The Purple Rose of Cairo

Dahil sa kasakiman ng isang tao, nasayang ang aking pilgrimage sa Cairo upang matagpuan ang pinaka aasam asam kong Purple Rose. Naka full battle gear pa naman ako nun, khaki get-up, me machete sa belt ko, suot ko ang Indiana Jones cap ko at yung invincible hiking boots na padala ni erpat galing Canada. Ngayon alam niyo na ang suot ko, ipagpatuloy natin ang istorya.

Moving on, sa aking pagkakaalam, me hardin naman siya ng mga Purple Roses ngunit binayaan niya itong malanta. At siguro, mga 3 years ago, naging endangered species na ang nasabing bulaklak nang dahil sa kanyang kapabayaan. Tapos you expect me to give way kapag kukunin mo yung rosas na hawak ko na? King-ina mo. Sa mga narinig ko dun sa mga tao sa Cairo at mga nomads ng mga disyerto, hindi mo naman talaga gustong alagaan ang mga Purple Roses. Sadya kasing maarte ang halamang ito, sabi ng mga nomads. Imagine, dapat hinahaluan mo ng multivitamins yung tubig na dinidilig mo sa kanya at tumutubo lang siya sa 100% amazonian soil pero sa temperature lang siya ng Cairo nabubuhay? Leche nga naman.

Pero yung Purple Rose of Cairo na nakita ko, talagang survivor. Sobrang harsh nung conditions pero nabuhay pa din siya. Nilagay ko na nga yung rose sa dala kong special botanical life support system suitcase pero nung napagalaman nung king-inang tao na yun na me dala akong rosas, nag assert siya ng right niya over dun sa rose na yun. Eh putsa, ano bang pakialam mo? Binayaan mo yung rosas tapos ako, naghirap ako, nanggaling pa ako ng Muntinlupa pero kukunin mo lang yung bagay na hinahanap ko ng apat na taon? King ina mo ulit. Gago. Napakadaming beses na din akong nabigo sa paghahanap at ngayon na nakita ko na ang katuparan ng aking mga pangarap kukunin mo ang rosas ko? King ina mo, pangatlong beses na at idadagdag ko pa ang lahat ng murang alam ko. Wala kang karapatan dahil binitawan mo na ang mga rosas at kung kailang hawak ko na at nakalagay na sa aking uber special botanical life support system suitcase kukunin mo ito? Maalagaan mo ba yan? Gago. Sasayangin mo lang ang mga rosas ko.

Pero ang malungkot, hindi ako ang pinili nung mga rosas.
Hindi pala malungkot, sobrang sakit.
Me lason palang dala ang mga tinik ng Purple Rose of Cairo.



So remember this: see this machete of mine? When I learn of your name I'm gonna gut you with my machete and hang you in the highest wall in Cairo and I'm gonna water "your" rose with your blood.
After doing that, I'll make sure you live and destroy not your physical body but your mind, the very core of your being. I'll make sure you roam the streets of Cairo remembering your grand past and realizing everyday that you're just a broken shell of your former self. I wish you live long enough for you to experience an experience just like that you bastard.

The Urban Jungle

In the Philippines, traffic signs and stoplights are merely suggestions to the Filipino driver.

The streets of Manila is a perfect description of this nation. Democracy rules (everybody gets to do what he/she wants) and life is one big obstacle course where everybody is your opponent (and that driver behind you is your opponent). There are no rules and you use any means necessary to overtake and beat that red light.

Get ready for the true Survivor Philippines: The Urban Jungle

EDSA-Taft traverse

Umaga, nag jog sa UP diliman. Isang ikot buong UP at isang oval.
Natapos ng 55 minutes.
Unang beses ko ding pumasa sa diag run. As in unang beses. Ever.
Wala akong dalang extra underwear. Basa ang underwear ko. Haha.

