ALARM!

Miserable Piles And The Secret

My mother lent me a book called, "The Secret". I get the message. I need to be more positive. Well according to the book, which I have not finished yet, there's this SECRET that successful people know and special people have known since the ancient Babylonians or whatever. Now, thanks to the modern miracle of the printing press, everyone can learn the SECRET because a secret this awesome should be known by everyone.

The secret is positive thinking.

Apparently, if you think good, happy thoughts it gathers energy and good vibes around you causing nice things to happen. If you think you're a successful businessman always and see yourself as that, it feeds you energy and eventually it will happen. I dunno.

I wonder if the reverse is true? If you think bad thoughts, I guess bad energy swirls around you. If that were true, I'd be dead by now.

This whole, "think and it will happen", stuff reminds me of that book by Richard Bach. I can hardly remember it but I'm certain it was about teleporting seagulls. Wow, how awesome does that sound? The seagull would think where he was gonna be and -BAM!- there he is. Man, that was sweet. I wish learning how to teleport was the big secret instead of "good vibes" mumbo. If I could teleport at will...wow, I feel good just thinking about it.

I'm over here now!

Online

The internet is back after nearly two frustrating weeks. I guess the trained monkey or wizard or something working at PLDT must have done something right and hit the right box with enough force. I'm still not sure what went wrong but I'm trying to be more optimistic. So instead of no internet, I'm back to semi-reliable internet. Whee.

For now, anyway...

Back From Singapore

I just came from Singapore to visit a friend and do a bit of sightseeing. What a strange place that was.

Singapore is like some kind of "anti-Philippines" bizarro land. People obey the rules, the government is competent and actually enforces them and it's so damn clean. It's strange but seeing a society run so well makes me feel nauseous. It's like something I can never get over and believe. People actually lining up in an orderly fashion, can you believe that shit? Also, no gum allowed... and drug traffickers get sentenced to death. Also, as I observed, the government is fond of penalizing stuff it doesn't like; For example, too much traffic in an area? Tax every car that passes by. Too many cars? Make new cars ridiculously hard to get. Never liked that approach but can't argue with the results. The people seem cool with it.

Despite it all, I must say that their brand of softcore authoritarianism kind of grew on me.

The Wages of Sin

So the government is looking to tax alcohol and tobacco. Well fine, I guess it would increase the coffers with extra revenue but I get the strangest feeling that all this will lead to is an increase in smuggling. That's just the pessimist in me.

Alcohol and tobacco tax or "Sin Taxes" as they're called, don't spark the same kind of controversy as a VAT tax does. The Church says cigarettes and booze are the devil right? So people just go along with it since it's some kind of good tax that curbs down on bad behavior. This leads to an interesting question; Since these "sin" products are just luxuries and not necessities like a VAT tax would affect, then won't people simply just choose to consume less of the "sin" products? It's not like a man must have beer or a cigarette every hour (there are addicts I know, but they aren't that many) so wouldn't the average Juan just cut down his intake? So instead of smoking a stick every break for example, wouldn't he be more inclined to just smoke one every other break?

Of course, I'm assuming that majority are moderate smokers/drinkers where their demands are more elastic. I guess if we're a nation of borderline addicts who must have their fix, this would work very well. But I just feel all this will lead to lower consumption, which would generate less revenue than expected, and an increased incentive to buy smuggled goods. Worst case scenario? Consumption decreases to the point where there is a loss instead. Who knows? Either I think too much like a soulless economist or my view on human nature is really that bleak. I hope I'm wrong since the government could use more cash (What the cash will be used for is another story) but you can't just take behavior out of the equation and replace it with an exact estimate of how much is going to be made.

I don't smoke or drink anyway so whatever.

Time Extended

There's nothing like enrolling subjects is college only to be locked out of them when you finally have to get them encoded. Oh well, I tried. Looks like I'll have a bit more free time.

Lose a few pounds maybe...

Hard to be an Optimist

Enrollment

It never ends.

Green

Cebu needs parks.

Sometimes when I go to the Ayala mall, I pass by the empty lots owned by the corporation that hasn't been developed yet. I see a lot of people, usually whole families, just sitting on the grass relaxing. I see joggers passing by and children playing. It's a shame that there's no large public parks for people to enjoy. Maybe a few years from now buildings will be constructed on those undeveloped tracts of private land. Where will the people go?

There are small parks and recreational areas in Cebu. Some of them are too small and out of the way. Some areas are simply barren land not even intended to be used that way. I'm reminded of Central Park in New York when I went there to visit. It was a huge park with its own man-made lake. It was very accessible and it was a nice oasis of greenery in the urban landscape.

Why doesn't Cebu have something like that? I guess when you have a government that's perpetually starved of funds, little things like parks and recreation aren't high on the priority list. And why bother setting aside areas for relaxation when you could have a strip mall or whatever built there to generate tax revenue. You know, with the "development at all costs" approach the government has, the concept of parks sounds silly. It doesn't generate taxes and it costs a bit to maintain and clean up. People will probably litter and ruin it since there aren't security guards on patrol like in the private lots. Still, as the people in Ayala lands prove, people do make use of such spaces. I think that parks are even a necessity in city life. It can't be good to have all concrete and smog in your face. People need room to breath in this ever shrinking and tightening city.

It is good to enjoy simple things like fresh air, the warm sun and a cool breeze on your face.

Adrenaline Pumping

You know what sucked about Diablo 3 other than the weak story, shitty dialogue, mediocre gameplay and nostalgia pandering? It was the music. I don't know why everything had to either be full orchestra epic or bland one-note ambiance. The Tristram theme was good but what I really missed were the drums in Diablo 2. It made dungeon crawling more awesome that way.