Difference of the Filipino family...then and now

Just two hours ago, Moe (Monica Guerra) came to me. She's a former student of mine, now studying in UP Los Baños. I think it's for an assignment. The question is about the comparison between the old family culture of Filipinos and the new culture. How are they different? My answer was so simple - because there was no time to think - owing to the crisis now, a lot of Filipino families have to put up with separation. Mommy or Daddy or both of them have to go to some place abroad because they believe that life in the Philippines seems not that good anymore. In effect, we become like American families who are easily torn because of distance. It's a pity but we are picking up the trash of the west. We used to be closely knitted - of course there are drawbacks also - but now, it's hard to see a family without a member somewhere else, away from the love, concern, care and security of the Filipino family. In a study by a Dr. Reyes (if my memory serves me right), it's one of the things he typifies a Filipino family with - of being closely knitted. We are an interpersonal race, he says, and it is part of our essence to connect with the significant "other". Hence, in going abroad, the Filipino is doing a great sacrifice - that of going away from his/her loved ones, of going away from the security of his/her home, a mild suicide in a sense. When a Filipino/a leaves his/her country and his/her family, s/he is going against her essence. And it's a great sacrifice. That's what ails our families now. That differs a lot from the years that passed.

My Favorite Movies of All Time

My Favorite Movies of time
1. Braveheart
2. Godfather 1 - 3
3. Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revolution
4. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi
5. Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Rings, Two Towers, Return of the King
6. Jerry Maguire
7. My Best Friend's Wedding
8. Step Mom
9. Notting Hill
10. Independence Day
11. Forrest Gump
12. Powder
13. Good Will Hunting
14. Jurassic Park
15. Phenomenon
16. Immortal Beloved
17. Sound of Music
18. The Exorcist
19. Lion King
20. ET
21. Mrs. Doubtfire
22. Meet Joe Black
23. Mr. Holland's Opus
24. That Thing You Do
25. Seven
26. Saving Private Ryan
27. A Beautiful Mind
28. Hawking - Hallmark Movies
29. It's a Wonderful Life (1946-Stewart)
30. An Affair to Remember
31. Psycho (I liked the second one, when he returned - Tony Perkins)
32. Wall Street
33. Scent of a Woman
34. With Honors
35. Dead Poets Society
36. Usual Suspects
37. Untouchables
38. Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)
39. What Dreams May Come
40. Ever After

I know I forgot a lot, but these movies sure hit the spot in my heart. I am the hopeless romantic kind. Anything I cannot forget is because I was involved emotionally. Hey, there was a study made about that. Actually, this philosophy came from Heidegger - an existentialist. Is he? Let's see.

Twenty Books That Changed My Life

The following books changed my life:
1. Ecclesiastes - The first book I ever read. In Tagalog at that
2. Think and Grow Rich - by Napoleon Hill. Nothing more to be said.
3. Summa Contra Gentiles - Actually, On the Truth of the Catholic Faith, an English translation. This is one of the two best written books of St. Thomas Aquinas, the other one being the Summa Theologiae. This is more philosophical and each article follows from a previous one.
4. Radio Replies - A Jesuit apologetic work that I read in part from the UST Library. It rocks. When you have anything to doubt about our faith, you may read this book - actually these are volumes of books on replies from radio queries to the Catholic Faith from the States, circa 1960s
5. Open Letter to Confused Catholic - This is the testing ground. Authored by Marcel Lefevbre, the schismatic archbishop from Econe, France. If you read this, your faith will be rocked. Anyway, I answered this in my Summary to Traditionalism, which I lost through the hard drive crash I experienced two or three years ago. The manuscript, I am still looking for it.
6. Poems and Sonnets - William Shakespeare
7. An Invitation to Wonder - Before One World, I read this book. This made me a philosopher. A bit inclined to Heidegger I opine.
8. Catcher in the Rye - I must have read this five times already, the last time before my father fell from a stroke. Very memorable.
9. Brother, My Brother - by Bienvenido Santos. It was given by my brother as a present.
10. History of Philosophy - Will Durant. Reading this is like going through 2000 years of humanity
11. Wall Street for Sale - a fundamentalist view on investing
12. Low Risk Investing - a starter on technical analysis
13. Stock Market Logic - econometrics, stock market research
14. Millionaire Next Door
15. Millionaire Mind
16. The Richest Man in Babylon
17. Teaching of Buddha - a chance encounter. I was sleeping on my former job's stockroom (as always - during lunch time) when I found this book there stucked between the big boxes for the 1988 and the 1989 SA/CA transactions. I always thought Buddha gave this to me
18. Embraced by the Light - A nice thought of after life. But I took it super seriously
19. Art of War - Sun Tzu
20. One World - when I wrote this, I realized what path I will pursue all my life.

