I am currently working for a local lobbying and political management firm. It's a challenging and exciting job especially with the coming May 14, 07 elections.

But like everything there are upsides and downsides; Let me start with upsides:

+++Up UP

-the job is exciting

-I love my work

-I love people around me

-the boss can be really good sometimes

-I learn insider info about politics

-I get to meet congressionables, generals, lawyers, and other personalities, and we know each other by first name basis.(though one thought my name was Joel)

-Special and covert operations

-Tasks are varied

-I learned a lot about campaigns

-Added alot to my network of people, I know poster makers, producers, arrangers, progect officers, etc.. which i could tap when I finish law school and perhaps run for Congress.

---Down, Down we go

-the boss can be a fat bitch sometimes

- the company is undermanned

-super multitasking skills is a must(sometimes you'll be analyzing something while doing calls, or while faxing something)

-I sometimes work in the weekend or past regular hours,(I worked in easter for a proclamation rally for my candidate, fun but tiring)

-All that secrecy is killing me.

-overworked yet underpaid

-My officemate changes always because of a problematic account.(3 people since I started handled the account, 2 already resigned)

-My two bosses always bicker with each other

I hate violent religions. They divide humanity. All for an idea that doesn't even help this world. Why can't they live now? Despite the criticism of the west I think its the most open minded region of the world as opposed to the other regions who only want to be understood and don't want to understand others. Begone with this violent religion. religion of peace but where's the peace now? i jsut can't see it. I jsut can't see tolerance or and acceptance of diveristy.

I hate it when these people gang up on anyone who says a criticism about Islam. The current Pope has really been open to Muslims. He condemend the cartoons, he openly accepted building a Mosque in Rome despite how these Saudis don't even allow churches inside their country let alone allow them to celebrate their faith. Muslims are biased. They only want and clamour what they want and not what others need. The taliban destroyed a number of buddhist statues and temples yet they have the right to condemn another religion for saying a criticism about violence in religions.Where's the justice in that? And for the past few years all we see in the muslim world is protest of violence which I could say really reflects their culture.

One small criticism and they attack everyone. I think fundamentalist and hard line muslims are too riled up with hate and violence and the word Death. I'm not generalizing but that is the tone of their religion right now. its realyl a violent religion and other religions have already transcended this kind of mode. So Death to everything that isn't Muslim.

I think this is no time for appeasement. Lets not commit the same mistake during world war 2. The free world should become more determined with its stance.

Armenian Holocaust:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_holocaust#Americans

I wish buddhist take over this world, perhaps it would be better. begone with the books.

It's near.

Sigh

I'll miss college 

For all its worth, I think this last term was one of my better terms.

And

That's all...

Will go to Don's place later for a couple of drinks.

We'll I'll be fixing this blog soon. Not much energy to blog yet. 

But the good news is I got 3.5 on all my subjects wahooo. 24 units, 9 subjects, all o them 3.5!  

That is the Question

To have or to be?  That is the question. In this material world everything and eveyone should have someone, or something- the important thing to note is that we all should “own”. What is problematic about this mode of existence? Humans are naturally inclined to consume, it’s part of the will of any leaving creature- to exert his force unto another, it is basic facet of dominance and power.

 Private goods are excludable and rivalrous goods- basically   these types of goods are things that we own for ourselves, it is our own property. This is what makes society run right now, we humans live for one thing and that is to own. We are indoctrinated to this institution the moment we are born into this world. It is in fact part of human nature to subjugate each and everything he desires and the present system right now even intensifies this natural desire for dominance. This is the mode of existence ever since the advent of the consumerist society- the having mode of life. What is then problematic with such kind of system?

The problem now arises, how do we make sure that the things we own do not own us? True enough that we humans need materials and products to make life comfortable but some people are driven to extremes- we are then being controlled by the very things that should be helping us. This mode of having becomes very erroneous when we humans obssess about them- treating them as our purpose, then there lies the problem, the start of misery. Everday we would see people become more and more sucked into their own property. This happens with wealth and riches- when people sacrifice their dignity just for a quick buck. This also happens when we pursue things for our own desire to dominate. In relationships, having mode has destroyed marraiges and families. Fathers who have conceived their wives as properties treat them as items which they own- they married not for love but for their power over their wives and children. Technology though helpful to humanity has effectively controlled him, games such as ragnarok and DOTA have deluded the younger genration right now to think that this is what they should live for. I have heard stories about how people addicted to such games fail in their studies and even worse, die. I have a friend who failed most of this subjects just because of his addiction to these games. What we see here now is that people are slowly being transformed into things- we live for inanimate objects and gives us a faulty sense of direction. How then can we remedy such a state of being?

