12.31.2006

The Farewell

Now that the year is finally over, it's time to look back a bit before turning the page, thank some people, and make some announcements.

Greetings:

I used to greet a lot of people last year but yeah I think it's time we do some pruning.

To the crew at work, all the best for next year. Keep learning, keep growing.

To blog ppl, keep writing, you know who you are.

To the friends who visit, don't think you people are unnoticed. Thank you all for the quality time, which inspired some entries in this blog.

Announcements:

After reading a series of enlightening articles, I have decided to enshrine this blog and temporarily stop blogging altogether. I am in the middle of a decision making season which will dictate what I will do for the next half year, and I intend to get rid of all distractions little by little.

I created this blog for the purpose of imparting insights in life through telling stories, some of which are my own, and I feel that I have achieved that; which pushed me with this decision of capping up this blog.

..and so with this last pitch, this is your cyber-barista, signing off.

posted by Urban Warrior @ 12:07 PM 1 people have something to say

12.18.2006

C is everywhere

No, I didn't mean Christmas...

I meant Chaos.

For those of you who are still buying gifts, better do it before the weekend. I cannot explain how happy is the feeling of sitting at home pretty and done with your shopping compared to slugging it out together with everyone at every mall, stall, corner, and food place. Long lines, tired shoppers, disgruntled sales personnel, swindlers who pretend to get lost in the city and ask for fare to return to their province, yeap, they're what you are going to run into.

and again.. if you really don't have to get someone a present and you're doing it just for the sake of giving, give it a rest. I'm sure a personal SMS is much much more meaningful than that Starbucks commuter mug. The cost in terms of celphone load would make 500 or more people happier.

This year's christmas has been a "disciplining" for me. I finally kept to my resolve. I haven't gotten a gift for anyone ('cept my parents, but that doesn't really count), and yes I also didn't buy anything for myself either. Whenever I think about it, I am sadly surprised.. but happy. Sad because I'm sure I wouldn't be thinking and talking like this if money was really easy to come by. I'm not just talking about myself, but about the whole working force in general. Inflation is there every year, and when I hear my friends in their respective industries talk about their work and their compensation, I seriously question the future of this country..

Will we ever be able to support and give children a good education and quality life like we used to???

So, that's the "Sad" part. The "Happy" part is.. before I used to think it was a big deal whenever I didn't get to give gifts to people, but after some years, I realized that most of the people who really heartened up to me, were not the people who I gave gifts to, but the ones who I spent time with, not necesarilly days or hours. I'm talking about minutes when it matters. I'm happy because there are a lot of souls out there who still value friendship and relationships more than you would a gift.

And so the Chaos continues. In my heart however, the only chaos will be during the gatherings that I organize.. that of boisterous laughter, old stories, jokes, and memories.

posted by Urban Warrior @ 9:36 PM 0 people have something to say

11.29.2006

Season

Habits are hard to break. It's a habit that kicks in every December. We call it Christmas.

For the past years, I've already looked at ways to improve the experience of the season without resorting to material anesthetics (we also call them gifts), so far it's been working, and I want to share this secret with you guys.

Make New Times

Always spend the holiday freetime with a different set of people every year. I know this is odd to some people, but trust me, it works. It's just that a year is just too long to spend seeing the same people every occasion (not just relatives but friends in general) that you'll grow too bored and breed contempt of spending time instead.

On giving

While I don't believe in this at all (because it's the season as the reason), the essence of gift giving is the effort. Not the thought, but the effort. Why so? Because we can always think about giving something to someone, but actually going out and taking the effort to look for a present is what is endearing. Well, ok, the thought matters, but as always I'm pushing to transcend the "it's the thought that counts" idea.

Don't give it if it's not good

They say that it's better not to give a gift at all if you're not going to give a good one. It will only make the recipient think of you as "giving for the sake of _____". In doing so, the quality of the interaction is awkward for both parties. So, how do you tell if you're giving a good gift? Whenever you look at a present - ask yourself if you want it for yourself too. Chances are, the ones you answer YES to are the good gifts. Trust me, it works everytime.

..and if you won't give a gift, it's perfectly fine. Let's not forget that life matters still and will always come first.

Yeah yeah I can't believe it's already that time again...

posted by Urban Warrior @ 9:04 AM 1 people have something to say

11.16.2006

On higher spending

I walk the malls every week and come across different people, students, office people, retired old citizens, housewives, foreigners. I sometimes ask myself, if people really need to spend disposable income in a mall. More than half of what you see or buy is a luxury.

Take shopping for clothes for example. Whenever you see clothing that you want to buy, you usually say you "need" it. But in reality, you just "want" it. Even if you don't buy it, you'd be just fine.

This is perfectly fine as long as you can afford the lifestyle that goes with it. This is just an example mind you. This can be anything, from buying electronic gadgets, music CDs, books, etc. Whenever you buy something that you can afford and still not flinch at your budget, this is called self-rewarding.

When you take a step back and look at it all from the bigger picture, you realize that our disposable income is well spent (sarcastically).

So, when do you say that something becomes unnecessary to spend on?

