I had fever yesterday and after church I decided to skip work and sleep till I felt okay. Woke up 11 PM . Been listening to The Smiths Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now care of Jayson, then listened about 2 times back to back to the 500 Days of Summer OST, fortunately I have a copy of The Graduate. Went to Something Fishy  with peire, and was pleasantly surprised with the addition of a Glazed ham on the midnight to breakfast buffet, competition rules. Watched The Graduate after getting home. This is the second time I’ve watched the Graduate. It seems that the reason I didn’t get it the first time was because the first time I saw it I was just a college freshman watching too many movies, not really  knowing the pointless grind life can be at the end of college.  Saturdays is our high school batch’s 10 year. Maybe this is why I’m being more reflective than usual, that and a few hard core things.

On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new research suggests — make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.

• A nice piece on the problems brought about by a prolonged stagnant economy on the youth  http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/careers/japans-economic-stagnation-is-creating-a-nation-of-lost-youths/19580780/ : here
  See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/bTKbdr

• The story of the Graphing Calculator. A nice piece of skunkworks story of how it got shipped in the mac. http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ : here

Why did Greg and I do something so ludicrous as sneaking into an eight-billion-dollar corporation to do volunteer work? Apple was having financial troubles then, so we joked that we were volunteering for a nonprofit organization. In reality, our motivation was complex. Partly, the PowerPC was an awesome machine, and we wanted to show off what could be done with it; in the Spinal Tap idiom, we said, “OK, this one goes to eleven.” Partly, we were thinking of the storytelling value. Partly, it was a macho computer guy thing – we had never shipped a million copies of software before. Mostly, Greg and I felt that creating quality educational software was a public service. We were doing it to help kids learn math. Public schools are too poor to buy software, so the most effective way to deliver it is to install it at the factory.

Beyond this lies another set of questions, both psychological and political. Was I doing this out of bitterness that my project had been canceled? Was I subversively coopting the resources of a multinational corporation for my own ends? Or was I naive, manipulated by the system into working incredibly hard for its benefit? Was I a loose cannon, driven by arrogance and ego, or was I just devoted to furthering the cause of education?

I view the events as an experiment in subverting power structures. I had none of the traditional power over others that is inherent to the structure of corporations and bureaucracies. I had neither budget nor headcount. I answered to no one, and no one had to do anything I asked. Dozens of people collaborated spontaneously, motivated by loyalty, friendship, or the love of craftsmanship. We were hackers, creating something for the sheer joy of making it work.

• Inspiring piece on an unconventional green business http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/energy-environment/08sustain.html?src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.jsonp&pagewanted=all

here :

Their business, started four years ago, bears all the markers that would seem to point toward collapse and extinction in a recessionary economy. It’s founded on idealism and emotion. It’s riddled with huge and unavoidable inefficiencies. And it tenders a high-end product that asks buyers to take risks and have faith.

I usually just have to sleep 8-10 hours straight and I”d be fine. What usually happens is I’m sick for half a day and I watch a movie in the evening. I had such a bad headache yesterday and earlier today that I wasn’t able to eat since breakfast yesterday. I’m still thinking of how I’m going to eat today. Still have a headache so scratch the watch Inception plan,might throw up. I’ve titled this feeling old when a title feeling sick would have been more apt.

WAITING FOR MY REAL LIFE TO BEGIN
Album : “Going Somewhere”
(written by: Colin Hay / Thom Mooney)
Colin Hay

Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I’ll keep checking the horizon
I’ll stand on the bow, feel the waves come crashing
Come crashing down down down, on me

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
But don’t you understand
I already have a plan
I’m waiting for my real life to begin

When I awoke today, suddenly nothing happened
But in my dreams, I slew the dragon
And down this beaten path, and up this cobbled lane
I’m walking in my old footsteps, once again
And you say, just be here now
Forget about the past, your mask is wearing thin
Let me throw one more dice
I know that I can win
I’m waiting for my real life to begin

Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I’ll keep checking the horizon
And I’ll check my machine, there’s sure to be that call
It’s gonna happen soon, soon, soon
It’s just that times are lean

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart, let the light shine in
Don’t you understand
I already have a plan
I’m waiting for my real life to begin

click here to see the graphic.:

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=028de8672d5f9a229f15e9edf&id=9de45e418f&e=d7f0ee7f37

It has always amused me how willing the “Do Nothing” crowd are to join in the pile-on every time they see a member the “Do Something” crowd stumble.

And Everybody stumbles. Nobody’s perfect. Everybody is capable of having a bad week.

“We told you it would never work! We told you he was no good!”

Useless packs of toothless, wannabe wolves. I have no time for them.

Better to die trying, than to be just another loser commentator with an opinion.

-Spent yesterday going 16 hours coding/testing/ and didn’t want to sleep because I know I wouldn’t be able to wake up for the UAT with PRC’s cash division today. Found the Cash Division/PRC people nice.

-Beware of brilliant jerks, if you don’t have the hard shell necessary in dealing with them you’d better just stay away. We all have to learn to still be polite and cordial even in high pressure situations. Be more understanding of the shortcomings of our colleagues. We aren’t all geniuses.

-Went home around 3:30 am, was in a jeepney with 3 dancers, I hate this very sharp sense of overhearing. It seems for non big nights they can go home earlier than usual.

-Pangasinan trip cancelled, turned to a dinner instead. nice pa rin.

-We have a Lydia’s Lechon branch near the office. We like to eat there for dinner after 8 because they give us extra lechon skin near closing time.

-Woah, I just realized na ang tagal kong hindi kinilig for myself. This has been a very nice day.

-I’m slowly falling into sin. Why is REM’s classic always running through my mind.

-Why can’t I seem to shake of the feeling that the song FEEL was sooo made for me.

QUOTE:
Today, many critics lament the lack of innovation in our society and draw the conclusion that more emphasis on teaching mathematics and science will lead to innovation. That will probably fail. Innovation comes from repeated successes in innovating. Innovation means trying ideas outside the accepted patterns. It means providing the opportunity to fail as a learning experience rather than as an embarrassment. … the traditional school powerfully suppresses any tendency toward being innovative. Both teachers and students are driven to conform.
from this book : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568814763?ie=UTF8&tag=theende-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1568814763
via: http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/06/01/preparing-students-for-innovation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheEndeavour+(The+Endeavour)

Now for the hard question: What to do with your life?

First, it’s important to understand that once you have the basics, happiness comes primarily from healthy social connections and a sense of purpose. If you quit your job and move to a new city where you don’t know anyone or have a clear purpose, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up depressed or even suicidal. So unless your current life is very broken, don’t do that. Take it slow.

Many people with jobs have a fantasy about all the amazing things they would do if they didn’t need to work. In reality, if they had the drive and commitment to do actually do those things, they wouldn’t let a job get in the way. Unfortunately, if given a lot of money, they are much more likely to end up addicted to crack, or even worse, World of Warcraft. (edit, since people are getting offended: there are, as always, exceptions, but the point is that actually doing stuff is about a million times harder than just dreaming about it, which is why 99% of people wouldn’t actually do it even if money weren’t an issue) If you’ve been institutionalized your entire life (school, work, etc), it can be very difficult to adjust to life on “the outside”.

from here: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-to-do-with-your-millions.html

The evidence strongly suggests that students learn better when they are not graded and certainly not when they are graded on a curve.  … When drill instructors were tricked into believing that certain randomly selected soldiers would achieve superior performance, those soldiers subsequently performacned far better on tasks like firing weapons and reading maps.  (p.38)

from here : http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/03/hard-facts-teaching.html