Happy New Year 2009!!

Thursday, January 1, 2009
A year from now
Where will you be a year from now? Where would you most like to be?
There is so much you've learned and experienced on your journey to this day. Imagine what you can now do with it all.

This new year is a grand opportunity, filled with promise and possibilities. Choose now the very best of those possibilities, and know that you have the power to bring them to life.

You will spend this coming year moving in one direction or another. Commit now to making that direction the one that will take you toward what you sincerely desire.

Life in each moment is influenced by your presence and participation. As this new year unfolds, continue to make that influence a positive and fulfilling one.

Consider today where you would like to be a year from now. For now is the beginning of the year in which you can truly make it happen.

-- Ralph Marston
www.greatday.com

Another year!...

Happy Birthday to me!! Hehehehe!

Staying Informed

I just got back from a dinner-chat session with a fellow Pinay who lives in the same apartment building as me. And during the course of the evening, we got to talking about Japan and World War II, which eventually led to the United States and Bush, and Blair and China and all that.

And all the discussion got me to thinking that maybe I've been avoiding reading news and current events too much. I think I stopped reading the newspapers maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Only the occasional Internet news links would make it to my reading list.

But that somewhat lively discussion with my friend this evening made me realize how much I've been shielding myself from all that's happening in the world. There's so much transpiring all around me right now that I'm not even aware of. And the degree to which I've successfully implemented a "news blackout" on myself... it somewhat alarmed me today haha.

So I'm thinking.. okay... I should really make an effort to read at least some current events from now on. It wouldn't hurt to keep pace with world events, esp. when everything seems already well down the path toward going global. It wouldn't hurt to keep myself informed. It would be less alarming for me, at the least hehe.

Geeking before Work

Yes, I'm supposed to be getting ready for work right now. And yes, I'm doing just exactly the opposite of that. I'm sitting here in front of my laptop, blogging. The issues I have to deal with today are turning themselves around in my head. I guess I'm just trying to gather up the momentum to surge ahead through my today and deal with all of them.

Anyway, some inane blabbering before I sign off. Has anyone heard of the Standard theory? I've heard it described as the most accurate/precise scientific theory around. Being described thus, I wonder why I never learned of it in any of my science classes. The theory seeks to understand the concept of mass... why photons are virtually massless but neutrons and protons are so heavy. It presents the concept of the Higgs field, which is made up of Higgs bosons, to explain the why's and how's of mass. I won't explain it here anymore cause I don't feel I know enough to be able to tell you about it clearly.

But really, it puzzles me why I just heard about this theory yesterday. It's one of the more fundamental theories, isn't it?

Haha... okay.. no, I'm not drunk. I'm just writing down one of the things wandering around in my head. Anyway, okay, time to get ready for work..

I need a new card reader!! I can't download our pics from our Hiroshima trip. And that also means I can't free up space in my digicam. Phooey! When we had dinner with some of our old projectmates last Friday night, I had to resort to deleting some pics from our soccer match trip the other weekend. Inisip ko na lang that I can rely on the pictures from the other people I was with at that time hahaha.

This weekend was relatively low-key, except for the much-fun dinner last Friday night. That one was spent laughing and throwing wisecracks at each other. I barely noticed the food, and that's rare hahaha! We even had coffee afterwards, and I was much regretful when we had to call it a night already and go home. I have three shots on my cam from the dinner, and I can't download any of them to send waaaah!! Definitely I should get a new cardreader soon, or at least fix the one I have now.

Yesterday I spent half the day in bed hehehe! I dunno, I guess I just felt like lazing around. I'd been planning to do it for a while now, what with the very hectic weeks I've had to deal with. Then in the early evening we went window-shopping and cellphone-purchasing at Keikyu department store in Gumyoji. There was a sale going on but the prices were still a bit too steep for us. I was able to get another pair of earrings though, dangling ones with jade-colored stones which matched perfectly with the shirt I was wearing that day hahaha! So yeah after paying for the earrings I wore them already. I notice I've become an earring addict. It's the accessory that I'm currently paying the most attention to, esp. since it can really liven up an otherwise boring outfit (most of my wardrobe is like that haha), with the most minimal of fuss.

After getting tired of window-shopping, we trooped to Yodobashi to get Erns a cellphone. She opted for the same one Elaine had, an Au-KDDI prepaid unit which she got for less than 8,000 yen, prepaid card and charger all in. She was so happy with the cellphone she was practically shining with glee hahaha!

