Semana Santa

Holy Week is nearing…fast. It’s going to be a pretty damn short vacation. Not counting the weekend, two days isn’t really a long one. And I’m in dire need of a good looong break. From what you ask? From everything! I need to have a break from my daily routine…Seriously I think I’m about to go insane. I also need to have a break from thinking and worrying too much. I need a break from my social life, not that I have an existent one to begin with anyway. Wala lang, I just feel like saying it. Labo. I need to have a break from this normality (or should I say abnormality? Really depends on your assessment.) of being stuck in this road that says somewhere but leads to nowhere. Labo again. Maybe I just need to have a break and have a Kit Kat instead. Seryoso na sana eh. Haha Extra plugging pa for Nestle.

But it’s okay…it’s better than having no vacation at all.

I’m going to Hong Kong. Whoopee!! Woohoo!

Carpe Diem

My dad was telling me the other day how life is a one big routine that we must all inevitably take. The only thing that breaks this monotony is the extra curricular activities that we do, which can vary from planting to shopping or to some sort of a sport or hobby. He said it in such a matter-of-factly manner, I almost believed it. The said routine would consist of waking up each morning to go to work, then going home to sleep and wake up the following day to go to work again…EVERY SINGLE DAY. If my math serves me right, that would be doing the same repetitive task 240 times in a span of one year. Just thinking about it makes me tired already. Imagine that out of the 365 days, you spend only a mere 34% doing spontaneous or “un-routinary” things. This can’t be true. I’m going to prove my dad wrong.

Coincidentally I just finished reading this book by Paulo Coelho, which discusses man’s pursuit for the meaning of life in an angst-ridden orthodox society. The protagonist, finding herself stuck in a soulless routine with everything in her life being insanely the same all the time, decides to end her life. It’s such a good read. The book expresses my exact sentiments, which I precisely bought in hopes of satisfying my own frustrations about life.

The author zeroed in on bitterness as the main culprit, which he says occurs when people become afraid of the so-called reality that they begin building their own world with high defensive walls against the outside world. After which, they slowly start losing all desire and spend their energy on constructing more walls to make reality they want it to be. Thus everything becomes automatic and repetitive up to a point that each action is unaccompanied by any emotion; no desire whatsoever, even the will to live or die, which then leads to an even bigger problem.

So the solution? It’s really just a matter of having a good outlook on life. I think the reason why we succumb into a routinary way of life is because we want to conform and be the same like everybody else. After all, that is what society dictates; Work now, play later. The so-called reality will insist that if we don’t consume the other 66% working our asses off, we’ll have to pay a huge price for it. Thus work becomes our world, our false reality. We become so focused with the work part that we forget to see the real outside world, which should have F-U-N written all over it. In an attempt to conform, we become mechanical slaves to our work that we eventually fall into an endless pit of boring monotonous tasks. We need to have our own ‘awareness of life’ all fixed up, because right now our awareness of life seems to unsuitably consist of working and earning hard instead of partying and living it hard. We should dare to be different; we should be proud celebrators of life. This gift only comes once after all.

Stop Piracy!

Whatever happened to the “I am unique. I am special.” concept? Don’t tell me it’s just crap because I’ve religiously, seriously believed in this ever since I stepped into 1st grade school.

Someone at work just told me I look like somebody she knew from somewhere. She’s the second one at work who has told me this. One almost mistook me for this girl who works in a different department, while one asked me if I previously worked for Cititrust. I’m beginning to notice this is becoming to be a frequent thing. Wherever I go, people will not fail to mention I look like somebody else they know or once knew. Apparently I have a lot of carbon copies, so says the library guard at the Rizal Library in school, so says Astrid, a co-worker from my previous company, so says my current officemates, and so says the rest of the world...oops I mean, the others. Even a newly introduced friend whom I just met for the first time (take note of the ‘first’) also said I look like the wife of this well-known businessman.

I don’t know if this is a good thing. I’m beginning to consider applying for a copyright license…you know just so Edu Manzano wouldn’t run after me. It’s definitely weird though. I’ve lost count already but I must have had more than 10 look-alikes already…and still counting! Haha And what’s ironic here is that I do actually have a twin sister who looks exactly, well almost just like me.

Don't flush that toilet...

I know it’s a little too late for feng shui predictions. The Chinese New Year has already passed. But I recently stumbled upon this article stating how the southwest corner of a house or room is the relationship and marriage corner under the “Eight Life Aspirations” method of Feng Shui, which means one would have to “activate” the southwest corner to enhance one’s prospects with regards to love. Then it went on to further say that the toilet must not be located in the southwest. This is a big no-no for chances are, you’re just flushing your love luck away. No brooms and mops should also be kept in the corner for it is believed you’re sweeping away good fortune.

It was an unconscious effort, I found myself mentally taking note of what part of my room was in the southwest corner. To my dismay, the bathroom was directly in the southwest. The toilet was in the southwest. Bad! So this must be the reason all along…that explains why. Haha So now, I guess I should refrain from flushing too much, better yet I think I should stop using the toilet altogether so that I don’t waste all of my love luck away.

I’m not sure whether to believe in this kind of stuff. I would have to say though I’m more of a believer than a skeptic when it comes to feng shui. I don’t know if I got it from my mom. Not that she strictly follows everything down to a tee but she tries at least to stick with the main principles. And more often than not, I think feng shui actually helps in promoting a lot of the good chi.

Someone once told me, the purpose of feng shui mainly has to do with practicality which I think makes good sense. A lot of it deals with knowing how to maximize the space around you in order to create or channel all the positive energy. It’s all about positioning they say. I had someone explained to me why the bed shouldn’t be directly in front of the mirror. He says if you think about it, it’s just practical to do so. After all when one wakes up in the morning, it’ll definitely create bad energy when the first thing one sees in the morning is one’s self. Unruly hair, rumpled clothes, and all…it is indeed unsightly. Funny isn’t it? But it does make sense.

As to why the toilet should not be placed in the southwest corner, I’m still figuring it out. So while I’m still looking for a suitable logical explanation, I think I would have to buy a lot of red objects and put lots of red fresh flowers in the bathroom for now.