Tuesday, 17 Sept 2024. Welcome to Los Baños! This Beloved Town Is Celebrating The Day, Which Is My Birthday! How Lucky Can You Get?!

Unbelievable. Oh God, I must be the most blessed person in the world – today, a whole town is celebrating my birthday! With Bañamos Festival. Holiday in a big-shot town, Los Baños, Laguna. An unbeatable tourist destination. Why? What follows is what I know.  

(image from sg.video.search.yahoo.com)

If you didn’t know, in Los Baños (LB), you will find all these and more:

(1)   #1 university of agriculture in the Philippines: University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB);

(2)   Philippine Council for Agriculture & Aquatic Resources Research & Development (PCAARRD) – R&D for the whole country.

(3)   PhilRice Los Baños Station;

(4)   University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) – you can study by correspondence or digital means.

(5)   Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), covering Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam,

(6)   International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) – IRRI has an interesting Rice Museum.

When you visit Los Baños, you are actually visiting a municipality of educational, research and extension offices local, regional and international!

My birthday, yes. Personally, what is there to celebrate – and give thanks to God for? Me, Frank A Hilario:

(1)   1950s: High School, Rizal Junior College (Asingan, Pangasinan) – the American Reader’s Digest inspired this avid reader to think creatively and write.

(2)   1975-1980:  I was inspired to be the founder and Editor In Chief of the 3 Forest Research Institute (FORI) publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat.  These publications made FORI known here and abroad.

(3)   1965-1985: I must be an excellent teacher! Graduating in 1965 with a BSA major in Agricultural Education from UPCA (now UPLB). I taught myself writing, editing, desktop publishing, and blogging. I began learning digital works on Innocents Day, 1985, at the Office of the Director of the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute (FSSRI) of UPLB, when Madecor President Elpidio “Pids” L Rosario was FSSRI Director.

(4)   2000-2008: Self-taught in desktop publishing (DTP), I brought the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS) from being late 3 years to up-to-date in 3 years. Working doubletime, I did the DTP and in 2007 the PJCS had produced quality issues it was included in the elite international list “ISI” (now “Web of Science”) – an extraordinary achievement.

(5)   2007-2013: A writer from home (WFH) for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India, and ICRISAT published 7 books of mine based on my blog (ICRISAT Watch). Not to forget: I did the preliminary DTP of those books. These were the basis for judging me the 1^st and one-and-only “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing” in the entire 100+ years of UPLB by the UPLB Alumni Association in 2011. (Ask Pids Rosario.)

Again, Happy Birthday to me!

I thank the Lord very much for all of the above. Today, now 84, I pray for 33 more years, to a ripe old age of 117!@517

On My Birthmonth, September – I’m Encouraging People To Think, Believe & Behave Better For Themselves – And For The World!

I was born in September 8 decades ago in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan – not really that “the best people are born in September” as DarlingQuote puts it (darlingquote.com), but I am the best I can be, thank God! With personal efforts and prayers to God, yes!

I have a great many blogs; suffice to see/visit any or better just these 4:

(1)   “Communication For Development Of Vibrant Villages” (ComDev2) (blogspot.com) – To think about & act for the good of people in Agriculture.

(2)   “Regenerative Agriculture, Help! 13” (blogspot.com) – To think about & act for better practices in Agriculture.

(3)   “SHeLF. She/He Self-Help Farming” (blog/posts) – To think about & act for self-help in Agriculture.

(4)   “The Editor In Chief” (blogspot.com) – To think about and act for higher-quality theses, journals & scientific publications in Agriculture.

In this my birthmonth, September, I am expressing publicly my great thanks to the Lord for guidance in my self-discovered and self-developed talents for manual/typewriter writing & editing, “graduating to” self-taught digital writing, editing, up to desktop publishing.

I discovered my love for writing by reading a great many of the classics in American and British literature in high school at Rizal Junior College (RJC) in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan.

I did not have the chance to develop my writing ability in college, attending UP College of Agriculture (now UP Los Baños). It was when I was employed as a copywriter at the Pacifica Publicity Bureau of genius Tony Zorilla that I developed my sense of how to drive home a point. And my creativity was kindled brightly with the book gift of my Pacifica friend Orli Ochosa, Edward De Bono’s book Mechanism Of Mind. The power of creative thinking lies in anybody invoking De Bono’s “Po” – which posits that there are no negatives, only undiscovered possibilities for creativity!

I have created so many blogs over the last 24 years, if I remember right, that I don’t remember the first one. I remember, naturally, “ICRISAT Watch,” which I created when I became “Writer From Home” (WFH), my term, when William Dar was Director General (DG) of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT),  which was/is based in India. I maintained that blog from 2007 to 2014, the last year of Mr Dar’s 3 terms of 5 years each as DG of ICRISAT.

