Happy Birthday Dadi!!! :)
Today’s hot chocolate day for me again. I find it a bit weird, but hot chocolate has this special happy-ing effect on me. When I’m feeling sad and down, a cup of good hot chocolate always has a way for lifting me up. :)
But today, there are no more 3-in-1 hot chocolates in our department pantry. I guess we finished drinking everything last week. Oh well… I’m eating chocolate grahams instead. It’s still chocolate – but not as magical as a cup of hot chocolate. But it will have to do.
Below is a really funny song. But it has a bit of truth in it.
**start**
We've been together for so very long
But now things are changing, oh I wonder what's wrong?
Seems you don't want me around
The passion is gone and the flame's died down
I guess I lost a little bit of self-esteem
That time that you made it with the whole hockey team
You used to think I was nice
Now you tell all your friends that I'm the Antichrist
Oh, why did you disconnect the brakes on my car?
That kind of thing is hard to ignore
Got a funny feeling you don't love me anymore
I knew that we were having problems when
You put those piranhas in my bathtub again
You're still the light of my life
Oh darling, I'm beggin', won't you put down that knife?
You know I, even think it's kinda cute the way
You poison my coffee just a little each day
I still remember the way that you laughed
When you pushed me down the elevator shaft
Oh, if you don't mind me asking, what's this poisonous cobra
Doing in my underwear drawer?
Sometime I get to thinking you don't love me anymore
You slammed my face down on the barbecue grill
Now my scars are all healing, but my heart never will
You set my house on fire
You pulled out my chest hairs with an old pair of pliers
Oh, you think I'm ugly and you say I'm cheap
You shaved off my eyebrows while I was asleep
You drilled a hole in my head
Then you dumped me in a drainage ditch and left me for dead
Oh, you know this really isn't like you at all
You never acted this way before
Honey, something tells me you don't love me anymore, oh no no
Got a funny feeling you don't love me anymore
**end**
Monday, February 26, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Ash Wednesday.
For the whole lent (and hopefully, even after lent), I will abstain from:
1. drinking softdrinks
2. quarreling the train guards (I still think what they’re doing is useless though)
3. eating more than half a cup for rice for dinner and heavy snacks in between full meals
On the other hand, I will to the following during lent (and hopefully, even after lent):
1. 20 sit-ups in the morning
2. 20 sit-ups at night
3. smile at people who look familiar even if I can’t recall their names
4. rice-less breakfast
For the whole lent (and hopefully, even after lent), I will abstain from:
1. drinking softdrinks
2. quarreling the train guards (I still think what they’re doing is useless though)
3. eating more than half a cup for rice for dinner and heavy snacks in between full meals
On the other hand, I will to the following during lent (and hopefully, even after lent):
1. 20 sit-ups in the morning
2. 20 sit-ups at night
3. smile at people who look familiar even if I can’t recall their names
4. rice-less breakfast
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
I’m too early for work today. I arrived at 7:45 am. Work is still at 9:00 am. And I’m so sleepy that I know I won’t survive the rest of the day if I don’t take a nap now. But how can I take a nap in the office? All the lights are on and the vacuum cleaner that the janitor is using is very noisy. Huhuhu :’(… I wonder if I should go to the CR now and take my nap there instead. Hmm… it’s probably going to be really disgusting if the person in the next cubicle decides to poo while I sleep in cubicle beside it. And what if I start snoring? Haha! That’ll give somebody a story to tell the whole bank. :p
But I feel really tired and there’s nothing to excite me this early in the morning. Andrew still hasn’t emailed his usual morning greeting so I have nothing to read in outlook. Although, Sheila my officemate did email something interesting. It’s subject is “Seasons of Life.” It has beautiful pictures of a particular place taken at different seasons. The message goes:
***start***
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge
things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look
at a pear tree that was a great distance away.
The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in
summer, and the youngest son in the fall.
When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe
what they had seen.
The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.
The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.
The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.
He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.
Moral:
Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.
***end***
Pretty message, right? Especially for somebody like me – in a situation like mine. At least, my day in the office started quite nice today. Thanks Ate Sheila! :)
My eyes are really dropping. I guess I just have to concentrate on my nap and hope for the best. Here goes nothing…
But I feel really tired and there’s nothing to excite me this early in the morning. Andrew still hasn’t emailed his usual morning greeting so I have nothing to read in outlook. Although, Sheila my officemate did email something interesting. It’s subject is “Seasons of Life.” It has beautiful pictures of a particular place taken at different seasons. The message goes:
***start***
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge
things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look
at a pear tree that was a great distance away.
