碁 Go… I’m Back in the Game Again!

After a long wait, at last, I come back to play Go once again.

Too bad though that there weren’t too much people in the club yesterday night, but what’s more important is that the club ran as usual where people play games and strong players study professional games. I just find the activity of studying pro games really interesting particularly when there are two/three people engaged in it. I’ve been studying go through reading books, reviewing games and playing a lot of games alone, and I have to say that it’s always a boring experience.

Nonetheless, being enthusiastic and realizing that my game didn’t actually became too rusty over the Christmas holidays, I’m determined to move on and play this wonderful game once again.

Aesop Fables

I had a homework for my Spanish class, and that is to read an Aesop story in Spanish.

This suddenly brought me into curiosity about who Aesop was. Least to say, I always thought all along that Aesop is someone who came along with the likes of Mother Goose and the Grimm Brothers in the middle ages / dark ages. Of course this is because of the fact that Aesop’s works are mostly published for a children audience.

I’m planning to read several of his works and when I get enough sleep, I’m also going to read Aesop’s biography. But for the meantime, I have two sites to accompany this journal of mine, I hope it would mean a lot more for me.

Fábulas de Esopo – Aesop Fables in Spanish

Bestiaria Latina – Aesop Fables in English and Latin

Hobbies

For me, it’s always a great thing to have hobbies. But since I met this friend of mine who is well versed with life, I suddenly realized that hobbies aren’t just something that will bring you towards a relaxing state. Hobbies are supposed to educate people as it provides entertainment and leisure to bored people.

What does it mean to collect music? What does it mean to collect and read books? to learn languages? to play hackeysack? to play sports? to play chess and other board games? to roam around the city? to go hiking? to assemble toys? to research about stuff?

The very aim of hobbies is to make lives a lot more productive. For me, I definitely want to develop a lot of my skills and abilities through my hobbies and I’m glad that is actually the right way to think about it.

Right now, I’m reading novels and studying languages. It’s a hard thing for me to actually do the effort of doing these activities but the reward is that I become a lot higher in life than before when I didn’t even consider to commit myself to these activities.

- i’m a bit sleepy so i’ll have to stop here for now, sorry guys -

“What the Cat Dragged In” by Gilbert Morris

“What the Cat Dragged In”
by Gilbert Morris
(USA)

(26janMMVIII) – Finished the first 6 Chapters up to this point -

“What the Cat Dragged In” is one of Gilbert Morris’ novel series (Jacques & Cleo: Cat Detectives). I got a bit frustrated with the books I was reading so I needed some light reading material and I thought the best place to get one is from the Christian Bookstore several blocks from my place.

So far I read the first 6 chapters. The story is basically all about a two individuals – Kate, a mother from outside Memphis and Jake, a writer from Chicago – who were blessed with an inheritance from a distant relative to move in a piece of land close by the beach in Alabama.

I got hooked on right away at the beginning of the story where Kate, who have been working in Wal-Mart for a long time and living without a husband, was struggling in life trying to pay her necessities and feed her only son Jeremy who is 12 years old yet mature enough to think for himself.

It must be really unfortunate for Kate to be a single parent. I’m glad that the good side of it is that Jeremy doesn’t ask too much from her. They live as a happy family having a good quality time speaking with each other expressing each other’s thoughts and feelings, watching movies together. basically having quality time together as a family in a small but warm atmosphere.

However, I didn’t like too much the character development of the hungry writer Jake from Chicago. I have to admire him for knowing a lot about food and for being able to deal with people in dangerous situations especially knowing the fact that he lives in the heart of the city where a lot of things happen which are worth writing in a novel.

But it’s a little odd for me to visualize a Russell Crowe (impression of Jake gave by Kate) who is all whiny and grumpy and on top of that, I didn’t like how the book dealt with his fears and phobias – I suddenly imagined a Russell Crowe climbing on a chair which is just awkward and funny at the same time. I hope he’ll man up later on in the story.

Both Kate and Jake became – as what inheritance tells – relatives in the story and their good company with each other in Alabama is something that will be tested in the story along with an even bigger story which will come up in chapters to come.

The only reason why I kept on reading this book is all because of the two cats: Jacques (aka Jacques the Ripper) who is a tough-minded cat who doesn’t like strangers – and when he does see one, he’ll rip them with his sharp claws. I’m glad he drove his claws to that Russell Crowe guy hehehe. The other cat is named Cleo (you’d think Cleopatra) who is the direct opposite of Jacques. She is affectionate towards humans. Unfortunately, that’s all I could say about Cleo. I was always waiting for that time when the story personifies the two cats where they’re both talking with each other – I do enjoy myself with this because I find reality inspired fiction boring sometimes.

Good Command of the English Language

I always feel defeated whenever I see job offerings that has expectations such as:

* Has Good Command of the English Languages

* Excellent Communications Skills

* Fluency in English

How is it to be able to have excellent skills in English? One of the ways is reading. One reads to be able to familiarize themselves with words and expressions that can be used in everyday life and in everyday interaction with people.

