Carol of the Bells version of Celtic Woman is the best. It even made me feel as if angels were singing to me. Great voice and nice fiddler. I wish I could play like her. Oh, I miss my violin. This reminded me that since its holidays, I should play my violin before work and school consumed my time again.

My 2011 Christmas is by far the most stressful Christmas I have had. I was busy organizing our company’s party not to mention I was also hurrying tasks for my project. Whew! That almost drained my sanity. And speaking of project-related tasks, I should ready myself now for my boss’s inquiries and probably anger for not finishing my assignments. These are those moments when I really wish I could divide myself to accomplish more.

Adding to my already overwhelming stress was the jam-packed malls. There’s the long queue in cashiers that always made me drop the items I supposed to buy. Good thing I was able to partially finish my shopping.

On a lighter note, and I don’t know why this came last, were the things I love about this year’s Christmas. First was of course the gifts! Thanks to all my friends generous and thoughtful enough to give me one. I won’t be mentioning names anymore. I might miss one or two names and I don’t want to rouse sulky feelings. Second was the reunion with friends. It was very nice to see them after quite some time, share stories and laughter over food, and renew your bonds. It’s also great to know that they’re doing great with their lives. Happy for you guys! And lastly was the happy air christmases always bring. I really can’t explain it and I don’t know if you feel the same way as me but there’s something about Christmas that made me smile despite all the worries I might have.

Wishing you all a happy Christmas!

I really enjoyed it. Despite the pile of delayed tasks, I happen to squeeze in little time to shot videos and pictures. It is refreshing to just forget about your programming tasks for a while and engaged yourself into conceptualizing how images and videos should be shot to fit in the story board.

I would like to give credits to the people I worked with in the 24th floor: Joseph Bueno, Stephen Rimbon, and Sarah Biblanias, and of course to the wonderful actors and actresses in CID sections. You guys are awesome! Thank you for your cooperation and for actually rocking it. Can’t wait for all of these to be compiled into a single media file.

My brother and me when we were kids in the old house in Bicol where I was born.

When he’s about to get in the airport my mom started sobbing. She tried very hard to hide it but my cousin, who is by the way a five year-old boy, busted her to all of us saying “Oh! Auntie is crying.” Then my brother’s wife, Kat, started crying also. I’m so feeling the heaviness of the emotions around me and being an emotion bomb that’s easily triggered, the task of holding that single drop of tear is too much for me. But I gave myself a pat at the back for actually doing it, controlling my tears.. at least for a while.

Upon getting home, the insant my right foot touched our floor, the tears I earnestly held for a couple of minutes flowed like a raging water on my face. I’m not exaggerating. In fact when I’m done crying, I felt like I’m gonna be sick.

I know you can’t read this my dear brother but please always take care of yourself. We’ll see you after a while.

I’m not in good terms with one of my friends and it is just sad. I know I’m partly to blame since I made an issue such a big deal. But hey, I think it was indeed a big deal. My emotions got the better of me. I guess it’s the pill I’m currently taking talking. I wasn’t able to get hold of my emotions and then boom! I burst.

Another friend told me that I should have controlled my feelings but I hate that. I mean why do I have to pretend I’m ok when I’m actually not. That’s just not right. And besides if someone is mad at me, I want them to let me know or at least show me. That way, I wouldn’t have to guess and I would know what will make that person mad.

So anyway, I wanted to ease the cold air between me and my friend. I just realized that maybe he said those words to me that time because he has no idea what I’m feeling.. that he’s being logical and all. I wrote him a letter apologizing for being indifferent and further explaining myself in a hope to patch things up. I made someone gave it to him since I chickened out. I couldn’t just approached him and hand him my letter without feeling awkward.

This was two days ago and until now I have not received a word from him yet. I didn’t know if he had read my letter or if he just threw it away. I wanted to ask him but I stopped myself. Handing that letter to him already made me feel stupid and the idea of not getting a word back feels 100 times more stupid. I told myself that I have already done my part to save our friendship and now the ball is in his hands. I could have appreciated it if he told me something like ‘Hey, got your letter but I still don’t want to talk to you‘ rather than having no words at all. Oh well, if he doesn’t want to accept my apology and really wanted to stay like this then maybe he is meant to become just a memory of my past.

When man learns to understand and control his own behavior as well as he is learning to understand and control the behavior of crop plants and domestic animals, he may be justified in believing that he has become civilized. ~Ayn Rand

I had classes yesterday and since the bus going to Taft is taking forever to arrive, I decided to take an alternate route. I rode a jeepney going to San Pedro instead of boarding in a bus in one of the terminals in Pacita. Anyway, the jeep that I entrained got a flat tire so the driver had to stop in a vulcanizing shop to have it fixed. There was a bus in the vulcanizing shop so our driver had to find a vacant spot in the very limited space. He kept going backwards and did not noticed another jeepney nearby until he hit it. It caused delay for the two drivers have to settle what just happened. Luckily the other driver decided to let it go since I think he only got a minor scratch.

