You reap what you sow

Reaping time has begun.

KWATRO.

(with hagod)

I wish I could call this a repeat of the First Term Epic Grand Slam but it really isn't...first of all, I only have one subject this term, whereas during the first term, I had a full load for a part-time student. But looking at the bright side, this term also had its own brand of "epic grand slam", in the sense that I had to handle a full load of work and ministry, along with school. 

The real test though happens when I go full load again next term. /sigh I hope I can deal with it.

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Anyway, I have two events coming up, and if perchance you are interested in any of these, please leave a comment with your email address so I can send you more details :-) 

• Friday, April 27: The Happy at Work 2.0 Conference 2012. Happy at Work is an event that seeks to share best practices on employee engagement and happiness in the workplace. Recent studies on positive psychology have shown that it is happiness that fuels success, and not the other way around. We've got really good speakers (award-winning), so it's definitely value for money.
• Saturday, May 5: Project Author. This is BIGGER than the one last December. We actually have Samantha Sotto as one of our speakers (yes, the Samantha Sotto who wrote Before Ever After). Also invited are Grace Chong (her talk is wonderful, believe me), who's an amazing down-to-earth person in spite of her five Palanca awards and 30 books; RJ Ledesma (It Only Hurts When I Pee and three other books), and Larry Gamboa (Think Rich, Pinoy!, and two others). We also invited Flipside Digital Publishing's Honeylein De Peralta, and her talk's a must-listen if you want to get the lowdown on e-books, a publishing route that's established itself as a force to be reckoned with.

Again, if you're interested, please leave a comment with your name and email address so I can send you more details. We've got discounts available, plus these are two events that have wonderful content. You won't be disappointed.

Please also pray for me - these three weeks will be very tough on me (it's kind of like hell week last December). 

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Now reading: A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis. I knew this had to be included in my reading list after last year's happenings. I think it will be very interesting to see how the famous apologetic dealt with grief, and how he wrestled with God throughout the entire grieving process.

I tried to keep a grief journal. I was dead serious with doing it that I even bought a notebook for it. But, I only got to write a few pages. It was tough writing about my personal grief story. Finding the words to describe how you feel is both a fearful and challenging ordeal. Fearful, because in many ways I wasn't prepared to face my grief, and instead opted to put layer upon layer upon layer of protection (work, getting more work, getting more and more work) over my true feelings at the time, and shedding all of it would be like opening a can of worms. Challenging, because putting words to describe "grief" on a page is like limiting the definition of my personal grief. One word, like "depression", or maybe "longing" puts limits on the overall scheme of things. 

Until today, many pages are left blank. 

By the way, I highly recommend The Case for Christ. Like, mark it as one of your must reads before you turn 30 or before you turn agnostic/atheist...or something. XD

Book buy this month (and probably the only buy, because I have stuff to pay for) is...finally my own Maxwell Leadership Bible. If you've been to the bookstore, you know how much this costs - over P1000 bucks (when I went to the MIBF last year, it was P1200 I think). I got mine - a brand new copy - for a price that screamed YOU'LL SO REGRET NOT BUYING ME SO BUY ME NOW.

There was a time I got second-hand, yet very good condition leather bound Bibles (like BIG ones) for a thousand bucks (got my big NIV and NASB from that source). But this ... I got for much cheaper than that. *grin*

In which I do some comeback fangirling - Shinhwa 10th jib review

On repeat for the past two weeks - Shinhwa's 10th album. Can I say it again? TENTH. Twice the number of albums H.O.T released. TEN.

I noticed that there aren't too many blogs/sites that say how good this album is...I guess they're too busy focusing on the more younger, recent artists that they're forgetting those who have legendary status like Shinhwa. Who knows? I think a comeback of this magnitude can be considered valuable for air time.

Anyway, this is my humble contribution to the appreciation of all things Shinhwa. =)

1. On The Road*
2. Hurts*
3. Venus*
4. Red Carpet
5. Move With Me
6. Let It Go*
7. Stay*
8. Welcome*
9. Be My Love*
10. Re-love
11. Breathin'*
(everything asterisked are songs that I liked)

After two weeks of listening to this album straight (not skipping, mind you!), I think my favorite song for now would have to be On The Road, followed by (yes, you guessed it) Venus.

I cannot really comment on the content of the songs, but I will assume that they're love songs (duh!), but I'm very glad that they decided to update their sound to something that's more recent (i.e. use of the dreaded autotune), and can very well compete with the stuff that the juniors are releasing.

