16 Funny Things To Ponder About Living in the 21st Century

 1.  The one thing that unites all human beings on the internet, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside we ALL hope that our friends/network will click that "Like" button on our Facebook status.. 

2. There is a very fine line between “Facebook,” "Twitter" and “mental illness.” 

3. The most powerful force in the internet and the whole universe, is gossip. 

4. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one Filipino policeman who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that policeman is crazy. 

5. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she’s gaining weight. 

6. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why your company has not achieved, and never will achieve, its goals, targets or implement plans for salary increase, that word would be “meetings.” 

7. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests and rallies is to annoy people who are not in them. 

8. If God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He will NOT use, as His messenger, that guy on IBC 13, wearing red suit with fake smile who wants to be Philippine President. 

9. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. 

10. You should not confuse your LIFE with career and money. 

11. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the fastfood waiters and salesladies, is not a nice person. 

12. Your friends love you, don't doubt that. 

13. Friends come and go, that's normal. If your enemies is accumulating - that's abnormal

14. Nobody cares if you can’t sing well in a videoke bar. Just get up and sing.. 

15. The battle of the sexes ended a few decades ago, too many already betrayed their own and joined the other side. 

16. A man usually feels better after a few winks, especially if she winks back.

Comments, Thoughts? Any additional points to ponder you might want to add?

The Chick’s Lesson from Shit

This story is inspired by our little farm in Mindoro during my childhood days.

Hope you’ll like it. Here’s my story:

One windy afternoon, as the mother hen and her chicks are hurrying to return to the farmer's nipa hut to avoid the sudden gusts of amihan (or the strong trade winds), one of the chicks decided he doesn’t want to leave the farm yet. “You are all cowards,” he said to the other chicks. “After all, all I have to do is hide under the talahib grass to avoid the sudden gusts of amihan.” 

Soon, however, strong amihan winds blow and he realized he cannot make it to the talahib grass to hide. The first wind gust throws him nearby a rushing river with grazing carabaos. He realized that, just another wind blow will throw him in the river and will mean instant drowning. 

He just closed his eyes just as he heard the coming wind, buzzing like bees. Just seconds before the strong wind came; a carabao walked by and shits directly over the chick. The carabao’s shit covered the chick’s body, saving his life. 

He was very happy to be alive and he happily chirped and tweeted, until a passing eagle noticed him. The eagle quickly do a deadly aerial dive towards him, clawed him out of the shit and ate him.

So what’s my point here?

• Well first, those who throw shits on us are not necessarily our enemy.

• Second, not everyone who help us get out of the mess is necessarily our friends. 

Do you agree? Please share you story on the comments section.

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Image Credit:  Dmitriy Polyakov's Illustration

The School of Life and My Shoes

I arrived early for my job interview in Makati City and I still got two hours to kill before my scheduled time. Bad thing is I forgot to bring a book and the nearby mall is still closed so I think of something to do while waiting. I decided to take a short walk to buy a newspaper. 

Just outside the building, an old shoeshine man sitting on the sidewalk beside a newspaper stand caught my attention. He is carefully arranging his shoeshine paraphernalia like those were his prized possessions. He seemed nice and my shoes badly need a little makeover so I approached him to get my shoes cleaned. I noticed the man’s shoes were full of dusts. How ironic, I ponder how a shoeshine man never cleaned his shoes, yet I didn’t bother asking. He silently cleaned my shoes efficiently and with precision. I just sit there, just observing him, enjoying the elated feeling of being served and of being pampered and respected. I paid him, asked for my ten-peso change and stand up without even asking his name. I didn’t even say thank you. It’s his job anyway. 

The lady and the old shoeshine man

I still got plenty of time so I go to the magazine stand to buy a newspaper. I heard the shoeshine man asking a fortysomething corporate looking lady who were browsing some magazines to shine her shoes. The lady just smiled and declined. But the shoeshine man was persistent, almost pleading.

The smiling lady said something to the shoeshine man, and to my surprise, the shoeshine man stand up and sit down on his customers’ chair while the lady took his place.

