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