“I believe you don’t know what you’ve got until you say good-bye.”

    – Savage Garden, “Affirmation” (1999)

This phrase carries several meanings that apply to my life right now…

I stole this Q&A thing from ComfortableFit and thought it was interesting. An effort was made to translate the foreign song titles… If there’s a question mark next to the song title, it means that I’m not sure if the translation’s accurate.

I didn’t cheat, so the answers to some of these don’t make sense . To be fair, however, many of these titles are eerily appropriate…

1.) Put your music player on shuffle
2.) Press forward for each question.
3.) Use the song title as the answer to the question.
4.) NO CHEATING!!!

1.) How am I feeling today?

Hacken Lee, “Go Mui” (Cantonese, “Tall Girl”)

2.) Where will I get Married?

Michelle Branch, “Breathe”

3.) What is my best friend’s theme song? 

Live, “I Alone”

4.) What is/was highschool like? 

judgestin‘s rendition of Mason Williams, “Classical Gas”

5.) What is the best thing about me?

Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”

6.) How is today going to be?

Andy Hui, “Dui Neih Tai Joi Fuh” (Cantonese, “Caring So Much About You”) (?)

7.) What is in store for this weekend?

Blue Zone, “Too Beautiful”

8.) What song describes my parents?

Joey Yung, “Fong Ngoi Ji Yau” (Cantonese, “Let Go The Freedom Of Love”)

9.) How is my life going?

Live, “Feel The Quiet River Rage”

10.) What song will they play at my funeral?

Silent Hill Soundtrack, “Waiting For You”

11.) How does the world see me?

Andy Hui, “You Light Up My Life”

12.) What do my friends really think of me?

Ginny Liu, “Ma Mu” (Mandarin, “Numb”) (um?)

13.) Do people secretly lust after me?

Goo Goo Dolls, “Name”

14.) How can I make myself happy? 

3 Local Boys, “I’m A Filipino” (errrr hahahaha)

15.) What should I do with my life?

No Doubt, “Don’t Speak”

16.) Will I ever have children?

Michelle Tumes, “Feel”

17.) What is some good advice? 

Andy Hui, “Ying Goi Jam Faan Ying” (Cantonese, “How Should I Respond”) (?)

18.) What do I think my current theme song is?

Martika, “Toy Soldiers” (hmmmm…)

19.) What does everyone else think my current theme song is? 

Final Fantasy VIII Soundtrack, “Eyes On Me (Piano Version)”

20.) What type of women do you like?:

Coco Lee, “Before I Fall In Love”

21.) Will you get married?:

Gin Blossoms, “Until I Fall Away”

22.) What should I do with my love life?

Super Mario Brothers Theme, Techno Remix (hahaha)

23.) What’s sex like?

Jolin Tsai, “Shuo Ai Ni” (Mandarin, “Say I Love You”)

24.) Where will you live?

Twins, “Do Jeh Sat Luen” (Cantonese, “Thanks for the Lost Love”) (?)

25.) What will your dying words be?

Elva Hsiao, “Wen Zi Ji” (Mandarin, “Ask Myself”)

Thank you all for the reassuring responses. Last week, I had a weird stomach virus that restricted me to eating rice and drinking tea and Gatorade. By the time I wrote the last entry, I think the diet had rendered me even more nuts than I already am.

It is true that we are all only human. I suppose guilt is just as much a consequence of being human as being errant. I’m not sure why I always reflect on the past whenever I get sick, but perhaps it’s just part of who I am.

Looking back on what I’ve been doing these past few days, weeks, months, and even years, I can’t understand why I’m making the same mistakes.

I’m not talking about academic mistakes, either.

I understand that as humans, it is normal for us to err. But I just can’t convince my brain to act correctly when dealing with people. Why do I not act appropriately in specific situations? Why am I silent when I should be verbally expressive? And the worst one of all, which I have commented on in the past in this xanga: why must I keep making worthless assumptions about people, hypothetical ideas, and topics that I do not have full knowledge of?

Why ask why?

Somehow I get the feeling that the answer to all of the above questions is along the lines of explaining why 1 + 1 = 3.

~~~
And why is it that such strange reflections come up during or after a period of being sick?

A belated happy Easter to you all.

“Our hearts and minds desire clarity. We like to have a clear picture of a situation, a clear view of how things fit together, and clear insight into our own and the world’s problems. But just as in nature colors and shapes mingle without clear-cut distinctions, human life doesn’t offer the clarity we are looking for. The borders between love and hate, evil and good, beauty and ugliness, heroism and cowardice, care and neglect, guilt and blamelessness are mostly vague, ambiguous, and hard to discern.

“It is not easy to live faithfully in a world full of ambiguities. We have to learn to make wise choices without needing to be entirely sure.”

    – Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith, March 27

~~~

That last sentence definitely caught my attention.

Edit: … and I think that I need to do more of what that sentence says.

Quickly because I have to be at work by 8am tomorrow like a normal person…

From anonymouswish and general2727‘s xangas:

A) Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Supermarket Service Clerk
2. Academic Support Center Tutor
3. “Member of Technical Staff Level I” (Lucent)
4. Software Engineer
 
B) Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Who’s Harry Crumb (you folks probably never heard of it, lol)
2. Grease
3. Lethal Weapon 4
4. Major League

C) Four places you have lived:
1. New York, NY
2. East Brunswick, NJ
3. Hoboken, NJ
4. Jersey City, NJ

D) Four TV shows you love to watch:

1.  Law and Order, the original only
2. Any show featuring live performances (including the infamous American Idol)
3. Friends
4. Will & Grace

E) Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Philippines
2. China
3. California
4. Montreal

F) Four websites I visit daily:
1. Google
2. Xanga
3. USA Today
4. Accuweather

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. Anything with noodles/pasta
2. Chicken
3. Shrimp
4. Green vegetables except for pickles and cucumbers

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1.  On a hammock somewhere at a deserted island
2. Anywhere in Asia
3. Anywhere in Europe
4. Australia

I) Four friends I am tagging that I think will respond first:
1. Anyone who feels like being tagged.. lol
2.
3.
4.

Very interesting, considering that I’m Catholic and willingly attend
church every Sunday. I, however, don’t think that all of the
Church’s teachings make sense 100% of the way, usually because of the
scientist in me.

Thanks to anonymouswish and becuziluvblue for the quiz.

~~~

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 69% Postmodernist 56% Idealist 50% Modernist 44% Romanticist 31% Materialist 25% Existentialist 25% Fundamentalist 13% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

I can’t believe it. I actually started reading an actual novel this
morning on the train. It’s something I haven’t done for leisure in over
ten years.

Since anonymouswish asked… bakla
is a Tagalog word meaning gay in the homosexual sense. To quote Jerry
Seinfeld, “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” but a cab
company?

lol