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Follow the White Rabbit

There are those times when you have to make decisions, significant decisions, based on your instinct more than reason.* This could be good; this could be bad.

You quit your job without any new job on your table. You gave up an offer to effect a change to your society for a chance to effect change to yourself. You said no to a commitment you’ve been pursuing for so long. The list goes on and on.

These are some decisions that may be quite incomprehensible at first glance… or even after a few buckets of alcohol and some long gruelling phone-hours. But are those what you really want? Maybe yes. Are those reasonable? Maybe not. Or maybe you wouldn’t even know. There are times you really know that you are dead-wrong. But sometimes, you simply feel that you made the right choice — reasonable or not, the decision seems so perfect. And indeed they are.

Always remember: Your soul has the ability to recognize its choices even before the rational, reasonable mind has time to process whatever is happening around you. Take Carter’s advice (The Bucket List):

…[O]ur lives are streams flowing into the same river towards whatever heaven lies in the mist beyond the falls. Find the joy in your life…. [C]lose your eyes and let the waters take you home.

*And there you go, the sovereign reason has just been thwarted by a genuine instinct.

Where Are the Unicorns?

Despite its worldwide fame, there are those who believe there are no more unicorns. One reason people give for their disappearance is that when Noah built the Ark, the unicorns didn’t make it on board, either because they were too large, or too silly—playing games and frisking about until Noah couldn’t wait any longer.

Others think they were simply hunted into extinction.

Still others believe that the unicorns left when the world became less sympathetic to the old magic, fleeing to someplace better suited to their strange beauty.

Saddest of all are those who believe there never were any unicorns to begin with.

Where did they come from, where have they gone, were they ever here at all?

The truth is, no one knows for certain.

But here’s what I believe; wherever they may have come from, unicorns live inside the true believer’s heart. As long as we can dream, there will be unicorns.

–Bruce Coville, "The Lore Of the Unicorn," The Unicorn Treasury.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

Alright, I am not an AI fanatic (peksman!) but I can’t help but write a bit about Jason’s number last night — Somewhere over the rainbow. I have always loved the song, especially that of Iz’s. I actually doubted if anyone could ever make a similar rendition (with all emotions like peace and contentment). But it is my opinion that Jason gave justice to that very beautiful song! Mala-Hallelujah ang performance! The audience and judges were awed and I think they felt as if they were transported to another dimension where nothing but peace and harmony rule. Jason as well as Michael and David C. need not win AI anymore to become superstars!

I think Iz’s version was used as one of the OSTs of three movies that I liked so much: Finding Forrester, Meet Joe Black, and 50 First Dates — not sure if there are any other movies.

24: Season 7 Preview/Trailer

Check it here. January 2009 pa. Arrrgghh!!! WGA kasi e! Anyway, if you are a 24 fanatic, here’s something you’ll enjoy reading. If you haven’t heard of 24, good luck and may Bauer have mercy on you.

24 Things You Need to Know About Jack Bauer:

1. Jack Bauer can unscramble an egg.

2. Jack Bauer was not born; he forced his way out of his mother’s womb.

3. Jack Bauer once stepped into quicksand; the quicksand couldn’t escape and nearly drowned.

4. If Jack Bauer had been a Spartan the movie would have been called "1".

5. When a convicted terrorist was sentenced to face Jack Bauer, he appealed to have the sentence reduced to death.

6. People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.

7. It is a known fact that when Time magazine awards "The Man of Year*", there is fine print on the bottom of the cover that says, " *besides Jack Bauer."

8. If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer’s instructions, it would be called "12".

9. Jack Bauer can torture you into giving up information you do not possess.

10. 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Alright, sounds like a fair fight.

11. If you wake up in the morning, it’s because Jack Bauer spared your life.

12. Jack Bauer counted to infinity — twice.

13. Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

14. When the Boogie Man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.

15. Jack Bauer could get off the Lost Island in 24 hours.

16. Jack Bauer once arm wrestled Superman. The stipulations were the loser had to wear his underwear on the outside of his pants.

17. When Jack Bauer took a stress test, the test failed.

18. Sun Tzu once wrote, "If your enemy is weaker, conquer him. If he is stronger, join him. If he is Jack Bauer, you’re fucking dead."

19. When Google can’t find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

20. Jack Bauer once killed so many terrorists that at one point, the #5 CIA Most Wanted Fugitive was an 18-year-old teenager in Malaysia who downloaded the movie Dodgeball.

21. If you’re holding a gun to Jack Bauer’s head, don’t count to three before you shoot. Count to 10. That way, you get to live 7 seconds longer.

