Time Wastes Too Fast

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Happiness Decoded

Vaillant’s work, in contrast, creates a refreshing conversation about health and illness as weather patterns in a common space. “Much of what is labeled mental illness,” Vaillant writes, “simply reflects our ‘unwise’ deployment of defense mechanisms. If we use defenses well, we are deemed mentally healthy, conscientious, funny, creative, and altruistic. If we use them badly, the psychiatrist diagnoses us ill, our neighbors label us unpleasant, and society brands us immoral.”

Joshua Wolf Shenk distills a 70-year study on "What Makes Us Happy?"

Wide Awake at 3 AM

"Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical suffering - this is an all-weather beatitude for gloom in general and fairly salutory daytime advice for every one. But at three o'clock in the morning ... the cure doesn't work - and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day."

F Scott Fitzgerald
in an interview by Michel Mok New York Post, September 25 1936


photo by Esteban

Second of all, I'm still not a twilight fan...

...but I'm so loving this girl's version of Twilight:

Twilight in Fifteen Minutes

The Lunchroom of Destiny

[So Bella actually makes friends and if she bitches about them at least we don't hear it. And then the Cullen "foster kids" slooooo-mooooo in, not eating and not talking to anyone else and totally coupled up together all wearing their Very Very Special Cullen Crest Heraldic Jewelry. No wonder everyone at school hates them. ~*ROLL CALL!*~ Rosalie, the bitchy blonde! Emmett, the meathead jock! Alice, who twirls! Jasper, who looks pained!]

[And then... enter Edward.]

EDWARD: *Jaaaaaaames Deaaaaaaans*

MIKE: Hey Bella, you want me to walk with you to biology?

BELLA: I'm sorry, you exist?


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She also has a version of Wanted. But my favorite is still Troy.


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Btw, btw, btw, si R-Patt hindi naliligo!!! OMG. Mac, naalala mo ang foreign cutie sa Shangri la film fest 48 years ago (when we were still living in Casa Ghetto) na katabi ko that we rated Limang Safeguard? Ano kaya ang Safeguard Rating (we have to trademark this hehe) ni R-Patt/Edward? Discuss.

Starved.

It's been two weeks since I read or even held a book. I'm slowly dying. The nearest bookstore is a plane ride away. Libraries here are non-existent. Reading books online is just giving a tablespoonful of water to a man dying of thirst.

I miss doing my small game of smelling a book to guess if whether it was printed in the US or the UK. I miss reading a page or two of a current favorite before falling asleep. I miss my old self.

Sudden thought

For some reason, ito yung pumasok sa isip ko ngayon lang:

Si Mrs Lagdameo ng Vanity Square.


Yun lang. Di ko alam bakit. Di naman ako pumunta ng Ateneo recently. Wala na ang Vanity Square matagal na. Lastly, di talaga Mrs Lagdameo name nya.

Quick survey questions sa mga nakaalala: Bakit sya naging Mrs Lagdameo uli? Sino may pakana? May binili ba kayo ever sa Vanity Square or patingin tingin lang like me?

Name Game

During dinner a few nights ago...

Me: I freaked out when I saw my complete name on a tombstone on All Souls' Day.
Friend: Did you ever had sex with someone who has the same name as yours?
Me: No.
Friend: I did.
Me: You win.

Speaking of tattoos.... VIGGO!!!!

Pitstop

Back in Surigao City. My body is pain. Yesterday - learning to surf, walking around taking photos, inuman again til 5 in the morning today (Did I just go to a wake for coffee?) then Lanuza to Surigao at 10 am. Have to be up again early tomorrow. First trip to Davao at 5.30 am. Bus trip naman ngayon. Can't wait to see Jaja and the new baby.

Went to the shop in Lanuza where they make surfboards from bamboo. Cool.

The Long Way Down - Surigao del Norte to del Sur Edition

First of all, can I just say ang saya ng Google maps?

I'm supposed to go to Davao tomorrow but then my brother Jesse mentioned going to Cantilan and visit his internet shop. On his scooter. Having watched too many episodes of Ewan McGregor's Long Way Down, I thought, hey why not?

Short trivia about my brother Jesse: He has one very small ear. When we were kids we called him 1.50. As in, if one ear is one peso, then we'd be two pesos. He's 1.50. I always wondered if he was bothered or if he had insecurities resulting from this. However, I didn't feel sorry for him that much because of the Chinese. My father's Chinese friends who owned most if not all of the businesses in Surigao kept on saying the small ear is swerte. Every hardware store, pharmacy, bakery, grocery, every freakin business establishment we go to, the owner (usually at the cash register) would say, Ay ang swerte. I wanted to ask if my crooked spine was swerte too. Apparently not.

As I don't feel coherent enough let the map speak for itself. Follow the hot pink line =)

- Left Surigao City at 11.30AM

- No decent road from Taganito until Carrascal. Rough riding to the extreme.

- Short break in Taganito to help push a tricycle filled with scrap metal stuck in the mud. The old lady pushing the tryke wanted to pay us and I was tempted to ask if they have antique cameras. Hehe joke.

- In between Taganito and Adlay we saw a Public Toilet complete with politician sign. You know one of those "Public Toilet, A priority project of Gov/Congressman/Mayor So-and-so". I asked my brother, Who cleans this toilet in the middle of nowhere? The nearest house from either side was around 10 kms pa. To satisfy my curiosity, my brother went in to check. Very dirty is an understatement. Curiosity satisfied. It's like they built the thing just for the sake of building one. Kebs na sa maintenance.

- Flat tyre in between Adlay to Carrascal. There were way too many rocks and bumps in the road.

- Found a vulcanizing shop in the middle of nowhere. Only 25 pesoses to get the tyre fixed.

- Arrived in Cantilan with the dust of National Hi-way all over my face at 4pm.

It's just 9 in the evening and the whole town seems to be asleep. Tomorrow we leave for Lanuza for surfing lessons (yay!) until Sunday. See purple line.

Sunday- reverse direction. Repeat. I feel sorry for my butt.