Liza Loza, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, taught a discussion section for which she was not paid.Credit…Neeta Satam for The New York Times
After protests, U.C.L.A. took down a job posting that offered no pay. But it turns out colleges often expect Ph.D.s to work for free.
It’s tough to be in liberal arts in the US, given that there’s an oversupply of PhDs there and not much job options for the academically inclined. I have been reading about this disparity for years that’s why I didn’t pursue a PhD because it seems like there is no need for me to do that—just yet. Although we in developing countries are better positioned than our counterparts in the US because we have job alternatives, plus there is still demand for PhDs in liberal arts since there aren’t enough teachers in colleges and universities with PhDs of value (I’m not talking about masters and PhDs from just anywhere). MBAs, however, are a different issue. There are too many MBAs here that they just obtained from somewhere with little value, just bragging rights even though there’s nothing to brag about it. That’s why it pays to graduate from a top university in a developing country like the Philippines because anything else is negligible in the bigger world. There is little brand recognition from anywhere else.
If I were these PhD candidates/PhD holders in the US, I would transfer to Asia where their degrees hold more value.
I’m speaking as a person who has come from a family of PhDs and the minimum educational attainment is a master’s degree and lived and breathed academic life.
In our sibling chat group where we discussed this NYT article, I told my brother to tell his son (who took the same undergrad course as I did) to work on apprenticeship more since in liberal arts it holds more value. Take courses or acquire additional skills in adjacent fields like fine arts to be more marketable in visual communications. That’s why a former colleague was very smart to take up a second degree at the UP College of Fine Arts (Visual Communication) after finishing her journalism degree while working. Her logos are now carried by startups. It’s better to be multi-skilled in our field. We now have data science + journalism, visual communications/multimedia/technology, and other hybrid disciplines.
For me, it was valuable that I took up a variety of courses in my undergrad so I couldn’t be pigeon-holed in one linear area. I was so thankful I took up edcomm and other social marketing related-subjects that I could use for communications strategy consulting. However, I need half of myself affiliated with an educational institution if I were to get consultancy jobs in this line. Maybe when I quit fulltime journalism.
I’m gonna finish this tonight. Trying on wet-on-wet technique with Kuretake.
Now the pain starts. Art and photo by CallMeCreatio.com
UPDATE
Finally, after so much procrastination. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is so satisfying even though using tiny brushes was painful. I think I need to scan this before I frame and give this to my mom. I think she would like the color/s.
My best friend has asked for this.
Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
While my sister-in-law asked for this one for their new townhouse.
Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I have to dispose some of what I’m making because I’m running out of walls.
But before I could start scanning my old drawings, I must update the OS of this old laptop to the new Ubuntu version. My scanner is so old (Canoscan LIDE 25) that there is no driver for Win 8 or Win 10 that it can only be used with Linux. This scanner is perfectly serviceable and I don’t want to buy a new scanner since I don’t regularly use it.
Acting as tech support again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
“I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. But if ever, teaching will be good. I’m a lawyer. But entering government? No way. They can’t afford me,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll fire all of them.” –Liza Araneta-Marcos
Tax expert Mon Abrea says simple math would have pushed the bill into the stratosphere. Twenty percent interest is slapped on every year the tax is left unpaid. Justice Carpio says the passage of so much time makes a case against the heirs, especially Marcos Jr., of willful refusal to pay. He says there’s a remedy for that.
Beijing stands ready to help Marcos family consolidate power over the long term Alvin Camba April 5, 2022 17:00 JST
Alvin Camba is assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a faculty affiliate at the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is on track to win the May 9 Philippine elections.
As Bongbong has himself said, he will move to maintain a strong relationship with Beijing while not completely abandoning ties with the West. Beijing likely expects Marcos to disregard the 2016 ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague that rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and kowtow to China on crucial international issues.
The makers of The Kingmaker have made their film about the Marcoses free to view for everybody. Unfortunately, Filipinos are stubborn, especially if their core beliefs are challenged–if they’re corrected.
All my plans for today were wiped out as the weather turned weird. It rained non-stop today, like it’s already August.
Parking area. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Well, it’s a good thing that it rained so Lamesa Dam and Angat Dam can be refilled, if not up to the safe level. This assures us that there will be no water shortage in the coming days…or weeks. The temperature cooled up a bit from 30s down to 26 as of this moment. But because of this weather (and lack of sunlight), I did nothing but sleep. And edit three stories. Do some admin work, touch base with a source, and listen a bit to a webinar. I’m giving myself this day to slack off because—I dunno. I don’t feel like it.
