A lone (or a few) rotten eggs in a basket...

Dunno (a.k.a. too lazy to search) who said this first, but:

A lone (or a few) rotten eggs in a basket makes it seem like a basket full of nothing but rotten eggs. 

Anyways, I think we can learn two lessons from this saying:

It's so easy to expect the worst to happen. #thoughts

Isn't it the end of the world yet? Despite all earlier predictions of such kind of an event being disproven by time, here we were again, faced with another similar prediction and there we were again, or at least some of us, thinking or expecting it to be true.

A reaction to a reaction on the recent shooting at an elementary school in the US

Last post, I talked about those shootings as well, stressing on the importance of parenting, and how people don't seem to see or how they seem to ignore how parenting played a role in that very, very unfortunate incident. It is a very difficult topic to discuss in one blog article. But I failed to mention one more thing that people don't seem to see or that they seem to deny as to what might also have caused that very sad incident: mental illness.

For that, I link to this article written by a mother who has had to deal with a son who has one, and has demonstrated violent tendencies of his own:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-mental-illness-conversation_n_2311009.html

Condolences to the families of innocent lives taken away prematurely

You've probably heard the news, or if not yet, check this out:


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/14/shooting-reported-at-connecticut-elementary-school/

Pacquiao will be fine and he should consider fighting again.

Hey, boxing and Pacquiao fans. He'll be fine. It is better to be KO'ed (and for Manny, doctors have said he is okay after performing CT scans on him), or to have some swells, cuts and bruises, than receiving consecutive blows to the head and not being KO'ed at all.

Now, check this out first, will you. This is a good read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali. Oh, and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineal_championship#Records.

Can people who don't know anything about boxing (the sport of, and/or the business of), please stop saying anything about boxing?

[On the Pacquiao vs Marquez 4 boxing fight]

Can people who don't know anything about boxing (the sport of, and/or the business of), please stop saying anything about boxing? It's annoying.

It was a good fight, they were both game, one guy made one mistake, one guy capitalized on it, it could have gone either way.

Congratulations to Marquez, he was obviously the better man, but they both still end up with huge amounts of money that even I would train for and fight anyone for the same amount or even less.

Because tens of millions of dollars is called an opportunity. And winners don't let opportunities walk away. Meanwhile, losers, unable to see opportunities, would have all the reasons and all the excuses and all the names to hurl at winners.

I've asked this before, but I ask it again.

Are you a winner or a loser?

Go on. Call me names and tell me your excuses.

Is religion insufficient? [quote them] [thoughts]

A friend shared one of The Dalai Lama's status updates on Facebook just this past week:

"All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether."

I wanted to ask my friend who shared this if she will be "singing an REM"¹ anytime soon?

[thoughts] Dear God...

1.

God received a letter that went: "Dear God. Please help me quit smoking. Love, Anonymous."

He then replied, "Dear Anonymous. Just quit smoking already. Love, God."

God received another letter: "Dear God. Please help me lose weight. Love, Anonymous."

He then replied, "Dear Anonymous. I already gave you help. I call it choice. Love, God."

Use Filipino to empower the poor [thoughts]

Image from Wikipedia

My thoughts exactly. Read this article at this link:

Digital vs. Non-digital: The unnecessary debate

Digital vs. analog watches.  Digital vs. film photography.  Digital vs. oil/charcoal/watercolor/pencil-on-canvas/paper art.  Digital vs. non-digital music.

So? What's the score? What are the pros of digital, and what are the pros of analog? Who's winning?

[quote them] [thoughts] Hard work vs. Talent

This is so true.

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

I'm not sure who was first to say this; the internet "said" it was some guy named Tim or maybe it was Kevin Durant.

But, guess what. This is a trick quotable quote.

Its message is not that hard work (alone) is better than talent (alone). The message is, if you have talent, you should couple it with hard work and you can expect to enjoy much success. If you have talent but you don't work hard enough, you're better off not competing because those who don't have talent but work hard enough (and assuming they know where the finish line is) will eventually run past you.

The good news is, everyone's got talent. You just have to know where you have talent in and then use it there and persevere.

Of course, you can do things that you're really not that gifted in and just work hard at 'em, but you're probably not maximizing life's greatest rewards.

Just my thoughts.

[thoughts] Here we go again.

