Thank you Definitely Filipino!

Thank you for publishing my blog in your site, entitled "It's about doing; Not about just saying." :).  Here is the link http://definitelyfilipino.com/blog/2012/04/20/its-about-doing-not-about-just-saying/ 


Dark Knight (R.F.)

These are the things I am thankful for

Thank you God!
there are a lot of people who are hungry and you provide food for me everyday
there are a lot of people who have no one beside them but you have given me my family, relatives and friends around me
there are a lot of people who have no place to stay in and you have provided me a place to live in
there are a lot of people who have no where to sleep in but I have a comfortable bed to sleep on
there are a lot of people who have not too many clothes to wear and you enabled me to buy the clothes that I want
there are a lot of people who are almost always anxious about the future and you blessed me with faith and your grace
there are a lot of people who cannot get through their past and you have offered me your support and mercy
there are a lot of people who laughs at me and you take me under your care
and there are a lot of people who does not believe in you and you have revealed yourself to me.

Dark Knight (R.F.)

Don't be too quick to look for exemption

trulia.com

Nowadays it is too difficult to have a virtue. We do not care anymore as long as we get what we want. What we have and achieved is the measure of who we are. It doesn't matter how we get it. Is it because the time is changing? How people back then have their virtues so strong because of lesser comfort, old school, not too techy (characterized by technological sophistication). Does virtue really matter?


A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being (wikipedia). Here are some of the virtues I have looked up and I am sure there are a lot more out there that you may know. Honesty, Respectfulness, Generosity, Perseverance, Authenticity, Purity, Loyalty, Modesty, Justice, Patience.


I'll pick patience to focus on because I have been thinking about it recently to myself. I have noticed my patience is getting shorter. I have been experiencing at times of being impatient, in as simple as waiting for the red light to turn green. It use to not bug me at all. Losing temper easily for a short period of time and/or for small things. Whispering bad words here and there when things are not flowing the way I want it to be. Sometimes my definition of patience is not really patience. It is tolerating every minute of it with a heavy feeling, which in return cause a lot of irritation inside. Imagine that's just for small things, what more for the big things that I should be virtuous of.


"Familiarity brings complacency" says Rick Warren. What looks to be common to us can sometimes take us to settle that it's acceptable and can turn into a habit. If we see it on TV, movies, and around us, that people are impatient and curse at the same time. Well duh! you are the only one who is not doing it. If everyone is doing it, it must be alright. As a result, it becomes natural for us to rely upon our selfishness, that the whole world has to adjust to however we like it to be. Which could lead us more to disappointments. Because we have to accept how things end up to be.


What I've realized, is that the antidote to my impatience is humility. First of all, the plans I make have no guarantee that it is going to be the way I planned it to be. There are a lot of factors to consider for it not to happen. Besides what we usually get from not being virtuous is detrimental to our self, physically and spiritually. This is just my observation to myself, and that is only for one of the virtues that was stated. A good reminder to myself that it applies to all of the others as well. 

Catching myself like this, is important to me. It makes me realize something. That if I can catch myself in doing this, it is only logical to think that there is a possibility that people around me sees it and might not just saying anything about it. Not that I should be paranoid of what others think of me. I always thought of this as a good question to ask ourselves. Do you find yourself as someone who is too quick to look for exemption?


Dark Knight (R.F.)

Happy Easter !!! :)

In Respect for Good Friday, Matthew 5: 3-12

True Happiness (The Beatitudes)


Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!
Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised!
Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!
Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!
Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God!
Happy are those who work for peace; God call them his children!
Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.

YOUR HEAD IS IN THE CLOUD by Annie Murphy Paul, Time (magazine) special double issue 3/12/12

doodleaday.wordpress.com

Inundated by more information than we can possible hold in our heads, we're increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones. Google is even reportedly working on eyeglasses that could one day recognize faces and supply details about whoever you're looking at. But new research shows that outsourcing our memory-and expecting that information will be continually and instantaneously available-is changing our cognitive habits.


Research conducted by Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University, and published last year in the journal Science has identified three new realities about how we process information in the internet age. First, her experiments showed that when we don't know the answer to a question, we now think about where we can find the nearest Web connection instead of the subject of the question itself. For example, the query "Are there any countries with only one color in their flag?" prompted study participants to think not about flags but about computers.


A second revelation: when we expect to able to find information again later on, we don't remember it as well as when we think it might become unavailable. Sparrow's subjects were asked to type facts into a computer-for example, "The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas in February 2003." Half were told that their work would be saved; the rest were told that their words would be erased. Those who believed that the computer would store the information recalled details less well on their own. Sparrow compares their situation to one we all experience in the hyperconnected real world: "Since search engines are continually available to us, we may often be in a state of not feeling we need to encode the information internally. When we need it, we will look it up." Sound familiar?

The researchers' final observation: the expectation that we'll be able to locate information down the line leads us to a form a memory not of the fact itself but of where we'll be able to find it. "We are learning what the computer 'knows' and when we should attend to where we have stored information in our computer-based memories," Sparrow and her colleagues concluded in their report. "We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools."


Before you grow nervous about turning into a cyborg, however, you should know that this new symbiosis with our digital devices is really just a variant of a much more familiar phenomenon, what psychologist call transactive memory. This is the uspoken arrangement by which groups of people dole out memory tasks to each individual, with information to be shared when needed. In a marriage, one spouse might remember theh kids' after-school appointments while the other keeps track of the recycling-pickup schedule. In a workplace team, one member may be the designated number cruncher while a colleague is charged with remembering client preferences. The way we delegate to our computers is simple an extension of this principle-an instance of transactive memory carried out on a very grand scale.


But this handoff comes with a downside. Skills like critical thinking and analysis must develop in the context of facts: we need something to think and reason about, after all. And these facts can't be Googled as we go; they need to be stored in the original hard drive, our long-term memory. Especially in the case of children, "factual knowledge must precede skill," says Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia-meaning that the days of drilling the multiplication table and memorizing the names of the Presidents aren't over quite yet. Adults, too, need to recruit a supply of stored knowledge in order to situate and evaluate new information they encounter. You can't Google context.


Last, there's the possibility, increasingly  terrifying to contemplate, that our machines will fail us. As Sparrow puts it, "The experience of losing our Internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend." If you're going to keep your memory on our smart phone, better make sure it's fully charged.
___________________________________
Paul, a columnist for Time Ideas and the author of Origins, is working on a book on the science of learning.

Matthew 11: 28-30 Good News Translation

backmusclepain.wordpress.com

"Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light."