Compilation of short morning thoughts on Facebook.

Cancelled! A form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles because of what they said, did, or ate. News: “'Wonder Woman 3' scrapped a day after Gal Gadot's tweet.” The deal seems like: In case you are a celebrity or a known personality, don’t tweet whatever you think. Just act in your movie or play ball. If you are a boss in a company, don’t post your thoughts. You should know by now what’d cancel you out, don’t you? (Sarcasm.) 🤨🗣👥

Switzerland slows down on electric cars as the country’s emergency energy use braces up for winter—as energy crisis stays. A huge 60 percent of the Swiss energy supply depends on hydroelectric power, which relies on falling water to turn turbine blades. Others, coal is used. Etcetera. My thought: Over-consumption is our #1 problem. No matter how we use/dispose, if we don’t lessen manufacturing stuff and things to obtain, we’ll still heighten environmental ruin. ?⛽️🔌

Whatever it takes to end a war, especially that your people are dying. That’s what Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichu should be doing per her calling. Not to enflame more animosity. Recently, she has called for the arrest of Vladimir Putin for war crimes. What about Poroshenko/Zalensky’s army that brutally bombed Donbas for years, at least from 2014? Otherwise, Ms Matviichu should just shut her mouth so as not to help derail ongoing negotiations.☮️☮️☮️

The release of Brittney Griner is a start. Let them keep on talking. Paul Phelan is still in prison in Russia… I will repeat again why Volodymyr Zelensky favors a continuing war, as 4.5 million Ukrainians refugees are now scattered in Europe, awaiting asylum or just wandering. What, he’d probably ask for more money from the U.S. and Europe to add to the $95 billion already given to Kyiv? I insist that when fighting stops, an international body investigates Zelensky in re his offshore holdings in British Virgin Islands, Belize and Cyprus. And how he spent aid that were given him since start of war this year. 

I was about to go to bed when I saw this photo and video. A child named Leo, son of Croatian winger Ivan Perisic, ran over to give a message to his father's opponent, the tearful Neymar. The kid was initially stopped by security but was let through by Neymar for a handshake and a hug. THAT, dear grownups, is the moment that we all need. Ah. A beautiful moment… Amidst all the hate and darkness, a boy showed the world what love and friendship are all about.☮️⚽️💝

Negativity of News. Because today’s journalism is essentially peopled by younger reporters who didn’t experience the raw hardship of pursuing sources, or they haven’t really experienced the worst of life per se? Romanticize the little wins, bloat the tiniest speck of dirt, and politicize all angles and anglings? I couldn’t relate anymore. The lead line of a News report is pretty much the writer’s opinion before the “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How” are explored. ✍️📹✍️

Humanity is selective when it comes to who/what to demonize. Prejudice, I guess. When Jeff Bezos was the world’s richest, he was a loud object of internet disdain. The “new kid in town” is Elon Musk. The immaculates insult, lambaste, and shame Walmart, Starbucks, McDonald's, or any huge company that are #1. Yet seldom ExxonMobil, JPMorgan Chase, or Lockheed Martin are dissed as loud. The pure are selective who/what to hate. And feel cool about it. 🗣👥🗣

I simply ignore people (those that I only “met” on Faceboook) who unfriended me. But it is sad that I had to unfriend/block friends that I knew for many years before there was internet. Differences in politics are fine. `Been on political discourse since those days. Not an issue to lose friends. But I couldn’t tolerate immature, nasty language. A year ago, I unfriended a good, relatively quiet friend. I simply couldn’t stand his foul, know-it-all online crassness anymore. 🤨🗣👥

Watching a lot of historical/period TV series and movies, I am fascinated with fashion in the past, mostly before the 2000s. Kickass capes and snazzy suits and elegant hats for men; elaborate gowns and stylish dresses and grand hats as well for women. When people went out, they looked chic and sophisticated. I’d like to go back to those days. These days, yardwork get-up for men and bedroom clothes for women are also worn in the grocery, party, or public park. 🎩👑👘

Society is so loud against anti-semitism or “hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people.” Yet anti-Christianity is a popular pop culture fodder. The shaming of Christians can be really low and dirty. All over social media, undeterred. Political cool? Celebrities speak vs. anti-semitism and they are praised. Yet known adherents to Christianity prefer to hush. Denzel Washington, basketball pro Al Horford, and rock star Bono are religious Christians.✝️☮️🕎

“Coolness” online: Drinking is fine if it is wine, not whiskey. Weed is awesome. Breaking rules means you are kickass. Christianity is the root of all evil. Unity in diversity if it conforms with my prejudice. I am rude because I am depressed. Blame China for consumerism. Blame Russia for high cost of gasoline. Blame Trump for the bad-hair day. Blame mom and dad for our failures. Blame the other political party for Mercury Retrograde. Agree with me or I will unfriend you. 🙂🤨😒

