CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »
Welcome Signs Words

"To laugh often and much... to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children . . . to leave the world a better place. . . & to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived...

This is to have succeeded
."

my random thoughts...

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy New Year!

Have been surfing the net for whatever and reading news online as the holidays actually make me feel "lazy" or at least the holidays give me an excuse to feel lazy. =)

But anyway for some serious thoughts, I will be posting here an excerpt, actually the last paragraph of the article published in Inquirer, Dec 24. The editorial talks about the global crisis we are facing but how we could actually make ourselves truly Christians. It was nicely written I had to blog it and share it. Happy New Year everyone.

The coming economic hard times should not stop us from giving gifts. Far from it. What we simply want to say is that when we stop giving from our surplus and start giving from our substance, that’s when the true spirit of Christmas comes unwrapped.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Marley and Me - THE MOVIE!!!!


Remember the post I wrote about a book I read called Marley and Me? It's now a movie!!!

I learned about it the other day as I was at the bookstore where I bought my copy of that book and noticed that a in the cover of Marley and Me was the part that it is now a major motion picture starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston=)

I loved that book so much because I do have my own pet, with the same breed - a Labrador. And the craziness of "Marley" somewhat reminds me of my own dog's quirks. My pet's puppy pic is located at the sidebar of this blog.

I really am thrilled it's a movie so I logged in the net and surfed it. I found the trailer and oh boy, was I excited to see the scenes I read from the book! It's showing in the states this Christmas!

Oh I hope they show it here soon!!!

See the trailer below:

Monday, November 17, 2008

Past Christmas Pics

That's my eldest sister, Christmas 2001 in New York with Nirro when he was still a baby. =) I was also there at that time.

I miss the snow... this was taken 2001 in Queens, NY. At my Auntie Perla's place, who recently passed away...
This was Christmas, December 2004. My eldest sister and her husband weren't there. They were in Manila. From left, Agnes, my brother's wife, My Kuya Ced, My Mom, ME, my Diche (2nd sister), and my Dad. My other sister looks like the youngest right? =) Well, that's always the case, but the thruth is, I am the youngest one in the brood of four.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

This is CHANGE for the Better

Barrack Obama's Victory over the US Presidency - definitely ONE FOR THE BOOKS!!!

Arrrgh!

It's always like that. After a vacation, work just piles up!

Busy ME

Talk about busy!!!!! I just finished printing docs to be submitted to DEPED, it's almost half a ream thick!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Pics taken during the MOA signing with DEPED

Ok, I have no choice. Gloria is included as we were having the signing ceremonies for the MOA between PULL Foundation (the Foundation established by the Rotarians for the MEGUMI Reader project) and the Department of Education.

It has been really busy at work.... So, to compensate for my long absence here, I am posting these work-related pics.

That's me and Ella, the M and E Officer for DEPED Adopt-A-School Program
That's Secretary Lapus, who by the way got the highest public-approval rating conducted by Pulse Asia Survey in July 2008.

These are my bosses who happens to be so nice and so sincere, Mr. Tambunting and Mr. Gamboa. I believe that working with them under this project also makes me a better person. I hope things continue to work out in this worthwhile endeavor.
That's Ella, Sir Jorge Caparas (Son of the MEGUMI Reader Prime Mover, MAT Caparas), Roel of DEPED, and Rowel from UP who is also the lead software developer for the MEGUMI Project. This was a good day for us. The smiles reveal all that! =)

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Time to Work. Time to Play.

Gone are my days of reading books without interruption or finishing various TV series in DVDs. Work has been very very very busy!

Well, I did anticipate this so I went on a weekend get-away but right after that, my weekdays and weekends have been all about work!

The book I am reading, "The Kite Runner" isn't finished yet. Good thing it's a holiday tomorrow so I intend to do some reading, although I have work lined up to do as well.

I also miss spending time with my dear pets! But I intend to "walk the dogs" this weekend.

By the way, I am about to have a new fish pet - a flowerhorn! Turns out my boss has this fish pond somewhere in Malolos and he breeds flowerhorns. They say it's lucky when it is given as a gift, so here's hoping I get luckier! =)

The break tomorrow will give me time to set up a new fish tank for my new pet.

I'm sleepy now... Till then.

Friday, September 26, 2008

This is exactly how I feel...TIRED and SLEEPY

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

PASS THE RH BILL! NOW NA!!!

I was busy typing some report when the news item caught my attention - the RH Bill in the plenary! The session was suspended, as the debate was getting (as expected), a little heated.

Hey Congressmen, NOT ALL CATHOLICS BELIEVE WHAT THE CHURCH DICTATES! Remember this, The Church is the People, the Faithful. Not the clergy! And ninety (90%) percent of Catholics believe and awaits government funding for RH care and services. These are the things that matter, not some dogma from whatever and whoever who has not seen the plight of mothers and children in the Philippines!!!!!

hmnnnn...

