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Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year's Heave (Good Bye Old Year, Hello New Year)

A lot of things happened in 2006. That's what most of the television programmes told me. A lot.

Anyway, I didn't really watched those taking-a-look-back specials they showed. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing in 2006 that is worth remembering. Sure there's the greatest feats that mankind/countrymen had done for the human race/their mother land, or the most life-changing ideas, discoveries and inventions, or those cool gizmos and gadgets that had made life easier. But do these objects and accomplishments suffice the needs and desires of every person on the planet?

As of now I think none of the 2006 eventualities ever had the appreciation or impact of at least 50% of the world population. Unfortunately everyone had different tastes and interests, and these could change almost every hour. So it could be impossible to have attention of at least 50% of humans.

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If I were to be asked on what I did on the Holiday vacation, I would say that nothing eventful I did, other than playing, watching, reading, listening, getting annoyed, and receiving gifts from people whose names I often forget (I'm not a good memorizer of things). If I were to be queried about the happiest/worst moments of my vacation, "I don't have one, and I'm still not getting any. In fact, I might not experience one at all. If someone asks, "What gift did you received on Christmas?", "Why the hell are you asking me these things?! Are you my stalker?! GET A LIFE, YOU DINGBAT! AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!

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The last crisis of everyone in the Philippines: the sudden increase of costs of foods and services, as well as fireworks, explosives, noisemakers and wisecracks. The shops and stores had already inflated their prices last Christmas, and now they did it again, the event being New Year.

A message to you business pigs: how the heck could the country celebrate New Year if you're the only ones hogging the joy? How Dare You?! You will pay for your greediness. You are all abomination to The Almighty One! You will ALL die!!! MWAHAHAHAAHH!!!

===============

And this is my last entry for 2006. May everyone have a joyful 2007. Catch you later.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmax Report: New Year already?

  • Every Christmas day in the Philippines, children come to their grandfather, grandmother, godfather, godmother's houses to show before them how good they have been this year. Then ask for money. After they collect a huge amount form their mawmys and dahdies, said children would go out to spend their hard-earned cash to the commercial businesses that do nothing other than make us spend.
  • Following the get-rich-quick scheme of children (including me), the mall population shot up several levels. Having money to buy whatever the heck they want, they go to these desire-giving places to grab the stuff they always wanted. Well, that is if they could get to it first, because everyone is buying it. Plus, if the store actually excused itself form the holiday festivities, you have to go back when it opens again.
  • Christmas Day felt like New Year's day. The "rich" kids bought fireworks, bombs and PVC bombs to make them explode and drive us nuts. Already our ear drums are getting thinner by the sudden bursts of sound and we could end up strangling or dousing those people in gasoline.
  • People are randomly throwing fireworks at innocent passersby. Me and my sister almost had our ear blown because of a drunken guy throwing explosives. Thank god the guy was arrested. Wait, what's that thing with smoke coming out of it? Omighod, it's explosives! RUN!
  • Even at Christmas Day people were having a feast.
  • While everyone enjoyed Christmas, I don't. I'm still waiting for New Year to come.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Chistmax

Christmas Eve (properly known as The Night Before Christmas) here in my vicinity looked a lot like New Year's Eve, only less prissy but as annoying as New Year in itself.



Anyway we didn't really do much on Christmas Eve. We just ate, gave thanks, then slept. The neighborhood lit fireworks, had a extravagant feast, and had a wonderful time. My sister had a CSI marathon before she slept. As for me, nothing special happened, just thankful that this time had passed. But I'm still worried then, the event being New Year.



Well, New Year's still pretty off the hook, so I'll still live.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Twax the night for Christmax

In a few hours, the whole world will celebrate what is called Christmas. Also an hour before that (or shorter/longer) people will have what is called Noche Buena (Dinner before Christmas?).

As for me, I'll celebrate it. But with a frown in my heart. No, it's not because of the evil businessmen who put a streak of commercialism in the holiday spirit. It's just me. So back off my head.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Thoughts on Christmas

Fake plastic trees. Styrofoam snow. False cheer. Burning of wood and money. Just some of the things that come into my mind when I think of Christmas. It's a long list, and it will take me forever to jot them all; seriously, they're all composed of horrible unprintables.

