What my name means (Not so surprising, really. Ha ha)

What Richard Alpert Means

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people. Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems. Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Aphrodisiac Anonymous: "Moving On" in the Wrong Direction

This topic is related to the experience of pain and sorrow pointed out in the entry, "Necessity of Pain". As mentioned, it is natural to cry over a failed relationship. A common yet misleading advice for you is "to move on". Personally, that advice annoys me since people take it too lightly and sees the act as an instant solution to the problem.

They think that by simply forgetting their ex and locking up the bad emotions deep inside them, they can "move on". Some would even go the extravagant way and take a vacation, go some place far away and spend some time alone. By the time they get back, they convince themselves and others that they feel new and declare that they have "moved on". Maybe these methods an help you cope with your pain. But once you return and you still feel sorrow and hatred; you still feel like bitching about your ex and you constantly irritate people how you suffered through your heartaches, then tell me... where did you go? Did you really progress? Were you actually able to move on?

Maybe you only took a long trip to ignore the pain in the hopes that it will magically disappear when you get back. You just ran away and created an illusion for you to dwell in. You are simply denying your sorrow. Maybe you are not in for the relaxing benefits of the vacation so you can handle the stress better. Maybe you are simply craving for more attention because you feel so alone and you're hoping that people will miss you if you leave. Whatever the reason is, let's think and keep things real. Try letting go of the pain but beware of creating illusions. The act of letting go borders between truly "moving on" and simply playing dumb.

Truly "moving" on involves acceptance of reality and letting go of the sorrow. It may lead to learning and you may become more than what you are today. It is going along with the bad experiences and not against it.

Feeling pain is natural but holding on to those emotions is pathetic.

Aphrodisiac Anonymous: Necessity of Pain

Common sense tells us that we must seek convenience, pleasure and satisfaction and avoid pain. It is instinctive that we minimize all these unpleasant experiences of ours to the point that we try to prevent that unpleasant experience from ever happening. We run away even before pain is realized. This concept may work for certain fields like economics but is that always the case?

Picture yourself in this situation: You've just been through your worst relationship ever. Breakups are just the tip of the iceberg. The real pain comes along after that event. You wallow so much in your sorrow that you lock ourselves up from the outside world. You feel so beaten up that you want everyone to look on us with pity. This is just normal for any self-respecting human being. But what we often fail to do is to let go of this pain.

This is not mean that we should completely ignore it and act as if nothing happened. If we take a good hard look on that past, we could even learn from them. Pardon the cliche but this is like learning from our mistakes. Often times we are just too overwhelmed by the pain that we see only the scars and not the important things underlying them. These bad experiences of ours can serve as avenues for us to learn. It's easy to say but difficult to do because it's not a science. There is no standardized methodology in learning from our pain. In the end it's all up to you. Learning is never automatic and neither is it a guarantee.

It's true that we can learn from our mistakes. But this does not mean that we should pursuit reckless relationships in the hopes that we can learn from them. Then the essence of authentic love and relationship would be gone. All I'm saying is that we should not dismiss breakups and heartaches as experiences that will absolutely so is no good.

Here's something new in school...

Situated in a corner on the ground floor of the MVP is a curious cabinet called the Honesty Store. The name alone should give away its purpose for existence. The cabinet is filled with all sorts of snacks labeled with corresponding prices and there is also a small tin box where you place your payment. Whoever owns the Honesty Store trusts that its customers will pay the exact amount, will not steal any inventory and especially will not take the cash box (I think the box is not even chained to the cabinet). Its purpose is to cultivate and instill the said value on the customers. But I wonder if it actually works?











I must say the store is quite popular to the students. Some of them get a kick out of the fact that there is no salesperson guarding the store. So far there are no known incidents occurring yet... and for good reasons. The store is located on one of the most populated and high-traffic areas of the University. If you have any evil intentions on the defenseless store, you'll certainly consider theft a suicide because you have this many people who can testify against you.

(The picture may show only a few people but when I was there, there were really a lot more than that)

If you really have an evil bone in your body or a kleptomania disorder, the Honesty store seems more and more of a trap, don't you think? =P