Why are you happy?

Some nuggets I've learned this morning.

Don't base your happiness on your wealth, because someone will always be richer than you.

Don't base your happiness on your successes because someone will always be more successful than you.

Don't base your happiness on beauty because someone will be more beautiful than you.

Don't base your happiness on talent because someone will be more talented than you.

Base it on contentment, because nobody can take that away.

__

The weekend has been a very good one.

This Saturday, we were able to present our Psychology 118 paper entitled "Bato Balani: Mga Mekanismo na Nagpapanatili at Sumisira sa Relasyon ng mga Indibidwal na Positibo at Negatibo sa HIV" to the Psynergy 4 conference of the Pambansang Samahan sa Sikolohiyang Pilipino. I'm so happy about this because one semester's worth of blood and tears has finally contributed some relevance to society. I've always dreamt of presenting in a conference, and I never thought it would happen. Haha. It was great that our paper was chosen in the screening process but it was even more fulfilling that we got to present orally. The audience were psychology students from different universities in the Philippines. Good thing their questions weren't too harsh. (Hello to my groupmates Anton Quizon, Jecel Censoro, Patrick Huang and Daniel Concepcion!) I went home and changed after the conference and went with my graduating BA friends to Mall of Asia to walk around and eat. And then we went to UP JMA's AdHoc.

And then came today, a piece of good news woke me up. A new responsibility awaits. Thank you AdCore for betting your trust on me. Let's go PRP!

And something will be happening tomorrow. Pray for me. :-)

xx, Danne

I Would Rather Be a Tomato, Then I Would Be Red

PRODUCT oF a wandering mind's restlessness

It's nice being an artist because you're entitled to think crazily without getting judged. Forgive my boredom.

__

I honestly have a fear of receiving text messages. I don't know what is the etiology behind it but perhaps I have received my fair share of bad news that were brought to my attention through SMS. It's a conditioned fear, it didn't come out of nowhere.

This afternoon I received an anxiety-provoking good news text message. Wooh.

Danne

It's Not That I Don't Want You

Today has been particularly different among the array of days I had lived in. I was forcefully deprived of my mobile phone (I left it at home) and the Internet (the router broke, or something), allowing me to semi-carry out my disconnection experiment in no time. I lived through it, became a better person! Yay.

It was really a good way to remove the intoxication of reality. I got to have a little more space to do more productive and worthwhile things, which I normally get distracted doing. Here's to more days of disconnection!

That's it! I will now go back to my cave and hibernate.

Danne

Secret Love for Wildlife

Breathtaking visuals have always caused relief from stress. What I love about images is that they bring you to places you have never been to, to meet people or things or be present in events you might not really get the chance to encounter. I've been checking out Time magazine's website for Pictures of the Week and National Geographic's site for Photo of the Day. They are interesting images of living and not-so-living things from different poles of the world. Here are some I saw which I'd like to share.

TIGERS PERFORMING IN FUZHOU, CHINA TO WELCOME THE LUNAR YEAR OF THE NEW YEAR (TIME)

What if we skinned such big cats (or are they tigers?)? This one's a picture I could more or less relate to since I've been seeing my Feline friends way too often in the laboratory. Now, all I think about when I look at cats, tigers, whatever, is how their internal organs are arranged, how their mesenteries suspend their viscera and what-not. Okay, enough of this nonsense! Haha.

HAMBURG, 2008 (NAT GEO)

Another interesting picture is this one. It's the Photo of the Day at Nat Geo's site. Look at the frog, he seems so at peace. Makes me think how among all the species of the animal kingdom, it is us who actually love leading complex lives.

ARCTIC FOX ALOPEX LAGOPUS (NAT GEO)

And oh wow, look at this. Isn't he just beautifully fierce? There's a little resemblance between him and my dog Sashi.

Cedar waxwing eating berries (Nat Geo)

Food is really an indulgence for each of us animals, huh?

LOWLAND GORILLAS, BRONX ZOO (NAT GEO)

And this! This is proof that unrequited love exists across species!

King Penguins, Falkland Islands (Nat Geo)

Oh but there's still such a thing as love.

Danne

Disconnection Notice

I am part of the Y Generation. It is not by choice but by chance that I am part of this lucky or unlucky cohort that values communication more than anything else. Goods or services are no longer what we trade. Information has replaced the tangible things.

