#100HappyDays Challenge - Completed!

Yes! I did it! I've completed the #100HappyDays challenge. And here they are, my #100happydays pictures from my instagram account. I've used hashtags: #100happydays and #100happydaysofdio.

2014 - Year of the Wooden Horse

Saw these 2014 prediction in Citylink Mall. Find your sign and read on:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Diet for A Better Life

A friend of mine in FB posted this and I shared it on my wall as well with a description: The best diet ever:

I've been doing this diet for the past couple of years, for peace of mind and because I've decided to always choose to be happy. And mind you, this diet indeed works!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Revisting my Old Blog

I've been blogging on and off since March 2005. And from that time my life has changed so much that I decided to discontinue the old blog and create a new one, this one.

To fight off sleepiness, I browsed thru my old blog posts in my old blog and read thru some entries. I was surprised that I opened my heart out about my mom and her condition in a blog entry. That blog is basically about my life, my thoughts and everything about me.

That's the nice thing about blogging, it's like walking down memory lane and I think it's better than keeping a diary (does anyone still do that?) since you can include pictures or even videos in your blog.
If you write about your personal feelings and experiences and read it after some time, you'll be surprised to see how much you've changed (or didn't), how you've grown as a person, how your view about life and everything has changed and even your likes. And of course, what remains the same after all these years. One thing I know, my perspective about life has changed tremendously and in a very positive light :)

I'll re-post some of my favorite entries in my old blog here to save it before I delete the old one.
Yes, I'm kind of sentimental for the things and the people I value the most.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

2011: The year of dreams fulfilled

2011 was a great year for me and I have a LOT to be thankful for.
Let's travel down memory lane and see how 2011 had blessed me.

January. Wedding, Tagaytay and Dream #1 Fulfilled. My friend Kat and my ex-boss Alfred got married. It was a nice wedding and I was able to spend some time with friends. Also, I had an escort cum driver in this sweet event :) After the wedding, we met with our Krabi friends in Makati to have a drink then we went straight to Tagaytay. We arrived there around 2 or 3am and boy, it's so cold! and to think Im still wearing the dress I had during the wedding. We slept in Tagaytay then had lunch at Leslie's, our main reason to go to Tagaytay and we were not disappointed. Also, the deal for Dream #1 was sealed. We decided and closed the deal for the condo unit in DMCI. Signed. Sealed. Ours.

February. The turn-over. This maybe the heart's month but then it was an emotionally challenging month for me and M. But then it was also the month that the condo unit was turned over to us ... cool! Excitingly cool! Such a wonderful feeling :)

March. Surprises. It was indeed a month of surprises, good and bad, although most of it were good, really good. Surprise #1, Papa's birthday bash. For this surprise, I booked tickets for the Pyrotechnic show (amazingly awesome!!!), booked my ticket just for the weekend and arranged a simple lunch cum reunion for papa with our relatives. It was a blast and he was really surprised! Success!!!
Surprise #2, Lola Dolores' 80th birthday grand celebration. We booked another weekend ticket to join in the celebration. The actual surprise was M because Lola didn't know that he will be coming home for her birthday. And of course, M introduced me to his relatives, which means almost his whole clan plus some family friends. We were awake for almost 48 hours because after the party, we still accompany his cousins and a balikbayan cuz-in-law to punchline, but then it's all worth it.
Surprise #3, not only we were able to see our condo unit with interiors but we were also able to spend the weekend there. We sooo love how it turned out! I love the colors, furnitures, arrangement ...everything!!! It feels relaxingly homey.
This was also an emotionally challenging month for me and M and I was surprise how things turned out. With prayers and a lot of faith, it turned out unexpectedly just fine ... better than fine actually.

April. Blessings galore. The much-awaited blessing for our condo. There were some glitches but then everything turned out fine, we were able to share it with close friends and family and food was great. And finally, was able to experience the water spa at Ace Water Spa and lunch again in Tagaytay. Such a nice bonding time with M's kids. Heavenly feeling!

May. Steady month. Nothing exciting happened but nothing bad either, just steady.Smooth flow.

