Happy New Year! Good vibes for 2012!

2011 was a very good year for me, indeed. A year of high hopes, shattered and fulfilled goals, shocking discoveries, and open windows of opportunity. 2012 will be a better, exciting year. It will be a year of major self-development and dreams-come-true. Gotta love 2012!

Cheers to the year ahead! :D

21 keys to a Happy Life

1.Compliment three people everyday.
2.Watch a sunrise.
3.Be the first to say "Hello."
4.Live beneath your means.
5.Treat everyone as you want to be treated.
6.Never give up on anybody; miracles happen.
7.Forget the Jones’s.
8.Remember someone’s name.
9.Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
10.Be tough-minded, but tender hearted.
11.Be kinder than you have to be.
12.Don’t forget that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
13.Keep your promises.
14.Learn to show cheerfulness even when you don’t feel it.
15.Remember that overnight success usually takes 15 years.
16.Leave everything better than you found it.
17.Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do.
18.When you arrive at your job in the morning, let the first thing you say brighten everyone’s day.
19.Don’t rain on other people’s parades.
20.Don’t waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
21.Keep some things to yourself and don’t promote havoc by backstabbing people you love.


-repost

Saturday hangout

I have this certain affinity to UP. When I get to own an SLR camera, UP will be my first subject. But for now, I'll settle with my reliable Nokia X2 5MP camera. haha

AS walk in sepia

edited version of the photo above

scary!

The 'JuanMa' experience

The thought of meeting an international celebrity and being able to get near him and have a little chit-chat with him face-to-face, in the WORKPLACE, never occured to my mind. Thus, as soon as we knew that Juan Manuel "El Dinamita" Marquez would be paying a visit to our office in connection to the promotion of his fight with Manny Pacquiao, we (my colleagues and I) were thrilled. To tell the truth, our bosses were so preoccupied with the arrival of their famous fellow Mexican that they let the whole office floor be polished ahead of the scheduled date and went the extra mile ensuring the security and 'peaceful'  stopover of the boxer.

A day before the visit, various tasks were given to us to guarantee that the privacy of the office would never be disturbed by any unwelcomed intruder. I was assigned to man the entrance to the office of the 'big boss' and was told that no other person can enter it aside from Marquez. I was very nervous that someone might get hysterical upon knowing that he could not enter the big boss' office even if he is part of the entourage. I also felt jittery that I might greet Marquez "Magandang umaga" instead of "Buenos dias".

The 'day' has come and we were suprised to find a GMA van parked outside the office building early in the morning. Upstairs, we were bombarded by calls from different radio stations and periodicals asking what time will the boxer arrive, which added to the tension that we were feeling. But the moment 'el dinamita' came inside the office, everyone of us waiting for him was so quiet as if a silencing potion was poured on us. The boxer went straight ahead to the big boss' office but before that he smiled at me and greeted me 'buenos dias'. I greeted him back and felt relieved after doing that. The feisty warrior is a gentle celebrity after all. He seemed to be very nice and welcoming when asked for autograph by his fellow Mexicans or by other people inside the office at that time. What a pity that I was not able to bring a camera. Nevertheless, the function was fine and we got to have a photo with him posted on the ESPN website.

I hope he and Pacquiao will have a great fight on November.

On writing

What would you do with all that knowledge if you can't translate it on paper?

Writing has been a big dream for me, specifically writing for a certain magazine or periodical. However, in the 22 years of my life, I have never yet tried to submit a written piece of my mind to any journal or publication. I mused on contributing articles to principal newspapers in the country and daydreamed of seeing my name on the editorial box of a lifestyle magazine. The farthest my writing has gone to is the office's official newsletter.

When I was in college, I remember talking to one of my roommates about the joy of reading. I told her that I love to read and learn a lot of things and let those linger inside my mind and that I would be fine without sharing it to other people. I told her that I did not like to teach and share my knowledge since I know how hard a teaching profession can be. Likewise, I did not want to write, specially after recently suffering a dismal average I got from a creative writing class. My roommate retorted that all the knowledge I acquired shall go to waste if I intended to just store it inside my head and keep it to myself.

Today, as much as I would like to share it, I am having a hard time on organizing my thoughts to be able to share my opinion and supporting it with things I've learned or read in the past. Sometimes, I cannot believe that I am like this despite having a college diploma from a very reputable university. Is it the standard of education in this country or I am just underestimating myself?

Gameface

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. - Ben Franklin

What is happening now can be upsetting at first. It can be experienced as something that undemines your capacities, what you stand for in the present. You may have thought of resisting, fighting and asserting your right. However, after giving it much thought, weighing the explosive sentiments inside your head, you realize that everything that is going on, everything that seem to pose an obstacle to your progress as a person, is actually leading you to an ultimate goal, a goal that deep inside your heart, is being considered as something unattainable. 


So don't fret. God is working on your chess game. Now, it's up to you to help yourself and complement and concretize that desire. It's up to you to ponder on how God wants you to "check" your opponent. A little disappointment will result into a huge success. The universe will conspire to heed the desire of your heart. 

