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January 9, 2010

rePost::The magic moment « Paulo Coelho’s Blog

The magic moment
Published on January 7, 2010 in News. 235 Comments
Paulo Coelho
We have to take risks. We can only truly understand the miracle of life when we let the unexpected manifest itself.
Every day – together with the sun – God gives us a moment in which it is possible to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day we try to pretend that we don’t realize that moment, that it doesn’t exist, that today is just the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if you pay attention, you can discover the magic instant.
It may be hiding at the moment when we put the key in the door in the morning, in the silence right after dinner, in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. This moment exists – a moment when all the strength of the stars passes through us and lets us work miracles.
Happiness is at times a blessing – but usually it’s a conquest. The magic instant helps us to change, drives us forward to seek our dreams. We shall suffer and go through quite a few difficult moments and face many a disappointment – but this is all transitory and inevitable, and eventually we shall feel proud of the marks left behind by the obstacles. In the future we will be able to look back with pride and faith.
Poor are those who are afraid of running risks. Because maybe they are never disappointed, never disillusioned, never suffer like those who have a dream to pursue. But when they look back – for we always look back – they will hear their heart saying: “What did you do with the miracles that God sowed for your days? What did you do with the talent that your Master entrusted to you? You buried it deep in a grave because you were afraid to lose it. So this is your inheritance: the certainty that you have wasted your life.”
Poor are those who hear these words. For then they will believe in miracles, but the magic instants of life will have already passed.
in “By the river Piedra I sat down and wept”
via The magic moment « Paulo Coelho’s Blog.

Part of the finding your passions series of posts due to the phase of my life of the same name, I’m presently in. Which is another name for Fucked Up Life. joke only.(good thing only a few reads the whole thing hehehe)

January 9, 2010

Quote:: What's the value of your time?

5. Focus on defining the experiences you value most, and how to get more of those experiences, and wise money/time choices will flow from that approach.
via Marginal Revolution: What’s the value of your time?.

Read the whole thing. From Hitch:: Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it’s the moments that take your breath away.

January 9, 2010

Quote::James vs the fashion industry – BBC Top Gear

I don’t imagine any regular TopGear viewers will be in the slightest bit surprised if I admit to knowing the square root of diddly squat about fashion. Even so, I find it hard not to be swayed by this stuff. Before I was on the telly, I never really bought any clothes, or at least not until the ones I was wearing turned to a puff of vapour when I sneezed. Now I feel obliged to buy some trendy shirts but, to be honest, I look no better in them than I do in my 25-year-old green and blue jumper, which I’m wearing now. Fashion is a waste of money that could be better spent on, say, maintaining your car.
via James May column: James vs the fashion industry – BBC Top Gear.

January 9, 2010

rePost::Bill Simmons: NFL playoff picks, Round 1 – ESPN

Basically, Marino resents Manning's era as much as I resent everyone younger than 30 who spent the past decade single in the Casual Sex Is Not Only OK, It's Encouraged Era.)
via Bill Simmons: NFL playoff picks, Round 1 – ESPN.

Anybody want to watch Superbowl in a National Sports Grill??

January 9, 2010

rePost::Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education

I’ve been thinking of Graduate School for a long time now and I have to admit that me going or not going is boiling down to the Question; Do I really want to or are their other reasons?? It is part of this search , this anguish filled search for meaning, for passion, for life.

I have found that most prospective graduate students have given little thought to what will happen to them after they complete their doctorates. They assume that everyone finds a decent position somewhere, even if it's “only” at a community college (expressed with a shudder). Besides, the completion of graduate school seems impossibly far away, so their concerns are mostly focused on the present. Their motives are usually some combination of the following:
* They are excited by some subject and believe they have a deep, sustainable interest in it. (But ask follow-up questions and you find that it is only deep in relation to their undergraduate peers — not in relation to the kind of serious dedication you need in graduate programs.)
* They received high grades and a lot of praise from their professors, and they are not finding similar encouragement outside of an academic environment. They want to return to a context in which they feel validated.
* They are emerging from 16 years of institutional living: a clear, step-by-step process of advancement toward a goal, with measured outcomes, constant reinforcement and support, and clearly defined hierarchies. The world outside school seems so unstructured, ambiguous, difficult to navigate, and frightening.
* With the prospect of an unappealing, entry-level job on the horizon, life in college becomes increasingly idealized. They think graduate school will continue that romantic experience and enable them to stay in college forever as teacher-scholars.
* They can't find a position anywhere that uses the skills on which they most prided themselves in college. They are forced to learn about new things that don't interest them nearly as much. No one is impressed by their knowledge of Jane Austen. There are no mentors to guide and protect them, and they turn to former teachers for help.
* They think that graduate school is a good place to hide from the recession. They'll spend a few years studying literature, preferably on a fellowship, and then, if academe doesn't seem appealing or open to them, they will simply look for a job when the market has improved. And, you know, all those baby boomers have to retire someday, and when that happens, there will be jobs available in academe.
via Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

