The past few weeks have been difficult, but we seem to have cleared the worst and have come to a new understanding. It amazes me that even though I kept trying to walk away and even though he was also under so much stress from business, he refused to give up, and he refused to let me give up.

Maybe this is a big part of what love is. It's not so much about having lots of high points—those will come with time—but being able to deal with the low points. And day by day, week by week, month by month, we're learning.

From "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran:

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

Besides, there are high points too. <grin> I just have to blog more of them so I'll remember.

This isn't an LJ post, so please e-mail me your insights or use the form on my page... =)

On Technorati: love

Random Emacs symbol: utf-fragmentation-table - Variable: Char-table normally mapping non-Latin mule-unicode-* chars to iso-8859-*.

Wow.

Just wow.

Whenever I falter and lose sight of my way, other people lift me up, set me on my feet, and point me back in the right direction.

Where would I be without my family and my friends and those random strangers and acquaintances who take a moment out of their busy days to reach out to me in all their generous humanity?

I am thankful for these moments of sadness and confusion, however brief they are, because they give me an opportunity to appreciate and deepen my respect for the wonderful, wonderful people in my life.

From friends who called and messaged and e-mailed as soon as they read my doubts, to my mom whose encouragement addressed my fears and strengthened my resolve, to coworkers who not only told me of interesting opportunities but also expressed their concern

I am loved beyond my ability to comprehend, and if I can spend the rest of my life sharing that experience of love with other people... wow!

It's been said that it takes a village to raise a child. I am being raised by the world.

On Technorati: goodkarma, love, :)

"From where I am," the sun said, "I can see the Soul of the World. It communicates with my soul, and together we cause the plants to grow and the sheep to seek out shade. From where I am—and I'm a long way from the earth—I learned how to love. I know that if I came even a little bit closer to the earth, everything there would die, and the Soul of the World would no longer exist. So we contemplate each other, and we want each other, and I give it life and warmth, and it gives me my reason for living."

On Technorati: quotes, love

Random Japanese sentence: うちは黒１匹、白２匹で、３匹の猫を飼っている。 We keep three cats, a black one and two white ones.

I was having one of my I-hate-being-an-international-student moments when Dominique turned up online, telling me his Sacha-sense was tingling. I was incoherent during the first half of our Skype conversation, but he just kept listening to me and joking with me until I felt better.

I don't think I'll wake up in time to go to IBM tomorrow, so I'll make it up on Monday instead. I guess I'll work on the reading paper, then...

On Technorati: dominique, friends, love

Random Japanese sentence: 我々は犬や猫や鳥などを飼うことができる。 We can have dogs, cats, birds, and so on.

On Technorati: mama, love, family

You bound strong sandals on my feet,
You gave me bread and wine,
And sent me under sun and stars,
For all the world was mine.

Oh, take the sandals off my feet,
You know not what you do;
For all my world is in your arms,
My sun and stars are you.

On Technorati: love

Random Japanese sentence: 猫がネズミを追いかけた。 A cat ran after a mouse. Neko ga nezumi o oikaketa.

On Technorati: love

Random Japanese sentence: 木の上のねこが私の所へ降りてきた。 The cat on the tree came down to me.

One of the hallmarks of the stereotypical male computer nerd is his ineptitude with members of the opposite sex. Especially those of the attractive kind. Most especially those of the attractive and intelligent kind. Just read one of the many strips of Dilbert which deals with the subject.

Cliched as the image may be, there's some truth to it nonetheless. I should know. I am a stereotypical male computer nerd.

At one point, I wished out loud to my friends that I could meet a girl that came with an instruction manual. I meant it in jest, what with women being so complex and all. But apparently, there was such a girl—and no, she was not of the inflatable kind.

In doing advocacy work for Linux, I wrote a series of articles on prominent Linux personalities in the Philippines. One of the people I featured was Sacha Chua, a programming wunderkind who was very much in touch with the pulse of geekdom. Sacha was into Linux, Emacs, and wearable computing. Certainly she made good copy, and several people posted links to that article on my web site.

I conducted the interview via email so we didn't really get to meet. Nevertheless, she came across as very intelligent, very articulate, and very personable in our email exchanges.

Sacha also maintained a wiki — a sort of a blog — where she placed all her code and her essays. One of her entries was entitled "On Love", a tongue-in-cheek how-to to on courting geek girls, particularly, Sacha Chua. Finally, a girl with an instruction manual. Was this the answer to my wish, I wondered.