22. Jack Bauer is the ‘i’ in TEAM.

23. If Jack Bauer misspells a word, your dictionary is wrong.

24. Every mathematical inequality officially ends with "< Jack Bauer".

PS: Jack Bauer once sneezed and it is rumored that the aftermath was known as Chernobyl.

Writer’s Block. Really.

There are times when you cannot help yourself but write. Imagine suddenly waking up at night (not just once or twice) and turning on your PC wanting to write a short piece about NeverLand and Utopia?! Or you cannot leave Starbucks ‘coz you are using their napkins to write bulleted notes on why a cup of hot cappuccino is a lot better than… well, better than a lot of things.

Monday. You saw JLo on TV (that bald guy NBN super star), and you can’t wait to open a notepad and write something about how he is being a used by some evil politicians as propaganda. And how he along with other circus performers is hurting our economy more and more, eliminating the possibility of an earlier economic recovery.

Tuesday. You hear people crying the f– out loud about increasing oil prices and blaming the government for it without even considering the world market. Oh yeah, they actually think the government, the Philippine government, can stop oil prices from going up. What happened to those days when people still understand the Law of Supply and Demand?

Wednesday. After American Idol, you feel like you want to give your professional (yeah!) opinion on why either David C., Michael, or Carly deserves to be the AI S7 winner and not David A, but before starting your essay, you realized you still want to write some more about militant leftists and student activitists who disregard economic laws and principles simply because these cannot be used to their advantage.

Thursday. You woke up, open your PC, and you want to list down 101 reasons SMB (yes, the company that manufactures the best discovery of mankind after fire and wheel) is a good stock to buy — with #1 reason as "you won’t regret getting drunk anytime because you know you are contributing to the welfare of your stock holdings."

09:00 AM. You realized you’ve processed and completed your thoughts on all of the above, but haven’t started writing any of them.

—

Oh! And Last Sunday, I was so drunk (with headache that’s killing me) and I was thinking of writing an argumentative essay why drinking alcohol is the most stupid thing to do (that was before I found out SMB’s planned IPO, of course, hehehe).

An Open Letter to Z

Dear Zarine,

Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and a criterion of beauty. I hope you don’t mind… my ‘new’ appearance.

Without wax,

e[k]stranghero

Blissfully, Ecstatically, Nirvanically Enjoying Life

Today, I want to write about The Great Art of Doing Nothing… doing nothing in this particular stage of your life and yet you enjoy everything (everything about doing nothing). And when I say everything, it’s basically waking up, having your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, watching TV or playing PS2 in between eating, and most important of all, surfing the net before finally hitting and dozing off to your bed again. The doing-nothing part, of course, happens during the whole part of that everything. Weird, huh?

Here’s a story I read way back in Grad School (but copied the text from a blog)–  

An MBA graduate visited a small village on his graduation trip and saw a lone man fishing by a pretty lake. Curious about the lives of such quaint folks, he asked the fisherman how he spends his days.

“Well I usually fish by the lake for about an hour or two, go home to feed my wife and kids and then we’ll spend the night singing as I strum along on my guitar.”

The MBA graduate was astounded by what appeared to be a lack of productivity, “Listen old man. I graduated from Harvard Business School, and I can tell you what to do to become filthy rich. You should really start by working longer hours and catching more fish.”

“I always catch enough to ensure that my family is well-fed…” The fisherman said. “Whatever would I do with all the surplus fish?”

“You could sell them in the market and earn a profit. Think about expanding the business altogether!” Exclaimed the graduate, now on such a roll that nothing could contain his excitement and his eagerness to share his new knowledge with the world, “With the profit, you can invest in better fishing equipment that will increase productivity. With all that money earned, you can outsource the actual fishing by hiring help. You’ll make more by managing the business. Hell, you could make millions!”

The fisherman nodded slowly. “And then what would I do with the millions?”

“And then – this is the best part - you retire!” Said the graduate, now glassy-eyed as he thought of his own retirement, some fifty years into the future. “Move to somewhere scenic and peaceful to spend quality time with your family, doing something you’ve always dreamed of doing. Isn’t there something you really love to do?”

The fisherman lifts his head to the sky and ponders for awhile. “Well I really like to play the guitar…”

The MBA graduate leaned forward.

“And I sure love fishing.” Said the fisherman.

I know this is easier said than done… But I posted the story anyway, in case this would somehow remind us of what we really love to do in our life (Grace wrote a somewhat similar blog on this) — why do we work, why do we pursue post-graduate studies, why we do whatever it is we are doing. I am not espousing for anyone to quit their day jobs or something… my point is simply to set things in perspective, in their right perspective.

Carpe diem!