"The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress." - Charles Kettering

by B.J. on 5/13/2008 07:04:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

"The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress." - Charles Kettering

If the world hates change, that means it probably doesn't expect change, and that it likes to cling to something that they think is fixed, stagnant, and stable when in fact it is moving itself.

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The Objective of Life

by B.J. on 4/28/2008 01:59:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

The Objective of Life


Is what were living for really just all for the acquirement of better technological convenience for everyday tasks?

Does it matter that I can move about a second faster in an Impala than my Corolla? Point A to Point to B, why is there meaning attached to the fact that I can get there faster?

Is what I'm waiting for and anticipating really revolving around the fact that I would be able to access the same websites I always visit without thinking, and listen to the same music I always listen to all in the palm of my hand? What is that giving me other than just another distraction?

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Solar Stone in My Hands

by B.J. on 4/16/2008 10:38:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

Solar Stone in My Hands

I feel like I'm in such a different spot right now.

With a job, but about to be without one. It's going to feel weird. Everyone seems to miss you only when you say you'll be gone, but I felt the love even during the time I was there.

I'm going to miss is the people I've interacted with while on the job. Kids at the public housing site, volunteers, Mexican women, Thai women, Filipinos, blacks, whites, different leaders, different working people.

All this love...it's something I definitely would love to hold onto, capture, lay on, rest on but life ain't like that...everything's always in motion and fluid, but that doesn't mean you can't keep making happy things happen.

It's euphoric...I've never felt the love of folks, like I've felt it in the last few months.

I've always had a hate-love relationship with people in general. I've felt like I've had a good start with people, but have found a way to be let down.

Not so anymore.

Maybe because I've taken this "walking around in people's shoes" thing to a new level and I miss people's bad acts a lot more often now.

All these people taking me out to lunch, culminating in a pot luck, plus having so many other friends outside, I feel like I have the whole world in my hands.

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Low Self-Esteem and Materialism

by B.J. on 3/22/2008 12:51:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

Low Self-Esteem Increases with Materialism


Listen to this: Kindness Is Timeless

In the world that we live in
Everybody wants to be so cruel
To be in the in-crowd
Got the hottest clothes,the hottest shoes
We're reading the tabloids
And we're flossing in the club
But the freshest thing you can do is
Give someone your love - India Arie, Sergio Mendes

I sent the link below to a friend, and talked about it with another.

Low Self-Esteem Increases with Materialism

Even though the study was applied to children and adolescents, I don't see why it wouldn't be applied to adults as well.

With one friend, I was hinting at something, which I wonder how she will take it.

With the other friend, I was talking about it in relation to a person in her life whom she saw as insecure.

My view is this: materialism is a desire for concrete objects. Concrete objects by their nature are things you either have or you don't. If you were to desire a concrete object, you would just lament the fact that you don't have it.

I think from there, this attitude that you don't have something is where the self-esteem begins to sink.

The "don't have" is the operative in the statement: the fact that you "don't have", you don't possess something just manifests this view that ONLY if you HAD an object, you could do something. It follows that if you don't have something, you're useless.
If you're useless, you then build this dependence, this fetish, likely on things which most of human history and human societies today have and still live WITHOUT.

Check India Arie's second verse to the same song:

"The clothes that your wearing
It will one day be out of style
The car that your driving
One day will vax out in miles
Your hair and your makeup
And the time that it takes up
It will take the same care of
Ya give someone ya love"

This verse is stuck to my rib, and it's been dawning on me: Stuff doesn't last. Stuff are tools, not ends in themselves. They don't mean anything unless we give it meaning.

In context, assuming you don't have a view of cultural superiority, we probably wouldn't care that there's a certain elaborate clothing in one culture to show the high status of a person, just as they wouldn't care about our need for the hottest kicks, the most souped up cars.

Clothes and shoes you wear cause its almost human nature. The car is a thing to take you places. The house is a place where you store your stuff. I don't understand the status signs in them, nor do I really care.

This this billionaire doesn't care either.

He lives in an Frisco apartment, gives tons away without telling anyone, and went to a meeting with an international figure wearing glasses he had taped together.

That guy is hip-hop to the max.

BTW, over the weekend, interestingly enough there were links on ScienceDaily that described how money actually CAN buy happiness...if it's for others. Food for thought.

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by B.J. on 12/19/2007 03:28:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

With every toss-up, break-up, mash-up, smash-up, bust-up, there lies an opportunity.

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by B.J. on 11/04/2007 11:53:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

I'd rather be the one taking the hurt cause I know I can take it.

It's been my second best friend, right up with the enigma that is loneliness.

-El hombre acogedor de la arana.

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by B.J. on 10/24/2007 09:13:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

If you have low expectations of people, you will NEVER be disappointed.

That's why I'm always happy.

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If Culture was a Person. . .

by B.J. on 6/12/2005 09:30:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

It would be a mall rat chick that looks fine at first but eventually nags you. Once it nags you, you want to break free.

Culture is college, college kids, the Fil-Am community, people in general. At least for me.

They nag so I want to be out, free of their expectations, free of stress, to be able to do what I wooant and create my own cool stuff.

But understand once out of culture, you're lonely and on the outside.

Hopefully, someday, the loneliness won't be too long. Once you find the right one, you don't want to get out no matter how much it tries to push you out.

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Rain = ?

by B.J. on 3/04/2005 02:57:00 PM 2 comments Print this post

You know the rain's patterns does not feel like God is crying. He probably just had too much to drink the night before. It feels more like those other fluids that come from the low places.

In other religious news, even though I'm not really a practicing Catholic I don't think I have eaten meat on any Friday since Lent has started.