Today's a special day and even if I am so sleepy I wanted to blog about it. We just got the electricity restored, and we lost it since 10am. Naturally, I couldn't sleep so when the light turned on, I got up the bed and logged on the net. =)

I just wish I am not this busy. The past week was full of meetings and this week's pretty much the same!

Haay... Good Morning...

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Weekend getaway

I had one of the best weekends last weekend. For quite a while, I never felt that happy the way I did during the last two days I spent out of town with someone I love so dearly.




Wish it could always be like that, and my life would be perfect. =)

Being a teacher

I am done with Tuesdays with Morrie. I feel like I have to blog about it since I mentioned it in an earlier post.

Actually, it just took me one sitting to finish that book because once you start reading it, I can't really put it down. I consider it now one of my favorite books.

A teacher indeed affects eternity, as you can never tell where his or her influence stops. Thanks to the author, he shared all that was passed on to him by his professor Morrie to us.

I used to be a teacher, well I never really gave too much meaning to it, it was just an opportunity that arose when I was in law school and I took it, so I could have my extra-money aside from my allowance while studying the law. The funny thing was, I was teaching Math, particularly Algebra as my college degree was Math major in Computer Science.

Anyway, recently I got this message from a former student I don't really remember through my nephew's blog and she said she has been looking for me and found me through a picture posted in my nephew's blog. She wanted to thank me because I made her like MATH that she became a Math Whiz in her class. And now she's also in law school. =)

That was one of the best compliments I ever got. It felt good knowing I have touched her life the way I did. Priceless.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

On reading

I am done reading The Witch of Portobello and what a "reading journey" it has been.

The concept of "blank spaces" is something we all could relate too. Read the book.

Now, I'm suppose to start reading "the Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini as recommended by a very dear friend, but I'm reading "Tuesday's with Morrie" first. This is one book I have always promised myself to read but never got to buy the book then.

This is another heartwarming story I will definitely write about.

About the future

"The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating."

Which means I have to start creating the future I really really want huh?

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Paulo Coehlo and his books

I have to admit that ever since I read Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist, I developed a liking for his works. The book was a recommended read by my best friend in law school, Raffa. From thereon, I have read his other novels, The Valkyries and Eleven Minutes.

Now, with this new project I manage, I find myself being able to do a lot of reading. =) And so after that sweet book of Marley and Me, I am now reading another Coehlo - The Witch of Portobello. Interesting. I am not done with it yet but the first fifty (50) pages are quite intriguing.....

Will try to share my thoughts about it next time...

*** next in line is "the Kite Runner" which I realized has been developed into a major motion picture...

Monday, September 01, 2008

One good night



Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.-- Anonymous


Last Wednesday night, I had dinner with the UNFPA Country Representative for Indonesia, Dr. Zahidul Huque, with whom I had the priviledge of working for in Jakarta. Consequently, Dr. Huque has become a very good friend of mine, too. He used to be the UNFPA Country Representative for the Philippines from 2002 to 2006. He was here in Manila last week, together with five (5) other delegates from Indonesia, to attend the 2nd Regional Consultative Meeting on Universal Access to Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support in Low Prevalence Countries (LPC).

Anyway, my post is not about the said conference but more about my "friendship" with this great person. You know how someone touches your life unexpectedly, in ways you can never really explain? That to me is Dr. Huque. And in the process, a unique and a very special kind of friendship was built. Something you know you would want to preserve for the rest of your life. I couldn't help feeling honored and privileged having his trust and confidence in me. Even the way he speaks about me to others makes me ask, "Am I really all that?". It can be pretty overwhelming as I wonder what have I really done to merit this person's respect and friendship?

In his kind of life, he has undoubtedly met thousands of people, in all forms and shapes, from various cultures and destinations. He would know the people that are trustworthy from those who are not. Needless to state, I feel so blessed I am one of those people whose life he has touched in ways that could never have been achieved otherwise. And because of him, I am more confident and secure...knowing I am on the right path.

Sometimes, it just takes one person to make the difference you need.







Marley and ME

I've been meaning to write about this book I read - Marley and Me. It's about a dog, a labrador retriever and its owner ( who is of course the author of the book).

It's "a heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life."

I guess in a way I could relate to it because I, too have dogs, a mixture of sharpei and labrador retriever, which I love so dearly. My day actually starts with them, cleaning their cage, changing their water and giving them their "breakfast". I also believe they can't sleep at night unless I give them my "good night" kiss.

The author's relationship to Marley quite resembles the one I have with my own pets. The attachment to one's pet, the joy of simply being with them, the irritation at some of their nasty habits when I'm busy and the longing during times I can't be with them. I must confess I found myself crying during some parts of the story.

You see, those who love animals, dogs in particular, share common values. This is something I have observed from pet lovers around and to quote the book:

"Animal lovers are a special breed of humans, generous of spirit, full of empathy, perhaps a little prone to sentimentality, and with hearts as big as a cloudless sky."