This is my day of letting steam off because of my annoyance with company leadership issues. I couldn’t help my colleague with her job requests because of reporting line issues (vague). It’s really annoying me. It’s already April and there’s nothing definite happening. They couldn’t even give me the proper transition timeline. 🙄
To rid myself of annoyance, I temporarily halted my repetitive curtain sewing and returned to my complicated poppy flower drawing. It’s making me cringe. Either I finish this or I move on to drawing humans.
I suddenly remember my lawyer-artist friend who commented about the girl I was cheated on with by my ex-husband; he said she is not a fine artist but she’s more of an illustrator (they have common friends). That’s why she kept on doing squiggles and abstract graphic arts. I trust this friend because he is a really good fine artist and he has been winning competitions left and right but he chose to be a lawyer because…he wants to earn well. So now he shifted to photography and buying expensive equipment and drones has been his pastime.
So now my question is, what do I want to become? I don’t know. I just draw and paint to express myself. I’m not even good. But it forever frustrates me that I am having a hard time drawing faces or humans for that matter. I need to up the ante. Challenge myself.
Let’s start with this:
Practicing with grid lines. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m not yet brave enough to do full frontal. Probably I’ll do pencil first because I’m more decent with pencils.
Looking at metrics with lighted lavender candle. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I had been looking at our metrics for two days now and something is wrong with our database. I contacted the person in charge but he hasn’t responded. I need to elevate this to HQ IT. It seems like I’m the only person in our bureau doing this 😤
So many hurdles that we/I are/am facing for changes to be implemented. I told my APAC boss if things don’t change, people will be resigning. Including me. Competition is actively hiring.
It was so hot today that whenever I go downstairs, I get knocked out by the heat. Later in the afternoon I didn’t realize I fell asleep while reading on my bed after finishing an edit. I felt I was being woken up by one of the girls but I couldn’t understand what that was about.
Then a Lazada package was on my table.
Sketchbook arrived! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I bought this for less than PHP 200. I can have a hardbound sketchbook for less than PHP 1,000 via Lazada! Thank goodness for that. Moleskines are like PHP 1,500- PHP 2,000. I can’t keep forking out that much money for practice sketches.
I quickly put it to test.
Initial inking. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I was determining here how to show depth since I took the photo directly on top of the food bowls so there’s no way I can show the depth of the bowls. That stumped me so much.
Light coloring. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s really posing a problem. It’s a puzzle that I still have to solve because the ramen bowl is white. I’m trying to color a bit with ecru. I also added shadows under the bowls but another issue with the original image was that there were many sources of light there. The restaurant had multiple lights overhead so my light source is confused.
Still haven’t solved it. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I need to give up for now to let the paper dry. The 150 gsm paper of this sketchbook is holding up and is not bleeding. Not bad for a hardbound sketchbook for less the PHP 200. I’ll solve this conundrum tomorrow.
Today I battled my way into reserving hotel rooms in Makati for the April 30 rally. And OMG the other Leni supporters are really fighting with me for the rooms! Everytime I clicked, Agoda told me that somebody else beat me into it. I even tried booking 3 bedroom suites but to no avail. Manila Peninsula was already fully booked yesterday. I tried the ones in Valero St. and Salcedo Village. I was able to book rooms in serviced apartments but on the first night it was in Valero and the second night is along Salcedo Village, a block away from Paseo de Roxas. I had to cut the reservation dates because there was no way I could book two nights in a row.
My mom is excited. Her friends have been having a difficult time booking rooms, too, and she’s happy I was able to snag rooms.
I’m also ordering pink shirts online. Will put click “buy” on Friday once I get clearer idea about the dates exact dates.
The girls are coming with me, too. I want them to see how people are gathering to push for change.
Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, we were manufacturing radios and televisions even before Japan started doing it.
The brand is Radiowealth and we had a unit of that huge TV at home when I was a kid.
We were a manufacturing hub before. Japan was devastated after the war. Korea was the same. China was deep into Maoism. We used to make watches during the later years of the Spanish colonial period. We had a thriving economy that was the envy of our neighbors.
But then Ferdinand Marcos Sr. came. And grabbed power.
When Martial Law was declared, Guevara’s business plan was jeopardized, especially since he was one of 7 delegates who voted against martial law. Because of this, he was pressured by the Marcos government which wanted to take over his successful business. Knowing it was futile to fight Marcos, Guevara—whose health has been affected by the turn of events—together with his wife, fled to the United States.
RADIOWEALTH eventually closed, signaling an end of a shining era of industrial revolution. But Guevara’s legacy remains in Mandaluyong, where a busy, bustling street on where his manufacturing plants stood-Libertad St.–has been renamed after him—Domingo M. Guevara St. the self-made industrialist died in the 1990s.
