Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Well, the Mensa testing session is done. From 9am to 6pm, the total number of test takers was twice the capacity of the room. The officers were so happy about the turn out (and the revenue) that we had an impromptu meeting immediately afterwards to decide about having another session in a month’s time, at the same room, same venue. They paid for the deposit at the reservations office immediately.

We were also able to see the segment on Mensa Philippines featured on Knowledge Power from the TV in the game room, which we got free use of because of our utilization of one of their function rooms. I would have preferred that they had filmed anything other than supposed brainiacs and eggheads just sitting around talking and solving puzzles (crossword and otherwise).

As has already been my experience with this particular program, they cut the interviewees’ speaking segments down to bite size snippets that really don’t seem to capture what the people want to say, especially since I believe it takes some people unused to the camera lens to warm up to its presence and hit their stride as to what they want to say and the most comfortable and casual way for them to express it.

That is why I prefer to have Mensa Philippines featured in a public forum type of program like Talkback with Tina Monzon Palma a year or so ago. At least it provides the proper avenue for the promoters to explain fully and in depth the objectives of the organization, with no need to demean the viewers’ intelligence by catering to the lowest common attention span using bells and flashes.

My last gripe was that this latest Mensa publicity did not provide the audience any way to contact us just in case their interested, unless it was scrolled in the closing credits. On the other hand though, people who could find out how to get in touch with us after that show are probably the kind of people who will pass the test. Now there’s something television rarely engenders: the urge to do more research on a featured topic.

Well, I won’t be able to give the test papers to the person who’s going to check them until Monday. In the meantime, I’ve organized the information sheets and answer sheets of the nearly 600 people who’ve taken the test since I became testing director. On the to do list, I have to buy more envelopes and stamps for the posting, as well as reproducing more of the form letters to be sent out.

On the instructional side again, I’ve finished the test for my programming class on Monday. As I told them, it’s the program analysis type of test, (as opposed to programming and program debugging) where they have to give the output of the programs provided given the input. There are only two programs (it’s only an hour-long period). One uses Boolean operations to determine the result from a few yes or no answers to questions. The other is a revision of our last hands-on exercise, which I hope nicely segues into a discussion on program watches and tracing.