I decided to take a two-day vacation leave (Thursday to Friday).  That means that I will be back by Monday.  I don’t know if you could call this a vacation.  It’s more like a working vacation for me.  I truly did not intended it to be that way, but what the heck.

Anyway, I leave you all with this anime artwork of one of my guilty-pleasures.  Have a great weekend everyone!

The Merging (09/29/2008)

 I gazed at the sky
  and saw the birds fly

I sat on the earth
  and felt it give birth

To a thousand wonderful things,
  so I asked the Infinite Being

“However could I have deserved all these?”
  He answered from deep within

I am with you as you are with Me
  Like drops that merge into the sea

As your heart is capable with infinite goodness
  So am I capable of inexhaustible grace

So this is our will intertwined
  That grew this world of yours and Mine.

Antevasin is a Sanskrit word that means one who lives at the borders.  In ancient times it literally referred to people who left the safety of their own homes to live in the forest where the spirit dwelt.  I think today it may as well refer to people who live on life’s edges, as I regard myself so.  I’m thinking more on the lines of spirituality rather than physicality, just like most people who gravitate to this word nowadays.

Moreover, I think my decision to look toward a brighter future could also be an attribute of an antevasin.  There’s no other way to live life happily, really.

Thanks Ms. Elizabeth Gilbert for putting into words what some of us always felt in our hearts.

Do you want your home to be hooked up with this gadget?  hehe

This is the OpenFrame IP Media Phone that runs on an Intel Atom processor.  It’ll be out first quarter of 2009.

Destiny is a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. - E. Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

Life is not made up of absolutes.  I do believe that it is made up of what we create it to be, and what the Universe sends our way.  That’s why I think it’s important to cultivate one’s spirituality.  I think as spiritual beings, we are predisposed to seek God to ultimately validate our existence in the world.  It may only be their own pride that hinders some from quenching this thirst.

Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he is a little of both.

It’s not even a question of how formidable one is or how much wit one has, everyone needs that guiding light; everyone needs a little bit of divine intervention from time to time.  Else one would be resigned into swimming the harsh ocean of randomness in the world, and that’s unbecoming of the captain of one’s soul - as William Ernest Henley puts it.  I mean, even sailors relied on the stars to guide them, didn’t they?

In the olden days, they said that God held the house lizard special because every early morning it would kiss the ground in homage to Him.  I guess if this little being had enough sense of gratitude in the Divine, so can we…

Yogic sages say that

all the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy. - E. Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

That’s why I think it’s important to stay silent from time to time.  It’s those times of silence when deep wisdom comes to you, because that’s when God is utmost present.

We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash.  We get seduced by our own mantras and we become monuments to them.  To stop talking for a while, then, is to attempt to strip away the power of words, to stop choking ourselves with words, to liberate ourselves from our suffocating mantras.

Words are powerful, but sometimes they distract from the truth.  Sometimes we have to listen to ourselves in silence; we have to listen to our instincts - that is God’s own voice guiding us to the right path.

That’s it, I think I’m moving over to be a Mac user.  Presenting the MacBook Touch

It’s coming this October.

I’ve been a bit down for a few days now.  That still hasn’t changed.  My mood is quite bad that I couldn’t clear my head and sleep.  So, I went online to look for perk up things.  This I found

The black Palm Treo Pro - insert tear of joy here lol ;-)

OK, I feel better.  I can sleep na.

I read this list of quotes from Angelina Jolie’s book Notes from my Travels, and it just touched me a lot.

It is a shame how, for a time, I can so easily shut out the world’s problems when I am safe at home.

They understand something about life that many of us (thank God) never will, and they focus on many things we have forgotten. They know what to be grateful for. They appreciate the importance of family and community. They understand the power of faith and love.

I think this is the hardest thing to see, to listen to them with their bruises, dirty torn clothes, cut fingers, as they smile at you. They are children. They still dream. They seem so full of hope, it breaks your heart.

Earlier this morning I was complaining about my feet being itchy. This afternoon I met a man who lost his leg. He greeted me with a smile and was joking with his doctor. He found the energy to be a gracious host to us visitors.

This message is written on the board: “if we all do a little, we can do a lot.”

