Dalai Lama life instructions

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
   -  Respect for self,
   -  Respect for others and
   -  Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
    think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Favorite ko and #16 “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” Life mantra ko na ata yan. And I so believe in #4 “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” It took me a while to get it, but I get it. I get it. The others, I really need to learn to practice it.

Ano kaya ang feeling na friend mo ang Dalai Lama? Will he have the answers to all your life questions? He seems so smart and at peace with everything.

(Link.)

The List: 30 in my 30′s

Out of sheer boredom in the office (excuse: I’m waiting for files!) and as a result of Steve Jobs’ death and his 2005 speech (blogged here), I decided to finally finish my (almost a year in the making) 30 in my 30′s list —a shorter version of my life list. I’ll cross out anything that I’ve accomplished. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog about it too.

Disclaimer: the list might sound selfish for some of you, so please don’t judge me. Please believe me when I say I have “depth”… kahit papaano. There will be none of those love stuff like “find a boyfriend and get married” and all that shit; God knows when that will happen. (Sino ang nag-e-emote?!)

1-10. Travel, travel, travel. (Seriously, I think I should’ve been a travel host or flight attendant.) Swerte if I get to go to hald of the places I’m listing down!
* New Zealand * Australia (must visit Arlene) * Thailand (Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Sukothai, Kanchaburi) * Cambodia (in my Lara Croft outfit. Chos!) * Vietnam * Bali * Tibet * Mongolia * Canada (must visit Myra, Viv and Tina) * USA (Autumn in NYC, SF, San Diego, Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, Seattle, Cedar Point in Ohio, Grand Canyon, Florida theme parks) — IF they renew my visa, if hindi, eh di wala. Shet sila. * Japan (Tokyo, Tokyo Disneyland, Sanrio Land, Harajuku) * Korea * Beijing, China * London * Europe (too many to mention eh! Pwede buong Europe?) * Brazil * Egypt * India (Taj Mahal) * Batanes *
(I originally listed 10 places, but well, the world has lots of wonderful places.)
11. Travel with my parents. I’m hoping New York since the three of us love that place. I think London would be a good choice, too.
12. Experience a Tomorrowland party before I turn 40. Party, party!
13. Travel with friends and/or cousins.
14. Travel alone. I vote London! Or New York! (Have I told you that I love getting lost in that city? Oh, I did? Lots of time? My bad.)
15. Attend at least five festivals in different places.
16. Rob a bank to be able to go to accomplish all travel wants.
16. Make a music video of some sort about my travels. Something like the Move, Learn and Eat videos. Or this lovely video about the Philippines.
17. Dye my hair red like Claire Danes in My So Called Life. Here.
18. Grow out my hair past the shoulders. (This may seem simple pero major effort for me!)
19. To be able to wear a sparkly, glittery dress and/or ball gown dress to an event. Complete with matching hair and make-up ang drama! Gusto ko mala-Oscars. Sige, fine, kahit Star Magic Ball drama nalang. Basta gusto ko bongga!
20. Loose the tummy and keep it that way.
21. And to achieve #20, I have to find the perfect exercise for me. Now to start exercising…
22. Start driving and go have a road trip by myself or with friends. Must be accompanied by a perfect road trip soundtrack.
23. Learn a choreographed dance routine (I’m thinking hip-hop and swing) and get the chance to perform it. Syempre with matching costume!
24. Attend a costume party and go all out on the costume. Hmmm… Catwoman? Pocahontas? Red Riding Hood? Malificent?
25. Start redecorating my room. Finish redecorating my room.
26. Cook a meal/dish and serve it to family and/or friends.
27. Personally make gifts for family and friends. (I already have an idea, I just need the time and funds to execute.)
28. Have my favorite and best photos printed. Maybe have them framed. Display.
29. Watch The Wonder Years from start to finish.
30. Learn how to play the piano. Or at the least, learn one piece and perfect it.

Spell ‘ambisyosa’? A-I-A. Universe, Kuya Jess, everybody and anybody who can help me, lets do this!

7 awesome things of the week

If last week I blogged about being filled with feelings of melancholy and nostalgia (here), this week naman was filled with awesome. Okay, exag ang whole week of awesome, but there were things that happened that deserves to be tagged as ‘awesome.’ These moments were like being in vacation happy.

