Happy New Year!!!

A few more hours to go and we'll be saying goodbye to 2008 and welcoming 2009. Although this year has not been good to some of us - most even had a pretty tough time- what with the economic crisis we've been through. More than anything else, let us all just be thankful for whatever we are blessed with and have right now.

Why should we be grateful? I found this good article in my Inbox to remind us of the reasons why.


*If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...


You are richer than 75% of this world.


*If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and a spare change in a dish some place...


You are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.


*If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...


You are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.


*If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation...


You are ahead of 500 million people in the world.


*If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...


You are more blessed than three billion people in the world.


*If your parents are still alive and married...


You are very rare, even in the United States.


*If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful...


You are blessed, because the majority can, but most do not.


*If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder...


You are blessed because you can offer healing touch.


*If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore...

You are blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.


Have a good day, count your blessings and pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

You are wished a prosperous New Year!!!



Happy New Year Comments

The Spirit of BEAR-iuca!

I haven't noticed that It's been more than two weeks already since I received the invitation from one pretty blogger named Mariuca to join BEAR-iuca as she trots through the whole blogosphere. I apologize that it took me this long to post this meme yet, thank you so much for making me a part of this journey.

Now I'd like to invite the people behind these blogs to go along this trip:

Success With Women and Your New Reality
Juliana’s World
Thinking Out Loud Blog.Com
My way in life
Kawaii at CuteBoo.com
Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice
To PM Lee Hsien Loong
More than Sew So
My Special Place
The Journey

-START COPYING HERE-

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a powerful Genie Princess named Mariuca who was known throughout the land as the friendliest, most popular blogger in the blogosphere kingdom. Adored and admired by international visitors and commentators from around the world, the Genie Princess travels the blogosphere on her magical flying carpet, always looking for ways to share her good fortune with others.

Over the past two years of blogging, Mariuca has met so many new people, from all walks of life and all over the world, each one bringing a little of their culture and lifestyle when they visit and comment on Mariuca’s two sites. So on her 2nd Blog Anniversary, Mariuca wanted to celebrate with all of her international blogosphere buddies by hosting a bear-naming contests at Wishing On A Falling Star and Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery and to pass her two lucky, cuddly teddy bears along to the winners who came up with the best names.

On the opposite side of the world, from the moment Roxy (the prolific Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blogger) and her sweet daughters London and Maddie saw the teddy in his personalized t-shirt and blue muffler at Wishing On A Falling Star, they knew that he needed to come to live with their family in Mendham, NJ. The three New Jersey girls named him immediately and burst into a wonderful song for BEAR-iuca:

BEAR-iuca, BEAR-iuca, amazing teddy cheer.
BEAR-iuca, BEAR-iuca, we’d love you to come live here!

Mariuca received 16 possible names for the Mariuca Teddy Bear, making it hard for the Genie Princess to choose just one…then Alakazam! A bolt of lightning delivered the perfect way to share BEAR-iuca’s good fortune to bloggers around the globe. While the soft, stuffed, cuddly BEAR-iuca is on his way to live with Roxy, London, Maddie and Rex in the Roxiticus Valley, the Spirit of BEAR-iuca is racing through the blogosphere to bring happiness, holiday cheer, and beary best wishes to everyone who welcomes him into their online home and passes along the BEAR-iuca good luck charm to ten friends.

Please play along with us by following a few important rules:

1. Add your site(s) to the list once you have received the Spirit of BEAR-iuca badge of teddy bear cheer.
2. Pass along the Spirit of BEAR-iuca and his cheery badge to as many people as you like.
3. Leave a comment HERE once you’ve passed on the Spirit of BEAR-iuca.
4. Once Roxy and the Genie Princess have visited your site to make sure your links are complete and proper, you will then be added to the Master List.
4. To ensure everyone receives equal link benefit, please UPDATE your list regularly!

