IN THE FACE OF DEATH

I could have died
He could have pulled that trigger and take my life.

I could have dropped dead on that wet ground.

Rain and blood will flow and while unmoving, I'll watch my killers go.

Stephanie Perkins in Cebu

I hope it's not too late to post about another one of my exciting book signing escapades. I got stuck with work and I've been saving my post in flash drive just waiting for the perfect time(means being free from the demands of my boss) to finally post it. This is the time.

Stephanie Perkins at National Bookstore SM Cebu

First, I have to say that I've never read yet any of Stephanie Perkins book but I already heard so much about it and I always get stranded in the shelf where her books are displayed at National Bookstore. I'm curious about her books and she looks really pretty in the picture. The books she wrote are not the usual genre I read. What I mean are young love and all the teenage scenario plots. Maybe because I'm already 23 and the thought of reading this kind of stories makes me think about the high school version of myself reading a pocketbook about romance.  The last book I read that contained teen love was Meg Cabot's Jinx and I only bought it because it has some witchy-twist and all. I was always into some kind of Dystopian setting (Hunger Games, Selection, etc), suspense and Harry Potter kind of plots. 

My hands were always itchy every time I would see Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door at National Bookstore. Reviews say that it's fantastic and hilarious  and it really makes me want it. Part of me want to buy them considering that I have read John Green's TFIOS and teenage love kind of convinced me that it's not that bad and it's a feel-good(I mean awesome) book but there was a part of me saying "You're being a bad girl in the bookstore again. You got a pile of books in your room and you are not even half done with it and now you're adding another bunch" and then that's when I would turn my back and say "Good-bye Anna and Lola".

Book Depository: Every Book Lover's Bestfriend

I am declaring Book Depository one of my bestfriends when it comes to book-related shops. Well, National Bookstore will always be the top 1, then Booksale and then Fully Booked and now, Book Depository is now one of them.

Image from TheCollective

I’ve been hearing a lot of Book Depository ever since I started looking for online book shops. It took a long time of reviewing various blog posts and reading Book Depository experience before I finally decided to try this Book Shop which delivery worldwide for free.

Mitch Albom Booksigning at Philippines

Best-selling author of Tuesdays with Morrie visited Philippines for his book signing tour last Feb. 22 and 23 at Glorietta Manila and Ayala Cebu and I was really happy to be able to attend that awesome event and have a chance to have my book signed by himself.

Photo from www.marcellapurnama.com

Mitch Albom wrote inspiring books namely Tuesdays with Morrie, For One More Day, The Five People you meet in Heaven, Have a Little Faith, The Time Keeper and the newest released "The First Phone Call From Heaven".

What Makes a Guy Complicated

All these times, many would say things like "Girls. They're so complicated" , "They're hard to comprehend". Weeeeehhhhh... di nga...

Ni minsan ba, never pumasok sa isip niyo na, "Hello... Boys? They're so complicated too!" . And come to think of it, girls do have reasons why they're unpredictable and hard to comprehend. Girls in nature are moody plus the factor that girls have PMS periods that even them can't help but hate themselves when mood swings starts. How about boys? They blame everything to girls to the point that they can't see themselves doing the same thing and even worst things that makes them complicated.

The Month of March

It's been a month since the last time I've posted about the Banana song of the Minions and until now, I still can't memorize the song well.

Now, I just want to share the things that happened last month. 

March was a very busy month, I kind of worked out with thesis and other school requirements for graduation. It's funny to think that we defended our thesis a day before the final passing of grades, bought a dress for my graduation ball a day before the Graduation ball and submitted my application for graduation a day before the Pre - Commencement exercise. And one more thing, we sang the institutes' very first graduation song that was composed for the institute. It was entitled "Ready To Go Beyond".

It was kind of a roller coaster rush. Things happened so fast that I even experienced staying awake for 22 hours, go to school from an overnight work(with our thesis) at my classmates' house without taking a bath and not taking any REAL meals. Until now, I couldn't believe I was able to carry on. Thanks to God's grace. Right now, I feel like I was Supergirl that time.

Photo Mania

Heart's month is finally over. It's MARCHing month now and there's a lot to do especially for those who are going to graduate this month.

Wow! It's such a relief to be able to update my blog. I've been busy these past few weeks because of our thesis and our minor subjects required a lot of assignments, papers and other activities... 

Anyways, this post is my break from all the hectic schedules and stuffs. My latest addiction now is Photography. This is because of our Humanities subject. We've been asked by our instructor to submit photos of different subjects. Here are they. Feel free to comment.. :)

 

Going Emo with the Shoes

Heart's Day, Sketches and other Trips

Happy Heart's Day dear readers!!!

It's Valentine's day and yet, it wasn't that fun here. Well, maybe because their are still aftershocks of the Typhoon Washi(Sendong). Not to mention that it's been raining for how many days and the soil is in their colloidal suspension (mud). It's frustrating how I try hard jumping from one dry land or rock to another just to keep my shoes clean only to find out when I get to the jeepney, I wasn't that really careful at all.... Grrrrrr....

