Tag Archives: great adventure

Last Working Day

And before you say anything about my title, no, I don’t mean my last working day ever here. What I mean is, it’s the last working day for 2007! For us, at least.

Ah, what was I doing last year? I was worried and all about the upcoming year, and it’s mostly because of work. Hah. I’m that neurotic. Well, I’m still a bit neurotic in that sense, but I am definitely doing so much better this year than last year. :)

This week has been package week for me at work. My gift for Grace arrived yesterday, as well as a late birthday gift to Happy from me and Tuesday, and earlier today, I got my Moleskine Asia order, which contains my 2008 planner, 2 blank notebooks that I plan to use somewhere (journals, yay!), and my gifts to Tuesday and Bea. I was so giddy when I received my packages — even if I spent on all of them — just because. I miss receiving letters from snail mail. The only letters I received for the past year were bills. Hah. I now know the feeling.

Maybe next year I can invest in snail mail stuff. Hmmm.

Armed for 2008!Anyway, a bit earlier today, while fixing my stuff, I was holding my new planner and the Moleskine I won a few months ago, when I was hit by my OC-ness. I tore the two pages I have written in in the said notebook, then opened one of the plain Moleskines I ordered and told myself this would be my journal for 2008. Why change from the other even if they’re both Moleskines? Can’t tell, I was sworn to secrecy. :D But anyway, I’m now using this other plain pocket Moleskine…So now I have two identical-looking notebooks all ready for 2008.

Suddenly I’m excited. :) I remember last year I was so apprehensive at the incoming year; this year, I’m psyched. I’ve always made predictions at the start of every year since 2004. Not the fortune-telling kind, but the a general feeling of how the year will go. Like, 2004 was the year of “many happenings” and 2005 was the quiet year, and 2006 was the year of promises and 2007 was the difficult year. What about 2008?

I think 2008 will be…different. I believe it will be definitely better than 2007. In what ways, only God knows. If 2007 was the year of Great Adventures, I think 2008 will be the year of Big, Fun and Scary Stuff (thanks to the NaNoWriMo people for this term :) ). Come to think of it, I think that term is very similar to Great Adventure. ^^;

But yes…2008 is going to be the year for it. :) The year of Big, Fun and Scary Stuff. I don’t know what 2008 holds, but I’ve got several things to put in my list of Big, Fun and Scary Stuff to conquer this year. :) Like, lose weight (seriously), drive (seriously), bake something new other then my revel bars (and maybe get myself an Ove glove to prevent burns), and go to Sydney. :D Woooh. And that’s just the start! Exciting!

What about you? What do you think 2008 holds for you? :)

Don't get it right, get it written

It’s no secret that I dream of being a writer. In fact, I call myself a striving writer because that’s what I am. I don’t have any fancy degrees in Creative Writing or anything related, and I know my English is not as strong as I want it to be. To be honest, I just write what comes to mind, and I’m sure I don’t win high points in any grammar book. My vocabulary is too limited, and I feel envious of people who write really well. I may seem like a good writer to other people, but if I was put beside all the other “good writers” around, I’d most probably suck real bad.

So last Saturday’s writing workshop was actually a big encouragement for me wannabe er, striving writer. Like I said, I don’t have fancy degrees. Reading classics make my head ache sometimes, and I hardly touch science fiction or fantasy because just like classics, I find it a bit hard to digest (yes, I’ve never read any LotR). I hardly have time to acquire and read Filipino literature (except for Bob Ong, hee!). I admit that I love ChickLit, and some people think that’s shallow. I love Young Adult too. My stories are all happy bubbly type of stories, which is why I quit the school’s literary folio back in college because I felt like my stories do not fit what they usually publish (that and I do not have time). I’ve pretty much given up hope being a writer until I got to know about National Novel Writing Month, where I finally found the reason to write and be creative at least once a year. And since the topic was pretty much about writing a novel in 30 days since Dean is also a Wrimo (and I just realized! A batchmate! I joined NaNo in 2004 too :D), the talk pretty much pushed the right buttons for inspiration. :P

