Liv in a Life Well-Lived

Book in Hand: The Mark of Ran The sound that serves as harbinger to the new year sounds like King Kong walking the jungle to me. "It's here! " Gaddamit, kadit! Stop acting like you're 12 and start acting the way people expect a decent soon-to-be-24 old nanny to be. Hah! Make me. Nyah, nyah, nyah! :) -----*****------ Wish I could live all my days in forced leave forever. WOuldn't it be great to not think you're working too damn hard for the bucks? Wouldn't it be great to be doing something you are absolutely in love with that it doesn't feel like too much work? I've been noticing that I only enter this peacable zone when people are asking me to do creative stuff -- thinking of games and plays and report covers and NOT h0w to construct school buildings, deliver school desks, play the diplomat, make amicable co-existence with the bosses.... I'm really thinking hard... so hard I can hear the gears in my head turning. I want to make a change in my l

A Bosnian child lights a candle after Christmas Mass Hongkong Harbor shimmers with more lights during Christmas French shop front When in Singapore Ukrainian carolers Reykjavic Cathedral in Iceland Lobster Trap Tree in Maine, USA Venetian shop window Christmas Cake Parade in Belgrade Orthodox nuns in the capital of Iraq, Baghdad The 9-11 Memorial Tiles in Greenwich & 7th Ave., New York Palace Square in Moscow Playing the shepherd in a US elementary school play Decked up streets of Leicester Every Christmas, Pinoy homes are transformed into Fiesta Wonderland Reason for the Season MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!

Outside, a particular jovial neigbor has decided to gift everyone in the village with his spectacular rendition of "Winter Wonderland" belted out in their karaoke with the volume on full blast. Even as he sings, " Sleigh bells ring, are you listening...", I'm not sure he's got the foggiest idea what a sleigh is as to understand what sleigh bells are. Anyway, I'm whining about this not because I've Scrooged myself up. It's just that it made it much harder to hear the movie we were watching at home. For Christmas, I have billeted my family with three nice movies. What else is there to do, right? There's nothing happier than munching on popcorn while snuggled in a thick woolen bathrobe as your family watch movies together. Mirror Mask Oh yes. It's that Neil Gaiman Book. Watching the movie is like walking into a dream. I'm not talking about nice pansies and fluffy bunnies. I'm talking about mixed up, upside down stuff at the verge of

Book in Hand: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith What would it mean if I say that for me, the year 2005 just started picking up? In our office, we have a mandatory leave over the holidays. It usually lasts two weeks. But just like everything else in this crappy year (and because of the numerous instant holidays Gloria has dictated) we cut our forced leave this year a bit shorter. It officially starts today and ends January 1. But since some people feel it's their right to take month-long vacations, I don't feel the least guilty by applying to extend my leave until January 3. Two crappy days, my goodness, using my hard-earned day-off credits. Thing is, I'm scared to absent myself more than two days because by then, the work waiting for me in the office is tantamount to a tidal wave which could possibly sweep me away from my last hinges of sanity and over the edge of my last vestiges of decency. But that's two weeks away still, so I won't even think about it now. Wha

Your Birthdate: January 27 You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything.You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life.Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal.You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return. Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge Your power color: Cobalt blue Your power symbol: Dove Your power month: September What Does Your Birth Date Mean? Couple of things I'm not sure about up there: I don't expect something in return, true. But I'm also tired of being treated like I'd be always around so they don't have to do anything nice for me right now ... My power month is September? I have this intuition I'd die on a September. I always get sick during the month, for the last five years now. It's like clockwork. How can it be my power month? But I do nee

I have just finished watching this movie and I must say, it's fantastic! It's right up there now, with my favorites. Story is a little boy finds a luggage of money which literally falls from the sky. He tries to do as much good as he can with it, but things started to get complicated and he needed divine help along the way. It's so good, it'll keep you amused and laughing and happy. Ten years from now, you would remember a line or a scene from it and you would smile. It's that bloody fantastic! Watch it: MILLIONS OF TIMES.

Book in Hand: Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood Song in Mind: Ipaglalaban Ko by whoever sang it... :) I wish more Saturdays could be like this. I don't have to worry about deadlines, or bosses flaring up, or the demands of other people I wouldn't really give a damn about if I wasn't working there at all. I believe I created some mental space I could start somewhere from once again. For a while, my head's been so crowded with stuff which would be utterly useless if it ever came down to life and death. I just watched a re-run of that Meg Ryan - Hugh Jackman movie - - Kate & Leopold - - and I guess something about Meg Ryan's character makes me sympathize with her. She hates Sundays because it's the day before Monday, simply put. It puts a downer on things. She dreads going to work --- ah, familiar story, bet a penny on it. My only prayer is that someday, I will find that one thing I was designed by God to do and I will do it well and I will do it happily. People

piece by piece the darkened cloth falls from a broken body the stars shine without reddened sleeve on blackened arm crumpled hat from bushied hair grudgingly piece by piece the darkened cloth falls from a damaged soul the sky embraces the air as does clothed Olympia rises from a wearying struggle tearing the sheets piece by piece the darkened cloth falls from a will unsurrendered naked as dawn does clothed the abused limbs rest piece by piece the darkened cloth falls from a freed prisoner in dreaming she rises adorned by the moon adored by all piece by piece the darkened cloth falls. Olympia soars.

