Are we too connected?

Do you usually catch yourself reading the e-mail, reading a text message and instant messaging someone else all the same time? Worse, you could be talking to the colleague beside you as well. I'm guilty. I've caught myself doing that and sometimes I wonder if we're getting anything accomplished at all (as our attention is spanned over different mediums of communication all at once). We've multiple tabs open in our web browsers. Different applications open on the taskbar. We go over the next bits of news from cnn to businessweek to yahoo (which in some way or another say the same thing). All in the span of a few minutes. 

Info overload? Communication overload? Digest everything and tune in / tune out to what's important or not. Easier said than done. This is the age of digital reverie. We all immerse ourselves in spontaneous distractions. Gone are the days when you used to go to the library just to read up on a certain material. When you had to go through indexing systems just to find a particular book and you always had to have your library card with you. Afterwards, you had to return the book before its' due date or else you'd have to pay the fine instead of using the money to buy fishball/quekquek. All that hassle is gone. And all of life's conveniences is (almost) at your fingertips. 

All kinds of information are spread over the net. I call it the information explosion. Right up there with the big bang theory. We have everything at our disposal viewed at the click of a whim. The redundancy of information is all around. You look at your watch, it tells you the time. Your cellphone and the date and time on the taskbar glares at you as well, telling you the time. Everything that's staring at you is all saying the same thing.

The virtuality of the net consume some of the time that we live in reality. And the challenge is to stay focused and not be drowned by all the information around us.
So get up and live the reality that is your life. Turn off that cellphone. And shutdown your pc. I did. That's why i'm ending this piece.

same same but different

So many things to look forward to. So many things to dread. missing some people in my life(lola,lolo,cousins). Wish i had more time for them. BDG came back from Australia (good to have her back even if for a short duration) and she had lots of stories to share. She saw shirts in vietnam which said "same same but different". Doesn't make sense, right? But if you think about it, it does. Okay, forget for a moment that it sounds funny. Forget for a minute that it sounds like it came from a chinese stationery(e.g. Happy friends, forever love together fruits). You will realize that it applies to everything that happens in your life. Everyday you go to the same job/school, ride the same transpo to work/school, and then go home after a grueling day of tests/tasks/meetings. Sometimes you wake up earlier than usual, sometimes you're late. Other times you were up all night. Sometimes you eat shrimp for lunch. Sometimes it's sisig. You get home at different times as well. Same same but different, right? Is it kicking in now? 

Those shirts spell out the universal truth... that everything is same same but different. The wisdom of our Asian brothers. Those shirts come out in variations. BDG also saw some that said "same same but better". I'm smiling by myself already while I typed that. Sounds funny,right? (or mababaw lang ako ehe) That shirt on the other hand, talks about growth. And I see that with most of the people that I'm close to. Oo na tumatanda na ako. I have the privilege to see the kids younger than me grow up to mature and responsible grownups that they're developing to right now. But when you talk to them, nothing really has changed because they're still the same wacky people when they're with you. Same same but better. Galing di ba? So many things to look forward to. so many things to dread. Same same but different XD.

That's not the end of that. Guess what Yum in Vietnamese means. 

Election day

I spent my birthday as a PPCRV Volunteer. This is my first time. And the experience was fulfilling (even if I knew that somewhere along the way - cheating would still occur). I made new friends (with the other poll watchers) and got to help people looking for their precincts. The heat did not feel as blistering as I knew that my mission for the day was something that I'd be proud of. I was the poll watcher for precinct 96a-98a. And I did my best to make sure that nothing funny was going around. 

Went home around 4pm to prepare for the bday dinner that I had planned for my friends. We were making tacos (my siblings and I) and it was not an easy task. we had to slice cabbages,tomatoes and onions. On top of that, we had to grate cheese. Good thing Jose was there to do it. I even had to carve chicken (didn't realize that could become exhausting until the third chicken) BUT all's well that ends well. Tita Elsa brought cake and icecream and so did Padz so we didn't have to worry for dessert.

Never had I been so tired on my birthday. But I guess that's when I'm most fulfilled... when I've proven to myself that I can withstand anything that life may throw at me (God forbid - don't really want any big tests in the near future :) ). like i keep repeating to myself, it all boils down to a matter of perspective. you will always be able to see the beauty in things if you have a positive outlook from the onset.