I felt compelled to talk about Apple's new product launch earlier today (or yesterday, depending on where you're at). Here's the gist. iPhone 4 was announced in June of last year, and 4 months after, the rumor mills for an iPhone 5 started grinding. There were rumors that Apple might release an iPhone 4S instead, similar on the outside as the current iPhone 4 but slightly upgraded on the inside. And rumors of all sorts of new internal and external features for a possible new iPhone 5. And then rumors of two new iPhones, a 5 and a 4S, coming out at the same time surfaced. There were also rumors surrounding the iPod Touch, which usually gets an upgrade around this time of the year. And the death of the iPod Classic. And so on and so forth. Ladies and gentlemen, there won't ever be an iPhone 5 anymore. The next new iPhone will be called an iPhone 6. Or the iPhone Seis. Or probably, just the iPhone, followed by a "(mid-2012 model)" in smaller fonts.

[thoughts] [prustrations] Catch-22?

Peyups -- i.e. UP. UP naming mahal. (The UP that we love.) There is an on-going internal effort there to help "UP to regain its role as a top university in the Asia-Pacific region." Take note the word "regain." Here are my thoughts on the matter.

[reactions+reflections] [thoughts] Old wine drinkers

Today I was surprised to see that a quote like this is actually in the Book of Luke (5:39):

"And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, 'The old is good enough.'"

[quote them] [thoughts] Mahatma Gandhi

"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi

To me this is just one of those catchy quotes, and that it is not the best in the world to teach anyone any lesson.  Why?  It is flawed.  Some can then simply counter-justify, "I will then just go for a tooth for an eye; that way, I don't help make the whole world blind but still I can find justice for myself."  I think, yes, "an eye for an eye" is an old rule that, now we know, is not the best way forward to resolve conflicts.

So tell people that directly.  And then be more specific about better alternatives.  If you use these catchy quotes, sometimes they could be remembered only for their rhyme, not their reason.

[thoughts] Venus Raj

From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVGgtQR02WA:

Hmmm, watching this video clip again - America apparently did not notice anything (wrong or otherwise) about her English.  It's just that she didn't answer the question.  They thought though that she didn't answer because she wanted to portray "perfection," eventually leading to zero points for her.  I think that's not really what she wanted to do.  She was probably just really nervous because she was the pre-event favorite - she somewhat had expectations to meet.  Plus, I think in Filipino English, "one big mistake" means a really, really bad thing like crime or what, and so on, and well, I think she hasn't done anything really, really bad.  So actually she was being honest.  But in that sense I guess she did not really get the question, or even get to think what is the question really about.  Like Dubya when asked the same question, she was just not prepared for that kind of question.  Didn't she have a coach for that?  Lastly, I think she wasn't really there to win it all at all costs, or no, she wasn't going way out of her way to win it.  She was there to just do the best she can, get as deep into it as possible, but certainly a win would be a really big bonus.  It showed.  And she said it herself, "thank you so much that I am here!"  I think she was successful by her own goals and standards which are unfortunately not the same standard set by many other people on her.  Hey, she was the first Filipina to place in the Top 5 since Miriam Quiambao 11 years ago.  Miriam also "stumbled" but fortunately for her, it wasn't at the final, question and answer portion.  ABC News said "Miss Mexico is now Miss Universe 2010, but we are more interested in... Miss Philippines."  I think she's actually more popular now than the winner.  ABC News also asked in the video, "why is it that smart people have such a hard time with that question?"  Like most international beauty pageant winners, she is smarter than most people.  Unfortunately she's not as smart-ass as others.  And this reflects yet again the attitude of the Filipino: if you are good enough to be in the Top 5 but not get Top 1, you're not good enough to be respected.  This is why we don't have Michael Jordans, Michael Jacksons, or Donald Trumps, because our would-be-Jordans, would-be-Jacksons, or would-be-Trumps are scared of losing the "Pinagsamahan" and the respect from their own kind, in case they fail.  If ever there were Jordans and Trumps in our midsts, we will think they are mayabang or call them names.  "Nognog," "Weirdo," or "Bokal."  When they "fail," and get back down to our level, we tell them "okay lang yan, hindi para sa iyo."  Anyways, I think, like Miriam, Venus will use this "fall" as a learning experience and certainly she has a lot more in store for her; she is still just 22.  Anyways, I hope we can be more encouraging to each other.

[thoughts] On Voting

I received a forwarded e-mail, below, and here is my reaction.

A question I would ask here is... So which president who does not have all these 5 attributes has, whether directly through his know-how and hard work or indirectly through inspiration, truly brought the Philippines back on the right track (at least since the Philippines took a dive since the Marcos regime)? Maybe it's time to try something new and unfamiliar... Maybe it's time to get out of our comfort zones of electing presidents who have been "battle-tested", who have been corrupt even before they were presidents, who have no name as big as "Aquino" to protect, etc. Little girls (or even boys) who are used to being around an abusive male figure such as their father growing up generally tend to look for similarly abusive male figures as mates (or as friends in the case of boys) when they grow up. Maybe it's time we elect someone we're not used to electing.

