It has been a long month since I enrolled for some stuff like earning units for teaching. At first, (until now) I am still suffering from what we called "adjustments" since this course I took is not truly suitable for me, I was just encourage by my family to took this kind of stuff for m future use. At my first week, I was confused where I will go since I did not truly know my room assignment even though I had knew it(literally). Some of my problems at my first meeting was about the "culture" of the school and also the "culture" of the students here in my new school. After many weeks passed, I had adjust myself (a little bit) involving my daily lifestyle and also and how to mingle with my fellow new classmates. After several quizzes and long exams, here I am now taking my "relax" that what they called it here "term break" since my former school does not have one. Hope that I can manage to finish my studies here and eventually will have work in the near future, but for now, I will just think about relaxing myself for the next term to come.

     The story of the Emperor’s Club is about a professor named William Hundert who was a next promising headmaster in the school for St. Benedict for boys. The teachings of Mr. Hundert is quite good for being a classical one. Also, there was a competition in the school named “Mr. Julius Caesar” wherein the competitor will have a question and answer about the history. After several classes, Mr. Sedgewick Bell – a child of a senator and who has intelligence but had a bad study habits. The time came that Mr. Hundert influenced Sedgewick to study and eventually got higher grades. Mr. Hundert decided to change the grade of Sedgewick in order to participate the “Mr. Julius Caesar” contest instead in the place of Mr. Martin Blythe. In the contest, Mr. Hundert noticed that Sedgewick was cheating while answering his questions. Mr. Hundert had regret of what he did in changing the grade in order for Sedgewick to join the contest. After several years, the batch of Sedgewick graduated. After 25 years wherein Mr. Hundert was already retired, Sedgewick invites him to have a rematch and Mr. Hundert will be the host as well. Mr. Hundert saw again that Sedgewick cheats again and that makes him disappointed. After that, he told Martin that he should have been the participant of that event 25 years ago. After he left the place of Sedgewick, Mr. Hundert went again to St. Benedict to teach and eventually, the son of Mr. Blythe enrolled in his class.

      From what I had saw from the movie, I was in a quiet disappointed in Sedgewick wherein he had given the chance to showcase his talent on the competition. He did not noticed what will consequences he had to face when he would win in that event and also that will make the “Mr. Julius Caesar” competition had a bad image. Being also a future teacher, I would not do what Mr. William Hundert did to change the grade of Sedgewick in order to make it in the competition. I would rather to play fare for them with my students because when the time comes of knowing the truth, you will be also one of the cheaters of your own class. The intention of Mr. Hundert is good but in the place of Mr. Blythe was unfair enough not to qualify in the competition and have a chance to be the list together with his father if he could have won.

       As far as the moral lesson I learned in that movie, in class, there are so many ways of being a successful person, not by only being academically high grades, but also being a true you as you want to be. Some cheats but they tend to do that in order to have a good life. Some said that cheating with knowing does truly hurt your ego but cheating without knowing makes you more dumb enough to face the real life values. Being a good teacher in the near future must also acquire the good quality assessment and also being a good teacher is being fair to his/her students. Being fair to his/her students can give you more credit of being a good professional teacher. It will also give you not just respect of your students but also respect to yourself and whenever you will meet them years and years went by, the students you handled before will recognize what you did to them in their schooling days.

     “The worth of life is not determined by a single failure or solitary success.” – In this quotation, this was the one I liked the most because it really applies on each of us wherever and whenever. Many of us has struggles in life before we proceed to success. Even though we faced many problems each day, we chose different choices, some of this may lead us to success and some of it are failures, we should not quit, because when you stop believing in yourself, you will not get what your aiming for. Just learn how to manage your failures and eventually learn from it because failure is also a never ending process until you will get that right. After you obtain your success, remember to look backward where you came from, because with your foundation, you will not get on that on the top of success. There are no shortcuts in life, you should face all the struggles in order to obtain a gold of success, just be a better man always.

     One assessment that was related in the issue embedded in the movie for me is the communication. Communication is the part of interaction between students and teachers that involved solving what are their problems in getting to school, also had low grades. You must communicate with them like Mr. Hundert did to Sedgewick. Mr Hundert noticed that time that Sedgewick was too lazy to study and to learn new things from the past. He confronted him and told him encouraging words to let Sedgewick study hard. He also value the being playful and cheerful of Sedgewick that make Sedgewick proud of. Having a good communication to student lets you know what are their problems in going to school and after that, you can have what method you will do to encourage the student do their best in their studies.

This day is the most awaited moment for couples wherein they will celebrate their love more productive since this is one of their special days to remember. HAPPY HEARTs DAY..!!!

