Archive for Blog-a-holic

Thoughts on the Treadmill

// February 2nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General

First day in the gym in 2010. No iPhone or gym buddy to keep me company.

Lesgow. Stretch, stretch. Hop on to the treadmill.

Start. Speed, 2.0.  Nggrggrhh. Boring walk for one minute. Beep. Beep. Beep. Incline settings 5.5, speed 4.5. Now it’s getting interesting.

Two minutes later, cute chinito dude was doing some leg lifts at my left. Oyeh.

So what am I gonna have for lunch? Chinito boy.  Good idea. But seriously, salad?  Maybe. Gosh the music in this gym is killing me. Slimmer’s World had better music.  Maybe I should really get an mp3 player so I have something to use temporarily.  Anson’s is just right across the street.  I should check later.

Bush is so noisy. Haha. He’s already friends with the instructors.

Hey mister, please stop staring at my butt. What a fuckin’ perv.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Speed 6.0. It’s so good that I can brisk-walk and think of a lot of non-sense without worrying of bumping into someone or tripping over something.  Maybe this is why I love the treadmill.

I didn’t know that it was tough to sing and play Die Alone at the same time.  Must be my poor guitar skills. Haha.  I should stick to simpler tunes like Katy Perry’s Thinking of You.  Now, where the heck will I find the chords to The Duke Spirit’s Wooden Heart. That’s a very good song. Makes me sleep but also keeps me awake during long work hours.

Wow, I can see Mexicali from here. Mmm. Tacos, burritos, and grilled pork chops. Mmm. Yeah, I should have veggies for lunch. Darn it. I’ll make it up on cheat weekends then. Cheat.

Fifteen minutes later, I burned 69 calories. That’s how much calories there is in a shot of Patron Silver Tequila. And the thought of it makes me thirsty. Wait, I AM thirsty. Chinito boy comes back to do more leg lifts. What was I thinking again?  Nice legs, yessir. Bad Man’s World playing in my head. It’s a bad man’s world. It’s a bad man’s world.

Sweat is dripping from my back and my chest. Ten more minutes. I always make it a point to stay in the treadmill for at least 30 minutes. Walk, brisk-walk, run, brisk-walk, repeat. It’s a bad man’s world. It’s a bad man’s world. It’s a bad man’s world.  Will it be me or will it be you.

142 calories in 30 minutes.  Not good for day one. But what the heck. Time to hit the shower.

Color Blind

// January 21st, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Funnies

It’s another day at work. “Thank you for calling Sprint together with Nextel, this is Cara. How can I help you?” While saying the same old spiel, I heard myself and the rest of the team help people with their bills, fix mobile phones, and try to sell more stuff to those lucky callers until I heard one of us make an offer.

“By the way, ma’am, did you know that you could get a free phone today?”

Oh yes, if he can make that successful sale the lucky guy gets an extra thousand pesos on his paycheck. But wait, there’s more.

“Yes, that’s true! In fact, if you order it today, I can even give you additional 100 free text messages and a month of free mobile internet. An x dollar value absolutely free.” More upselling. “Okay, so you want a black flip phone? I apologize ma’am but the black ones went out of stock last week. The only colors available at the moment are brown and pink.”

Pause. Customer must be insisting on a black phone. “Actually the brown one is so brown it’s almost black.”

Blag. I fell off my chair.

Thank You, 2009!

// December 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General, Raves

I was told that this year is my year, the year of the ox.  However, I didn’t rely much on astrology or Chinese horoscope because everything happened based on God’s will. This year, I am thankful for so many things like how our relationship in the family has gone better. I am thankful that God blessed us with good health and financial stability. I am thankful that I was able to grow as a person and that I got to know myself better. This year, my relationship with God was refreshed. I am thankful that we were able to celebrate my parents’ silver wedding anniversary. Overall, I am thankful to God because He made this year a fruitful and a truly blessed one for me and my family. Goodbye, 2009. In a bit, we will say aloha to 2010.