Necessity as the mother of invention

This line came from Little Women. The one starred by Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Madeleine Stowe (who looked like Gloria Romero), Claire Danes (the one they banned in Manila for saying there are cockroaches all over the darn place - what a true thing to say anyway) and Susan Sarandon. It was showing yesterday at HBO. I was watching it before Luis came, so I wasn't able to finish it.

That line seems to be the favorite among the scientists/inventors. Indeed, when a thing seems to be necessary, that's when creativity sets in. When you realize how jackass the world is, because something that's supposed to be there is not there, that's when your mind gets really creative and then try to make something extraordinary to ordinary things. We have many examples in the whole history of human civilization. Where did the wheel came from? From ordinary rocks. And gradually these evolve and slowly but surely science evolved into what we have now as the computer age. And all these things are products of our thought-out necessity.

What is necessary for you? That we design a math curriculum from preschool to High School, so that people will learn to love math and not fear it? Or is it to have a nice house and a nice car with a nice and sexy girl friend? What is necessary for you? That will spell your invention.

Aquinas pic

D'ya want to know how he looks like? Well there is this site that carries the picture. Anyways. That's how he looks, so it seems.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Have you seen my photo in Tribe.Net? If you don't know, we have a tribe at the site that you can access through this blogspot (http://philippines.tribe.net/) That photo, well, I will just post it here, that one is St. Thomas Aquinas. He is my favorite saint. Not because I am from UST. I pursued UST because he is my favorite saint. I am also from Aquinas. There was this photo from our old year book, 1977, that features me with a big A on my shirt. The caption below says this - A is for Aquinas sabi ng teacher ko. That kinda stuck you know.

About Aquinas, he wrote a lot of good books when he was young, that's prior to the invention of printing by Gutenberg. The most important of all was the Summa Theologiae. When I was young I told myself that if I ever receive a copy of that book, then I could die already. (I got it in my library for six years now). That book used to be put side by side with the Holy Bible in Medieval tabernacles. Back in the Middle Ages, I mean.

I also used to think that I will replace Thomas Aquinas in philosophy. When I was younger, I wanted to be a priest. And I was in love with philosophy. Well, partly because of the Humanities Section of UST Library circa 1988-1991. And my professorMr. Pedroza of UST. Anyways, I used to think that since Augustine lorded it in the fifth century, and Aquinas in the thirteenth, someone ought to come in the twenty first century (each after 8 centuries), whose name ends withA, and that's me. What a thought huh? Anyways, I used to think that because Aquinas' Summa Theologiae used to be the thing. It used to be the organon in theology. And Will Durant (in History of Philosophy, a confessed athiest) admitted himself that Aristotle and his Metaphysics "reached its encyclopedic completion in Thomas Aquinas".

Anyways, after him, Metaphysics gradually deteriorated - that's what skeptics like Durant would say - starting with the admittance of Duns Scotus (a Scholastic philosopher) that the things of the faith cannot be demonstrated by reason. After that, Descartes came with his Cogito ergo sum (which is not original mind you, it came from St. Augustine - I doubt, therefore, I am).

I feel it is like this. They cannot dislodged Aquinas with respect to metaphysics and so what better way to do than dislodge the tool itself? Henceforth, everyone kept on questioning about reason itself. After Aquinas, there have been a lot of foreign doctrines and I felt when I was young that I got to do something about that. But I am not a priest, nor will I ever be. If ever I get to publish my Summa Fidei (I don't even know if this is correct Latin for Summary on the Faith) or One World (a sort of unifying doctrine for all the seeming misalignmentof doctrines from the time of Aquinas to this day) that's for all of us to see. Who knows? The one I am looking and dreaming for may be one among you.

