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.

English is one of the official languages of the Philippines and most Filipinos are fluent in conversational English BUT our minds and hearts think and speak in Filipino. This is true for most, if not all, Filipinos of every socio-economic class.

Venus Raj does NOT need to know from anyone how she should have answered. Surely, seconds after her stumble she already knew what she should have said. Almost anyone could give an acceptable answer to that question if they were given some time to think. In this case, she was required under heavy pressure to give an instantaneous answer which isn't an easy task for anyone.

In the 1999 Miss Universe Pageant, Miss Philippines (Miriam Quiambao) also lost her chance at the crown due to her stumbling at her final Q & A. And who knows how many of our representatives could have made the preliminary cut had they been able to satisfactorily answer the interview questions?

Almost any Filipino can smoothly engage in casual conversational English BUT this isn't casual conversation we are talking about here. It's a nerve-wracking split-second Q & A under heavy pressure on stage and live telecast worldwide.

Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia etc. etc. etc. are among the perennial finalists and ultimate winners of the Miss Universe Pageants. All of them use interpreters. All of them are at a great advantage. Using an interpreter buys you time. It gives you a few extra seconds to think and more importantly puts you at ease in a comfort zone when you hear the question in your own language. YOU AUTOMATICALLY FEEL AT HOME.

You are judged on the content of your answer regardless of what language you answer it in. It's NOT an English proficiency test.

Venus was robbed of the Miss Universe crown !!!.

If Venus Raj was given the opportunity to use an interpreter, it's certain that she would have given a totally different answer and Miss Philippines would have been Miss Universe 2010.

Miriam Quiambao, Venus Raj ---How many more of our contestants will be denied the crown because of our arrogance and persistence in not allowing them to speak from the heart?

MABUHAY SI VENUS RAJ!!! MABUHAY PHILIPPINES!!!

Where was President Noynoy Aquino last August 23? What did he do?

In their feeble attempts to cover all bases and show that the President was on top of the situation, Malacanang Palace alternately said he was near Quirino Grandstand (at Emerald Restaurant) purportedly to monitor the goings-on, and that he later was in a huddle with the officials of the Philippine National Police, the Department of Interior and Local Government and the city government of Manila.

The President waited until after 12:00 midnight before speaking in a press conference. His statement was good, but his appearance before the press, while already very late into the night, totally missed in capturing the people's state and feeling of shock, shame and grief.

Asked by a journalist if the Philippines should apologize or say sorry to the government and people of Hong Kong, the President misheard the question and answered wrongly.

I think it is not too much to expect and demand that the President of the Philippines commiserate and sympathize with the victims and all those affected, including all people of the Philippines and Hong Kong, in a solemn and credible manner. (We didn't catch the President reading his statement over at government station NBN and the privately-owned stations ABS-CBN, GMA and TV5 did not bother to air the actual presidential statement as well. The stations only started their broadcast when he was already answering a volley of questions from journalists who waited the whole day before the President bothered to face the nation).

It would have been better had the President just interrupted all TV and radio programming at 10:00 pm to deliver his message straight from his working desk and thereby dispensed with the press conference.

Those who were able to follow all or most of the events yesterday were all expecting the President to talk tough on what transpired, to announce a sweeping investigation, and order the relief of the ground commander and the Manila Police District chief. Instead, the President reassured the involved authorities of "presumption of innocence" and signaled the start of a possible assault on the right of journalists to do their work of covering similar events, like legislated news blackouts.

The President appears misinformed about the role played by media in yesterday's events. Based on accounts and reports by journalists, the ground commander issued no order for a news blackout. Neither was there any attempt to expand the police line or check crowd control. No one bothered to stop journalists, onlookers and unauthorized personnel from entering and violating the crime scene.