Sad to say, I hate reading and I have to admit that my brain is always lazy to do anything productive in order for me to mature as a person I’m supposed to be.

My brother do have a good command in the English language, of course he grew up here and is probably more productive with his studies than I am despite him hanging out with his techie stuff in his room. I’m happy for him though don’t get me wrong. I can never envy my brother, in fact, if he asks help from me, I’d give it to him anytime as long as I’m not busy myself – which would most likely be an excuse, yet I won’t let him take advantage of that fact.

I always tried to reflect on a lot of things and it’s really annoying because I get sleepy when I do that. Do I have to be healthy? Am I lacking some kind of requirement in order to have the energy to become productive everyday of my life?

What makes me so worried about the idea of having a good command of the English language?

Last year, I joined in a speed reading workshop which took place in my university. I felt so great when I realized that I can read faster when I do leisure reading. But the sad part is that I do leisure reading on books which are not related to school such as novels and books talking about other stuff.

I reflected on that a lot and noticed that I felt that need to catch up in life. I wanted to relate myself to what other people are saying and make the right inferences in every utterance I hear from them.

Right now, I’m planning to go into this leadership program where I can train myself to become a better public speaker and a better communicator since it is needed in the workplace, in the community and in relationships. I only hope things will change once I finish that program, but there’s something else that I am so worried about.

I just don’t feel like pursuing anything! I just don’t feel like being productive! I just don’t feel like I can do anything because I don’t have the right knowledge and skills to be able to do them – all because I don’t pursue those knowledge and skills.

Ever since I became slightly independent, I figured it’s not something I really like. My parents raised me so that I can obey them and that one day I will be enslaved to my parents’ house being a family guy praying with them everyday and having no fun whatsoever all because I’m at home doing nothing interesting and adventure-like.

I want to get out of the house completely and meditate on things myself really.

I want to be able to bring out that real talent that I have so that I can disregard the requirement of communicating with fluency in the workplace.

…

I guess I’m my own worst critic.

Earl Klugh

Earl Klugh has definitely been one of my inspirations in life. His music brings up that very sophisticated person in myself as I move on in life each day. How come his very smooth Jazz Music bring about that feeling?

As a high school student, I definitely wanted to become a different person. My friends would only listen to rock, pop and hip-hop. I wanted to be a Classical and Jazz fan to become different but what I forgot entirely at that time is the fact that I need a reason why Classical and Jazz is the thing for me. After listening to Klugh, Debussy and Gershwin, I suddenly had that boost to find out what it is to be a Classical and Jazz fan. I’m going to deal with classical in the future since the main topic of this post is a Jazz artist.

In order to become a Jazz fan, of course I had to become familiar with the popular Jazz artists of history and most especially the history and origins of the genre which was the blues. Sad to say I hate reading up to this point in my life, therefore I couldn’t create the most poetic blogs that I wanted and share knowledge that I should have possessed with regards to what I am personally passionate about.

Anyways, to at least get the sense of Jazz, I listened to Dave Brubeck, George Benson, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, Portico Quartet, Norah Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim (Brazilian), Vinicius de Moraes (Brazilian), Bob James, Casiopea (Japanese), and of course more Earl Klugh.

I find Jazz heartwarming. It brings a lot more peace of mind than ballads and love songs. The best thing about Jazz is that it can be expressive even without vocals or lyrics to accompany the meaning of the music. Jazz speaks for itself and it can deal with themes such as austerity and voluptuousness, egotism and altruism, pride and humility, harshness and calmness, all in each performance and in every musical piece. I find Jazz to have all the characteristics of a person that you would find in a music much better than rock, pop, ballad, or hip-hop. The funny thing is that in Jazz, no matter what type of song/music the performers are focusing on – nostalgic, romantic, sporty, emotional, etc. – I don’t stay in a single emotional state.

Those in particular are what Earl Klugh first have brought in my life through his music which only expanded as I listen to all other Jazz performers throughout history and in modern times. Jazz through Klugh showed the struggle for our freedom of expression constrained by our own abilities, by other people, or by principles that have chained people into undesirable lives. Jazz frees our souls! Jazz brings us higher in life!

This passion for Jazz doesn’t make me think that Jazz is highest form of music from all other genres as people do have different opinions about music. But one thing that I want people to realize is that music is an instrument in our lives. It drives us into an adventurous life and a greatly fulfilled one too. And for me, Jazz doesn’t cut all that, so there are still other musicians out there from other genres who I admire such as The Carpenters.

I’ll leave the issue of being different for a later journal.

University Life: Poet-like = Intellectual

I was talking with my friend in a noisy food court inside the campus last week after my Spanish class. I was lucky to have another friend who is really fluent in Spanish and for that I did practice a little bit with him.

