I've heard a lot of comments that UP is a microcosm of Philippine society. True enough, UP students (and faculty) can hardly be stereotyped. There's the pretty kolehiyala, the stud, the nerd, the 'tibak, the anak ng politiko, the working student. Heck, meron ding Lasalista at Atenista in UP.
One facet of UP life that mimics real life is politics. Politics suck here in the country and in UP there's no difference. There's the tarpaulin posters (who's paying?), walls plastered with tons of paper, constant protests, poll watchers (but they were nice), insincere handshaking, among others. As with Philippine elections, UP elections are counted manually. Not bad, you might think. But have you tried counting 386 ballots? It doesn't work out as easy as it sounds. Given my background as an IE, I could probably optimize the voting procedure (and hopefully make it more ergonomic).
I think we were the second to the last to finish in Eng'g (around 12MN). It was very tiring. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Monday, February 28, 2005
Welcome (oh what a boring title!)
I've been meaning to start a blog as early as August last year, when I started writing for the Pisay 98 blog during the Volleyball tournament. Procrastination got the better of me, and it is only now (with enough prodding from my good friends pat and chico) that I am starting my own blog. This has been further delayed as I have have been meaning to launch this blog on my birthday.
In giving my blog an identity, the first thing that came to mind was a reference to my gameshow days. I thought that a blog entitled "Who wants to be the weakest link?" would stir enough interest to those who remembered. But clearly, I should get over my days as a gameshow contestant.
Though my blog would contain mostly my random thoughts, I figured that I could use it to inform my friends/fellow bloggers about one of my passions/interests. Ergonomics is a field of Industrial Engineering that focuses on the human aspect of various (everyday) systems. Derived from the Greek words ergon (work and effort) and nomos (law or surroundings). Fit the task to the worker (human), and not the other way around. Ergonomics isn't techie stuff. You have to deal with it in your daily grind. How many times have you noticed yourself stooping down just to get a more comfortable view of your PC monitor? Do you think the MRT handrail is too high for you? How about that pain in your neck and wrist after playing 6 hours of DotA? (ok, so I'm speaking from experience...)
Ergonomics is a word you usually associate with chairs, tables, and other office equipment. Well, believe it or not, most "ergonomic" equipment are not actually ergonomic. More on this as we go along...
what?! an "ergonomic" toilet?
the usual ergonomic keyboard
In giving my blog an identity, the first thing that came to mind was a reference to my gameshow days. I thought that a blog entitled "Who wants to be the weakest link?" would stir enough interest to those who remembered. But clearly, I should get over my days as a gameshow contestant.
Though my blog would contain mostly my random thoughts, I figured that I could use it to inform my friends/fellow bloggers about one of my passions/interests. Ergonomics is a field of Industrial Engineering that focuses on the human aspect of various (everyday) systems. Derived from the Greek words ergon (work and effort) and nomos (law or surroundings). Fit the task to the worker (human), and not the other way around. Ergonomics isn't techie stuff. You have to deal with it in your daily grind. How many times have you noticed yourself stooping down just to get a more comfortable view of your PC monitor? Do you think the MRT handrail is too high for you? How about that pain in your neck and wrist after playing 6 hours of DotA? (ok, so I'm speaking from experience...)
Ergonomics is a word you usually associate with chairs, tables, and other office equipment. Well, believe it or not, most "ergonomic" equipment are not actually ergonomic. More on this as we go along...
what?! an "ergonomic" toilet?
the usual ergonomic keyboard
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