An Old Notebook

Much of recorded history is culled from mundane items that were somehow preserved-- an accounting record, a sales contract, a prescription. Same is true for our personal histories. I was rummaging through my car looking for a rag when I stumbled upon an old notebook, stuck in the recesses of the boot. Based on the stuff I wrote there, I used it between 2002 and 2004-- a period that saw huge personal changes and a period that is also very different from my current circumstances. Interesting to look back and see what changed, and what remained the same.

The notebook is a 152mm x216mm, 50-leaf Blue Feather notebook, the standard notebook issued by one of my former employers. Among the contents:

Notes on how to interpret crosstabs. These were the days when the simple two-way table was a technical challenge and error margins were a total mystery. Back then, logit, probit, and tobit were as good as forgetit.

Floor plan of my condo. I drew this a few weeks before moving in, pen and tape measure in hand. I eventually made a better sketch with straight lines and correct proportions (1 inch : 1 metre), allowing me to know which piece of furniture fits where. Been here five years now.

Advice on toning down my language. I sometimes still get this advice, actually. It's good when writing a press release, but not good when writing a report, especially for a politician. No one wants to be told to his face that he has no chance of winning a Senate seat, even if that's exactly what the data say (and what eventually happened).

Model of optimal research effort. Really poor attempt at modelling now that I'm looking at it. I wrote this just before I began graduate school in 2003, probably convincing myself that I was ready for it. I wasn't. But somehow I survived.

Outline of an employee manual. I was supposed to help my admin boss draft a revised manual for our employer. Got repeatedly bumped off of the agenda and we never got down to writing it. I resigned in mid-2004.

Crappy poetry. One of the few times I wrote poetry using a pen, since I preferred to use my typewriter when I wrote anything literary, the noise and vibrations offering some kind of a conversation. I haven't written anything remotely literary lately, Stata and MathType being more frequent companions than my old typewriter. Sigh.

Snack list. Salmon sashimi and fruit salad, which I still like today.

Game theoretic trade model. This is the last thing I wrote in the notebook. I was already more than a year into grad school by then, and I used this model as a basis for three class papers. A long way from those crosstab days.

Now to look for an even older notebook.

On Atty. Punzi's Reflections on the 2007 Bar Exams

Atty. Punzi got one thing right-- his reflections on the 2007 Bar Exams did stir a hornet's nest, especially among those who passed the 2007 Bar Exams. He eventually pulled down his post (without retracting his statements, mind you), but thanks to Google's cache you can read it here. Basically, he is complaining about the Supreme Court's decision to lower the passing grade from 75% to 70%, saying the standards were set too low and that this move tarnished the Bar Exams. "And lowering the passing grade is too much of a compromise and would not fair to those who took previous bar exams and got 74.9% to 70%," he adds.

Atty. Punzi's argument suffers a fatal flaw: he implicitly assumes that the information contained in the 75% passing grade is comparable across years, as if the Bar Exam questions given in one year are comparable in difficulty with those of another. They aren't. The Bar Exams are not like the Medical Boards or the US Bar Exams where there is a bank of objective questions and examinees' answers are checked by computers. The Bar Exams are all essay questions, checked by examiners who have to wade through 5,000+ booklets in varying states of mood and comfort.

Given the highly subjective nature of the Bar Exams-- from the questions all the way to the checking-- the insistence on keeping 75% as an objective gauge of competence just does not make sense. This is like insisting that all runners finish 400 metres in one minute or less regardless of terrain (uphill, downhill, level). One cannot insist on keeping the bar of competence constant when the terrain keeps on changing year after year. One cannot treat Bar Exam results as an objective test of competence when the yardstick is so subjective. Simply put, someone getting 75% in 2006 cannot be judged to be smarter or more competent than someone getting 70% in 2007 because their exams are in no way comparable.

