Pondering: One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. (Elbert Hubbard)
I got tagged, so I had to…. The rule is, once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you and tag other people to do the same. So if you are reading this, consider yourself “tagged.”
I absolutely love the color blue and all its shades, except aqua blue.
Just my luck, aqua blue was the motif of my dear sister Marizza’s wedding. As bridesmaid, I had to wear a satin aqua blue dress, which was just horrible, in my opinion.
I love to read mystery books, especially espionages, but only if the characters are not too old.
I am not a big fan of Radiohead or U2 and for that I feel something’s wrong with me because everyone seems to really like these bands.
I absolutely enjoy watching a good TV series on DVD – commercial free is the best way to follow a TV show.
One of my all-time favorite books ever is Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. The other one is On Chisel Beach by Ian McEwan. This is the book I wish I wrote.
I dream of one day going back to Austria. The first and last time I was there was in 2001, in the Tyrol region. I fell in love with the place and I dream about it all the time.
I would like to spend the rest of my days after retirement in Paris, France selling flowers to tourists at the Notre Dame Cathedral…
… Or in a cabin in Lake Tahoe or some other coastal town in California just reading or knitting sweaters in the morning and writing crappy stories in the evening.
My drink of choice when out for a nightcap with friends is gin and tonic. Either that or wine.
I absolutely hate summers and love the fall/winter season.
I love the month of October because it’s the fall season, because of Halloween, and because it’s my birthday month!
If I weren’t doing what I’m doing now, I would have been a college instructor. Teaching, I just realized, is one of my greatest passion.
I love crossword puzzles.
If God descended from heaven and told me I could have dinner with anyone – famous or not, dead or alive – I would pick songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley (Keane). Brilliant, brilliant person, in my opinion!
I am so tired of Beyonce – can she shut up already?
I’ve never been to New York. In fact, I’ve never been to the East Coast of America. I should, one day.
My favorite cities to visit are Paris, Vancouver and London. Least favorite – Seattle, Washington (no offense to Seattle natives).
My ideal day is spent in bed with a really good book or a good horror movie while outside it is raining like crazy!
I would love to have a dog. A big dog, if possible. Though beggars can’t be choosers, so a small dog will do as well. My dream dog is a Golden Retriever named Griffey.
I am the youngest in a family of seven. My brothers and sisters names are: Marizza, Mike, Mercedes, Bong, Jun and Mi.
At a recent staff retreat, we were asked to jot down three words that either define us, motivate us or that we live by. My three words were: Think. Options. Travel. I truly believe that one always has options to consider and if one would just think about these options before proceeding, one is better off in life. I also believe that all work and no play makes everyone dull, so every now and then I think about traveling and just going away.
I believe in God and all His goodness, but I am hardly the devout Catholic I was growing up.
“It’s not always a misfortune being overlooked,” by J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my favorite quotes.
The thing I value most in life is freedom. I can’t imagine a life where I am not free to think and decide for myself.
Pondering: People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. (Frederick Douglass)
A new year is once again upon us. There is trouble brewing in the horizon but the world still looks forward to a new year, a new start. It’s a new time - a new chance to turn things around and make lives a little better than it was in 2008 and the years before that.
Life is difficult at the moment, the economy is down, there’s talk of recession, unemployment is higher than it’s ever been, everything is expensive, businesses are going bankrupt, and people are losing their homes. Mr. Obama is facing numerous challenges, issues far worse than stopping a senseless war in Iraq. No new president should have these many challenges facing him just as he starts his term. But he asked to be the leader of this nation and so I hope and pray he succeeds, not only because I like the guy, I think he’ll try his best, but also because we really do need him to turn things around.
For this new year, I have resolutions though they never work, and hopes. First off, I hope for a healthier lifestyle. Maybe this is the year I will finally do it. I also hope to finally get the inspiration for the book/story I want to write. I have ideas in my head but they all seem shallow, unoriginal and unrealistic. One day, I’ll just start writing and see where it gets me.
This spring, I will begin work on our little garden, finish crocheting the afghan I started a year ago, learn more knitting patterns, and start another eBay store to get rid of books I will never read again. This year, I will be more diligent in taking my 4-mile walks on the weekend and try to work late less. I will go back to school. I already have my eyes on an online certificate program on human resource benefits and compensation.
And finally, this year I will be thankful for all the blessing I continue to receive and believe that things will get better - they always do.
Peace and love for the new year to all I know and don’t know…
Pondering: Dear Lord… The gods have been good to me. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here’s the deal: You freeze everything the way it is, and I won’t ask for anything more. If that is OK, please give me absolutely no sign. OK, deal. (Homer Simpson)
Books Read That I’m Keeping on the Shelf
On Chisel Beach (Ian McEwan)
A Man Without A Country (Kurt Vonnegut)
The Wrong Kind of Blood (Declan Hughes)
Still Waters (Nigel McCrery)
Movies Watched on the Big Screen
The Happening (so-so, though I love M. Night Shyamalan in general)
Wanted (if only to get a quick glimpse of the great Marc Warren)
Transiberia (loved it, plus Eduardo Noriega was in it)
Favorite TV Shows of 2008
Criminal Minds (hands down!)
Life (who can’t love Charlie Crews?)
House (if only the old crew is back some more)
Dogs 101 (makes me want to get every dog featured in the show)
TMZ (tasteless indulgence, funny as hell)
Amazing Race (still the best and only worthy reality show out there)
The Tudors (saucy!)
Memorable Moments/Things
Barack Obama being elected as the next president of America
Kevin Garnett finally winning an NBA ring
Coldplay and their colorful butterfly confetti
The release of Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Discovering friends and relatives in Facebook
iPhone and all its copycats
Going green
Succession and workforce planning
Moments I’d Rather Forget
The rise of the Jonas Brothers and all other Disney wanna-be singers
NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Olympics
The entire season of the SF 49ers (as are the other years)
Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) routine (trying too hard, B!)
Suffering from food poisoning (or was it stomach flu) on Christmas Eve
The stock market crash
Lay offs, store closures, foreclosures, bankruptcies
Pondering: When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know. (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
In a few hours another Christmas celebration has come and gone. At my age and at this day and time, I still believe in Christmas and what it means spiritually and religiously.
Christmas, foremost will always be the birth of Christ for me. So despite common trend saying it is politically incorrect to use the word Christmas and the symbols that we’ve grown to associate with this day, December 25th will still always be Christmas to me. Jesus was born on this day and that is why we rejoice. We share gifts with each other, much like the three kings showered the babe with incense, myrrh and gold. Some folks call the holidays differently and I respect that. I call it Christmas and that is what it always will be. Does that make me culturally insensitive? Maybe to some, but I think not.
Second of all, Christmas is just the happiest season of the year. It’s the one time when people try to be nice to other people and try to do a good deed. We don’t do a lot of that lately and to do it at least once a year still make a huge difference in someone’s life. I can’t remember a Christmas when I wasn’t happy. No matter what was bothers me or worries me, they all go away on Christmas day (including this year when I suffered food poisoning on the eve of Christmas). Opening gifts and giving gifts lifts up my heart. Some people associate it with stress - stress of getting the perfect gift in time, having the money to spend, yet it’s not like that for me. Seeing people smile when they open up presents make me smile.
But I am always sad too, when Christmas day is almost over. There is a void that settles in my heart - all the shopping has been done, all the cards sent out, all the excitement of decorating and throwing parties has passed. In a week’s time, we’ll be celebrating the dawning of a new year and I will have to wait eleven months before the excitement of the season starts again. Eleven months is nothing, it feels like it lately, but it is still a wait. I still wish, after all these years that it was Christmas every day.
It’s now 11:50 p.m. - time to turn off the fireplace, the Christmas tree. All the wine’s been drank, dinner put away, left over dessert saved for another day. Outside the wind is howling. A storm passed on Christmas eve, sounds like another one is coming. With a heavy heart I bid the holidays a fond farewell and patiently - oh, so patiently - I wait for next Christmas to come.
Pondering: When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. (Lao Tzu)
A feeling of elation washed over me today during my early morning walk. It was foggy when I set off for my four-mile walk. I could hardly see anything or anyone. The cool mist was biting but also invigorating. It was quite interesting to walk with the fog being as thick as it was, you never know what’s waiting ahead of you.
Very few people were out walking this morning, but the usual suspects who I always see in my morning walks had smiles on their faces, much like I did. We all greeted each other with warm hellos, and pleasant good-mornings. Could they have been enjoying a feeling of elation too? Happy to be alive on such a gloomy yet glorious morning?
At the end of the fourth mile, a hint of sun peeked from behind the thick fog - struggling to rise and dissolve the darkness. The view was spectacular. It felt like I was soaring through a moment I’ll never be able to capture again or even yet explain. This entry is an attempt to capture that moment but I am not doing a very eloquent job doing so. I wish I had a camera with me so I could have taken a picture of such a scene but the picture would not have captured the feeling I was feeling that moment - the feeling of being contented and just happy to be alive.
We all lead busy lives, we rarely get a glimpse of such a moment, or a glimpse of such a feeling. When you do - when I did today - you are thankful and somehow the rest of the day and the days to follow become somewhat bearable.
Pondering: My one regret in life is that I am not someone else. (Woody Allen)
…I looked like this.
Those were the days. Gone is the innocence, I think though I am still as hopeful. This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the many years of good health and reasons to smile.
Pondering: Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. (Walt Whitman)
My sister told me today, that some folks in my office - she won’t name who - think that I am rude and abrupt. Ouch! I thought I’m direct and to the point, but apparently that is not how some people see it.
I have always known and a recent personality test confirmed, that I am absolutely awkward at small talks and niceties. I can deal with the occasional hi-how-are-yous, but if I don’t know you too well, I tend not to linger in that moment and would rather get down to business and move on.
I do know that I have changed a lot. I remember in high school, what made me decide to pursue psychology as my major in college was because I always thought I would make a good counselor. I always thought talking to people, and talking them through their troubles was my calling. Over the years, I realized that is not my calling. I realized that I no longer feel comfortable listening to other people’s woes - not for lack of feeling or because I don’t care. But because I don’t think I can handle the emotion that goes with discussions like that. I am an emotional person but I don’t want people to see me cry, especially in front of those who are confiding in me and expecting me to be the stronger person.
A few years ago, my sister’s daughter died of complications from pneumonia. My other sister called us here in the US to deliver the terrible news. She talked to me and she asked me to be strong and comfort my mom and dad who were devastated. Having a background in counseling, she thought I could do what she asked me to. But I couldn’t - I broke down and I think I was more of an emotional mess than my parents were. That precise moment changed me, changed what I thought my vocation in life was going to be.
I guess the avoidance if emotion is viewed by some as being rude and abrupt. I wonder how many of them out there think this way of me. Not that I care. I apologize if I have offended anyone, but I really don’t care because it wasn’t my intention to be rude and abrupt at all.
Pondering: We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special. (Stephen Hawking)
I was browsing one day and chanced upon this one. If I were giving out awards for CD sleeves - this one gets top honors.
