Friday, April 24, 2015

Pondering the Power of Silence

On Introverts & Extroverts

There is this book on introverts that I already have a copy of but have yet to find time to read. Its title mentions the line “in a world that can’t stop talking”.

I've recently discussed introverts with an academic professional and I told her about said book and we've proceeded to discuss in, a nutshell, the world that cannot stop talking.

It is true this world has increasingly become so busy, cluttered and noisy, and extroverted people tend to get most of the advantages. People have such short attention spans that it tends to really just fall on whoever wants to be noticed to get noticed.

You would say, you want to advance then work for it, be heard. Ok. But what if you’re a much more brilliant person who just happened to be an introvert? And what if that other guy is not particularly brilliant but just so good at being flamboyant, listening to other people’s ideas and then later re-imaging it as his/her own? Cutthroat people would applaud that. In a House of Cards would, they would say that's great.

Some people would say, in order to win in this world, that's how it’s supposed to be. And, perhaps, more often it’s true, that is how it really is. 

In this day and age, if people don’t know anything about you, they assume you have nothing and are nothing. If you don’t say anything, they assume you've nothing to say.

And so, introverts, you lose. Or so they say.

On Opinion & Silence

And what about having an opinion?  What if what you have to say is not synonymous with what the mainstream wants you to say?

Some people make a stand and get shredded for it. They get perceived as a threat, are suddenly judged or are just simply silenced.  

So some people chose to remain silent because they prefer to play it safe, or they are just simply the follower type or they just have no particular opinion at all.  

It is funny, when you sometimes find yourself damned if you do (speak) and damned if you don’t (speak). Don’t speak and be forgotten. Speak and be attacked for it.

So, what’s the point?

Often there is a struggle between following the crowd and being true to who you are. That is, if who you are, isn't necessary compatible to what sells in your reality.

As a student of business and marketing, it is important to look into the market and then adapt your product and strategies to what will sell.

But as a person, if you do this, there is this unsettling feeling (for some people) and you wonder if you are selling out or becoming a different person, and wonder if you do really want this to happen?

Hence, the internal struggle, the frustration, the disheartening feelings… etc.

Power players will say this whole concept is for the weak.   

And so, I was more than happy to get a totally differently perspective from the person that I was talking to.

I was not told it was weak. I was not told that one needs to change, to be aggressive, or to be overtly noticeable to make it.

In fact, I was told that there is power in silence. And, that there is something noteworthy in knowing your worth and just sticking with it. 

I was told that there is more power to being different than there is to being one of them. 

Yes, we've also heard this one before.  Be the red in the sea of black. Take the road less traveled. Who knows, you may be the ugly duckling? Etc.

In theory, we are also told that to get noticed, you must be different and unique. In reality though, it seems, being the “best” and most noticeable one of the mainstream ideal is what is actually rewarded.

But still, there is a truth there, though rarely championed these days, that there is power in being different because there is power in having something that everyone else does not have. It’s a simple concept we often forget, really.

What proceeded was a brief yet inspirational, in its way, discussion on the topic of silence. It's simple yet (to me), it's just refreshing, comforting and encouraging. 

It must be noted that the person I was talking to is an academic person who is successful in her own right and so she’s not just saying all this because she’s disgruntled or bitter. 

The discussion left me impressed with what a strong sense of self can allow a person to achieve. 

It is certainly hard to be a self-assured person when the general world does not seem to be agreeing with you. I am inspired by the idea of people who know who they are, know what they can do, believe in their ideas, have no self-doubts (or at least have very little), and who just go about their own path, silently, even when the mainstream world constantly dismisses them. 

I think this is more impressive than the usual brash and overtly aggressive way of generally acknowledged successful people.

Do not get me wrong, though. I do have respect for the achievements of “generally acknowledge successful people” and I am by no means anti-extrovert. I have nothing against outgoing and charming extroverted people who are noteworthy in their own right. I just find this silent self-assured path of achievement so refreshing and inspired.  

And so I end this post on this positive note, as I take a break from this blog, and leave us all to ponder the power of silence :)

Friday, June 20, 2014

Bong Revilla Jr. = Non-Sense

There is a backlog on the things I want to comment on… and life goes on and all that...

