The Butterfly Effect

 When I saw this call about putting off our lights for at least an hour at around 8 in the evening, my first reaction was… well, I don’t have any reaction at all. I somehow felt that this is but another one of those propaganda commercials presumably from a certain group or even individual trying to persuade us to buy their products by placing in subliminal messages in the commercial. I was wrong.

A few minutes before 8 o’clock, I was contemplating if I will ask my brother and sister (my mom and lola were already asleep) to participate in this nationwide/international blackout. What actually happened was I turned the lights off, the television, PC, but of course, not the fan (it is so f– hot these days).

I don’t have any statistics as to how many people/households actually participated in this event. I am just pulling some wild numbers out from thin air: approximately 90 million Filipinos, probably 18 million households (residential) at 5 people per residence, 1% participation rate (18 million * 1% = 180K households), 1 hour. Hmmm, the numbers may sound confusing but the point is simple: The event could have saved a significant amount of energy resource with very minimal to no impact to participants at all. Not bad? And we are just talking about the Philippines here!

After that, I realized that we can actually use this experiment to address some other problems or to try some ‘new’ stuff that can probably make our lives better.

1. On rice shortage. Once a week, we skip eating rice for breakfast (lunch or dinner). Eat kamote (probably cheaper because you can eat sweet potato with no ulam/viand) or pandesal (might be more expensive, but I hear no reports of flour shortage) instead.
2. On oil price increase. Oil price is dictated by market forces — more demand plus same supply equals increase in price; less demand plus same supply equals decrease in price. What if motorists, car owners, etc. unite to declare a "carpool day" every week? If three to four motorists would agree to just carpool, say, every Friday, this would cut oil consumption by 33% to 75% on any particular day!
3. On helping the financially needy. Once a week or month, skip afternoon snacks. Instead, give your ’snacks money’ to an NGO.

There are still so many things in my mind, but the bottom-line, I guess, is that we can try to change the world by doing something good regularly.

Lighter side, a couple of  thoughts–

1. Imagine if all 1 billion Chinese simultaneously jump at any given time of the day. Will that hit a 10 in the Richter scale?

2. Or 10% of the Chinese population simultaneously sending an email a day (100 million emails a day) to servers of countries not friendly to them? That is called e-terrorism! Nyahaha!

Real Income Crisis and the American Idol Hype

After watching the elimination round of American Idol last night, I realized that I am close to becoming a certified American Idol Season 7 fanatic. Watching this show is like watching my favorite series — 24, House MD, Prison Break, Eureka, Heroes, Burn Notice, and Naruto. It’s as if my week is not complete if I missed an episode (never happened yet, though) of this. Just for fun, I thought of writing top 5 reasons (not necessarily in order) I am an AI addict:

1. I have not missed a single episode of this show… at least of Season 7 (I have not watched a single episode of American Idol’s previous seasons). It was by accident that I saw the first showing of this show in QTV, 11 in local UHF channel. (With C/S on Channel 9, and AI on QTV, who needs a Cable TV? Hehehe.)

2. I’ve witnessed the TMTH-ish attitude of Danny; and up to now, I am still trying to imitate how he moves his neck/head as he smart-ass-ly (huh?) bark at Simon after making a ‘horrible’ performance. I am a failure.

3. I fell inlove with Kady’s voice, and just like everyone else, I waited, in vain, for her to show the real super-artist/performer that she is capable of. She is the #1 American Idol that this season has never had. Hayyy…

4. I fell in love with Brooke White and Katharine McPhee (American Idol Season 5). Period.

5. I fell in love with Simon. Err… No, kidding aside, I fell in love with Simon’s ingenuity. I read that in addition to the Idol franchise, he also owns X Factor, Got Talent franchise, Celebrity Duets, etc. (More here.) IMHO, he can live for a few millennia without having to work again.

6. Believe it or not, I have three versions of Brothers Forever in my PC. Beat that!

7. What the — !!! I am supposed to write something about Real Income Crisis (next post, I guess) that the Philippines is now experiencing. And this is supposed to be a Top 5 list!

Alright. I think I either made my point or have embarassed myself too much already.

In local and international news:

• Big business hits SC ruling

• Protesters hound Neri at UP meeting

• Malaysian blogger hit with libel verdict

• Dollar falls back as credit worries linger

• Website hosting anti-Islam video defends decision

Happy birthday, Pink.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

If you are one of the few people reading this blog, then, you’ve read the previous post already: Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret. I am planning to adhere to that lesson. I have always wanted to be a good writer. Not just a writer, but a good writer. In fact, when I watched the movie "Finding Forrester," I can almost feel that I am Jamal Wallace. One of the most memorable lines in that movie, at least for me, is Forrest’s advice to Jamal about writing. This happened when Wallace was having problems writing or at least starting his essay. Forrester was shouting at Wallace:

No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!