The suggestion forwarded by the speaker was to engage in the having mode of existence by not conflicting with our own being. The problem with those engaged in the having mode is that they effectively erase their own being. But what is being? Being is that ability of a human being to be free- to have no attachments. It is a state of unmasking and freedom. It also the ability to give up selfishness and security for the sake of being free. It is that state of conciousness where man is able to fully present in today, to be where and when he is exactly. The problem with the having mode is that it not only turn other people into things it also turns the same human into a thing- those in the having mode move on the whims of his desires and power, we are then effectively controlled by the things that we own- in as such that we do not think for ourselves anymore. The money and our property now does the thinking.

The problem of having and being is like the dicothomy between asian and western though. Western culture has grown through its agression and unsatiated drive to dominate while eastern culture has effectively valued life through the values of oneness and being. It as such that we look at the problem of having and being as something that should be reconciled- we could never pick between having and between as mutually exclusive decisions. We need to strike a balance between having and being. It is good to always have, but the problem with some is that is hinders with our ability to live out this world.  But without having we would exist in a world which we could not sustain and thus we are left with nothing and we die. The having mode of existence entails our nature to seek out the world- to be unsatisfied while those in the being mode are happy with the world- as such this is the trait of satisfaction. But without those who are unsatisfied the human race would not really progress. It is then our task to balance this out. We could easily balance this by recognizing what wants and needs are important, when do we use our power? When do we affect our will on others? These questions depends on their context but the important thing to note to remember when engaging in the having mode is to relalize this question; does it compromise my character?

The times quickly pass by. New officemates, new classmates, new friends, new buildings, new new new new, everything's so new.

It was weird when I was talking to my batchmates who are now taking up law. It felt different, they changed somehow- as if an alien abducted them and put implants inside their brains. Scary thoughts but what was it after graduation that changed them? 

 Then again I might not ride that same alien ship but I rather ride something else. Law was my dream as a child but like what Sarte would say, we're not really attached to who we were in the past or what we wanted.

 I want to be a pilot or a captain of any vessel but I prefer planes. A good part of my life I spent on the tarmac and I kinda remenisce everytime I see a plane pass by. Is it just me compensating for my past? I wonder? But I really want to fly a ship in the sky. An airship? But how?

24 Units for my last term. I think it's possible. Hopefully, after all of this I get to march on October.

Being a 103 right now makes me feel old. I'[m now between that world we call DLSU and the world outside its confines. Law? Foreign Service? U.N? Oh well I just need a month's rest after graduation.

It's funny how things turn out. Here I am cellphone-less yet I still get to contact my friends either through coincidence or through my so called radar. It's been 9 months since I lost my phone and I haven't even replaced it yet.

I didn't expect to see alot of people today. I was going to La Salle Development Office to fix up our recruitment campaign for the coming semester. But it turned out to be a longer day that I planned it to be.

I got to see lot of old friends I went out with my old highschool buddy and his bro to watch the Da Vinci Code. Then I got invited to this function in the Sri Lankan embassy after dropping by the office of the bhuddist society in Gilmore, well after plundering a sack of old buddhist books on meditation and stuff. Not going with Don and Boncs in Galera proved to have its benefits.(But I still wish I had the money to come with them)

School's back again next week. Probably my last term, hopefully. The bad thing really is that I only have a week to rest... well 3 days to be exact. I jsut hope I could graduate early so that I could work in the U.N or go to law school.