Indeed, that statement is so true. You can learn a lot from a dog. - Courage, Joy, Unconditional Love and Loyalty are just some of them. Everyday, my pets show me what unconditional love is all about. They really don't care about anything else but me and my attention for them as well. They can also be very protective and possessive at times. =) But most of all, they are contented simply having me with them, as that is probably the best part of their day. And the truth is, that is mine, too.

Give them your heart and they will give you theirs. "It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not."

Read the book and appreciate your dogs more. And if you don't have pets, you will probably get one. =)

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

let the river take you

in moments of silence and solitude
a river of memories run through my mind
sitting on top of the rocks beside it
i find the past stuck between stones
preventing the present from flowing undisturbed
beyond the river
the future runs deep.

i stood from where I seated
and allowed myself to be carried by the current.

who knows how far or how deep the river takes me
but i'm going with the flow...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

First Date

This is so funny. Talk about an "unorthodox" date!

First Date

If you didn't see this on the Tonight show, I hope you're sitting down when you read it. This is probably the funniest date story ever, first date or not!!! We have all had bad dates but this takes the cake. Jay Leno went into the audience to find the most embarrassing first date that a woman ever had. The winner described her worst first date experience. There was absolutely no question as to why her tale took the prize! She said it was midwinter... Snowing and quite cold...and the guy had taken her skiing in the mountains outside Salt Lake City , Utah . It was a day trip (no overnight). They were strangers, after all, and truly had never met before. The outing was fun but relatively uneventful until they were headed home late that afternoon.

They were driving back down the mountain, when she gradually began to realize that she should not have had that extra latte.

They were about an hour away from anywhere with a rest room and in the middle of nowhere!

Her companion suggested she try to hold it, which she did for a while.

Unfortunately, because of the heavy snow and slow going, there came a point where she told him that he had better stop and let her go beside the road, or it would be the front seat of his car.

They stopped and she quickly crawled out beside the car, yanked her pants down and started.

In the deep snow, she didn't have go od footing, so she let her butt rest against the rear fender to steady herself.

Her companion stood on the side of the car watching for traffic, and indeed was a real gentleman and refrained from peeking. All she could think about was the relief she felt despite the rather
embarrassing nature of the situation. Upon finishing, however, she soon became aware of another sensation.

As she bent to pull up her pants, the young lady discovered her buttocks were firmly glued against the car's fender.

Thoughts of tongues frozen to poles immediately came to mind as she attempted to disengage her flesh from the icy metal. It was quickly apparent that she had a brand new problem due to the extreme cold.

Horrified by her plight and yet aware of the humor of the moment, she answered her date's concerns about "what is taking so long" with a reply that indeed, she was "freezing her butt off" and in need of some assistance!


He came around the car as she tried to cover herself with her sweater and then, as she looked imploringly into his eyes, he burst out laughing.

She too, got the giggles and when they finally managed to compose themselves, they assessed her dilemma.

Obviously, as hysterical as the situation was, they also were faced with a real problem. Both agreed it would take something hot to free her chilly cheeks from the grip of the icy metal.

Thinking about what had gotten her into the predicament in the first place, both quickly realized that there was only one way to get her free.

So, as she looked the other way, her first-time date proceeded to unzip his pants and pee her butt off the fender. As the audience screamed in laughter, she took the Tonight Show prize hands down. Or perhaps that should be "pants down." And you thought your first date was embarrassing.

Jay Leno's comment... "This gives a whole new meaning to being pissed off."

Oh, and how did the first date turn out? He became her husband and was sitting next to her on the Leno show.


Nice Ending huh. =)

Saturday, August 09, 2008

HOUSE Season 5

I am so hooked on this series "HOUSE" that I got to finish Season 1-4 by watching 3-5 episodes per night. And now Season 5 will air in the US this September. I wish they air simultaneously here, but the "2nd Avenue" channel airs just the 2nd Season! Imagine how long it will take before they air Season 5! Which means I get to watch only after the whole Season 5 is done airing in the US and DVDs are out!

Watch the trailer as aired in the US.



Wednesday, July 30, 2008

On forgiveness:

Here's another profound story:


One day, the sage gave the disciple an empty sack and a basket of potatoes. "Think of all the people who have done or said something against you in the recent past, especially those you cannot forgive.

For each of them, inscribe the name on a potato and put it in the sack."

The disciple came up quite a few names, and soon his sack was heavy with potatoes.

"Carry the sack with you wherever you go for a week," said the sage. "We'll talk after that."

At first, the disciple thought nothing of it. Carrying the sack was not particularly difficult. But after a while, it became more of a burden. It sometimes got in the way, and it seemed to require more effort to carry as time went on, even though its weight remained the same.

After a few days, the sack began to smell. The carved potatoes gave off a ripe odor. Not only were they increasingly inconvenient to carry around, they were also becoming rather unpleasant.

Finally, the week was over. The sage summoned the disciple. "Any thoughts about all this?"

"Yes, Master," the disciple replied. "When we are unable to forgive others, we carry negative feelings with us everywhere, much like these potatoes. That negativity becomes a burden to us and, after a while, it festers."