HOWEVER… 

It just has to be said: Senator Bong, please just stop embarrassing yourself and our country.

Your speech or anything that every comes out of your mouth publicly, officially or unofficially, has never made any sense. It has never impressed me. There never was any depth or any real point to anything you ever say. All of it, non-sense. Just a lot of cheap talk and a lot of cheesy acting. 

That music video, I could not even bare to watch all of it. Words cannot describe and express the amount of shame and bewilderment one can feel about that as out of no where in the senate comes an introduction for your so called original song.

Oh how this video, made by a senator from one’s country as his official defense against a corruption charge, reflects on the state of our government today. It's just depressing how things have change and yet some things remain the same.  

So I ask: would anybody who had anything decent to say opt to use his time to show a music video instead? No. 

For that matter: who in their right mind would ever think of making a music video for a senate defense? No one. 

Strategy-wise it has been said that well, Mr. Revilla doesn’t care about the thinking citizen. What he cares about and who he patronizes are the “masa”, said to be his base. He believes they don't think and he believes this music video will please them. Ok, I get it. This is his way. It’s sad, it’s true, and it is what it is.

Though if you ask me, even if he suddenly decides that he would like to talk to the thinking Filipino, I do not believe he has the capacity to actually even give a genuinely intelligent speech either. But then again, we already figured that out a long time ago. 

I will not even dwell on all the lines he drops around media outfits. All that drama and all the cheesiness at par with antiquated soap operas, the reigning themes of which are: 1. He is oppressed, 2. God is with him and 3. He loves everyone. 

Dude, whatever. And we all just roll our eyes. 

I do not even follow the events of this issue these days because I know I will just get so annoyed and exasperated. So, why bother? We all know how he and they will go about it. 

On a side note, check out this fashion statement: 

"Religion is the Opium of the Masses." Mr. Bong thinks so, does he not?!
In case you feel like your "masa" base won't get it, that GOD is on your side, well, why don't you just print it on your shirt so it's clearly out there.

On another note, a friend of mine has been excited about the rumors of his potential arrest. Well, wouldn’t we all like to see that?

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Misogyny of Inadequate Men

Just like the Maguindanao Massacre, you sometimes cannot believe how something as massive as the blatant kidnapping of some 200++ or so girls can happen just like that.

So many things can be said that I am sure have been said over and over in the modern educated western world with regards to the role of women in society. We can all be appalled. We can all cry for equality, feminist ideology, and women and human rights – but this doesn’t change how things still are in other parts of the world that are not as evolved as ours. These people remain adamant in their archaic beliefs.  

Boko Haram, the group who has claimed to have taken the girls, translates to “western education is sinful” and its leader, Abubakar Shekau, believes that “in Islam, it is allowed to take infidel women as slaves”.  He also said in a video that all students should leave school and girls should just drop out to get married.

Wait a minute. Pardon me, but I have a question to ask... 

Let me just clarify this Mr. Shekau. So, all this effort, brutality and bruahaha… just so your crew can get some and slash get married to girls?

Cause you know…  You guys kidnap girls, rape them, force them to do what you want, sell them, brutalize and terrorize them and then conveniently justify all this by claiming that your religion allows you to take women from different religions as slaves. BUT at the end of the day – it is about GIRLS, am I right?

Oh the misogyny of inadequate men...  

So these thugs who claim to do all this for their so called faith are at their core just men who apparently cannot get women in the growing real world they contemptuously call “western”.  

They believe that women must be kept low and uneducated to keep them submissive to them.

Misogynistic folks of “Western Education is Sinful”, your barbaric code is not only cowardly; it reflects manhood at its most pathetic state.  

If the only way you think you can keep your womenfolk by your side is by keeping them down, then you don’t believe you can get them if they were smart, educated and had actual legitimate professions for a living.

It is pathetic - blaming the girls’ desire to uplift themselves in the world through education as the problem when in reality it is you, barbaric men, who cannot keep up.

I suppose, it is kind of difficult to imagine a Nigerian woman doctor getting impressed and falling in love with a man from your group who, you know, resides in some makeshift rebel camp, whose hobbies include burning down schools, cleaning your knife and other things like that. 

But dude, you must see this: you are unattractive the way you are now behaving like a brutal group of women-starved men. GET WITH IT: It's you (that's the problem), not her!

