Tokyo Brights meet-up tomorrow

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The Tokyo Brights Meetup Group!

Tomorrow I will be attending the Tokyo Brights Meet-up group. The group meets every third Thursday of the month except tomorrow which will happen on a Wednesday. It will be my second time to join the party. I joined last January but I failed to join the two succeeding meet-ups because I was out of the country. Again, it will be in Gonpachi in Shibuya. I like the place. They say it's the inspiration for the last scene of one of the Kill Bill movies but I've never seen any of them.

Re-learning Some Things

I am re-learning some of the things that I dropped. One of them is playing the guitar. I first learned the basics of guitar playing when I was a sacristan. I was about fourteen then. I had this friend who seemed to had been carrying all the problems of the world on his shoulders and the way he chose to cope with it was to turn a little into himself and learn the guitar in the kumbento. The first and only song I learned and used to play then was the older version of Santo, Santo, Santo which required only a small set of very simple chords and where the transitions between those chords are much easier. Whenever we had the chance on the guitars (I think there were two guitars which were not always idle), we'd start strumming that song. The elder sacristans and church choir members would tease us and they'd be right that we would be singing the same song over and over and over again. Years passed and my friend went on to have his own electric guitar gifted to him while I moved on to different things. He has progressed enough to playing his favorite songs on his guitar and even got to play with his own band while I almost forgot all about it. But I learned the guitar basics such that I never had to re-learn it again. From time to time, opportunity to play the guitar arose but it required developing the habit which I didn't. My younger brother bought his own guitar which I used to borrow and practiced with but I never really quite progressed beyond simple strumming. Eventually I had accepted that maybe I never really had what it takes to play it. I think I am better at singing than at playing any musical instruments so I envy those people who can really play well, like my cousin who could play well the accordion before he was able to read and write. Whenever I pick up the guitar to strum a few chords of simple songs, I'd listen to my playing and I wouldn't be satisfied to the point of frustration. Or I'd start singing and my chords will quickly deteriorate into abhorrent noise. Maybe I was consciously trying to play it rather than using more ouido. Some years later, I'd still be playing the same set of chords as Santo, Santo, Santo but this time it's the simplified chords of The One I Love by REM but whenever I do, I still remember my sacristan days. It was short-lived but I had plenty of good memories about it.

Yotsuya Church

They say the churches of Europe, where religion is declining, are sometimes filled to the brim not by Europeans but by Filipinos. This is true also in Tokyo. There is Yotsuya (四谷, Yotsuya) Catholic church in Shinjuku (新宿). Shown in the picture taken sometime in 2006 were our kababayans and their half-Filipino half-Japanese children starting to come out of the church after the Sunday English mass. I don't go to Yotsuya to hear mass. I go there to see people or accompany my family there. I usually just stay outside the church ogling the pretty girls that pass by, and which by the way has become so rare now that the Japanese government has come under fire from the US government on the trafficking of women. I saw one statistics some years ago that say nine out of ten Filipinos in Japan are women, most of them working or has worked as hostesses in Filipino bars. Filipino bars aside from Filipino stores is where you can find the Philippine flag displayed. My poor countrymen who are so devout believers will brave the uncertainties of life in a foreign land of heathens and yet their god seemed to have chosen to make the heathens to be more economically free than the devotees who work and pray for a life that's a little bit better than a life of poverty. Such irony for the believing Pinoy!

