traveling down the river of my life

Updated: How much of the Philippines have you visited?

2007-11-18T17:41:00.000+08:00

My Lakbayan grade is C+!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Yay to a slight improvement after roughly 5 months! :)

Caleruega

2007-08-31T01:52:00.000+08:00

Last Monday was a holiday here in the Philippines, and since I haven't really gone out in quite a while, I drag him into spending the whole day with me. :P He fetched me at around 8am I think, then we drove straight to Tagaytay. First stop was Ming's garden, but we didn't really stay long there. After which, we passed by the wet market, bought some fruits (ponkan, dragon fruit and my favorite, mangosteen!!!) before heading off to Caleruega, where we spent most of our time at. It had been raining on our way there, to the point that it got so foggy, we were scared to our wits! Good thing, the rain subsided after we got there. I was my 'wannabe' photographer self again, and had a flower shooting spree! I was happy with the outcome a handful of photos I took considering that the camera I took with me was my underwater camera, which doesn't really take sharp photos with vivid colors. Aside from that, It was a great opportunity for us to just enjoy each other's company, since we rarely get to go out together as a couple. After exploring the property, we decided to pass by the Flower Farm which unfortunately, was closed so we drove off to Paradizoo instead, but didn't quite liked the place. We passed by a sign pointing to Hacienda Isabella on our way there, so instead of driving straight out of the area, we passed by that as well. It was closed though, so we weren't able to look around the place. After driving around, we finally made a food stop at the Mushroom Burger joint. I've already tried their mushroom burger at their Quezon Avenue branch but I didn't like it. It tasted too 'earthy' for me. I've been hearing a lot of raves about it so I thought I'd give it a second chance thinking that maybe their main store in Tagaytay sold better sandwiches. My perception about the place and their food didn't change during that trip, as I thought their sandwiches/meals could still be improved. I guess we should have waited longer at Bag of Beans instead... oh well, there's always a next time. Our Tagaytay tour ended there, but I wanted to get myself a new pair of swimsuits, so we were decided to pass by Paseo de Santa Rosa before heading to MOA for more shopping and dinner. We did get to go look around Santa Rosa but our plans stopped there. Don't asked. Things that happened after that, somewhat ruined the day. :( hay.. oh well. In any case, I did enjoy the trip and might drag him again for another road trip. Maybe, things'll end on a sweeter note the next time around.

Before I go to bed, I thought I'd leave you with three of the better photos I took (or so I think...)

Enjoy!

Scrapblogging fun!

2007-08-19T01:56:00.001+08:00

I recently discovered the wonderful world of scrapblogging! I've never tried scrapbooking before but I've always wanted too! That's why I was so glad about stumbling into scrapblog over the net! It has become my stress outlet these past few weeks. I haven't been able to log into it these past days though... but yeah, I definitely find scrapblogging very therapeutic! If you ever decide to try it out as well, don't forget to add me up as your friend okay? =)

ciao!

Loaded!

2007-07-22T22:20:00.001+08:00

Whoopee! I was able to stock up with my favorite snack today! You have no idea as to how badly I've been craving for these! Yum! Yum!

I've long been a pillows (I'm not too sure if you're familiar with it. In any case, they're crunchy chocolate-flavored wafer-like chips filled with melted chocolate inside.) fan but I got tired of it after a few months. It probably was too sweet and there had been times when I found the wafer too dry for me. I'm pretty thankful that I got introduced to this. Thanks to the manang, the only vendor outside our school building, who had made the white choco variant the only snack available when I got hungry one Saturday afternoon. I've been hooked since then! hahaha

This is extremely addictive! I've brought a small pack when I went out with my officemates one Sunday afternoon, and before we parted ways, they both got themselves packs of it at the grocery while I pick up some veggies for my mom! hahaha =P Yep yep! My friends at work are now all into it too!

As far as I know, Loaded! comes in four variants, chocolate, cheese, peanut butter, and white chocolate, my favorite! Remember crackets, that crunchy corn-flavored snack that came in pink packages when we were younger? The white choco flavored one tastes somewhat like that, only better! Plus it comes with white chocolate filling, which makes it more yummy! =P

I just love it! love it! love it!!! =)

CINEMALAYA '07: my tentative movie marathon sched

2007-07-16T21:10:00.000+08:00

It's time for the independent film fest again and I can't wait to see as much as I can! I couldn't fit everything into my schedule (and budget) though, so I made a list of those I want to see.

Jul21 (SAT)
12:45PM - STILL LIFE
3:30PM - BIG TIME
6:15PM - GULONG
9:00PM - ENDO

Jul22 (SUN)
10:00AM - KADIN
12:45PM - SHORTS PROGRAMME A (DobleVista, Misteryo sa Hapis, 9Ball, Rolyo, Tagapagligtas)
3:30PM TULAD NG DATI

Jul28 (SAT)
3:30PM - PISAY
6:15PM - SHORTS PROGRAMME B (Durog, Gabon, Liwanag sa Dilim, Maikling Kwento, Toni)

Jul29 (SUN)
10:00AM - SAAN NAGTATAGO SI HAPPINESS
3:30PM - KUBRADOR/DONSOL

Watch out for my reviews! :)

a bit of inspiration

2007-07-10T23:10:00.000+08:00

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Source: news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Fr. Blanco's garden

2007-07-01T22:46:00.000+08:00

Father Blanco's botanical garden is located at the back of the San Agustin church's museum inside Intramuros. I first knew of this from my brother's gf's multiply page. I got curious so I decided to check it out myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring my camera with me so I ended up with these photos I got using my phone instead.