And then our jeepney went on. We passed a market and several people get in the jeep. One these people is a not-so-old man, probably in his fifties. He was seated few spots from mine. The jeepney picked up its speed and suddenly I felt a something liquid hit my lip. I thought it was raining already since the weather yesterday was gloomy. I looked outside and was disgusted to find out the old man spitting. It turned out that what had just whopped on my lower lip was his spit. I really hate it when people do that, spitting, especially in a public transportation. I don’t even know if he noticed that his sputum struck me. He did not apologize.

After getting off the jeep I took a bus. I was seated at the middle. I wanted to make use of the time so I decided to read one of the case studies given to us by our professor. I’m really trying to dig the text but I can’t concentrate. The man on my back is talking to his girlfriend on his phone and everyone in the bus can hear what he was saying. His voice is ringing in my ears. I started to get irritated but still tried to nevermind him and focus on my reading. A few seconds after he got disconnected. I was relieved. I told myself “silence, finally”. But I was wrong, after a split second I heard his irritating loud voice again but this time he is not talking to his girlfriend. He was reading familiar words to me. Apparently, it turned out he was peeking on my readings and he was uttering phrases from it word by word slowly and loudly. I don’t know what is with that guy. Can’t he see that some people are trying to concentrate on something? Can’t he see that some people are sleeping? He was so disrespectful. It was a public transportation vehicle and I guess people should be mindful of their manners. They should consider other commuters.

Almost everyday we encounter people like the spitting man in the jeep and the loud guy in the bus. People who seem to don’t care. They do what they felt like doing without thinking how their actions would affect other people.

The incidents that transpired on my one-hour-thirty-minute travel time yesterday reminds me of the reminder in LRT. It advices people to be courteous (no playing inside the train, no playing of loud music, no talking and laughing loudly). I just hope that this reminder will not fall on deaf ears and apply it not just on public transportations but in every situations.

A man was walking along the beach when he found a bottle. He looked around and saw the coast was clear, so he opened the bottle. A genie then appeared and thanked him for letting him out. The genie said, “I am so grateful to get out of that bottle that I will grant you any wish you want – but just one wish, because I can only grant one.”

The man thought for a while and said, “I have always wanted to go to Hawaii. I’ve never been able to go because airplanes are much too frightening for me. On a boat, I become very claustrophobic when I see all that water. So I wish for a road to be built from here to Hawaii!”

The genie paused for a few minutes. “No,” he finally declared, “I don’t think I can do that. Just think of all the work involved. Consider all the piling needed to hold up a highway and how deep they would have to go to reach the bottom of the ocean. Imagine all the pavement needed. No, that is just too much to ask.”

Again, the man thought about his wish. Then he told the genie, “There is one other thing I have always wanted. I have always wanted to understand women – what makes them laugh and cry, why they are temperamental, why they are so difficult to get along with… Basically, what makes them tick.”

The genie considered the man’s request, and replied, “So, do you want two lanes or four?”

I’ve read that column in The Philippine Star this morning about how hard it is to crack women. It was written by Francis J. Kong. The article made me laugh.

For me it is not that hard to understand us women. Men just have to pay more attention. Haha. Actually, I think most women will agree with me on this, women also feel the same way about men. They’re hard to decipher. One moment they’re nice, sweet, and thoughtful then next time they will completely ignore you as if you never existed. Oh well, as they would say men are from mars and women are from venus.

You may read the entire article by following this link. ^_^

It was a fine Monday. I was not able to enjoy my usual stroll as I was rushing to the office racing against the clock. I was relieved I made it on time.

I did the usual cleaning of my desk but I’m not really in the mood to resume work. My mind is off wandering somewhere. Seconds, minutes, a few hours passed but I’m still staring blankly on the pile of codes which surprisingly stared back at me waiting to be revised.

I just can’t gather my thoughts and concentrate on my task. And to be honest, I do not know what’s happening to me. I’m excited to go back to school but dreaded to go to work. I guess I’m not motivated and this is not healthy for me and for the company as well. I like my work here but lately I just really can’t function properly. It was as if I was held up waiting for a magical something to get me functioning like I used to not so long ago.

I want to feel again the excitement of starting my day. I want to feel the urge of finishing my tasks on time and the sense of accomplishment upon solving a difficult problem. I want to laugh again until I was sore.

I guess I’m not happy to be here anymore.

I’m glad that it is raining. It is just perfect for the activity that I have planned doing today. Studying!

The end of term is nearing and I have to really catch up on my Assembly Programming subject. For the next term, I have two major and difficult subjects, Computer Architecture and Operating Systems and Data Structure. Luckily, for my computer arch and OS it is Prof Uy who will handle the subject. I like that professor. Although complicated, he explains the lesson very simple and he never stops until you understood the concept. He’s very dedicated and you know that he is concerned on his students. For my other subject next term, Data Structure, I don’t know the professor but I hope he’s as good as Prof Uy.