Perhaps the best idea for that would be - if that something you want is affordable but spending on it would take away beyond what is disposable income for you, yeap, you have an impulsive-spending problem right there.

Take note I make careful mention of "disposable income" - so it means that if you are not making ends meet and you are still spending on a luxury, then you have to rewrite your budget to finance your cost of living.

Whenever I think about it -- there is sound reasoning as why you would want to get a White Choco Latte that costs thrice as a large soda would, or a gourmet milkshake which yeah is also thrice the price at a regular fastfood. For that individual, he/she probably works hard so he/she would want to enjoy and spend hard. That's perfectly fine.

There is one other reason - the reason we all want (ideal, but crazy) - as to why we go for higher, more expensive (not necessarily better) things. It is because we want to experience the a feeling of elation. More specifically, to be able to say the phrase "because I can". After we spend on something that elates us, we feel good, and the experience of the moment is priceless.

What if, lets say one day, Mc Donalds served UFC / CBT / SBC drinks at regular coffee price - you wouldn't still buy it there. I know you're much smarter than that -- you're going to run up to your favorite coffeeshop as always and get that frappe you've been thinking about since 5:30. That is probably because you wouldn't want to be seen at McDonalds having a gourmet iced coffee drink.

So, despite all the talk to save and whatever, this (sickly) justifies our reason for spending. =D

posted by Urban Warrior @ 2:37 PM 2 people have something to say

10.30.2006

Email

My friend who is working abroad emailed to say that she is getting married in a couple of months and was asking me to come to her wedding. Yeah I'd go if I could. (If it would be held here in Manila yeah I'd go).

I wonder if I would ever decide to drop the anchor and stop sailing. Maybe it's because I've been so hardened by many worse experiences that tells me to be careful before ever doing something that will change your life (again).

I am so tired of all this, that sometimes that I wish girls would be able to give birth easily even when they're past 30 and that menopause would be 10 years more than what's known now, that would be the shit..

..and that the honest money you make is commensurate to your cost of living.

That's my scapegoat for this post.. I don't know what it is about it, but it seems that everything you say sounds like a scapegoat to some other person, even if it isn't..

posted by Urban Warrior @ 9:51 PM 0 people have something to say

10.18.2006

Little things vol. 3

You make your own problems

My niece was asking me to give her this and that for christmas. Then I told her that I would if she had really good grades in school. After mentioning this, she said that school was hard because of this and that (accdg. to her she is weak in math). When I asked her what she does to prepare for tests, there it was -- she spends more time chatting with her friends on the phone than studying. I simply told her that if you want to ruin your life as early as highschool, be my guest. When you do the things when you're not supposed to do them, you cause your own problems.

I think this is the case with adults even at a bigger scale. I know of people having problems with monthly payments on stuff they couldn't really afford. They do so because they wanted to show off this and that to their friends. And if I thought stuff like this ended during childhood, I was so wrong. Well it's their money and they're budget is really fucked.

Is all life equal?

Let's say you were a professional doctor and you had two patients to operate on - both are babies with requiring the same medical surgery, the other is the baby of a poor family and the other baby is that from a rich family. The poor family's baby was rushed in the hospital first.

Who will you operate on?

Unnecessary

I know of people who are more or less my friends. (un)fortunately I know a lot who were in a relationship now and they're in splitsville. It's really funny when you stumble upon the testimonials they make, it's almost 100% sure that they're "nagpaparinig" (trans: sour-graping) to the one who left. It's amusing, if not pathetic, that people have become so attached to an imbalancing factor in life.. that is... making love the center of their life. I'm being careful when I say "the center" because a good life is a balance of everything.

posted by Urban Warrior @ 9:33 AM 2 people have something to say

9.25.2006

Little things vol. 2

YOUR FATE IS NOT MINE

Everytime I visit a friend's family whenever there's a birthday, I am always asked why I am not like most.. (that is, getting married and shit like that). Being the tolerant person that I am, I always just grin and tell them I don't feel like it just yet.. (these people have single daughters bordering 30)

(at some microsecond moment, I imagine grabbing the nearest chair and slamming it into the face of whoever who asks me that)

Older people are so nosy..

MARKETING

From the words of my friend:

Love is like marketing.. it's about picking who's the "better deal".

This came from a girl, mind you.

This is one of the important lessons you have to learn in life. People will always look for something in a person, and if they don't have THAT, they won't spend the rest of their lives with you, much less like you.

Which is why my friend is (still) single. She MIGHT remain single until her teeth will fall off, if she keeps on thinking like this however. Well that's not my concern anymore. I just like writing about it to voice her out.

For my part (i'm going to be saddistic), I sometimes chide when people who have super idealistic shit fall flat on their face. I'm idealistic too, but not enough to lose my head over something that's impossible.

THOUGHTFULNESS

Do you know that a simple "hi" over the sms airwave can cure a week's worth of depression compared to a forwarded message? For fuck's sake, email has been taken for granted to the point that people are too lazy to make even one-liner messages. Trust me, it's really simple -- try sending some person a personalized non-forwarded message. It makes you and the receiver feel better.

posted by Urban Warrior @ 8:34 PM 7 people have something to say