A Night Out with my "Li’l Sis" and her friends …

    My first night out this year last night. I got a few extra bucks this week so I treated my "little sis" and two of her friends for dinner and  a couple of rounds of beer.  We went to newly opened bar which is owned by my bro's friend and former classmate.

    We started with their dinner or  shall I say very late breakfast? They ordered tapsilog! Since I already had my dinner at home (can't avoid it, mom, cooked chicken binakol. ) I had a bottle of SMB Lite. Stanley, the owner, was there, I chatted with him while the girls are having their dinner. After their dinner of them went to another group … (someone told me that she usually does that … ). My  "Lil Sis" and her other friend each had a bottle of SMB lite too. I introduced her to Stanley as my "little sis" . He reacted "How did she become your sister? You are the youngest of the four?" My "little Sis" laughed and insisted, "It's true! I'm his little sis! You can even ask your classmate (referring to my brother). They adopted my". 

    "Since when?" Stanley replied- who happens to know our family very much.

    "It's still being processed." 

    At this point, I'm already laughing. The fact is "My little Sis" is not really my sister. Its just, I came to know her 5 or 6 years ago, she was still in high school then, when I gave a talk in one of their activities in YFC,  well, I gave several talks to their group afterwards, and I became close to her and her group. When she got into college, she frequently come to our cafe with her friends. With in those times, I started to treat her as a little sister … one that I never had, since we are all boys in the family and I'm the youngest. But I started calling her Little Sis just recently.

    Stanley, finally realized that it was just a joke, well sort of heheh. He asked then what pulutan  we would like to have, the girls recommended the spicy dilis. But Stanley said, it might not be available because it has been raining for days and dried dilis in not readily available.  So I said, whatever you would recommend.

    After a while a plate of Sizzling Sisig was placed on our table. The girls asked if I ordered one.. I said not particularly this one. As time slowly passes, we just chatted without any particular topic, Stanley would come and go, accommodating the other customers. After a while, a plate of the Spicy Dilis was served… Whew it was spicy alright.    Though, the dilis was a bit big to be crispy. There was a point when my Little Sis asked me about my ex-gf. (She knows her.). I just told them that we no longer see each other.

   We had another round of beer, and  buttered chicken was served this time. (We didn't even order it). We slowly consumed our drinks and pulutan. Stanley, told us that he's planning have an acoustic night in the coming days and invited us to be there for it. Just before 10, we decided to call it a night, and asked for our bill. Wow all those pulutan were on the house! 

    We let my Little Sis take the ride home first. I took the ride with the other two. I went to another place where my other friends were waiting for me.  One of the girls went straight home while the other met with her other friends too.

    I just had another bottle of beer there, talked with the guys a bit. I wasn't actually feeling good anymore at that point. So excused my self and went home. I just checked if my "little sis" is home already through text. Then went to sleep

Shifting Paradigm for the New YEar!

   I've always been a simple man in all my life… always contented in what I have,  accepting whatever comes my ways as the will of God. Always looking out for the welfare of the others first before myself. I've always wanted to help others. That's why when Gawad Kalinga (GK)  was established (or re-established) in our area, I volunteered to be a be a part of it. I saw it as the service that I have been looking for in a religious organization. It's a chance for me to really help the poor.

    But because of one person… I realized what a simple minded FOOL I've been (well maybe). Not that I now think that what I've been doing was entirely wrong, but  I guess something is missing! I had NO ambition for myself!

    I'm still going to continue serving in GK. But from now on, I'm going to put a little more love for myself and have a little more ambition for myself. For Jesus said "Love your neighbor as you love yourself", right? Not love your neighbors MORE than you love yourself… It took me sooooo long to realize this .. but it's never too late to shift my paradigm, is it?

  Happy New Year and Happy Three Kings!

Farewell 2006

[Note: Copied from my other blog] 

   Just one more day and its good bye 2006! I look back into what happened to my life throughout this year, and recall the good things and bad things that happened …

First the bad or the Not So good:

     Business has not been so good lately. We can hardly keep up with our monthly recurring expenses and the loan payments. And competitions keeps popping up like mushrooms after a stormy night!  Though I was able to get a new service for our business, implementation is very very slow!!!!

    Until this month our supposedly other source of income has not been so good too.. Mother's pension was cut off already… The family that bought a piece of lot has been very inconsistent in their payments too…

    The leaders of our community has been very silent… seemingly unconcerened already…

    The last provincial activity we held that I spear headed, has not reached the expected number of deligates plus, a misunderstanding took place…

     In the middle of the year. She started to ignore, I was hoping at the time to build our friendship first, after our failed relationship last year. I reasoned, if we could become the best of friends first, our relationship would become a lot stronger … I guess she's got a different idea … (and I know, you already told me I made a wrong decision, and I have acknowledged that). And my attempt to win her back this year failed …

 Now for the Good:

    Unexpectedly the buyer of that piece of lot was able to come with the money this month. And they are willing to pay as early as the 2nd week of January next year. This would give us additional capital too so we could level with our competitors

    I  got 2 programming projects to finish by January plus the third one I making for some students, and another for my Australian On-line  friend…. *Sigh* If haven't procrastinated  (did i spell this right?) so much, I could have finished one already.  At least I got much to expect when 2007 arrives). And hopefully I could close another deal with one of the colleges here.

