Tag Archives: new year

2010 Declarations

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Ugh, I can’t find the Bible verse about this post just as when I need it. I know there’s got to be one about declarations in the Bible, but I can’t remember it. This is why I should read my Bible more often.

BUT ANYWAY. Hello, this is my fourth post for January 1, 2010, and I’m not quite tired yet. Which is just good because I still have another blog post and two articles to write. *sigh* No rest, no rest.

No, I’m not complaining.

So I’ve been pouring out “Yay, it’s 2010” posts in this blog just because I can, and this is the fourth one. I never had the time to do this a few weeks back because I was busy with work, workout and going out with friends, which just proved that I somehow have a life somewhere out there. Today I’ve holed myself inside the house, and it’s kind of nice to be back to this kind of routine, even just for today. That, and going out means the lingering firecracker smoke will trigger all my allergies and make me sick and I don’t want that for 2010.

But, I digress.

It’s time now to write down my 2010 goals, which I will call my 2010 Declarations. Why the name? A couple of days ago, some friends and I were chatting and we were talking about — haha don’t laugh — guys and dating. A friend said something about the topic and I agreed, and then she said, “Yes, let’s declare it.”

I have never read The Secret or anything that is related to the topic of focusing on your goals/dreams to make them come true, but I do believe in accountability and that the first step in making your dreams become reality is to write them down to where you could see it everyday. I also learned just recently that being specific and positive about your goals helps a lot too…so this year, I’m making my 2010 goals into specific, positive declarations in hopes of being able to achieve them this year. :)

So let’s start!

Continue reading 2010 Declarations

Hello, 2010

Goodbye, 2009! You’ve been difficult, and honestly, you wouldn’t be missed.

Hello, 2010! I feel like posting this, because I totally agree with what this says:

Yes, it will be awesome
Yes, it will be awesome :)

I’m terribly sleepy from the sugar rush earlier, but I’m still awake because I have to do some work! Eeep. :P It’s okay, but I hope it’s not a sign of a lot of work to come!

More posts on the new year (namely my goals for 2010 and a review of my 2009 goals) when I wake up later. For now I’ve got to finish this last pieces of work, and then go to bed since we still have to go to mass tomorrow.  Plus I might be organizing what’s left of my bedroom/storage room when I get home (what I can organize in it, since there’s pretty much..nothing there save for my books), but that’s got to more interesting than reading about life insurance rates.

…AAAAND I’m rambling again.

Anyway. 2010 will be awesome. :) Let the awesomeness begin!

2009 In Review

Whew, finally.

It’s just like 2009 that I would have a minor argument with my mom last night. And I’m all, Please, give me a break. And then I heard of my teammate’s mom passing away and it’s just…sad. Quit it, 2009.

Maybe it’s silly of me to be blaming it all in the year. A couple of days ago, when I was feeling feverish at work, I kept on muttering, “I hate 2009. I hate 2009.” My teammate asked me why, and I told him a lot of bad things happened in the year, primarily Ondoy. He asked me to name more reasons why 2009 sucked and as I tried to remember my other reasons, I realized that they’re all small things that just happened to converge at the latter part of the year, which made 2009 seem unbearable. I was trying to recall the good things in the year, and even if I still have a hard time remembering anything else that happened before the flood, I know there are a lot of good things in this year despite all the bad things. So now let’s try to remember that.

JANUARY

2009 Year-End Survey # 1

I am officially on vacation again. :D I miss last year’s Christmas break, two whole weeks of no work. But beggars can’t be choosers today, so, I’ll take any day off from work. :)

As with tradition for the past two years (or so), here’s one of the year-end surveys that I do every end of the year. Let’s see how different my answers are this year from the past two years. :D

(And yes, I will still make a better recap. But answering surveys can be a bit mindless, requires little words, and I don’t have to have a health risk life insurance for this. So here you go. :D)

What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Read more than 50 books in a year. Watch more than 40 movies. I also started to sponsor a kid to school through World Vision. Go to Hong Kong and Coron, Palawan! Follow a diet, work out consistently and lose 20lbs! :-)

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I think I managed to accomplish half? A lot of it weren’t accomplished because Ondoy kind of threw us all out of the loop. :(

Did anyone close to you give birth?
No one I know. My teammate isn’t due until February.

Did anyone close to you die?
No one again, but a lot of people passed away in 2009. :(

What countries did you visit?
Hong Kong! I want to go back, if only for the food.

Continue reading 2009 Year-End Survey # 1

In 2008, I will chase daylight

And…here we go. New year, new layout, new philosophy. Yeah. HAPPY 2008, EVERYONE!

The past layout has been six months old and although I love it, I thought it’s time for a change, especially for the new year. So from pink and black, I’ve got blue and white and gray…something similar to the first layout of the domain when I got it four years ago (which reminds me…this domain turned four the other day!). The layout is structured similarly with the past one, so it wasn’t that hard to make, but I did have difficulty with the colors on this one. This is the first layout I made on a Aslan, and the first time I experienced the PC-Mac color thing. I don’t know if it’s just my brother’s PC and the angle of his monitor, or the colors are just really screwed. Now the original look is not how it looks like now. Ah well. It looks fine now, but I will change it tomorrow when I am on Guilo (my office PC). I still have two things to accomplish today, so the layout tweaks wait tomorrow. But if you see any bugs, please let me know. :D

Chasing Daylight is from Erwin Raphael McManus’ book of the same title. I bought it during the last book fair, which I only got to start reading a few days ago. So far, it’s an exciting read, which got me thinking about what I plan to do for the new year. Here’s the blurb:

“There are a few things more powerful than a life lived with passionate clarity,” writes McManus.”Every moent is waiting to be seized by those who are chasing daylight.

We all have dreams, hopes and aspirations. Why, then, do some of us realize our dreams and advance forward while others watch timidly from a distance and hope for a break? Author Erwin Raphael McManus reveals the direct relationship between passion and initiative.

When we are passionate about God, we can trust our passions.

Chasing Daylight is a call to live a life of blazing urgency. We have but one life. We are given one opportunity to pursue our dreams and fulfill our divine purpose. Every moment counts, and we must engage them with fierceness and zeal. Put an end to passive observation, paralyzed by the need for perfect opportunity, and start seizing the raw, untapped potential of your life with God.

Are you willing to risk failure? Are you ready to get in the game? You may stumble, but you will find yourself falling forward, propelled toward the God-inspired adventure He intends you to live.

So yes, 2008 is the year of chasing daylight. :) Bring it on!

Changed and Changes

I just finished baking my New Year’s cake, a Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake (will post about this once I know how it tastes — crossing my fingers now!), and earlier, I just cooked another batch of Chocolate Revel Bars, so now I feel like I’m so full of flour and sugar. How’s about that for spending the last year of 2007?

The other day I met up with Diana, an old elementary schoolmate who moved to Canada back in high school. It was supposed to be a reunion of sorts, but as usual, as with my “gimmick jinx”, no one else made it. Except for Happy, who I was with during the afternoon after a failed movie thing (Pfft, goodbye P140 because of Enteng Kabisote 4!), and we ended up eating, walking around Eastwood, listening to Regine Velasquez sing and sitting in Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf until my brother arrived.

It was a nice day, actually, even if I was hoping for a bigger crowd. It was nice talking to old friends and current friends and having everyone get along. During the course of the night (and after), however, I got thinking with something Diana said: “You haven’t changed.

No, it wasn’t said in a deregatory way. What she meant was, I haven’t change since the last time we saw each other…which was six years ago. I find comfort in the fact that I am still the same person I was (okay, a bit more mature than before), but as for other things…I guess I am still the same. As we were accompanying Happy while she shopped, I realized that the way I look is more or less the same as the way I used to look, way back in high school (sans the braces, of course), and the way I dress is still the same way I used to dress. My hair is still wavy, I did not grow taller, and I guess I am fatter than I was before. If we used to know each other and then we lost contact and we saw each other again, you won’t have any trouble recognizing me because I look the same.

Not that it’s not bad. I am comfortable with the way I look, and I like myself (but yes, I could lose a few pounds and all). But everyone I know and used to know, everyone around me has changed even some bit as they went through some defining moments in their lives. While I…was still stuck wherever I am.

Like I said, it’s not bad. But maybe it’s time I do something to change myself, you know? Physically. I won’t be doing it for other people, not to attract guys or because I feel insecure with anyone, but because I want to do it for myself. You know, do something new with the way I look. Get my hair straightened again, finally lose some weight, get out of the shirt+jeans+sneakers outfit. Maybe even wear a bit of make-up (gasp!). Be a girl, for a change, you know? There’s nothing wrong with that, right?

So God help me, I will try to be more…er, fashionable this year. I will start fitting clothes I never thought I’d fit before, start exercising seriously (so I won’t have to wear a corsets when I wear some…fit clothes), and start paying a bit of attention with the way I look…even just a bit. And yes, shopping! I told myself that starting next year, I’ll be buying myself a top/pants/skirt/shoes every month next year, and I must buy myself a dress by my birthday. I know I’m not the kind of girl who turns heads with her beauty, but that does not mean I can’t be presentable, right? ;) As with what I said a few days back, 2008 is the year of Big, Fun and Scary Stuff, the year where I try new things for myself. And this is new. So…bring it on!

Less than six hours before we say goodbye to 2007! Have a safe New Year’s Eve, everyone! :) See you on 2008!

