A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

I'm sure you foresaw this entry, but no one I know (see links to blogs) seems to have done it yet. So, here's a post wishing all of you a merry Christmas.

Now that the year is almost over, I am tying up loose ends and doing a little reflection. However, I am beginning to feel that nothing really ends, it all just goes on and on. I try to make sense of things by organizing experiences into discrete little episodes, but maybe that's just me and what my little mind can contemplate. So here I am, thinking about my past, present and future, quite perplexed yet still holding it together.

The funny thing is, I can't imagine having it any other way.

Lion Dance of Love

I attended a wedding reception last Sunday in Makati, and the program included a very unusual number: a lion dance. I've seen some lion dances over the years, but I've never seen a dance at a reception before, so this was a first.

There were two lions, and since it was a wedding, they were depicted as "love" lions. So, I guess you can try imagining the routine. The two lions were in foreplay throughout the entire performance. Thankfully, there were acrobatic feats to break the monotony, like the lions jumping from one high place to another and standing on their "hind legs." It was quite entertaining, but i think they went slightly overboard with the "love" bit. At one point, the "lions" were sniffing each other and giving each other back rubs. I am well aware that these are mythical beasts played by two people in special costumes, but if you watch animal planet, you know what comes after the sniffing and preening. I don't mean to sound prudish, but I never thought of the lion dance in that context before.

Overall, I found the reception interesting. There was an effort to present the wedding reception in a different style. There weren't any doves, the poor birds with clipped wings that sit throughout the wedding only to be released into the glaring lights and some kid's eager hands. The program didn't involve tipsy uncles belting out karaoke songs. And there was the lion dance. I wonder what those inspired wedding planners are going to think of next - and how much the sponsors are going to pay for it.

I am the pilot

How sad yet hopeful at the same time.

Collective Guilt

After the flooding in Central Luzon, what just happened makes me think twice about specifying wood. The government will punish the illegal loggers, but how about those who use the wood?

The Dispossessed

I am now reading Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed. I would like to thank Yo and Hong for recommending this excellent author. The different worlds she created in the book are very detailed and interesting. I cannot help but interpret the different societies portrayed in this work of science fiction to be rather extreme versions of the ones we have had throughout history.

From my choice of reading materials as of late, I guess I am turning out to be a fan of both utopian and dystopian fiction and non-fiction. I wonder if this has anything to do with my chosen career or my favorite childhood pastime. I used to imagine entire cities of talking animals: rabbits, birds, etc. and often made up situations wherein the different animals interacted with each other in the form of comics and short stories. I guess people were too difficult to draw or maybe too real and complicated to make fantastic stories of at that age. Haha, the ideas I had then were pretty strange. Maybe too much David Attenborough and Looney Tunes in the morning.

I'm a writer!

Woohoo! I've finally written something for a magazine people actually buy!
Check out My Home Magazine November Issue and look for the article "Sustainability Starts at Home."

Trip to Tagaytay

Farewell Dog

I'm saying goodbye to our dog. He has been a kind and loyal animal. He will be missed.

The WTN X Prize

The X Prize has expanded its scope to include some of the greatest challenges facing mankind in this century. The WTN X Prize will build upon the success of the X Prize Foundation's Ansari X Prize Space Race competition and launch a series of technology prizes in the fields of transportation, longevity, medicine, nanotechnology, alternative energy, and even millenium development goals among many other potential breakthroughs.

Imagine the possibilities considering how this ten million dollar prize had just spurred the development of private space travel in only eight years!

"There are over billions of people on the planet, almost each of whom has a dream for a better world. The chances of us finding a truly worthwhile series of challenges for the WTN X PRIZE competitions over the coming years are that much greater the more suggestions we receive. We are asking you because your dreams are the repository of an enormous amount of creativity and hope. In the spirit of man’s first reach into space, we ask you to stretch your imagination to help take humanity to the next level. Are you up to the challenge?" - WTN X Prize

I guess there will always be hope as long as there are people who dream.

The Ansari X-Prize

Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne has won the Ansari X-Prize! Two flights to sub-orbital space were accomplished in six days, the first piloted by Mike Melvill and the second piloted by Brian Binnie. Sub-orbital space, here I come :)

Red, Green, and Blue Mars

I am now reading Blue Mars after having finished Green and Red Mars. The second book, Green Mars, started off slow, ending with a long awaited and eventful climax. The last book, Blue Mars, continues the pace of the previous book's final chapters with a positive tone.