_____________________________

Dear Avalon.ph,

Thanks for the chance of ending 2009 with a blast. I got to list down all the things I am thankful for plus I get the chance to win a 2010 Moleskine Colour a Month Daily Planner. Thank you for sharing your blessings to bloggers like me. :) Now crossing my fingers for the Moleskine babies. <3

The ABCs of a Super Random Monday

// November 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog-a-holic

It’s a holiday and it means no work. Spent the entire day ABC style.

Asked for food every 30 minutes.
Bummed around, literally bummed around.
Channel-surfed all day.
Drank soda and more soda.
Ecstatic because I was Excel-free for 3 days.
Flipped out because November holidays got cancelled.
Got more indie music.
Hated the fact that tomorrow means back to work.
Ignored my work email. Fo realz.
Jogged to stay fit (in my dreams).
Kissed dadi via instant messenger.
Licked my fingers after finishing a bag of chips.
Make-up free Monday.
Napped a lil bit.
Opened a gajillion unread mails.
Popped a dozen chocolates in my mouth.
Questioned the existence of the lochness monster. LOL.
Revamped my Tumblr’s look.
Sent mushy messages to boyfriend.
Tumblr-ed like crazy, like there’s no tomorrow.
Uninstalled useless programs from my computer.
Visited random and cute Tumblr and Twitter pages.
Washed my face and put on some benzoyl peroxide.
X-ed some stuff on my to do list.
Yawned without covering my mouth.
Zoned out while working on this list.

Graphical Reflections: On (Un)Learning

// August 8th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General

Back in the day, we talked about how a computer is so unlike real life – how we can’t undo things.  Today, while munching on a stick of deep fried bananas that Filipinos fondly call banana Q (or cue), I thought about the things that I wish I could unlearn.  Apparently, it’s difficult to unlearn things.  Learning is like saving files in your computer (brain).  Most of the time, I save it in Read-Only format so it’s pretty much difficult to “edit” what I’ve already learned.

What is unlearning like, anyway?  According to my boss, I am a visual person.  And because I truly am, I decided to look for a very good representation of the learning and unlearning curves. I wasn’t successful in finding a good graph for the latter so I tried to make my own.  If you have any violent reactions, please feel free to comment but I just want to remind everyone that this is just my interpretation of the unlearning curve, alright? Here goes:

So, the blue S curve represents the learning curve and the red one for unlearning.  My assumption is based on the quote, “It takes three days to form a habit and three weeks to break one.”  Under this assumption, say I attempt to learn habit A and I get to practice four times a day, I already know habit A by the third day in just 12 attempts.  Meanwhile, it’ll take about 3 weeks or 84 attempts before I can actually break habit A.  Knowing me, I think by that 10th attempt, I might have already given up.  Oh well, that’s just me.

Cussing is one of the things that I want to unlearn.  When I was a kid, we lived in the province for about three years.  This is also where I learned how to curse like a sailor.  My cousins were very “proficient” in this “language” and because people learn from repetition, you can say that I was able to add a couple of colorful words to my vocabulary.  As a fifth grader, I thought I was really cool until my mom heard me cuss.  She threatened to feed me with chicken poop!  She said, “If crap comes out of your mouth, then I guess it’s OK to put some in it, right?” That didn’t keep me from cussing, though.  Instead, I learned when to cuss and that is when she’s not around.  Anyway, as I grew older (ouch!) not all people (especially at work) like the bad words-spewing mouth.  They say it’s classless, unprofessional, and plain annoying.  I get the point, I seriously do.  And I’m trying my best not to cuss but then again there are those WTF moments.

I guess the challenge is here is not just about unlearning.  I believe that this is a continuous process of learning, unlearning, and relearning.  Now all I gotta do is to remember to “save” the stuff I learn into an “editable version” instead of Read-Only.

