What are you thankful for this 2009?

My moleskine planner has served its purpose well. I’ve managed to consistently scribble down my daily adventures and misfortunes (my previous planners were huge failures on the aspect of filling them up to the end of the year); in effect, some of them have been coffee, rain, or tear-stained. My moleskine pocket has been ripped an inch because of the different stuff i shoved in there: receipts, photos, calling cards, etc. I’ve written down song lyrics and reflections on the notebook part, making use of the empty space of this 18-month planner. It’s time for a new planner to jot down the new episodes of my life!

I am thankful for:

• the moleskine!
• surviving a bad fall that cut my right eyebrow area
• finishing my MA coursework!
• experiencing wakeboarding & rapids rafting, 2 items in my bucketlist
• being able to sing for the funeral of Tita Cory and share in the country’s historical event of the year
• an opportunity to be seen singing in TV to be aired by January
• being chosen to be an important coordinator in Bukas Palad
• being loved and for me to fall in love again and consciously know what it really means
• learning to face difficult challenges with a stronger resolve and calmer disposition
• being wiser with choices and decisions in life (i’d like to believe so!)

*for a chance to win the 12-month colored planner, go here:

http://blog.avalon.ph/2009/12/win-a-moleskine-colour-a-month-daily-planner-2010/

flights of fancy.

if i had any way of escaping a rut or de-stress from a tension-filled situation, first thing i’d do is grab a book and immerse myself in it (if other media aren’t available). the type of book i read depends on my mood, so if i feel emo i’d grab either a fantasy/sci-fi to transport me to a fantastic place, or a romantic novel to wallow in the sappyness. classics are for my nerd mode, along with the required literary theory readings i’d have to review.

reading a book actually helps me write better. writing a book review helps me do this, and so i opened a book blog that i don’t think i’ll tire of updating

go visit it http://tabbedbooks.wordpress.com!

on reading.

We read to find the end, for the story’s sake. We read not to reach it, for the sake of the reading itself. We read searchingly, like trackers, oblivious of our surroundings. We read distractedly, skipping pages…we read in gusts of sudden pleasure, without knowing what brought the pleasure along. “What in the world is this emotion?” asks Rebecca West after reading King Lear. “What is the bearing of supremely great works of art in my life which makes me feel so glad?” We don’t know: we read ignorantly. We read full of prejudice, malignantly. We read generously, making excuses for the text, filling gaps, mending faults. And sometimes, when the stars are kind, we read with an intake of breath, with a shudder, as if a memory had suddenly been rescued from a place deep within us—the recognition of something we never knew was there, or of something which we vaguely felt as a flicker or a shadow, whose ghostly form rises and passes back into us before we can see what it is.

– A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel

bukas palad photo shoot.

*photography by Lester Echem.

bukas palad album launch!

birthday/christmas wishlist revisited.

well, since my birthday is in the merry month of december, gifts can just be a two-occasions-in-one-package form:

• 35 mm fuji fims (the not-so-ordinary ones) for my lomo
• a weekly/daily moleskine planner for 2010
• my milk toof book
• a digicam
• tiangge flats (i’m a size 6) of either white or bronze
• nice home decor (i hope not gargantuan statues)
• sticker book plates (i ran out of them because i’ve many books)

• a s.ta.m.p. watch

i’ll think of what else i want. so far this is it. some are really attainable, and wait till i strike them off!

random friday.

• i love posting pictures when am stressed. somehow, frozen smiles have the capacity to make me remember happiness at the moment of distress.
• if u had the capacity, which would u prefer: getting the heart or saving the soul?
• am majorly lusting after moleskine planners now, and i better get one soon, because they run out once december comes. i’d like to get a red one this time, or a big notebook sized one. starbucks planners are still not included in my agenda.
• i’m wondering if i’m living a mediocre life, but i don’t have any grand plans in life except to be happy with my loved ones, improve myself, and contribute to the world. am already doing that, so maybe that’s okay…
• in connection to that, i wonder what will change when i’m 31…so many did when i turned 30. by the way, ka-age ko si Jollibee
• this is gonna be a lean xmas. my 13th month was spent during the vacay, and so no more expensive gifts. i like spoiling my loved ones kasi eh, and i used to like giving to almost everyone. now, kiss na lang

the CDO-Camiguin adventure.

20 life lessons I learned in my 20s.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/06/08/20-life-lessons-i-learned-in-my-20s/

1. If you’re smiling right now, you’re doing something right.
2. It’s not so much what you say that counts, it’ how you make people feel.
3. The biggest mistake you can make is doing nothing because you’re scared to make a mistake.
4. No matter how it turns out, it always ends up just the way it should be.  Either you succeed or you learn something.  Win-Win.
5. Freedom is the greatest gift.  Self-sufficiency is the greatest freedom.
6. If you catch yourself working hard and loving every minute of it, don’t stop.  You’re on to something big.  Because hard work ain’t hard when you concentrate on your passions.
7. It’s not about getting a chance, it’s about taking a chance.  You’ll rarely be 100% sure it will work.  But you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work.  Sometimes you just have to go for it!
8. Complaining is like slapping yourself for slapping yourself.  It doesn’t solve the problem, it just hurts you more.
9. The one with nothing to hide is always the one left standing tall.
10. You can press forward long after you can’t.  It’s just a matter of wanting it bad enough.
11. There’s a big difference between knowing and doing.  Knowledge is basically useless without action.
12. In work and business, when they need you more than you need them, you have succeeded.
13. Everything that happens in life is neither good nor bad.  It just depends on your perspective.
14. We are all weird.  And life is weird.  And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we call it love.
15. True friendship and true love do sustain the tests of distance and time.
16. You can’t change who you are.  You can only change what you know and how you apply this knowledge.
17. It is okay to be angry.  It is never okay to be cruel.
18. Even when you feel like you have nothing, someone else likely has far less.  Find them and help them.  You’ll see why.
19. Having a thousand credentials on the wall will not make you a decent human being.  But genuinely helping one person everyday will.
20. Remember, change happens for a reason.  Roll with it.  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

And I leave you with this question:

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

you say what it’s not…

…when it has always been. if you tear your chest open i wonder what it will say, i wonder what it will tell you. underneath all the layers, would you be surprised if you knew what the bottomline is? it’s buried under the earth that you threw over it, yet like a faucet you expect your self-built plumbing to be connected to the waters below to quench your thirst, ease your hunger, satisfy your urges. you run to it on every dry spell, you turn it on to bathe you in its wonder.

ambrosia. it’s for the gods, yet it is also for humankind.

its essence tugs you during its absence, you feel just half the person you should be without it…at your worst, you feel dead. it is the spring of life, the antidote for eternity experienced in its temporality. if you say you don’t know what i’m talking about, you’re kidding me. when you acknowledge what it’s not, you already know what is, based on your awareness. you just have to be convinced that it is.

until then, i will reserve saying i told you so.