My Irrational Piece

Every once in a while, we’re all overcome by our emotions so much that it serves as a foundation (or an excuse) for clouds to shadow our sense of better judgment. I believe that it’s during these times that we, humans, are actually in our most vulnerable state because more often than not, during times like these, we tend to base all our actions and decisions upon the emotions that we’re experiencing- this is what we call IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR.

During the state of being “irrational” a person throws all sense of being reasonable out the window and straight into the bin. It is during these times that we tend to do all sorts of stupid stuff like say words we don’t actually mean or say things we mean but we didn’t mean to say, break expensive stuff that are the actual causes of the frustration (we always regret it afterwards), come up with stupid lies to break away from all the drama and end up causing more drama, or call our parents “filthy stupid pair of scumbag-whores”… or maybe not.

The concept of being irrational got me into thinking: God separated human from animals by giving us the ability to think for ourselves and invent and reason. For a group of special creatures that are imbued with the ability to think, isn’t it funny that being irrational is as part of being human as is the ability to walk on two legs?

Earlier today, I had a fight with my two younger cousins and the incident answered my question right away. Sure, we were given the ability to think but God also gave us the ability to feel. In actuality, it is not only our ability to think that separates us from animals; it is also our ability to feel- a characteristic solely given to humans that it allowed for the coining of the term “Humanity.”

Most of us, when faced with the mistakes caused by irrational behavior, would try to deny the incident, some of us would acknowledge it and ask the people around us to simply forget the entire thing. There are also some who would go to great lengths just to cover things up and let the mistake be part of undocumented history, while there are some whose sense of judgment is so great that they would be the first one to pull the skeleton out of their closet for the entire world to see. No matter which action we choose to take, I’ve learned that it is important to see that at the end of the day we’re all going to be held liable for it.

Inferiority Complex

No other way to explain it. Overcome by emotions, I resorted to my first attempt at a poem. Yes, I know it sucks but I posted it anyway to serve as some sort of consolation- A byproduct of feelings unresolved.

I stared out to you from the depths of me

Captured by the magnificence of your beauty

To you the world is for the taking

For me it’s a reality I can never live in

Within this fortress I was put away

Norms and everything that’s bright and gay

Told me “Here you must always remain”

A helpless child, I stayed.

A solitary confinement

A fortress to hide myself: not made of wood, metal or stone

But of emotions and all things intangible

A pitiful existence without substance

Power of Relationship

"The Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow but we've invented three times that many words for relationships. What really defines a relationship?"

-Carrie Bradshaw

Last night my dad, after several rounds of lung-tearing screams and yells from my mom, admitted that he has an infidel relationship with a woman named Aurora. How long the relationship has been in existence or how it existed, I am not sure. Nor do I want to find out. The truth is I’m not really all that bothered by the current situation my parents are facing. Dad has been having other women left and right ever since I can remember. One thing this gave me however is a whole bunch of questions about relationships.

“What guarantee do we have in a relationship?”

“Are relationships worth giving it your all if you have no proof that it’ll last?”

“When we speak of proofs or guarantees in a relationship, what are these? Where are these proofs? Where should they come from?”

“If a relationship fails, does that mean the proofs no longer exist? And did they ever exist in the first place?”

“Can one mistake kill all the proofs of a relationship at once?”

I won’t say that I’m an expert when it comes to relationships. Nor would I claim that I know a thing or two about it. But this I can say: Relationships are like the battery of a mobile phone. You’ll never know when you might get a call or a text message that can leave the battery low. But you wait for the call. You recharge the battery because you need the phone. But there’s a possibility that you might receive another call- one that may take longer and can possibly drain the battery of its energy.

But when do you change the battery? When do you decide the phone’s not working for you anymore and you throw it away and find a new one. One with a new battery? Perhaps. Are there occasions when you simply throw the phone yet keep the battery?

Or do you sometimes change the battery but use the same phone?

What signals do you wait for to recharge the battery? Is the battery worth the effort of recharging?

In this jungle of relationships we’re living in people act like animals when in the prospect of gaining a new battery or phone. And one just can’t help but feel helpless when a more vicious animal comes to use their phone or drain its battery.

