I’ve had several unfinished posts recently, i.e. ones I start but never finish because I fall asleep. I never realized how much I miss sleeping till the past few days. I’ve just been sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. 😐 I haven’t even told my friends that I’m now back home, at least till today.

I went out with one of my bestest friends tonight. Last I talked to her in person was over a year ago. I called her a few month back and we spoke over the phone for a bit over 30 minutes, and i didn’t care that it was international rates. I missed talking to someone without any inhibitions.

So this evening we had a LOT to catch up on. I shared my stuff to her and well, I knew she was on the verge of smacking me on the head. :p  But it felt good to tell someone about stuff that’s been bugging me for so long. Everyone deserves a friend like that, someone you can talk to, whom you know wont judge. Someone who knows you enough for you not to have to explain yourself. I’m just really lucky to have a friend like her. 🙂

We talked about a few other things as well, one of which was our other girl friend’s wedding coming up next year. We’re both really excited for her. I’m happy that she’s been able to find someone she has decided to spend her life with. It also made me wonder whether that moment would come for me as well. I was asking my mom if she’d feel bad if i told her I didn’t have any plans of marrying. She just laughed at me. But seriously, I don’t see marriage in my future, not in the near future at least. But I also know that if it’s not going to be in the next few years, I’ll be way passed my shelf life. But it doesn’t bother me at all. Like one of my friends suggested, I can always adopt if i want kids, which i guess makes sense.

Okay, before i fall asleep and decide this is not worth posting, let me click the publish button 🙂 Good night!

  Instead of mixing things into this blog, I’ve created an "event" where i hope to detail my trip back home. Pictures, blog entries etc will be posted there. Now if only there were a way to configure the live tools with Events…

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Return to the Philippines

Hosted by: Aimee Villaraza Date and time: Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 3:00 AM View this event on Windows Live

Exactly 120 hours from now, I’ll be boarding my plane home. After 10 months (I can’t even believe it’s been that long) I’ll finally get to go back. I’m very excited, but at the same time, I’m dreading the coming of the day, because once it comes, it’s going to be over. I know it won’t be long till I’ll be on the plane back again. Well, It’ll be a month, but.. It will be good to see my friends again, it will be good to see my family again.

Anyway, back to work. Bloody busy.

i want to blog. but i don’t know what i want to blog about! 😐

I went to watch a movie today, The Hitman. Pretty good stuff, not a really good actor but he still looks good, made me think about getting my head shaved and getting a barcode tattooed at the back of it. Hollywood movies always seem so surreal.

I like movies and the way they transport you to a different world and let you live a different life for a bout 1.5 to 2 hours. I especially like it when you’re in a movie theater and don’t really have a choice but to sit through it. Well, actually you do, but when you’re in a country where the movies aren’t as cheap as the ones back home, you have more patience to sit through the entire film even when it’s sucks. Kind of like a mini life. No matter how bad things get, you have no choice but to get through it. And sometimes, you discover that it’s not that bad after all.

Yes, plus one to the many secret blogs of Aimee, because I am

I did a session on LINQ today and for those who are interested in the slides here they are.

http://cid-bdfb7845c22e26b6.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/Public/CTU07Resources.zip

* if you cant see the embedded thingie above, this is the link http://cid-bdfb7845c22e26b6.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/CTU07%20Resources.zip

A better resource though would be the samples that come along out of the box which you can access under the Help menu.

Have fun!

http://goldencompassmovie.com/goldenCompass_blog.swf?id=334068

I was trying to look for this video because i remember seeing it before and was surprised i didn’t add to my faves.

They should come up with a better way to search videos…

Did a bit of retail therapy today
 

Then I went to watch the movie Alpha Dog. Funny thing happened when I was at the counter buying my ticket.

"Ms. I’ll need to see your IC because this is an R-rated movie."

"What? Uh, I’m not from around here and I didn’t bring my passport with me"

"I’m sorry I can’t let you in."

"You’re serious? How old do I look?"