But anyways, this friend of mine became interested in teaching English as a foreign language and I was making suggestions about where he can go if ever he decides to teach in an Asian country. I suggested Japan and Korea where English teachers, i believe, are still at a very large demand and are countries which are so rich in culture. China can be an option too since its culture goes all the way back in the time of civilizations, an era even way before the conception of Japan and Korea… yet the salaries for English teachers in China are really low. Then suddenly I also talked about Hong Kong because we were dealing with salaries. It came into my mind to actually say “In Hong Kong, the competition is super!” in addition to the fact that you can earn a lot of money being an English teacher in Hong Kong much more than Japan and Korea.

This friend of mine told me “you mean it’s daunting!” and I thought that’s too poetic to use then he told me that in order to sound like an individual, you have to use big words. I felt frustrated and defeated with the idea that I ended up telling him that I’m not a big talker.

But that brought me to the idea that intellectuals have to be able to express a lot of things and we are able to do so because of experiences in life. For me, I don’t have too much adventures in the outside world since I seem to be a family guy that all I do is stay at home, watch TV, surf the net, eat, pray with my family, go to Sunday Masses and sleep. I don’t usually get a lot of linguistic input from a lot of people really thus I’m not a big talker and I don’t seem to use poetic words to be able to sound like a smart person like what my friend told me.

I personally believe that being an intellectual is also being open-minded and I’m glad that a lot of my friends whom I acknowledge as smart and intelligent – of course including my good friend – do understand all of the things that I can express, interpret, assert, argue, infer, whatever it may be to the best of my abilities. They know what I’m trying to infer, they know how to answer them to the best of my expectations and if things get a bit uncomfortable, they know when to calm things down instead of flaming things up.

Being an intellectual is showing your interest to what people have to say as the best attitude rather than emotionally reacting to anything unpleasant you hear. It also encourages the better culmination of knowledge and knowledge do bring a person beyond bliss and brings with him some friends too.

I myself need to really grow up to this idea in spite of believing it.

Well, in my last item of this journal, is being an intellectual someone who uses big words? I only made it an issue because I felt so bad with my friend lecturing me on it which is good because I do get to grow up a lot more. We can’t grow up on ourselves you know. We need people around us to be able to know really whether we do well in life, in how we think and in what we believe in.

I intend not to answer the question in the end since there are a lot of ways to be an intellectual and to be admired or acknowledged as one.

To my friend, if ever he is reading this, I do hope you won’t mind me writing this journal though it may be a really, really small thing, and I hope you’re not laughing too hard that some parts of this journal doesn’t make any sense. I do want to reflect on it because my personality relies heavily on this.

University Life: Motivation

I believe that motivation can bring great outcomes and my professor in one of my linguistics classes just reminded me again of that. If you want to attain or achieve something, you should always be determined to reach those goals. It worked for me millions of times and it made me make new friends, learn a lot of things about life and society, have a creative lifestyle, and most of all have an open mind to everything that’s around me (though I can easily change my view of life from one angle to another, I believe that I can be flexible about it since I’m able to experience every one of those changes, I just have to be creative so that I won’t come out really boring among other people).

Why do we have to be motivated in life?

No motivation means no passion and enthusiasm towards your goals in life. If you just want to become the smartest guy in the world and you don’t show determination (determination particularly includes being able to use your mind in applied and practical ways in everyday life and it takes hardwork to be able to attain it), then you are just joking yourself.

To be smart is to work hard.

To reach your goals is to create memories.

To reach your aspirations is to feel your enthusiasm.

To become proficient in a musical instrument is to have made noise produced with your determination.

To be what you want to be requires a story, a diary, a biography, a history.

~

Always look for your motivation and never slip it away.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Just wanna greet passersby a Happy New Year!

Had two parties in celebration of the occasion – the other one is still going on at this moment. This morning, we went to our very first mass service of the year and it’s a blessing because a bishop was the celebrant.

Anyways, there are a lot of things that I realize every time and I definitely want to share it here and be able to keep note of these as I move on with life. Here’s a special one!

One is taking compliments. If you’re mad at someone when that person gave you a nice compliment, it means that you don’t want to take the compliment from that particular person or you don’t want to listen to a particular kind of compliment.

I think it’s bad to think that way! People give nice compliments because aside from the fact that they don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, they want to show politeness so that we won’t be thinking so badly about them in return and it means that they want to keep us company, they want to keep the solidarity among friendships and other kinds of relationships that they have with each other.

So as a New Years’ message, take a good look at compliments, DO NOT take them as something to prove anything about your appearance or your personality or your achievements. Take them as a sign of people wanting to keep solidarity with the relationship that they have with you, a sign where you have to give others your listening ear and becoming considerate just as how you want others to become considerate about you when you are making convictions. Being considerate between people is a mutual process. When it goes out of hand, one at least must calm down because as proven through experience and observation and peer stories, one cannot extinguish fire with fire.

Again, a HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!