Bookmarks

I have just wrapped up reading Ann Gibbons' The First Human: The Race To Discover Our Earliest Ancestors. It's a short book of about 240 pages so I was able to finish it in a few days. I would have finished it even earlier if not because I haven't fully picked up the habit of using bookmarks for all the books that I read. In such cases I'd fold the page where I'm at but even that I consciously avoid because it makes the book look ugly later. I am now starting to re-read Sean Carroll's Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science Of Evo Devo And The Making Of The Animal Kingdom. I had attempted to read it before but dropped it after probably finishing the Introduction. I went to a cafe so I can have my Saturday cup of cappuccino and started reading it. I could not remember where I stopped the last time so that I had to restart from the beginning. But this time I am definitely going to use a bookmark. Another book that I have been reading which I had started even before I started reading the Gibbons book and which is almost finished is Steve Gould's Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. I'll finish it shortly tonight. With it I used a bookmark, the kind they give away for free at some cafes here. When I do use a bookmark, I still find myself re-reading portions I have read previously because I don't stop at the end of each chapter or another suitable area like the end a well-defined section. This is often the case with me with books I read on my commute when I don't have complete control on the time I will arrive at my stop will be about enough time I'd need to finish the current section/chapter. To aid me in this case, I let the bookmark give me a hint on where I should resume my reading. If the front side of the bookmark is facing the left page, I stopped at the left page. Otherwise, I should resume on the right page. If I stopped in the upper portion of the page, I put the bookmark on the upper portion of the page; otherwise, I put it at the lower portion. It does help me save some time except when I really need to re-read the last few sentences or even paragraphs so that the train of thought will be picked up where I left off. With books I read at home and if I don't have a bookmark (sometime I am too lazy to get one even when there are many available!), I try as much as possible to stop at the end of each chapter.

By the way, the Gobbons book is a good historical sketch of how anthropologists/paleontologists
race against each other in finding hominid fossils that could shed light on our origins. Together with the book by Gould - also a historical sketch about paleontology dealing with the Burgess Shale fossils - the two books are very informative and give us an idea of how much discipline is required by serious paleontology. In the cover of the Gibbons book pictured above is the fossil nicknamed Toumai or Sahelanthropus Tchadensis.

Mere Belief and Mere Atheism

Mere belief and mere atheism are amoral philosophical positions. Some people spent a good deal of time and effort to seek his/her answers. I applaud them regardless of the outcome. Some people are just lazy to seek their own answers and take it for granted. It's not a fault and it doesn't matter. In any case, we cannot fault people who honestly believe or disbelieve for whatever reason they may hold or not hold and by the amount of effort he exerted to support his position. But we do take interest in people who will coerce others to subscribe to their own philosophical/moral position by using threats or abuse mentally (teaching children punishment of hell for "sins") or physical harm and even murder (Crusaders & jihadists). I subscribe to the idea that individuals are free to believe what they believe or not believe as long as it never harm another person and that he has no right whatsoever to force this belief or non-belief on others. So the communists did bad things to persecute the believers and the Catholics and Protestants did bad things to persecute the heretics.

Theism (belief in god(s)) or atheism are fundamentally amoral -isms. It's in the conclusions that supposedly follow from these two -isms that address morality that gets us into trouble.

The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare, Unread Edition

When I was a high school student, I used to hang around in the school library. It's a smallish library with books that were mostly textbooks. Uninteresting. But there was a cabinet that contained great books that still looked so new with crisp pages including a collection of books titled The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. I wanted to pick up those books and read them but the glass cabinet was padlocked, with a sign that read: For Teachers Use Only. I bet those books remained unread for a long, long time since I left that school. What a waste.

Dear God

Dear God, I hope you got the letter and I pray you can make it better down here...

This is a work in progress. I will still do some minor edits later after I have reviewed it. I just want to see it earlier so I am posting it now. If you have any suggestion or critique, please let me know.

Two Books

If you will be exiled to the moon for a year and are allowed only to bring 2 books, which books will you bring?

My choices will be:
1) The Wealth Of Nations by Adam Smith
2) The Descent Of Man by Charles Darwin

I know you will say they are boring books so why did I choose them? They are two books that I think so important that I find many books that I have read so far reference them. Each book is more than 600 pages long so it will take me some time to complete and probably do a 2nd reading to understand them. I keep putting them down each time I attempt to start reading them so it's like if I'm left with not much choice but to finally finish them.

The reason I ask is that I would like to know what 2 books each one of us put great value. I might consider adding them to my future reading list too.

Organizing Eyeballs (EB)

Organizing eyeballs require communication. Constant communication building up the the headcount and disseminating information in a timely manner. I have had experience only in organizing small eyeballs where there are only less than 15 participants. The advantage of small groups is that it doesn't require a lot in terms of reserving venues. You just meet-up and can decide right there which place you want to sit for a chat be it restaurant or cafe. Recently, I tried to organize one for the Pinoy atheists but I didn't have time myself so it was a resounding failure. I have been organizing meet-ups and I was busy with my high school reunion meetings to have time to look after the PA meet-up. I have been doing this with the various groups I help keeping in touch. I have a group each for my HS and college friends, and a newwave music group. So far I have been most successful with the three having organized meet-ups for as much as twenty-five people excluding children. This was mainly because venue is not much of a problem in Laguna where most of my high school friends are. But organizing a Pinoy atheists EB is always difficult. Some wise guy once said organizing atheists is like herding cats. It has been proven once more that he is right on the money.