After getting the phone, we went home to cook some sinigang and have dinner together. We dropped by a nearby grocery store which stays open till late, and got the ingredients we needed. The sinigang and rice were done in no time, and pretty soon we were eating away while watching a Bollywood movie entitled, "Bride and Prejudice." A fun movie, although it really isn't one for the Oscar's. It was all color and songs and dances and beautiful Indian women. Nice movie for a lazy evening. Elaine even brought over some delicious Franzia red wine, which I had two wineglasses of. It was fun. Next weekend we might be doing it in Elaine's room.

Today was just a trip to the library and more sleep. I wasn't able to catch up on anything on my to-do list! Haha! But I really love my library trips, where I get to pick out all the magazines I want to read and get engrossed in the most interesting stories. Today I read on brain-rewiring, how to manage gen-Yers in the workplace (that's us!), Paris Hilton's month-long stint in prison, dealing with stress, and some other odd little bits of articles. I also borrowed "The English Patien" and "I am a Cat", which is a collection of essays and stories from a Japanese author that caught my interest. Anyway, hopefully I won't be a delinquent borrower this time and return the books overdue, like I did last time. I really should force myself to set aside some reading time everyday. It's something that I think is really important for everyone. Anyway, I'll make myself do that starting this week.

Now I think I should go and do some Nihongo lessons. I'm annoyingly not making any progress in that area haha! But I really wish I had a Japanese person to practice with and correct my grammar and my pronunciation.

Birthday and Coincidences

It's my mom's birthday today. And we celebrated it with pancit, fried chicken, ice cream and cake. Yum!

I brought home the choco mocha cake from Red Ribbon. I was actually contemplating on getting my all-time favorite coffee crunch again (which we had last Christmas and New Year's), but I decided to fight the urge and try something else instead. Not too bad. Not as good as a coffee crunch, but the chocolatiness was just right... not too sweet, just the way I like it.

And funny thing happened while my officemate and I were on our way home. First we bumped into Joan, one of my close barkada from college. And then a few moments later my officemate bumped into his sister lol! We got separated when we got on the MRT though. We hopped into different cars, me and Joan together, and him and his sister and his sister's friend in another. Joan and I got off at the Q. Ave. station, without getting the chance to say goodbye to them.

Joan and I had so much fun catching up with each other on the rest of the trip home. She had funny stories to tell about her boss, and I was soon also caught up in irreverently poking fun at him lol!

Tomorrow we'll all be going to watch Spiderman 3. It'll be great fun! Hanging out with the old group again. Will blog about that tomorrow, if I'm not too sleepy yet when I get home.

For now, I'll see if I can catch up on some office work... go me! ~_~

Unload...

...That's what I was able to do today. A pause and a deep breath, before life starts rushing forward again. Thank God for good friends =)

My eyes feel coarse and stingy, from staying up till 4am to watch Princess Hours hahaha! Yes of all things... losing sleep for a Koreanovela lol!

So I tried to catch up with my sleep this afternoon. And I still couldn't sleep. And now I feel a dash of groginess and lightheadedness. And tomorrow's Monday, a fact I'm trying hard to forget right now lol!

And it's so hot and stuffy... yes, so summer... weather is wilting me... ~_~

I need to breathe and sleep.. breathe and sleep... in any order whichever comes first blah blah blah..

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Year of the Pig to everyone!!

It's another chance to celebrate the New Year lol! A second chance to feel like you're getting a new start... and I'm taking it! Lol! (for various reasons I won't bore you with anymore)

Damn I'm tired. It's been so busy, busy, busy since January. And it looks like it'll be like this until March. I feel aches and pains along my shoulders and my back everyday now. Comes from slouching in front of my laptop all the time. But they're good aches and pains. They remind me that I'm working hard on something that's important to me.

I've also been working on improving my focus the past weeks. I hate it that my brain has this tendency to flitter away every chance it gets. And I want to get rid of that. I want to be able to focus like Coyote zooms in arrow-straight on the Roadrunner. Lock in. Fire!

But it's difficult for me hahaha! I always have so many things running around in my head. It's not that I'm not able to concentrate on my tasks. It's just that I want to be able to focus more... like a laser beam, to borrow Lisa Hanberg's words. And I'm slowly inching towards that goal. Slowly. But the improvement's there. Just a little bit everyday lol!

Anyway, since I've been busy I haven't been able to do most of the other things I like doing. Like visiting the websites I used to frequent. I don't even remember when was the last time I watched a video on YouTube. And you know how long I've been absent from this blog. This balancing act with my time is proving harder to pull off than I'd imagined. Ah well, if I survive this then I can have something more to be proud of to myself.

Go, go me! lol!