If it looks like Webmissy’s missing in action, don’t fret. Antipolo was a “NO DSL” zone the whole day of the 29th of March, leaving Webmissy(ng) and other cyberpros high and dry and parched in the summer heat, away from surfing the soothing waves of www.beach. (Yup, couldn’t resist the metaphor. Will probably have to edit that out in a day or two. Or not.) They’re mad enough to enlist the “300″ to wage war on The Phone Co. (”Spartans, tonight, we dine in hell! Because we don’t have DSL!”)

The problem is, somewhere in the fine print of your subscription, you’ll probably find that The Phone Co. never guaranteed uninterrupted service. Uninterrupted billing, certainly, but not uninterrupted service.

The Phone Co. had better make sure this catastrophe never happens again. Get smart, bro. You’ll lose subscribers to the competition if you don’t. Get smart, bro. Or your disgruntled clients will.

It’s just soooo frustrating, especially for those who’ve been infected by the blogging bug like our Coach Juaqui (who’s been uploading football news and summer program updates like crazy), to stop construction on Our Third Home even for a single day. Don’t you just hate constructus interruptus?

Anyway, to those of us who were looking forward to more new stuff on the site or expecting immediate action on pending requests to Webmissy (like getting your own HEdCen.com e-mail addresses), please don’t worry.

Webmissy will be back soon. We promise.

But for tonight, she’ll dine in “no-DS(hel)L.”

Posted in: Breaking News | Comments(2) | March 2007

If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself.
—Goethe

This is our mission for today, and for as long as we possibly can: We’re sharing with you where to get good advice about internet safety. By our simply knowing where to get such advice, we want you to think as though we were supplying it to you ourselves.

(We might be misreading the quotation. What Goethe might have actually meant was if we did know where to get good advice, it’s as if we already had it. Oh well.)

Whatever Goethe did mean, let’s turn to where we can find articles and links about internet safety for everyone in our HEdCen community.

To set the the tone, we have a few excerpts on what we hope the internet can be to both parents and their kids, a joint enriching experience in using a technological tool:

Use the Internet with your kids. While you’re spending time with them, you can help them to be safe and responsible online. Learn about the technology together, ask lots of questions, and don’t be intimidated if it seems like your kids have a better understanding of the technology than you. Remember, it’s your family, and you have the power and responsibility to keep an eye on what your kids are doing.
—GetNetWise.org

Most people who go online have mainly positive experiences. But, like any endeavor — attending school, cooking, riding a bicycle, or traveling, — there are some risks and annoyances. The online world, like the rest of society, is made up of a wide array of people. Most are decent and respectful, but some may be rude, obnoxious, insulting, or even mean and exploitative. Children get a lot of benefit from being online, but they can also be targets of crime, exploitation, and harassment in this as in any other environment. Trusting, curious, and anxious to explore this new world and the relationships it brings, children need parental supervision and common-sense advice on how to be sure that their experiences in “cyberspace” are happy, healthy, and productive.
—SafeKids.com

For young children, the best protection against “harmful” material remains parental involvement and, where necessary software filters. For teens — who are at most only a few years away from becoming adults — the best filters aren’t the ones that run on the PC but the one that runs inside the kids’ head. They need to learn to protect themselves and exercise the critical thinking skills that will serve them well on the Internet and in throughout life.

—from an article by Larry Magid, founder of SafeKids.com

We’d like to encourage everyone, whether you’re new to surfing or an old pro at it, young or not-so-young, to read what the following reference sites have to offer. While there are other sites on internet safety, we chose those below for being among the best and well-written of the lot. Check them out:

GetNetWise Online Safety Guide
SafeKids.com
SafeTeens.com
StaySafe.org

The last one is particularly interesting. StaySafe.org
has categories for Teenagers and Parents, as well as 50+ and
and Educators. The 50+ category refers to the grandparents of our children, our loving lolos and lolas who need not feel left out and who need our help too in learning to use the internet. The Educators category is of course aimed at aiding our teachers.

If you’re feeling too lazy to go to all the sites or wade through the articles and links one at a time, then we’ve got just the thing for you. Larry Magid has this single article about
Teen Safety on Info Highway summarizing the key points of most of what we need to know. Just click on the link above and all you have to do after that is read and scroll down, read and scroll down, till you reach the end. Like what you just did for this article. Easy, ‘no?

Posted in: Internet Safety, Internet 101, HEdCen.com launch | Comments(0) | March 2007

Here’s an excerpt from a parent’s response given at the school’s culminating activity held yesterday, 24 March 2007, with the theme “The HEdCen Child: A Gift to the World”:

Teacher Emma requested me to make a response on behalf of the grade school parents. I know I can’t claim to speak for all of you out there; that’s impossible. But what I can do is share with you the sentiment my wife Mallotte and I feel whenever our children reach yet another milestone. Somehow, I think it connects with the theme of our HEdCen children as gifts to the world.

This is something I wrote a few years back for my daughter Riana’s first communion, which she had at another school before we decided to bring her back home to HEdCen. I’ve modified it a bit, and it goes like this. Babasahin ko na lang po.

As Riana marched down the aisle and stepped forward to receive her first communion, I looked at my wife and said “Before we know it, mamartsa na ‘yan sa kasal niya.” I had intended my remark to be funny. This is the way I usually react to moments of poignancy, to stop the tears from welling in my eyes. It sort of worked for me but only made my wife cry just a bit more.

Then I realized that this is our burden as parents: Whether we care to admit it or not, our children were never meant to belong with us all our lives. They are not ours to keep.

From the second they are born, we start giving up our children, little by little. We return them in increments, principal plus interest, not bodily, but as gradually forming souls made truer – or less so – by what we do and fail to do. We are more than recipients of gifts in His image and likeness that He has bestowed upon us. We are the temporary caretakers of the precious lives He has entrusted to our custody.

This is our burden as parents. Our calling, our vocation, and our privilege.

But still, as our children take yet another step closer to our God, I can’t stop myself from asking … “Please, dear Lord, parang awa naman po Ninyo, dahan-dahanin po Ninyo ang pagsingil sa amin.”

Yun lang po, mahal naming mga magulang. Thank you and enjoy the rest of the evening.

And isn’t my daughter simply lovely when she smiles? Congratulations honey!

Posted in: A HEdCen Oldie's POV, HEdCen Special Events | Comments(1) | March 2007