fitter happier
January 31, 2008I may never stop being amazed at Radiohead. Everytime I listen to their entire discography on a loop, something new strikes me.
This "song" is actually more like a spoken-word piece. Like Baz Luhrmann’s "Sunscreen" song, but darker and creepier. The vocals are done in this Stephen Hawking-like monotonous computer voice and the effect is very… well, just look for it and listen for yourself.
I’ts very easy to overlook this track because of what it is, but whenever I actively listen to it, it turns out to be one of the more affecting things that Radiohead has done. Read George Orwell’s "1984" or Kurt Vonnegut’s "Player Piano" … that’s more or less what this song sums up: Emotional deadness that comes from striving towards economical and mechanical perfection; everything being robotic… automated… "perfect". Scary.
"The reason ‘Fitter Happier’ exists is ‘cos of mental background noise. Some days you’re in a disturbed state and it moves to the front." - Thom Yorke
Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tires that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick,
that’s driven into frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig in a cage on antibiotics.
stress
January 29, 2008Stress. *bow*
Stress is the condition that results when person-environment transactions lead the individual to perceive a discrepancy, whether real or not, between the demands of a situation and the resources of the person’s biological, psychological or social systems.
Persistent stress that is not resolved through coping or adaptation (distress) may lead to escape (anxiety) or withdrawal (depression) behavior.
Stage one: Alarm - When the threat or stressor is identified or realised, the body’s stress response is a state of alarm.
Stage two: Resistance - If the stressor persists, it becomes necessary to attempt some means of coping with the stress. Although the body begins to try to adapt to the strains or demands of the environment, the body cannot keep this up indefinitely, so its resources are gradually depleted.
Stage three: Exhaustion - All the body’s resources are eventually depleted and the body is unable to maintain normal function.
It was gradually realized that such concepts as anxiety, antagonism, exhaustion, frustration, distress, despair, overwork, pre-menstrual tension, over-focusing, confusion, mourning, and fear could all come together in a general broad term: Stress.
Stress. *bow*
pentaxian nature photo eb
January 27, 2008Woohoo, sarap matulog!
I uploaded pics to photobucket. I decided to upload only 100 pics since nobody looks at everything anyway… also so that I don’t have to upload repetitive and garbage photos… and also because I’m too lazy to upload more than once (100 at a time lang pwede magupload sa photobucket eh.. hehe…).
I also finally uploaded choice photos to my flickr page. The photos are bigger here. 1024 pixels on the longer side.
Anyway… as I was saying… Woohoo, sarap matulog! The only sleep I got yesterday was around an hour on the van on the way to tagaytay… an hour on the van from tagaytay to lipa… and then another hour on the van from lipa to manila. I was also quite pissed because I thought the pics I got were no good again… and also because I made some photography mistakes again that could have made the photos better. However, after viewing the pics this morning and editing them in Photoshop… They’re actually not half bad!
After bowling on friday night, I went back to the office (oh yeah, nag-blog pa nga pala ako nun) and got home around midnight. I took a bath, got prepared, and then left home around 2am to go back to the office and pick up my spare batteries, which I left to charge (but never actually needed during the trip). By around quarter to 3, I was already at shell in magallanes, which was the designated meeting point for the photo EB. I’ve never been to an EB or trip with these guys before and the only people I knew who were going were my officemates Jayjay and Cyron. Nevertheless, it was a what-the-heck-sige-na-nga-bahala-na type of decision for me, so I went along.
After waiting for people to arrive, the group of 20 were good to go by around 4:00. We got to tagaytay (basta yung area na may starbucks tsaka pancake house) by 5:30 and I had to find out the hard way that tagaytay at that time was friggin cold and very windy! Most of us (who didn’t anticipate the weather and temperature) were literally shivering for the first hour there. Buti nalang may dala akong extra shirt so I just wore that over what I was already wearing.
Most people had their gear (tripods and purrrty lenses) setup in no time to catch the sunrise. Some of them had more than one camera… most of them had more than one lens and lots of accessories. As I had no gear to speak off aside from my camera body and lens, I had nothing to setup and thus just waited for the sun to come up. As we were waiting there, we had a minor problem since there was a security guard who was trying to shoo us all away because the compound wasn’t open yet… Uhhhhm… 20 photo-entusiasts, fully setup and prepared for the sunrise versus one security guard. No chance in hell. Good thing the guard eventually realized that and left us to do our thing. Hehe.
As for the rest of the sunrise photo shoot, there’s not much to say, so here’s some sample photos nalang:
Later on during the morning, nung medyo nakalabas na yung sun and malakas na yung sikat ng araw, I learned one technique that proved to be useful in this scenario… silhouetteing (sp?)! Several pics to illustrate:
As I was reviewing the pics later on, I was disappointed to see a good number of the sunrise pics have long rays of light, which to me are distracting (although some people might find it nice). You can see these dun sa photobucket album. The reason for this is because the aperture was too small, and I’ve learned that small apertures tend to do that to sources of light… you know, nagkakaron ng rays and shit… In some instances, this can make the photo better, but in this case, I don’t think it helped.
After catching the sunrise in tagaytay, we had breakfast in pancake house and then headed to Blueroze Park and Wildlife in Lipa for more photo ops. Dito ko na talaga ako nainggit dun sa may dala ng telephoto lenses… a 40mm prime lens in no lens to use for wildlife photography. I still did what I could and I was fairly satisfied with the bird photos that I was able to capture.
We stayed there until lunch and then went back to manila. That’s all there is to that. It was worth it. ^_^
Now to prepare for Pinatubo several weeks from now. ^_^
andaming gagawin
January 25, 2008Yesterday was jamming night #1 for me with my officemates. See previous two posts. Sana maulit muli. Haha.
Tonight was bowling night. Our team had a star frame (this is when everyone on the team is able to close their frame) and I was able to bowl a turkey for the first time (as far as I could recall)! All in all, that merited a chocolate bar, a pack of Chewy Chips Ahoy and a bag of Lay’s Potato Chips for everyone. Itsssalllll gooood! Hehe. Fun and good food for everyone.
I’m in the office right now and will head home in a while. But there will be no sleeping tonight since I’m planning to go along with a couple of officemates and members of PinoyPentaxian to a Cavite-Batangas Nature Photo EB tomorrow. The guys plan to catch the sunrise so we’ll be leaving Manila at 3:00am. This should be worth though. Everyone there will be photo-hobbyists so it should be a fun trip and learning experience. ^_^
Oh, and I just signed up for a trip that our photo club in the office is holding. It’s gonna be on Feb 16-17 and we’ll be heading to Pinatubo. At least ito 6:30am naman ang departure from Ortigas so did masyadong puyat. The cost is steep (Php3,000) but I’m guessing it whould be worth it. ^_^
OMG. So when I combine this now with my other plans and the depressingly !@#!@%!%! workload in the office… Wow, I’m probably going to be busy these next several weeks O.o
jammin pics
in action:
crab on drums:
jay on guitar (di ko pa na-adjust yung AWB nito kaya ang blue masyado. demmit.):
mote on vox:
me on camera (and substitute drummer. hehe.):
RJ on guitar:
sheldon on bass:
\m/
