What to write?

Now that I've transferred my multiply blog to another server and also painstakingly edited each entry, I am at a loss.

What would this blog be? What would be it's personality?

I hope I could arrive at something in the coming days. For the mean time, it's still a rant page like in multiply. :P

And We're Back!

Multiply announced that it will change it's services by December and remove the social networking side of the site. Most likely they would get the same overhaul Friendster had years ago.

As a way of thanking the millions of people who enjoyed its services, they provided avenues to safely transfer the files including pictures, blog posts, and many others.

This is one of them.

Out Of This World is now nothing.

Hope I could maintain this new blog.

What a Year this will be

The first two weeks of 2012 has been a big revelation to me. I have not fully grasped this new year yet the things that I learned seemed to overflow.

For starters, I learned to set my goals and visions first and not put all my energies into organizing. The more energy you put into organizing things and roles, the more you neglect the bigger things that matter. 

I learned to get on my knees more often than before. Being on my knees tell me that my bigger partner and Biggest Boss is there to keep me on track. 

I learned and was reminded that I need to keep myself busy either with my career or with my service to God. That way, I won't have time to worry about things. Having a spare time to worry could cut your lifespan. Enjoy life while it's there.

I learned just today to find my happiness. 

I guess it's not too far off...

Still Taking It Further Some More

What's good about wishes is that you don't get disappointed whenever they don't come true. That is if you really understand what a wish is. Wishes are something that we cannot really grasp unless we set it as our goals. For two years now, I've been writing my wishlist at the end of the year and making it the basis of my recap of the year. The first time, I placed anything I had in mind, the second time, I only placed material things. This time, I don't really know what to write. But I guess this is a proper time this year to write my wishlist. The year is about to end and the coming year is beginning to give me an impression of a tough but fun year. So I am going to take it further still by writing down a wishlist and forgetting about it until the end of next year.

Here goes: 

1. DSLR CAMERA - This was in my list last year. I nearly was able to buy it but some things come up that necessitated sacrifice. I really feel the limits of my regular point-and-shoot camera and there are shots and angles that I couldn't get with it. I see the need to level up with a pro or at least a hobbyist camera.

2. LOVE LIFE - This isn't material. I know. Somehow I find myself seeking it as if I needed it. This year has been good to me that hopefully and prayerfully this would come along with the package 2012 would bring. I really wouldn't know, but this year I tried to learn how to act proper to win someone's attention. Hopefully it would come to fruition. A close friend even described it as "a comatose love life. It's just there but it's not moving." Whatever he meant by it, I'll just put it up to God.

3. WATCH / IPOD NANO - I added running this year to my list of sports. I think it would do well if I owned at least a decent sports watch to use for all sorts of sports or outdoor activities. An Ipod Nano is also a possibility since you could somewhat turn it into a sports watch. 

4. IPOD / IPHONE - This is not really a necessity but I still think it would be cool to own one. I'm not really a fad follower but seeing it's benefits, I kinda like owning one if I don't get the one above this first.

5. IPAD - This is another far off item. I tried using our clinic's Ipad for the therapy and it really rocks! Kids nowadays know how to use it so I guess it would really be a big help for my professional career to own one. I found out that most of the cards we use during therapy are available as applications on an IPad. Hopefully this would come.

6. HIKING STUFF - My brother packed most of the little hiking gear I was able to buy and shipped it with him to Palawan. I know that it wouldn't be in tip top shape when it gets back so I need to buy new stuff starting with a bag and shoes. I had the opportunity to buy hiking shoes two months ago but I figured that I won't be going to any mountains until the end of this year so I bought running shoes instead. Next year proves to be more of an outdoor year so I need to invest on new gear. 

7. HOUSE AND LOT  AND A CAR - This has been a recurring wish on my list and also so far the only two that you cannot get in a single year. Still, it's not bad to wish for it. 

This concludes the 7 wishes for the 2012. I pray that when I get back to it at the end of 2012, I'd get at least more than 50%. I guess I'll have to pray for it more. 

Still Taking It Further Post Script

It was at the end of 2009 when I first made a wishlist. At the end of the next year, I found out that I got 4 out of the 7 things on my wishlist which is a lot considering that 2 out of the 7 items were not something you could get in a year. I felt so blessed I made another wishlist in 2010. The same as before, 7 items. 

And same as before, I totally forgot about my wishlist until this month. 

And still same as before, I was overwhelmed by the blessings. 

God was too good that He gave me another 3/7. Still, three of these seven items couldn't be obtained in a year. You can view the whole list here. And here is what I got:

1. Book Collection - I was not able to complete Bob Ong's books since I found it pointless to complete them when I have already read all of them. However, I was able to complete Ambeth Ocampo's Looking Back Books and Budjette Tan's Trese comics. Apart from that majority of the books I bought for this year were Filipiniana. 

2. External DVD Drive - I was able to obtain an external DVD drive now my laptop could read DVDs and CDs. 

3. New Phone - I specifically wanted a touch screen phone. I got a QWERTY instead which is ironic since I once looked at a QWERTY phone with disgust. Now, I appreciate the QWERTY that I resolved not to get a touch screen phone anymore.

Though I only got 3 out of 7 from my wishlist, God has given me more than what I wished for 2011. He provided everything even if I never deserved it. Now I'm fueled again to put up a wishlist for 2012 this time, I'll make it more radical. Lord help me!

Why I Hate Cleaning

I had more than two weeks of Christmas break. 

For someone who doesn't even believe in the validity of the Christmas day as a day of Christ's birth, I still welcome the break with open arms and mouth. Sure, I may not have enough money because I don't get to work, but I get to rest and have time to do things like update my blog and catch up on the movies. 

Oh, I always update my blog and always get to watch a movie. :)

Still, it's nice to have time to do the things you've been itching to do especially now that I'm going to face a larger challenge next year. So for a few days, I'll be holed up in my room resting, typing and doing whatever.

Today, I had the strength and energy to clean up my black-hole of a room. Black hole because anything I put in it gets lost somewhere within the room. I had the impulse to clean or atleast rearrange things in my room. 

Now it is clean (for me, just don't come in here). 

While cleaning my room, I was reminded how I hated the chore. Sure, it gives me fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment. Sure, I get to lie down on a clean bed, a clear room and a dust free area. I was actually happy when I started, but when I got to my closet, I found something that brought tears to my eyes.

All the notes, cards, dedicated bookmarks, and letters that I got since high school until college came out of my closet. I couldn't help but read through them and be reminded of all the wishes people gave to me. Various occasions: Christmas, Valentine's Day, my birthday. All those messages came from close friends, classmates and friends who reminded me of how I was before. I couldn't help but be teary eyed. It is mushy I know, but for someone who's about to face a crazy ordeal after this year would really be propelled to tears. It is overwhelming to learn that I've touched so many people that they made efforts to write. 

If you're from I-Pythagoras '99-2000, II-Mendel 2000-2001, III-Dalton 2001-2002, IV-Newton 2002-2003, Batch '07 BSSP, and AMiCUS-UPM 2003-2007, thank you so much!

Books Read

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed…

Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.

Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 

I also have physical copies of the books I read to prove it! :D Those Italicized were ebooks hence, I couldn't finish because I don't like ebooks.