07 October 2011

Mindless Words

More mindless airing of opinions and frustrations, and insensitive arguments.
 It's painful to hear because each one's aim is to win.
  Nobody really ever wins an emotional fight.
   You will not be awarded a medal for dominating the argument, just hatred and discord.
    Who would want that?
      Why can't it all just  be passionate and loving discussion?

Conflicts may be a natural part of any relationship, but arguments and fights aren't/
 You talk about the problem with the goal to solve it with less-to-no injury for both parties.
  But most times, there are casualties and lots of blood.
   Everyone ends up wounded and injured.. =(


"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken." 
Matthew 12: 35-36                                      

06 October 2011

Life's Change Agent


I was never really into knowing the genius behind the gadgets I have. But today was different. Almost every page and website I visited today showed Steve Jobs picture. So I read some of the notes and captions to find out what all of it was about. 

"R.I.P. Steve Jobs." That caught my full attention. The last news I read about him was shocking, as he resigned from Apple, the company he founded. Now this!

The only Apple product I have is the 3rd gen iTouch, which is turning 3 this December. It's old but the new apps make it new every time. It can only be replaced with another Apple gadget.

So, I watched some of Steve Jobs' videos and interviews. Here are some of my favorite quotes from him:

From the Stanford Commencement Speech 2005:
You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.                                                
It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. (on getting fired from Apple at 30)                                                
Sometimes life's gonna hit you in the face with a brick. Don't lose faith.                                                                        
The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
Don't settle.                                                                                                                                                                                                              
If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.                                        
If today were the last day of my life, would I wanna do what I'm about to do today?                                                                                 
Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment and failure, these things just fall away in the face of death; leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.                                        
Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life.                                                                                      
Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the result of other people's thinking.                    
Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
 More quotations:
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful - that's what matters to me.
The thing that drives me and my colleagues ... is that you see something very compelling to you, and you don't quite know how to get it, but you know, sometimes intuitively, it's within your grasp. And it's worth putting in years of your life to make it come into existence.

Money was never Steve Jobs' key motivator.

03 October 2011

Preparation

I now know how Morpheus feels. Yes, the Matrix fever is still on. And I just came to a realization as to why I had to watch the trilogy a week before today.

Believing in something that doesn't make sense, something that defies what the mind can comprehend, and what science can explain, is a challenge. Why? Many people settle with the tangibles because we don't want to be disappointed. As much as possible we would avoid persecutions and rejections. We seek to please, leading to compromise.

Morpheus believed in Neo. He was certain he is the One. He has complete faith that Neo will end the war between Zion and the machines. What I love about his character is that he stood firm in his faith despite persecutions from the Commander, and even when the situation seem to present every reason to think twice and doubt. He endured everything. The ending of the Matrix Trilogy was a glorious moment for Morpheus. He must've been waiting for the shocked look in the Commander's face with the thought "It doesn't make sense."
"I have imagined this moment for so long. Is this real?" - Morpheus

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1            
I prayed for a deeper level of faith. Now I am given the opportunity to do so. Challenges. Persecutions. Rejections. In the end, FAITH is all that will matter.
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:18