What's Wrong With Me?

I believe I am stuck in a stupid cycle of always letting go of the people I like. Somewhere between the introduction, getting-to-know-you chats, mobile phone texting, Skype video talks, AOL e-mail exchanges and Facebook status-liking it (whatever IT is) just stops dead on it's tracks and die a very quick death. Silence. No more communications. NOTHING!

After a few days of silence, I then end up spending hours trying to figure out what happened. I then have this burning need in me to find out the precise thing that caused its death. Where did it start getting wrong? Was it something I said, did, didn't do, posted, e-mailed, expressed, texted? Other matters creep into my brain until it hurts.

By then when my energy is already spent; this usually happens two weeks or so after the silence, I am already in the point where I feel a little bit of hatred for the guy because they acted like a dick and just dropped out. But then I end up pining for the guy because I miss the scintillating conversations. Yet I am hurt too and I am too proud to make the other move because I do not know what made them stop talking to me anyway and I might just end up embarrassing myself.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Sendong Flood Relief

The tragedy that struck CDO is devasting but what pisses me off more is the lackadaisical way it is handled by the media. Just because its outside Metro Manila doesn't mean its any less of a tragedy!
Living in a country that's sitting astride the typhoon belt, most of the islands experience annual torrential rains and thunderstorms. The flood that devastated Cagayan de Oro is nothing one should be shocked about. Yet, it seems that the government has not learned any lesson, especially after what happened in Manila when Ondoy hit the country. Disaster-relief operations still seems like a foreign concept that the Philippine government cannot understand. Villages, barangays and cities are always caught unprepared for this type of mess!
The country should be prepared for typhoon-related emergencies already. Don't you ever learn lessons Pinas?
Cities and municipalities still cannot handle natural tragedies that hit them. Putting a lot of families lives at risk.

This is bullshit!

Anyway, enough of ranting. A lot of people are in need of help. Anything done to help them would be appreciated.
For Filipinos who wish to donate, even the smallest amount you could spare would mean a lot.
You can take out your cellphones and donate via text message. Just follow the instructions on this picture.

For other options, do check this out.

The PHILIPPINE ATHEISTS AND AGNOSTICS SOCIETY - (PATAS) is also conducting humanitarian work. We have volunteers already in the area. For those who wish to donate to PATAS for this cause please contact  Mr. Miguel Alfonso M. Murillo

For cash donors please forward all your donations to the following portals, whichever suits you. Miguel will give us detailed reports on what has been done.

For bank to bank transactions:
BANK OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
account name: Miguel Alfonso M. Murillo
account number: 9329 0693 51

PAYPAL
 migs_ter@yahoo.com 

WESTERN UNION
Miguel Alfonso M. Murillo
Block -11 lot -11 Xavier Heights Subdivision Upper Balulang Cagayan de Oro City 9000

It is best to course the help directly to volunteers already in ground zero. This will eliminate unnecessary transaction fees in moving the money and will save time, also reach the people faster that badly needs the help most.Thank you EVERYONE!

Other portals:

TV5 KAPATID FOUNDATION
Donate in Cash
Bank of the Philippine Islands
Savings Account No. 1443-05333-2

Donate in Kind
News5 Aksyon Center, TV5 office
San Bartlolome, Novaliches, Quezon City

News5 Aksyon Center hotline - 938-6393 

SAGIP KAPAMILYA
Donate in Cash
BDO Peso Account
Account name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.-Sagip Kapamilya
Account Number: 39301-14199
Swift Code: BNORPHMM

BDO Dollar Account
Account name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.-Sagip Kapamilya
Account Number: 39300-81622
Swift Code: BNORPHMM

PNB Peso Account
Account name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.-Sagip Kapamilya
Account Number: 419-539-5000-13
Swift Code: PNBMPHMM

BPI Peso Account
Account name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.-Sagip Kapamilya
Account Number: 3051-1127-75
Branch: West Triangle, Quezon City
Swift Code: BOPIPHMM

BPI Dollar Account
Account name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.-Sagip Kapamilya
Account Number: 3054-0270-35
Branch: West Triangle, Quezon City
Swift Code: BOPIPHMM

Donate in Kind
Sagip Kapamilya
ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.
Mother Ignacia cor. Eugenio Lopez St.
Diliman, Quezon City

Hotlines
(02) 411-4995
(02) 394-9272
0917-887-4411

THE CIVIL RELATIONS SERVICE, AFP
Donate in Kind
Situation Awareness Center (SAC),
CRS AFP, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City

Landline: 912-6615
CP Nr. (0917)2471252
Focal Person: LTCOL ROLANDO RODIL, Opns Officer

Again, my sincerest thank you to everyone!

In Memoriam: Christopher Eric Hitchens

When I read the news that Christopher Hitchens has died I just felt frozen for a minute and I couldn't believe the words I was staring at on my screen. It seemed like a big joke. If there was a man whom I thought Death would avoid for as long as it could, it would be Christopher Hitchens. He could probably say something clever to Death's face and send him laughing, telling him to come back another day.

