my best friend's girl

I laughed out loud when jason biggs' eyebrows got razor-ed.

medicine proper

F's benefactor spent P756,000 sending him to UST for medicine proper from year 1995 to 2001. The cost included school fees, books, supplies and living allowance.

Last Will and Testament

I, (your name), being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do now make and publish this my last will and testament, in order, as justly as I may to distribute my interests in the world among succeeding men....First, I give to good fathers and mothers, but in trust for their children nevertheless, all good little words of praise and all quaint pet names, and I charge said parents to use them jointly but generously as the needs of their children shall require.

I leave to children exclusively, but only for the life of their childhood, all and every dandelions of the fields and the daisies thereof, with the right to play among them freely, according to the custom of children, warning them at the same time against the thistles.

And I devise to children the yellow shores of creeks and the golden sands beneath the waters thereof, with the dragonflies that skim the surface of said waters and the odors of the willows that dip into said waters and the white clouds that float high over the giant trees.

And I leave to children the long long days to be merry in, in a thousand ways, and the night and the moon and the train of the milky way to wonder at, but subject nevertheless to the rights hereinafter given to lovers; and I give to each child the right to choose a star that shall be his.

To lovers, I devise this imaginary world with whatever they may need, or the stars of the sky, the red, red roses by the wall, the snow of the hauthorn, the sweet strains of music, or aught else they may desire to figure each other the lastingness and beauty of their love.

And to those who are no longer children or youth or lovers, I leave memory.

- from The Seven Minutes

New Year's Resolutions

I found among my things this newspaper cut-out
of a Nike ad published in 1991. Give or take
a couple of things, everything in the list still
applies year after year after year...here is the ad:

"In 1991, I will start jogging again.
I will go back to the gym.
I will get a better job.
I will quit smoking!
I will get my master's degree.
I will get my bike out of the garage.
I will stop using the elevator.
I will limit charging on my credit card.
I will go swimming on weekends.
I will lose 20 pounds by summer.
I will start writing to my old friends.
I will definitely start my own business!
I will stop eating chocolates.
I will learn to fix the car myself.
I will start using computers.
I will get into more corporate dressing.
I will start getting more fresh air.
I will start walking to work.
I will give up eating so much!
I will get out of the house more often.
I will definitely learn how to cook.
I will religiously budget my expenses.
I will spend more time with my kids.
I will be more optimistic about the future.
I will learn how to be kind to my subordinates.
I will start saving.

YOU CAN GO ON AND ON, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY...JUST DO IT."

authentic friendship

oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort
of feeling safe with a person
having neither to weigh thoughts
nor measure words
but to pour them all out
just as it is chaff and grain together
knowing that a faithful hand
will take and sift them,
keeping what is worth keeping
and then with a breath of kindness
blow the rest away

- author unknown to me

Dividends

Now these are really good stock investments.

Manulife Financial has been giving quarterly cash dividends since 2002.

HSBC Holdings plc has been giving dividends (cash or stocks whichever you prefer) twice every year for so long I don't remember now.

small enough

oh, great god, be small enough to hear me now
there were times when i was crying
from the dark of daniel's den
and i have asked you once or twice
if you would part the sea again
but tonight i do not need a fiery pillar in the sky
just wanna know you're gonna hold me if i start to cry
oh, great god, be small enough to hear me now

oh, great god, be close enough to feel you now
there have been moments when i could not
face goliath on my own
and how could i forget we've marched around
our share of jerichos
but i will not be setting out a fleece for you tonight
just wanna know that everything will be alright
oh great god, be close enough to feel you now

all praise and all honor be
to the god of ancient mysteries
whose every sign and wonder turn the pages of our history
but tonight my heart is heavy
and i cannot keep from whispering this prayer
"are you there?"

and i know you could leave writing on the wall
thats just for me
or send wisdom while i'm sleeping,
like in soloman's sweet dreams
but i don't need the strength of samson
or a chariot in the end
just want to know that you still know how many hairs
are on my head
oh great god, be small enough to hear me now

- song by nichole nordeman

blogging for money

P. told me his officemate, a new IT graduate from U.P. is maintaining 80 blogs and that she can opt not to work cause she's earning enough from the blogs. She's even paying some students (they cost cheap) to do the writing.