It's been amazing how the Internet is like a pool of information. There is probably no area of human knowledge not stored in the Internet, let alone in Wikipedia. Whatever a person needs to know he just has to type in Google. Besides this, the Internet is also a venue for simulated reality. You can create a restaurant and serve food that you know very well will never really exist. It puzzles me why we do it. Is reality never enough?

One of my professors says that the best way to challenge a thought is to assume a world without it. Let us say that Tim Berners-Lee was not born and thus was not able to create the World Wide Web. What would we be doing now besides writing (or reading) this blog? What would we instead be doing in the 28,178,731 hours we spent doing YM, Facebook or Twitter? Subtract the Internet and mobile phones in all our relationships. It would be safe to assume that we would be human beings who are more in-touch with people. Everything would be a little more personal. We would be writing letters, leaving notes on lockers, sitting in coffee shops and talking about our lives. It would also be safe to assume that some of our existing relationships would not probably even happen.

In 2010, quitting to be part of the social networking web is just not an option, not because we cannot but because we continually get entangled into it. I have long wanted to challenge myself to get disconnected from the world by cutting online and mobile communication for a few days. It seems like a little too idealistic an idea. Sadly, I am struck by the reality that it is quite impossible, especially now that failing to be connected means missing a lot of reminders, news, things that sustain our being in the loop. These are some things not really worth compromising of course, since we are social beings foremost.

Someday I will push myself to do the disconnection thing. It seems interesting to disappear for a while and see what would or would not be gone.

Danne

Twenty-Six Degrees of Love

This Valentine's Day, I would be happy if we were all reminded that love is not just romantic, not just the Eros kind. Probably, the romantic kind of love is not really love. Maybe it is just attraction. Let us not confuse the two.

There are many worthwhile forms of love. It can be love for your seatmate in Math class, love for your favorite band's front man, love for your dog who chews on your slippers, love for your teacher who criticized your work, love for your craft, love for free time, love of hugging, love of hair dyes, love of free cuts, love of mother to child, love of gummy bears, love of baked potato, love for Simon Cowell, love for your alarm clock, love of Facebook, love for the person who bugs you in YM, love of singing in the shower, love of long warm baths, love of Christmas, love of your crush's smile, love for your external hard drive, love of random days out, love for the person who picked your pen when it fell, love of time spent alone, love of Earl Grey Tea.

I'm sure once in your life you have loved.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Danne

2:07

There's pride in saying that you're pulling out an all-nighter. I was thinking about this a little while ago. You think you are studying way too hard, well in fact you're just a doomed, dead crammer.

Now make all the second person pronouns first person.

Yes, it is I who is doomed. O.O

Danne

Lots to Do, So Little Time

I feel quite tired, light and happy all at the same time. Maybe good things have been happening. Maybe I got to go out and breathe some fresh, oxygenated air.

There is something different this time, even if exams and all other kinds of work are piling. I feel a renewed zest for life. I think I have been reminded way too many times not to take myself too seriously. All these time I've been preoccupied with results and end products that I forgot to enjoy the process. So there! No more pressuring myself. Life is good especially if there a lot of good and happy people surrounding you.

I'm super excited to turn 21 I don't know why. Something tells me my 21st year of existence will be an exciting one. My birthday's during summer anyway, which is still actually too farfetched to even think about.

I watched Dear John awhile ago and the image of Channing Tatum still won't depart from my head. It recurs. SIGH. Are there really people like that or is my illusion once again fed with impossible images?

:D

Life is good.

Danne

Let's See How This Goes

Dear John was one of my most favorite novels ever written. It was written beautifully, I believe. Now here's a trailer of a movie

version of it, apparently out in cinemas yesterday. Must see!

Love is like a lollipop.

It brings you back to your happiest childhood memory

of warm summer days and hide and seeks.

It is sweet while it lasts.

Love is a cherry-flavored lollipop.

You think it is yummy until you realize

it is just a pretentious cherry candy

suspended on a stick.

Press Play

Some songs in my current playlist

Owl City's If My Heart Was a House & The Technicolor Phase

Relient K ft Owl City's Terminals

U2's Beautiful Day

Among my favorite Beatles remakes are

Fiona Apple's Across the Universe

David Cook's Eleanor Rigby

Evan Rachel Wood's If I Fell

My favorite original Beatles song

A Day in the Life

Favorite songs of all time are

Coldplay's Lovers in Japan

The Killers' Human

FM Static's Take Me As I Am

Tune I really love

Michael Giacchino's Married Life

Really nice songs from OSTs

Rachael Lampa's If You Believe

The Youth Group's Forever Young