"Yes, that is exactly what happens when one holds a grudge. So, how can we lighten the load?"

"We must strive to forgive."

"Forgiving someone is the equivalent of removing the corresponding potato from the sack. How many of your transgressors are you able to forgive?"

"I've thought about it quite a bit, Master," the disciple said. "It required much effort, but I have decided to forgive all of them."

"Very well, we can remove all the potatoes. Were there any more people who transgressed against you this last week?"

The disciple thought for a while and admitted there were. Then he felt panic when he realized his empty sack was about to get filled up again.

"Master," he asked, "if we continue like this, wouldn't there always be potatoes in the sack week after week?"

"Yes, as long as people speak or act against you in some way, you will always have potatoes."

"But Master, we can never control what others do. So what good is the Tao in this case?"

"We're not at the realm of the Tao yet. Everything we have talked about so far is the conventional approach to forgiveness. It is the same thing that many philosophies and most religions preach - we must constantly strive to forgive, for it is an important virtue. This is not the Tao because there is no striving in the Tao."

"Then what is the Tao, Master?"

"You can figure it out. If the potatoes are negative feelings, then what is the sack?"

"The sack is... that which allows me to hold on to the negativity. It is something within us that makes us dwell on feeling offended.... Ah, it is my inflated sense of self-importance. "

"And what will happen if you let go of it?"

"Then... the things that people do or say against me no longer seem like such a major issue."

"In that case, you won't have any names to inscribe on potatoes. That means no more weight to carry around, and no more bad smells.

The Tao of forgiveness is the conscious decision to not just to remove some potatoes... but to relinquish the entire sack."

Saturday, July 26, 2008

T.G.I.F.

I am still awake. Well, I just wrapped up watching the DVD of One Tree Hill's Season 5 and oh m, it was bitin! =)

What do you make of a last scene where the lead actor calls someone, asks that person to marry him - then showing the three (3) women who were all part of his past answer their phones all at the same time???

Now definitely Season 6 is worth waiting...

Anyway, I am just really glad it's Friday. I have never looked forward to Fridays than I do now. =)

Thursday, July 24, 2008

stress relievers

Last Sunday, I was able to buy the DVDs of my favorite series ONE TREE HILL Season 5. It actually started airing at the "etc" channel but then again, don't you just love it when you can watch the episodes without waiting for another week? =)

I also bought the DVDs for the series HOUSE - Season 1-4. I am kinda hooked on this series at the 2nd Avenue channel, which airs Season 2. Yun pala, tapos na Season 4 sa States and they're starting to shoot Season 5. Yipee!

I also bught this movie "Made of Honor" starring Dr. Mcdreamy of Grey's Anatomy. It was cute... Certified Chick Flick.

Anyway, watching those DVDs are my stress relievers... I don't like going out anymore. Whenever I get the chance, I just want to be home. Sleeping. Surfing the NET. Reading - which reminds me I have yet to find time to finish this new book I bought a month ago. Watching TV and DVDs... and spending time with my dogs. Perhaps those are signs of aging! =) Oh well, I don't really mind...

I do miss spending time with that one special person... But we're busy, what can we do?

Ok gotta go. I just want to write here.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Nirro's 7th Birthday!




It is Nirro's 7th Birthday today! My Mom and I fetched him at his school and met with my sister and brother-in-law there. Then we went to SM North Edsa as he wanted to play games at QUANTUM. =) That's us taken from my CP. I realized that when I use the camera in front of the cellphone, it uses VGA and not the 2megapixel lens. That explains the"fuzziness". =) At any rate, Nirro had a fun day! I did too! =)

Saturday, July 12, 2008

DVDs, atbp.

One Tree Hill Season Five will be aired soon on the etc channel. Yahoo! =) I have always wanted to go buy new DVDs of the series' I have been following but I don't have the time.

Anyway, there's a whole lot I want to blog about, as always, but I am too tired to write. And its the weekend, I was hoping I could travel out of town so I could get away for awhile. It's a regimen I do to find my peace within. However, I have to do a report that has to be ready by Monday. Darn.

I hope to find time to write about the "tales" I have gathered while riding taxicabs. You know, I am a certified G.I. No, not like AMercian G.I.s but GI as in Geographical Idiot. =) I have no sense of direction and find it hard remembering places even if I have been there a couple of times. That is why I would rather take taxicabs going to and from my point of destination. With gasoline prices up and taxi fares going up, I feel frustrated! But I don't have any choice... either they bring me there (dad's driver) or I take a cab.

As such, I have collected many tales from personal stories of taxicab drivers to anecdotes and their take on issues plaguing the country, especially in politics. It's an interesting piece... if I get the time to write them. hehehe.


Ok, I am really tired now and want to relax watching TV before going to sleep.

Till then....




Monday, July 07, 2008

STRESS MANAGEMENT:

I checked my emails before doing a report and got this one from my good friend Nadia. It was an interesting read and worth blogging. Excuse the "caps" since I am too tired to retype it. This is exactly how it looked when the email was sent to me.