My only reservation (and it can be ignored) about this album is that maybe, just maybe, it sounds like it wants to fit into the mold of the tried, tested, and trusted formula - meaning it did not go against the grain, or it did not try to set a trend. It was...safe. *shrug*

Overall, I don't have a problem with a "safe" album, because what they set out to do was in no way safe (releasing a 10th album after four or so years of no new material, doing a comeback concert, performing in a string of shows against juniors, etc) for a group that consists of their ages (30+ is too old for the standards of their industry - how I wish K-pop could develop their talents even if they're beyond their teenage years). I just thought that it would have been EPIC if they started a trend in terms of musicality, but they did prove that a group from the 90s can survive for 14 years and still release good, solid material.

I  hope that other groups will follow suit. *ehem*H.O.T*ehem*

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Since I touched a bit on the junior-senior thing, I guess I might as well post my thoughts about some memes I've seen on Tumblr that say [young artist] + [young artist] = [older artist]. 

Case in point (and this is the one that occurs most often): Si Won + Zhou Mi = Kangta

I must admit that I get really peeved when I see these posts up on my dashboard. I’m not discounting the similarities between these people (because there are similarities), but I always get the feeling that Kangta is a lesser artist with these comparisons/additions, or he is only equal to the combined “awesomeness” of more recent, popular artists. He isn’t. He’s a freaking SENIOR for crying out loud. He paved the way for these younger artists today. Get it right. 

If there’s anyone who should be added up to Si Won or Zhou Mi, it should be him, not the other way around.

Now, if you mean that the awesomeness of Si Won and Zhou Mi combined equate to Kangta, then I have no qualms with your math. XDDDDD

Holy Week

Hello people of the Interwebz. Belated Happy Easter. =)

Holy Week is usually busy for me, but this past one was more relaxing than the previous ones.

On Easter Sunday, we sang (once again) the Hallelujah Chorus, and Because He Lives. Did I mention that we did these songs for all four services? Yes we did. /sigh 

I must admit that singing in choir is one of my weaknesses. I can sing in unison, but I don't have the ear that can tell if I'm blending with everyone else. I'm usually too loud or...too loud. /hehehe

The next day, the entire ministry went to Subic! Wooohoooo!!! I can't even remember the last time I went there. Thanks to this outing, I got to experience the following:

1. Sleep inside the church building. We had to be in the bus along Pasong Tamo before 5AM, so rather than I go out of the streets of Manila at 4AM and be exposed to a lot of risk, I opted to sleep in church instead. I got to leech off of the church's wi-fi (hahaha) and played one round of DrawSomething with a classmate before I went to bed. 
2. Ride a banana boat. I initially wanted to ride a jetski, but P3,500 for one hour was just waaaay too much, plus there's the stress of learning how to operate a jetski (and the sheer fear of getting stranded out at sea XD). The next best thing was a banana boat ride, which was basically an inflated banana-shaped boat being pulled by a jetski.
3. The dreaded beach. I'm not a beach person - I would rather be in a swimming pool. I think the last beach I went to was Bohol, which was...2007/2008(?). I dislike being in the saltwater (although come to think of it, drinking saltwater is more au naturel compared to drinking water laced with chlorine XD), so I just made the most out of the day.

Here's a photo of us on the boat prior to jet-off (LOL I wonder if that's the proper term). The banana boat was worth P250 for 15 minutes, which is kind of steep, but worth it. We circled the bay three times, and got close enough to a South Korean ship. I screamed "Annyong hase yo!" but it looked like no one was there. (I'm sociable that way.)

At the end of the ride, the jetski driver took a very sharp turn that made the boat turn upside down, which made all of us fall into the water. That was probably the best part of the entire ride (and the funniest), though I drank some of the saltwater by accident (ugggghhh beaches).

Overall, I'm happy with how Holy Week was spent. I also got to write some chapters for my book (OH YES!).

Finally

FINAL PRESENTATION - DONE
April 1
3-in-1 instant coffee

Finals is done and out of the way,. The group I belonged to got a perfect score!  *hurraaaaaah* Our group is sort of notorious for not following directions and contradicting the professor (for the latter, I think I should say that I'm the one who publicly contradicts the professor most of the time XD), but for our final presentation we were commended for recommending strategies that were different from the leading brand. Huzzaaaaah!

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It's Holy Week again, and I've decided to use the downtime to write my book. I worked on a chapter that I started over a month ago (ye gads), and just when I thought I finished it, I realized I haven't...so I had to backtrack and add some details to it, until I saw the time and had to move on to another activity.

