soo.... i saw a post here about nukes, and this prompted a little recollection... about 5-4 years ago i graduated from UST armed with about the same knowledge as my peers as medical technologists. same year after graduating, i bagged my RMT license while studying med school at the time. thing is, i became enamored with many of my college textbooks, specially chemistry books - inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry, physics, and language textbooks (thats why ya gavariite pa ruski, niim nogo) then the snide comments came: why are you still reading those after graduating? youre just wasting your time reading those when you could be reading your medical books (which i hated with a passion) are you gonna be able to use that knowledge in the real world? realistically? (upon purchasing books at natl bookstore about electrical and mechanical principles, and business practices, and a primer on philippine laws) when are you going to find the time to read all that? why are you reading those when youre a medical student? are you going to study to become an engineer? i thought you were going to become a doctor? fast forward to today... currently fresh out of medical school after failing subjects deliberately just to get myself disqualified from entering any medical schools because my mother would enroll me without me even knowing if i did pass, so i could say that failing deliberately was the smartest and at the same time dumbest decision i made. smartest because i removed the single biggest thorn in my side, dumbest because.... well..... i dont know. i just felt like if i fail deliberately would i regret this in the future? so maybe time will tell, but im so happy i failed medical school. ok. so what next? employment. im currently employed somewheres in cubao... small laboratory there, meager pay but at least it puts money in my pocket. finally mom gives up on turning me into an MD, instead i pursued a masterals in med tech somewheres in taft. more importantly it gives me a shit load of free time to test my new designs (popsicle stick mock-up models held together by epoxy to see how designs on paper would hold up to 3D representation; mostly these are simple machines like hinges, locks, levers, pulleys, or things like a mock-up magnetic electric generator turned by neodymium magnets; sometimes scale models of tank tracks that actually work - this is my waterloo: i cant build them at 1:35 scale, its too small for wood) right now, im beginning to see that all those books read, all that money spent to buy handbooks and primers and constructing popsicle-stick-and-epoxy model mock-ups for my prototypes... is starting to pay off. in research and thesis, in a sea of cookie-cutter extract-this and compound-that and assay-this and comparison-there, i was the one with a unique proposal, so much so that everyone was initially skeptical in the beginning because.... im going to build everything from scratch, literally, with the aim of keeping expenses below 6 digits. the proposal has something to do with a nitrogen laser emitting UV ionizing radiation and organic matter. basically, im going to build all of it myself because i dont think anyone caters to such endeavors (ready-made parts, i mean) basically, for that proposal, i dug deep into my books and found the principles to - - build a gas laser and explain how it works (physics + electrical engineering + glass/ceramic/metal working) - build an autoclave-like apparatus to contain the radiation (microbiology + carpentry + physics) - build a geiger counter to monitor extremely high levels of radiation (electronics + physics) - build a harness and assembly for the entire apparatus (engineering + carpentry) - high voltage and radiation safety (engineering + physics) - cultivation of test organisms (microbiology) - statistical analysis (statistics) and i didnt have to open the computer even once for google, except when the adviser told me to look for articles for the review of literature (of which i only found 3-4...) by comparison, my peers were always in the library to take advantage of the wi-fi... and then the books. and then, when i told my close friends, they were like, how can you build all of it yourself? to which i replied remember those books i was reading while you guys were playing pc games and drinking beer? and of course, the ever popular comment, ang dami mong alam (sarcasm) *shrugs* i like to learn, i like to learn obsessively, even. whats wrong with advancing your knowledge if it gives you satisfaction and pleasure? i mean, compared to the coma-inducing tv shows and truth news that the average filipino is inundated with. here i end my little recollection (and possibly a rant LOL) with a realization that the employment mindset has made the filipino stagnant both in intellectual progress and financial independence; realization that only you have the power over destiny; it is exceedingly healthy to find like-minded individuals to start an argument with (because arguments are where ideas are shaped, polished, and either born or aborted) and with a little knowledge of how things work around you, you can build something so powerful like having the power of the suns radiant energy at the flick of a switch. and that there is a fine border between madness and knowledge. TLDR: K TNX BYE =|
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:52:41 +0000
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