So, read on...
=============================================

A LECTURER, WHEN EXPLAINING STRESS MANAGEMENT TO AN AUDIENCE, RAISED A GLASS OF WATER AND ASKED:"HOW HEAVY IS THIS GLASS OF WATER?" ANSWERS CALLED OUT RANGED FROM 20G TO 500G. THE LECTURER REPLIED, "THE ABSOLUTE WEIGHT DOESN'T MATTER. IT DEPENDS ON HOW LONG YOU TRY TO HOLD IT."

IF I HOLD IT FOR A MINUTE, THAT'S NOT A PROBLEM. IF I HOLD IT FOR AN HOUR, I'LL HAVE AN ACHE IN MY RIGHT ARM. IF I HOLD IT FOR A DAY, YOU WILL HAVE TO CALL AN AMBULANCE. IN EACH CASE, IT'S THE SAME WEIGHT, BUT THE LONGER I HOLD IT, THE HEAVIER IT BECOMES."

HE CONTINUED, "AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS WITH STRESS MANAGEMENT. IF WE CARRY OUR BURDENS ALL THE TIME, SOONER OR LATER, AS THE BURDEN BECOMES INCREASINGLY HEAVY, WE WON'T BE ABLE TO CARRY ON. AS WITH THE GLASS OF WATER, YOU HAVE TO PUT IT DOWN FOR A WHILE AND REST BEFORE HOLDING IT AGAIN. WHEN WE'RE REFRESHED, WE CAN CARRY ON WITH THE BURDEN."

"SO BEFORE YOU RETURN HOME TONIGHT, PUT THE BURDEN OF WORK DOWN. DON'T CARRY IT HOME. YOU CAN PICK IT UP TOMORROW. WHATEVER BURDENS YOU'RE CARRYING NOW, LET THEM DOWN FOR A MOMENT IF YOU CAN." "RELAX; PICK THEM UP LATER AFTER YOU'VE RESTED. LIFE IS SHORT. ENJOY IT!

AND THEN HE SHARED SOME WAYS OF DEALING WITH THE BURDENS OF LIFE:

* ACCEPT THAT SOME DAYS YOU'RE THE PIGEON, AND SOME DAYS YOU'RE THE STATUE.

* ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WORDS SOFT AND SWEET, JUST IN CASE YOU HAVE TO EAT THEM.

* ALWAYS READ STUFF THAT WILL MAKE YOU LOOK GOOD IF YOU DIE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.

* DRIVE CAREFULLY. IT'S NOT ONLY CARS THAT CAN BE RECALLED BY THEIR MAKER.

* IF YOU CAN'T BE KIND, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO BE VAGUE.

* IF YOU LEND SOMEONE $20 AND NEVER SEE THAT PERSON AGAIN, IT WAS PROBABLY WORTH IT.

* IT MAY BE THAT YOUR SOLE PURPOSE IN LIFE IS SIMPLY TO SERVE AS A WARNING TO OTHERS.

* NEVER BUY A CAR YOU CAN'T PUSH.

* NEVER PUT BOTH FEET IN YOUR MOUTH AT THE SAME TIME, BECAUSE THEN YOU WON'T HAVE A LEG TO STAND ON.

* NOBODY CARES IF YOU DON'T DANCE WELL. JUST GET UP AND DANCE.

* SINCE IT'S THE EARLY WORM THAT GETS EATEN BY THE BIRD, SLEEP LATE.

* THE SECOND MOUSE GETS THE CHEESE.

* WHEN EVERYTHING'S COMING YOUR WAY, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG LANE.

* BIRTHDAYS ARE GOOD FOR YOU. THE MORE YOU HAVE, THE LONGER YOU LIVE.

* YOU MAY BE ONLY ONE PERSON IN THE WORLD, BUT YOU MAY ALSO BE THE WORLD TO ONE PERSON.

* SOME MISTAKES ARE TOO MUCH FUN TO ONLY MAKE ONCE.

* WE COULD LEARN A LOT FROM CRAYONS. SOME ARE SHARP, SOME ARE PRETTY & SOME ARE DULL. SOME HAVE WEIRD NAMES, AND ALL ARE DIFFERENT COLORS, BUT THEY ALL LIVE IN THE SAME BOX.

* A TRULY HAPPY PERSON IS THE ONE WHO CAN ENJOY THE SCENERY ON A DETOUR.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

On BELIEVING:

Since it is Sunday and for us Catholics, it's Church Day. An hour from a busy week, particularly on Sunday, spent with God; praying and thanking HIM for all his blessings. And most of the time, asking HIM guidance and for His blessings.


Anyway, I give you one of my favorite quotes. A great point to ponder for those who do not believe.


Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that HE exists. -- Blaise Pascal.

