A quick post to announce the new address of this blog: http://reflections.tinabargo.com/.
Please update your links. Thanks!
June 29, 2009
Utility: A measure of the relative satisfaction from, or desirability of, consumption of various goods and services.
It was only last week when I was worrying about how to survive the rest of the month with chocolate bars, some biscuits, and vodka. (It’s weird, I know, but those were the only contents of my refrigerator at that time.) But now that I already received the housing subsidy, I don’t know how to spend it.
My colleagues used to tell me that since I am already in Paris, I should go ahead and take a European tour. But the prospect of traveling alone in an unknown place never really did excite me. Especially in a place where you don’t know their language, I might add.
But there are a few things I would like to have. For one, I need a new, more powerful laptop because my current laptop cannot do the things I am planning to do for my research. Also, I am saving for a very big expense once I come home (something that I cannot elaborate at the moment, I might jinx it). And lastly, there is now the possibility of going home this year for vacation. Now that I am recalculating my income and anticipated expenses, I realized that I can’t have everything that I want. I am now at a loss with evaluating the utility of each option.
June 3, 2009
The Same Old Story, With a Twist
Posted by Tina under Politics | Tags: chacha, conass |[4] Comments
They’ve been trying to change the constitution for more than 10 years now. Nothing has happened in the past. Maybe that’s why a lot of people dismissed it. I was only alerted of the issue while chatting with Alex, so I started looking at the live blog from Filipino Voices and also my Twitter feeds.
Little media coverage. Hmmm, bad. Why are they in such a hurry to pass that resolution? But then, I’ve also seen that phenomenon unfold in an institution that is smaller than the House of Representatives. And just like what happened in Congress, they got what they wanted.
Maybe the constitution badly needs an overhaul. But with the news I’ve been getting for the past few weeks, do you really entrust the entire country in their hands?
We got lucky with the book blockade issue. If UNESCO didn’t issue a statement, it would have been buried under the video scandal + water incident at the Senate. With this ConAss issue, we are on our own.
For the record, a lot of people left that institution I was talking about three paragraphs ago. Will the same thing happen in this case?
Abangan.
May 20, 2009
I’ve been following the issue for quite some time. A lot has been said about the issue already, so let me just point you to this post, which summarizes everything and gives you a nice timeline of the events since 1952 (when the Florence Agreement was created).
Honestly, I know that customs were taxing imported books for quite some time, and reading the original article on the great book blockade just made me aware that people from Customs were actually violating an international treaty. Woah. The price of books these days are high relative to my salary as an educator, so I could only afford to buy books once in a while and spend them on relatively popular ones. Of course, book tax would only lead to more expensive books in the future, so I linked the stories related to the book blockade on every social networking site I belong to. Something must be done.
What got me annoyed was the response from DOF on the issue. Sue them, they said. I wanted to wring their necks when I read the title of the article. How I wish that someone would rise to the challenge and sue them for turning the rest of the country into idiots like them. People in the government should know better than to answer in an arrogant manner whenever they are bombarded with issues like this. Why, this is the perfect way to turn the people against them, don’t you think?
Suppose that the government continues to implement the book tax. Price of books will rise, demand for books will fall. The more resourceful book lovers will turn to pirated copies of the books, photocopied or electronic versions. It’s difficult to read these pirated copies, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. And as for the rest of the population, good luck.
God help us all.
May 14, 2009
The Fangirl in Me
Posted by Tina under Music | Tags: American Idol, David Archuleta, David Cook |Leave a Comment
I won’t mind if you call me shallow or stupid after saying this. One of the reasons why I don’t want to be here is because of the upcoming concert of David Cook in Manila. Yes, I am a fan. I was originally rooting for David Archuleta in last year’s American Idol, but David Cook’s version of Always Be My Baby and The Music of the Night got me converted. Anyway, I am a fan of both Davids, and I have their albums (back home, in my laptop, in my iPod playlist) to prove it.
So when I heard from my sister that the two Davids are going to hold a joint concert in Manila, I was depressed. And it didn’t help that my sister and brother kept on telling me that they are going to watch the concert. Have I stayed in Manila, I would have done the same.
There ought to be a very good reason for me to miss this concert. (And yeah, getting a PhD in Paris is not worth missing this once-in-a-lifetime concert.) Otherwise, I’m going to regret this for the rest of my life. I swear.
