Rip Van Winkle-Ism

Have you ever noticed that you feel groggy and disoriented after oversleeping? I had. Several times. I looked it up in the internetsss and found out that this phenomenon is called the Rip Van Winkle Effect.

Rip Van Winkle wasn’t the one who stole the Queen’s baby and made her guess the name nor the one who led the children out of Hamelin. He was the one who went to the forest to escape from his nagging wife and from the drudgery of his life. He disturbed some dwarves and they made him sleep for 20 years. When he woke up he was an old man and his wife is dead and nobody knows him anymore. It was a lesson about laziness. Sometimes I want to do a Rip Van Winkle. Not to sleep for 20 years but just escape from reality and from my responsibilities. Not that they are neither too heavy nor too difficult. Wala, drama lang. I’m just too lazy sometimes.

If given a choice, I would quit working and stay home. Find some Raine shaped hole in this universe and stay holed in it for the rest of my life. Wake up only when I want to. Sleep whenever I want to. Read and curl up in my bed. Or have a movie or Korean-novela marathon. And it would always be raining so everybody and not only I would feel lethargic.

Rip Van Winkle

Sounds like a spell to me.

I’m babbling again. Happy Halloween Everyone.

The Tao of Pooh

Note: I’m not a Taoist but I’ve always kept an open mind about Philosophy and Religion and learn whatever I can from different sects.

There are a lot of reasons why I like Winnie the pooh. When I was a child Pooh and his friends are my Saturday morning playmates as I watch the cartoon show. I like the vivid colors and the cute-sy characters. As an adult, he became one of my gurus. My room is like a shrine of Pooh with his beguiling smile plastered everywhere. I even give my friends my Pooh drawings as gifts. Why I like pooh so much is not because of his cute red baby tee, nor his protruding stomach or the way he spells Honey as Hunny. I like him coz he got lots of friend (barkadista) and he values friendship. As Carey commented on my previous post, pooh reminds him of the wonders friendship. We often see pooh with all his friends surrounding him, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Owl, Kanga and Roo and of course Christopher Robin. But the major reason why I like pooh is that, I learn a lot from him. I’ve read the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff before and loved it coz of the simple and entertaining way Taoism is presented. I gave it a 1 out of 5 based on my Book rating. The previous post is quoted from that book. Here are more passages from the book that I’d like to share with everyone:

“While Eeyore frets …
… and Piglet hesitates
… and Rabbit calculates
… and Owl pontificates
…Pooh just is.

“Lots of people talk to animals,” said Pooh.
“Not that many listen though.”
“That’s the problem.”

“Rabbit’s clever,” said Pooh thoughtfully.
“Yes,”said Piglet, “Rabit’s clever.”
“And he has Brain.”
“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.”
There was a long silence.
“I suppose,” said Pooh, “that that’s why he never understands anything.”

 

Many of us think too much, overanalyze situations, trying to fit square pegs into round holes that we forget to live and let things be.We forget that the best way to enjoy life is to be simple and childlike like Pooh..to have a mind that has been emptied of the countless minute somethings of small learning and fill it with the great wisdom of the Great Nothing, the Way of the Universe and accepting Things As They Are. And most importantly always have good friends around around you. And a jar of hunny can help too

return to pooh’s corner

When I’m worn and weary from the roads I trudge daily I make a trip back to the 100 acre woods and have a chat with a silly old bear.

Piglet sided to pooh and whispered “Pooh?”

“Yes piglet?’ said Pooh

“Nothing” said Piglet

Piglet took Pooh’s paw and added “I just wanna make sure you’re here”

 

 

 

 

 

Detective Novels

Psychological test
This is a genuine psychological test.
It is a story about a girl. While at the
funeral of her own mother, she met
this guy whom she did not know. She thought
this guy was amazing, so much
her dream guy she believed him to be, that
she fell in love with him there
but never asked for his number and then……
A few days later the girl killed her own sister.

Question: What is her motive in killing her
sister? Give this some thought
for a while before you click more….

(you can post your answer in the comment )

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two

I was looking for a Friday night and found you. You were just looking for something to do. We went to one of those places that I frequent. And so we found ourselves in Room no. 2. We sang our hearts out, borrowed words from songs, things we couldn’t say out loud. You sang songs of opened and closed doors. I sang songs of Why’s and being Torn. We are trapped in this tiny four walled room. Words of “one night” and “intimacy” hung thick in the air. It becomes so thick that we were unable to escape it. It became a gloom that hung above us and we both fell into silence. We got lost deep in our thoughts. Thoughts of what if’s and what could be’s. Images flitted through our mind of long walks, moonlit nights and vanilla skies. I reached for your hand but grasped air. You searched my eyes and saw it reflected your empty ones. A cold douse of reality woke us from the gloomy daze and beneath the naked bulb we saw ourselves for who we really are.
Two scarred and scared hearts.
Two broken pieces not enough to make a whole.
Not enough to heal each other’s ache…
just enough to keep each other company.
Two people not on their own but still alone.
Two alone people together.
Two is a lonely number.
Sometimes lonelier than One.