Friday, July 04, 2008

It's the weekend

It's the weekend and it is raining here in Manila... well, Quezon City to be exact. I am glad its the weekend as that means I could sleep until late morning without having to worry about work for awhile. =)

I am actually scheduled to spend quality time with my nephew and my parents tomorrow, which I look forward to. However, I also do want to have some quality time with myself, spending it with people dear to me other than my family. Oh well. Maybe next weekend as next work week is full.

I miss having to spend hours and hours of my time watching DVDs, without a care in the world. Now, I still get to watch TV and some series I follow with distractions here and there.

OK, I just wanted to make my presence felt in the cyberspace. There are other things I wanted to write about but I feel a bit tired. Till next time.

Monday, June 30, 2008

A tribute to my pets

This is Pichu and Motombo when they were a month old. =)
That's MOTOMBO and PICHU was the one lying on the side

PICHU while I cuddle her during her "puppy" days... =)
Pichu NOW - almost 8 months
Cuddling MOTOMBO

I can't explain it but I just adore my pets so much. I am referring to the two(2) dogs I have. Well, we actually have three (3) and I love that other dog dearly as well, but she's technically my dad's pet and the oldest among the three (3). She's actually a Border Collie which explains why she's so intelligent! She's the only one who always manages to "escape" from her cage from time to time. =)

PICHU - Female

My pets in their separate cages in the garage...
MOTOMBO - male, and is actually claimed by my nephew that is his and I am simply taking care of him... =)

Anyway, back to my own pets, aside from the various species of goldfish in my fish tank and small pond in the garage, these dogs Pichu and Motombo are just so sweet. I had them since they were just a month old and took care of them ever since. So they're like my "babies". =) I used to make them sleep over my lap when they were smaller but now at almost eight (8) months, they've grown so big already! That is why they have two (2) separate cages.

I am so sensitive to their needs that I wake up and go out to check on them at the wee hours of the night when I hear them incessantly barking. They're either hungry or some people outside the gate caught their attention. In any case, I always check them even if I am so sleepy already.

Every morning, I prepare their food ahead of mine. =) And you see them watching out for me as I emerged from the front door and then start to bark as a way of greeting me. My parents sometimes don't approve of how much I spoiled them especially with the budget I allot for their food but hey, they can't put a price on the joy and affection these dogs give me.

For some reason, they make me feel calm when I am stressed. They also make me feel that I am not alone as long as they're around. Come to think of it, I had them during the time my parents were away on vacation in the US and Canada. The way they look at me seem to say that they need me and that everything's gonna be ok.

A lot of people has asked me to give up one of them and I simply can't. Oh no. Over my dead body. =)
That's Pichu again... being the female one, she's a just a bit sweeter than Motombo...

Sunday, June 29, 2008

On Humility

Let's just say with new things to do comes new people to meet, all of whom vary in terms of personalities and character. That explains the quotes...

"To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness."

"The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones."

Hmnnnn...

On Greed:

"There are many things we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up."

Friday, June 27, 2008

Grounded? Hmnnnn...

It's the end of the week, but not work. =) I have a meeting tomorrow ... enough about enjoying the weekend. =(

I am more grounded now than yesterday. That explains the new song in the blog and the somewhat sentiment it carries with it... But it's really a good song I even changed my message alert tone to that tune.

I feel okay but somehow still feel some "void" inside me, know what I mean? Maybe not. Even I don't get myself for feeling the way I do.

Ok, HBO's got this film on starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. It's halfway through already but its good to watch again. I saw this first on the plane going to Jakarta.

Good Night for now.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

REALIZE

Sing along with the new song of my blog...

REALIZE
Colbie Caillat


V1: Take time to realize,
That your warmth is
Crashing down on in.
Take time to realize,
That I am on your side
Didn't I, Didn't I tell you.

But I can't spell it out for you,
No it's never gonna be that simple
No I cant spell it out for you

C: If you just realize what I just realized,
Then we'd be perfect for each other
and will never find another
Just realized what I just realized
we'd never have to wonder if
we missed out on each other now.

V2: Take time to realize
Oh-oh I'm on your side
didn't I, didn't I tell you.
Take time to realize
This all can pass you by
Didn't I tell you

But I can't spell it out for you,
no it's never gonna be that simple
no I can't spell it out for you.

C: If you just realized what I just realized
then we'd be perfect for each other
then we'd never find another
Just realized what I just realized
we'd never have to wonder if
we missed out on each other now.

V3: It's not always the same
no it's never the same
if you don't feel it too.
If you meet me half way
If you would meet me half way.
It could be the same for you.

C: If you just realize what I just realized
then we'd be perfect for each other
then we'd never find another
Just realize what I just realized
we'd never have to wonder
Just realize what I just realized

If you just realize what I just realized

OoOoOOo

missed out on each other now
missed out on each other now

Realize, realize
realize, realize

Sunday, June 22, 2008

I almost cried...

I was up all night because of the typhoon. Well, it didn't start that way though. I was just actually awake because I was watching the C/S channel. Then I got hungry... while looking for some snacks I then heard the sound of strong winds - like a whistle, but a very strong one in the air... the chimes hanging at the door of my parents house started to make all those sounds as the wind blew on them. I was staying in this other house but within the same gate. Naturally, our dogs started barking and barking! Then the power was cut-off.

