challenged to be world-class

The 4th term race is on. I have four preparations on my plate. Two of which are new ones. But that's my lot in life :)

Anyway, I feel stronger every time I learn a new thing. And I'm excitedly, like a boy, so looking forward to what becomes of an idea that dawned on me a few nights back.

To be allowed to be alone with one's thoughts while sipping a hot cup of joe is a dangerously good place to be in :)

When I grow tired of reading (and watching) real but depressing local news, one of the things I do to bring balance is to go to a site called "goodnewspilipinas.com". There, I immerse myself with everything that's beautiful about the Philippines and the Filipinos. It was there where I "met" Ronald Ventura.

Before 05 April, to me at least, he is an unknown. But now, his name will forever be tied and linked to Sotheby's, $ 1.1 million and Grayground :) Apparently, this "unknown" painter set a world record sale for Contemporary Southeast Asian Painting at Sotheby's, a renowned Hong Kong auction house.

I was thinking, or better yet, asking myself - did Mr Ventura know that he was that good before Sotheby's? It must have been a surreal experience knowing that there were 15 bidders who badly wants your work. All bidders willing to pay very good money and to top it all, it took 50 furious bids before the auction came to a close.

When the personal "buzz" subsided, I found myself with this quandary on my lap - how does one know he is world-class? Yung, hindi lang pang-barangay. Does one need a confirmation? Or is it enough to put everything you have on canvas?

So, I left my run in with Mr Ventura at that and decided to work on something else. And after some few hours, slept.

But the seed was planted :)

So, when I met my class this morning - I planted the usual end term project on Grayground and asked my students to come up with a 10-minute documentary version of the report they will develop. On top of that, I required them to upload it on youtube and open themselves to the "criticism" and "praise" of the whole world. I said, Mapua envisions itself to be a global player - so, why not open our work for to the discriminating and culturally diverse taste and opinion of the world?

Why wait until after graduation to personally confirm whether you are ready for the world when the technology, which we often take for granted, to know whether we are is in our hands? Wouldn't it be better to know now so that we have more time to twitch ourselves before prime-time?

I am looking forward to the end of the term :)

Let's see what happens.

"... why think like mere men?"