This is the reason why the economic powerhouse that was the Philippines fell and crumbled. Because of one man’s greed. We became the laggard of Asia as we continued to be dragged down by dollar debts that were stashed into Swiss bank accounts. We never recovered.
That is why this show of support to the opposition—Leni and Kiko—is not only a petty knee-jerk reaction against Duterte-Marcos. This is a fight for my children’s future. We must not let the Marcoses be back in Malacanang.
This is why we are sparing no expense in showing to the world that we are ready for change. For cleaner government, for public servants in the truest sense like Leni and Chel Diokno. And there are stories of people being converted during and after the Pasig rally because they saw how people are there on their own volition, without being bribed, without being forced by their LGUs.
We might never get back that economic status before Marcos Sr came. But at least we are trying to change our course to a better one.
As I said yesterday, I will pick myself up today. Art has helped me channel my anger into something more productive. I chose a difficult subject so I can concentrate on it and in the end it was all worth it.
It took me almost an hour to finish the pencil sketch. Art and photo by CallMeCreatiion.com
I sketched in between editing stories. It took me almost an hour to finish the pencil sketch because there were so many adjustments. I was debating whether I do a wet-in-wet or layering. I decided on layering so it took me several hours to finish this because I needed each layer to be dry before I do darker coloring.
Making slow progress. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I really have to master wet-in-wet to produce a smoother color gradation. In the meantime, wet-in-dry layering would suffice.
I’m happy with the results. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m excited with what I can do when I have the Kuretake Gansai Tambi. 🥰
I took it easy today, edited only a couple of stories and did not exert effort to write my own (I’ll do that next week). So I played with my cats more.
Kimchi trying to be cute. Photo by CallMeCreation.comShe continued to beg for some petting. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I haven’t attempted drawing my cats. If I do draw my cats, I’ll make them into cartoons 😄
Meanwhile, my new 10-year passport arrived and I’m stuck with that ugly passport photo for a decade. The good thing is I can now fly to Singapore once I get the go signal from my bosses. Our company is already implementing return-to-office (RTO) in phases so it would take a while before I can fly to our different offices. Except for HK as its government (or Beijing for that matter) is still having delusions that they can keep up with the zero-Covid policy. My colleague in Shanghai was complaining to me that he had to cut short work yesterday to shop for supplies because they’re going to have another lockdown and mass testing.
In a related development, I had been looped in the entire communication thread of another platform in our company and it seems like I have another reporter placed under my wing. He was the one who I had helped with raising funds for his daughter’s hospitalization and burial. So today I gave him two assignments to pursue and gave him the agencies he needs to talk to, the questions, the angles to pursue. It seems like I need to co-write that story with him.
I have to attend a lot of conferences and meet people so I can be in the loop when it comes to the topics published by that platform since I will be straddling two titles now.
So my plan to go to National Art Museum and Intramuros is thwarted as the girls will be spending the weekend with their dad. I think I’ll just take advantage of their absence by staying home, catch up on some sleep, and finish pending tasks like the curtain panels that I should be finishing but had just been stewing on my other table for 10,000 years. My girls asked me why do I keep on beautifying the apartment when we’re moving soon anyway? I said as long as we’re here, I want my environment to be pretty and enjoyable. I mean, I’ve been through hell and back (and back). Might as well make myself happy now and not wait until when we’re in our new home. I planted morning glory seeds and now they have grown and soon the plants will be creeping on the trellis and the courtyard will be filled with flowers. I have no idea what the colors will be. It doesn’t matter; I will leave them here when we move.
We live in the NOW, not for the tomorrow, not for yesterday. So might as well make myself happy now even if it means I would be dismantling everything soon when we move. I have exactly 12 months to enjoy what I have created here.
I should remind myself that I do not live in the yesterday as well, that he already belongs in the past and he should no longer hurt me. But I can’t help it that at times I get angry that he gave me so much hell.
I hope I no longer experience basura days and I no longer get triggered. I will no longer talk about him with friends. I don’t know if I could avoid this with my shrink though.
I’ll just cook for my friend K tomorrow. It makes me happy that somebody else is happy with my cooking. Love in a pot.
Quezon Ave morning traffic. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It took me an hour and 15 mins to reach my destination today using Skyway 3. I like that infrastructure although it means at least PHP 400 of toll fee roundtrip. It does cut my trip to Manila or Makati by half. I also like driving on that newly opened elevated highway because the view makes you think Metro Manila is sane. The views of the buildings in Makati, Ortigas and BGC are pretty, especially in the afternoon when the sun turns orange. Since I’m driving, I couldn’t stop and take a picture.
