Your movie star double is Cate Blanchett

An intellectual like you needs to be played by someone who understands how to be deep without being boring, someone who can grasp complicated subjects and make them seem clear cut, someone like Cate Blanchett. Whether bringing to life Elizabethan stories or playing an undercover WWII courier in Charlotte Gray, Cate has shown the world that being smart can be sexy.


Who's Your Movie Star Double?

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Of The Da Vinci Code, The Gospel of Judas, and other heresies

I've read and watched The Da Vinci Code and watched National Geographic's presentation of The Gospel of Judas, and I find nothing changed of my basic faith and belief in Jesus Christ as my one and only Savior. I believe that the apostles are there to help him propagate His message and His teachings. I believe that He will come again and will be reigning humanity, and He is coming sooner than you think.

The topics raised by the popular book, The Da Vinci Code have been around for thousands of years after Jesus' death and ascension to heaven. It is nothing new that he "might" be married to Mary Magdalene, the former repentant prostitute, or that He might have had a child, or that His descendants exists. It is nothing new that apart from the traditional Christian sects existing after His days on Earth, there exists a sect called the Gnostics, who is reported to have an "alternative" view of Christ's earthly existence and His death and resurrection. Whatever archeologists and experts dig up, it is nothing new. These ideas and alternative stories are already here for us waiting to be revealed, dissected and analyzed. Only now it is now longer exclusive to those who study Religion or Archeology or History, it is now being propagated to the masses and to the curious.

The proliferation of alternative information and ideas, I think, should be considered by all Christian churches to be an opportunity, a mixed blessing, because the mass appeal and the fact that it sells reflect a need of the many to know more about Jesus, the greatest Being who ever walked the face of the earth. Two thousand years later, the enigma that is Jesus Christ still continues to be famous and influential, and Christian leaders and priests should take advantage of the current rage to help spread his teachings to those who do not know it by heart. Debate with their flock, instead of dictating what they should or should not believe, patiently explain to them who He is and what miracles He did to those who follow Him. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

In terms of whether we ought to believe in it or not, I believe that choice is not for us to make. For instance, it is one thing to read current gossip pages or tv about a celebrity that we absolutely adore and see the version of the celebrity in question in another newspaper or tv. You see the words come out of him saying whether the gossip is true or false, and you believe him, and that’s that. In this case, we don’t have Jesus himself explaining what really happened, so we don’t have the luxury of practical discernment, and we don’t have the choice of not believing it either, for not believing in it will make the events impossible, and all Christians profess that with God, nothing in impossible, and anyway, God and Jesus Christ are free to do whatever they want with the world.

So, what are we, poor sinful ordinary flock to do? When we are flocked by things like this that boggle our brains?

We turn to the heart, and then we ask ourselves 2 questions:

1. DOES IT MATTER?

2. WHO IS JESUS CHRIST TO YOU?

When I asked myself those two questions the first time I finished the book, my answers were these:

1. NO. So if these allegations and alternative happened to be true, it doesn't matter. Following Him should be my business, not his personal and private life here on earth.

2. In my times of trouble and self-doubt, He was the one who brought me back up. When I am downtrodden and ill on my luck, He is there to makes things ok. I acknowledge His miracles, big or small, in my life. He is my anchor, my refuge, my strength, my confidant. He will still be these things whether those "alternative" theories are true or not.

Beware of April Fools' Day (a rant and whine of sorts)


I have been played a fool today. I started the day great but with an upset feeling in my stomach that warns me that something bad would happen, and it did. I had mistaken it as a reaction to my drinking antibiotics for a pus found in my tooth, which soon was given a root canal operation to. Anyway, that sick feeling in my stomach was not because of anything i had ate or drank, but from what will happen upon checking my office email.

I was at home surfing the 'net when I had the sudden compulsion to check my office email, probably a reaction to my gut instinct that something is wrong. True enough, something is wrong with our email. My email and my co-workers' emails are down, and it's all because of an ISP's lack of concern and communcation to us over technical matters. The story goes like this:

I had wanted to terminate our office's dialup account in favor of a dsl connection from another ISP. The dialup ISP also is servicing us for our domain name, which we use for our emails. Upon receiving service from the dsl ISP, I had inquired and inquired on how to properly terminate our dialup account and to make sure that we could still use our email addresses and domain name to the other ISP. There was no response or guide from the dialup ISP on my queries. They did answer my question about when to terminate our account, which is in one month's time. The dsl ISP, on the other hand, reassured us that we could still use our email addresses and that the transistion would be smooth. So it was, until today, April 1. Our dialup account was terminated according to my request after Mar. 31, and the next day, we couldn't receive anymore emails.

