Rediscovering Passion -- Is It Too Late?

"Is it too late to rediscover a passion?" - Issa

If not, why?

If yes, how?

What's my passion?

Am I pursuing my dreams?

I made a mistake.

I have wasted a lot of precious time and opportunities.

Now, I am getting old.

I cannot redo the past.

I only have two options left -

stop (and be wallowed in self-pity and regret)

or

move on (forgive myself, accept the consequences and take a step...constantly)

Praise God for He is not only the God of second chance but a God of chances.

Shoot Me! (3 of 52) + I♥Faces Collage Challenge

Shoot Me! It's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And, just jump in now with 1 of 52. You can do it!
- Carin at Forever In Blue Jeans

Wanna join this yearlong challenge? Creating, collecting and treasuring memories made more fun! Joining is just a click away!

Back to the Eighties!!!

Christmas Party of Xepesys, Inc. courtesy of our Korean officers.

All expenses paid.

Everyone was just expected to be in an 80s getup.

Date: 13 December 2009, Saturday

Time:8pm-12am

Location: AIC Gold Tower Penthouse

It was sooooooo fun! We were loooooooooaded with pictures after this event! Finding costumes for the party was quite hard but it was worth it! Having friends and coworkers in their creative outfits and witnessing the various performances caused the gaieties of the night!

The pictures above are just few out of the hundred photos taken. Can you spot me? ^^

Update as of 2010 April 20: I finally have an entry for i♥faces! Woohoooo! This week's challenge is about "collages". To view more entries, just click this heart: ♥.

Wanna link your own Shoot Me post? Oh, please do! Just type and add your link to MckLinkly and then visit other Shoot Me posts from our fellow bloggers by clicking their names in the list. Make sure to leave some love, too!
Comments! Comments! Comments! Who doesn't love comments? \(^^)/

To Invest Time or Money?

☞

In the Philippines, school starts in June and ends in March. Meaning, April and May are vacation months.

Just yesterday, a coworker asked me if I would be interested to apply in a part-time job. The place is located just near our work place, so the fare won't add to my expenses at all. My full time job begins at 2:15 pm and that part-time job will be from 9am-12nn. I will be teaching English to a Korean who is studying in the country. The rate is actually reasonable.

If I accept the offer, I can save much money. But, that also means sacrificing sleep and letting go of some of my time for internet surfing. Oh, I wonder how tiring it would be! But, the sacrifices are worth it. Right?

Hmmmm......

On the other hand, if I am willing to sacrifice sleep to teach someone, why don't I just sacrifice sleep to teach my own little sister? If I am willing to meet the need of other people, why don't I just meet my own sister's special needs? If I am looking forward to have wise investment while I am young, why don't I just invest my time as much as possible for my sister whom I dearly love?

I am so willing to again experience man-to-man English instruction with Koreans. But, for now, investing time with Aissa is far better.


We'll focus on English. I bought her a book entitled Say Good Night to Illiteracy. So far, Aissa can already read the first story of the bedtime storybook series with minimal errors.

Math should be given focus as well. We'll concentrate on basic mathematical operations. It would be great if Aissa can add and subtract numbers with ease. ^^

Sa Hardin (In the Garden)

I am getting in love with hymns more and more. I find such songs solemn. The lyrics speak of love, especially God's love. Many of them were written over centuries ago but they are still being sung up to now.

One of my favorite hymns is "In the Garden" which was composed by C. Austin Miles. Lawreal likes it, too. I loved it even more when I heard its Tagalog version. Celia H. Marcelo did the translation. Here it goes:

Bago magbukang liwayway

Sa hardin ako tumutungo

Upang manalangin at marinig

Ang tinig ni Jesu-Cristo

Koro:

Sa aking puso'y

Nangungusap Sya

Aniya, "Ikaw ay akin";

Ang galak na aking nadarama,

Tunay at walang maliw.

Sa tinig Niyang kay tamis,

Kalikasa'y pumapayapa;

Pangungusap Niya ay kaaliwan

Sa aking puso at diwa.

(Koro)

Tunay na nasisiyahan,

Puso ko sa pananalangin;

Subalit Kanyang pinahahayo

Ako na nasa sa dilim.

(Koro)

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,

The Son of God discloses

Chorus:

And He walks with me,

and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He speaks and the sound of His voice,

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing.

(Chorus)

I'd stay in the garden with Him

Though the night around me be falling,

But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,

His voice to me is calling.