BEAR-iuca LOVES

1. Mariuca 2. Roxiticus Desperate Housewives 3. Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery 4. Roxy’s Best Of... 5. Bay Head Blog 6. Roxiticus Best Blogs 7. Emila's Illustrated Blog 8. Metz - Empty Streets 9. The Spirit of Blogging 10. Speedcat Hollydale Page 11. Snapshot 12. purplefrogcat 13. Turn-u-Off 14. Simple Life 15. A Little Girl Talk 16. Life in the Lapadula House 17. Spicybugz World 18. The Mom With Brownies 19. Our High School Homeschool 20. Our Five Dangerous Boys 21. The Big Dog 22. LadyJava's Lounge 23. Moments of My Life 24. Life is too short to be ordinary 25. A Great Pleasure 26. Time Goes By 27. Life According To Me 28. Laketrees 29. This is a miracle 30. Porcelain Doll 31. Moms...CheckNyo 32. Wonderful Things In Life 33. Sweet Nothings 34. Hot Shit Form Here 35. Not Just a Mom Site 36. The Life of a Mom 37. Wiehanne Lounge 38. The Painted Veil 39. My Crossroads 40. Little Mermaid 41. LOVE's Haven 42. Also Mommy 43. The Journey 44. Comedy Plus 45. Making sense...(somehow) 46. The Modern Mom 47. Stay At Home Mom 48. Picture Clusters 49. Maiylah's Snippets 50. Sweety tots 51. My Discoveries 52. A Life to Remember 53. Rekha 54. Crissy's Haven 55. Crissy's Library 56. Crissy's Zone 57. Shopping Blog 58. Crafts and cooking 59. Asian Mutt International 60. A Simple Life 61. I AM KCAT 62. A Girl For All Status 63. Berry Blog 64. Carnation 65. Pinaymama's Diary 66. Life's sweets and spices 67. The Callalily Space 68. Butchay 69. Blessings in Life 70. Pinay Mommy Online 71. The Ruby Posts 72. Day Break 73. R...E...B...E...L?!? 74. VDAY CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 75. Just the Tip of the Iceberg 76. Honeysweet Learning Center 77. Vsk8shop 78. A Diva's Hammer 79. Arlene - Joys in Life 80. Listening..Learning..Living 81. Mommy's Little Corner 82. Living one day at a time 83. Momhood Moments 84. SUPER INFO THAILAND 85. Life Ramblings 86. Samantha Ysabelle 87. Kikamz' Just About Anything 88. SigneSays 89. Normz 90. Mymy 91. Lynlyn 92. Your Caring Angels 93. In The Eyes Of The Beholder 94. dayfly 95. Night Clicks 96. Life is What We Make it 97. Dancing in Midlife Tune 98. Fida Abbott 99. Lofty Matters 100. Modus Vivendi 101. Aha Mama! 102. Anything Goes 103. Chopsticks 104. GAGAY 105. Straight from the Heart 106. Nizhama2 107. Daily Ramblings 101 108. Sjtl's Weblog 109. A Mother of Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow 110. Beautiful sOuL 111. At Pam's 112. Mystique's Moments 113. You next!

-END COPY-

May we all have a blessed journey!!! ^_^

More and More Awards!

What better way to celebrate the holidays than to bask on my awards; two of which were from Windmill, the man who always dazzle me. My deepest gratitude for The Noblesse Oblige Award & The Perpetual Smiling Blogger Award.

The Noblesse Oblige Award

This Award is presented to bloggers who display consistency in any one or a combination of these conditions:

1. The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervades amongst different cultures and beliefs.
2. The Blog contents inspire; strives to encourage and offers solutions.
3. There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Culture and Sciences and Beliefs.
4. The Blog is refreshing and creative.
5. The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking..

The Blogger who receives this award will need to perform the following steps:

1. Create a Post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award.
2. The Award Conditions must be displayed at the Post.
3. Write a short article about what the Blog has thus far achieved – preferably citing one or more older Post to support.
4. The Blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions.
5. The Blogger must display the Award at any location at the Blog.

Within my almost three months of blogging experience, I have come across several blogs that are truly inspiring and worth following; blogs that somehow enriched my knowledge and widened my imagination. The mere fact that these people allow me to have a glimpse on their existence is beyond recognition. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your virtual lives and I am truly honored that in one way or another you're making me a part of yours too.

You deserve this award:

Umma of Happy Moments...Happy Thoughts
Jennie of Marriage and Beyond
lina of Life, In my Own Backyard
Pink Lady of OF LIVING AND LOVING... AND COPING
Rambler of Lofty Matters
Courtney of The Ramblings of Courtney
Marie of My Online Paradise
Laane of Laane on the World
Andrea of The Andrea
tahtimbo 0f Everyday Living

The Perpetual Smiling Blogger Award

Now, ain't that cute? Thanks a bunch Windmill for making my blogging experience much, much more exciting and even hilarious, sometimes. As I have said before, You never fail to brighten up my day. You, beyond doubt, inspires me to take blogging seriously. Hmm, maybe not that serious or I may lose this award. LOL. Regarding my real name, I'll be making a separate post about it soon.


Finally, two more awards from Bing a.k.a PinkLady of OF LIVING AND LOVING... AND COPING:

Thank you so much for the awards Bing, I absolutely feel honored to be bestowed with these recognitions. I wish you continue to write inspiring and loving thoughts. See yah around!


Happy blogging eveyone!!! ^_^

And The Party Continues...

As promised, I will be showing more pictures on this post.