Pagkabihis ng semi-formal-slash-probinsiyano outfit, nagtraverse ako galing EDSA patungong Taft, at nagpunta sa lomowalk sa intramuros which is, by the way, sponsored by lomomanila. Wala pang pahinga pahinga yun ha, at basa pa din ang underwear ko. Kung saan saan kami naglakad, at kumuha ng kumuha ng litratong hindi ko alam ang kalalabasan (abangan niyo pala yung set na iyon, naka tatlong rolls at kalahati ata ako).
Enjoy sobra. Kaya lang walang viable candidates (Jay, you know what I mean).
Kaya lang, nakakabasag pala ng tuhod ang pag jog ng parang me artificial knee joints ka tapos dederetso ka sa lomowalk no? I know it, from experience. Haha.

Umuwi ako ng alas singko, pag upo ko sa bus, nalaman kong basa pa din ang underwear ko. Hala.

Happy World Philosophy Day (well, uhm, belated)

So, with World Philosophy Day upon us, here are some pesky arguments to apply your minds to:

1. SHOULD WE KILL HEALTHY PEOPLE FOR THEIR ORGANS?

Suppose Bill is a healthy man without family or loved ones. Would it be ok painlessly to kill him if his organs would save five people, one of whom needs a heart, another a kidney, and so on? If not, why not?

Consider another case: you and six others are kidnapped, and the kidnapper somehow persuades you that if you shoot dead one of the other hostages, he will set the remaining five free, whereas if you do not, he will shoot all six. (Either way, he'll release you.)

If in this case you should kill one to save five, why not in the previous, organs case? If in this case too you have qualms, consider yet another: you're in the cab of a runaway tram and see five people tied to the track ahead. You have the option of sending the tram on to the track forking off to the left, on which only one person is tied. Surely you should send the tram left, killing one to save five.

But then why not kill Bill?

2. ARE YOU THE SAME PERSON WHO STARTED READING THIS ARTICLE?

Consider a photo of someone you think is you eight years ago. What makes that person you? You might say he she was composed of the same cells as you now. But most of your cells are replaced every seven years. You might instead say you're an organism, a particular human being, and that organisms can survive cell replacement - this oak being the same tree as the sapling I planted last year.

But are you really an entire human being? If surgeons swapped George Bush's brain for yours, surely the Bush look-alike, recovering from the operation in the White House, would be you. Hence it is tempting to say that you are a human brain, not a human being.

But why the brain and not the spleen? Presumably because the brain supports your mental states, eg your hopes, fears, beliefs, values, and memories. But then it looks like it's actually those mental states that count, not the brain supporting them. So the view is that even if the surgeons didn't implant your brain in Bush's skull, but merely scanned it, wiped it, and then imprinted its states on to Bush's pre-wiped brain, the Bush look-alike recovering in the White House would again be you.

But the view faces a problem: what if surgeons imprinted your mental states on two pre-wiped brains: George Bush's and Gordon Brown's? Would you be in the White House or in Downing Street? There's nothing on which to base a sensible choice. Yet one person cannot be in two places at once.

In the end, then, no attempt to make sense of your continued existence over time works. You are not the person who started reading this article.

3. IS THAT REALLY A COMPUTER SCREEN IN FRONT OF YOU?

What reason do you have to believe there's a computer screen in front of you? Presumably that you see it, or seem to. But our senses occasionally mislead us. A straight stick half-submerged in water sometimes look bent; two equally long lines sometimes look different lengths.

But this, you might reply, doesn't show that the senses cannot provide good reasons for beliefs about the world. By analogy, even an imperfect barometer can give you good reason to believe it's about to rain.

Before relying on the barometer, after all, you might independently check it by going outside to see whether it tends to rain when the barometer indicates that it will. You establish that the barometer is right 99% of the time. After that, surely, its readings can be good reasons to believe it will rain.

Perhaps so, but the analogy fails. For you cannot independently check your senses. You cannot jump outside of the experiences they provide to check they're generally reliable. So your senses give you no reason at all to believe that there is a computer screen in front of you."

