Now, humans are capable of unbelievable things, not just in the fields of development and our capacity for compassion and empathy, but also in things that we’d rather not admit to. A study involving seminarians who were assigned to preach about the parable of the good Samaritan showed that when an injured man was put in their way, they would only stop to help if they had plenty of time. If they were in a hurry to get to the church, they would ignore him. This is due to the mentality that someone else would take responsibility and help the person in need. And that’s what other people think, too, so in the end, no one stops to help the man. I brought this up to apply to my ‘respect the crazy people’ crusade. I don’t believe that they are always actually sane escapees from a fake mental hospital that the government experiment on to create an army of mindless super soldiers but we should still treat them as normal people (of course, barring the instances that they might go on a mad rampage).

                I think that the first step to fulfill the objectives to my crusade is to understand that though someone might be diagnosed with a mental illness, it doesn’t mean that they’re like the babbling crazies usually depicted in the media with no control over their bodily fluids and an affinity to pulling out their hair. If I may point it out, they are mostly women, but I digress. Each disease is different and varies in degree for each person. We should stop generalizing people and realize that the key is to remember what our nursery teachers repeat over and over again- everyone is unique. The next step is to find out exactly what the disease means and to use that knowledge whenever you deal with someone that has it. I know that we don’t exactly need to deal with these kinds of people on a regular basis and those who do receive proper training, but I’m only saying it so that those with unfair prejudices will put themselves in their shoes.

                Shutter Island is a total mind fuck and I don’t recommend it to those who bore easily because there’s no action, but it’s an eye opener to how many things we don’t really know and how much information passes us by because we either refuse to believe them or the people spreading the word aren’t trustworthy. It’s amazing how easy it is for us to know who’s telling the truth in movies because most directors make it so obvious, but in real life, who can you really trust? Remember, conspiracies have been hatched before and whole websites are dedicated to how unbelievable it was that no one knew it was happening. Humans are so adept at knowing only what they want to know, so always be objective and keep your eyes and ears open. You never know when you might be the next to find something out. Be sure to message me as soon as you do and I’ll help you spread the word.

                I’m sure you can find a summary or a synopsis anywhere on the net, but I’ll put it here anyway. Leonardo DiCaprio and his partner investigate the escape of one of the patients in a mental hospital on a secluded island which houses those with criminal violations. It turns out that he has a different motive when his dead wife appears in his dreams to tell him that the man who started the fire which burned down the apartment where they lived with her in it was in the island. There were too many twists and turns to remember. All you have to know is that in the end, the names of the escaped patient and the arsonist’s turn out to be anagrams of Leonardo’s screen name and his wife’s, his police partner was a doctor in the facility and the whole hour and a half was a delusion he made up to cope with the fact that his wife killed his three kids because she was bat shit crazy and he didn’t do anything about it. Or was it?

                The middle of the story posed an interesting fact. One of the things Leonardo used to explain away his suspicions was that the hospital was using the patients to experiment on. The setting of the story was after the end of the Nazi reign so America was apparently finding ways to lobotomize people and make them into mindless zombie soldiers. One of the reasons why they used mental patients because even if they found out and were released, no one would listen to the ramblings of a previously diagnosed crazy person, even if they were already discharged from the hospital. It’s a flawed assumption, but one we come to whenever we deal with people who are weird and out of place- even in small scales such as school and the work place. When perfectly normal people are ostracized for being a little eccentric over comic book characters and video games, what about people with real mental problems? How do we deal with them?

                The problem with the problem is that no one really knows how to define crazy. Sure there are the usual things like OCD, eating disorders and split personalities, but what about subtle things? What is different as opposed to being too different? It’s probable that even professionals can’t define the boundaries because they’re different for every person. Say if I find it normal to be macabre and pessimistic about everything, it doesn’t mean I’m suicidal. If I’m a dog enthusiast and think that randomly barking at people is a regular greeting, it doesn’t mean it has to be a mental disorder. The truth is that mostly, crazy people are those who live in their own world. Why? Outside pressure makes it too hard for them to cope with normal life and that’s because society makes it too hard for them to live comfortably with their interests.  So, since I’ve run out of space, I’ll continue the discussion in the next entry. Feel free to express your opinions and I’ll address them there.