When it is December, and you hear Christmas, it's great in the ears: gifts, trees, bright lights, soothing songs, cheer. But when you think about it carefully, it's horrible: having to buy gifts to brats who wouldn't appreciate anything until you get them "The One" they want (and they always change their preferences every year); setting up decorations you know no-one would appreciate; plugging Christmas lights that will make your electricity bills shoot out of orbit; carolers ranging from one-man-bands to an orchestraic choir acappellas who wouldn't appreciate your shelling out of a hundred bucks for their performance (sometimes they don't leave to show how disappointed they are in your shelling out of a hundred bucks); among others.

Christmas is the time where we are supposed to celebrate the birth of the One who is to save us all from our sins when the end comes, or so we are told. (Whichever religion you are, if you do good deeds, when you die you will go to paradise and live a happy life; otherwise you go to the corollary of heaven, which is hell.) What we have here now is evil marketing strategy of business owners to make us cough up every bit of money we have to buy gifts you hate so much. People that make you cringe when they are near you. People you'd rather push off a deep cliff.

Just like Valentines day, Labor day, back-to-school days, independence days, thanksgiving days, days of the dead and other recognized holidays, festivities and occasions, Christmas is the time for businessmen to make money. And to do that they will hostage people and drag then to their turfs (malls, stores, etc.) and force them to spend every cent they have worked hard for on stuff no-one really needs or else they won't get out of the place alive. Not to mention that the insipid stuff they're throwing on us are contributing to the slow but certain destruction of our planet in the long run, but the continuous sabotage of nature, through the manufacture of tripe greeting cards and combustible gifts, the burning of anything for warmth, and other things that make use of natural resources and the creation of trash, is shortening our time left before the Almighty One smites us dead because of out doing. Already the world is showing the signs that signal the coming of The End.

Anyway, this article is not about environmental concerns (although it has a huge share of attention) or postponing Christmas. All I want you to do this year is to celebrate Christmas responsibly and sensibly. Enjoy the winter wonderland in a simple and basic way, just for this year, and celebrate the true reason why we are celebrating Christmas in the first place.

Sometimes brevity is a virtue.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Coughing and Sneezing this Christmas

The cold weather’s giving me sickness. Even if there is El NiƱo occurring in the country (and it was forecasted to continue till August of next year, thus aggravating the problem of water supply in the Metro), it still feels cold. Strange enough for me. I was really expecting Christmas to be warm so that I wouldn’t have to wear thick layers of clothing and shiver and sneeze while trying to survive arctic-like climate. But for now, I have the coughs and the colds.

I don’t know how I got these sicknesses. I should be immune to them, by the way. My immune system is so strong that I could get infected by bird flu and live. No, that’s a joke. Anyway, I have no idea how the viruses came to effect in my body. Besides, I eat plenty of healthy foods, disinfect my body often (I hate seeing dirt on my skin), and run a lot. So that means my immune system should be strong enough to fight off most of the bad bacteria and viruses that are threatening to kill me off. To my dismay (and it’s a fact of life), I found out that there are viruses and germs that are able to pass and slip through the defense systems of the body and infect the system. To sum up, we will still catch diseases even with the resistance-building foods and supplements available in the market.

Oh, and Christmas is closer than I thought. Already I see Christmas decorations and lights in every other house in the blocks. As well as people who are coughing and sneezing amidst the air of Christmas around.

Happy Holidays, then.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Omighod! I'm not happy enough! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

Just taken the Happiness Test, and I'm so dismayed with the result. Anyway, to sum this up, I'm below the Philippines' line of happiness, which means, the mean score of the Philippines in the Happy Planet Index. Thankfully, I'm above the worldwide average, but not in the ideal average.

Here's the details of my test.

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Happy Planet Index

Your personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 51.8, which is similar to that of countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina or Timor-Leste. Not bad. This is above the world average of 46, but still below the target value of 83, so there is more you can do to improve your health and well-being, or reduce your environmental impact. Your score is below that of your country, 59.2.

Below is a breakdown of the various components that make up your HPI score.

You:
51.8
Average:
43.2
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Life Expectancy

Congratulations. Your life expectancy is above average for your gender and country. Whether it's eating well, not smoking, getting regular exercise, or just being lucky enough to have the right genes, you're doing something right. However, nobody's perfect and we could all improve our health a little! Aside from getting all the above bits of your lifestyle right, there are some more surprising factors that can influence your life expect - for example, giving up your car, avoiding living alone, moving out of the city or shrugging off stress.

You:
69.7
Average:
80.8
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Ecological Footprint

Your ecological footprint is 2.28 global hectares, or 1.27 planets. This is equivalent to the average in countries such as Suriname, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Lebanon.

