Out of my mind

Choosing a planner is a major annual undertaking for me.   Yes, I own an ipad and an android phone, both of which - I am told – offer more effective ways of helping me document and track my appointments and activities.   But habits are very hard to break.   I have always used a planner since I started working (and I need not tell you how long ago that has been) and has been dependent on those “reengineered notebooks” since then.   It’s just a little more satisfying to physically write down your thoughts and see them materialize on paper.   So thanks for the many suggestions about new apps that could “change my life” – but it’s still the old-fashioned planner for me. I will admit that there were two years in a row when I jumped into the bandwagon and drank a lot of designer coffee just so I can brag about having that overrated designer planner from that overrated but oh so indispensable coffee chain.   But those planners are not really meant for – ehem – hardworking people wi

A new year is always opportune time to start all over again.  A new year always offers a fresh chance - even if it is a chance to embark on yet another journey that is difficult to accomplish or finish. But then again, "try" has always been my middle name. It's been almost two years since I stopped writing my column for that daily newspaper.  I don't exactly miss writing for that paper - after almost ten years of slaving to meet deadlines in between three jobs, there were days when writing seemed like a chore, like simply filling up a page with words - some of them almost meaningless.  A large part had to do with the fact that there were political considerations that had to be "complied" with, which got tiring after a while. When do we know enough is enough?  When we stop. But I have had no regrets.  Writing that column helped speed up my maturity process, even if there were times when I wondered if all that was worth being bullied, insulted, mocked, r

Michelle Obama  recently delivered what I believed to be the most convincing, most heartfelt, most authentic, and most credible speech related to the US elections. I have always been in awe of the US First Lady.  I thought her "when they go low, we go high" battlecry is particularly inspired.  And I love the way she always puts herself above the fray.  This woman defines class.  And is so good at it. I am not American, of course.  And I know that what I have to say is not particularly relevant because I am not voting in the US elections. However, as a citizen of the world, I feel I have a responsibility to point out exemplary conduct of a public official that is worth holding up as an exemplar.

To say that we live in an interesting period is a major understatement. I suspect that twenty years down, behavior science specialists will have a field day trying to make sense of the seemingly unexplainable phenomenon we are seeing today. I have been blogging and writing a column all these many years and I know what it is like to be exposed to all kinds of reactions to an opinion.  But I am completely floored down, thrown off the wall, and genuinely alarmed at the viciousness and the utter lack of restraint among those who post political comments and opinions out there.  It's like a Roman Coliseum out there, and everyone seems  poised to not just take down whoever stands in his or her way, but to maim, obliterate, annihilate. The level of violence in the discourse is alarming. This is one reason I have not gone back to column writing despite an interesting offer. It's the same reason why I have not been as active in Facebook.  The temptation to join the fray is high

I know -it's one of the oldest cliches out there, this thing about getting into a morose and reflective mode on New Year's day.  But I am a creature of habit (some of them really bad, bordering on the neurotic) and making resolutions has been part of the annual routine.  Last year I made an extra effort to ensure that at least some, if not most, of my resolutions would get fulfilled.  I made the list as the  wallpaper of the PC at work and wrote them on the first pages of my planner - I never got through a day when I didn't get reminded of the things I swore I would do in 2015.  Did it work?  To some extent, yes.  I did try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day and tried as much as possible NOT TO EAT MEAT, the operative word being "tried."  But hey, the results of the my blood tests have been consistently good, so I guess I did get some headway in 2015 insofar as sticking to the resolutions. I haven't gotten around to doing the list for 2016.   I need to thin

I honestly and sincerely wished for a successful hosting of APEC2016. I didn't agree with those who thought that the country had very little to gain from being host.  To begin with, I didn't think passing off on the opportunity was a wise option; it would have been like admitting we were not in the same league as the other countries.  Globalisation is far However, I did think that holding the summit in Manila was a wrong move on the part of the Aquino administration.  I get it - the summit had to be held in a city with adequate facilities to house the various heads of states.  The last time APEC was held in the country, President Ramos built villas for each of the heads of states inside Subic (the villas were later rented out).  If we stuck to the template  we could have brought  development to places like General Santos City, or Tagbilaran City, or Tacloban City, or even Puerto Princesa City.  Actually, I think APEC2015 could have been held in the island of Mactan in Ce