The last time I went there, half of the garden had been cleared in preparation for the restoration of one of the monastery's wings. Though I was a bit disappointed on seeing excavations and a huge mound of earth in place of a walkway and half of the beautiful garden, I still am looking forward to how it'll turn out.

I suggest that you visit the place after the completion of its renovation project to avoid any more disappointments.. :P

There's an entrance fee to the museum so do prepare P75 if you ever decide to go here.

I finally raised my hand

2007-07-01T22:15:00.000+08:00

Yep! I've found time to attend Hands on Manila's new volunteers' orientation which means that I've finally signed up as one of their volunteers! I haven't committed myself to any of their partner NGO's activities yet but will do so as soon as I get the confirmation email from them. :)

Philippine history 101 inside the walled city

2007-07-01T19:44:00.000+08:00

I finally had the chance to join one of the much lauded oldmanilawalks' walking tours last Sunday. It was the Manila day's edition of Ivan's walls of discontent 3-hour tour which was fantabulously entertaining and educational! I was a bit hesitant about asking my friends to join me since I knew that it wasn't really their thing so I was glad when I found out that they enjoyed it. We're now even planning to join their Binondo walk with more friends. :)

I've been to all the places he brought us to beforehand but I didn't mind seeing them again in a different light. It wouldn't have been better if I was able to join a tour scheduled on an earlier date since I had been looking forward to taking more beautiful photos of Fr. Blanco's garden, but I guess that won't ever happen again as the place had now been demolished in preparation for the re-building of a monastery wing in its place. :(

Roland, Leah and I got to Intramuros early so we decided to walk around and take pictures first before heading to Bahay Tsinoy.

Plaza Roma

Manila Cathedral

its lovely wooden door

inside the Cathedral

Palacio del Gobernador

Manila Cathedral again, but at a different angle

The tour started here, where we had our early Philippine history crash course complete with interesting tidbits that you'd probably never get from any of your high school teachers.

We made a quickstop here before heading to San Agustin Church.

a memorial for the WWII victims

We then proceeded to the only establishment in Intramuros that was spared by the WWII bombings.

one of the oldest Church of the Philippines

inside the church of San Agustin

half of the garden had already been cleared... :(

good thing they spared her

the stairway that leads to the 2nd floor

The tour didn't end there yet, but I've ran out of photos (hehe..) so I'm leaving you with this one I took of the Filipino shop we found beside the Church. :)

this is where the Parish where I go to once stood

Siargao Escape

2007-06-25T00:29:00.000+08:00

I had long been used to lazy summers spent at home, sleeping or watching tv.. but this year had been different. I had never been to as many places in such a short span of time! This April had definitely been my travel month!

One of the places I went to is Siargao, which for me is magnificent and magestic in its own simple way. I'll be writing a series of entries about it but for now, I hope these photos my friends and I took will suffice. :)

Enjoy!

Lonely hut in Guyam Island

this is where the action happens! Cloud9 of Siargao

rainbow over the waves (there really is one! find it!)

catching some waves

Palm trees of Dako (?) Island

looks like somebody needs to get out more...

2007-06-24T15:08:00.000+08:00

My Lakbayan grade is C!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out atLakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Sanctuario del Santo Nino or Church of San Juan del Monte

2007-06-23T23:13:00.000+08:00

One of the nicest churches I've been to is Sanctuario del Santo Nino tucked away in San Juan, Metro Manila. I first passed by this Church when I went with my mom to pick up my sister currently working as a nurse at the St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital situated beside the church. I was awed by the simple but compelling beauty of the church since then.A bit of history.The marker found beside the entrance to the convent shares a bit of history about the chuch known also as the Church of San Juan Del Monte.

The church and convent were built in 1602 to 1604 by the Dominican Province
of the Most Holy Rosary on a site donated by Capitan Julian de Cuenca. Both
buildings were burned during the Chinese uprising of 1639. The new church and
convent constructed in 1641 were set on fire in July 1763 during the British
occupation of Manila. The present church and convent constructed in 1774 were
used by the insurgent forces of the revolution of 1898. This Sactuary is the
seat of the cofraternity of Santisimo Cristo de San Juan Del Monte approved by
Pope Innocent X on March 4, 1648.
- Historical Research and Markers Committee

inside the Church

Hmm.. Come to think of it, the town of San Juan could actually have been named after this Church.

The long wooden beams give a rustic feel. I loved the stained glass windows too.

So how do you get here?