Putting aside the science fiction, the books basically speak of hope, the possibility of creating a new and better society out of the old. Tempered idealism essentially drives the story, and the ideas come from many places: astronomy, geology, robotics, climatology, ecology, genetics, psychology, sociology, religion, politics, planning, engineering, architecture, etc. I guess all the author needed was just the right situation to allow all the ideas to come together, and the first place that came to mind just so happened to be the fourth planet from the sun, Mars.

I wonder if we can find a similar place closer to home.

Architects urged to copy India

Renowned Indian architect Charles Correa has said housing designs from his home country offer the key to eco-friendly buildings of the future.

Correa, who is famed for design principles based on low-density, low cost architecture at a reduced environmental cost, wants architects to examine low-rise, high-density urban areas such as Rajasthan as a way of best using natural and local resources.
"The basic principle of housing in a country like India is that you have very limited resources," Correa told BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme.
"Therefore you have to use great ingenuity. That's when you really learn to respect what traditionally is done.
"If you look at a village in Kerala, everything is re-used and recycled. Leaves which fall from palm trees are used again for the roofs.
"There's nothing like poverty to be the mother of invention. As an architect, looking at those solutions, I was absolutely stunned by it."

Rubbish dumps

The explosion of the Indian economy in recent years has triggered massive expansion in the heart of India's major cities.
Correa, who said that Indians use space "extremely intelligently", explained that in India, tower blocks - "going high" - do not attract many people, and therefore better use of space in low-rise buildings has to be achieved.
Correa has played a part in designing some of the large number of developments which have begun springing up.
He said that this had been a chance to put his principles into practice - not only environmentally-sound buildings, but ones that fit with their surroundings too.
"In New Bombay, this new centre, what we've done is try to use some very simple, direct housing which uses open-to-sky space, which is very important in the tradition," he said.
"A courtyard, a terrace, is actually another room."
As environmental concerns become ever more prevalent, some architects are moving away from the glass, steel and concrete model of modern city building.
One example has been the rebuilding of houses in Afghanistan using waste polystyrene.
A similar scheme has now been tried in south London, where polystyrene from local rubbish dumps is mixed with cement to form lightweight yet durable building blocks.
But Correa stressed that the knowledge of how to work with the environment, climate and materials had long been available - but modern architects had "forgotten and forsaken" it.
He cited the Alhambra Palace as a "machine for dealing with the hot desert climate of southern Spain".
"The walls and water fountains are not just decorative elements, they are a way of trapping the dry air and humidifying it.
"Today that is done by mechanical engineers... the architects make any arbitrary shape they want, and then the engineers step in and make the thing liveable.
"We must understand that's the big difference in the process. We have abdicated something very important to architecture, and that is the well-spring of imagination that comes from a response to some basic elements."

Traditional solutions

However, Correa conceded that in the West, sustainable architecture is not cheap.
He said that one environmentally-friendly element on one building could pay for electricity for a Kerala village for a year.
"It is very cold and so you have to use brick and steel in order to build," he said.
"While you're doing that, people go in for high-rise buildings."
Some new buildings are taking this into account - the new Swiss Re tower in London has been designed to maximise daylight and natural ventilation so that it uses half the energy typically required by an office block
Meanwhile Correa said that his best example of environmental sustainability was not a building, but the city of Yazd in Iran.
The main feature of the city is its "windcatcher" houses and towers, which take the dry desert air down into the basement, where it is humidified by water and then circulated through the houses.
"The whole thing is a masterpiece of connected spaces," Correa said.
"What I've learned, living here in India, is that the most wonderful traditional solutions exist which exemplify all the concerns of the environmentalist today.
"We don't have to invent these things again."

Story from BBC NEWS Published: 2004/09/08 16:29:10 GMT © BBC MMIV

Architect E. Fay Jones dies

Architect E. Fay Jones, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright whose glass-and-wood Thorncrown Chapel was honored in the United States as the nation's top design of the 1980s, has died.

Here is an excerpt from his AIA gold medal acceptance speech:

In the future - in a changing world - whatever the sources of our creativity - whatever stirs our imagination - whatever architectural language we choose to speak - as architects, we have the potential to build well-composed places, large and small, that will not only accommodate our functional needs, but will stand as models which represent the best of our ideas. We have the power - and the responsibility - to shape new forms in the landscape - physical and spatial forms that will illuminate - and nourish - and poetically express - our human qualities at their spiritual best. As architects, as transformers of our living environment, we must eventuate that potential.

