break with your past

when i was a kid, i read the bible. though i guess everyone can attest to reading the bible, i sort of read it from front to back, skipping the psalms, the prophets, the letters, and everything else that did not constitute "action" to my childish mind. i wanted to read about the war exploits of joshua and moses, the adventures of the apostles, and of course, the perennial highschool favorite, revelations. (i believed it and was scared to death. now, everyone knows revelations is full of poetic symbolism.) somehow i believed every word of what i've read - every if not most children are gullible.

which leads us to the topic: how seriously should the Bible be taken?

mr. kalam (it's funny how everyone cares about him now) quoted a passage from leviticus about eating pork.

"And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you." - Leviticus 11:7-8 (New International Version)

leviticus is part of the 3 of 5 books of the torah that deal with the rules. the thing about these "rulebooks", if you will, is that they were meant for the hebrews and judaism. (what do you think bar mitzvahs are for?) and it doesn't take a genius to know that there is an obvious difference between judaism and christianity. therefore that verse or the books themselves aren't required to be followed by us. in fact, scholars interpret the book as a prophecy of Christ's coming.

going back to the Bible in general. i, for one, view the Bible, save for majority of the New Testament, as mostly literature. also, some people take revelations (*coughtruthseekercough*) way too seriously. they take it word for word, not as symbolism. yes, i do agree that in some point in time the world will end, but not exactly as described in the book.

there is also the case of the book of Genesis clashing with the Big Bang theory. i, for one, would not completely agree about Genesis's account of the world's creation, but instead i'll go for the theory of a scientific God. that seems to be the more logical way to go (see the Five Ways).

all in all, the Bible should be revered as both historical and theological, yes, but in some cases it needs to be taken in with a grain of salt.

bullshit dinners and the free champagne

it may be a late subject, but let me cut to the chase:

what is the appeal of Pinoy Big Brother and other shows of its genre?

needless to say, i don't like it. i don't like the "real life on tape" subgenre of reality shows. but if you think about it, that statement is quite ironic, as any other television show with a plotline is, in fact, real life on tape.

for millennia, people have enjoyed watching other people "live" their "lives" behind a looking-glass. from the ancient greek plays on the ampitheatres to today's modern, nonsensical, poor vs. rich soap operas, from old vaudeville to the movies on the big screen, people flock to watch other people go about their lives, be it as interesting as running for your life or as boring as going through a daily routine at a factory.

why?

intrigue, i guess. there's this basic level of intrigue that people don't know they have. people want to know what goes on in other peoples' lives, be it fictional or real. it's enough motivation to turn on the boob tube and see what happens on today's episode of drake and josh, or even simply today's edition of the news. (the news is, in fact, the first-ever reality show on tv. no, i mean, ever.)

going back to the big brother genre. it makes no sense to me to put a number of different people into one house, much less put them on tape, unless you're doing an experiment for the sake of psychology. what the genre does is, yes, take a number of people, stick them in one house for, what, a 100 days, watch the whole scene unfold and see who the public likes the most to win the prize. oh, and while we're waiting for the 100 days to pass, why not throw in a few challenges here and there to spice it up? and the show highlights all if not most of the issues that goes around within the 'housemates' and gives that to the public for them to consider eviction.

i don't know about you, but i feel that the contestants' lives are being cheapened every day they're in that God-forsaken house. if i was in a house like that, i wouldn't go insane over the other people; rather, i would go insane because of the fact that i'm being monitored 24/7. i mean, why would you want to watch me? i'm a real person, i'd rather you watch me when i actually act out. aren't you called nosy when you snoop into other people's businesses? and the networks actually condone this by handing out said life to the public.

i don't know, maybe i will never really understand why the genre is so popular. i probably can't fault its contestants for going out on a limb to win a big amount of money just by living. i just feel that there are better things worth watching than watching a show through the eyes of a security camera and whatnot. better things worth watching than life cheapened.

opm blues

what is up with [mainstream] opm lately? being in a foreign land i obviously wouldn't be able to keep up with the latest native music back at home, but listening to the multitudes of opm downloaded by my brothers, i can't help but wince once i hear them and quickly click next to the who. (i should probably start screening downloads, but that's a story for another day.)

maybe it's because my personal taste for music evolves at paces i don't understand, or my personal inner taste for filipino music only reached the intricate arrangements and styles of bamboo and the perennial old-school rivermaya. (the greatest hits album was all right, though. hi sis.) but everything else, beginning at the opm boom of two years ago, seems to be stale right now.

hale? cueshe? spongecola? 6cyclemind? kamikazee? even the once-different orange and lemons sounds the same as the mold. these guys have seemed to overstay their welcome already. for me, at least. they all sound the same. hale and spongecola are now the standards of bad vocals.

maybe it's really just me and my taste for foreign bands. i don't know. at least i can say my brothers have very poor taste.