                Isn’t it funny how much we miss school when we’re in vacation? I don’t know about the others but at the second week of having my butt parked on the bed and my eyes glued to a computer or TV screen, I’m about ready to go back to the boatloads of homeworks and projects just to be able to see my friends and banter with teachers. So, what better way to celebrate my return than to make a list of all the reasons why summer sucks and why those reasons make it rock, too.

1. The heat- we’ve all seen the news reports of people fainting because of off the charts heat.  Sports festivals are cutting their schedules short because they don’t want the athletes to die of heat strokes and the bills will bleach your mother’s hair white because of the dozen fans and baths you have to have every day. Let’s not forget, though, that sunny weather helps keep outdoor sports fields decent enough to play in. Having vacation in summer also contributes in having good enough weather to travel and swim.
2. Money- most frugal parents don’t give kids allowance in summer. They either have to earn it or do without. School, at least, is mandatory so we can whine about being tired and sapped of all mental strength, but most summer activities are voluntary and family vacations are paid for by the parents. Though you can’t ignore the fact that learning to earn your own money will help you in the long run and add to the evil points that I so love in everyone. Look for ways to weasel that money away from your parents and we will live in a smarter world.
3. Long distance relationships- and I don’t just mean the romantic ones. I go to school where couples are separated for most of the summer because one of them lives in the province and another in Manila, but these relationships exist among friends too. Some go to the states to vacation there, some tour Europe and the country; some go home to the province. You can’t even organize a decent gimmick because the whole barkada won’t be there. I’ll admit that some separation can be good, too. If you’re together for five days every week, for ten months in a school year for the four years of high school, a little breathing room is healthy. Vacationing with family you don’t see often enough is also good, and unwinding with in an exotic location is exciting enough for me to get jealous of.
4. Clothes- for most of the days in the school year, everyone is required to be in uniform, so there are people like me who only have a few decent outfits in the closet. If you go to a summer program like an entrance exam review or an academic camp, it’s sloppy if the people there see that you only have three outfits you alternate every week. It gives you an excuse to go shopping, though, and take advantage of the situation while you’re at it and get a few pairs of shoes and books, too.

                The list is much too short for my liking, but my explanations were long and Cougar Town is on. Don’t laugh. It’s a nice show. So, no matter how much I might bitch about being bored in the summer, in the end, I’ll still be sad to see it go. I’m going to be in my last year of high school when it ends this time around and this will be my last vacation as a high school student. Everyone out there, enjoy and tune in to random fits of literary inspiration driven by the heat and lack of a social life.

                One time, in a school concert, a group of a capella singers came to perform. For those not into music, they’re a group of people who sing without music and make it sound like they do by harmonizing really well. They were around 5 to 6 guys who had really great voices, but they sang some outdated songs. I had no problem with it. Actually, I liked it a lot because I didn’t often hear those songs on the radio or on TV, but I noticed that not a lot of people were listening to them. The sad part of it was that they still continued to perform even if they knew it. After a few songs, they began a set of humorous renditions of popular songs which the audience cheered on. Right before they started, one of them said, “I know this is what you’ve been waiting for. Mukhang bored kayo eh.”

                I was raised on classical music and got interested in theater at an early age. I like the way I was brought up because I can appreciate both classic and modern music. I only wish that more people would because it’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been in a music program for seven years and I’ve been given the privilege of singing classical songs. Some of you may laugh because we have to sing it like you would in an opera, but it’s enjoyable because there are cadences in the melody that you wouldn’t find in what our age group listens to now. How about we go into a more recent example? Jazz and the blues is a really great genre, but the majority of those who listen to it were born in the eighties. Singers like Michael Buble are trying to bring this music back to life and we only view it as the stuff we hear in formal occasions or hotel lobbies.

