Ever watched TV or listened to the radio and heard Milo’s tagline that said, “Great things start from small beginnings“? I think that and Globe’s “Greatness starts at home” taglines work well together especially when one speaks of family and parents. Greatness starts at home with loving parents and great things start from children raised in loving homes.

After I finished highschool, I had my life all planned out. I told myself I’ll finish college within 3 or 4 years, get a career, help my parents and siblings, start my own business, buy my own home and then when I’m old enough, I’ll retire. Unfortunately, life seldom goes according to plan and it has a habit of throwing tons of obstacles, crossroads and dead ends in your path. I must’ve won the “throw it all to me” lottery because it did just that and I honestly don’t know if I’d still be here typing this out right now if didn’t have my parents and my faith while I was slowly crawling on that difficult and lonely path.

I mentally, emotionally and physically struggled a lot to finish my bachelor’s degree. In fact it took me 7 years before I finally earned my diploma for a bachelor’s degree that is supposed to only take 3 years and one term (if you’re on a university that runs on a trimester system). I don’t talk about it often because it’s still a sore subject for me but I’ve slowly learned to stop being ashamed of it and to look past the amount of years it took me to finally get there. My parents never doubted me and they kept on supporting and cheering me on until I finally got my hands on my diploma.

Although money was tight and difficult at that time, my parents and my aunt abroad, always found a way to pay for my tuition, books and allowances so money wasn’t really the problem. Out of nowhere, things just snapped and everything became very difficult that I had to take my first leave of absence or LOA as we called it. After my first LOA, I thought everything was back to normal and it was for quite a while but it seems life wasn’t done yet testing me. I was able to finish with thesis work and I was really psyched because I was near my last few terms when things got out of hand again. It was so stressful that my head would hurt so bad and my eyeballs felt like they were going to pop out from the pain. It was very difficult to deal with and at times I couldn’t stop myself from banging my head on the wall because it hurt like hell. I wanted to die.

We visited a neurologist and he determined that it was cluster headaches. I was given prescription drugs to help alleviate the headaches and although it did work to relieve the pain, it never really stopped it from happening again and this headache had a nasty habit of attacking me out of nowhere. Going to school scared me because it attacks without any notice and I can’t just get my parents to pick me up from school since they lived in the province and my school was in Manila. Since things were getting worse, I started going on regular visits to my neurologist and medications and dosages were either increased or changed each time the other stops working. Finally after a few months of doctor’s appointments, I was advised to take a long LOA. He wanted to check if the pollution in Manila and my school requirements were causing me the stress that acts as a catalyst to the headaches. So I took off a long LOA and although my headaches didn’t fully stop, it was significantly lessened.

After almost a year of rest, I decided to come back to school to pick up where I left off and it was really difficult. I only had a few friends left in school since most of them have already graduated, I was mostly alone and I spent a lot of time in the library either sleeping/doing homework. I was still getting headaches and it got bad again to the point that I had to take a LOA after midterms and this happened to around 2 or 3 consecutive terms. This turn of events wasn’t really helping my badly bruised self-confidence and self-worth. My headaches felt like hell and I felt like shit. I couldn’t stop criticizing myself and at one point, I hated myself so much that I thought about killing myself to stop the pain I felt from the headaches and to stop causing shame to my family. I had to take another LOA and after that one, I really thought hard if I should still come back. I felt worthless and I thought I should just stop and keep my parents from further pain and debt. I decided to try and work for a little while, so my best friend and I applied to a nearby call center. I know it wasn’t the best choice since it caused me enough stress from irate customers to get the headaches again after a couple of months but the people I met there helped heal a broken part of me that my parents could not mend.

I went back to school to finish my remaining subjects and during my last term, I had this really strong feeling that this was it, that I am really graduating. I will never forget my professors that last term. I remember one of them telling the whole class,

“To all those graduating or with only a few terms left, be proud of yourselves. I know some of you have experienced delays and failed a lot but don’t be ashamed because of it. Don’t focus on how long it took you to get here. Be proud because you never gave up. Yes, you struggled and failed but still, you never gave up and look where you are now. Stop berating yourselves for things that are already done. Be happy and enjoy the fruit of your hard work.”