No one is perfect actually. This "perfect man" called Noynoy is actually not - and the author below has shown it. I believe it is wrong to ask "who I should not vote for?" and then choose a few and not all to evaluate. The other question is, are others voteable? What should ideally be asked is, "who can I vote for?" Or, "Why can I vote for _____?" Don't ask "Why can I not vote for _____?"

---------------Forwarded Message------------------

Subject: Fw: NOY?

Im not passing it on for the sake of the country. I just thought it might be "interesting" to you both...
:p
This was sent to me.
Please take time to read this, and kindly pass on to others for the sake of our country.

No offense meant to ardent supporters of Noynoy, some of whom are my close friends. Just a point of view of a non political observer.

NOY

In every election, the easiest choice to make is, who you would not vote for. This year, it is profoundly difficult because for me the easiest identifiable candidate whom I would not vote for, (aside from Erap of course, for who would vote for a convicted plunderer) is a leading candidate, with the widest of margin in the survey, Noynoy. He probably will be the next president and so, in my heart, I tried my best to consider and reconsider my decision, yet I became more convinced that he is my best choice on whom not to vote for. These are in my thoughts:

He is clean and honest
He really is unblemished, squeaky clean and immaculate.. . His record for nine years speaks for himself. I am reminded of a friend of mine, a cocky but very articulate and bright Solicitor General.

At a certain time before he started winning his cases, his critics had a heyday criticizing the way he handled his job. They said, he had a perfect record of losing all cases. Thus, his record was clean and unblemished of victory. Like this solicitor general, Noynoy has also no record of dishonesty simply because he has no record of accomplishment at all. He was one of the prominent members of the committee of silence. I goggled his name to find out if, except for his name, there was anything he did that he should be proud of.

I am sorry that I found nothing. It is time he reveals what he had done in congress for nine years, plus two years in the senate, to deserve the presidency.

When he ran for Senate, he simply relied on his family name and the endorsement of his mother. Being in the Senate with no accomplishment will not hurt the nation except the wasted money paid to him as a public servant. But to be president and not knowing what to do is probably as disastrous as a corrupt president.

He comes from a good stock

A prominent columnist of the Inquirer believes that since hero’s blood runs in his veins, he is a natural hero and would do nothing to shame the good name. The prominent columnist also said that what we need is a good heart and correct values and Noynoy fits to the T. Of course heritage is a plus factor but unfortunately, this is no assurance that he too will be as upright as his parents..

We do not have to look far. Look at his sister. She even gloated and flaunted her sexual indiscretions and gave press interviews of her indecent acts, in spite of the fact that at that time, her dear mother was very much alive. She fueled salacious gossip about her sexual escapades that she grabbed the headlines for days of the local papers. Not only that. She proudly proclaimed that she will have to do a wash over of sorts, on the personality of Noynoy.

To be fair, since Noynoy is not the sister’s keeper, he should publicly open how he spent his several hundred million, probably billions of pesos, if cumulatively taken together, of pork barrel. Joker and Lacson did not spend a single centavo on their pork barrel allocations.

Moreover, Noynoy has not been battle tested; we do not know how he will react to temptation, simply because he has not been where the action is. He can not honestly and truthfully say that he is goodness personified and all others are evil just because he is the son of Cory. It is sheer arrogance and hypocrisy to make such claim.

He comes unprepared

Before the death of former Pres Cory, nobody considered him of presidential caliber, not even for vice president. His party mates knew of his capabilities and did not even look at his direction when they then considered their standard bearer. Noynoy himself, conscious of his own limitations, did not even dream of being one.

When his mother died and there was public mourning, all of a sudden, his party mates in spite of knowing his limited capabilities, and taking advantage of public sentiments, pushed him to be a candidate to the noble office of the presidency. This factual milieu clearly shows that his popularity is solely and purely for sentimental reasons, the death of Pres Cory.

His supporters are praying to high heavens that the public sentiments on his parents would not wane and that the public would not see through the real Noynoy. Stripped of all sentimentality, there is nothing in his bio data that shows he is capable of the challenges of the highest office of the land. His biodata is uninspiring, to say the least.

Aside from his public office due to his lineage, he was a sales person of Mondragon Industries, and a member of the board of directors of a security agency which the family owns. How in heavens name will he run the country?

Pres Cory’s landmark of achievement in her administration was her Land Reform program. Our own 24 hectares of irrigated rice land in Kinamayan, Davao del Norte was subjected to land reform and my Dad wanted to fight it out but I counseled him to surrender the land as I explained to him that ultimately the entire country will benefit from this pestering problem of unjust distribution of wealth. He understood the situation that each of us had to make sacrifices for the common good. This is not a unique scenario in Mindanao, then known as the Land of Promise .

