Misery in the 21st Century

Readings
I read through the article and I do agree with a lot of what the author wrote down. The picture wherein two people are staring at their laptops struck me because I often notice that. If it's not a laptop, it's a mobile phone or sound blasting in their ears or sometimes two of the things above at the same time. I find it really sad, really. In a party, you'll see someone sitting in the corner, busy with his/her mobile or listening to his/her MP3 player that they shut out the rest of the world. If that's what's happening right now, think the generations after us.

For those of you who have been following this blog, you would probably get the idea that I'm partially against SMS as an effective means of communication. First, because it's so tiring, having to press all those buttons if instead I could just say what I wanted to convey (which by the way takes about 1/10 of the time and energy you exerted on the same message). If you want to talk to me, you'd either have to call me or talk to me personally. Otherwise, 90% of the time, I won't reply to text messages. And yes, I agree with reason #3 in the article.

I have been thinking of the same things for a long time now but haven't been able to put it on paper coherently. This article reflects pretty much what I've been thinking and more.

Heaven and Hell

Readings
The jeepney ride home was perhaps the quickest one I ever took. Not because of the vehicle's speed nor of the volume of the traffic. It's because I was disturbed the whole time.

My last class for the day is math and our prof suddenly asked something about rapture while she was busy writing something on the board.

This rapture.. thingy.. was, as I gathered, about people suddenly disappearing and going to heaven. Now, along this conversation, my prof suddenly said that: "May mga mabuting tao din sa impyerno. Ang tanging ticket mo para umakyat sa langit ay yung maniwala ka kay Jesus [There are good people in hell too. The only way you can get to heaven is through Jesus]" and then starting there, something within me started stirring.

I do respect her religious views as much as I respect everyone else's but to tell someone that s/he aren't going to heaven because s/he do not believe in the same things as you do is, I believe, a bit out of line. It's almost the same as telling out right that your worth is almost equal to that of demons.

If what she said is how things really work, then it would be a moral justification for people that do immoral things that even though they do such things, as long as they believe in Jesus, they will go to heaven. Of course, a rebuttal to this statement is that if they really believe in Jesus, they would not do immoral things, which is ideally true but religion nowadays has generally become a mere moral convenience. If having said that a criteria to enter heaven is through Jesus, then you just denied entry to 66% of the world's population. [according to Wikipedia]. It defeats the purpose of having a "fair and just" God if such a system exists. If we assume that God is as perfect as we can think of (and possibly beyond, but that's out of the question), wouldn't it make you ask how could s/he/it be so - I daresay- crude?

Right now, I'm denied entry to heaven.
.. and where else to go other than hell?

Internet Ethics

I'm an avid forum reader and blog surfer. I can spend hours just browsing around forums and replying to topics. But if there's one thing that I hate the most, it's Filipinos posting in Filipino on English-based [web]forums and/or blogs. Even in an international server of RO [Ragnarok Online], Filipinos really will not speak English. Which part of English-based don't they understand, anyway? No wonder our English proficiency has been on a steady decline. It's because the majority would not even try to be "correct". A lot of things really concern me about the Filipino-style English but the use of shortcuts really is quite disturbing.

With the advancement and increased popularity of SMS [Short Message Service] in the early 21st century, Filipinos once again applied their creativity by creating a jargon through the elimination and/or substitution of various parts of a word, leaving behind something that would phonetically sound like the original word but in a significantly shorter form and through removing different components of a sentence such as articles in order to maximize the character limit in sending a single message. This succeeded but with a deep price to pay. A lot of Filipinos, especially the youth, have had their spelling and grammar greatly impaired not only in English, but also in Filipino. I usually watch my brother play on an international RO server and observe how he "speaks" in English with fellow non-Filipino players. Simply put, it's horrible but compared to a majority of the Filipino players that we see, he's a cut above them. I pity non-Filipino players who struggle in understanding what the f*** these people are talking about.

