電網のスト、SOPAはだめですよ！

America, purportedly the bastion of democracy and freedom… may not be so if a vote in the US legislature on Jan 24 passes the SOPA bill.  SOPA, and it’s more insidious sibling, PIPA… are the first shots fired by the US media industry to censor the internet.

Not being from America, there is nothing I can do from out here.  But if you are in a position to make your voice heard in the States, please do so.  Prevent the industry dogs in the US legislature from destroying the freedom of the Internet.

今日の引用

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

戦争です。

Yes, it’s a war. Well, more like the latest battle in a conflict that has been going as long as i can remember. I was going to write about it sooner, but it took some time for me to come up with a good sense for what I am going through right now. And there is really no other way for me to characterize it other than to say, I have gone back to war against an old enemy.

肥満です。

I may have mentioned it a few times before, but I have always been on the heavy side. And I have done a lot of things to “fix” this condition. And they’ve worked, until I gave up and returned to my old eating habits. I will admit, I like food. And be it from conditioning brought on when I was little or some other factors, I eat because it makes me feel good. This is especially true for things like ice cream, chocolate, pizza, or fried food… Things that growing up in North America are taken for granted. And then, ever since being here in the Philippines, you have a host of native confections and a culture that adds rice (in oftentimes unlimited quantities) to every meal.

But these are all reasons, and excuses. It took me quite a while, to feel what it is I really want when it comes to my life: to have full freedom and self-expression. In all aspects. Yes, even in the physical aspect, which I have neglected for decades. I want to hike trails, climb mountains, go diving, dance… And yes, I want to look good in clothes.

I acknowledge that getting this big didn’t “just happen”–I brought myself to this point. I take responsibility for every bite I took, every hour I spent on my butt, every aspect of my lifestyle that led me to this point… And know that with everything I do now, every difficulty and disappointment, is all mine. No finger pointing or letting myself off the hook. In a war, the worst thing that can happen is to lose focus, especially when the enemy can call upon every resource that you have to defeat you, because in this war, the “enemy” is no one else, but me.

So, 11 days in, I am surprised by great results, breakthroughs by the day. But today’s breakthroughs are tomorrow’s boasts, and getting on that ego trip is not worth the loss of focus. The task at hand is to follow this new diet to the letter.

The mission is clear. I don’t know what the end of this war will look like, save that the last time I ever weighed like that, I was a freshman in university. Whatever comes up though, I have the objective always in front of me.

計画

i still can’t quite get to bed at a decent hour.   this is complicated by the fact that no matter what happens, i will wake up at 5AM, regardless of what time i get to bed.  brain is still running.  most of the time, this is a good thing, but not when you really need some shuteye.

i oddly feel like i’m just floating around.  like those jellyfish up there. i find myself like this some times, shifting from days where i can look at the world and my life with utter certainty… and then there are days like this.

it’s probably the diet.  it’s all part of the plan really, and i ran into this book serendipitously, when さ希ちゃん’s dad mentioned that it was something a friend of his tried in response to his doctor’s threat of dual knee replacement surgery.  coupled with the exercise program that i’m doing (save the deadly holiday hiatus of which i’m recovering from) this is part of a multi-pronged body reengineering effort which i am setting the first major milestone for August 12.

this is the fourth diet i am going on since 2004.  and trust me, they all worked, it’s just that the rebound got me.  actually, i stopped playing the game. got off the roller coaster and into a train wreck. but this is the first time i am actually going on a diet with a goal other than being able to snag a new wardrobe off of my brother as the sole motivation.  let’s not kid ourselves here, i’m getting old, and i wasn’t the poster boy of health since university… so, it’s time to put in the effort and get back into being fit and healthy.

i’m also writing a book.  which i plan to finish within the year.  my original deadline was valentine’s… but who am i kidding? i visualized the book to be a melting pot of a lot of peoples’ commen experience, and while the creative journey was not quite what i expected, i know now that i will not do anyone any service by rushing it. so it will come out when it’s ready.

and i haven’t stopped taking pictures. i am doing so for the book, and in order to keep my skills honed.

and then there is gunpla. i have a ton of kits i haven’t finished, that need my attention.  once i set aside working areas in my new place ( yes, i’ve moved closer to work, in way cooler digs. ) i’ll get to work and finish some kits.

finally, the big plan for this year. that has to get organized as well.

and so on the 3rd day of the year, beset by insomnia and an irrational craving for a pint of dark chocolate ice cream, i look at the year ahead.

and smile.

レトロ

とりあえず皆さん明けましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いします。

2011, 2011… where do I start?

if there is anything i can say abouｔ the year that has passed, it has been one hell of a roller coaster ride.  and not just any kind of roller coaster… if anything, i can say that it was a backwards looping standing roller coaster of a ride wherein the tracks seem to be so close to the surrounding neighbourhood that if you did something as crazy as getting off the ride you would fly into someone’s house.  yeah, something that crazy…

but another thing i can say is that life and what i want to do in it has become, even if just a tiny bit… clearer.

i know who i want to spend it with, i know what i want to keep doing, i know what new things i want to start doing, and more importantly, i also know what things i will stop doing.

and through all of that, i also know that all of this… isn’t as serious as i make it out to be.  that the world would be a much better and a much more enjoyable place, were it devoid of all of the drama i put in it.

and so on the first day of yet another exciting year in my life. i begin, with words i borrow from a favourite author:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness…and somewhere in the next year, I hope you surprise yourself. – Neil Gaiman, 2007

make the most out this year everyone! because, 2012 is my year.  but i’m more than willing to share it with everyone else.

ここのクリスマスは世界最長なのですよ！

今月はフィリッピンにクリスマスを始まりました。

I’m serious.  At exactly 12:12am on September 1, I heard my first Christmas song on the radio.  It’s crazy.

縁談

僕は嬉しいです。 (^-^)

日曜日

A dark, gloomy, lazy day in this part of the world. These days, it takes even more out of me to do things I need to do. がんばります！

水

It’s a glass of water. But it’s also the first time I’ve posted in a while. I’ve missed this.

地震

I’m glued to a news website or channel on the television. And every time they show footage of what’s going on, I can only watch in shock. Just a year ago, I was walking the streets of Tokyo, fulfilling a childhood dream. These same streets, the same people I may have walked past in Shinjuku, ogled goods with at Radio Kaikan in Akihabara, or queued with at the oden stands in Ueno Park, are now facing some of the hardest times of their lives.

My first brush with a natural disaster was when I was on a Philippine holiday in 1991, when I saw the ash from Mount Pinatubo blanket our street like snowfall without the winter chill. And then when I moved back here, it was the almost annual brushes with the problems brought about by typhoons. I was caught during the troubles brought by Typhoon Ketsana, and my apartment building was little refuge from all the water that poured in. I survived, and prevailed. I even took the time to help with relief efforts when I could, in between digging our apartment’s basement out of the silt that accumulated there just so we could restore water to the building.

None of these experiences compared to what the Japanese people are facing now.

日本のみんなさん、がんばってください。全部の世界の祈りはみんなさんと。