The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in
summer, and the youngest son in the fall.
When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe
what they had seen.
The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.
The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.
The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.
He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.
Moral:
Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.
***end***
Pretty message, right? Especially for somebody like me – in a situation like mine. At least, my day in the office started quite nice today. Thanks Ate Sheila! :)
My eyes are really dropping. I guess I just have to concentrate on my nap and hope for the best. Here goes nothing…
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
There's this journal entry that I have been wanting to publicly post but never got the chance and the courage to do so. So, while I still have both the chance and courage tonight, I will. Here it is:
- - - -
After all the Christmas and New Year celebrations for the 2006, the fact that my vacation is drawing to an end dawned on me. But it wasn't just the fact that I'm going back to work that made me feel terrible. What felt worse was the fact that I had trouble fitting into my work clothes which, before the holidays, fitted quite nice. :p It wasn't looking ugly and fat that troubled me (really?!?!); it was more the fact that I no longer had anything to wear for work - costly change of wardrobe! And it's not as if I have money for a shopping spree. In fact, I'm trying to spend as little money as I can so that I'd have enough for the future - whatever future plans I have. :p
I realized that although I have been lowering my rice consumption, my chocolate consumption have been rising (big time!). Why? Because chocolates make me happy. Correct me if I’m wrong – I may be wrong (but then again, I may be right. :p) – but the happiest of people do not overload on chocolates unless of course, they have a thing for chocolates.
But what is happiness, really? Isn’t it just a state of mind? And if I say I’m unhappy now, is it because I’m not happy with the circumstances I currently find myself in or is it because I choose to be unhappy?
I’ve heard a lot of people say that happiness is a choice. The first time I heard this, my reaction was, “What?!?! Happiness is actually a choice?” It took quite a bit of time for me to fully absorb the fact that we are not merely victims of circumstances, we actually have a choice. And then, it made me think: if happiness was a choice, then all the unhappy people in the world are unhappy because…it’s their fault – they chose to be unhappy. If this is so, then there really is no correlation between a country’s standard of living and its happiness index. People with all the luxury in the world can choose to be unhappy while people with all the pain and suffering in the world can choose to be happy.
But it’s not all just choice. Happiness is also personality. If your personality is such that it doesn’t allow you to see a choice to be happy when everything is down in the dumps, then your unhappiness is not because you choose to be unhappy but because given your personality, there is no choice. I know of a person – rich, intelligent, kind – but very unhappy. Why? Because his personality does not allow him to see that he can choose to be happy. He has been an achiever all his life and small discouragements (e.g. getting a 92 instead of 98) get him really depressed. He has never failed his entire life so when things are not as perfect as planned, he blows up. And since “nothing is perfect,” he blows up at almost everything.
Poor guy… unless his personality changes, he will always be blowing up and he will never see the possibility of being happy.
Happiness is also circumstance. I am a happy person (majority of the time). But when I’m in SCB, 8 hours everyday, my energies drain out of me. And I’m not sure if it’s me this time that’s causing my unhappiness. I think it’s something else. I think it’s the circumstances I am in. This has been backed-up over and over again by the fact that every time I’m somewhere else, – away from the emotional vampire that SCB has turned out to be for me – I’m happy and happy-mode is my normal mode.
So happiness really is multifaceted, don’t you think? It’s not just choice. It’s also personality and circumstances. According to some psychologists, people develop their personalities when they were young (I forgot how young exactly… but I’m thinking it’s below 3 years old). If that’s the case, once you’re past that stage, then there really isn’t much that you can do to have an always-happy-personality. Moreover, if you’re a heaven-inclined-person and you were sent to hell, wouldn’t you be unhappy? I would.
I’m not exactly sure what happiness is. A lot of people have expressed their thoughts about it but their thoughts don’t seem to completely describe what happiness is. What about you, what is happiness for you?
- - - - -
So, how to do you find it? Tell me what you think... even if your comment can drastically decrease my ego size, I'd rather you be honest.