       I was able to go to Mambukal mountain resort in Negros twice this year. Yeah the place is great!!!!

   Though we haven't reconciled yet. I still have so much to thank her for. I have learned so much from her and in her own little ways I got so much motivations in life. Though she never verbally demanded it… For , as I have been a wandering sould in this world… but because of her, I have now set some goals in so many if not all aspects of my life… from personal, financial and up to the matters of the heart, in her own little ways, I have learned a lot. Though I have read so many books and heard talks on self improvement, I have applied only a little of those, until I met her…So if I were asked what's the best thing or what are the best things that happened to me this year ? I'd say.. those moments that she had shared with me this year… not in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality…

    
My Prayers:

   My prayers for the next year… At least I hope that I could show to her my appreciation… (I have another prayer that concerns her, but I'd rather keep it to myself for now .

    I pray that the financial blessings would continue to pour.

   And as I leave the year 2006 behind, I will leave behind also, all the pain and sadness that I have experienced in that year, but I'll bring with me the happy memories and the lessons learn from the sad experiences!
 

    Before I close this blog, I'd like to thank the people who shared their thoughts with me in this blog. (I'd rather not mention names now, I might forgot someone).You know who you are! Thanks. And hopefully I could meet you in person!

Taking a Break..

    Wow, after a few days of almost sleepless nights. Partially because I've been thinking about her, but mainly because I've been working on my  program…. Well the first module was installed .. although it still needs some debugging … At least for now I can take a little break…

 
    In a while, if I could play it in my head again, I'm going to write the second part of my Randori article 

Randori (Intro)

    It's been over ten years since I last practiced Aikido…And before I stopped, I have been practicing for 5 years. Although the later part  has been on and off due to an injury on my right colar bone. And when I joined a religous organization, and became active in it… I simply had no time to practice anymore…After a few years I returned to my hometown and thought Aikido would just be another part of my memories. I don't even read my books anymore.

    Ahh.. but someone up above have some other plans… For there is a dojo here…

    At first I didn't bother  to join. The dojo was quite far… but then again… a few months ago, they moved it very close to home. When I knew about it, I didn't hesitate this time.

    Now, one part of the Aikido practice that I missed the most is the randori. Let's define the word Randori  first 

Randori (乱取り) is a term used in Japanese martial arts to describe free-style practice or sparring, sometimes with multiple attackers. The term literally means "chaos taking" or "grasping freedom," implying a freedom from the structured practice of kata.

The exact meaning of randori depends on the martial art it is used in. In judo and Shodokan Aikido, it most often refers to one-on-one sparring where partners attempt to resist and counter each other's techniques. In other styles of aikido, in particular Aikikai, it refers to a form of practice in which a designated aikidoka defends against multiple attackers in quick succession without knowing how they will attack or in what order. 

-Source: Wikipedia  

Note:  In this article and following,  I will use the term Randori as it used in Aikido Dojos (last description).

======================================================================================

Next : A Randori Scene 

======================================================================================= 

Gotta do something with the program

    Darn! I'm stuck! I wanted to finish the first module of the lending system that I'm currently creating.. but somehow my current emotional state is messing up my mind!!! I just can's stop thinking about her!!! Darn! I'm not like this before …I can usually work under pressure… I used to pride myself that I can always control my emotions … Was I merely fooling myself ? I feel like I'd rather draw or write than do my program that requires a lot of logical and mathematical thinking …. *sigh*

    Or I really missed her badly????

The Day Before Christmas

    It's almost 11 AM and I'm stuck here in the cafe. Reading other people's blogs while I'm trying to think of what to put here… I've been thinking about my ex still… (Darn I should put this on my other blog …. )

    Finally, I can work on the CD cover that I would give her for Christmas… Some people were here as I was typing this blog and I don't want other people to see my work … specially this kind of work.. sumthing personal…

    So for all of you out there… Have a Merry Christmas!!!! and pls do pray that I will too…

To Blog or Not To Blog? That is the question…

What the heck is a blog anyway? Well that was the first question that came into my mind actually when I first encountered this four letter word. So I checked and tried it … it seems like an online diary … the heck, why should I web cast my life to over a billion net users out there! (As of Dec 2006, approximately 1,076,203,987 people worldwide use the Internet, according to Internet World Stats.). Hmmm… now this number gives me an idea…

   I tried other blog sites before… the day after  I created my account on those sites… I can't even remember my login name & password combinations … I had some entries on my myspace and friendster accounts… but i rarely update them now … I even tried to make one blog engine of my own (it was text based at first using php, and initially planning to migrate it to php/mysql later … but, i dont have much time for it … I could have done it though. But then again $time$ is $money$ and I dont have the luxury of both). 

    So make this boring long story short, there was a time when I abandoned the idea of blogging, until the other day that I came accross this i.ph site!

    To blog or not to blog? What do you think I'm doing now? and I have another anonymous account here too!

    BTW, my thanks to the Human Warus who is the very first person to give comment to my other blog which I want to remain anonymous for now. And also to devilishqueen/Devilicious (I hope ur Nanay is all well now).

 This is it for now .. Keep blogging!!!