4. DID YOU REALLY CHOOSE TO READ THIS ARTICLE?

Suppose that Fred existed shortly after the Big Bang. He had unlimited intelligence and memory, and knew all the scientific laws governing the universe and all the properties of every particle that then existed. Thus equipped, billions of years ago, he could have worked out that, eventually, planet Earth would come to exist, that you would too, and that right now you would be reading this article.

After all, even back then he could have worked out all the facts about the location and state of every particle that now exists.

And once those facts are fixed, so is the fact that you are now reading this article. No one's denying you chose to read this. But your choice had causes (certain events in your brain, for example), which in turn had causes, and so on right back to the Big Bang. So your reading this was predictable by Fred long before you existed. Once you came along, it was already far too late for you to do anything about it.

Now, of course, Fred didn't really exist, so he didn't really predict your every move. But the point is: he could have. You might object that modern physics tells us that there is a certain amount of fundamental randomness in the universe, and that this would have upset Fred's predictions. But is this reassuring? Notice that, in ordinary life, it is precisely when people act unpredictably that we sometimes question whether they have acted freely and responsibly. So freewill begins to look incompatible both with causal determination and with randomness. None of us, then, ever do anything freely and responsibly."

IN CONCLUSION

Let me be clear: the point is absolutely not that you or I must bite these bullets. Some philosophers have a taste for bullets; but few would accept all the conclusions above and many would accept none. But the point, when you reject a conclusion, is to diagnose where the argument for it goes wrong.

Doing this in philosophy goes hand-in-hand with the constructive side of our subject, with providing sane, rigorous, and illuminating accounts of central aspects of our existence: freewill, morality, justice, beauty, consciousness, knowledge, truth, meaning, and so on.

Rarely does this allow us to put everything back where we found it. There are some surprises, some bullets that have to be bitten; sometimes it's a matter simply of deciding which. But even when our commonsense conceptions survive more or less intact, understanding is deepened. As TS Eliot once wrote:

"…the end of our exploring,

Will be to arrive where we started,

And know the place for the first time."

~~~~~

Last line calls to mind Nietzsche's eternal recurrence proposition that everything we experience will be repeated for all eternity.

With that knowledge and with what is happening recently, I think I may not like that idea.

And I will carry that dislike for all eternity. Ugh.

Attention

I have changed my Vivitar UWS' name from Fraulein Heime to Vivitarja Raskolnikov. If you are not a fan of Dostoevsky or you get seizures from reading russian names (some people I know have to be actually sedated) then you can call him Rasky. It was suggested to me by my other camera Nikon N80 who is Hildegaard that changing the name would change it's personality from a budding little girl (fraulein heime translated from herman means little lady or something like that) to a full blown badass engaging in philosophical battles on the morality on killing to make the world better off, the willl to power and why M&Ms do not come in individually wrapped varieties and boxed according to color. It should be noted that both cameras were named after philosophers.

If anyone calls Rasky by his old name Hilde and Rasky will SHOOT you.

Control

Will you let mere words interfere with your feelings? How dare you. You survived that long and you will let a few words discourage you from continuing on with your life?

You may argue that the person who conceived those words into existence is one of those who are very close to your heart and likewise is in the most suitable location to inflict pain that makes you scream for alcohol and amphetamines. But past is past. Surely, after what had happened last week you took steps to insulate yourself from the pain that you will receive from trying to talk to her that you so vividly described as pounding your head to the wall repeatedly? You must move and make a NEXT (you know ladder theory, you surely know this).

Roll with the punches boy. A rigid body is easier to take down than a relaxed body that adapts to the attacker's strikes. Start from square one and plan each action as systematically and as coldly as possible like what you did almost a month ago. This is more than a game - it's a mix of politics, psychology and hunting and requires detailed scientific knowledge and all of your cunning to survive.

If you factor in your feelings too early, you will surely fail. Become the strategist you once were, and you shall achieve your end.

Pablo Banila is a frigging genius

NO, he’s not a cyber-stalker. Or a group of psychology students doing a project. Or the government in disguise. Pablo Banila is a real person, but he’s not the crazy lowlife that people thought he was.

When the first Pablo Banila article came out in 2bU two weeks ago, we were swamped with hundreds of letters and blog comments from readers. The sentiments expressed in the mail were varied; they ranged from “Pablo Banila gives me the chills too,” to “He’s a psycho who not only views my Multiply site, but Friendster as well,” to “He’s actually a genius who was just misunderstood.”

Most of the readers were curious about his identity and wanted to know who he was, while a few thought an article about him was a waste of precious newspaper space. “Argh, you gave him more attention!” said a friend, wringing his hands. Another said, “Unbelievable, you made him famous! But in any case, he still gives off bad vibes and he’s still flooding my viewing history page with his gazillion accounts.” A blog reader was more blunt, saying, “Big deal. Slow news day?”

But in either case, Pablo Banila certainly caught your attention—and apparently, the article caught his too, because he e-mailed 2bU to give the real deal on his identity. He had explained his intentions in a UP Multiply blog at http://yoopee.multiply.com/journal/item/4805, but only a handful of internet users knew about it (compared to the millions of sites that he “visited”).

Pablo Banila—Paolo Bantolo in real life—has been called many names in the past couple of months, and a lot of them weren’t too nice. “Creepy” was the first thing that came to mind when Multiply and Friendster users first saw the avatar that showed a guy with matted chin-length hair and a sign that flashed, “Yes, Pablo Banila has a crush on you hahahaha! That’s why he viewed your homepage, cute nun!”

The reactions that the avatar elicited were interesting. Initially, people truly believed that the mysterious Pablo Banila had a crush on them, gender notwithstanding—until they visited his site and realized that they were duped.

“Before I opened up a guestbook, there were three general reactions from three kinds of people,” said Bantolo in an e-mail interview. “First, from the genuinely curious—people asking me if they do know me; in other words, people who did not bother reading my profile, the naked confession of everything I am.”

