Some of my favorite House MD quotes.
You're nuts. You're going to be miserable, at home, at work, somewhere. The goal in life is not to eliminate misery, it's to keep misery to the minimum.
You're good. Don't screw it up just because you're miserable.
Because I'm interested. When I'm interested, I describe the things that make me interested as interesting.
He's a happy idiot. That screws with your world view. There's something freeing about being a loser, isn't there? Why are you afraid to...?
You're a bureaucratic nightmare. You're a chronic pain in the ass. And you're a second-rate doctor at best.
You have three choices in this life. Be good, get good or give up. You've gone for column "D". Why?
You were doing better before you had a good idea.
You don't want to face it any more than my patient does! Dying's easy. Living's hard!
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Christmas : Province Version
The past few weeks have been wonderful. Unlike my "no-cook", boring life in Manila, my life in our sleepy province is the exact opposite - we still have no fastfood restaurant, so we really have to learn how to cook but no one still wants to eat what i cook; we only have one internet shop and it closes at around 5pm which is a good excuse for not having read any work-related emails; and we have no "entertainment" venue so people are very creative when it comes to inventing occasions to celebrate. Some of these i was also creative enough to escape, especially the weddings when i know that people will be making a big fuss of my unmarried state blah blah blah. I already have a standard reply when asked when i'm getting married, "perhaps tomorrow, its already getting late," then i'd smile and stare at my watch then excuse myself to find my missing sister. Its the best technique so far so i always ask her to sit away from me.
My little cousins have this curious habit of pointing at one another while sobbing barely understandable he-snatched-my-toy rants so I also did a lot of refereeing and broke the rule on chocolate bribing to settle the riot. I still believe that, for sanity's sake, children should be taught to walk by the time they're 7 ...with the onset of reason.
Anyway, during quieter times, i finished Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini. Both are moving tales set in Afghanistan but i especially liked Kite Runner, perhaps because of its appeal to emotion hahha. It's not Nobel Prize writing material, and sometimes, i can't stand the use of he-killed-the-engine phrase. I don't know, perhaps the maggot in my brain causes it to short circuit when i read that phrase. But his style makes imagining all too easy. A Thousand Splendid Suns is better read in cheerful mood, i shouldn't have read it over Christmas. Its a bit too Hollywood-ish in style .I was just telling Kate that it's like titanic - its cinematically good but i won't subject myself to another seemingly endless tale of tragedy. Kite Runner's tragedies are, in most cases, unexpected, which makes it a bit more interesting. Maybe the appeal of the unknown?
We're now back in the office and last week was adjustment period again. Day 2 and i started hearing complaints of headaches, muscle pains, back aches and whatever possible aches. Kate said that this year, our sign is one of the few "unluckiest" so she's been feeding me many information to break the curse . Horoscope is one big business but it's still fascinating how people react to predictions.
My little cousins have this curious habit of pointing at one another while sobbing barely understandable he-snatched-my-toy rants so I also did a lot of refereeing and broke the rule on chocolate bribing to settle the riot. I still believe that, for sanity's sake, children should be taught to walk by the time they're 7 ...with the onset of reason.
Anyway, during quieter times, i finished Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini. Both are moving tales set in Afghanistan but i especially liked Kite Runner, perhaps because of its appeal to emotion hahha. It's not Nobel Prize writing material, and sometimes, i can't stand the use of he-killed-the-engine phrase. I don't know, perhaps the maggot in my brain causes it to short circuit when i read that phrase. But his style makes imagining all too easy. A Thousand Splendid Suns is better read in cheerful mood, i shouldn't have read it over Christmas. Its a bit too Hollywood-ish in style .I was just telling Kate that it's like titanic - its cinematically good but i won't subject myself to another seemingly endless tale of tragedy. Kite Runner's tragedies are, in most cases, unexpected, which makes it a bit more interesting. Maybe the appeal of the unknown?