News: “This 8-Year-Old Boy Became the Youngest Person to Ascend El Capitan.” Are we obsessed with (world) records! NBA: First to record a triple-double by a non-American before he reaches age of 20 who is single and a Catholic. Cinema: First woman of color who wins an Oscar who is not from the U.S. before she reaches age of (alcohol) drinking. My record: First Asian man who wore double-layer pairs of socks from age 7 to 109. Makes us feel good, I guess. 🧐🤓😎

A smiley “How are you?” from a stranger is a sweet American culture. Back home in the Philippines, it is inappropriate to greet anyone, lest a woman, that you are not formally introduced to. Here, humanity is so friendly. Or maybe social media is different? I seldom greet “friends” via IM anymore because I usually get ignored. I don’t know why. Honestly, I just want to say hello to someone that I knew then but haven’t seen in years. Will never try again, sorry. LOL! 🙂🤨😒

I think some people are getting mentally disturbed because of Trump. Because of their hatred for Trump. All they see is Trump. They parallel anything that they dislike with Trump. All they post are Trump. One day there will be a psychological disorder named after Trump and meds named after Trump. Of course, Trump will charge royalty for use of his name and likelihood. A pill that is shaped like Trump's face or hairdo. I don't think Big Pharma will mind. It's profit. 😒😏💊

A huge contradiction in life these days: Many are so unrealistically “careful” not to hurt feelings. And so when voices are raised in a workplace setting or sports team huddle, or an “inappropriate” term emerges on your FB post or a known person said a harsh word—they are cancelled outright, lose their job, and shamed no end in Social Media. Yet the “ordinary” language that are said here are cuss words and rude remarks. We police words but not attitudes. 🗣👥🤨

Some of the awesome dog/cat Facebook “Reels” are not showing on my Page as frequent as they used to. No problem, I can find them. But I also get nostalgic cool “Groups” from my native Philippines. “Baul ni Juan” is about old movies. Fun titles like “Kumander Mameng,” “Hayok,” and “Kulog at Kidlat.” Basketball of the 1960s to 1980s. And “Kusinela,” cooking videos, old-school on firewood and outdoors. How I wish I’d be transported back in time. 👍🤝👍

Notice some of the movies/TV series these days have annoying dark or dim lighting? They say it is a “lighting technique,” a metaphor. Example: Woman brushes teeth, family dines, man buys cigarettes in a corner store on daytime, board meeting etcetera. Underexposed scenes make us miss important stuff. “Shot on green screen and rear projection,” whatever. Some say dark lighting has become a bit of a lost art. “Lost art,” they say? That’s “artistic masturbation” to me. 😠🎥😡

Social Media has popularized and glamourized invectives—cussing and cursing—that even those people (old as me) who didn’t spit out bad words unless intensely provoked, toss `em here like “f#@!k!” is obligatory in their daily language. A young person here even snarled at me: “How’d you know a word is a cuss word or not?!?” Many don’t know anymore, I guess. It’s just how they talk. Most likely, they'd ask a barista: "Can I have a fu##!!ing latte, dude?” I reckon. 🤨🗣👥

My accent gets me in awkward situations, or trouble. While living in Las Vegas, I was asked “Where you goin’, man?” / “I am going to look for a cheap slot and play!” (I didn’t mean “slut,” uh huh). In Los Angeles, “What do you think about Southern California?” / “I like the beaches…” (It sure came out as “bitches,” I guess). I once had a German friend in New York City named Gunter. For sure, I never yelled at him “Gunt!” after that weird incident on a crowded E train. 😅😂🤣

Our idiosyncrasies. Or a mode of peculiar behavior. Traits that can be weird or crazy without meaning to be part of the fringes or unordinary, because those seem “cool,” uh huh. Few of my “unnaturals,” aside from my OCD fix: I recycle my coffee. I brew a pot that I consume for a week, microwaving a cup each wake-up time. I wear two layers of socks, 24/7. I meticulously draft/file or organize my Facebook posts before I post them. Seldom I post on impulse. 🧐🤓😎

ONE More Time: You and Me and Children and Internet.

LIKE a frenzied, hyperactive AI, news sites these days proliferate with AI news and subjects that pertain to Internet and Kids. Samples: “Uncensored Chatbots Provoke a Fracas Over Free Speech.” / “States’ Push to Protect Kids Online Could Remake the Internet.” / “Echoes of History in New National Push to Shield Children Online.” And so on and so forth.

       And then we read these articles: “Almost a Third of High-School Girls Considered Suicide in 2021.” / And “Emergency Room Visits Have Risen Sharply for Young People in Mental Distress, Study Finds.” 

       So how do we tackle, confront, or work around this “future shock” that is already in our midst? Been reading past issues of business magazines and I am astounded by a flood of new gadgets and apps and related tech thingies that keep on coming. Pre-Covid, budgets of at least 3 Big Tech titans are already higher than at least 10 poor countries: Amazon, $42.74 billion; Alphabet/Google, $27.57 billion; Huawei, $22.04 billion. Apple Inc spent “only” $26.25 billion for R&D last year though. 

       And so by the time parents and tech and government discuss regulations and stuff, dozens of new comp inventions, AI-boosted or not, are already in the market.