Oh, ICRISAT published 7 books of mine based on those articles in my blog – I have printed copies of those volumes, very valuable treasures of public service. It is that when Mr Dar became DG of ICRISAT, that institute was kulelat or at the bottom of the 15 international institutes that were members of the CGIAR Group. He brought it up in institutional performance that they kept him DG for 3 5-year terms until he had to retire!

Indeed, I write more for others than myself & family. Thank God, I do not have to retire from my writing & blogging – the pressure is mine; the pleasure is mine too!@517

“AI” Vs “EI” – John McCarthy’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Versus Frank A Hilario’s Extralogical Intelligence (EI). “Thinking Machine” Vs “Thinking Me”?

A digital denizen, my son Jomar Hilario on Facebook came out (27 Aug 2024) with the statement that “Google is doomed.” What he means maybe is that more and millions more people will turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to produce digital products, textual or visual or both – as varied & complex as interior planner, travel assistant, portrait, short story, music, video. Well, Google invented itself; so, if Google is left with only a few directly using it, it can always reinvent itself!

Ah, but as a creative thinker, I am not worried about AI. Starting some 70 years ago, Frank A Hilario has always been creative since high school, inspired by the Reader’s Digest in particular, whose articles and stories do entertain and educate at the same time. I became more creative when I worked 1974-75 as a copywriter for Tony Zorilla’s Pacifica Publicity Bureau in Makati where the original creative ideas of marketing genius David Ogilvy held sway. In later years, I learned the “Po Technique” from Maltese physician & thinker Edward De Bono, where there are no negatives, only possibilities you have to search for, considering also the insides or hidden nooks of the negatives, even downright stupid!

From a YouTube presentation, the above image says, “Episode II – AI: Artificial Intelligence. The Age Of Exponential Intelligence.” I have a problem with that – if the intelligence is exponential, there is no way the human mind can handle it! Two of the synonyms of “exponential” are “expanding” and “wanton” – can we humans handle “wanton creativity”? Me, I will always run to “human creativity!”
(sources of images: top, youtube.com; bottom, magzter.com)

Read the words in the bottom image, those that describe or point to Creativity: “Thinking. Positive. Mind. Brainstorming. Invention. Ideas. Innovation. Art.” Your mind, once turned on to creativity, will never run out of ideas! You just have to learn how to be creative, that’s all. (Let me help you with your article, thesis, technical paper, book – I prefer the digital version.)

“Artificial Intelligence.” Thinking more of the “threat” by AI, I have just come out with an inventive term for creative thinking: “Extralogical Intelligence” (EI). Artificial vs extralogical. Artificial means it is created by machines; extralogical means “outside the limits of logic” (Collins Dictionary, collinsdictionary.com). Not “illogical” but simply/not-so-simply “derived outside of logic.”

If you insist on being logical all the time, you will never be creative!

AI is no-sweat creativity; EI is no-holds-barred creativity. Personally, I love my creative ideas much more than any AI setup can come up with!

How much of a creative writer am I? Before the digital world came about, I was The Editor In Chief of the 3 Forest Research Institute (FORI, now ERDB) publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. (Note: Those were ancient, typewriter times!)

Since 2000, I probably have blogged 40,000 essays, the longest being something like 10 pages and the shortest exactly 517 words.

Now I wish, “Happy EI, everyone!”@517

VP Sara’s Children’s Book – A Big, Huge, Gargantuan Lesson For Planning Before Executing A Publication Project! This Is The Editor In Chief Speaking As A Friend

“Isang Kaibigan.” Is that right? The children’s book authored by VP Sara Duterte will cost PhP10 million to print?

(Very Important Prior question: “How much did it cost to write, edit, desktop publish that book short of printing?” Oh, and how come Ms Sara suddenly is an author of a children’s book?!)
(image from media.assettype.com)

Cristina Chi writes (“Children's Publishers Decry 'Excessive' Cost Of Sara's Self-Authored Book,” 22 Aug 2024, PhilStar, philstar.com):

In a time of slumping morale among reading advocates in the Philippines, Vice President Sara Duterte's planned P10-million-print of her self-authored children's book is souring the mood of children's book publishers.

It's an "excessive" and "self-serving" endeavor (according to) one independent publisher, and a "wasted opportunity" to support existing writers for another. But above all, they ask: Why should the government cough up millions for Duterte's own children's book?

I The Editor In Chief ask: “Why were Ms Sara’s book advisers not aware enough for the prior need to package and promote the book months before somebody began writing it? So that the public would have been pleased!”

That PhP 10 million is supposed to cover only the printing – if 100,000 copies were printed, that would cost only PhP 10 each copy. Not bad. Even if only 50,000 copies were printed, at PhP 20 each, still not bad.

