Smeagol and the Tao

[ 18 Comments ] Posted by BakaElite on 06.25.08 in General Entries

Re-reading: The Tao Is Silent
by Dr. Raymond Smullyan

Ch. 1

Chinese Philosophy
In A Nutshell

A mathematician friend of mine recently told me of a mathematician friend of his who everyday “takes a nap”. Now, I never take naps. But I often fall asleep while reading — which is very different from deliberately taking a nap! I am far more like my dogs Peekaboo, Peekatoo and Trixie than like my mathematician friend once removed. These dogs never take naps; they merely fall asleep. They fall asleep wherever and whenever they choose (which, incidentally is most of the time!). Thus these dogs are true Sages.

I think this is all that Chinese philosophy is really about; the rest is mere elaboration! If you can learn to fall asleep without taking a nap, then you too will become a Sage. But if you can’t, you will find it not as easy as you might think. It takes discipline! But discipline in the Eastern, not Western style. Eastern discipline enables you to fall asleep rather than take a nap; Western discipline has you do the reverse. Eastern discipline trains you to “allow yourself” to sleep when you are sleepy; Western discipline teaches you to force yourself to sleep whether you are sleepy or not. Had I been Laotse, I would have added the following maxim — which I think is the quintessence of Taoist philosophy:

The Sage falls asleep not
because he ought to
Nor even because he wants to
But because he is sleepy.

This was an excerpt from an uber awesome book. What’s it got to do with Smeagol? Probably something metaphysical, I dunno. It’s summer and I’m enjoying my right to be an idiot. But anyhoo, as you can see, a new layout is up. Wordpress automatically upgraded on me (probably since I used Fantastico! in cPanel). My old theme was completely wonked out and I was too lazy to make one from scratch. So yay for pre-made layouts! I really like this one, and I’ll be keeping it for a while, especially since I modified my gallery to match it. I’ve just finished with the layout integration and made sure there was nothing buggy. And while I was at it, I added a few albums as well, including pictures from the AnimeNext convention.

I was disappointed that we couldn’t stay long (especially since we paid $40!). At least I got to take some snapshots. I got totally pwned in the gamer’s room. There’s like no place there for casual gamers. x__x

We had to go to our cousin’s baby shower that afternoon, and once the gift opening was done, I went upstairs and took a nap. I hadn’t slept at all that day, because my brain was being stupid. I’ve spent the next few days reclaiming it. I woke up at two-something today, which is the earliest I’ve woken up this week. I had two peanut butter sandwiches, which I reasoned as one counting for breakfast, and the other for lunch. >>

Then it was just killing time after, fiddling with wordpress and zenphoto, trying to sort kinks out. mmm. The Kinks. I think I’ll download a few of their songs before I go off and watch a movie.

He’s Alive!

[ 0 Comments ] Posted by BakaElite on 06.23.08 in General Entries

Woah. It’s been a loooong time since I updated, and it’s even more shameful that my previous post talking about getting back to blogging. I suppose I can be all depressing and say that it’s because my life has nothing worth mentioning, but I’m feeling quite happy today, so I won’t. Maybe tomorrow, lol.

Spring semester came and went, rather painfully. Classes were all right for the most part, except for English. The Professor was a total time waster, who’d stop the class for every little thing, and had a flair for the dramatic, to say the least. And was it bad that he gave my lowest grade? I’m majoring in his subject after all. I suppose I’ll just look at it as a little blip in my academic track, and hope next term will be better. I still need to sign up for one more class, and I was supposed to have my schedule done two months ago. I blame it on laziness.

The day after spring term ended my family and I were on our way to the Philippines. It’s been four years since our last visit, mostly because we needed that time to save up for airfare. Despite the fact that storm season had an early start, the trip was great. Met relatives, saw the sights, the usual vacation ditties. My family didn’t go to all the swanky tourist spots like Boracay’s white sandy beaches, Laguna’s hot springs, or the reefs in Palawan, but we did go to pretty good places. The Ocean Park Aquarium, the Star City amusement park, and several malls. Zomg, Philippines is like the mall capital of the world. For so many people living in poverty, it has some of the biggest malls I’ve ever seen. Several have bowling alleys, ice rinks, and even entire supermarkets. The Mall of Asia, in particular, is made up of several buildings. Craaaazy. I suppose they designed them to be one-stop centers, so people don’t have to travel all over to get what they want. Maybe American malls are different because people like to travel more here? Outlet shops and boutiques seem to be the prevalent thing.

What I really wanted to do though, but didn’t get to, was to spend a day strolling around the marketplace. Mother said I’d get killed by all the tricycles and motorbikes, but w/e. Those places seem more ‘real’ to me than all the fancy places we went to. That was where the people were, living and laughing despite the heat and their standard of living. I don’t think I’ve got the strength to go back and live like that again, but no one really knows for sure, right? Circumstances rule our lives more than we want to admit.

One such circumstance that happened was the tropical storm that blew over several cities, including the place that we were supposed to go to for a church gathering. There were wire poles toppled down, trees ripped apart, the works. Luckily it had passed just before we left to drive there, but the damage was clearly seen all over. The electricity didn’t work, and the place we stayed in was lucky enough to have a generator to power our room. Only ours though, so I count that as a lucky thing. As for the venue for church, we had it at an open plaza, since there was no use paying for the building that was going to be just as hot.

Despite the heat, and the smoke (people were burning down the fallen trees), the church event went well, and we took it as a sign to remember where we came from. None of us had started with air conditioners and arenas. Our church started from the very basics, teaching in people’s huts, out in the streets, even in the mountains. The hardships were intense, but that didn’t matter. But now, one little storm and people complain that there’s no cooling system for them to be comfy. I didn’t mind the heat, but my mother yakked about it constantly. Oh well. At least I didn’t get distracted from the service.

Just a day or so after the event, we were off, though we took a three-day stop in Hong Kong since our flight stopped over there anyway. Our hotel was very quiet, but real nice, and the next day we toured around, with one of mom’s friends guiding us. Hong Kong was amazing. It was really clean, and I loved how they didn’t fight their environment. There were trees everywhere, and hills jutting out right next to the high-rises. They built their city in harmony with the mountains, and it was wonderful to see.

The flight back to the States was uneventful, except for my sister throwing up in her pillow just before we landed. And after that, I started to reclaim all those weeks I was unable to laze about. I slept till the afternoon, I stared at Google for a few hours, slept some more, surfed the web, slept some more, eat, and repeat.

I’ve got a feeling this is going to be one relaxing summer~