June. Blessing #2: Happy 13th on 16 with a twist. Got my dream LV Bag as his 13th anniv gift (and he said since it was very expensive, it's also my advance birthday and christmas gift as well) BUT I was so overwhelmed that I had a really, really nasty flu that lasted for a week. Our celebration was moved on the 18th instead.
And then it was bonding with M's relatives in SG. His lola, brother, aunt and uncle came here and of course, we were the designated tour guide. It was tiring but fun.

July. Ultimate Blessing #3: Expect the unexpected. I got the most unexpected, bizarre, and life-changing blessing. And I learned this: GREAT Blessings come with much GREATER Responsibility. But then it was so GREAT that you'll accept the responsibility with a smile on your face and a really thankful heart.

August. My time to surprise M: his birthday month. I got him an iPad2 64GB, which was quite hard to find due to stock shortage. And his birthday celebration started the Steamboat mania that up to this date, I can still remember the taste.

September. My Birthday month. As a birthday gift for myself and as a small token of gratitude for having my ultimate blessing #3, I sent a post-dated cheque for 12months to Grace To Be Born,a small non-profit organization which takes care of unwed mothers and abandoned babies. Also, another dream came true: Scuba diving experience. We got the voucher for the intro class for scuba diving months ago for a really good price. How was it? Awesome!!!

October. The unexpected but much-needed trip: Holiday Inn Experience in Clark. Another blessing, God is really generous and He knows when we need to relax and rest. And so, he let M won a free 3D2N stay at Holiday Inn in Clark, Pampanga. It was also a good bonding time for me and M. Clark may not be a place for us but then it was still a good experience.

November. Miracle of Life. I was able to feel the first kick of the so-called greatest miracle of life. The feeling was beyond words. Happiness overflow. Tears of joy. Overwhelming joy. It is the greatest kick in the universe and Im such a lucky, lucky blessed person to experience that. Thank you Lord for this first kick.

December. Spreading the good news, spreading the love. Aside from christmas shopping to share our blessings to our loved ones, it was also the time when we shared the good news to our family and it's about our Ultimate Blessing #3. In these financially trying times, Im glad that I was able to still buy gifts for family and friends. We also spent a lot of quality time with our families and loved one.

2011 was really, really good to me and I am very, very thankful for all the blessings, the wisdom, the lessons I've learned and most of all, for all the love :)

Happiness

There's this kind of happiness that you want to share to the world and there's this kind that you just want to keep to yourself. There are times that you're too happy that you want to do both,

keep it to yourself but then you're wishing to share it to the world. So you decide to savor and keep it for yourself, even just for the meantime.

I'm that happy right now :)

Thank you dear Lord for this wonderful and precious gift.

Insanely Great Steve Jobs

"Insanelt Great" are the two words that Steve Jobs always use and in my own opinion, it fits him perfectly.

I heard about the news that he passed away on a radio program on the way to work yesterday morning. At first, I didn't thought that they meant that he's already dead. Imagine, the news the other day was about the launching and disappointment for iPhone4s then the following day, its about Steve Jobs' passing away. The timing are just unbelievable. But then when I opened my PC, all the news was about his passing. Even the social networking sites are all about Steve Jobs, and so it's indeed true.

It's amazing how almost everybody's affected and felt the loss of this great man. Reading the tributes for him are so WOW! It really showed how great he was, how admired, how loved and how big his impact is to the world and to almost everyone. I can't blame them. I'm not really an apple user, I maybe drooling about their products but the practical me chooses the same specs with lower price. But then, when I read Steve Jobs' speech in 2005 Stanford Commencement, I became a fan.

That speech alone is packed with a lot of his wisdom based on his life. It's not only wisdom but inspiration and motivation. It shows how dream and passion can take you to places. It teaches you about perseverance , humility, focus and not giving up.

In that speech, Steve Jobs talked about looking and learning from your past:

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

He talked about love, loss, humility, perseverance and passion:

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

He talked about how to live life:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

He taught us how to use even our greatest adversary, death, as an opportunity to live life to the fullest and with utmost meaning:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

He talked about reality and purpose of death:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

He talked about how the most important thing in life:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

And he ended his speech with four powerful words about improving yourself:

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

These are just the wisdom you'll get from one of his speeches. When you google "Steve Jobs quotes", you'll get a lot more and of course, you'll learn a lot while reading it.

