I need a journal for 2011 to keep a daily log of:
1. the things that give me joy and happiness
2. something I learned during the day
3. the person I meet/know/get re-connected with
4. verses of the bible that I read
5. birthday and other special days of family and friends
6. my spending
7. my eating
8. distance I walk or jog
9. nice things I say/hear/do
10.not-so-nice things I say/hear/do
Things I have done but would like to do again
1. Hike to a waterfall – did thrice already, but it would be good to do it again in 2011, or before 2010 ends
2.Plant a vegetable and herb garden – grow your own food; eat local
3. Win in a chess tournament
4. win in a badminton tournament
5. run with the dogs
6. eat nipa fruit – i would mind getting stain all over my clothes
7. sleep under the stars –
8. climb a mountain – this time, with enough provisions for food
9. dive – i can do another introductory drive
10. bike around metro manila
Added in facebook note on November 26, 2010
I have this list of 10 in my facebook note. Updates are added recently.
1.Finished reading the Old Testament – I am thankful for my ipod application which will help me succeed at this one
2.Finish the construction of the house in my hometown – I am thankful for my husband who is helping me all the way, for my brother who continues doing what he needs to do even it he does not understand it fully, to my mother who oversees everything and to hdmf for lending the needed funds – done
3.Start mutual fund with pami – done
4.Read another classic novel – I read a lot of classics during the year and wondered why I did not read them when I was in highschool or college – done
5.Buy and re-read the harry potter books as I forgot the story already and have mixed it up with the fan fiction – done
6.Buy gifts for family and friends – done
7.Lose weight at least 5 pounds – I am ever grateful to be just a few steps away from the gym – done. yippppeeee. I am 130lbs as of March 14, 2011
8.Send christmas cards to friends
9.Attend an MCLE class – done
10.Bake a cake or bread, something that I have not baked before – done
Gratefulness makes you feel so light and a friend of eveybody around you. The habit of being grateful for all the blessings one gets everyday makes you feel loved… Much like the feeling of conquering the world. Each little thing that the day brought contributes to the growth of your being. When one is grateful, the universe will re-arrange the cosmic particles that what you need for a more fulfilled life will be carried to you gently such that there is nothing to complained of or crave for. That is such amazing. Thank you Lord for a grateful heart.
I miss the days when I spent so much time blogging. A special project at work comes at an opportune time to get back to blogging. Seeing my thoughts in words. This really has a relaxing effect on me.
Blogging makes me think more, ponder, and realize what things are really important. Writing down my thoughts and reading it helps me make senses of the thoughts I have. It is a wondeful feeling to cross out a lot of those thoughts because they are negated by more important thoughts which conflict with the trivial matters which mostly occupied my consciousness. As they say, a lot of the stuff that went through our head are not really important nor deserve attention.
Hail to blogging.
Being happy is all about creating and nurturing a state of happiness, a state which starts with the mind and flows to the heart back to the mind. Our idea of success does not always guarantee a state of happiness. To be happy is to make yourself happy with what you have even if continuously contemplating with what you will have.
To be in state of happiness is to create and spread good vibes or energy. This is through cultivating happy and positive thoughts, spreading cheer, entertaining good views, and contagious optimism. The book The Secret does not contain the universal secret or undisclosed knowledge of the universe. In fact, it is a compilation of wisdom shared to us by parents, mentors, teachers, and friends. I would say that they are universal pieces of wisdom because they are something man universally is supposed to know already. The issue now is more on applying these pieces of wisdom with all the hustle and bustle in our life, which makes stopping and slowing down to think and reflect seems intricate.
I am on the way to being a great cook.
During college and law school years, I was a kitchen-phobic, a person without confidence in cooking and preparing dishes. Before I started law school, I listed down a number of things I will do when I am done with law school and one of them is cooking. To survive law school and my day job, I cook just enough food to satiate my hunger, but often studying and sleeping on an empty stomach and more often with just bread for dinner. It was not until I have a full time boyfriend that I got real food most of the time for dinner because he would always cook and make sure there is some great food for dinner for the two of us.
