do you have a solution to anything?
I used to believe so!
But I grew up accepting the fact that there are just things in the world, in this life, that are out my hands. Who’s got everything in their hands anyway?
Fate? Destiny? God? Whatever you call it, there are just some things that we have no control of.
Also, I used to have a drug treatment against anything — against common maladies at least. Like colds, coughs, headaches, body pains, menstrual cramps, etc. I’ve always said: “that’s why medicines were invented/discovered”!
college education is expensive: now and then
Well except those who really can afford it, whom among the college students (now and then) are not crawling in their finances?
How I can I forget all those “loans”? Loans from friends. Loans from relatives. Of course, most especially the real student loans. You’d be lucky you get the ones that you have a lifetime to pay for (i.e. loans from good friends and relatives!). Ha ha ha.
[Hey, you know who you all are…I’m really, really grateful, always!]
Unfortunately, I also got some of those that you have just a semester to pay for the loans…otherwise, you cannot be cleared to enroll in the next semester. 
one of the stuff that freelancers shoulder
With my last employer, I enjoyed 8 years of comprehensive health insurance. In that province, that said employer’s HMO coverage is one of the best, if not the best!
However, I am really not a sickly person. To tell you honestly, if I didn’t get pregnant, I only benefited from that health insurance during the APEs. On the one occasion I really needed it (child birth), I couldn’t be covered because of a legal technicality — I am not married.
I did not really mind then, even though that widened the hole in my pocket. I was just furious that the coverage couldn’t be extended to my child afterwards, because of the fact that he was born out of wedlock.
The HMO coverage would have been a family insurance — and since the family I have is not the one normally defined in such a society, I either had to accept that sitting down…or I could do something about it.
There was a time I was a real estate agent ! Sorta. Believe me, I never sold anything. What I was able to do never went past a site visit.
Then this reminded me, I never sold anything. Nothing at all. I have never been a sales person. I’m still not. My principle remains that if somebody doesn’t want to buy anything I’m selling, then don’t buy. I’m not going to insist.
I guess the most difficult job in the world is convincing people what you believe in. Like in sales, you must believe in the product you are selling, before you can convince anybody to buy the stuff from you.
Maybe that’s why I was drawn to lab work/research. Because whatever I produced wasn’t exact. It has always been relative to anything, a correlation of not just one parameter, but at least two.
Ahhh…like in what I have been doing in the last two years, I need not convince anyone right? Anybody is entitled to either agree or disagree. After all, that makes a lively discussion.
These days, I keep remembering Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet and it’s chapter on joy and sorrow:
Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
YEAH. How can I forget?!
Opportunity for Health Bloggers
Hart-Empire-Network (owner of the Battling Arthritis which I author) is looking for immediate bloggers who can take on its existing Battling for Health blogs, namely: Battling Cancer and Battling Alzheimer’s.
I would have applied in either one, but I am really swimming in health blogs already. He he he. (I’m not complaining here!)
If you think you are the blogger that Hart is looking for, send your application ASAP and click that link, now!
I’ve already lived in three places my whole life. The first ten years of my life was spent continuously in one place. Though I have vivid memories of the place, there is just no heart connections there. I even don’t recall anymore the faces and names of people that I may have considered friends.
After that we moved here where my parents were originally from. (un)Fortunately, I only got to stay 6 long years. I didn’t really have much choice then because I needed to leave for college.
The university town that I feel in love with the first time I sat foot on it’s soils — is a place really close to my heart. I’ll think of that place always with love, wherever I will end up on the globe. 18 years in that place I came too close many times to buying a real state property. There was a point in between when I said to myself, this is where I’m going to raise my kids. So I couldn’t leave for a very long time. The place provided a comfort zone that I couldn’t resist!
Besides, it doesn’t take me too long to be contented in a place. Like an obnoxious weed, I will grow anywhere, in practically any ecosystem. Even in stressful ones. Heh. That’s the ex-rice scientist talking again. 
At this point, I am just sort of relieved I didn’t go through with buying a subdivision house & lot anywhere. Now I know that it doesn’t really matter where. It could be a high-rise condo or a studio type apartment or maybe a Branson real estate. Could even be a (cheap) small house in the projects!
It doesn’t really matter what and where. After all, home is where the heart is!
