The world’s focus is on one nation suffering from a serious blow from Mother Nature – Haiti in the aftermath of the killer earthquake. As a recent witness to the great floods that Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng brought to the Philippines, and the killer quake that claimed the lives of many of my countrymen back in July 1990, I feel for the people of Haiti.
Rather than focus on what a tragedy this has all been, I prefer to recognize the resilience of the Haitians. It was reported by CNN’s Anderson Cooper how the people gathered together in the streets to chant and sing praises as a thanksgiving for those who have been saved. It is also heartwarming to see the outpouring of aid that they are receiving from all over the world. I have no doubt that Filipinos are among those sending in their donations. It’s time give back. After all, our International neighbors sent in their donations too when we were in need.
There are Pinoys in the ranks of the UN Peacekeeping Forces in Haiti. Four of them were trapped in the building where the UN offices were located. One has already been rescued, while there’s a lot of hope that the remaining three will be found alive too. There are almost 500 hundred others in the Filipino community in Haiti and the Philippine government is having a hard time getting in touch with everyone and getting them all accounted for. Communications have been disrupted since the earthquake.
The Philippines has also sent a 21-man medical corps to assist in the rescue and recovery efforts. This isn’t the first time the our government has done this. Small though as our aid seems, I think it’s a grand gesture coming from a people who have been a recipient of such aid so many times over.
So please do consider ways you can send help. I’ll be going to the websites of various reliable aid agencies. Maybe sometime later I can come back and post then here too…
Meet Snoopy (pronounced snow-pee, as preferred by my nephew E himself).
He’s cute isn’t he? He’s just about 3 months old, a cross between a Shih Tzu and King Charles.
No, he isn’t my baby, and he’s definitely not sired by my Zune. This is Esban’s new puppy. Took a bath on the afternoon of the 9th, by the gentle hands of my giant, haha 🙂
I know I already have a photo blog, and I’m supposed to fill my new photography blog with posts and photos. But I just can’t help setting up a new Project 365 blog, because I love how clean the blog service looks. Check it out and leave me comments 🙂
While I was blog hopping and Facebooking, I came across a site showcasing destin hotels. Beautiful location, and beautiful hotels too. How I wish we could just drop everything this weekend and fly away to celebrate our ten years in one of those luxury hotels. If only we had the resources…
Funny how when this weekend started I had a list of blogging stuff that I aimed to accomplish. Now, when it is about to end, I find that I have not done half as much as I thought I would.
By this time I thought I would have written an insightful first post on my photography blog. But as you can see, it is still empty. I also planned on uploading my Project 365 photos. It is the 12th day already (I don’t have a Day 12 photo yet) and the total number of photos I have uploaded is ZERO. There’s still some time left, so maybe I can do this. But I also don’t want my first ever post on the new blog to look rushed.
Now I have to lay the blame on something for causing me to neglect this important undertaking:
– Part of the blame has to go to Facebook. Ever since they changed the way they showed updates, it’s just been a challenge not to miss important posts from people you really wanted to be updated about. So I had to go through Status Updates, and the News Feed. Then I would also sometimes click on the Photos link because at least for my cousin Candy, her new albums posted don’t show up in my feeds.
– Half of the blame would be to Facebook apps Cafe World and Happy Aquarium. It takes sooooo long to visit neighbors! I have less than 70 neighbors in each app and it takes awhile to go through all of them. But it’s nice to do that too, every once in a while. Then of course there’s the tending to the Cafe that takes so much time too. This is why I hesitate to start up with the other apps like Farmville and Pet Society.
– Then there’s MyLot too. I signed up to the site months ago but never really knew how to go about their services. I guess I was mainly turned off by the fact that no matter what I do, I just could not claim my blog there! It was supposed to be easy too, just put a code in my blog (and I did so many many times) and then click on the Claim now button at the site. But no matter how long I wait, it just doesn’t work for me. Until now it hasn’t! Anyway, I signed up for the site because you’re supposed to be able to earn money by just participating there. For the longest time I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I just started going through the discussions – either answering or starting them up. I haven’t had much response but I’ve already seen how one could potentially earn from it. It’s not big bucks, but it’s not a lot of work either. I’ve always said that I’m not much of the forum type, but their discussions actually work for me. 🙂 Check it out.