So I called tech support. After being put on hold for quite a while, I was talking to someone who explained to me what had happened and what I could have done if I was informed earlier of what he told me in the first place. He told me that I should have emailed and informed them of the change of ISPs so that they could "point" our domain name to the dsl ISP so that when we access our email using our dsl ISP, that ISP would recognize our domain and let our mail in, or something to that effect. It was information that came too late.

The dialup ISP should have taken the time to talk to me and ask me questions about our existing domain name account and could have addressed my questions and concerns on how to be able to use the same email addresses earlier on. They knew my concerns, I have emailed them and faxed them about this in line with the request for termination. They could have explained to me how it is supposed to work. Yet they didn't.

Did they assume that I could have known? I have expressed the need to be able to use the same email address and passwords plainly and simply and to both ISPs. While the dsl ISP did answer me, it was not correct or it could have been correct if the dialup ISP did their part. I do not blame dsl ISP on their answer, but I certainly blame the dialup ISP on this kack of guidance. Maybe they are mad that we would no longer be paying them for their internet services, and in revenge deliberately did not guide us on the proper turnover of our email and domain name? Yet, even with that reason, the dialup ISP has our domain name registration and we still are its clients on that aspect even if we have ceased our dialup accounts already. They should still help us out in that aspect and guided us properly so that no headache and misery would happen.

So this leaves me pissed off as heck and I now have a huge headache to boot. My day went on horribly and I had to contend with my mom who's angry and screaming at me for not being able to receive her work email and not understanding what really happened. All I can do was pass on my anger to the tech support who was patient with my rants and was probably thinking that if someone in their company had done their job right, he shouldn't have to listen to me scream and demand my head off.

Now all I have as backup is a couple of yahoo email addresses in which none of our clients know about, and since everyone else is busy,the task of informing them of our temporary email glitch was passed on to me, and this really, really, really sucks.

addendum: it has been a week now and still no domain name email. at least i'm now talking to the dsl isp to sort things out, and they have been much more helpful in sorting things out, but on weekends, it seems to take so long to follow up on things. am i the only one who works on weekends and on sunday even?

This is a test entry from picasa...what a nifty software this si! :) 

What kind of country do we have?!?!

I'm probably also one of the many Pinoy bloggers who has chosen to air out opinion of last Friday's events to cyberspace. PGMA has declared a State of National Emergency due to increasing unrest in the country made about by her enemies in the Left and the Right. People seemed to be getting restless, impatient and tired, thus the cause of rallies and protests for her ouster.

Yet I, for one, and dare I say, the rest of the working Pinoy and the Pinoy businessmen and women am tired of the protesting, of the complaining, of all the noise. We just want a stable working environment in which the businesses that we are involved in can grow and prosper. Such noise from dissidents would be bad for business. Here at our factory (we are in the manufacturing business), we were awakening from a brief slumber by a sudden wave of orders from our clients abroad. We were alive once again with work, in fact, we are expanding. Such jubilant news provide new challenges that is much welcome than no business at all. This is a God-given opportunity that we are putting ourselves out on a limb for in the hopes that we would be profitable. We are finally giving employment to those who need it, and we had prayed, that it would be steady.

Yet it may not meant to be. Our greatest aspirations and dreams of going towards a prosperous business year might be put to bust, due to a noisy group of people who think that they are better in governing our country than PGMA or seems to forget how hard it is to be President of this country. I am not her rabid supporter, but I would rather give credit to her working hard (the way i see it), and being a smart leader as well. I would not have a donkey for a president again.

Those who are in government aren't perfect, and not all of them are scums of the earth. Our country's problems are probably just too big for them to solve alone, what more with people left and right taunting them that they are not doing anything enough or correctly?

Our country is damaged from the mistakes of the pasts, a cancer, as someone rightfully said. these are not what PGMA already has caused. Most of these were either left in the backburner by most of our past presidents, or were given attention to but the next president failed to continue. Some would say that PGMA has worsen our situation, but that is another view that is somewhat true. PGMA has no crystal ball in her office and does not claim to be the remedy to our country's ailments. She does not claim to be God or Wonderwoman either. She is just there to do her best. It is also not her fault if she suffers from her husband's ways. Women always bear the brunt of their husband's shenanigans. It is hard to be a president in this day and age, and those who complain think that being president is like a walk in the Malacanang garden. I wonder that if it's their turn to be president, would they be able to solve all of our country's issues immediately and effectively? And if so, can the next president or set of officials carry on what the past has already done for the good of the country?

