the smiths

W magazine presents the hottest photo op from Steven Klein...

i absolutely LOOOOOOOOOVE the movie. i've already added it to my top-10-movies-that-i-can-watch-over-and-over-again list.

WELCOME TO THE LADIES' ROOM...

where every girl turns into a woman, and every woman turns into a lady.
(ay. ano ba yun?)

so i decided to do some 'being micster' changes. my old layout didn't really push me to write so much (as my archives section proves it). i dunno. there's just something about the design of any writing medium that makes me want to write more... like how Yasaka Intermediate pad papers made me end up with 3-page essays in high school... or how Faster ballpens made my oh-so-neat and oh-so-complete college notes part of the MOST WANTED COLLEGE ITEM list... or how Final Draft makes me complete sequence treatments in a snap (that equates to about a week..? hehe).

and sooooo... i predict that changing my pa-cute ol' design to this classic blog format shall make me more attentive to updating this site... even if nothing profound or meaningful comes to mind (wahaha. ain't that usual on the menu?).


speaking of changes...
after three and half years of faithful word-processing service and editing nightmares, Dude has finally passed on to desktop computer heaven. sadness, yes... especially to those who knew it and who had the privilege of working with it (hi acky, rhed, bryan, paulo, reubs, eynchel, jiru, bianca, pia, paul!). all is well, tho... for it was about time that i had a system upgrade anyway. my current groupmates who worked here a few times to edit continually dissed Dude for being the slowest editing machine on earth. they couldn't believe that i had to work on premiere 6.5 cuz it was such a sloth. haha. i didn't care... and i STILL didn't budge to replace it... up until it crashed on me a few weeks back. wahaha. that was such an eventful day. i couldn't help but cry... over all my lost files and papers... over Dude. *sniff* (i think naming it Dude got me really attached to it... to the point of all this drama... whatta sucker...)

luckily, every misfortune has its silver lining. and the super bright and shiny silver lining here is... ahem... *drum-roll please*... say hello to DUDUT, the all-new, kick-ass, powerful system of micster!!! wahahaha. i know what you're thinking... what is it with this girl's gadgets and their names, right? heehee. well that's saved for another entry. meanwhile, all i wanna say is that i'm as happy as i was the day i got Dude... and Dudette... and Dudemera... and Dudgicam... and it is such a geeky-gross-but-awesome type of happiness (can someone say 'dork' about ten trillion times?).

many thanks to timito, ruby, and mike for helping me set Dudut up. oh... and to daddy dearest for sponsoring me YET AGAIN... heehee.


speaking of changes II...
another drastic change in my life is the peace in this house. after a whole year of solicited riot and chocolate-covered kisses (literally), the house is now deprived of the two To boys. no more raphael and his art, and his plant destruction escapades, and his mood swings... no more matthew and his... waaaaaaaaaaaaah... no more maaaatt!!! *sob*

yeah. they're gone. my sister and her family have found and transferred to their new home millions of miles away from here. *sniff* okay fine... they live like 20 minutes away lang... but still, it's not the same without them here.

i guess on one hand, the peace isn't so bad for my mom and dad (and our plants) cuz those two boys REALLY knew how to create havoc and drive their granny up the wall. but no matter how painful the headaches, the comfort they brought to all of us here at home was so much more invasive and healing. *sigh* the peace will take some getting used to... and by gosh... it is a difficult thing to do...

*sad face*

reflections

PRELUDE: i was going through my box-o'-goodies (a.k.a. box of old notes, papers, readings, and crap wipers) from college to look for a photocopy of my brith certificate, when i came across this thick booklet entitled, NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS. couldn't help but get nostalgic. i ended up reading a few chapters from one of my favorite books (yeah... i loved it so much. aristotle really knew his shit back then...), and began writing some thoughts on the virtue of continence. ha ha ha. and so.... i wish to warn you about this entry: there is quite some seriousness up ahead (i love how philosophy stirs the idealistic nature in me... heehee).



continence and the continent man

though opposites, there exists the presupposition that the desires of virtue and vice are in accordance with choice, whether it may be the right or wrong one. is it possible, though, to know the right thing to do and not desire it, and thus act contrary to what one knows to be right? socrates (according to aristotle) denied this possibility. in his understanding of man’s actions, we always desire what we believe to be good for us, and would never act against such a belief. what makes us go wrong in action is when we hold false beliefs about our own good. we cannot fully realize what would make us happy and then fail to act in accordance with that realization. this seems to conflict with the way human beings live out their lives.

this (conflict) is the condition of incontinence, the weakness of will or lack of self-restraint. its primary form is prompted by the desire for pleasure, which actually affects the body and seems to have the power to overcome our reasoning about the right courses to follow. in this primary form, incontinence occupies the same place as the vice of indulgence (mmm hmmm...), which involves excessive desire for bodily pleasures (hmmmm hmmmmmm...). they differ however, because in the case of a vice like indulgence, desire and reason are in harmony, although faulty in reasoning. reason is completely taken over – having one’s mind clouded by passion and desire – with thoughts driven by these as the right actions to be done. on the other hand, in the incontinent condition, reason has not been completely taken over – one possesses correct reasoning about the right thing to do but is unable to carry out because of the strength of the conflicting desire for pleasure.

if incontinent conflict is indeed possible, there is also the contrary, positive state of self-restraint (continence), in which a person knows the right thing to do, but nevertheless desires something else and therefore has to hold back his desire in order to act in accordance with what he knows is right. this is a great achievement, but falls short of the ideal of virtue, where the desires must be at par with reason.

aristotle considers what it must mean "to know," that we cannot truly know what is good for us and, presupposingly, cannot desire it. such knowledge is never just a matter of saying what should be done, like an actor reading out lines on stage. nor can it be just a matter of being informed about some universal rule, as how newspapers report to its readers updated local and international laws and house bills. it is an internal realization, fully actualized, and eventually applied to the everyday circumstances in which one lives his life. it is incoherent to imagine someone not desiring, and then acting against this sort of realization that a certain course of action will ultimately lead to one’s happiness. this kind of knowledge of one’s own good, fully actualized, and eventually applied to the circumstances of his life, is prudence or practical wisdom. and the person who attains such is the continent man. he may be old, organic-smelling with white hair, or dying... but he is eternally revered for such an achievement.