In my facebook wall, I posted one of his quotes which I find is timely for his passing:

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me ... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me." - Steve Jobs

Thank you Steve Jobs for doing wonderful things, for all the insanely great things that you've done for us, for all the wisdom that you have shared, for being the insanely great innovator that you are and for raising the bar so high that everybody in technology industry now is trying to achieve perfection. You will be missed but will never be forgotten.

Tributes to Steve Jobs:

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/10/06/11/tributes-apple-visionary-steve-jobs-pour

Steve Jobs Quotes:

http://www.macstories.net/roundups/inspirational-steve-jobs-quotes/

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/09/20/the-top-20-most-inspiring-steve-jobs-quotes/

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/steve_jobs/

Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford Commencement 2005: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

I've found my mojo in Payless

I've been feeling low for days now ... or weeks. And I can't seem to shake it off. I tried but I couldn't. As in I posted pa na: i need inspiration, a perk-me-up, i need to find my mojo ... monday blues go away!!!
how pathetic, di ba?

Well, yesterday was like a miracle of all miracles and the low and gloomy has turned into happy and giddy!

So, what happened yesterday????

1. A chat with my good friend Candy. It's a chat thru email exchange. Candy's energy and fun-spirit is very infectious and fortunately, she has the time to chit-chat yesterday ... and she types very fast so her reply was quite fast.

2. Catch-up time with Achie. She's uber busy these past few weeks but she still manage to find time to read my emails and yesterday, we had a catch-up. As usual, I feel good after our talk (email exchange). How can I not be, she's one of the very few who truly cares, ever supportive, super understanding and never judgemental. She's a very warm person, full of positivity and embraces you with all the sisterly-love you can ever wish for. Im blessed to have her as my Achie.

3. Unexpected surprise which turns out to be a prayer answered for me. It also goes with the phrase, 'the best things in life are free!'. Something exciting and relaxing to look forward to.

4. Payless ShoeSource. We're on our way home when we passed by this store. It's a new store in Suntec City and I instantly recognize it, thanks to my US trip memories. So, we went in and it feels like Disneyland to me. Yeah, exagg but I was just so happy trying on all the nice, sexy, formal, cool, hot looking shoes!!! AND, they have some of Christian Siriano's design and I instantly fell in love with one of the flats from his collection. And after years of getting over with the boots that Janeo has phased out which has been my super love shoes for about 2 or 3 years, I finally found a nice boots in Payless. Happiness!!!!!

5. Due to my intense happiness and excitement brought about by the shoes that I loved in payless, I was offered 3 pairs of shoes of my choice as a birthday gift! Im still thinking about it though hehehehe! But the thought na may birthday gift for me is happiness ...super happiness!

6. To you who's trying to put back the laughter in me ... thanks! Sorry if my pag-iinarte is costing you but on the brighter side, it paves the way for new and exciting adventures, right? ;) So in that note, I believe, my occasional pag-iinarte is healthy and turns out to be fun in the end. But of course, it wouldn't be as fun and exciting without you. tama na ... keso na masyado ito!

On the way home, I was just smiling and laughing and singing 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Ev'rywhere you go'. I love this feeling ... this giddy, child-like happy feeling.

And so, my mojo is back =)

Realization

What I've learned is that great love brings out the best and the worst in us.
We can either choose one and get rid of the other or live with both.

-- simplydio

Unlearn to Learn

Now I get it, we have to unlearn what we already know in order to Learn what we need to know.

-- simply dio

Delayed Gratification

In the process of forgiveness, of correcting mistakes and in healing, there is a part that we must endure. A painful phase that we must accept in silence bearing in mind the blessings that will come after this phase...that everything will be okay, that peace of mind will be achieved, and all the wounds will be healed.

--simplydio

A different kind of Joy

I feel a different sense of joy when despite of being in the middle
of crappy things in life, you find happiness in accomplishing a simple task
that gives you joy, makes you feel proud of yourself, makes you realize how
blessed you are and makes you forget the shit that you're in.