here the girl goes again

From where I am, and where I stand, with everything that I was born with, and everything that has been taught me, formed by the things that I read, I hear, I watch, I imitate and I reject, I believe most in the goodness of the self.

The self is good. She came from the Supreme Goodness. And the purpose of that self is goodness itself. The self can be encouraged, molded, shaped, inspired, and delivered. And in that goodness of the self is the godliness she is destined to discover and realize that she is. The self is the body. But the self is the soul too. And the statement of the soul is the most important of all.

It is the soul that creates. It identifies the problem and recognizes what is wrong. And the good. It is the soul that looks beyond the obvious. It deals into the depths. It comes up with answers. In its wisdom, it decides and settles down. But only with the truth and with that which is good.

I believe in the power of one. But also in the accomplishment of one ardent dream that is shared. I highly regard the gift of thought. In the achievement of what one idea can do.

I am moved most of all by the person in the mirror. I have faith in that person. I start every morning of my life with her smiling back at me. And end each night with her quizzing me back with her eyebrows raised. But still with the firm belief of what she can do. And who she can be.

And in that person that smiles back from the mirror, I hold the highest standards. At work. At play. At home. With the family. With colleagues. With strangers. Only the best effort is good enough, as the self holds the highest standards. With the dream and the standards will sometimes come defeat and failures. But the self knows the lessons these bring, and the best is that of standing up again.

I love fiercely. Truly. Fully. Love that is not complete is just a waste of time. And this love needs work. It should not just be said. It is action. And it is delivery of a promise. As it grows, it must be fed. By surprises, freshness and diversity and continuing discovery.

This is a girl who thrives and revels in the many roles and responsibilities served and offered. Daughter. Wife. Mother. Sister. Friend. Partner. Mentor. Student. Mover. Student. Child. Conscious and living with the gifts of what I can do, rather than those that limit who I am.

For that last one look in the mirror, I hope to be claiming the life that was meant for me. As a child of the universe, the offspring from the ultimate might, the supreme good. Able to shine when placed in the murkiest corner of the earth. To have learned, have touched other lives, and have contributed to humanity.

This is my heart and my mind. And this is who I am.

stock investment seminar

Attending the short seminar yesterday on "Investing in the Stock Market Today" was perhaps one of the few good moves I've decided to do these days.

The main speaker was brilliant. And I was there for the major points of the discussion, which for me, are the following:

• The stock market is the barometer of economy
• Greater risk, greater potential of reward
• In an uptrend, buy and hold
• In order to build wealth, take the rule of 72
• A stock decision is part reason, part emotion
• What you don't know you don't touch
• Our Philippine economy is improving
• Look out for the ability to grow
• People act in anticipation of change
• Three enemies: greed, fear... and hope
• Re-assess your risk versus reward
• Do not play the "all or nothing" game
• Plan your trade and trade the plan

The new knowledge, including the technical fundamentals in the capital market, is very interesting. The next time I have cash to spare, I'm definitely investing in stocks. The whole learning process augments my business lessons in MBA right now.
And I'm glad I chose to take a front seat and listened attentively. There are some things you can pick out with eyes closed because you know you'll come out learning a lot and gaining a lot. Which I cannot say yet with a not-so-easy decision regarding my pictorial for the annual Xavier University yearbook! Should I go or should I not bother? Ugh.

when we talk...

ME “You really like those chips, do you?”

GELA “Yup. Hey Mom, do you know that there is an animal that will allow itself to die?”

ME “Really? How’d you know that?”

GELA “Teacher said. The praying mantis boy, I mean, the male praying mantis, when the female praying mantis is going to have a birth, he will allow the wife to eat its head.”

NIKA “Eew! But Gela, what birth do you mean?”

GELA “I mean when the female praying mantis is pregnant, will have a child. She will eat the head of the male and then slowly eat the neck and the body.”

ME “That’s gross. I wonder why she’d do that. And the man mantis is okay about it?”

GELA “Yeah. The male praying mantis will be eaten. What a sacrifice. But Teacher was also asking that to us in class. Why?”

ME “But hey Nika, do you know that gorillas are now becoming extinct?”

NIKA “How did you know, Mom?”

ME “Internet.”

NIKA “Pity. Then the time will come Gel, when the turtles are also extinct.”

GELA “And you know, Nik, when I’m already a grandmother I’d say to my grandchildren: I am going to tell you about an animal we used to know when I was a kid. What was that again? What was the name of that animal again?”

ME “Hahahahahaha! Silly.”

NIKA “Yes Gel, you look funny. Hahahahahaha!”

GELA “Then my daughter would say: Oh mom, it’s the turtle. And I’d tell the boy, because my daughter will have a son: Yeah! The tur-tuh! The tur-tuh! What is the tur-tuh again?”

ME “Hahahahahaha! But hey, I thought you said you’re not gonna get married.”

NIKA “Gela’s gonna get married. Gela’s gonna get married!”

ME “But you look funny acting like a grandma.”

GELA “And I’ll tell my grandchildren: Do you know your great grandmother? She is Heidi. But yeah, what was that I’m going to tell you about again? Ah, the tur-tuh…”ME “C’mon girls, let’s finish off the chips and prepare your bags for tomorrow’s class.”

What a drag I must sound, but it's almost bedtime.

Yet it was a happy moment watching Gela act out, standing up on the couch, with Nika at her feet, munching and laughing. Laughing with them is always a treat.Then I realized, I'd also be extinct by the time Gela will be having this conversation with her real grandchildren...I stood up slowly, going to prepare their glasses of water, off to the same invisible highway that the gorillas and the turtles would go.

Painting: Mother and Her Daughters, by Lucette Dallozo

i've been tagged - and i'm it!

Gracie left me a note that she tagged me. It means I have to follow the instructions she left and then tag someone else: A kind of passing the ball, or a friendlier chain movement. Determined to drop work for a good half hour, I am doing this – but with my own little variation.

Instructions: Fill out the list by picking a word for each of the letters of the alphabet which best describes or relates to you, or anything that feels right. When you are tagged you need to write your answers on your own blog, or I also say, in your email for forwarding, as well as these rules. At the end of your task, you need to choose other people [number irrelevant] to get tagged and list their names. Though you must not scare them about years of bad luck, don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged through your blog!

A – ATENEO. A former officemate commented that I represent the Jesuit influence. A pleasure to be.

B – BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE. Biting into a cold slice makes the hair at my nape go crazy.

C – CANADA. More particularly Prince Edward Island. All travel can end there. Hope springs eternal!

D – DANCE. One of those things I love, and I just might do something rash and amazing one of these days.

E – EPIDEMICS. The kinds of French manicures and banana milkshakes and big wide sunglasses.

F – FAMILY. And I couldn't believe that I even self-brainstormed for a bit before I got my F word!

G – GOD. In whatever and whichever form for each of us, it’s a relationship that brings the best in ourselves.

H – HEART. Must be the most used and therefore most worn out in us. And I’m not just talking anatomically.

I – ICARUS. Anyway, the idea is so much better than the pronoun “I”, which I happen to always prefer than to a committee.

J – JAPAN. Learned when I visited that locals call it Nihon or Nippon. So why do non-locals call it differently?

K – KIM. Mike’s nickname from grade school, I was told. Kind of done right to left.

L – LIFE. A darn good read of a story we get out of each one of us. And we’re the writer too.

M – MOONRIVER. Mama Precy taught me how to sing this song, and thus it is very special to me.

N – NOKIA N91. The capacity, the distinctive design, and because there are few of us who got it.

O – OBSESSIVE.COMPULSIVE. Not necessarily yet, but hovering in the borderline of the disorder.

P – PRIDE. AND PREJUDICE. Oh come on. I watched the Matthew MacFadyen version more than a dozen times.

Q – QATAR. My recent study in class included the place where the endless rounds of the WTO talks began.

R – REMBRANDT. The way he lets black be the enveloping theme in his paintings. I can relate.

S – SMILE. Though I stopped doing this lately, I know you’re never really fully dressed without it.