*smile*

I didn’t know whether to be pissed or flattered. Luckily, found an ID in my wallet that had my age. (So that’s what SSS IDs are for…)

I’m surprised they were being strict this time. I don’t remember them being as strict with the last movie I watched, Shoot Em Up, I believe that was R-rated as well. Anyway, that made my day. I don’t look like I’m over 21 woohoo!

So onto the movie. I believe the movie was based on a true story of one of FBI’s most wanted people, Jesse James Hollywood. It’s quite extreme but I believe it’s an accurate depiction of how sick society is. Alright, I confess, I watched the movie just because Justin Timberlake was in it. :p Wanted to see if he can act as well as he can dance. (and was secretly hoping that he’d do a dance stint in it too haha). His acting wasn’t bad. Nothing great though, but the story was interesting. I’m currently reading the real story behind the movie. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/jesse_james_hollywoo All in all, I enjoyed the movie. Filled up what was left of my Saturday.

Anyway, gonna go sleep now. Will want to hit the gym bright and early tomorrow.:)

I got this from Da Jojo’s blog, I just HAD to re-post.

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Between Poverty and Paradise

This is one of those forwarded e-mails too good not to share…

Between Poverty and Paradise

Paolo Mangahas, head of WWF in Malaysia, recently won an award for this essay

LAST night, I had dinner with a German friend to talk about her planned trip to the Philippines. She had just completed an internship program in one of the law firms here in Malaysia and wanted to take a short holiday in a nearby country before heading off to Australia to finish her studies. She wanted to know more about the Philippines and asked me for tips on making the most of the two-and-a-half weeks that she had allotted for this vacation.

We planned her trip between bites, armed only with a faded map of the Philippines that we had downloaded from the Internet. My goal was to identify all the "must-see" places in the country (her criteria being  beaches and volcanoes), plot them according to distance and flight routes, and then cram them all in 17 days. A tall order indeed, especially for someone like me who has never had a sense of direction even in my own neighborhood. For the life of me, I could not spot where Boracay was on her  map. So I took the easy way out and told her to go to Palawan instead.

I carried on with the task like a diligent student trying to remember my geography, starting from the rice terraces in Banaue up north, moving down south to the Mayon Volcano in Bicol and the Chocolate Hills in Bohol. It was an embarrassing ordeal nonetheless as she could see that I was struggling to find all the other attractive destinations on the map, which in turn made me  realize how little I truly knew about my own country. She was very excited about the trip and was eager to learn more about the country and its people.

She imagined the Philippines to be an eternal fiesta of Spanish and Chinese  Third-World flair, filled with warm and accommodating people who all speak with a clear American accent, where all men have the handsome earthy appeal of Jericho Rosales and women the heavenly mestiza charms of Kristine Hermosa (thanks to Filipino soap operas that have become so popular here in Malaysia). It was certainly one of the most honest cultural impressions that I have ever heard and quite amusingly, one shared by many. In my German  friend’s opinion, the Philippines is one of the most open-minded countries in Southeast Asia. I found this view rather interesting, especially since it came from a European who has never stepped foot in the Philippines and whose only direct exposure to the country, was me.

The funny thing about cultural impressions is that they often come from a place of both acute perception and blatant ignorance, split in the middle by what is painfully true. But they are what they are ~ impressions. Quite

naturally, my friend and I have come to build our own impressions about Malaysia in the several months that we have been here. Malaysia is a beautiful country that seems to be in a hurry to develop economically, but is hampered by a palpable trace of social reluctance. It seems grounded on an age-old culture that simply does not mix well with progress, or at least the kind dictated and exemplified by the Western world. I find this true for most developing Asian countries, including the Philippines.

My friend pointed out that she has never seen a beggar in the streets of Kuala Lumpur since she moved here and asked me if it is the same in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, she admitted that she has never seen a beggar up close in her whole life and asked me to explain how it is to live in a poor country like mine.

She wanted to know more about poverty. Her question struck a chord in me because I realized that apart from Jericho Rosales, this woman had absolutely no idea about the country where she was going and how it was out

there. Here was someone who came to me wanting to know more about my country and the best I could offer was a geographical representation of scenic destinations, which I hardly even knew myself.