It was like God was speaking to me directly. It seared through my heart and I couldn’t help tearing up. I kept the tears as much as I could and after the bell rang, I ran to the bathroom. I sat there for an hour and just cried. All the bitterness and shame in my heart started to wash away and I felt like it was time to forgive myself.

However I still had doubts and I couldn’t stop praying until the night before course cards. I only had 6 subjects that last term and I already knew my grades for all of them except one. The professor was going to upload our grades for that subject that night so I was glued to the computer, refreshing the site every five minutes or so. Once the notice that the grades were in showed up, my hands started shaking and my heart started beating rapidly. I said my last bit of prayer and clicked, then tears started falling down. I passed. Finally, after 7 years, I am graduating. I started to shout and call my Mom’s name, all the while jumping and crying for joy. Since she didn’t answer, I rushed out of my room and ran to their room. Once my Mom came out, she asked what’s wrong, why was I shouting and what’s with all the rush? I started to tell her and I couldn’t stop myself from hugging her and crying as I told her the good news. I was graduating.

I’m not perfect. I have flaws like everyone else and I’m not ashamed to admit it because I was raised from a great home by great loving parents who I wouldn’t exchange for anyone else in the world. Yes, we are not rich in material wealth. The home we live in right now is still rented and we still have a lot of debts and bills that we struggle to meet each month. We have our own family problems, we annoy each other endlessly and we have our little fights but at the end of the day we are one family. We make up, we hug and we continue with life.  Without my parents love and continued support, I would’ve lost my faith, my way and my life.

As William J. Bennet said, ”Home is a shelter from storms – all sorts of storms.“

I know mine is.

Greatness Starts at Home. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

I posted about browser games I play a year or two ago. I still play Pony Island, which isn’t a free horse riding game but a pay to play virtual horse game that focuses on generating, feeding, contesting and breeding ponies. It can get boring after a while so I also look for other free horse games or alternatives like house building games, dating simulation games and bowling games online to alleviate my boredom. My old computer can’t handle 3d online games so I try to look for browser games that aren’t resource hogs.

My younger siblings also enjoy playing online games. My younger brother usually plays Pokemon games online and Spider Man games but he is always on the hunt of cool games for boys to share with his friends. He also likes to look for John Cena games, Power Rangers games and other fighting games online.

My younger sister enjoys playing hair salon games and Barbie makeover games. She enjoys cute dress up games because she enjoys drawing a lot. She’s a little addicted to kawaii series and her anime DVD collection is growing each day. Although lately she’s been trying to find Hannah Montana games, Justin Bieber games and High School Musical games. I think she’s been watching too much Disney channel shows the past few weeks. She’s been singing songs from Hannah Montana and HSM, she’s also been humming Bieber’s “Baby” a lot.

My other two sisters on the other hand want to find bmx games online and get a hold of the Michael Jackson game (which I’ve never heard of before since I’m not exactly a fan of his).  I’d rather join my younger brother play Pokemon online games.

Pokemon, Spiderman, Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber games. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

This is most probably the hottest summer we’ve had. I’ve never felt this extreme heat from the previous summers. That’s why it isn’t surprising to see people (Filipinos and expats alike) flock the bountiful beaches in the Philippines despite the economic crunch that everyone seems to be experiencing around the globe.

This summer well-know places are making noises again such as Boracay, Palawan, Puerto Galera, Bohol and the beaches in Batangas. Taking a vacation to these spots were a no-brainer especially with the Cebu Pacific flight promos they had back in March. Who wouldn’t want to travel with those low (and I mean LOW) low rates? To those who didn’t choose to fly (well Batangas/Puerto didn’t need flying but I digress), many visited Baguio, Sagada, Vigan, Laoag and Pagudpod as well since many people like heading to the north during the Holy Week season. Even our family used to do that before.

