Thoughts on an Eleventh, September edition

Hmm.

Today's the Eleventh.

Congratulations, Alexander, for you are now seventeen-and-a-fourth years old.

To mark the event, I - you must know that I am you, just as you are me - will once again translate your thoughts into text form, such that a somewhat semi-decent record of current events as seen from your perspective might somehow be formed.

We begin.

Three weeks prior, on Benigno Aquino day, you had wandered the UP campus with a friend - Martin Cusi, should memory fail - after a minor mx-up over video editing schedules left both of you with a pair of hours to while away. The walk was characterized by your oft-thwarted attempts to locate the famed freethinkers of UP on a national holiday; your efforts culminated in a lengthy conversation with some Fine Arts students lounging around the outside of the central library. If anything else, the experience left you disillusioned with the discovery that even those who supposedly reject conformity do their rejecting according to a prescribed format; the students you encountered, regardless of their apparent sincerity, comfortably fit the general mold of deviants. The realization that even rebellion has a general mold deeply depressed you.

Two weeks prior, you were promoted to the rank of Cadet Corporal along with your fellow Air Police, though one among your number - a G comrade, at that - was forcibly removed from the flight. The exams, which, inexplicably, you were too lazy to study for, were remarkably easy; however, your lax attitude towards your academics at that point in time resulted in only average scores. Many bested you in fields of study where you should have excelled, had only you known your priorities.

One week prior, your TD teacher - Mrs. Ducepec, for purpose of clarity - began a vendetta against the atheists of the class. Memorization of her chosen excerpt from one of Cardinal Newman's many prayers - the man prayed a lot, apparently - is now mandatory, exhortations to convince 4G's godless of the sensibility found in belief have become louder and more frequent, and the current lesson revolves around a film which openly denounces the Epicurean lifestyle of freethinkers in favor of Christian good feeling are some of the measures she's implemented; however, these have in no way diminished our - I speak of the four who are open about their stance on the matter of religion - standing in the class, instead planting the seed of animosity towards dogmatic fundamentalism in even the most neutral of our comrades. On another note, the long-delayed recovery of loaned finances has begun; your trust in the understanding of your comrades regarding the penalty for late payment has so far been justified.

In and around those perceived major events lie the workings of a life - yours.

Alexander, this is the Eleventh, and your life is slipping away.

Go and live; I'm pretty fucking sick of writing to myself about myself anyway.

Maybe I won't be so narcissistic on the next Eleventh, but then again, this is my blog.

Cheers.

Random Thoughts.

Thought 1: On Public Displays of Affection

Anyone who's ever held hands, hugged, kissed or otherwise shared affectionate physical contact with a member of the opposite sex in public must understand now that the words

Public Display of Affection

begin with the word "public."

*pauses to let astounding revelation sink in*

Yes, that is correct - the word "public" not only appears in the phrase, but actually begins it. This, unfortunately, can and will shatter the fallacious notion that such displays are meant for the receiver; indeed, if such were the case the phenomenon would more aptly be called a Personal Display of Affection, or something with similar connotations. Instead, the word "public" denotes the actual target audience of such displays.

No prizes for guessing who.

Come on now, I know you're not that stupid.

Say it, say it...

YES! THE PUBLIC!

She's not [place action here] because she likes you; she's [place action here] because she'd like the world to see that some boy is actually attracted enough to her to be fooled into committing such an incriminating act.

You little idiot; you actually thought it meant something else? Something deeper, sweeter, more...real?

Fool.

(Disclaimer: Thought 1 can be classified as a hasty generalization; peruse only for entertainment purposes)

Thought 2: On the Wielders of Ad Nauseaum Arguments

Argumentation can be quite fun, whether for work or play. Considering the fact that a percentage of the educated elite have even decided to further divide their numbers by creating an elite members-only group of so-called "debaters," I must suppose that the pleasure derived from refuting an opposing position through use of fair and rational means is one of the more accessible intellectual sports.

Unfortunately, easy access is itself: easy access, which means that any little two-bit shite with rudimentary communication skills can take part, regardless of actual skill.

Mind you, dear reader: I do not look down on two-bit shites for wanting to partake in what is enjoyable. Rather, I find myself more perturbed by the high-and-mighty attitude they adopt once they discover that saturating their opponents with half-assed arguments actually can force a draw.

Ad nauseaum, fools.

Your arguments don't triumph because they're logical, insofar as you presume that gratuitous insertion of the word "logic" makes an argument logical; rather, your opponents concede because they're sick and tired of listening to your incessant babbling.

So much for the ad nauseaum.

Debate Tryouts, postscript.

I did not make it into the debate team.

This is dreadfully embarassing on one end of the spectrum and terribly depressing on the other.

Fark it.