In love with Love

While I was talking to my former student - he does not want to be named - I realized how far I have become. I saw myself in his eyes, the difference lies only with my not having a Pajero. Oh, and my not having a brace. Oh and also, my not studying at an expensive school as LaSalle (which, Andy my favorite classmate says, rhymes with mahal). And a thousand other things pa.

Anyways, we talked about his love life. Wow! Come to think of it, I never get to write about that anymore. I remember when I was young it's the only topic I ever talk and write about. I used to think- is there anything really worth writing about? Well, to the point that somebody - I don't remember now who - told me that I better write something other than love if ever I wanted to be a good writer. I never became one.

Anyways, through the years, come to think of it, I shied away slowly but surely on the topic and now became ...a monster. An unhearted one. That is why so few listen to my stories now, or read my letters. Ha! Anyways, when I was speaking with my fellow LaSallian - who calls me pare now - I come to realize that young people need a lot of sound advice when it comes to this abstract concept.

When I was younger I used to think of it as something so sacred and divine. I was so much in love with LOVE, the idea of loving a person so dearly that I soon realized this cannot be true in reality. That someone exists for you alone, and when you find that person, you got to hold of her and never let her go. It's a point in your lifetime, when all the things seem lucid. In fact, it is. That day, you will realize that you have found your eternity right before your eyes. But when you look back, it is not that actually. In real life, few things happen close to that magical moment - that suddenly the world stops rotating or revolving, and everything seems right in the world, and then, your eyes and hers will meet in that one shot magical moment in the your whole life - I got lost in the words. As I was saying, those events seldom happen. Love happens when you are busy thinking of other things. It's like you are watching this stupid show in this stupid theater, then, suddenly, this beauiful girl comes up and asks you for a light. Then, you thought it is her. You followed her all your life, only to end up with her sister pala. Or her mother. Or worse, her brother. It's crap, you know, if you understand me at all.

Anyways, what did I tell Luis? Oh-oh, I don't erase the things I write, pare. Sorry. I told him to take it easy on his angel - she knows who she is. That in order for him to be sane for the greatest part of his young life, he has to get real. He has to enjoy the little things that come his way because, who knows? His lifetime may come from all these stupidly ordinary things. I told him not to so much focus on one girl. That he must go out to meet a lot of friends, and date them once in a while. It's a heavenly thing to think of your once-in-a-lifetime girl coming down from Etheria or Encantadia. But, as I said, they don't happen everyday. One in thirty five million it will happen to you, but if it does, you have to clasp it in your heart. You know, if you believe in reincarnation and those silly stuffs I believe in, you realize that this 1 in 35Million chance is because of the good things you did.

Come to think of it pare, everytime you try to bond with somebody and end up bonding with me - everytime you do that, you ask me about a certain girl you really like. I mean, first it was your classmate, di ba? And then, it was another classmate whose birthday is May, that right? And that time, you are about to be college. And what did I tell you, don't rush things, blah2x. Anyway, you'll get to meet many in college. Then, the next year - this is beginning to be an annual thing - you were trying to court this girl. Then this year, it is this girl still, this time, she's got a boyfriend na.

I remember I used to feel that same way too about a girl (That's a Nirvana song, ain't it?). As I told you, you have to enrich your world. Your world is bigger than what you think it is. The limit is only in your mind. When I was young, I used to feel so damn depressed about a girl, cursing heaven and hell and everything in between because of her. But as in the movie A Bug's Life. (or was it Antz?), all the hustling and bustling ended up with the last scene wherein the camera focused the whole world apart from their little ant hill. It's a big world out there. We are just so pissed with our little world that it seems it is over at the slightest thing. So that's my advice to you all out there. When it seems that the world has crumbled down on you, you look at the larger picture. There are more than 200 countries around the world, man (or girl). Your world is just Laguna? Or Sta. Rosa City? Or worse, San Lorenzo South Subdivision? What a pity.

