"I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end."
Margaret Thatcher, in Observer April 4, 1989
i don't know who said this but i agree:
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
"Lately, I have come to believe that the principle difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there."
-- Simon Illyan, from A Civil Campaign by L.M. Bujold
from The Devil's Dictionary by the ultimate cynic Ambrose Bierce :
"Patience: a minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."
"Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country."
"Politics: The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."
"Bride, n.: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her."
"Lawyer, n.: One skilled in the circumvention of the law."
"Year, n.: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments."
"Pleasure, n.: The least hateful form of dejection."
"Reverence: the spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man."
"Admiration, n.: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves."
"Corporation, n.: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."
"Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion."
"Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to."
"Admiration, n.: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves."
"Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen."
"Quotation, n.: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."
"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)"
"Brain, n.: an apparatus with which we think we think."
"Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others."
"Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic."
"Politics, n.: Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
"There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know."
"Politeness, n.: The most acceptable hypocrisy."
"Truth: An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance."
"Mad, adj.: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence."
"Love, n.: A temporary insanity curable by marriage."
"Egotist, n.: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me."
from Mark Twain:
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."
from Voltaire:
"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
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WHaT'S oN MY SH3LF???
The 8th Commandment by Lawrence Sanders

Lawrence Sander's book: Timothy's Game
Friday, September 23, 2005
i need to find my voice. so i have to write. for the next few days, i will write about the people i know, my acquaintances, my friends, classmates in highschool, college and beyond.
well, i had a dream last night. i dream a lot these days. i'm sure i had other dreams last night. but since this dream occurred as i was about to wake, it's the only one i can recall.
i was back in highschool - history class with madam cora. world history all over again. she wasn't a conventional teacher. but she's ok - heck i passed (great achievement at that time). not much lecture. the pupils lecture. everyday, someone volunteers or she picks out a student who will 'report' about what he/she knows about this subject to the entire class. you get to choose your death...i mean topic. she brings strips of cartolina with topics on them. usually it would just say - world war II, renaissance, enlightenment or battle of this and battle of that. huge subject to cover and sometimes too little to say. two causes: nervousness/panic or simply unprepared. either way, both are BAD for your grades. she also brings with her bond papers with pictures of all those medieval people. you have to say something about that person - birth, failures, accomplishments, etc. anything you know. your grade depends on it. so if you haven't met them in any of your readings, better start a devotion to st. jude the impossible.
because of her style, i think i nearly memorize zaide's book and another book on world history which was as thick as leithold's calculus 7 (no sh*t). it was information overload. no wonder i did poorly in math. my brain had no more space for numbers.
good thing i like reading, but sometimes reading about dead people is B-O-R-I-N-G. but there are times when boredom is preferable than failure.
so this dream made me recall my classmates in highschool. i decided to write about them. everyday i choose a classmate and write everything i can recall about that classmate. if it's a short recollection, forgive me. memory issues, nothing personal.
so let me start with...hmm i guess...me.
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
reading the newspaper i bought on september 4th. this particular article by Fr. Bel San Luis, SVD caught my eye:"An experience that changed him"
"Here's a story of man who told his friend that despite taking two jobs and bringing home barely above $1000 per month, he is happy as he is.
The friend mused, " I wonder how he can be as happy as he is considering he has to skimp his life with the low pay to support a pair of old parents, in-laws, a wife and two daughters, and the many bills of a household.
The man explained that it was one incident that he saw in India...that happened a few years ago when he was really feeling low and touring India after a major setback. He said that right in front of his very eyes, he saw an Indian mother chop off her child's right hand with a chopper.
The helplessness in the mother's eyes, the scream of pain from the innocent four year old child haunted him until today. You may ask why did that mother do so; had the child been naughty, had the child's hand been infected?
No, it was for two simple words - TO BEG! The desperate mother deliberately caused the child to be handicapped so that the child could go out to the streets to beg.
Taken aback by the scene, he dropped a piece of bread he was eating half-way. And almost instantly, a flock of five or six childrem swamped towards this small piece of bread which was covered with sand, robbing bits from one another. The natural reaction from hunger.
Stricken by what happened, he instructed his guide to drive him to the nearest bakery. He arrived at two bakeries and bought every single loaf of bread he found in them. The owner was dumbfounded but willingly sold everything. He spent less than $100 to obtain about 400 loaves of bread (this is less than $0.25 per loaf) and spent another $100 to get daily necessities.