Last Saturday’s workshop with Dean Alfar was an eye-opening and inspiring one. It made me want to learn more about the craft, to actually take this writing business seriously. It’s not going to pay any of my bills, but it’s what I’ve been wanting to do ever since I “met” Elizabeth Wakefield of Sweet Valley, and I don’t think I’ll ever really rest well without being able to fulfill my dream of publishing at least one fiction novel. As what I told Julie the other day, I’m really afraid of my works being shot down, but that’s necessary for the growth as a writer. It won’t kill me. Great adventure, yes?

So…by hook or by crook, I’m gonna get to 50,000 words on this year’s NaNo. I’m going to finish this novel (and finish last year‘s too), and write, write, write. Of course, read, read, read too. Because if I’m not going to write about the things I see and how I see these things, then who will?

Onward, Pinoy Wrimos! :)

* Much thanks to Read or Die/Write or Die for this great initiative. :D Mabuhay kayo!

Hard Decisions

Last February, I went through some events that made me realize one thing (out of the many): in order for me to do something really worthwhile, to be able to reach my dreams, I have to make hard decisions. As what Ginger Foutley said in The Wedding Frame: Nothing worth having ever comes easy. True, right?

Yesterday (and the past few days), these thoughts hit me again. Hard. And I never thought this would be so hard to do, to think that I’ve been wanting to do it for the past months.

You see, yesterday, I resigned from my job.

Continue reading Hard Decisions

Waiting for the Splash

I took a Dive today. Ironically, I have not gone swimming this (already ending) summer yet. So what kind of dive is it?

Well, if you know me in real life you probably know. If you don’t, I can’t divulge it yet. :) But it’s part of the much talked about Great Adventure. Which reminds me…I should always read that entry to remind me of what my 21st year is.

Anyway, like I said, I took a Dive. And right now I’m waiting for the SPLASH! I don’t know what would happen to me, if I will be able to rise up from this dive that I took, or if I will be engulfed by the “waters”. I don’t know if I will be disappointed with that will happen or if I will scream with happiness after. I don’t know if I will continue to stay at where I am in my life right now or be given an opportunity that will somehow make me be like George Lindemann…who knows? Only God knows. But the splash hasn’t come yet, so I can’t say anything. Right now, I will just have to wait. You got that right, wait.

I can do that. I can wait. I’ve been waiting a lot all my life.

But Lord, please let this be it.

In the meantime…as I wait and pray, here’s a really nice devotional from Elisabeth Elliot (on a sidenote, it just occured to me that I have been receiving her devotional for three years already. Yes, her devotionals repeat every year, but I have to admit that I don’t always read it, so sometimes some of the entries hit me like that). Emphasis mine, by the way.

Responsible to Praise
by Elisabeth Elliot
A Lamp Unto My Feet, Luke 23:47

We cannot always or even often control events, but we can control how we respond to them. When things happen which dismay or appall, we ought to look to God for his meaning, remembering that He is not taken by surprise nor can his purposes be thwarted in the end. What God looks for is those who will worship Him. Our look of inquiring trust glorifies Him.

One of the witnesses to the crucifixion was a military officer to whom the scene was surely not a novelty. He had seen plenty of criminals nailed up. But the response of this Man who hung there was of such an utterly different nature than that of the others that the centurion knew at once that He was innocent. His own response then, rather than one of despair that such a terrible injustice should take place, or of anger at God who might have prevented it, was praise (Lk 23:47 NEB).

This is our first responsibility: to glorify God. In the face of life’s worst reversals and tragedies, the response of a faithful Christian is praise–not for the wrong itself certainly, but for who God is and for the ultimate assurance that there is a pattern being worked out for those who love Him.

