relatives

you can't choose them, so they say. but you can choose to not consider them relatives, right?

i won't go into details. generalities maybe.

well sometimes i just find it hard to believe that i am actually related by blood to some people. i find myself thinking surely somebody who shares my blood could not be as complete an asshole as this ________(uncle, cousin, aunt, nephew, niece. fill in the blank.)?

but you know what? they are complete assholes. they. i can't believe how anyone could trade good relations for money. a measly sum, at that. they think just because they've been forgiven over and over and over in the past, they can keep on getting away with being the total jerk-offs that they are. and then they pretend that they had nothing to do with it.

hay naku. i am being deliberately vague because my mom and dad would probably get on my case for this.

hay naku. i'm certain of one thing. i had decided years ago that when i get married, there will only be a handful of relatives. and you know what? they're growing less in number by the year.

happy new year?

half a month into the year and here i am again. lost my wallet last week so i'm still not in full possession of my faculties. but i will post.

let me see. new year posts usually consist of a post game analysis of the events of the previous year. sounds like a good start.

so. 2006. let's put them into categories. --family, work, love, friends, others. order irrelevant.

family -- sometime february last year we welcomed a new baby into the family. daryl thaddeus, my very own siopao. he's so cute i want to just bite him sometimes. smart to boot! he's picked up some of my habits, particularly when it comes to clothes. ate kay wants to strangle me. :D

my niece also gave birth to a baby girl. i felt a pang of sadness when she did. she's only a baby herself-- looking all grown up, but a baby nonetheless. but babies are blessings, no matter what. so am happy there's a new baby too. even if that makes me some sorta kinda a lola.

my parents are okay. had a few health scares and they continue to scare me when i'm all alone and about to sleep. i just pray everyday for their continued health and thank the BIG GUY up there. sometimes, though, i realize that my parents aren't getting any younger. that fact escapes me most of the time, mainly because they look ages younger than their actual age and they're too cool to be believed. my mom is almost addicted (so she says) to computer games, and my dad still invites me to drink out every now and then (me! the youngest girl!). i worry though but i trust mr. BIG GUY knows what he's doing.

my other siblings are fine. two of them are busy manning the law firm, also known as "da four sisters law firm (carinderia)" despite the fact that they both promised to never practice. anna b is sorely missed. it's been over a year since i last saw her and i feel her absence everyday, specially when confronted by grinning horses on brown bottles. da doctor is crazy as ever and i worry about her too. i guess i'll just have to pray that things straighten out for her soon. as for our resident us citizen, well... she's handled herself for so long i'm sure she'll keep on doing that for many many years to come. wag lang niya ko pabilhin ng pulburon molders. :)

work - hay work. i've been getting the hang of it but sometimes i just feel so tired and spent. it doesn't help that my family wants me to just go home and be a lawyer. still, i'm here. i know i'm good at what i do (mayabang ako, eh, bakit ba. walang hihirit.) and i'm learning a lot about things i never thought i'd pay attention to. to a certain extent the learning is keeping me here.
but my office friends keep me sane - jen, junjun, bebe, latino, luz, and elna. plus there's marge. each day is an adventure with them. you never know what they're going to think up next. so siguro di pa ko aalis dito. of course, the darned thing pays the bills. :D

love - hahahhaha. funny.

friends - made a lot of friends last year. kept most of the ones i already had. lost touch with some (sad.). i'm quite thankful, though, that i know these are people i'd fight for and they'd fight for me if need be. i'm extremely lucky when it comes to friends, i suppose.

others - ha. there it is. played an untold number of badminton games. drank an untold number of beers. slept odd hours. made a lot of decisions that still make me cringe. but these things are done and i can't really do anything about them.

travelled a lot too. :D :D :D

i'm not big on details these days. i think i'm still in a rut and i'm trying to get out of it. how did j put it -- my feeling of aimlessness.

hopefully i'll post more often. i miss writing.

so there. so far the first 15 days of the year leave much to be desired. wish me luck.

just make sure i don't have my phone with me when the brown bottles are there. :D

merry christmas all. :)

am back. i think.

it's been almost 2 months since i posted anything here. and am still not sure what i'm going to post about. it's not that there's nothing happening. on the contrary, a lot of things have been happening lately.

let me see. i went to palawan. went to a beach in la union with my family. watched my nephew start to crawl and listened to him cry because he's teething. got a friend back and lost him in a space of a few days. read several books. played untold hours of badminton. discovered that that anti-hangover thing available in the market actually works. transferred workstations. pined over someone. the list will probably go on and on if i actually sat myself down and thought about it.

but i can't seem to write things down properly. oh, nothing's wrong with my brain. been writing some sample abstracts for work and they didn't end up too bad.

i guess my world is in a spin at the moment. and i hope it will settle down soon. i need to write things down. i need the comfort of being able to put things into something structured (at least for me) and maybe put a little more order in my life.

oh well. at least this is a post. will try to post pictures soon. try being the operative word.

am back from oz

got back yesterday from a week-long training thing in australia. didn't get to do much since the shops and attractions close at 5 in sydney. training is till 5, so we didn't get to do the tourist thing. but the trip was well worth it.

gift to self: the boy from oz. we watched hugh jackman. sigh. we actually breathed the same air (along with thousands of other people who turned up for the show)!

the show was worth every cent we had to shell out for it. he was very good and he can really sing!

the opening scene was that of a white grand piano descending from the ceiling with the man himself on top of it. wearing, get this, a suit covered with silver discs that glittered so much he was practically shining. all we could say was OH MY GOD.

sigh. more about the trip later but for now, sigh sigh sigh!



photo courtesy of amazon.com

off to

the land down under. :)

meow.

attended a children's party yesterday and i left looking like this. :) gave me such a kick.

more about the birthday party when i have time.

can anybody say "freedom of speech"

Gonzalez: UP breeds destabilizers, naked runners

of course he's entitled to his own opinion. being well-behaved and all. but then the position he holds curtails that liberty somewhat. he shouldn't be mouthing off whatever comes to mind.

hay naku. besides, what's wrong with running naked? :) in my book that's a decent thing to do. nobody gets hurt and everyone's fine. i wonder if he can say that about his actions?

the up manila student council has released a letter to sec. gonzales. i'm sure there will be more.

hay naku talaga.

this explains a lot.