And if by the slightest piece of crapness (forgive me for this), the whole world seems to be crumbling down, let me tell you that the universe is so big for all of us. As we talked in Physics, between our Galaxy and the Andromda, we can fit in 40 Milky Way. And we have more than 100 Billion stars in most of the 100 Billion galaxies in this whole wide cosmos. Your problem is infinitesimally SMALL. my man.

Look at the bright side. In every bad thing, we get to learn something good. I used to think that our stay is only for education. In every place. In every darn meeting. In every talk with people. That's how I believe still.

Why do I always end up with this?

Never again!

Just this morning, when I opened my other PC (the one with the better memory settings - not like me), it won't open. Reason? Virus!!!! From where? From the internet. Where else? The crude thing is that I even downloaded the updated version of McAfee VirusScan about an hour before the crash. It's like this. I downloaded the McAfee updates. And the green bar is full, man. That means it's 100% safe! Then, what is more, I scanned all my files - about 29k of them (It's a rather new PC that's why, this PC I am using has more than 100K files) and it's squeaky clean. So what I did is to create a good restore point of my system files right at that point. See how meticulous I am? Anyways, after an hour and a half or so, after watching Bonfire of Vanities - which reminds me of my good ol'friend Edmond Cruz (where the H are you man?) - I looked at my PC one more time and - decided to open the internet again! This is the mistake, when I was searching on the picture of Melanie Griffith - just for kicks, I don't even find her sexy for Christ's sake! - there it goes! Boom! BOOM! Two or three files with Trojan virus. McAfee won't let it through, and it was immediately cleaned. The problem is that I disconnected my PC and when the McAfee Security prompted me to scan all my files, I went berserk and said to myself - Hey it's almost 1 in the morning! Give me a break. I'll do this tomorrow. Anyway, the files were cleaned ain't it? And I just scanned the thing, right? And so I cancelled. It asked me again, ARE YOU SURE? And, I did! I clicked YES! When I opened again in the morning to catch my My Yahoo! News , it's gone. I don't know if all my files will be affected, but if ever, this is the hard lesson I will never forget. TIME IS IMMATERIAL. SLEEP IS WITHOUT MEANING (Curse the Pyramid of Maslow!) I should've scanned my files first!!!!!!!! Now, it's gone, and all I have are memories of how it looked like, the Windows XP Classic Background and .... hell, what I am saying here. Remember! Three lessons - Don't be an OC like me, when it's time to sleep, SLEEP!!!! Never search for old female actresses you don't even like!!!! And, finally, if McAfee says SCAN ALL FILES, By GOD ALMIGHTY, SCAN THEM LIKE HELL!!!

My dear students

This is for my former students (and future students) who are now in College. Remember I gave a copy of this through our yahoo groups? Anyways, some people weren't able to see this so I am sending this verbatim. Some things do not apply anymore....

*orginally dated 7/17/2005

My dear students,


I have not much time to type while connected to the net, especially since the access I do have is through the netsite, and during Saturdays at the DLSU-Lib. Anyway, that’s the reason why I am sending to you a pre-typed letter. This is not a reflection paper (ugh! There’s too many of them in my masteral program) so I guess I should not focus too much on my grammar.

It’s good to know you’re doing fine in your college lives. I certainly would like to be there for you always, laughing with you as in the old days, or cheering you up from the back row whenever you get perfect scores (even from crying the other night) and to tap your backs once more just to tell you to go on. One thing I have learned from all the things I have experienced: This too will pass. Repeat it. This too will pass. This is just a passing moment. (Passing not pissing) Whatever it is that bothers you is just for now. Life must go on and it will – even without you. So you must grab your place and follow your path. I do not say that you must follow the tracks of your teachers or classmates. Just follow your own. Look to the stars that you have claimed your own. They are yours and only yours. If it gets messy – and sometimes they will – you can give up a subject (pre-requisite or not), a course, a university, but you cannot (let me put it in italics) – cannot give up on life. You must go one because – This too will pass.

