Supreme Court still holds summer sessions in Baguio, but I digress.)

By the time I was in highschool, electronic encyclopedias were in vogue. But Britannica, despite being one of the most respected print publications, was arguably never as popular as Microsoft's Encarta. Encarta in my opinion, simply had a more cohesive user experience. Still, the alure of having the complete text of the Britannica was still there even if it was stored in flimsy disks. Then came along Wikipedia, and the rest is history.

In the course of its history, the Britannica has always been scrutinized by experts. Perhaps the most (in)famous one was a study conducted by Nature in 2005, where it was revealed that on the average, Wikipedia had four errors comparable to Britannica's three when it came to science articles. Not to mention, the wiki was also more accessible, had a greater coverage, and yes, it's free. So it must have been quite a surprise to some, when in 2009, the Britannica was ranked among the ten top consumer brands in Britain. Whatever the reason is, I am inclined to believe that this was caused by affinity of Britons to the brand itself. Britannica, with all the claims of inaccuracy and irrelevance withstanding, remains a brand people associate with great credibility and quality in the midst of a changing information landscape. Or perhaps, it just carried their name.

I do not mourn the loss of the print edition. It had a good run.

Last month, Representative Aurelio Gonzales Jr. filed a resolution in the House of Representative appealing to media outfits to refrain from depicting government officials, Congressmen included of course, in a negative light.

“[We are portrayed as] drug lords, murderers, warlords, bakit ga’nun?” - Cong. Gonzales

I'm not going to discuss (de)merits of this piece of legislation, I am still worn out from that Mideo Cruz controversy. Nor will I discuss that maybe some of these same people should just stop entering into questionable shenanigans that allow them to be portrayed as crooks and villains. No, I'm here to remind that at one point in history, one of their own actually played a part in the construction of the filmic image of the politician. In 1959, the third in Manuel Conde's Juan Tamad film series was released, called Juan Tamad Goes to Congress. One can wonder how Cong. Gonzales would have reacted to this movie if it was released today. Would he be outraged?

What if he found out that the story was written by a certain Pedro Venida, representative of the legislative district of Camarines Norte from 1957-1961. By the way, it is interesting to note that he seemed to have wrote it while he was in Congress! A searing indictment of the political landscape in Congress during those times, you ask? We may never decide for ourselves; unfortunately, all of Manuel Conde's Juan Tamad films are lost. All that remains are stills and related memorabilia. The celluloid that holds the movie are missing, wilting away in our tropical paradise. Or worse, just gone. Nada. Nil. Human memory is volatile, which is why in hindsight, Cong. Gonzales may have forgotten this little piece of information, almost forgotten, not quite remembered. This is why we have archives: so that we never forget.

We recently got wonderful news about the establishment of the 'definitive' National Film Archive, but the harsh truth is, while it receives enthusiastic support from the government's Film Development Council, Society of Film Archivists of the Philippines and other concerned people and organizations, the costs of maintaining the infrastructure needed are very high. Given the government's changing positions and the need to address more pressing issues in the society, our country's film archivists are facing an uphill (but never a hopeless) battle.

Perhaps, and in an ironic kind of way, Congress in particular should especially strengthen their support for our Film Archives. Many of our Congress men and women at one point in their colorful lives, performed in front of the camera, amusing our fellow countrymen on the silver screen. Why deprive future generations of Filipinos some of your greatest work outside the chambers of the House and Senate? Why deprive the future, valuable historical material on how people of the past got to know, trust and eventually, elect you to some of the highest positions of the land?

I maybe getting a little ahead of myself.

Additional source: [1]

Week 1

The Simpsons getting cancelled, then renewed. Yeah, if you backtrack, you'll find out that I love The Simpsons. It usually plays in the background whenever I do something. I mean it! So when I heard that there might be a chance that it would be cancelled, I was genuinely concerned. Sure, the newer episodes aren't the greatest, but it still beats the crap of 90% of network programming in the States.

Arrested Development is back! Come on! Its about freaking time! Taste the happy! Taste the happy!

Good Lord, Mom brings home three huge blocks of pure love. Dark chocolate, that is.

Steve Jobs is dead. I'm not really a fan of Steve per se. I am not a sucker for the Mac, iPhone or the iPad, but I do love my iPod Nano, and well that's about it. But you cannot deny that Steve is a real visionary, who deserves our utmost respect.

Oxford English Dictionary. I downloaded this off torrents, and I haven't stopped freefalling ever since. If you need proof why we still need libraries, books and reference software, this is it. It is such an amazing resource, and I hope to get my hands on a compact version in the near future. This is pure awesomeness.