                I’m promoting classical music. Not just opera songs and jazz, but also those dramatic piano pieces you hear in sad romance movies and piano recitals. Why don’t you try it before declaring it to be boring? Instead of listening to angry emo rock songs in the rain, try violin and piano pieces. The violin isn’t something I want to get into now because I may rant on for another three pages about how I can live with just its music and the guy who plays it well. Watch Glee, they perform some great songs, Broadway and classical. Do you remember when Rachel sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade”? That was a good example of a show tune. Again, I’m not spoiling anything, so watch it yourself. Have fun, and if you like it, we can ogle hot violinists with their sleeves rolled up together.

                Being a woman is not easy. Up until recently, they have been treated like nothing more than baby factories and obedient wives. Some countries still view women as second class citizens along with black people. Feminism is viewed now as a double standard, where we want independence and complain when men don’t open the doors for us. See how they twist this into something perverse rather than accept the fact that we can beat the men in everything? For example, one of the speakers that came to our career fair told us that in a certain program, the top 100 boys and top 100 girls based on the exams would be admitted for interview and 20 from both sexes would join the program instead. He said that the college was traditional and if they didn’t implement this rule, a majority of the passers would be female. Most national exam top notchers are female and I’ve heard that even in the murder game, more than half of the total hired killers are women.

                We are versatile. We may not have a physical advantage, but we make up for it with emotional and intellectual strength. There is a difference between emotional strength and stability, in case anyone tries to be smart and says we cry more. No, crying is not a sign of weakness. We vent and get on with your lives. You might say that we hold grudges and you don’t, but it’s healthier that way. You might not hold a grudge on a specific person, but the feelings and the need to get back at someone stay inside you and rots your brain. That’s why men are more prone to heart attacks, because they bottle up their emotions too much. And imagine how fun it is for us to order you around. Girls are scary when they want to be. Any guy with the illusion that they’re in charge in a relationship must have a girlfriend who thinks it better that he thinks he is. You know how fragile the male ego is.

                I’m not saying that men are inferior to women, quite the contrary. Men are superior to women, specifically in physical activities. What I’m saying is that even if we push for independence, women are still the weaker sex and the fact that they stay strong so your wonderful daydreams of being in control are in place makes them, us, admirable. It’s much like giving way to a person you know who is coming back from a long illness and is still weak. The term battered husband was coined as a joke, but a battered wife is real. We are strong enough to stay in an abusive or pointless relationship for the children. We are strong enough to work three jobs so she can put six children through school while her husband is out gambling. Whatever happens, this is something one must never forget, the man might be superior, but the women are in charge.

                Media is one of the most debated on subjects. Is it good because of information dissemination and all that, or are they doing it wrong and influencing the children to become rapists, bank robbers and Superman? I support that media is good simply because I need my Gossip Girl fix every week and I can’t give up SpongeBob, but I understand the side of those who think TV and the internet poison their children’s brains. There are some programs which pass themselves off as innocent stuff but are really quite violent. Tom and Jerry, for example, is a well loved cat and mouse pair-up who try to hurt each other. The Power Rangers and the Justice League blow people up and Dora the Explorer is just so wrong. Violence is the main problem here and the use of common household objects to hurt others. I don’t mean that children are too stupid to see that it shouldn’t be done in the real world, just that there are neglecting parents who don’t bother to teach them that it’s wrong.

                The TV is good because of its educational programs and also how to turn around immoral TV shows and movies. Instead of viewing it as harmful, we can say that it shows how not to act. Sure, enjoy the stuff they show, but not to the extent that you try it at home. Anyway, my conspiracy theory is lost under the discussion, so here it is. I have two, one involving the government and another involving inhabitants of the Earth before life was on it. Let’s get on the first one. The military is in need of child soldiers, imitating a crusade in the Middle Ages where children were led to battle, believing that the enemy would succumb to them. And it was mentioned in the Bible about how children are supposed to conquer everything or something like that. If children were turned into violent people controlled by TV and video games, then the government would have an unstoppable army at their disposal.

                The other theory states that before there was life on earth, intelligent beings with a superior civilization and mental powers roamed the planet. The TV was their oracle and guide in everything they did, a connection to the gods, a demigod itself. This civilization flourished for a thousand years before a great earthquake that decimated their numbers and survivors were picked off by dinosaurs and other carnivorous creatures. The TV was lost in the earthquake, to be unearthed millions of years later to enslave the human race and restore the civilization that was lost. You see, TV station people are just actually being controlled by the spiritual essence of the demigod and are mindless zombies. So, be careful not to end up working in one, or at least try siding with the computer sciences people. It was a separate civilization’s link to the gods and it’s warring with the TV’s hold on mankind.

