June 2013
2 posts
“We live in strange times. We live in a strange place. We are a strange people…We need to embrace our strangeness. We need to rebel in our craziness…We are truly messed up. We need messed up design for a messed up population. That’s the design brief right there.”
—
Juan Alcazaren, from his Designing Discipline article (BluPrint Magazine, Volume 3, 2013)
It’s a well-written and cheeky article on how Filipinos ignore street signs and warnings in exchange of quicker and faster access to where we’re going.
May 2013
6 posts
Next season in Supernatural
1.) The angels won’t know who they are.
Remember that girl who can listen on the angel radio but don’t remember why? Yep that. Turns out her grace was just taken from her. On the other hand, Lucifer was *cast* from heaven into hell, and not necessarily just a fallen angel. He probably has his grace with him, and thus can remember what was done to him.
Cass won’t remember, everyone won’t remember. But considering it was Cass who did the ‘trials’ for the spell, he must be the one to break it too. But he didn’t fall, did he? He was just sent back to Earth. And when we factor in Metatron’s cryptic “look for me, and tell me your story”, I think Cass will be a pawn again, but this time he realizes he’s his own pawn, and he would have to answer only to himself. That’s free will!
I do hope there would be sort of an explanation why Cass is such an important angel he’s being resurrected a million times. And what’s up with what Naomi said that she thinks Cass wasn’t really special, but an angel with a defect and never really did what he was asked to do?
2.) Sam not going to get better is a major plot point.
Yeah, he’s alive, nobody died, nobody disappeared, so I guess they’re gonna work in Sam as a struggling would-be-Gates-of-Hell-closer. Remember when Cass told Dean he can’t heal Sam with the damage that’s been done to him? This is season 6 all over again.
3.) More of the Men of Letters will be revealed.
I personally think the Men of Letters are somehow linked to angels, even from the start. That’s ‘cause they knew about the existence of Angels even before the hunters did. More than that, their lair is very well equipped to detect fallen angels. No technology, unaided by Angel knowledge, could ever do that. I also think that somehow, Sam and Dean’s lineage would also fall into play: why they became who they are right now questions will come aplenty. I also think that they’re gonna work in why Sam was chosen to be one of those Yellow-Eyes kids. And remember in Season 5, when that angel altered Sam’s and Dean’s realities just to prove that they were destined to be hunters? I think that’s gonna be put into the plot basket too.
4.) Metatron is gonna be a baddie, but goes back to being a goodie.
I think the writers would love rationalizing that what Metatron did was basically the in case of emergency, rather than the revenge. I mean, it was _really_ crap of him to just tip the scales of power so that he could get his payback. There’s bigger picture in this , I know!
(Haha, Crowley’s “I just want to be loved!” is such a gold mine.)
5.) They’re working these plots to go back to the start again.
If they’re going to Season 10, I think they’re gonna wrap everything up, *again*. That is, they’re gonna unify the mythos that were newly introduced in 6, 7 and 8 with all that’s happened in 1-5. Supernatural has always answered questions, but leaves bigger questions to be asked again.
Where is God in all this? I think they’re gonna introduce some sort of God character again too.
6.) The themes would get more philosophical.
Free will? Doing what is right for the many? The power of knowledge? Revenge? Intellectual people? Tablets with powerful instructions?
They’re asking bigger questions now, and incorporating more philosophy into it all. I hope they do more of this.
7.) Okay I’ve run out of steam writing, but I was just spit-balling anyway… I’ll update this as soon as I properly absorb this season’s finale and rewatch all episodes so far in the summer. Congrats Supernatural, you’re such a great show.
“And yet, even though it’s hinted that Metatron’s own writing can basically reshape the fabric of creation, he still prizes humans and our stories. Because our inventiveness, our ability to make up stories, is the product of our free will — that’s how we know that we’re able to make our own choices, in fact. Whenever we write a story, we become like the gods of our own pocket dimensions that we’ve created. I’ve never seen free will and storytelling linked in quite that way before, and it’s a pretty amazing notion.”
—
Charlie Anders, from her Supernatural is on its way to becoming a truly great TV show again
Yep, this is one of the most thoughtful lines from the recent episode of Supernatural, that I had to pause what I was watching and just absorb the lines as they come.
I’ve always been wondering why Supernatural persisted for so long, now in its eighth season finale. It’s stuff like these that makes it solid.
# Ben Edlund wrote this episode, no less.
# Persisted so long compared to Fringe. Or Lost.
April 2013
1 post
“Why are smartphones so meaningful to us? Why do we despair when they run out of battery, or paw for them at the sound of a familiar ring tone? It’s because, in a way, they’re magic. They achieve complex technological feats without appearing to break a sweat. But it’s easy to forget about that when we’re shooting a video or playing Asphalt 7, because they’re built to solve and provide for us in a way that we can understand.”