He added, “[The next were] from the genuinely infatuated—schoolgirls and baby boys telling me that I can be their boyfriend anytime! The rest were people with a sense of humor. Interestingly, most of my most passionate haters honestly believed that I had a crush on them until the grand opening of ‘Pablo Banila’s Never-ending Guestbook Party.’ [Then] they found out it wasn’t only them.”

The truth is, Pablo Banila never really visited every website where his avatar appeared—his bots did. An anonymous reader who identified himself as a retired hacker explained, “Pablo Banila actually is a programmer who uses a program called ‘web crawler.’ Web crawlers were originally used by search engines such as Google and Yahoo to automatically browse web pages on the internet. [This is done so they can] save the data on their database and make an index list of the web pages on the Internet.”

The reader added, “This is all done using a program. A program with a standard DSL connection can browse 10 sites every second, 600 sites every minute and 36,000 sites every hour—roughly 864,000 Multiply sites every day.”

Others who were already in the know admitted that he was a computer genius, if only slightly off his rocker. News that he came from top schools (Bantolo graduated from the Philippine Science High School and went on to study Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman before transferring to New York University; he is currently a graduate student at California Riverside) only fueled the speculations about his being a crazy genius.

Others expressed their admiration and marveled at how he was able to pull off the scheme; others, like Multiply user “emocantbevanity” said, “He’s such a weirdo … why can’t he just get a life or something? Is he that much of a genius, that’s why he became a weirdo? Oh well, moral lesson—don’t be a genius and learn to socialize with other people so you wouldn’t become the country’s biggest weirdo!”

“I never thought of my viewing activity as stalking,” Bantolo said. “It was casual web surfing. What made the difference was my classic welcome message that penetrated the unawareness of the unspoken hope the viewing history promises in an avatar of a Lesbian in Shining Armor. I can honestly say that I wanted to meet new friends, and, ultimately, build a bridge of chance towards my one true love.”

According to Bantolo, he chose Multiply and Friendster “for the high demographic of Filipinos. And because I have not tried making new friends in other networks—but I will! Pretty soon!”

He added, “I wish I could click on millions of headshots for hours in a day, for that would’ve been like playing my favorite game, Counter-Strike; but that’s just impossible in my already inhumane schedule as a working student.”

And as for stalking—as soon as it was established that the only pages “Pablo Banila” visited were the homepages of the sites, which are essentially open to public viewing (as Multiply and Friendster have contacts-only lock options)—his viewing activities can hardly be counted as harassment.

Multiply user “agnestherese” said, “Pablo Banila is hardly a stalker. He only views homepages, not blogs or photos. I think that those who make such a big deal out of it, more specifically all the hate blogs, are self-centered or maybe just hurt when they found out that Pablo Banila has a crush on them … and everyone else.”

“Public domain is public domain,” Bantolo explained. “If they felt harassed in any way, it was because I kept exercising my right to view their public profile.” He further attributed the public’s fear and irritation to his “scarecrow headshot.”

He said, “People read about accusations, libel and death threats against me written on my guestbook. I am hated in exactly the same way other human beings discriminate against blacks, Muslims, and homosexuals.”

Bantolo added, “I performed the same routine using stereotypical images of innocence (young, attractive and female) at the same duration and received virtually no reaction.”

Actually, the entire issue is moot and academic, as “Pablo Banila” has already retired and given up his homepage-viewing days. But many users, unaware of what happened, remained in the dark for the past few weeks. As a final note, Bantolo quoted the California Penal Code’s definition of stalking:

Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety is guilty of the crime of stalking.

“Credible threat” means a verbal or written threat, including that performed through the use of an electronic communication device.

He clarified, “I am not making a ‘credible threat’ nor do I intend to ‘place any person in reasonable fear for his or her safety.’”

***taken from inquirer

I actually look up to him. He actually stirred thousands of people into action. His methods did not matter for he got what he wanted - attention and fame.
This tactic is not new, celebrities use it all the time (read: scandals and pointless love affairs). The only exception is that Pablo is a frigging genius. He really is.

Wait, wait!!!

I'm having visions and seeing shocking parallels of my life to the story of the Phantom of the Opera.

