Tags/Memes

Versatile Vera :)

Thank you so much to versatile mom and blogger, Ivy of Spinning Lovely Days for hitting me up with this blog award:

Me, a versatile blogger? Well, it’s really more of a scatter-brained blogger. How else can you explain incoherent posts jammed with sometimes unrelated topics? Hehe. But versatile is what we all want to be I guess. Throw me into any situation and I should be able to adapt, blend and in, and even maybe shine. 🙂 To keep an interesting blog (even when it’s really just a personal journal like what Where the Moon Shines is), one must also be versatile. I hope I really have been able to show that by writing on a variety of topics. It also means being taking notes and photos of things I fancy so I can remember to post about them at a later time (something I haven’t been able to do properly, because as I mentioned earlier, I’m a scatter-brain!). Or researching on topics so I can talk about them without looking stupid, like what do I really have to know in order to post about rating cigars? I mean, that one’s bound to be extra difficult because I don’t smoke cigars. I don’t smoke.

Now, as a recipient of this award, I should share seven (7) things about myself. This is no easy feat, I have to think about 7 things that I possibly have not mentioned in my years of blogging. Let’s see…

  1. I attended a writing workshop held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the summer before sixth grade. I loved all two days of that workshop (or did we actually spend four days there?). The first part was a poetry writing workshop, and the second, was on story-writing. It was awesome being around creative minds. For awhile I was intimidated because they all seemed a lot better than I was, but no one was bragging really. And there was no competition. I only wish I could find a copy of whatever it was I wrote during that time.
  2. Attending the workshop was my teacher’s idea. I mentioned her in my teacher’s day remembrance post. Our school paper adviser. She told me about the workshop before the school year ended but I never turned in any of the stuff I wrote. One has to qualify for the workshop, see. So one summer afternoon, while I was out at the SambaLikhaan with friends (playing!), someone came to tell me I had to go home because my teacher was there. Uh oh. She asked for my sample work. I rushed up to my room, rewrote a few poems onto clean bond paper and handed in the application form. I don’t think I got to thank her for coming over and making sure I would get into that workshop. Thank you Ma’am!
  3. In sixth grade, I wanted to quit the school paper as my club. Okay, not really quit, but I wanted to join the glee club that year instead. I like writing, but I liked singing too. And I can’t be in both clubs since each student could only be in one. So I told the adviser, and she completely disagreed with me. She talked me through the decision, and she told me she was leaving the country. She’d wanted me to stick it out because she was leaving. In short, she made me feel that I was important for the paper. Hay.
  4. To get into the paper, students are invited to join a writing workshop with real journalist as resource person. There we learned about writing for a paper and all that. At the end of it all, we’d turn in some work, and the resource person and advisers would deliberate on who makes it into the editorial team. Rumor has it that on my first year in the club, fourth grade, I would have been given an associate ed post but those posts are reserved for 5th and 6th graders. I was editor-in-chief on my last year. The training we had for the grade school paper was something I missed for the high school paper that I was part of only on my senior year. To be honest, we were all at a loss when we joined in. None of us seniors had been part of the paper before then. And there was no writing workshop. It was as if we were all just supposed to know what to do, automatically. I hope it’s not like that for them anymore.
  5. Hmm what else should I share? I’m running out of ideas… Ah! I moved to a different school for high school. My dad and I went around to a number of schools near our area, most of which are exclusive for girls, Catholic schools. I remember being shocked at the tuition fee rates everywhere we went. Though I wasn’t asked to consider the cost at all, I think it still influenced my eventual choice.
  6. I was supposed to move to a  science high school for sophomore year. I took the entrance exam, and passed. There were only 8 slots for that year. This is a special school and my brother attended it on his freshman year. I wanted to go there, there’s pride and getting in. But just a few days before school was supposed to start, I chickened out. So though I had begun to tell my classmates that I wasn’t going to see them that year, I surprised them by showing up on the first day of school. My mom, who was on a trip when I changed my mind, came home and wasn’t happy about it (she got over it easily though). My brother said that I should have pushed through with it, I’d get a better chance at getting into UP or Ateneo when time came. My rebound was that he didn’t even stay there for long. That was his mistake, he said.
  7. For college, I was accepted at all the schools I applied for (even if I didn’t move to the science high:)). Of course, there was no question about choosing UP above the others. But then a few days before registration, I almost chickened out again. None of my friends and classmates were going to UP. I was going to be on my own. My bestfriend was going to Mapua and I seriously considered just going there instead. Tuition wasn’t a question, my parents took out a college plan for me. My mom was supportive when I told her about my doubts. In the end, I just couldn’t picture myself as an engineer. Could you imagine me being an electronics and communications engineer? Well I couldn’t. Haha.

Whew. Are you still with me? Give yourself a pat on the back if you’re still reading 🙂

So of course I’m going to pass on this award to other Versatile bloggers; before I do, here’s a reminder of the rules 🙂

* Be sure to thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

* Share 7 things about yourself.

* Pass the award to other bloggers who you think deserve it.

* Be sure to let the bloggers know you chose them to receive the award.

So without further ado, I hereby name the following as Versatile Bloggers!

– Bambie, from My Thoughts, My Heart, My Turf.