Sanctuario del Santo Nino is tucked away in the middle of San Juan. Coming from Quezon Avenue, you'd need to make a turn for Araneta Avenue. Just follow the road til you reach the end of it where you'd have to take a left turn. Make a right turn at F. Blumentritt St. (you won't miss it, there's a 711 convenience store by the corner) and go straight ahead. It's right after the Dominican College. You'd definitely see it right away.

Mia's road trip up north

2007-06-22T01:40:00.002+08:00

Coincidentally, our trip to Pagudpud is Mia's longest road trip so far. (By the way, Mia's our year old mixed toy dog and the family's baby)

To immortalize her outdoor experience, here are pictures of her from our trip. :)

Enjoy!

first stop: Vigan

Mia loved the yummy empanda!

by the beach swimming

Earth Day at EK

2007-06-18T16:15:00.000+08:00

Thanks to WWF, we were able to get Enchanted Kingdom all day pass tickets at half the price!

Dodgem

Wheel of Fate

The last time I was there was over 3 years ago so I was pretty excited about going back today. We heard Mass first before heading to the amusement park. My companions were afraid that we might end up wasting the rest of the evening waiting in line but fortunately, there were hardly any people there today so we didn't have to wait for our turn in almost all the rides that we tried. The park hardly changed since the last time I was there. Though most of the rides need a teeny bit of maintenance. The fireworks was no Pyro Olympics exibition but was still worth the crowd's wait. Grande Rapids is still the best!

all wet after three rounds of Grande Rapids

If they weren't alreay closing, we'd probably come back for 10 more! The SpaceShuttle, Flying Fiesta and Wheel of Fate, Anchor's Away and the Dodgem were my other favorites that I hurriedly sought one after the other.

fireworks that capped off the night

IT:
2:30p - on the road to Laguna
4:30 - 5:45p - heard Mass at Santo Nino de Cebu Parish, San Pedro, Laguna
6:00-10:15p - Enchanted Kingdom Fun!
10:30-11:00p - KFC dinner
11:30pm-2:00a - ride home WOULD YOU BELIEVE?!

* The ride home was horrenduously long! Turns out that there was a road construction going on along the South Super Highway and a portion of the road to Manila had to be closed! Geez!

Expenses:
Gas - P500
Toll - P150
Tickets - P300 each
Dinner - P525

Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte: Boracay of the North

2007-06-16T14:57:00.000+08:00

Early this year, R expressed his intentions of heading out to the beach. We agreed on a date, but failed to really prepare for it. We were suppose to take the bus but RC volunteered to bring their van. I was able to invite a couple more people, and everything was set a few days before we actually took off.

March 30. Friday. Destination: Pagudpud.

the arch that says it all

RC fetched me from work, where we met up with R. We picked up M on our way to my place where A, JP, J, D and B had been waiting for us. By 1130pm, we were on the road. Unfortunately, before we even got to NLEX, 2 police officers in a car apprehended us. Don’t ask. They seemed like they were power tripping. After they let us go, things went smoothly til we got to Bangued where the van started to uncontrollably heat up. We had to make a series of stops to revent it from overheating. It was all good though, we got to take a bruch break at Vigan where most of my companions had never been to. After some photo op, we were back on the road.

When we finally saw a radiator shop in Laoag, B decided to have the problem fixed once and for all. We probably spent an hour or so there, watching manong and his assistant work. When they finally finished, we were on a roll! We did get lost a couple of times but this didn't really dampen our spirits. We even stopped for a bit to take pictures of the gigantic windmills that can be seen from the hi-way. We finally reached Saud at around 5pm. I wasn't sure if everyone was with me then, but since we were already near the infamous Blue Lagoon, I ad begged for us to find it.

by the rocky part of the cove

The trip to the Blue Lagoon was probably the longest 15 minutes of our lives. There was a time when we thought we'd never get there. But after a number of heart-stopping turns up, and down the steep slopes of the national highway, we finally saw the turn, lolo, the last person we askd directions from, was talking about. We had to deal with 5 minutes or so of another stretch of long steep roads until we got to the picnic area. We drove off further til we reached the first resort in sight.

sunrise in Pagudpud

After more than 18 hours on the road, we finally settled at Agua Seda, a resort owned by a former school teacher from Bais, who was very accomodating. We did take a dip in the lagoon for a bit before succumbing to hunger and weariness. We had some sinigang and grilled parrot fish for dinner which we bought from the locals. The following morning was spent exploring the area and of course, enjoying the sun and the sea.

enjoying the makeshift balsa and the sea

the lagoon

The blue lagoon is simply spectacular! The water is clear, the sand's color is indeed comparable to that of Boracay's, and best of all, we had it all to ourselves. :)We finally left the place a few minutes before 12noon but decided to pass by the stalls in front of Bingbong's Restaurant as suggested by the resort owner, where we were able to buy lobsters at P300/kilo.

with the lobster

We would have probably enjoyed our trip better if we exactly knew how to get there and if we weren't pressed for time.Note: The only resorts within the area are Agua Seda Beach Resort (for inquiries, you may contact the owner at 0920-2431832 or 0920-4252709) and Kapuluan Vista Resort, supposedly owned by Jericho Rosales.