Before 2012 began, I’d been thinking of my one little word. The one little word that would guide and inspire me this year. On the third day of the year, it just came to me. My word would be START.

start/stärt/

Verb:

Come into being; begin or be reckoned from a particular point in time or space.

Noun:

The point in time or space at which something has its origin; the beginning of something.

Synonyms:

verb.  begin – commence – initiate

noun.  beginning – outset – commencement – inception – onset

There are so many things that I aspire for – so many that I want to do. This is the year to begin working towards achieving them. Nay, this is the time to start living my dreams.

Many times, we are stuck at where we are (it don’t matter where we want to be) because we fail to even begin to take the first step. So this year, I shall take many first steps, and hopefully still have enough in me to keep on going.

Learn more about Ali’s One Little Word movement. I didn’t sign up for the class (it must be fun though) but I chose a word and choose to be inspired by it.

Just a quick post – and this is hopefully going to be the first and last such post for 2012. I will explain

We’re just 5 days into 2012 but I already feel like we’ve been here for so long. Seriously. And I feel so out of touch not having blogged since sending off 2011. But I have forced myself into a semi-hiatus because I have made one big blogger resolution:

I will put more thought and be more deliberate in my posts.

There were plenty of times when I feel like blogging in a rush, specially when I have paid opportunities about to expire. That completely takes out the joy in blogging. And I know it turns off readers. A wide readership isn’t something I can brag about these days, and with the closing of Adgitize, I’m in danger of losing even more readers. But gaining blog followers shouldn’t just rely on an ad network that encourages click-through, it should also be about engaging them through your content. That has been a challenge, specially when I don’t have time to leave comments on others’ blogs or forums, which is how a blogger used to network with like-minded individuals before the advent of Entrecard and Adgitize.

So hopefully, this ONE resolution as a blogger helps me get back to blogging basics, and start engaging my online community more. Maybe I’ll even revive my own monthly Comments Challenge, I didn’t do that at all in 2011.

Anyhoo, I hope that explains the lack of daily updates. I’m just gearing up for a better and brighter blogging experience

Did you make any blogging resolutions?

Living in a disaster-prone area (we’re number 5, high risk for flooding), one would think that we’ve learned our lessons and are ready for another big flood. Well, in some ways we are, but in other ways, we’re not.

Two things inspire today’s post. First, the flash floods triggered by Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro City and nearby areas in Mindanao. Iligan is also affected. Second, a Pin I found on Pinterest.

Before I proceed though let me link you up to where you can send help for the victims of Sendong:

- Link list from Interaksyon.com: How to help Sendong’s victims. Donating thru your mobile is also possible!

- Sagip Kapamilya account numbers for cash donations

- Local Groupon also gives you an easy way to Donate to the victims of Tropical Storm Sendong today! (Red Cross gets your donations)

Prayers are free.

As for the Pinterest inspiration, here it is:

Do you have a disaster plan for your home and family? Do you at list have an emergency bag you can grab as you head out of your house? We have batteries, flashlights, and a battery-operated radio. Apart from that, we don’t have an emergency kit. We don’t even have a first aid kit anymore.

I think that this big problem of disaster unpreparedness in the country stems from the fact that we aren’t that conscious of preparing for what may come. I mean, seriously, if you’re Pinoy and living in the Philippines, do you have an emergency plan for your family in case of fire, flooding, massive power outages, earthquakes, etc?

Of course, the government is supposed to take care of us in situations like this. They have institutions specifically tasked with this purpose. It is their job to think of us. But if we want them to get better at it, we probably should start at home. Propagate the message until it becomes part of culture to be ready for any form of disaster or natural calamity. We have to be proactive, rather than reactive. That goes for both government and its citizens.

After Ondoy, companies checked on their buildings’ emergency exits and provisions. Fire drills were scheduled and executed. Whistles were given away. Good start. But what have we done in our own homes to ensure we are ready? What have our schools done to ensure the safety of our kids should tragedy strike while at school?

I mean, truly, our national disaster management plan must be reviewed ASAP. More localized ones should be too. If the national government is too slow in coming up with a better plan, let’s do the reverse and start from home. Maybe we can influence the village, the barangay, district, city and move on to provinces and the whole country.

We can all do something about it. And I’m not talking about sending in your donations after tragedy strikes.

Finally, click through that link along with the photo. This parent’s letter to her son, made me tear up a little.

And here’s a blog that kinda fits the theme of this post. The Burning House shows photos of people’s answers to the question:

If your house was burning, what would you take with you?

I’m still thinking of my answer. Have you thought of yours?

Still no smell of freshly baked goodies in this house. Yesterday would have been the perfect day (to make these), but I woke up to a headache on my afternoon nap and ended up sleeping again – until the wee hours of the morning (earlier).

I find myself thinking about how the next few days will be spent. Not that I have a lot of time to kill, there’s still work after all (we don’t get Christmas breaks). But the boyfriend will be away (hence, the title). This afternoon, he and his family are taking a trip to their province to remember the first death anniversary of his grandmother. They’ll be there until the 21st.

