The PC & Me. To write science, to publish, to inspire

'I WANT TO INSPIRE PEOPLE,' said Francis Dizon (Aldiz Inc), the one I interviewed this noon, 1 July 2009 Manila time. That was his parting shot. I am writing a book on and of distinguished alumni of the then Cow College, that is, the UP College of Agriculture, UPCA (now the UP Los Baños College of Agriculture), to be published by the UPLB Alumni Association; he is one of those selected by a committee to be featured in the book. Francis is a very successful and happy man; he has earned success and happiness honestly and with perseverance, vision and heart. And, among other things, he believes in doing one's best.

 And so do I, I said; that's why I'm writing the book Contributions To Country (working title). I am rich myself, if only in experience. He said something about one's gift (from God), and about having to develop and nurture that gift. I also believe that success is doing the best you can, whatever you are doing. And that's what I can share with people young and old.

'I want to inspire people' – these 5 words capture the essence of why I have been writing and blogging in earnest since February 2006. My book, The Smart Revolution, published in India in early 2009 by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT (image shows the cover on a CD copy of the book), comprises 26 essays all meant to inspire the people of ICRISAT to push for higher achievements, inspire other scientists to aim for bigger goals, and inspire donors to share more. I want to inspire people by my writing.

I found my gift of writing in high school yet more than 50 years ago, 1956 or 1957, when I won the contest for the position of Tagalog Editor of our school's newsletter – that was truly remarkable because I am an Ilocano, from Asingan in eastern Pangasinan, Central Luzon, and I bested even the native Tagalog speakers.

From then on, I nurtured that gift and never ever wandered from travelling the path of making myself the best writer I can be. 'Dreams,' Francis said. You have to have a dream.

I became a campus writer when I went to UPCA for my college degree in 1959. Over the years, the love of writing stayed with me even if I could not get published in the Manila newspapers. I developed a style of writing of my own, borrowed from Rudolf Flesch, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Nick Joaquin. My punning is from the Reader's Digest.

In the 1960s, the Philippines Free Press published 2 poems of mine about the American war in Vietnam – I was inspiring people to go against it. The Free Press also published a handful of my short pieces on organic farming – I was inspiring people to go for it. On 10 October 1967, I wrote and distributed an open letter to the alumni of UPCA who came to celebrate that very day, Loyalty Day – I was inspiring people to go against it; I said it was loyalty to the Americans. History tells me that I was right about the Vietnam War and organic farming, and I'm glad; that I was terribly wrong about Loyalty Day, and I'm sorry.

In 1974, I became a copywriter for Pacifica Publicity Bureau; the love of writing was paying me back at last.

In 1975, I became the Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute, FORI based in Los Baños, Laguna (south of Manila). For the next 5 years, I applied what I imbibed from Pacifica, from Telly Bernardo and Nonoy Gallardo. For FORI, I founded, wrote, edited and published a monthly newsletter (Canopy), a quarterly technical journal (Sylvatrop), and a quarterly color magazine (Habitat) – Habitat I patterned after the National Geographic (and admitted that fact in the first issue).

In 1981, I worked as assistant editor (not the title) for the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, ICLARM based in Manila (now WorldFish Center based in Malaysia).

In 1985, I edited the proceedings of a Cebu conference for the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute, FSSRI of UP Los Baños, typed all the pages on an IBM Selectric III typewriter for several days and nights, proofread them myself word for word 9 times (I wanted it letter perfect), went to press, proofread the blueprint myself (again 9 times), and when it was all over, when the book Small Farmers came out, when I was thinking of the whole process of typewriter publishing (my term), I told myself: There must be a better way to do this!

That was when I noticed that FSSRI had in fact a desktop computer, an IBM if I'm not mistaken, with those huge not-so-floppy disks with 64K as storage capacity. I asked our Director, Pids Rosario to 'ask' the girl who was in-charge of the computer to teach me so that we can publish the next FSSRI book in no time at all. And he did; and the girl taught me, if grudgingly. The software I remember using at that time was WordStar 1. (Since that time, I have forgotten the name of the girl and how WordStar looked like.)

I think it was in 1987 when I learned to use Microsoft Word – and I never left. I have since published several books using Word 5.5, Word 97, Word XP and Word 2003 – I haven't gotten around to migrating to Bill Gates' last sales pitch as CEO of Microsoft, Word 2007, but that's another story. (If you wish, you can read one of my earliest essays on this subject, 'Software IQ.'

In 2003, I became Editor in Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS at the time when the journal was 2 years late in its issues; it had been perennially late. Using Word XP at first and later in the year Word 2003 as my desktop publishing software and none other, I made the PJCS up-to-date 3 years later. The next year, I made the PJCS an ISI journal, meaning world-class. Those who have their papers published locally or abroad know that the ISI Web of Knowledge of Thomson Reuters – based in Pennsylvania, where the American Declaration of Independence was signed – is acknowledged throughout the world as the arbiter of the international quality of technical journals.

In 2005, I learned to blog. That was heaven-sent. I didn't realize it at first but when I did the next year, I exulted as I saw that blogging is the revenge of the unpublished writer (I mentioned this in my April 2006 essay 'The Messiah Phenomenon.'

I'm 69 this year. All those 1,000 words above are my way of describing myself as far as the past and contemporary worlds of writing and publishing are concerned. What I want to share now is that in my 24 years of dalliance with the personal computer, the PC has become an indispensable tool in my writing, editing, publishing, blogging. With the PC, I have in fact developed several bests in me and not just 1:

(1) creative writing – For instance, even when writing within the sciences of agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, information and communication, I have been able to inject paradigm shifts, philosophy, and poetry in my essays. How can I not enjoy what I'm doing?!

(2) popular writing – Because I am such a wide, wide reader and I know where to look for what I don't know – the Internet, where else? We have a SmartBro wireless connection – I can understand or gain insight into very heavily technical papers and 'translate' the scientific information in them into non-technical or 'plain' language that most people understand.

(3) blogging – Today I can publish myself anytime in my blogs and not wait anxiously for some editor to decide whether or not to publish what I have written. On the American Chronicle online, I have reached that stage where I am my own censor as far as my articles are concerned; when I click 'Submit,' it says 'Approved' instantly. In my blogs or in the American Chronicle, I can choose the topic(s) I want to write about and I can employ most any format that suits my fancy.

(4) technical writing  – Having worked on my own baby thesis and edited those of many others (undergraduate and graduate) since 1975, I have been able to extract 2 publishable papers out of 1 thesis manuscript or project report.

(5) journal publishing  – As I intimated earlier, I myself can desktop-publish a whole issue of a journal using Word 2003 as my publishing software. For more on this, you can visit my blog 'Crop Science Philippines.'

(6) book publishing – I have desktop-published several books written by others using my expertise with Word 2003. Bill Gates should be so proud!

(7) book writing – I have written my own books using Word 2003 for drafts, outlines, printouts, and camera-ready pages.

The PC I'm using right now has the latest Intel Core i7 processor, 'the fastest processor on Earth,' with 3 GB of memory, an ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card, and a 19-inch LCD monitor (I have written about this; see my 'My Designer Crops' and 'Rewards After'). I bought it February 2009; it was my Christmas / Valentine's gift to myself and the other 5 PC users in my family. In other words, even as I try to inspire people, I am inspired by the PC. I thank God that I have been living in the Age of the Computer and the Internet, and I have never lost the appetite to learn more and today become even better at what I'm doing than I was yesterday.