Get The Scarlet Letter

If you are maintaining an atheism blog, you might consider being listed in the Out Campaign.

Merry Christmas!

I tried my hand at creating a small video from a slide-show. Enjoy and please feel free to comment and/or criticize! BTW, the song title is Ask Me Jon by the Ocean Blue.

Edit. I have made 3 small edits on the original video. Here is an updated version.

New Old Blogs

I have moved a few posts from the other blog that I have been rarely posting to and which is about technology and geek-speak. I am shutting it down. They are mostly under the tech tag.

Filling Empty Book Shelves

If you have books lying around the house that you want to sell for cheap, please drop me a message kapanalig_sa_wala-at-yahoo.es (replace -at- with @). Please send me the titles and with the price and the conditions. I prefer books on history, Filipiniana, literature specially Philippine literature, philosophy, and art. No romance books please. I will be in Manila from time to time, I can contact you for a meet. No rush.

Foie Gras

I was in the the office today from 8:30 in the morning until about 6:00 in the evening. Except for the short break around 10:00 am to pick up a ham and cheese sandwich and a big cappuccino from the cafe at the basement, I didn't take another break until about 4:30 in the afternoon. As a result, I was starved. I work in a really expensive portion of the city and I didn't intend to spend a small fortune for a quick meal so I went to the supermarket also located at the basement. I took a banana, a chicken and rice noodle salad, and what is labeled as something with (テリネ) terrine, salmon pie, and foie gras pate. I was so tired such that I merely mumbled when the lady behind the cash register asked me something and I think I said "はい、お願いします" without really understanding what she said. Back to my desk, and after a detour to the loo and the vending machine to get my limone tea, I thought to myself I should start with the foie gras as it looked - おいしいそう - so tasty. But wait a minute. Where's the chopsticks? So that's what the lady was asking me about! Anyway, the basement is too far to go back to and I most probably somebody else has been keeping some disposable chopsticks around and sure enough just a few desks away, I found them. Great foie gras using chopsticks! I took a bite and savored it. It really is so tasty! Why didn't I know about this before? Right then I decided that it's never to late to learn a few more things about it so I turned to the net to find out more about this very tasty something. But what I found out almost made me choke for two reasons. First is reading how foie gras is prepared force-feeding the goose or duck to make its liver grow abnormally bigger and second, because literally, foie gras is French for fatty liver! I know of a disease in humans of the same name and I thought it could not be any different given the way its preparation has been described. I was diagnosed with a fatty liver two or three years ago so I know it very well to make my imagination run weird things. I don't usually eat liver, except the occasional chicken liver and the canned liver spread. Moral of the story is the old cliche that if you want to enjoy what you're eating, don't bother finding out how it's prepared. I heard from my very knowledgeable ex-manager how some great tasting tender juicy Japanese beef are prepared but that's another story. Will I have foie gras again? I love steaks. Maybe I'll have foie gras with it occasionally.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. :)

Books On Origins

The books currently in my small shelf. This section is where books on science and religion are lumped together. Due to lack of space (space is a premium in Tokyo!) and from time to time I ship my books to the Philippines such that they don't accumulate here. Shipping them over has its downside and upside. The downside is that I cannot just pick up a book if I like to. The upside is that I get to keep them even if they are so inconvenient for me. I'd rather ship it than give them to others here as what is customary once there is a space crunch at home.

I just got news that the first shelves in my home mini-library in Laguna are almost done. I hope they look good. My shelf here is one of the cheap assemble-yourself type so there's not much joy looking at the books since the shelf is so ugly. I may get the chance to come home yet this New Year's and I am excited with the book shelves. If it looks good, I'll take a picture and post it here.