A Lighter Shade of Brownout

Today is March 04, 2010 and this is the second time that we experienced the infamous rotating brownout this week. The cutting off of electric supply in our area lasted for a little more than an hour and might have brought about countless curses and numerous phone calls to Meralco by residents; but I thought that doing these things, satisfying they may be, will not help. So while my brother was busying himself by throwing countless swears to the air, I tried to find some sort of silver lining in the middle of this electricity-less, reason-draining, faint-provoking noon.

One of the most obvious and probably lease appreciated benefit of the noon brownout is the fact that it allows for calorie shedding to happen. Since I am living in a tropical country in the middle of the El Nino phenomenon coupled with the effects of Global Warming, the temperature here right now is insane.

I’m talking about yesterday being the hottest day ever recorded in the history of Metro Manila.

And although this may seem a bad thing for most, and maybe it is, I see it as an effortless way to take the hamburger and fries I ate yesterday off my system. And that’s not the best part of it. Using a paper fan to cool yourself down serves as another inevitable excuse to burn fat by exercising and toning your arms.

During situations like these, water intake is also almost doubled without you actually realizing it, thus, allowing better body circulation and a chance to wash down toxins in your digestive track.

Without power to make the television, radio, computer and notebook work, people are forced out of their sedentary lifestyle and this gives way for more physical and productive activities to while away the time like cleaning the house. This also permits social network addicts to get away from their computers and actually go out to talk to their family members and neighbors and catch up on things. The situation is like hitting 3 birds with one stone (but instead of you throwing the stone, it’s the electric company that throws it and you benefit). You get to socialize with your neighbors, develop your communications skills in the process all the while without making any effort (at least if you are in civil terms with your neighbors). You might even chance up on some food sharing if your neighbor’s generous.

Children also benefit from this powerless condition because they are allowed by their parents or guardians to go out and play with the neighbors’ children. Again, allowing socializing as well as physical activities.

As for me, the situation is the perfect set-up to put my thinking and observing into action. Situations like these can bring varying reactions to people with different attitudes and perspectives, and observing them is one of the best ways to pass time.

I Am Currently Green- minded

My biggest fascination at the moment is Green- Charlie Green that is.

This 11-year old half Filipino half-British kid has the moves, the grooves, the voice, the style and the charm (everything I've always wanted but never had) to be a real superstar. And I can confidently say that with proper guidance, he's very well on his way to the top. I mean just check out the following videos.

He even wowed Simon Cowell when he auditioned for Britain's Got Talent back in 2008.

To put in perspective how much I am in awe with this young crooner, let me just say that I have never seen a kid more cut for singing like Charlie since Billy Gilman. He's just got it.

One thing I really hate right now though (and I would like to reiterate that I really hate it) is the way ABS-CBN (his mother network in the Philippines) is Filipino-izing him. You know, making it sound like he's got all these Filipino qualities and that he's a true Pinoy kid who supposedly showed the world what Filipinos can do, all that kind of crap? I mean, he's been in the Philippines like 4 times his entire lifetime. Even if it is true that he's got a Cebuana for a mum, it is very unlikely that he's got all these Filipino qualities you so proudly boast about. Ughhh... Filipinos can just be so disgusting sometimes. I mean, are we that desperate to find something good about ourselves?

If you guys want to be updated with the latest of what's going on with Charlie, click this link to be directed to his Facebook fan page.

No Time to Waste- You've wasted Enough on this Video

Alessandra de Rossi has got to be one of my most favorite Pinoy actors to of all time. She's unconventionally smart, quick-witted, a tremendously great actress and a very legitimate, down to Earth, forthright person. I adore most of her works, with the exception of her musical undertakings. For those of you who are unaware of her past attempts to establish herself as a singer, try Youtube-ing her video of Sailing- originally sung by Christopher Cross, the same person who gave us Think of Laura and Arthur's Theme. Its actually incredible how she was able to turn this great song, which was previously redone, tremendously well by Nsync, into almost 5 minutes of completely mind-numbing, pain-staking, career-ending piece of crap. Such a waste of resources if you ask me.

But despite this not-so-very-well-thought-of move in her career, I still love her and even decided to follow her on twitter. Today she decided to tweet this video to all her followers. And this is where my problem starts. First of all, don't! Just please don't Alex. Don't ever try to be a singer. You're fine as an actress-slash-host-slash-comedienne and we all love you for doing so well on those roles. Don't go screwing things up for all of us. Please, just don't.

