Away All Day

Today (errr, yesterday) was one of those days when your house turns into a place merely for sleeping and eating (and even not much of the latter).

And of course, the temptation not to spend money is great (so yes, I have money these days, although I also have lots of debts).

The Eye That Sees

I was at our job pre-orientation and I couldn't help but identify the would-be leaders in the group. I mean in face of the unknown (or adversity), people tend to clump in groups (there's safety in numbers! or at least the others will go down before you do). And in those groups, there will eventually be someone who will lead them, the person that shows initiative for the rest to follow.

Of course I'm the usual loner, either I found a group except they're not in my shift, or I'll be the last choice. But it's still interesting to see the interaction and power plays in social groups, and is a good testing ground for my skills.

Lastly, it seems that I'll either be completely ignored (the person you see in your peripheral vision so you ignore) or the person that's the center of attention, whether it's due to aversion, pity, envy, or just plain weirdness.

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Short Term and Long Term

It's easy to be seduced by instant gratification in our mobile society. Sometimes, we don't think of the long term consequences. To me, that kind of living eventually leads to regret and perhaps even destruction, of others if not ourselves. Look at government policy: it might benefit us in the short term, but what are the long term remifications? Or to a smaller scale, what will our actions entail?

While it's impossible to foresee all the possibilities, I think people should look before they leap. And while having regrets is inevitable, we can lessen that burden by planning ahead and examining the way we want to live our life. If the action we are about to take is in line with that vision, then do it. If not, we should debate whether to go through with it, or if our goals need some adjusting (they are there, for a reason, after all).

Of course having said that, it's also important to address the short term. I mean we live in the present, after all, and we'll never reach the future until we take a step forward in the present. If we get too caught up in endless planning, what's the use of living? To live is to experience, and that also means living in the moment.

We shouldn't get too preoccupied with what-if's and what's already happened. The only time we can truly be ourselves is in the present. That's the only time we can savor our experiences. Before they become mere memories, enjoy that breath of fresh air. But don't dwell too much on the past (which we can't change), or too much on the future (which is potential at this point; what will come will come).

A synthesis of both present and future can help us live the life that we want. Sure, there are people who only live for the moment, but what will their future legacy be? And similarly, those who plan for the future all the time lose out on their present experiences (and since they'll always imagine tomorrow, they'll keep on forgetting today).

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Porn or Peace?

I'd probably choose the former, not because I actually watch porn, but mainly because the latter isn't possible without devastating consequences.

For me, peace is like poverty; you can't eliminate it, at least not without comprising something vital. World peace simply isn't possible. It's like striving for perfection: a goal to be attained, but not something we actuall grasp.

I mean human beings aren't demons, but they're not angels either. Part of us wants to inflict violence on other people, or to show others that we're better than them. I mean who was never tempted to hit someone? (But of course, we're similarly born with other qualities, such as compassion, pity, and even love.) Sure, humans have free will, and while the will of individual's is stronger than another individual's, as a group, as long as there will be differences between one type of group or another, there will always be conflict. And as much as I want that all future conflicts be resolved peacefully, some will eventually retaliate with force.

I'm not saying short-term peace is impossible. In fact, that's all we can really strive for. Short-term may be as short as one day, to as long as five decades. But over the long course of human history, war will eventually erupt; people will lose lives, and destruction would be unleashed upon the Earth. Do we have a choice? Of course we have a choice! That's why striving for peace is so important -- it's not an unconscious act but a conscious one. If all of humanity can be united in their will and desire for peace, it will be so. But we must recognize that while this is possible, it is also possible that humanity will eventually stop wanting peace (whether they are seduced by power, wealth, fame, or simply deluded) and a new war will erupt.

So is long-term peace impossible? Yes, it's possible, if we all live under one dictator, and everyone else has been lobotomized and programmed to follow the commands of the one dictator. Would there be peace then? Yes. Would we have free will? No. Conflict is part of being an invidual. At one level, we're one race. But on another level, we're unique individuals as well. We don't have a hive-mind, but we do have individual personalities and wills. And as long as that is the case, war and turmoil will eventually erupt. We can only hope to delay the inevitable, and sometimes, fighting for what you believe in is the only option left to us.

Human life wouldn't be so precious if it wasn't so fragile.

Poverty?