“It rises from Earth to Heaven, and then it descends again to the Earth, and receives Power from Above and from Below”

        I was given the chance to read this quaint and tiny little book about a supposed alchemist. It tells the tale of Santiago and his sudden brush with his personal legend. Questions of pursuing this dream wreaked havoc and rocked his quiet life in Andalusia. From then on he set foot to the deserts of northern Africa to meet his destiny in the planes of the pharaohs precisely near the pyramids which beguile his existence. From this trek from Andalusia to the pyramids he meets an amalgam of characters, the gypsy, crystal dealer, the king, the Englishman, the alchemist, the sun, the wind and the desert and Fatima. And from this journey he experienced the alchemic process that would change his life. In essence the book tells us a riveting story on the process of change and the acceptance of one’s destiny to the will of the world, Unus Mundus.

        Paolo Coehlo has created and unraveled his tale based on his own personal bouts in life and his own brush with his personal legend. But who exactly is Paolo Coehlo? Much like his character Santiago, Paolo Coehlo had to fight for his own legend as well. His first two books the Pilgrimage and The Alchemist had few readerships and the latter was not reprinted by his publisher at the time. Paolo then decided to switch publishers named Rocco and he received wider readership and soon would gain a lion’s share of the market in literature in Latin America and The Portuguese markets. Soon this success would spill over the world with the signing of the book to Harper Collins. To date he has sold 86 million books in 150 countries in 56 languages. His works include; The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, The Manual of The Warrior of the Light, By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Valkyries, Veronika Decides To Die, Eleven Minutes, The Zahir, The Devil and Miss Prym and The Fifth Mountain.[1] He has received awards such as Prix Lectrices D ‘Elle”, Knights of Arts and Letters, Flaiano International Award, Super Grinzane Cavour Book Award, Golden Book, International IMPAC Literary Award, Comendador de Ordem de Rio Banco, Crystal Award, Golden Medal of Galicia, Chevalier de L’Odre national de la Legion d’honneour and Crystal Mirror Award.[2] But these credentials won’t capture much of his world view. Much Paolo Coelho’s interest peaked on the mystical arts. He joined in the alternative society back in the day which espoused some of the beliefs of the magician and mystic, Alister Crowley. He broke away from this group and joined the Regnus Annus Mundi(RAM).¹ He also dabbled on alchemic texts particularly the Hermetic kind as attested by his work, The Alchemist.

Got you didn't I?

I was just checking the front page of tabulas a while ago when I noticed something; there are alot of baldness-curing topics out there. Where the fuck did they come from? On top of that they are all new accounts and their post are mostly the same aside from the fact that they are para-phrased.

http://tabulas.com/~abel9674/

http://tabulas.com/~angelinaxc/

http://tabulas.com/~angelicarhr5/

http://tabulas.com/~amalie/

http://tabulas.com/~didier24r/

http://tabulas.com/~albion679/

http://tabulas.com/~algerndgon6/

http://tabulas.com/~thijs67967/ 

Are these bots or is this a desperate attempt at advertizing? Or is this a government conspiracy to create a bald free world? the truth is out there.l

All of us have gardens whether you know it or not. Some gardens are barren, devoid of the bright and alluring images and scents of flowers and plants yet some are graced with their presence.  

Having a green thumb takes time and effort and that is why gardens become lush forest of flowers and plants. The way a garden develops rest heavily on how the gardener treats it. If you have a gardener who forgets to water the garden, give the plants some fertilizer and check the soil for its nutrients then that garden would soon die.

It doesn’t take much to be a gardener with a green thumb; you just need hard work to make it happen. People are usually lazy and they’d leave the garden behind thinking that it would grow on their own. That could happen but the sad thing about it is that the gardener did not grow with his garden, that garden is not his anymore, he does not own it

Yet sometimes the gardener is not at fault. Flowers tend to have their own personalities; some are stubborn, stupid, happy, resilient, thoughtful, loving etc. Because of these differences the gardener needs to treat the flowers and plants in different ways. Some are easier to maintain while others prove to be more of a challenge. But not everything in the garden is warm and fuzzy. The problem with some plants is that despite how hard you work on them, they just don’t grow- they are stubborn. The gardener has no time for stubborn plants and he needs to replace these plants if it doesn’t want to budge.

Intruders get inside the garden at times, they look like flowers and plants yet they are not- these are the weeds that litter our tiny gardens. We are sometimes fooled by these weeds, thinking that they are flowers yet they are not. They viciously attack your garden without you even knowing it. The gardener needs to know then how to separate weeds from the plants and flowers, that’s the only way that his garden could survive.

