Computer Vision Syndrome

I got a new pair of glasses last December after months of squinting through computer monitors whenever filing my reports.

I chose to go back to my old doctor to monitor if there was any change in my eyesight - I had last had my eye checked at this clinic when I was in high school.

Not surprisingly, my condition had gotten worse with more exposure to computer screens.

I still had astigmatic vision, no biggie. I just got re-acquainted with the condition. Apparently, things both too close and far are blurry around the edges, my eyes not refracting enough light to form more solid images.

It was in that visit, however, that I was introduced to CVS or Computer Vision Syndrome: that burning sensation in the eyes known to frequent desktop/laptop users everywhere.

My doctor told me to monitor if there was pain in my eyeballs and get some rest when they do. (aside from prescribing eye drops to increase the moisture of my eyes.)

I left the clinic with a new pair of glasses and a newfound respect for a vision that I had abused my eyes all these years especially through the sleepless days of high school and the parties of college.

Of course there's the academic work.

During the jeepney ride home, I just stared outside the vehicle's window and watched the street scenes play.

I was missing this all the while: the depths in the various distances of things.

Davao Writers Guild-Ateneo de Davao Writers' Workshop now open for applications

DAVAO CITY (Davao Writers Guild/07 January) -- The Davao Writers Guild and the Humanities Division of the Ateneo de Davao University, in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, will hold a Writers Workshop on May 4-8, 2009 in Davao City.

Any resident of Mindanao is qualified to apply to the DWG-ADDU Writers Workshop 2009. Applicants are required to submit five poems, or one short story, or essay, or one-act play; or any combination. The works may be in Filipino, English, or Cebuano.

Please submit the application form and three copies of the manuscripts to Prof. Jhoanna Cruz, Department of Humanities, University of the Philippines Mindanao, Mintal, Davao City. Do not write your name on the manuscripts. Then please send the files as attachment to davaowritersguild@yahoo.com.phThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject “DWG-ADDU Writers Workshop 2009 Application.”

Application forms may be downloaded from dagmay.kom.ph.

Fifteen writing fellows will be selected and provided free board and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Five slots are allotted to fellows from outside Davao, if any, who will receive a transportation allowance.

This year’s panelists are: Macario D. Tiu, Ricardo de Ungria, Don Pagusara, Timothy Montes, and Marjorie Evasco.

The deadline for application is March 15, 2009. Successful applicants will be posted on the website on April 15. (Davao Writers Guild)

16th Iligan National Writers Workshop

The National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA), the Mindanao

Creative Writers Group, Inc., and the Mindanao State University-Iligan
Institute of Technology's Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
and Extension (OVCRE) are accepting applications from writers to the
16th Iligan National Writers Workshop (INWW) to be held on May 25-29,
2009 in Iligan City.

Sixteen (16) slots, five each from Luzon and Visayas and six from
Mindanao are available for writing fellowships to the INWW. Of the
slots for Mindanao, one (1) is for the Manuel T. Buenafe Writing
Fellowship for Muslim or Lumad applicants.

Applicants are required to submit five poems; or, one short story; or,
for the novel, a summary and 2 chapters for the work-in-progress; and,
a one-act play in Filipino, English or in Cebuano.

For entries in Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, Waray and Chavacano,
translations in English are required. Please submit along with the
application form two, 2X2 photos. The application form may be
downloaded here. Please submit a hard copy and a CD with the
manuscripts encoded in MS Word97. Unpublished works are preferred.
Applicants must have attended at least one regional/local writers
workshop, no exceptions.

Writing fellows will be given free board and lodging and a travel
allowance. Applications must be postmarked on or before February 15,
2009. No applications or manuscripts will be accepted if sent after
postmarked dates or by fax or e-mail.

Applicants are also advised to keep copies of their manuscripts since
these will not be returned. Send all applications to the 16th INWW
Director, Christine F. Godinez-Ortega c/o OVCRE, MSU-IIT, Iligan City.
For more information contact Pat Cruz or Alice Bartolome or Cherly
Adlawan, tels. 063-3516131 ; or e-mail: patcruz@yahoo. com /
cherlyadlawan@ yahoo.com / aliciabartolome@ yahoo.com

Jeepney Ride

reposted from Dog Eats Avocado - July 11, 2008

Inside the first jeepney I rode this afternoon I tried reading the first chapter of a book I bought yesterday.

I couldn't. So I gave up, zooming out to the larger unfocused world which was the jeep's cabin instead. To my right was a woman whose position had her sit beside a pregnant woman who was seated by the jeep's rear end.

On the Catalunan Pequeno stop, the pregnant woman stood up and dropped her mobile phone by accident.

What's seemed off at the time was that she walked backward to retrieve it, before crossing the road and finding another ride.

The woman beside me didn't budge, didn't even move to where the pregnant woman sat - the way people usually would replace those who would get off. Which was weird.

And right before my vision blurred to her form, the woman beside me sighed: "Ang iyang tinubigan!" The pregnant woman's water had broken - we could all see that the lower part of her dress was wet.

Everyone was actually looking at a woman who was minutes away from labor.

While my thoughts were elsewhere, like how that could have been a story for tomorrow's paper, everyone else had stories of their own.

"Where's the husband? Why does he let her travel alone?" a fellow passenger, a man in his 40s, said.

The woman beside me answered: "He's at Camp San Gabriel, training. Actually, she was telling me about her belly starting to get painful." The two women beside me had been talking while I was trying to read.

Everyone else had their own take on the event.

"If that woman had given birth here, that would have been fun!" one of the passengers quipped, igniting a series of mini-discussions.

"Why didn't she just go directly to the hospital at home?"

"She told me she didn't have her things with her," the woman beside me went on.

So did the jeep, running fast ahead without warning. And as it did, another passenger remarked to another: "I wish the driver would slow down," she said. "Look at that woman, she almost gave birth because of him!"