1. Chichi and Gigi. I woke up Monday morning to this weird but very cute laugh. You see I wake up to Chico and Delamar every work day (my alarm clock is set to RX) so it was weird to hear this guy laughing. And then I was hooked. Chico and Gino, or Chichi and Gigi, as they call their tandem, makes my day. I called in sick Monday (hope my bosses don’t see this!) to listed to them lang. Well, plus bed weather. Then I was late the whole week kasi I get distracted by their banter.

2. New songs! Last week was all about Coldplay and Linkin Park, but this week its all about these songs —

Eminem’s back! He’s my rapper crush. And he collaborated with Bruno Mars.

I could imagine this in So You Think You Can Dance. In my vision its a contemporary-hip-hop dance performed by Melanie, Marko and Tadd (hearts!) choreographed by TabbyNaps and Mandy Moore or Mia Michaels. Biyutipul! (Speaking of So You Think You Can Dance, all my favorite numbers from Season 7 got Emmy nominations! Yay!)

I loooove Adam Levine. And I like Gym Class Heroes. Another collaboration!

I don’t know if that’s the official vid, but I like it. And the song is cute naman, diba?

It’s from the singers of Like A G6!
Yes, its another collaboration, Far East Movement and Snoop Dogg. It makes me want to go clubbing (yes naman.) and dance the night away.

3. Cleaning up my email. I’ve got more than a thousand unread emails. (Blame my addiction to blog subscriptions.) And since this week is a down week for work, I got to read all some of those emails. Its so nice to see no numbers some of my email folders. Hay, but I still have a lot more to read. Ang sakit na ng ulo ko!

4. You make me smile. Itago natin siya sa pangalang G6. He makes my heart flutter. Yun lang. Haha! I hope I get to meet him para naman I have kwento for you guys.

5. Supportive friends. I’ve mentioned time and time again that I have supportive friends. And they’ve proven that fact again. They were all game with the craziness I thought of this week. I hope I get to return the favor.

6. Cirque du Soleil. I remember, it was 1999, my parents left for HK to watch them. Dad has seen four, mom: three, and this was my first. I was all giddy and excited! And boy they did not disappoint! (Okay, I was disappointed by the tent, I thought it would be bigger!) I was floored by their talent. As in. Read more about it here.

7. Lady loves. Spent Saturday evening with Chonx and Pia. Discussed boys, trips, boys, food, and boys. Then we set off to watch Love, Loss and What I wore—the perfect play to watch with your girlfriends. (Bituin was da bomb! Sobrang galing. I like everyboy, except one. All of them were ‘normal’ and believable, except one.) “I look in my closet and think.. with all these clothes, why do I have nothing to wear? Nothing to wear!” And we capped the night with one drink for the road.

So ayun. I’ve been a happy girl most of the time last week. I hope you guys had an awesome week as well :)

7 things I miss the most

Waking up early is a hard task. Waking up on a Monday is a much harder one. Waking up to an Adelle song is not good. Waking up to Adelle singing Someone Like You, on a Monday morning, is bad. (Pwede pa ang Rolling in the Deep, medyo upbeat pa yun eh.)

And that’s how my week started. Waking up to Adelle’s Someone Like You on a Monday morning. You can say that its a sign that things might be a little gloomy. And I’m just not talking about the weather.

As the week progressed, and with all the hoopla going on about Harry Potter and me cleaning up my room (again!), nostalgia settled into my heart. Memories creeping in. So, here’s a list of the things that I miss the most.

1. Having a boyfriend. (Oo, madrama na, but I think Someone Like You, or Adelle’s voice, has that effect. Ang walang maramdaman bato! :P) I am used to being single. Seryoso, promise. I’m actually enjoying it, but there are days when you wish you just had someone to drag along on whatever crazy thing you want to do. Kumbaga may instant kasama ka na for certain things. (Just one of the ‘perks’ of having a boyfriend. Assuming na game siya and hindi corny.) Just like the Kylie concert I wanted to watch. Other than kulang ang funds, wala pa akong kasama. Siguro, if may bf ako, nakanuod na ako.

