a pastiche that is my theory

people respond to incentives more than to prices.

that i have to prove further but so far it seems true.
think evian or voss or that one million dollar homepage or that starbucks planner which i think i'm giving up.

and why does it matter?
because people believe they are in a modern world when i'd rather think i'm in a postmodern world. rationality and disenchantment and bureacracy are in the modern world. it is sad.

why?
because it leads to an evacuation of meaning. a rational-legal authority seems to coerce everyone to consume in a certain way. it's no longer the price that determines a product's success.

a postmodern world has room for my gut feelings, my intuition. gladwell insists these seemingly irrational bursts of thought are rational but i have yet to finish his book called blink so we'll see. a postmodern world has room for enchantment, reenchantment even.

when one thinks everyone is jaded- almost everyone in enchanted kingdom looked disenchanted yesterday, eeky e.k really thanks to poor maintennance and hyperconsumption [but i had lots of fun with you guys! it's always a laugh trip with strainers!], a postmodern world provides hope:

that it is the non-rational, the irrational, the ambiguous, the contradictory, the Mystery that we all live for.

'tis a new year. May you all welcome it with a Bang!

'tis All goods

i miss my mom

times like this, she really is good at handling.
times where tensions are high and you don't know who to side-
she who is right or she who needs you.

but i'm learning. and i must say even if the situation is totally not something laughable or funny, i find it very amusing, entertaining even. more than i'll ever admit in front of these people involved.
but it's all good.

and i just found a place where i could spend good money. good
and i just found this book from the library on consumerism and while i was waiting in line for the cashier earlier i realized that i do feel good when consuming. even if i'm not the person who is supposed to consume as much as i actually am consuming. sad but true. one can be disenchanted with how everything is so commercialized but one continues on consuming and be enchanted by things one needs or wants. it is a weird phenomenon and it's the premise of the book.

we'll see. tomorrow we visit enchanted kingdom with strains. one "cathedral of consumption"

lisnin to acceleracers.
sortof readin enchanting a disenchanted world: revolutionizing the means of consumption
feelin kinda uneasy but working on it

thinking and surfing

i've been doin a lot of both lately.
thinking, with the couple of books i've been reading lately.
malcolm gladwell and edward de bono sure articulated what i was trying to gather in my head all this time.

surfing the net too, turns out my uncle tripled the net speed here. pretty cool.
it also makes me less patient when using the internet.

such as when my delicious site couldn't store all the sites i want to store
so i put them here

Inside Higher Ed: What they don't teach you at graduate school
cause im lookin forward to my dissertation even if i'm still not settled on which school of thought to pursue and

Nothing Something
cause some of the pages are pretty.


such as when my froogle site couldn't find all the products i want on my list
so i put them here

that Maloo laptop case, helps you forget the boring black bag laptops always come with or that Chip Twirl Tee plus those Loch Ness Imposter and Comma Sutra T-shirts all from
Uncrate

worlds sure got lots to offer

i am eighteen

and Christmas still beats my birthdays
by a long shot.

and i do love love love my birthdays.
it's just different when nations are celebrating with you
a merry Christmas

really rolling along

my concept of doing nothing is really not hakuna matata.
i still worry. i use it to anticipate every single bad scenario that may occur before an event takes place. whatever happens after, that's where doing nothing comes in.

and it sure worked for blueREP carols 2005.
i admit, there were times i would think why i thought it would work.
commitment was zero
attendance was never better than ok
some villages weren't helping
miscommunication was everywhere

even my text messages weren't easy to understand and
people would very reasonably back out

but
tonight at pearl's with everyone else was fun. seriously totally fun.
at least for me.

which means, at least for me, i've reached the very goals i've set when i first agreed to sorta manage the activity. this is a merry Christmas and there are a lot of good people to thank for

lisnin to fly or die. n.e.r.d's album, thanks pineds
sortof readin freakonomics, thanks ren
feelin kinda satisfied. Christmas is not just one day

a season to Love

a problem is the difference between what one has and what one wants.

and so declares edward de bono in his book called lateral thinking. he believes one should search for other alternatives for searching's sake. even if one has encountered a promising alternative already or an insight. even if it may take more time.

we shall see if it works.

