AN ODE TO RAINBOW SKITTLES

Kontemplation

My friend Maria was high and talking philosophy to a tree in an Amsterdam park. She made a friend that day. How about my experience with drugs? I ate two cookies laced with weeds once... unknowingly. That's what you get for eating dessert before the main courses. Attending a liberal college, I also found a bag of weeds lying tauntingly in the hallways a while ago. Somebody lost their joint!

Boys and girls, I don't smoke. Well, I do, sometimes, depends on your definition of "smoking" and what is being smoked. Real smokers swallow, let it soak in, and drift it off their nostrils. I just blow it off, though. That still counts, right?

An Ode to a Pin-up Girl

Alright, It's Betty Page, y'all

Betty Page was such a bad ass. She dropped the devil's horns and put on the angel's halo, yet her leaving the dark side didn't offer much peace to her. I wonder what should one do to be happy? To do what her heart desires or to restrain herself from natural instincts for a higher purpose? I may sound like a hedonist, but I don't advocate the exclusive choice of either self-deprivation or indulgence of any earthly pleasure. What we need is a fine balance between indulging and abstaining. This leads to the concern of what guideline there is to help us achieve this equilibrium.

For Betty, she chose Christianity, which obviously doesn't endorse indulgence in its teaching. After all, it is entirely up to the person's own judgement, whether there has been responsibility and mindfulness when an action is done. If Betty had loved what she did and her action harmed nobody, she wouldn't have had to rely on a higher entity to justify herself. However, people sometimes lose trust and hope in themselves. When the mind and heart are weak, their vulnerability is easily taken advantage of, all in the name of love and salvation.

What exactly happens when a person is saved from being lost, what does she realize when her blind eyes suddenly start to see? The awareness of her own self and the discovery of a meaning for her existence in the world are the answer. Religion can be a mean to this end. Sadly, the person has to avoid such realization in worship of a higher being that her lowly self wouldn't dare to match. Again, I want to stress that if you don't regret your choice of dedicating your life to god, then you are doing the right thing. That is how you define your identity and your place in this world, I respect your intention. However, always keep your mind open. Even if there is guidance, you can close your eyes yourself, fail to see, and ultimately become a lost wanderer in this monstrous confusion called life.

Anyway, enough indoctrination, it is time for some music. This mix offers a refreshing interpretation to the classic repertoire, some vintage inspired pieces, and a bit of old school goodies near the end. Enjoy.

Tracklist:

1. It Don't Mean a Thing - The Puppini Sisters
2. Mambo Italiano - Club de Belugas ft. Dean Martin
3. Soul Bossa Nova - Quincy Jones and His Orchestra
4. Rum 'n' Coca Cola - Tim Tim
5. We No Speak Americano - Yolanda B Cool
6. Whipped Cream - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
7. The Mambo Craze - de Phazz ft. Pat Appleton
8. Maria Elena - Xavier Cugat

Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance

A Fine Balance

My friend Cora decided to cease her ownership of the book and gave it to me after an abysmal Sociology lecture about the caste system. "Ugh...take it, I can't have it, it's too depressing for me, I just can't..." she then wandered off complaining about how much she hated the professor and sociology in general. Holding the book in my hand, I realized she quit after about one third into the book. I wondered what it was that set off such a vehement rejection. Was it because the book belongs to Oprah's book club and Cora was being a hater of anything mainstream? Obviously, I had no idea what was in store for me in those 600 pages.

The book depicts how destiny brings four people of very different background into each other's life. Set in the time of political and social chaos, the novel weaves the life fibers of Dina, a widow of wealthy background to those of Maneck, a young student, and Ishvar and his nephew Omprakash, two tailors who work for Dina's secret sewing shop for an export clothing company. I guess I won't present a synopsis of the novel as you can find that easily on Wikipedia. I'm more interested in telling you why Cora abandoned it in the first place.

18 Rules of The Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

I was by myself at the local Barnes & Nobel when I decided to make the Dalai Lama my date. He said inspirational things to me, lifted my spirit up during a very dramatically turbulent time of my life. I dated a jerk and got dumped, my mom turned psychotic, and my grades took a turn to the dumpster. These events affected my snobbery negatively. With much gratitude to my crazy friend Cora, the relatively cultured things I got to do were seeing a highlighted performance of Die Zauberflöte and dining out fancily at my favorite restaurant Demi. Anyway, I was still so distraught over the whole thing that I didn't really enjoy the experience. To be more accurate, my mind wasn't there, it was imprisoned somewhere in this dingy cell of melancholy. The Dalai's words put me in a meditative mood and brought me peace.

There are people who have real reasons to suffer, who are really ill, for example, on the breadline, disaster victims, or abused. And yet, here again, they often have the power to remedy this. Practically speaking, they can and should take care of themselves, speak out against their abusers and take them to court demanding damages or again they can work extremely hard if they do not have enough food or clothes. And mentally, they can adopt a positive attitude."

Acording to Buddhism, reflecting on the reality of suffering never induces either pessimism or despair. It leads to the discovery of the root causes of our plight: desire, hatred, and ignorance, and to a way of freeing ourselves from them. By ignorance, we mean not understand the true nature of people and things. It gives rise to the other two poisons. When ignorance dissolves, desire and hatred have no foundation and the source of our suffering has dried up. As a result, we experience a happiness that is spontaneously altruistic and that is no longer at the mercy of negative emotions."

So yeah, while Bill Gates in this post proposes rules that bring awareness to a person's reality, the Dalai Lama's rules reach spiritually inward to the core of our beings and simultaneously connect us to others. I also find the concept of mindfulness much advocated by Thich Nhat Hand shares the same principles with what the Dalai Lama has to say.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
• Respect for self
• Respect for others
• Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

So, light up a candle, close your eyes, take a deep breath, be aware of the surrounding and contemplate the words. I did, felt much better, and get my feet back on the track.

11 Rules of Bill Gates

Can the Rules of Living be found
in these books?

I was doing some MCAT passages when I ran into Bill Gates' thought-provoking rules. Apparently, he "talked about how feel-good politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids who have no concept of reality and how this lack of a concept sets them up for failure in the real world." I see truth in his ways of thinking, so consider this a reality-check. Sugar-coating reality is quite lethal, don't you think?

• Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it.

• Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

• Rule 3: You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.

• Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

• Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

• Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parent's fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

• Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasite of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

• Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades, and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

• Rule 9: Life is not divided into semester. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. You have to do that on your own time.

• Rule 10: Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

• Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. 

I realize myself doing or not doing certain aspects proposed by these rules, which are quite practical and applicable to me as a young adult freshly out of college. I don't think these rules only work for a certain population at a certain age but should be considered universally to everyone. At the moment, I still can't believe that I graduated. Indeed, I still call these months my summer breaks, which makes me startled every times someone asks me about my plan post-grad. "Uhm... after the summer break, I'm taking the MCAT this September... uhm... probably find a job somewhere before applying to the med school." I'm still scared though. I want to get on my own feet taking care of my future before I can take care of anyone/anything else that needs me. Sitting at home studying might sound stagnant but dear World I am getting out there. *sigh*