Einstein’s letter to 11 year-old son
Thirty-six years old and a Dad, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to his son Hans Albert when the genius was in Berlin.
The 11-year old was in Vienna, with his brother Edward (“Tete”) and Einstein’s estranged wife, Mileva. The letter was written after the theory of relativity was done. Here’s an excerpt:
Dear [Hans] Albert,
…These days I have completed one of the most beautiful works of my life, when you are bigger, I will tell you about it.
I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal. . . .
Be with Tete kissed by your
Papa.
Regards to Mama.
Perhaps this can be also be passed on as a friendly advice to the so many restless young professionals out there who are quick to get bored in their chosen paths. I guess life is short to be grim about what we do.
image source: brainpickings
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April
I’m not sure how many of our classmates and professors had a crush on her.
Women, they say, are most physically attractive when they’re in their late 20s and early 30s. Natalie Portman easily comes to mind as an example. This is the time of maturity for many in terms of physique, career, romance, and well-being. (If you’re 28 and you still baby talk in social media, perhaps you’re a sad case of under-development.)
One person I know of, though, has been beautiful ever since I’ve known her. She just announced her having a baby, and I’m blogging about her because I almost missed the big news.
I’m talking about a fellow Comm Arts graduate and staff of UPLB Perspective, April.
April’s smile sets a room aglow.
She’s one of those girls back in college enviable for sex appeal and graciousness. The university newspaper office would swell in envy whenever a bunch of expensive-looking flowers would come from her then suitor, now husband.
April wasn’t born in April, but her personality brings about the promises and warmth of summer (I was about to say spring, but using that metaphor in this country is just not fit).
Whenever we would enter the office, and hear the Hanson roaring “rooool the wiiindows down” we know April is on the desk happily typing her draft by the window. If she’s high, I mean, hormones high, she would sing with the brothers while snapping and clapping her hands and swaying in her chair. She loves being in love.
Cause Penny and me like to roll the windows down
Turn the radio up, push the pedal to the ground
And Penny and me like to gaze at starry skies
Close our eyes, pretend to fly
It’s always Penny and me tonight
Happy, happy new year, world!
Apparently we all survived the end of the world, rather nervously. This start of the year should be a renewal of life, but I think all of us renew life every time we replace cells here and there, and improve on our self.
Right before calendars turned 2012, I made a list of outlook, which I post here with notes.
1. see the boyfriend late 2012
He went back to the Philippines last May. That’s mid-2012. Yay!
Baguio City
2. be an expert in the principles of supply and demand in global economies
Not really an expert, but I understood a lot.
3. expand business network
This has to be the year I met the most number of new contacts, talked with so many people, in the Philippines and abroad.
Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
4. paint
I did with watercolor pencils and oil.
5. ride an elephant
In Thailand!
6. beach bum in Bali
I decided to postpone this and beach bum in Philippine beaches instead. All year round.
Camiguin, Philippines
7. invest in some properties
I did.
8. road trip with college friends
Not just one, but two memorable epic trips.
Subic, Philippines
9. make more people happy
I hope I did make people happy when my sister and I bought Papa a car, when my friends and I organized a fun run for the victims of violence against women, when I hosted a friend’s wedding, when I wrote a feature article for IRRI’s Rice Today magazine (it was picked up and quoted by international press), and when I wrote that article in Youngblood, which reached more than 11,000 shares!
10. make love on the sand late 2012
Anda, Pangasinan
Happy new year!!!
Read MoreEnd of the world wedding
I attended a special wedding when the world was supposed to end last December 21. An official marriage of Weng and Rene, two people I respect since 2002.
It’s extra special for me because I hosted their reception and Mike helped in coordinating the event
(Mike and I worked with them during the fun run for Given, but more on that on the next post).
The complete program was only handed to me while Rene was waiting at the church in UP Diliman. We’ve talked about it already but I noticed a few additional items, like an introduction of the groom and the bride–how you know us, says the note. I thought I’d have time to ponder this but Rene pulled me to help arrange the entourage (groom and parents, primary sponsors… my knowledge of weddings stop here).
I could’ve introduced the couple better than just saying they were my colleagues in UPLB’s student publication way back, but I didn’t want to start the program by being so melodramatic or so formal as if I’m introducing a speaker, so here I blog about them.
