When you know something is bad for you, do you immediately head for the Exit Sign the first time you see the danger that you’ll be sucked right into it? Sometimes the things that are bad for you are those that you find so hard to resist. I do have a specific thing in mind but I’d rather talk about it in general terms. Because I see it every time in people. Smart people who think straight and give smart advice to other people and then when faced with such a dilemma themselves, they falter. It’s an age-old story, I guess.
So is it selfishness? Maybe. If something makes you feel good, then maybe you are willing to pay for the consequences. I’m finding this is much harder to illustrate without an actual situation on the table but I’m sure if you’re still reading this, you’re getting the drift.
There’s this thing called “testing the waters”. Dipping a toe or a foot to test if it scorches or if it is ice cold before you dive straight into it. Sometimes I do that when I’m not sure about something. Others stay away and head for the Exit Signs as soon as they see the glaring “Danger” sign. Well, that’s people for you. We all just want to happy.
There are two reasons for the title of this post:
1. Grammar Girl did a survey on how people pronounce ROFL. Apparently, the majority (and that includes me) pronounce all the letters (R-O-F-L). The other group pronounce it as “roffle”. (Or maybe some others just scratch their head, or roll their eyes, at the sight of those letters.) According to the podcast, the latter is how you pronounce an acronym whereas the former is called initialism.
2. I was literally rolling on the floor laughing (well, almost) because of this:
Here’s why Tina Fey is one of EW.com’s funniest actresses in Hollywood: “[her] singular ability to combine lowbrow physical goofs with Dadaistic nerd-girl smarts” (you sorta need to see the whole episode to see that).
My sister has this pink T-shirt that I would steal in a heartbeat had it been my size. It says “Always Late but Worth the Wait.” Heh. I can imagine what my bosses at the office will say to that.
I’ve always wanted to buy those T-shirts with big sarcastic declarations. Like “Do I Look Like Your Therapist?” or “For a Minute There You Bored Me to Death” or “I’m Kind of a Big Deal”. You know, those kind of funny t-shirts that can either make people laugh or want to hit you on the head. I’m just not sure I’ll be able to wear it. Well, maybe I can, depending on the mood. I used to have this shirt that says “Cute but Weird” and it was one of my favorite shirts ever. Too bad I outgrew it (read: I gained weight).
I’ve seen quite a number of local stores that specializes in this kind of hilarious t-shirts; a friend of mine even knows a shop where you can bring plain shirts for printing. I think something like this would make a cool gift. But make sure that you’re giving one with a message that your receiver will appreciate. Unless, of course, you’re open to losing a friend to irony.
There’s an ongoing sale of sports equipment at the Dunlop/Slazenger showroom in Pasong Tamo, Makati. I haven’t been there myself, but some of my friends have bought badminton rackets at 70% discount. I plan to check it out as soon as they open after this Holy Week. I believe the brands they carry are Carlton, Dunlop, and Slazenger. I’m hoping to get a double-compartment bag (apparently they have them for as low as Php500; normal prices are at Php2,500) and maybe another head-heavy racket. We’ll see.
For those interested, I got these details online:
DUNLOP / SLAZENGER
Across Sachi House/ beside Union Bank
Unit 1 Bldg 1 2295 Janov Plaza
Pasong Tamo ext
8941759 - showroom
893-2727
If not for the scorching heat, I would probably forget that it’s summer time already and it’s the time that people hit the beach or go to cooler places to chill. Someone at a social networking site that I frequent ask about how to quickly adjust to the Philippine summer. The answer given: airconditioning. Sound advice, but costly. Especially because I’ve been staying at home these past few days, and using the AC unit is not anymore an option but a neccessity, I’m expecting my electric bill to shoot up these coming months.
So where are you people headed this summer? I do have a travel plan but it won’t be until November, so I guess that doesn’t count.
In case you’re wondering, that title is not wrong. I found the link from the Trending Topics in Twitter and was really happy that I did click it.
This is quite awesome!
This video gave me my one big smile of the day. There’s no way we can do this at the MRT or LRT station. Too small, too narrow, too crowded. Had I been there, I think I’d be too tempted to join in the fun. And Julie Andrews’ voice? Always a pleasure to listen to. Besides, I love The Sound of Music! I almost felt bad for those who were carrying a Bob stroller. Couldn’t leave the babies, of course, but at least they got to have their sway on.