Little did we know that Pres Cory distributed all other people’s landholdings except her own Hacienda Luisita. She asked all of us to make sacrifices, except her own family. Her tenants protested and in the ensuing protest several tenants were mowed down. The tenants were unarmed and no casualties were suffered on the side of the soldiers trying to disperse the tenants. Of course, Noynoy is not her mother’s keeper, nor do I intend to diminish her mother’s role as our leader who toppled the dictatorship.

But when Noynoy declared his candidacy, he was asked point blank, what he planned to do with Hacienda Luisita. He had no ready answer but promised to give a stand soon. Three months passed and still no answer. Is he really prepared?

Trust

The argument goes, that since the people lost trust in the present leadership, Noynoy comes as a white knight, enjoying the trust and confidence of the people. But why should we trust Noynoy? Has he done something to deserve our trust?” Trust is earned, deserved and not bestowed nor inherited. We are now bombarded with propaganda about the goodness of Pres Cory, to the extent that Noynoy propagandists even go to the limit of declaring her a saint, in the hope that people will also view Noynoy as saint- like.

The Liberal Party had even formulated its battle cry: “this (the election) is a fight between good and evil”. My goodness, don’t you agree that a man who pontificates that he represents goodness is really suspect of some loose screws somewhere.

Noynoy's handlers forgot the basic need of a responsible candidate-the need to have an advocacy. It should be pointed out that Noynoy has no advocacy at all in his public life. He won his senate seat solely upon his family name, like Loi Ejercito, Pia Cayetano, Bong Revilla and the like. This is very important to those who are very discerning.

We do not know to what directions we will be going, with him as a leader. It is fearsome to have a president who is not only unprepared and unqualified, but also to be under the control of unknown advisers and heaven forbid, under the tutelage of his movie star sister.

It becomes more dreadful because his popularity is seemingly sustained, thanks to the biased and twisted reporting of our media and most especially of a very large TV network who all have their interests to protect.

The above mentioned points are correct.

I am simply saying that Noynoy is “Not Worth Voting For” because:

1. He has no capability to govern

2. He relies solely on the name of his parents

3. He has no advocacy

4. He has no achievement on his own

5. He is pure creation of media

Sadly, only Noynoy has all these attributes among all presidential candidates.

[did you know?] [thoughts] how tall is a tall building?

http://www.ctbuh.org/HighRiseInfo/TallestDatabase/Criteria/tabid/446/Default.aspx

another "did you know": the CTBUH has issued its recommendations for the seismic (earthquake-resistant) design of high-rise buildings. it suggests that design codes currently being used by structural engineers are inadequate for most tall buildings over 50 meters high. instead, they say that a performance-based design is more appropriate. unfortunately, only a very few structural engineers know how to do performance-based design. while it is based on first principles, it is not actually taught in school. heck, not many structural engineers really know how to design structures properly because not everything is learned in school. even outside of school, there are still so many things to learn, and in fact many experienced structural engineers do not know some basic structural engineering principles. usually, these structural engineers who do not have sufficient know-how are the people who undercharge. so, who designed your building? how much did you pay? by the manual of professional practice for civil engineers (applicable to structural engineers), they should charge a minimum 1.5% of the project cost if they are not the lead professional. if they are the lead professional, they should charge a minimum of 6%. some "structural engineers" charge just 0.5% or less. of course business owners love them!

[thoughts] Rajah Lapu-Lapu

In Mactan, Cebu, there is a marker there with the inscription:

"Here on 27 April 1521, Lapulapu and his men repulsed the Spanish invaders, killing their leader Ferdinand Magellan.  Thus Lapulapu became the first Filipino to have repelled European aggression."

Ngayon, ako ay magbabahagi lamang ng isang kuwento.  May nakilala ako na isang Cebuano, sabi niya hindi tama ang kasulatan na ito - hindi pa "Filipino" si Lapu-Lapu noon kasi hindi pa nga "Filipinas" ang tawag sa mga kapuluan natin at wala pang bansa na "Filipinas" nung nangyari ito.  Siya ay "native Filipino" pero hindi siya kailan man ay opisyal na naging Filipino.  Anya, hindi daw ba ang pinaglalaban nga sana ni Lapu-Lapu noon laban sa puwersa ng Portuges na si Magellan at ang mga Kastila ay ang huwag tayo masakop ng mga banyaga at tuluyang mabansagan ng pangalang banyaga.  Nanalo ang katutubong si Lapu-Lapu sa digmaan na ito ngunit hindi daw ba na ang mga tunay na panalo ay ang silang sumakop sa atin ng mahigit tatlong daang taon at ang nagbansag ng pangalan at nagtatag ng kolonya na ngayo'y bansa na "Filipinas," pati na din daw ang mas tanyag sa buong mundo ngayon na si Magellan.  Marahil ang mas angkop na kasulatan dito ay