- - - -
After all the Christmas and New Year celebrations for the 2006, the fact that my vacation is drawing to an end dawned on me. But it wasn't just the fact that I'm going back to work that made me feel terrible. What felt worse was the fact that I had trouble fitting into my work clothes which, before the holidays, fitted quite nice. :p It wasn't looking ugly and fat that troubled me (really?!?!); it was more the fact that I no longer had anything to wear for work - costly change of wardrobe! And it's not as if I have money for a shopping spree. In fact, I'm trying to spend as little money as I can so that I'd have enough for the future - whatever future plans I have. :p
I realized that although I have been lowering my rice consumption, my chocolate consumption have been rising (big time!). Why? Because chocolates make me happy. Correct me if I’m wrong – I may be wrong (but then again, I may be right. :p) – but the happiest of people do not overload on chocolates unless of course, they have a thing for chocolates.
But what is happiness, really? Isn’t it just a state of mind? And if I say I’m unhappy now, is it because I’m not happy with the circumstances I currently find myself in or is it because I choose to be unhappy?
I’ve heard a lot of people say that happiness is a choice. The first time I heard this, my reaction was, “What?!?! Happiness is actually a choice?” It took quite a bit of time for me to fully absorb the fact that we are not merely victims of circumstances, we actually have a choice. And then, it made me think: if happiness was a choice, then all the unhappy people in the world are unhappy because…it’s their fault – they chose to be unhappy. If this is so, then there really is no correlation between a country’s standard of living and its happiness index. People with all the luxury in the world can choose to be unhappy while people with all the pain and suffering in the world can choose to be happy.
But it’s not all just choice. Happiness is also personality. If your personality is such that it doesn’t allow you to see a choice to be happy when everything is down in the dumps, then your unhappiness is not because you choose to be unhappy but because given your personality, there is no choice. I know of a person – rich, intelligent, kind – but very unhappy. Why? Because his personality does not allow him to see that he can choose to be happy. He has been an achiever all his life and small discouragements (e.g. getting a 92 instead of 98) get him really depressed. He has never failed his entire life so when things are not as perfect as planned, he blows up. And since “nothing is perfect,” he blows up at almost everything.
Poor guy… unless his personality changes, he will always be blowing up and he will never see the possibility of being happy.
Happiness is also circumstance. I am a happy person (majority of the time). But when I’m in SCB, 8 hours everyday, my energies drain out of me. And I’m not sure if it’s me this time that’s causing my unhappiness. I think it’s something else. I think it’s the circumstances I am in. This has been backed-up over and over again by the fact that every time I’m somewhere else, – away from the emotional vampire that SCB has turned out to be for me – I’m happy and happy-mode is my normal mode.
So happiness really is multifaceted, don’t you think? It’s not just choice. It’s also personality and circumstances. According to some psychologists, people develop their personalities when they were young (I forgot how young exactly… but I’m thinking it’s below 3 years old). If that’s the case, once you’re past that stage, then there really isn’t much that you can do to have an always-happy-personality. Moreover, if you’re a heaven-inclined-person and you were sent to hell, wouldn’t you be unhappy? I would.
I’m not exactly sure what happiness is. A lot of people have expressed their thoughts about it but their thoughts don’t seem to completely describe what happiness is. What about you, what is happiness for you?
- - - - -
So, how to do you find it? Tell me what you think... even if your comment can drastically decrease my ego size, I'd rather you be honest.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Oh my God!!! What a cheater!!! The meter of the cab that Nicole and I rode in this morning was billing us 360 pesos before we did a right turn to Ayala Avenue from EDSA!!! Can you imagine that?!?! Nicole and I – along with one other companion who’s been absent since the second week of January – have been riding cabs to work since late last year and our fares usually fall between 160-180. But today, it was 360!!!
The driver noticed that his meter was running fast and brought up the subject. I looked at the meter and… WAH!!! It’s 360! What happened?!?! The driver told us that his meter was going haywire and that instead of paying 360++ (because we still weren’t where we wanted to be), we pay him 200 – his idea of a “usual” fare from Katipunan to Makati.
