The rat

A large rat crawled from the refurbished portion of our yet unfinished house into the old part. It went in like cowboys enter saloons, swaggering, bristling for a fight.

Normally, I would move to ignore such creatures of God as they invade my space. My thinking is if they let you be, you leave them be. As Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and National Geographic have shown us for the past years, animals are more often than not portrayed as vicious by the media and by our imagination but are more than ready to flee than fight.

This rat possessed not the meek subservience that other creatures of God show when confronted with homo sapiens. This one entered sniffing about, probably suffering from all the cement and concrete powder billowing about in our house. This one was different, this one was waiting to get its ass kicked.

Unfortunately, before I could grab the nearest broom and whack it, it had disappeared. I reported the incident to my mother and she reminded of the old stories with rats, snakes and other animals.

If you don't kill it, it will come back for you.

Not just come back in the sense that it'll be physically present. It will come back and pop caps up yo' ass! These creatures she says seem to possess the ability to remember who or what attacked them and exact revenge on them. So it should be killed in one deft stroke, or several amateurish but forceful and violent blows.

F*ck my life

If you don't know fmylife.com is a good time consuming read if you aren't doing anything yet. :)

Go and read it.

Today, I decided to cook dinner for my wife and kid. After a long day of preperation and cooking I asked them what they thought of it. My 12 year old son then says, "I would say it tastes like shit but not even shit tastes this bad!" My wife then laughed and gave him a high-five. FML
08/21/2009 at 10:29pm by NoCookForYou

I like this one. There're so many fmls to choose from.

Nice. Read it!

directory of posts January

Since I'm bored and have nothing much to do...

I'll make a recent directory of my posts and try to summarize everything. Writing something that makes sense is hard to do, especially after brutal examinations.

I've been using blogger just this year and I've been quite remiss in writing. :(

Anyway, for January...

A new blog!

Is my first blog entry using blogger. I found a little learning curve switching between i.ph in A Friend Of Wisdom and blogger.


A Brave New World

I was reading Huxley's book at that time. Which I found on the internet. I also forgot where I found it so I'll have to look for it again. I haven't been able to get in touch with Anna P. recently about her copy. It's been a busy year.

Pushing for change

Is an entry displaying my views on change in the Philippines. It's a short and not too well researched piece, taken from other blogs and tv pieces. And yes, there is still no long run in the Philippines.

A Tale of Two Blogs

My first confusion as how to write for A Friend Of Wisdom and Fides Quarens Intellectum

MUTO

Taken from wits it's a short film posted on youtube. Very artsy. :)

To school or not to school?

A post on how tiring the daily grind is, and how useful enduring the daily grind of law school will be in the future. Thankfully I no longer have to live with the lousy 12 noon schedule and instead will have to deal with those erratic make-up classes at 10am and wait for a few hours before my regular schedule kicks in.

Van Gogh art of the day

Was my attempt to prettify my blog. I find that a painting here and there will do wonders to brighten up such a sparse scene as mine. Unfortunately, the widget that enabled me to showcase Van Gogh paintings has since then disappeared.

On well-being and being well

I've always thought spas were pansy things to go to. Fortunately, thanks to several friends and a special someone I've since then changed my mind about spas and wellness centers and have thought of them as good places to go to when I need to relax. Of course the cost will likely limit the number of times I'll visit them.

There is a calendar of posts (arranged in chronological order) in every page of my blog

Planning ahead for the semestral break

What do I want to do for the semestral break?

I want to go out of town (country hopefully) travel and eat.

Hello Faith!

Hello faith! I love that place! It's a good thing you made eating your hobby because you won't ever run out of new things to try in Singapore.

I've been to Singapore only once in 2006 and for around 3-4 days lang ata. But I made good use of my time there visiting NUS, SMU, Ministry of Sound and more. I haven't been to Lucky Plaza though.

I love it not because of the advanced state it's in. I am amazed at how several cultures can come together in one rocky outcrop and make it a financial center for the region (maybe the world once London falls).

There's so much food to eat, and all different kinds and flavors! Look at faith's blog to see what I'm talking about (although I would prefer eat instead of see).

Little India is one of the funnest places I've been, though I think I missed the Deepavali event there by a few days.

Anyway go and check it out!

