"Dubai is located on the Eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, in the south west corner of the Arabian Gulf. It is extremely well known for its warm hospitality and rich cultural heritage, and the Emirati people are welcoming and generous in their approach to visitors. With year-round sunshine, intriguing deserts, beautiful beaches, luxurious hotels and shopping malls, fascinating heritage attractions and a thriving business community, Dubai receives millions of leisure and business visitors each year from around the world." (SOURCE: Government of Dubai)

"For those looking to engage with Gulf culture, Abu Dhabi offers opportunities to understand the UAE's history through museums, exhibitions and tours. But thankfully Emirati heritage isn't boxed and mothballed; it's also experienced through strolls around the dhow harbour, haggling in markets and absorbing the atmosphere at sheesha cafes." (SOURCE: Lonely Planet)

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

I have always been socially awkward. With my uncanny ability to be frank, coarse, sarcastic, and condescending all at the same time, I am pretty sure I have warded off people with outstanding breeding and taste, and attracted everyone else left over to be my friends (I'm going to get shot for making this statement). That being said, I suppose I could never trade these friends away, who over the years have shared parallel journeys with me in the matter known as life.

Friendship essentially involves a distinctive kind of concern for your friend, a concern which might reasonably be understood as a kind of love. Philosophers from the ancient Greeks have traditionally distinguished three notions that can properly be called love: agape, eros, and philia. Agape is a kind of love that does not respond to the antecedent value of its object but instead is thought to create value in the beloved; it has come through the Christian tradition to mean the sort of love God has for us persons as well as, by extension, our love for God and our love for humankind in general. By contrast, eros and philia are generally understood to be responsive to the merits of their objects—to the beloved's properties, especially his goodness or beauty. The difference is that eros is a kind of passionate desire for an object, typically sexual in nature, whereas ‘philia’ originally meant a kind of affectionate regard or friendly feeling towards not just one's friends but also possibly towards family members, business partners, and one's country at large (Liddell et al., 1940; Cooper, 1977a). Given this classification of kinds of love, philiaseems to be that which is most clearly relevant to friendship (though just what philia amounts to needs to be clarified in more detail).

So many books to read, so little time! My reading list just keeps getting longer.

Faith:

• The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything by James Martin S.J.
• The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst
• A Confident Heart by Renee Swope
• Lead Me, Holy Spirit by Stormie Omartian
• Choose Love by Stormie Omartian
• Fearless by Max Lucado

• Portfolios of the Poor by Collins, Morduch, Rutherford and Ruthven
• The Varieties of Religious Experience by Dr. William James
• World Order by Henry Kissinger
• The End of Power by Moises Naim
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Energy by Vaclav Smil
• A Beautiful Question by Frank Wilczek
• Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh
• Rational Ritual by Michael Suk-Young Chwe
• The Structures of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
• Creativity by Ed Catmull
• The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
• Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson
• On Immunity by Eula Biss
• Orwell's Revenge by Peter Huber
• The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch

Ten days into 2016, I feel uneasy. I usually love devising my personal strategy and list of goals and resolutions but in my attempt to do so now, I feel I am being pulled in two different directions. One is where my list is absolutely personal - achieve this, do this, finish this. The other is entirely new - give this, reach out to this, be this.

It all started with Fabilioh!, Ateneo's alumni magazine, specifically its maiden issue.

I feel the words speaking to me, calling out to my heart. This may sound ridiculous and absurd and I wish I could articulate that feeling of called, of being pulled into the unknown despite absence of reason. My prayers lately have been laced with much anger and frustration; I simply do not know where to start and what to do, more so that I do not feel anyone up there listening to me. I feel listless and lost, despite that nagging reminder that I should feel #blessed (which annoys me to no end). 

Perhaps the closest thing to a message from God is in a homily Pope Francis gave at a Mass in Casa Santa Marta in July of 2013 where he said,