This is the Great Adventure. Have a restful night, everyone. :)

10 Things

My ex-partner and YFC brother Niki tagged me to do this list in his Multiply so I thought I’d write it here instead of there. I used to have this kind of list I entitled All These Things, which I got from an old online friend but I stopped doing it because…well, because I was lazy. I guess making this list is also a part of The Great Adventure, so some of the items in this list would be the same in my first 5 Great Adventures list.

So let’s do this again, shall we? According to the tag, I’m supposed to write 10 things I want to do before I die, and then tag 5 people after. Here we go!

 

10 Things I Want to do Before I Die

  1. Publish a book. Or two. I consider myself a writer as well as a computer scientist/geek, and I still want to publish a book. Preferably fiction, but I like nonfiction too. I think I’ll go towards the young adult/chicklit genre for the fiction. :P
  2. Travel, travel, travel. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I want to see the world! I’ve got Sydney up for 2008, for the upcoming World Youth Day (I’ll be putting up a blog for this sometime soon, so watch out for it!) but I also want to go visit other places before I turn 30 or get married (whichever comes first). I want to go backpacking in Europe, go shopping in the streets of Bangkok (for the second time) with my friends, explore the beautiful beaches right here in this hometown, visit different Disney parks in the US and drop by the Big Apple to see if it’s really filled with people and if it’s really everything I’ve read about. Besides all that Heroes watching makes me want to see the city, and yes, including the plastic surgery in Manhattan. The world is waiting! I want to see!
  3. Receive sunflower(s) on my birthday. My favorite flower is a sunflower, and every year I wish for someone to give it to me on my birthday. Still no such luck, but I’m young, I can still wait. Even just one sunflower would be nice. :D
  4. Put up a bookstore/coffee shop. My mom and I have been playing with this idea and I threw this idea to my best friend as well. I love books, I like coffee — so why not start a business that has both? I have yet to think of a way to make that bookstore different — or maybe I should put it up in the province or something. Not a remote province, of course, but on a semi-remote place where there’s no close access to Powerbooks or any bookstore not counting National Bookstore.
  5. And since we’re on the topic of provinces, I want to have my dream house built. My dream house, as I envisioned it a year ago, would be in the semi-remote province (Tagaytay?). It’s a two-storey house with spacious rooms. No TVs in the bedrooms, only in the family room and there’s going to be a library/study and a prayer room. The house will be built on a huge yard where there’s room for a flower garden on the side (with a big sunflower patch!) as well as a swingset for the kids. And surrounding the house should be white picket fence. :P
  6. Fall in love, get married and have a beautiful family. Enough said. :P
  7. Raise enough money for a GK house and help build it.
  8. Be a missionary. In what way, only God knows. :)
  9. Send a kid to school.
  10. Be surprised on my birthday. As in the Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you went through all this kind of surprise. :P
    .

There’s more, but I’ll stop here or else I might blab the whole day. :) Anyway, I’m tagging…well, I’m really not in the mood to tag anyone. :P If you feel like getting this survey, then consider yourself tagged. Come on, it’s fun to write things like this. :P

Now I’m off to help my mom clear up on her just concluded dinner with her CFC friends. :) Good night!

A Friendly Reminder

Here’s a little bit of comfort from my morning prayer time (I finally got to do it again before I got to work — Yay!), which hit me hard, after all the er, complaining I did for the past two days.

The clinging of the women is symbolic of the way in which we can cling to comforting things in an unhealthy way such that they stunt our growth as Christians. The nature of Christian life is that God wants us to be always moving forward. He is not interested in us becoming comfortable in one way or another with our present faith experiences as He knows there is always so much more for us to receive from Him…clinging is usually symptomatic of the desire to remain static and not to accept the challenge of letting go in faith and trusting that we will be able to make the next few steps of the adventure of lifeI will have to get better that letting go of controls in my life and trusting that God will lead me to the right and best place for me.
– Fr. Steve T.

I know this already, but as usual, little old weak me needs reminding from Someone who definitely knows better. Thank You.

By God’s grace, I will live through this. I will cling to nothing else but Him. This is my Great Adventure.

Happy Tuesday everyone. :)