I won’t be signing up for NaBloPoMo this month because I’m being realistic. I haven’t been able to do NaBloPoMo successfully after three tries, BUT I’ve decided to look at the bright side. After all, I am a silver lining kind of girl. So instead of focusing what I wasn’t able to do, I’ll focus on what I did do. And while I didn’t post everyday for a month, I have been posting at least once a month. That’s more than I can say for the past two years. If I keep posting at least once a month, I’ll consider that progress. My expectations are set, but I still intend to go beyond those expectations and post more than once a month. It won’t be everyday, but it’s still something.
Archive for the 'NaBloPoMo' Category
A friend posted this link on tumblr: adam carolla talks shit about pacquiao and the philippines
I read the post, and I read the article that was linked in the post. Just from reading those two things, I already have a lot to say. But I’ll save that for later, because I want to listen to the whole thing first.
For now, I’ll start with this. From that article that was linked, I read a related article about Carolla doing this for attention. Did he do this for attention? I wouldn’t be surprised. As the article mentioned, by giving him attention, whether negative or positive, he’s getting what he wants. And I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a trending topic on Twitter by the end of the day.
If his goal was to bring attention to himself and publicize his podcast, it’s working. I don’t want to give him the attention that he wants. I don’t want to promote his podcast. But I can’t pretend that what he said wasn’t hurtful. I’m not going to ignore comments that insult the Philippines.
Like I said, I’ll probably reply to everything later, but for now I wanna respond to this part of his podcast:
Here’s how you know your country doesn’t have a lot going for it: when everything is about Manny Pacquiao… Get a fucking life, as a country. All you’ve fucking got is this illiterate guy who won’t give up blood, who happens to smash other guys in the head better than other people. That’s all you have, Philippines?
Yes, we’re proud of Manny Pacquiao. Why shouldn’t we be? But that’s not all we have. Who said that’s all we have? The first example that comes to mind is Efren Peñaflorida. Maybe it’s just me, but CNN Hero of the Year is a pretty big deal. So please, don’t assume that Pacquiao is all the Philippines has just because that’s all you know about.
On another note, he says Pacquiao is illiterate. Pacquiao doesn’t have perfect English, but that doesn’t mean he’s illiterate. Besides, English is not the only language in the world, so you can’t disregard his fluency and literacy in other languages. He did drop out of high school due to poverty, but he passed the high school equivalency test a few years ago, which is similar to the GED in the US. So don’t assume that someone who hasn’t finished high school is illiterate. I agree that education is important. But formal education is not accessible to everyone. And even to those that have access, it’s not always affordable. It’s important to remember that education isn’t something that just happens in the classroom.
I’ll save the rest for later. As for Adam Carolla, maybe he’ll get the attention he wants. But I hope that he’s not the only one that gets attention from all of this. By bringing this up for discussion, I hope it gets people talking about the Philippines. And I hope people realize how much we have to be proud of, because it’s more than just Manny Pacquiao. We have a lot to offer as people and as a country.
Let’s try this again. I’m determined to make this work for April. I feel like I have more time, and I’ve learned what I can do to prevent what’s happened in the past. I’m not going to limit to myself in terms of what to write about. I won’t worry about how short or how long my posts will be. And, if I have to, I’ll write ahead of time and set it to publish for a future date/time.
So, starting today, there’s going to be a new post everyday for the month of April.
And I just realized that I used the spiral model!
So I wanted to write everyday, but I focused too much on that initial idea I had of writing about strangers. Starting today (March 9, 2010), I’m going to post something everyday for a month (until April 9, 2010). And I’m going to do it even if I have to post something short or incomplete. I’m going to post something even if it doesn’t relate to the theme. I need to learn how to write posts that may not be as long as I want or as thorough as I want. I need to stop letting perfectionism lead to procrastination. I can always revisit a topic later if I can’t finish writing about it.
I’m counting this as post #1 instead of the one that I wrote on March 1st.
I’ve neglected this blog again for too long. Again. So, in an effort to be more consistent, I’ve decided to try NaBloPoMo for the month of March. The theme for march is STRANGE(R).
Strange. Stranger. One letter apart. But it makes sense. If something is unfamiliar to us, we consider it strange. And strangers are people who we’re unfamiliar with. But when it comes down to it, how different are these “strangers” from us or people we know? The world is smaller than we think. How many people do we pass by or interact with each day that actually have some connection to us through mutual friends or acquaintances?
Ever since this past summer, I’ve been taking the bus almost everyday. Everyday it’s a different set of people. Sometimes you run into people you know, but most of the time the bus is full of strangers. Once in a while, you see a face that you’ve seen before. But they’re still a stranger.
Riding the bus everyday sounds tedious. But it’s different everyday. There are days when I’m too preoccupied with things going on in my life and I spend the whole bus ride thinking about those things. There are days when I just want to listen to music that explains how I’m feeling at the moment.
But then there are the days when I’m not caught up in my own world. Those are the days that I take a break from worrying about my own life and I take a step back. I take in the world around me and the people around me. And it’s on these days that my curiosity strikes. Everyone on the bus has a different destination. Everyone has a different purpose for going from Point A to Point B. Sometimes I look at people and wonder what their life story is and what they’ve gone through. Or even on days when I’m preoccupied with my own life, I take a look around and wonder what everyone else is thinking about. The bus ride is so silent sometimes. It would be so interesting to be able to hear people’s thoughts.
For some of my posts this month, I’m going to try to write about a different stranger. A different story each time. It’ll be fictional for the most part, but I’ll use the strangers that I come in contact with as inspiration.