Now, let's indulge in a little game... Who's Christine? Hahahahaha

Now would you please excuse me, I'm drunk and ranting on a cold saturday morning. I'll be receiving your answers tomorrow. If I'm still alive, that is. n_n

btw, it's the last time I'm gonna use that expression. Goodbye.
And I rarely say goodbyes.

For what it's worth

Eto yung essay na sinulat ko para sa photo competition ng klase. Hindi ata ito napansin ng student body na dumadaan sa third floor ng St. Raymund's building at kung napansin man ito, siguro hindi din nila alam na exhibit yun kasi medyo, uhmm... yung decoration ay parang obstruction dun sa harap. Actually, mukhang palaging in construction yung exhibit kaya di ako pumasok. Tapos na pala, di ko man lang nakita kung ano nangyari dun sa loob. Pinost ko ito para mabasa naman ng iba. Kahit medyo bangag ako nung sinulat ko ito at mas lalong uber bangag ako ngayon habang sinusulat ko ang maikling introduction na ito dahil kagagaling ko lang sa impiyerno, me kaunting katotohanan at kaunting aral ka naman na mapupulot dito.

Btw, sinama ko ang Diyos. Kung hindi lang para sa UST ito uhmm.. never mind. Hindi ko din napigilan ang sarili ko, sinamahan ko ng linya galing sa isa kong paboritong palabas, isang cliche at isang sinabi ni Nietzsche. Enjoy.

***

The global financial crisis was brought upon itself by a number of events, not only by the subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of the major banks in America. It has been brewing for a long time and the fall of the US stock market generated a tidal wave which rippled through markets in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Mortgages and loans were not paid leading to the downfall of the financial pillars of the US which include Merryl Lynch, Bear Stearns. Even the Lehman Brothers Holdings, which survived the Great Depression in 1929 was not spared. This is the US situation, so what? If the US goes into economic depression, what will it do to us?

It has everything to do with us and will affect us Filipinos, sooner or later. To start, a root of the problem is capitalism’s dependence on the “paper commodity markets” like securities, bonds and stocks. Stockholders suddenly found themselves holding alarmingly depreciating stocks which by the way, spell losses for stockholders. As this paper commodity trading compose a large part of the activities of banks both here and abroad, local banks that have a large exposure or large investments in the US will experience losses, proven by a report that in just 6 days, October 5 to 11, local banks lost P554 billion pesos. Going further, because US is the center of the Philippines’ global economy, local companies who are owned by US companies and have a high exposure to US companies like the export and import industries will suffer decreased economic activity and thus, these industries will experience more layoffs and reduced hiring rates.

If you’re an ordinary office worker and everything is fine now in your company. What will happen to you? Then if you’re working in a call center, beware. Because call centers support mostly foreign companies, the fall in the US economy will reduce their hiring rate and call centers will try to minimize their losses by reducing employees. Filipinos will also experience a decline in foreign remittances because of reduced earnings by OFWs and the reduced economic activity of the United States. Loans will also be more and more difficult to obtain as economic insecurity will give rise to more stringent policies on loan application.

The previous paragraphs are just about the gist of what any normal economics student will tell you. But as thomasian economists, we would go further to elaborate that according to the Associated Press, suicide rates are going up in the US. Fathers killing their families because of bankruptcy and killing themselves afterwards because they have lost a fortune and even some who have killed themselves so that their families could receive insurance money have graced the foreign broadsheets with their tragic stories. The crisis spells disaster for the materialistic. Money has become the center of families that it becomes justifiable to die not because of hunger but because people could not feel the crisp texture of US dollars on their hands and toss in their beds for they are unsure if they will have a job to wake up to tomorrow. This is what is happening to the US. Will it happen to us also?

It will not happen to us if we Christians hold dear the important things and values we have learned. We need to remember that the family is bonded by love, which is an infinitely stronger force than money. We need to remember God and trust Him but not put our trust entirely in the fates; we need to make decisions by ourselves and for ourselves. This crisis will come to pass, as all things in the past have come to pass. Nietzsche said that what does not kill me make me stronger and we will survive and weather this crisis. Remember that there is such a thing as free lunch for the best things, and those that make life worth living, are absolutely free.