You are like my own children, and as how I treat Andrea, I treat you the same. I try to tell you right and wrong things, and how I wish I could keep you from getting to the wrong side of life as I did. But, you must have your taste of them – the good and the bad I mean. I don’t mean that you have to try doing them bad things. What I mean is, I cannot tell you to grow on this side of town, and avoid this thing or that. Because you have your lives to live.

So much for that. Here are some tips on how to survive your college life with ease:

Have a firm, written down goals about your life. This is what I will become. I will finish this course four years from now. Do not give yourself some fall back or anything. Of course, do not beat you head like crazy if you fail. But don’t say, Anyway, if I fail, I will transfer na lang.
Do not absent yourself for any reason at all.
Do not take your eyes and ears off the teacher when he /she is explaining.
Let someone write the notes for you. So that you can pay attention to the prof. If you can write while looking at the teacher, the blackboard, listen and at the same time glance at your crush once in a while, so much the better.
Do not forget to recite once a session. That’s once for every hour. So, in a three- hour session, you should recite three times.
If you can avoid other activities in school, except those required, like Math Club or JPIA and the like, or if you can resist not being in the same club with your crush, do it. Clubs divide your time, effort and concentration.
If you can avoid getting into a relationship, especially in those days leading to the Prelims, Midterm or Finals, then please do. If you can, just break him/her in those days. Valentine’s is no good. It is so near sa finals. If you must (kita niyo ang font? 16pts yan, italics na at bold pa! Me color pa!) be in a relationship, then do so with #1 in mind – your goals. Then, let him/her also do the same. To avoid heartaches, always communicate, and communicate with these joint goals in mind. Always talk about the future, and what you will be like after graduation. If the guy/girl won’t talk in those terms, then dump him/her before it’s too late. Anyway, good luck na lang kasi love is just a gift. And it is what you learn after that counts. Copyright yan to me ha. When you say those words, always say my name with it. Hehe
Always submit your works on time. Most teachers give the highest marks for the early birds.
Do your works conscientiously. Always think in post-graduation terms. After this, you will look back at your grades. The people from corporate Philippines, or corporate World (if you plan to go somewhere) do not know you nor what you can do. And no matter how you convince them otherwise, they will simply rely on your transcripts. And if they carry low marks, kawawa. Do your best kiddos.
After this, plan ahead. If you can attend post graduate schooling (masteral or even doctoral) then do it. Don’t say: Nakakasawa na mag-aral. You will make sisi sa huli. My teachers in DLSU, who are slightly older than me (5-10years siguro) are already earning 30-45K by simply teaching for 12 hours a week. Beat that! And this could go up to 100K pag me mga talks ka and by publishing research articles and all. Eh di lalo na sa abroad! You have to finish masteral. Yung mga me MBA sa DLSU, they are earning 5-figures. They are driving good cars and they are extremely young (mga 20-24). You can do it. But the price is high. You have to pay the price for success. You have to earn success. Candice, to para sa iyo: One Summa cum laude UP student who graduated with an MBA in DLSU is being paid 150,000 a month by a multinational company. She is 21.
Try to pass each course on time. Don’t go into the practice of dropping subjects – for take-up “later”. PE and ROTC should be finished by 2nd year. If you aren’t able, you must take them during 3rd and 4th year. At about the same time, you are already majoring. And the work load is so tough.
Try to do everything on your own. Be independent. Do not rely on anyone.
Try to give yourself some allowance for failure. But don’t convince yourself that it is OK to fail. In this, be a bad loser. A good loser loves losing.

Hello there!

Hi there world! I am George Atento. I am from the Philippines. I am about 30 years old. Well, some years ago. I got this cool stuff I really like you to see. But. I am not ready yet. So why not wait for my next post? This is just a testing data. I know I will probably be forever ashamed by this later on. But who cares?

Buy MCD

I bought MCD today at 29.25. That's 1000 at $29.25. Hope it does well.

Colgate Palmolive shares

Bought CL at $49.60 1000 shares.

Google

Bought Google. $224 just 200 shares. Price is so dear.

Nokia

Nokia 11.90 2000 shares. Got to have one. Let's see. I don't know how Nokia will perform with all its bumps and scary moves downhill. If it shakes, I go. Speculating. God, I hate myself at times.