– Zoan, of Zowanderer

– Gee, of Georly.Com fame 🙂

Do checkout their blogs and see for yourself why I think they are versatile bloggers. Oh and let them know I gave them the award too, I’d only have time to go ’round to their blogs tomorrow. 🙂


Mission: I Heart the Philippines 2010

Doc Ian of So Far, So Good is commemorating his blog’s fourth anniversary by encouraging us to celebrate what we ? about the Philippines!

I think this is such a wonderful way to celebrate, especially in light of all that’s been happening in the country. We definitely need the positive stories that I’m sure will be shared through this blogging event.

There are prizes up for grabs of course, and details on how to enter, and what to look forward to can be found at the Mission launch.

I’ve got a few ideas for posts already (yes, I will hopefully get to enter more than once) and I love that we have about two weeks to gather our thoughts, write, and enter. Goodluck everyone, and I look forward to checking out your entries (so share links with me too okay?). 🙂

Tuesday Couch Potatoes: Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy

This week’s TCP theme is favorite Morgan Freeman movie. Now, I can’t pinpoint a specific favorite, so instead or racking my brain about all of the movies I’d seen with him in it, I figured I’d feature a Morgan Freeman starrer that I’d like to see.

It’s Driving Miss Daisy!

It would be interesting to see how Miss Daisy and her driver Hoke developed their friendship in the 25 years that they have driven together. I think it really isn’t impossible to suddenly realize that another person has become a friend, we find them in the most unexpected places, and at unexpected times.

What’s your favorite Morgan Freeman movie?

Don’t forget to click the TCP badge and find other entries to this week’s Tuesday Couch Potatoes! 🙂

September Fall Blog Train

Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted anything related to digital scrapbooking. It’s not for the lack of anything going on in the digi world, but more because I have not scrapped anything in a long time. I do have a few feed subscriptions to designer blogs, as well as newsletter subscriptions for digi shops and one of the updates I received today was from Linda of Bon Scrapatit Designs. Apart from showing a photo and updates on her grandchild, she also has a giveaway that matches the theme of the September Fall Blog Train. That reminded to check out the rest of the designers participating in the blog train, and I found so much freebie goodness!

Check them out yourself starting from the jump off at The Blog Train Blog!

I’ve decided to continue with what I started from August, the Comment Challenge! Harriet who hosts the monthly challenge has not posted the badge up for September so I haven’t been tallying all the comments I’ve done in the past four days. But today, i realized that I still make a conscious effort to comment and decided to start tracking them again. So whether the challenge will be up at Harriet’s or not, I’m doing it! Let’s see if I top the 390 comments I made in August!


Oh and I want to give some Linky Love to my Top Commenter for August: Sandy from the Traveling Suitcase! Thank you so much for the visits and the comments 🙂

390 Comments

August Comment Challenge update: I made a grand total of 390 comments! Epic fail! Hahaha 🙂 But I failed only in terms of reaching the 1000 comments goal. I succeeded in finding new blogs to follow, and really engaging myself more when hopping around the blogosphere. I hope that I have also encouraged a reader, or two, to go ahead and leave comments and interact with the blogs you also visit.

Like today, it was a welcome surprise to see a friend’s name in my comment box. I miss you girl, and miss just hanging out and laughing so hard with you. When was the last time? Too long ago! Let’s go watch the UST choir’s concert together 🙂

Entrecard Top Droppers for August: Thank you so much! Once again, I appreciate the visits, and more the footprints you leave behind.

I only saw one movie in the cinema in August – The Expendables! But I did get to see a couple more movies from home, including Julie Delphy and Ethan Hawke in Before Sunset. Then there were the  movies shown on cable TV that we would watch in the afternoons. Movies like The Rocker, and this other movie where the protagonist was a high schooler who got thrown into prison for a while, and then attended a different school when he came out. In the new school, he established an entirely different reputation: that of a bad boy. He has a band too, with his old geeky friends. I don’t know the title of the movie, but Zooey Deschanel was there too as his friend and band mate (not his love interest though). The new guy lived with his dad in a trailer, and I remember how the boyfriend wondered aloud how in other parts of the world, motorhomes are real homes. It must be exciting to be able to drive your home somewhere and not worry about spending on accommodations, and having the great outdoors as your living room or porch. But it could be a tiresome life too not to have much private space. And if you really traveled a lot on it, you’d probably rack up huge costs on motorhome repairs! Oohh, but I’ve gone too much out of topic here.. what’s the title of the movie again? You gotta help me out babe!

Anyhoo… in September I plan on reorganizing and backing up my pictures stored in my hard drive, and the older photos in the external hard drive. Some of those photos have not been looked at or shared since they were taken and transferred. It’s going to be a huge undertaking because I’m sure I’ll be prompted to post-process and share most of them. Maybe I’ll even be inspired to scrap pages out of some.

I’ll also be launching my health blog this month, and hopefully launch a new design for The Newbie Photographer. The boyfriend would also like to use his blog to showcase his photos so we’ll be checking out a more suitable template for him. That would be nice, seeing that blog has gathered a lot of dust.

I’ll be seeing my girlfriends next week for a fun (wholesome, or not?) bridal shower for one of our friends. I hope this signals another round of meetups with other friends as well.

September is also gearing up to be an exciting month on the work front. 🙂

What are your plans for September?

%d bloggers like this: