Wise words

I was raised in a culture that values hard work and perseverance.  That is why I always try to work hard to the point where I sometimes forget about my personal well being.

I kinda stumbled upon this twitter post the other day and it´s an eye opener for me.

Working hard is good, but I realized that I should always remember that at the end of the day, it is only a job and I should value my personal well being first.

Jobs come and go and are easily replaced, but your health is something that once it´s gone, is hard to bring back.

PRIORITIES :)

Music is a very big part of my daily life.

Whenever I leave the house, I never forget my trusty Ipod touch to provide what I jokingly call "the soundtrack of my life."

I don´t know but there´s something about music that makes me get lost into it while walking.  There´s something zen about it.  I just find myself transported in my inner world of thoughts which make me ponder about what are the current topics that pull weight in my life.

It helps me sort out the issues that I have to deal with.

It helps me think.

here are the current songs that I kinda listen to:

I´ve been constantly re-watching this video the past few weeks and it still makes me laugh out loud everytime.  This is just a feel good video.

LOL

I have always gravitated towards all things quirky.

Ideas that are out of the ordinary but make perfect sense.

And this falls in that category

I found these at http://www.inewidea.com/2010/03/01/22865.html

I just looooove this.

Planning on doing this one of these days :)

Words to live by

These captions are posted on the desktop of my mac so that I would see them everyday.

These are constant reminders of what I want to say to myself whenever I face challenges in my life.

Whenever I read these words, I find the strength to face what cards life deals, both good and bad.

Just wanted to share them out :)

Hello blog you´ve been a stranger.....

Last year numbed whatever whimsy I had in my system.

Being too busy adapting to a new environment and being focused on the more practical aspects of life, mainly work, work and more work made my imagination dull.

I´ve been a drone.

I stopped writing.

I stopped photography and graphic art.

I stopped customizing toys.

I stopped buying chuck taylors and painting them.

I miss doing creative stuff.

I miss letting loose the crazy monster in my head that ponders about how holes can have logical existence by being defined as the absence of something which basically has no actually existence, positing the question: "If it can be grasped by the mind i.e. making it exist logically, then do holes really exist given the fact that it is the absence of something?"

So now, I dedicate this whole blog to anything and everything crazy about how I think.

This shall be hence an ode to crazy.

And this video kinda shows a visual of what I feel :)

I think I really need to be crazy to remain sane.

Dichotomy and Unity

While in the bathroom, where I usually think about profound things hehe, I realized something about myself.

I think the reason why I love reading about eastern philosophy so much (disregard the fact that I'm asian) is that eastern philosphy emphasizes more on how a person should live i.e. a balanced life as opposed to western philosophy, which focuses on abstract ideas that mostly point to the dichotomy of man i.e. the material and the spiritual.

In western philosphy, you could just read about how matter is evil while the spirit is good or vice versa and then read about the thoughts of western philosphers along the years which basically is recycled from the works of their predecessors with minor tweaking.

Don't get me wrong, I also like reading about these stuff because they present a lot of opportunities for mental gymnastics that always keep me on my toes, but I love eastern philosphy because It teaches me how to live now, here in the real world and not live among the clouds.

In most eastern schools of thought, there is no dichotomy with  matter and spirit.  Most of their ideas point to a balance between the physical and the spiritual.

In order to achieve true happiness, you must have balance in all the aspects of your life. 

I just love this because instead of focusing on the idea of dichotomy, they emphasize on unity.

The focus is on how to be a well rounded indivudual instead of a person who thinks himself to be composed of two opposing forces, matter and spirit and despising one or the other thinking that in order to be trully happy, one must be free from the percieved "bad" side.

At this point in my life, based on what I've learned and experienced along the years, I'm kinda leaning more on the idea that in order to be happy, we must have an inner unity, having balance in all aspects of our lives, embracing the fact that we are indeed composed of matter and spirit and in order to be whole NOW, we must embrace both aspects and try develop a balance between the two, intertwined in a graceful dance of unity.


.

Reflection

I  journey to a place where few rarely visit, the vastness of the subconscious, that dark place where we can find the light to see a glimpse of  our true selves through our desires.

We are what we want.

But do we really know what we need?

Through our "wants"  we see ourselves, and once we see ourselves, we will have a clear view of what we really need.



.

Relax

I love this Song.

It's brings me to a place where it feels everything will be all right.





.

Meditate

Ang pag-usad ni minsa'y di katiyakan ng pag-unlad. Bagkus ito'y senyales lamang ng pag-kilos tungo sa direksyong maaring patungo saan mang direksyong tahakin na ang baseha'y dikta ng puso't isipan. Ang pag-unlad ay kabiyak ng pag-lago na ang basehan ay ang pagnanais maabot ang rurok na maaring maabot ng isang potensyal......minsan ito'y maari ring marating sa pananatiling payapa, tahimik, at sa di pag-kilos.



.

Interesting

This is just a random photo dump of pics that I found from the internet that tickled my fancy.

1.)  Found this from a website that unfortunately I cannot remember anymore.  I don't know who took this photo but there's credits on the lower right portion of the pic.  I just find this adorable :)

2.)  These I saw at http://cameralink.com/photographers/denise-grunstein.  I just love the whole feel of the photos.  They give off that twisted storybook aesthetic that I love. 

3.)  And finally, some cute little monsters!  I LOVE the masks!  Cute!

.

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.



.

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.



.

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.


.

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.


.

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.


.

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.


.

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.


.

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.

.

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 :)




.