In the same vein, whenever I hear of stories of friend’s husbands and boyfriends who need to constantly put their wives and girlfriends down (or worse, need to physically abuse them) just to make themselves feel more secure... I am disgusted.

Real men do not keep women by keeping them down.

Real men will let women be the best they can be and should likewise uplift themselves to make themselves worthy of these empowered women.

-----

It is unimaginable what these school girls are being subjected to. One can only imagine what they are going through as they have been virtually forced into sexual slavery. And, the entire world just seem so powerless the way things are right now as about 1 month after their abduction, they still remain at large. 

Cara Devine
Malala Yousafzai
It might just be a social media campaign but it is something...

Here's to hoping the girls will be found. I am joining in with the netizens of the world in the campaign to #BringBackOurGirls!


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Double Pope Canonization, a Marketing Success!

I have liked Pope Francis for a while now, I’ve mentioned this. But among the many other things I like about him, I would add this: he has a head for marketing!  Or he is just a natural at being "likeable" or at being in the business of making over the Church into something very friendly.

What a campaign. First off, we have a new likeable Pope who commutes, ride bikes, slums with the masses, and accepts gay people. Then he decides to canonize two other popular and friendly Popes in this trifecta of Catholic Pope Sainthood Extravaganza!  

source: the salt and light tv site
Masses of Catholics flock to the Vatican. Social media pages for this are set up! (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…. They had it all.) They are streaming the canonization online. How very modern of the Church. How very anti of an archaic image.

from cnn.com
Old devotees (via fans of 2 Popes for sainthood) – check. Youth (via social media campaign) - check.  

In addition, they held mini remote events for Catholic countries where relics of the Popes and saints were toured! (I chanced upon it at the Eastwood Mall the other day.) Talk about bringing the event closer to the people. 

How efficient and well thought of was all that? I mean, I didn’t even plan to see these relics and there it was right in front of me that I can’t not go and see it. It was after a novelty, traveling relics and all that. And, there was no entrance fee since the Church is supposed to be an open house, is it not?
 
Such good publicity, I just can’t get over it. 3 well liked Popes, celebrated in one big worldwide event, it cannot get any better than that.  Good job, Pope Francis!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Updates / Updates

MH307

For days / weeks, I was glued to the screen even when let’s face it nothing was really happening and every scrap of small lead was turned into a sensation by CNN American (obviously I am annoyed with CNN International’s US counterpart – they pander too much, they dumb it down too much and they usually have these very American unworldly reactions to things).

Yet I continued to watch the coverage even if it was all becoming like a surreal episode of Lost, a show that also started out as compelling and eventually became so dragging that you had wondered when they will ever get off the freaking island.

Incidentally, the Lost people were flying out of Australia when they got lost... and well, you know, MH307 is allegedly somewhere near Australia as well.

Are we to imagine the passengers are slumming somewhere on an island? 
Last week, authorities declared the plane to be somewhere in the Indian ocean and that everyone is dead. How and why they are there, they have not yet actually figured out. 

Then a few days after, there were some buzz about there is still hope... (Um, what is it really?!)

Obviously, what happened is not typical of a airplane malfunction or a terrorist attack and all this is certainly strange. The conspiracy theorist in me has my antenna twitching. BUT what can we really do but wait and listen what the media will feed us next?

*Update: Well, as of now, there are still no signs of the plane and the investigation as well as the media announcements have gone everywhere – like, really, everywhere  (fake passports, pilot is an activist, the other pilot lets people inside the cockpit, plane/machine error, sabotage, hijacking, low altitude flying, radar avoidance, psychological issues, lithium batteries exploding, etc. / Vietnam, Malacca, Indian Ocean, etc.). 

In the words of my friend – I feel like they are only deluding themselves and that all that they are looking at are images of trash. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be too far from the truth.

I know it’s all unprecedented and it's hard to comb the ocean for debris but these days I don’t even listen too intently anymore. I have lost patience with this so called investigation. It is one thing to have a couple of initial theories disproved with valid data and another thing when things keep changing from all directions, from left to right and for the authorities to keep on contradicting themselves. 

And in the words of my aunt - these experts doesn't seem like experts at all if their theories keep on going from one point to another. Well, I couldn't agree more. 