By this time, I had put down the pen I was holding, set aside the map, and got ready to explain to her details about my country. I did not know where to begin. After all, how does one explain poverty to someone who has never experienced it before? To make things more relevant to her, I started by comparing the Philippines to Malaysia. I told her that blue-collar workers in the Philippines did not have the same opportunities as the ones in Malaysia, who can afford to eat in the same restaurants where executives eat or even shop in stores where their own bosses shop. I told her that unlike the ones I have met in Malaysia, secretaries and administrative clerks in the Philippines will eat in posh restaurants only on very special occasions and can barely afford to travel to other countries. I then told her about the beggars, young and old, who parade the streets of Manila, the children who knock on car windows selling sampaguita, the mothers who have to forage for food in garbage landfills, and the unemployed fathers who waste their lives on drugs and alcohol. I told her about the shanties that bedeck highways and  railroads, the unproductive traffic jams, the garbage-infested streets and sewers, and the regular typhoons that flood the country and exacerbate already poor living conditions. I told her that poverty in the Philippines unapologetically hits you in the face the very moment you step in. It is an open wound just waiting to be healed.

My friend looked shaken, as if experiencing for the first time a world she has seen only on TV. That was when my tears started to fall. I could not help it. I have never cried in front of a semi-stranger before but for some reason, I cried this time because she was still not immune to these things.

Her unawareness taught me to see poverty as if for the first time myself,  which brought out a lot of pain. I have become so used to the pain that I have forgotten how it felt until I painted for her the sad face of poverty.

I then found myself having to explain to her that despite all these, the  Philippines is still a beautiful country and this you will also feel the very moment you get there. It is a beauty characterized by the indomitable human spirit of a people who have seen better days and yet still have the capacity to find a piece of heaven in their lives. It is a beauty defined by the untiring faith of a people who have learned to acknowledge their plight

with reverence and yet have never lost the courage to dream big dreams. It is a beauty characterized by the painful history of a people who have been abused and pillaged through the years and yet still have so much of themselves to give.

Now her tears were falling, smearing the map that I had earlier vandalized with circles and arrows. But I knew it did not matter anymore at this point.

I realized that my friend had learned all she needed to know about my country and my people. She thanked me profusely, saying that she came to me wanting to know more about how poor the Philippines is but in the end, she learned how abundantly blessed Filipinos truly are.

A beach is a beach and a volcano is a volcano anywhere in the world, but it is the people who make the difference. I learned in that moment that I may not know the geographical features of my country all too well, but I sure know its heart and its soul because it is who I am. The real poverty lies in not knowing this.

I knew things would be different today, I remember getting up and seeing Michael’s status about him going to watch the cheering competition. Immediately i asked my friends to let me know if we won.

Fast forward to the early evening, I heard news that CHEERED me UP! Finally, our pep squad broke their losing streak, and as I’ve been saying on YM, I was probably a curse on them, ever since I stepped on Luzon soil. For 5 years, they hadn’t been winning but this year, (now that I’m in a different country altogether) they finally bagged the championship! http://www.ubelt.com/uaap/mbb/story.aspx?id=1421

Despite waking up half-way through the day, I think i was able to do a bit more than usual today, well went to more places at least. It was raining so I couldn’t really do my usual walk around town so I was restricted to Orchard. After 2 hours of walking around the malls, I decided to watch "Premonition". I had expected it to be a scary movie, but it was actually creepy in a different way. I can’t explain, but it did become a bit creepy to me personally.

When I got home, I headed for the aerobics room to dance. I miss dancing. I miss Eloisa, one of my good friends back in high school who choreographed most of our group dances. /whereis Eloisa. The last time I danced in a performance was during a competition in my last year of college, that was definitely fun. We practiced after school, and we’d be sweating it out till late night, but it was never a chore because we were all doing something we enjoyed. I’m wondering if there are street dance groups here in SG, that would be fun to join.