Book in Hand: Gifts by Ursula Le Guin Song in Mind: All I Want by Stephen Bishop Nope. I don't necessarily have ANYTHING to say. I just got sick of my last entry and I want to update. So I guess I'll tell you how I've been doing with my Christmas shopping. Woohoo! How exciting, ryt? Yah, sure's not. But it beats telling you how I watched our neighbor's goat eat up Mummy's newly planted flowers. Yah. I should've booed them away. But if I did, what would I watch then, huh? Back to shopping. I have engaged myself in very minimal buying activity for the last 2 weeks. This time last year, I was already bursting with excitement --- with most of my Christmas shopping done. This year, I stil get surprised when I hear Christmas songs in the radio. I guess, I have to disappoint myself a little this year. I can't go into my "Santa-zone" this December. This one's gonna be as simple as it could come. One good thing is I found a VCD copy of "ALL I W

They say one's home is a reflection of one's soul. Hmm.. far out. But I do love our house. And with a borrowed camera, i went around and took pictures of my favorite spots. Fancy a tour, anyone? Here's one for free. :) We live in the suburbs of Caloocan City. Coming from SM Fairview, commuting to our house would take some fifteen minutes. Our street is a pretty quiet one. There's just five houses in our block. After a long day, this is the place I love to see... Our front lawn has a small garden in it. My Dad's really into decorating so he personally landscaped everything. This is the reason why sometimes we feel like we live in a jungle. :) Welcome po. Upon entering the house you'd walk down a hallway where my Daddy's "study room" is. I caught him reading the newspaper. :) He's kinda neat, for a man. See his stuff below: Then you'd come into the sala to the left and the dining room to the right. That's my cousin Ryan at the tab

Book in Hand: Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle I swear, if I receive another Friendster Update about Blogs I will throw something really hard at the computer monitor. Why can't they just live and let live? It's one of the blinks Friendster probably never saw... they're creating a goodly number of people who are actually hating the very sight of their company name in their emails. Mad-vertising. Half of the people who are on my "friendster network" are people from high school, sometimes elementary pa, na I barely know anyway. I could never turn anyone down, and if they can still recall my name, they probably voted for me in the student council and the least i could do is to accept them as friends ( see how simple my philosophy in life is). My point is, I don't care if someone I met twice ten years ago has updated their blog. I'm just not that kind of person. The networking kinda sort. So please stop sending me "so-and-so has updated their friendste

To live the life I truly want, I close my eyes. To awake into my life I sleep.

Now I find out Matt's been married since April this year. What?? He couldn't even wait for me to get my act together? Hay. What is with all these marrying and hurrying anyway? Is there some one time special promo giving out licenses that I haven't heard about? I don't get it. How could anyone be getting married at this point? What kind of life would they have lived to get there fairly faster than most? By most I mean of course, me. Yes, I could just be such an immature clod that I wouldn't know love if it hits me on the nose. All those years I have ranted against commitment phobic guys, it's starting to dawn on me that it takes one to know one. I keep making up other reasons why I'm nowhere near the proverbial mark yet and all of them sounds silly to me. TOP TEN GUESSES WHY LIV'S STILL SINGLE 1) I'm a genius (hurrah!) for finding out a way to pathologically incise out all romantic inclinations for any type of gender (which is not likely, seeing I st

Book in Hand: Sunshine by Robin McKinley Song in Mind: "dum dee dum... because of you I never strayed too far from the sidewalk... because of you I learned to stay on the same side so I won't get hurt..." Do I sound uppity today? At all? Just when I thought I made it through the blasted STEP-UP event which just devoured two whole weeks of my life and probably decreased my life span by seven years, another humongous problem comes my way again. Barely ten hours after the conclusion of the darn thing. A darkness in conscience. That's what this new problem brings about. So quite desperately, I'm trying to keep my eyes on the faint light I see at the end of my tunnel. Hoping, hoping I won't lose my faith and fall into avarice.

Book in Hand: 24 short stories by willa cather Song in Mind: a monotonous droning I admit, the Harry Potter movies are now to be considered capitalistic ventures out to earn the big millions from the enthralled masses. And it's one capitalistic venture I visibly indulge in. That is, as long as they can keep me hooked. As of HP 3 I am already having difficulties accepting the film interpretation of the book. And as Harry's world gets darker, I find myself more hesitant to indulge in it. I read HP for the sake of being young again. Not anymore. HP 4 was definitely not 100% faithful to the book. Grabe, there were scenes that left my mouth hanging open and I was spouting "B-b-but... it didn't happen that way!" I'm not sure what pushed the director's vision, and I guess I'm just being catankerous. But if a person watches the film without reading the book, they wouldn't understand the story at all! And to those who did read the whole lot of Harry Potter

What's the best way to become unstuck when you're caught between two worlds? I swear I'm not living my life right today... I keep schmoozing off to La-la Land. I have a story brewing inside my head for the past few days and there's nothing more I'd like to do than plop myself in front of my compuer and just write it. So, you ask, why can't I? Well, there's the small matter of having to work. Hay. Real writers out there will say Boo You! If you want to write then just do it. Writers write. Wannabes whine. Even my ideas aren't so original. I'm doing an anthology nowadays. I called the collection "We Who Have Fallen Asleep" and it covers various states and tales of sleeping and waking. Even allegorical ones. I commend Yoshimoto for the idea, but these would be composed of short stories the ideas of which germinated from those already told by Tolkien, Berg, Black, de Maupussant, de Lint, and various other authors who make my (imaginary) life so