Systematically Malignant Way of Life.

Alluring Apocritan (click the image to zoom in): I was hesitant to macrophotograph this Paper Wasp 2 days ago because it’s guarding its nest, but nevertheless I tried to give it a shot. This particular wasp is surprisingly docile; I even tried to move the leaf where the wasp’s nest was attached to in order for me to capture this 4:1 portrait, haha.

10:01 am • 16 July 2011 • 9 notes

Military probes “Libingan ng Mga Bayani” pre-nup photo shoot

MANILA, Philippines - The military is investigating a pre-nuptial photo shoot held at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio in Fort Bonifacio, an Armed Forces official said Thursday. “The Army’s Support Command is looking into the incident”, AFP spokesman Commodore Miguel Jose Rodriguez said. He added that investigators will look into preventing a similar incident from occuring.

Rodriguez said the photo shoot, which has hit the Internet, desecrated the place where soldiers and dignitaries are buried. “Maybe the couple didn’t know that they are actually violating the sacredness of the place,” he added.

Rodriguez said soldiers in charge of managing the cemetery could face sanctions.

He said the couple or the people who took the pictures are not the target of the investigation. “What we are looking at is the management of the Libingan ng mga Bayani, how it happened,” he clarified. “The director probably told them (couple) to embrace the cross and didn’t realize that the idea went out of bounds of decency. The problem there is they have transgressed what we call propriety and decency to the mind of the public,” Rodroguez said.

The couple has apologized to the public. - with a report from Atom Araullo, ABS-CBN News.

PS: This isn’t really worth the hype in my opinion (okay, I’m being a hypocrite because I shared it here). It’s really odd that the people involved would be unaware of such sensibilities. It’s indeed rude to some extent, but then again it’s just a relatively minor violation that can be easily fixed by an apology (which the couple did), and making sure that it never happens again. It’s a lot worse than say, damaging or digging out a tombstone/grave, haha.

Besides, it would be rather hard to justify the rudeness of the couple for some people because the place, specifically, the area they were shooting on is an “ideal” setting for a desecrating theme (kinda dirty and uniform tombstones, long blades of grass, cloudy skies etc.), some people would just go on blaming the cemetery’s management-in-charge because of the poor maintenance (unless of course if the dark, desecrating theme is photoshopped, I never thought that Libingan ng Mga Bayani would be that untidy in the first place, haha). Also, the usual type of arguments that people will try to resurrect will be the credibility of the dead that were buried here as “Mga Bayani”. For example, Angelo Reyes, haha.

To be honest I kinda feel sorry for the couple being the target of religious hatred. Yes, they were rude, but I think they don’t deserve a “hellbent on condemning” hate by the faithful, they’re not the only people held accountable for this situation.

Then again, it’s highly unlikely that they didn’t know that they were already risking their social lives by doing this (A seemingly cross-dressed couple sitting and leaning on a tombstone, with the “bride” holding a cigarette is just too obvious and outright religiously provoking to be considered as a mere accident or ignorance). Although given that this photo spread like wildfire might suggest that the couple/studio posted it on their social network accounts like Facebook, then someone just shared it all over the web, makes it all the more awkward, since this may mean that the couple/studio were intent on doing it because they’re planning to be (in)famous, haha.

On a side note, the photograph is nice in terms of visual appeal, even though in my opinion the conceptual elements are far too cliche and outright (elements being spoon-fed to the viewer) to be considered as a conceptual masterpiece.

2:39 am • 9 July 2011 • 1 note

Aurora by Gru: From the band’s 2010 debut album Cosmogenesis. This is one fine space-themed progressive metal instrumental. Gotta love the atmosphere of this one. I really love how it blurs the line between minimalistic post-rock and ornate prog-metal; makes a person chill and dreamy yet fully-aware and awestruck at the same time. Oh, and best of all the whole album is free to download, haha.

2:20 am • 5 July 2011

"Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:
1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others.
2. Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind.
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do."

—

Cicero, Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist (106 BC – 43 BC) (tnx wildcat2030)

PS (iamnothingami): These “mistakes” are actually strongly manifested in human morals. I could never fully understand law and order (or many other of its derivatives, like religion, race, class etc.) as a concrete and rigid “right or wrong” system of reference, but I do understand that it can be used to exploit and manipulate because of misinterpretation (or the dynamics of human interpretation altogether). Nevertheless, it just goes to show how much we value others based on how much we value ourselves. Fear may be the mother of morality, but egocentrism may be its father, haha.

(Source: amiquote)

1:02 am • 4 July 2011 • 130 notes

Culicidae (click image to zoom in): Another macrophotography shot of a mosquito, this time with a red bokeh background. The insect landed on a red glitter-coated Christmas decor; my on-board flash lit up the glitters and it caused the bokeh.