The darkness made our pets more frantic and scared, with the sound of the chimes adding to the furor. I thought for awhile that electricity will come back in fifteen (15) minutes, but then when it took hours I got worried and stressed. Not only about the dogs who were restless but also because of my fishes who now lack the oxygen supply from its electric air pumps.


I was in the verge of tears as I watch my fishes gasp for air inside the tank and really got worried when the biggest goldfish, a black ranchu, has turned upside down!

Just in time, my very special friend texted me his usual morning greeting, even telling me he'll sleep again. However, I texted back my "situation" and apparent helplessness to him. And fortunately, he gave me "light" when he said I should do water changes, water being H20, and the act of pouring water in the tank actually creates aeration in the tank. He actually wanted me to let the water from the faucet to flow in the tank or in a temporary basin that would serve as the fishes' tank for the meantime, but I said I don't have a net that would prevent the fish from swimming out of the basin when it becomes full (as water will keep pouring in to create oxygen...). Moreover, goldfishes are sensitive to tap water. When I do water changes, I always put "angel drops", it's an anti-chlorine chemical and water purifier. It also regulates the amount of ammonia in the water which can be deadly to goldfishes.

I decided to just do partial water changes just so to create some air for the fishes. It could work rather than I just stare at them doing nothing and watch my fishes slowly die! Imagine my delight when during the process, my black ranchu slowly swam and turned upright! I was so relieved. So what I did the next hours were to watch them, with just the help of a candle light. So every hour, I remove four (4) gallons of water ( I have a 20-gallon tank) and put water back in. At some point, I saw one fish swimming towards me gasping for air above the surface. I tried to blow air from above and then suddenly, the air pump started to create the bubbles. Electricity was restored!!!

I was so happy! The fishes then started swimming towards the bubbles, perhaps catching their breath and storing air into their lungs! I also noticed that the dogs stopped barking... For a moment then, I just watched the tank as the fishes swim excitedly.

Then the stress and the sleep deprivation I had took its toll on me, I felt sleepy...It was only then that I felt how tired I already was, it was time to rest...




Pichu on the cover! =)


Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


Check out my Magazine Cover Look!


Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The importance of imagination—J.K. Rowling

These are excerpts from the author’s Harvard University commencement address in June 2008.


I was just truly moved with all the wisdom embodied in it. Definitely worth sharing to you all... Definitely worth blogging about...

____________________________________________________
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
____________________________________________________


I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.

They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

Poverty entails fear

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

What is more, I cannot criticize my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.

Epic failure

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

Test of adversity

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

Formative experience

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.

Power of human empathy

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilizes thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathize.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

Connection with outside world

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better.

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

Friends and affection

I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I've used their names for Death Eaters.

At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Migration, Family, Love, Life

Here's an article by Prof. Randy David I find very touching. It actually even reminded me of one of the reasons why it is important for couples to plan their family --- TIME.

I may sound a bit incoherent but let me explain why.

If the father's earnings are not enough to provide for the family, the mother steps in and find employment herself. The kids are then left to their yayas or among themselves, if old enough to be left alone all day long. Worse, if opportunities here are not satisfying, they find work abroad, missing the whole concept of having a "family". Devoting their time working to earn the family's keep deprive parents of spending quality time with their children, which is essential to their growth and development as human beings.

So having more children to look for means having to work as much and less time spent with each of them. And with overseas work becoming a trend in every family, it also means having no time to be with your family altogether.

So whenever the Church and pro-life advocates oppose population management and artificial family planning methods, I wonder what "LIFE" are they protecting? What kind of "LIFE" do they really want for the many Filipino families struggling to survive?

Read Prof. David' article and understand me better...



Public Lives
Love in the time of migration

By Randy David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:20:00 06/14/2008


MANILA, Philippines—One of my students, Arnold P. Alamon, has written a graduate thesis titled, “Lives on Hold: Sons of Migrant Parents.” It is based on the retrospective accounts of the six young men he interviewed on what it was like to create their own lives while their parents worked abroad. Poignant and rich in detail, their stories are evocative snap shots of the Filipino family in transition in the era of overseas migration. They show the scars beneath the imported clothes. They articulate the gap that could not be bridged by international calls and text messages.

These are stories that no longer shock us. The improbable has become typical. They are the stuff of recent Filipino films, and they are often romanticized in songs. My particular interest in this study is the shift in the semantics of love in the family that it documents.

The substance of the parental role in the traditional family is equated with being a “good provider.” Apart from the basic necessities of food, shelter, and clothing, the assurance of a solid education up to college is generally treated as a Filipino parent’s primary obligation to his/her children. In turn, children are expected to obey their parents’ wishes, to look after their younger siblings, to do well in school, and to take care of their parents in old age. Husband and wife are supposed to be supportive of one another in the performance of their culturally-prescribed roles as provider and home maker, respectively.