My sister has an upcoming trip to Caramoan Island this end of April where they will also visit the CamSur Watersports Complex more known as CWC. Basically CWC is summed up in their website as:

The Camsur Watersports Comlex is the first world-class watersports complex in the Philippines and in Asia. CWC aims to bring cable skiing to a whole new level and attract watersports enthusiasts from all over the world with its top of the line facilities and relaxing environment. This six (6)-hectare complex, with its 6-point cable ski system, is sure to draw guests, riders and spectators by the thousands. Because of good weather conditions, cable skiing in the park can be done all year round.

Since my friends are a little busy this summer we have decided to go somewhere near home which is Puerto Galera. We chose May since its not as packed up as April and our schedeules only permit us to do it in May. You really can’t afford to not take a vacation in this intense heat. If you don’t have the cash to spare for out of town trips, you can simply head on to resorts near your place. To some, its not really the place but the company that makes your vacation a winner.

Summer Heat 2009: Literally intense. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

Life has been hectic for me since the holidays, which was the main reason why I wasn’t able to push through with my writing project. It was a great idea though and I am thinking of doing it still when I get some time off from school. Back in the university, most professors talk about the global financial crisis that the world is experiencing today. This past week, our country has started to feel the effects of the decrease in economic activity in terms of exports. Many Filipinos know that a large sector of our workforce are in the electronics and microchips industry.
On my daily commute, I pass by some big industrial parks in Batangas and Laguna which houses some of the companies that service the electronics industry. Each day, I encounter hoards of people coming and going to these industrial parks to work and earn a living. We have relatives and neighbors who work in these companies and they feel scared because they know that companies are forced to either lay-off people because the demand for their products has really slowed down.

I read lots of articles and even hear some people in the news say that we are not affected at all by the financial crisis that is ongoing. With news of companies laying people off, I don’t think we are not affected at all. When demands for products around the world go down, demand for parts go down to. We all know that many companies outsource here in the country for manufacturing and it would seem rational to say that if they don’t sell their inventories, they wont need more parts from us. Thus companies downsize and lay-off employees to be able to continue existing. We cannot fool ourselves forever saying that we are not affected because we are. We have been barely able to alleviate poverty back when the global financial crisis was nonexistent, how can we alleviate it now when even more people are unemployed?

Waking up in time for the global financial crisis. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

I am officially a bum this Christmas season. Back to late night internet rendezvous, late afternoon lunches, midnight snacks while watching dvd marathons and of course, blogging. My laptop and my bed will finally feel my warmth again after a long time of being left untended and ignored. I finally took the plunge and resigned from my Technical Support job las week so I am back home for the rest of the holidays.

I started back in August and I can truly say I had fun in working there and I did meet a lot of people that I wouldn’t normally meet. Although I think I got burned out by the tasks and the fact that our teams got changed lot in a span of a few weeks, so I had lost the feeling of having a real team. I am also going back to the university this coming term wherein I am hoping to finally finish my remaining 18 units. I do hope the term goes by like a breeze so I wouldn’t feel so constricted and bored.

My blogs have suffered a lot when I left to work and I suffered as well because all the writing I was able to do was coding service tickets. I need some writing time again because all those months spent in taking in calls and documenting them has made my brain feel unused. I need to start writing again and I think a good way to do it would be to start on a simple writing project! Since its the holidays, I think it would be a good writing exercise to write about good simple gifts that can make the holiday gift-giving tradition a memorable one. I’ve given myself the task to think of one gift each day and write about it. I’ll try to choose at least 12 gifts, or make it 24 for each day of December until the 24th.

I think it would be easier to write about simple things that I wouldn’t mind giving and receiving for the holidays. Its usually the thought behind the gift that counts for me so a hefty price tag is not needed at all. Hopefully this exercise will help my brain to get used to writing and thinking again because it needs to get conditioned in time for my classes back at the university this coming January. Wish me luck!