—Jordan Crook, from his Samsung Galaxy S4 Review on Techcrunch.
# And no, I’m not too impressed with the GS4, compared to the HTC One.
March 2013
4 posts
“Make social media about you — not your ego.”
—
Shawn Blanc, from his Social Me-Me-Media
It’s interesting to think about how we use our social networks nowadays. For those who grew up without them, it’s basically just a place to catch up, reminisce, be part of a world that once was.
But for those who grew up with them, it’s their lives. The talk about what they think about, how they feel, their wants and needs in life—any time, any place, any context, all the time. While in It’s being part of a world that still is.
That’s why it’s becoming ever more easy for our personality to extend into our online profiles. Our habits, our dreams, our speaking styles, our attitudes are all becoming easily reflected in how we interact with each other online. And that’s where we all get our context from: online. There are no body languages to interpret, no intonations to be careful about; and more often than not we get to be more and more misinterpreted, both in our words and our intent. We could be simply talking about we want to have, like a new gadget or something, and be easily called as someone egoistic.
It’s clear that a tide is turning: morality, ethics, sociology will once be reevaluated as we venture into this new public space we call our social media.
I just hope it happens soon enough. So that I may be freer to post what’s really on my mind.
“…Great design is the product of iteration, and that process does not exist in a vacuum, but in a world full of prior context and evolving lines of reason.”
—Marcus Edvalson, from his Lesson From a Plastic Cup
“I didn’t do it [writing] because I thought I would make some money or get paid to do it. Thirty-five years later, I still do it because I don’t really have a choice, because I don’t really know any other way. Writing, painting, creating –creators don’t do it because they want to make money. Creativity is not a profession, it is a gift. It was, is and always will be a very selfish act.”
—Om Malik, from his Doing that one thing.
February 2013
1 post
Both Sides of the Coin
I have been trying to find a proper article to explain to me what really happened with the DSWD thing earlier this week, and this is all I can find (from Philstar).
Over a thousand members of Barug Katawhan and its allied groups destroyed the gates of the DSWD Region 11 office in Davao City, carting away sacks of rice and other relief items…
The protesters were demanding the release of 10,000 sacks of rice intended for the victims of typhoon “Pablo” in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley last December.
DSWD said the relief goods taken by the protesters had been allocated for victims of the more recent tropical depression “Crising” in Davao del Norte.
I have nothing but well wishes to the typhoon victims. Though I am saddened with this kind of response from them. Their intentions were humane and understandable, but their acts have proved to be detrimental to the peace and order assured by the police forces in our city.
Is it right to feel sympathy for those who got affected by the typhoon? Yes. Is it right to extend our help and assistance to those who are asking for it? Of course, yes. But to permit our understanding of this incident to be clouded by emotional response and sympathy, while glossing over the fact that what they took was not theirs to begin with, and what they did wasn’t even in good faith, is socially irresponsible.
It is true that it took long for the DSWD to distribute the promised goods, and it is also true that it took so long for them to engage in a peaceful discussion (and I find fault in them for that), but for the Pablo victims to resort to such brashness and violence… It would be unbecoming of us to not consider the other side of the coin.
(I also am disappointed with how the ‘dispersion’ happened, but it had to happen. Truth be told, I think the perpetrators behind this barricading wanted it to happen. But I don’t think it is the crux of the issue. It is more of a means to an end.)
If there are other means you can enlighten me with this subject or if I tended to overgeneralize what happened, do send me a message.
January 2013
3 posts
“The pinnacle of design for me comes with ruthless simplicity. It is that point when you can reduce a product to its very essence.”
—
Om Malik, from his Why I love certain objects and services
I too, have been striving hard to get the best of what I can afford. And I hope I could do so more in the future.
December 2012
5 posts
All I Want for Christmas Is…A Little Space - WSJ.com →
online.wsj.com
Introverts are often urged to “fix” their personalities, to come out of their shells. But introversion is not the same as shyness, and it doesn’t need to be fixed. Shyness is fear and anxiety in social situations, introversion is just low motivation to get out and mingle. Psychologists consider introversion inborn and a “stable” trait that stays constant throughout our lifetime.
Of course, introversion and extroversion are extremes on a continuum, with most of us falling somewhere in between. But even though roughly half of Americans fall on the introverted side of the scale according to various studies, extroversion has been held in higher esteem. So when extroverts and introverts skirmish, extroverts usually come out victorious, holding the moral high ground because they “love people” and are not “stuck up” or “surly,” like those introverts, sulking in the corner.
Finally, someone understands. Introversion is only as normal as extroversion; it’s also a gift, if I say so myself. Happy holidays, introverts.
Apple Promises To Fix Glitches In Map Software By Rearranging Earth's Geography →
theonion.com
Public transit directions won’t be necessary in the new world as there will be no public transit. - Tim Cook
I love the Onion.
