Merry Christmas 2009

verabear Ramblings and Brain farts 8 Comments

Merry Christmas blogosphere!

It’s been a good season and I was very happy to spend Christmas Eve with the family. And I played Santa too (we didn’t have Santa hats though, so I had to make do with the antlers). So those money envelopes you see me brandishing in the picture, those aren’t from me. I merely distributed ’em to the kids. This was after I distributed what must have been a hundred packages to the whole Somebang clan. LOL 🙂

My giveaway is drawing to a close. As long as it’s Christmas Day in your neck of the woods, you can still go ahead and join in the fun. Don’t be intimidated by the number of comments the others have placed (I am so thrilled that you ladies come back again and again to leave comments!), you’re single entry might still be the lucky one 🙂 Contest will close at 11:59PM Manila time, today. Again, goodluck and thank you so much for joining 🙂

To those traveling home to be with their families during the Holiday break, or those already coming back from their vacation, do remember to sign up for cheap travel insurance – it would be worth it (we used to get one everytime we had an out of town trip for work, never had to use it, but it was a safety net). 🙂

Live Simply

verabear Ramblings and Brain farts 5 Comments

(click on the image to visit the source, and for more Simplicity quotes)

I have known about this mantra for so long, and I’ve also believed in its power. I’ve tried to live by it too. Sadly, it seems that I have all but forgotten it in the past few weeks.

I’ve spent so much money on material things lately, gifts to myself.  My mom asked yesterday, isn’t this supposed to be the season for buying for others? Yeah, she is so right.

Yesterday at the restaurant, two nuns were having lunch two tables down. Alfred asked, aren’t religious people supposed to live simply? Don’t judge, I said. They’re entitled to eat well too, and who knows, perhaps someone gave them gift checks or maybe it was a treat. And who would refuse a treat?

Don’t get me wrong. I won’t go all out and renounce material comforts just to share what I have with the less fortunate, or to live in complete mendicancy just so I can help feed and clothe others. But I sure need to humble myself and stay away from spending away all my hard earned money.

Besides, I’ve already got a lot of presents this Christmas. I got myself new shoes, work clothes, a guitar (for GH remember?), several second hand books lined up on the table at home, and now a new touch-screen/camera phone. I don’t need to buy myself new things.  I should instead focus on helping a few more causes, and maybe lessen the burden a bit on my parents.

You see, I still live with mom and dad, my brother and I both do. And our significant others are always here as well. My bro’s been consistent with helping out with the expenses at home, while I, on the otherhand, have been remiss. That is embarrassing, even more so because my parents rarely call me out for it.

And it just isn’t right that I spend so much on other things, but don’t carry my fair share of the burden at home. My parents are more than capable to still support us but that’s beside the point. At their age they should be spending more time off and weekends taking mini-vacations.

This whole living simply shit? Like most everything else, this should start at home. When you’ve learned it’s value, it becomes a way of life and living simply while enabling others to also live.

Web Activities

verabear Ramblings and Brain farts 6 Comments

I think I have too many. That’s why I spend a minimum of four hours online when I’m home after work. Minimum.

So why, you might ask, have I not been able to post each and every single day? Because I spend too much time going through my feed on Facebook, then tend to Cafe World too. I also go through my mailboxes. Then I click on Adgitize ads and drop EC cards as well. And frankly, sometimes these just feel like too much of a chore.

And I hate that.

I hate that I’ve let all these web activities overwhelm me. I started all of this because I truly enjoyed my time online. I liked reading blogs, and sharing my thoughts on whatever topic the person may be writing about. The idea of having my own venue for telling stories was my primary motivation for setting up my own blogs (share, for example, how I saw the words dip bar and thought of dips as in mayo or honey mustard, when actually it was an exercise contraption!). There are times when I’d be so excited to come home and blog about a really wonderful experience, and I catch myself at really cool places thinking – I have got to mention this on my blog. I read books and see movies and think – I want to write about how these made me feel. I love that.

Why then, do I have days when I just stare blankly at my screen and know not what to write about? There is absolutely no shortage of topics, that I am sure of. But I think it’s the pressure I put on myself to post everyday because I don’t want to miss out on Article points; it’s the pressure of not having enough time to articulate my thoughts because I spent too much time clicking through Adgitize and Entrecard ads.

It wasn’t isn’t supposed to be that way. This isn’t a job.

In many ways and in many different situations and across many aspects of life, we are all confronted by this realization that maybe, just maybe we’ve lost sight of the important stuff.

The good thing about all this? We can step back a little, and refocus.