HAPPY TRIP 11: Palanca wannabe

This is Chloe, my little princess. She is seven years old and in Grade 2. When she was five, she wrote several “books” that she said she’d sell so she could have money to buy a Gameboy (somewhere in the archives is a blog about it, heheh). Of course Daddy “bought” the books secretly and the gameboy was hers.

Earlier this evening, she was busy typing away on my laptop. When I checked 30 minutes later, it was to find a new story she wrote. Please bear with the proud Daddy but I just had to post it here:


Summerland
By: Chloe S. R. (December 27, 2007)


Somewhere in the United States of America, lived a little girl named Sarah. She was very kind and loving. Everyone in their town liked her. One day while she was in school, their teacher told them that summer is only one week away. All the students were talking about what they were going to do on summer. Sarah said she would go to her favorite place: Summerland. The night before summer, she dreamed that she was in Summerland. She and her parents would ride on the merry-go-round, buy cotton candy, and watch the clown perform his tricks. The next morning, Sarah went out of her room to wake her parents up. On her way, Sarah felt something in her nose and before she knew it…… ATCHOO! She had a bad cold and can barely stop sneezing. She told her parents and her parents told her that until she got better, she couldn’t go to Summerland. She was very, very sad. That night she had the same dream. She knew having the same dreams every night meant something, and she was going to find out what. After days of trying to find out she did not succeed. Then she asked both her parents to tell her what it meant. Her parents told her that she was having the same dreams because she was getting better. The next day, Sarah was very surprised. Her cold was gone! She told her parents and they were glad her cold was gone. The very next day they went to Summerland and had an enjoyable time.

THE END

BAD TRIP 15: Forty-something

I hate it that guys in their 20's who work out in the same gym as I do have such great bodies, even if they don’t work out as much as I do. They’re young, I tell myself glumly. Their muscles develop faster while mine remains a puny lump. I kill myself on the treadmill and yet these stupid flabs on my belly wouldn’t go away. Aaaargh! I wish I could trade-in this forty-year-old carcass for a newer model, wahehehe.

Then I hear these youngsters whine incessantly about everything: school, parents, money (mainly lack thereof), and a whole lot of other miseries, real or imagined, and I smile. Ey guys, been there, done that. Don’t wanna go back to when I was an insecure twenty-year-old dork.

Blame it on a society that puts premium on youth -- and people will do crazy things to try and halt the advancing years. But what's wrong with being in my middle years, I ask myself. I have a good job, great friends and, more importantly, a loving family and a whiz kid for a daughter… that’s more than what most people have. Age be damned! The trick is in finding what’s good and beautiful in your life as it is now.

HAPPY TRIP 10: Tickled Pink

My heart leapt when I opened Fence’s blog this morning and found this:



Waw, I am preening like a peacock. Can’t help it. Can’t stop smiling. From ear to ear. :)

Fence is starting what he calls Link Worthy Blogs where he will be featuring blogs that fit his idea of the “lofty and the beautiful” hehehehe. For the inaugural, I’m “it”. Tenks bai!

And yes, Fence, being featured is a reward in itself.

-----------------

Here’s the full text (sorry, I am a techno-retard and don’t know how to do hyperlinks heheh):

Link Worthy Blog #1 - Miki Monster
at Wednesday, December 12, 2007

You don't have to finish the entire jar of jam to know if it is good. A slight finger dip and a quick slurp will do. And so it is with Miki's blog. He had me with his wiggling butt. Kidding. Miki writes in the exact way that I believe things should be written. Light, engaging, and with a steady hint of humor.

Anyone can write ornate sentences. And sadly, a lot of folks mistakingly believe that using flowery words will help their causes. Nothing exposes a sentence's insecurities more than when the writer hides behind big words. Simplicity, in my opinion is still the biggest gauge of a person's mastery of a language. Something that I think Miki has in spades.

Ever wondered why it's so easy reading Miki? How your eyes glide effortlessly from one word to the next? That's simplicity at play right there.

BAD TRIP 14: University of Life

someone was “sourgraping” (his term) at an egroup that the passport to opportunities is still “the baccalaureate” degree, even if there are a lot of people who have been successful without it.
then again, he says, there are thousands of people with degrees but remain hidden in uninspiring woodwork.



while we know education is important
has the emphasis on educational status become superficial?

till now, i've been putting off getting that masters
in my line of work, initials after one's name don't really mean that much
so i keep procrastinating

my previous bisor was a college undergrad
but he was a brilliant man nonetheless
i had a colleague who was trained at AIM
but he sure couldn't cut it in the field

then again, i had a boss who had a PhD
and 20 years worth of work on the ground
and he is fantastic! -- merging theory and practice in a seemingly seamless thread

learning doesn't only happen in schools
it is a big part of one's education, yes
but that doesn't sum up everything that we know in life

life has always been about complexity, uncertainty, change...
what’s true yesterday may not be so today
so we learn from our experiences
and use that new knowledge (from experience) to improve ways of
working and living…

FIRST TRIP 11: Celeb-Me-Not 2

It was my first time to be interviewed on TV (for a TV Gala aired live via satellite in Sweden) and it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. I was nervous. My face froze. My mouth was dry. I didn’t know how to smile. Someone told me later I swung my legs to and fro during the entire ordeal.

With three cameras smack in my face, I was terribly self-conscious, thinking about all those Swedes watching me in their homes thousands of miles away. It didn’t help that I also had to worry about what I was going to say, in exactly two minutes, and not a second more.

Aaaaargh!!!

I’m not cut out to be a TV star.



Me on the monitor during rehearsals

HAPPY TRIP 9: Celeb-Me-Not

She pulled up the hem of her cotton dress and wiped her sweaty face. Then she briefly ran her fingers through her hair, folded her palms in front of her washboard abs, and said to the cameraman: “I’m ready!”

Meet Agneta Sjödin.

Agneta Sjödin who?

Agneta is a top Swedish presenter and TV personality on the Swedish television channel TV4. She is the host of the popular show “Let’s Dance”, the Swedish version of “Dancing with the Stars”. And she’s the most uncelebrity-like celebrity I’ve ever met.

Agneta was with us in Samar last week to host the Philippine leg of a TV gala over the weekend. Along with a cameraman, she went to remote barangays to shoot stories of community projects that will then be featured during the live telecast, via satellite, in Sweden. It was a joy to see her lugging a heavy tripod, helping the cameraman set up his equipment, and then face the camera sans makeup. No airs whatsoever.

I was imagining Korina Sanchez doing that. And promptly gagged.