Rene
How do I start introducing this person.
Read Moreholy week memories
Somebody from Cebu dropped a message saying she and her friends or colleagues just read my article that was published in Youngblood (the one about how I met a stranger on a bus) and she requested for a photo of Mr. Stranger. It has been my personal rule not to post our photos, especially the cheesy ones because I’m generally a shy person (my friends will club me on the head saying this, but it’s true).
But since nostalgia and longing have been bothering me for quite some time, I decided to post some of Mike’s photos here when we were in Ilocos last year to spend the holy week with my relatives. It’s been almost a year since I last saw him–we both work abroad (he’s a graphic artist/ layout artist/ web designer/ web host/ your-go-to-guy-when-you-need-some-digital-aid), and work has been my drug pill to make me forget that I’m one lonely person in this vacuum of… ick. sentimentality.
Here are some of the photos I took in the northern part of the Philippines using Canon ixus 80 (click on the image, it’ll pop). First four photos show Mike and my adorable cousin, Andy, and next to that is a photo of my very, very serious cousin, Miguel playing his PSP, and the other kid Mike doing Manny Pacquiao (we must’ve been bored in the car–except Miguel).
Wednesday Snapshot: Mr Stranger
mall of asia
If you really want to know about the rest of the story, you’ll have to sit with me over a cup of coffee.
As for the face of Mr Stranger, here he is.
Read MoreI was published in Young Blood!
Today’s a lovely day. I’m back at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquarters in Los Baños to start another issue of Rice Today. IRRI is just beside the UPLB campus, so walking around the university brings me back to my golden days of 2001 when I was a freshman. I felt like a student again walking with young people most of whom carry nothing but a notebook, and perhaps a ballpen in one pocket. A typical college student. Watching the students walk to their buildings, I was thinking lots of things but I’ll blog about this next time because I need to work now…but this day started lovely as some friends tagged me in an FB post. I was published in Inquirer’s Young Blood! Yehey!
virtual flowers for me 
(photo taken in saigon)
And because of this single story, I received a hundred messages and a million blog hits. Thanks to those 11,000 readers who liked and shared the Inquirer piece!
Read More2012 outlook
1. see the boyfriend late 2012
2. be an expert in the principles of supply and demand in global economies
3. expand business network
4. paint
5. ride an elephant
6. beach bum in Bali
7. invest in some properties
8. road trip with college friends
9. make more people happy
10. make love on the sand late 2012
Read MoreCrush of the Month: Larry, The Boss
On my last night in Boracay, I was walking down the beachfront with my relatives when a rock band seized my attention and its leader grabbed my heart:
Larry of The Boss Band Boracay on Bass and Vocals
I couldn’t explain what took over me that night when I heard and watched this Larry perform. I was just staring at him. My heart palpitating. I was holding my breath. My ears were blocking everything else. It wasn’t just his voice, no. There was something charming about him. He switched from a song in English to Tagalog to Chinese (!) to Tagalog to English.
Read Morestrangers in my blog and my unsolicited sex advice to you
The boyfriend said I should put my thoughts into blogging years ago. This idea would come up whenever we’re killing time, and I would tell him jokes or share with him my apocalyptic ideas or my end-of-world plans. When he said he’ll host my website for free, manage the widgets and all the techie stuff, I still had reservations.
I didn’t feel like writing about myself for people’s consumption. Not especially that time when I was still teaching in the University of the Philippines. And Facebook (or putting anything about you in public) wasn’t as hot as today.
Then I gave in to the pleasures of writing, for my eyes only. Time after time, one by one, my friends learned about this blog and I linked it eventually to Facebook where my friends (in the real sense of the word) are.
I liked the privacy of my little blog, until recently.
The “Most Popular” post in this blog, i.e., by way of comments posted, is
“what’s inside Sogo (and kulturang motel)”
Read MoreWho, Me?
Hello there! My name is Ai, Japanese for "love." I couldn't stay in one place for too long, so I'm always walking, traveling or changing address. I write for Australia's Campus Review, Education Review, Insite health care, and other magazines under APN. Before this, I was an editor of a quarterly rice science magazine and a weekly publication on international commodity trade in Singapore. But before everything else, I was an educator for five years.