January 9, 2010

rePost::Kilalanin! A presidential forum moderated by Mike Enriquez on dzBB – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News

I’m beginning to think that all these presidential forums etc are only really helping the news organizations to drive viewers to their show. Why? Because if history has anything to tell us; People who vie for the presidency would lie,cheat,steal to get it. We have no way of holding them accountable. Even in an advance democracy we have Barack Obama lying about campaigning for the public option, what can we expect from our more gullible and manipulated media. I’m not saying that knowing your candidates views on stuff isn’t important. What I’m saying is that; what we should be doing is looking at what they earlier promised when they ran for public office and how they followed through with their promises.

Kilalanin! A presidential forum moderated by Mike Enriquez on dzBB
01/09/2010 | 05:35 PM
Listen to an audio recording of Kilalanin! – a presidential forum with four candidates in Alabang on Sunday, January 9, moderated by Mike Enriquez and broadcast on dzBB. The four featured candidates:
* Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III
* Richard “Dick” Gordon
* Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro
* Manuel “Manny” Villar
via Kilalanin! A presidential forum moderated by Mike Enriquez on dzBB – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.

January 8, 2010

rePost::Danish tourism board produces video marketing Denmark as a country with drunk women who have unprotected sex with random tourists Boing Boing

In this video a Danish mother talks about her one-night stand with a foreign tourist. “We met one and half years ago when you were on vacation here. We went back to my house and we ended up having sex,” says Karen. It looks real, but Karen is a fictional character played by an actor. The video was produced by VisitDenmark – a tax funded tourist organization.
Why would a tourist agency produce such a video? In Politiken, Dorte Kiilerich, CEO of VisitDenmark explains:
Karen's story shows that Denmark is a free place with space for you to be who you want. The film is good exposure for Danish self-sufficient and dignified women.
Politeken asked Ms. Kiilerich: “Why have you chosen to market Denmark as a country with drunk women who have unprotected sex with random tourists?”
Kiilerich's answer:
“That is not a story that I recognize. We're telling a nice and sweet story about a modern responsible woman, that lives in a free society and takes responsibility for her choices. And she uses a modern and social media.”
Danish women as tourist attractions
(This all went down a few months ago, but I just read about it on Sociological Images)
via Danish tourism board produces video marketing Denmark as a country with drunk women who have unprotected sex with random tourists Boing Boing.

The sad thing is they could run dozens of ads of variations of this concept for the Philippines

January 8, 2010

rePost::Ginkgo Biloba Fails Again | Singularity Hub

It’s been taken as a mental health supplement for hundreds of years, and is also said to benefit blood flow, and combat free radicals. Yet according to a paper recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, ginkgo biloba had no discernible affect on the mental acuity of people as they aged. This comes on the heels of a 2008 study by the same team that showed that ginkgo had no affect on Alzheimer’s or dementia. The JAMA report is a blow to the reputation of the plant and could prove potentially damaging to suppliers of the supplement who sell over $100 million in the US alone. For those looking to boost their mental agility, or to simply keep it strong as they age, it looks like ginkgo biloba is no longer a good option.
via Ginkgo Biloba Fails Again | Singularity Hub.

Finally, hope they could study all these miracle drugs that are siphoning money mostly from people who can’t afford it.

January 8, 2010

Interesting ViewPoint:: Let them eat cake: Interpersonal Problems vs Tasks

People having trouble in those areas may ask for advice, perhaps out of a latent effort to turn the problem into more of a task. Yet a lot of conventional advice doesn’t really turn the problem into the task (at least, not for everyone), but rather poses new problems, due to difficulties that Alicorn mentioned, such as lack of resources, lack of propositional knowledge, or lack of procedural knowledge.
Take, for example, “just be yourself,” or “just meet potential partners through friends.” For many people, these pieces of advice just open up new problems: being oneself is a problem of personal identity. It's not a task that you can execute as part of a step in solving the problem of dating. Having a social network, let alone one that will introduce you to potential partners, is also a problem for many people. Consequently, these pieces of advice sound like “let them eat cake.”
Society in general resists the notion that socializing (dating and mating in particular) is a problem. Rather, society treats it as a solved task, yet the procedures it advocates are incomplete, dependent on unacknowledged contextual factors, big hairy problems of their own, or just plain wrong. (Or it gives advice that consists of true observations that are useless for taskification, like “everyone is looking for something different” in a mate. Imagine telling a budding chef: “everyone has different tastes” in food. It’s true, but it isn’t actually useful in taskifying a problem like “how do I cook a meal?”)
via Less Wrong: Let them eat cake: Interpersonal Problems vs Tasks.