What I don't get is why the authorities keep on announcing things that they haven't really confirmed? Why do they keep announcing things then later contradict themselves? If they are not sure, then they are not sure, why even announce it as fact? Is there really some cover up here? I am not sure as to what direction I should speculate but the more things become blurry like this, the more it all sounds fishy. 

So, until a lead is truly a lead - should we still be listening?

Indian Wells (late post) 

Yes, Federer made the Indian Well finals and lost to Djokovic. However, I am not so upset about that as it was clearly a very close game that could have gone either way.

Unfortunately, I was not able to watch it on TV as the cable TV here do not prioritize games unless they are of the basketball variety.

Let me use up this moment to complain and rant: BASKETBALL is NOT the ONLY sport people in this country watch! 

In fact, while I will cheer for my college basketball team, I do not watch the PBA or the NBA. I watch a variety of other sports and I demand my market to be served! AND, I believe I am quite valid in my demand as I truly am the market - I watch a lot of TV, do I not?

Ukraine

So, where are we now? The voting has happened. Russian has now taken Crimea. EU/US has announced sanctions. Ukraine is now hostile to Russia. So now what?

Peace Process

To be honest, I am not sure how everything is  going… BUT I am hoping that it will all go well. I would just like to note that despite all the bruhahaha of MH307 at least the Malaysian PM found the time to come visit us and help us out with this.

Pork Barrel

Wait a minute, where are we now? I honestly got lost.  Lots of people talking crap... (He said / she said, You must also investigate the pro government people, the witnesses are the real criminals, yada yada yada...)  BUT wait… WHERE in the world is Sen. Bong Revilla and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada now? Why – they are out of the country… Oh, I wonder why? 

RIP Will Gardner (late post)

WHAT THE…?! It definitely threw me off. I was so shocked. I was so dumbfounded. I am still utterly devastated.


It just came out of no where. I am still shocked. 

screen cap from the show
I was just saying last (last) week that no matter how I enjoy Suits, The Good Wife is still my favorite (current) lawyer show. And, I really look forward to Monday nights when I can get my regular dose of the show – UNTIL TODAY (March 24, 2014)  – when they killed off Will… WHAT WAS THAT?!!!

I know people (or the show runners) will say that this will make the show better, that it is a brave show and such a crafty show that it can kill of a lead character in such a shocking way. I know, it has been done in other shows (and has worked for some shows) but this trick has been done over and over and over… AND, I do not care, I just don't want them to kill Will!!!

Call me a cheeseball but like Mindy (Lahiri), I also watch shows for their entertainment value ( and their cheesy love angles) as much for their intellectual value. AND, I was quite happy with the Will Gadner / Alicia Florrick love story.

AND, since they were killing him off anyway, why couldn't they have at least exhausted all the possible lovey dovey storylines they could have churned out for Will and Alicia? INSTEAD, they spent the entire season (albeit it was a good season), tearing Will and Alicia apart. I am devastated. They parted on such bad terms and only these last 2 episodes did they got back to somewhat friendly terms but barely. AND then he dies! I just cannot take it.

Alicia finds out Will is dead (screen cap from the show)
Pardon my obvious violent reaction. I am grieving.

The Good Wife, you pulled a Downton Abbey on me! AND post Matthew, I don’t believe Downton Abbey was particularly that good anymore. And while I believe The Good Wife is a great show and have faith that they will keep it good, I still can’t say, at least for me, if it will still be the same without Will. He is one of the reasons I watch the show. His relationship with Alicia is one of the major reasons why I watch the show. Why don’t they just shoot Peter Florrick?! I liked Mr. Big on Sex and the City (though on hindsight I think about it and I now wonder why) BUT I really can’t stand Peter Florrick. Even if he is technically inside the body of Mr. Big, it’s just not working for me.

I would pray, beg and hope for the showrunners to decide to bring Will back to life, like maybe fans will go crazy and start sending random items to the studio in protest (though I doubt this since the show's target market aren't really crazy tweens or comic con people)  – except they truly killed him, showed his body bloody, covered by a sheet and everything. It’s not like it was a grey area type of killing. It wasn't like he got lost at sea (that he may return) or his plane exploded (like in Revenge when Victoria apparently never got inside the plane). It's not like this is a supernatural show (like in Heroes where no body actually dies)… So, Will is very dead. And, again, I say, I am very upset.  