Moving this entry away from Alex and into the actual problem, this video has all the necessary ingredients to become an actual hit: great collaborations by some of the country's top artists like Cynthia Alexander, Noel Cabangon and Bayang Barrios; appearances by some of the most well-known Filipino celebrities including 1999 Ms. Universe first runner up, Miriam Quiambao; and its an attempt to address and inform everyone of a very timely issue that is as global as the Pacific- Climate Change.

Yet, I don't think this one will ever be a hit. Why? Because its just plain crap. First of all, if you're going to throw a couple of singers together to create a collaboration, you have got to make a melodious song. Why? Cause not all singers have the same style. If you let them belt out a fast-paced song, it'll all just end in tragedy. You'll loose the character of the song and its most likely that everyone will end up screaming, like what happened here. Next, if you're going to make a video with lots of artists in it, its way better to just tape them singing their respective parts with the plainest background and just stitch everything together than make them play weatherman against an always changing background. They are singers and are most likely clueless when it comes to acting. And by the way, some of the images used as background there are not even climate change related.

Then we go to the editing. Can the graphics get any worst? And the pacing? Oh! And is it a requirement for Diether Ocampo to loose his shirt? In the first place, what is he doing there? And why is a weatherman playing the guitar? How about that designer girl from PBB Celebrity Edition? I suppose her name is Mitch. And Tim Yap?! Oh gosh! And we haven't even touched Rico Blanco's pronunciation of Earth (euth- I'm not even sure how to properly put it in phonetics). How about that freakishly normal (exaggerating) looking girl at the end of the video? What was that about? I really just don't get the concept of this thing. I know they want to relate the video with the song and the advocacy (pretty obvious) but it just doesn't work for me. A sophomore Communication Arts student from my school could have done a way better work. *Sigh

Another group of people, putting their time, effort and resources on a sane thing but ending up with crap. If you're somehow connected to this group or can get in touch with any of them, please tell them to consider redoing this video. With this great of a cause, I just know you can and have to do better. By the way, here's the freakin' video.

Everyone has the power to reach everyone

This is how powerful the internet is right now and it will only get more powerful and better in the coming years with more technological advancements.

Purchasing everyday products, real estate properties, even finding hooters and jobs has never been easier. Now, given the right tools, you can even be in more than two places at once.

Like Peter Parker once said “with great power comes great responsibilities.” It is my hope that everyone will learn to use this powerful tool for the betterment of all.

Failed Reading and Web

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries.” - Descartes

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with reading. I’d really love to read more because I know that I’m doing a whole lot of good for myself if I do, but I’m a really lazy reader, not to mention stubborn- I only read materials that I like and nothing else. This is my major problem with reading- most materials I am able to put my hands on seem interesting enough to read but fail on keeping me interested enough to actually pursue the entire thing.
Today, I attempted to begin reading The Cardinal’s Hat by Mary Hollingsworth, a book I bought about a month ago and have been collecting dusts since. I was able to finish about 5 whole pages before I decided that the phasing was too slow for me and put it off for another time.
After setting the book on a counter top, I realized that I really want to be a better reader so I looked on the web for possible solutions to my problem.

To my dismay, it seems the web does not (or rather would not) offer instant and credible solutions to all my problems. There weren’t any real sites that offer credible and short (hello lazy reader looking for solution) information on how I can be a more proactive reader. Most of the sites I found just give out tips on how one can improve his reading comprehension without even taking into consideration if the person is actually motivated to read, and do not even mention the credibility of the information they’re offering. This is really a major disappointment for me cause I’ve always had this picture in my head that all the information mankind will ever need can be found on the world wide web, especially information that can cure a problem that is so prevalent amongst today’s youth. And though, today, the web has failed me to find an actual solution, it did give me one consolation for my seeking it for an answer.

The 7 Pleasurable Ways to Improve Your Reading Ability is an article I found that was authored by Steve Kaufmann (founder of thelinguist.com and, naturally, a linguist). Though the article does not actually address my problem directly (and is quite lengthy for me), I believe that reading between the lines of the 7 tips can help me find the answer. Please take the time to read the article and see for yourself what I’m talking about. If you find that the article is not an answer to your problem (which I’m hoping since you’ve been reading this is the same as mine), do not talk trash on this page. Instead, try to find a more effective answer somewhere else. Reading is objective but comprehension is not so much.

Your, You’re, Their, They’re, Its, It’s

How annoying is it to hear a host repeatedly use the phrase “at this point in time” during one program?As annoying as hearing your dad tell you to take “cock syrup” instead of cough syrup.

