Has anything changed in my life because of blogging?

None at all!!! 

Okey, I must admit when I started blogging last year, I wasn’t thinking where this would lead me, all I wanted was just an avenue to write out my thoughts and share it online, whether it will be read or not. And looking back, I could say, blogging has indeed changed and affected my life in some ways. So, when Snglguy tagged me with a meme about listing 5 things that happened because of blogging, I immediately thought of what I gained and learned because of taking up a home in the blogosphere. Here are some of them:

3. I was able to meet and build friendships with some GREAT (interesting, smart, funny, wonderful) persons in the blogosphere and I learned a lot from. They’re technically called blogmates but I call them my ‘blogsy friends’. 

4. I learned some more Internet stuff  - participating in memes (such as this), finding out what’s a PR (page rank), discovering how important a site statistics counter is (thanks to sitemeter), subscribing to RSS feeds, and the list goes on and on.

Now I’m tagging 5 lucky blogsy friends to do this meme (hehe, parang raffle draw…):

1.    Bea
2.    Jef
3.    Raine
4.    Rey
5.    Tin-tin

I know lots of things happened to you because of blogging, care to share some of them?  Happy weekend everyone! 

Six random facts about myself

It’s meme time! I promised myself I’ll do two overdue memes before the week ends. The first one’s from Raine (I’ve been tagged with this meme last November yet!).

It goes this way: write six random facts about yourself, then pick six of your friends and tag them. I guess I’m running out of things to talk about myself, but as promised, here goes…

1.    I have chinky eyes, they kinda disappear when I laugh. I look Chinese, though both my parents aren’t (we Filipinos are a combination of different races, so I guess that explains it) and people often mistook me for one. One time, a guy was talking to me in words I can’t understand, when he saw the confused look on my face, he was also wondering why I didn’t get what he just said. Then he apologized coz he was talking to me in Chinese. *sigh* Too bad I haven’t studied in a Chinese school, I would have been fluent with the language instead of just knowing “ni hao ma?”

2.    I take afternoon naps whenever possible. This keeps me refreshed for afternoon work and prevents me from feeling drained by six o’clock. When I was still employed, after lunch, I would bury my head over my desk and catch a few winks while others would chitchat on the phone or play games on the pc.  

3.    I used to be a coffee lover, just the aroma of a hot cup of coffee (brewed or not) could send me to cloud nine and I would consume at least 3 cups everyday. When I had to do some over time work or research, I just drink some more, it kept me awake. I later found out it also caused my headaches. I was torn between keeping my headaches or drinking my yummy coffee… finally, after experiencing a week full of throbbing headaches, I decided to end my love affair with this black liquid.

4.    My favorite attire – cotton shirt, jeans and flats. I just keep it simple. Don’t you just wish you could go to work without that strict dress code?

5.    I can listen to a fave song over and over again, and still can’t get enough of it.

6.    I just bought an exercise mat. So what does that mean??!! (shucks, I really can’t think of anything else to complete this list. Hehe…)

Now it’s tagging time! I’m passing this on to the following (don’t say no!):

1.    Adam Mordo
2.    Aileen
3.    Bea
4.    Curacha
5.    Daisy
6.    Wil

Have fun doing the meme! Just write anything random about yourself, that's all. I'll be checking your blogs soon…

p.s. to those I haven't tagged, get ready for my next meme, you might be on my list.  

Kids’ logic

You can never underestimate the energy and intelligence of kids nowadays. My pamangkins are the hyper-active types, they go restless if they don’t do anything at home. And when they tell me some of their ideas and stories, I am just amazed at the lessons I learn from them. They grew up in a multi-cultural environment, so they speak mostly in English with few Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and Cebuano words. Being with them, playing around with them, is definitely one of the things I enjoy when I’m in Thailand.

Logic No. 1

R-vin’s favorite word for something smart or cool? Professional. He tells me, “I’m a professional.” One time I was trying to fry in the stove, but the pan kept on sliding. He told me to transfer it in the other burner, which was smaller. It solved my problem. I was thankful to him. Then he told me, “See, I’m smart, yah?” And I just thought, “oh yeah you’re a professional, of course.” He used to ride with me at the back of my bicycle when I picked him up at school, and one time he told me to pass by a difficult narrow path, I was very hesitant but he was so makulit, so when we finally went through, he told me knowingly, “see, I told you, you can do it!”

Logic No. 2

Anzel is the imaginative one. She’s fond of story-telling and one time she told me a story about a little girl, I thought it was from a book, but I later learned she made it up herself. I was impressed. So the next story-telling time, we took turns making up tales of foxes, fairies, princesses, fishes and birds. She would always tell me, “your turn!” after she does her share of wit. She even made up some story while singing it in a tune she just did herself. When her little brother R-jed would follow what she does or what she likes, she would become impatient and tell him, “Why do you always copy me?”

Logic No. 3

R-jed at three talks a lot. I think it’s because he grew up with so many adults and kids around him. When my Mom reminded him, “R-jed, I’m the mother of your Mommy, so I’m your Mama.” He did not agree with this and replied, “I don’t want to be your mama!” We laughed at first and told him, “of course, you’re a boy, you can’t be a mama.” But he still kept repeating it, and we couldn’t understand how he arrived with this reasoning. We finally realized R-jed got it from the sentence “I don’t want to be your friend,” and used ‘mama’ instead of ‘friend’.

I have my own share of childhood logic which my Mom used to narrate to us. She told me that when I was small, during one of our evening trips, I was observing the moon shining in the dark sky. I innocently asked her in Hiligaynon, “anong ngalan sina nga bulan?” (What’s the name of that moon?)This got her confused, and asked me what I meant. I told her, “You know, like February or January?” In the local dialect, ‘bulan’ is the term for both ‘moon’ and ‘month’. She had to explain to me that both words are the same but have different meanings and I confused one with the other.

Just between you and me

It was a hot afternoon as the four of us – Dad, Mom, Leen and me - were breezing our way through the sidewalks going to the Grand Palace, one of Thailand’s tourist destinations. Leen and I have been to the palace grounds before, so it was our turn to be the guides. We hurriedly passed by street vendors selling all kinds of food, wares, souvenirs and anything that would tempt every tourist to part with his money. As we arrived at one of the gates, I saw a sign which warned visitors not to trust strangers. I couldn’t agree more, I’ve heard of some tourists being hoaxed in this famous place. Anyway, we learned from the guard that the palace will close at 3pm… I glanced at my watch, it was already 3pm! We were almost running as we hurried up to the main entrance, but to no avail… the ticket counters were already closed. We decided to take photos of the view outside instead.

As Leen was busy setting up her camera and tripod, I fumbled for the digicam inside my bag… and to my horror, it was not there! So that’s why I felt my bag was lighter than it should be. I tried to search for it again but it was not really there. The warning sign at the gate flashed through my mind and I felt like my world was crumbling that instant… the digicam was not mine, it was my cutie sis’ precious cam. Different thoughts were running through my head that time… I was thinking of the cost of replacing the cam, did somebody pick it from my bag when we were posing, or some vendor took it when we walked through the busy streets… I was so shocked… but I kept it to myself. I didn’t tell anybody about it, and just acted as if I didn’t lose some $500 worth of digicam. I don’t now why I didn’t want them to know. Maybe because I was still hoping it was not missing and telling them about it would just verify its loss. I still kept a cheery face as we posed and smiled and admired the view. But deep within, I just wanted to cry… I wanted to go back to the car and check out the back seat - I might have left it there… I was actually praying that I just left it there… though it seemed not possible at all. 

Well, I still didn’t tell them about the ‘lost’ digicam until now, not even Mom. It’s only a secret between you and me.  : )