Are you a Morning or a Night Person?

 Are you a Morning or a Night Person?

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Our clocks have individual variations. For example, there are people who are more active in the afternoon and evening, and there are those who are opposite – they are more active in the morning.

The watchful owl, symbol of journalism

Chances are, you already know instinctively whether you are a morning person (sometimes known as a “lark”) or a night person ( sometimes called an “owl”).

If you aren’t sure which you are, here are some questions to ask yourself:
1. Do you wake up early and go to bed early?
2. Do you generally rise from your bed wide eyed and raring to go?
3. Do you feel that you do your best work early on the day?
4. Do you find yourself waking up just before you alarm is scheduled to go off?

If you answered yes to these questions, then you are most likely a morning person.

1. Do you wake up late and go to bed late?
2. Do you wake up sleepy eyed and sluggish?
3. Do you generally suffer through the early morning hours and get your surge of energy and creativeness later in the day?
4. Do you find it easy to sleep through the buzz or ring of an alarm clock?

If you answered yes to these questions, then you are most likely a night person.

Difference between Night and Day People

1. Morning People tend to have more introverted personalities, while Night People tend to be more extroverted. This is particularly true the age of forty.

2. Morning People tend to have less flexible circadian rhythms, which means they benefit more, both physically and mentally, from following structured daily routine.

3. Morning People tend to sleep more soundly than Night People and wake up feeling more refreshed.

4. Women are more likely to be Morning People than men.

Your Sleep Cycle: A Quiz

1. Do you fall asleep easily during the day while reading, watching TV, or doing other sedentary activities?
2. Do you find that you are irritable and short-tempered for no particular reason during the day?
3. Do you need an alarm clock to awaken you in the morning?
4. Do you wake up feeling sluggish and sleepy?
5. Do you need a nap to keep you alert through the afternoon and evening?
6. Do you regularly “sleep in” an hour or more on weekends?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may not be getting enough sleep to meet your individual sleep cycle needs.

1. Do you stay awake in bed long after the lights are out, waiting for sleep to come?
2. Do you awaken in the morning before your alarm clock goes off?
3. Do you spend the last hour or two in bed alternating between sleep and wakefulness?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be trying to get some sleep than your individual sleep cycle demands.

1. Do you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol or a caffeinated beverage late in the afternoon or evening?
2. Do you fall asleep with the radio, TV, or lights on?
3. Do you take sleeping pills?
4. Do you sleep in a very cold or very hot room?
5. Can outside noises (such as airplanes or street traffic) be heard in your bedroom at night?
6. Are you depressed, anxious, or worried?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be damaging your natural sleep cycle and not be getting the quality of sleep you need to feel and perform at your best,

Tips for Improving your Sleep Cycle

Paying attention to your sleep cycle can improve your physical and mental health. Here is a summary of tips for ensuring that your nighttime rhythms add to your daytime health and happiness.

1. Assess your sleep needs and determine the optimum number of hours you need to sleep.
2. Keep regular sleep hours, even on weekends.
3. If you stay up late, be sure, get up regular time the next morning.
4. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and caffeine, especially after 6:00 p.m
5. Do not use sleeping pills
6. Use naps judiciously. If you nap, do so regularly.
7. Never nap if you have trouble sleeping tight.
8. Avoid falling asleep with the light on radio on.

Don't worry, an owl can be as happy as a lark, and a lark as vigilant as an owl. Just follow your inner rhythm.
x x x

Happy 203rd anniversary greetings to former Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion (now Divine Word College of Vigan)

 Happy 203rd anniversary to former Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion (now Divine Word College of Vigan) December 8, 2025 (1822-2025)

   CICians - Vanguards of Leadership and Achievements 

(Former Title: Ageing is like good wine, it becomes mellow with age.)

Happy 203rd anniversary to former Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion (now Divine Word College of Vigan).  Ageing is like good wine, it becomes mellow with age.

Only good wine becomes mellow with age. Old age is the time you harvest what you planted in youth. The man is the child of yesterday - but the child in you must always live.

Dr Abe V Rotor

CIC-Class 1957

 

Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion (CIC) 

High School Alumni Homecoming 

    First row, left to right:  Romeo Ponce, Eugenio Rotor+, Luis Chavit Singson, Salvador Barnachea, Vivencio Baclig.  Standing: Teofilo Reyes,  Conrado Refuerzo+, Abercio Rotor, Fernando Lazo+, and Fredelito Lazo+.