Like with the past Holy Weeks, I have to juggle rest with church work. It's a good thing that this Holy Week isn't as stressful. Last year was the Mary Magdalene thing. I'm happy to say that I have finally retired playing the harlot, and have moved on to other things. XD

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I have been reading. 

Yesterday, I finished Solo Flight, written by Ms. Grace and Francie Castaneda-Lacanilao, which I bought during the author event that I managed last December. This book was a very easy and enlightening read. I would recommend this to singles in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, even 50s. =) It's got an excellent perspective on the single life that's very well grounded on biblical principles. 

My copy (which is autographed, by the way =D) has highlights on some parts, and there were times that I wanted to put underlines on some parts that really resonated, but I didn't have a pen handy. The bottom line of this book is (for me), is that the single life is in no way a half-lived life. =D

Next in the pipeline is this book, which I bought at a very low price (P125!). I've never read a book that attacks this topic from a legalese/journalist perspective, and it's been a good read so far (and might I add, timely due to the Holy Week).

I like book bargains. I regret that I don't got to Booksale that often. I think I may sell some of my books (the ones that I'm not so crazy about) sometime this year, or probably give them away to someone who will take care of them.  And still on the subject of books, I still haven't made that master list of books that I've been intending to make. /sigh

One thing is for sure - I may start a book club with someone. =D I'm actually quite excited about the idea. I have no idea how a book club should be run, though. I'm doing some research on how one is formed and how a meeting is conducted, and how a book is selected to be the reading material for the month. Nevertheless, this is something I find very exciting and worth spending time on.

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I hope I get to write a lot in the days to come. And, by writing, this includes blog posts as well /sigh.

Toodles.

You got to deal with it: The Obligatory Fangirling-about-The-Legend-of-Korra Post

Aang is dead. 

Since last week, I've been spazzing on the awesomeness called The Legend of Korra. Knowing my country, it will be a while before the series reaches our shores, so I took the liberty of seeing the first two episodes for myself.

 I regret nothing.

Late nights | Blind item

It was the female parental unit's birthday this Wednesday, and the male parental unit decided to take her out on a date. I gladly opted out (cause a date isn't a date with a third wheel), but the date soon became a foursome family affair. 

We were supposed to eat at Mesa at Greenbelt 5, but it was full when the parents came and the female parental unit wanted a healthy dinner. So, we ended up eating at *insert awesome flashy starry effects here* Sugi! 

itadakimasu.

gochisousama.

It was an AWESOME dinner. It's been years since I've eaten at Sugi, so I was very happy to be there last night. My favorite dish was the grilled mackerel. Excuse the ugly photos. I wasn't expecting to be part of the dinner last night so I wasn't able to bring Oberon.

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Paging REST. Where are you?! /cryfaise I need you now. For the whole week, I've been going home late. =(

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Occasionally, I do this. Bear with me for a while.

Randomness

I am really, really tired. I seriously need a day off so I can sleep the sleepiness off. I hate that I didn't have a weekend.

Anyway...

I am SERIOUSLY curious about this. It's a new Saiunkoku Monogatari novel, and from what I'm getting with the little Japanese that I know, the title of this story is somewhere along the lines of Ask/Beg The Skeleton. (I reserve the right to be wrong XD)

Okay. The title as it is doesn't make any sense to me, so I'm betting it is a metaphor of some sorts, or maybe proverbial, since SaiMono uses a lot of proverbs. However, the only skeleton proverb/wisdom I know of is this: "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it how to dance."

But the cover - and may I say it is the PRETTIEST SAIMONO NOVEL COVER EVER - doesn't suggest anything that's close to the "skeleton in the closet" proverb. If you ask me, it's about death, or if I may quote Psalm 23, walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

It's been a while since I got this excited for SaiMono. And all it took was a cover.

I'm speculating like heck here. XD I'll stop now.

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On things that I have more knowledge of (haha!) and are capslock-worthy:  BSB IS COMING TO THE PHILIPPINES, and they're not alone, because NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK will be coming with them. Praise the Lourde, NKOTBSB WILL BE COMING HERE! 

My primary concern is, of course, [1] funds and [2] how will I get myself to MOA on a workday. I definitely have to start saving now so I can really good seats. I hope also someone can go with me...I'm not really sure if I can watch a concert by my lonesome. =/ 

I also hope I can get a decent lens to photograph the event. If I'll make do with the 18-55mm of Oberon, I'll have to have a really good seat so I can have good photos. If not, they'll be blurred or just too far away. =(