"Here in Mactan on 27 April 1521, Rajah Lapulapu and his 1500 men repulsed the then down to 50-man Spanish crew of Ferdinand Magellan who were trying to convert Lapulapu and his men to Christianity but were defeated instead, and their leader Magellan killed, after sailing across the Atlantic thru South America and then thru the Pacific, and who had just earlier converted Rajah Humabon of Cebu. Thus Lapulapu and his army became the first native Filipino to have repelled this Western attempt at evangelization."

Subalit totoo ngunit mahaba ang paliwanag na ito, marahil ay pinaikli na lamang ito sa nakikitang nakasulat sa pananda na ito.

[thoughts] true for one, not necessarily true for all

this is an unsent reply to a friend who posted an e-mail (below) about how difficult is her experience with a certain type of employer...

the koreans i've met (outside of the country) are all very nice. this is just opinion but i think many koreans, japanese, chinese, americans, british, etc. people who set up their businesses here are generally like how you have described them. their being far away from their hometowns and having to work, work, work and meet the expectations of their superiors and peers back at home (i.e. they need to "prove" and/or "provide") puts a lot of pressure on them (and perhaps meanwhile they do not need to meet any kind of expectations to us here) and sometimes what happens is they "share" the pressure with the pinoys who work for them here. but i think this happens more here in our country (try working abroad in their country and i believe it is not like that at all). i think this happens because most filipinos allow it. it happens i think because we all need jobs and there are more filipinos than jobs so the competition for jobs is quite fierce. so, many resort to "accepting" these "unacceptable" practices by foreign employers. some people, just to keep their jobs, would accept very low salaries which in turn creates a ripple effect in the employment market. "accept this low salary under these very harsh conditions or don't get a job at all" is what is happening.

actually it's not just these foreigners who resort to such "unacceptable" practices. because pinoy employees "accept" these practices here, even some pinoy employers do the same things also.

to some of them, foreign or pinoy employers alike, they "cannot afford" employees taking a vacation leave; i.e. employees who are to them give high production output compared to their salaries. if they will hire a new person to replace you, those new employees would be paid less but their production output would not yet be so high as that you were providing. or, maybe their business will just come to a halt if you do go on a holiday - but they can't afford to pay you or treat you better even if you really deserved it, just so you won't want to go on a holiday.

i think the right thing for pinoys to do is to stop working for these employers who practice such "unacceptable" practices. i think God does not want us to be miserable in our jobs. if we were in miserable jobs, it is because it is our choice to stay there.

likewise, God does not want employers to do such "unacceptable" employment practices. but we can't do anything about others - what we can just do is when we are in that position, when we are the boss or the employer, we should remember what is good and what is not good, and do only what is good. that is actually even more difficult, without prayer and faith and friends (i.e. a community) who shares the same faith and prays for you.

a friend of a friend became a city youth leader and so he automatically became a councilor of the city. he told himself he will not give in to the corrupt practices that many in the generation before us is considering as if it is normal and acceptable practice. after a year he told my friend that he can't do anything but give in and join the bandwagon of corruption.

i think in that situation, as well as in our situations, the key is faith. in this sense, this also means knowing what is good and what is not, and sticking to doing only the good.

although you may have just tried to resign instead, congratulations to you as you have taken the choice of not tolerating such "unacceptable" employment practices by choosing not to work for that company. it's not because they are koreans or whoever. for example, i've heard of some other non-filipinos (and non-koreans) who employ people for just P50 a day at a time when the minimum wage was P250 a day. why do these employers do that? because the employees accept that wage! it is everywhere, and not just with certain korean employers, and so on.

again, know what is good and what is not good in the eyes of God (i.e. what does God want for you?), and then make your choice. hopefully, you and every other filipino make the right choice. we'll include that in our prayers. :-)

--- original e-mail ---
do you by any chance know if there's an opening for elementary teachers or lifestyle writers? please let me know..

it's just that i feel so bad. i've requested a two week vacation leave from my office. they said yes but they are holding my salary. i don't think they'll take me back after two weeks. sorry to say this, but koreans s**k! (sorry for the language). they are very manipulative and they break, always break their promises..

anyway, il keep on searching..thanks! so if you want to work for koreans, DON"T even think about it.

take care!