CIC (now DWCV) High School Alumni, circa  Class 1957

      Left to right: Abe Rotor, Ven Baclig, Ely Ragsac+, Badong Banachea, Fel Aviso

Biology class under Maestro Corpuz (dark shirt). At his right is  Fr Panfilo Guianan, High School Director.

Now in their eighties, author and high school classmates, enjoy the fruits of a well deserved life in their respective professions, families, leadership and service to humanity in the fields of law, business, agriculture, education, media, engineering, civil and military service. This group represents other alumni of the Divine Word College of Vigan, formerly Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion. This article is dedicated to the memory of their mentors, principally Fr. Panfilo Guianan (HS Director), Rev Frs Salzman, Liesring, and Creder, Mr Ricardo Avila (principal), and Mr Demetrio Rotor (adviser). And also to the memory of their classmates who have gone ahead. This article is an expression of gratitude to their Alma Mater.

INTERNET: The Divine Word College of Vigan also referred to by its acronym DWCV is a private, Catholic, co-educational institution of higher learning run by the Philippine Northern Province of the Society of the Divine Word in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It was founded in 1822 by the society as the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción.
Campus: Urban
Established: 1822; 203 years ago
Motto: Semper Fidelis
Motto in English: Always Faithful

ANNEX:  

Gracefully Living in the Beautiful Sunset of Life

Dr Abe V Rotor, PhD, 

HS Class 1957

1. Ageing is like good wine; it becomes mellow with age. But only good wine becomes mellow with age. And the longer ageing is, the better is the quality of the wine. We can compare it also with wood. “A seasoned timber never gives (up).” A seasoned teacher is wise.

2. Ageing distills knowledge into wisdom. It’s the ripening of fruits on the tree. Knowledge is not all useful; it leaves a lot of wastes. Which I call infollution (information pollution). Like the so many flowers and developing fruits of a huge mango tree, those that fall are useless knowledge; those that do not ripen are knowledge that can’t stand by themselves. Only those that remain full and ripe at the end are like wisdom. Wisdom is tested by timelessness and universality.

3. Old age is harvesting what you planted in youth. The man is the child of yesterday. Start early in life to plant the seed of success, more so, the seed of service. Monuments are not built for no reason at all. And even without a monument a good deed is monumental in the hearts and minds of those you serve and those who believe in you – especially those you have changed their lives.

4. Ageing physically and physiologically - this is inevitable. But don’t let the mind and the heart age prematurely and uselessly. Like faculty, practice makes them alive and full. Reason, thoughts, imagination, love, compassion should not go to waste by chronological age.

5. The child in you must always live. That Little Prince that rules over the grownup in you that says “a matter of consequence is not only those that are urgent and important,” is also preserving the ideal. Idealism must live together with realism.

6. There are those who are late bloomers; they bloom with age. Catalyze the blossoming of the beautiful things – how late they may come in life. It is better to bloom in old age than to blossom early – and the blossom just fades away. You’ll even regret it because it could mean to you as failure.

7. In old age don’t lose your trophies and medals - because of one false move, worst, if deliberate. Or because of a persistent habit you thought you can get away with even in old age. There is nothing more regretful if you fall into disgrace in old age – you don’t have a second life to amend for it.

8. Hold your horses. Stop, look, listen. Getting older adopts “slow but sure” attitude towards situations and decisions. “Quick to think, but slow to act,” may be appropriate in old age. That is why in traditional societies, decision makers are old people, village elders.

9. Make your assets grow for others, as you prepare to leave the world. Have the philanthropic heart. You can’t take your riches to your tomb. The Egyptians never did. The young pharaoh Tutankhamen left his belongs for the afterlife in his tomb, now in the Egyptian Museum. . Economics does not work well with each one of us holding a treasure chest and locking it up. Imagine if the world is dominated by Madoff, by AIG, by Lehman Brothers - even with their generosity.

10. Older societies are more peaceful than younger societies. Make peace as you grow older. Old men don’t go to war. It is the brave who dies young. “Where have all the flowers gone?” speaks the youth cut down in their prime. All wars – ancient, religious, political – the young is the sacrificial lamb. People as they grow older can’t simply be made easy tools for power and greed. .

11. Expanded family ties; three generations not in a row, but in a chain. For the first time in the history of man that four three generations live under one roof. And soon four generations - as longevity increases. While in the city the family is getting small, agrarian families is expanding because of longer life span.