E. Fay Jones

Bookshelf

I'm experimenting with an online bookshelf. That means all the books listed by author on the lower right margin are available for circulation! I will also list down some of the books I'm interested in as well, so it will essentially work like a book swap. Originial ownership, of course, will be maintained. In addition, the books that are on the list but in use will be marked with the initials of the user, so it will be clear which books are temporarily out of circulation and with whom. Books are so damn expensive nowadays, so maybe this will help keep us interested in the written word. I'm still figuring out the details, so please do tell me what you think :)

Love is the Seventh Wave

by Sting

In the empire of the senses, you’re the queen of all you survey. All the cities, all the nations, everything that falls your way, there is a deeper wave than this that you don’t understand.

There is a deeper wave than this tugging at your hand.

Every ripple on the ocean, every leaf on every tree, every sand dune in the desert, every power we never see, there is a deeper wave than this swelling in the world.

There is a deeper wave than this. Listen to me girl.

Feel it rising in the cities. Feel it sweeping over land. Over borders, over frontiers, nothing will it’s power withstand. There is no deeper wave than this rising in the world.

There is no deeper wave than this. Listen to me girl.

All the bloodshed, all the anger, all the weapons, all the greed, all the armies, all the missiles, all the symbols of our fear, there is a deeper wave than this rising in the world.

There is a deeper wave than this. Listen to me girl.

At the still point of destruction, at the centre of the fury, all the angels, all the devils, all around us, can’t you see? There is a deeper wave than this rising in the land.

There is a deeper wave than this nothing will withstand.

I say love is the seventh wave.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

I recently took a personality test, specifically the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is "the most widely used personality inventory in history," according to the Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. If it is that widely used, it is possible that I had taken a similar test before and simply forgot about it, or even worse, turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy! Nevertheless, it always helps to learn things about oneself, no matter how simplistic the process.

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, I have an Introverted iNtuition, Extraverted Thinking, Introverted Feeling, and Extraverted Sensing, or INTJ for short. Here's a really pared down analysis:

Introverted iNtuition. INTJs are idea people. They enjoy developing unique solutions to complex problems.

Extraverted Thinking. Thinking tends, protects, affirms and directs iNtuition. Thinking argues not so much on its own behalf, but in defense of ideas.

Introverted Feeling. Feeling lends its influence on behalf of causes which are good, worthy, and humane. It may be seen in the unspoken attitude of good will, or the gracious smile or nod.

Extraverted Sensing. Sensing has only a rudimentary awareness of context, amount or degree. Thus INTJs sweat the details or, at times, omit them. Sensing's extraverted attitude is evident in this type's bent to savor sensations rather than to merely categorize them.

I cannot really say if it is all true. I guess I do not know myself that well, or I'm just reluctant to agree with a system of sixteen catchy four-letter acronyms. However, it is a widely used personality inventory, and it should be helpful to know. I guess I'll just file it with the other tests I have taken so far. Understanding without resorting to stereotypes is such an elusive state of mind. Then again, is it possible to understand complexity without simplification, or are we just flattering ourselves in thinking that our personalities are so complex?

Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars

I'm rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, starting once again with the first book, Red Mars. I have never encountered science fiction like this before. Some of its chapters not only talk about technological change, but social change as well. It is like a book on utopia in the garb of science fiction, essentially creating a new society in another place. Despite the fantastic setting, the issues are strikingly relevant to the here and now. Here's a short exchange between characters to give you a better idea, it's about ec0-economics:

"The basic equation is simple, efficiency merely equals the calories you put out, divided by the calories you take in... In the classic sense of passing along calories to one's predator, ten percent was average, and twenty percent doing really well. Most predators at the tops of the food chains did more like five percent."
"This is why tigers have ranges of hundreds of square kilometers," Vlad said. "Robber barons are not really very efficient."
"So tigers don't have predators not because they are so tough, but because it's not worth the effort," John said.
"Exactly!"
"The problem is in calculating the values," Marina said. "We have had to simply assign certain calorie-equivalent numerical values to all kinds of activities, and then go on from there."
"But we are talking about economics?" John said.
"But this is economics, don't you see, this is our eco-economics! Everyone should make their living, so to speak, based on a calculation of their real contribution to the human ecology. Everyone can increase their ecological efficiency by efforts to reduce how many kilocalories they use-this is the old Southern argument against the energy consumption of the Northern industrial nations. There was a real ecological basis to that objection, because no matter how much the industrial nations produced, in the larger equation they could not be as efficient as the South."
"They were predators on the South," John said.
"Yes, and they will become predators on us too, if we let them. And like all predators their efficiency is low. But here, you see-in this theoretical state of independence that you speak of-" she grinned at John's look of consternation-"you do, you have to admit that that is ultimately what you talk about all the time, John-well, there it should be the law that people are rewarded in proportion to their contribution to the system."