2. Chismis updates and discussions on Mondays. Actually, everyday. One of the reasons why I was sooo (emphasis required) excited to go to work before was because of the chika updates with The Breakfast Club. We would spend breakfast, lunch and merienda (but with a 10-hour workday, sometimes umaabot ng dinner ang chikahan), catching up on all the chismis—showbiz or not.

I admit that I still email Jay (and Elaine) sometimes about all the juicy chismis I heard. Lalo na ngayong may Fashion Pulis! That is also why I love meeting up with them, it means chikahan the whole time!

3. School bus service. Those were the days when I wouldn’t worry about commuting and pamasahe.

4. Uniforms. I love shopping for clothes as much as the next girl, but it can get expensive. And how can I have a closet full of clothes yet still not find something to wear? It gets tiring to think about what to wear everyday. Miss ko na ang mga days na pino-problema ko lang ang socks na susuotin ko.

5. Shopping for school supplies. (And not spending a thing!) I miss going to National Bookstore and buying notebooks, fillers, pad papers (1 whole, 1/4, 1/2 crosswise and lengthwise) and pens. I loooove pens!

6. Hand writtern letters. I love writing letters. And I love receiving them too. Nothing can compare to the feeling of reading them and knowing that the giver spent precious minutes (or hours) writing them. And I have containers filled with letters (recollection/retreat letters, notes passed during classes and letters that I never gave), and reading them again can bring you a certain kilig or excitement. Or it can make you cringe. Haha! (I threw most some of them away na.) But with the age of emails and Facebook and Twitter, handwritten letters are given less and less. So I try to write my friends little notes when I give them gifts or leave little notes on their desks when I visit their office.

And lastly, 7. Allowance! Do I even need to explain this?!

How about you, what do you miss the most?

7 mistakes

Learn From My Crappy Personal History: 7 Relationship & Dating Mistakes I Made In My 20′s (originally published in The Frisky)
by Julie Gerstein

1. Don’t let your boyfriend determine what you do with your life.
2. Don’t use your boyfriend as an excuse NOT to do something you want to do.
3. Spend some time alone and with friends.
4. Don’t throw your emotional energy into someone who needs to be “fixed.”
5. Don’t ever let a guy make you feel bad about the things you want to do with your life.
6. Don’t confuse promiscuity with sexual confidence.
7. Don’t waste your time trying to get losers to like you.

To read the whole article, click here.

7 Things of the week

1. Bronze and black nail polish
I have been wanting black nail polish for a loooong time. Black matte nail polish from OPI to be exact. Pero parang ang hirap-hiiiraaaaap niyang hanapin. Then I saw this photo –

(image from Refinery29)

And now I want bronze nail polish too! And I want to do that polka dot design too!

2. I am loving this photo too!

(image from Fifi Lapin)

Wish I had a photo like this one. Ipapa-blow up ko!

3. Everybody’s Fine

It’s about a father (Robert DeNiro) who wanted to reconnect with his kids (Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale who is sooo pretty) so he went on a trip to give them a surprise visit. It’s heavy but it is a good movie about parents and children and their relationship. This movie made me cry like there’s no tomorrow.

4. Jennifer Hudson’s oh-so-hot-to-the-nth-level body

(photo from InStyle)

What kind of exercise did she do? What’s her diet? Sana lang I had her discipline. I mean look at her, her tummy looking as flat as a table. And that waist? Jealous!

5. Icon watch from MoMA Store

It’s too cute!!! I’ve been thinking if I should get it. And I still haven’t decided.

6. Happy Endings

I am just loving this series. Spent one whole evening just catching up on episodes.

7. Fashion Pulis

Viv told me about this site, and after about a month or so of being too busy to read and guess the blind items, I finally got the time. It’s so addicting! And I’m super bilib with the followers who comment and get the answers, I could never solve anything without the clues! (I couldn’t figure out the other names in the halitosis post! Lemme know if you know the answer!) The last one I read was about this politician’s girlfriend, it took me the whole afternoon to figure them out! With the help of all the comments and Google pa ha! Kudos to those who make up this site. Slow clap for you guys!

And I just have to add another item. Item #8, reminder bracelets. (I hope yan nga ang tawag sa kanila) I saw this in Bianca Gonzales’ blog, and I want one!

Anybody knows where I can buy one? Any leads/links would be much appreciated. Help!