The small purple book above is the Jefferson bible. A curious book the verses of which were based on the Christian bible and compiled by Thomas Jefferson, handpicking the non-supernatural portions of the four gospels and arranging them chronologically as he thought the events "happened". The huge book is Stephen Jay Gould's Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I still have to read it.

Clutter

I just realized how cluttered my desktop has become in just a week!



Here is another shot taken a bit later. No wonder I couldn't find small items when I need them.



On the pictures is six-year old Yuki's monitor, an Eizo FlexScan L557. On the foreground is AnnieHall, the 3 year old PowerBook G4 I am using. I think the flat screen can be used in the Philippines. I read somewhere it's dual rated with 100/240 VAC but I couldn't confirm it yet. If so, I'll bring it home one day to make space to my desk and give me some legroom since Yuki's half tower is bulky, noisy, and dissipates a lot of heat, specially in summer. And besides, I have been using AnnieHall all of the time now proving that I don't need a Windows desktop any longer.

(This post has been moved from another blog I am thinking of shutting down.)

Obligatory Post

Low Red Moon by Belly is playing on iTunes. I don't know what to write about. All I know is that I have to write something. This blog has been desolate for quite some time now. Neglected. I had been busy with a lot of things lately, mostly work or work-related. Nothing fantastic about if you may add. Something that wont go away and wont let up anyway. I am giving myself a small break tomorrow so tonight I can stay awake longer than what have been my recent usual bedtime. I may not be home by year-end. Everything is still not so sure given that I am responsible for a delivery of something important that cannot be delayed. I have to stay in the office even a few days of missed work-days can be fatal. I am writing this as a filler. So that the archive will not look ugly. LOL. Maybe I should talk more about work and less about other things since it's work that keeps me busy for most part of each passing day. As a matter of fact I came in late this morning at 10:15 right to the minute that I promised my team I would be in. There was the regular fire drill but I didn't participate. I told them my role this time is to be the unknown casualty to be discovered under the rubbles or the ruins after the fire shall have been been contained. I just came in, dude. Didn't want to waste my time, or what's remaining of it on something I think I am already certified given that I had participated in it twice or three times before... After getting coffee it's even 15 minutes shortened and yet the amount of work to be tackled for the day was unchanged and unapologetically keeping my mind busy... I'd better start digging in soon. Tomorrow morning I shall not be in the office though I may find myself logged in from home just to check on the guys and fire off some emails to make sure things don't stop and wait for my input when it's needed. I am but a small part of a huge machine we call The Corporation. This particular corporation happened to have some 100,000s moving parts. Each part has its designated role much like in a socialist state. Each role is deemed necessary though the degree of importance vary by degrees or orders of magnitude. There is a rationale behind each moving part however small. Just like there is a rationale for each moving part of a real mechanical apparatus like typewriter or a computer keyboard even. I fool myself that I am a part that is essential though I'm not. I can be replaced anytime. A commodity. I know this and I understand its implications. One day I may find myself replaced but the machine will continue to move on.

Unconditional Pardon?

Today's news item almost made me fall off my seat:

"...deposed president Joseph Estrada on Sunday strongly indicated he would accept an unconditional pardon that would involve no admission of guilt, if Malacañang offered it to him."

This Erap guy is still in denial. By now, he should accept reality. He was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt so he is not in the position now to lay down any terms for his pardon. But we cannot really blame him. The GMA administration, it looks like, is willing to trivialize the otherwise very significance of Erap spending the rest of his life rotting in jail, deservedly if I may add, for serious crime of corruption, under the preposterous guise of "national interest" according to Interior Secretary Puno and according to the same news item. National interest my ass? Reducing if not eradicating corruption is for national interest. What he should look at, in the name of national interest, is how to reduce corruption under his responsibility.

This is what is so wrong in our country. Justice is prostituted by those in power. Petty criminals or even those that are just falsely-accused rot in jail even before their cases get resolved, if at all, while the rich and powerful talk about pardon for very serious crimes. To Mt. Puno, please use your time for more important matters please.

OFW Assistance Or Burden?