T – TIME. I don't know if I must look at it forward or backward. But I'm still busy in the now. For now.

U – UBER. Uber-worked. Uber-committed. Uber-sacrificed.

V – VICTORIA’S SECRET. Because lingerie is definitely not just plain underwear. I fancy that.

W – WEEKENDS. To take the girls swimming. To eat in bed. To watch movies. To dress down.

X – XAVIER. Hope I’ll hold the university’s diploma for masters in business administration soon.

Y – YESTERDAY. It always seems grander and better and sweeter when told and seen from today.

Z – ZZZZZZZ. I really hope I can hit more of these. I feel like a zombie. Hey that’s another Z!

Half an hour for this is just ain’t enough, I discover.

NOW TAGGING:
Jay, Ela, Mitchie, Girard, Honey, Elaine, Star, Michelle, Teng, Nelson and the other half of the world

Tagged by my li’l spot of sunshine
Photo by surrelmar, see more here

product development forum

The Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc. [ORO CHAMBER], has committed through its Creation of Opportunities and Resources Management for Enterprises [CORE] Project, to advocate for micro, small and medium enterprise [MSME] development, capacitate these players in the local business area, and provide technical assistance along product development in partnership with other enabling enterprises and organizations.

The ORO CHAMBER, therefore, is organizing the

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
September 10, 2007 8:00am-5:0pm
VIP Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City

Through this one-day activity, we want to note the past and existing efforts along product development in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao as well as present a stringent review on the basics for our entrepreneurs. We will highlight success stories and winning products indigenous to our area, and most of all, try to translate opportunities to real business ventures.

We are targeting an audience of local enterprises which need that extra motivation and technical input to further improve their products and services, thus raise their bottom lines. And most of all, we encourage the presence of participants who shall take the educated step towards entrepreneurship and business development.

Speakers include officers from the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, Technical Skills and Development Authority, and the Philippine Coconut Authority. Talks will also be given by Vjandep Pastel and Suka Pinakurat. The main resource speaker for the activity is Prof. Mario Lopez of the Asian Institute of Management.

A minimal registration fee of P500 will be charged to cover for food, materials and certificate.

MAKE YOUR SEAT RESERVATION HERE.

in-between current reading

"... we reframe the way we think about the world... We have trouble estimating dramatic, exponential change. We cannot conceive that a piece of paper folded over 50 times could reach the sun. There are abrupt limits to the number of cognitive categories we can make and the number of people we can truly love and the number of acquaintances we can truly know."

- The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell

on marquee: margarita

2 oz. Lime Juice
1 1/2 oz. Sweet and Sour
2 oz. Jose Cuervo Tequila
1 1/2 oz. Triple Sec
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups of ice

Rub rim of cocktail glass with lime then dip rim in salt. Place ice in blender and add all ingredients. Shake and strain into salt-rimmed glass. Garnish with a wheel of lime.

It's a party for one, but hey, a party just the same! After a facial, during a spa visit, while devouring a novel, focusing on a dvd, chatting on YM, or when you find those rare precious moments to just place your feet up in the living room center table. Ole!

miss piggy and me

Considering everything, she is my rightful role model.

With her wit and wisdom, she has an answer and the matching philosophy to all my worries and concerns.

On my looks, or lack thereof: "For the glamorous look, choose plain-looking dining companions."

On my being so ordinary: "I am a pig, and as a pig, I have always stood out."

On my lack of culinary skills: "It is often said that cooking is an art, but I have had very few meals that I would hang on my wall."

On my fascination with fashion: "What if you were in Florida without your furs and there is a very quick little ice age?"

On my career that's going nowhere: "I am waiting for a really strong and meaningful female pig role."

On my MBA education: "Many people have been to schools where they were taught useful phrases, how much to charge and - most important - what to wear."

On my being a half of a couple: "Your future together holds such promise. Why ruin it by telling him your plans?"

On my diet: "Never eat more than you can lift."

On my wardrobe: "You cannot have too many gowns any more than you can have too many invitations to parties to wear them."