                A fresh new start is overrated. Everyone thinks that if they forget what happened in the past and start all over again then they can make things right or forget all the bad things that have happened. Well, news flash to those people, mistakes can truly be learned from and if you try to forget your failures, you can never move forward. Yes, I know. Cheesy and annoying it may be, it’s true. Parents weren’t born before us for nothing and some of the things they say can make sense when you don’t turn up the elevator music in your head up too loud. Do you know that quote which says, ‘Failure isn’t the falling down, it’s the staying down.’? I think that’s one of the most inspirational things you’ll hear on the subject. If you give up or hope for a free pass like a clean slate or a new future, you’re only dooming yourself to a case of history repeating itself.

                Keep moving forward, a line you may have heard in ‘Meet the Robinsons’. It’s good advice. New Year is just a period in our lives when we look back and reassess everything good and bad we’ve done. We leave behind the bad experiences and keep the lessons, while the good memories we take with us to give us strength in moments of adversity. It’s a checkpoint, a reference where we go back to and mark the changes in our lives. We have no choice but to face forward eventually to keep walking in the same direction. Distracting ourselves is good for a while, but time won’t wait for anyone and the sooner you figure out how to handle the baggage you’re taking with you into the new year, the sooner you an experience new things and open yourself up to more possibilities.

                Hope is the working theme here, and though I hate to sound like I’m giving you a pep talk, or like I’m just trying to find a way to shatter your misconceptions on age old traditions, my intentions are sincere. I hate it that people cling desperately to the notion that they can do away with the blood, sweat and tears of the ending year. Let’s all take a moment and think about the little moments that make everything worth it- the few hours you spend with your friends in school, the isolated times you feel inclined to wake up at four in the morning to watch the sun rise, the afternoons with your family in a mall and the stolen minutes with that special someone. Tell me that all those things are worth throwing away just so you can forget the bad stuff. Happy New Year, everyone. Enjoy the end of a decade.

                My family doesn’t really get out much and it’s mostly limited to locations within the city and malls. Some exceptions include my relatives’ homes from both sides of the family which are, at most, an hour’s plane ride away. A lot of people’s vacation times are used up by going somewhere, enjoying the different surroundings and culture, then fly home and adjust to the jetlag. Some top spots are the USA to see the snow, Baguio to freeze your ass off, some beach somewhere in or out of the country to get skin cancer and back to the provinces to spend it with the extended family. The people who stay at home, excluding the ones whose actual homes are in the province and those whose extended family already live with them, are bored and the only things left to do are shop, eat, sleep, TV or internet and school stuff which I’m sure we’re all too lazy to start early on.

                The problem with shopping is a lack of money, but that’s complemented by the sales in almost every shop in the mall and can go up to 75%. Another problem to that is the malls will most probably be filled with people who are thinking the same thing and the lines to the cashier go around various corners. Sale items may also be of low quality or it might get broken while you play tug of war with it and another customer. Eating makes you bloated and coupled with sleep and lounging in front of the TV or the computer without physical exercise makes sure that you gain at least ten pounds in two weeks. The food is almost always too fatty or too sugary because of holiday indulgence and it never seems to run out either. TV specials on Christmas shows rerun again and again but you can’t pull yourself out of bed anymore to escape them and the internet will rot your brain.

                It seems like the only safe choice is to go with is school work which I am struggling to do. We have two major requirements due the Friday of the week we get back to school and they’re both group work which is pretty hard to pull together over IM’s and texting. They’ll also take up a lot of time. One is filming a skit on alcohol and smoking which I hate because I’m in charge of the script and I can’t think of anything original. The other is lyrics made up of trigonometry concepts superimposed on a popular song we can dance and choreograph to. See how tortured we are over this vacation? Holiday blues have officially evolved to holiday stress and I do not need my house burning down because of fireworks today of all days. Oh, and happy new year to all of you guys and a belated Merry Christmas.