I am an OFW. I mean, I now call myself an OFW. I don't like the term. It's not necessary. Or it's not necessarily applicable to any Pinoy who happen to be working outside the country because we all have our different reasons. One valid reason is that our government is grossly inefficient and our society is generally corrupted. I started to call myself an OFW because I was forced into it by our government. I hate dealing with our government bureaucracy. It always set me into cursing for the small stupid things that it makes you do before you can complete something, like filling out government forms. Let me narrate my latest story about this OFW thing. You can call it a tragedy, a comedy, or horror, depending on your mood. Here it goes. I went into a short holiday last month. All in all, I was in the country for about nine days. I didn't get an Overseas Employment Certificate or OEC (which always get me into trouble at the immigration) this time since going to the Philippine embassy in Roppongi is out of my way. I figured, I'll just have to get an OEC before I leave and before I check in my baggage because the last time I left the country, I was turned back by the immigration officer to get an OEC but that's another tragedy to narrate for another day. So departure date, the morning flight was delayed by four hours because there was a typhoon raging in Tokyo. I went to the OWWA office of the old terminal to get an OEC. The guy told me I needed to give him an updated copy of my e-ticket that reflects the flight time as 13:30, not 9:30 as the original flight time was. He said he needed it because I am a chance passenger. I explained that I was not a chance passenger, my flight was delayed by four hours because of the typhoon but he insisted. Knowing that I cannot win an argument against one-track mind people like him (I've dealt with his kind many times), I left and decided to check in first. (For those of you who have not heard of an e-ticket, your flight booking is stored in a system that is accessible anywhere given the right permission so what you have is a printout copy of your flight booking. It's a better system compared to traditional ticketing in the sense that if you lose your ticket printout, you can request a new one and you are guaranteed to get it since it's just a matter of printing out the e-ticket details again.) Anyway, since I thought I can get it only from the check-in counter since the airline doesn't hold office outside the terminal, I had no choice but to get inside the terminal and check into the counter and get it from the airline officer at the check-in counter. I queued up outside the airport terminal and finally was able to get to the check-in counter after about twenty minutes. I requested the lady if she could issue me an updated ticket that reflects the new flight time but she said they are not issuing such kind, and besides my printout is still valid and because there is no need of such updated printout. I said the guy at the OWWA would not take that explanation but she said that my flight details including the delay is posted in the OWWA office as well. Ayun naman pala. Okay, I had to go back to the OWWA office to give exactly that explanation. Since I already checked in, I had to exit through this small door which is right next to the OWWA office but I would have to surrender my boarding pass to the lady guard who will then give me the usual "bilisan mo, malapit na boarding ng flight mo" crap (translated: hurry up, your flight is close to boarding). She never fails to give me this each time the system gives me a hard time. So I got my small piece of cardboard that will serve as my claim ID when I come back to get my boarding pass. Thirty minutes later, I was back to the OWWA office. I queued and waited for my turn. There were about two dozen Pinays also queued up. When it was my turn, the guy said I was in the wrong queue but he signalled the next guy to take my case anyway so that I didn't have to go back to the end of The Right Queue. I tried looking for any sign or instruction that could possibly give me a hint which one is the right queue but there was none, as I suspected. Somehow, they think OFWs have some kind of power to tell which is the right queue or there would be a lot of cussing around the place because people are in the wrong queue half of the time (there are only two queues at the moment). The other guy gave me a form and told me to fill it up and go to the other end of the floor to get further instructions. The guy and lady at the other end examined my passport and had it photocopied. Then he told me to go back to the other end. I had to queue again to be fair to every other OFW. When again it's my turn, the guy told me I was in the wrong queue again. I would have argued but I thought I needed to exercise restraint because at this moment I was at their mercy, they can further delay me. The last time I tried arguing with the another OWWA employee during another earlier vacation, the OWWA employee tried to hoodwink me by inserting my Alien Registration Card between the receipts and telling me he already gave it back but I never took my eyes away from it so I was able to get it back. Going back to the story, he told me he could not issue my OEC yet unless I gave him a copy of my boarding pass. WTF?!? This doesn't make any sense at all! This statement put me into semi-argumentative mood in order to sway their mind why for the life of me, do they need that for? I said it's just the boarding pass, what's it got to do with all these? My flight was to board in the next sixty minutes and besides, they should know that the guards take the boarding pass when passengers exit the airport terminal. Hindi talaga pwede, balikan nyo na lang po. I stepped outside the office seething with anger now since I fail to see the point at all. The existentialists must be saying: I told you so. A lot of the fellow OFWs heard me curse "putang-inang OWWA talaga 'to kahit kailan pahirap!" as I walked away from the counter. I stepped outside and went to the terminal exit next door to get my boarding pass back but the security guards, including the lady security guard who was holding my boarding pass, wont let me even explain why I seem to be trying to enter the terminal through the exit door which is absolutely not allowed, and which I wasn't trying to. I tried to explain that I only wanted to get my boarding pass back which is right there with the lady guard. They told me I had to use the entrance door to get back inside. No lady, I am not trying to get inside. I am just trying to get my boarding pass which you are currently holding. As I tried harder to argue, yet another guard started to walk my way motioning that they are not interested in what I was saying, telling me to go back and use the entrance door. Fuck! I went to the entrance door jumping the queue since I could not lose another thirty minutes. The guards at the entrance told me to go back to the end of the queue since it's not fair for other passengers but what is fair in this scheme of things anyway? I explained that I already checked in and I am just going to get my boarding pass. After awhile they let me in. Once inside again, again I jumped the queue and went straight to the X-Ray machine and walk straight through inside. If I had a bomb, I could have easily did it. What security! I went straight to the lady guard and told them why they had to make me go all the way to the entrance door when all they had to do was give me back my boarding pass which was right in her hands. Obviously, they sensed that I was already angry and told me that I shouldn't be angry because they were just doing their job. The government must have been paying them to be stupid because that seemed to me to be what they were doing - to be complete stupid automatons unable to think on their own. I got my boarding pass now after badmouthing them. Another fifteen minutes later I was back in the OWWA office photocopy machine to have my boarding pass copied. I went back to the OWWA officer to give him the copy and he game me my OEC. I swear to the devil, I would have turned terrorist if they told me to go back again. Now my flight is about boarding time and I still had to go through immigration. I went to the entrance door jumping the queue again and again the guards told me to go back to the end of the queue. After a minute of argument, they let me in. I jumped the queue again in the X-Ray machine and went to immigration.

