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terencemagno
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Name: terence
Country: United States
State: New York
Metro: New York City
Birthday: 7/8/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: studying life. composing music. drowning in music. devouring books. listening to people. observing creation. teaching. shattering preconceptions. praying from the heart.
Expertise: resolutions.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Engineering
Message: message me
AIM:  terencemagno
Member Since:
2/25/2003
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| If there's one part of the year that I will never fail to look forward
to, that excites me like no other, that fills my insides with
anticipation and a new hope for change, with a never stronger desire to
become a better person and start anew...
...no it's not New Year's Eve. It's Lent.
While it's still a couple of weeks away from the beginning of Lent, I'm already brimming with joyful anticipation...
There's something about the collective
sacrifice that the committed of the Catholic faithful (and, of course,
those Christians of other denominations who likewise celebrate Lent)
undertake that affects me profoundly. It's exactly the collective
nature of the whole event that easily reminds one that no, you are not
alone in your desire too detoxify your soul before the Divine. Besides,
in this day and age, it can get far too lonely and painful just trying
to live by such principles, when friends, peers, professors, and
sometimes even parents tell you to do contrary. The mere sight of
another young person at the pew on Ash Wednesday deep in prayer is
enough to light a smile on my face and give me more strength for the
40-day journey.
I haven't been as spiritually healthy as I know
I should've been these past two years or so. And, of course, it must be
noted we believe all other forms of health - physical, emotional,
mental - to indelibly coupled to spiritual health, "for our struggle is
not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers,
with the world rulers of this present darkness."
Granted, I've
been resolving a lot of issues having to do with the past, and issues
regarding being at peace with myself. The past year has been a pretty
torrid time for me, emotionally. There's no doubt that a lot of work
was accomplished, and many battles were won. But of course, the war's
never over 'til the grave, and out of battles can come many wounds when
you don't do everything as well as you could've.
So now's the time to mend these
wounds with sincere prayer, reflection, and fasting, 'cause I wanna do
it right. I came back from the Philippines feeling quite spiritually
replenished, and I feel like my thirst has been quenched a good amount
just before entering the 40-day desert.
For those of you who
pray, please pray for me, and I will do likewise if you so ask. I just
hope this determination is not snuffed, and that I can make Lent this
year (and all years to follow) the best ever.
Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. Joel 2.12 | | |
| Consider the following dialogue:
Person #1: Have you ever considered being a priest?
Person #2: I once did, but I want too much to be a father.
Does
anyone else see the pun in the simple exchange that gives the second
sentence almost a self-contradictory tone? Okay, it's a simple pun, but
yeah I get excited over puns in general 
Granted, many
priestly would-haves have indeed traded their frockful fantasies for
the taste of fatherly fruit, and have spoken the very words written
above. But in any case, I just realized there happens to be a pun in
there!
Does anyone else get it......?
Hello? Hello? Hello?
*hollow cavernous reverberations* | | |
| In the much-loved movie Good Will Hunting, there's a scene in the second half of the movie where one of Professor Lambeau's colleagues (another math prof) is wrestling with a certain math problem, one which Will has already solved. Lambeau remarks to "Alexander" (the colleague) that the solution will or will not emerge depending on "how you group the terms."
Lambeau's Office
LAMBEAU
We know your theory, Alexander, but the boy's found
a simple geometrical picture.
MIT PROFESSOR
A tree structure won't work.
LAMBEAU
Look, now, he's joining the two vertices.
MIT PROFESSOR
But I can do the sum.
LAMBEAU
Well, it's how you group the terms, Alexander.
MIT PROFESSOR
But, Gerry, if we do the whole thing this way then--
WILL
Hey, look, look. I wrote it down. It's--it's simpler this
way.
TOM
Sometimes people get lucky. You're a brilliant man.
I realized that this is, in fact, true - when I was verifying some vector derivatives using matrix calculus - for my video processing class (go figure).
In any case, the derivate would not have arranged itself into a form worthy of a "QED" written with pride had I not "grouped the terms" correctly. Yeah, and when I realized this difference, the line from Good Will Hunting entered my head and struck me silly, and suddenly, the universe was aligned (tic*).
Yeah, to view the same truth from a different angle or POV is sometimes the most valuable thing that leads you to something valuable.
Haha, well this was a pretty cryptic thing to post about...
I do feel, though, that anything does not fail to fascinate a person is surely worth writing about. The added beauty is that in the process, we just may end up learning more about the person him/herself than the original fascinating thing; this is nice icing on already tasty cake.
But I digress...
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*tic = tongue-in-cheek.
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| Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially in mope mode.
And now, some emotionally grandiose lyrics from my commiserator, the Pope of Mope himself:
Angel, Angel, We Go Down Together
by Steven Patrick Morrissey
Angel, Angel
Don't take your life tonight
I know they take
And that they take in turn
And they give you nothing real
For yourself in return
But when they've used you
And they've broken you
And they've wasted all your money
And cast your shell aside
And when they've bought you
And they've sold you
And they've billed you for the pleasure
And they've made your parents cry
I will be here
Oh, believe me
I will be here
believe me
Angel, don't take your life
Some people have got no pride
They do not understand
The urgency of life
But I love you more than life
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| And now, and now,
I feel terribly alone,
the irony being:
I have to deal with this alone.
Deus me ajude
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