when swamped with work, observe the following protocol:

STEP 1: accomplish most urgent tasks first

STEP 2: if most urgent work is tedious, do less urgent, less tedious work

STEP 3: if less urgent & tedious work is done and urgent work is still tedious, take a break. make sure breaks don't last more than 30 MINUTES at a time and are not at least 1 HOUR in between.

STEP 4: if your breaks start becoming too long and/or frequent, affecting focus, move to step 5.

STEP 5: change gears: set rewards. after 30 minutes of work, you get to watch a little netflix, or play a game. or step outside for some fresh air/jump around in place in feeble attempt to jog the brain. this is a highly flexible step and may be adjusted as required.

if all of the above fails, proceed to step 6.

STEP 6: sleep.

repeat until it sticks:

"i don't agree with how they act/speak/worship/work/love/live their lives.

but they don't deserve to die."

"In the midst of winter,I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger, better, pushing right back." ~ Albert Camus

i get power and internet back, and the first thing i do...?

dick around on social media.

a blanket disclaimer: when i post my opinions on social media, i'm not trying to show that i'm clever. i'm trying to show that i'm thinking. i hope that at least comes across.

***

a lot of things have happened, but i really need to get some work done before the power goes out again. my laptop's battery is busted and won't charge, so i'm restricted to desktop use, and desktop use is dependent on rotating brownout schedule. ty for this, glenda.

so i may be sparse online. leaving some food for thought in the meantime:

"Gutenberg's generation thirsted for a new book every six months. Your generation gets a new web page every six seconds; and how do you use this technology? To beat King Koopa, and save the princess. Shame on you. You deserve what you get."

~ Mr. Feeny (Boy Meets World)

putting this on my blog because i keep wanting to read this and not finding it anywhere.

i encountered this first on Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds, a truly beautiful piece of fiction. this version was translated by Lin Yutang, and i found it on this blog post.

( When you were born, I was not truly pleased, for I was a man over thirty, and you came not a boy but a girl. )

inspired by tom hiddleston :D and off the top of my head. bear in mind that some of these do NOT have happy endings. romantic =/= happy in my universe.

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Sucker Punch explained. SPOILERS, so be careful. in fact, i'd prefer that you watch the movie before you read this.



i'll be honest: when i first saw Sucker Punch i wasn't too impressed. the acting was so-so, the effects were distracting, and the story really is complicated and difficult to follow.

i was prepared to think there was a deep and profound message hidden in the story, then told myself it was just that "women are strong" and was disappointed. at least i wasn't too deeply and profoundly disappointed, for which i am thankful; i remained entertained and asking things until the end of the film.

but then my sister found this article, and told me about it. i was blown away. these messages were lost on me as i saw the film, but when i thought about it, and then saw the film again, it all fell into place.



but the thing is, that's not how it's supposed to happen. the audience is not supposed to work too hard to arrive at what's going on - discussion shouldn't blur sentiments, people shouldn't arrive at the proper context by stumbling onto obscure writeups on the web.

plus, the audience is not supposed to be driven off by bad acting and confusing, overtly offensive presentation at first viewing. it's just not DONE.

however, it's a very interesting technique. i keep thinking of ways to improve on this highly stylized presentation, and i can't arrive at one - except perhaps for better casting. this is as personal as it gets for an independent storyteller - this is all the pretense and homage and genius that have been boiling inside for years.

it's still a story that deserves to have been told, in the way it was told. it's earned my respect and has made my recs list for being unique. but i hesitate from saying it's one of my favorites, because i'm still trying to decide if the things that made it so WEIRD in fact gave it an advantage or a handicap. a year after seeing the film, my mind is still doing a whole lot of weighing.

the seme/uke dynamic taken literally! and with gorgeous results
background: in a certain country, people are either born as suppliers or receivers. this distinction pertains to the transfer of life force, which is done through kissing. it is implied that sexual intercourse is the best mode of energy transfer.

this is a biological thing: people can't live very long without having a supplier or receiver to transfer energy with. people are paired off at the age of 3 or 4 once it has been determined (by computer) that they are the perfect match for each other.

this sort of "fated partnership" is most commonly heterosexual. it isn't abnormal for partners to develop feelings for each other, marry and settle down. however, it is also common for people to have love interests other than their own partners, and to have children outside of the pairing.

what is not so common is same-sex partnership. people know it happens, but not very often. there is also no social bias against it; it happens, and it's natural. the important thing is that everyone is paired up with the best supplier or receiver for them - it is, after all, essential to living to have the most compatible partner. the feelings they develop individually and for each other are none of society's concern.

(  'a partner and a lover are two different things.'  )

so this cheese. i love it. i gave it a try when i saw it was something new in the pan de manila outlet near my place, a few months back, and i've been hooked on it since.

i don't buy it very often, however, because i consider it expensive. P75 for a small pack, which i end up finishing all by myself over the course of a few toasted cheese sandwich breakfasts. i bought my family a large pack (P180) to sustain us over the meatless holy week, so this is actually the first time for my father to have an honest to goodness taste of it.

he told me just now that he's been looking for that particular taste for ages. apparently, this cheese tastes exactly the same as the cheese the people in my hometown used to receive in care packages from america during the Second World War. they came in small cartons, my father said, that had no label, only the word "CARE" stamped on the sides.

"they gave us cheese because we were undernourished," my father said. the american soldiers used to slice up the cheese and distribute them for the children to eat.

the taste of the cheese burned itself into his memory. my father didn't even realize until now how much he'd missed it. sometimes he would miss things like well-aged (non-injected with curing salt) ham, and go off randomly in search of the taste.

there won't be much, because it's very short. there isn't even any sherlock/john smaug + bilbo action :(


- this morning i told my sister "of course watson will be in hobbiton. watson is a hufflepuff. hobbiton is hufflepuff village*."

(though in reality i think of watson as a gryffindor. it's the breakneck speed at which he decides to risk breaking his own neck.)

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for everyone's reference, this is how my sister figures it:

1. hobbits = hufflepuff
2. humans = gryffindor
3. elves = ravenclaw
4. orcs = slytherin

// mobbed by slytherins