Your ecological footprint is greater than the average for the country you live in. If you live in a country with large economic inequalities, do note that this might be the case even if you are environmentally aware and trying to reduce your footprint, as others in your country might be living in very different circumstances. For example, Brazil's mean footprint of 2.2 g ha does not distinguish between the very low consumption lives of tribes in the Amazon, and those of people living Western-style lives in the big cities, whose personal footprints will inevitably be much higher.

You are using between one and one and a half times your share of the planet's resources (assuming no resources are put aside for other species). This is below average for industrialised countries, typical instead of people in many middle income countries such as Jamaica. The world average is 2.2 g ha. For those living in industrialised countries: you are probably already aware of your resource use, and act considerately. Knocking those last few deci-hectares of your footprint is, we know, very tricky. For people in the west, the most effective steps to take include the following:

  1. Park away your car for when you absolutely need it. Why not climb onto your bike, or the bus? 2-wheels good, 4-wheels bad (unless they're big, bus wheels, of course!)
  2. Cut down on meat. Depending on the animal you're eating and what it's been fed, it could be taking up to 16 pounds of crop feed from the fields to get 1 pound of meat into the supermarket. Of course, meat is not the only issue at hand. If your protein-rich vegan diet is being imported from the other side of the world, that's not too good for your footprint either.
  3. Perhaps the most guaranteed, but also most painful, way to reduce your footprint is to cut down on flights. For example, flying from London to Athens and back adds 0.77 g ha to your footprint - more than people in many countries use over an entire year.
You:
2.28
Average:
5.42
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Life Satisfaction

You reported a life satisfaction of 7, which is about average for many Western countries, including the UK, Spain and Italy. Worldwide, 58% of respondents in the World Values Survey reported a life satisfaction of 7 or lower.

You:
7
Average:
6.74
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Well-being

The new economics foundation (nef) recognises that there's more to life than feeling good, which is why our model for well-being is based on four domains – personal feelings, personal functionings, social feelings and social functionings. 'Feelings' refers to your attitude to the way you, your future and society are. 'Functionings' looks at whether you have the opportunities to do the things that bring you well-being. Like with life satisfaction, a score of 5 is theoretically the middle score, but, given the way most people respond to surveys, is below average.

Personal Feelings

In this online questionnaire, personal feelings are assessed with two questions – one testing your optimism and one testing your self-esteem.

You have some anxieties about the future or yourself which are affecting your overall well-being. These are not too severe though...

You:
5.05
Average:
6.03
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Personal Functionings

In this online questionnaire personal functionings are assessed with five questions – two evaluating your subjective opinion on your health and how activity you are, the other three testing you for feelings of autonomy, purpose and worth.

You are healthy and overall feel autonomous, purposeful and able to demonstrate your abilities to others.

You:
5.97
Average:
6.14
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Social Feelings

In this online questionnaire social feelings are assessed with four questions – three assessing your opinion of your community, whilst the last looks at personal relationships.

You have a strong sense of trust and belonging in your community and a happy personal life.

You:
5.81
Average:
5.67
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Social Functionings

In this online questionnaire social functionings are assessed with four questions – two assessing your job / studies, one your free time, and one your community participation. If you did not respond to the work / study questions, your score is judged purely on the other two aspects.

Your job / course is not really allowing you to function socially in the way that you wish. Either it is very dull and unrewarding, or it is very stressful, leaving you little time to do the things you enjoy - or a bit of both! Are they any ways you could make it a little better for you? Alternatively, one way to relieve the boredom of work, can be to find other focuses of interest. Many take up voluntary work to offer them an alternative purpose.

You:
4.61
Average:
5.59
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

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Well, maybe is the time for me to be happy more often. No, wait. That would kill me.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Today is December 1

Well, it's the start of the cold season already. Now it's the start of the 24-day wait for Christmas. And gaawd, there is something in Christmas that I hate. No, not that Jesus was born on this day. It's something the people do during this holiday season that I hate. And I'll just post that later on when my mind is set.

Speaking of Christmas, I already see people hanging Christmas decor on their houses. And on every other block I see lights, trees... and Santa Clauses? (Yeah, they really believe that Santa's gonna go down their chimneys to send out gifts to children when, in fact, we've got no chimneys here.) Anyway, the economy this year, and it would be great if everyone would wish for a bountiful 2007.

And about the storm Reming (Int'l 'Durian'), well, it didn't really hit the Metro, but it did hit the rest of Luzon, and fairly badly at that.

Anyway, I'll have to do other things now.