ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a little book, what we normally
called notebook til the big chaps at Dell and HP and Acer and other giants
swiped the term to use for their downsized laptop computers. Our little notebook was the kind with ruled
paper and with bright colored tabs that say A, B, C, D and so forth. It had a plain leather cover, in black with a
red stripe running along its spine. Its
first page gave the name and address of the owner, presumably to be returned if
someone found it under a table or in a theater seat or a neighbor’s lawn chair.
The notebook contained contact details
of a special group, called BCHS Class 61.
This is a group that had been together for four (for some, less than
four) good and memorable years, of boys and girls who were in their early teens,
and attended the Baguio City High School in a city setting that could only be
described as very pleasing, abundant with fresh mountain air scented with pine,
and flowers growing everywhere, whether put in the soil with human hands or by
Madame Nature herself.
Entries in the notebook were few
in the beginning, but grew in number, in time, when the people listed in the
notebook started to contact each other, updated their addresses when they
moved, or when they acquired new telephone numbers and email addresses. Soon the pages in the notebook were not
enough to contain all the details of the class.
Remember Jack and the Beanstalk? Well, the computer people took it upon
themselves to model a program like the Beanstalk. With a strong stem. With leaves that could
withstand storms and winds and floods.
And a tip that could grow some more upwards, with additional leaves put
into it. Then they called it Excel
Spreadsheet. And thought of three
letters that could best describe it, and came up with XLS. When a user creates an XLS file, or plants
the magic seeds into the ground to grow a beanstalk, fields were set up by the user or goes to the
next farm and borrows a grown beanstalk, also called a template.
These fields were filled up with
names, spouse names, mailing addresses, email addresses, landline and cell phone
numbers. BCHS Class 61 had its own Jack, and his name is Rudy. The notebook’s owner was Rudy, who set up the
BCHSClass61.XLS so that it would be easier to find out about contact details of
each other. Alas, the notebook was lost,
probably mistaken for a piece of lamb bone by
Rudy’s dog Pepperoni, or probably was left in a New York City yellow
taxicab seat. Ah, but the list is still available, residing in a number of
computers around the globe, thanks to the xls file.
Anyone in Class 61 who has access
to email, whether his or hers or the daughter’s or son’s or brother’s or
sister’s, can have a copy, and, by the way, is updated when new entries are
available. All the Klasmeyt (Arthur’s
term) has to do is to send an email to Jack, oops, no, to Rudy, and ask for a
copy of the Beanst.. oops, the xls
file. And by the way, it would be good
to delete older files and keep only the current one. You would not keep the Dumaguete City telephone directory of 2009, so why keep the
old xls? In that way, your Beanstalk is
fresh, ready for use anytime, you can print it, create MailMerge (should you
like to do this, Rudy can send you a tutorial – kidding only) to address your
Christmas cards or Eid cards or invitations to your grandson’s christening or
bar mitzvah…
The little notebook was found,
all tattered, missing parts of it so no DNA
could be collected, in a dump bin in North Philadelphia. It was shivering from below zero temperatures,
and finally gave up its last gasps, with the happy thought that it had done its
job and the entries are safe and warm and under loving care of each BCHSClass61
member. THE END!
But wait a minute- there are
discrepancies to this story! And what
exactly is the point of this fairy tale?
It is this: the xls is for EVERYONE to share in our group. The benefits are too numerous to write
down. The cost is only to update your
own entry. Do contact Ja… ooops, Rudy-
you know his email, or share it with a Klasmeyt so we all can have copies of
the updated version. Now it is THE END talaga na.
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