Closing Cycles

Last Sunday night when I was cleaning my room and sorting through old stuff, I decided to give away some of it like old books, old collections, clothes and etc. Then I suddenly feel a sudden sense of foreboding so I immediately texted my friend Ruby:

Hi rubs. I was sorting thru my old stuff when I feel this sudden urge to be generous and give away some of it. This is so not me. Do you think I’m dying? Sorry to sound morbid and to be bothering you w/ this but I just feel this need to tell someone about it

Yeah that’s how I really felt. I am one of the most selfish person I’ve ever known. I’m not known even to my own family to give out stuffs esp. old ones. I’m attached to my things. I love holding on to memorabilias, my first grade school ID, my first stationary set is still intact, old pictures, letters, my grade school notebooks and exam papers, medals and ribbons. I love collecting just for the sake of collecting. Stuffs like puzzles, stamps, coins, stickers, books, chocolate wrappers, bookmarks, postcards, newspaper cut-outs of Trivia, youngblood articles, cassette tapes, CDS, VCD, DVD, angel figurines, pooh stuffs and other chuva. That’s why I really feel weird when I began to think of giving out my stuffs. Gawd,I’m questioning even my own motives. So one reason that I can think of is that, I must be dying. I’m not afraid to die but I’ll feel sad if I’ll die hahaha narcissism. Anyways, this train of thought was mercifully cut off when ruby called me up. My ever reliable and sensible friend immediately comforted me and said:

NO Flo, you’re not dying. It might mean that you’re finally growing up and you’re ready to start anew

Her words reminded me of the essay Closing Cycles by Paulo Coelho (see below)

I realized that I kept holding on to the past so much, afraid that it’ll elude me. Afraid that those happy and bittersweet memories will be forgotten so I try to keep a tangible part of it.Afraid to lose the lessons.I forgot that one very important part of the past…part of those memories that I can never lose and will never elude me . . . is ME.

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standing outside a broken phonebooth with TIME on my hand

In other centuries human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.

 

I got this line from the book Timeline by Michael Crichton. This is why I like reading fiction more than those non-fiction books. Not only does it tickle my imagination but most of the time I learn something from it which always surprises me. Back to the above statement. The author then went on about humanity seeking something authentic and looking back to the past for it. That’s the whole premise of the book by the way, about the past. But I haven’t got that far processing my thoughts yet. I’m still stuck with the above words, coz it rings true. I think the author got it right about people nowadays being allergic to boredom. Observe the trend that the technology is leaning into. Music and video at the palm of your hands anytime, anywhere and other modern gizmos. Not that I’m against all these technological advances but I just got struck by the words above. What’s wrong with not being amused and with having time in our hands? Why are we so used to being busy? Multitasking? Doing numerous things at the same time? Why do we measure our worth by the amount of things we do? Shouldn’t it really be about having something worthwhile to do instead of just having something to do?

I don’t have the answer to these questions but I really think it’s worth pondering upon.

Song in my head:Standing outside a broken phonebooth with money on my hand by the Primitive Radio Gods

snow patrol

I really love it when I discover something. It could be a new restaurant like La Jolla Restaurant which is located at a town considered as the jewel (La Jolla) in San Diego. Or a quaint little shop, a cozy coffee corner, a new friend, a bargained book, a cool new song or even an unnoticed blog. Then I feel obliged to share this discovery to my friends and would feel happy if they like it. But I don’t like it if they like it more than I do. If they do, then I’ll begin to lose interest. I don’t want anybody to be more obsessed than me. Yeah I know it’s a bit childish and it’s not like I have legal claims or something but that’s usually how retarded people react. This is what happened about “my” discovery of Snow patrol; I heard their songs before but barely paid it notice. Then I listened to their full album Final Straw and loved them. Then I shared it to a friend and she went gaga over it that she kept on playing their songs over and over again and even registered on the band’s mail list. I want to act indifferently and pretend I dislike Snow patrol but its hard hehehe So about the band, Snow patrol is an alternative rock band from Northern Ireland. They started way back in 1994 under a different name and had released several songs before but got big 10 years later after the release of the album Final Straw. I like their music cause of the play of beautiful mix grunge, indie and alternative rock over an emotional terrain about relationships. Here are my faves from the band.

Korean Wave

I’ve heard on the news that North Korea has tested some nuclear weapons. Is this a sign of an imminent war between North and South again? Normally, I wouldn’t care less…okay a humane part of me will care. But my main concern is . . .will this affect the Korean Movie Industry? Will there be a shortage of pirated Korean movies? Will I still have a nightlife if there will be a shortage of Korean Movies? (more…)

Not an Addict

Have you ever experienced a time when you really got addicted to a song that you want to listen to it over and over again just to get it out of your system?And i’m not talking about the Last Song Syndrome.I had, innumerable times already. It might be a new song or an old one. Something I’ve heard on the radio, over the net or anywhere. Currently it’s an old one from K’s choice, Not an Addict. This song was popular way back in 1996. I heard it again when Zayra performed it on Rockstar Supernova. Didn’t like her version though. But yesterday I was browsing for mp3s when I found an unplugged version of it and got addicted.(Pix:K’s choice:Sarah and Bert Bettens) (more…)