That's it.

If I may suggest a few improvements into the system. Here they are:

1) After check-in passengers should be allowed to get outside the terminal again without surrendering their boarding pass to the stupid guards at the exit door. There is absolutely no point for them to hold a passenger's boarding pass should the passenger need to exit the terminal.

2) Have a more efficient method in OWWA. Get another fecking photocopy machine right next to the guy at the counter who needs them copies. Don't have to require copying the boarding pass. They already copy the passport and visa and the ticket. It's more than enough information. In fact, don't require copies of the ticket as well. It's just a waste of paper.

3) OEC can be in the form of a sticker that is attached to the passport like a visa. It should have a fixed-term validity that is as good as the passport, say five years, and optionally applied at the same time as the passport, paid-for once. On immigration, it takes validity (exemptions) if when leaving the country, the OFW has a work visa.

4) Abolish the government.

The Origins Library

The Origins Library. That's how I fancy the name of my future self-sufficient library that will house, hopefully, a comprehensive collection of great books on origins, most specially, human origins. I have started to collect the books by the greatest evolutionary biologists like Theodosius Dobzhansky, Sewall Wright, R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, Motoo Kimura, John Maynard Smith, Stephen Jay Gould, Ernst Mayer, George Gaylord Simpson, Richard Dawkins, and of course Charles Darwin. A lot of things have been discovered, new ideas introduced, and old ideas refuted since Darwin. Evolutionary theory has undergone many revisions in the course of the last hundred and fifty years that Darwin's ideas are not sufficient to understand evolution in its current incarnation. I would like to get as many books as possible that contributed immensely to the current understanding and/or consensus on evolution as well as the current issues and debates peripheral to the theory. Aside from evolutionary biologists, I would also like to include books by Frans De Waal and Jane Goodall of which I have a few already, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas. I will post the list of books in a website I would like to build in conjunction with it for purposes of "advertising" it to the community. I would like it to be accessible to college students taking up biology as well as to teachers of science. I am still thinking of how best to manage it since the books are not so cheap specially if preference is given to hardcover editions over paperbacks to make them last longer.

The Origins Library, founded 2007.