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (54%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (48%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.

Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.

Overall you appear to have fairly Equal Hemispheres
-----------------------------------------
According to Darwinian theory, optimal evolution takes place with random variation and selective retention. The evolution savvy individual will try many different approaches when faced with a problem and select the best of those approaches. Many historical intellectuals have confessed their advantage was simply considering/exploring/trying more approaches than others. The left brain dominant type suffers from limited approaches, narrow-mindedness. The right brain dominant type suffers from too many approaches, scatterbrained. To maintain balanced hemispheres, you need to exercise both variability and selection. Just as a company will have more chance of finding a great candidate by increasing their applicant pool, an individual who considers a wider set of options is more likely to make quality decisions.

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

isang tanong

may kiliti kaya ang mga butiki?

letter from gary granada

konting announcement lamang. downloadable for free po talaga. :) pati yung mga kanta tungkol sa ginebra.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My name is Gary Granada, i'm a volunteer in an
ecumenical community called Kaalagad. I also teach and
write songs. I would like to invite you to a website I
made, and if you like some of the things you see, most
of them are downloadable for free.

There's a little information there about Kaalagad as
well, and the little that we can generate out of that
all goes to the programs and projects of Kaalagad.

It would also help if you can tell others about it,
thank you. (and so sorry if im being a nuisance~~)

http://garygranada.com

last sunday i attended the funeral of my uncle, my mom's kuya. i had gone to the wake a couple of days earlier, being the lone baguio representative. my parents arrived for the burial.

i am close to my uncle's family. they're a big bunch, like us. but they're all married. the age of the kids range from 0 to 25(?) years. everybody loves to eat. and tell stories while they're at it. and they have always made me feel welcome.

i felt their loss. it was the usual rowdy crowd but i could feel it drifting in the background. i could sense it in the tiny silences that invaded the noise every once in a while. i could see it in each and every person passing by the casket who raised a hand to touch the surface. i could feel it in their hugs and kisses.

but i held my tears in check. and mingled as well as i could.

during the funeral the entire family was gathered around the casket saying their goodbyes. i stood and watched them sprinkle holy water. and i stood and watched as my aunt wiped the surface, watched her stand on tiptoe to kiss it, and watched her just slump over the glass in silent tears.

that did me in. last year they had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. now here she was saying goodbye. my tears finally gave way.

thoughts kept zipping in and out of my head. i could only imagine how she must feel, losing her constant companion of 50 years. yet i felt a certain envy. they had loved for 50 years and it still wasn't enough. my thoughts inevitably turned to my parents, who have been together for 46 years. to my sister, who was steady with her boyfriend for 17 years before they even got married. to me.

i stood there watching my aunt mourn the loss of her husband. i kept thinking i want that kind of love. she bravely faced all of us, said farewells, and moved on. i want that kind of strength.

i mourned the loss of my uncle, and mourned for those he left behind.

i left feeling melancholy. and awfully lonely. i think somehow, in a small way, i mourned for me.

bits and pieces

* the day i say i can't take public transport anymore or that i can't sit on the sidewalk anymore, kill me.

* a baby who smiles everytime he hears your voice is one of the most precious things anyone can ever have. if not the most.

* touching base with friends - sometimes you need to see the friends you made when you still had black front teeth to realize that change is good, but things that stay the same over the years are better. :)

* trying to take your own blood pressure is a major production. which is downright funny.

* sitting in front of a computer for over 10 hours with only wiwi breaks for relief is a bad thing.

* piolo pascual is yummy.

* no matter how disgusted you are with a game show on tv, you will still root for the person on deck. and rejoice when she ends up winning something.

* that condom thing with holes that they put on your head when they color your hair makes your brain shrink.

* am going to sleep now.

from emman's lj

You Are: 60% Dog, 40% Cat

You are a nice blend of cat and dog. You're playful but not too needy. And you're friendly but careful. And while you have your moody moments, you're too happy to stay upset for long.

Are You More Cat or Dog?

a new vice

one of the gifts i received for my birthday was a set of audiobooks from rina.

it included neil gaiman and terry pratchett books. it also included the time traveler's wife by audrey niffenegger.

i've been listening to time traveler for the past 4 days. the entire thing is about 18 hours, give or take. let me put it this way. if it were a book, i wouldn't put it down.

i've been listening to it while cooking, eating, driving, riding the train, riding the bus.

i have always been a fan of the printed book. i like holding the pages. i like the feel, the weight, the smell of them. i like the way i can always flip back a few pages if something confuses me.

i resisted audiobooks for a long time. but then i tried good omens. and i was hooked.

scrolling back was easy since you can figure out the number of minutes. plus, this is something i can do while driving. reading while driving is next to impossible.

so...at least now i don't have to put off reading while i'm walking or driving. i can simply listen.

and lose myself in another world again, one that doesn't hurt as much as this one does.