Now, as a mother and done with law school, I am being true to my word. I am conquering my lack of confidence for cooking. I have prepared several dishes already and cooked severeal pasta dishes. In fact, I have tried a hand at baking. Lately, I baked chocolate cake which is really good and a successful for a first time baker like me. It is not a perfect chocolate cake and it does not even have frosting, but it is tasty and better than some commecially available cheap cakes.
For the coming weekend, I plan to bake carrot cake.
The internet has a lot of tips on using your credit card wisely. I can only surmise that with the wave of people writing on wise use of credit cards, a lot of people with debt woes are googling to read these tips. In my younger days, I experienced credit card woes. At an early age of 22, I got an whooping 60,000 credit card debt, an amount which is a lot more than my monthly salary. In short, I was living a life beyond my means. I do not know why my debt ballooned that huge.
I decided to fix my debt-ful existence and cut my credit cards. I paid for my credit card balance in 12 months, spending minimally during those times. I was elated when I paid out everything and had no debt for several months. Then, I got a new card but was fearful to use. I did not use my new card for the next 3 months after receiving it, until I realized that I have to teach myself to use credit wisely and to my advantage.
Right now, I only have one credit card. I do not count my corporate card because I do not use it for personal expenses. My balance is within tolerable limit that can be paid in one month, if I want to. If somebody asks on how to use that piece of plastic, my first answer is use only one credit card and do not accept a high credit limit. Twice your net salary for a credit limit is all that you need.
The United States Supreme Court said that it is unconstitutional for Child Rapists to be put to death for raping a child, somebody below 12 years old. The justices has the opinion that the penalty is not proportionate to the crime. Further, murder and crimes against the State warrants the imposition of the death penalty.
This decision is going back to the ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. Have the justices forgotten or failed to consider the gruesomeness of the crime of rape, or raping a child for that matter? Have they forgotten the sacredness of the human body, the ignominy and the wretched state of the child-rape victim?
I am not in favor of death penalty, but the reasoning of the justices left much to be said. It is inconsistent with how humanity viewed crimes against children. We are a civilized world and we take care of our children…those people who will bring the world to higher heights and will someday take care of us.
We Filipinos are not too dumb nor too blind as to forego the nightmare brought to our countrymen by the sheer imprudence of the management of Sulpicio Lines. At the wake of the typhoon, the ship sailed and its passengers met an untimely demise. The ship though met its long overdue abandonment by its owners. What do I mean?
That ship is not anymore seaworthy. Its owners should have abandoned that ship a long time ago and sold it as scrap metals to some junkshop too willing to buy it and salvage what can be recycled. That same ship stopped in the middle of its voyage because something gone wrong with its engine. Had the owner exercised enough prudence and shed off some of its greed, they should have decided a very long time ago to not anymore use the ship for voyage.
Now, the ship overturned and cause hundreds of lives. The ship could be easily turn upside down to recover the corpses of those passengers in their watery graves. However, the owners are too worried not to get their full insurance proceeds decided that they will abandoned the ship. How about the dead passengers? The management came up with the decision without thinking of the anguish the families of the dead passengers are going through right now. The families already know that their loved ones are dead and are already waiting for the dead bodies to be given to them so they can prepare for a decent wake and burial. This the management of Sulpicio Lines did not think of. If I were the insurer appraiser, I would declare the ship as unseaworthy and refuse to pay any amount of indemnity to Sulpicio Lines. With the very old insured vessel, Sulpicio Lines did not lose anything, hence not worthy to be indemnified. The fury of nature decided for Sulpicio Lines that it is time to retire the vessel. The sea has spoken…the vessel is not fit for voyage. If Sulpicio Lines will receive insurance proceeds, that is payment for their negligence and is against moral and reprehensible.
Cacoethes Scribendi