…there’s color everywhere

This is the best thing I can come up with to get this blog (somehow) updated. This will contain bits and pieces of what has happened to be the past few days.

No, I won’t be posting the lyrics of some local love song, it that is what you had in mind when you read the title. I just thought it would be fun to use colors when I tell tales. I have talked to people who thought my life is dull. This one should give them a hint that it is, actually, colorful. (Yes, I am trying to sound creative. It would be understandable if you thought it isn’t creative sounding at all. I am writing this with an unsound creative mind.)

So, on with the colors.

Black. My college arts professor was the first person who told me that black is not a color and so are white and gray. I am including it just because. A box of crayons isn’t complete without the black crayon on it after all. The account would be incomplete if I do not include this.

This is Harry. I got him two weeks ago.

And this is the black bag that is intended to contain Harry while I am out and about. I know I still will be using it without Harry on it though. I got this one today.

White. I’ve already said it. This is not a color. This is so lame but I can still tell you about the box of crayons.

Mushu is now extra fun to be with. He’s a sweet, sweet dog and he sure got me through the sickness I had last week.

Pink and orange.

These are the very things that have kept me alive (pink: erithromycin, orange: biogesic). The swollen tonsils began effecting annoyance on me in the evening of June 10. Later that night, I was already having chills. I decided to go to bed hoping that it would all go away in the morning. I dreamed that I was really, really sick and when I woke up, my temperature has gone really, really high. I stayed in bed the whole day Thursday and Friday. I was only able to get out of the house on Saturday evening. I was not able to attend the leaders’ meeting and planning and was not able to sing with the team on Sunday too. The only thing I got to do was to push through with the cell group meeting I scheduled earlier in the week.

Purple and blue.

I bought a new devotional notebook/journal yesterday and it matches my Bible. Also, I use a blue pen to write on it and a purple marker to highlight important verses on my Bible.

That would be all for now. The other colors will have to come later. I still have some work to do.

Obscurity

Distorted realities.

Unlikely realizations.

Broken trusts.

Relationships examined.

Lines drawn.

Bridges crossed.

And some bridges,

they will have to be burned.

The Art of Bluffing

A writer can make good content when he or she is given enough time to get familiar with what to write about. But when you are a writer and you happen to work for someone who thinks you have an article spinning chip inserted somewhere in your brain, then you definitely would have to master the art of bluffing.

With blogging seen as one of the most effective ways to creating links and excellent content writing considered to be one way of making your website more search engine friendly, companies who have made their products and services available via the Internet are now up and about having articles and blog posts made and site content optimized enough to make their corporate presence in the World Wide Web better felt.

So, how exactly do you write something that you know nothing about? Well yes, you research about it but in order for it to get done immediately (especially when the client is unbelievably demanding) you mostly bluff your way around.

When you bluff, remember to:

1. Sound as credible as possible. See to it that you sound so much like an expert, you know anybody who knows you won’t believe it was you who wrote the article.

2. Refer to as many sources as possible (without taking too long, of course). Get snippets of everything you need. Put them all together. An expert would have to know everything. If you want to sound like one, get familiar with bits and pieces of everything and then stuff it into the write-up you are on.

3. Write something else when you feel like you’ve lost the ability to bluff. (Now you are given an idea why i was able to come up with this.)

The key to making unbelievably believable copies is made up of a combination of patience, persistence, and ingenuity. You will be needing the first for dealing with grumpy goofs, the second for getting copies completed, and the third for getting excellent copies done.

For Starters

It has been an hour since I got here. The Monday jitters are already about to be gone. Perhaps the reading of several articles and news has gotten the brain cells to work now.

If this blog is my child, I would be guilty of irresponsible parenting by now. Haven’t written something in ages, that I know. The past days, I was too busy bluffing rather than blogging. When you are tasked to write something about protein powder for body-building and you don’t know exactly what it is about, you have no choice but to write (sound) like a pro. After all, they (your readers) wouldn’t know what is in your mind the moment you were writing the article.

I’m off to more writing now and thank God I no longer am writing about protein powder. The write-up I am about to do has become overly familiar to me now, I sometimes get to the point of having a hard time generating new ideas, but this sure is way simpler than writing for body-building supplements of which I practically know nothing about.

I might (most probably) change the appearance of this blog today. That might get the readers (if there are any) to think that I actually do care about this baby.

Fried and Frozen

I got my brain cells all fried up the past few days and today, they’re all frozen.

And so I resort to free writing although I know it is not always the best thing to do when you’re in this kind of state. In my case, I do this because I can no longer squeeze out anything from my thinking mechanism that has, as of the moment, decided to be dysfunctional. And as I am already doing the third sentence of the second paragraph for this post, I would like to believe that I have succeeded in forcing myself to continue to tap on the computer keys even though what I am doing is not something that would increase my productivity level for today. I do this with much optimism, hoping that by the time I get to the end of whatever this is that I am writing, the writer’s block would just go away. Man, do I hope that would happen right now. I am in the middle of a writing task and I feel terrible ‘coz it just isn’t turning out to be something great. Honestly, I don’t even think it would come close to something that would make some sense.