End of Life Insurance Consciousness Week. You know my philosophy on fun runs and the like, but its a great excuse to see the CCP. I was tasked to do the photo documentation, which is okay. The only hitch was the metering. You see, I'm used to Canon cameras, and I used the Nikon. Baligtad pala! Bwiset!

Week 2

Collette singing on PanAm. I adored this episode mostly because of Collette. I love this show because of the historical recreation of a truly legendary brand. If our company had the money to do this... just imagine!

Justice for Given. Having studied and lived a good part of my life in UPLB, this piece of news was incredibly sad. More than anything, I never felt unsafe in LB or Diliman, as in never. So this came somewhat of a surprise. 

Should I worry that I can spot errors in Dr. Sheldon Cooper's dialogue? I mean, seriously.

I have been installing, uninstalling and re-installing archives systems for work. Initially, I really liked Archon, but I needed to try other systems, so that when time comes that I have to actually have to install one of these behemoths, I actually could.

Week 3

Goodbye Braces. After two years (well, more or less), my braces were removed. Oh the humanity! It feels weird, but I reckon I'll get used to it. Then again, I'll have retainers for the next few years, so te-he.

My take on the Batangas-Taal fiasco... what if:

Week 4

Yearbook dealie. I dunno if I should be particularly excited about this, but these things you do or you don't. Now, I have to find a suitable Sablay picture, but I refused to have my grad picture taken... the picture with the Toga is the "main" framed picture. I mean come on, I graduated from UP, I want to wear my Sablay!

Undas 2011. I swear, if the neighborhood kids start Trick or Treating, I'm giving away small tubes of toothpaste! I'm that kind of person, apparently.

Ojala on Youtube. I remember doing the edits for this project (not mine) during Ondoy. Such a stressful week. At least we have the blooper reel.

Reference Request. Wow, this is quite rare! I hope this would continue, though. Its getting kinda lonely at the floor!

Uh-oh. Okay, let's try this for the next few posts: I'll check out my Twitter and Plurk feed and see what I can gather from there.

Sep 23, 2011

USC suspends classes and work Diliman... or so they say. I'm all for greater subsidy for UP, but like what Homer said about that Sandwich magazine; Can they do that?

My horoscope for the day: "Something unexpected will occur at work today." BINGO! I was the only one around in our department! Winrar! Thank goodness, nothing unusual or absurd happened, but it was, um,  weird all the same.

Sep 24

My gender/age music plot according to Last.fm. I am, if this thing is accurate, a 27 year old she-man.

I did go to the National Gallery today, and you know what, it has, like 40-percent new content from the last time I visited... a year ago! I particularly enjoyed the Progress of Medicine gallery. I also went to the CCP Architecture exhibition. I personally thought that they picked the right design. And to cap off this cultural extravaganza, I saw Zombadings! Hey, its pretty good!

Sep 25

Today, UPLISSA held its K-Run. It was our first time, so there were birth pains. Labor-wise, a lot of the members were sleep-deprived. But by the time it was over, we were all at ease. It was great that a lot of people signed-up for it, but it was even more gratifying was to see all those walk-in participants who didn't get some of the freebies, but did it for fun and helping out our causes, Kids for Peace Foundation and the UP-SLIS Building Fund. I took some pictures, but I was unaware that it was almost on an, um, official basis, as I had planned to crawl the race route...Jek, I'm so sorry! 

After the run, alums and the teachers went to Cravings for breakfast. Boy, was that gut busting. By the time I got home to the boarding house, I was dead tired and slept through most of the afternoon.

Sep 26

Because I didn't feel like commuting home, I stayed at the boarding house and went straight to work Monday morning. I must have left sometime before 5 o'clock, cause I have no idea what the traffic is like along EDSA on a Monday morning. I arrived at work at some 30 minutes early, which isn't bad at all. Of course, by the time I reach my station, I had to start to work on my budget.

Sep 27

Grey weather. Nice. But by the time the bus reaches Alabang, holy crap, what is happening?! It gets worse by the hour, and by 11 AM, we were given time-off for good behavior. My umbrella gave up on me after a year, which is good by my standards. So I had no choice but to brave the rains, as I don't think that the weather will get better. I'm right.

Sep 28

Give me a break, I was sick the whole day. I was thinking of extending my rest 'til the next day, but I still have planning to do.

Sep 29

I finished my planning activities for the next year! I hope that it wouldn't be too bloody when it's returned. I still feel like a crap, by the way. While browsing, I found out that there's an effin show about Pan Am?! Why didn't anyone tell me?