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by B.J. on 10/04/2004 09:19:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

No Perfection, Only Balance

Sorry, kids, there is no such thing as perfection.

You can be full of something, but that doesn't make it perfect.

What you can do, you can definitely do balance.

Not perfect, just in cool harmony.

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by B.J. on 8/16/2004 06:55:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

It's Probably Easier Said Than Done but. . .

Fear and Pain are healthy for the individual human being. - Samoan Civilizations I saw on the Travel Channel's "Extreme Rituals"

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by B.J. on 8/03/2004 08:46:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

Mental Reminder #999 900 million hundred 999

It's the little things the best does that seperates them from the rest of the fuzz.

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A Thought

by B.J. on 7/20/2004 08:18:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

When you break boundaries, all you did was counter something set by unknowing humans in dire need to quickly identify things in the midst of a growing number of things.

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by B.J. on 7/10/2004 09:35:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

Kharma

A reason I haven't wanted to update is because I really want that last post to have a more prominent effect (you know, more so than such silly endeavors as inequality in schools). (Oh yes, I will also continue to write like a lot of people read this.) I want to see if bringing the culturally-conscious-done-by-Filipinos-for-everyone APL Song to such a big white-male-middle-class dominated world as MTV can actually happen and whatnot.

But this week I've discovered kharma (at least from what I remember right now a 10 PM on a Saturday Night).

There's this Libertarian dude named Michael Wilson who's making a movie called "Michael Moore Hates America." My gut reaction was like "I'm gonna squeeze this guy's guts." But then I read about him being completely destroyed and mocked on the Daily Show without him really realizing it. I almost cried for this guy the way I was about to cry about some random poor looking teenager with a broken arm working at In N Out. :***(

And this is where I thought of kharma. I really don't care for attacking opponents. I know this because I feel really bad every time I nail someone (in my narrow world view of message boarding, heeeeeeehaww) to the point where they just stop and don't say anything else. And that guy Michael Wilson getting nailed really didn't do anything for me, except that these Daily Show managed to damage one guy. He was just a guy with ideas, and I wish they'd take the focus off these figures and focus on the ideas (ironically this would apply more to Michael Wilson as his whole movie is entitled about one guy). Of course an exchange of ideas that would be HEELA (I'm trying to get everyone I know from Lakewood, CA to keep saying) boring ass tv, which means it would be a KCET/PBS regular.

On second thought, maybe Wilson's squareness was a ploy to earn some sympathy and some paying customers viewers to take a ganders at his "cute" perspective. Asshat.

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by B.J. on 5/18/2004 08:42:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

Yet Another Life Lesson from the Captain Obvious Kitchen

(BTW, I didn't learn this yesterday)

To actually do and accomplish something, you've gotta be ignorant. (But first, you have to think and strategize before doing/accomplishing, but anyway continue)

At least for me, there's millions of things running thru my head at any given time I'm doing something.

When I did oral presentations in high school, I was shackled in these germ-like waves called nerves wondering about how loud I should speak, if the right words, any words would come to my mind, if I would remember everything I rehearsed, if anyone would laugh at my dumbass, and ultimately look down upon my intelligence.

A more recent example: During this time that I'm supposed to be writing some paper, I'm wondering about my UCLA status, friends, blogging, my two remaining classes, my latest C, whacking off, whatever, I'm not doing my paper.

People have told me that I think way too much. I think I agree and think that thinking has gotten too much in the way of any actual productivity.

However, I know I'm not alone when I say that thinking too much gets in the way of actual productivity.

During PCC 13, a lot of folks were pretty nervous, asking out loud if they'd remember their cues, their lines, their positions. The popular way to get rid of all this nervousness they reason is by taking a shot. And most everyone knows that alcohol makes you ignorant as hell. You don't think too much about what you're doing and just sort of do whatever.

OK, so it looks like I just suggested alcohol as the solution to unproductivity when doing a paper.

Ironically, generally, I'm alcohol-free. So some alcohol free solutions are as follows:

1) Take your shit seriously as in you're going to get kicked the fuck out if you don't do it. Think of all the money you're wasting from your parents.
2) Specialize yourself. Turn yourself into a machine. Lose yourself in your work.
3) Make it meaningful and fun. Add some of your own insight and relate whatever your doing as homework to real life.

That shit used to work for me. But nowadays, I have created quite a division between the do and sit around and think. What I like to do is much different than what I like to think about. I like to play sports, do, and uh play sports, and do, uh. I like to think about everything else. Now I have to learn how to blur that division. . .

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by B.J. on 4/11/2004 03:19:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

Guts

Your gut feeling usually tells you the truth.

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by B.J. on 3/01/2004 02:28:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

Philosophical Musing

Would you like your mind or your body to travel ?

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by B.J. on 2/17/2004 05:13:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

Definition of Loser (from a middle-class college kid's point of view)

(Stolen from willblank's profile)

(This is assuming you have all the tools handfed to you; much harder when you come from a tough neighborhood IMHO)

The loser: feels helpless and unable to cope with the world and waits for someone to come to the rescue. He/she shows a mask of indifference and/or self-pity. This mask protects him/her against fear of taking responsibility for changing his/her life. He/she is dependent on others, continuously looking for guidance. This may lead to further problems such as lack of assertiveness skills, under-achievement and excessive reliance on others in relationships.

Remember this when you are down and out.

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by B.J. on 2/07/2004 09:57:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

Quick Note

When you got something due and you're just trying to get started, don't ever make the mistake of looking at a clock. Just start now.

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by B.J. on 1/08/2004 06:02:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

. . . : )

Don't you notice that the more you talk about something, the worse it seems, and the worse it gets ?

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