So that night we had our company party was the same night my honey's band Slideback was to perform at Club Dredd in Eastwood. I wanted to witness both occasions so right after the performance of The Philippine All-Star Dancers around 10:00 PM, I sneaked my way out of SMX Convention Center, hailed a taxi and was off my way to Eastwood, Libis. I was just in time for their set and still had enough time to chat with his band mates before they were called on stage. The band had fun that night performing with other up and coming bands for Guitar Central event. Of course, much more than being a supportive girlfriend, I was there to enjoy a load of great music.

Take a peek on some of that night's mementos below.

(Mystique outside Eastwood)




(Honeyz @ Club Dredd)



(Slideback rockin' the house)





(After the performance)




(Jon with some of our colleagues who dropped by & me with Lor, wife of the vocalist)

Keep on rockin Slideback!!! ^_^

Non-Stop Parties!!!

Everyone is so busy these days and I am not an exception. What with the different errands to do before the holidays, so many parties and gatherings to attend to, plus having to set up meetings with friends I have not seen for a quite a while. It's no surprise then that I'm finding it hard to update my blog. However, i do my best to at least return the drops of those who were able to snatch away some precious time to take a peek on my page. My heartfelt gratitude to all of you.

One thing we can't avoid during this season are the non-stop parties and gatherings everywhere. From family's little celebrations or big clan reunions -which reminds me that we're going to have one too but I won't be a part of it this year since I am not going home- and friends looking for some excuse to meet up, which in truth, I was so looking forward to since I've missed them too; to more extravagant and ostentatious company parties. I have been to each one of them this past week which is why I have been insanely busy aside from work of course which is occupying most of my time.

Here are some pixel perfect moments taken on one of those events:

*Company Year End party last Dec 13, 2008 @ SMX Convention Center dubbed as "Sykes in the City"*

(With my office mates & friends Shiela & NJ)

(The Sandwich Band )

(The hosts, The Philippine All Star dancers, and Spiderman err, it's my Super Big Boss! LOL)

Photos of other parties and gatherings I've attended will be shown on my next post.

Till then...

Enjoy the holidays!!! xOxO ^_^

Happy Holidays!!!

It’s that time of the year again when the streets are in their brightest; houses are adorned with the best and most colorful holiday decorations and the busy yet mostly jolly & high-spirited people scatter everywhere.

The feeling of excitement and anticipation for the season is really contagious which works a lot better for me since I am a bit sad over the fact that I can’t go home and be with my family this new year. It’s a good thing Jon’s family is here which is where I’ll most probably spend the holidays.

More good news is, after working in a call center company for more than four years I can truly call it the holidays since our department won’t be in business on December 24 to 25 and December 31 to January 1. So, I am counting my blessings as early as now. LOL.

A blessed holiday to all!!!

The Friendship Award

Once upon a time, I was blog hopping in Blogosphere when suddenly I stumbled upon a friendly man who lives in the hill -he is also known as the fool on the hill. But I tell you, he was no fool at all nor is he making fool out of anyone. This man was made famous by his sensible and informative posts most especially by his funny thoughts -evidently thru his comments to his and everyone's shoutbox. He offered me his friendship for which I gladly accepted without questions nor hesitations. I know I have all the time in the world to get to know him better. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I could depend on the blogosphere to help me do that. Meanwhile, I'll just keep on dropping by the hill from time to time to pick up bits and pieces of this man. Although in my case, it's kinda hard to do and would require an extra effort. You see, I am one of those lucky few who can actually blog while working, I can do some blog hopping and EC dropping while burning out the eight hours required of me to stay in the office. I can visit all the special sites I'd like to visit except for this man's, you know why? His page would just prompt this error message everytime I'd click on it (Dang! he's banned in our server):

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.10 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.10 OpenSSL/0.9.8i DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at dfoolonthehill.com Port 80

So, everytime I come home, I would go open my laptop to make a special visit to this man. That's how special he is. I know you're all dying in curiousity so I won't keep you in the dark much longer. This man ladies and gentlemen is no other than...Windmill. Go meet and befriend him as he doesn't fail to brighten up one's day.

To you Windmill, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for the friendship. I will treasure it.

And lovely are the blossomsThat are tended with great care,By those who work unselfishlyTo make the place more fair.And, like the garden blossoms,Friendship’s flower grows more sweetWhen watched and tended carefullyBy those we know and meet.And, if the seed of friendshipIs planted deep and trueAnd watched with understanding,Friendship’s flower will bloom for you.

Here are the rules for this tag:

1.) Copy the badge and put it on your blog,
2.) Link back who pass you this tag,
3.) Spread this tag to at least 7 or more bloggers who you think you are friend with.

Now I am passing this award as a symbol of friendship to:

Kimmy Sharing Light

HodgePodge

Designs By Sheila

Mommy's Little Corner

Quelly's Creative Mind

Random Ramblings

Paulo Coelho's Blog

Happy blogging everyone! ^_^

Please Help Save a Life!!!