12. Scientific and technological thrusts are toward ageing, longevity: rejuvenation, on-site cloning of tissues and organs, ergonomics (designing tools and materials that fits well to the comfort of the user) - geriatrics, gerontology (all about the science and caring of the aged.)

13. Extension of retirement, active retirement – this is the trend today for old people. Soldiers become security guards; teachers become professor emeritus, executives as consultants, professions doing odd jobs. Age of retirement is not after all boring. So when does one really retire?

14. Foster, adopt, and have the needy, the homeless, the orphaned, the abandoned as your own children especially if you are childless. Even then, by the time you are very old, your children shall then be on their own. Be like Brad Pit and Angelina Jolie who have adopted children of different color. Sponsor scholarships for the deserving but are unable to pursue their studies.

15. Resurrection and immortality are myths. Humans will always remain mortals. More than a hundred corpses of rich Americans are in cryonic tanks waiting for the time to resurrect the. DNA extracted from cadavers and human fossils will never make a living replica of the departed or deceased.

Famous Filipino literary writers (left to right): Sedfrey Ordoñez, Ophelia A Dimalanta, Hortencia Santos Sankore, Larry Francisco, and Jose Garcia Villa

16. Life cycle is universal given to everything, living or non-living. But with man’s rationality we can plot our life cycle, on so many socio-economic matters. The late Justice Secretary Ordoñez wrote a book, Life Cycle. He said the inevitable is biological, but the way we live our lives, is within much under our control and will. “Men choose to live long which they have no control of, yet refuse to live nobly within their will.” So said the great Roman Philosopher Cicero.

17. Nature is selfish within your lifetime – you care so much for those close to your genes, to the point of dying for them. But nature, after you are gone is altruistic after you are gone; it distributes your genes to where they will most fit in the name of evolution through which a species should be best equipped in order to survive. We can hardly trace our family tree beyond the third generation. Where are the offspring of the pharaohs, of the King of Siam?

Severino Reyes a.k.a. Lola Basyang, wrote his first story for children at the age of 75. He wrote hundreds of children's stories for the stage, comic books and cinema.   Top TV hosts and artists Ms Lisa Macuja and Luz Fernandez (Lola Basyang) perform on screen and stage Severino Reyes' Obra Maestra -  Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang. 

18. Kindness is key to fulfillment; it is also the Golden Rule. “Treat an old man as you wish men to treat you when you are old.” Say Chaucer in Pardoner’s Tale. But be kind yourself as an old man or woman. And that kindness must be unconditional. ARK in Evan the Almighty means – Act of Random Kindness. That’s the way to change the world, so said God in that film.

 Fr James Reuter SJ, playwright, author, spiritual adviser and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, remained active way past ninety.

19. Don’t just pass people along the way. Stop, help them, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked, comfort the lonely, and heal the sick. In Matthew 25, Christ said, “What you have done to the least of my brother, you have done it to me.” Indeed this is the most meaning act of a human to humanity. You deserve a place in heaven.

20. Facing death is a beautiful thing to one who has reached old age. It’s like a candle in its final brightness. Angelus to the old who is dying unifies the family, gathers the broken fragments of relationships. Bonding is strengthened. It’s time for the living to say the kindest things about the departed. Let the occasion be a memorable and lasting one. Dying is leaving to the living a new hope, renewed love, and a new beginning. ~

Self Reflection: Take time out and reflect on these 20 quotations

Self Reflection

Take time out and reflect on these 20 quotations

"Honest self-reflection opens your mind to reprogramming, change, success and freedom" - Vesotsky 

Dr Abe V Rotor

At no moment and time should man forget to reflect. Be it at home, school or office. Before a meeting, speech, or worthy conversation. Before going to a trip, on arriving. Before meals, or going to bed. While in pain and suffering - physical or anguish. While clinging on hope. After surviving a crisis.

Here are some quotations from famous men and women whose lives and contributions to the world have shaped our lives today - and continue to do so.

1. The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. - Erich Fromm (We live in a postmodern world. 

Rise of Robo-Care

Robotic age is with us. Our children face the TV and computer longer than any other activity, longer than sleep even. Computer syndrome is taking our children away from parents, from home, from their plans in the future. Actually we have a a new master - the Robot)

2. Look out how you use proud words. When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back. - Primer Lesson (This quotation applies to me in particular, as Radio Instructor on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid or People's School-on-Air. It is prayer before starting my daily evening program. )

3. Only a mediocre person is always at his best. - Somerset Maugham (This challenges us to do better than average - grades, work performance, sports, etc.)

