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Posted on Tuesday, 11th December 2007 by augel

The Washington Post recently has an article about lying. It’s titled The Truth About Lying. It asserts that all of us are liars. Yes, people will in some point of their daily lives will either a) lie about what they ate at breafast, b) say that a friends looks great in an outfit (even if they don’t), 3) pretend they are working, 4) fabricate a story, 5) smile even if you’re not smiling inside, 6) do all of the above and lie some more.

Lies are all around us. We lie to ourselves, our friends, our family, our coworkers, everybody. Consciously or unconsciously, we lie, even if we don’t intend to. How often have you heard someone ask “How are you?” and you answer “I’m great”, when in truth you are not. You feel bad, angry, self-conscious but you don’t feel like discussing your self-loathing and insecurities to someone you just met 10 minutes ago. So, you lie and you say you’re great and you smile. You might think then that you have succeded. Yes, you have thwarted him and the inquirer will go away. And he does, but not without you realizing that he, in truth, was also lying. He asked you how you were, but he really didn’t want to hear your honest answer, he expected you to lie.

And so this ugly cycle goes on. You lie to other people’s lie. They lie about lying. And we all lie to everybody.

In the end, who are we really deceiving?

“Everybody lies — every day; every hour; awake; asleep; in his dreams; in his joy; in his mourning,” Mark Twain - On the Decay of the Art of Lying

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Posted on Wednesday, 28th November 2007 by augel

A fantasy (in my dreams) vacation that is.

Except for conjuring elf creatures to clean my house and vanquishing evil demons of their sad lowly lives one of my top pastimes is imagining and setting up dream fantasy vacations. Today, I decided to go toThailand on a seven-day tour.

Frugal as I am, my budget for this trip is a measlyPhp 25,000 excluding of course my shopping money and anything that I might spend on getting lost in a very foreign country.

First stop is Bangkok and spend a night there. And then travel two hours by bus from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi for lush scenery, river trips, national parks, trekking, historical interests. I might spend two days there, depending on what there is to do. I would definitely love to see some nature. I’d then back to Bangkok to Ko Samet for some beach and sand. An overnight stay would probably enough. Then after some sand and sun, I’ll be off from Ko Samet to Bangkok. And not to forget, shopping!

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Posted on Wednesday, 31st October 2007 by augel

Two books.

It’s actually been awhile since I bought books. I’ve been just rereading my old books and then last Friday, I came by the Atrium to buy bread and passed by some racks of used books. As always, I couldn’t resist just browsing around.

Read the rest of this entry…

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Posted on Monday, 22nd October 2007 by augel

Whoa! I have been barely able to take a breather last week. In addition to my now mounting work responsilibities, I’m also tackling deanlines for my graduate school requirements and then there’s some more “stuff” happening in the background.

Part of the reason I’m now up to this with deadlines is that I spent last Friday (that’s Oct 12) with the whole family and we went to Tubungan. It was the Feast of the Ramadhan so we didn’t have any work and I was planning to catch up with things for that day. I was actually already in front of the computer, ready to tackle things but one of my cousins came by and convinced me to go. And since everybody was going, I was inclined to go too.

It’s always fun to go to Tubungan (my mother’s hometown). I guess it’s because we get to spend some time with the family and just let loose. And being close to nature adds a nice touch.

Here’s a shot of the rickety hanging bridge.

I say bridge because this is barely a bridge. It’s made of bamboo poles thrown across very rusty steel wires. The poles aren’t even tied to the wires. I must admit that I’m deathly afraid of crossing that bridge and I’ve done so only once, and that was when I was in my daredevil mode. would you actually dare to cross this bridge?

This bridge connects two mountains together. However, if you’re like me who doesn’t want to fall into oblivion, then you would be forced to cross the river (see under the bridge). This river isn’t too deep usually just knee-high, so it isn’t as bad as crossing a bamboo bridge and hearing creaks everytime you take a step.

The reason for all this trouble is for us to get some coconuts. My lolo has some coconuts (and other fruit trees) planted there. Everytime we go to Tubungan we make it a point to get some coconuts, hence all the trouble (not really trouble as it is actually quite fun).

Here is all of us atop the kamunsil tree. I’m not sure if the tree is dead (it sure looks like it) since most kamunsil trees actually look dead if they don’t have fruit.

Here is the four of us just clicking away. It sure does look that we’re having a lot of fun. And we are! We plan to go back to Tubungan for my Lola’s (grandmother) death anniversary on October 29th.

Stay tuned.

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Posted on Wednesday, 10th October 2007 by augel

Things have been brewing up lately.

Right now, there’s nothing really concrete, it’s just that I feel that this maybe the calm before a storm starts. I dunno really. On one hand, I’m quite excited, on the other hand, I might be in trouble.

Trouble - not really good. But in my case, in this time and my current state of mind, it might be what I need. Maybe a tiny jolt of electricity will trigger my somewhat-dead and sleeping brain cells and nerves into action.

It’s not that I have been inactive. On the contrary, my fat ass have been quite occupied lately (What? Just guess what I mean). I have gone through some harrowing and traumatic experience last week resulting to some tears being shed. I don’t want to talk about it now, hence, it might trigger a panic attack. All I can say is that I would gladly wrap the memory of the experience in plastic, burn it, put it in a lead contaner and drop the d–m thing in the deepest recesses of the ocean (of my brain). Grrr… now I’m getting upset.

So moving on. Yes, the storm, and thunder and lightning. I’m waiting.

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