Escape velocity, as a figure of speech

Escape Velocity is the minimum speed an object without propulsion need to have sufficient energy to be able to "escape" from the gravity, so that gravity will never manage to pull it back. To then escape "gravity", you need to travel at a speed of 11.2km/sec. The mass does not affect the speed required to escape gravity but the energy required to propel the object increases proportionally with it's mass.

Here is my formula: to leave reality(gravity), a dream and or aspiration(mass) must be propelled by dedication, strength of will, the will to power and a certain disregard for reality(energy). But as always, reality will always catch up to you. At kapag depressed ako nagtatagalog ako kasi nagii-skip ng sobrang daming beat ang puso ko. Nagkukulang ang supply ng dugo sa utak ko at di ako makapag isip sa english. That piece of info aside, yun nga, naging masyadong malakas ang gravity at pinilit akong hatakin nito pababa. Wala akong nagawa. Mapipilit ko ba namang bitawan ako ng realidad at mapipilit ko ba naman ang isang tao na mayroon nang rock solid determination sa bagay na napili niya (I support your decision. Di ako galit, ok na sakin yung kaalaman na ok ka. Hope everything works out alright for you). Di ako nakatakas sa gravity ng realidad.

Mula sa layo na 9000km mula sa mundo (malapit lapit na ito sa space, kung saan tuluyan mo nang matatakasan ang gravity), ako'y bumagsak. At dahil nagkakaron ng acceleration na 9.8m/sec ang isang falling body, sobrang deep impact talaga. Nagkakaron tuloy ako ng mga mental images ng mga craters sa utak ko. Pero walang makakapansin nung pagbagsak ko dahil palaging internal ang pagsabog ng damdamin ko. Mabuti na din yung deretsahan niyang sinabi. Iyon din ang gusto ko, hindi yung hahawakan ka lang at arm's length at magtataka ka kung bakit di ka na makalapit. Salamat na din, mas magandang bumagsak like a ton of bricks kaysa mag crash and burn ka.

Kulang na ako sa oras. Siguro wala nang mauulit na ganun, at least habang nandito pa ako sa 'pinas. Sa buong apat na taon ko sa UST tila pinaglalaruan ako ng tadhana. Buong apat na taon nilagay ang bagay na pinaka-gusto ko sa likod ng salamin at kung kailan huli nang taon ko sa UST at sa 'pinas, kung kailan akala ko nabasag ko na ang salamin at kukunin ko na ang (eww ayokong banggitin yung L word ang sagwa) saka pa tuluyang tinakpan na ng pader yung salamin. Wala na. ----ngina mo tadhana.

Pinaglalaruan mo ba ako, binibiro mo ako, t--gina ka? Tatawa nalang ako. Wala din naman akong magagawa.

To Dear Patricia

You always air your problems publicly, preferring to sort out through piles of meaningless words, empty phrases and insensitive rantings of adults acting as four year olds to find the true wisdom and the light the universe is giving you, through one person or another. So regarding that problem, I think that it will be proper to air my advice to you publicly as well.

You will definitely meet again, recent events involving coincidences and accidents which involve you running into him several times a week tells me that. But in this case, where the one you love will be going away to some far off land which sounds Swedish (I think it's at Sweden btw) tells me that you might not be able to meet for some time. But remember this: you will surely meet each other again.

The time will be different, the place may be different and everything about you, my dear Patricia, and him will be definitely change. No matter how strong your resolve to keep him in your heart, events will surely conspire and change it, either for the good or for the bad. You cannot stop living (for if you do you will die) and it is this activity, living, that changes you and the man that I am talking about. I think that you should say to him what you feel about his departure and make adjustments to your life to help you in the coming separation.

But then again, if you love him too much, I strongly suggest that you pack your bags and follow him to the ends of the earth. I feel that he will give you what you deserve without being a lapdog and a doormat (you know what I mean). He will make you happy. That I feel for him. In the time that you should feel depressed and alone, you could always send me a ticket to Sweden. We'll see a concert on some swedish metal band and scream our lungs out. LOL.

Don't worry about me, I'll be fine right here. I'm actually courting someone and she's a really lovely girl. You should meet her one day. Before you leave.

It's such a pity

Without innocence, the cross is just iron, Hope is just an illusion and Love is just a word.

But alas, the innocent are always the first to perish.

Deadline at ang Financial Crisis

