The Blind Boy and his hat

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A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.


A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"


The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."


Both signs told people that the boy was blind.. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile –
Face your past without regret.
Handle your present with confidence.
Prepare for the future without fear.
Keep the faith and drop the fear.

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling -
And even more beautiful is - knowing that you are the reason behind the smile. :)

Please pray for the Philippines.

After the Philippines got struck by the devastating 1-day rainfall last September 26, 2009 because of typhoon "Ondoy" (internationally named as Ketsuna), "Pepeng" (Parma) is about to enter RP's territory by nightfall and I can only hope that our country be saved from further destruction...

Although I was fortunate that our home was spared from the floods and no one I knew got hurt, I still feel sad and sorry for my fellow countrymen who was affected greatly by Ondoy. A lot of them has still not recovered from the loss of their properties, love ones and the wearisome situation they are in, I only ask for your help through whatever donations you can give and most importantly, prayers that we be spared from this calamity.

And to my love ones...

God Bless the Philippines.

Mid-Feb Spring Cleaning!

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At last, after quite some time I finally got to fully clean my room again and spring clean in the middle of February. Although some may grumble or get things in order, I saw some forgotten treasures I kept hidden in my drawers.

When we keep things, they obviously just pile up, waiting for the day we would sort them or throw them away. But this particular spring cleaning of mine turned nostalgic after finding some almost-forgotten memories in the pictures I've stored in my molding things. Pictures that date back from my childhood until college life (Yes, I have kept that much). It was funny seeing how years passed by and saw old friends, newly met ones, and friends that have stayed with me until now. I even saw some of the funny studio pictures I was eagerly joining in, posing without worrying about the world!

I also saw a pile of letters stationaries that flooded me back during my highschool hobbies. Studying in an exclusive school, colorful (not to mention scented!) stationaries were in! If guys during our time would go crazy about their gaming cards, fighting about it or trading them, stationaries were pretty much our "gaming cards". We traded with other classmates only to write on them and give to your special friends and well, keep the best ones to ourselves! XD And now that I've gone through some of the pile of letters written to me by old girl friends, it's funny knowing they were doodling on it during class.XD The time and date were mentioned, so you really know you're either having Geometry or Chemistry that time, enough to bore us out and just write simple mumblings like "Hoi Joan, mag-aral ka naman! Basa ka ng basa ng letters ko!" Hahaha!

I also got to dig up the letters from... ex's. And I was laughing about it, surprised at myself for even keeping it after all these years. (And it included their totoy pics too!) Hahaha! There was even one letter saying "From your secret admirer ". Like, LMAO! Secret admirer but you go mention your name?! Kids! But hey, I even kept some from much mature days.... but I wouldn't say who they were since you'd probably know them since it was only 4 years ago when I met 'them'!XD

I saw my diaries (and I'm going to stop there before I reveal some of my childhood secrets XD), projects, school notebooks (I've kept them OMG!!! XD), old hobbies and habits, and of course a lot of other stuff to throw away that filled a whole black trash bag!

So you're probably wondering why I even posted such 'almost-private' things... I actually threw those things already so I wanted to turn those memories into an article instead. At least I know internet would be part of the future so I could just go back to this page and read all about it.

I really didn't have to throw those things but I realized they would either pile up as [memorable] junk or I could just grow out of them because I can always keep those memories at heart. It's just actually easier to spark that memory with those physical things but then again, I know there'd be more memories to make in the future so I'm cleaning up this space for those new things to come and reminisce again someday. :)

Up, up and away!

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It's the last day of the 14th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival and I was glad to have witnessed it on the last day of the event.

It was worth it waking up at 3:30 in the morning to travel to Clarkfield, Pampanga and see the Hot Air Balloons before they taking off in the humid sky.

Some of the pics I took of the festival:

And aside from the freaky huge balloons to be seen, different exhibitions by the Philippine Army (Jet Plane, Photo Ops, Military equipment showcase and such), souvenir and entertainment booths and were also part of the itinerary and quite frankly, it's not everyday you get to see this kinds of exhibits! =D

Being in this festival was really fun and my camera sugar rush kicked-in once again! See more of the pics I took here at Flickr!

The Tale of Madness and Love

On this day of hearts, I'm posting one of my favorite internet articles I found long ago. I don't know who is the real author of this since there had been a lot of posts on this already. We could say anonymous, or we could say.. someone wise. :) Happy Hearts day everyone!

The Tale Of Madness and Love


A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time, virtues and vices floated around and were bored, not knowing what to do.

One day, all the vices and virtues were gathered together and were more bored than ever. Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: "Let's play hide and seek!"

All of them liked the idea and immediately Madness shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!" And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness, all the others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started to count: "One, two, three..."