If there was anyone monitoring the situation as broadcast on television and on the ground, it was apparent that authorities were not following Police Operational Procedures on hostage situations. But no authorities higher than the ground commander bothered to correct the situation at several junctures. When the hostage-taker's brother was being forcefully arrested, an incident that would most surely agitate Roland Mendoza - and it sure did - the authorities did not do anything and alongside them, we watched in horror how the situation spiraled into violence and displays of absolute incompetence.

This is not to say the media is immaculately clean from accountability. Many were stunned by the pornographic live video feed beamed nationwide and worldwide when the editors and executives could have ordered a 10 or 15 minute broadcasting delay. In many instances, the journalists showed on video and described in detail via audio the location and movements of authorities around the hijacked bus. In another instance, journalists were heard laughing amid the terrifying situation. Indeed, August 23 was not the brightest day for responsibility in Philippine journalism and broadcasting as well.

But to even imply that the media may have made matters worse and thereby exculpate the authorities who failed to provide competent leadership during the situation is a different matter altogether.

Sticking to protocol, the President also appeared to have refused frantic calls from Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, leading the latter to complain about it before the Hong Kong and world press. Instead, the President had Foreign Affairs Sec. Alberto Romulo call his counterpart in Beijing and also Mr. Tsang to extend the government's condolences and provide updates on the situation.

The incident being very extraordinary, Mr. Aquino might have done better had he received the call from Mr. Tsang who only wanted to know the status of his people directly from him as the President of Philippines.

Today, the people of the Philippines still bear a heavy heart over the incident, grieving with the people of Hong Kong and for ourselves. Many who have relatives working in the former Crown Colony and in China worry about the possible social and economic repercussions of the hostage crisis.

We wonder if the President would do the same in the next flashpoint of his presidency and be as confused as he was yesterday.

Mwahugs,
Boyeng <3

Dry away the tears

Lay aside your fears

No more pain for my love

I am here, go to sleep

And when the angels come

I know that they will treat you well

They will pull you through

And lift you from what has held you down

There's a heaven up there

And it waits just for you

So close your eyes and dream

They'll be a world you once knew

A world without the pain 

That's stuck with you for far too long

A world that does contain

A love like mine to watch you grow strong

And when my time arrives

Please wait and make a place for me

For when I do arrive

Your face should be the first face I see

Dry away the tears

Lay aside your fears

No more pain for my love

You have now gone to sleep.

There's a predictable narrative to a lot of discoveries in molecular biology. The story begins when a scientist discovers that Molecule X causes Phenomenon Y. Perhaps we're talking about CREB and long-term memory, or serotonin and depression, or cholesterol and heart disease. At first, the data looks really solid – when the gene for Molecule X is knocked out of a mouse, Phenomenon Y disappears! And when patients take a drug that increases/reduces Molecule X, you get a change in Phenomenon Y! The causal relationship seems so simple.

And that's when things start to get complicated. Time and time again, the neat relationship between Molecule X and Phenomenon Y disintegrates into a knot of feedback loops, enzymatic pathways, environmental interactions and regulatory genes. It's not that Molecule X doesn't matter – it's that it doesn't exist by itself. Instead, the Molecule exerts its effects by interacting with a byzantine list of other molecules, all of which can also influence the biological outcome.

This leads me to stress. Last month, an article in Wired on the dangerous chemistry of chronic stress. Scientists have known for years that glucocorticoids – the molecules released by the body during the stress response – trigger a wide range of negative health outcomes. The list of ailments connected to stress is staggeringly diverse and includes everything from the common cold and lower-back pain to Alzheimer's disease, major depressive disorder, and heart attack. Stress hollows out our bones and atrophies our muscles. It triggers adult-onset diabetes and is a leading cause of male impotence. In fact, numerous studies of human longevity in developed countries have found that psychosocial factors such as stress are the single most important variable in determining the length of a life.