Update: I have now seen the episode after the shocking episode featuring Will's death. I don't know. It's still good. I get it, how something like this is a good plot device. I get it, how something like this will make a big impact on Alicia and the other characters. But... I still don't like it. I don't think my experience of watching The Good Wife will ever be the same. 

Josh Charles, why do you have to decide to pursue other things? Why?

Veronica Mars! (late post)


Yes… 10 minutes into the movie, I was all moony eyed, so excited and everything even if nothing has happened yet. Suffice to say, I loved the movie. What Veronica Mars fan wouldn’t? The movie is not meant to play out like some summer blockbusters and it really is probably not for everyone (no super heroes, no end of the world scenes, no robots, or tween vampires) but for all the Veronica Mars fans out there, it felt like coming home and it felt like reminiscing high school but with only the good memories.

Hello Veronica! (screen cap from the movie)
Fan service, it is what it is. And, I really am not complaining! LoVe forever! I will suck it all up. Make a sequel and I will wholeheartedly cheer it on Rob Thomas!

LoVe! (screen cap from the movie)
So what are my comments on the plotlines and what everyone has been doing all these years? First off, Veroncia going to Stanford and then Columbia law school, I approve. I am all for education. When Veronica was in high school her dream was to go to Stanford and I am glad she eventually got there. I never liked Hearst College anyway.  

Would I have liked her better as an FBI agent? She’d be great at it, yes, but I probably won’t like it as much. She would be all limited to the rules of law or the FBI. Plus, her going over to the respectable side for a while (as an almost lawyer) is also something that works with the story line. Logan going all navy pilot on us, I totally applaud! Who wouldn’t? He had me at navy uniform. My only comment is that I’m not sure I like the skinny Logan. But then, I will always be biased for Logan so I accept him for who he is.

Hello Logan (screen cap from the movie)
As for Piz, I don’t really care much that much about him. Sucks to be his character but, hey, I don’t particularly care. Wallace and Mac are all doing ok. Dick (aka Candy Andy of 2 broke girls) is actually looking quite good these days. He is cute in a surfer kind of way, if only we can erase his doofus persona from our memories. 

Overall I like that a lot of the show’s characters made an appearance. Weevil, our old biker friend makes an appearance (and he has a wife and kid now!). Deputy Leo (aka New Girl’s Schmidt) makes an appearance as well. Vinny was also there. And, Gia Goodman (aka the bitch from apartment 23 and Breaking Bad’s Jane) also came out as a semi major character in the film.  

On a side note: Celeste Kane, we could have gone without her. I don’t think anyone wanted to see her. Maybe they should have showed us a scene of Duncan with his kid somewhere, if they wanted someone from the Kane family to represent. Not that I actually like Duncan because I really don’t care too much about him either. 

It would have been cool though if  Leighton Meester, the original Carrie Bishop, made it to the movie. On this note, I would just like to point out that it is kind of uncharacteristic for Susan Knight, Carrie’s friend, to go on with the gang partying like that. Wasn’t she the one who ran away because she got pregnant and was disowned by her parents?

Despite my comments, I am a very satisfied customer. I am a LoVe shipper and I definitely have no complaints! And, did I mention that I am so ecstatic that the Veronica Mars franchise has been revived?! I actually regret not donating some money to the kickstarter campaign. I didn't hear about it early on and then I thought it would be complicated since I don't live in the US. I would have loved to get one of those shirts though, the one that they give you when you donate to the campaign. They're just so cute! 

V. Mars shirt (pic from the kickstarter page)
So, for a couple of days now, I’ve been listening to the Veronica Mars (TV show) soundtrack like a crazy person. What does this say about me? I am a fan girl at heart, that’s all I can say.

Update: I’ve read the new Veronica Mars book. It’s a good installment for starving fans who just want to consume more and more Veronica Mars but for those who are looking for more LoVe, well, there isn’t much sadly. I did enjoy the book, yes. But I am one of those who want to see more LoVe action (Again, I say, I am a fan girl.), so the book left me a little bit wanting.