Musings 2010 10 27 17–H

  • It seems President Noy didn’t declare Nov 2 as a holiday. FAIL.
  • I’ve been out of sorts lately and it just recently came to my attention that Darren Aronofsky is directing Wolverine 2. WOW. I still have problems watching Requiem for a Dream (It depresses me too much, but its), and I still believe that The Fountain was underrated and of course everybody loves “The Wrestler”. I haven’t watched Pi which my sister tells me is very good.
  • The internet connectivity of our office was non-existent since Friday last week. That’s globe’s connectivity reliability for you.  In other words pag may bayantel don’t even think twice.
  • Didn’t like this weeks GLEE episode. Personal reasons.
  • Hope someone does a The Daily Show copycat for the Philippines. Two problems with this, who gets to play Jon Stewart. TV5 needs to do this. One of the revamped shows of TV 5 that I found enjoyable was the show which I forgot the name of which was basically TMZ for politicians. If they can copy something like this they should copy The Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Wasted Life Vol 2 2010

Garden slugs got more out of life than you did. +The ghost of christmas past (Scrooged).

Spent at least 2 days on sick leave, sleeping because of fever and coughing.
Cleaned out my feed reader! YEHEY !!!
Really need to learn conversational Japanese if I want to multitask while watching anime.

let me sum this up for you: you don’t know who you are, you don’t know what you want, and you don’t know what the hell is going on! +The ghost of christmas past (Scrooged).



Finished
The Prince of Tennis : National Tournament
The Prince of Tennis : National Tournament Semi Finals
The Prince of Tennis : National Tournament Finals
Nodame Cantabile Live Action Movie
Nodame Cantabile Live Action TV Series
Nodame Cantabile Finale
America’s Best Dance Crew Season 1 (1st Half)
Big Bang Theory
Community
How I Met Your Mother!
GLEE (Wala this week)
Scrooged(I know it’s too early for christmas movies but its Bill Fucking Murray!!!)
The Karate Kid (remake)
Now worrying because I have nothing to watch. Hope the charlie brown christmas specials get finished fast.

When I want a wife, I’m gonna BUY one! She’s gonna be devoted to me, to my wants and my needs. + Frank (Scrooged)

I really need to file all the great quotes I’ve compiled through watching an insane amount of film and television. Quotations from books are straight forward you just highlight the book and flip through your copy of the book.
UPDATE :
Was able to watch this saturday
  • 28 Weeks Later  – When the individual trumps the group its society that fails
  • You, Me and Dupree – Owen wilson is targeting one type of character and it’s becoming tedious
  • Battle Royale 2 – Whereas the first film is more a commentary on Japanese society the next films .
  • Battle Royale 1 – Social commentary at its best. When you have a median age of 47 and rising every year. Many things have been written about this societal time bomb but it really cant be helped. What Japan is experiencing is what other developed nations will eventually experience.
PS 2: I really must learn to write proper reviews for films.

Musings 2010 10 16

This is bad, I’m watching too many things right now.
Finished watching the following this week
Anime Series:

  • Death Note.
  • Nodame Cantabile
  • Hajime Ippo

TV Shows:

  • America’s Best Dance Crew season 5
  • The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (4 a week)

Movies:

  • Ondine

Weekly Shows:

  • Big Bang Theory
  • Community
  • GLEE

The sad thing is I can’t find the time to finish a damn great book, and with the current acquisition rate of 7 books a week I’d be buried in unread books by the end of this year. (note it seems though I didn’t meant it to be this way I’m buying 2 work related , 2 technical non work related,2 non fiction and 1 fiction book in average depending on how many great technical or work related books I can find in used books stores.)
Great finds yesterday:

  • N Gregory Mankiw’s best selling macro economics book 4th Ed
  • A book about Hemingway’s and Fitzgerald’s friendship
  • A book on Hamiltonian Methods in the theory of solitons, whatever that means.

Investments :: Stocks :: Week 2

Been in the market for two weeks now.
Bought GMA7 and MPI.
MPI  up 7.83%  3.80 -> 4.11
GMA7  down 3.83% 7.4 -> 7.12
Because I have no plans on actively trading; these positions were from 3 trades, I expect to re-up my cash holdings by next payday and try to find more buying opportunities with an expected holding period of at least 6 months.
I’ve been looking at TOL but nobody is selling at a price I life.