       News adds: “A new generation of chatbots doesn’t have many of the guardrails put in place by companies like Google and OpenAI, presenting new possibilities — and risks.” But of course kids are not the only focal point of this “precaution.” There is no way that we could escape from technology; it’s all an individual response. 

       Other News: “New age restrictions for minors on sites like TikTok and Pornhub could also hinder adults’ access to online services.” Certainly, don’t forget, porn sites were already easily accessed by ten-year olds before AI came to the living room. 

HENCE, I concern myself more with personal safeguards. Primal sense. News: “In the 1990s, the U.S. government limited what young people could see online, but lost a court fight challenging those rules. Now it’s happening again.” And I don’t think that challenge will ever stop. 

       Meanwhile, from 2011 to 2020, the proportion of mental health-related visits to emergency rooms by young people roughly doubled, health experts report. You know as I know. That little gadget has a lot to say about all these. And what’s in there are all our doing. The coming of AI only gives Tech Gods a sure alibi to point blame to. 

       Complex, isn’t it? Indeed, more complex than what Alvin Toffler warned us in 1970 as “future shock,” or a state of distress or disorientation due to rapid social or technological change. 😒🤖🥹

<>The Chinese.

THE Philippines has a large population of people of Chinese ancestry. Chinese in the Philippines have intermarried with Filipinos and largely been assimilated into the population. Data says Chinese mestizos or ethnically Chinese Filipinos comprise 1.8 percent of the population. But that is only 1.35 million out of the total 113.9 million humanity back home. Which is extremely modest or huge miscalculation. Chinese culture’s bloodline influence in the Filipino sociocultural psyche is massive. 

The country of my birth was colonized by Spain for more than three centuries and then, the archipelago was ceded and turned into a commonwealth of the United States of America for 50+ years. Yet although Catholicism dominates the people’s creed, almost 80 percent, and American English is the most commonly spoken language and Washington politics basically “dictates” governance in Manila, the Chinese factor is similar to a cloud of consciousness that hangs overhead. 

       I am not talking about the current Beijing economic bombast in the region (or globally).  Even before Ferdinand Magellan landed in the southern islands, the Chinese were already trading with Filipinos for centuries. Hence, we have a clear understanding of the Chinese mindset. Because they are “within” us. 🇨🇳🥢🇨🇳

THE Chinese back home. The quiet neighbor, painfully careful landlord and wickedly guarded loan giver. The hyper-creative but icy pragmatic restaurant/store owner who never ran out of food and stuff to sell. I even had kin who are Chinese (via marriage) or my blood/vein got Chinese in them as do majority of Filipinos. 

       The Chinese that I know avoid arguments, refuse trouble or didn't take sides in community animosities. But they are willing to serve food while village councils fix quarrels. They even offer feasts of food, free, as long as they are assured fighting would be resolved faster and they could continue business with less hostilities around. 

       A Chinese trade trait that is fascinating? When you go to a Chinese store or restaurant and ask for something that they don't have at the moment, they'd tell you they actually got some. Then the boss sends an assistant to a nearby fellow Chinese store/restaurant to get the stuff. That's how their cultural socialism works. They will convince you to sit tight for a bit and you'll get what you want in a minute as they hand you a bowl of lo mein, on the house. Voila! You are now a regular client. 🇨🇳🥢🇨🇳

HOWEVER, it doesn't mean the Chinese are spot clean. They got the dreaded Hung Society and its more popular Triad, plus the Golden Triangle crime organization. You don't mess with these guys. The CCP can't even contain them. So they struck a deal. They basically operate only in Hong Kong and Macau. 

       Meanwhile, these bad dudes also practice "cultural socialism." You know what I mean? They avoid South LA or Sinaloa kinda gangland shootout. Too messy. Bad for business. In other words, when they waste you it's because you had to be wasted. Pretty much how the Japanese Yakuza operates. Let's do business first and war is the last resort, if ever. In crime, there is respect, honor, and integrity. Uh huh. 🇨🇳🥢🇨🇳

GEOPOLITICALLY, although China's military spending is a lot less than America, China has the world's largest army, mostly concentrated inside the Great Wall. Only 1 military base outside, in Djibouti. Plus a maritime reconnaissance and electronic intelligence station in Coco Islands in the Bay of Bengal near Myanmar.  

       Think lessons of two Opium Wars (1839 to 1860) and the Boxer Rebellion (1900). They were invaded and fought back essentially via kung fu. LOL! But they eventually agreed to open their trade ports to the West. Business. That's how they "fight." Then we talk of Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin's trade deal in 2000, which paved the way for Beijing to enter WTO in 2001. From that point, China's economic expansionism rolled on in plain sight. 

       No need to fight a physical war or armed hostility. But to outsmart the Chinese, play their relentless game of economic chairs. Same tactics and strategy how they outfoxed the U.S. and Europe. As 21st century marched in, the Chinese played Western styled capitalism sans military bombast and Hollywood-styled talk without losing their business acumen and dealmaking shrewdness. Straight up trade, no chasers in between.  🇨🇳🥢🇨🇳