The New Labels (An Addendum)

Dear Paolo,

This is simply to remind you of what you've done with your new way of classifying posts. Here goes:

Trabaho ug Bokasyon (Work and Vocation) - work-related or vocation-related posts
Negosyo ug Kwarta (Business and Finance) - business ideas and money issues
Kahimsog ug Pagkaon (Health and Food) - health, beauty, and food posts
Kalingawan ug Lakaw (Leisure and Travel) - leisure activities and travel diaries
Espirituwalidad ug Relihiyon (Spirituality and Religion) - spirituality, religious beliefs and practices, and the church
Pagtuon ug Kamanggihimoon (Learning and Creativity) - learning and the arts
Relasyon (Relationships) - family, friends, acquaintances, and my relationship with myself
Kultura ug Katilingban (Culture and Society) - cultural practices and observations as well as comments on politics and government
Kinaiyahan ug Teknolohiya (Environment and Technology) - environmental concerns, scientific facts, and technological innovations

Making Sense Of All These Labels...Again

Hopefully, this is the last time I'm going to revise my labels. It's just that I'm increasingly becoming dissatisfied by my current labels. It's getting hard to categorize my posts as it is now.

So I thought about grouping posts under "life arenas". Instead of grouping them together under general concepts, I thought it would be better to assign posts to every aspect of my life:

Work and Vocation
Business and Finance
Health and Food
Leisure and Travel
Spirituality and Religion
Learning and Creativity
Relationships
Culture and Society
Environment and Technology

I hope this classification method is better than the previous. Here's to coming to grips with the new labels. Cheers.

Batman

Every guy dreams about being Batman. Some aspire to be rich like Bruce Wayne or to be a kick-ass superhero like Batman.

For me, what I admire about the comic book hero is his boundless adherence to what is good. He never uses a gun nor does he kill the bad guy. He believes in every person's capacity to change and reform, something which you might find quixotic given Gotham City's notorious set of criminals. He is incorruptible.

There's this one scene in the movie The Dark Knight which encapsulates Batman's faith in humanity:

THE JOKER Oh, you. You just couldn't let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible, aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.

BATMAN You'll be in a padded cell forever.

THE JOKER Maybe we can share one. You know, they'll be doubling up, the rate this city's inhabitants are losing their minds.

BATMAN This city just showed you that it's full of people ready to believe in good.

 Perhaps, a bit of the Batman does reside in each of us. When we refuse to be corrupted by what the world insists is true, when we stick with our convictions rather than be swept away, when we dig down inside and say "no" to the convenient excuse,  we channel the Batman.

Let's face it, Batman can never be real. He is far too fantastic. But, ironically, he is the symbol of the everyday man, the ordinary guy who sticks a finger to conformity and refuses to play along.

I am Batman.

Dream House

I recently took a break from my job hunt to finish something: make a 3D model of my dream house. So I dusted off my skills in Sketchup and began working on the task.

The end result may be rough (I didn't delete the extra lines) but at least I now have a concrete representation of what the house is going to be (if and when I have the money to build it).

It's everything I've wanted to have in a house: spacious, solar panels, water heaters, green roofs meant to nurture various pollutant-sucking plants and shrubs, open-air ventilation, spare use of concrete, and an infinity "green" pool (although I just drew a rectangle on the ground to indicate where the pool is going to be).

Here are the snapshots:

New Look

Okay.

Here was my previous blog template before:

Now, I downloaded another one with a bit more white space and a lighter hue of blue.

I was initially thinking of customizing a completely new template. But laziness got to me and I told myself I'd be building one when I finally have my own domain name (www.paolobataller.com).

For the meantime, here's what I have. My thanks to the Good Samaritan who made this template.