So I’ve got my afternoons free. If it weren’t the Christmas season, I’d think that my lunch buddies at work could fill up a nice chunk of those afties. But they might have shopping to do and waiting around until I finish my after-shift emails would be too inconvenient.

Perhaps I’d be up to working on my Project Life. I figured I won’t try and catch up with 2011, but I’ve got material for the last few weeks at least that could go into those nice pocket pages. My album’s been waiting for me for 7 months! And my big variety pack of additional photo pocket pages were delivered last week!

This slim box came with a little package, 90 pieces of Zink paper for my Polaroid Pogo Printer!

Or my inventory projects could start happening. I’ve got two that need to be done – book inventory and baking supplies inventory. The boyfriend was supposed to take care of the latter, but he never got around to it. I should also fix up a number of areas in the house.

Maybe it’s time me and Deena (our DSLR) spend a little quality time again. All year, she’s been spending sweet moments with the boyfriend. It’s time she bonded with her momma. haha. We were at the UP Lantern Parade the other day but I did not take photos like the previous year. I missed out on a lot of bokeh opportunities, so maybe this week I’ll take Deena out and seek out the chance to shoot some Christmas bokeh. Yes, I was inspired by this:

I could also get a foot spa somewhere. We’re due for what we hope to be our bi-weekly facial treatments by end of this week so I won’t dare go get one by myself. Magagalit sya pag di ko sya sinama. Hihi. One of the things I didn’t get around blogging about was our facial and peel experience at Forever Flawless in MOA two Fridays ago. While there, I noticed how there was no association made to the Belo Medical Group, don’t they own it too? They also have their own line of neuroscience supplements. I was wondering if the facialists would try to sell me on those but they didn’t. I appreciated that.

So I’ve got four days to be single. I doubt if anything will change though. I’d likely go to work, grab lunch somewhere, get home and either sleep or be in front of my PC until it’s past bedtime. It would be nice to accomplish at list one thing on this list though.

So this one has fewer words. I’ll let the photo, and my handwriting tell the story:

Here’s another juice pack I’d been thinking of lately, the Juju Cleanse.

So my 3-4 year-old LCD monitor is actually 22 inches in size, not 19. We brought it into the Qube service center this afternoon. Looks like they can fix it, we’ll either pay 1000 pesos for just repair, or 1500 if any piece has to be replaced. We’ll go back for it in three days.

Three more days without my PC. I’ll survive.

But I’ve got projects I can’t work on because of this hitch:

- My blog overhaul. There’s been malicious attacks on both Verabear.net and The Newbie Photographer. The latter has been completely disabled so I need to rebuild. For this one, I’m thinking of taking this down to be built it up gain . I can’t do that on an iPad, nor on my dad’s work laptop.

- Organizing our photos. I took (or should I say ‘am taking’?) Kayla Lamoreaux’s Finding Photo Flow class. It’s really great. I haven’t gone through all the class content and haven’t really begun work on my cluttered photos (digital clutter of course).

- Project Life. Okay, it’s not my PC or the monitor that’s keeping me from this one…

Just found out that my nephew AJ has a new puppy! I don’t know what breed of dog 6-month old Sake is, but he’s so adorable! I’ll take a photo soon and post, I’m sure his new family won’t mind. Sake, that’s a cute name isn’t it? I think my Zune senses him. He’s lying in front of the door as if waiting for something, or someone.

Also early this afternoon, my Dad asked about flash drives that go as much as 4G in capacity. I told him he should get a portable external drive instead so he can have all of his files handy. Later on though, I realized he can just use online storage. There are free options like SkyDrive and Oystor that would be sufficient for his needs. He would need to be online to access them though, and I guess that’s the only downside of it for him. Everything’s found online these days, and there are many solutions for mobility like the iCloud.

So many things online, I wish I could just telecommute for work. And still earn as much if not more than I do now. Hope. Long ago, job hunting has been brought online, even teaching, freelance, nursing, and physician jobs can be found online. But those jobs are still offline, if you know what I mean. Wouldn’t I love a job that would just all be online? Haha. I feel so at home online, maybe it’s because I find so many inspiration all over the place.

Okay, sounds like I’m rambling? Yes I am. Trying to distract myself from looking at bags at the Cath Kidston website. I fancy this:

I was supposed to be married by the end of this year. Well, we didn’t really go out and announce anything to anybody, but it was something we had talked about plenty of times.

December would have been a good month. His brother’s family would be home for the holidays. My BFF Jo would be home from Dubai too for the first time since getting married last year. Yes, December 2011 would have been a good month.

But we didn’t get anywhere with planning.

And it’s really okay.

Because that only means I can still ask the boyfriend for a ring. Haha!

And I was looking at gemstone rings that are oh so lovely! I tell ya, these are pretties!

Here are my two favorites:

The first time I saw Princess Diana’s (and now Catherine’s) ring, I coveted it. I want one like it. But I haven’t found just the one yet. Maybe I’ll get Ruth’s jeweler to make me an affordable version of it. Hmm.