bea of galian read a beautiful poem earlier during the campus ministry office's serenade. it was very light and true and made God somewhat closer, more tangible, more there.
we got to sing songs too and the feeling was great. Christmas was suddenly felt by me, really.

plus that December breeze.
Christmas sure is that time of the year
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
[i heard you have to be cautious every time you say that greeting when you're in the first world]
this makes living in the Philippines a tad better

for the love of lj

ponder construction
on livejournal

on doing Nothing yet again

yes, to "do nothing" seems so passive as a philosophy.
and with the gazillion things going on in my life right now and the more than a gazillion choices waiting to be chosen, that way of thinking just doesn't seem to apply.

and so i put more thought into it.
and so i realize that that way of thinking is more of a post-event thing
and so it ain't my way of looking at life as a whole but my idea of how to look at this certain huge part of life
and so here's what i think:

my notion of
doing Nothing applies only when making a reaction, thus something has to happen first before i decide to do nothing. that something is not limited to those influenced by external factors, it could be my own personal decision or will with seemingly no logical basis whatsoever.

doing Nothing may then be defined as that. doing something that seems so illogical that i cannot seem to personally explain my actions. this may be because something [or someone] convinces me with a seemingly illogical idea to do such an action and so i do nothing but be convinced

with those
i now can say i do have huge control over my life.
insisting that i do nothing my entire life [with however i try to define doing nothing] kills the fact that i do have the power to decide and proves that i am independent from that something [or someone] that is so good at convincing me on how to react. that certain something or someone that i strongly rely upon

and so
yes! i do something.
in fact it even seems i'm planning to do everything, which is crazy but that certain something or someone has a very good way of stopping me from doing everything


whew.
clarifying that feels good.
my delicious page is now good too

health makes me hungry

magazines are an easy read

here are the sites i found from men's health

Fit Day helps you organize all the foods you've eaten, its effects and how to go about it or something like that. i have yet to really use it

Old Ways is a food issues think tank. maybe i'll find out whether i really should lower my carbs

Hungover is not a porn site. it offers cures for hangovers, from gatorade to garlic juice. it may come in handy

now i want a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk.
thank God for helping me with our theology paper.

this year's nobel peace prize laureate, the international atomic energy agency led by its director-general, was asked on cnn live if he could change the world. his reply

yes, if you help me

one suddenly finds hope
despite the assholes in power
despite apathy towards apathy

it really is a "for me" weekend.

two hours after that, i still am online
and found myself laughing thanks to

some of the funniest ads i've ever seen
from the big[carlton drought] to the corny[ikea] to the whoa [science world's handshaking spreads more germs than kissing] to the funny [toyota vios]
also thanks to fimoculous

12 hours later after working on our leadership&strategy project and touching on our theology project, i found myself bloghopping and
thanks to annabelle:















plus one flushed with emotion




















on other things
stephen hawking was asked for the new york times if humans will ever live on a planet besides Earth, his reply

yes, if we don't self-destruct first

tihee. what a weekend

four hours later
the beijing makeover on the discovery channel, school of rock on hbo and will&grace
all at the same time.

oh My

thanks to mother nature
i found myself reading at powerbooks shang,
between bumping on tricia [again] and a peppermint brownie

to choose doubt as a philosophy of life
is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation
-Life of Pi

managed to read up to chapter 39, how very inexpensive.
and with that i managed to fulfill a promise i made to myself this morning-
a few hours free of work, a few hours full of "for me"s

life is beautiful. and so are those fireworks

a tendency to go beyond

a system can be very annoying sometimes
and it's not about the time and how you waste it
nor the money and how you spend it
nor the energy and how you lose it

but more of the people and how they bug you.
and i know i am almost always annoying too

but since these words are mine and are for me,
allow me to say how some things can be very annoying

sometimes people you'd rather not stare at would constantly stare at you
sometimes one can never know when and how to end
sometimes i realize i'm actually living a life [and this one ain't annoying, it's the fact that others don't seem to realize this fact that is annoying]
sometimes asking for an umbrella is nice, other times it ain't
sometimes a mere hello overdone or a mere presence unusually trying hard to be felt

especially when it already was one great productive week.
thank God for real friends
and sites where you can listen to good relaxing music for free