Naibala ako sa essay para sa klase. Napuyat ako, sobrang short notice tapos busy pa ako. Me social life din naman ako ha! I-post ko daw ito at para daw mabasa ng iba, hindi lang ang mga tao na dumadaan sa elevator ng St. Raymund Building sa November 8. Kahit nga ata sa harap ng elevator sa Nov. 8 walang magbabasa nito. Pero ewan ko lang. Ay, sabi ni Ana wag daw muna, dahil baka mabasa ng ibang section. Ang essay kasi parang baby yan, pinagtatanggol kapag tama at tinuturuan ng tama. And who wants a cloned baby? I-post nalang natin after ng deadline, para masaya.

Ok din namang magsulat ng tungkol sa financial crisis. Ako kasi, kating-kati na akong mag research tungkol sa financial crisis. Buti nalang, naatasan akong magsulat nitong essay na ito. Nalaman ko tuloy na ang ugat ng lahat ay ang naging dependence ng mga businessmen sa "paper commodities" tulad ng stocks, securities at bonds. Para sa hindi nakakaalam nito, ito ay ang mga liquidated assets. In short, pera. Kapag kasi puro paper commodities ang hawak mo, sobrang mabilis magbago ang value nito. Minsan mataas, minsan mababa, depende na sa supply at demand mo.

Ito din ang rason kung bakit naiipon ang kayamanan sa kamay ng iilan. Ito'y dahil kapag madami kang pera, madami kang pambili ng paper commodities. Medyo may kamahalan kasi ang mga ito at sabi ni Sir Sigua, ang 4th year HS teacher ko sa economics, dapat ay mga sobrang pera mo lang ang iniinvest sa stock market dahil risky nga ito.

Eh nagkataong madaming sobrang pera at mahilig sa risk ang mga lokong kapitalistang ito. Kaya madami silang stocks na kumikita ng pera. Tapos siyempre san mo ilalagay yung pera, edi sa bangko. Tapos yung mga bangko, para kumita pa ng maraming maraming pera, inenganyo nila ang mga mahihirap o yung mga, shit, ang cool talaga ng acronym na ito: NINJA (No Incone, No Job, No Assets) na mangutang at kumuha ng mga housing loan. Nalugi ngayon ang mga bangko dahil di nakabayad ang mga NINJAng ito. Hindi nga pala nakabayad yung mga NINJA dahil naipon sa kamay ng iilan ang kayamanan. At dahil nalugi yung mga bangko, nawala ang mga pera ng mga kapitalista. Haha. Sila nagsulat ng sarili nilang kapalaran.

Tinatamad akong mag elaborate, siguro minsan iipunin ko yung mga notes ko galing sa pag gawa ng essay at ilalahad dito. Ayoko din namang kasing mag mukhang komunista, baka bigla nalang akong kumuha ng bandila ng Pinas at iwagayway to sa kalye. Ayoko nun. Olats.

Pastor of Muppets

Warning: Blasphemous Content


Pastor of Muppets I'm pulling your strings!
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you cant see a thing
Just call my name, `cause Ill hear you scream
Pastor!
Pastor!

A fitting image, don't you think? LOL

But then again...

Don't you hate those people who speak a lot because they like to hear their voice a lot? In other cases, it can be that they write a lot because they want to read their writing (and the comments that come with it) a lot. It may be devoid of meaning but, it's just a way to satisfy their own ego.

Hey, I'm not saying it's you, it can be me for all you know. n_n

Japanese man petitions to marry comic-book character

TOKYO (AFP) — A Japanese man has enlisted hundreds of people in a campaign to allow marriages between humans and cartoon characters, saying he feels more at ease in the "two-dimensional world."

Comic books are immensely popular in Japan, with some fictional characters becoming celebrities or even sex symbols. Marriage is meanwhile on the decline as many young Japanese find it difficult to find life partners.

Taichi Takashita launched an online petition aiming for one million signatures to present to the government to establish a law on marriages with cartoon characters.

Within a week he has gathered more than 1,000 signatures through the Internet.

"I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world," he wrote.

"However, that seems impossible with present-day technology. Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorise marriage with a two-dimensional character?"

Befitting his desire to be two-dimensional, he listed no contact details, making it impossible to reach him for comment to explain if his campaign is serious or tongue-in-cheek.

But some people signing the petition are true believers.

"For a long time I have only been able to fall in love with two-dimensional people and currently I have someone I really love," one person wrote.

"Even if she is fictional, it is still loving someone. I would like to have legal approval for this system at any cost," the person wrote.

Japan only permits marriage between human men and women and gives no legal recognition to same-sex relationships.

Japan's fans of comic books, or "manga," sometimes go to extremes.

Earlier this month, a woman addicted to manga put out an online message seeking to kill her parents for asking her to throw away comic books that filled up three rooms.

Prime Minister Taro Aso is an avid fan of manga and recently complained that he has been too busy to read comic books since taking office.

from: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEnZ28LQeaD-jc33V_19PbvvXRHA

-Woah, this is much too weird for me. O_O