Ambush interviews are back as well. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Here we are, back to our old ways but with a bit of a distance. This is an ambush interview of the newly appointed president of a company that I’ve been covering for 15 years now. I got two stories from this coverage. The leads were ok, but not that great. At least my diesel and effort were not wasted.
I still have it…charming execs into telling me stuff that they shouldn’t and the next day they would be receiving calls from my readers after my article had dropped into their inboxes. Hahaha! Oh well, dressing up and putting on make-up does wonders.
And since I was already out—on the other side of Metro Manila to be precise—I might as well take advantage and make the most of my fuel expense. I went to Ikea to buy more frames. Yes, frames. Because they’re cheap and they make my drawings look ok. That’s my form of self-love: a belief in my ability even if it’s not really good 😂🤣 and not be the first one to diss myself.
A little bit of frame shopping. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Why didn’t I just order online? Well I have a low EQ and I don’t want to wait for my shipment. But I think after today’s exhaustion, I would have to learn how to wait.
Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
My reporter-friend M who covered the event with me this morning told me he really can’t do watercolors because he lacks the patience because they’re delicate. He says acrylics are easier for him. And for that alone, he would gladly pay for my cherry blossoms if I sell because of my effort, he said.
Well, he is right; doing those cherry blossoms really tested my patience and brush control. I didn’t go beyond brush #4. That’s how small it is.
Speaking of brush control, I really needed a #1 watercolor brush for delicate coloring so I went to Art Bar in SM Mall of Asia. Unfortunately, that branch already closed. So on the way home, I dropped by Art Bar Q. Ave and searched for that elusive brush. Errr, it was like PHP 300. No way because I could buy that online for 1/3 of the price. So I just bought some 5×7 watercolor papers (200 gsm) for my botanicals series and called it a day. I would just have to order online.
I also searched for Kuretake Gansai Tambi set because they’re almost on a par with Winsor & Newton artist’s line for a fraction of the price, according to the artists I follow online. Art Bar is already out of stock since last month so I have to search online. I’m excited to use this one.
When I go back to Japan, I would again be spending hours choosing art materials and stationery in Maruzen. The last time I went to their big Osaka branch, I was there for three hours, choosing pens and notebooks. Like they have gazillions of Pilot Fixion pens and Dr. Grip. I had been going around Tokyo and Osaka looking for art materials or stationery because the Japanese really make good stuff (like the Sakura Pigma Micron pens, Uni Pin [Mitsubishi] and Pilot). Maruzen and Loft are safe bets and you’ll be buying more stuff than planned—my credit card can tell you that. I bought my Travelers Notebook from Loft. That’s why if I’m not scheduled to go to Japan, I get my art and stationery fix at Takashimaya (specifically at Kinokuniya) in Singapore several times a year. Now that Nomura Real Estate and GT Capital (Federal Land) have a JV partnership to build a Mitsukoshi Department Store in BGC, I hopefully don’t have to fly to be able to buy these stuff abroad. The Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Taipei was a downer though. I don’t like that department store.
Speaking of traveling, my Singapore colleague and I were talking about trips to Europe. She asked me what my first destination would be, I said Spain would be first because of the food, art, and the language. First stop is Madrid, then Barcelona, then Granada (because of architecture). Some friends hiked in Spain but since I would be traveling solo, it’s not recommended for me. Before the war in Ukraine, I would have liked to visit Prague, Czech Republic because of the architecture and museums. I’m a boring traveler, I know. However, a friend who visited Prague told me it might not be safe for me being alone there. Let’s see.
But before that, I need to make sure the workload is ok when we do our transition by next month or in May. I don’t want to be gallivanting in Europe while the team is left hanging. Maybe I should limit my trips to Asia this year and wait for things to settle down first. So in that case, I would be going to S. Korea and Japan for non-work-related trips. The rest of Southeast Asia would be work-related.
Oh. I still don’t have my passport yet. 🙄
On a related note, my friend M (the one who told me he wants to buy my sakura) and I talked about not leaving the Philippines and stuff. Because I told him that I would be transferring to my home province after I turned down the relocation to Singapore and he said, yeah, you really don’t need to be there. He said he likes to travel quite a lot (and we follow each other’s travel IGs and it was his IG that propelled me to have that instant trip to Hitachi). But he’s not really hot about migrating since all he needed are here in this country. I guess I can see where he’s coming from since he’s one of those reporters who really didn’t need to work as a reporter. Meaning he’s rich and he’s just living off his investments and family money/business. Journalism is more of a hobby to him. He said it looks weird that he’s one of the few Filipinos who doesn’t want to migrate. I said, it’s not weird. If your heart is really not into it, why follow the trend? Those who want to migrate want a better life and your life is already comfortable here so why rock the boat and just suffer homesickness? Maybe he felt pressured by others to do so that’s why he’s telling me this while he gave me a lift in his car to my parking area (which was very far from our venue today).