I Learned These in High School But I Don’t Know Why

// July 20th, 2009 // 9 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Funnies, Life in General

Pardon the long title.  I just couldn’t think of any other way to say it.  Since I had a day of reminiscing the bad ol’ high school days, some of the things I remembered are the silly lessons we had to learn in the classroom.  Til now, I still don’t get it why we had to learn:

  1. All about phonemes. Back in first year high school, we were taught how to properly pronounce words (which is absolutely fine) in this cool speech lab.  There were headsets, microphones, and cubes per student. But one thing I don’t understand is why the heck we had to learn how to write them. Lemme give you a sample, /krapE/ for crappy. And this phonemic representation I made could be wrong cos I wasn’t very good in this subject. What’s funny was we took this subject in English with Ms. Raindrops in the afternoon (of course her last name isn’t really raindrops but it sounded like it so it stuck) and in Filipino during the day (“Ang ponema ay ang pinakamaliit na yunit…” according to Ms. Zafra).
  2. Really ancient Tagalog words. I received one of those Excel sheets that turn out as a quiz meant to measure your knowledge of old Tagalog words and I was able to translate 95% of those English words into old Tagalog and vice versa. If you think Pisika is the Tagalog word for Physics, you are wrong.  Pisika is still considered as hiram na salita or borrowed from its English counterpart. It’s actually, Hipnayan.  Okay, how about another one. I majored in Biochem so it’s a shame if I don’t know the Tagalog word for Chemistry. Any guesses? Kimika? No way, that’s still borrowed from the original word! It’s actually Kapnayan. All I can say is, man, ang hirap arukin! [It's difficult to understand!] So why the heck teach us words that are no longer being used? People no longer say, salumpuwit.  They just simply say, Orocan (if you’re poor) or Lazy Boy if you’re simply well-off. I just don’t get it.
  3. How to translate a French song in English. I was very lucky that our school’s curriculum included two years of learning the French language.  A couple of days before Christmas, our Claus-like teacher, Monsieur Ribery, brought some French bread and cheese that smelled like a dead rat.  We had nothing to do since all the lessons are done.  While the smell of the cheese wafted inside the classroom our teacher decided that we should translate the most popular French pop song during that time.  Must be the smell of the cheese that led him to do that.  Anyway, if you haven’t heard of Larusso, then I don’t know from which jungle you came from.  But anyway, we decided to translate the song, On Ne S’aimera Plus Jamais. It was simple.  The title means you don’t love me anymore. I don’t understand why exactly we did that but there’s one thing I know, I can still sing that song and pronounce each word properly until this very day. (And I have secretly fallen in love with some more French songs.)
  4. Constitution. Ahhh, Consti.  We fondly call this subject Consti.  Our teacher was a loud woman.  I don’t remember her name anymore but boy, I can still remember what she looks like plus she’s chummies with the librarians.  She’d yell at us if we walked really slow on our way to her class. (Punyeta! I didn’t say that! She did! Haha.)  Anyway, if you think I am referring to the Philippine Constitution, please allow me to say this.  It is normal and I think it’s just plain right to learn about the Philippine Constitution since we are in the Philippines.  But back in the day, on top of our own consti, we had to read through, discuss, and test on American and Japanese constitutions. I can feel the headache now. Gosh, why did we have to study that?!

I checked the current curriculum and nothing much has changed (except they added this subject called Makabayan. What the heck is Makabayan anyway?)  Students still had to endure 13 units per year. And I bet they still carry as much books and notebooks we had to carry back then.

So now, I still haven’t figured out how I’m supposed to use all those stuff I learned in school.  I wish they taught us how to compute for our taxes, how to deal with people from diverse backgrounds, how to survive college, sex education (believe me, there was none and I think this is beneficial for the sake of learning), plus some other things that I couldn’t remember at the moment.  These stuff might come in handy as compared to knowing how to say “You don’t love me anymore” but not know how to ask for help if I were lost in France, penniless.

High School was a Drag but I’ll Attend the Reunion Anyway

// July 19th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General

I can make up a gazillion reasons why I hated high school but if ever the reunion will push through, I think I’m gonna go. So today, a friend and I had a short convo about what kind of hell high school was.  We weren’t popular (and it’s alright) but people didn’t like us because we are not like them. Or should I say, I was not like them in many ways.