On my plan to go beyond blogging: "I plan to write more books whenever I can find the appropriate writing attire and color-coordinated pen."

are you gonna go my way

I even had second thoughts on going to Marco Hotel. And it took me a little self-convincing to take it slow today and yes, we all deserve a break. Broken is what my back soon will be, if I would not watch it. Work is such a fake high. Quite a not so late revelation, thank you.

We went straight to the pool by the end of the hotel grounds. Nong Pio brought the big bag as I settled down under the big umbrella. A waiter was hovering, waiting for my orders. The girls were out of their robes, had taken a quick shower, and jumped into the pool in just five seconds record. Annika, a girl who used to study in Abba’s Orchard, had joined them. Her grandmother, the former regional director of the Department of Tourism was out on the lawn, under her own big umbrella, reading a novel.

I ordered food - the kind of breakfast for people who are not in a hurry and who are not necessarily hungry. A big bowl of fresh fruits. Cold and hot chocolate drinks. Chips and dip. Club house sandwich.

Another hotel staff stood by me to wait if I need anything. He bustled around, picking up dirt from the ground. He thought, this woman must be freaky and needs her fallen leaves picked up. Haha. I asked him to select the cleanest lounger and move it to where I was. Not in the shade but not in direct sunlight either.

One more hotel staff checked the pool, then checked the outdoor showers. When they’re done, they finally left me alone.

Being alone is frightening. Well I’ve stopped thinking about the Jim Carrey movie “The Number 23” since most of the formulas I’ve tinkered on did not really result to the number 23. But when I’m alone, I think about work. And that’s the scariest of all.

So I ate my fruits like I was on the deck of my own yacht and I stretched on the white, [and note, clean] lounger and put on my iPod. Oh the girls have played and replayed Jennifer Lopez much so that she would be now conferred the award for the Most Requested Artist. I reset the music list and chose solo guitars instead.

One thing about being a mom is that your ear is in your music while your whole self is watching your girls. They’re playing a drama game of sorts in the water. How that could be made possible, I think I respect them for that. They left the water just long enough to gobble up the sandwiches and drink the chocolate. Then the game was on again.

Nika and Gela earned this swimming date with me. The past week was their quarterly exams and the last five days were nothing short of grueling for all of us. Studying, reviewing, creating practice questionnaires, learning Filipino, getting through the pointers with sleepy eyes. Now they can shriek all they wanted.

I sent a couple of messages from the mobile phones and then I closed them. Both my personal line and the office line. Liberty!

My back has been acting up these days. And with the activities that the office has suddenly found itself in, I have been losing sleep. That kind where your body is tired and your brain is working. That's the hardest of all I guess. And then to realize that if indeed I'll get a bad case with my back, the office has not the resources nor the sympathy to take care of me.

Anyway, I was under the sun and it's my weekend. I've never seen the sky like that for a long time. It was as if the steady blues and the flimsy whites were racing with each other on which would occupy the most space in the great sky. Only a very faint breeze moved the leaves of the palm trees.

I just wish that I'm gonna take my own thin lovely cloud and pin it up on another blue canvas. And I hope it will be soon. But for the morning I was content to lie down there, close my eyes, listen to the girls giggling in the distance, the guitar on my ear, and be assured that I'm okay. We've generously splashed on the sunblock, right?

Photo: my camera, view from down here

if ud evah lose ur heart

I don't know what it was about her 'cause
She's still on my mind
So wild and young I could not keep her
But waiting here's just fine
'Cause I know someday she'll come my way
And soon the sun will shine

And if I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like that
If I'm gonna save all my love
I'll save it for the day when she comes back
If I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like that

Now she can wrap the world in ribbons
Make the stars her string or pearls
With the colors of the sunset
She takes me around the world
Now every night in silent prayer
I'm sending her my love out there

And if I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like that
If I'm gonna save all my love
I'll save it for the day when she comes back
If I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like that

And though I know she's gone
A million dreams just can't be wrong
There's no one else on earth
That makes me feel the way I feel with her

And if I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like that
If I'm gonna save all my love
I'll save it for the day when she comes back
If I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like that

If I ever lose my heart
I'll lose it to a girl like
A girl like that