But December 15, 2011 would now be remembered as a sad day for the freethinking world. He was 62 and battling esophageal cancer, he put up a good fight for as long as he could.

I never got to see Hitchens in person. I never personally knew the man. But I will be forever grateful to him for the things he has done. Watching Hitchen's videos on Youtube and other various websites, reading his books, writings and listening to whatever audio I manage to come across somehow made me feel I have an ally in him.
His works had a very strong influence in my life especially his criticisms about religion. He made me realize that I need not be ashamed to admit that I am a non-believer. I should not be ashamed on calling people out on their bullshit. I should not be ashamed when my thoughts and opinions would not agree with the majority. Sometimes I could not understand what he was talking about, especially when it was about politics. Simply because I was not as informed as him. But then again, we also really do not have anyone we can agree with 100%. That is just absurd.

His powerful words stirred the fire of strength and life in me. He showed that one need not be afraid to stand up for what they truly believed in. One should be free to voice out his opinions and declare his thoughts. And even though your thoughts may not always go well with the majority, if you speak the truth and you have the evidence to back it up then be strong, be firm, speak up and truly the world will listen.

The exposures he did on famous personalities at one point or another has made him quite unpopular. Yet, since he could back-up his opinions, the world listened and watched and what he said forever changed it.

My heart truly aches for the loss of this great thinker. Yet I am also feeling grateful that I was able to live in a time when he lived. I got to witness his work. He may be dead but his works and words will live on.

“Hitchens’ mastery of a logical argument along with his confident demeanor gave many the courage to come out of the atheist closet,” Roy  Speckhardt said about him.

Hitch I salute you!

Some of Christopher Hitchens' quotes that I love and treasure.

“You don’t so much as become an atheist as find out that’s what you are. There’s no moment of conversion. You don’t suddenly think ‘I don’t believe this anymore.’ You essentially find you don’t believe it,” Christopher Hitchens said in an interview with Sally Quinn.

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."

"For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don't let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing. In this country where people love to be nonjudgmental when they can be, which translates as, on the whole, lenient, there are an awful lot of bubble reputations floating around that one wouldn't be doing one's job if one didn't itch to prick."

"The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has — from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness."

Screwed?

So here I am, pondering about what happened this year. Over all I can say 2011 was not so bad. A lot of new things happened and many doors were opened. I got to meet good people and experienced new things but it seems the good ride is coming to a halt. Personal life and my career (if I can consider my current job as one) are slowly heading down a slippery slope.

When they said life was like a wheel, they meant it. I just now fully realized what it truly means and I'm hating it. It would be much easier if we get a clear warning whenever our wheel heads down.

I made so many stupid moves lately. I've been irrational.
Also I seem to have alienated a few good people or I suppose they have now decided to distance themselves from me. I can't tell anymore.

I admit that oftentimes I try not to care, no matter how much I do because I realize that sometimes you can mean nothing to someone who means so much to you. It's not pride, it is self-respect.
They're the ones who promise a lot of things, say they'll always be there but when tomorrow comes they are gone and you find yourself alone again.

But I guess the important thing is to keep and cherish the good memories. And as always, one must go on. I must continue and see where all this will take me.

This post doesn't mean anything. I just want to vent out frustrations.

A Prime Example of Stupidity

This article made my blood boil and I wanted to kick the nutsack of any religious person that will come my way. But getting a grip on my sanity (for now), the argument that because someone is Atheist he/she will then immediately be immoral has been proposed so many times that there seems to be no end of it.

This age of morality, the age where we do not have slaves, do not stone people for adultery, do not deal death for apostasy (In most countries at least)... All these enlightenment/s came forth because they were well thought out, argued, reasoned and discussed.

If you actually look at the "moralities" promoted by any goddamned hole-y book, you would find that they incite wars, pedophilia, slavery, subjugation of women, death and almost every act of hatred and violence you could think of.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder! Having a religion and worshiping a deity won't be a cure-all for this mental disease. If that is the case priests won't be the number one doer of this horrific act. Damnit!

You cannot use ONE verse/phrase from the entire hole-y book that you managed to have read in one of its chapters and immediately declare that that's what the hole-y book was all about while you disregard the other fucked up shit they were talking and telling people to do. Because if THAT is the approach you use, then it is simply called CHERRY-PICKING!

My understanding of his article is this:

Atheism = No belief in God, the guiding light and highest example of morality => Leads one to the path of fucking a goat and fondling a child.

Fuck you Averick!

Death and the Business of Dying.

Assisted dying or Euthanasia is still a very hard topic to open up and discuss in Filipino society. The subject is often taboo among social circles and people in general exhibit a fear of confronting death and the thought of dying. In this post I’ll try to talk about Euthanasia (for those who are ill and chose it).

To lose someone is hard. This I know and have experienced for myself. The emotional battle that we, the ones left behind, will face is immense.

Dying, although many have accepted as natural, is still viewed as evil. And many times I've heard of the sentiment expressed that if they are granted one wish, they would want immortality.

But as humans, we are doomed to die and most times before we approach our final stage; expiration, we are often going through a series of pains and illnesses.