Laying off a little

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

I'm just going to post this comic. I found it funny and at the same time smart. A pet detective. :) A detective kept as a pet. hahaha AHLAVIT!

I have been reading C&H for a time now and have featured a strip in another blog of mine A Friend Of Wisdom

I wish I had investment advisers like hers

This is a wonderful story I got it from abs-cbn news

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been growing her money so fast. It used to be around P6M now it's in the P100M range. Of course that's just what she declares, there might be other holdings, funds or properties hidden around the world.

This is happening in the face of a backsliding Philippine and World economy. President Arroyo's stockholding's increased 40 or so percent while the stock exchanges have suffered a 21% drop in value. :) It's really hard to beat the market that consistently and by that much!

I wish I had investment advisers that good.

Medicines v. Living Well

The post of wits in in his blog makes a lot of sense.

As I commented there, it's better to eat well and live well now than have to rely on maintenance meds in the future.

Of course, everything is easier said than done.

The United States of America is being hit with several millions of dollars of losses yearly because of obesity and obesity related complications. A healthier lifestyle for their citizens would have resulted in less expenses in maintaining the economy.

Of course we need not look too far to see the ill-effects of poor living.

Take for example the Philippines, of course a huge amount of our population is below the subsistence level, but of those who are educated and who are gainfully employed an alarming number of them are living unhealthily. The Philippines has one of the worst smoking problems in the world.

As taken from the World Health Organization's site 60% of men smoke, losses in productivity due to smoking related illnesses will cost the taxpayers around P43 Billion and finally 20% of household income will be drained by smoking.

But that's still looking at it from the macro-economic level. Let's take the camera lower and closer to the person. Take me for example, I smoke and am overweight. I have been smoking for only a few years now and the effects have been telling. I used to be more than able to handle myself but now my endurance is gone and I am more prone to colds, coughs and sore throat.

All of these minor difficulties will roll over to become a big disease in the future. A disease which could have been prevented had I chosen to live better.

Hypertension (which also runs in my Family) will likely be one disease that I could have mitigated had I not started smoking. Add to this the fact that I have not been physically active for the past 3 years then it would cost me a fortune to keep myself alive in the future.

Medicines really cost more even though it appears that P40-P80 per pill isn't so bad you have to remember that it has to be taken everyday for the rest of your days. So a P40 pill x 365 = P14600 rather cheap right? But a P40 pill isn't the only medicine you'll have to be taking, you'll likely be taking two to three other kinds of pills for hypertension and two pills more for diabetes or any other disease. A single pill will appear cheap over a P200 salad at a restaurant but in the long run it'll be more expensive as you won't be able to do all the things you would want to do.

In my studies I have come across a case wherein a judge claimed that he did not have sexual relations with a married woman while he was also married. His excuse, although not backed up by medical certificates or any expert witnesses, was diabetes mellitus which prevented him from achieving an erection. Our teacher asked a physician-classmate of ours to confirm if this was a valid reason, he stated with authority that it will prevent erection.

So if you're a male smoker who is overweight or has not exercised in the past few years and your family has a history of hypertension and diabetes then I suggest you think twice about your current lifestyle. Even if you don't forecast it too far into the future, hypertension along with other diseases will prevent you from having sex. EVER.

So if a salad is too expensive for you in the restaurant, go make one at home. And if you can't find the time to make one grab a banana or an apple or some prunes instead. If you can't do it and you're already stuck in the restaurant get the salad, without the dressing ha, even if it's more expensive than the pan-fried chicken or the sizzling sisig you're paying for the longevity of your penis anyway so it's worth it.

Inertia

Google define: inertia

inactiveness: a disposition to remain inactive or inert; "he had to overcome his inertia and get back to work"
(physics) the tendency of a body to maintain its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force
source

The disposition to remain inactive or inert. Much as a rolling stone will not gather moss so too won't a person who is always up and about turn to seed.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so the saying goes.

I have had the same experience, and I am afraid I keep having it.

Back in college I took a course under the Leadership & Strategy section of my university. My teacher had for our final examinations a group oral exam. We were all tasked to sit down and chat with our teacher Fr. Candelaria, S.J.

