I almost died today. By electrocution.

I almost died today. By electrocution.

Imagine that, me being charred to death...ewww...sa ganda kong eto.....nakuryente lang ang katapusan.

Anyhow, my guardian angel or angels were apparently hovering over me as I plugged the voltage regulator of the computer, which suddenly exploded and the spark was so loud.

I think my fingers were just millimeters away from the spark.

What happened was the plug was separated from its wire! Looks like a China-made voltage regulator! (Picture shown below).

I shudder to think what would've happened if I did connect with the socket!

Anyhow, this talk about death and dying comes at the heels of our talk last night with some friends over some of my health issues.

I admit I have a cavalier attitude towards death. I have a lived a very exciting and wonderful life and if God takes me today, I wouldn't really mind.

The men in the Fabe family (our lineage) all died young as well, so there is always that thought hovering at the back of my head, now that I am approaching the age when Papa died. (He died when he was 49. His younger brother, Uncle Ven, died at 36. Their two 'older' brothers died during World War II at 10 and 9 due to pneumonia.)

So dying young for the menfolk in my lineage is not unusual.

I guess it also comes at the heels of the sudden death of Isabel Granada at only 41, due to brain aneurysm.

That could also happen to me with all my health issues.

Men dying suddenly in their 40s and 50s are so commonplace nowadays nobody gets shocked anymore.

I don't know. I do try to be as healthy as I could. I try to eat as healthy as I could and exercise as much as I could.

I try to ward of stress as best as I could - and I think - in Isabel's case - she had some stressful things hovering over her - which she does not talk about.

I never talk about what stresses me. My problems can as imposing as Mount Everest but I don't show any emotion to anyone to show how stressed I am already about them.

I just keep everything quiet.

How else could I have survived my high school years and college if I were such a cry baby!!

So now that I am much older, I still keep most of my problems close to my chest - and just show a cheerful face to everyone - when in reality - I wish I were dead.

I am just very happy I am teaching right now and my students have certainly given me a lifeline to finding more fulfillment in my existence.

I guess it was not my time to die today.

Right after that incident, I put "be mindful what you eat" an "eat healthier" in my journal.

Maybe that should ward off a potential future heart attack for me - which any guy now in his 40s or 50s has to worry about.

How Do You Train A Neophyte Debate Team?

I have been privileged as a young student to have had excellent coaches like Madam Vidal (Cheve Canlobo Vidal), Sir Reynaldo Detosil and our Economics teacher in high school (her name slips my mind now), because they have helped me and the school's team win in citywide, regional and national competitions.

Now,the tables have turned and it's my turn to coach our school's neophyte debate team for the Harvard Model Congress Asia competition in HK this January.

So I'm a bit freaked out right now.

I am training almost the same team that competed in the Model UN last October and I have seen how more confident in speaking the students have become after they joined that competition.

My background in debate is only limited to what was taught to us in high school so I decided to get these books last night which I feel could help the kids.

I even added The Economist just so it can help the kids form their own arguments and see how analysts combine research and their opinions to form an argument.

Any other tips which you can recommend?

Our Class Night at Falcon Crest!

The first Class Night of my life was in 1995 when I became the babysitter of the sophomore class of UPIS.

That night also happened to be Janet Jackson's first concert here in Manila, and I was not in a very good mood. (The year before, she released her hit "That's The Way Love Goes" and the amazing Velvet Rope album - and I was very excited to see her - but it wasn't meant to be huhu)

The kids though were very sweet - and it was a fun night and their class president, with the whole class, gave me this very thoughtful token.

Fast forward to 2017, and this weekend naman was Class Night for my senior's class and we headed off to this modest but huge outdoors resort somewhere in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

To those 80s soap opera diehards, it was surprisingly named, 'Falcon Crest'! I'm sure the parents of the current owner were fans of that TV show!

The place was up there in the hills, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by this lush forest. It felt like we were encroaching on the environment.

A spider and a snake even made it into our rooms, much to the screaming horror of the girls!

It's Shaping Out to be a Very Crowded 2018 Oscar Best Actress Race

The 2018 Oscars is still a few months away but the race for the Best Actress award has been one of the most competitive in recent memory.

I mean, how can a no-name actress possibly get a nomination this year when the perennial nominees, the heavyweights and today's current A-listers have released movies with amazing stories and great performances.

In this list alone, all these women have either won, or have been nominated before.

Emma Stone won the award earlier this year and she continues the buzz with a great role as tennis legend, Billie Jean King.

Judi Dench, who has won as Queen Elizabeth, and has been nominated as Queen Victoria, may finally win as Queen Victoria, this time around!

Frances McDormand already won for Fargo and may win again for a kick-ass performance as a mother whose daughter is murdered.

Annette Benning plays a Hollywood movie star who transplants herself to Liverpool.

And my bet, is Sally Hawkins, already a nominee herself, as the mute lover in The Shape of Water.

And Jessica Chastain, Saoirse Ronan, Michelle Williams, and even Margot Robbie are in the mix as well. And of course, the queen of them all, Meryl Streep, is coming out in a Steven Spielberg movie later this year.

Spielberg's movies are a perennial Oscar nominee so let's see if Meryl gets in the list.

Grabe, it's so freaking crowded I wonder how all the award-giving bodies are going to vote!

In the Pursuit of Scholastic Excellence: Anxiety Attacks and Hyperventilation

Today, one of my students hyperventilated and had an anxiety attack, feeling pain in her tummy She had to go home and when asked why she was feeling this way, she said she was overwhelmed by all the school deadlines she had to meet.

This is the second time one of my students felt this way. Last year, one of my best students, a cheerful boy, suddenly became withdrawn in class. He was doing very well in my subject, being a good writer and is capable of analyzing things, so the sudden shutting down was difficult to watch.

I was really puzzled because he was consistently getting A* in my subject but in the last term - he kinda became a catatonic zombie, He just withdrew into his shell and decided not to finish the schoolyear anymore.

He is now being home schooled.

I don't know what is in the Mental Health Act but I believe that the stress of school work plus all the other extraneous factors - traffic, pollution, problems at home, problems with parents, problems with peers - and the need to excel and get high grades - can push these young people to the brink.

Both of my students were very good in my subject and based on feedback from other teachers, are just as capable of getting 90++ in their other subjects.

So it is disquieting to see them crumble in the face of all this school pressure.

I think what adds to the pressure is that with the advent of social media and camera phones, a student can easily know the score of another student, and because most of them are part of their own Messenger or Viber groups, it would be very easy to make fun of classmates who don't do well - adding to the anxiety and the pressure to do well always!

And of course there are the helicopter parents - always on the prowl of their children's grades. As if getting a B once in a while would be the death of their children's academic life!

I hope to see this girl student of mine on Monday, happy and well.