4. Eloquence: Saying the proper thing and stopping. - Stanley Link (Prepare well what you are going to say, and know when you have said enough.)

         "Self-reflection is the school of wisdom" - Baltasar Gracián

5. The victor belongs to the spoils. - F Scott Fitzgerald (Revolution is always like that. That's why progress does not necessarily follow a revolution. Its transition is rough, though called peacetime.)

6. Every man's got to figure to get beat sometime. - Joe Louis (Take it from the champion, he is ready not to win the next bout.)

7. Nothing recedes like success. - Walter Winchell (Complacency is actually sliding back. Just don't settle down with your laurels.)

8. There is no such thing as a free lunch. - Milton Friedman (Everything has a price in this world. You got to pay what you receive - directly or indirectly.)

9. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. A magnificent desolation. Edwin Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon. (While beauty begets beauty, it is not ad infinitum. It has limit. Beauty could become monotonous, and fade away. In most cases though, we take beauty for granted.)

Apollo II Crew 1969: Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin

10. When you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble. - Mohammed Ali (Take it from Ali, the Greatest. The champion is a defeated man outside the ring, more so in his old age.)

11. Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all. - President John F. Kennedy, honoring astronaut L Gordon Cooper, Jr. (The human brain works much more than the computer, because the brain is connected to feelings. It is connected to the heart, and to the human spirit, the soul.)

12. Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork? - Stanislaw J Lee (Anyone who saw the film, The Gods Must be Crazy, PHOTO can attest that the natives of Kalahari Desert manifested a "finer culture" than the streetwise guys. When Charles Darwin brought natives from Tierra del Fuego to England to be educated, he thought that they could be transformed to join the mainstream of society. He was wrong. The natives held on to their primitive culture.)

13. What is the use of running when you are on the wrong road? - Proverb (That how many people get lost. And when they realize it, it may be too late.)

14. If peace cannot be maintained with honor, it is no longer peace. - Greenock (Take it from the present situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine conflict, our personal relationships.)

15. For the sake of one good action a hundred evil ones should be forgotten. - Chinese Proverb (The Boy in the Dike PHOTO - a story of a boy who saved Holland by plugging a hole with his arm, and dying in the process. This is a legend though, but it serves well as analogy. Everyone is capable of doing a deed that others may be saved. This is the essence of martyrdom, heroism, philanthropy, sacrifice, etc. )

16. Gross National Product is our Holy Grail. Stewart Udall (GNP is the economic barometer of a country. But this is incomplete without relating it to HDI - Human Development Index. Does high GDP translate to people's education, health, employment?)

17. How can you write when you can't cry? - Ring Lardner: Put feelings in what you do. Touch people's lives. 

Crying is indication of that very important factor - sensitivity, like feeling for others, compassion. The works of the great masters evolved from sensitivity, and not only scholarship.

18. Youth and age will never agree - Proverb (In ancient times, yes. It is not that strict today. Increased longevity and early maturity have created a wide boundary of age. Knowledge explosion through education and Internet continue to influence both young and old at an accelerating rate. So with travel, politics, affluence, arts, and the like, are bridges linking the generations.)

19. Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together. - The Two Paths (Holism is key to fine arts. To add another H, to Head, Heart and Hands, it is Humanity. Fine arts give a "polish" to human nature, and that of his society. PHOTO

20. The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself. - Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
(It's true. Fear is also an equalizer, it is the path to humility and reverence. Of change. Everything changes except change. Fear makes us change, and move on. ~

"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself" -

 Michel de Montaigne  

Acknowledgement with gratitude: Internet references and images

5 comments:
Graciel Pogi said...

I really loved this saying/quotation, because in our generation now, people just spit words without being sensitive and responsible. Media plays a huge role in this; it is one of the sources of everything for media is everywhere, it is the primary channel of people to execute their feelings and opinions wherein sometimes they forgot to be liable. Words hurt more than swords. Think before we speak and learn when to stop .October 9, 2011 at 1:25 AM 
maj said...

i love the saying, "What is the use of running when you are on the wrong road?". sometimes most of us become so self-centered that we only think of our own benefit and happiness despite the wrongness of our actions. we dont think of what others might feel with what we're doing. most of the time we already know that what we're doing isnt just right, but we still continue to do so to satisfy our selfish desires, to satisfy our eagerness and greed. but no matter how hard we try, we always end up with failures. however there could be times that we do not know that what we are trailing is the wrong way. because we get blinded by our own desires too. we can only be enlightened once something tragic or unpleasant happens to us, and then we end up realizing that we're in the wrong way.
- majesty mae ramos of 3ca3, university of santo tomasOctober 9, 2011 at 7:27 PM 
Fatima Punsalan said...

