tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139651752024-03-13T08:43:23.768+08:00Pure and Applied PointlessnessUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger259125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-51662019056077591352010-03-24T14:46:00.002+08:002010-03-24T14:48:25.395+08:00PlansI've been blogging for five years. Wow. That's a pre-tty long time. I've come a long way since then, done so many things I didn't know I'd be doing.<div><br /></div><div>It just goes to show - plans are just, well, plans. They're guidelines, but nothing you can do with finality.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-18911960039515708522009-03-14T15:42:00.000+08:002009-03-14T19:42:31.372+08:00Car Robberies at The Podium and The Fort<p>We all know that crime and murder is happening everywhere <i>around</i> us—but we don’t mind, since it’s not happening <i>to</i> us. Only when it’s close to home do we realize how vulnerable and helpless we really are.</p> <p> </p> <p>Last night, Marco lost his new Macbook Pro, which he got not more than a month ago for P100,000. He left it in the car trunk of a friend, which was parked by The Podium in Ortigas. They left the parking lot at 9pm for dinner and came back 1am which is when they discovered that the trunk was broken in and three laptops were stolen, including his friend’s Macbook Air (this sells for P80,000 each) and a Dell laptop . </p> <p> </p> <p>I don’t know any more details than that because Marco doesn’t really want to talk about it yet and I didn’t ask since I know this is hitting him hard. I know how he loved his Macbook Pro because every peso of it was something he worked for. He’s so proud of it. It’s central to what he does, which is web design. He actually didn’t only lose the laptop and miscellaneous gear worth $2,000 but he also lost priceless data related to his work. We are both devastated because it will be hard to raise money for such an expensive gadget again, as well as recover the data in it. </p> <p> </p> <p>A couple of things are bothering me about this incident. One, how did the robbers know where to look, and what to look for? It’s either they got lucky, which I doubt, or Marco’s party was followed around. Two, it happened practically beside an exclusive place, The Podium, where high-income people are a norm. How could the security be so lax as for this to happen? Ortigas is not Quiapo, Recto, Divisoria, or Baclaran. And yet… </p> <p><a href="http://lizette.i.ph/photo/431/1152" target="_blank"> </a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lizette.i.ph/photo/431/1152" target="_blank"><img src="http://lizette.i.ph/photo/d/1152-1/03092009b.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="406" width="542"></a></p> <p> <i>From <a href="http://pau.araos.com/robbery-at-mc-home-depot-fort-bonifacio" mce_href="http://pau.araos.com/robbery-at-mc-home-depot-fort-bonifacio">Pau</a></i></p> <p>Just last week ago a similar incident happened to another friend, Pau: his car window was broken in and he lost two cameras, a Nikon D40 and a Canon G10, and his laptop to another fucker. It happened at The Fort, in MC Home Depot. His car was parked no more than 15-20 meters from the security guard! OMG right? <a href="http://pau.araos.com/robbery-at-mc-home-depot-fort-bonifacio" mce_href="http://pau.araos.com/robbery-at-mc-home-depot-fort-bonifacio">Read more about it here and please help him get in touch with people who might give him assistance or know the man in the sketch.</a></p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re interested in helping Marco, please do</p> <ul><li> Refer him people who can help him recover his laptop if you know of any. </li><li>If you have any leads on the people who have stolen the laptop, we’re willing to offer a substantial reward. </li><li>If you happen to see a Macbook Pro on sale or have bought one without a box, manual, and drivers, please check the serial number. <b>The serial number of Marco’s laptop is <span><span>w88522kh1g0. We’re willing to offer a reward for this information as well.</span></span></b></li><li><span><span><b>Blog about this incident and spread the word.</b> This isn’t only to help Marco and Pau recover their rightful belongings but also to <b>help other people avoid the same fate</b>. It seems to be a modus operandi by some group. People should be aware and be paranoid about leaving their stuff in cars or bringing out their gadgets in public.<b> Upscale shopping places are no longer safe, if they ever were to begin with. </b></span></span></li></ul> <p>Please, please spread the word. You can email me at lizlanuzo[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]ph if you have any relevant info. Thank you! </p> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class='multiply:no_crosspost'></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-22010638669728420382008-12-22T11:21:00.004+08:002008-12-22T11:43:16.878+08:00I am never one to pay attention to titlesSometimes I go back here to read my old blog posts, to tell me what I thought and felt around any particular time of the year. This space...it feels like home. An old home, where I grew up. I love my I.ph blogs to bits but they are so different from this one. I am different now.<br /><br />I set up this blog back in 2005, when I was still seventeen. I don't need to read back too far to know that the seventeen-year old Liz is radically different from the twenty-year (nearing twenty one, ugh) old one. Aside from the new tiny wrinkles on the crease of my eyes and a few pounds on my thighs and arms, the way I think and feel now is worlds away from three years back. I love that I have this blog to keep track of how I evolved. I would like to think I did, you know. It would be sorely depressing if things were otherwise.