(Chorus)

Shoot Me! (2 of 52)

Shoot Me! It's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And, just jump in now with 1 of 52. You can do it!
- Carin at Forever In Blue Jeans

Wanna join this yearlong challenge? Creating, collecting and treasuring memories made more fun! Joining is just a click away!

yeah!

Aileen (whom I call Twin because many people had always mistaken us as twins in the university including professors and fellow students alike) had her church wedding last January 29, 2010. Yup! And, I was her bride's maid.

Wanna link your own Shoot Me post? Oh, please do! Just type and add your link to MckLinkly and then visit other Shoot Me posts from our fellow bloggers by clicking their names in the list. Make sure to leave some love, too!
Comments! Comments! Comments! Who doesn't love comments? \(^^)/

Wordful Wednesday: My Lola's 73rd Birthday!

*Wordful Wednesday is for those of us that like to showcase a photo(s) but that just can’t seem keep our mouths shut about it (them). - Seven Clown Circus.

If you’d like to play along, just click the image above. Happy Wednesday!

My grandmother just turned 73 last year.
We decided to give her a surprise birthday bash!















With my cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews,
November 14, 2009 became a fun-filled and heart-warming sunny day.













It is a privilege to shower lola some love.













Let me share the photo taken that day which I really like the most.


















Lola Esen and France
(the grandmother and great granddaughter)

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete.
-- Marcy DeMaree

Wanna link your own Wordful Wednesday post? Oh, please do! Just type and add your link to MckLinky and, then, visit other wordful (or not so wordful) blog posts by clicking any name in the list. Make sure to leave some love, too!
Comments! Comments! Comments! Who doesn't love comments? \(^^)/

Meet My Handy Dandy Notebook! :)

Yup! That's me and Steve Burns with our dear handy dandy notebooks. ^^ But, unlike Steve, I am not finding and recording Blue's clues. I also do not have a thinking chair wherein I can deduce what it is that Blue wanted.

What are in my handy dandy notebook? More than three things are in it. As you flip through the pages, you can find:

• Bible reading checklist
• to-do list (whether chores to be done or fun things to try)
  
• prayer list
  
• contacts
• things to buy
• movies or shows to watch
• books to read
• song lyrics (hymns and a Korean song)
• verses to memorize
• list of my Korean students
• a love letter ^^
• doodles
  

Why take down notes? Maybe, I am just simply meticulous or perfectionistic. I am into details. It gives me peace of mind when I am able to write things down. It allows me to maintain focus and feel worthwhile. I bring my handy dandy notebook with me whenever possible because an idea might suddenly pop out in my mind and I fear I might forget it easily unless I set it down in writing. Although others can set their plans of action in mind, I simply just cannot do that all the time. I have to have a pen and a handy dandy notebook to have all my thoughts in hand!

By the way, I forgot something. Also, in my handy dandy notebook is....

• a list of blogs to write!
  

How about you? Do you also have a handy dandy notebook of your own? What are in it? (~_^)

There Are So Much To Discover!

It felt like I opened a door to a new world - a whole new world (imagine Princess Jasmine singing ^^). As soon as the door opened before me, I saw more of reality that I have never thought existed.

I started blogging on Blogger just last January this year for the purpose of diverting daydreaming or contemplating to something far more productive. I was advised to find and focus on one niche to have good blogging content. I agreed with that but I just couldn't find that niche suited for me and to start with. I just wanted to put on writing the things running on my mind - memories, plans, frustrations, achievements, reflections, etc. Writing is one of the ways which I can express myself. Thanks God I was able to have this humble site as my own even though I still simply don't know where to focus on. ^^

Before I become an official blogger, I have already been following few bloggers namely Kuya Kevin, Ate Thess, and Issa. And, now, I have been following a lot more. Each of them has his or her own story to tell - inspiring, challenging, and even funny stories.

I want to tell, share and have a story of my own, too. I welcome myself to this new world I found!

Shoot Me! (1 of 52)

Shoot Me! It's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And, just jump in now with 1 of 52. You can do it! - Carin at Forever In Blue Jeans

Wanna join this yearlong challenge? Creating, collecting and treasuring memories made more fun! Joining is just a click away!

Here are only two of all the pictures shot and edited by an artistic friend with the help of Picnik.com.

The photos were taken on the same floor of the building where we are working. We first let all our colleagues and bosses leave the place before starting the photo shoot. That was about 12 midnight. Just because of freaky wooden knocks that we finally left the building at around 1 am wondering if it was only the security guard who scared us.