Quote :: not concentrate upon your ending, but rather – :: Harry says Mark Romanek's NEVER LET ME GO is truly Fantastic! — Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

In many ways the lesson of the film is to not concentrate upon your ending, but rather – focus upon the life you are living. And that’s outstanding.
via Harry says Mark Romanek’s NEVER LET ME GO is truly Fantastic! — Ain’t It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news..

I’ve always had this tension with the remembering and the experiencing self.
those two selves are explained here in this TED talk by Dan Kahnemann on those concepts.

I’ve always tried to optimize towards the experiencing self. I’ve not made up my mind if what I’m doing is correct.

Groundhog Day ramblings

Whatever happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I’m happy now… because I love you.  -Phil Connors

I don’t know what to make of this film. I’ve caught parts of it in HBO but was only able to really watch it now.
I don’t know what to say, the last time I felt like this was when I watched Up, but this was a far more uplifting experience probably because the film is so thought provoking in the what would I do if it was me type of fantasy.
Have to write this down before it escapes me.
-Andie Mcdowell is perfect for this role, not too hot for us to get distracted but not to homely for us to not care whether Bill Murray and her get together.
-How about that a multitude of ways to interpret, and the different iterations where masterfully executed.
-The bit about him mastering everything that goes down, even to the level of detail of when a gust goes by.
-The bit about the first thing that happens after he is trapped in this daily replay loop is to mope around think there is something wrong with him.

“PHIL: It’s the same thing your whole life.Clean up your room! Stand up straight! Pick up your feet!Take it like a man!  Be nice to your sister! Don’t mix beer and wine, ever! Don’t drive on the railroad tracks!”
GUS: That’s one I agree with.
later on
PHIL: I’m not going to live by their rules anymore!
GUS: I noticed that.
PHIL: You make choices and you live with them.

-The bit about the second thing that thinks to do is to act like a person who does not care for rules and other restrictions, even going into a monologue about

-The bit about dying and the which started with the car chase and eventually turned into a series of suicide tries where exquisite and thoughtful.
-The bit about the old man dying and resulting to him trying to save the old man and everybody else.
-The bit about him learning stuff and improving himself, finally learning to love (I was trying to type live but love would also do here).
This film is definitely on the will forever stay with me category.

Phil : What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?
Ralph:That about sums it up for me.

Quote: A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Action expresses priorities. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. -Gandhi

Quote: A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Action expresses priorities. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. -Gandhi
In Randy Paush’s book he gives advice to his daughter, judge what they do not what they say. I believe we should also apply this to our lives. Do you say you want something? Want to learn a new skill ? Learn to dance or sing? Have your own business? Well stop saying and start doing. If you aren’t doing anything you really don’t.

Nice Stuff I've Read 2010 08 08

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.

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.

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.

Feeling Old 2010 08 02

This is the first time I’ve been sick two days straight since, probably high school. I’m feeling old.
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.

Thinking Out Loud 2010 06 03 2217H

  • Was filling up OT form had 71 hours of overtime last month excluding those less than 2 hours.
  • Enjoyed last Saturday’s wanderings with jayson and vince. Hope I can climb Mt Makiling (as far as I can) sometime soon.
  • Enjoyed the Thai resto jayson took us near the entrance of UPLB’s campus.
  • The Calamba/Laguna area need wider highways. The heavy traffic was irritating.
  • Words/phrase for the day would have to be “Living at the edge of competence”. A phrase I take to heart. I’m currently in this position right now. Doing things I’ve never done before, having to force your tools to lots of hoops to accomodate what you have to do. If you had asked me even 2 months ago (this is my third month in my new job) why I had left my previous job I wouldn’t be able to explain it. I’d just have to make you understand through verbal acrobatics. I realize now that I wanted to live in the edge of my competence, this is the only way I can grow as fast as I want, and the ups and downs of learning/implementing/programming is so acute and depressing and exhilarating I haven’t felt this psyched in working.
  • I’m alone in the office while typing this, the only reason I am able to is because I needed a break after grappling with jar dependency hell.
  • I miss my friends. It’s fun seeing people grow, learn and change. What isn’t fun is trying to schedule something, anything. I know you probably know the feeling. Even trying to meet with 2 friends and it’s a given that one of you is going to have to adjust to the schedules of the other two.
  • Part of me wants to make posts on some rudimentary stuff that made my past few days hellish, but it always seems to be a battle between standing still or moving forward.