<br /><br />I'm not concerned about being witty now. I am not conscious of how I write anymore. I am not so interested in impressing people, either. I don't think about philosophy stuff anymore because I realized that it's pointless; one has to live in the now, think about the now, and reality is only what you think it is---there are so many philosophers who have said this in so many different ways, but they are never this blunt. Life is simple. Change has its time and it can't be hurried up. I am more shallow and more friendly. I am more forgiving and patient but not any less smug and over-confident.<br /><br />In my eyes, I am both perfect and imperfect. I love who I am.<br /><br />So many things have happened and I have met so many people. There is one in particular who keeps me grounded. His name is Marco. He tells me when I'm being stupid, corrects me and points me in the right direction. In exchange I buy him Minute Maid and isaw and remind him not to miss his meals. He also calls me a lot when he's particularly stressed out and this is our second Christmas together. Well, I don't blog about him anymore in my current personal blog. What is there to say? That I love him? That's overrated, and no one else but him needs to hear it.<br /><br />I love my Mom and Dad and my dumb brother. I love my dogs, Hector, Bogart, and Toopy, who are all fat and nice-smelling since they like to lie in the sun like dirty pillows.<br /><br />I love my life and I am glad that I have it.<br /><br />Hah, take that, future Liz. I know you'll be in the mood this time of the year to go back to this blog and find out what you thought and felt today. I hope things are even better for you now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-27432608441757347612008-08-04T01:55:00.000+08:002008-08-04T05:55:21.244+08:00All full sizes of mineral makeup at P50 off and free shipping for orders around P600hi guys! im trying to get rid of some of the mineral makeup i ordered from the US. im so lazy to sell. :( so its P50 of.f on all full size products. if were really close, i'll sell it to you at P80 off. so yay! <br><br>please visit http://themineralmakeup.multiply.com for details. thanks!<br> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class='multiply:no_crosspost'></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-60257155596111324182008-04-05T04:47:00.000+08:002008-04-05T08:47:16.059+08:00I'm Selling Makeup!<span class="insertedphoto"><a href="/photos/hi-res/upload/R-bL@woKCCMAACTggbU1"><img class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.lizlan.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/R-bL@woKCCMAACTggbU1/IMAG1676.JPG?et=ofx8l5AO2H4OhCGtiugxeQ&nmid=" border="0"></a></span><span class="insertedphoto"></span><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg" alt=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpg" alt=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.jpg" alt=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.jpg" alt=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-6.jpg" alt=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Lizette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-7.jpg" alt=""><br><br>Hey guys! I just put up my multiply site selling mineral makeup by The She Space (About Face), a cosmetics company based in Illinois. I'm selling finishing powder, blushes, and eyeshadows in full size and convenient sample sizes. Please do visit!<br><br><a href="http://themineralmakeup.multiply.com">http://themineralmakeup.multiply.com</a><br><br>Also, don't forget Project Vanity at <a href="http://projectvanity.i.ph">http://projectvanity.i.ph</a> for your beauty updates. ^_^<br><br><br> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class='multiply:no_crosspost'></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-30871416524597674212008-03-02T13:52:00.000+08:002008-03-02T18:52:41.956+08:00Kikay Loot<a href="/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCNAoKCCMAAB7ga@E1"><a href="/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCYAoKCCMAACOjjvM1"><a href="/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCjAoKCCMAACmQnMc1"><span class="insertedphoto"></span><span class="insertedphoto"></span></a><span class="insertedphoto"></span></a><span class="insertedphoto"></span></a><span class="insertedphoto"></span>Lookie look! I finally got my prize from <a href="http://fabbuys.multiply.com">Ellana Minerals</a>.<br><br><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCNAoKCCMAAB7ga@E1"><span class="insertedphoto"></span></a><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCYAoKCCMAACOjjvM1"><img class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.lizlan.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/R8qCYAoKCCMAACOjjvM1/DSC03117.JPG?et=K6HKxn0sUJ3Ij6oPPpbVNw&nmid=" border="0"></a>I won it from a contest in Kikay Exchange---sheer luck, I tell you. The package was very very late, but it's okay, I love the stuff! I got the Too Pink lipgloss, the White Dew Radiance Mineral Finishing Powder in Almond Coffee Cream and a sheer blush in Serenity (peachy shade).<br><br><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCjAoKCCMAACmQnMc1"><span class="insertedphoto"></span></a><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCqQoKCCMAAC4WtXk1"><img class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.lizlan.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/R8qCqQoKCCMAAC4WtXk1/DSC03114.JPG?et=LdFYWRFGXDdSIXX%2Bqh1Fmw&nmid=" border="0"></a><br>Nothing makes me happier than free makeup. The finishing powder gives a light, velvety sheen. Best after foundation. The blush is indeed sheer, its perfect for my natural look. I actually have a promise to myself, because Marco is so <span style="font-style: italic;">makulit </span>and anyway I want to make him happy. What's the promise? I'll go for the makeupless look most of the time. Yeah. That's still a lot of effort, but anything for my prissy luffy. Like this! I didn't wear eyeshadow here, but to top the look off, I'll wear white and gold eyeshadow for school. Plus mascara of course.