So, from a purely academic and exam design perspective, the Supreme Court had all the right reasons to adjust the passing grade, basically correcting the grade for changes in the terrain (i.e., "unusually difficult" exams, key word being unusual). I think this is why no one is beating the drums against the Court's decision-- most people understand the reasons for it.

Whether 70% is too high or too low is a matter of opinion, just like all other Supreme Court decisions, but is nevertheless binding and valid. Speculating on the reasons they did it is pure folly since these can never be substantiated. It is useless to say that the same rule should be applied retroactively since no two Bar Exams are comparable. In the end, the true test is the job market's response. So far, my new laywer friends have not been having any trouble getting jobs or promotions; in fact, offers have been pouring left and right.

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Let's keep comments objective and academic. As Atty. Punzi would surely agree, ad hominem arguments serve no purpose in these discussions.

Stupid Smart (BRO)

Goddammit! I'm sick and tired of this terrible service from Smart BRO (the broadband service of Smart Communications, Inc.). My connection speed right now is an excruciatingly slow 23.2 kbps. I checked my speed ten times tonight-- all of them register less than 50 kbps (dial-up gives me 56 kbps). WHAT THE FUCK?!?

I subscribed to Smart BRO last October, availing myself of Plan 999 where I pay P999/month for broadband service. They say they offer speeds up to 384 kbps, but ever since I signed up I never got any speed faster than 300 kbps. On a good day (which is rare) I can get 250 kbps, but my usual speed would be around 90 to 150 kbps. I've considerably lowered my standards for bandwidth speed, grudgingly being satisfied with acceptable speed instead of fast speed (my broadband speed in San Francisco is 1 Mbps, btw). And by acceptable I mean I can surf the web with relative ease; I still have to wait for YouTube vids to completely load before I watch them. But starting this year the service really deteriorated WAY below decent, starting in January. In February and March it went back to semi-acceptable speed, but today it's the worst.

Now, I've called Smart BRO multiple times to complain about my insanely slow bandwidth speed-- so many times that I already know what the customer service rep will tell me from their list of prefabricated responses, always going through the motions of checking my connection to the base station for whatever problem I tell them. They are trained to "understand" customers' complaints and to give an apology, with all calls eventually ending in a referral to their technical department. Twice they even sent technicians here to check my connection to the base station, BUT THE PROBLEM ISN'T MY CONNECTION BUT MY SPEED!!! I connect to the base station just fine, IT'S YOUR SERVICE THAT IS SO FUCKING SLOW.

And what really irritates me is that it's company policy NOT to let customers talk to the managers (or whoever is responsible for this crap). I've asked for the contact info of Smart BRO managers many times, but they say they can't give it to me. So I'm left with pouring my frustrations at powerless customer service reps who really can't do anything about my problem, while the managers and bosses have no accountability. These Smart BRO managers and bosses choose to be holed up in their offices, oblivious to the fact that THEY ARE FUCKING UP AT THEIR JOBS. If I'm Manny V. Pangilinan, I'll subscribe to Plan 999 to experience Smart BRO's service first hand, then I'll FIRE ALL THEIR ASSES.

I'm really frustrated at Smart BRO's terrible service. I've called them so many times and nothing has improved. The customer service reps try to be helpful, but there really isn't much they can do. I think Smart BRO just got so many customers that they can't serve then properly-- the old congestion problems. But that isn't any excuse for terrible service. Smart BRO's service has really been a terrible dissapointment for me. I have never been satisfied with their service, and after I lower my standards they actually do even worse. Smart BRO is a sorry excuse for an ISP.

When people sign up with Smart BRO, the contract stipulates that the subscription period is for a minimum of one year. If I can get out of this contract without having to go through a lawsuit, I will.

If you've also suffered from Smart BRO's excruciating service, please do leave a comment. If you work with Smart BRO (and want to defend the firm), you're also welcome to leave a comment.

If you're thinking of subscribing to Smart BRO, don't. For the love of God, don't.