The Story of The Chocolate Crotch

It was raining. As if on cue, the lightning appeared on the horizon. To make the matters worse, it was almost midnight. Shia, alone on their house, was sitting by the window. He was on his bedroom on the attic, watching as the raging storm outside took out its wrath on the trees, lamp posts and stray dogs.

His mom and Dad was out for a conference. Both were dentists, they were in San Antonio, a town two-hour ride from home.Jessica was in her friend's house and Tommy, their dog, accompanied her. So basically, he was alone. And never he felt so happy. He never really liked company, even at school he had few friends. Tamara and Jake were the only ones who had put up with him because basically they were outcasts, too like him.

Being alone makes him happy and unlike everybody else, he wanted to spend his time on his room looking at that attic window, observing things below and just be alone. And tonight, with everybody gone, he was celebrating on that way of his, just plainly silent watching as the storm tried to wreck the house across the street.

"HALOOOOOO!!!!"

He almost fell from the chair when he heard the voice.

Second Attack!

I had vowed to write at least twice a week on this site but i failed. Basically, due to some time constraints (sometimes mas gugustuhin ko na lang matulog kesa magsulat) I was not able to put down here some of my thoughts. Anyway, from now on, I would try to write something here that could be pondered on.

Today I am writing about human rights.

Where does it exactly begin and where does it end? The usual answer I would get from people was :as long as you are not violating other person's rights. This answer is some kind of hazy because how would one know when another's right is being violated? I mean is there an inherent concept of "feeling that you are violating somebody else's right"? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Further, some people might say: you are violating someone if they are hurt. Okay, given that the other people are hurt, how would one know that they are? Some would just prefer to shut up and let things pass.

There are concrete examples that our concept of human rights are as vague as our understanding of how universe must have started. We have theories but one of them is concretely validated.

Take for an example: euthanasia. I know I am crossing some serious grounds here. But I would like to continue anyway. In one of the series I used to watch, the patient was given the prerogative to end her life (BTW, the star was Sara Gilbert and I liked her more in TBBT). Two doctors signed the papers consenting to her request. She had cancer and was experiencing a lot of pain. I do not know if in real-life that state has already legalized Euthanasia. My argument lies on the thought that at that make-believe setting, Euthanasia comprise the basic humnan rights of a person... choosing to end her life. I do not contest the morality of such act, I am just going to argue: does it not (euthanasia) fall in the very definition of human right? One has not to hurt anyone in anyway (althoguh some people may argue that the relatives of the one the patient would be hurt emotionally, but to think it deeper, they were hurt because of the parting and not the act, which is euthanasia, itself.

Another one was same sex marriage. My housemate and I were talking about it last week, on one of those days when the elctricity was out and there was nothing to do around the house)... gays and lesbians are basically people, who has every right to be happy. If marrying one another is what would make them happy, why the society is not giving in? AGAIN, I am not contesting the morality of this act. Marriage is an instiutution that is deeply revered by everyone of us, including me. My only question is that: does it not also fall in the very definition of human rights? Homos would not be violating any of our rights either. We are just against the act because it was against our beliefs.

I am no expert in what is right and what is wrong. My own standards are not too impeccable that I may have the right to shout all over and preach the good stuff, no. I am just a simple person asking: what is human rights? And until it was answered, really answered, I would not cease to ask that question.

*To myself: Utopia, you are still far from reality.

The Quarter-life Crisis

From my friend's FB note...

The Quarter-Life Crisis

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may or may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.
You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you do not realize is that they are realizing that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.
You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the same people on a constant basis. But then you realize that maybe they weren't so great after all.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person.
One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

- Unknown.

What to Know When You're 25-ish

Got this from Relevant Magazine's fficial FB page. Nice.

Here are the things really worth caring about in your 20s.

When you’re 25-ish, you’re old enough to know what kind of music you love, regardless of what your last boyfriend or roommate always used to play. You know how to walk in heels, how to tie a necktie, how to give a good toast at a wedding and how to make something for dinner. You don’t have to think much about skin care, home ownership or your retirement plan. Your life can look a lot of different ways when you’re 25: single, dating, engaged, married. You are working in dream jobs, pay-the-bills jobs and downright horrible jobs. You are young enough to believe that anything is possible, and you are old enough to make that belief a reality.

Job

Now is the time to figure out what kind of work you love to do. What are you good at? What makes you feel alive? What do you dream about? You can go back to school now, switch directions entirely. You can work for almost nothing, or live in another country, or volunteer long hours for something that moves you. There will be a time when finances and schedules make this a little trickier, so do it now. Try it, apply for it, get up and do it.

When I was 25, I was in my third job in as many years—all in the same area at a church, but the responsibilities were different each time. I was frustrated at the end of the third year because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do next. I didn’t feel like I’d found my place yet. I met with my boss, who was in his 50s. I told him how anxious I was about finding the one perfect job for me, and quick. He asked me how old I was, and when I told him I was 25, he told me that I couldn’t complain to him about finding the right job until I was 32. In his opinion, it takes about 10 years after college to find the right fit, and anyone who finds it earlier than that is just plain lucky. So use every bit of your 10 years: try things, take classes, start over.

Relationships

Now is also the time to get serious about relationships. And “serious” might mean walking away from the ones that don’t give you everything you need. Some of the most life-shaping decisions you make in this season will be about walking away from good-enough, in search of can’t-live-without. One of the only truly devastating mistakes you can make in this season is staying with the wrong person even though you know he or she is the wrong person. It’s not fair to that person, and it’s not fair to you.