<br><br><span class="insertedphoto"><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCNAoKCCMAAB7ga@E1"><img class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.lizlan.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/R8qCNAoKCCMAAB7ga@E1/DSC03130.JPG?et=iE8Is5ccGDSI7jp8vzGauw&nmid=" border="0"></a><br><br>Anyway, check out the stuff I got this week. I was in the mood to splurge on makeup the past few days. I have a horrid suspicion that it's the stress from school. :( Anyway, I'm one happy ho'.<br><br></span><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qCjAoKCCMAACmQnMc1"><span class="insertedphoto"></span></a><a href="http://lizlan.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/upload/R8qFRgoKCCMAAHa227w1"><img class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.lizlan.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/R8qFRgoKCCMAAHa227w1/DSC03119.JPG?et=Pqq8EehQP4kHX09pmWHWLQ&nmid=" border="0"></a><br><span class="insertedphoto">From left to right:<br>Elianto eyeshadow in Sunrise<br>Ellana Finishing Powder<br>Ellana Blush in Serenity<br>The Face Shop </span> Dewy Flower Moist Loose Power in 23 Natural Beige<br>Palladio Rice Powder in Natural from The Beauty Bar<br>Miners Aqua Shine lipstick in Peachy (also from The Beauty Bar)<br>Ellana lip gloss in Too Pink<br><br>Yay! Marco hates it when I'm giddy over make-up, but what the hell, this stuff gives me a really shallow joy. It's shallow, but it's still joy. So yeah. <br><br>Oh, I'm going to buy a foundation from Ellana. It's cheap, and I really want to try Mineral Foundation. Also, I obviously have a thing for finishing powders. I don't like foundation <span style="font-style: italic;">kasi</span>, but of course, I can always change my mind. <br> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class='multiply:no_crosspost'></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-10458360716797531832008-02-25T09:15:00.000+08:002008-02-25T14:15:12.413+08:00NOWI am unbearably busy. Gods, I hate that word. Busy. It stars with a nice rounded sound in 'bu' and then ends up with a sharp, hissing noise in 'sy'. So many papers and reports to do. I hate this time of year, but I suppose things will end pretty soon. Just less than a month and boom! Vacation! Also known as practicum, meh.<br><br>I can't wait for school to end. Since this year started, two people sort of offered me a job. As in a real job, with real pay. You can't believe how tempted I am---so near, and yet so far, graduation. School isn't that terrible for me to drop out of it. Well, not yet, even considering the state that I'm in. But stiiiill. Job equals living on your own equals late night outs equals more time with Marco equals my own money to buy the stuff I really like equals tons of other things I want to have right NOW. <br><br>Ah well, as usual, one just lives with it. <br> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class='multiply:no_crosspost'></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-85978019461516715342008-02-19T08:57:00.002+08:002008-02-19T08:58:17.868+08:00A Deeper Struggle<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%; font-family: arial;">In politics, we usually view the Left as radical and violent. In other countries, being “radical” and “violent” is something that is welcomed or simply ignored, but in Philippine society, these two words are anathema. We are a very conservative and traditional people.<span> </span>Anything that threatens the way of life that we are used is to something that we should fight. It doesn’t matter if our lives are steeped in inequality and abuse from the ruling class---as long as we get a salary to feed the kids, as long as we live in relative comfort and peace, it doesn’t matter how many people die on the streets fighting for better things that we deserve.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%; font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%; font-family: arial;">I think that is one of the reasons why the leftist elements in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>Philippines</st1:place></st1:country-region> do not receive the support they ought to have. They are fighting for our rights, our future happiness, but most Filipinos ignore this and even respond to it with hostility. Roland Simbulan said that as long as there is oppression, there will be a Left. However, it might be that while there is a Left, it might not gain enough power to fight this oppression effectively and thoroughly due to the lack of support from a majority of the Filipinos.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%; font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%; font-family: arial;">It is easy to say that we don’t support the Left because of the threat from the ruling elite (including the government), but I believe that it is more than that. The Filipinos, as a whole, have become cynical and apathetic throughout the years, especially after Martial Law. We would rather look after ourselves and our families as life becomes harder along with the unstable economy which in turn leads to the loss of a sense of community and social cohesion. It’s hard to think of the greater good, of noble things, when the stomach makes a familiar, painful dance. This hopelessness is harder to fight than the government. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%; font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <span style="font-family: arial;">“Social change does not belong to one group or another, but it has to be the work of the entire people,” says Simbulan. There is no question of the Left having a future since oppression has an uncanny staying power, but there is a question of the Left having a <em>successful</em> future. As long as the masses remain ignorant, cynical, and apathetic to what the Left <em>really</em> stands for (equality and freedom, among other things) the movement will never be truly triumphant.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-44758975722075178102008-02-19T08:57:00.001+08:002008-02-19T08:57:22.882+08:00Love Love<p>I love love. I like seeing people fall in love with each other <em>especially </em>if these people aren't really the sort to fall in love. Okay, okay, maybe it's too early to say it's the four-letter word yet---but my heart is seriously bursting with the news! Have you felt ever your heart burst? This should be my first time. It's so amazingly uplifting to witness two people have a go at romance for the very first time.</p><p> </p><p>When I read the <a href="http://someting.i.ph/blogs/someting/2008/02/14/so-does-this-change-things/#comment-73" target="_blank">complementary</a> <a href="http://uretz.i.ph/blogs/uretz/?p=32" target="_blank">blog posts</a> of my two friends who obviously have a thing for each other, I felt so happy. Why? Because both of them are probably what you'd think to be the last two people to fall in love. It might be difficult to think about it, but when you meet them, you'll know.</p><p><br /><a name='more'></a></p><p><a href="http://someting.i.ph/" target="_blank">Ting </a>is cute and chinito. He's stick thin, but he's the sort of dreamy guy that girls like. He's smart, he spends all his money on books instead of food, and you can talk to him for hours without getting bored (OMG does Liz have a crush on Ting?! OMG!). Seriously, I did have a crush on him last last year, and if I were single right now (which we know would be impossible as I am in love with Marco) and if Ting is fatter and straighter (which we know to be impossible as the man has a fucked-up metabolism and is bisexual), I would totally do him. <a href="http://reighben.i.ph/" target="_blank">Reighben </a>would too. I can't even count how many times Reighben has seduced Ting under my nose---well, the point is, Ting is cool. </p><p> </p><p>However, Ting is also a <em>tuod</em>. He's insensitive. He likes the idea of love, but when the opportunity presents itself he would (and has been) too lazy to follow it up. He has this impossible idea of falling in love (the head over heels sort, the whirlwind romance type, you get the drift) which is why he's never really done it before. </p><p> </p><p>When I first met <a href="http://uretz.i.ph/" target="_blank">Uretz</a>, I thought she was a guy. She usually wears really loose guy pants, big guy shirts, big hoodies, and Chucks. She would call herself anti-social as she is very picky about the people she hangs out with. She has never had a crush before, she sneers at love and thinks that it is impossible. Well what do you know!</p><p> </p><p>So we have two people here who seem to be androgynous, loves anime and video games, wears glasses, looks Chinese, have pale white skin, and even has the same hairstyle for chrissakes. When I saw them together, I was the first to start teasing them. I seriously didn't think it would end up this way but boy am I glad. It's second-hand, but it feels like the first time I fell in love (naks!). You know, the <em>kilig </em>moments, the sugar rush, the cluelessness, the works---you can see how my week is made now.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-58170142954457712972008-02-11T03:55:00.000+08:002008-02-11T08:55:29.236+08:00The Absence of Will<p>The textbook definition of a democracy is a government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Thus, the most important feature of any democracy is a competitive election which reflects the people’s will. The most obvious and direct manifestation of this will is the Congress, wherein we confer the power to make laws to 240 individuals who we trust to represent our interests from the grassroots. The executive and the judiciary serve secondary functions: one administrates and the other judges according to law. This is how a democracy <em>ought to</em> be. Of course, we know that <em>what is</em> is very far from the ideal—in fact, in this case, the ideal does not truly exist in practice anywhere in this big chunk of rock we call Earth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now so what? The point is, don’t feel too bad whenever you hear of news that trample your right to a democracy. Such an emotionally loaded word, democracy, for something that does not exist. What you should really feel bad about is a dictatorship. It is here in the Philippines, right now, and we are letting it happen. </p> <p> <br></p> <p>When we allow the President to remove the Speaker of the House and replace him with a new one, we have a dictatorship. In allowing this, we allow <em>one person</em> to control our country’s law-making body which <em>we</em> voted to represent <em>us</em>. The Executive having the Legislative in its pocket and letting the world know it is a dangerous thing. Yet we let it happen.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, I think it’s not a matter of letting but of not caring and deciding. Apathy and neutrality seem to be reasonable standpoints but both of them contribute positively only to the status quo. You see, not caring or doing anything about an issue is as good as supporting it. Dissent without action is consent, as General Lim is so fond of saying. He forgot to add: inaction, in the very first place, is consent.</p> <p> </p> <p>A popular will precedes a democracy. An absence of will precedes a tyranny.