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? :)

Hello, 2007

Where was I for the past first five days of 2007? Let me list them down:

  • January 1: I spent the first two hours in prayer. *blissful smile* I was hit by a big realization the day before while having my hair cut, and that was then I decided that I will spend the first hour of 2007 in prayer. I ended up spending two because the first one was with my family while the second was for my own prayer time. I figured out that I concentrate better in my prayer when I write while I pray so now I write it down. :) I slept, then we went to Tagaytay after lunch for kicks. We visited the lot we have there, then ate at Josephine and went home. My brother and I were supposed to go to the gym but it was traffic so off home we go!
  • January 2: Back to work. It was still kinda relaxed since most people are still on leave. Oh yeah, this was also my first day of gym! Cardio workout for 30 minutes since we got there kind of late. :D
  • January 3: Workout again in the morning, and then work!
  • January 4: Workout again, lots of work and then dinner with the parents at Wendy’s. ♥
  • January 5 (Today): Workout again, then work and now home. HELLO WEEKEND!

Kinda boring if you list it like that. :P The only interesting day I had was New Year’s. Interesting in a way that it didn’t involve work. Although work can be a bit interesting; I’m just not allowed to talk about what exactly I am doing at work here. So there.

Although, I can definitely say that 2007 has been proving to be quite a challenging year so far. And yes, it’s mostly because of work. But let’s not talk about that. ;) It’s times like these that I wonder if I might really have the gift of prophecy (as in the gifts of the Holy Spirit). It’s not that I predict things that will happen (although sometimes, the things I say actually happen, but that’s for another post). Anyway, let’s see…2004 was a year where a lot of things happened, 2005 was the quiet year and 2006 was the year where I learned of God’s faithfulness. Before 2007 started, I was quite apprehensive because I can feel like this year is going to be a year of challenges. I feel like God is going to send me challenges here and there — things that will challenge my beliefs, my faith, my relationship with Him. I don’t know what these challenges are (except work? Haha okay I shall shut up now), but it’s enough for me to balk.

New Year’s Eve, I was praying for God to still my heart, that I may be ready for the coming year. I didn’t pray for it to pass, because I know I’d have to go through something like this sometime, and what better time than now?

Scary? You bet.

But then again, maybe that’s just me. You know, being negative for a change. Who knows? Only God knows.

Though…you know what? Last year is the year where I discovered God’s faithfulness which was deeper than I ever imagined…and this year is also an extension of that. Although maybe this year, God will bring me to another level, to have a real kind of faith, not the one that relies on feelings and experiences alone, but is solidly rooted in His saving love.

As I got out of the office earlier, I was thinking of a lot of things that involved our discussion in the office, as well as battling with this feeling of wanting to quit. But thing is, I’m not a quitter. Although sometimes it feels like I’m wasting my time, and I’ve been hearing so many stories that’s enough to scare me and make me want to retreat.

But then I don’t want to do anything that isn’t in God’s will. As I was walking towards the EDSA Shrine, I got thinking…about work, and the load that’s coming in the next few weeks, the challenges that I will have to face there…and I got scared. But then a word got to me: endurance.

I read it somewhere that we are put in places that isn’t necessarily what we want, and at times we kind of want to leave it because it’s not what we want, and it doesn’t make us happy. I know we should follow our hearts, whatever makes us happy…but do we even know what it is immediately? Yes, God’s will is our deepest desire, and God wouldn’t put us wherever we are miserable…but do we really know what our heart’s desire, just like that?

I’m not saying that God would make us do things we don’t like. God cares more about the journey rather than the destination. We may see that Thing A is good for us, but God sees that Thing B is the best, which is what He wants for us. And the journey to Thing B, is not always easy, but in the long run, it’s worth it because not only did we get the best, but we also became a different person through the journey. Only God knows what our Thing B is, which makes the adventure all the more interesting, albeit terrifying at times.
And through the journey? We endure. I looked up endurance in the Bible and I got this, which spoke to me immediately:

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
– Colossians 1:10-12, The Message, emphasis mine

So this 2007, it may be a year full of challenges, but I know God is faithful. And God is definitely bigger than any of the challenges that will come. :)

Here’s to 2007. *cheers*

It's coming around again

Hello, it’s the last year of 2006 and I still can’t connect through FTP so the layout will really just have to wait. Perhaps there’s other things God wants me to put in the layout so it’s waiting. Just be surprised when I have it up. :P

Anyway, I’ll be out later to go to my aunts’ house in QC for a pre-New Year visit, so I’ll be doing this 2006 look back now. I’d upload pictures, but it seems like I won’t be able to…so I’ll just link lots of stuff and re-post pictures I have lying around the site.

So…2006 was a year of fulfilled (and still being fulfilled) promises. 2004 eventful, 2005 was quiet, and 2006 was a year where I believed in God’s promises for me and the people I love; and also a year where I learned to branch out a little bit. Without further a do…here’s the monthly look-back I love doing. :P

Oh, and before you click that, I warn you this is going to be a long entry. :P

Continue reading It's coming around again