So, with the help of this advice from Forrester, the productivity secret of Seinfeld, and the free hosting provided by http://i.ph, I will try to develop my skills. This may just work out well, or may just be another one of those "Top 10 Things I Will Definitely Do This [insert year here]."

Consider this as my first post and my green light to pursue this "personal project."

Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret

From Seinfeld, to programming, to business… Just sharing this post to you, Guys.

xxx

Editor: When software developer Brad Isaac told us he had productivity advice from Jerry Seinfeld, we couldn’t turn down the chance to hear more. Read on for the whole story from Brad.

Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime…

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don’t feel like it.

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here’s how it works. (more…)

Breather: Funny PC Pics

Have a break!

In case of emergency, hit [ESC]… errr…

Cappucino, please.

One-stop button for CTRL+ALT+DELETE? (more…)

Jannuari

A short story from my hard drive… Hehehe. I realized just right now that I have so many unpublished stuff here in my PC and I think some of these can be utilized as blog fillers/placeholders. From almost a decade ago, a required short story for my creative writing class (CW101).  Sobrang emo!!!

xxx

Marami-rami ding pelikula ang aking napanood tungkol sa usapang Dawan (“The One”). At nabulag din ako sa kanila. The Family Man. Tila ba sinasabi niyang kung talagang kayo, e, kayo na nga. Forrest Gump. Isipin mo ba namang magkikita pa itong si Forrest at si Jenny sa kabila ng dami ng dinaanan ni Forrest, giyera, katanyagan, lahat. Serendipity. Di ko pa napanood pero kinuwento na sa akin ng kaibigan ko, at sus! Ganun din, kung kayo nga, e di kayo, anuman ang mangyari. Umasa akong ganun nga yun. Bakit kahapon lang, pakiramdam ko e iniwan ako ng sasakyang magdadala sa akin patungo sa aking Dawan.

Kahapon

Unang araw ng pasukan para sa isang pang-Sabadong klase ko. Hinanap ko si Councilor. Isa kasi ako sa mga taga-hanga ng taong to. Nag-grupo-grupo sa klase. At tinawag ako ni Councilor. Araw ko to, sabi ko sa sarili ko. Sabi niya, “Gray! may grupo ka na?” Kahit naman meron, iiwanan ko eh. At iniwan ko talaga, kaya nga nung magtawag si Sir, dalawa ang grupo ko kasi, hindi binura nung dati kong grupo ang pangalan ko sa listahan nila. Pero sino bang masusunod? Di ba ako rin naman? Kaya nga magka-grupo kami ni Councilor. At ni Jannuari, ang aking Dawan. (more…)

Apple

The Philippine economy is not doing good. Well, in fairness to our dear Mother Land, this is a global pandemonium.

Blame Uncle Sam, if you are looking for a escape goat. The overall mood of their economy is heading south. The Federal Bank is doing its best to avert a nosedive of local and foreign investments (by cutting down interest rates), but as we can see, it is inevitable. The Bush administration has passed the economic package/stimulus (US$168 billion) that could help jump start their economy. Again. This rescue package was passed by the US Congress a month or so ago — rebates for individuals (reaching thousands of dollars for some lucky Americans) and tax breaks for domestic businesses. The idea is to inject more funds to the public to encourage industries/businesses to invest in new plants and equipment; and more spending for the consuming public. Analysts believe that the effect of this will not be felt immediately. And they are right, we are still experiencing some problems. This week’s NYSE trading may have been better than previous weeks, but… well, still not good enough.

Uncle Sam’s problem is really affecting the investments worldwide. Europe. Asia. (Decouple my ar$e!) And of course, our beloved Philippines. The bad thing in the case of our country is that in addition to the global economic problems, we are experiencing political hullabaloos, exaggerating the already bad effects of the economic slowdown/downturn. Currently, the state of the P6 is going down in the short-term trend, but the long-term trend is still intact — not going up, but not going down. This week’s trading even showed consecutive green numbers on the trading floor.

I am still not comfortable with the current figures, I am hoping that after this political bickering between and among our ho[n]orable politicians, everything will be fine. It may not be next week, nor next month, but we all know that the natural way of things is to improve, and the government as well as all the companies that are still alive will be doing its best for their own good. (Darwin, you are my hero.) The PSE and some investment houses are positive that by second quarter of this year, the market and the overall economy will have a breather. Being a newbie, I don’t want to say I agree as if my opinion is of the same level as theirs. But based on the limited knowledge and experience that I have, I am positive — I am hoping and praying — that they are right.

I think this is one of those bumps that anyone’s economy experiences in its life cycle. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Expansion, then, recession.

Newton is such a killjoy.

(Image on the left is from Wikipedia.)