Nicole: pero maaga pa, 8:15 palang. ‘di kami umaabot ng 200 ng 8:15
Driver: hindi, ma-traffic talaga ngayon
Anna: manong, araw-araw kaming nag-ta-taxi. Normal traffic lang ‘to. Maaga pa nga eh. 8:15 palang
Nicole: at 7:40 tayo umalis so hindi pa tayo nag-iisang oras
Driver: matagal na tayo sa EDSA, na-ta-traffic tayo
Anna: 7:40 tayo umalis ng Katipunan. 8:15 palang ngayon. ‘di pa nag-isang oras. ‘di pa yun matagal. 180 lang manong. ‘di naman tayo na-traffic eh.
(English Translation:
Nicole: But it’s still early. It’s just 8:15. We have never reached 200pesos at 8:15
Driver: No, the traffic’s bad today.
Anna: We take cabs everyday. This is normal traffic. It’s still early; It’s still 8:15
Nicole: And we left Katipunan at 7:40. We haven’t been travelling for an hour.
Driver: We have been in EDSA for a long time. The traffic’s bad.
Anna: We left Katipunan at 7:40. It’s still 8:15 now. It hasn’t been an hour. The travel hasn’t been long. The traffic is not bad.)
After several heated discussions, the driver fell silent and when Nicole and I went down at SkyPlaza Building, I paid the cab driver 180. He snorted a little at us but that was that.
I feel good that I paid 180 instead of 200 pesos. I know that it’s just a 20 peso difference and that if he had been nicer, Nicole and I could have been sympathetic and charitable towards him and would have given him an extra 20 pesos. But he wasn’t nice. Before I got in the cab this morning, I asked him if he was willing to travel all the way to Makati and he say yes. When I got in, he started doing a monologue about how traffic EDSA is when you’re going to Makati. And then…
Anna: manong, may kasama pa akong isa sa Starbucks. Andun c’ya naghihintay
Driver: ano???
Anna: may kasama pa akong isa sa Starbucks naghihintay
Driver: saan yun?
Anna: pagkatapos po ng footbridge, sa may puno. Ituturo ko po c’ya mamaya.
Driver: sino kasama mo?
Anna: kasama ko.
(English Translation:
Anna: Can we drop by Starbucks, my friend’s waiting to be picked up there.
Driver: What???
Anna: I have one more companion in waiting in Starbucks.
Driver: Where’s that?
Anna: After the footbridge, near the tree. I’ll point it out to you when we get there.
Driver: Who’s your friend?
Anna: My friend.)
*** I pointed the tree to the driver and as planned, Nicole was waiting in front of Starbucks. When the driver saw Nicole…
Driver: ‘yan ba yung kasama mo? pakilala mo naman ako?
(English Translation:
Driver: Is that your companion? Can you introduce me to her?)
I ignored the comment. When Nicole went in the cab, I said hello and avoided saying her name throughout the whole ride. The cab driver, feeling ignored, started doing his monologue again. Nicole and I ignored him and took a nap instead.
I don’t understand why there are only a few taxi drivers in the Philippines (I’m not so sure about the world) who are nice – who are worth talking to for the whole ride and who you would want to pay 200 pesos to. This is such a sad fact. Taxi drivers, especially those in Manila, are opportunists. They take advantage of every opportunity to cheat their customers – not just tourists but fellow Filipinos as well.
I remember, when I came back from Europe, I took a cab back from NAIA to Katipunan and the taxi driver was asking me to pay him 700 pesos! 700!!! The usual cab fare from airport to Katipunan is just 300 (at most!)! And it wasn’t as if his taxi was super duper presentable! The aircon was down, the cab interior smelled fishy and the seats were tattered and dusty! And this for 700 pesos!!! You must be mad!!!
I went down the cab, after a few arguments about the 700 pesos fare, and looked for another cab. Such is life…. tsk… tsk…
After all my experiences with cabs and cab drivers here in Manila, there’s still this small part in me that’s wishing and hoping that one day cab drivers will stop resorting to cheating as a means of making a living. Will this wish/hope prove to be in vain?
We’ll find out in the future, won’t we?
But I hope it won’t prove to be in vain.
- - -
The cab I rode this morning is an MGE company cab with plate number TYE 289 and body number 554 or 544 (I don’t remember which is which anymore).
The driver noticed that his meter was running fast and brought up the subject. I looked at the meter and… WAH!!! It’s 360! What happened?!?! The driver told us that his meter was going haywire and that instead of paying 360++ (because we still weren’t where we wanted to be), we pay him 200 – his idea of a “usual” fare from Katipunan to Makati.