As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding. Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon, Treason hid in a pile of garbage. Fondness curled up between the clouds and Passion went to the center of the earth. Lie said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake, whilst Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking. And Madness continued to count: "... seventy nine, eighty, eighty one..."

By this time, all the vices and virtues were already hidden - except Love. For undecided as Love is, he could not decide where to hide. And this should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide Love.

Madness: "...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..." Just when Madness got to one hundred, Love jumped into a rose bush where he hid.

And Madness turned around and shouted: "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

As Madness turned around, Laziness was the first to be found, because Laziness had no energy to hide. Then he spotted Tenderness in the horn of the moon, Lie at the bottom of the lake and Passion at the center of the earth. One by one, Madness found them all - except Love.

Madness was getting desperate, unable to find Love. Envious of Love, Envy whispered to Madness: "You only need to find Love, and Love is hiding in the rose bush."

Madness grabbed a wooden pitch fork and stabbed wildly at the rose bush. Madness stabbed and stabbed until a heartbreaking cry made him stop. Love appeared from the rose bush, covering his face with his hands. Between his fingers ran two trickles of blood from his eyes.

Madness, so anxious to find Love, had stabbed out Love's eyes with a pitch fork. "What have I done! What have I done!" Madness shouted. "I have left you blind! How can I repair it?"

And Love answered: "You cannot repair my eyes. But if you want to do something for me, you can be my guide."

And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.

What I've been up to.

For more than 3 days now, I've been unable to get 8 hours of sleep, work on my magazine articles, update my blog and well, get enough sleep.

So what's the root cause of this zombie-mode?

3 things that has become my recent addiction (after having none for such a long time XD):

Plurk.
- What can I say? Chatting is addicting right? Know what happens to me every minute of my life.. I don't mind, that's why I plurk right? XD +1 Karma point! Woohoo!~

Deviant art.
- I've been uploading my old and new photo collection taken either by camera phone or with a DSLR. Hope you drop by and check out my work! I'm happy to be getting good responses and favorites so far! Just click on the link and you'll be directed to my page! :D

Patapon.
- This simply adorable 2008 nominated PSP Game of the Year totally got me hooked and not to mention exercising whenever I try to follow the beats! I can't help but dance or tap to the tune as I march my Pata pata pata pons into missions and eventually lead them to Earthland! Currently at Mission 30, I wonder when I'll finish this? Patapon 2 is soon to come out already! ~XD

A cute artwork on Patapon copying the poster of the movie "300".
Kudos to the creator! (Sorry I couldn't find the site source)
The falling Zarapons knocked me out!XD

Writing Tips Part 2

There's a lot more that can be done with writing than just the basic essays, news and or blogging. It could be as simple as writing a diary.. or it could be a deeper medium of thoughts and dreams to portray things that cannot be spoken or acted. Here's a second part on writing tips from yours sincerely.

7) As much as possible, do not be BIASED.

Although this instance is something hard to do (because sharing one's opinions or ideas means you take up a side.. SOMEHOW), as much as possible (as my writing profs use to say), try not to be biased specially with issues that needs serious response by looking at both side of the story.

8) Browse RANDOMLY.

I make this a habit specially If i don't have any topics in mind. I randomly think of a category and browse anything (well except for porn sites and the like. =.=") just so I could discover other topics I may not know about and heck, does it help me think of things to write about!

9) Learn new WORDS.

If you encounter a word you're not familiar with, Google it or better yet, learn a word in a DAILY approach. My dad used to make me do this when I was still young. I skipped a lot of days mind you, and although I may not be a walking dictionary, there's always Shift + F7 (Thesaurus) in MS Word. XD

10) Avoid Procrastination!!! >_<"

I know this may be one of the many reasons why one can't improve on their skills because they let themselves think "i-could-do-this-or-that-on-another-day-anyway". I'm guilty of this too but if I feel that I'm up to writing, I make up for the days I don't get to post something and well, try to make sense out of it too. As much as possible, do not procrastinate. Instead, motivate!

A tip my writing professor taught me:

He said that if you read back on our past written articles and you LIKED it, it means you haven't improved our writing skills.

If you hated it and thought it sucked, it simply means you wrote it very badly!

...And how to know if you've improved your writing? Sorry but I Guess we'll have to find that out for ourselves because I forgot the rest of Dean's lecture!XDD

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."
Anais Nin

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Related Post:

+ Writing Tips Part 1

Here's to the 2009!

I finally got my top wishlist and with SLR in hand, I give my long-dreamed baby a test run over the Christmas Holiday! Sharing with you some of the pics I took and enhanced them a bit of added awesomness. :D

Do give constructive comments so I can improve on my photography skills alright? ^_^v

2009 New Year

Practicing Low light

Working on the living

More pictures to come and well, at least more productivity from me for 2009! XD

Motto: "It's gonna be LEGEN... wait for it--- DARY!"

