Actually.....

Sometimes you just have to develop a very thick hide if you want to remain sane.  You cannot let every negative thing that you see or negative comment that you hear affect you. 

You must learn when to open yourself up and when to close the gates down. 

It's always up to you to filter the times when you can be vulnerable and when to raise your wall up to shield yourself from those which you deem might hurt you.

In the end, it always falls on you what you choose to take in and what you let slide.



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Green Grass

They say that the grass is always greener on the other side, or so it may seem.  Sometimes in our lives, we reach a point, specially during problematic times that we think that our lives suck and that we want to exchange places with another person who seems to have gotten the longer end the stick.

I can't count how many times I've said:  I wish I were that person or that person is very lucky and I wouldn't mind trading lives with him/her.  I know that it's not healthy to compare yourself with others because it would only be a cause of frustration and that the only guage that should be used to rate success is the personal feeling of fulfillment.  Ideally, this should be the case, but unfortunately as flawed human beings, who live within the context of a society, we cannot help but view ourselves juxtaposed with others and find several points of comparisson.  It is inevitable.  As social beings, our views of oursleves will always be in relation with how we view others. 

So how do I go about it when I find myself comparing my life with others and sometimes wanting to trade places with them?

This is my realizition:
I may sometimes want to exchange places with another person because it may seem that they have better lives , but on the other hand, there's also other persons out there who want to trade places with me because they think that my life is better than theirs.

It's just a matter of perspective.

I realized that the grass is not necessarily always greener on the otherside.

I may view the grass on the other side as greener but, there's also another person who thinks that the grass on my side is greener.

I may sometimes feel that my life sucks, but another person out there sees it differently and thinks that I'm very blessed.

I just have to borrow that other person's perspective and see the good things in my life.

This is how I learned to appreciate my life no matter what, and see that the grass on my side is green and it's enough.



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We are all Meat

If I would decide to be a vegetarian, It wouldn’t be because I believed that eating animals is wrong.  I don’t think that eating animals is a form of cruelty because if this is the case, then God wouldn’t have created carnivorous creatures.  He wouldn’t have given some animals instincts to eat other animals.  Eating animals is just a part of the natural order of things, the food chain.  Just watch any other nature show and see how lions hunt and you will see how nature really works. It’s all about survival and the balance of nature i.e. the natural order of things.  I am however against the inhumane treatment of animals.  Foie gras tastes good, but I decided to stop eating it because I don’t believe in the ways that they utilize i.e. force feeding ducks to make their livers fat.  I am also against using fur for clothes because we have the technology to create other forms of fabrics from other sources like plants  and synthetic fibres.  Maybe in the past when our ancestors have no other means for warmth, is killing animals for fur acceptable, but now, fur should belong back to animals and not to humans.  I am also against testing cosmetics on animals.  They shouldn’t pay for man’s quest for artificial beauty. I am however still weighing my opinion regarding testing medical products on animals. If it would be the way to cure cancer, aids and other currently incurable diseases and there are really no other means to reach that goal other than testing it on animals, I might consider it if it would save millions of lives.  I respect vegans for choosing not to eat and use animal products because of their compassion, but I don’t think that I would be a monster if I choose to eat animals.  I would just be like the lion, trying to sustain my body’s needs for nutrition.  If they are really animal lovers, would they call lions evil for eating other animals? It’s just the natural order of things, or if you would want to go Disney  on it, It’s THE CIRCLE OF LIFE.  After all, when we die, we would also be food for worms and bacteria……WE ARE ALL MEAT.


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Reasonable Faith

I just don’t understand how some people can be so dogmatic that they close their minds to a point of being unreasonable. Do our beliefs sometimes hinder us from true understanding? Some people justify their close mindedness in the name of “faith.” They say when reason ends, faith begins…But I think that our faith should be reasonable. It shouldn't be based on some crazy fanatics notion of what he thinks is right. Our God is a God of reason. We can see this by looking at the order in the universe. Each and every part of our universe is inter-related. Everything fits to make a perfectly working world. They even say that our existence is a perfect mathematical equation down to the last one and zero. I mean the world is just a refection of it’s maker, a Being of intellect and reason. It should be that we should also strive to follow suit and make our beliefs reflect that which we believe in or in this case He/She Whom we believe in.


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The other side

They say that the EARLY bird catches the worm, but on the other hand, you could also postulate that the LATE worm evades being caught by the early bird. So which is better, being early or being late? It's just a matter of perspective.


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Hope

Sometimes, you are presented with situations way beyond your control, where you feel utterly powerless about the outcome of things.  You wait and wait for everything to be better but it's like driving on a foggy highway with zero visibility.  You wish to see even a slight glimmer, but you only see darkness ahead.  What do you do?

Here's my answer:  As much as I am tempted to sulk around and feel bad about my situation, I try really really really hard to think positive.  Hope will be my saving grace.  The night is always darkest before dawn.  Soon enough the sun will smile at me and everything will be OK.


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Expecting the unexpected

There's a saying: "Expect the Unexpected."

It got me thinking. If I expect the unexpected, then does this make the unexpected expected since I expected it?

If this is so, then this saying cancels itself out.  If something unexpected is expected, then it makes the unexpected expected.


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Non-Choice

Even if I choose not to decide, I still have made a choice. So my choosing not to decide is in reality still a decision not to make any decisions. So I still made a decision and still made a choice even if I categorically have chosen and decided no too.

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Visual Candy

These are the videos that are currently on heavy rotation in my youtube playlist. I just love the whole feel of these videos. The visuals totally fit my sensibilities and the emotions that they impart tickle my soul.

Final Distance by Utada Hikaru
This has been my most favorite video for a few years already and no other video has caught my fancy enough to replace it's position.



Dog days are over 2010 version by Florence and the Machine
The beats just make my heart go thump thump.



Perfume by Voice
This is just the cutest video that I've ever seen. Makes me smile everytime I watch it.



Cigarettes will Kill You - Australian version by Ben Lee
Ben Lee gives off that offbeat geek vibe...I can so relate :)




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Namedroppers schnamedroppers phooooew!

I hate it when people namedrop or use other people's names to make it seem that they belong to the crème de la crème.  It just validates that they themselves don't see the merit of their own person.  It shows that they don't think that they are enough and that they need to point out their connection to certain people just to make it seem that they matter.  It's just pitiful.


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Patience!

It's hard to be patient sometimes, but there are just some situations that are totally out of our hands.  There are some events that we have totally no control of whatsoever.  The only thing to do is wait and see what will happen.  There's no point in fussing about it because no matter how much we stress ourselves, the outcome would still be something beyond our influence.


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Nuthin

I'm not the kind of artist that paints trees, waterfalls, rice fields and all that scenery stuff just so that people would like my work.  I don't even like using one medium.  I'm more of an express that emotion in a graphic way in mixed media kind of guy.  I'm more of the "I paint for myself and no one else and I don't care if you like it or hate it."  I'm still sort of part of the "idealistic youth" who live in dreams, only remove the youth part coz I may be young at heart, but I don't think I fall in that category anymore agewise.

I paint like this:

But as time goes by, as I was tought by time and circumstance, I realized that sometimes you have to be practical.  Okay, so it's really un-artist-like to sacrifice art in the name of practicality but in real life, most artists really do starve. 

This is the reason why I didn't choose art to be my cash cow in life, because I don't want to desecrate my art.  I have a day job and only do my art for self satisfaction and not as a means of income.

I don't want to sell out.

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Spirituality

I think the greatest adversary of organized religion is the thinking mind.  But this is not entirely bad because God wouldn't have given us the capacity for reason if he didn't intend for us to use it.  I'm glad people are becoming aware that they could ask questions about their religion, inquire and not just believe because someone said so.  Great faith comes from great belief, and true believing is the fruit of a mind that understands the wisdom behind what they believe in.

I'm glad we are becoming aware that people have different beliefs and try to RESPECT these, otherwise "zealots" would still be burning people on the stake accused of practicing beliefs other than theirs or stoning people to death just because they "sinned".........oh yeah on some parts of the world they still do that.  ON SOME PARTS of the world, yes, but fortunately, a greater majority is starting to become enlightened.

I for myself believe in ONE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE that is the heart of true spirituality, and this is LOVE.  Unconditional Love, that which comes from the desire for everyone's well being.  Love for God (or a Supreme Being, in whatever form as long as This Being is the embodiment of Love), Love for one's neighbor, Love for one's self and Love for all creation.

For me, Religion is not neccessarily synonymous to Spirituality.  Religion is more based on RIGID rules and rituals as opposed to Spirituality, which is more of an expression of one's desire to be with the profound.

Sometimes religion becomes a deterrent to true spirituality because it causes scism, debates, fights and even great wars.  Just look back on mankinds history and you will see wars waged in the name of their respective gods believing that they are the only source of truth. 

Atrocious acts commited being justified by closed minded people thinking that what they do is right.  Usurpation of power and wealth, political machinations, murder and even genocide, these were the themes of the religious wars in the past, and on some degree is what is also happening in some parts of the world today.  All of this in the name of their belief that their religion holds the monopoly of truth. 

I'm wondering what God thinks about all of this.  I don't think that [He-She] is pleased.

I think that God would be more pleased with a sincere heart that Loves, Respects and seeks Peace as opposed to a denomination that thinks that they hold the monopoly of truth and do acts to assert their beliefs which results in harming others.

True spirituality is LOVE LOVE LOVE!

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Guilt

The feeling of guilt is not something negative.

It is a clear sign of having moral fiber.

Remorse for acts that we committed that we view as unjust to ourselves or some other entity is healthy if  acted upon with clear intentions.

Guilt opens the door for forgiveness and retrubution.....if and only if we decide to do the right thing in the end.


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Realization

I'm on a pensieve mood today.

I just realized that God allowed some of the trials in my life to somewhat break me, so that he could rebuild and renovate my spirit to become a better version of itself.

I may act like I'm just easily soaring over life's hurdles, but my inner dimension is like a deep abyss with millions of ripples dancing on the surface.

I'm a very introspective person, sometimes even too critical with myself, my environment, and on how I interact with my environment.  Mix this analytical attitude with a well developed sense of empathy and the product would be a big ball of raw nerves - feeling, thinking, feeling and thinking, thinking and feeling ad infinitum.

It's a two edged sword.

On one hand, it is very helpful for personal development.  On the other hand, in excess, it could lead you towards the road to insanity.  (Well, being an artistic person, I think I'm partially crazy anyway because this is what makes me think about outrageous out of the box ideas and principles that would make people say "he's such a weirdo" and this monicker is a welcomed one because I'd rather be coined weird than boring as dirt) - ok now back to the program....

I'm just thankful that God gave me the capacity to harness His gift of an introspective mind with an empathic heart because through this, I'm slowly but definitely on my way to be the person I'm meant to be, which is a refleciton of the seed of God's image placed within everyone's being.

Trials may hurt me more than the usual because I think and feel more than what is usual as well, but for me, this also opens a wider door towards greater healing if welcomed with an open mind and heart.

So far so good.  I'm glad that the storms I encountered didn't uproot me but moreso challenged me to let my roots sink deeper.  I'm solid, as of now.......

Blank

I wasn't able to write about anything the past weeks because a lot of things are happenning in my life, and I can't seem to catch up and sort out the stuff that I want to focus on and write about.

I'm not really overwhelmed, I'm just physically tired at the end of each day and I can't muster enough drive to force my brain to spew out ideas worth sharing.

There's a scarcity of interesting "brain farts" lately.

I don't want to force myself to write just for the sake of meeting my challenge to myself that I would try to write everyday.

I don't want blogging to be a chore.

Anyways, I'm doing this for me and I don't think it would be penultimately fruitful for my being to force myself to write even if not really in the mood to.

I want this process to be enjoyable, and that's just basically it!



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These koi are not coy (pun intended)

I'm too lazy to write anything today so I decided to just post some photos I took earlier this year.

I call this series  "These koi are not coy (pun intended)"

Think Positive!

Ok, so I'm studying a new language (finnish/suomea), which is a fairly difficult language to learn if you are used to english grammar since there are a lot of differences in their sentence construction.

My basic motivation in trying to learn as fast as I could is that I know that it would be very useful to at least know the basics before I go finland.

How do I condition my brain to be receptive?  I try to make it as enjoyable for me as possible, considering the fact that at the end of every class, I feel as though my head is throbbing, filled to the brim with crammed knowledge. I just try to look at it with rose colored glasses, being thankful that in 3 weeks time, there is a considerable amount of quantifiable progress in my studies.

I just try to have a positive attitude about it by focusing on my goals instead on noticing the hurdles that I have to go through along the way. 

Always think positive!


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Question...

Some say that eating meat is murder, so we shouldn't eat meat.

Lions and Tigers eat meat.  Should we prevent them from eating meat if it is part of their nature to do so?

I think eating meat for nutrition is not wrong. Our body needs the animal proteins that we get from meat that no other alternative like plant proteins can provide. 

Eating meat is natural.  It is a means for proper nourishment.  If you are doubting this, go near a lion and see for yourself.

I am not against the humane butchery of animals for nourishment, a big emphasis on HUMANE.

I am however against the killing of animals for fur or the use of animals for testing new beauty products. 

