Random musings

I'm trying my best to keep this blog entry short (as in, it wouldn't consume as much time as I would regularly take in writing), but sensible (as in, read-worthy), but very authentic (as in, it represents my beliefs and thoughts) as much as possible.

So, how will I do this? Type away, whatever comes in my mind, and resist the urge to review and make modifications in this blog along the way.

Here, I go...

Lately, I've been thinking, how some people are good in writing, ably weaving complex ideas into coherent, convincing stories, and yet, when you get to speak to them face-to-face, they turn out to be shy, self-conscious, stammering kids with glazed facial expressions, who seem to be imagining speaking to a wall, just to have the courage to utter acceptable replies (or rather, intelligible grunts) in your conversation. Then, there are these class of people who are completely opposite to the first one, who wow people with their outstanding oratorical skills and the confidence they exude whether in regular conversations or with a spotlight on stage, and yet write pieces littered with grammatical errors and dubious literary expressions.

Trusting that this phenomenon of self-expression follows the Bell Curve Frequency Distribution typical of everyday things, far more people should fall between these two extremes... although, they're not as interesting to me, and hence more forgettable, than the people that fall in the extreme categories. Before this blog gets too complicated and boring even for me, I'll just describe actual experiences with some impressionable people I have encountered in recent memory.

There's this guy 1, a student officer of a tech-oriented organization I recently had an interest in joining. Just like any techno-buff, he maintains a blogsite, which I had the pleasure of navigating. Reading his entries, I can say that he is smart and extremely eloquent. He was able to accurately document his thoughts, and can impressively justify his stands on various things. He is one of the most active members of the org's egroup, almost always replying to even the trivial issues the org is facing. He definitely has depth and breadth. Then, they invited us applicants to an org meeting, to which I enthusiastically expressed I'm attending. Come, actual day, he stands there in front of us members and applicants alike, with lips almost non-moving as he relates the agenda, and moderates the group discussions, with a voice barely audible enough to be heard by people a couple of feet away from him. When I attempted speaking to him to suggest ways to improve how things get done, he would seem interested in listening, but then, I realized afterwards that he didn't jot down notes, nor did my suggestions come out in the resulting minutes of the meeting. The clincher was, as I was speaking to him midway, the pizza guy arrived and he excused himself in order to pay for the order and distribute the pizza, but he didn't get back to me afterwards. A lot of my hopes for this org crashed that fateful day. Looking back, the fact that he had lots of blog entries meant that he spends more time in his computer blogging than going out and honing his people skills. Secondly, I shouldn't have been surprised if he actually fit the stereotype of a computer geek.

Guy number 2. Teacher. Enjoys consistently high student ratings (so you know, I wasn't referring to myself). Even some of his students rave about how good he is conducting class lectures in their blogs. Bold and frank in expressing his opinions, he's extremely popular in championing the cause of students. Extremely people-oriented, he gets a lot of rackets, and gets invited to give lectures in some gatherings from time to time. Yet, his writings (both formal and informal) can be good practice cases for students training to be school paper editors. Enough said... =)

I'm not writing this to demean anyone. In fact, I'm getting guilt-pangs as I complete my blog. It's just that, I wanted to write about polarities we normally experience, that recently caught my attention, and the personalities behind them. These polarities, while generally regarded as unhealthy and abnormal, and hence, typically avoided, actually sustain other people's interest on you. I'm writing about polarities right now as in the same plane as absurdities. Let's face it, when you're diffferent, you're popular. Take Kris Aquino for example... Heheh...

I remember a conversation with a good friend, who said, she's a bit sad realizing she just had normal achievements, and hence, doubted if people (particularly at work) find her interesting enough to be considered for promotion. I told her to try to look for something unique (or at least few people have tried doing), and yet naturally easy for her to do. Or pick something she knows she can be very good at doing, if she kept at it, in the long run. Like, writing poems and publish them as a coffeetable book, or learning how to cook exotic food, or master the use of a software application very useful at work so she will eventually be the go-to girl when using this software. Or enroll in a Masters class (looking back, taking one wasn't as formidable and scary as I originally thought). Or apply for a dream job, or try immigrating to a dream country (she actually took my advice of applying for a dream job, then she took up committee leadership positions in her org).

As for me, sometimes, I get tired with extended mediocrity, you know, the daily drudgery one encounters in-between deadlines. When people ask how I am, even if I wanted to say something new and interesting, I can't help but reply with something as boring as "same old... same old...". And so, during "in-betweens", it pays to invest my time in something different, even if it's just to fool me into thinking that my time is somehow spent creatively as I grow old. So does this explain why I took up MMA? In retrospect, maybe... But superficially speaking, it's just because I was just plainly impressed by Karated Kid, the movie. =)

So there... I'm not sure if this entry indeed turn out convolutedly unique as I originally intended, but one thing's sure: writing this used up a good 2-hours of my time. At least, that's an improvement over my previous entry.