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

In my graphics class yesterday there were a total of three students who didn't have diskettes. One lost it after asking for it in the morning to work on the exercises and before the actual afternoon session. The second said he submitted it, so I'll have to double check in the faculty room if I had misplaced it or left it in one of the computers. The third one said the computers (more than one) on the student lab have decided that it is unformatted.

It seems none of the three have been following my orders to copy all their exercises on their back-up disk before submitting it. They outright denied doing so when their classmates (who I assume remember and implement the policy) asked them about it. Before I left the lab I told them that they will have to get new disks before the next session, because one of the requirements is that all the exercises submitted have to be on their own disk, not on a disk shared with their classmate, and if that's not the case by the end of the term, they will have substantial deductions.

After that class we had a meeting for going to the system sportsfest on Saturday in Alabang. It will be a whole day affair and will foster camaraderie among the different schools of the system by dividing all the twenty participants into four teams. The head of student affairs (who presided the meeting) also said that these were not the regular competetive games like basketball and such, but "fun" games like tug of war. He listed down those who will ride the van and those who will go there on their own. I'm in the second list. There was a P100 joining fee, which had been paid for by the school.

Last night I also talked to the lab coordinator about all the talk in e-mail, initiated by the chairman, on consolidating the department's rooms (actually the whole College of Science) in the campus. The vice chair had some suggestions for moving the observatory to a smaller but higher space on the top of the sports complex because the neighboring condominium was blocking the northern view. Actually another condominium across the street is blocking out the Eastern view more, where he have to wait hours after Moon- or starrise before we are able to see the expected celestial objects.

The chairman replied that if that's the case, might as well wait for the new building to be built in front of the sports complex which is supposed to be even higher than the sports complex. This place, just like the other properties acquired by the school now has a temporary life as a parking lot. My assessment: from there it would be a little farther from the blocking buildings, but the one the vice chair is concerned about will now be due south, and probably blocking a lot of bright stars with small near polar circumferences like Alpha Centauri and the Southern Cross.

The lab coordinator has the impression that the chairman recommended that the LIDAR group take over the current observatory. My take on that: I don't know if the ones who are part of that lab, used to a three-story climb with the option of an elevator, would be willing to give that up for a five-story climb without the option of an elevator.

He also said that today he is the process of finalizing a meeting with a company in San Juan who will show him designs for a planetarium. I told him I would be free by 330pm, so if he could schedule the showcase at that time, I would be able to join him. I'm not sure if this is a permanent planetarium design like in Luneta, or a portable one like what I saw in a former co-teacher's school in Laguna. I'm okay with either one, and my curiosity is ultimately piqued.