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Remember Davao City: 1993
28 October 2005 by Elmer W. Cagape | 1435 pageviews
We were no longer the bullied freshmen. We partly knew what is the difference between Differential and Integral Calculus and the reason why we had to take three Chemistry subjects even if there is a little relevance between chemical composition of diode and our logical thinking. But that's education: while you say you take Accountancy, you will want to know why the sky is blue and find out rhetorically that English is a crazy language.
The successful dynasty of Chicago Bulls has just started with a swish from John Paxson to beat the Phoenix Suns and claim the NBA Championship. Michael Jackson becomes a recipient of a child molestation complaint. Great movies such as Schindler's List and The Piano was shown. Entertainment icon Audrey Hepburn dies this year.
We were very excited about having to join PE Night for the first time. Obviously many of us were unable to enjoy the prom the American way and this is going to be the closest we could possibly experience to display our best clothing, dance with girls and guys (only with PE subjects though, which means participants are mostly freshman and sophies and a pinch of upperclassmen who failed to take the subject), getting to know anyone without the fear of being turned down -- a wider scope than the typical departmental acquaintance party -- all at the same time. Kicking ourselves in taekwondo and arnis during our first year with Mr Grandeza we have to be more team-oriented when we embark on basketball and volleyball in PE 3 and PE 4, respectively. The popularity of hoops in the community did pave way for us to organize the first Engineering Basketball League two years later.
Davao's investment grew by more than 100%, thanks to Mayor Duterte who has been influential in drawing confidence to Davaoeños and has recently been featured in the front cover of Asiaweek. After Victoria Plaza, then came Mindanao's first flyover along JP Laurel-Buhangin junction. We felt the only way to move is forward and as President Ramos finishes his first year of a six-year term, the energy problem which has kept many of us in the dark was substantially solved. We remember Davao City was an ideal place to live; it was ranked the most liveable city in the whole Philippines. Long before the clutter and dirt made by Smart and Globe text messaging advertisements, Davao's commercial scene was seen as booming. The airport is aging but still good enough. Telebabad was prevalent since many of us began to acquire telephone lines. Text messaging was still half a decade to go.
We kept on longing for new technology to emerge and with our limited resources (386 PCs in school were not for us to use, yet) we had to go elsewhere to get our computer-typed reports done as required by our teachers. A few remembered shops we often queued to rent computers on were Markenbon, Herald and UM's Datalink. Internet cafés were things in the future and we are happy to sit in front of a personal computer (two or three faces staring at one monitor, ocassionally instructing on which key combinations work to center a text or print a document) even if it was the old green on black screens of American 70's and 80's. Everyone who owns a new computer, or an old one for that matter, becomes a "celebrity". Close pals flock to the celebrity house to get hold of the new technology. From The World Tonight of ABS CBN to MTV to Discovery Channel to National Geographic to Freddie Vergara's morning news show, the group is still busy clattering through the PC, whether changing ink, printing cover pages at Epson Dot Matrix or stealing time to play Solitaire.
And if hands-on time was restricted to the "knowledgable" ones in the group, the poor little curious creatures have to contend queuing up in the cozy indoors of Digital Interface to enroll in a Wordstar class also defined in the outdoor signs as Basic Computer Course. Lucky ones can get state of the art Wordstar 5 lesson book, an upgrade from the soon-to-be obsolete version 4.0. When coming home and talking to our folks, heads up we say "I know how to program in Wordstar", when asked how far have we got to become Computer Engineers. Now, that's an often-heard parody about programming using a word processor; what a difficult task.
We think of super digital machineries when we ourselves can't make a solenoid work to like a pickup of small metallic pieces like paper clips and thumb tacks. Just ask Jose Punongbayan's neighbor whose brother became our Compiler Design teacher three years in the future. Yes, that's what we are, aiming high no matter what the results are.
In conclusion, even if we are no longer the bullied freshmen, we still could hardly answer questions about what our course is. We need to make the giant step next year, the year of excitement.
features archives
· Letter from Boyet Serafica
· Messages from Our Mentors
· Remember Dyna Blaster?
· UIC Questions I Often Ask Myself
· Ellen Joy Sucaldito-Quinatac-an Reveals Her Whereabouts
· The Ramirez Family Vacation
· 2006 Web Review: Philippine Colleges and Universities
· Living In Hong Kong: Psyche's First Trip to Hong Kong
· It's 2006 But Can We Talk About 2007?
· What's Up with Jose 'Jhoep' Punongbayan Jr
· Remember Davao City: 1993
· Gary's Testimony
· Puno't Dulo ng Pag Ibig
· A Tale of Engineering Projects
· Remember Davao City: 1992
· Remembering The Teachers
· Living in Hong Kong II
· Web Review: Government Institutions
· Top stories (1992 - 1997) revisited
· Top stories throughout the years
· First Chat Story
· What We Missed
· Living in Hong Kong
· Web Review: Philippine Colleges & Universities
· Dealing with SARS
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