No, I'm not advocating the English language and saying that our own language should not be taken seriously. On the contrary, I'm not advocating any. What I'm trying to convey is that if one should use a language, use it in its proper form and only with words that came from its own set of words. There are no half-measures.
As my Kasaysayan professor said, it's either use straight English or straight Filipino (or Tagalog to be more politically correct) because you won't be proficient in any if you use combinations.

Inspiring words from a girl.

While I was browsing the internet for information about our topic in Comm3 (tomorrow's our midterms), I stumbled upon a blog of a former UP Diliman student (as I gathered). Here, I read about the speech of the Batch 2007 Summa Cum Laude's Graduation Speech. Here's the post.

Girl

As I read through the speech, I have to agree that I felt the same way as the blog owner and his friend did. The speech reflected my thoughts about how I would spend my life after I graduate [5 years from now]. During my stay as an exchange student, I made a conviction that I would spend my entire career rendering service to the Philippines directly. Despite having the advantage of speaking a 3rd language, I still would stay in the Philippines. I would like to provide jobs for those who have none. I would like to teach people how to make bread instead of giving them bread. Even as a freshman, I still hold these convictions and she just fortified them.

I am proud of being a student of the University of the Philippines and of being a member of the Diliman community. Most of all, I am proud of being a Filipino.

Seeing as she is just of my age, with those words, she gained my respect, as with all the other people who were at the amphitheater. I would give her a standing ovation myself.

I look forward to my physics class next year. If I could, I'd get her as a prof if she's teaching the Physics I'm supposed to get.

Sometimes, the so-called adults of the community needs to learn from the young.

Love life?

One thing that's characteristic among Filipinos is their, for lack of a better term, addiction to love, particularly intimate ones. With our social norms; holding hands, kissing on the cheeks or what we call as "beso-beso", and even mere frequent rendezvouses are almost automatically associated with couples. The first time I told my male circle of friends about different girls I met or talked with, they instantly assumed that I'm courting them (the girls).

What's up with the Filipinos' addiction towards intimate love? Is it because of the feelings involved? or is it plainly and shamelessly about sex?

Well.. the latter could not possibly explain the nature of our kinsmen to easily hate someone even with the most immature reasons. The later, however, could very much explain the steady growth of our population rate. =P

We ought to be called the Land of Love; where its' people make a lot of loving.

Let's make love, not war;
Literally.

Land of Smiles [not!]

Whenever I walk around in school, I look at peoples' faces. The majority looks the same. Looking down with a frown on their faces, walking slowly and absent-mindedly. It really is hard to imagine that we, Filipinos, are considered as a race with the happiest face. With the appearance of frown wrinkles on an increasing number of people, soon enough, we'd lose that position.

With the toils of everyday living, it's not hard to think of what people are thinking about. *I wonder what s/he's doing..* Probably, with the combination of the heat, political turmoil, ironical increase of cost of living, stacking problems - generally about life here in the Philippine Islands - life really makes people frown. *Don't s/he love me anymore?* To be honest, it's hard to generalize. *Why won't s/he pay me attention?* Because not everyone of us think alike. *I'm hungry.* Some think of trivial things. *Why is s/he looking at me like that?* Some think of intricate things. *What's life for?* But nonetheless, our tendency is to think of problems. *How much do I owe him/her again?* If not of problems, then of questions.

But why can't we condition our mind to think of good things? Is it because it makes us feel guilty of leaving our problems behind? Is it because these things just give us false hope?

Or is it because you just don't want to?

Think about it.

The Art of Gaming

For the past years, I have been a part of the gaming industry. Ever since I was in 2nd grade, I've been out almost everyday to play in the PS shops.. and then PS2 came.. and then we bought our first PC and then it went like a rocket from there.

Ragnarok, Flyff, Khan, Pristontale, Neopets, Red Alert, Warcraft, Starcraft, Counter Strike, Final Fantasy, Battle Realms, Disgaea, Dominions, Zelda, World of Warcraft, Tribalwars, Outwar, etc. The list is endless.

That's why I know how gamers feel. I know how their blood runs through their veins everytime something happens on their screens. I know the tension you feel before a clash. I know how these things run through your mind all day. I know how they fight over something that's immaterial.

The gamer blood runs through me.
Its call is overwhelming.