finding cain

Typhoon Hagibis is due to make landfall on the main island of Honshu today. But, according to my friend who lives in Tokyo, there's no sense of panic in the Japanese capital.  Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecaster Yasushi Kajiwara said at a press briefing that areas from the west to the northeast of Japan would experience "brutal winds and violent seas." More than 1,000 flights have been canceled. The qualifying round for the Japanese Grand Prix has been postponed. The Rugby World Cup has rescheduled two matches. This could be the strongest storm to hit Tokyo in decades. Let's pray for everyone's safety.

I am his hands. He is my eyes. tells the incredible story of two disabled men who have spent more than a decade planting trees together in a small Chinese village. One is blind while the other is a double amputee. Together, the two have planted over 10,000 trees around their community and have become inseparable.

He was born in Harlem in 1924, became an accomplished writer in his twenties, moved to France and got involved in the cultural radicalism of the Left Bank, achieved massive success in his thirties with Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni's Room , returned to the United States and became a social and political activist. Aside from novels, Baldwin wrote tons of essays, plays, and poetry during his lifetime. He died from Esophageal cancer in 1987 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and was buried in New York. To commemorate Baldwin's birthday, here's I Heard It Through the Grapevine , a free-form, feature-length documentary produced in 1982. The film, made by Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley, follows the writer as he revisits the settings of civil rights struggles of the 1960s in the Deep South and reexamines the movement's ideals twenty years later. 

Rejection takes many forms: The varsity team, Tinder, the credit card, the university, the girl next door, Google AdSense, the job. Growing up, I never wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be a pilot, or a shipmaster, like Captain Nemo. And then in my second year of college, I decided I wanted to be in public relations. After graduation, I applied to seven PR firms in Manila and got seven rejection emails. The job seemed perfect. The interviews went smooth. I was optimistic. But, they hired someone else.    Being rejected after a job application can seriously break your self confidence and morale. I was devastated when I got turned down too many times, and I became depressed, angry and quite difficult to live with. However, I realized that wallowing in misery and regret will never help. So I took a step back, analyzed my job search strategy and determined my flaws.    Have you been rejected recently? Cheer up! Just because someone says no today doesn't mean it'...

The head of marketing at Lunar Technologies is a former competitive swimmer named Francine Teves, a youthful mother of two in her thirties, who bears a striking resemblance to singer Leah Salonga. One afternoon not long ago, I walked into her office and submitted my letter of resignation. She seemed in total shock and disbelief. Fran tried eagerly to talk me out of it, but eventually gave up and gave me a warm big hug, and said, "I'm gonna miss you, and your brownies. Now, who's gonna keep me sane around here?"    People leave jobs for different reasons: They find better opportunities, they're offered higher compensation and benefits, they have personal conflict that interferes with the job, they want to start their own business or they simply screw up. According to a recent study conducted by outsourcing company Accenture, the most common reasons why employees quit their jobs are: Lack of recognition, internal politics, they don't like their boss, and they ...

While drinking my morning coffee, I realized that since leaving Manila I have not seen a single child here in Tanauan playing the yo-yo. When I was a kid I used to play with yo-yos all the time, and it makes me sad that children nowadays don't even know what they are. I don't know if the touchscreen has completely overtaken every other traditional toy, but I'm sure kids these days are glued to their iPads, smartphones, and anything with Internet connection. Too bad yo-yos can't connect to Wi-Fi. Here's an interesting short documentary I've stumbled upon while scouring the web. And yes, it's about yo-yos.

Some things are irresistible. For me, it was the taste of an ice-cold beer. I drank all the time, was at home as little as possible, smoked weed and slept until noon anytime I felt like it.    One afternoon, I stopped by an old bistro a few blocks from my apartment. It was an old-fashioned Chinatown joint and the tall buildings downtown were in sight. I was roaming the sidewalks, saw the establishment was open, and walked into it with the hope of finding my favorite brand of malt. Nothing but a cold beer and certainly no drugs. I ordered a bottle of whisky, slowly poured the drink over the ice, and vowed not to stop until I was drank. After a few shots, I nervously lit a cigarette and popped two Valiums. I was acting like a man who wanted to die but who had no courage to do it himself. I passed out.    Misery engulfed me as I awoke. Though I kept my eyes closed, they could not stop a fresh flow of tears. Then a velvet-haired fairy raised her voice and sang. I had...

What if you could live your life all over again? I was thirty-three, clumsy, frustrated with life and terrified of fatherhood. I went years without a steady job, which really ticked my wife off because she was forced to work 12 hours a day so she could give our daughter a better future.    Our apartment was a messy two-bedroom located on the third floor of a very old building in downtown Manila. It was filled with college kids and the landlord was accustomed to haggling over rents. She was fifty-two but looked forty. A skinny woman with short brown hair trapped in a boring, sexless marriage. I'd spent hours in that little burrow wondering if I could steal her away for a weekend.    Not very long ago, I looked at some classy townhouses down south fit for a young professional. I'd dreamed of working in a high-pressure environment filled with great minds. I was sickened and saddened by what I had become, and I was astounded by the speed at which I had fallen. ...