All In A Day's Work

.:I Passed Up Star Cinema? Gyeh?:.

I got a call from Star Cinema a couple of days ago for a possible interview with them, and as soon as they gave me a bad schedule (1 PM next Tuesday, a half hour before my Philosophy 104 T.A. class.), I quickly told them I'm not available for the interview and already employed. I realized after the fact that I never even knew the potential nature of the work they intended to give me a shot at, making me feel a bit dismayed over my rashness. For all I know, it could've been an offer to be their next matinee idol. That'd just be so sad... or maybe a freelance writer, a job that would pay well, but I'm not so certain how good I can write on a consistent basis. Besides, I'm not too fond of ABS-CBN anyway.

Yes, I'm sourgraping. Don't mind me.

.:The Phoenix:.

I've always wanted to play Legend Of The Five Rings for years, but it was always one thing or another that kept me from doing so. Before, it was the fact that all my money went to Magic: The Gathering. Then, RAW Deal. Now, there's no reason for me to not go for it, as I could very well get a decent deck with a strategy I really enjoy utilizing, so maybe, just maybe, I'd finally get this Phoenix deck. I'm not too interested in getting any other kind of deck (Save for Lion or maybe... Dueling Crane? No Crab, Scorpion or Shadowlands for me, that's for sure.), and the price tag of 2000 sounds reasonable enough, anyway.

I'll just sit on it for now, though. I really want to get into the game on a casual level, and as Jason guessed, I won't abandon RAW Deal. I'm the only factor keeping the game alive. My giving up would bring certain death to what is now the third top-selling CCG in the world...

Which reminds me... I was teaching Flip how to play RAW Deal last night, and he was doing pretty well. He has sound strategy, even when Peppy stopped teaching him.

.:All Part Of The Job: The DJ Edition:.

I've gone through it back in RX, and I still go through it in WAVE. There have always been, and I guess there will always be weirdo listeners wherever I turn, and WAVE has quite a few lurking around in our chatroom. We have one potentially gay guy who potentially has the hots for me, given his cousin's testimonial on my Friendster account. We have someone who decided to use our chatroom as a venue to advertise his porn. And what I think is the most intriguing twist of all...

Yes, while Shai and even Margaux the other day (She was saying something about me having both “the look and the attitude” to make my listeners and my students swoon over me.) were all flirting with me (Whether or not they really like me is beside the point. I don't want to be presumptuous like that.), if you recall who's sending me this message, there would be quite a huge gap of logic here...

From Jen, my erstwhile critic:

How I wish it's morning again, para I can hear ur rili nice voice (Wasn't this the same person who told me I needed speech lessons? - Marcelle) na. I think of u lot (sic). Dunno why...

I think I know why, and I know this makes me presumptuous to say so, but yes, I do believe I happen to know why.

Aw, come on...

.:All Part Of The Job: The Teaching Assistant Edition:.

So I walk into the classroom, a bit late as I was trying to blog as fast as I could. Dr. Ibana delivers his lecture, and surprisingly avoids being boring by talking about Aristotle's habituation...

Dr. Ibana: Paano kung mahirap gumising ng umaga? Paano kung ang klase mo kada araw ay 7:30 ng umaga? Mailalagay mo ba sa iyong load revision form na ang iyong dahilan ay, “I cannot wake up that early”? At ano ang gagawin mo kung ganoon? Ibabagsak mo ang iyong klase? At paano na? Hindi ka mag-gragradweyt? Kung hindi ka makaka-gradweyt, eh di hindi ka makakapagtrabaho. Kung hindi ka makakapagtrabaho, eh di magnanakaw ka. Eh kung mahuli ka, at sa kulungan, mapaaway ka at makapatay? Isipin mo yun? Nawasak ang buhay mo dahil lang sa 7:30 class.

Camilo: Slippery slope logic.

Yep, the Department Head of Philosophy uses logical fallacies to get his point across, as Camilo pointed out (He's my co-T.A. for Dr. Ibana.) Of course, as he's everyone's boss in the Philo department, we all cannot just challenge him on anything, even his attempt at giving a roll call of his 110 or so students in class, which lops off at least fifteen minutes of the class time every time, when all he needed to do was use the seating plan... but I'm sure he earned the respect accorded to him, anyway, so never mind... I shan't challenge that.

To make things extremely embarrassing for me, Dr. Ibana then decided to point out to the class that I was a DJ (I don't tell people I don't know about it...), which got them to stare at me and whisper for the most part. It's not like his comment even had anything to do with the lecture, as he haphazardly tried to connect his comment to the lecture, with little success. I guess I have to get used to that approach. It's very people-centered, but oftentimes embarrassing...

Anyways, the class was divided into three again, and I took over the same group that I did the last time. Funny thing about that is the fat that we were supposed to switch on a regular basis. I guess he forgot...

Nonetheless, as the cat was out of the bag, I rode the wave (Heh.) and plugged myself with my group already, as I'm sure that with the way Dr. Ibana jokingly described me as a DJ for a classical station would make them assume I'm from 98.7. Ah well. We had a discussion on habituation, and I mostly used real-life examples to get my point across with them (“Oh, I know how bad the traffic in Katipunan is. I mean, until I load revved out of Fr. Ferriols' class, I had to take a taxi and hope to be fast every M-W-F after I'm done with my show on WAVE 89.1, your lifestyle, your music.”). I talked to them about how green the Ateneo culture is in terms of trees, and yet La Salle is the school that has made green their trademark color. I talked about how the fact that there is a lready a culture means that anyone just walking in and trying to change something will simply ruin the whole balance that they wish to do, and so the MMDA imposing on Katipunan to “solve” our traffic with no prior consortion with those who will be affected clearly reflects the lack of knowledge the MMDA would have in dealing with the people in Katipunan.

I told them how this simply meant that MMDA has no idea what they're doing, inasmuch as a Comm graduate trying to teach Philosophy would naturally fumble. Oh, gee. Did I just say that? Heh. Mr. Callassanz seemed to notice I was having fun with what I was doing, though. Of course I am.

I finally talked to them about the e-mail I once read about monkeys and conditioning... about how five monkeys in a cage can be taught to never approach a banana nearby by dousing everyone else in the cage with water whenever one tries to get a banana. When they're all conditioned to stop any monkey who tries to get a banana because they don't want to be doused with water, you can soon enough replace one monkey at a time until the five monkeys in the cage were never part of the first group, nor were they ever even doused with water, and yet none of them would so much as try to take the banana near the cage, as they will be held back by the other monkeys who themselves have no idea why they're doing it.

This is a very simplified form of true virtue: you do it not because you want to get something out of it, but you do it for its own sake. Simply put, you're so used to doing the right thing that you no longer need motivations to do it, nor do motivations to do otherwise actually tempt you. As such, being habituated really makes one more capable of doing true acts of virtue, and not merely random acts of kindness.

The group I had is rather perceptive. While I may seem to have said a lot to them this time, they also had valid input into the discussion, as it was their idea that the MMDA were out of line in imposing rules in places they are not the least bit familiar with when it comes to culture.


When asked “Why”, the answer is not “Why not?” The answer is simply, “Why ask why?”