.:Who Says Philosophers Don't Get Any?:.

From Chapter 6 of the Tao-Te Ching:

The spirit of the valley never dies.
It is called the subtle and profound female.
The gate of the subtle and profound female
Is the root of Heaven and Earth.
It is continuous, and seems to be always existing.
Use it and you will never wear it out.

I don't think Lao Tzu was quite "subtle" enough to conceal the fact that this passage from the Tao-Te Ching is anything but non-indicative of the female anatomy. As Dr. Dy succinctly put it, only the loud and boorish male's "usage" would actually wear him out, whereas the subtle and profound female's "usage" simply won't.

Nonetheless, today was an extremely fun lecture, as I ended up seeing most of our discussions with a political slant, be it Osmena's taking credit for all the cellular phones we happen to have, to FPJ's lack of knowledge as a good sign of his actual knowledge, as the law of reversion states that when he reaches the extreme, he turns to its opposite. (/sarcasm)

One of our classmates had this funny way of asking weird questions, though. My undergrad classmates whom I usually walk with after class apparently took note of this as well, and we were just talking a bit about it.

I had fun with one other point during class, though: overdoing things can sometimes be worse than not doing it at all, for the Taoist. For instance, the great artist in a snake-drawing contest lost because after having finished his masterpiece far earlier than his rivals, he decided to beautify the snake further and ended up adding legs to it... thus, he no longer drew a snake. Interesting stuff, really. Chinese Philosophy rules...

.:A Shaggy Dog Story:.

Ever heard of a "shaggy dog story"? Well, I heard quite a few already, and I never knew that it was called that. In any case, let me give you an example of a "Shaggy Dog Story"...

There was once a young man whose father was dying. On his father's deathbed, his father asked him for one last request. His son naturally obliged him. His father then took out an envelope, and told him that he should give this envelope to his superior everytime he gets promoted, but he must never read the envelope. He promised to do this for his father, and soon enough, his father died.

This young man found work in the U.S. Army, and he did his work quite well. It didn't take long before he got promoted, and remembering his father's wish, he gave the envelope to his commanding officer. After reading the contents of the envelope, his commanding officer thanked him for all his service, then asked him to move on to a new line of work.

Puzzled, the young man complied. This time, he went to the U.S. Air Force. Again, he did his work quite well. It didn't take long before he got promoted, and remembering his father's wish once again, he gave the envelope to his commanding officer. After reading the contents of the envelope, his commanding officer thanked him for all his service, then asked him to move on to a new line of work.

By now, he was a bit bewildered. What is in that envelope? However, he remembered his promise to his father, and decided against reading it. He instead went to the U.S. Navy, thinking that he won't be discharged there since they were at sea. As usual, he did his work quite well. It didn't take long before he got promoted, and remembering his father's wish once again, he gave the envelope to his commanding officer. After reading the contents of the envelope, his commanding officer thanked him for all his service, then asked him to move on to a new line of work.

The commanding officer prepared a small boat for the young man, and right then and there, was set down to sea to go back. By now, the young man was utterly flabbergasted. What did the envelope contain? He couldn't contain his curiosity any longer and started opening the envelope...

... And then a huge wave hits his boat, overturns it, and he subsequently drowned. So don't ask me what the envelope contained. He never got to see it for anyone else to find out.

.:Wacky Fun:.

A friend and I were having a nice moment a couple of days ago. We were just conversing, and we really had good, clean fun. And then I told that friend of mine that she is such a wonderful person, in spite of what everyone else may say about her. She then smiled at me, thanked me, and called me her greatest confidant.

I smiled over the idea of being trusted so much, and then it hit me. So I then asked her if she knew what the word "confidant" meant. She said yes. Then I asked her what the word meant. She then told me that it was someone who would give her confidence.

Apparently, one of her friends whom she asked for the word's definition told her that. So I guess that makes me little more than an ego booster, which of course is a little less nice of a label than being a trusted confidant. Aw, shucks... to think I was beginning to feel trustworthy as a friend again... :)

.:Have You Seen My Childhood?:.

Hung around Hobby Haven again then I saw Mikko working on his laptop. Soon enough, he brought out the heavy artillery, and he started playing the good old NES game, "Super Punch Out"... he was apparently stuck at King Hippo, though. I volunteered to help him out, as I recalled that King Hippo had a pattern where the only time you could hit him was when his mouth was open. He then started calling me a "Super Punch Out Master", and enjoined everyone to "Watch those fingers fly".

After King Hippo came that Tiger Boxer guy, whom I never defeated as a kid. Sensing a shot at redeeming my unhappy childhood because I never beat this bastich, I proceeded to figure out his pattern. It then occurred to me that I could hold the down key in Super Punch Out to block, and I didn't need to tap it at the precise moment. With that being said, I did manage to redeem my childhood and find that all is right in the world again. Mikko was laughing his head off because I was literally cursing that boxer I was up against every single time I got a knockdown off of him...

Afterwards, we got stuck at the Bull, and I never saw who comes after that guy, as I had Chinese Philosophy class. When I was hitching with Peppy home, some people were strangely enough looking at his car and pointing at something, for some funny reason. At first, we paid no attention, but then the people were calling our attention to something in front of the car incessantly. When I finally got down at my house, we looked at the front of his car and discovered that his grill had half fallen off, and it was dangling all the way. We have no idea how that happened, as we never bumped anything nor did anything bumped us. It was just bizarre, but we promptly wedged it back into place as a quick fix...