My group went on and on about leadership, the proper way to prioritize, the pareto method and other subjects. Fr. Candy's blue eyes then went over to my side of the room. He began to ask me what is your plan after graduation? I was 3rd year then and on schedule. I wanted to make it big in business and in society in general, I wanted to make a difference and donate schools and build churches and houses and all of that jazz. I thought I had a well defined plan, I was thinking too far ahead it seems. You have a goal, but how do you get there? asks Fr. Candy. You see you are like the other college students, you all have goals but none of you have plans. You have the abilities to make it big but have no idea on how to do it.

This entry is about first steps, but in order to have a meaningful first step it must be put down in a plan first. In college I had as yet no plan, I saw the world as an oyster, it existed only for my pleasure. That is the problem with having no plan and having done nothing. There will always be too many possibilities for you to consider all of them and move on the best one. A person who buys nothing will have the worst buyer's remorse.

The plan makes the first step meaningful, and the first step sets the whole thing in motion.

What could be the effects culture?

What is culture?
Dictionary.com defines culture as such:

1. the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.

It is also otherwise defined as the behaviors or characteristics of a particular social group.

Culture now is either the excellence you have in matters you get from being educated or from exposure to arts and other groups' culture.

The Devil's Dictionary defines education as

EDUCATION, n.
That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

It is a brilliant definition, as education is a never ending pursuit of knowledge that in the end uncovers nothing more than the truth that we actually know less than we thought we knew.

In my interactions with society I have come across a certain notion that to be cultured is to be privileged. Those who can attend operas, plays, concerts and other artistic displays are considered wealthier than those who do not. Of course this also opens the discussion up to whether or not these people are pansies as seen in the blogs entitled haymen blog ng tunay na lalaki and other "manly" blogs. Regardless of how you view culture and a person's exposure to it I believe that there should be more of culture given out to more people.

It is no longer a question of why should we be exposed to culture and the arts but what kind of culture and the arts we should be exposing ourselves to? I believe that culture and the arts (I'll just lump these together into the term "culture") have a time element. These are products of our human existence and therefore are subject to the ephemeral element of life, that is our culture dies along with us. This is what I think would happen to our current form of bubble-gum culture. Take for example pop-songs and pop-culture, these have no sense of permanency to them as these are being churned out week after week by different faces discussing the same issues blaring the same tune. The opposite of this for me are products of culture that last, an example of man's stab at immortality. Take Beethoven, Luna, Beckett and Twain, their works have lasted for a long time, longer than the current works of art at least.

Of course, I may be wrong with regard to the time element, take the Beatles for example they were regarded as a pop-culture icon then and still their works are still being played and revered.

Indeed it might be likely that the works of Murakami and Britney Spears will end up being referred to as the premier examples of our time's culture. It might happen in the future and I won't feel too bad about it.

Why?

Because of the simple reason that all things will age, and some will acquire a veneer of grace and glory of the good old days and some will just be forgotten.

Ultimately it is not merely the time element of culture that will define whether or not it is great but the ability of that work of culture to transcend time and space that will define whether it is great.

A work that evokes the same emotion it did when it was first seen or heard in the 1800's and still does it well into the 2000's should be considered a great work.

Culture for me is not just the ephemeral expression of a group's values in the form of art. It is an expression of a man immortal disregarding the limitations of his flesh to add to the wonders of the universe.

After that lengthy discussion on what culture is and what kind of culture we should consider exposing ourselves to, I move to the grittier topic of what good would culture bring to the youth (and their parents) when made available to them?

I posit that exposing children (or the youth) and their parents to culture would enable societies to appreciate how other cultures are and at the same time allow the youth and their parents to think pragmatically. By opening opportunities for people to see great works of art, we are given the great chance to appreciate the work itself and the context in which the work was created. It grants people a new venue for discussion with other people from different contexts and allows a freer exchange of ideas.

With regard to the youth, especially if culture is incorporated into the education of the youth, the results will be phenomenal. To expose children to the culture of their nation and allow them to enjoy it and treasure it as a great feat. To allow them to compare and contrast their own culture with the wide array of culture humans have created expands and stretches their young and pliable minds to dimensions we could not possibly have imagined.

Of course in order to avoid creating youths distant from their own national culture careful direction must be present, lest the youths forget from whence they came. The national hero Dr. Rizal said that ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.

Culture will be essential in shaping the minds of children into a generation of people who can make a nation great and make the world whole.