The quotations are very applicable in our modern society. Like this one: "Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all". Some people are very amazed on what computers can do. It is evident that technology today continues to develop. But we should not forget that we are still more intelligent than computers. These computers are not perfect. It can also commit errors and doesn't have a brain that can think on its own because it is programmed.October 9, 2011 at 7:35 PM 
emmie said...

this quotation "There is no such thing as a free lunch" made me think that in our life today, everything will not be free. kindness will never be done without paying back. this shows that our world change a lot, especially the attitude of mankind.October 9, 2011 at 11:20 PM 
Jayvee said...

"The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots."

The given quotation has struck me the most. Yes, we may have all these cool gadgets in our world today. But we still have to consider 'manpower' which is the reason behind all these great inventions. And aside from that, because of these things, we people become very dependent on machines which is not a very good idea. This is very evident to children nowadays who face their computers longer than the time they face their books.October 10, 2011 at 12:22 PM  ~

UST Paskuhan - A University Tradition

UST Paskuhan - A University Tradition

In the 2011 celebration, the crowd was estimated at 100,000.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Professor, UST

Ang UST Paskuhan ay ang taunang pagdiriwang ng Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas (UST) sa panahon ng Pasko. Ito ay kinatatampukan ng parada ng mga karosa ng mga iba't ibang institusyon sa loob ng UST sa hapon kasunod ang isang engrandeng palatuntunan sa gabi, kung saan mapapanood ang mga awitin at tugtugan ng mga mang-aawit at banda ng unibersidad, gayundin ang iba't ibang patimpalak at production numbers. Nagtatapos ang Paskuhan sa pamamagitan ng isang fireworks display. (These are footages of previous UST Paskuhan. Acknowledgement: The Varsitarian, UST Admin, Central Student Council, Internet, UST Website.

Paskuhan 2011

Premiered by the Eucharistic Celebration, the Paskuhan is the Thomasian way of celebrating Christmas. It is one of the most awaited events of the year showcasing different performances from different student organizations, and live bands, which is complemented with an extravagant show of pyrotechnic. In the 2011 celebration, the crowd was estimated at 100,000.

The Christmas Concert

The UST Christmas Concert features talents from the UST Conservatory of Music, UST Singers, Coro Tomasino, Liturgikon, Conservatory Chorus Class, and the UST Symphony Orchestra. Traditional Filipino and foreign Christmas classics are performed in the event. At the end of every concert, the UST Symphony Orchestra and performers lead the audience in singing some songs such as 'Ang Pasko ay Sumapit.' ~

Wood Trash Bin Art (Article in Progress)

Wood Trash Bin Art

Dr Abe V Rotor

Adventure with Nature

 Adventure with Nature 

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dr Abe V Rotor

Adventure with Nature in acrylic (20"x28") by AV Rotor 2025

Adventure with Nature, in search for meaning, joy-innocence-courage rolled in one, experience treasured in a lifetime, imprimatur of youth in old age, wisdom distilled from knowledge in the field;  

Adventure with Nature, in search of man's ancestral past, virtues-values-reverence ensconced as one in the person, his family and community, primordial to unity and harmony of society and humanity;   

Adventure with Nature, in search of what lies up high, atop a mountain, beyond the boundaries of horizon, as imagined views and images on the throne of the great Creator as He would watch over His creation;

Adventure with Nature, in search of a home in the four corners of the  Earth and beyond, yearning to conquer time and space, suffering and death, ironically man has yet to conquer his own passion and weakness;  

Adventure with Nature, in search of the lost biblical Eden, with deep faith of regaining its beauty and glory, through man's role as guardian and sentinel in keeping Nature's beauty and bounty; 

Adventure with Nature, in search of freedom from the tender trap of technology, capitalism, sectarianism, fast lane and affluent living, depriving man the true meaning of the Good Life;

Adventure with Nature, in search of genuine World Peace sans fear of Armageddon, genuine happiness shared in Matthew 25, Psalm of Life, Rizal's vision, Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. 

Nature shares her bounty in many ways:

     He who works or he who prays,

Who patiently waits or gleefully plays;

     He's worthy of the same grace

                   - AV Rotor, Living with Nature in Our Times UST 2007 ~