A colleague of mine approached me at work to ask a small favor to help his cousin named Leo who's been diagnosed with CML, a form of Leukemia, last December of 2007. Until recently, Leo's oral medications have worked well at keeping the disease under control. However, now that his CML has developed into a more advanced stage, his doctors have determined that he will need a bone marrow transplant in order to get better and his brother was not a match.

Leo is of Filipino descent and hopes that through his efforts, those of his friends and family and other caring individuals, he will find a match. He is more determined to battle his ailment with everything he has, and win it, especially so he can watch his three young daughters grow.

My heart filled with care and sympathy goes out to Leo and his family in this very trying and difficult time of their lives. So when Ed, my office mate, asked if I could spread the word out to help Leo, there was not an ounce of hesitation on my part, I was more than happy to help.

Now, it's my turn to ask the help of the whole blogging community. I know there are many of you out there who have a good soul and a caring heart and would be more than willing to blog for a cause. Please just keep spreading the word out. Through this we might just help save a life and make one complete family become happier with all their love, faith & hope.

(Please see the flyer below for details)

I am counting on you my fellow blogger. Let us prove to the world that more than having an avenue to express ourselves out, blogging is most importantly a great way for us to show how we, as human beings, care and take responsibility of one another.

May you blessed today and always! ^_^

Pacquiao Made History Again!

All eyes were glued to the big screens and television sets yesterday when Pacquiao fought against one of boxing's richest and most famous star - not to mention one of the pretty faces in the boxing world- Oscar "The Golden Boy" De La Hoya.

The world simply stopped turning for all boxing enthusiasts and here in the Philippines, the first things you would notice are the almost empty & deserted streets and the usually congested roads void of vehicles. Huh! no traffic at all guys! Moreover, yesterday surely is another crime-free day the country had as even the society's bad elements took a day off and suspended their criminal activities to watch the fight. So, it's really no wonder why Pacquaio is hailed as a national hero as he is one fighter who has the power to unite the Filipino people as one race, even if momentarily.

And once again Pacquiao made us Filipinos proud when he won over De La Hoya in their fight tagged as the "The Dream Match" some called it "The Mismatch" last Saturday night, aired Sunday morning here in the Philippines . Pacquiao gave De La Hoya a lot to think about by beating and battering him around the ring for eight rounds before De La Hoya declined to answer the bell for the ninth round.He just got up from his stool and walked to the center of the ring to congratulate the victor.

“You’re still my idol,” Pacquiao told him.

“No, you’re my idol,” De La Hoya said.

Indeed, these two are true great sport men.

Who's next after De La Hoya? Well, Pacquiao's camp says after his victory over Oscar, the sky is the limit for the people's champion.

Kudos to you Manny for putting our country back on the global map once again!

Twilight Fever

Last night I fell in love again to no less than the most dazzling vampire I have ever seen, Edward Cullen of the book- turned- into- movie, TWILIGHT. I grew up reading and watching vampire & werewolf stories and movies but this is the first time I became enamored to one. I guess, I am just one of those infected by the Twilight fever.

Starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, TWILIGHT tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and becomes drawn to Edward Cullen, a pale, mysterious but amazingly handsome classmate who seems determined to push her away. But neither can deny the attraction that pulls them together...even when Edward confides that he and his family are vampires. Their unorthodox romance puts her in physical danger when Edward's nemesis comes to town and sets his sights on Bella.

I planned on reading the book first before watching the movie in order to have a deeper grasp of the story, but Ally didn't stop bugging me for us to watch it, so off we go to Glorietta last night to watch the flick. Although I have not read a page of the saga yet, I think that the movie was extremely good and really done in good taste. I still have a hang over and would love to watch the movie one more time, now I'm the one bugging my honey to watch it too, so I can have another round of Twilight fever. LOL. I didn't only fall in love with the movie, I enjoyed the sound track too.

Here is the official track listing:

1. Muse — Supermassive Black Hole
2. Paramore — Decode
3. The Black Ghosts — Full Moon
4. Linkin Park — Leave Out All The Rest
5. MuteMath — Spotlight (Twilight Mix)
6. Perry Farrell — Go All The Way (Into The Twilight)
7. Collective Soul — Tremble For My Beloved
8. Paramore — I Caught Myself
9. Blue Foundation — Eyes On Fire
10. Rob Pattinson — Never Think
11. Iron & Wine — Flightless Bird, American Mouth
12. Carter Burwell — Bella's Lullaby

More good news to those who want more of Bella & Edward's love story as Summit Entertainment announced that the studio is officially moving forward with the production of NEW MOON, the second installment of its filmed franchise TWILIGHT, the action-packed, modern day vampire love story. The movie will be based on the second novel in author Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series titled, New Moon.

I just hope I'll be done reading the whole saga before the release of NEW MOON. LOL.