I said, don’t worry; there’s two of us who feel the same way.
Kr asked me if I could sketch her Baguio pine trees as seen from Camp John Hay. Lucky that I took a lot of photos of CJH when we spent Christmas there in 2017 and 2018.
Benguet pine (Pinus kesiya). Art and Photo by CallMeCreation.comHmm not bad. Putting it in a frame makes it pretty. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
Today’s broadcast. Kimchi in the background sleeping so I had to blur my background LOL!
The interview went well and my mom (who watched) said I was able to explain the concepts clearly. I told her it is how I taught my students in UP when I was still teaching that’s why I was able to break it down well. The point is, fact-checking is a good initiative but it doesn’t reach the masses, especially the rural poor. The D and E markets make up the bulk of the Philippine electorate and most of them do not have access to the Internet and so they do not have means to pay for data, or even a smart phone. Fact-checking only happens online and it has yet to reach the TV and radio—still the most accessible form of mass media in the Philippines.
As I said, media literacy teaches consumers of media messages how to be critical of the information fed by these entities and be conscious of the political economy involved there. Media ownership and their biases affect the delivery of the message and the content.
A tabloid owned by the Romualdezes.
Like for example this tabloid; it is owned by the Romualdezes and everyone knows they are relatives of the Marcoses since Imelda is a Romualdez. It’s not surprising all the contents are anti-Leni Robredo and pro-Duterte. It features fake news (“hakot [crowd] for hire”) and all negative news about her campign/party.
Meanwhile, Manila Bulletin (which is known to support the establishment) tweeted an erroneous news because it echoed what Marcos’ team claimed. People on Twitter fact-checked the newspaper and said Las Pinas only has 600,000 citizens and how can half a million people—almost all of its citizens be at the rally?
BREAKING: At least half a million people from Las Piñas City came out to show their support the UniTeam candidates led by presidential bet Bongbong Marcos and his running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte on Sunday, March 13.
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN published a third-party estimate of the number of people who actually attended the rally in Las Pinas, which in truth only reached 5,000
This is what I’m talking about why there is a need for media literacy. People should not be just mindless consumers of media. Misinformation and propaganda abound in traditional media and social media. Knowing how to be critical is important given democracy is at stake.
However, another hurdle to the critical thinking of consumers of mass media is the “echo chamber” effect that social media have on people, especially those who follow groups and “influencers/bloggers” who espouse disinformation and other lies (i.e. Thinking Pinoy, Mocha Uson, etc but of course I didn’t mention these names on air). I told the hosts this morning the challenge now is how to penetrate these echo chambers so the cycle of misinformation and propaganda can be broken. One of the things I said that could work are the methods employed in social marketing, especially the grassroots approach. I noted that this is one of the methods that the volunteers of one of the presidential candidates have been implementing such as door-to-door engagement of people on the ground, employing community participation in their information dissemination and marketing. Of course I cannot say it on air but we all understood each other that what I’m talking about was Leni. I told them about the AKAP principle (Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice) and which form of communication could be more effective in this kind of social marketing that people must do during the campaign season and to fight misinformation and propaganda.
There were many points that I was able to share with them but it’s too long to write it down here.
This was shown live on the local cable TV channel and on FB Live.
Tomorrow I will be driving to Manila to attend an event and then probably work in Makati after. On Wednesday I would be having a call also with one of our Eastern European evacuee-reporter who will be put under my watch as they relocated to Southeast Asia. This would be challenging because of language barriers and the kind of market that he would be covering in the interim. This week is full of conferences and press briefings and I don’t know how I would be able to do much drawing in between.
Tonight I tried sketching cherry blossoms and a stray yellow bell or a similar flower to practice botanical watercoloring. It helps me control my brush and my heavy-handedness when it comes to coloring. Chinese botanical paintings are delicate so I need to do more of these. Drawing and painting tiny cherry blossoms are hard especially that I only devoted 5×8 inches of area in this watercolor paper.
Initial pencil sketch. Art and Photo by CallMeCreation.comArt and Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I can do an entire series of this and give it to my mom. I put the one I did yesterday in one of my extra Ikea frames, so it would look neater to cover the watercolor smudges around the image. Hah. I can give this to my mom and the one on top when I go home maybe before Holy Week.