Killing for fashion is a BIG NO NO. 

Fur is murder.  This statement I totally believe in.

There are a lot of synthetic alternatives to fur nowadays because of technology, and the rationale that fur is needed for warmth is passe already. 

Fashion and Nutrition are worlds apart reasons for killing animals.

Nutrition is neccessary.

Fashion is not.



p.s.
 
My only consideration for not eating some meat products is if they are procured through inhumane methods like Foie Gras, which I think is torture to animals and is absolutely unnecessary to satisfy our palate.


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Good Morning World!

There are just those days when you wake-up on a super good mood, as if everything in the world and in your life is perfect.  This is one of those days.  Actually, I'm trying to make a conscious effort to start of my days on a positive note.  Why?  Because I only want to attract positivity in my life. 

WOW!

This group is out of this world.  Watch to appreciate.

Bus Ride Seatmate from Hell

Today was one of my worst bus rides ever. 

The middle aged man who sat beside me was intolerably smelly.  I don't want to seem to be too snooty about it, but I'm merely stating a fact.  He reeked of sweat and smoke mixed with "old man cologne."  I'm not too finicky about odors because I can tolerate the smell of a dead rat, but the guy had a really odd stench about him.

He then opened a big bag of chips and munched on it noisily like gravel being pureed in a blender, occasionally flicking the crumbs from his lap using the back of his hand unintentionally onto my left shoe.  Then, he wiped snot from his nose with the same hand he uses in getting the chips from the bag to his mouth, wiped it on his sleeve and continued eating without washing his hand or even using some sanitized wipes.  Yuck!  After he finished eating, he just threw the empty wrapper under our seat.  Oh my gulay, what an a-hole!  He just threw his trash inside the bus without even batting an eyelash.

I think because he was already full from the chips that he ate, he felt sleepy, so the guy dozed off with his mouth slightly open, saliva slowly trickling down the right side of his mouth.  His head was bobbing left to right hitting my shoulder occasionally.  He looked like the dog hood ornament with the bobbing head found on the dashboard of most pinoy taxi cabs.

When he woke up, he started singing with the video being shown on the bus' TV/DVD (a pirated video of Jovit Baldovino singing in the grand finals of Pilipinas Got Talent.)  He wasn't even conscious of the people around him. He just sang as if he was in some dingy videoke bar.  Unfortunately, my Ipod's sound was not strong enough the drown out this man's impromptu concert.

Never in my whole life have I encountered a fellow commuter that is like a troglodyte, consciously or unconsciously doing stuff that would irritate any person that has manners and knows how to properly behave in public.

I really had a horrendous commute this morning because of that guy's lack of common social sensibilities.  His odd stench was just the cherry on top of a very horrible tasting ice cream.

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Hyperdrive

My brain is on hyperdrive the past few days. There has been a steady stream of external stimuli and information as well as my very own personal thoughts, that has been flooding my mind.  This makes it harder for me to process my opinions and feelings about these matters on my usual pace.  Information overload plus my unintentional tendency to overanalyze makes it harder to sort out thoughts and opinions that I want to focus on and write here, hence the lack of blog entries the past few days.  Too much choices most of the time results in choice parlysis and I'm finding it hard to choose a topic to write about, so decided to write about me finding it hard to choose a topic to write about.  :P

I promised myself to try and write at least once a day to help me develop my writing skills, but unfortunately, am not able to tap on my computer's keys for this purpose.

Hopefully I would be able to write daily.  Fingers crossed. :)

Progression

I love taking photos of the same subject but with progressing depth. It's like zooming in or zooming out of a certain scene.

Click photo to enlarge - to appreciate the details

Okay so the last photo is out of proportion because of the posting limitations of blogger.  Just click the photo to see the right photo width. :)

The Streets

I love doing street photography. I'm existentially stimulated by capturing real people candidly doing what they do. Makes me think about my life and the lessons I've learned in my 29 years of living here on earth.

While riding our car on the way to A.Mabini for my finnish language classes, I decided to take my camera out and shoot. (Okay, so before you raise your eyebrows, let me just clarify that I'm not the one driving and I will never ever ever use my bulky dslr if I'm driving. Ayoko maaksidente, saka ayoko rin makaaksidente.)

Let me just point out that it's quite hard to take crisp pictures on a moving vehicle. My camera's eye is not fast enough to capture high definition images especially on a fast moving vehicle, so I took it as a challenge to really make an effort to shoot especially while riding because I'm hard headed that way, and I don't want to give in to physical limitions when I do art projects.