Me jumping up and down as if while singing
....♩ ♪ ♭ ♩♬... la-la-la-la.... ♬ ♩ ♪ ♭ ♩....

What are you looking at?

Wanna link your own Shoot Me post? Oh, please do! Just type and add your link to MckLinkly and then visit other Shoot Me posts from our fellow bloggers by clicking their names in the list. Make sure to leave some love, too!
Comments! Comments! Comments! Who doesn't love comments? \(^^)/

Demotivation At Work

☞

Percentages may vary depending on your mood.
Hahaha!
This is funny! ^^

Kidding aside, why do employees tend to work lazily at times? It can be because of 1) insufficient salaries or benefits from the company, 2) the employer's unfair or rude treatment towards the employees, 3) gossip at the workplace, 4) lack of professional growth, 5) over workload 6) very light workload, 7) personal problems. These are the few reasons that I could think of. In short, it is because of demotivation.

Demotivation should be addressed - both by the employer and employee. There should be mutualism and not commensalism nor parasitism.

Whew! It is hard to drag your feet towards the workplace when you don't even have an ounce of drive to labor.

Personally speaking, here are the reasons why I sometimes become a mediocre at work (ssshh..this is a confession! ^^,):

I find more fun things to do online, e.g., reading manga, blogging, Facebook, etc.
I find more fun things to do off-line, e.g., reading Barbara Delinsky novels.
I feel unappreciated.
I woke up at the wrong side of the bed.

How about you? What are your reasons?

The Joy of Phone English

☞

I have mentioned in one of my posts that I would blog and tell why I love my job. To name a few, one is the appreciation I get from my students and next is the improvement I see in them. I just remembered that I have already posted about it here. ^^

What the heck is bX-4eopfk?!

☞

As of this moment, I still don't know the answer.
Anyway, what matters is I can now log in to Blogger again. Yeepee!

☆★♡♥◇◆♧♣♤♠○●

This happened last night......

(originally written at 10:27pm, 02 March 2010, Tuesday)

I was in the height of excitement as I was editing my blogs' HTML when suddenly this image appeared after I refreshed the page.

My mouth was silent but my heart and mind weren't. Oh my! Oh my! This can't be! I have set this free time to awaken the blogger and artist in me. Tons of emotions and thoughts I am planning to unfold! Layouts are supposed to be edited. I can't wait! I can't wait! I want to do them now! Why is this happening?! Boo hoo hoo..... T.T

So, here I am using the word processor to unleash all the disappointments and frustations I am feeling at this very moment!

I hope that kuya would reply to the email I sent him. I hope that he would tell me how to activate my account again since he experienced the same problem in the past. (Not to mention, his blog site now is still very active.) Would anyone out there care to help?

Account temporarily disabled

We apologize for the inconvenience. Accounts may be disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service.

Did I violate anything? If yes, what violation did I commit? If not, then activate my account! Waaaaa!

☆★♡♥◇◆♧♣♤♠○●

Then, at about 3pm today, I tried logging in to Blogger again. Viola! Everything is back to normal!

Let me thank those who assisted me on this. First is Kuya Kevin who promptly replied to my email. He provided me the link in his blog wherein he posted about the same problem. Second is The Google Team for sending me an email informing me that the issue has been resolved.

Lesson learned? I should save a copy of my article before or after posting them on my blog. That way, I can still have a backup of all my entries no matter what happens. Thanks God! ^-^

I glasses?

The company required the employees to undergo a general check-up. It was really beneficial; although, it was a hassle at the same too. Even if the medical group had set their paraphernalia in our training room, we still had to rush to the ground floor for our x-ray. (Take note: We are on the 10th floor and the PM teachers had to rush because we were already having classes and the check-up wasn't yet all finished.)

Stool and urine? Checked.
Blood sample? Checked.
Blood pressure? Checked.
Height and weight measurements? Checked.
Physical examination? Checked.
X-ray? Checked.
Eye vision. Checked. But........

Oh my! I no longer have 20/20 vision! I can still read those small letter in line 8 but my vision got clearer with glasses she made me wear. Well, it was just like 20/25 vision. Not bad. She just said that it would make my eyes more relaxed when I avail myself a pair of reading glasses.

Hmmm. Now, I am thinking. Me? I will be wearing glasses? To be or not to be?!
I still don't know. ^^