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Nocturnal Ways
Sunday, October 11, 2009 @ 2:57 AM

I've gone back to my old habits.

Waking up at nearly 11AM this morning and blogging past midnight are two really bad signs that I'm starting to go back to my nocturnal ways. I wanted to get a regular sleeping pattern so that I avoided feeling so tired in school, and though I was able to achieve this for perhaps a good month or so, it was like I couldn't fight my own nature. It's like I really can't sleep until the darkness.

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the time period between midnight and just before daybreak is quiet. It's not busy. It's hassle-free. The calm, even serene environment helps me concentrate. It's so different from when the sun is out, or when it's basically just past 6AM. Because that's the time that everyone starts moving and hurrying and going about their routines of work or study—which they actually secretly hate and they're now asking themselves why the fuck did I sign up for this? and they've the rest of their shitty lives to wish they could be better.

That's how I see it.

I don't know. I just like the silence. I like the aloneness. I like being alone sometimes.

With Grace and Humility
Saturday, October 10, 2009 @ 6:25 AM

When I first heard that US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was more in a state of numbness than that of shock. I couldn't really wrap my head around it, because when I think of Nobel Peace Prizes, I think of Aung San Suu Kyi—a woman who is still in prison after so many years but never gives up on hope for democracy to reign her country. I think of Al Gore—a former US Vice President doing so much work for global environment sustainability, who brings the issue to the front desk of not just fellow politicians but to ordinary citizens like us. I think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, and Mother Teresa, but NOT (at least definitely not right now) President Barack Obama.

I have the utmost respect for Obama; he is a sincere, smart, and really hardworking guy, and I couldn't have imagined anyone else as fit for Commander-in-Chief of one of the world's top and leading nations than him.

But Barack Obama is just eight months old in his time at the White House. This is a man who has to make the decision some time really, really soon whether or not to send 20, 30 thousand American troops to Afghanistan, and he's already a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. This is a guy who hasn't even lasted a year in office, and the most he has done for the international community was a world tour of concert speeches—his rhetoric and his passion.

But winning a Nobel Peace Prize can't just be about someone's passion, good efforts, and well intentions; he/she needs to do something. I am not against the idea of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but I'm definitely critical of the Nobel community for him winning it now. The man should have been given at least two years tops to prove to the world that he has done something concrete and real for the global community, something that really makes us go, 'Yes, I know he deserved something like that.'

Nevertheless, as he always does, Barack Obama addresses the situation most graciously and eloquently—something which has made him very popular to people all around the globe, and I do in fact admire him so much for this. He accepted his award, he was honest in saying his real thoughts about him winning, saying that he doesn't think he "deserves" it, and he made the award not about him, but about America and American leadership.

And it just goes to show how you could never really hate a guy like him—too nice and too gracious and who you know is working his ass off; almost as if his grace and humility was what got him to win in the first place.

Flat Lines
Saturday, October 3, 2009 @ 11:15 AM

Brand new layout!—so it sort of follows there's a brand new post.

I haven't posted in the longest time. I actually wrote something quite recently about the natural calamities happening in the world (supertyphoons in the Philippines, tsunamis in the American Samoa, earthquakes in Indonesia), but I decided not to publish it. IDK why; I guess I just found it a bit too serious for a blog post. I didn't want to look back into my archives and read something about a global apocalypse.

There hasn't been much happening lately. Of course I witnessed the deadliest natural calamity of my lifetime, but other than the weather, my life has been pretty dead.

Volunteering sort of counts as a high crest in this week's wavelength of activities, but everything else is pretty flat. I think the most I got to being productive academically was making one and a half pages of the THE slum book. I haven't even started on the Physics music video (... two terms which sound just so wrong together), and I never resumed reading Julius Caesar. All I've been doing the whole week was downloading Muse albums and almost literally listening to them all day. And watching YouTube videos of Matt and Dom interviews. And immersing myself in the band's live video performances.

Yeah. I really have a life here.

But it's okay, I think. One week without class was bound not be productive, but I do know I have my plans and some other projects straightened out. I just need to stop being so hooked on Muse. It's ridiculously unhealthy.