Off he went in the truck full of bread into the streets. As he distributed the bread and necessities to the children (mostly handicapped) and a few adults, he received cheers and bows from these unfortunate. For the first time in his life he wondered how people can give up their dignity for a loaf of bread which cost less than $0.25.
He began to tell himself how fortunate he is. How fortunate he is to be able to have a complete body, have a job, have a family, have the chance to complain what is nice and what isn't nice, have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are deprived of..."
this story gave me a pause. i'm still lucky. so the next time you complain, the next time you think your life sucks, well think again... you have something those children may never be able to complain about.
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Sunday, September 11, 2005
heard mass yesterday at the greenbelt chapel. first time i have in such a long while. i nearly fainted.
the priest had just finished reading the gospel and he was telling the laity to take their seats as he was about to give his sermon. you might say some timing, well, it is not tht i don't want to listen to him. i was even thinking how appropriate the gospel was since it was about forgiveness. Jesus was just telling Peter that he needs to forgive seventy times seven (something like that). this was the first time i've heard mass in a long time and i was like talk about coincidences the gospel for this sunday was like God telling me "hey you there, this is for you." so anyway as the priest was telling everybody to seat down i yawned, then seconds later i was seeing black dots in front of me and well i couldn't hear anymore. i was thinking okay this is bad. i was tellin gmyself i jsut need to close my eyes for a few minutes, look down and breathe and breathe and it will go away. but it didn't when i closed my eyes i pitched forward. next thing i knew somebody was leading me to seat (the chapel was full so i was standing at the back). i was seting and somebody was making me smell this minty thing that's not vicks and i jsut declined whiteflower. i was sweating, cold sweat and well very very embarassed. after the mass ended i called my sister from my cellphone and told her to pick me up.
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Friday, September 09, 2005
remembering petr ginz - my brother's diarywas reading newsweek. an article there about this young man petr ginz. sad story. lived during the holocaust. died in the gas chambers of auschwitz. he was only 16. can't stop the tears from my eyes.
i have never read the entire diary of anne frank - just parts of it (my bad). but reading about petr ginz made me wish i got hold of the whole thing. anne's diary would be easier to find but his book i'm just not sure. looks like i'm gonna be scouring the bookstores and bargain stores on my next payday.
but i'm such a cry baby i'd probably wet all the pages while i'm reading it. just reading the excerpts that i could find already had me already dabbing my eyes with my kerchief. that's why i stay away from nicolas sparks =_) hehe just too depressing, carry the baggage with me for days thinking of the whys and could-have-beens.
don't know where i could find it here though. anyways i'll see if i could find it online. he had such a nice warm smile. just look at the photo with his sister chava. makes you wonder what happened to it when he was sent to the concentration camp in terezin. you'd hope so bad that the Germans didn't break him despite of how everything ended... but hearing about the holocaust stories would dampen even that small hope. he painted, he wrote a lot. his sister had some of his stuff. museums had some too. so sad. makes you wonder how a human being could inflict so much pain on another human being. and why the rest of the world didn't do anything about it...until it was too late...
God i hope we never have to see another holocaust or another war - how i wish. but at the rate things are going with the world right now, makes you doubt. a different sort of war and a different kind of "holocaust." same evil different names for different times...
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Monday, September 05, 2005
if pain must come
may it come quickly
because i have a life to live
and i need to live it
in the best way possible.
if he has to make a choice
may he make it now.
then i will either
wait for him or forget him.
waiting is painful.
forgetting is painful.
but not knowing which to do
is the worst kind of suffering
by the river piedra i sat down and wept
paolo coelho
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i just love this
repost from gwen who's "-" in a rosy mood =_)
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Sunday, September 04, 2005
OneStone - funny storyI can't help it. I have to post this one, found it on my bulletin board in fhreinshter =_) This one cracked me up. JUst something to smile about. This is on the green side so if you're a prude....please skip it. if you're not, by all means, read on folks:
There once was a Red Indian whose given name was "Onestone". So named because he had only one testicle. He hated that name and asked everyone not to call him Onestone.Then one day a young woman named Blue Bird forgot and said, "Good morning, Onestone." Hejumped up, grabbed her and took her deep into theforest where he made love to her all daya nd all night. He made love to her all the next day, until Blue Bird died from exhaustion. The word got around that Onestone meant what he promised he would do.Years went by and no one dared call him by his given name until a woman named Yellow Bird returned to the village after being away for many years. Yellow Bird,who was Blue Bird's cousin, was overjoyed when she saw Onestone. She hugged him and said, "Good to see you,Onestone." Onestone grabbed her, took her deep into the forest, then he made love to her all day, made love to her all night, made love to her all the next day, made love to her all the next night, but Yellow Bird wouldn't die! What is the moral of this story?..
