Pray Without Ceasing

Some months ago, I read and heard about "pray without ceasing" of which I thought that it was expressed figuratively to perhaps show the importance of prayer and that we should have more time for prayer. Just this week, while I was on my way home thinking about different things, I realized I was wrong.

When faced with some temptations that we wanted to get rid off, we would use different means. I would distract myself into other things. A retried archbishop would look at his list of achievements whenever tempted to smoke, and would ask himself if he would be willing to see all of his achievements be gone because of one cigarette. Others would seek the help of a friend. But most of the time we would still see ourselves failing and falling. I realized that our own efforts to fight against temptations are too weak, for we are weak in trying to battle our own weaknesses. We need God to win this battle against sin. For apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5)... No matter how hard we try.

Why We Tend to Steal

We steal at the office, at home, in the government, and almost anywhere, because we don't see the price of our souls, and the severity of sin. We don't love God and His commandments.

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. (Matthew 18:8)

The verse shows how displeasing sin is that there is such a desperate need for us to stop sinning as soon as possible, and the value of our eternal life is so much important, much more valuable than our physical body, physical needs, our ambitions, our achievements, and our positions.

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Why We Filipinos Need to Stay in the Philippines

I agree in Prof. Monsod's "last lecture" to her students which centered on the initial steps to help in the development of the country. She told her students that if they are going to help this country, they've got to be in the country. There's also a published opinion by Dr. Marcaida which says Prof. Winnie can be wrong in generalizing that Filipinos going to abroad are traitors. For a country to develop, the economy and living conditions should improve. It means money should circulate and industries should develop. This is achievable when there are people trying hard to make it happen. There are some reasons which I think make Prof. Monsod's argument valid, and why Filipinos should be in the country.

Why Multi-level Marketing Is Not Good

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation. -Wikipedia

This strategy has been more known these days, especially in social networking where recruiters will tag several people showing the check payments they've received. They often invite us to join them. They want us to experience financial freedom where money works for them instead of trying hard to earn money. They will try their best to meet with us and talk to us. They want us to live a healthy and wealthy life, to take risks, and to trust the system that will bring instant money. I'm neither connected to those groups nor connected to those against them, but I want to point out things that are not really good with such kind of system.

My Apple iPod Touch 4G

Last Saturday, I got my Apple iPod Touch 4G 32GB. I won't post the specs and the complete set of features anymore. What I really like in this device is the Retina display. I've tried 1G, 2G, and 3G versions, and the display of 4G is really different because I can't see the pixels anymore. It matters because it helps me read texts. The new processor allows faster processing, although the memory remains to be 256MB. Not really a big deal for me, considering that I usually focus on a particular app most of the time. The cameras (front and back) are not excellent when compared to smartphones today, but at least the 4Gs have them. I'll outline some of the features I want for future iPod Touches. Below is a screenshot of my iPod Touch unit. I just learned that pressing the home button and the power button will capture a screenshot.

No Smoking

Smokers will die soon. No, I don't literally wish that it will happen to them. I just want to point out that smoking is that dangerous that it can kill them, and that non-smokers are that unhappy. Whenever there's somebody smoking inside the jeepney I ride, and I'm still far from my destination, I stop them from continuing to smoke. I'm happy that some did follow. I did get down the jeep without paying when the driver seemed not to follow my request.

Eating Mud Pies

I read a quotation from a Facebook post...

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

– CS Lewis

I was wondering at that time if there's such thing as mud pie, or how they are made. The results in Google are shocking.

Faster File Copy

I'm currently using the Dell Vostro laptop which Datacraft gave to us. Last October 2, I transferred all my files from my Asus Laptop to the new one. I was thinking of an efficient way of transferring more than 30GB of files. The issue was not limited to the file size, but also in the number of files to be transferred. If they were just 10 big files, it would be simple, but there were many small files involved. I decided to make a network transfer, since our portable hard drive has only few free space remaining.

On Death Penalty

The Death Penalty in the Philippines has been in an on-and-off state with calls for its revival usually happening whenever there are new victims of heinous crimes that are reported. The law intends to punish criminals and to decrease the number of future incidents. On the other hand, human rights organizations think that death penalty is not the solution, as it even creates a problem where innocent and wrongly accused people are being executed.

SumatraPDF as an Alternative to Adobe Reader

In one of the PDF documents I've opened using Adobe Reader, I found out that it can use too much CPU cycles when hovered to an image with a tooltip. What happens is that the tooltip keeps blinking, causing the spikes in CPU usage. This however does not happen in SumatraPDF, a light PDF Reader. I find SumatraPDF easy to use, and is simpler when compared to Adobe's. Only the basic functions you need for reading (like search and jump to page) are available so you don't have to deal with many options and buttons that you don't usually need or use.

Why We Need and Want to Read the Bible?

I will try to present some answers which are not necessarily in order, cumulative, and entirely the ideal ones. I will use some analogy to drive a point.

1. To gain knowledge

If we are fascinated in science because we learn a lot of things, shouldn't we be more interested to read and to know the Word of God because it contains wisdom and knowledge?

2. It is a requirement

If those of us who easily get tired when reading, read the entire novel in just a month because it is a requirement in school, shouldn't we read the Bible because God requires us too?

3. It concerns us

If we spend time researching a particular disease not because we want to know about it, but because the symptoms we are experiencing affects our physical body and it concerns us the most, shouldn't we read the Bible because our eternal life is a major concern?

HeidiSQL as an alternative to SQLYog

Yesterday, I transferred my Wordpress blog from my local computer to the web server. I encountered this error from SQLYog after exporting my database which says that "SQLYog is getting terminated." I'm not sure what causes this, but I'm sure it's because of the installation process since I made my portable version of SQLYog. Exporting other databases and using the root user result to the same error.

OPM to be Played in Philippine Radio Stations

I learned from our HUMAART online group discussion that Pres. Aquino wanted at least 4 OPM to be played in Philippine radio stations every hour. The article in http://mb.com.ph/node/272301/noynoy-call discusses that in detail. But come to think of it, this order has been existing since 1987 and yet it's not even implemented. Some of the students in the group still complained about this, and I tried to respond to their arguments.

• It's hard to implement this, because stations need to adjust to it.
  • If radio stations can play songs requested by their listeners... Why will it be hard for them to accommodate the request of the president?


• It will decrease the number of people listening the radio.
  • It's just a minimum of 4 OPMs per hour.
  • The directive does not force stations to play it exactly in a particular time.
  • People can switch from one station to another as they wish.
  • Majority of Filipinos still loves OPM (I think)