Month: April 2011

We design our lives. If it’s boring and depressing, then probably that’s how you design your life to be.

After I mastered cooking pancake, and mark got bored eating it on weekends, I discovered another dish for the lazy-asz. No need of cutting/slicing 101 kinds of ingredients, & no ingredients with names that is like *#&!?&#*??

Recipe:
Pasta – you can have it thick or thin or odong. Just follow the steps on the back of the packaging on how to cook it, which mainly just says BOIL it.
Spanish sardines or whatever flavor you like those on glass-packaging (havent tried those in canned yet). No cooking needed. Maybe you can warm it via microwave. But since our microwave is broke so I don’t bother warming it.
Olive oil – don’t worry you will not use up a whole bottle of it so it’s not like super expensive. Anyhoo, the oil from the sardines will just do though, depends on how oily you want your noodles.

Then, that’s it. Just let the eater serve & mix the pasta & sardines her/his self.

Then, i realized, pasta is like rice. You can mix anything to it. So i also tried buwad with olive oil – i like it too but only me like it so sticking w/ sardinas.

Anyhoo, this is not original recipe. I got it from fudge by looking at the pasta.

After I mastered cooking pancake, and mark got bored eating it on weekends, I discovered another dish for the lazy-asz. No need of cutting/slicing 101 kinds of ingredients, & no ingredients with names that is like *#&!?&#*??

Recipe:
Pasta – you can have it thick or thin or odong. Just follow the steps on the back of the packaging on how to cook it, which mainly just says BOIL it.
Spanish sardines or whatever flavor you like those on glass-packaging (havent tried those in canned yet). No cooking needed. Maybe you can warm it via microwave. But since our microwave is broke so I don’t bother warming it.
Olive oil – don’t worry you will not use up a whole bottle of it so it’s not like super expensive. Anyhoo, the oil from the sardines will just do though, depends on how oily you want your noodles.

Then, that’s it. Just let the eater serve & mix the pasta & sardines her/his self.

Then, i realized, pasta is like rice. You can mix anything to it. So i also tried buwad with olive oil – i like it too but only me like it so sticking w/ sardinas.

Anyhoo, this is not original recipe. I got it from fudge by looking at the pasta.

I’m currently reading the book,Flow by Mihaly Csi$#%^%#& (his last name is too complicated to spell). This book is frequently mentioned by designers, about how to design your product for users to be in the ‘flow’ state. So I got really curious about it.

Finally got hold of it, FullyBooked has it. =) After reading a few pages, I realized it’s not just about ‘designing’ but it actually tackles about achieving happines, enjoyment, contentment, and those warm fuzzy feeling. It’s really about the meaning of life. So kind of got bored with it. It’s not that it’s a bad book, but I guess I’d read a few books tackling the ‘meaning of life,’ and more or less they have the same message.

The last 2 books that I read were:
* Fidel Castro: My Life — on top of my head, one of the striking things he said was that “Money can not buy you culture.” And to the effect that it’s culture that can really make life better. But then we, more often than not look as money as the answer to a better life. But if we really examine at how we are now, what do we really need to improve in life? It’s as if we are given such a bad life.

If you look at our culture and the cavemen’s culture, we cannot really say much that ours is better than them. And that though despite all the advances in science and technology, we cannot really claim that we have a better quality of life.

We’re like going in circle chasing money, because more money is better life. And, we cannot blame ourselves because that’s our culture.

But then of course, it does not make me less want money. =)

*  The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbard/John Boyd This has an animated video here, http://youtu.be/A3oIiH7BLmg. It describes / categorizes people into:
* future-oriented culture
* present-oriented culture
* past-oriented culture

In brief description (i might have a different / wrong interpretation of it):
*Future-oriented are those living fast-paced life. They are very conscious that whatever actions they will do now will negatively affect their future. These are the people who believes that they are in control of their future.
* Present-oriented people are like being inlove, all it matters is now. These are the people who takes time to smell the flowers. These are the people who have the thinking that whether I drink or not, I will die so might as well enjoy drinking now.
* Past-oriented are those bounded by their past. One is the thought that we are paying for the our forefather’s sins therefore we have to follow this and that. Or, we cannot do that because we have to honor the dead people’s wishes.
(I believe I destroyed how the book describes it but whatever.)

