VP Bids Good Luck (An Open Message For All Graduating Students) /NEWS ARTICLE

This week, we talked to Mr. Alfredo M. Dimaano, as graduation season gets underway the Vice President of Academic Affairs sends his best regards to the College of Teacher Education graduating students in the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina.

"Make your teaching profession worth while and fun-filled so that it will echo resoundingly wherever you may go, because teaching is not meant to hurt but teaching is meant to help" said Sir D.

During the interview, you can barely notice how the he delivers his answers filled with confidence and passion.

"Firstly, ahh to the Education students, I would like to extend my warmest thanks, my gratitude and appreciation for joining the role of teachers in this very noble profession, the teaching. I really am appreciative for your enthusiasm, your dynamism, and your conviction that despite the enormous trends, challenges, and the upheavals we are facing in the educational system, you remained steadfast in order to contribute a legacy not on your generation but to the generations of the students and their generations to come. Secondly, to all the students of Pamantasan, I am happy that despite the odds, despite the turmoils in life, they are striving, they are trying to move at their best, even if financially they are constraint, they are experiencing a lot of family life difficulties that just the same we welcome them, this venue, this University becomes a haven for everybody, that there is still hope, there is still availability of love, care that can afford for everybody no matter how cheap the tuition fee is, it’s not the question of the amount, it’s a question of how much passion, how much motivation, how much enthusiasm and dynamism you put in in order to be successful in life. Just always remember that life is perfectly beautiful, what makes it imperfect is how you perceive, how you believe and how you live it." -Mr. Alfredo M. Dimaano, PLMar Vice President for Academic Affairs. 

             After four years of six hour school days six times a week, and after dealing with all the ridiculous drama-related things that you encountered in college, you're moving into a bigger, better things.

The last few months in college may seem to be a little too underated and everyone is excited to face what the future lies ahead of them, what career should they be having. Getting jobs is probably going to be one of the better days of your life. There's a lot of emotions in the air. You're going to be overjoyed because you're done with college, but you'll probably get a little sad too. Make these couple months count. Breathe it in.

Dr. Alfredo M. Dimaano- At Its Best! (Feature Profile Article)

"What you can do probably is to embrace them whoever those who go against you, so that you will be able to reach out to them and send to them the real message. Well it’s good because philosophically speaking, you wouldn’t be creative, you wouldn’t be ignited, you wouldn’t be challenged unless otherwise there are opposing individuals, opposing proponents and that makes the whole thing beautiful because then you become creative, you have to struggle in order to make them realize that there is much more to celebrate than to regret, there is much more to contribute than to fight for. At the end of the line, let them understand we belong to one family of the same vision, and the same mission and if they cannot match the core values espoused by the institution, the gates are open, are widely open for them so that they can go where they want so you don’t have to be unfair where they can establish joy not in the school, not in this institution wherever they may land." -Sir D brought this thought up upon asking what are his antipations on becoming the Vice President for Academic Affairs of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina.

Dr. Alfredo Dimaano graduated from Ramon V. Del Rosario College of business and took his Doctoral degree in Business Administration. He's now teaching as a part-timer assistant professor lecturer in the department of decision sciences innovation department in De Le Salle University, accreditation consultant of Philipinne Accreditation Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) while he is currently the Vice President of Academics in Services in PLMar.

One could say by look that this man is always impeccably dressed and you can notice in his aura is the charisma of his intelligence, the way he walks, the way he opens his mouth and minced the words he say, how he carries himself is ideally a great and inspiring man. But behind all of it, he is simply a child of his parents who grew up and inspire others.

Add to that, he is simply a model that everyone should look after not by his looks and aura but by his perspectives in life that makes him a complete package of having the position in the administration. He values the institutions core values aside from that he formulate three things one should be engaged in. The three disciplines are- first, the value of time, he make sure of it that his time is spent wisely and very meaningful. He managed not to bend the rules of his precious time because if not, he may be disoriented, disrupted, if not distorted in everything important he is doing. Second is the discipline of quality referring to constancy of purpose, second consistency in action. He manages to put passion in everything he do even without anybody watching. The third one is the discipline of honesty he believes that in order to live in humility, One must value honesty, impressing someone will not offer you anything nor will take you higher.

Dr. D reminds me of Dr. Silvestre who once quoted "There is no substitute for preparation"

For whatever we do in life, One must armor himself with preparation so that he may finish the task smoothly and not be distorted.

We may be different in terms of solving our very problems but Sir D always took the bright side and take everything optimistically. He do not care whatever position he is into or whatever he has because at the end of the line, he believes that only God can judge him regardless of who is he as a professor, vice president or as a person.

During the upclose and personal interview with Dr. D, one couldn't help but be amazed and got stunned by his eloquent and deep words. He is different, one could say that he is full of passion in everything he does and always keeping the fire burning.

The eagerness of the Vice President to bring changes in our university is observable and one could feel it! In this regard, most of the people within the community and the university can observe and digest that PLMar is in good hands.

With regards to the chalenges he has faced, he always took it positively for he believes that life is too short to waste our time minding over the things that mattered the least. Always be persistent in everything you do, put passion into work and mixed it up with positivity and the three disciplines.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (A Book Review)

When I was a child, I'd like to see pictures and create stories regarding the pictures. For instance, I could see an image of a girl in the table eating all alone- I could imagine a story and produce things on my mind. I would state the girl has busy parents, she was craving for the attention and care of her family. This is one of my favorite things to do, I interpret the picture and invent stories behind the photos.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs reminds me of that.

This story, for me, is messy and it seems to me that the vintage photographs Riggs' included to create a story do not match or even make sense in the story. For example, there is this picture of a boat in an island and the character, Jacob, stated "In the next boat, I saw Brownwyn wave and raise Miss Peregrine's camera to her eye. I smiled back. We'd brought none of the old photo albums with us; maybe this would be the first picture in a brand new one. Then Brownwyn lowered the camera and raised her arm, pointing at something beyond us. In the distance, black against the rising sun, a silent procession of battleships punctured in the horizon."

This part to me is very strange because the children in the story lived in a deserted island which nobody who is not peculiar could enter. How did they had a camera to take a photo of the boat sailing? It seems to me that Riggs' just used the photo to make that chapter longer. The story is evidently framed with vintage photographs, but the story is not incorporated with the pictures. It seems that the author is looking at the pictures and imagining how it would come up with the story and sometimes it doesn't fit in at all like the instance mentioned above.

If you are thinking this book is a creepy and a halloween story- it is not. This is all about the children with special powers trying to save their headmistress in the orphanage.

With the main character of the story, Jacob Portman, a spoiled brat who is super bored at his life being the only child and the successor of their pharmaceutical business, he is a rich kid who considered himself as a loner. I did not like him at all. Some unlikable characters are unlikable in a complex and interesting way, but Jacob is just a spoiled, entitled and selfish brat.

Add to that, I think this book may fit into the taste of midschoolers for there is a mystery and I find it really messy and disappointing. Compared to the fantastic books I have read.

Now, there is a movie that has been produced by Tim Burton about this book- same title. It is not showing yet but I hope they would come up with an interesting characters and mind blowing plot twists because the book is plain boring. I would watch the movie when its already available in the cinema to see whether the story changed or improved.