RCBC PLAZA, Makati City

2nd Runner-up for New and Exisiting Buildings Category
ASEAN Energy Awards 2003 for Energy Efficient Buildings

Competition or Cooperation?

I'm a realist get me out of here!
Unreality TV as you’ve never seen it before
- Story Board by Polyp


 New Internationalist Magazine 368 June 2004 

Mahatma Gandhi

I have just finished reading The Essential Gandhi edited by Louis Fischer.  It is an anthology of writings by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, otherwise known as Mahatma Gandhi, with editorial notes by Louis Fischer, a journalist and biographer. 

 
 
From what little I have read about Gandhi, I gather that he was a seeker of truth and a believer of love.  He was also a human being and a product of his place and time, but one who managed to transcend so many limitations despite it all.  His written thoughts are intimate, frank, reassuring, and altogether inspiring.  This was a man who truly knew how to love, in the best sense of the word.

I used to think that people who imagined that love would save us all were delusional.  I still do.  I have begun to realize that all of us are, in one way or another, imagining the world out of what little we know.  The search for truth merely provides a way to make sense of it all, and different people search for different things.  The previous owner of the book wrote an interesting question at the very last page:  "Why does Gandhi believe love is the strongest force in the world?"  I cannot help but ask myself the same question.  After some thought, I have come to the conclusion that the answer entirely depends on one's ever-changing definition of love, and this is the best answer I can think of at the moment:  love is a compulsion to create and sustain life - and life is the very reason why we are all here.

Lecture About Sustainable Design Innovations by Max Lindegger

The lecture, entitled Sustainable Design Innovations for Tomorrow's Communities, was held July 16, 2004 at the Social Science Building of the Ateneo University in Katipunan Quezon City. The main speaker, Max. O. Lindegger, a Director at Ecological Solutions, Pty. Ltd. and the founding Director of the International Global Village Network, is an ecological community developer and consultant with an engineering background. 

In his lecture and slide presentation, Lindegger described a number of alternative communities in rural, suburban, and urban areas in Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, including the World Habitat Award winning Crystal Waters in subtropical Eastern Australia.  He also explained concepts such as the restoration of brownfield sites, urban and suburban infill, rammed earth construction, solar energy, wastewater recycling, permaculture, and other sustainable design innovations.  All in all, he emphasized a holistic approach to sustainable design, to address both social and spiritual needs in addition to the universal need for clean air, water, land and food. Finally, Lindegger shared his dream of an integrated suburban and rural culture that essentially lives within its means.  Lindegger ended his lecture with an invitation to contact or visit him at Crystal Waters.   


The lecture was organized by the United Architects of the Philippines Green Architecture Movement, the Philippine Business for the Environment, and the Ateneo University Environmental Science Department. 

Have you...

Have you ever imagined turning the world upside-down?
I do not mean literally turning everything upside down, but changing the positions of different people, places, and things.
Surprisingly, a great many things do not seem so out of place.

The Dragons of Eden

I am reading my fourth book by Carl Sagan,
the first 3 books being Contact, Cosmos, and Broca's Brain.
Fascinating.

I think... too much

It's funny, but I'm starting to think that I'm fast approaching that point in my life when I'd rather not think about my real age.

When Imagination Turns Into Reality

Vacation House in Batangas 2004

Why write? Why now?

I kept a written record of my life once. I owned a diary. I wrote prose and a little poetry. I started writing in my teens and wrote for a few good years. I was growing up and my life seemed full of possibilities. Then, after a while, all the energy and excitement slowly faded. Without noticing, I kept my writing pen in its case and my journal in its drawer: I never touched them again.

Now, I am somehow compelled to write. The energy is returning, and it is almost like high school all over again. Maybe I've rushed and put off a few things in the past. Maybe I still have some more growing up to do. Whatever it is, it is happening all over again, and it is good to know. It is good to know.

Strange and wonderful times

Does anyone want to fly into space?

Finally!

After much thought, I have finally decided on a template, title, and description! Although it isn't exactly what I want, it will serve for now.

The description is a little difficult to read, but until I find a more suitable template, it will have to stay, right beneath the title, in small capital letters, discouraging anyone who just so happens to browse by from reading the rest of it. So if anyone feels like sharing some lines of code that will move it to the side, or change the description's uppercase letters into sentence case, please do.

Thanks for viewing my first crack at online publishing, and I hope add more relevant posts soon.