I’m not really sure how to connect this. But if we look at it, Philippines leans on the present-oriented and past-oriented culture NOT that because that we let ourselves be but because external factors like economic / political / history shaped us into it. We live in a very unstable economic / political situation that we tend to ENJOY NOW because tomorrow, we might no longer have the chance to enjoy. So we work, then spend them all right away to enjoy what we did not have in the past, and to enjoy now because tomorrow it might be gone.

Other people will always complain why Filipinos cannot innovate? Of course, we are still in the phase that even getting basic needs is unsure. Our energy is still focus on food and shelter instead of thinking of innovations. Which on the next point is why the need for innovation — to make life better?

I think I’m going nowhere.
——————————

The thing is I was/am happy that somehow I ‘understand’ the meaning of life (of course that’s based on my standards, because other people have different standards for understanding the meaning of life. I don’t want to rub it in on others.). But then it makes living life harder for the reason that I always find myself questioning everything I do if what I do has meaning or not.

I always face the wall of is doing this job or that product would really give value to others life, or i’m just making money out of it and out of them?

It’s making me crazierrst! I wish I just did not bother itching that itch because it’s making me overanalyze things. Nut nuts nuts.

I’m currently reading the book,Flow by Mihaly Csi$#%^%#& (his last name is too complicated to spell). This book is frequently mentioned by designers, about how to design your product for users to be in the ‘flow’ state. So I got really curious about it.

Finally got hold of it, FullyBooked has it. =) After reading a few pages, I realized it’s not just about ‘designing’ but it actually tackles about achieving happines, enjoyment, contentment, and those warm fuzzy feeling. It’s really about the meaning of life. So kind of got bored with it. It’s not that it’s a bad book, but I guess I’d read a few books tackling the ‘meaning of life,’ and more or less they have the same message.

The last 2 books that I read were:
* Fidel Castro: My Life — on top of my head, one of the striking things he said was that “Money can not buy you culture.” And to the effect that it’s culture that can really make life better. But then we, more often than not look as money as the answer to a better life. But if we really examine at how we are now, what do we really need to improve in life? It’s as if we are given such a bad life.

If you look at our culture and the cavemen’s culture, we cannot really say much that ours is better than them. And that though despite all the advances in science and technology, we cannot really claim that we have a better quality of life.

We’re like going in circle chasing money, because more money is better life. And, we cannot blame ourselves because that’s our culture.

But then of course, it does not make me less want money. =)

*  The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbard/John Boyd This has an animated video here, http://youtu.be/A3oIiH7BLmg. It describes / categorizes people into:
* future-oriented culture
* present-oriented culture
* past-oriented culture

In brief description (i might have a different / wrong interpretation of it):
*Future-oriented are those living fast-paced life. They are very conscious that whatever actions they will do now will negatively affect their future. These are the people who believes that they are in control of their future.
* Present-oriented people are like being inlove, all it matters is now. These are the people who takes time to smell the flowers. These are the people who have the thinking that whether I drink or not, I will die so might as well enjoy drinking now.
* Past-oriented are those bounded by their past. One is the thought that we are paying for the our forefather’s sins therefore we have to follow this and that. Or, we cannot do that because we have to honor the dead people’s wishes.
(I believe I destroyed how the book describes it but whatever.)

I’m not really sure how to connect this. But if we look at it, Philippines leans on the present-oriented and past-oriented culture NOT that because that we let ourselves be but because external factors like economic / political / history shaped us into it. We live in a very unstable economic / political situation that we tend to ENJOY NOW because tomorrow, we might no longer have the chance to enjoy. So we work, then spend them all right away to enjoy what we did not have in the past, and to enjoy now because tomorrow it might be gone.

Other people will always complain why Filipinos cannot innovate? Of course, we are still in the phase that even getting basic needs is unsure. Our energy is still focus on food and shelter instead of thinking of innovations. Which on the next point is why the need for innovation — to make life better?

I think I’m going nowhere.
——————————

The thing is I was/am happy that somehow I ‘understand’ the meaning of life (of course that’s based on my standards, because other people have different standards for understanding the meaning of life. I don’t want to rub it in on others.). But then it makes living life harder for the reason that I always find myself questioning everything I do if what I do has meaning or not.

I always face the wall of is doing this job or that product would really give value to others life, or i’m just making money out of it and out of them?

It’s making me crazierrst! I wish I just did not bother itching that itch because it’s making me overanalyze things. Nut nuts nuts.

As a sacrifice, leftover spag for the rest of the Holy Week.

As a sacrifice, leftover spag for the rest of the Holy Week.