I realized that the lady turned the table on this old man and offered to shine his dusty shoes – and pay him 500 pesos to do it. They both smiled and laughed while the man seemed to be excitedly telling his life’s story, as the lady sat on the ground at his feet and cleaned his dusty shoes. Some passersby looked at them bewildered. The newspaper vendor and some of his customers smiled too.

But I felt different. A wave of emotion hit me and for a moment I held back. I quickly returned to the building to read my newspaper but I can’t focus. The old man’s face, smiling as if nobody ever shined his shoes before, keeps flashing on my mind. Why did I deny that shoeshine man’s moment of joy?

I kept staring at my shining shoes – assailed by conflicting emotions, there was neither shame nor remorse.

"Change your heart!" said my shoes

To give importance, to treat others as an equal, to appreciate simple things, even if only for a moment which is very easy to give, was that lady’s gift that I will long remember every time I will wear my shoes.

It will always remind me that if we change our heart, then look at the world, the world would be a happy place to live.

By the way, I didn’t passed the job interview, but I learned an important life's lesson.  

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Photo Credit: Monica Jackson - Is That A Shoe?

Starting Today, Be Afraid that Your Life Will Never Begin

As I go on with this crazy life, I learned that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let me down probably will.

I had my heart broken more than once and it's harder every time. I learn to break hearts too – only to regret it because it always reminds me how it felt when mine was broken.

I fight with my friends. I blame a new relationship for things an old one did.

I can’t understand why time is passing too fast: I'll eventually lose someone I love.

So, starting today, I will take too many pictures, I will blog too much, I will laugh too much, and love like I’ve never been hurt because every sixty seconds I spend upset is a minute of happiness I'll never get back.

To those who are taking time reading my posts, don’t commit the mistakes I did.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

What will you do if someone throw shits on you?

Maybe you already came across this story, but I like to share it here anyway and add a few comments.

The story goes like this:

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

They say this is the moral of the story:

People love shoveling dirt on us, all kinds of dirty stuff. The trick: shake it off and take a step up – make each trouble a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

But of course, if they throw shits on you, you just cannot shake it off and step on it. 

Now here’s my own version of the story’s ending

The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

The true moral of the story:

When you do something wrong, and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

I want to hear your own story or any thoughts on how you deal with those who loves throwing dirty stuff on you – hope you didn’t bite them!

The Legend of Sex

I was amazed by this legend about sex from the book Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, also the author of the famous book "The Alchemist" [I am a fan of this author by the way], and thought of sharing it here on my blog. I also made some notes about that book around January this year and posted it in my book review blog. I'm not a fan of romance-love-story novels but I never thought sex, as presented throughout the book, could be that philosophical and poetic.

Here's the story:   

According to Plato, at the beginning of creation, men and women were not as they are now; there was just one being, who was rather short, with a body and a neck, but his head had two faces, looking in different directions. It was as if two creatures had been glued back to back, with two sets of sex organs, four legs and four arms.

The Greeks gods, however, were jealous, because this creature with four arms could work harder; with its two faces, it is always vigilant and could not be taken by surprise; and its four legs meant that it could stand or walk for long periods at a time without tiring. Even more dangerous was the fact that the creature had two different sets of sex organs and so needed no one else in order to continue reproducing.

Zeus, the supreme lord of Olympus, said “I have a plan to make these mortals lose some of their strength.”

And he cut the creature in two with a lightning bolt, thus creating the man and women. This greatly increased the population of the world, and, at the same time, disoriented and weakened its inhabitants, because now, they had to search for their lost half and embrace it and, in that embrace, regain their former strength, their ability to avoid betrayal and their stamina to walk for long periods of time and to withstand hard work.

That embrace in which the two bodies re-fuse to become one again is what we call SEX.”

So, what do you think, have you already found your other half?

Have a nice week!
yodz
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Source: (story lifted from the book) Coelho, Paulo. 2004. Eleven Minutes,.New York ,New York:HarperCollins Publisher Inc. ISBN : 0-06-072675-X
Photo Credit : Yuroz "The Touch" Serigraph on Canvas

Have you ever wished for a heavier traffic?