Humorous as the tone was, the instruction manual was in earnest about Sacha's views on courtship. At the top of the list was intelligent conversation that would increase her stock of knowledge. Getting to know her family was also important to her. Flowers, stuffed animals, and other girly-girly stuff were a no-no. The bar was set high, but it also gave a clear indication as to what kind of person Sacha was. Was I interested? Absolutely!

Of course, I didn't start courting Sacha on the basis of that manual. Distance was a problem as I was based in the South and was travelling all over. But we did strike up a friendship facilitated by email. Through that I learned of her other interests in books, quirky movies, and puzzles.

We finally met when I moved to Manila. We would see each other from time to time. It helped greatly that we were both speakers at Linux seminars. Sacha introduced me to her wonderful family. She also brought me into her circle of friends, something I deeply appreciated because finally I met people of like minds.

I realized that we had something special when we reached that most intimate moment in a geek's life: after a dinner date, I asked her to set up computer for a demo that I was running the following day. She threw herself at the task, completing in half an hour what I knew would have taken me two hours. For a geek guy, well, that's nirvana.

Even though I know Sacha far better than before, the how-to guide still serves as a handy reference. On occasion, I take a peek at it to gauge if I'm doing things right. Not too shabby, I must say.

Then again, you know you love someone when you know when to break her rules. She was positively giddy about the Tux stuffed toy I gave her.

Some expressions of geeky love:

1) The Sacha Chua instruction manual -
http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/OnLove.php

2) Valentine's Day Challenge
http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/2005.02.14.php
http://villageidiotsavant.blogspot.com/2005/02/love-as-acm-problem.html

E-Mail from Dominique Cimafranca

On Technorati: love, geek, dominique

Geek Love

One of the hallmarks of the stereotypical male computer nerd is his ineptitude with members of the opposite sex. Especially those of the attractive kind. Most especially those of the attractive and intelligent kind. Just read one of the many strips of Dilbert which deals with the subject.

Cliched as the image may be, there's some truth to it nonetheless. I should know. I am a stereotypical male computer nerd.

At one point, I wished out loud to my friends that I could meet a girl that came with an instruction manual. I meant it in jest, what with women being so complex and all. But apparently, there was such a girl—and no, she was not of the inflatable kind.

In doing advocacy work for Linux, I wrote a series of articles on prominent Linux personalities in the Philippines. One of the people I featured was Sacha Chua, a programming wunderkind who was very much in touch with the pulse of geekdom. Sacha was into Linux, Emacs, and wearable computing. Certainly she made good copy, and several people posted links to that article on my web site.

I conducted the interview via email so we didn't really get to meet. Nevertheless, she came across as very intelligent, very articulate, and very personable in our email exchanges.

Sacha also maintained a wiki — a sort of a blog — where she placed all her code and her essays. One of her entries was entitled "On Love", a tongue-in-cheek how-to to on courting geek girls, particularly, Sacha Chua. Finally, a girl with an instruction manual. Was this the answer to my wish, I wondered.

Humorous as the tone was, the instruction manual was in earnest about what Sacha was looking for. At the top of the list was intelligent conversation that would increase her stock of knowledge. Getting to know her family was also important to her. Flowers, stuffed animals, and other girly-girly stuff were a no-no. The bar was set high, but it also gave a clear indication as to what kind of person Sacha was. Was I interested? Absolutely!

Of course, I didn't start courting Sacha on the basis of that manual. Distance was a problem as I was based in the South and was travelling all over. But we did strike up a friendship facilitated by email. Through that I learned of her other interests in books, quirky movies, and puzzles.

We finally met when I moved to Manila. We would see each other from time to time. It helped greatly that we were both speakers at Linux seminars. Sacha introduced me to her wonderful family. She also brought me into her circle of friends, something I deeply appreciated because finally I met people of like minds.

I realized that we had something special when we reached that most intimate moment in a geek's life: after a dinner date, I asked her to set up computer for a demo that I was running the following day. She threw herself at the task, completing in half an hour what I knew would have taken me two hours. For a geek guy, well, that's nirvana.

Even though I know Sacha far better than before, the how-to guide still serves as a handy reference. On occasion, I take a peek at it to gauge if I'm doing things right. Not too shabby, I must say.

Then again, you know you love someone when you know when to break her rules. She was positively giddy about the Tux stuffed toy I gave her.

E-Mail from Dominique Cimafranca

On Technorati: love, geek, dominique

Dominique sent me a cryptogram. =) That was cool.

On Technorati: dominique, geek, love

On Technorati: dominique, geek, love