lisnin to buddha's last tea party on CD Baby, a site pineds talked about. they have categories like music you can "have sex to" or "unrequited love songs" with a funny "You can't make a person love you, but at least you can listen to songs about how no one else can either." line under. BLT Party is under general relaxation and meditation, something i really need by sunday
sortof readin the native sky, a free book from the orp. it's about jose rizal
feelin kinda giddy. i'll be off for the philippine educators for the environment conference in a few

why is this Funny to me

so Jason Mraz will be here on the 21st next month.
hmmm

orange lampposts i find very dislikeable.
blood on the shang comfort room floor. poor guy
cutting class and staying in the library instead isn't so bad
looking lost and stupid while trying to learn choreo is ok
literally at my toes all day

so interesting

lisnin to nerd's wonderful place
sortof readin postgraduate scholarships
feelin kinda clouded. sleep shall clear things

why's some riding the song
why is this funny to me
you may not understand
why there's a smile on my face
it's cause this world could be
such a wonderful place

sweet Musings

by Rahner on transendence for theology.
impressive how one can articulate hope and infinity and whatnot so well.
everything suddenly makes perfect sense


sweet charity choreography is real sweet too
and crazy
plus lotsa sweat. sweet



















and just when you thought you've ran out of designs for posters, pins and whatnot for the upcoming lex business week, you get inspired once again.
sweet

this chocolate ice cream is sweet.
the staff and most employees of the Ateneo have been real sweet lately too.
i wonder if the employees in the real world are as nice.

congratulations to team philippines. for the sea games
victory is sweet

lisnin to tilt ya head back
sortof readin medieval stuff
feelin kinda fat. too many sweets

dream interviewee: Calvin

of Calvin & Hobbes

and this one i just had to share.
it sure is a slap on our face








from the Calvin & Hobbes Snow Art Gallery

fully Booked

in every sense of the term

one of the many things i like about being in the Ateneo-
it made me appreciate books once again.

yes, books.

how i disliked bringing books to and from my high school.
but back in my grade school years, i used to bring the books needed for the entire week everyday. even if i don't need them, i'll always say "just in case"

and that attitude is back.
maybe not to textbooks or workbooks anymore
but still to children's books, reference books, non-fiction books, books of fiction. anything i'd find interesting. even e-books, thanks to gutenberg, where you can download full soft copies of a lot of good books, legal and free.

from the art of war to blink to memoirs of a geisha to the missing piece meets the big o to org development and transformation to the wealth of nations to the proslogion

and i haven't finished most of them yet. which is sad cause i sound so proud right now attributing myself to these great works of literature. but it's all good. now reason and knowing has a deeper meaning to me thanks to a number of things

and for that other definition of the phrase-
yes my days are full. not yet to the brim
but relatively more loaded than normal

yes, they allowed me to be one of the hosts for this conference next week
yes, imman asked me to be associate commissioner for comelec promotions
yes, ceo calls each of us core heads for lex' snipe business week
yes, my strains' musmos engagement requirements i've just finished turning over to arianne for editing
yes, they agreed to reschedule my interview for the placement representative position

yes, i'm bragging. i also put them here so that i be accountable. in case i forget that all of these require a certain dose of commitment.

it's all good cause God is good.

lisnin to sweet charity, 1966 and 2005. blocking for acts 1 and 2 just finished. deadly choreography awaits for all of us next week
sortof readin a trainer's guide to the team-building workshop
feelin kinda productive

other minds

life has been real cool lately-
threats and opportunities popping out left and right

let's mind others':

the superpower through america's finest news source,
the onion's hilarious headlines

CIA realizes it's been using black highlighter all these years

Terrorist has no idea what to do with all this plutonium

Mythbusters team struck down by Zeus

Unregistered sex offender notifies neighbors his own way

Yahoo launches soul-searching engine

Study finds sexism rampant in nature

Iraqi constitution ratified, burned

Evangelical scientists refute gravity with new 'intelligent falling' theory

this last one i find interesting. there's this intelligent design debate going on and it raises questions on how schools should teach creation and evolution, how science and religion can clash.

lives full of drama [as if a good number of my friends don't have enough already], through postSecret













and mcsweeney's funny take on apple. jon fitch's essay entitled the iPod Zepto: Inconceivably Small. complete with troubleshooting guidelines

lisnin to chicago, the original broadway recording. thanks glenda
sortof readin ac nielsen reports
feelin kinda inspired