I prayed for you today

gave thanks for your life
wished you the best
asked the heavens to bless
you with good health and happiness

i sent you good thoughts
surrounded you with hope
and faith and love

i asked that you be
prepared for whatsoever life
hands you or whatever
you're going through

i asked that your spirit
be strong and lead you
and guide you each step
of the way down
every path you take

i asked the universe
to confirm for you
that you're someone very special

i asked the earth
to be good to you and
i asked God to show you
His perect way.

i prayed for you today

by Donna Fargo

and you learn

by Veronica A. Shoffstall

After awhile you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn that love doesn't mean possession
and company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept
your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of an adult not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build roads today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans
and futures have ways of falling down in mid-flight.

After awhile you learn that even sunshine
burns if you get too much so you plant
your own garden and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure
that you really are strong
and you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn...

Prayers for Unity of Faith

O God, we are one with you. You have made us one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. O God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept you, and we thank you, and we adore you, and we love you with our whole being, because our being is your being, our spirit is rooted in your spirit. Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes you present in the world, and which makes you witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious.

Thomas Merton 1915-1968

May He Who is the Father in Heaven of the Christians, Holy One of the Jews, Allah of the Muhammadans, Buddha of the Buddhists, Tao of the Chinese, Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians and Brahman of the Hindus lead us from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to light, from disease and death to immortality. May the All-Loving Being manifest Himself unto us, and grant us abiding understanding and all-consuming divine love. Peace, Peace. Peace be unto all.

Swami Akhilananda, Bangladesh 1894-1962

O Lord, grant us to love Thee; grant that we may love those that love Thee; grant that we may do the deeds that win Thy love. Make the love of Thee be dearer to us than ourselves, than our families, than wealth, and even than cool water.

Mohammed 570-632

Sermon

From ‘The Exorcist’ taken from a sermon of John Henry Newman entitled ‘The Second Spring’

……. We have familiar experience of the order, the constancy, the perpetual renovation of the material world which surrounds us. Frail and transitory as is every part of it, restless and migratory as are its elements, still it abides. It is bound together by a law of permanence, and it is ever dying, it is ever coming to life again. Dissolution does but give birth to fresh modes of organization, and one death is the parent of a thousand lives. Each hour, as it comes, is but a testimony how fleeting, yet how secure, how certain is the great whole. It is like an image in the waters, which is ever the same, though the waters ever flow. The sun sinks to rise again; the day is swallowed up in the gloom of the night, to be born out of it, as fresh as if it had never been quenched. Spring passes into summer, and summer and autumn into winter, only the more surely, by its own ultimate return, to triumph over that grave towards which it resolutely hastened from its first hour. We mourn the blossoms of May because they are to wither; but we know that May is one day to have its revenge upon November. By the revolution of that solemn circle which never stops which teaches us in our height of hope ever to be sober, and in the depth of desolation, never to despair.

mass schedules in tagaytay

Tagaytay Highlands - 11 am, 4 pm Sundays

Good Shepherd - 6:45 am

OLPH - 6:30 am, 5 pm Monday to Saturday
6 pm Saturday
7 am, 8:30 am, 5pm Sundays

Pink Sisters - 7:30 am, 5 pm Sundays
6:30 am Weekdays

Little Souls Sisters (Peach Sisters) - 10 am Sundays
6 pm Monday to Friday
10 am, 6 pm Saturdays

time wasters

Playing spider solitaire and bookworm.

skycable vs. destiny cable

We changed our cable service from Skycable to Destiny for two reasons:

1. Skycable's reception is bad especially for the high numbered channels.
2. Skycable is more expensive at P797.32 per month as against P450.00 for Destiny.

I miss the Korean dramas of KBS but the shows at the Travel and Living channel more than make up for them.

santo domingo

morning mass schedule at santo domingo church, quezon avenue

5:45 am
6:30 am
7:15 am
8:00 am

let me start

Welcome me to the blog world!

The title came from Prof. RA who said "You'll have mental atrophy" when told about my shift from doing project development for the government to managing a family owned trucking business.

That will be the title for now. But my alternative title is "voracious seeker of mental diversions". I don't know where I got the phrase but I found it written in one of my old calendar planners.