We're now back in the office and last week was adjustment period again. Day 2 and i started hearing complaints of headaches, muscle pains, back aches and whatever possible aches. Kate said that this year, our sign is one of the few "unluckiest" so she's been feeding me many information to break the curse . Horoscope is one big business but it's still fascinating how people react to predictions.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Getting sober - Laotian style
it's one of those trips that drives you nuts.
after a gruelling 12-hour trip of changing planes and waiting at the airport, a few days of adjusting to the "early-retirement" working hours, and enduring the probing glances of DOE (dirty old expats) i am finally coming to a drunken realisation that my life will always be a series of tragecomedies. i live on pure luck.
i always hated dining alone, i always feel so pathetic i'd rather work while having dinner than be alone staring at my food for at least 1.30 hrs. i can't take my meal faster than 1 hour lest i'll be suffering from a bad case of indigestion (believe me its not a good sight). here, in the taylac, i am forced to dine on my own and much as i want to have food delivered in my room, the restaurant doesn't have a room service. how nice...
so i have to endure the puzzling glances from the other tables of DoE. most of the DoEs here, by the way, have asian "companions" and they're not socialised into thinking that a girl of similar race can actually WORK!
after a gruelling 12-hour trip of changing planes and waiting at the airport, a few days of adjusting to the "early-retirement" working hours, and enduring the probing glances of DOE (dirty old expats) i am finally coming to a drunken realisation that my life will always be a series of tragecomedies. i live on pure luck.
i always hated dining alone, i always feel so pathetic i'd rather work while having dinner than be alone staring at my food for at least 1.30 hrs. i can't take my meal faster than 1 hour lest i'll be suffering from a bad case of indigestion (believe me its not a good sight). here, in the taylac, i am forced to dine on my own and much as i want to have food delivered in my room, the restaurant doesn't have a room service. how nice...
so i have to endure the puzzling glances from the other tables of DoE. most of the DoEs here, by the way, have asian "companions" and they're not socialised into thinking that a girl of similar race can actually WORK!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Insults - from another blog
read this wonderful blog with a collection of classic insults. read on...
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
Winston Churchill
"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
Clarence Darrow
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."
Moses Hadas
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
Abraham Lincoln
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
Groucho Marx
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
Mark Twain
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."
Oscar Wilde
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one."
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second...if there is one."
Winston Churchill, in response
"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here."
Stephen Bishop
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator."
John Bright
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
Irvin S. Cobb
"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others."
Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."
Paul Keating
"He had delusions of adequacy."
Walter Kerr
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
Jack E. Leonard
"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."
Robert Redford
"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."
Thomas Brackett Reed
"He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."
James Reston (about Richard Nixon)
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."
Forrest Tucker
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"
Mark Twain
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
Mae West
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
Oscar Wilde
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support rather than illumination."
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."
Billy Wilder
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
Winston Churchill
"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
Clarence Darrow
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."
Moses Hadas
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
Abraham Lincoln
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
Groucho Marx
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
Mark Twain
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."
Oscar Wilde
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one."
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second...if there is one."
Winston Churchill, in response
"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here."
Stephen Bishop
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator."
John Bright
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
Irvin S. Cobb
"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others."
Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."
Paul Keating
"He had delusions of adequacy."
Walter Kerr
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
Jack E. Leonard
"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."
Robert Redford
"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."
Thomas Brackett Reed
"He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."
James Reston (about Richard Nixon)
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."
Forrest Tucker
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"
Mark Twain
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
Mae West
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
Oscar Wilde
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support rather than illumination."
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."
Billy Wilder
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Flying thoughts Vol 1
May 2005
I took the photo of my empty coffee mug while waiting for the flight to Siem Reap amidst the hustle bustle of old Korean excursionists, poker-faced Japanese businessmen and urban techies in Phom Penh. If I die and become a coffee cup at the airport in my next life, I’d roll myself over with that cinematic slow motion. Of course, I’d pick the right sentimental idiot who’d be so dam sad he’d decide to pay for he broken coffee cup and put the pieces together in a collage. Then I’d be what I always wanted myself to be – a wall décor! hahahah
Funny how, in being alone for hours at the airport, I can almost hear the demons in my head pushing the clouds of indecision, and everything becomes sunny clear. I would travel the world over if only for being stuck in at least 2 airports in one flight, the longer waiting hour, the better. And I am not being sarcastic here. I like it especially when I get first to the boarding gate and everything is so quiet – the carpet sucks the footsteps, the whooshing of planes buffered by the walls – nothing but the bored flipping of expensive glossy magazine pages by estranged passengers, each silently swallowing their nervous anticipation. Well, there are those who needlessly fumble with their cellphones, whispering agitated goodbyes.