Bumming around for the holidays. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

Applying for a job is quite weary. You have to shell out a bit of money to get the documents and clearances employers ask for and I underwent it today for the first time in my life. Today I went to get some of the common documents employers ask from their employees. On my phone interview, I was asked if I currently have (or if I can get) the following documents for submission in case I get accepted:

1. NBI Clearance
2. SSS Number

I know there would still be other requirements since I am still an undergraduate so I will probably be asked to get a copy of my school transcript as well as other common requirements such as an authenticated copy of my birth certificate and maybe a medical certificate from my doctor stating that I am well and able to work . Getting those is easier and less of a hassle because I don’t need other documents to get them. The NBI Clearance and SSS Number, I need a few documents to get them. I decided to go and get these requirements today since I will be having my written exams and another interview this coming Monday.

So off we (my Mom was such a darling to accompany me) went and the following is a shortened version of what we went through today.

11:00am
Went to the Barangay Hall to get a Barangay Clearance from the Barangay Captain. Paid P50.

11:15am
Went to the Municipal Hall to get my sedula (Community Tax Certificate). It cost P23 but I only got P26 change from my P50 because they had no coins left.

11:25am
Got the sedula and barangay clearance photocopied. Paid P5 for two pages. Yikes. P2.50 per page now? Ugh.

11:30am
Went to the Police Station to get my Police Clearance, but was told to go back to the Municipal Office first because I have to pay P20 there for a police clearance receipt, before I can fall in line there at the station to pay another P80 to get my Police Clearance.

11:40am
Went to the cashier in the Municipal Office to pay for the P20 police clearance receipt, but left my sedula (which is needed) so Mom had to follow me there, so we finished there around 11:50am.

11:55am (Yay! I made it before their Lunch Break)
Gave them the photocopy of my Barangay Clearance, showed them my sedula, and paid the P80 to get my application processed. I was then told to go to the “photo booth” made up of a simple plywood as a background then using a webcam they took my mug beautiful shot where I looked like a wilted piece of dried pulp.

12:10pm
The guy behind the picture/claiming window was having trouble fitting my name into the computer because they only register 15 characters for first names and mine is already 17 characters long, not including the space needed to separate it.

12:20pm
Finally got my Police Clearance, so off we went to ride a tricycle to get to the bus/jeepney stop so we can go to Lipa City’s Municipal Hall where I would be getting my NBI Clearance before heading off to the SSS Building to get my SSS number.

12:50pm
I receive a text message. “You left your wallet at the city hall’s treasury. Please come back and retrieve it.” *boink* Mom say’s, “What?”, I frantically open my bag and tada, I did leave it behind. So we tell the jeepney driver that we have to go down, so crossing the street we went back to the municipal hall where the only window open was the one with the kind man was waiting for me to claim my wallet. I was just walking to the window when he immediately put out my wallet and said, “Here.” So I ran back to Mom who was in a tricycle and instead of getting back to the jeepney stop, we decided to head back home to go eat some lunch.

1:30pm
Mom was pestering me to get up from my bed because I got engrossed in watching “The Soup” in Velvet. The topic was “People who won’t go away.” Freaky. So we end up leaving around 1:45pm.

2:15pm
We get to Lipa’s Municipal Hall and we fall in line at the NBI Clearance, Step 1 Window. There was a huge note plastered on the Window that said, “No sando or sleeveless tops allowed.” The woman in front of me was wearing a sleeveless top. When her turn came up, the guy behind the window kept on tapping the sign above to make his point. She then left and he asked me for my documents. I showed a copy of my Postal ID and my Police Clearance. He asks if it was for local or travel, I say local, and he asks if I am married or single, then see’s the single in my postal ID and says ok. I pay him P115. Then he motions me to the next window where the lady behind the glass took my picture before I even had the chance to fix my facial expression. Another mugshot there. I fill up the NBI form and ends up writing wrong information at the wrong lines. I didn’t have a husband yet I had an address for him, and I wrote my Dad’s birthplace as the same place my Mom’s was. Since I don’t carry correction tape around, I just cross it out.