</p> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class='multiply:no_crosspost'></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-50103199866629367702008-01-25T20:06:00.000+08:002008-01-26T01:11:27.226+08:00I Want To Learn Something NewI love clothes and makeup but I'll be the first to tell you this: they're stupid obsessions. True, a new set of quality eyeshadow gives me the happies, but it is a shallow kind of happy. It's temporary and more than a little inane. Lately, this unholy obsession does not make me feel as good as it used to. Therefore, I have to learn a new skill, something more lasting and useful. This skill should make me happy when I receive a stamp of approval from inside myself and not from other people (unlike, say, people's appreciation of my physical appearance).<br /><br />So what else is there to learn? I know how to play the guitar and I've been told I have an okay voice. I used to compose songs. Maybe I should venture into the broken glass-strewn path of creative writing? I could maybe learn some photoshops. Or coding? Or Flash? I could also upgrade my blog I guess. All this is from the top of my head.<br /><br />I have plans, right there. The problem is the will to execute any of them. However, if you ask me what skill I'd like to learn or upgrade more than anything else I named above, it would be my guitar-playing. It's an achievable goal, thanks to the internets. After all these years I still want to play, I still want to make songs, I still want to sing. So there.<br /> <!-- multiply:no_crosspost --><p class="multiply:no_crosspost"></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-46050570903922740082007-12-16T13:13:00.000+08:002007-12-16T13:14:28.766+08:00So-and-so<p>When I fall in love, I can only fall in love more. I am not capable of loving any person less than I have loved this person at any given point in time. When I find no reason to remain in love with someone or when I can't seem to plumb the feeling from anywhere within me, then this person is marked for filing in the cabinets of my past. I have never believed in holding on to people. I try to, but the command (or plea) "hold on" apparently never stuck well in my psyche. </p> <p> </p> <p>Is this wrong, that I can leave people just like, I dunno, that? You must understand that I never ask anyone this simply because I don't really care about what anyone's answers might be. I'd love to hear them, but concern for them is an entirely different thing. I <em>might </em>care, but only in a purely intellectual exercise. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-5625356478483089112007-12-05T23:05:00.000+08:002007-12-05T23:28:54.928+08:00EthicsI'm taking the required Ethics class this semester. I was pretty excited about it, really, because I feel strongly about the subject. But after a few sessions, I am totally disillusioned.<br /><br />The arguments that I expected would come from the professor or my classmates did not materialize. Why?<br /><br />Most of my classmates don't understand what they're talking about and hearing most of the time. We're in UP, christ.<br /><br />The professor simply explains concepts, but that's it. This is this and that is that and class, do you get it? And he gets a bewildered collective nod. The hell. He doesn't challenge his students. Well, I don't feel challenged. I am not saying that he should impose his beliefs on students or that students should impose their beliefs on everybody else, but wouldn't exploring the concept at hand rather than just defining it broaden everyone's understanding? How can one do it? By asking questions. By having their beliefs challenged. Critical thinking should be encouraged.<br /><br />Since the class is 1-2:30 PM, I just almost but not quite fall asleep. I'd rather read the readings, where I actually learn something.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-85191531838808858702007-12-03T10:19:00.000+08:002007-12-03T10:24:41.557+08:00Wet FeetI have having wet feet. It's the worst feeling in the world. Well, that's excluding the feeling of being fat.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-6511708874002674272007-11-27T22:30:00.000+08:002007-11-27T22:55:52.087+08:00Kahel Na PayongThey treaded the dirty street of Pedro Gil carefully because they were sharing only a small umbrella against the cold, grey world pressing towards them promptly at 5:30 PM. The deep screams of vehicles pound from the green light, increasing intensity, and recede into the dark of the rain, borne by the glistening black asphalt. The woman looks up at the glowing red sticks telling the time at the LRT station: six.<br /><br />It wasn't raining hard. But the rain was insistent (which is worse), pattering in billions of little rat feet on a small umbrella shared by two damp people. The man wraps his arm tighter around the woman while adjusting his grip on the cold metal handle of the umbrella.<br /><br />I wondered. When did he do that last?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-78637409212061361142007-11-27T21:10:00.000+08:002007-11-27T23:00:40.452+08:00The DiscoveryWhat do I want more than anything else in the world?<br /><br />That's passion---that feeling when we want something more than anything else in the world. Why is this suddenly so important, you ask. Well, it's a toss-up between Ayn Rand's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Fountainhead</span> and a confusing discussion in ethics class regarding freedom and free will. I waited in Pedro Gil for thirty minutes around 5:30 today in cold rain, and the question of my passion has been running around my head in loops. There's no answer.