My imagination is a sucker for story lines, I have loads of stories running through my mind and if you combine all the hours spent waiting at airports, I could come up with 2 volumes of The Flying Thoughts, which, after a while even intensifies my fear that I have forgotten something in my absorption to different plots. Am I getting insane? I guess so…
I remember the 2-year old French “feeding bottles” (times two) competing for my attention in one of those flights. The lovers beside me abandoned their seats to some private world and the two gray-green-eyed kiddos joyfully took their turns amusing me with their mirrored playfulness. The other one (only called Moppet) , obviously being “more matured than her twin, Emma, sat beside me for almost the entire trip to Hongkong.
Have I been mommyfied? (Kundera’s term is daddyfied) The flight was long enough for me to teach them how to juggle with their seatbelts for hours and play with utter abandon, unmindful of the other passengers. There’s that serene expression in kids’ face that I really like. Sometimes, all I have to do is hold hands with kids and things seem to be less complicated. I remember kate telling me she cried one time she went to church and a child of about 4 or 5 offered her hands in singing the Lord’s Prayer. Why is it that when we get old things become more complicated? I never seem to answer this question properly.
I agree with you, traveling in itself is an awareness building and enlightening experience. Aside from meeting old incorrigible Koreans and kids who were taught by their parents that life is a curse-ible experience (I later on learned from kate that the words being shouted alternately was not what the father claimed it to be, it was some sort of a bad word, in French), there is that self affirmation that I can always revert to my former self of being a loner or introvert, whichever is lesser in intensity and more flexible.
I took the photo of my empty coffee mug while waiting for the flight to Siem Reap amidst the hustle bustle of old Korean excursionists, poker-faced Japanese businessmen and urban techies in Phom Penh. If I die and become a coffee cup at the airport in my next life, I’d roll myself over with that cinematic slow motion. Of course, I’d pick the right sentimental idiot who’d be so dam sad he’d decide to pay for he broken coffee cup and put the pieces together in a collage. Then I’d be what I always wanted myself to be – a wall décor! hahahah
Funny how, in being alone for hours at the airport, I can almost hear the demons in my head pushing the clouds of indecision, and everything becomes sunny clear. I would travel the world over if only for being stuck in at least 2 airports in one flight, the longer waiting hour, the better. And I am not being sarcastic here. I like it especially when I get first to the boarding gate and everything is so quiet – the carpet sucks the footsteps, the whooshing of planes buffered by the walls – nothing but the bored flipping of expensive glossy magazine pages by estranged passengers, each silently swallowing their nervous anticipation. Well, there are those who needlessly fumble with their cellphones, whispering agitated goodbyes.
My imagination is a sucker for story lines, I have loads of stories running through my mind and if you combine all the hours spent waiting at airports, I could come up with 2 volumes of The Flying Thoughts, which, after a while even intensifies my fear that I have forgotten something in my absorption to different plots. Am I getting insane? I guess so…
I remember the 2-year old French “feeding bottles” (times two) competing for my attention in one of those flights. The lovers beside me abandoned their seats to some private world and the two gray-green-eyed kiddos joyfully took their turns amusing me with their mirrored playfulness. The other one (only called Moppet) , obviously being “more matured than her twin, Emma, sat beside me for almost the entire trip to Hongkong.
Have I been mommyfied? (Kundera’s term is daddyfied) The flight was long enough for me to teach them how to juggle with their seatbelts for hours and play with utter abandon, unmindful of the other passengers. There’s that serene expression in kids’ face that I really like. Sometimes, all I have to do is hold hands with kids and things seem to be less complicated. I remember kate telling me she cried one time she went to church and a child of about 4 or 5 offered her hands in singing the Lord’s Prayer. Why is it that when we get old things become more complicated? I never seem to answer this question properly.
I agree with you, traveling in itself is an awareness building and enlightening experience. Aside from meeting old incorrigible Koreans and kids who were taught by their parents that life is a curse-ible experience (I later on learned from kate that the words being shouted alternately was not what the father claimed it to be, it was some sort of a bad word, in French), there is that self affirmation that I can always revert to my former self of being a loner or introvert, whichever is lesser in intensity and more flexible.
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