Anyway, enough about all the negative things I encountered last morning. After all, there were still happy moments. My dorm mate and my sister in CYA gave me a Valentine present... It was really cute...... and.... pink...

  

Life is like a Rose

I was 2nd year high school when I first joined Journalism contests. To be honest, I really didn't know how I made it into the Division Schools Press Conference. To think that I was really not that good enough and I never joined any journalism trainings and the write-ups I have made on the pasts were just simple essays about protecting the environment which was for my science class and essays entitled "My Bestfriend" for my English class.

So there I was, in the huge function hall filled with faces of students from different schools. They all looked smart while I looked like a lousy stick sitting on the far end chair along with other students from my school. I was assigned to do the feature writing ENGLISH category. For about an hour, there was a lecture about feature writing and the next hour, I found myself sitting in front of a table with a white paper and a pencil lined up with about 10  students,  competing for the three places of feature writing English category. What we were going to write was a piece entitled "Life is like a Rose". 

7 years later, I found the draft of the piece I wrote for that competition inside an old notebook. I'm older now and still having trouble with my typos, just imagine me when I was 13 so please do excuse my lapses. Have fun reading.

LIFE IS LIKE A ROSE

Life is like a rose, do you believe in it?

 Photo from Life is like a Rose

The Sendong Tragedy

Magdadalawang linggo na matapos ang nangyaring flash flood sa Iligan at CDO. Napakasudden talaga. Baha here and there. Baha everywhere. Hooh.... Until now, hindi pa rin ako makapaniwala but then I'm just thankful kay God for the lives of those who were able to survive. At least bagong buhay. Time to reflect and change. Of course, hindi ito magiging madali. I've seen the destruction. Naputol na tulay. Ruined houses. Dead bodies. Nakakatakot at nakakalungkot.

 

Photo from Doppelganger

It happened so fast. Walang mag-aakalang at exactly 1am... some lives will end. Karamihan pa ay mga bata at matatanda. That night of December 16, kahit ulan nang ulan, party everywhere. Christmas party nga kasi. Institute party nang MSU-IIT, department parties. Personally, I was happy that night of December 16. Umuwi galing Laguna ang isa sa mga closest friends ko and she even visited our department and kind of joined the party. It was the awarding night of the 2 day Skills Competition nang department namin. Foundation day kasi nang depatment namin. We had so much fun habang nagbabatuhan nang pick-up lines. By 10pm, we all went home while ako naman, went straight to Jolibee to meet the unit head of CYA, we were going to have an overnight christmas party at Linamon. Humabol lang ako dahil nga sa christmas party namin sa department. 

Sacred Stone: My Book of the Month

When everything seems to be falling apart (charr... that sounds dramatic), my ultimate  medicine is reading a book...( of course, that's after I'm done eating a lot of food when I don't feel really good).

I know this semester is going to be bloody. My brain would dry and I may never gain weight for the next five months. This is because, we're starting to develop our special project (some call it thesis... something like that). Unfortunately, my groupmates are not that cooperative to me... (it sucks because... I'm the only girl in the group and the rest are males... P.S. i'm the group leader....) Anyway, I'll give them some time while I cure my aching head (from pressure) by reading my newly bought book.

This is going to be my book of the month. Last month, I read Narnia's 4th series The Silver Chair. I borrowed it from my classmate. For this month. I'm reading Clive Cussler's 2004 THE SACRED STONE.

I'm still on the first chapter and I'm already thrilled.

Anyway, here is the overview of the story. For more details of the book, go to the Cusslermen.

Photo from Simania

In the remote wastes of Greenland, a young scientist has unearthed an artifact hidden in a cave for a millennium - a 50,000 -year old meteorite known as the Sacred Stone, which possesses potentially catastrophic radioactive power. But the astounding find places him in the crosshairs of two opposing terrorist groups who seek the stone for themselves.

One is a group of Muslim extremists who have stolen a nuclear device. With the power of the meteorite, they could vaporize any city in the West. The other group is led by a megalomaniacal industrialist who seeks to carry out the utter annihilation of Islam itself.

Caught between two militant factions bent on wholesale slaughter, Juan Cabrillo and his ship of high-tech mercenaries known as the Corporation must fight to protect the Sacred Stone - and prevent the outbreak of World War III.

What made me happier about this book is that I got for a low price only. Haha... Believe it or not... I got it for only Php20.00, that's about $0.50 USD. Absolute Sale at BookSale and I guess I really do have a power of getting books at low prices. Hehe...

NEVER ASSUME UNLESS STATED

One of best rules in the constitution that can be applied in real life: "never assume unless stated".  

-In life, sometimes we tend to expect and assume too much. Too much things that in the end, we end up being hurt. This is a poem about expectations, assumptions, being fooled and realizing mistakes and lessons we learn. A poem about such stated in a narrative love story type. -

Photo from ISTOCK

He was a junior and I was in my freshmen year

Told me he loved me but I didn't care

I was so young and I had my priorities

That I had no time for anything unless it's for my studies.

