You and I, we do not see the world through perfect eyes. Our eyes are not virginal to passion, fear, hatred, happiness, seduction nor pain. To insist that we see the world in a perfect light would be only to insist that we have never truly lived. 

As humans who are flawed ourselves, there is a certain amount of respect that is given to the writers who take advantage of the dangerous ability to create characters who share in the same relative flaws that we ourselves are designed with. For this reason, it is imperative that you do not develop characters that are too perfect. It is the beautifully flawed characters that readers love to indulge in. It is the the ability to relate to imperfection that keep them returning for more. 

Essentially, it boils down to the simple fact that perfection is boring. You want your readers to be able to relate to imperfections that are existing in every day life. In reality, there are constant obstacles to overcome, wisdom to be gained and mistakes to be made; it should be no different for your characters. 

The ways in which you can bring your characters to life with imperfections are endless and limited only by your imagination. Portray your character with anger problems, as a hopeless romantic, as a cashier who despises her job, a man who is often taken advantage of because he is too kind or as someone who recently lost a loved one. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it. Your readers want to see a character who is overcoming his or her own obstacles, learning their own lessons out of life and making the same mistakes that they, too, have made themselves. You can take an entirely different route and create a character who is so deeply flawed that your readers despise him, just so long as they love to hate him. 

In the end, your characters should be real, above anything else. Readers, as well as ourselves as writers, are constantly plagued with situations that we must push through and overcome. Having that opportunity to escape from our own flaws and indulge in the flaws of another is ultimately a source of understanding that can often assist us in gaining insight to our own lives. 

I know it hurts to no longer be loved by the one you love. I know it hurts to no longer be wanted by the one who used to worship the ground you walked upon. I know it hurts to be dumped by the one who used to follow you like a lovesick puppy around town.

But denial will not help you get through this crisis in you life.

It is difficult to accept that you are no longer wanted, that you are no longer thought of, that you are no longer missed. It is easier to fool yourself into thinking that he still thinks of you day and night, that he busies himself daily, devising strategies to bring you back and that only his many pride is stopping him from taking you in his arms.

But please wake up!

Misinterpreting his words and actions, concocting wild theories about why he still hasn't picked up the phone to call you, closing your eyes to the fact that he is already seeing someone else, won't bring him back.

It hurts, I know, but it's time to face the truth: you are no longer loved.

It's over. It was over long before it ended. And you knew it. But you pretend. And so did he. But the time for pretense is long gone past. It's time to face up to the cold hard facts. It's time to start picking up the pieces of your life. It's time to stop lying to yourself.

So stop making ridiculous excuses to pick up the phone to call him. Stop driving by his place in the hope that you may accidentally catch a glimpse of him. Stop fantasizing about having his children. You're only torturing yourself.

And stop saying, "I just want to be his friend."

You don't want to be his friend. You know it. He knows it. And so does everyone else so stop selling this story. No one's buying it.

For if you really wanted to be his friend you would have already been his friend a long time ago, the day you officially parted, in fact. But care to take a guess why he still avoids you like the plague?

Because you are not very convincing. If you wanted to be his friend, you would leave him alone. You would stop monitoring his movements. You would stop tracking him around town. These are not exactly the overtures of a concerned friend, more of a scheming ex-girlfriend plotting a romantic reunification.

You really want to be his friend? As a gesture of good faith, give the guy some breathing space. Stop lurking around his neighborhood. Stop interrogating his friends. Stop offering yourself as a Christmas present. It's over. He's not coming back. Or haven't you realized it yet?

Hope springs eternal, I know, till the day he asks for God's blessing and takes a bride. And it is your prerogative to wait for him, forever if you so desire.

But why do this to yourself?

Why subject yourself to such indignities? Why continue to hanker for a man who couldn't care less if you were dead or alive? Do you think so little of yourself? Why live for morsels of affection thrown your way when you could find love in all its splendor with another man?

There's a whole universe of unattached men out there, who could love you much better than him. Let this one go. You deserve to love and be loved again. But this cannot happen till the day you let go of the past and live in the present.

Fantasy delights, I know. And reality bites.

But it's time to wake up. You've been dreaming too long.

Oh star, why must you shy away? Sneak past the clouds, reveal yourself. Take me away to the infinite. Show me the galaxy. Aid me to the light. Do not shy away anymore.

Japan may be the land of used-panty vending machines, tentacle porn, and assorted other cultural perversions. But that doesn't mean they don't have standards. After pleading guilty to possession of cocaine in Las Vegas earlier this week, Paris Hilton was detained at Tokyo's Narita airport yesterday, and then denied entry to the country.

Kazuo Kashihara, a Narita spokesman, would not comment on the reason for the questioning but told Japan Real Time that visitors with drug-related criminal records aren't generally allowed entry into the country. Paris, who arrived Tuesday, was allowed to shack up in an airport hotel last night while immigration officials continued to investigate the case to determine whether she would be admitted into Japan, scheduled as the first stop on her Asia tour promoting her perfume line and fashion collection.

She is apparently on her way home now. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't let her in, and she was forced to orbit the Earth for all eternity, like a literal failed star? Alas, the U.S. is not as discerning as Japan.

It turns out that pencils and books for mothers may be as important as vaccines and drugs for babies in reducing child mortality in the developing world.

That's because a mother's education level has a huge, if indirect, effect on the health of her children. That relationship, observed in many small studies in rich countries, turns out to be true everywhere on the globe, according to a new study.

Half the reduction in child mortality over the past 40 years can be attributed to the better education of women, according to the analysis published in the journal Lancet. For every one-year increase in the average education of reproductive-age women, a country experienced a 9.5 percent decrease in the child deaths.

"The effect of educational expansion on child health has been enormous," wrote Emmanuela Gakidou, the lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

A mother's education affects her children's health in myriad ways, said Christopher J.L. Murray, a co-author of the study.

According to Murray, better-educated women are more likely to understand disease-prevention measures such as vaccines and mosquito nets, and to use them. They are more likely to take a sick child to a clinic early and to follow treatment instructions. They are more likely to understand germ theory and set clean water and sanitation as household priorities.

With more schooling, women tend to have fewer children and space births more widely, both of which also reduce child mortality.

Improving education in a country tends to increase national wealth, which in turn improves population's health. But the new study shows that improving education directly reduces child mortality - and more effectively than increasing gross domestic product.

Worldwide, there were 8.2 million fewer deaths in 2009 among children younger than 5 than there were in 1970. Of those "averted deaths," 4.2 million were the result of better-educated mothers and 590 million the result of higher-income households, the study found. The rest of the lives saved was attributable to better health interventions.

"The finding is not surprising, but the magnitude is impressive," said Al Bartlett, a child health expert at the U.S. Agency for International Development. "It clearly justifies what many have been saying for a long time - that one of the investments we need to make is girls' education."

Christian Baeza, director for health at the World Bank, called the study "great news, actually." He said it confirms the bank's strategy that the health of people in developing countries can be improved not only by investing in medical services but "in other things as well, like water, roads and education."

The University of Washington researchers used data from 915 sources, mostly surveys and censuses, gathered between 1953 and 2008.
They calculated that in 1970, the average male age 15 or older had 4.7 years of school and the average female 3.5 years. By 2009, that had increased to 8.3 years in males and 7.1 years in females.

The improvement has been more dramatic in developing countries. For example, in women of reproductive age (ages 15 to 44), average years of schooling rose from 2.2 years to 7.2 years over those four decades.

The experience of countries varied widely. Brazil, China, Indonesia and Mexico all had big gains in education for both sexes. In contrast, women in Afghanistan, Chad, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Yemen showed less than two years of increased schooling, on average, over the past 40 years.

The researchers also found that as of last year, women were more educated than men in 87 countries, including nearly all the rich ones.

"We're going from a world that was heavily dominated by male educational attainment to one where women are becoming more educated than men," Murray said. "The long-term social implications of that are pretty intriguing."

Old House

MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City councilor is appealing to the University of the Philippines to allot scholarship slots for poor but deserving public high school students from Quezon City so they can have a shot at quality education.

In a draft resolution, Councilor Allan Benedict Reyes urged the state university to set aside at least 50 scholarship slots for outstanding Quezon City high school graduates.

Reyes noted that while admission to UP is open to incoming freshmen from public and private schools, most of those admitted were from well-known private schools.

"Whatever it may be, it is the city government's moral and legal obligation to provide our constituents especially, our poor but deserving students, the highest quality education regardless of cost," the proposed resolution says.

"It is a big dream of every student, particularly those in public high schools, to enter prestigious universities like the UP, and that is why they study hard to excel in their subjects and are hopeful that some day, they will become part of it," the proposed resolution says.

The UP administers a yearly entrance exam, the UP College Admissions Test, which is taken by thousands of hopefuls nationwide.

Of 60,000 to 70,000 applicants, only 2,000 who pass the test are considered for the main campus, UP Diliman, which is located in Quezon City.

Sometimes I want to pack up my stuff and leave this place. I want to run away to a different city. I want to take a train for hours. I want to go somewhere I have never been before. I want to enjoy the feeling of being anonymous to the strangers I will encounter. I want to take snapshots of the new memories that will form. I want to burn those photographs. I want to watch them disintegrate. I want to observe the stories ignite my recollection. I want to see flash fiction become the new storybook that I will inhabit. I want the ink to bleed through the book pages. I want the words to drown in the tears. I want to be left alone without any worries for trivial things or any care for the world. I want to feel lonely. I want spontaneity to guide me through the places I will peregrinate to. I want to become infatuated with wanderlust. I want to become a lost star that is floating in the atmosphere. I want to neglect my surroundings. I want to witness the paint scrape off the walls of this scenery. I want to dissolve into stardust. I want the nightscape to conceal me. Sometimes I want to be forgotten.

I do not write because I want to escape reality. I write because I need to record what I know and feel. If I do not do this, then I fear the possibility of forgetting any significant and trivial events that occur daily in my life. I have forgotten so many memories from my childhood, and it takes me a while to dig so deeply into my past to search for a moment that has held onto such felicity. I can easily recall when I have felt so much sorrow, but it is difficult for me to recall what happiness is. I do not strive to be happy; I strive to remember.

From the original London Broadway cast

I am and forever will be Russell's drooling fan. He is so adorable!

This is what you call it!

Dance.

Performance.

Kudos to our local artists!

Now I miss dancing too.

Men who make less money than their female partners are more likely to be unfaithful, according to a new study. But, it's not about the money. It's about sexual identity, says Christin Munsch, a researcher at Cornell University.

"Any identity that's important to you, if you feel it's threatened, you're going to engage in behavior that will reinstate your place in that group," she says.