Modernity has long disturbed this traditional order, but none perhaps has turned it more upside down than the phenomenon of overseas work. It is now common for fathers to leave their children for extended and indefinite periods in order to provide for their needs. Where the man in the family cannot find a job that provides adequate income, the wife must step into the role of provider and look for work. Today, in the typical Filipino family, the old roles have melted, and both husband and wife have to earn a living to support the growing needs of their children. But the impact of these changes on the family as a world of meanings is not as jarring as when both parents have to leave their young children behind in order to try their luck abroad.

That is when the tacit understandings that bound the Filipino family together come into question. Children, confronting the paradox of the absentee-provider, begin to miss the living presence of the parent who dutifully remits the money and the “balikbayan” boxes containing goods. Entire studies can be conducted on the countless ways in which parents, spouses, and children desperately attempt to compensate for the physical distance that overseas work has put between them. Telecom companies have tapped into this human need in order to expand their sales of pre-paid calls and other real-time communication schemes aimed at bridging the distance. But it takes much more to sustain the spirit of family life under these circumstances.

The young men in this study appear to have survived their parents’ absence quite well, a fact that is often celebrated as Filipino resilience. Almost all of them managed to finish college, and they all believe that living on their own somehow forced them to be strong. But an unmistakable sense of loss, often surfacing as resentment, is palpable in their accounts. One of them says, almost as if he were grieving: “My parents did not see me grow up.” They grope for words to describe the passing of an era in which part of their lives have been sacrificed.

It would however be wrong to think that only the children have suffered. I will surmise that the loss is probably at least double on the parents’ side. I say that as a parent. From the moment they were born, I have looked at my children with a wish that I could see them grow into fine human beings every step of the way. I have perhaps exulted in their triumphs, and bled in their pain, more profusely than in my own. I think of them when I visit a nice place, or eat an unusually fine meal. I worry for their safety, and I cannot imagine not being able to recognize them in their mature years. This is what love commands us to do.

The traditional Filipino family, like the one in which I grew up, was not always good at verbalizing familial love. But it was there. I saw it in my mother’s eyes when anyone of us was unwell and in my father’s eager face whenever he would ask his children to recount their achievements in school or at work. A word of praise said in my presence came as rarely as an open profession of love. I rejoiced when my parents gave me money or bought me a gift on my birthday, because I did not expect it. Yet I never doubted that in my parents’ scheme of things, I was someone special.

In the age of absentee parenting, the communication of love has taken the form of a steady stream of gift-giving. This however cannot compensate for the erosion of intimacy. As the sociologist Luhmann nicely put it: “Roughly speaking, one loves not because one wants gifts, but because one wants their meaning.”

We expect those we love to show us, by their actions, the depth and complexity of their inner world, not the broad practicalities of their material situation. This is true not only for lovers and spouses in long distance relationships; it applies as well to children and parents torn apart by migration.

It has been very easy to measure the economic benefits from overseas work. But I doubt if one can ever quantify what the Filipino family has given up in terms of love, or what it is doing to recover it.

* * *

Friday, June 06, 2008

The Time of my Life by David Cook

I have been busy working and meeting deadlines re: the MEGUMI Reader project. And now is my time to unwind. I was "googling" David Cook as I wanted to see the lyrics of the song he did when he won. It was, needless to state, very inspiring. I find myself quite relating to it. =)
David Cook: The Time of my LIFE

"The Time of My Life" is the coronation song for the winner of American Idol season 7, David Cook. It was released as his first single exclusively on iTunes on May 22, 2008. The song hit #1 on iTunes within 11 hours of its release.


I’ve been waiting for my dreams
To turn into something
I could believe in
And looking for that
Magic rainbow
On the horizon
I couldn’t see it
Until I let go
Gave into love and watched all the bitterness burn
Now I’m coming alive
Body and soul
And feelin’ my world start to turn

And I’ll taste every moment
And live it out loud
I know this is the time,
This is the time
To be more than a name
Or a face in the crowd
I know this is the time
This is the time of my life
Time of my life

Holding onto things that vanished
Into the air
Left me in pieces
But now I’m rising from the ashes
Finding my wings
And all that I needed
Was there all along
Within my reach
As close as the beat of my heart
[Time Of My Life lyrics on http://lyricsmusicvideo.blogspot.com ]

So I’ll taste every moment
And live it out loud
I know this is the time,
This is the time to be
More than a name
Or a face in the crowd
I know this is the time
This is the time of my life
Time of my life

And I’m out on the edge of forever
Ready to run
I’m keeping my feet on the ground
My arms open wide
My face to the sun

I’ll taste every moment
And live it out loud
I know this is the time,
This is the time to be
More than a name
Or a face in the crowd
I know this is the time
This is the time of my life
Time of my life
More than a name
Or a face in the crowd
This is the time
This is the time of my life.
This is the time of my life.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

About writing:

A writer needs three (3) things, experience, observation and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others. --William Faulkner