1. 4 pairs of pants- an essential. I only own one pair of denim jeans and that was bought two years ago. I usually wear shorts or jogging pants, but the pairs I saw were great. So I bought them.
2. A pair of cargo pants- I love them already. I like how baggy they are and how it looks good with tank tops.
3. 8 shirts- I’m a sucker for designs with abstract girls on them. You know the ones that look like they were drawn by a calligrapher. And any loud, busy design. I also bought a collared shirt like the ones they use in tennis. I’ve always wanted one.
4. 2 pairs of rubber shoes- I lost my indoor soccer shoes recently and my last pair of rubber shoes dated back to fifth grade. I was reduced to borrowing from my mom. So I bought two pairs of my own. One in black and one in white.
5. DVD’s- I bought a Rent video which I was borrowing from some people in school, but they kept forgetting. I also raided Comic Alley and bought what was there of Bleach. It just started showing in Animax and one episode a day won’t tide me over.
6. Books- no need to explain. Just that there were lots and lots and lots of them.
7. Protective film- the one on my cell phone screen was peeling off in the corners and my Ipod film was starting to get blurry, so I got new ones. They were unexpectedly expensive. I also bought one for my laptop, which was even more unexpectedly expensive.

                Okay, I was kidding. I didn’t really spend ten thousand bucks on all that stuff. All of the items I bought were on sale except for one shirt and the protective films. That was it. Amazing, really, that time and effort pay off when hunting for bargains. The pants were all ten percent off. The cargo pants, twenty. The books were all bargains, old stock in Powerbooks, going out at seventy percent off. The shoes were thirty percent, the DVD’s fifty and the shirts ranged from ten to sixty. Christmas is a wonderful time to shop if you’re willing to put your feet to work. The stock may be old, but the quality will still be good.

                God, I sound like a sale commercial. Anyway, I spent around five thousand on all those listed above and almost one thousand five hundred just on food tripping. Yes, that’s right. I ate in Seattle’s Best, Starbucks and Art Cakes. I bought ice cream in a gelato store, had a baked potato in Wendy’s, a slice of pizza from Sbarro, a Blizzard from DQ, a lasagna from Greenwich, bubble tea, a pretzel, cotton candy and a shake from the Big Chill. No, I am not yet fat, and yes, the money was well spent. My parents did not get a seizure and I’m swimming in all my new clothes. Crap, I’m a budding shopaholic.

                Another recently, I was talking to Pearl Jam and I was ranting about how he didn’t make enough effort in school and how he wastes space and took away an opportunity for someone else’s future to get brighter. He told me that we just saw things differently, that I looked too much into the future and he just enjoys the present. That’s true, I love planning to the point that sometimes all I can do is plan and not take action on it. I have the rest of my life mapped out, even my death by drowning when I fall in a canal in Venice. My point is that I think he’s right in some ways. Some people work so much toward the future that they forget to enjoy the present. When they finally get what they want, they work and work because they want more and more and it turns into something without an end.

                Time is unbelievable. It goes against your wishes. It feels longer than it should when you’re in a bad situation and vice versa. It’s inspired many theories and experiments and it poses one of the most debatable questions in history: if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, then you wouldn’t exist, so how could you have killed your grandfather in the first place? The time paradox is an interesting intricate problem that will probably never be solved until someone actually tests it which is impossible until someone invents a time machine. That probably won’t happen anytime soon because everyone’s focused on the economic crisis right now. No one would fund it.

                I can’t feel Christmas coming. My biological clock is screwed up because of all the shuffling schedules this year. First the combined first and second quarter and now late starts to the vacations, maybe the reason I’m not functioning properly is because of it. Or maybe it’s because I’ve been rushing around doing so many things that I forgot that Christmas was coming. Not the actual date, mind you. Just the feeling that you have that the holidays are near. It turns out, mine need to build up. You’ll be reading lots from me for the two weeks we’ll be out of school. Maybe even multiple entries in a day just to make up for everything I missed out on. Jessica Zafra has Twisted 8 and a half out, by the way. I know, I was shocked too.