For reasons that politicians are selfish and egoistic enough, the past president's good habits (if any), are discontinued once a new president takes office. There is a lack of continuity of good practices in our government, what seemed to continue and worsen are our problems. There is no unity in our country, everyone seems to think that they are better in governing the country than the next person, a typical crab mentality that has been haunting us ever since our little, scattered archipelago that we call home was formed.

What we should do is just take a page out of JFK's quote "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what we can do for your country"; we shouldn't depend too much on the government to make miracles. In our small way, we could make this country better. Another quote from a movie says it best: "We cannot change the world, but we could make a dent." Little things, such as obeying traffic rules and not peeing at the walls would make a big difference. Contributing to our country by being good, hard working, honest law abiding citizens would help our country make that much needed step into the future.

But the biggest thing that I believe we need to get rid of is our crab mentality. This should not continue anymore because it is self-destructive and regressive to our country as a whole. This is the root of all evil and the whole of mankind has it, but it seems that we Filipinos have it the most.

Come to think of it, we're the ones causing our own set of problems.

If ever cyborgism is in the near future, I want to have some sort of chip i can put into my head so that if i have the urge to write or have any noteworthy thoughts it could just save it as a word file and just take out of my head to synch it to my pc. If I have the time, I could tweak and edit words out and if satisfied with my final thoughts, I'd blog it in.

Writing has become impossible lately, either i'm in the car, doing my rounds at work, or just plain tired to write. Every thought goes wasted when it is unwritten and unfinished. Despite my age, forgetting what I am supposed to write has become more frequent. Go figure.

Like today, I am supposed to finish this blog that I had started writing on my cell phone a couple of weeks earlier, but alas, the momentum has disappeared and right now my mind is into finishing updating my antivirus software that keeps stopping itself from updating because my internet connection is freakingly slow.

Down with dial up!!!!

Never completely changed


In the spirit of the new year, I am writing about change. I thrive on change in most aspects. I like to see constant improvement on my surroundings, yet I there are things that I want unchanged. As a person, I am open for a change in outlook in life, a change in personality, and in temperament. I often get frustrated over myself when I realize that I have not totally changed the things I ought to change.

Since last year, I've embarked on trying to transform myself little by little. I've lost some weight, minimized my tendency to whine over small things, tried curbing my tendency to be crabby and moody at select days of the month, and gotten over having high expectations on the people I love.

Yet not all of these things I have managed to really overcome, and that's still the icing on the cake. There are overwhelmingly LOTS of other things I need to change, truly not because I want to be perfect, but I certainly want to be LESS flawed in my own eyes and in others' eyes as well.

Since we are on the topic of flaws, I often find myself reflecting on the two kinds of people; one sees only flaws in him/herself and the other who sees only the flaws of others and not of herself. It can be found in scripture that we ought to see our own flaws before the flaws of others, and in modern philosophy, we are encouraged to aim for our highest potential inside ourselves.

How about physical flaws?

As far as physical flaws are concerned, aren't we often self critical? Do we accept what we see or do we blame the mirror?

A store in Powerplant Mall, Rockwell has in one of it's fitting rooms the most flattering mirror I've ever put myself in front of. I dubbed the mirror the Mirror of Erised, after the same mirror in Harry Potter. It only reflects what a woman would want to see in her figure, her deepest desires when it comes to the perfect body. I saw myself, more beautiful and sexy than I would probably be in a million years. I wanted to bring it home, though the better part of me knew better than to indulge in looking at an image that might not be true. Mirrors, after all, are never true to the one in front of it, and no one mirror can be deemed as the "true" mirror.

Is it the same when it comes to flaws not of the physical kind? Are we the kind of person who merely accepts company of those who only see the good in us and nothing more, or do we also accept people who sees also the not-so-good traits that we have and points it out to us?

It boils down this, as it may be too much of a cliche that it has been made into a song; "Learning to love oneself is the greatest love of all". It also is into a prayer, "Grant me to see the things I can change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference". Regardless of what kind of crowd we keep, it is important that we see it in ourselves that we are always in the process of constant change, of taking that step forward and not be a prisoner of one's limits, one's past, one's present. It is in going forward that we are closer to our highest potential.