Counseling

Twenty-five is also a great time to start counseling, if you haven’t already, and it might be a good round two of counseling if it’s been a while. You might have just enough space from your parents to start digging around your childhood a little bit. Unravel the knots that keep you from living a healthy whole life, and do it now, before any more time passes.

Church

Twenty-five is the perfect time to get involved in a church you love, no matter how different it is from the one you were a part of growing up. Be patient and prayerful, and decide that you’re going to be a person who grows, who seeks your own faith, who lives with intention. Set your alarm on Sunday mornings, no matter how late you were out on Saturday night. It will be dreadful at first, and then after a few weeks, you’ll find that you like it, that the pattern of it fills up something inside you.

Don't get stuck

This is the thing: when you start to hit 28 or 30, everything starts to divide, and you can see very clearly two kinds of people: on one side, people who have used their 20s to learn and grow, to find God and themselves and their deep dreams, people who know what works and what doesn’t, who have pushed through to become real live adults. And then there’s the other kind, who are hanging onto college, or high school even, with all their might. They’ve stayed in jobs they hate, because they’re too scared to get another one. They’ve stayed with men or women who are good but not great, because they don’t want to be lonely. They mean to find a church, they mean to develop honest, intimate friendships, they mean to stop drinking like life is one big frat party. But they don’t do those things, so they live in kind of an extended adolescence, no closer to adulthood than they were when they graduated college.

Don’t be like that. Don’t get stuck. Move, travel, take a class, take a risk. Walk away, try something new. There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Don’t lose yourself at happy hour, but don’t lose yourself on the corporate ladder either. Stop every once in a while and go out to coffee or climb in bed with your journal. Ask yourself some good questions like: “Am I proud of the life I’m living? What have I tried this month? What have I learned about God this year? What parts of my childhood faith am I leaving behind, and what parts am I choosing to keep with me for this leg of the journey? Do the people I’m spending time with give me life, or make me feel small? Is there any brokenness in my life that’s keeping me from moving forward?”

Now is your time. Become, believe, try. Walk closely with people you love, and with other people who believe that God is very good and life is a grand adventure. Don’t spend time with people who make you feel like less than you are. Don’t get stuck in the past, and don’t try to fast-forward yourself into a future you haven’t yet earned. Give today all the love and intensity and courage you can, and keep traveling honestly along life’s path.

Quarter-life crisis

A friend posted something on her facebook account that goes something like being stuck, not knowing where to go or what to expect; losing people, forgetting things, fading dreams, unwanted feelings, whatever.

May sound funny, quarter-life crisis. Like spoof of more realtively known mid-life crisis. But indeed, that syndrome is true. I myself feel the very same. But I guess dwelling on such feeling may not be too healthy if done often. The feeling of depression is legitimate, everybody does pass through the Limbo sometimes. But being stuck, that's the worst thing that could happen to anybody.

A colleague/friend of mine once asked me if she would not be pre-judged by scrutinizing eyes of the society if she would go to a psychologist just to have a consult. I asked, why though? She quipped, "I think I really need an expert opinion."

Yep, it does happen. One morning you will just wake up and WHAM! You feel lost, in the vastness of the Universe, like a speck of dust floating, waitng for that Lord called "time" to plaster you on something.

But at the end of the day, ikaw pa rin yan. Kahit ano yung mali mo, kaya pang itama. At kahit ano pang nararamdaman mo, hindi ka nag-iisa, halos lahat dumadaan d'yan. Normal yan. You can always ask for help. You need not to face it alone. Almost always, when you thought that the world has turned its back on you, there's a pair of helping hands ready to reach out and carry you home.

Was it really BIG a BANG? The Theory behind the hit TV Sitcom

"Scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock, and as it always has, rock crushes scissors."

This was how the famous Sheldon Cooper tried to modify the equally famous game of rock paper scissors. The result was "rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock" (RPSLS). Undoubtedly, for the 187 IQ points genius, this would easily solve the problem of picking the same option between the competing player. Ironically, it didn't. Because more than ever, he and and his bunch of genius friends (but not as nutty as he was, mind you, or not?) always seemed to pick Spock and all arguments ensuing the RPSLS were not settled and more arguments arose. Pathetic, aren't they, their bunch? But anyhow, they capture my attention and being a couch potato that I am, I sat with awe and gusto watching them on the idiot box.

The story revolved around two geniuses cum roommates cum bestfriends Leonard and Sheldon. Their uber coherent, numbered and labeled (literally with Sheldon's labeling all of the things in their apartment ) world was shaken when the vacant apartment accross their hall was rented out and occupied by a beautiful blonde (who was not able to go to college or community college for that matter)whose goal was after six months of transferring from Omaha, Nebraska to Pasadena, California, would become a movie star or a TV star at least. Their comic combination added with two University friends who were as geek as Leonard and Sheldon can be (Howard and Radjesh) was an ensemble I think one could not get enough of.

Witty openings and hilarious ending with so much laughter in between would defintiely make you root for the poor Leonard and shake your head in exasperation in apparent cluelessness of Sheldon in sarcasm all around him.

I am unpaid, this is no advertisement, I was just sharing the goofiness around. Maybe it was just because somehow I can relate to the characters as I am geek myself. But surely, in all of us, there is some drop of geekiness inside that would render this sitcom watched with fervor and gusto.