Here are some of the decent shots that I took:

"Bakas saking mukha,
hirap na dala.
Ako'y matanda na,
kailan makakapag-pahinga?"
(street scene -quirino ave. manila)

"Kailanga'y listo
sa kalye nakikipagpatintero
upang mailako
aking mga produkto"
(street scene -quirino ave. manila)

"Ako ang modelo

ng sarili kong produkto.

Bili na kayo!

Tulad ko'y gagwapo!"
(street scene - quirino ave. manila)

From "what is" to "who is" or "why is", art as a reflection of man's higher faculties

Art is the surest proof of man's higher faculties because it's purpose is to express abstractions which reflects reality or  reflect reality through abstractions.  Concepts and ideas are windows to the inner dimension of a subject underneath an object , thus it's sole purpose is to reflect something abstract in a physical or tangible form of beauty making it intelligible to a subject from the point of view of another subject sharing it's interiority through an object.  It is a reflection of man's inner dimensionality because it goes beyond "what is" to "who is" or "why is". 

Imagination, creativity, and the anlysis of what is imagined and created solely belongs to beings with the capacity for reason.  Art being the progeny of the imaginative and creative process is a mirror to this capacity.  This mirror reflects our interiority and in my belief, this interior dimension, that which elevates from being objects merely on the vegetive or sensitive levels to subjects on the intellective level is proof of man's capacity for something way beyond what is merely mundane.

The reason why I don't eat Foie gras

Will you still think that Foie Gras is delicious when you know how it's made?

Please click the photo to enlarge

Foie Gras = Force feeding a duck by inserting a tube in it's mouth and pumping food directly to it's stomach so that it's liver would become abnormally big and fatty. 

It's OK to want to eat delicious foods, It's NOT OK to torture animals to get what we want.

Yummy?

It's sad...

Man has found ways to rationalize acts which goes against or abuse what is within the boundaries of what is natural. He uses God’s gift of reason to give justification to what is and will always be unreasonable in relation to the immutable laws of nature.

This is what we must realize…..and not only stop there….

Realization must be the catalyst for action.

Why is Madonna in the Sandman series?

As I was leafing through the pages of  The Wake, the 10th book in Neil Gaiman's the Sandman graphic novel series, engrossed in Gaiman's fantastic creation, a question kept popping up in my mind: Why the f*%k do most of the characters look like Madonna?

Delirium (My 2nd Favorite character in the series.  She may seem crazy, but her words have hidden wisdom)

Queen Titania (extra lang yan hehe)

Desire (This character scares me the most.  He/She is the reflection of how influential desire can be)

Death (My favorite character in the series.  I think that amongst all the Endless, she is the wisest)

Besides this observation, the only thing that i could say about The Sandman series is that it made me think again.  It not only tickled my imagination but it made me ponder about existential matters and how my current philosophical and relgious beliefs affect my life and how I deal with the world.  I haven't had the pleasure of expanding my point of view for the longest time.  I am rarely intellectually stimulated nowadays with what is being offered by mainstream media and I find the current storylines of new movies and books to be just copies, if not blatant, but surely percievable recycled ideas.  It can be argued that there are really no new ideas because we are inspired by the ideas that were ingrained in us by our society's belief system, but what I'm saying is that although Sandman is obviously an amalgam of different stories and characters from traditions all over the world, it was presented by Gaiman in a way that it will make you ponder and question, and will shake your core. 

I am a late bloomer in this whole Sandman brouhaha, being a geek and all.  But it's still better late that never.  I would not have been who I am at this exact point in my life if  I haven't encountered this series.  I don't know if it is just me putting so much thought about a simple graphic novel, but heck, it's me and what I think may not mean squat to someone else, but to me it does.

Sino ang unang taong kumain ng Ampalaya?

Naisip ko lang kanina, sino kaya ang pinaka-unang tao na kumain ng ampalaya?  Yun talagang first ever person na naka-isip na kainin ang isang bagay na kulubot at mapait.  Sinabi kaya nya sa sarili nya: "Uy ayun o may nakalawit na kulubot na bunga masubukan ngang kainin.  Yuck mapait pala!  Pero sige na nga subukan ko na ring lutuin tutal hindi naman ako nalason at saka pwede na ring laman tyan yan."  Di ko lang talaga ma-gets kung sino ang malikot ang utak na nag-decide na ang mapait na ampalaya ay masarap at pwede palang kainin.  To the person who discovered that ampalaya is edible, hanep ka, isa kang alamat!