Yahoo! sold

Yahoo's split seems to be a prelude to profit taking. Better unload mine. I sold today at $65 (32.50, adjusted at 2 for 1 ). That was a long climb. Good enough. I will put this behind. If it climbs again, I won't open WallStreet anymore. He he he.

Daimler Chrysler

DCX 34.00 1000 shares. German quality.

Philip Morris

Morris. $33 1000 shares. Gotta believe in the Marlboro Dream.

Angelic Experience

April 9, 2003
154 am

I just had an angelic experience.

Twenty minutes ago, my daughter Andrea fell from the bed while sleeping. She’s ten months old. I thought it’s already morning. At first I was worried when I asked my wife what happened. When she told me about the incident, I don’t know why but I wasn’t worried and all. Barely an hour ago, I was talking to God, saying my prayers and all – after what – months. I was saying to myself, nah, God wouldn’t allow things like these without a purpose. I was reminding myself of my students who almost died on a car accident in Tagaytay. Six times the car flipped over, just one shy of the bangin. Yet, they all survived. I told them afterwards that their angels caught them. I wouldn’t believe that Andrea fell because of an accident.

I would always tell Andrea especially at night time, when I would feed her in her sleep (that’s the reason why I sleep so late – I wait for her feeding time – at around twelve. Of course, between nine and twelve, I play computer games. It’s also an alibi. But don’t tell my wife about it) how much I love her, and how lucky and blessed I felt since she came to our life. During those feedings, I would be reminded of how God, my own Father feed me also day after day, providing for all I need even though I am unmindful and ungrateful of it. He would not take a grudge against us, because He is certainly better than me. I do not hold it against Andrea that she doesn’t tell me “thank you” for waiting for her feeding time before I sleep. There are times that I am really sleepy and all and I could not barely keep my eyes awake. And I would take turns between Gangsters 2 and HBO; between Capitalism and Cinemax; Hearts of Iron and Star Movies, and Star Craft just to keep me awake. Because I do not want her to start crying in order for her to get fed. And because of that, I feel blessed. That God does the same for me, being my Father in heaven. That He knows what I need even before I tell Him.

My wife even got her baby book and started reading about I don’t know, falling babies I suppose. I just held myself from telling her that it’s okay. I fell a hundred times when I was a baby. I would have told her that falling increases the IQ of babies, but she might get really mad at me, telling of those things at that particular time. I don’t know, I just felt that everything is okay. I merely said, “Shall I put the lights off already?” It’s because of the baby. She’s still sleepy and the light disturbs her. And the sight of her daddy makes her wanna get up again and play. She always does whenever she sees me. That’s why when she really wants to sleep, she goes looking for her mommy Ressu.

Then it hit me. The reason why I feel the way I feel, is because I believe that God is in control. That’s the difference between an optimist and a pessimist. Now, I can answer my bright student Nino. The reason why the pessimist thinks negatively about everything ( and squirms at the optimist who says everything is for the best) is because he does not believe in God. Perhaps he is forced to believe that He exists but he does not believe God cares for him, the way a father cares for his child. That God, is willing to sacrifice three hours of sleep for some boring computer games and much more boring cable movies, just so his baby gets fed even before she cries.

The optimist believes that there is purpose in the universe. He appreciates the half-torn (and ugly) leaf lying on the ground just because that helped to bring forth a pretty flower. The optimist believes, nay, he knows, that even the seeming evil things happen because of a purpose. That all the infinitesimal things of his life bears a meaning in the grand scenario of the Lord’s Will (which to the pessimist is merely the Will described in Schopenhauer’s book – aye, when he was still a pessimist). The optimist believes, in the final analysis, that God, the author of space and time and the great provider of the whole of cosmos, hundreds of billions of light years in expanse, cares for one infinitesimal soul as he is.