  1. I was not an honor student. Yeah, but it’s OK.  I’ve seen an honor student cheat in a Physics exam. I can’t be proud of an achievement if I cheated my way to it.
  2. My shoes were made by an unknown brand. While the rest of the folks wore Doc Martens, Skechers, and Hush Puppies, my shoes were made in the Philippines by some unknown manufacturer.  They are cheap, fit the bill of what the school wants us to wear, and they were comfy.  I had no complaints.  But my classmates found it silly so they had to humiliate me in the canteen because of that.
  3. The librarians knew my name so they laugh at that, too. Since I had nothing to do during breaks, I prefer to read.  The best place to hide and read all those Palanca compilations is in the library.  I help out the librarians sometimes.  I won stuff from the library, and again they mock me for that.
  4. Contrary to popular belief, I was not a loner. I had friends but I didn’t have many. I remember I’d write short stories with some of my guy and girl friends and we’d exchange notes and read what we have made and comment on what should happen next, etc. Some weekends, Joane and I would hang out at McDonalds where we make our own Coke floats (that time, there was no Coke float at McDo) and we talk and drown our problems away with each gulp.
  5. I was ugly. Seriously.  I had no boobs, awful hair, bad skin.  Well, until now I do have bad hair and skin (and I have lil twins now, LOL).  But according to Helena Rubinstein, “There are no ugly girls, just lazy ones.”  So I guess I am not lazy anymore. :D
  6. I did very well in Trigonometry despite not owning a calculator. My dad bought me a scientific calculator but some moron stole it from my bag.  So all year, I had to go through Trigo with the help of tables.  Angles of elevation and depression were some of my favorites.  I saved my quiz notebooks because I felt so proud whenever I get a perfect score sans calculator.
  7. My classmates hated my all-time favorite teacher. Sometimes I don’t get it why they didn’t like Sir Danny but he was smart, kind, and funny.  They hated him because he didn’t like their materialistic and mundane ways. He asked me, “So pano yan, they [classmates] don’t like you?” I said, “It’s OK, I don’t like them either.” I felt so bad when one of his parents passed away.  I went to Loyola to pay respect and when he introduced me to his brothers he said I was one of the brightest in school.  I was so shy but felt good because I thought he was the only one who believed in me.  About five years later, I saw him while I was in a jeepney and we stared at each other as the jeepney passed and he smiled. I wanted to get off the jeepney just to tell him that I am thankful for everything.
  8. People laugh and mock me because I am me. I remember some idiot pulled up my skirt while I was standing quietly in the canteen.  He won’t do that to any of the popular girls but since I was the laughing stock, he thought he had the every right to humiliate me. I wanted to slap him for being mean but I didn’t.  More drama.  I didn’t want to end up in the Guidance Counselor’s office.
  9. I wasn’t girly so no boy took interest on me. Who would take interest on a geeky girl who can go over the fence (about 10 feet high) just to skip classes?  But that’s OK.  I knew that I was there to study (and skip some of the boring classes) and I have more drama at home to deal with so no time for boys.
  10. Home, school, repeat.  That’s what my schedule’s like.  I rarely go to the mall unless Joane’s going.  While the others see each other on weekends to just hang out at Rockwell, I’m at home, washing the clothes and bonding with mom. She’s home every weekend so that’s the only time I’d get to see her and talk to her.

High school was a really awful time because people talk bad stuff about other people and some just don’t like me for the clothes I wear or because I liked librarians and some of the teachers.  It’s been eight years and I think it won’t be so bad to see what my classmates are like now.  So even though high school was a drag, I’ll attend the reunion anyway.  Who knows what could happen. :D

A TIME for Change

// June 22nd, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General, Must Reads, Raves

Recently, I find myself reading more of TIME Magazine and I thought, “What have I done for the past 10 years of my life?”  Back in the day, I’d spend my money on “girly girly magazines” as my friend calls it.  And I only bought them because of the fashion.  I just wanted to know that the stuff I’m wearing are “normal-looking.”  Anyway, I recently fell in love with TIME because there are so many things to read.  Things that actually made sense and mattered in this world.  Which makes me feel guilty at the same time because I am not very good when it comes to reading the Bible but I sure am trying.  When I bought a copy last weekend my boyfriend said, “Wow, you read that?”  I didn’t know if I should be insulted or take it as a compliment.  Whatever. :p

So now I’m thinking why the heck did I buy TIME in the first place?  And then I realized that I bought it for Twitter.  But after reading the Twitter articles, I found myself lost reading the other topics that I never imagined I’d have interest on like the Iran election or who were named as TIME’s 100 Most Influential People.  I am so glad I can read and better I can afford to buy this magazine. Now I am considering an annual subscription.  I knew that it’s TIME to change the stuff I read.