– The lack in insightful posts, and the further delay on the launching of my photography blog probably shouldn’t be blamed on the above items. After all, what took up most of my weekend was this: sleeping. I’ve found myself sleeping most of the time. I wake up early (all things considered) but then I take naps of two hour stretches. So I can’t really complain. It’s not as if my time was wasted, you know? I did catch up on precious sleep.
Some would wonder why I don’t feel bad about not doing anything else on my weekends except go online. Oh, I do. But I can’t afford it every weekend. And this was one of those when I wanted to just be here and chill.
On a different note, our tenth anniversary is next Tuesday. We don’t know what we’re doing yet because our initial plans of going to Baguio can’t happen. We’d probably end up going to Enchanted Kingdom for the simple reason that neither of us has ever been there. Never. The only problem I see with that plan is that we’d have to rely on the EK shuttle to take us there and back. It would be nice to go to Tagaytay for the evening…
Maybe we’ll rent a car and have someone drive us. Or we’d ask friends (with wheels. user!) to tag along. Oh we’ll see…
After my shift on Sunday morning we went malling. No particular reason. There were Hyundai and Suzuki vehicles on display and we were admiring one particular model. It looks quite affordable actually, but you’d have to figure the cost of auto insurance, and monthly maintenance in. So maybe buying a brand new car really isn’t in our priorities just yet. First, I’d have to actually learn how to drive, and not just in theory. Then I have to make sure I’m financially stable. Yes, I earn a decent monthly paycheck, but I also have such obscene expenses at times. To cure myself of this, I’m thinking of tying in my other goals into when to allow myself to spend money. But I don’t have time to talk about that.
Project: PunctualityGoal: Get to work 15 minutes before shift starts How to get to work 15 minutes ahead of time:
Do not hit the snooze button. I tried this last night, and yes, it earns you the additional 15 minutes you’ll need to prepare for work. That is, if you follow number 2.
Stay away from the TV. Unless you’ve figured your late-night (for me) or early-morning shows into your schedule, just don’t tune in.
Why am I saying number 2? Because I followed number 1 last night. I woke up when my alarm screamed wake up. I had my breakfast (or dinner, depending on your perspective), and actually enjoyed it. But Trip na Trip was showing last night, and I just could not help but tune in.
In short, I was still late. Sigh. If it’s not late night shows, it would be the teleseryes. Nothing can keep me away from the TV, haha 🙂 Maybe if I lived in an RV, and the rv towing service was pounding at my door ready to haul me away, I would take my eyes off the TV. Something like that. 🙂
Anyhoo, it’s my big brother’s birthday and I gotta get my share of the food he’s served for everyone. Then I gotta get a few more winks before I leave for work again (last workday for the week!)
I have never been known for my punctuality. It’s either I come in just in the nick of time, or whoever I’m meeting with comes in later than I do, or I’m completely and unforgivably late. I think it’s a chronic condition, I’ve just always been like that. Not caring too much about getting wherever at exactly the right time. Except maybe for job interviews. Ah, and airline flights. And okay, sometimes for work-related stuff too.
That is a trait I am not proud of, not at all. I kid about it, and I take all jabs directed at me about punctuality. I have come to accept it, to a certain extent. But to fully take it for what it is and not do anything about it, is completely bonkers.
I have tried time and again to cure myself of this very bad habit. Sometimes I succeed, but I will always find myself going back to my old ways. Now the New Year is just a good as time as any to break old habits, and build new ones. Will this be the year that I’ll succeed?
At work, I issued a January Punctuality Challenge. I think I’m the one lagging so far in the two day’s it’s running. On the first day, I came in 20 minutes late. Last night, it was 10 minutes. Tonight, I’m really hoping I’d be in on time.
I know I will have to take baby steps to make this happen. First step: don’t hit the snooze button on my alarm.
To do that, I should sleep. Now.
I came home late because we had a post Christmas/New Year’s party. Me and my T2 team, with their current slim. It was so much fun. But I got worried because some of them ride bikes, and I didn’t want to end up the wonderful day with accidents. I had agents who took their motor bikes to and from work, and they were already getting drunk. I don’t want them to have to look for a motorcycle accident lawyer, in case he figures in an altercation or an accident. But no one really got wasted wasted. It was all in the spirit of fun.