Regarding on the blog of my partner and classmate, Ms. Kristine Mae Clemen (http://kristinemaeclemen.wordpress.com/), Her blog is all about the subject in IT Elective 4. The contents of her blog are mostly the questions regarding about the subject and also some of her personal opinions and also her stands in different questions. About the content of her blog, it is well elaborated and also the content is very sharp. Some points of her are what she really feel mostly about. About her background of her blog, there are some arts I liked, the color she chose and also the style. On the other hand, there is some design in her blog for me that was not I liked about the font she used. But overall, I really liked what is on her blog.

The Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is the largest and most expensive cruise ship ever built. It includes five swimming pools, a planetarium, a two-story theater that seats 1,000, a casino, a gym, luxurious kennels, a nursery staffed with British nannies, and the largest ballroom, library and wine collection at sea. Of all its amenities, the one considered most valuable to the crew and management and key to the functioning of the vessel is the integrated network and information system accessible in every cabin.

The $800 million QM2, constructed in the shipyard at Chantiers del’ Atlantique, France, and owned by Miami- based Cunard Line Ltd., made her maiden voyage in early 2004. Passengers in each of her 1,310 cabins had access to digital entertainment such as on-demand movies and interactive television. Each cabin is also wired with Internet access and network services. For example, passengers use the network to make shore excursion reservations and dinner plans.

Upon checking in, passengers are presented with a plastic bar-coded card. The card is used while on board to make purchases, which are then billed to the customer’s account. It is also swiped as guests leave and return to the ship to track passenger location. The ship’s massive data network brings order where there once was chaos. Ship managers can run reports showing which passengers are on board, how many will be attending the morning exercise class, and which entrée was most popular at last night’s dinner. The network and database are backed up by redundant systems that automatically take over if the primary system fails.

The information system, called the Ship Partner, is used to track security, billing, telephone service, onboard television, and other operations. It was designed by Discovery Travel Systems LP (DTS). John Broughan, president of DTS, says that the IT needs of cruise ship operators differ from those of typical hotel property management companies, so specialized systems had to be created to better serve cruise companies.

The Queen Mary 2 provides yet another example of how information systems assist with management functions, providing valuable information and offering services to customers.

Critical Thinking Question:

1. What conveniences does The Ship Partner information system provide to passengers of the Queen Mary 2? What entertainment services could be made available to passengers through this digital network?

- The Queen Mary 2 (QM2) has the one of the finest and elegant cruise ship built. Their partner The Sip Partner’s information system provide the passengers of the Queen Mary 2 like the following:

• On-demand movies and interactive television.

• Each cabin is also wired with Internet access and network services. For example, passengers use the network to make shore excursion reservations and dinner plans.

• Upon checking in, passengers are presented with a plastic bar-coded card. The card is used while on board to make purchases, which are then billed to the customer’s account. It is also swiped as guests leave and return to the ship to track passenger location.

2. How does The Ship Partner information system assist ship managers with their duties and responsibilities?

- The Ship Partner information system assist ship managers with their duties and responsibilities on their client nice and artistic in such a way by running a reports that shows which passengers are on board, how many will be attending the morning exercise class, and which entrée was most popular at last night’s dinner.

3. How does The Ship Partner information system assist Cunard in competing in the travel industry? What other travel & leisure industries would benefit from a system like The Ship Partner?

- The Ship Partner information system assists Cunard in competing in the travel industry in many ways and theirs assistance is nice by allowing the passengers to experience an extremely comfortable travel by the sea. Providing a digital network in every cabin can attract customers to join the expedition of the Queen Mary 2. The other travel and leisure industries would benefit from a system like The Ship Partner is like the other shipping company like the Carnival Freedom Cruise Ship because they are also a cruise ship and its ok to copy their system because they gain a lot form it.

4. Why is it important for the Ship Partner to have a backup system? How would a system wide failure affect the functioning of the ship?

- It is important for the Ship Partner to have backup system since it is not predicted when will be the system crashes and if they will not use backup system, their important data will be loss and it can affect a bad shot to their clients. A system wide failure affect the functioning of the ship like the customers cannot be track what they do while they were in ship, some cannot process their transactions normally and it will affect the profit of the company.

It was a long time since my last post, but I'm happy enough to post a new event in my college life. Today we will create a partial documentation for the finished implementation of computer literacy program done by our classmates. I hope that things will gonna be ok this time... :)

Just Wanna Greet you ALL a Happy New Year!!!!

.. Hope this year will be more productive to all of us...

.. :)