As I mentioned earlier, poverty can't be eliminated without drastic consequences. I mean as long as we live in this kind of society, there will always be heirarchies. And as long as there will be heirarchies, someone will always be at the bottom, and those people will eventually experience poverty.

One way poverty was attempetd to be resolved was by implementing an equality system. That's basically what communism is. But as proven by history, it has its own flaws too. When everyone is equal, why strive for being much much more when the results will be the same either way? We currently live in a semi-meritocratic system (because let's face it; our current political system is a hybrid of sorts; as much as I want it to be a pure meritocracy, other factors influence our decisions, such as favoring our friends and family, giving in to bribery, etc.) and it is a system where poverty is a given reality. No matter how you look at it, it can never be solved with the existing framework (unless we suddenly develop robot slaves and everyone suddenly becomes rich because the robots do all the work...).

Of course having said that, while we may not remove poverty entirely, we are capable or raising the bar. What I mean by that is that we can change the state of what it is to be in "poverty". A good example is to simply look at Canada and the Philippines. The poor people of the former is still better off than the poor people of the Philippines. The former still has health care, and sometimes even unemployment checks. Poor Filipinos already have problems finding the funds to pay for food for the day.

So perhaps one day, if we strive hard enough, poverty would mean basic clothing, basic shelter, and probably one cup of rice for the day. We can't eliminate the heirarchy, but we can make it a better place than it is now.

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Monthly Pilgrimage

Today, I performed my monthly pilgrimage, which involves going to the various bookstores in Metro Manila.

Of course me being me, I realized that if my life had a reality TV-show, the camera man wouldn't last a day. If exhaustion won't kill him (because I walk a lot), the heat will. And if not the heat, he'll probably die of a cold (because of the constant rains).

My life's exciting, as long as it's not spent at home (and even then, the camera man will die from either the heat or the flies).

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Reserved

When people look at me, what they see is… blandness. Let’s face it, I appear to be boring. I’m not the type of person you expect excitement, laughter, or even anger. I’m a modern day ad for stoicism. Not that doing so doesn’t have its benefits. I mean I’m the last person you expect to be angry, for example. Yet how did this all happen? Was I born a reserved person?

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U Got Game Cosplay

The International Gaming Development Association (IGDA) Manila Chapter, together with CompSAt, the La Salle Computer Society (LSCS) of De La Salle University, the UP Association of Computer Science Majors (CURSOR) of the University of the Philippines, and the Organization of Technical Innovation (OTI) of Mapua, have organized a game development contest aptly named U Got Game. Through this said event, competitors from student groups will engage in a healthy competition of skills and talent for game development. Participants are given their chance to show off their programming skills and imagination as well. We are hoping to bring out the best and brightest in the field of computer game development.

Cosplay Guidelines:

- This competition is open to everyone

- For the costume themselves, the only restriction is that it should be based on something that came out as a GAME first. Those that were based on things released as anime, manga, comics, movies, etc, then ported as games are not allowed. Those that were released as a game and as an anime/manga/comics/movies/etc at the same time are not allowed as well. If the game was then made into an anime/manga/comics/movies/etc, only the characters in the game are allowed

- We will provide dressing rooms for those who need them

For more information, visit U Got Game or Game Masters

(The event, while it mentions no date nor venue, I suspect will be held on Sept. 18 at the World Trade Center.)

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Anime on Animax for September

Zeta Gundam

Gokusen

Dr. Dokkiri

Princess Tutu

Cosparade on Ice

Too may people land on my site looking for "Cosparade on Ice" so I'll humor those people. =)

Suffice to say, it was a successful event organized by yaoi dudes at the Mega Mall skating rink last Saturday, July 31, 2004.

Cosplayers and their friends could enter the skating rink as early as 4 pm, although the main event started at around 6:15 and ended at around 8 pm.

Ticket sales were phenomenal, since the yaoi dudes expected less than a hundred and printed only 150 tickets. Fortunately, more tickets were made to accomodate the more than 200 people that participated.

Cosplay highlights involves the trio of Lord of the Rings cosplayers (Orc, Uruk-Hai, Witch-King Nazghul) who first showed up at the Toy Con a few months ago.

Of course best looking costume when to the girl who came in as a Diva from Akihabara.

Highlights involve the usual funny antics of the yaoi dudes, and a certain slim priestess from Ragnarok who's actually a guy.

There was also the presentation of Ice Musume, among other stuff.

Wazzup, Wazzup was also there for their toy robot segment.

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