Another year for chances

It's my 22nd birthday! Yey!

It's time to act maturely and enough of kiddie stuffs. Will that mean that I will have to say goodbye to Spongebob? hahahaha

But seriously, I believe that from now on, I should be more serious with life, not that I will laugh less or not to tell jokes, but to really pursue any goal that I have, with the utmost effort I can.

                                                      ****

Lately, I thought that I was having what they call "quarter-life crisis", a phenomenon experienced by the twenty-ish people, who after university and after winning a satisfactory job, is confronted with some emotional difficulties. I've learned from Wikipedia that I am not alone and the quarter-life crisis is not uncommon in our age bracket.

                                                      ****

Also, from now on, I hope to be more "showy" with my feelings and be grateful for all the blessings given to me. I believe that an attitude of gratitude will help me to be a happier person and the habit of truthfully showing my feelings to the people I love will make them happier, I hope. ;)

A fable of ''communistic pigs"

I have heard of this novel, perhaps a couple of years ago, after knowing about the other George Orwell's classic "1984", through the hit show Big Brother. During that time, I would always try to find a way for the book 1984 to get into my hands. Books are luxury and it would be unwise to buy and just read it for one time. So I scouted the library, in the hopes of saving my pocket from unnecessary damage and adding one more bestsellers into my 'reading list'. However, I could not remember how or when did I give up my pursuance on 1984.

One day, I got to chance upon a second-hand, old copy of the book 'Animal Farm', another George Orwell. My father planned to sell it for only ten pesos. I could not allow that to happen. A classic story from a world-famous author, for only 10 pesos??? I sneakily hid it from my father's view, who usually judges his pricing based on the thickness and appearance of the book, not on how much it contributed to world literature.

At that moment, I know that I am holding one of the greatest satirical pieces of the last century, though I still did not know to whom it was referring to. Thus, I read it from cover to cover, including the preface and introduction.

When I started the novel itself, I found it very funny and somewhat so impossible. Animal farm tells the struggle of the barnyard animals to overthrow their farmer, Mr. Jones. The animals succeded and went on to run the whole Manor Farm. They were in euphoria and relished their freedom from the harsh treatment of the human beings. Firstly, they changed its name to Animal Farm, to emphasize that it is being run by animals and the animals themselves will benefit from their produce. To establish a better organization within the farm, they chose the pigs to be their leaders since they were the brightest among the barnyard animals in Animal Farm. In the end, the pigs became more powerful and the fundamental ideals of establishing the Animal Farm became more blurry, along with the freedom of the naive barnyard animals.

I can say that Animal Farm is very entertaining, both for adults and children alike. Though children may not be aware of the satirical-allegorical theme of the story, they might be delighted with the thought of talking animals and that they can communicate with human beings through words. Adults who are familiar with the story of the Soviet Union could identify that Orwell might be referring to Stalin's overthrowing of Leon Trotsky when he created the characters of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball. The depiction of Communism is done through the principle of 'Animalism', wherein their main ideal is that animals are all equal.

One remarkable part of the story is when the Animal Farm had a food shortage and their leader, Napoleon tried to hide it from the onlookers by filling the food bins with hays and topping it with 'real food'. I remember the documentary we watched in Econ 31 whehrein it mentioned the efforts of the Soviet Union to cover its poor situation.

Overall, in Animal Farm, Orwell attacked the weaknesses in us all. Some can identify with the donkey Benjamin who has been in the barnyard for a very long time. He could be imagined saying 'been there, done that'. However, he remained apathetic despite seeing the pigs' rise to power and the subsequent curtailment of their freedom.

'Animal Farm' is one of the best stories I've read so far. I recommend it to political science or social sciences students, likewise to history majors, who would like to see how people react during the Stalin era in Russia.

answer to a father

Resolutions? "Why not Daily Resolve"?

Browsing through my blog, I found this article I've written almost a year ago. Sadly, I have not lived up to all the resolutions I wrote before. The worse part, I don't remember writing themm and I have "violated" a majority.

January 2011 is in its final days. Remarkably, I did not make any New Year's resolution as I used to do for every year. One, it will make you feel frustrated after a year; two, I forget them most of the time. Instead, I would like to call them "Daily Resolve" (as advised by Mr. Francis J. Kong, columnist, The Philippine Star). That means, I would list a "New Year's Resolution" everyday. Tough task, eh? Maybe, but I strongly believe that it will save from the humiliating thought of being frustrated with myself and putting all my effort into just less than ten resolutions per year. Promise, I will not forget them. A post-it will bring a lot of help for this one!

Fortunately, I can proudly say that I achieved the last one on the list. And I plan to do it again throughout 2011!

UP Lantern Parade 2010

UP Acad Oval

Dec. 17, 2010

I thought my efforts to come to this event would be wasted because I was not able to get a friend who can accompany me. Good thing my sister was there and it was her first time to see the annual UP Lantern Parade. Works from FA did not fail me. They really are the best. It was fun watching them parade. :)