<br /><br />I'm nineteen, and nineteen-year olds shouldn't ask question like this. Nineteen year-olds should...well, what are nineteen year-olds supposed to do nowadays? Watch television? Mind their books? Have fun with their friends? Wonder about freedom and free will and what they really want to do, fighting the chest-painful feeling that they don't know and might never know, or that once they do know, that brilliant and uplifting feeling of knowing what they want to do for the rest of their lives, they can't?<br /><br />Dominique Francon is one of the characters in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Fountainhead</span>. She is simply described by Rand as "the woman for a man like Howard Roark [a man as man should be]". She spent the first two and a half decade of her life doing things she didn't really want to do. She did them because she knew that if she found someone, or something, that she wants more than anything else in the world, she would destroy it along with herself. Destruction is one of the facets of passion. You can create with it, save the world with it, be happy with it, but in the end you plant the seed of your and the object of your passion's destruction . Once it's taken away or has proven to be unattainable in the first place, this object, you will self-destruct. And you will take this object with you because the world does not deserve it.<br /><br />Howard Roark is an architect, a creator for his own sake. He is the ultimate egotist---he lives for no one but himself. His passion is in designing buildings. I would like to be like him, but that's just silly. People like him only live in books, and if people like him, by accident, live outside of books, they are very rare. I happen to be not one of them. My happiness depends on other people's approval. This truth is one of the most disgusting truths I ever have to accept about myself.<br /><br />I suppose there's no need to hurry about finding what I really want more than anything else in the world. I have a good seventy years ahead of me, if all goes well. Maybe one day, when I'm fifty-two and walking on a busy street, I'll realize that the last fifty-two years of my life has been a waste because I didn't discover my passion earlier. But who cares? I'll save the sinking feeling when I'm fifty-two. Right now, I'm nineteen, and I like my life. I try to do my best regarding the things I care about.<br /><br />A little part of me wants to postpone The Discovery, though. The word <span style="font-style: italic;">destruction </span>leaves a bad taste in my mouth.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-23750418022838808612007-11-24T01:23:00.000+08:002007-11-24T01:46:40.314+08:00A Pain In The ChestI dislike people who overreact. Why? Because it's annoying. We're not in the medieval ages, for chrissakes, with their snuff boxes and salts and corsets. We're in the 21st century when romance is better expressed inside, like muriatic acid eating through a bloated drain. Expressing it otherwise makes whatever it is you're expressing about trite, common, inane. The world is too much nowadays. Making a big deal of it rather insults it.<br /><br />There is this one person, however, whom I know. She overreacts about totally unimportant things. Sometimes it gives me a pain in the chest to watch her do it, and sometimes I watch other people's faces watching her with a kind of embarrassed apology to no one in general, and to themselves specifically, looking as if they have a similar pain in the chest. The feeling of observing her is very close to revulsion, for me. But it's not revulsion. I find her antics charming.<br /><br />She seems to have never grown up. No, no, not in that conscious, offending way that some people do and take pride of. She hit ten and she stopped. That's it. Her boobs grew out, the blood poured out to scratchy napkins every month, but she stopped at ten. She's as self-centered as kids go, but not vain as most teenagers are. It's difficult to dislike her. She says something, and you do a little internal dance somewhere in the duodenum, and smile. Patronizingly, condescendingly, happily, boringly---but you smile. There's nothing else to do.<br /><br />I am cruel when I'm honest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-59716742194488428212007-11-22T22:09:00.000+08:002007-11-22T22:33:39.359+08:00Plagiarist ScumPlagiarists are the scum of the earth. They are way below imitators because unlike imitators who just copy another's work, they claim another's work as their own. Isn't that evil? Let me put it more emotionally: plagiarists steal a piece of a creator's soul. Like Satan, only with sweaty armpits and a bad brand of deodorant.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-27125269389725505312007-11-22T11:15:00.000+08:002007-11-24T01:53:22.373+08:00Suicide<p> </p> <p>Here's a delightfully easy way to kill yourself: get a syringe, any type of syringe. I think you can get one at any Mercury Drug store for less than twenty pesos. With the syringe in hand, pick a healthy, innocent looking vein and inject air in it. Wait for an x period of time until you start to have difficulty breathing, after which you will slowly have the sensation of drowning—but in air. Then you die an utterly clean and (just a little) painful death.</p> <p>Suicide is an in thing nowadays; I wont even elaborate. In fact, it's so in that the evangelist in the church behind our house had a nice little talk regarding it just last Sunday. He said that suicide is evil and that whoever attempts and succeeds in doing it will go to Hell, wherein the person will burn in eternal lake of fire. He said that suicide is a sin because any form of killing any human being is a sin, since god gave us life and it is just plain insolence to take it away with our own hands. Destroying one's self, I think, is the ultimate insult to one's creator (if in fact a creator does exist, and if this creator is amazingly egotistic as the holy books are interpreted to say).