Nicole: pero maaga pa, 8:15 palang. ‘di kami umaabot ng 200 ng 8:15
Driver: hindi, ma-traffic talaga ngayon
Anna: manong, araw-araw kaming nag-ta-taxi. Normal traffic lang ‘to. Maaga pa nga eh. 8:15 palang
Nicole: at 7:40 tayo umalis so hindi pa tayo nag-iisang oras
Driver: matagal na tayo sa EDSA, na-ta-traffic tayo
Anna: 7:40 tayo umalis ng Katipunan. 8:15 palang ngayon. ‘di pa nag-isang oras. ‘di pa yun matagal. 180 lang manong. ‘di naman tayo na-traffic eh.
(English Translation:
Nicole: But it’s still early. It’s just 8:15. We have never reached 200pesos at 8:15
Driver: No, the traffic’s bad today.
Anna: We take cabs everyday. This is normal traffic. It’s still early; It’s still 8:15
Nicole: And we left Katipunan at 7:40. We haven’t been travelling for an hour.
Driver: We have been in EDSA for a long time. The traffic’s bad.
Anna: We left Katipunan at 7:40. It’s still 8:15 now. It hasn’t been an hour. The travel hasn’t been long. The traffic is not bad.)
After several heated discussions, the driver fell silent and when Nicole and I went down at SkyPlaza Building, I paid the cab driver 180. He snorted a little at us but that was that.
I feel good that I paid 180 instead of 200 pesos. I know that it’s just a 20 peso difference and that if he had been nicer, Nicole and I could have been sympathetic and charitable towards him and would have given him an extra 20 pesos. But he wasn’t nice. Before I got in the cab this morning, I asked him if he was willing to travel all the way to Makati and he say yes. When I got in, he started doing a monologue about how traffic EDSA is when you’re going to Makati. And then…
Anna: manong, may kasama pa akong isa sa Starbucks. Andun c’ya naghihintay
Driver: ano???
Anna: may kasama pa akong isa sa Starbucks naghihintay
Driver: saan yun?
Anna: pagkatapos po ng footbridge, sa may puno. Ituturo ko po c’ya mamaya.
Driver: sino kasama mo?
Anna: kasama ko.
(English Translation:
Anna: Can we drop by Starbucks, my friend’s waiting to be picked up there.
Driver: What???
Anna: I have one more companion in waiting in Starbucks.
Driver: Where’s that?
Anna: After the footbridge, near the tree. I’ll point it out to you when we get there.
Driver: Who’s your friend?
Anna: My friend.)
*** I pointed the tree to the driver and as planned, Nicole was waiting in front of Starbucks. When the driver saw Nicole…
Driver: ‘yan ba yung kasama mo? pakilala mo naman ako?
(English Translation:
Driver: Is that your companion? Can you introduce me to her?)
I ignored the comment. When Nicole went in the cab, I said hello and avoided saying her name throughout the whole ride. The cab driver, feeling ignored, started doing his monologue again. Nicole and I ignored him and took a nap instead.
I don’t understand why there are only a few taxi drivers in the Philippines (I’m not so sure about the world) who are nice – who are worth talking to for the whole ride and who you would want to pay 200 pesos to. This is such a sad fact. Taxi drivers, especially those in Manila, are opportunists. They take advantage of every opportunity to cheat their customers – not just tourists but fellow Filipinos as well.
I remember, when I came back from Europe, I took a cab back from NAIA to Katipunan and the taxi driver was asking me to pay him 700 pesos! 700!!! The usual cab fare from airport to Katipunan is just 300 (at most!)! And it wasn’t as if his taxi was super duper presentable! The aircon was down, the cab interior smelled fishy and the seats were tattered and dusty! And this for 700 pesos!!! You must be mad!!!
I went down the cab, after a few arguments about the 700 pesos fare, and looked for another cab. Such is life…. tsk… tsk…
After all my experiences with cabs and cab drivers here in Manila, there’s still this small part in me that’s wishing and hoping that one day cab drivers will stop resorting to cheating as a means of making a living. Will this wish/hope prove to be in vain?
We’ll find out in the future, won’t we?
But I hope it won’t prove to be in vain.
- - -
The cab I rode this morning is an MGE company cab with plate number TYE 289 and body number 554 or 544 (I don’t remember which is which anymore).