Now, I’m actually no grammarian or linguist or any kind of expert on anything. But it does bug me when learned people make usual and obvious grammatical errors. It bugs me so much that I end up correcting them right then and there with no respect as to who I am talking (or not talking) with.

I remember this one time at school when I and my friend Ross were talking to one of her professors, an ambassador. He talked in straight English but kept throwing wrong verb usages and tenses everywhere. After their conversation, Ross turned to me and asked me what my problem was. Of course I was like “what?” Then she said that I kept correcting the guy’s grammar under my breath- something I was not able to actually notice till she pointed it out. From that day on, I started noticing that even though I myself have grammatical flaws, it does not stop me from noticing errors on other people’s writing or speaking. And it’s not like I intend to notice it, its really unintentional and something I just do unconsciously.

There was this other instance when my friend, Bern, wrote an article that was published in the school paper. Everyone congratulated him for a great job on the article and they kept saying that they had “nose bleeds” while reading it. Of course I wasn’t one who’s actually interested in reading the school paper, but intrigue got the best of me and since I already paid for it with my miscellaneous fee I decided to grab one and check it out. Now as I was reading through the article, unconsciously, I took out my pen and started circling grammatical errors. And I didn’t even notice what I was doing till I was done with the entire article. After which, I thought to myself “why wasn’t the editor able to see these?”

Now I’m not really saying that I’m a great person or a champion of correct verb usage (which is just creepy) or anything of that sort. In fact I maybe a dumb pussy or a huge mother-fucking ass hole for posting this. But what I would really like is for people to start paying attention to the way they communicate. It’s really not that hard and can improve the quality of one’s mind in more ways than one.

To end this post, I have here 11 Little-Known Grammatical Errors which I’m hoping you would all take the time to read and absorb.

Post 1: Why The Pinoy Spectator?

The word blog is a contraction of the word ‘web log’ which is a site normally established and maintained by an individual. It is a personal space where the creator can post everything and anything that’s going on or has happened in his life including events, ideas, views, beliefs and emotions. Such contents make a blog an opening to one’s most intimate thoughts and sentiments- a window to one’s personality if you may. And this is the reason why creating a blog title is so hard for me- it’s like creating a new or an alternate name for yourself. Or creating a name for the opening where you allow people to see who you are (a very scary thought).

So after hours of sitting here in front of my screen browsing other people’s blogs, tweeting and doing almost every sane, logical and even illogical things you can do on Facebook, I was finally able to come up with a name for this new blog of mine- The Pinoy Spectator.

The Pinoy Spectator is actually the son of The World Spectator- my former Twitter user name before I changed it to the former. I’ve always used The World Spectator to denote myself as an observer of the world, one who does not belong here but a mere observer. But I’ve always find that the name lacks appeal; meaningful yes, but it has no appeal. No angst, no “it factor”, no distinction and very characterless. So I sought to find a better one.

My qualifications for finding a new name and blog title include being in the same chapter as an observer, having distinction, character and appeal and a title that speaks me. Now as I was going through my pursuit for this great title I suddenly stumbled upon a magazine called the American Spectator.

So as you can see The Pinoy Spectator is actually the son of the World Spectator with the American Spectator having been conceived and born in a matter of seconds. The spectator part has already been explained above and so to give justice to this, I will now explain the pinoy part.

Pinoy is a term used mainly by Filipinos to refer to themselves in general. Although the word was coined intentionally to distinguish the experiences of Filipino emigrants to the United States it is now a nationally accepted term (although still considered a slang) that denotes everyone of Filipino descent and heritage and has helped create a national and cultural identity. A proof of this is the usage by companies and (more timely) by politicians of the term to bring a more personal relation to brand promotion.

Now, although it is a fact that I am only half a Filipino by blood, I do consider myself to be fully Pinoy. I grew up in the Philippines and am living as a Filipino. I have full Filipino rights as well as full Filipino characteristics; I am more often late, I am generally lazy and like to procrastinate, I like street foods, I believe that every man deserves to live in a democratic country, free from abuse and corruption and I value most Filipino ideals.

So to wrap things up as well as make this entire thing somehow coherent, I used the term The Pinoy Spectator because I am an individual first, a Pinoy and an observer. So you can expect that my posts are going to be products of my observations and are mostly about Pinoy related stuff or Pinoy influeced.