Enduring Annoyance

“Silence is golden.”

I was watching Love Actually yesterday afternoon – that was while we were waiting for the time when we had to leave for the airport to fetch Lola. The anecdote went that simple and yet, right at this very moment, I am wishing other people would be able to get acquainted with such statement and know that others would very much appreciate it when they learned to keep their mouths shut when they need to.

I just cannot believe how some people can be overly insensitive. I know I should be minding my own business and leave others to mind theirs. But being unable to effectively get tasks done because others are abusing their right to do whatever they want to is another story.

I wonder where some people are when Values Education was taught in the classroom. Maybe they were there but were just too busy minding their own businesses.

I am an advocate for tha virtue that goes by the name “patience” and so I would daily choose to live with the fact that some people could ever be so annoying. There, however, is a point of getting all fed up and when I get there, I do pray I still would be sane enough to remember that the word “self-control” ever existed.

Hit it!

Familiar lines wouldn’t at all get you guessing what the person is actually driving at. Well, you know you could always ask that person if he’s hitting on you but most often than not, you would decide not to. That would be too rude a thing to do.

“You look cute especially when you smile.” So much flattery. If you are smart enough, the statement would make you smirk. Most likely, there is something behind this remark.

“I’ve noticed you instantly the first time I saw you.” I’ve heard this too many times, in the movies mostly. And usually, when the statement is directed to me, I would be wishing the person could have at least reinvented it. IT writers call it spinning. I just do not know how the technique is supposed to be called when it is done in another context.

“I would like to get to know you better.” This too sounds so typical. If someone tells you this and you would not know how to interpret beyond its literal meaning, then you probably are the most naive person on the face of the planet.

Familiarity, they say, leads to liking. I do not think that works for me though, especially when there is not much creativity involved.

Breather

I still have a lot of writing to do but I feel like I can write no longer. It is as if my brain has suddenly become uncapable of generating any more ideas for equipment rental write-ups and background check descriptions. I feel bad about it really. This is what would supposedly break the monotony of it all.

I have been reading this particular book for the past weeks. Although I already had that book with me for months now, I just could not find enough time to finish it and so I decided to get myself into reading a chapter or two every day.

Yesterday’s “reading session” revealed a lot about that part of me which I have yet to know. There was a discussion about the “inner parent.” That part basically talked about how we bring our parents with us even when we leave home. Vague, huh? This is how it works. The kind of discipline that we have had, no matter how we dislike it, is the same kind of discipline that we impose on our selves even when our parents are no longer there.

What I later found out was that I came from a family of perfectionists. When I asked my mother during lunch if Lola was one, she told me that she is more or less the epitome of such word. My mom then recalled how my grandmother would throw out the clothes which my mom just washed just because she isn’t satisfied with how “clean” it already was. And so, everything had to be washed all over again. I smiled and recalled my own experience of the obsessive-compulsive tendencies of my Mom. I was in fourth grade then and one of my duties at home was to keep my room tidy at all times (i bet every kid is tasked with such). I would like to believe that every youngster have tendencies of getting their rooms all messed up – that is so that I would not be feeling too bad about myself. One afternoon, my mom got really pissed off about how untidy my room was or at least it just did not match up to her concept of cleanliness and orderliness. I could never forget how I spent the entire evening putting my things back to where they were because my mom literally wrecked the place. And that was the story of how I could never begin studying my lessons when my room isn’t orderly enough when I was in college. There were even instances when I would have very little time to do my homework or study for a quiz or an exam just because I had to clean the room that I shared with three other coursemates. Even my closest friends would be hesitant to sit on my bed because they know I never want to see my sheets all crumpled when I am not on it. These are only a few manifestations of an inherited trait.

I am not exactly a neat freak. I leave my things in utter disarray every once in a while. My room still isn’t untidy all the time. But knowing that it doesn’t have to be like that just disturbs me and it makes me feel bad about myself.

The fact that I could not do what I am supposed to do today makes me feel bad because it is not supposed to be that way. Perfectionism has its pros and cons. When you want things to be perfect at all times, you tend to do your best always. But, when you need everything to always be perfect, you would miss out on the beauty of things as they are.

Ambiguity

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. However, there are things that need to be kept to oneself. And so one writes. After all, expressing what should not be made known could always be done in the most subtle way. Thankful that one could always play with words, anybody could always get away from being judged. Then again, some people can be just so smart to read between the lines and others would be too assuming.

The famous maxim in communication states: Meanings are in people. And because people operate in a society defined by norms, the meanings that they are able to generate would be identical and would often be true. 

Many believe that misunderstandings arise when symbols are vaguely presented . Some would say interpretations would be greatly reliant on educational and cultural backgrounds. At certain times, however, the vagueness turns out to be a mere product of creative thinking. It is amazing how people can be overly creative when they wish to conceal the truth. If only people can be more truthful, perhaps ambiguity would not be much of a concern.

Too Loud

Her laughter rings

like an alarm going off

Annoyingly irritating

Irritatingly annoying

I could still hear her from here…