 Look around yourself, is your garden lush and living or is it dead? Have you been evicted out of your garden? I ask this question a lot of times, did I make mistake? Did I water the plant enough? Keeping a garden is very hard yet it’s one of the things that make life so colorful and wonderful. So please keep safe your secrets garden of friends. You’d only realize how important they are when they are finally gone.

Teh DLSU Checklist c/o Steven as cited by Schnieder

( ) get caught by the DO
( ) wear inappropriate attire
( x) watch a UAAP la salle vs ateneo game live in araneta
(x) eat at AGNO
(x) smoke at AGNO
(x) hangout at AGNO
( ) hangout at a friend's condo
(-) sing the alma mater
(x) swim at the olympic size swimming pool
(-) have class in all the buildings (Miguel, LS, SJ, Yuchengco, Velasco, Gokongwei, Mutien Marie, STRC, Sports Complex)
(x) use the football field
(x) hang out in ampitheater
(x) watch something during the u-break in the ampitheater
(x) cross enroll
( ) be a 1st honors dean's lister
(-) be a 2nd honors dean's lister
(-) get a 0.0
(x) get a 4.0 (except P.E and NSTP)
(x) eat in mcdonalds
(x) eat in UM (KFC included)
(x) eat somewhere outside near the campus (not fast food)
(x) borrow/reserve something in the IMS
(x ) get a major or minor offense
(x) go out with 5 or more blockmates during freshmen
(x) walk around the campus with 4 or more blockmates after freshmen
(x) cut a class together with blockmates
(x) beg for a higher grade during course card distribution
(x) adjust
(x) be active in an organization
(x) be a member of TAPAT or SANTUGON
(x) be stereotyped by others according to your college (CBE, COE, COS, CLA, CCS, CED)
(x) get an alarm sound when you scan your id
(x) talk to your LAMB aside from LPEP
(x) be deceived by the false names of professors in the on-line enrollment
(x) pay surcharge
(x) go to the chapel
(x) hear mass
(x) visit the museum
(x) know a xerox lady
(x) sleep in the library
( ) get to know mang jack
(x) get to know jenny
( ) got/given something to someone during the valentines week
(x) have a class after 6:00 pm
(x) talk about someone passing by while on a bench in SJ walk
(x) study in conservatory
(x) print somewhere near/outside the campus
(x) type somewhere near/outside the campus
(x) cram
(x) do a last minute paper
( ) date a lasallian or two
(x) have a crush on your blockmate
(x) have a crush on your classmate
(x) have a crush on your professor
( ) attend a seminar outside lasalle
(-) talk to a lasallian celebrity (model, actress, vj, etc.)
(x) sleep in a class
( ) have/had a lasallian girlfriend/boyfriend
( ) be in a conflict with a professor
(x) witness pda inside the campus
(x) use a computer in the computer laboratories
( ) be drunk somewhere near outside the campus
(x) forget your ID at home several times!
(x) get exempted from finals
(x) stay at school till 10:00 or later
(x) actually read a whole article in The Lasallian
(x) actually read a whole article in Plaridel
(x) took time to look at the 'Proudly Lasallian' stands in the campus
(x) thought that yuchengco restrooms are the best restrooms
(-) shifted / planned to shift
(x) read a whole book borrowed at the library
(x) eat inside the classroom
(x) get a txt or call with your cellphone not in silent mode during class
(x) spend money for 1X1 ID pictures
( ) break something in the laboratory
( ) ask the library for an endorsement
( ) entered the thesis room in the library
(x) searched a professor in the DLSU website
(x) park in the beach
(x) park in Sports Complex
(x) eat siomai (inside or outside near the school)
(never) tasked to photocopy for a bunch of people
( ) enter a job fair in campus
(x) buy a raffle ticket, donate something, sign a signature campaign inside the campus
(x) sell raffle tickets, ask for donations, made people sign signature campaigns inside the campus
(x) watch something at night in the yuchengco theater
(x) make a video for a class project
(x) make a powerpoint presentation
(-) give a very low evaluation to a professor
(always) eat inside the java cafe
(x) be pissed with a guard
(x) go to the clinic
(x) nearly reached / reached excess absences
(-) pick a popular professor (infamous, cool, generous, cute) for a subject
(x) be the one to make the 'mass overload sound' in an elevator
(x) buy something in the bookstore
(x) lose your cellphone

- My schedule last term turned me intop University Man. My classess wwere as follow:8:00am, In Velasco, then after than in Saint Joseph, then after that in Miguel then after that in Saint Lasalle. Lolz I had a class in the other buildings as well except for the mysterious and (is it falling apart lolz) Mutien Marie.