Have any good reads?  Share them!

On Unanswered Prayers

// June 18th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General

Today, I noticed that my friend’s status message says, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”  And I thought, “Does God really not answer our prayers?”

I personally think that God hears and answers all our prayers.  Yeah, all of it.  He never gets confused about our prayers because he knows the desires of our hearts before we even pray about it.  Here are some of my thoughts about this:

His answer may not be the ones we ask for. Before, I used to pray for an ex-boyfriend.  He was very abusive and I prayed that he’ll be saved someday and that his abusive ways will stop.  And God answered my prayer.  After three painful years, everything stopped and I was happy again.  But we were no longer together.  Instead, He introduced me to this really cute guy who shares the same faith as I.  It’s been more than two years and we are still together and we’re happier each day!

His answer is better than what we ask for. My siblings and I lived in the province back in the 90’s for about 3 years.  The three of us were so used to eating instant pancit canton.  We would cook a pack and divide it among the three of us and we were happy.  We’d pray that someday, we could eat 2 packs each of those instant noodles.  God did answer our prayers and now, instead of pancit canton, we can now afford to buy Charlie Chan in Yellow Cab or other stuff we’ve never imagined we can buy.

His answer is not always immediate. It is very typical for us to become really impatient.  And it can be very frustrating to wait for God’s answer.   I’ve been there.  It’s so tough to get a yellow signal from God.  In one of our Bible study meetings, we talked about Abraham and how God promised to give him a son.  It took 25 years before God fulfilled His promise.  A yellow light isn’t such a bad thing.  A friend told me, “When God says wait, that’s when we should be at our happiest because He has something good in store for us.”

So, does God really not answer our prayer sometimes?  I don’t think so.  Have a blessed week everyone!

So you want to be a freelance writer?

// June 15th, 2009 // 10 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Freelancing, Work

Back in high school, during my senior year, I had a hard time filling out my university application form.  When I discovered my love for writing, I immediately thought of taking Creative Writing or maybe Journalism when I get to college.  But my dad had bigger ambitions for me.  He wanted a scientist for a daughter.  He said there’s no money in writing.  So I obeyed and listed down courses related to sciences.  College was a drag and if it wasn’t for my friends, I don’t think I could ever endure long lab hours, mind-boggling exams in Physics and Calculus, and the super boring classes.  Today, I am already part of the so-called workforce not as a writer, but as a business analyst.   But that love for writing never died.  Without further ado, here’s a quick list of stuff that every freelancer should know or have.

  1. A wide vocabulary.  Aside from knowing words, one must know idiomatic expressions and some slang, too.
  2. A source of clients.  My dad was wrong.  There’s money in writing.  And I got most of my clients from the internet.  In oDesk to be specific.
  3. Time.  Of course, writing takes time! So you’ve gotta have some alone time to write.  You can never rush a well-written piece.
  4. Discipline.  Freelancing means you will work and no one will be watching.  Thus, you will need loads of discipline if you want to accomplish your tasks.
  5. Creativity.  Every client requires a different approach of writing articles.  A creative mind is definitely a must-have.
  6. Excellent negotiation skills.  Whether you are negotiating about the price or timelines, a freelancer must know how to effectively negotiate with a client.  Treat it as your business.
  7. A computer and stable internet connection.  It will be very difficult if you don’t have these two.  If you want to be productive and be able to meet deadlines at the same time, you must have these two basic resources to help you.
  8. Great communication skills.  Clients won’t hire you right away, some would ask you to go through an interview.  If you can create compelling articles, then you should also practice your communication skills.

Freelance writing can be fun because of its perks – you can work from home, earn extra dough, and learn about different things.  But this is also something that not everyone can do.  Most importantly, this career just like any other, requires a lot of commitment.  So you want to be a freelance writer?

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