So far, so obvious: Glucocorticoids are Molecule X, and your health is Phenomenon Y. We should all be on beta-blockers, or at least practice Zen meditation. And yet, the situation isn't quite so straightforward. As I note in the article, there are plenty of things that increase glucocorticoids levels but don't seem to cause any negative outcomes:

Not every bout of stress is so devastating. As the Whitehall data demonstrates, executives in the corner office report high levels of stress and yet seem to survive just fine. Other experiments show that intense exercise — like running for hours on a treadmill — can lead to the release of glucocorticoids. And yet physical exercise is reliably associated with all sorts of positive health effects.

These anomalies have led some scientists, including Gould, to search for the additional molecules in the brain that might serve as buffers for the stress response. Gould's short list of candidates focuses on neuromodulators like dopamine and oxytocin that are released when we experience pleasure. She argues that these feelings of enjoyment — the ability to find meaning in our work, even if it's stressful work — may counteract the toxic effects of glucocorticoids. These molecules might also explain why not every janitor dies of heart disease at a young age and why enjoyable forms of exercise are good for us. "There are important individual differences in how people respond to stress," Gould says. "Soldiers experience lots of stress in war, but most of them won't get posttraumatic stress disorder. What accounts for those differences? And how can we help the people who are most vulnerable?"

Just look at sex. It turns out that sex often triggers a large stress response, leading to a spike in glucocorticoid levels. The good news, though, is that this stress is good for us. While chronic stress normally leads to a dramatic reduction in neurogenesis, or the birth of new brain cells, the stress produced by sex has the exact opposite effect. That, at least, is the conclusion of a brand new paper by Gould and colleagues in PLoS ONE:

Adult male rats were exposed to a sexually-receptive female once (acute) or once daily for 14 consecutive days (chronic) and levels of circulating glucocorticoids were measured. [SNIP] To evaluate whether sexual experience alters hippocampal function, rats were tested on two tests of anxiety-like behavior: novelty suppressed feeding and the elevated plus maze. We found that acute sexual experience increased circulating corticosterone levels and the number of new neurons in the hippocampus.Chronic sexual experience no longer produced an increase in corticosterone levels but continued to promote adult neurogenesis and stimulate the growth of dendritic spines and dendritic architecture. Chronic sexual experience also reduced anxiety-like behavior. These findings suggest that a rewarding experience not only buffers against the deleterious actions of early elevated glucocorticoids but actually promotes neuronal growth and reduces anxiety.

The takeaway lesson is that sex is both stressful and good for the brain. The "hedonic value" of the experience more than outweighs the temporary surge in corticosterone levels, at least in rats. Although sex appears to get less stressful the more we do it – we pump out fewer stress hormones during the act – such "chronic sex" still promotes all sorts of helpful neural habits, such as increased plasticity and new dendritic spines. (Of course, these findings probably only apply to pleasurable coitus. If you're not enjoying the act, then don't expect lots of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus.) As I note in the article, these findings have led Gould to search for the additional molecules (let's called them Molecules Y and Z) that modulate and mitigate the usually destructive chemistry of glucocorticoids, at least when we're engaged in "naturally rewarding" activities. This data wouldn't surprise Marvin Gaye, who sang so passionately about the benefits of "Sexual Healing":

Sexual Healing is good for me

Makes me feel so fine, it's such a rush

Helps to relieve the mind, and it's good for us.

PS. Brian Mossop over at The Decision Tree has many more interesting thoughts on the subject.

PPS. Over on Twitter, Vaughan Bell cautions against automatically applying these rodent results to humans. That's an important caveat, of course. While sex inhomo-sapiens has also been shown to lead to an increase in the stress response, it's a little more difficult to check for neurogenesis in human subjects.

Starry, starry night... Paint the skies with blue and crystal colors.

Time is our most precious gift because we only have a set amount of it. We can make more money, but we can't make more time. When we give someone our time, we are giving them a portion of our life that we'll never get back. Our time is our life. That is why the greatest gift we can give to someone is our time. It is the best expression of love.