Buhay ng Hilaw-na-Scientist: Overnight at PHIVOLCS

It's 0030H here in Quezon City and I'm still up with my colleague, Kai, keeping an eye on Typhoon Yolanda and our landslide sensors buried in Southern Leyte (2), Surigao del Sur (1), Surigao del Norte (1), Iloilo (1), and Negros Oriental (2). A few more hours and I'll go berserk. Wait, hindi pala ako pwedeng magwala rito, mawawalan ng magmomonitor ng sensors.

I don't know what came into my head and I suddenly decided to do an overnight here at the office to do this monitoring job when in fact I can monitor this at home. Perhaps because when I go home I'll definitely fall asleep and wake up late the next day. Baka takasan ako ng mga sensors at biglang mag-guhuan yung mga lupa, kasalanan ko pa kung bakit hindi ko na-warn yung mga tao.

Good thing Kai is here to keep me company. I stuffed myself already with a lot of carbohydrates at around 2130H. Kadire. Gabing-gabi, carbs ang kinakain. Thank goodness Kai is such a food girl scout. She brought all these yummy goodies for us (actually just me because she rarely eats at night) to feast on. My workstation is almost a cafeteria with the bevy of foods you'll find on it:

Clockwise from top: my record book of sensor and community monitoring; Stik-O and my laptop; the best friend a graduate student can have: instant noodles and a rosary; my workstation at the office during an overnight.

A realization I had while writing down the data is that NOTHING BEATS WRITING YOUR DATA WITH A PEN AND PAPER. You write it down on a notebook; you do it the old-fashioned way of recording data. For me, I get my thoughts more organized and I tend to write every detail down in my notebook. With the technological advancements nowadays, I know that information can be directly typed into the laptop and it would be easier for other people to access it. But surprisingly for me, when typing scientific data in the computer, some ideas just escape my mind. Also, I don't find it that appealing to type in the computer, parang walang buhay, walang art, walang personal touch. It's as if you are distant with your data. E kapag ikaw yung nagsulat sa notebook, feel na feel mo na sa'yo ang data na yun. Or baka naman kasi undergrad pa lang, sanay na sanay na ako magsulat sa journal dahil sa isandamakmak na laboratory classes namin. I was trained to write all data and ideas, even how simple it may be, in a notebook. We were also taught that if you're going to make drawings/descriptions that only you can understand, make sure you leave a note so that others would understand what it is.

Iba talaga ang training kapag undegrad ka 'no? Parang yun talaga yung panahon na kung saan mo matututunan yung klase ng impormasyo na pwede mong magamit sa pagtatrabaho at sa pag-earn ng sahod.