Have you ever been inspired and entertained by taxi driver?

I do, but it took me two bastards before I got lucky. I am in a hurry and decided to take a cab instead of commuting. I was in Mandaluyong City and needed to go to Tomas Morato Avenue, for some gig after work. The first cab driver told me he couldn’t take me there because he is actually on his way for dinner.

I just said “Ok,” but I’m cursing him inside my head – What the hell! Why stop at waiting passengers? Just go directly to your damn dinner, for crying out loud! But I know better than to argue with him.

The next cab driver, who looked bored and problematic took me in, but after a few blocks he asked me, “Sir, which street should we take, I don’t know how to get there.”

“Huh? I’m not actually familiar with streets, that’s why I took a cab and, sir, you don’t know that major street in Quezon City?” I inquired, astonished by his dumb alibi. I casually asked him to let me out. I know these scheming bastards are just looking for extra money from their passengers.

I almost lost my temper, but no, these bastards are not that important to make me upset. I decided taking a bus but I don’t know which route so I patiently waited for another taxi - just one more try.

The third cab driver just asked me where I want to go and took me, no questions asked, not asking for additional payment and I felt his enthusiasm. He was silent at first, and I prefer not to talk too. Trust is something you really can’t instantly give in Metro Manila nowadays. After a 20-minute silence, his A.M. radio announced the total cases of A(H1N1) in the Philippines.

“You know what, they are just over reacting and some politicians even used this issue to get emergency funds for them to corrupt,” he casually said. At first, I don’t know if I should react or just ignore him. I decided to give a short “U-huh” followed by “well, that’s possible,” just to be agreeable.

“It’s very sad. It’s hard to trust strangers in Manila nowadays. Everyday I am seeing people walking on the streets, constantly afraid,” he said out of nowhere. I instantly felt his sincerity and decided engaging into conversation with him, which I seldom do – just hoping for a little wisdom from an experienced cab driver.

First, he shared his amusing story about how a couple, the woman pretending to be pregnant, had successfully robbed him. Then, a father with his small kids managed to run away without paying him.

“How could a father do it in front of his children?” he sighed, concerned about the children’s values when they grow up. He also shared his experiences as an orphan, first adopted by a businessman who make him work in a swine farm, decided to leave them, then adopted by a foreigner managing a nightclub and a casino. He said he dreamed of becoming a lawyer someday, but his circumstances are against it. He worked in a casino as a slot machine technician and observed the life of a gambler, “always miserable,” he said.

“If you have an enemy, and you really want to make his life miserable, teach him how to gamble,” he advised me, laughing.

He continued his story when he got arrested and jailed during the Marcos regime, befriended an Arab, who turned out to be a high ranking official in UAE’s embassy in Manila and offered him a job in Saudi. He finally got married, blessed with a son and a daughter, both graduated from the University of the Philippines, with honors, currently had a high paying job. His daughter further pursuing her studies by taking up Law. Upon hearing this, I inquired why is he still driving a taxi?

“Son, here is a piece of advice I will give you when you have your own family. Strive hard to make your children have a better education, because you love them, not because you are expecting that someday they will make your life financially easier when they are already working. They will have their own family and millions of priorities other than you. Strive hard to have your own money for retirement and live a simple life. I am blessed with a grateful son and daughter and I know they will not forsake me because they know that money is not my sole reason in helping them to become successful. They will always understand why I am still a cab driver, I love this job and this is how I explore life,” he said with conviction and sincerity."

This totally astounded me. Some parents require their children to help them financially when they have their own work. This is an unwritten rule in a typical Filipino family. Some sons and daughters do it as forced obligation, as a personal responsibility driven by social norm, not solely for gratitude and love.

His name is Winniefredo Yaon, the taxi driver who gave me the best one-hour taxi ride of my life. He showed me the realities of life, the value of service, honesty, love of work and perseverance. He perfectly reminded me of Wally, the cab driver in the story “Are you a duck or an eagle?”

I was inspired, entertained and amazed during that short one-hour ride.

That is the first time I wished for a heavier traffic.