My 5-year-old was just singing “every day sunshine…”. I don’t know where he got that line (most probably in pre-school) but I just said: “no! not everyday sunny. everyday rain”. He said again: “yeah mommy, not everyday me (everyone calls him Raine!) but rain!” while pointing upwards in the sky.
Yeah. I’ve almost forgotten what warm sunshine is like. This has been the second week that we are under heavy, continuous downpour. 
What will you do? Nothing really — either prepare to stay indoors all the time or let your little boy out in the rain to play (and bathe!).
BUT. I just realized that life is not all sunshine. It rains sometimes or even most of the time. And even if I hate it, I just need to learn how sing in the rain.
Life is short. I don’t want to keep complaining about the rain my whole life. Also, life isn’t a game. Life can be a sunny day or a rainy day. Could also be something in between. Like my friend said, life isn’t an exact science.
SO, you can just either bet your money in an online casino or just put your dimes in the bank.
You win some, you lose some. Either way, it’s still gonna rain! ha ha ha!
The last time I got myself a personal travel insurance was in Dec 1999. Then I didn’t go anywhere because I didn’t get the appropriate visa to that destination. Because I did not use it, I felt it was a waste of money. So I am not sure if I should get another one the next time.
Heh, as if I’m gonna travel in the near future? But I never know, right? It pays to be prepared anyhow!
But of course if you are on a business trip - all-expense paid by your company - getting a separate travel insurance may not make sense. You may be already insured by your company. If something happens to you on the job (locally or anywhere else), your company is still liable. Or maybe not.
If you are not sure, you might wanna check that part out with your employer.
i am allergic to anything less than gold
Aside from my beef allergy, I have allergy to metal less than gold. Yeah, I am not being picky or anything but allergy to such metals is actually nickel allergy. (I read that somewhere and is not making it up!). Therefore I love gold. Jewelry-wise, it is either going to be gold or nothing. I don’t care either what stone is on top, but the cast(?) should be gold.
No worries, even the cheapest 10K gold will do. Ha ha ha! I don’t care if the stone is not diamond either. Even no stone will do. Besides, nobody ever gave me a piece of jewelry. Everything I had and have, I bought them all!
Not that I wore too much accessories/jewelries either. A pair of loop earrings, I can wear for years. I almost never wore a necklace either. You know why? Because I don’t have much of a neck where a necklace can look good. I used to wear bracelets though most of the time, it got tangled in practically anything I passed by. In this case I may settle for a gold bangle. I just don’t know when I can (read: budget-permitting) buy one!
In the rings department, except for the college ring I wore at a time when my finger still fits - i have never worn important rings my whole life. I guess this is something I will never buy myself, at least those that has relevant meaning to it.
how long have you been reading me online?
Somebody told me recently that he/she has been reading my blog since as far as 2005, maybe even 2004. Wow. Imagine? Unless they get out of lurking (comment), we bloggers will not know who has been reading us.
I wonder what this person read first of all. What was I blogging about?
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
(Sonnet 116)
These has been immortalized so many times. In theaters, in the movies, even on TV.
However, before there was the movie Shakespeare In Love, there was the TV series called Beauty and The Beast. No, not the one from Disney! Remember? The one that starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Pearlman?
Anyways, I once bought a cassette tape that includes collection of song and poems from this TV series.
BUT, I do not really know where that tape is now. He he. All I remember is that, Ron Pearlman’s voice is something one cannot easily forget.
Ha ha ha. I know what you - my old friend(s) - is(are) going to say : “Hindi ka pa rin nagbabago, Glo!”
Yeah, that’s me. Some things just never change.
Here comes the rain again! And looks like it has no plans of stopping.
When it rains, it pours. Indeed.
And I don’t mean that just literally.
These…I got today:
Happy Valentine’s Day! To you…and me…
Here I go again, lost in the world wide web. Each time I get online, I end up getting lost. Like for example I would start by checking my emails (and replying) and then would go to reading my RSS subscriptions (which is a LOT, my waking hours is not enough to read all even on a daily basis).
And then of course once I start reading other people’s blogs, that’s when I start getting astray. The moment I start clicking hyperlinks in one blog post, the clicking wouldn’t stop. And on the side I have google always open in one tab and while reading I will search google for a word or a term, whether related to what I am currently reading or not. That, or whether a word or topic or a name pops on inside my head.