I see the rationale of Euthanasia because to keep someone alive through artificial means, even when death is a more humane option to take, is a cruel thing to do. But killing someone even with their permission is a big issue because to deliberately take someone's life is not natural.

But is there really a natural death? Death is death. Some die in their sleep, accidents, and murder.

Is the act of taking your own life really a cowardly way to go or a rational decision to make?

Wouldn’t it be much better for you and your loved ones to see you go peacefully and in clean conditions than see dying miserably and in a lot of pain?

I believe Euthanasia should NOT be a crime and should be an option that is open to all.

If I would ever be in a state of dementia or extreme pain I see no point in living when I am robbed of my abilities to reason, be aware, to know, to enjoy life.

No one has the right to tell me to continue living, enforce their will on me, despite me expressing that I'm tired or extremely suffering. If someone is WILLING to help me achieve my goal in my incapacitated state then that person does not deserve to be jailed for it.

Who will do the killing is another topic though. I'm sure there are individuals who will have the guts to "help" people who wish to take this option. The killer instinct is a debatable issue. How to kill and the instinct to kill are two different things.

A Rant About Respect and Religion

A question posted in the PATAS forum.

Some PATAS members said they do no respect religion. Does that mean they are:

A) Disrespectful to religion.
B) Lack of respect to religion.
C) They respect theists but not their religion.

How can Atheism in the Philippines flourish without being "blasphemous"?

***********************************************************
Here's my reply to it.

First we must tackle what the word "respect" means.
According to www.dictionary.com here are just a few definitions of the word respect which relates to this post:

*the condition of being esteemed or honored.
*esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability.
*deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy
**Deference - respectful submission or yielding to the judgment, opinion, will, etc., of another.

I do not believe any religion should be honored or esteemed by the government and the people. It is nothing but a mind-control tool that people in power like to use to impose their will on others.

For someone therefore to claim that they are religious is not a sign of personal good quality or ability because religion limits the mind. It abhors freethinking, it prevents people from implementing responsible acts to be done because one responsible act like planned parenthood by using contraceptives goes against their doctrines. It impedes the growth of science and reason. It has committed many atrocious crimes against humanity throughout history!

I will therefore never "respectfully submit" myself to its doctrines, teachings and indoctrination. I will speak out against it. Support any one who encourages others to think freely for themselves like artists and their works questioning the current doctrines and practices of the church and I will never yield to any of the Church's pressure.

/rant

A Note To Guys

I created this as a response to a friend's note that I was tagged in.

An original composition by Jovelean Borces.

NOTE TO GUYS! :)

Guys it is ok to ask us where we are. Honestly, it tickles us pink that you are concerned. But it pisses us off when every ten minutes we get asked the same question of "Where are you?" and "Who are you with?".

Also don't talk about your ex-girlfriends.
We don't want to know. Period!
Don't compare us to your ex-girlfriend because it really pisses us off. There's a reason why the "ex" comes first before the word girlfriend. She was PROBABLY a psycho bitch you had to dump.

Guys don't hump everything with a skirt.
Seriously, just because you don't get preggo and carry a fetus in your belly for NINE freakin' months does NOT give you the license to just put your stick in every hole that peeks.

Guys, we actually can sense when are being sincere or not. But, I personally don't want to be a femme apologist so I'll state it for the record, some women who deny a compliment are just really fishing for more.
So women, when you hear good words thrown your way, smile and say "Thank you!" with enthusiasm. Believe me, it sounds much better that way.

Chivalry is dead but I won't be complaining if its revived. I love a guy who does all of the things in paragraph four and more.

Carry breath mints. Don't expect us to throw random kisses when you just finished smoking two packs of cigarettes.

We dress up to look good basically for our selves and then for other women and then lastly for you. Women are mostly competing against each other in the looks department. Its a fact!

Don't flirt with girls when we are not around.
We'll find out. Trust us.
We have eyes everywhere. And gossip travels fast in the femme circle.
And when we find out, we're pissed.
Not necessarily with the girls you flirted with, although we'll curse them to death too, more-so with you.

Don't take everything we say seriously.
Sarcasm is a beautiful thing. See the beauty in it.
Don't get angry easily.
Stop asking your male friends about us when they also do not have a clue.

Don't talk about how hot and gorgeous Megan Fox is or how perfect Jessica Alba's ass in front of us. WE KNOW!
And it also fuels the nasty eating disorders that destroy our psyche.
Beauty after all is not just about the body.

Whatever happened to the word "Beautiful" or "Pretty"?
Why does every thing have to be "hot/sexy"?
I'd be utterly shocked by a guy who has more descriptive words in his vocabulary to describe me. Instead of shouting out "Yo sexy hot momma!"
Not knowing more than those words to describe a female shows a severe lack of knowledge and a stunted vocabulary.

Guys, I cannot stress this enough: If you get yourself a good girl please take care of her. Don't parade her around like a piece of meat you wiggle in front of a dog. Be proud of her accomplishments and treat her right. Not every female is a psycho-bitch.

Find one who will honor your morals.
Someone who will also show you the different sides to life and offer new perspective.
Someone who can make you smile and make you feel good regardless of your bank statement.