Still, my questions as The Editor In Chief are these:

1.    Why was the book written – what good was it supposed to do to readers, the children?

2.    What are the contents of Sara’s book, “Isang Kaibigan” (“A Friend,” my translation)?

3.    Where does it begin? Where does it continue? Where does it end? Is the book organization intelligent?

Ms Cristina says:

Two children's book authors and two independent publishers told Philstar.com that children's book writers often struggle to get their work into the hands of young readers because of the high cost of production and limited runs of local publishing houses, which contribute to steep book prices.

“High cost of production” – So, depending on the number of copies (not declared), the PhP 10 million is not that high?

I personally know every single step in the production of a book, from drafting to editing to rewriting to re-editing to desktop publishing to revising up to producing the portable document format (pdf); the pdf goes directly into the printing of distribution copies – it’s complicated and not easy, but can be mastered – I say that as a self-taught digital The Editor In Chief.

If I were the single writer, editor, and desktop publisher of VP Sara’s book, I would not have needed PhP 10 million to print copies – PhP 500,000 would have been enough to produce 1,000 paper copies; the remaining PhP 9.5 million would be used to produce/purchase digital setups to be shared among classes and schools nationwide for wider & more enjoyable circulation!

(And oh, yes, the contents would have been to encourage the children to discover their own geniuses!)@517

Lessons For Farmers – From Asst Prof Adarsha Gowda, Dept Of Food Science, St Aloysius College, Karnataka, India. Good! & Bad!

Farming – How difficult is it? Here is Indian Prof Adarsha Gowda, PhD, Assistant Professor & Head, Dept of Food Science, St Aloysius College, Karnataka, India – he has “10 Lessons To Become A Successful Farmer” (via a sharing by Philippine Organic Farms on Facebook, image included, 19 Aug 2024); I will now discuss each lesson.

“1) Farming is not an option for lazy men, (it’s) a task for the strongest...”

Huh!? The very first lesson from Prof Gowda points out that the farmer has to be industrious, not lazy. And farming is for the strongest – I don’t know what he means by that, but I am the son of a farmer in Pangasinan, Central Luzon, Philippines, and I know farming is for the industrious, but not the strongest! There are machines the farmer can use to help him farm, like: the rotavator can help him prepare the field organically. (This is my intellectual invention; I have a project proposal for it.)

“2) To be a successful farmer you should learn the market trend, know what sells best and where.”

Really, the instructions from Prof Gowda means that, to be successful, farming is not easy! You have to be a businessman. You have to study the market here and there! You must be a good marketer of your produce yourself!

“3) Farming needs Capital. Never start a project which you're not sure of its completion plan.”

Guilty! A great many of Filipino farmers do not think of “capital” and simply go to the seller of farm inputs to borrow money at 20% interest within 100 days – that’s usury, but most if not all Filipino farmer borrowers do not think of the burden of that 20%, because they need cash – because they do not think of other ways!

“4) Seasons are never the same; sometimes prices will [break your heart] while in other season(s) you will see your Mercedes Benz pa(r)ked in your farm.”

Prof Gowda is talking about a rich farmer! Most Filipino farmers are not that rich to be able to buy a Mercedes Benz!

“5) Learn to be unique, never be a product of copy and paste.”

Pass!

“6) Consistency is the seal; let people know you at least for one product which never lack(s) in your farm.”

Pass!

“7)  When youre aspiring to inspire, make sure you invest in yourself, learn the art; visit other farmers and learn from them. Through this you will one day be the master.”

Pass!

“8) Always remember that customers will always buy the cheapest in the market, but good quality products will set their own prices.”

So how do you ensure “good quality products” Prof Gowda?

“9) Never [lose] focus even if you don't see yourself when you had anticipated.”

Pass!

“10) Farming is never a get-rich-quick scheme; (it’s) a process which needs patience, determination and dedication.”

Yes Sir! Prof Gowda’s “lessons for farmers” needs editing and simplifying and much review & revising – this is The Editor In Chief speaking!@517

Stop Being Boring! Modern Lesson For Old Seminaries – Teach Seminarians Old & New American & British Literature And They Will Learn To Teach The Word To The World, Beautifully!

Yes, as a Roman Catholic I can tell you: “Almost all Roman Catholic priests are boring, boring, boring! when it comes to preaching the Word of God.” Why because they were not taught in seminary how to make their lectures and/or conjectures interesting at least, if not brilliant! 
(image from istockphoto.com)

Jonathan Liedl writes, “A Novel Idea: Seminarians Read Literature As Prep For Priesthood” (15 Aug 2024, National Catholic Register, ncregister.com): “Pope Francis lamented that ‘a sufficient grounding in literature’ is not a standard part of priestly formation.” What I understand Pope Francis is not saying is that if the priest knew much about published literature, he would be an interesting person to listen to by the parishioners every single Sunday!

I creative writer say, “To be good, better, best, the priest should learn how to think good, better, best!” And old and new widely regarded American and British literature would be big helps in understanding human nature – which the would-be priest should know in order to teach good, better, best!