This Valentine’s Day is a lot different than the ones before. First of all, I almost didn’t realize that this official red/heart/love day was just around the corner.
Until somebody hugely reminded me, despite the time and the distance.
These are from my Valentine(s):
Whatever might be sort-of missing just didn’t arrive on time.
There’s one other surprise - technically not a gift - but I got today anyway. I sooo love this new little baby (thank you so much to somebody who allowed me to cut a nice deal!) that I have been drooling over the past months — it is everything I expected it to be.
brain research may be going overboard
I am all for a brain research that could maybe cure or prevent Alzheimer’s disease and most especially one that could fine tune stupid behaviors like Britney’s (and maybe her family’s).
However, there is this tiny-tiny part in me that would like to keep the brain (and how it works) a little mysterious.
it’s ready to go
wherever the road leads.
anytime, anywhere
never too long
let’s go.
What you will read below is something that landed in my inbox. I do not normally reply to or forward to others, the emails I get — not even the most inspirational ones, especially not the ones that say “forward to 5 of your friends and receive your blessing on the fifth day..” and something like that.
This one would be a shame not to share but I don’t want to clog your inbox, so I’ll just post it here. Besides, they’re words from the Bo Sanchez!
wishing weekends can last forever
If I can help it, I’d rather be done by Friday night here. It just is difficult to squeeze in on the short weekend if you are 1 or 2 posts short of the quota.
Hooray for long weekends. But since I work freelance, 3-day weekends don’t really affect me. Does the opposite actually. Before we left two weeks ago, I had to future-publish a week-long post. Even then, one blog suffered.
The stress took its toll, now I am always a day behind if not more. He he. I know I’m slacking. But I kind-a like it. I don’t wanna be stressed out this early in the year!
Tamad-tamadan. Shake that out Glo!
I never kept a diary. Looking back in my younger years, I rely on just the memories. Between the good ones and the bad ones, you remember mostly the good ones. The brain has this tendency to protect itself I guess, so it is selective in keeping the details of the bad memories. So that through time the details become fuzzy. In your old age - with dementia and all - your memory bank becomes blank OR intermittent depending on what life episodes choose to flash back.
Four years of blogging here…I had/have thoughts here and there…stashed somewhere in the archives. Especially the first two years when I wrote all I felt and thought. These days I tend to just write what I wanted to write — sometimes in riddles when I am confused myself.
If there’s going to be problogging forever, why not? Sometimes I do get restless. Unknown to many, I have been looking for day jobs here and there, where opportunities are. Unfortunately, I have not been hired by anyone. I am confused myself what job I want.
Twelve Ten years of lab work (professionally) and add the four years of lab classes before that — I’ve had enough of that. I can do labwork and manage/operate a lab even with my eyes closed. You know, I know that stuff like even more than I know the back of my hand.
I’m in a sort of limbo (my new friend’s favorite term!) regarding my real career. But then, I do not really mind, I’m a”jack of all trade”. Although I cannot really put that in my resume, can I? Who would hire me if I did?
Career-wise (what career?!) - like my life - is a big adventure.
Bottom line, if all else fails, I can always pick a shopping cart software, right? And put a shopping cart, somewhere…
That. Or try out those freelancer websites newly given to me?
Wherever (whatever!), only one thing I can say: definitely exciting!
By My Little Photographer, Bow.
Since coming back, Raine now owns the (jurassic) digicam. Nobody can stop him from taking photos of just about anything. (Nahawa sa anak ni Ruth!)This morning alone (after 2 hours sa labas), I had to download 71 shots. Here are a few I like most:
I guess I’ll watch out for more.
Paypal Funds Withdrawal to ‘Pinas Bank Accounts
While in LB last week, paypal announced that it is now possible to withdraw funds to Philippine bank accounts. How cool is that?
I’ve been doing online banking for 10 years now, but this is - by far - the coolest.
Does not necessarily mean that it is 100% bad. But it is not 100% good either. I guess that is the spice of life, some good some bad, some happy some sad.
All in all, I’m just glad that life has not forgotten me. I can still smile and laugh as much as I have cried and I can cry.
Surprise! I used to hate that. I appreciate the surprise anyhow.