Obama: History Amidst Adversities

At exactly 12:05 pm (1 am in the Philippines) in the United States of America, President Elect Barack Hussein Obama with the palm of his hand placed on the Bible once used by President Lincoln and by all other American presidents after him, has officially pledged to be America's 44th President on the steps of the US Capitol. Not only did he make history being the first African American president but also he renewed history to have a Democratic President again sitting in the White House after a generation reign of the Republicans. It is estimated that a record breaking 2 million people were present in spite of the cold at the National Mall to witness this momentous occasion. Blacks, Americans, Asians, Europeans, people among all culture and races were there and countries like the Philippines and Kenya celebrated with America as the 44th President of the United States finally took his oath.

Celebrities, old and new cabinet officials, even the former Presidents like Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton and the outgoing President George Bush Jr with their wives graced the occasion. Well known singer Aretha Franklin sang a song for the new President while Dr. Rick Warren offered the invocation and well known artist Yo-yo Ma and company played a lovely music for President Obama.

I have stayed up very late last night to watch the live coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama and be, even in my smallest ways, united with the world as to witness change not only for the most powerful country in Earth but also to the dawn of change for the whole world.

With his wife, Michelle Obama and his two kids and infront of America and the whole world, President Obama delivered his first speech as the President of United States.

CLiCK the ff. link to read President Obama's Inaugural Speech: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.politics/index.html

Use Case for USEP Enrollment System??

This is a brief use case diagram for the USEP enrollment system. This is only applicable for students in their second year and onwards.

As perceived in the figure above, a student has to pass several stages in order to reach the completion of the enrollment process. The first of which is the payment of local fees,of which from my observation is done manually or without the help of any machine or computer for recording the payments. The second step is the evaluation of grades and subjects by an adviser, whom in return will present a PRF to the student. The PRF will then be given to the encoder who will present an official PRF or COR to the student. The student then proceeds to the cashier who will receive the payment (if student is not a scholar) and record it in a financial system. Students who are scholars are referred to the bookkeeper for validation. Then, the student is ushered to the Registrar where the student is to present his/her clearance and necessary receipts so as to mark them as officially enrolled students and have it recorded in a registering system. Lastly, the student is to present the marked/validated COR to the Librarian with his/her library card for validation.

I am not really sure whether what I presented is what was really required. But then since everyone thinks on the same trail as mine this is the diagram that I will present.

Interviewing: My Fave in Data Gathering

Choosing between techniques such as interviewing, document review, observation, and use of questionnaires in gathering data simply depends on the type of data to be gathered. "How" data should be gathered simply equates to "what" type of data should be gathered. I am not really bragging (because I know my classmates are also the same) but I am comfortable in using any of these techniques. I can apply or use any technique needed. But due to some sometimes subtle and sometimes huge differences of the said technique I have opted on using what I should call as my favorite technique and that is "Interviewing".

On important occasions, such as data gathering I am a bit of a mouthful. True that talking to well of people, most of which is older, smarter and people who have a certain air of power like the ones we interviewed in our past company hunting, I easily get intimated and abashed but then I already proved that I can gather more accurate data in interviewing. Sure that this technique have some downsides like starting off an interview with these people which from my experience is the hardest part in this technique, and when sometimes the interviewee starts talking of things the interviewer isn't familiar with (which really sucks at times) or when the interviewee talks about things that aren't really related with the question but then it has the most advantages than the other techniques.

What are these advantages? For one, when we compare interviewing with observation, we can't really make sure that what we observed is correct because we are basing it from our inept and inexperienced eyes. With questionnaires, we can't be sure that we have exact answers, especially when numbers are involved. And if we use document review, we will just get stuck with their past data. All of these glitches can be prevented through the use of interviewing.

Being a opinionated (I think so) and mouthful person like myself, interviewing is the best match for me. I like to ask questions, and branch out new questions from my interviewees answers or replies, its justlike socializing for me. It also enables me to not only get exact data but also get additional information that can be useful for my study. From my past experiences, I didn't only learned a lot of things about what data I was supposed to gather but I also discovered a lot of new things, things useful not only for my studies but also on my outlook on life. Our mentor in our HRM adopted company taught us a lot more than HRM related studies but also on other things such as goal setting, how to get employed and other useful tips. This is the benefit one can get through interviewing.