The House of Mirth (2000)
Gillian Anderson stars in this 2000 adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel (1905). The movie was filmed and shown while her undoubtedly greatest character role, Dana Scully of The X-Files, is still seen weekly on the boob tube. The redness of Lily Bart’s hair, nor her facial expressions, did nothing to help me disassociate her with Scully, but a few minutes into the film convinced me, as if The X-Files hasn’t yet, that Gillian Anderson is one of those actresses who possess innate depth of talent that wholly services their chosen profession. The House of Mirth examines the eternal conflict between personal desire and social expectations. Lily Bart is young, beautiful, intelligent, and all poised to arrange for herself an acceptable marriage, as expected of ladies of that age. The time was 1905; the place was New York. As she coyly teased her friend, and perhaps her one true love, Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz), some men simpy don’t like her and yet some are afraid of her (”They think I want to marry them”). She gained a reputation of being on the hunt for a suitable husband, all the while sabotaging her own chances of marrying into wealth whenever she finds the man lacking. Yet she is unwilling to marry just for love, thus the impossibility of her alliance with Lawrence, who is of only modest means. As her fate would have it, she would have neither money nor love. She and Lawrence agreed that she has the propensity to do the wrong things at the wrong time, which eventually cause her fall from grace. She gathered debts from gambling; turned to the wrong man for help with her finances [Mr. Trevor (Dan Aykroyd), a fiendish guy who expected her to pay him back with sexual favors]; was sabotaged by her friend Bertha Dorset (Laura Linney), who made her look to be having an affair with her husband when Lily is the one who has evidence of Bertha’s infidelity; and was cast off by her other high society friends. She lost the favor of her aunt, who provided her with meager inheritance (which she used to pay her debts to Trevor). She was forced to find work but she wasn’t very good at it. She turned to taking sleeping draught (chloral hydrate) because of distress and eventually, perhaps accidentally, died of overdose.
Lily Bart’s untimely death underlines the tragedy but more so is her refusal to use the evidence she keeps of Bertha’s indiscretion, with Lawrence no less, to save herself from the rumor that served as the turning point that sealed her eventual fate. It should have been easy. But her sense of propriety is strong despite her more apparent weaknesses. Someone told Lily, “My dear, the world is vile.” I say, still, most times it isn’t.
Im not a very organized person, admittedly. Truth is, I’m not organized at all. I don’t keep my things on fixed places for easy retrieval nor do I list every task or chores so I may not forget any of them. Even the important p ones; I have too much reliance on my faulty memory. Heh. Now my problem is I sometimes forget my credit card deadlines. Subconsciously, maybe it’s my mind trying to block it out because that means I’d be sad again to see my two-week salary go to credit card bills. But, yeah, that’s my fault and my responsibility so I’m not going to mope on it. The thing about forgetting your credit card due dates is that you’ll get a call from these, sometimes irritating debt collectors, err I mean customer service agents, who will remind you about your bills and will then make offers of more supplementary cards. I’m not generalizing, because some of them are actually nicer than they have to, and all of them are just doing their jobs, but sometimes these Debt Collectors can sound like pompous skeptics, almost as if insunuating that you really don’t intend to pay your bills when you only really forgot about the date. Well, maybe that’s just from my personal experience. And I should stop calling them DEBT COLLECTORS because they don’t really do “collecting”.
Money comes and go so fast these days. I don’t even fully feel the passing of time because much of it is spent on trying to earn something and then using the money to cover basic needs and dues. I guess I shouldn’t complain; a lot of people do not have jobs and a lot more are losing it left and right because of the economic crisis. That I still have my job and I’m still earning decently is something that I should be so much thankful for. And I am, really. I just wish I can learn to be more vigilant about money. I hardly splurge at all these days. I even avoid the mall, and whenever I go is just to buy food stuff and other basic needs. But still, I go through hard times and it’s never a good thing to go through. But I guess I just have to persevere. It’s a long tunnel but I’m fairly certain there’s a light at the end of it.
When my sisters went to Cebu-Bohol last month and I passed up the opportunity to go with them, I didn’t exactly regret it. But it also made me think that I should give myself a break and try to go on a similar trip this year. I’m not thinking about cruise holidays or anything that grand. Speaking of cruises, I’ve read about and saw videos of a nile cruise and it looks like a great was to travel and learn about history and culture. I’ve always wanted to see Palawan, so maybe there. I love the beach and I’ve been hearing from a lot of people how Coron is heaven for beach lovers. Judging from the pictures, I’d say they’re right. So when my sister informed me about this new trip she’s planning before the year ends, I immediately said yes. With eyes closed, because that means I’m going to need to save for it starting right now. Ah, well, I only hope it will push through because I’m very excited already. I’ve also been holding off a friend’s invitation for me to visit her in Singapore because of time and, well, again, financial constraints, but someday I’m gonna do it. That is if she’s still working there when I finally decide on it. Maybe then we can book us some china holidays as well.
I’ve been ranting about wanting a different career for the longest time and I still haven’t made any step toward that goal. Other people would enroll in some school by now, to get the necessary training. Hows about electrician careers? Huh?!
Here’s a funny story. Ok, maybe not so funny. Last week, I was having a hard time sleeping because my sister was ranting about the sudden power interruption. She has deadlines early in the morning and she can’t finish her tasks because everything’s in her laptop and the battery’s about to be drained. Besides, she needs the Internet connection to submit her assignments. My other sister was trying to think of ways to help, even calling a friend to ask if they can come by their house before dawn because there was power there. It was raining pretty heavily and they were bickering and I can hear them in my half-asleep, half-awake state (that’s redundant, isn’t it?). It’s not as if I could have done anything about it, even if I had an electrician certification. Now that I think about it, why not? Why not look into electrician careers? Maybe I’ve always to be an electrician.
Not! Happy April Fools’ Day, everyone!