The one about that writing hobby

For all the writers and writer-wanna-be: Write, write, write!
Some tips from the not-so-best-writer around

My office mate asked me to teach him how to write. I pondered and told tell him my habit on how I make my own article, blog or simply doodling words to be able to come up with random topics to write about.

I think everyone can write. It's just that there are some who are born to be one or has honed their skills through continuous writing. It's not even an issue whether this skill is inherited or not since I'm the only one in the long line of my family who has love for writing. My brother is just starting to bring out his skills just after I have been constantly publishing some of my works.

I don't know which of the two established my ability, but might as well put it to another good use by giving some tips to those who want to hone their skills too.

1) Read.

Even if you read only one category, say newspaper or FHM (=.=), it doesn't really matter what you read. Reading could give you ideas on what you want to write about. It also helps in seeing other people's writing composition and eventually pick it up and evolve it to your own. Like they say, You are what you read.

(If you wanna know, I'm a novel bookworm. I started reading Hardy Boys back in GS then went for Sidney Sheldon (May he rest in peace) and James Patterson who has greatly influenced my writing composition (Minus the "sexy" parts. XD). I'm currently inlove with Neil Gaiman and his insanely great ideas although I still have a long way before I write like him.)

See? You really don't have to idolize Edgar Allan Poe or Jose Rizal just to be a writer! You're the one who makes a name for yourself! :)

2) Write.

Of course one would really get nowhere without constant writing and practice. Write down your thoughts however jumbled they may be. It's from there you could start to fix the puzzle and make a story out of it. Just try to lessen superfluous words. You want your readers to READ... not get nosebleed. XD

3) Ask someone to give you constructive criticisms.

You'll really never know your fault or wrong grammaring (LOL) without asking someone to see it for you. My parents were my first editors until i finally submit my first article to the Kiddie newspaper I first wrote for and saw the final outcome. My 200 word-article turned into 80. LOL! XD

4) Study .

Well in my case, I picked the Journalism course (now you know) to fully hone the skill that I have started ever since I was young. I learned from books, teachers and fellow writers. I can't say I'm a good writer already, but I just keep on writing for the love of it.

I could say intermmediate English would suffice just to fully give one a grasp of all those writing rules and what-not's. Self help books might help too. :D

5) Blue's Clues anyone?

It's not about the blue dog or their mail... mail... maiiiiil! (XD) It's their "thinking notebook" that's very handy dandy specially when one thinks of an idea and doesn't even have a notebook (and pen for that matter) to pour out what they are currently brainstorming. Well if you have super memory, you might be able to wait 'til you get home to type in all those ideas. But then again, any piece of material that's writable enough would do, take for example J.K. Rowling who started Harry Potter in an ice cream tissue paper! XD

6) Last but not least, DO NOT FORGE.

This is like the unforgivable sin in writing. If you want to write about something and you got most words from someone else, it's not shameful to inform them as your source. It not only gives that person the right to his or her intellectual property, but it also shows that you DO read to broaden your thoughts and eventually incorporate them on your own article.

That's all I can think of right now. I hope it's useful to those who want to have this passion or simply as a hobby. For those who already know how to write, maybe you could share your own tips too! :)

If you want to write, just write! No language or inability should hold one down. Heck, writing in a personal Diary is considered a step already! What's important is that you get to express your thoughts and or opinion write? errr... right? XD

From a news article I read about the comic artists of Trese and what they have to say about writing: (from Manila Bulletin, Nov. 1, 2008: G-1 Section)

"Don't let comic books just be the only source of inspiration for your stories.
Read anything you can get your hands on.
Finding inspiration from life. When you fall in love,
write down how it felt, try to describe it to a five-year old.
Watch a band perform for the first time in some hole in the wall
and remember how the singer stuttered and how his sweat
glistened on his forehead. Talk to your parents what
they dreamed about when they were kids.
Talk to the kids about what they're most afraid of.
And after that, go back and write."

Very inspirational if I might say. :)

The Pen is the tongue of the mind.
- Miguel de Cervantes

- - -
Related Post:

+ Writing Tips Part 2

November Vacation!

After almost 3 years of pure studies (really?!) and being a part of the working society, I finally got to enjoy a 5-day vacation in my dear birthland, Pangasinan. I may not have been totally cut off from work and got bloatful from all the hearty meals, but overall... Man did i enjoy it! =)

Some pics I just wanna share~

Sorbetes!

Oldest-happiest habit, sand castle-building. :)

Flower among the twigs~

"Boulders & flowers"
(Wow my phone takes some good shots! XD)

The place where i stayed all day~

Gotchaaa!

Wooo beach!~


Sweet, sweet sun.
(Finally got the picture right after manually finding the right
composition while mercilessly being sucked by mosquitoes! >_<")

How i wanted to enjoy it longer... But it's back to work again tomorrow!
... Awww.