It just makes you open your eyes to the fact that there is another world out there full of suffering.  Well, almost another world… This is still one Earth though… One Earth…

I should look for this book.

Most of the time, people think that being happy is very much a stroke of luck.  But I don’t really believe this.  I think you should be happy “despite of”, and not “because of”.  Like what E. Gilbert says, it’s not something that descends upon you like fine weather.

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort…  You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.

It is therefore my belief that we must strive for happiness.  We must fight for happiness.  We must insist upon happiness.  Happiness and contentment, just like their negative counterparts, bounces back from us unto the world.  Therefore the search for our own personal heaven is not just a selfish act, but a gift to the outside world.  Being free from misery helps us cease to become an obstacle, not only to ourselves but to everyone around us.

This was leaked over the net, new business nokia phones e72 and e75

(Got this from Engadget)

Very nice…  I’m gonna watch out for these wonders.

It’s like I have been living outside myself for a couple of days now.  The thing is, there is a huge fork on the road, career-wise, and I know that it’s still in the future; yet it’s as if my essence is already dwelling where my body (and all physical environment) is still trying to catch up.

It frustrates me a wee bit to be waiting for something to happen.  To wait and then find that your drive and everybody else’s are not quite in sync - is frustrating.  Though to some, I may be in a very good place in that regard, but to me the pace is just too slow.  A question of perspectives, I guess.

Then there’s this other thing, that other proverbial choice.  There are things that are going to happen that may as well be the other recreation of the big bang theory (in a good way), in my life at least.  When a relative asked me if I would still keep everything as is (my job etc.), I said yes.  That answer was made rather quickly, I guess.  At this point, I’m not so sure about that answer anymore.  And this second-guessing is keeping me off my game.  I’m not good at second-guessing, you see; I thrive on instinct.  I feel that my instincts, at their best, are aligned with what good things the Universe is sending out to me.

I said a little prayer during lunch today.  I simply asked

God
Help me exist in the present,
and in silence where you dwell.

Then I quietly and discreetly meditated on this while my friends chatted about.  I know they’re worried about me.  I’m glad there’s this weekend to sort all of this out.

Good Weekend everyone

Our group’s 2nd Sportsfest was held yesterday and I’m glad to have lent a hand into its transpiring.

(Thanks to J San Juan and Marlon Ignacio for the superb pics)

The theme was essentially Filipino street games - the stuff that we played when we were kids.  The events were Patintero, Batuhang Bola and a relay of various favorites:  Jackstone, Skipping rope, Piko, Sipa and Chinese Garter.

Note:  No stunt doubles were hurt during the shooting of these pictures.

Of course, since we were in-charge here, it was made certain that the food would be super delicious!!!  Here’s Joanne and Rubi, co-committee members, preparing the food the caterers brought in.

This is most of the committee members who made the event possible and the hard work fun to do!

Congrats to the Green team for becoming this year’s Champions!…

… and of course the Blue Team’s Muse - Jack - for winning the most votes.  Here she is seen with the last KEG’s reigning Queen Lara

To my team, the Black Team, you did a great job!  Kudos!!!

I’m happy that despite the mishaps (our flaming taxi accident over C5 - for later read), the event was such a success.  Everyone worked hard and played hard. 

I took this photo of The Fort last night with my phone, facing Bonifacio High Street from the parking lot beside Net2, before heading off.  Just thought I’d whip out my old poem. 

Prometheus Heart (May 2007 )

Moon Spirit, do you not know?
That for each passing tide
You wax over my shores each night
The Goddess Sea steals part of mine.

Moon Spirit, do you not sight?
That by each waning time
I’m granted truest night
That gives me hope when stars shine bright

Moon Spirit, do you not feel?
That by each cycle we face
You take my will with such haste
And I surrender in your eternal gaze.

Moon Spirit, please now free me
From the undying shackles of my own heart
So alas I may crumble away
Into the cosmos I’ll find my way…

… and into the cosmos, out there, I did eventually find my way.  My poetry after the jump.

There was a fire around the area where I work.  My friend Rach IM’ed me to look outside.  She works in Makati and they could all see the smoke from there.  I looked and saw this.

Of course it was in the news.

By lunchtime the fire at the construction site (St. Luke’s?) was out and the sky was clear again.  Thank God nobody was hurt.