1980s. I remember Fr Monching Carillo of the San Antonio church at Crossing, Los Baños, Laguna: delightful, entertaining, educational; that is, he was not preaching – he was telling stories!

And that’s how homilies should be done – telling stories parishioners are familiar with, relating to them because, after all, it’s their lives the priest wants to touch and change for the good, better, best as the case may be.

I am a creative writer. How did I learn to be interesting? In high school, I read, and read, and read! I devoured the American and British classics (books); the American journals life, look, National Geographic; I read the Reader’s Digest, Life, Look, Post – in high school, that early, I sensed that I was enriching my mind for later use. Seminarians similarly reading will enrich their minds.

Again, from Mr Liedl:

When Carter Anderson started seminary formation two years ago, he likely knew that hitting the books would be on the agenda.

But what the Diocese of Helena, Montana seminarian might not have known at the time was that, in addition to sacred Scripture and theological texts, works of fiction would also play an important part in his preparation for the priesthood. 

Of course, the thoughts of others that you are reading make/help you think more – and better (“bitter” avoid that!). Those words open the world wider than you know, bring you thoughts you never had before, even challenge your old ideas – and that’s how you learn to be more interesting (and more intelligent) when talking to/with others.

Mr Liedl further says:

More broadly, it illustrates the important role reading fiction can play in the formation of future priests, with seminary faculty, seminarians and even Pope Francis noting the ability of quality literature to bolster empathy, increase a desire for goodness, and offer a refreshing alternative to screen time.

Seminarians, to be interesting to your parishioners – read, read now!@517

I Don’t Believe It! The Whole University Of The Philippines System Has 96 Outstanding Alumni This Year, 2024, While UP Los Baños Has Only 1 Outstanding Alumnus (For Creative Writing) In Its Entire 100 Years History!

I am reading today, Monday, 12 Aug, the news by ANN, “UPAA Announces 2024 Top Alumni Awardees” (06 Aug 2024, Author Not Named, NewsInfo, Inquirer, newsinfo.inquirer.net), saying:

The UP Alumni Association (UPAA) will honour 96 outstanding graduates, in fitting ceremonies, as this year’s top Alumni Awardees. “These exceptional individuals are being recognized for their established leadership, significant achievements, tireless service, and substantial contributions to their professions and the communities they chose to serve” said UPAA President and Alumni Regent Robert Lester F Aranton.

I am overwhelmed, to say the least, that there are 96 outstanding graduates from 8 constituent universities: UP Baguio, UP Manila, UP Diliman, UP Los Baños, UP Cebu, UP Mindanao, UP Tacloban, and UP Mindanao.

For me, the more the un-merrier!

What credentials do I have to dare say that? Well, I am the one-and-only “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing,” a singular honor granted by the UP Los Baños Alumni Association, with UPLBAA President Elpidio L Rosario, in the entire 100+ years of UP Los Baños. That was 2011 yet, 13 years ago.

How much did I deserve such a distinction? At that time, I was a Writer From Home (WFH) blogger for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in Patancheru, India – and ICRISAT had already printed 4 of my books that I desktop-published myself into printable document format (pdf). (You can check with ex-Sec of Agriculture William Dar, who was the Director General of ICRISAT at that time.)
(image from localizationengineers.com)

Now, note – I was not simply “Distinguished” but “Outstanding” because I was self-taught when it comes to both creative writing and desktop publishing – neither of which skills is taught by UP Los Baños yesterday nor today.

With that as background, I would consider the following as “Outstanding UP Alumni” if:

UP Baguio – An alumnus or alumna comes up with a concept of enriching those rice terraces and simultaneously enriching the farmers there. (Poor rice terraces farmers!)

UP Manila – How about an alumnus concocting a diet that is very much welcome to the children sufferering from Vitamin A deficiency, out of Golden Rice?

UP Diliman – An alumnus in one’s province leading a community of learners in discovering their individual multiple intelligences (MI) in the manner of Harvard psychology professor Howard Gardner, having unusual MI in any of these 10 areas (I added the 2^nd): 1. Bodily-Kinesthetic; 2. Creative (added by FAH); 3. Existential; 4. Interpersonal; 5. Intrapersonal; 6. Mathematical-Logical; 7. Musical Intelligence; 8. Naturalist; 9. Spatial; and 10. Verbal-Linguistic.

UP Los Baños – An alumnus coming up with a cultivation method that automatically produces a rich soil.

UP Cebu – An alumnus showing in a project how Tagalogs and Bisayans can work together harmoniously.

UP Visayas – An alumnus leading a community into “sustainable development” in Eastern Visayas.

UP Mindanao – An alumnus leading Muslims in community development visibly benefitting all residents.

Outstanding UP alumni all!@517