10 Lessons from Einstein by Paulo Coelho

A list of 10 wonderful lessons from the amazing Albert Einstein as relayed by an equally wonderful free-thinker, Paulo Coelho.

1. Follow Your Curiosity “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

2. Perseverance is Priceless “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

3. Focus on the Present “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

4. The Imagination is Powerful “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

5. Make Mistakes “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

6. Live in the Moment “I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”

7. Create Value “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

8. Don’t be repetitive “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

9. Knowledge Comes From Experience “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

Post from Paulo Coelho’s blog: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/03/16/10-lessons-from-einstein/

Original source: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2010/03/10-amazing-lessons-albert-einstein.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Official – The new iPad Mini!

Rumors have been going around for the past months about Apple’s upcoming product set to rival either the Kindle Fire, the Google Nexus, the Samsung Note, and the list goes on. Remember that iPhone prototype lost by an employee in a bar story? Apple, as it is, is so good in playing out this ‘when there’s smoke, there’s fire’ game so whenever something like it circulates, you can bet they are into something. You can bet, too, Apple themselves started it. and finally, the iPad Mini is here with all its technological glory.

Judging from the official trailer which you can check out right after the jump, you can deduce Apple’s usual strategy of taking on something that’s already in the market and claiming either as its own or wide-margin superiority over the first rollers. Yet, one way or the other, it is quite obvious that Apple is playing catch up on a market segment they’ve ignored for quite a while – a misstep from their proclaimed ability to come up with stuff the market haven’t thought of needing/wanting but will eventually sought.

Technically, there isn’t much difference between the 10-inch iPad and the iPad Mini (pegged at 7.9 inches) aside from screen sizes. So buying the latter will only depend on comfortability and mobility considerations, plus that few extra cash they could save.

Those who know me might find this a shock for I’m not really an Apple fan (nor a hater mind you) despite owning at least 2 Apple products (3 if you include the Time Capsule which is a household wi-fi access and file-sharing router) and a bit least to get excited over announcements from the Cupertino company . Yet, the release of the iPad Mini will refresh the already tight competition between the rival brands and it is quite exciting to see how the market will get stirred.

How about singing a song without notes

I’ve just re-read a favorite piece created by Karen Kunawicz entitled “What is the Sound of a Heart Breaking?” (you can read it here: http://pinoylit.webmanila.com/filipinowriters/kunawicz.htm).

With inspiration aroused in me – ironic because it was really a sad piece – I tried to do a quick search of other works somewhat similar to it. I came across this very heart-warming video that defines music in the world of the deaf.

Check out the video and see a world you’d never hear.

Iron Man 3 Official Trailer

Oh boy! My childhood superhero is hitting the big screen once more with the showing of Iron Man 3. Well, it won’t be until April 2013 but I just can’t hide my excitement.

Among the Marvel Superheroes, Iron Man is my favorite simply because I find his character the nearest to ever becoming real (God knows up to what extent Nanotechnology could bring us to). He is also a practical visionary. He is at one with the world and doesn’t really sees himself as separate from it. Plus I like that “A billionaire-playboy-philanthropist” statement. Hahaha.

See the trailer posted on Youtube:

Plus a cute parody here, or should I say, a baby version (still cute though):

Of Saints and Churches

Last weekend, October 20, I, along with my team, were invited to hold a workshop on basic photography by the youth ministry of the Archdiocese of Antipolo. Held at the Good Shepherd Spiritual Center in Antipolo, it was a whole day event celebrating the canonization of the Philippine’s second saint, Saint Pedro Calungsod.

We enjoyed so much the workshop. My team saw the eagerness in the eyes of the young audience the same eagerness we had when we were just starting. It was in the middle of our lecture that we realized, the team, has already veered away from our roots focusing more on weddings and events. By the end of the workshop, we all agreed, and vowed, to include coverage of church activities and religious celebrations in our monthly schedules.

It was a taxing day but I couldn’t hide my happiness. First, with the warm reception and positive feedback we have received from the audience and organizer. Second, is that my team is evolving to a socially-conscious and God-centered kind, re-affirming that ours is not a purely profit-oriented group but of one that follows a higher calling.

Indeed, as what others have commented, our progress is slow. Not for the lack of ability. But because we want to make sure the direction we are threading is where we will receive the true, fulfilling blessings.

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Free Entrance this October to the Philippine National Museum

Back in college, it was a guilty pleasure to visit museums in and around Metro Manila by myself. Sounds geeky, isn’t it? But I have always felt that there should be a sense of intimacy when looking at and into art and history.

The last time I visited a museum alone was almost a decade ago, and what best time to rekindle an old habit than this October when the Philippine National Museum is offering free entrance until October 31st in lieu of its tradition of waving entrance fees during the celebration of the National Museum Week

“Wag maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan. Alamin ang sariling kasaysayan.”

Admission is no excuse!

Ang [insert self-incriminating* adjective or noun here] ko talaga, hehehe…

I just don’t get it! That magpaka-totoo thingy. I just don’t.

People just seemed to accept their faults and not really do something about it. The worst part is they would actually brandish it like they are even proud they are the embodiment of such fault(s). It is common now to hear people say (or see people post), for example, ‘Ang bitchy ko talaga. Hahaha.’ or ‘Sorry na, low EQ talaga ako e.’

Again, admission to a fault or imperfection does not excuse anyone and does not give you the right to proceed with the deed. It does not mean that when you confess to be a bitch, a primadonna, an OC, whatsoever,  it necessarily follows you can go on behaving like one at the expense of others. In fact, it’s actually the reverse. You allow people to treat you as what you have openly declared. Admission does not, for whatever reason, elevates your status.

This Magpaka-totoo statement entails a lot of self-assessment and honesty. It is for those situations when unnecessary norms, practices, or habits gets in the way of success, efficiency, practicality, and positivity. A classic example is why spend a month-worth of salary just to celebrate a birthday? (Then you go declaring when the bills start to come in, ‘Sorry naman, ang galante ko kasi.’

Maturity is starting to become a rarity these days. Self-expression ends where the responsibility and accountability begins.

From a Greek epitaph to mine

I love poems. I dream of publishing my works before fire fetches me back to the divine cycle or earth and grass blanket over me (if the people I willed won’t be brave enough to completely part with my illusion). I once thought of composing my own epitaph. Until I bumped into this one in the pages of the book I find most useful during my college days.

Finding it that early in life, it struck me both as love-at-first-read and a prophecy at the same time. It felt like I could have written it. The words were so simple yet filled with depth and arousing a sense of exactness to my personal psyche. It gave hints of challenges, of ironies, and realizations – things that have happened and will eventually happen. I knew right then when I first read it that it will be the perfect summary of my life and all the things that came with it.

Reading it and owning it, at the back of my head, there’s this idea, of a longing to know and see first hand the tomb (or tombstone) it originally came. I feel I am somehow indebted to its original author that I need to offer my gratitude personally. The idea of accomplishing this is nearly impossible, I know. But the wanting, I know for sure, will always be there.

They say, no one can ever attend his own funeral. But we could at least be the one to summarize it for the benefit of those who really cared to know.

L’Envoi
from a Greek epitaph

I who loved beauty was not beautiful;
I cherished truth and yet I was not true;
I who remembered am so soon forgotten,
But I loved you.

I who loved mirth was well acquaint with sorrow;
I honoured freedom, yet I was not free;
But once, indeed, I knew the just equation,
For you loved me.

Au revoir Le Fantôme de l’Opéra

Due to a series of unfortunate events, with a sprinkle of pride, I missed the Philippine leg of the Phantom of the Opera. And for a self-confessed fan, it means and hurts a lot.

But no, I’m not going to post whines and rants here. I’m not denying how bitter I am for missing my biggest literary love. The pain is just too much but I would rather regress than linger on what-might-have-beens and i-should-haves:

• I’m a big fan of the book and not really the plays, nor the movie versions for that matter. Though I find Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version an excellent, excellent piece of work and would never think twice to pause and listen to All I Ask of You, there’s just something with reading the book as opposed to watching its adaptations that’s uniquely captivating. Perhaps in reading, the imagination plays a more  central role. I have this notion that when the imagination is at play, it is when the senses are truly at one with every other. Theaters and movies, are more for seeing and listening only.

• Gaston Leroux is the author of the original Phantom of the Opera but his version is not my favorite. My favorite is the version of Susan Kay (see cover below).Susan Kay’s version, to me, by ‘inserting’ chapters from Erik’s pasts, gave more rationality as to why Erik or Phantom is the way he is and in turn make you feel for him even more. Susan Kay laid out the broad spectrum that is in between good and evil, and depicts the regions where one cannot distinguish from the other. 
  

I could very much relate to Erik/Phantom and have once described him in a reaction paper as “everything i am and yet everything i am not”. That was the magic of that piece. It was a carnival or ironies, of dilemmas, and juxtapositions. Not one character or scene was presented in singular dimension. For is it not how real life is? Is it not how we are as humans? No matter how we pretend that we are certain of our choices, we are always in the middle of dualities; of left and right, of right and wrong, etc.

I was dying to stand in ovation and clap my hands. I was dying to shout ‘Bravo, bravo!’ That would have to wait for now. Until the time when, again, the Angel of Music sings near.

Sarah Brightman was renowned for her role of Christine Daae but Nicole Scherzinger did give a wonderful version:

I was once so good with words

In the middle of doing my long, long overdue cleaning of my ‘magic box’ where all of my for sorting goes (much like a limbo where a thing is decided for keeping or for trashing, mostly it’s the latter), I’ve came across this supposedly wedding vow an old acquaintance asked me to write for him.

He misplaced the print-out I gave him so he never go to use this. I’ve thought of using it for my own but since the bells would not sing I thought i’d treat it as just an ordinary, out-of-whim composition.

————————————————-

I was once so good with words

Just by a few phrases

I can move rocks and win hearts

I didn’t imagine I’d one day choke

Not for lack of inspiration

But because I was overwhelmed

With such genuine love

Like a castle fortress proud in isolation

I was overran

With pure dedication and compassion

So chaste that everything around seemed tall tale

You are the only truth I know

For this, my life is yours and yours alone

My heart will speak only truth

Thus will speak only your name

My life began when I spoke your name

Its echoes commenced the beating of my heart

So then when my heart is called to rest

I will say I love you second

And your name last