</p> <p> </p> <p>Have you ever thought of killing yourself? I haven't. Sure I've had some unbelievably low points in my life as all of us are bound to have sooner or later, and in increasing vehemence, but I've never considered suicide as an option. I don't just love life, I actually like it. There are are many things I'd like to do before I die. I'd like to go to Europe, visit the moon, and have green eyes, and so on. So why kill myself? I understand that other people are not so lucky to live the life I live and thus have the opportunities I have. Some of them resort to killing themselves at twelve or twenty-five or sixty-three and you know what? I think it's perfectly all right to do so.</p> <p> </p> <p>My philosophy is simple: do whatever the hell you want, and I'll do whatever the hell I want. It's not even a philosophy, per se, but a statement of fact. People do whatever the hell they want. Battered women want to stay in violent and unproductive relationships, so they stay. Alcoholics want to get drunk, so they drink and ruin their livers and their lives. People want to die so they kill themselves. Should we stop these people? We could, if we want to, else we leave them alone and keep the condolence to ourselves. The world is a battleground between what any number of people want and don't want. Join in if you feel like it. If you don't, then you'd best keep to the conflicts you care about.</p><p>So you want to kill yourself? Okay. It's your choice, a conscious decision. Whatever rocks your boat.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-2261333616450236482007-11-19T10:28:00.000+08:002007-11-19T10:31:27.449+08:00Kidney Kidney Don't Leave Home Without It<p align="justify">Do you know how much you'll get if you sell one of your kidneys? Around P200, 000 minus the P30, 000 referral fee you pay to your agent (if you have any). That leaves you with P170, 000 which can buy you a secondhand car, a small franchise business, a few months' rental in one of Divisoria's malls plus the merchandise, around 8,500 bottles of C2 Green Tea, fourteen years of broadband internet connection, or 1,700 McDonald's quarter pounder value meals—you get the drift. One-seventy grand is a big, big thing compared to a relatively small and useless other kidney.</p><p align="justify"><br /></p> <p align="justify"> </p> <p align="justify">Just a while ago, I was watching Jessica Soho's report on rampant kidney selling among our poorer countrymen. The report emphasized that besides being illegal, it is immoral and unethical. We can also put it this way: selling one's kidney is immoral and unethical, therefore it is illegal. As such reports go, however, the words <em>immoral </em>and <em>unethical </em>are not clearly defined. Their framework has something to do with <em>donating </em>one's kidney rather than selling it is a good thing, that exploiting the poor is a bad thing, and that showing fresh-ish, scabbing surgical wounds on television every other second or so is cool. That's it.</p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify">Let us use a more concrete framework to determine what is ethical or moral: a capitalist one. Capitalism is a very impersonal market structure. In its purer forms, it doesn't care shit about parity or poverty eradication—its main concern is efficiency in allocation, the achievement of equilibrium between supply and demand. Now this is the situation: a woman will die if she does not have a kidney compatible with her body. Another woman's family is starving. Both women need something very badly. One has money but is dying, the other is dirt poor but has a compatible kidney which can extend a life. In a capitalist framework, the most logical, efficient, ethical, moral way to solve this dilemma is the facilitation of a kidney sale. Supply and demand are met. One goes home two hundred grand lighter and the other a kidney less. Everybody happy. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-82670382124348149352007-11-07T00:16:00.000+08:002007-11-07T01:05:17.884+08:00I Obviously Like This Picture Huh?<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizlan/1890804746/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2146/1890804746_861db8ef44_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="DSC02029" /></a><br /><br />Yep.<br /><br />I just re-read Richard Bach's <span style="font-style: italic;">Illusions</span>. A biplane pilot who sells rides for three dollars ten minutes meets a real life messiah who was a mechanic. They become friends, and before the messiah dies a gruesome death (as is fashionable with messiahs), he teaches the pilot to become a messiah himself. Well, it's still a wholly likable book for people who can stand philosophical slash New Age crap---and I can. Stand it. Some quotations I can't stand, however, like<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">You are led</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">through your lifetime</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">by the inner learning creature,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">the playful spiritual being</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">that is your real self.</span><br /><br />Gods. If I wrote something like this and meant it to the very bottom of the abyss of my heart, I shall not be able to live with myself. It makes me cringe and whimper deep inside. It's supposed to be from the fictional Messiah's Handbook in the novel which contains various quotes/instructions on how to be a messiah. Hm, if I have to think that way in order to be a messiah, no thanks. I suppose turning water into wine is more my thing.<br /><br />The book is passable, but it is pretentious as most books go. Add some few notches in the average pretentious meter though and you'll get a better picture. It could be your ultimate solipsist's handbook, if you may, and it could also be rather helpful. Not by much if you believe in god though.