The Persuader

I took a Personality Type test from www.mypersonality.info and here's the result:


It basically says that I'm more extroverted, more sensing, a thinker than a "feeler" and more perceiving than judging. My primary function is Extraverted Sensing, which means:

Sensing people process data with their five senses, so the Extraverted Sensing function allows a person to process life through their experiences. It is the ability to be keen to what is seen, smelled, touched, heard and tasted. It is energized by experience and it is able to live "in the moment."

I fall under the Creator temperament and people like me comprise 35.5% of the whole populace (pretty common, huh). Under the Creator temperament are Persuaders, Entertainers, Craftsmen and Artists. I'm a Persuader, also known as the ESTP personality type.

Being a Persuader (I'm among of the 8% of the population with the same personality) I'm described as:

"Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTPs are "doers" who live in the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory. The look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on to the next thing."

-The Personality Page

People with the same personality as mine are Jacob (Isaac's son), Ernest Hemingway (the American novelist), Donald Trump (The Apprentice), Bruce Willis, Michael J. Fox, Jack Nicholson, Madonna and fictional characters like Bart Simpson (I find this really funny), Sonny Corleone (a character from The Godfather; he was supposed to be the successor of Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, the most impulsive and violent of Vito's children who was brutally killed in a toll plaza) and James Bond (I'm telling you, I can be an incognito!).

I'm not sure if this test is accurate though I agree in most of the analysis. But I guess the most interesting here is the Bart Simpson, Sonny Corleone and James Bond part. LOL!

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Mockingbird

I just finished watching To Kill A Mockingbird, the movie adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize Winning novel of the same title. It's my first black and white movie and I find it endearing and intelligent. The story plays around two main plots: the fascination (and terror) of the three kids to a reclusive neighbor and all the scary rumors about the man; and about a white lawyer (the father of two of the kids) who was appointed to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. The main message of the story is aptly summarized from the line in the film: "You never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walk around in them."

What I liked about the movie its subtle yet brave way of confronting racism, which was a main issue in America during the time the novel was written. The element of suspense in story-telling was also seamlessly employed. And from what I have researched, this was one of the best film adaptations from a novel that was ever made, as approved by Lee herself. It was well-directed and there was a careful attention to details. I was drawn by the natural acting of the kids, especially the girl who played Scout. Most of all, though it was made on the 1960s, the movie's message is still relevant today -- that we should not judge people by their color or the way they look or what other people say about them. That we are created equal and everyone is worthy of acceptance, and we shouldn't kill a mockingbird -- we should not kill those that don't harm us.

I think I'll be digging on classic films for now. I'm done with Breakfast at Tiffany's and next on my list is Charley, another film adaptation, this time of a short story (actually there's also a novel version of it) entitled Flowers for Algernon. Click Here to Read More..

More on CDO and Bukidnon trip

Snapshots from my Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon trip.

This is what you'll see on the other end of Makahambus Cave. White water rafters pass through this river

The historical marker at the cave's facade.

Bonding time with my high school friend, Shine who now resides in CDO. The adorable kid next to me is Louisse, Shine's son and my inaanak.

An ancestral house in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental. The local folks (two men in blue and the lady in white shirt) showed us around before we interviewed 'Solo' papaya farmers.

Notice the carved image of a men at the corner, as if carrying the second floor of the house. I saw two old houses with the same architecture. I wonder what's the story behind.

In our quest in finding 'Solo' papaya plantations, we faced rain and narrow and muddy road. But the sight of the farm and the smell of the grass felt like home.

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Enraged and Dumbfounded

I just watched The Boy in Striped Pajamas tonight and my heart is breaking right now and I'm full of hate. Probably the story of the two 8-year old boys, one a soldier's son and the other a Jew in a Holocaust camp, is fictional. But the concentration camp, the malnourished prisoners in "striped pajamas," the torture and the crematorium... they are all true!! History testifies!


How could a man do that?! How could Hitler's men blindly follow him with such loyalty? Crazy bunch of people! I'm just so enraged right now! I heard Schindler's List tells the same story and I don't want to watch it anymore. I can imagine how it was like. How horrid. How can the German soldiers stomach that?!

I'm full of questions right now. This racism of Hitler. Why does a man wants to be superior from his fellowmen? How could he even think that he's superior? To the extent of killing these so called inferior people? Threat to the purity of their race? What an insecure bunch of vermin! I looked up in the internet about this Auschwitz death camp, the implied setting of the movie, and I just couldn't believe what I found out. Ruthless, evil people.

Like the adults, the kids were only a mere bag of bones, without muscles or fat, and the thin skin like pergament scrubbed through and through beyond the hard bones of the skeleton and ignited itself to ulcerated wounds. Abscesses covered the underfed body from the top to the bottom and thus deprived it from the last rest of energy. The mouth was deeply gnawed by noma-abscesses, hollowed out the jaw and perforated the cheeks like cancer". Many decaying bodies were full of water because of the burning hunger, they swelled to shapeless bulks which could not move anymore. Diarrhoea, lasting for weeks, dissolved their irresistant bodies until nothing remained....

Lucie Adelsberger

I know my rantings won't undo things. But it opened my eyes about knowing the truth and loving your fellowmen, no matter what race or background or culture they may come from. I pray that this won't happend again. Never again...

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Ox

It's the Chinese New Year and we're eating tikoy. Tikoy, by the way, is a glutinous round rice cake traditionally served during Chinese New Year believed to bring "sticky" good luck for the whole year in this year that they call Year of the Ox. I always find it funny how they assign each year to an animal. I'm still clueless where the idea come from.

I learned today that the well known greeting "kung hei fat choy" which means "wishing you happiness and prosperity" is not a preferred greeting by older Chinese. The reason? It smacks crass materialism . The better greeting would be "kiong hi", which simply wishes happiness, pointing out that wealth doesn't always mean happiness. Agree.

As for me, I don't have to entrust my life to some cake for prosperity. I have a God who is able to make all grace abound to me, so that in all things at all times, having all that I need, I will abound in good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). It has always been a year of God's faithfulness for me, year after year after year. The blessings I have came from Him who makes everything "work together for good for those who love Him" and not to some ox or monkey.

I was supposed to greet you "kiong hi". Let me say God bless y'all, instead. :-)

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Of slurps and burps

My best friend recommended me this neat and interesting dining etiquette quiz. If you love eating and traveling, this is definitely for you. This made me realize that it's really fun that each culture is different and we can always learn from each other's peculiarities.

Enjoy the quiz and tell me how well (or worse) you fared.



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