It's always sunny in Manila

I was relating to my mom over the phone that I had gotten into a heated argument with an ex-officemate last Friday, and she remarked, "yes, you can be temperamental." Temperamental!

I had to stop and think about that for a bit, because I was of the opinion that I was temperamental BEFORE like especially back in high school, but nowadays I had more control and restraint. There's nothing like your mom to tell you otherwise. "Well, it's coz you're a bit spoiled and impatient." She said that in a matter of fact way, not judging. The idea that I'm out of control, I don't like that.

Me and my officemate have patched our differences already anyway

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It's been a week since I started with my new job at a management consulting firm. So far, things have been pretty ok. It feels much better to be doing work on an area that I'm actually quite interested in. Everyday, I learn something new. Quite literally. And if I spend my downtime reading McKinsey articles or business news, I don't feel that I'm just wasting time.

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I'm reading this simple and short book called "What Do Muslims Believe?" by Ziauddin Sardar. It's good because it explains in plain language Muslim beliefs, its varieties, history, etc. All these random facts that I learned from years of debating now fall into a more coherent story and picture. It will give you an idea of why Iran and Iraq have gone to war with each other. It will also give you an understanding of how Muslim extremism has come about. But most importantly for me I think it gave me a glimpse of just how sophisticated, inspiring, compelling and progressive Islam can be. Normally we read articles in the magazines about how Islam is a peaceful religion, or how great scientific developments have been borne from Muslim scholars. This book puts forward historical developments, and explains the significance of Muslim texts in such a way that the previous sentence's pronouncements don't just seem like lip service to political correctness.

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