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">truth you</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">speak has no past</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">and future</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It is, </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">and that's all it</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">needs to be. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-57530327423982049722007-11-02T12:14:00.000+08:002007-11-24T01:55:18.243+08:00Why I am not yet an atheist<p> </p> <p>I have an atheist friend. He's gay. He kisses his cute boyfriend in public and kisses harder when people give them The Look. He's an intelligent person and he spends thousand of pesos on hardbound books with topics ranging from evolution to political science . He would probably hate me for mentioning this, but about a year ago he is a raving, spittle-showering Catholic zealot. We were not friends then.</p> <p>Now that I mention it, my closer friends are either atheist or agnostic. People who are sure that a god or gods exist tend to make my right eyebrow shoot up. How can you be sure? How can you possibly be sure about things like this? I ask. Sometimes, the person tells me that he's just not sure, he <span style="font-style: italic;">knows </span>god exists<span style="font-style: italic;">. </span>Sometimes the person tells me that it doesn't matter if god in fact does not exist—humans need a god. Pascal's wager. Or I'm told god is love. I don't lose respect for people who think like this, but I tend to bury their religious beliefs deep in my subconscious. I'm just not a god person. Period.</p><p>I guess I was moderately religious when I was a kid, but then I became addicted to reading. It can be traced to the fact that I only learned to read at seven years old. Can you imagine the frustration, being the only one in your class who can't understand the white squiggles on the green board? By ten I started reading adult fiction. I consumed books as if they were food. Somewhere between ten and sixteen, I became a confused relativist and started questioning the existence of god. Having too many voices in your head while reading books could make you realize that there is no such thing as a universal truth. And one such universal truth that people have been postulating for thousands of years is the concept of god.</p> <p> </p> <p>An all-seeing, all-knowing, vain, cruel and fickle god is something I definitely do not believe in. I think that the Bible is a valuable literary and historical manuscript but that's it. Religion is mostly a pain in the ass but I think our civilization will eventually outgrow its need of it. I go to church (when forced to) but it's not something I hate as most churches in the country are beautiful places with interesting histories. So. By all intents and purposes, I seem to be an atheist. But I'm not.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why? Well, that's a good question. I'll get back to you in a couple of years when I have my answer. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-42257041491854108132007-10-18T23:04:00.000+08:002007-10-18T23:15:22.853+08:00StalkingOh shit, I can't write. I can't write anything worthwhile anymore. I'm starting to worry because...because....well, my other blog is dying. I don't have any more useful inputs. I can't think of anything, I can't write anything, I don't know why. Gods I sure hope this is temporary. Sigh.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-34920241120697915082007-10-07T02:30:00.000+08:002007-10-07T02:47:06.922+08:00Tomorrow We Can Drive Around This TownI can't get enough of Hit the Lights's <span style="font-style: italic;">Hey Jealousy</span>. Don't get me wrong, I like the version of Gin Blossoms---but I love upbeat. Upgrade upbeat into something more upbeat and you've got me hooked.<br /><br />Something I also don't get tired of is K's Choice. I have their whole discography, I'm listening to it now, I'm rediscovering them. I didn't know that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Almost Happy </span>I know is just an "acoustic" version of something more...well, upbeat would be the word for it.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">and i don't know what you want</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> cos you don't know so</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> what's the point of asking?</span><br /><br />Well, the point of asking can be something as mundane as having something to do. I like asking questions, even if they don't have answers. It's something to do to fill in the dead air. <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13965175.post-45904483106322847122007-10-01T23:14:00.000+08:002007-10-01T23:29:49.108+08:00VibrationI'm supposed to talk about how my schedule for next semester sucks. Suddenly though, I don't have the energy to rant. I don't have the energy for much these days. It's just like dragging your feet left, right, left, right, kshh, right, slump. It's like waking up wanting to go back to bed again because you know the day ahead is just like the day tomorrow---dreary.<br /><br />I was dreaming when the phone vibrated somewhere below my ribs. It was a bad dream, as lately I am wont to have. It was raining torrents and the water started to rise; I was panicking again. I was trying to save my stuff from the clutches of the cold, muddy water when I saw the plug of my desk lamp spark and then burn up the floor. Water and fire. Incessant vibration below my ribs.<br /><br />"Hello?" I ask.<br />"Hi luffles," he says.<br />"Hey luff," I say.<br /><br />And thus Murphy's Law was thwarted.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0