At 29, when you look at your life in terms of years, you tend to look at it as a small number. Still young. But when you learn to live your life one day at a time, 10,592 days seems a lot. I should have done a lot more with 10,592 days.
I usually write a lengthy reflection whenever this day comes. That was back when I had a traditional paper journal. I dunno.. is it because this one is published online that I have reservations about writing down my darker thoughts for my unassuming readers to err.... read. I sure hope not. I don't want to lose track of the reason why I started this blog in the first place. Anyway, this is just the beginning. I don't know how long this'll go.
Truth be told, I am not an all-out good guy. I may be level-headed most of the time but for most of my life I had so much to be sorry for. I had also harboured a great deal of anger and pain towards many people who have hurt me in the past. I have also done quite a few things I can't be proud of because I was weak in dealing with those hurts. But that was the past. I realized long ago that those hurts are not worth losing sleep over. I cannot let some things that happened long ago keep me from enjoying the rest of my life in peace. It shouldn't keep me from doing more.
You should have done a lot more with 10,592 days. You'll never know if you'll stop at 12,000 or earlier.
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By itself, a rock by the sea is everlasting. It has seen countless seasons pass by. It has endured many storms. It has met countless lost souls who take solace in its strength. This rock has seen the most beautiful sunset far more than anybody else. It has enjoyed the salty scent of the sea for the longest time. If I had to be anything else than human, I'd rather be this rock by the sea and watch the sunset all my life.
Photo available for FREE download. Just click the Picasa logo
Caffeine Connection is also the name of the article on the july 2007 issue of Baby Magazine where this piece figures as main visual. The article talks about the effects of caffeine on women who wish to conceive. You can also find out how much caffeine is in the beverages you take everyday and learn how to get off the coffee habit when you think you're hooked. Grab a copy of Baby Magazine as soon as it hits the stand. An editable vector copy of this illustration will be available for FREE download soon. For the meantime, you just need to ask for it.
I came in at about 12 mins before 7 o'clock in the morning. I think I was the 20th guy there. Today is the day I filed an application for my social security ID card. It was long overdue since I have been a worker ant for more than 6 years now. But years of procrastinating and poor time management coupled with the fact that I always just make my deadlines by the skin of my teeth lead me to this day. You see, I never was a crowd person coz I always find some people weird that they creep me out. You can imagine how I feel about sitting in a room full of strange strangers... let me tell you about the characters I encountered.
I surveyed the room and saw "the box" where we [applicants] put our E-6 forms face down. The logic was for the first ones there to get their papers processed first. Like what the posted announcement said, I placed my "duly accomplished" form in the box and went to sit down to ready my "two valid ID's. People rarely sit beside each other on these occasions so there where a lot of gaps between applicants. I elected to sit on the third row, and as I was making my way to an empty seat, some ladies would put their bags on the seat next to theirs. Probably trying to say "there are lots of other free seats, do not take the one next to me..." as if! I sat down between a 50ish woman and a middleage overweight fellow who smells like toothpaste. I noticed that there were only a few forms in the box before mine and that most of the people who came before me hadn't put theirs in.. There was a big glaring announcement infront of us, how could they miss that? People started lining up to put their forms in the box FACE UP [don't these people know how to read?] One particular lady caught my attention. instead of putting her form on top of the pile, she had the gall to lift some of the papers and put hers ahead of most of us. I was amused at the pathetic effort to get one up on other people.
A lot more was coming in. A particularly annoying girl in her 20's couldn't stop pacing and shifting seats. She went to one of the list of postal code in a bullettin board and then to another. [the list were the same] she then went back to the box to get her form. She must have realized she put the wrong zip code. True enough, other people went shifting between the lists and checking their forms. Everyone was on their mobile pretending not to care about what anyone else was doing. And yet, they mirror everything anybody does. The constant beeping and ringing can drive anyone nuts. The girl infront of me didn't car to put her phone on silent letting everyone suffer her "pogi-rock band" message tone. A few seats to her right where two guys dressed in smart casual attire. They had matching tumblers and they have their sunglasses on their heads like rudy project models or something. They are what you would now call "metrosexuals." in gym-enhanced physique. They were also on their mobile phones and couldn't stop giggling like little girls who knows a secret. I'm not saying they're gay, just because they can't stop touching each other's arms and keeps getting lost in each others eyes and the only girl who was with them was seated 3 seats away with no one in between... no, I'm not saying they're gay. [Disclaimer: Im not a homophobe. I have gay friends whom I respect so much. Some people - gay or otherwise - just don't have a sense of propriety in public.]
Another character is the one I named block head. A 6-foot tall guy who constantly pestered the lady in the booth to ask if his name will be called soon. He also didn't bother to bring his own pen and had to go around to borrow one from. He hurriedly grabbed another guy's pen and did not even say thank you afterwards. Jerk. I couldn't recall the other colorful toons I encountered. Maybe when i start having nightmares, I will. I got out of there at half past eight, only an hour and a half... It felt a lot longer than that.