- To Ms. Manuat, as they say the early bird gets the worm but the bird who doesn't show up... well gives her class a free break. Still she's the only professor that I only saw for only 4 times a whole term. weird.

-I really wanted to have Sr. Pedro as my thesis adviser. He's very notorious on grades but I think he's fair. In the end I got 3.0 for my thesis XD

-wanted to take advertisment management but.... my heart is in politics and the law.

- 3 of my 0.0 came from my excess absences...... sucks good thing I wisened up.

- Crap, almost last term but Sr. Bobby Ray is a killer. Oh well atleast I did ewll in my thesis.

Manong A: “Bibilin mo galit ko?”

Manong B: “Sige ba”

Manong A: “Bente pesos.”

We were passing by Tropical hut when I heard this discourse between two tricycle drivers. How could you possibly sell your hate? And who would buy your hate anyway?

The world is so full of hate that people want to sell it. Of course I know they are kidding but who wouldn’t sell his hate? Or just give it away for free?

I know I would…

I don’t want to hate anymore. My life has been full of hate that I could feel it sear in my head- that burning feeling everyday, every minute and every second of your life. It kills a person and then changes them to a grotesque monster that will stop at nothing but to spread the viral disease, which they have been corrupted.

Hate, I hate it?

A paradox isn’t it? There are many mutants out there and I could easily detect them. I once were like them but I have freed myself of it(hopefully). Their sneering half-baked faces which hide their true selves, who are they kidding? They hate so much that they want others to become miserable, like themselves. Hags who want others to become hags. I am sorrounded by people like this and it pains me so much that they are still down with that sickness… Is there no cure?

Hate… can’t they hate it back?

Or can’t we just throw them back to their proverbial pots of malice and deceit…
If only hate could be sold then maybe all our problems would fade away.

Too many questions still no answers, perhaps it will be better just to drop them all atop a burning mountain, perhaps...

I've been to alot of places these past few months. I've been touring the whole part of Metro Manila all for the sake of the final pieice of paper that would emancipate me from this school.

Research sucks big time especially if the money and the time is weighing you down like big piles of rockes over your shoulder, good thing I could take the pressure but it's nearing my boiling point. But yeah I'm not here to talk about my frustrations on my senior research paper but on the wonders of the cities of Metro Manila and particularly the munisipyos.

I've never toured the whole lot of NCR. I've never seen the city hall of these cities not even my own city. I was given a chance this term since it's the topic of my research. Lo and behold, the city halls of these LGUs are really perplexingly different. I've been to the worst and I've been to the best. Arguablly the best city halls are either in Taguig or in Makati. The next to follow is Pasig with it's modern and stylish exterior but it's interior looks like it was hit with austerity measures but still it's effective in accomodating the people who are gathering there for bussinedss permits, birth certificates and the like. It goes down hill from here. For all the supposed "tiger City" state of Mandaluyong, it's city hall has less to brag. I see dilpidated fire exits and very confusing design that you'd be lost in that circle. Quezon City on the other hand may look good on the outside but once your in you'd be amazed at how poor working conditions are(well not that poor but it looks really messy). The worst among them all is none other than the city of Manila. Was I in the wrong place? It felt like I was in a market. People were playing ping pong, chickens were loitering the hallways and my god typewriters still do exist.

Thank god those coups failed. Military should have no role in politics. They should only serve the people and the constitution written by our forefathers. But on another note they shouldn't be lackeys of our president. No to military adventurism!!! (If these coups were supported by those who want Gloria out then I rather stay with the status quo)

Treasury Control: Financial Policy in Britain, Samuel H. Beer
The Conflict Over Coordination,Allegheny College
Diana Richards