Back to reality tomorrow. It’s going to be a long busy week. I haven’t even BEGUN to sort through my mailbox yet. I have to get to work early tomorrow and start tREADING through them. sigh…

We missed our training, I for one couldn’t bring myself to wake up. :S

I had the weirdest dream. I was in some small closed room, and a roach, a hybrid shrimp and spider, and and some unidentified insect were attacking me. 😐

Strange.

I have a feeling I’m burning out at work 😦 which is why i am now going to start implementing a weekend policy whereby I am not to engage in any mental activity related to work during the weekends unless absolutely necessary.

Not. :p

But I will try to work in less stressful environments to make it seem like I am not at work. Hence, the hunt for Starbucks outlets with electrical outlets :p

back to work.

Thanks to Tin. The thought has been playing in my mind lately but just recently, one of my friends brought up the topic with me and now, my determination to do so has increased. Right now, I’m looking at finishing this one year of work, and applying at the same time. If I get in, then great! If not, then I continue to work (that is if my employer will still take me :p) We’ll see what happens in the coming months, but yeah, I have to admit, I miss the academic environment.

Pretty cool application, visually. Though, functionality wise, I’m not too impressed. Makes sense probably for image search scenarios, but as for normal browsing, err, no thanks. At least not right now. What it does it kind of takes a screen shot of the page and displays it on a 3d panel that i guess you can flip around and to navigate, you’ll still have to select one browser and maximize it to interact with it. I can already do that with vista except in vista, if my browser is displaying moving parts, it actually shows them moving. :p

Quite an interesting app still, I’m curious to find out how this will take off.

SpaceTime™

It’s amusing what people are coming up with these days. There are people trying to bring the desktop experience to the web and now this comes, and tries to bring the web experience into.. err.. who knows where yet. 

Because I fooling around with some graphics design work, I spent the whole day on 1024 x 768. Now that I switched back, everything looks so CLEAN!

Been quite busy lately, hence the absence of blog posts. I didn’t get to go out today because I had to finish this mini project for tomorrow. At home all day, loading up on McDonald’s Chicken nuggets and 3 Liters of Pepsi. Life is good.

I also was on a music binge. I’m using Last.FM, it streams pretty good quality music and I love how you’re able to enter an artist name, and it searches for similar artists (yes, much like Pandora :p).

It’s been a long time since I last blogged, Live Spaces seems to have yet again gotten another facelift. I remember one time when i was actually in the middle of writing an entry when one of the facelifts occurred. Always a pleasant surprise. Another surprise to me when i logged in is that spaces has a radio module and what’s more, they’ve tied up with Pandora! Sad thing is though, the service is still no longer available outside the U.S. I was able to try out the service back when it was still open and i have to say, it rocks! I sure hope they open back up the service soon. Another improvement I’ve noticed is how you can now customize you spaces site further with custom backgrounds and modules transparency. There still seems to be some kinks, but i’m sure they’ll get them fixed in no time. I’m excited. 🙂

I was surprised that i could no longer play my favorite smooth jazz station through Yahoo Launchcast. When i visited the site, I found the link to http://www.savenetradio.org/ 

it was a long weekend for me. Ces came to visit Singapore last friday, and that time, I was still lacking a bit of sleep from the Remix & Premix events that we’d been having in the last two workdays of the week. When she arrived here at 12mn of friday, we went home and planned her itenerary for saturday. Sometime around 4am, we decided that we wanted t ovisit KL as well. We quickly searched for the most decent but cheap bus tickets :p I will go into the gory details of the trip, complete with pictures next time.

It was a spur of the moment thing and my history with Ces was that we once went to Sagada back when i was in college, over summer though. That was actually my first leisure trip outside of metro manila, to a different province. This time, we’ve scaled a bit more, we now headed to a different country. Looking forward to next time when it’s HOPEFULLY gonna be a different continent (or planet? :p)  It was definitely fun! I’m really sleepy now… i will catch you later. I’m just so sleepy.. zzz…

POSTNOTE: I edited this post today.. wasn’t being coherent with my sentences, was half asleep while posting this early this morning :p

Yes, facebook is addictive. There’s just so many things you can do! I guess the great thing about it is how people can actually keep building on top of it. It’s ALIVE!!