2:30pm
I go line up at Step 4 to get my fingerprints printed onto the form and some guy cuts in. The man who handles the fingerprinting finishes with previous applicant and the “guy” goes in. The man tells him, she got in first, so he puts him in the corner and get my prints first. After everything is done, I pay him P5 for the wet tissue pack that is used to get all of the ink off my hands.

2:45pm
I get called in the last window where the clearances were being given out. I get told I have to go back on August 8th to claim it. I was confused. Mom then asked her again if she had the right person, and the staff said yes. Mom asked why can’t we get my NBI clearance now like the other new applicants? She then says there is a conflict since there was another person with the same name. I was like, “WTF?!?” You see my name is very very weird and sort of unique and my surname is quite rare. Even my middle name is rare. So I am just bothered right now as to why another person was registered in the records with same name as mine.

3:00pm
We get to the SSS building. Asked the guard for information, I was given a small form to fill-up. He told us I needed to submit a photocopy of my authenticated birth certificate (luckily I have one). Got my thumb prints on the form, then off we went to the line. The woman asked for a copy of my authenticated birth certificate, she punched in my name, it got cut-off again because my name was too long and then we paid P45 (I think). That was fast. We only stayed there 10 minutes. Wooohoo!

3:15pm
We arrive at SM Lipa, we look around then we head up to the second floor. I got a diamond face peel (I needed to de-stress) charged it onto Dad’s card (hopefully I get enough funds next month to pay for that one).

5:30pm
Grabbed a Cheeseburger deluxe so Mom would feel nauseaus and I bought her one tablet of SERC at Watsons.

6:30pm
Arrived home safely. Though still worried about my same name situation.

Work Requirement: Document and Clearance woes. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

My little sister who has a penchant for watching animes (aside from the common ones that fill our televisions and local cable cartoon networks these days) told me that she had a new movie that she liked.  My curiousity was piqued since her tastes are quite good for her age. I decided to go take a look at this movie she has been raving about to which she said, “I really liked it, I can’t stop thinking about it even when I’m in school.” Turning on the DVD player, she motioned me to play, “Spirited Away“.

Spirited Away is a story of a girl named Chihiro who is quite a bit whiny child. She, along with her Mom and Dad, would be moving to a new town and while taking a shortcut, they end up towards a mysterious tunnel which it turns out was an abandoned theme park with restaurants that are oddly filled with many foods. Her parents start eating up and they get turned into pigs. Then Chihiro who was quite overwhelmed with everything started telling herself that it was all a dream and that she wanted to dissapear. Oddly enough, she started to fade, luckily she meets this boy Haku (called Master Haku by most of the mysterious and  bit weird inhabitants of the realm they were in which is a spirit world) who saves her from vanishing and smuggles her into the bath house ran by Yababa, an “evil” sorceress. Haku is her apprentice and he does many jobs for her.

Chihiro’s name is changed into Sen, because that was the way Yababa binds her captives to her. Once her captives forget their name they can never leave the spirit world so Haku makes a note to remind Sen of her real name. While working in the bath house, Sen (Chihiro) meets many characters which helped turn her into an individual that cares for those around her despite the unfortunate circumstances that she seems to be in all of the time. Those characters were Haku, the River God, No Face, Zeniba, Boh and even Yababa herself. Sen started to mature and change for she has learned how to have compassion for others. The events that took place in the spirit world helped transform her from a self-centered individual into a hard-working and compassionate person. Though in the end she was seperated from Haku, who finally lost Yababa’s bind to him when Chihiro remembered his real name which was Kohaku because of the river’s name where she fell into when she was a little girl, Haku promised Chihiro that they will meet again someday.

I really loved the way the story went since I love stories that show how much compassion there is inside people, and sometimes it takes a bit of adversity for it to finally shine through. The movie also carry a lot of themes such as maturity, greed and environmental issues which were subtly presented. Its one of the movies I’ll be sure to watch over and over again not just because of the beautiful graphics but because of its rich story and characters.

If you are interested to learn more about it, you can check out the following websites that talk about Spirited Away:

Spirited Away
Wikipedia: Spirited Away
IMDb: Spirited Away

Anime Review: Spirited Away took my heart away. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.