No Matter How Much I Rack My Brains

Before I get started, a disclaimer for anyone asking why I don't write about Real Issues or The Important Things or The Current State of Affairs: I like keeping my opinions to those things to myself. I don't wanna start an argument, or a "healthy debate," or any kind of controversy--not here, anyway. I've seen people whose blogs were attacked just because they decided to write about something else at a time when Important Things were happening. I say, I do care. I just don't wanna talk about it.

Now, let's move on to today's shallow gripe...

The Ting Tings Had It Right

Everyone's a hypocrite--true or false? 

I've had the opportunity to think about this statement the past few days. The more I mull over it, the more I believe that everyone does things they say they hate in other people. Sometimes it's a harmless trait, but other times it can truly hurt.

Mindless Entertainment Consumption

Lately I've been wondering what it is I look for in a television show. I've loyally followed so many over the years--from Power Rangers to Alias to The OC to Grey's Anatomy to Glee--and I figured I should take a step back and think a little about why I commit myself to hours of mindless entertainment consumption. I came up with three things:

Fear

Fear. Is anything more utterly pervasive in human life than fear?

I myself am afraid of so many things: cockroaches, snakes, rats, loneliness, darkness, failure, old age, pain, broken promises, insignificance, death. I'm afraid of drowning, of fire, of flash floods, of clowns, of being laughed at. I'm afraid of poverty and sickness, of graveyards and ghosts. I'm afraid of sorrow and torture and crime and loss. 

Why Worry?

Worry is a creature that worms its way into the gut; it creeps up the chest, making it difficult to breathe; and then it gnaws at the nerves, fraying them, wearing them out. I had the unfortunate opportunity of reacquainting myself with worry early last Friday morning, when I roused myself slowly from heavy sleep to find 5 missed calls from an unknown number on my phone. A text from the same number revealed that its owner was the mother of a very good friend, and that this friend had just been in a violent car accident.

A precarious balance

Everyone has dreams, don't they? And in one way or another, everyone is trying to make his or her own dreams come true. That kid practicing his three-pointer in a street court, for instance: he's probably dreaming of growing up to make a game-winning shot in the NBA. Or that college student slaving away at a lit critique paper, she's probably hoping to see her name next to her debut novel in a bestseller list someday. Whatever it is, everyone has a dream. And everyone somehow works to make it come to life. 

And yet... how to make that happen? Where do people go to make their dreams come true?

Elections!

And thus Election Day in the Philippines came and went. An increasingly frenzied media marathon of the events of May 10th, 2010 included a discussion of a berth of related issues, both positive and negative, as well as real-time reports of the process from precincts all over the country. Ultimately, the media revealed what is a genuine step forward in the Philippine electoral process.