And in that sense, the optimist is a realist. Because all his assumptions start from the reality that nothing is accidental in the world. Everything flows from certain causes and eventually, these lead to consequences. In fact, the reason why there is science at all, is because of the acceptance of the universe’s regularity and order. If there is no order in the universe, then there is no science to talk about. Pythagoras, and his school understood this perfectly and he said that mathematics is the tool whereby the phenomena of the universe can be quantified, and hence, explained. Newton, for his part, said that God is a mathematician, and He made the universe through numbers and ratio and proportion. I think the Bible bears something of that too. In fact, for the optimist such as St.Thomas Aquinas, he used this order and regularity in his Summa Theologiae, I, 2 to prove that there is God. In fact, even his “proofs” through motion and causality, flow from this realization, that there is order in the universe. For if not, how are you able to say that “every mover is either self-moved or moved by another”. All the universal principles, axioms and postulates start from this proposition, that there is order in the universe. In fact, even in the things of the great unknown, the mathematician looks for the constant. Just look at the theory of relativity of Einstein. How did he equate mass and energy? By a constant c squared, or the square of the speed of light in a vacuum. Do not ask me how he found it. He explained these things in twenty blackboards in Harvard, in front of the greatest minds of his time. Besides, he was regarded by many as the man of the century. Yes, ahead of the Popes, the presidents, and Elvis Presley. In math, even those things that seemed without correlation, indeed has some of it. In fact, I never heard any zero correlation at all. Either it is negative or positive. But zero, never.

That’s the reason why for the mathematician, accidents do not occur. We cannot speak of accidents in the universe. We speak only of probability. To prove my point. Let’s say, that a person wins the lotto jackpot. If the lotto is 6/42, his chances of winning it is 1 in 3.778 billion. What if he wins two times in a row? Or three? Statistics will show that the answer will be one in so many billions. It is so low that some are tempted to say it is impossible. But, nothing is impossible. There is still a probability. Hence, you should not say improbable. The most you could say is it is very unlikely to happen. What is impossible is that you did not buy your lotto ticket, and you did not hold of any ticket at all, and yet you won. Because these two events are mutually exclusive and hence, contradictory.

Kant, in his effort to answer the allegations of David Hume wrote an eight hundred paged obscurity (from the immortal words of Durant). In fact, even his own editor sent back the copy because he was fearing insanity just trying to read it. David Hume’s propositions and his attack to human enquiry, are still valid today. But for us, it is settled. How are we sure that the causes we assigned to the effects will give out the same effects, say three thousand years from now? We are not absolutely certain. But the probability is so great we round off the opposition and convert it to law. For example, a certain drug was tested to six thousand human beings with a certain disease. All except three were cured. Will you not say that the drug can cure the disease because of the three? It’s a pity Hume did not know statistical correlation and analysis.

Hence, I believe that all things happen for a purpose. And all these have meaning because I believe that there is a God, and that he looks up to us, insignificant as we are. In fact, because I am a Christian, I even believe that this same God willed to sacrifice divinity for our sake. The divine was made man, in order to make man divine. More so, because I am a Catholic, I even believe that day after day after, he was willing to be seen as a mere lifeless bread in the Holy Communion, just so we may eat his flesh and drink his blood in an escathological Passover at Mass.

My teachers will hate me for this, but there are only four teachers I recall in college. Mr. Pedroza who taught Logic and made me love Philosophy, Ms. Beltran, my Theory of Interest teacher, who was so nice and beautiful and very kind I almost fell in love with her, and Mr See, who was my idol in math. They were my teachers in UST. Ages ago. The fourth one, taught me my love for literature. Mrs. Noel. I do not recall her name anymore, it starts with an F, Fideliza or Flordeliza. She wears eyeglasses and everytime she will say something very important, she will remove them slowly, and her eyes will start to become like David Bowie’s China eyes. Anyway, one day, she was talking about a poem of Milton or Keats I guess. Then, she takes off the eyeglass again, slowly, and with China eyes, she tells us. “God is in our heaven, and everything is right with the world”. I think Mrs. Noel was an angel also. A lot of teachers are.

304am

Ericsson

Bought ERIC 5.50 8000 shares.

PLDT

Bought PLDT (PHI) 4.60 10,000 shares at NYSE. Someone has to keep it going. It has to be us, Filipinos. PLDT will survive!!!