The Over-the-Bakod Experience

I was so tired that whole four hours that I was so exhausted when I came home. What’s more tiring was that I also had to go to the school gym for the Cultural Night of our College Palakasan. I haven’t eaten my dinner that time and it was already past six when I came to the school and help my classmates with some of the activities we prepared.

It was quarter to 10 when I decided to go home. I was so tired and hungry. The dorm where I live at imposes curfew and it’s always 10pm during regular semesters and 9pm during summer classes. I had a classmate who had a duplicate key for the dorm for she’s the assigned keymaster of the dorm. She comes home late always because of her school works (she’s a senator in our student government) and she was busy that night in the gym so I was thinking that if she wouldn’t go home yet, the dorm gate would still be open so I went to the nearest fast food and ordered TO-GO meal. It was getting dark so I rode “Sikad” and arrived about 10:30. 

 Photo from Kerenor

Maria Cristina Falls Trip

7-30-2011. this was an amazing day. I’d say I experienced two first time experiences that day. It’s been two weeks already and it’s frustrating that I haven’t posted a blog about it until now.  Anyway, I’m sharing now what happened that day.

Saturday, 7-30-2011, it was a date. CYA was going to hold its fellowship on Ma. Cristina Falls. Of course, I was very excited. It would be my first time to go to the place. I have been to Tinago Falls and Abaga Falls, unfortunately, I forgot to export all my adventure trip photos from Friendster which is why Tinago, Abaga Falls and Mt. Agad-Agad will only be memories on my head. Anyway, like I said, I have been to Tinago and Abaga Falls, but Maria Cristina Falls? I never had the chance to. Iligan is of course the City of Water Falls but of all the falls there, I’ve only been on the two.  Anyway, I can’t blame anyone for not having a chance of going to Ma. Cristina. Ma. Cristina is a private place. Not everyone can go there without having to log-in and ask permission on the office. Ma. Cristina is the no. 1 source of Mindanao’s electricity. 

So I got there along with some of my dorm mates, friends and other CYAers. It was amazing. That time, the flow of the falls was ravishing. The water falls looked like soap bubbles poured on a pail of water. I could even see rainbows. Totally AWESOME and LEGENDARY.  Here is a picture of the falls.

After being totally amazed by the beauty of nature God has created, we then went to the nature park where we watched crocodiles rest with their mouth wide open, ostriches roam around their cages, etc. We played outdoor games as well.

I was so tired that whole four hours that I was so exhausted when I came home. What’s more tiring was that I also had to go to the school gym for the Cultural Night of our College Palakasan. I haven’t eaten my dinner that time and it was already past six when I came to the school and help my classmates with some of the activities we prepared.

I have a continuation for this… “The Over-the-Bakod Experience”

A Sad Jeepney Love Story

It's not Valentines but there's a love story I want to share. It's not something special but it's something that we witness everyday. Something that we can relate to a sad love story.

 

Image from Philippineplus

It was raining last Thursday when I rode a Jeepney home. The driver and the conductor were still waiting for additional passengers to fill the jeepney. A girl sat on an extension chair between me and the woman on the opposite side. The other side of the extension chair was still vacant. We were all set and the driver was already starting the engine. He's about to drive away and then someone shouted from the outside saying that he'd like to ride too. 

A REFLECTION ON THE YEAR 2010: A WINNER OR A LOSER?

Photo Link

Last year was a rough year. Several things happen. Some of them happened the way I expected and most of them happened unexpectedly. I became a loser and a fighter. I failed on the decision I first chose. Things did not happen the way I pictured it last 2009. Was it really the reason or it just happen that I was so carried away by the present that I forgot to plan the future rightfully? Yeah, maybe the latter was right. Maybe the picture I created wasn’t that clear enough. And then, I chose to stay and move on from all the failures and chose not to regret anything about the decisions I made in 2010. I don’t feel any regret about the loser acts I did last year. Why? Because last year, there were things that happened and they would’ve never happen if the thing I expected happened. I did things that I never thought I could do. There were things I thought impossible for me to achieve but I did. I had a clearer mind and I’ve created a plan. My father said “no one is rich enough to buy back time” and I didn’t want to spend that year wasting my time on regretting about my first decisions. I chose to accept everything, the failures, everything. I chose to move on and did things I wanted. In the comfort of my home, I met several people that became my friends. I forgot all the negativities.

So what happened last year?

Many. Many things happened last year and I’ve learn something.  Things happen for a reason and most of these things happen the way you never expected and usually, they happen the way you didn’t wanted. Either way, YOU ALWAYS HAVE CHOICES. You have two choices. Either you chose to be weak and get carried away by all the negativities or chose to accept all the failures, move on and take the positive side. Life isn’t always ups, ups and ups. Sometimes winners become losers and pride isn’t the most important thing in life. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO ADMIT YOU ARE A LOSER TO BECOME A WINNER.

I may not be successful yet but I can say that I’m a winner because I CHOSE TO MOVE ON.

Thanks be to God for the strength He has given me.