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I surveyed the room and saw "the box" where we [applicants] put our E-6 forms face down. The logic was for the first ones there to get their papers processed first. Like what the posted announcement said, I placed my "duly accomplished" form in the box and went to sit down to ready my "two valid ID's. People rarely sit beside each other on these occasions so there where a lot of gaps between applicants. I elected to sit on the third row, and as I was making my way to an empty seat, some ladies would put their bags on the seat next to theirs. Probably trying to say "there are lots of other free seats, do not take the one next to me..." as if! I sat down between a 50ish woman and a middleage overweight fellow who smells like toothpaste. I noticed that there were only a few forms in the box before mine and that most of the people who came before me hadn't put theirs in.. There was a big glaring announcement infront of us, how could they miss that? People started lining up to put their forms in the box FACE UP [don't these people know how to read?] One particular lady caught my attention. instead of putting her form on top of the pile, she had the gall to lift some of the papers and put hers ahead of most of us. I was amused at the pathetic effort to get one up on other people.
A lot more was coming in. A particularly annoying girl in her 20's couldn't stop pacing and shifting seats. She went to one of the list of postal code in a bullettin board and then to another. [the list were the same] she then went back to the box to get her form. She must have realized she put the wrong zip code. True enough, other people went shifting between the lists and checking their forms. Everyone was on their mobile pretending not to care about what anyone else was doing. And yet, they mirror everything anybody does. The constant beeping and ringing can drive anyone nuts. The girl infront of me didn't car to put her phone on silent letting everyone suffer her "pogi-rock band" message tone. A few seats to her right where two guys dressed in smart casual attire. They had matching tumblers and they have their sunglasses on their heads like rudy project models or something. They are what you would now call "metrosexuals." in gym-enhanced physique. They were also on their mobile phones and couldn't stop giggling like little girls who knows a secret. I'm not saying they're gay, just because they can't stop touching each other's arms and keeps getting lost in each others eyes and the only girl who was with them was seated 3 seats away with no one in between... no, I'm not saying they're gay. [Disclaimer: Im not a homophobe. I have gay friends whom I respect so much. Some people - gay or otherwise - just don't have a sense of propriety in public.]
Another character is the one I named block head. A 6-foot tall guy who constantly pestered the lady in the booth to ask if his name will be called soon. He also didn't bother to bring his own pen and had to go around to borrow one from. He hurriedly grabbed another guy's pen and did not even say thank you afterwards. Jerk. I couldn't recall the other colorful toons I encountered. Maybe when i start having nightmares, I will. I got out of there at half past eight, only an hour and a half... It felt a lot longer than that.
This illustration was used as main visual for a feature in the june 2007 issue of Baby Magazine entitled "And they spell fatherhood as T-I-M-E." Baby Magazine is available at all leading magazine stands in the Philippines. This vector piece, however, will be available for FREE download along with other pieces as soon as I get a host I can afford. I have them hosted on a free hosting site but as you know, bandwidth is very limited. In the meantime, email me if you want me to send you a copy. Just remember to ask nicely... :)
Catch the july 2007 issue of Baby Magazine as soon as it hits the stands on.... july, of course.What's in this issue? Get tons of tips on caring for twins, telling them apart and keeping your sanity intact with the "I love twins" special. Learn the best things to do to keep your toddlers safe and what should be in your first aid kit to be prepared for the times your kids curiosity gets the best of them. Take a trip back on memory lane with fatherspeak where we look back at our memories with our dads as we make new memories with our kids. Get to know thespian, Nor Domingo and learn his brand of Involved fatherhood.
There is lots more to find in every issue of Baby Magazine for new parents because we all know "Babies don't come with a manual"
What is this thing right here? Are we on the right blog? There is a pretty good reason that photo is there... Yes, i took it. Is that so hard to believe. Digital Photography has been a new hobby of mine for a few months now but it is just recently that I stumbled into Picasa, which gives me a decent 1GB of space of photo gallery using the same email address I'm using for this blog. Now, I can get into a lengthy rave about how cool this thing is but that is not the issue in this post. Starting with this particular post, I will be showcasing some of the photos I have turned my "evil eye" on. Yep, starting with this one here. Here goes..."Out my window" is a shot taken from what the name says... it's a view from where I spend the most of my waking days for the past year... The office. It's a view of the western Makati skyline on a most amazing sunset. It is actually the first shot I seriously put some effort on as it was a desperate race against the sun. It was the first time I used a DSLR camera and didn't bother to read the manual because I was hard-pressed to get that sun in my lens. I am pretty satisfied by the result and I was really motivated to get some shots I can be proud of. A high resolution copy of this photograph is available for FREE download at stock.xchange. and Picasa. I can also send it to you if you ask nicely.
