20 questions

The rule: Remove 1 question from the list below, and add your own personal question to make it a total of 20 questions. Tag 8 people, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. Whoever does the tag will have blessings from all.

1. At what age do/did you wish to marry?
30! I think I’d have had my share of accomplishments by then. And I’d have traveled the world and am ready to finally settle down…you think?

2. What color do you like most?
Violet. And Red.

3. If you can have a superpower, what would it be?
Shape shifting a la Mystique!

4. If you can travel anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?
I’d go island hopping in Greece, experience Turkish delight in Istanbul, dance the night away in Rio de Janeiro, bask under the glorious Parisian sun, and fall in love in Positano, Italy.

5. Which part of you that you hate the most?
Stretch marks!

6. When you get sad, what do you do?
Watch a romantic movie with the intention to cry my heart out, and eat something sweet and sinful right after. Fabulous!

7. What are you afraid to lose the most?
People I love.

8. If you win $1 million, what would you do with the money?
Set some of it aside for investment. Treat my family to the ultimate ULTIMATE vacation. Live in New York for a year or two. Buy my own studio and paint to my heart’s content. Write write write. Travel travel travel.

9. What do you love the most last year (2007)?
I really made the most out of it, that’s for sure!

10. What is your New Year’s resolution?
Travel more. Write more. Live a healthier lifestyle. No idle, wasted moments!

11. What is the moment you regret most?
Not pursuing what I really wanted in college! I chose to stick it out with the status quo. Oh well, making up for it now!

12. What type of person do you hate the most?
Wimps! People who don’t go after what they want thinking it will come to them eventually. Good luck on that. In the meantime, try growing a backbone.

13. What is your greatest asset?
My rapier wit and irresistible charms. hahaha

14. If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
Joy, happiness and adventure for me and the people I love

15. Person you’d want to be stuck in a deserted island with?
Johnny Depp or Hugh Jackman in Wolverine getup. Rawr. haha

16. Name the one body part your hubby or boyfriend tells you he adores.
Hmmm. I have no boyfriend but I’ve been told I have a great ass. Wahaha. And I have nice eyes

17. It’s 2008. What are you looking forward to this year?
Book project with Trish and Karlo, French lessons with Tere, and an abundance of out-of-town trips with friends and family.

18. Anything in your life that you wish weren’t so awful?
Hmmm. I guess I need to get my act together–enough with the procrastinating!

19. What’s the shallowest thing you intend to do this year?
Sign up for Professional Makeup lessons!

20. And the most noble thing you plan to do?
Continue paying it forward. Life coaching, maybe.

TAGGING: Steffi, Celay, Mina, Leah, Papu, Ana, Igor, Banggigay

Cheers to tax refunds!

Extra shopping money! LOL

Kidding. I’m saving it for the rainy days. Naks.

Ouch

I recently read one of Butch Dalisay’s blog entries, Why we don’t write more novels (but should), and I was struck by some of the things he said about Filipino writers:

Novels traditionally demand sweeping views from the mountaintop. Our problem is, we have very few mountaintops here in the Philippines; of the few that we have, even fewer of us have the lungs or the inclination to scale them. Instead we have become master pedestrians, or masters of the street scene, which is why we do so well with the short story, which requires little more than a few hours or a few days of action in places like cafeterias, boarding houses, and alleyways. We often complain that our attention span as a people is very short—such that the past 30 years of our politics might as well never have happened, since no real wrongs have been redressed and no one has really been punished as we lurch from one mishap to the next. That might explain why our attention spans as readers and writers are equally brief. We see history as a distant, bloody, romantic past that we dress up for to commemorate—not as the continuously unraveling, insidiously common thread it is.

We—especially our writers in English—rarely venture out of the city; thus the only panoramas in our predominantly short fiction are those on travel posters on the wall of the office cubicle. Our forests—albeit our denuded ones—and our oceans do not figure in our work, and neither do the lives of our people in these places. In other words, our fictional space has become very small and very crowded, with a very low ceiling. This is not again to say that we cannot do or have not done wonders within that space—within, shall we say, that rat’s eye view of the world—but I’m afraid that many of our younger writers might start believing that the world is indeed that small, and shrink their brains and imaginations just to fill it rather than expand that space.

He made a really good point. Why should we limit ourselves to our immediate fictional space when there is a vast expanse out there for us to explore and write about? I think it’s about time we start exploring unfamiliar territories–no matter how uncomfortable we find the unknown to be.

We shouldn’t wait for inspiration to come. Instead, we have to go out and meet it.

Hay. Exhale.

Addicted to online quizzes (gawd)

Your Aura is Violet

Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world. And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don’t always use it! The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say Famous purples include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach

What Color Is Your Aura?

Wanderlust

Your Travel Personality Is: The Adventurer

For you, travel is how you learn about the world. And you like to learn the stuff that’s not in guidebooks. You truly have wanderlust. When you’re not traveling, you’re dreaming about where you’ll go next. And your travels are truly legendary – they leave you with stories you’ll be telling for the rest of your life!

What’s Your Travel Personality?

I inspire >:)

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You’re quite the storyteller! In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart. You often don’t follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. And you do break a lot of hearts. At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do. You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding When other people don’t get you, they see you as: gushy, emotional, and unfocused

What’s Your Personality Type?

And…

You May Be a Bit Schizotypal…

A bit odd and socially isolated. You couldn’t care less of what others think. And some of your beliefs are a little weird. Like that time you thought you were Jesus.

What Personality Disorder Are You?

Not the most poetic of declarations

Cheers Beer Commercial

Living loud

I had a makeover event yesterday in Ortigas and it totally inspired me to start dressing up again. Haha for the longest time, all I’ve been wearing to work are my uber casual jeans and shirt ensemble. My staple footwear? Flip flops. My feet are unbelievably dry from too much exposure to dust and the cold (temperature in the office is below zero). Time to pamper my feet.

So the past month has been quite the roller coaster ride for me…but yesterday I finally decided to let go of all the emotional baggage I’ve been lugging around with me for the last two weeks. And it just felt really great. I’m not saying I have completely recovered but I am a work in progress. If I were a canvass, I’d say I’m almost complete. Just a few more finishing touches, a dash or two of color here and there, a bit of texture, and I’m more or less *ahem* a masterpiece. Higher market value! Haha

Right after yesterday’s makeover, I went home straight away and finally got to see my relatives from the states. They’ve been here for almost a month already and I haven’t had the chance to spend time with them because of all my extracurricular activities. My absence has been felt by my family (just today my grandmother asked me to please be home early hehe) and I feel really bad about it so I’ve decided to take a little breather from OCCI and focus on life outside that safe, happy place in Ortigas. Hehe

Sigh. I’m starting to feel like myself again. Eyelovit.

Welcome back T!

All in a day’s work

Finally finished the marketing brochure I’m preparing. Well, I still have a page to go but I’ve already done 3/4 of the content–all the important parts–and sent it to our graphic designer for the initial layout. And it’s only the first draft so I can afford to take it easy for the rest of the day.

Hmmm…

Now what?