SAT Reasoning Test Scores

Test Date: 06/2006
Test: SAT Reasoning Test

Critical Reading
Score: 790
National Percentile: 99%

Math
Score: 770
National Percentile: 98%

Writing
Score: 650
Multiple Choice
70 (score range: 20-80)
Essay
6 (score range: 2-12)

Debate Tryouts, part one.

The first part of the debate tryouts was held earlier today at 3A.

I was there.

I applied.

I eschewed substance for style by focusing on a more comedic persona.

I had a great audience; laughter rang through the air.

My reward?

El Filibusterismo should not be taught in the Ateneo.

T_T

I sure wish I had been determined to pick a more defensible position.

Oh, and apparently my waiting until 4th year to apply will count against me; the team values fresh young members, or so I was told.

(Incidentally, 'member' is a euphemism for...)

A judge said I'd have to be brilliant to get accepted, given my age.

I'm scared.

Citizen's Army Training, prelude.

Buzz. Snip. Buzz. Brush off.

In such a manner did I today lose the majority of my hair, in accordance with the pseudo-draconian rules of the illustrious Ateneo High School.

To the credit of those who threatened me with sanctions, I was only told to have the bit around my ears trimmed. However, I decided to maximize the amount of metaphorical avians dispatched by pre-empting a predicted haircut order about a week from now.

Thus have I been rendered semi-bald, which for all points and purposes is something I deem most unfortunate, having considered the quite-possible nature of the program I will soon face.

Citizens' Army Training.

Speaking truthfully, I must confide that I truly know next to nothing about CAT; however, my stay in the Ateneo, coupled with my observation of my acquaintances from the preceding batches, has given me the impression that my enforced change in appearance is a tad bit unnecessary.

Note the implications of the program's title: Citizens' Army Training.

By virtue of the choice of words, one can suppose that in CAT, a citizen undergoes training which will, through the application of severe discipline, transform him into a viable infantry option should the need ever arise, broadly speaking.

Casual observation of the graduates of the High School does not bring to mind the idea of a batch of potential soldiers.

If the product of an process is the measure by which the process is judged, then by all means the CAT program is severely inefficient.

I'd love to be proven wrong, however physically taxing such may be, in my assumption that Ateneo's CAT is half-assed.

Tune in next week for the more competent conclusion of this bit of thought.

Invisible Pink Unicorns

First and foremost, I don't want to explain what an Invisible Pink Unicorn is. On that navigation bar over yonder sits a link to Wikipedia; do yourself a favor by looking it up - education never really hurt anyone.

Enlightened yet? Good.

This musing is about the ideal behind the Invisible Pink Unicorn, heretofore known as atheism.

I find it simultaneously vexing and amusing that the most-cited argument against atheism is its supposed immorality. To choose to reject religion on the basis of logic and reason is no transgression against humanity, nature, and existence.

Hell, I once pointed out in casual debate that the invisible pinkness of an Invisible Pink Unicorn was, in showcasing the conflicting natures of invisibility and color, an analogy for the omnipotent omnibenevolence of God; my opponent responded with an offer to pray for me.

Pray for me, as if I was doomed to eternal damnation for rejecting the illogical.

That's both sad and funny.

Humans are sentient beings of thought, of logic and reason; to voluntarily renounce this grand acquisition, won through ages of evolution, is to reject the mind's capability to discern the nature of concepts, indeed is to deny oneself of the means by which one becomes oneself.

Francis Bacon writes, "Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men."

Religion teaches its followers to believe in order to understand. I shite thee not; Saint Anselm of Canterbury wrote, "Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this too I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand."

That's just...foolish. To believe, one must first understand; otherwise the object of belief becomes as vague as a metaphor concerning December Sundays. Believing in God in order to understand God leaves no room for accuracy, for to be accurate one must first have identified a target; God could turn out to be ice cream, and still our good friend Saint Anselm would believe in him.

Omnipotence and omnibenevolence in light of the Problem of Evil cannot be; look it up for a significantly substantial introduction. Suffice it to say for those in the audience who prefer summaries, the Problem of Evil states that evil exists, and a God cannot be both omnipotent and omnibenevolent because of this very potent reality; either God is omnipotent and chooses not to destroy evil, or God is omnibenevolent and, though he wishes to, cannot destroy evil.

Believing in an omnipotently omnibenevolent God is just like believing in an Invisible Pink Unicorn; nothing less than a strong dose of doublethink will ever provide coherence to such ideas for one who chooses to understand before believing.

For the rest of the world, there's ice cream.

Introduction, version three.

Hello.

I suppose I'll stop being pretentious and just write for the sheer unadulterated rapture of putting incoherent thought into equally incoherent yet grammatically perfect language.

It took me two failed blogs to realize this.

Welcome, audience, whoever you may be.

Comment away if we be friends.