[EDIT] as you can see, i changed the layout for a while. previous one's color scheme was a bit too hard for the eyes. i'm still cringing, but i had to do this. i'll probably get someone to make me a new layout, as i hate ripping off of blogskins (though i do have an account there), but i also hate not making my own. guess i must choose the lesser evil. [/EDIT]

most of us have something to complain about

i'm still waiting for the day.

biting the hand that guides

i'm not defending this kid anymore. bashing the closest thing he had to a friend is the final nail in the coffin.

[EDIT] this comment has summed up all of my thoughts about the commenters.

OMFG! said...

CAN EVERYONE PLEASE! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! tangina.. is this what our batch has come to? tangina.. hindi naman pala si jahan yung may problema e.. kayong mga retarded na mahilig manggamit ng ibang pangalan para makainsulto sa mga kinaiinis niyo. buti pa si jahan, nagpakilala pa. tangina. mga bading pala kayo lahat e.

i'd also like to add another word: owned. [/EDIT]

unfriendly skies

the ongoing battle with jahan and his 405 (and counting) detractors goes on. (by the way, i linked it so that people will hopefully go through the archives and at least try to understand what is up with him. that's a hint, go take it.) though the war has slightly abated, there are still more and more stupid, humorous, and discriminating insults that are even more uncalled for than the post itself, being heaped on top of each other by the sincerely angry and the vandals alike.

thank God for the smarter rebuttals.

taking piccio's theory into mind (second time i linked him, by the way), this whole issue reminds me of a certain episode of CSI. an old man was found dead in the lavatory of an airplane, and this is how he died.

the old man was being a natural jerk to the other passengers of the plane. at first they thought nothing of it and politely asked him to stop, but he kept on being a jerk until the passengers got really pissed at him. push came to shove and the passengers beat the old guy to death as a mob, because they thought he was a terrorist.

but what really happened was that the old man was suffering from a killer migraine due to encephalitis (for those lazy enough to read another page, encephalitis is a swelling of the brain.) and when you get a migraine, you feel uncomfortable. so the old man is squirming in his seat, kicking the backs of other seats, squashing the call button. he gets on a few people's nerves, and unintentionally acts like a hijacker. this is what ticks off the other passengers, and this is what leads to the mob that kills him.

the thing is, this whole incident could have been avoided. and i'll quote gil grissom verbatim:

GRISSOM:  If just one person had stopped and taken the time to look at the guy
to listen to him, to figure out what was wrong with him it might not have
happened.  It took five people to kill him.  It would have only taken one person
to save his life.

see the resemblance to the situation? if people hadn't seen him as a "fat muslim boy" but as a human being just like them, he wouldn't have been so antisocial and he wouldn't have written that entry.

so fresh, so clean

so i guess everybody's heard of the alumnus who bashed the school. i won't link to him here and i'll leave it to you to actually find the blog. his statements are definitely making waves in the blogosphere, he's getting his 15 seconds of fame, and what nice timing as he expressed his feelings after graduation, when he wouldn't be an easy target anymore whilst walking along the halls of the school.

despite that, i am not for him nor against him and/or his statements.

people in the against camp would probably tell me to show just a little school pride. sure, i would. i admit that he really shouldn't have bashed those people like he did, even though he was making use of the first amendment.

i would have wholeheartedly joined the against camp were it not for some of its members. those members who stooped to a level even lower than the perpetrator's when they started making use of his religion and nationality as insults in the comments box. that's no longer school pride; that's discrimination. and when you're discriminating people, i don't want to be associated with you. some are just freeloading this issue to call him names and give him death threats.

so i found it wise to take the neutral stand. i do praise those who have countered the guy intelligently and properly. reassures me that smart people still exist in this world.

[EDIT]i read piccio's take on this issue and i was impressed. taking it on from the psychological angle - and i wonder why i didn't think of that. maybe because i was angry about the half-asses who insult rather than rebutt.

anyway, it might just be a cry for help. a cry because he's been neglected.[/EDIT]

browsing

last night, i was managing the comments in my comments box when i advertently clicked page 10 on the archive. one thing led to another and i found myself reading about the past. i really couldn't help but laugh at some of them. i guess i've just come a really really long way.

for example...

i remember the time when jam got mad at me over lindsay lohan's boobs, when we came up with MKSMA, and the time when my dog bit me. this blog used to be so vibrant when i updated it almost every day.

now i hate to admit it, but i finally will: i (obviously) prefer livejournal for its ease, but there's something about this blog that keeps me coming back to it. i have contemplated closing it at times, but since i've come so far, this one's going to stay.

cheers.

sixteen years and still banging

not exactly the happiest birthday, but it's still fun to be alive.

especially when you're finally legal for a license.