3:53 pm • 27 June 2011 • 4 notes

Well, partly true because these two are the primary neurotransmitters that are responsible for a wide range of behaviors, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you “enjoy” them if they’re present (as long as it doesn’t involve, anti-depressants or LSD/ecstasy drug abuse). Nevertheless, it’s a cute illustration, haha.

PS: Wait, how about endorphins?

(via crappycameraphonephotography-de)

12:28 pm • 27 June 2011 • 8 notes

"If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition—even when it seems to be doing a little good—we abet a general climate in which skepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate."

— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (via incaseyouwantorneedtoknow)

(Source: russellrouser)

3:56 am • 27 June 2011 • 28 notes

"Theory on the implementation of the smoking ban: The local Philippine government is intent on making it as ‘vague’ as possible because they think it might instill fear and confusion over the smoking populace, hence making them too paranoid to smoke because of their interpretation to a superficial rule as ‘No smoking in public (everywhere), apprehension will be strictly applied (they’re everywhere, and they’re out to get me and torture me Marcos-era style)’ When in reality, their actual surveillance isn’t really that effective and apprehension is lacking."

—

These vague laws, coupled with extremely detailed and more so, “referenced” reasons on why smoking is bad, may contribute a lot in promoting stereotypical conflicts between smokers and non-smokers since the public will heed the “referenced facts” about the dangers of smoking, while the non-smoking populace may interpret the law as a “corrective measure” (and even as a cure for a social sickness) because of the straightforward, superficial, and restrictive message it promotes. It could be easily attributed to some vague laws that some preachers say during a religious retreat. (ex. Harry Potter is an evil story promoting witchcraft and demonology)

PS: Also, let’s not forget that all the while, they could actually exploit the “vagueness” of the law by collecting more money from the people who were caught smoking, who don’t really know where they should smoke because of the aforementioned vagueness (meaning, the scope of implementation) of the smoking ban.

3:20 am • 27 June 2011 • 3 notes

Makes sense, haha.

(Source: sister-sybarite)

12:18 am • 26 June 2011 • 18 notes

"Well I think the lightning story really changed my whole way of looking at the world. Of course, at 14, you don’t really know how you look at the world yet. You’re being formed, and I think being 14 is a very crucial moment. I think that it’s even a moment when the brain starts to change. You’re moving away from your childhood and into adulthood, and that’s when all these big metaphysical questions begin to be asked by you, and suddenly the world looks different. So I think the fact that I was so young, and at that turning point in my life is why the story had such a deep impact. There’s something monumental about a lightning bolt coming from the sky. It doesn’t feel like an ordinary death. It has something divine about it. Something just so transcendentally scary about it. It opened up a whole realm of speculation that I’ve continued to live with ever since, and I think it’s deeply implanted in all the work I’ve done. All the writing I’ve done. Everything I’ve thought about ever since. It’s just pure dumb luck. I mean I don’t believe in destiny, I don’t believe that this boy Ralph was destined to die that day. It’s just a series of many small contingencies that mount up, to push him under that barbed wire at that instant when the lightning struck. And so it’s what you might call, or what I call, in any case, the mechanics of reality. There’s no meaning to this. It’s absolutely meaningless. And yet this is the way that the world works."

—

American Novelist and Screenwriter Paul Aster in Act of God, a 2009 documentary film about the odds that a person can be struck by lightning and how it’s related with metaphysics and existentialistic thought.

PS: This documentary really made me think. Between meaning and chance, there’s always a reality, a reality that’s very akin to how the human mind works; always in tension, always in motion, always driven by choice.

1:41 am • 19 June 2011 • 1 note

darthambiguous asked: Are you studying psychology, or just reading insightfully?

Psychology is one of my current interests, although I’m not studying it in a formal sense, since I’m a graduate of AB Philippine Studies and Mass Media. But then again, I did learn a thing or two about media psychology in my college course.

So yeah, I guess I’m just reading insightfully. I’m actually learning psychology through various articles on the internet, even here in Tumblr through tracked tags, if you know what I mean. It’s fun to learn something new everyday, haha.

3:43 pm • 17 June 2011 • 3 notes

"The day you change your mindset from ‘What is life going to throw at me today?’ to ‘How am I going to creatively and stubbornly make my life bend to my will today?’ might turn out to be the day that things will start to change for the better."

—

DickMachine, a commenter from the Cracked article, 5 Reasons Life Actually Does Get Better by John Cheese

PS: Really liked the article itself. A surprisingly motivational (but also realistic) article from a comedy website. Yes, the universe may be apathetic and life may be meaningless, but you always got the human irrationality, naivety and stubbornness to paint the world you perceive using your own colors, to make your own choices regardless of the causalities, and to create a perceived meaningfulness out of the utter meaninglessness. Let the absurdity of your human existence deal with the absurdity that is the whole universe.

3:20 pm • 17 June 2011 • 4 notes

Schizophrenia (The Misconception)