OH, come on ..... take a guess! Think about it..... use those gray cell for another useless thing haha
And the moral is
You can't kill two birds with one stone!hahahaha .........;p
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Saturday, September 03, 2005
Name: Vanny/Vani
Birth date: April 3
Birthplace: Naga
Current Location: Makati
Eye Color: sable =_)
Hair Color: Jet black
Height: 5'2"
righty or Lefty: righty
Zodiac Sign: Aries
TWO: On The Inside
Your heritage: Filipino and Chinese
Shoes you wore today: sandals
weakness: chocolates
Your fears: roaches, snakes, wriggling things, anything with 6-8 legs
Your perfect meal: pasta
Goal you'd like to achieve: Ph.D.
THREE: Past , Present , Future
Your most overused phrase on AIM: crap
Your thoughts first waking up: sh*t what time is it?
Your best physical feature: is there?
Your bedtime: around 11pm
Yor most missed memory: highschool and college
FOUR: Your Pick
Pepsi or Coke: Coke
McDonald's or Burger King: McDonalds
Single or group dates: Single
Adidas or Nike: Nike
Chocolate or vanilla: chocolate
cappuccino or coffee: cappuccino
FIVE: Do You?
Smoke: no reason to
Cuss: unfortunately yes
Sing: when no one's around and everyday in the bathroom
Take a shower everyday: of chourse
Have a crush: sure
Think you've been in love: think only
Like(d) high school: hell yeah
Want to get married: perhaps ;p
Get motion sickness: rare but sucks when i do
Think you're a health freak: nope, i eat anything as long as it doesnt look and smell disgusting
Get along with your parents: yes
Like thunderstorms: yeah =_)
Play an instrument: if the radio/cd player counts
SIX: In the past few months have you...
Drank alcohol: yep
Smoked: no
Done a drug: does coffee count?
Made Out: with my pillow? well in my dreams i think i have
Gone to the mall: always ;p
Eaten sushi: yeah
Been on stage: yeah
Been dumped: no
Gone skating: ice skating? no but if roller blades count - it's an experience i don't care to repeat or remember
Gone skinny dipping: if the bathtub counts
Dyed your hair: no
Stolen anything: yeah...ketsup packets during lunch time =_)
SEVEN: Ever...
Played a game that required the removal of clothing: yeah
Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: geesh come to think of it i can't remember (probably a good thing for this sort of question)
Been caught "doing something": depends on what that "something" is
Been called a tease: hmmm yeba
Got beaten up: no i don't think so but i did beat someone up
EIGHT: Getting Older
Age you hope to be married: i dunno... 35? =) ditto aleck
Numbers and Names of Children: 2, haven't though of it yet.
How do you want to die: by Hypothermia -> leave it to aleck to find an interesting way of dying though chances of dying by hypthermia in the tropics - nil =_) heat exhastion a lot likely
What do you want to be when you grow up: and i though i'm grown up already.....
What country would you most like to visit: new zealand and rome, italy
NINE: In a guy..
Best eye color?: black
Best hair color?: black
Short or long hair: as long as he looks clean
Best first date location: anywhere cool and quiet...hmmm
TEN: In The Numbers...
Number of people I could trust with my life: less than 10
Number of CDs that I own: do i own any?
Number of piercings: 2
Number of tattoos: nada
Number of times my name has appeared in the Newspaper: none, just school paper/yearbook =)
Number of things in my past that I regret: i'm sure there's something i just can't think of how many
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Thursday, September 01, 2005
i should write more and talk less. but this job requires me to talk more so i write less and i also sleep less. but then i eat more and exercise less. i pray more but go to church less =_). i read more but still i know less. i work more but still i'm paid less.
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