Random Musings

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? 


Actually, who are you not to be? 
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. 
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. 
We are all meant to shine, as children do. 
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. 
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. 
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. 
As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" by Marianne Willamson

And with that random thought out of my head....back to work! *whapish!*

We ARE the world

I find myself to be strangely moved by this video.

It's the remake of "We are the World," composed 25 years ago as an effort by artists all across the Western Hemisphere in response to the devastating famine that had Africa in a vise-like grip. The song, written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, eventually sold more than 20 million units and helped raise $63,000,000 for famine relief efforts in Africa.

Now, 25 years later, after the most devastating humanitarian crisis the world has ever faced with the earthquake in Haiti, artists across the world (mostly in the Western Hemisphere) and across musical genres came together to record a new version. The goal? To raise awareness and action for the plight of Haiti. Here are some fast facts (courtesy of Foxnews):

• It was the strongest earthquake felt since 1770.
• 3 MILLION PEOPLE required emergency aid immediately after the earthquake. To give you some perspective, Quezon City's population is about 2.8 million people. So imagine the entire population of Quezon City seriously injured without access to medical care, water, and food.
• The forecast is that 10% of the affected people would die of either direct earthquake damage or related effects. That's 300,000 people. 

Now the big question is: should we - you and I and everyone in our immediate surroundings - be even concerned by something that a) happened so far away, b) we have no control of, c) can't do anything about, and d) is of a lower priority than the personal and professional problems that we deal with on a daily basis?

The answer to that is yes. We should be concerned. I think the biggest misconception about ANY tragedy that's so huge is that it takes the BIG people to solve it and that it takes BIG acts to fix it.

I don't believe that to be the case. Sure, I personally can't send enough money to Haiti to make a significant difference to the country. Hell, I probably can't send enough money to make a difference in the lives of a couple of people. But maybe the little amount that I donated can help ease the suffering of just one person. ONE person. One is always greater than Zero.

So I guess my personal plea to the few readers that I have in this blog is this: let's care about Haiti and do what we can given what we have. Pass the message to other folks to care about Haiti. Say a prayer or two for the people who have been affected by the quake and a thanksgiving prayer to the people who are directly involved in rescue operations. If you can, make a small donation - there are numerous ways to do so. If you can't donate, then try to write a small message of support to any organization involved with rescue efforts. Or blog about it so we can continue to drive awareness about the issue.

Will this make any difference to the situation in the Philippines, or to our own personal problems and issues? Maybe not now, and maybe not directly. But I firmly believe that the universe will find a way and conspire to return the thought to you. 

So say a little prayer for Haiti on top of all the other matters that you pray for. They'll really appreciate it. :)

Priceless!

I couldn't stop laughing over this one! Mwehehehehe! Happy weekend everyone!

Resolutions 2010

It's 3:23am and I still can't sleep. 

So, rather than just watch TV (nothing good anyway) or play the newest game I got (Borderlands), I hopped onto my desktop and realized that I haven't posted my 2010 resolutions. 

As I said in my 2009 review, I didn't come up with a specific resolution for that year, for all the reasons I had mentioned. For 2010 however, given how good 2009 was, I feel that I have to be much more specific now in what I want to achieve so I can keep up this good life, because no matter how good 2009 was, there's always room for improvement.

I ask for forgiveness from my colleagues and friends at my current job, as I'll be using the Principle Based Decision Making framework for my 2010 resolutions. :) Yes yes, geek and all that, I know...

Principle 1: Simplify, simplify, simplify - aka Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (DS3).

I realized that as good as 2009 was, I just took on way too much stuff in my life - as a result, I inadvertedly brought in a lot of unnecessary stress. The line "DS3" is something that my dad always tells us family members whenever we stress ourselves out over things which...well, just won't matter in the long run. And with that as my first guiding principle...

1. Stop the road rage. Seriously. As much as I have improved on this aspect over the past 3-4 years, I still have a long way to go, and I must admit that in 2009 I regressed a bit on this. Let's face the facts: there will always be drivers out there who are a) idiots because they don't know better, b) idiots because even if they know better, they just don't care, or c) idiots because they simply are idiots. As much as I'd love to bonk all of these idiots on the head one by one, I realize that I expend so much energy on cursing these assholes...hence I end up stressing myself for no reason. So, will focus on lessening the road rage.

2. Stop taking on a new hobby unless it's critical. Let's see, right now I have a) photography, b) gaming, c) voracious reading, d) learning a new language (russian), and e) occasionally working out,  which is all on top of family and Gail, work, rest, and "me" time. Uh huh. Adding just 1 more to that is just plain crazy and will make me lose focus on the other things I'm already doing. So, will focus on working with my current hobbies rather than taking on new things.

3. Stick to one gaming sytem - and yes, that's my PC. No, I have not decided to sell my Xbox360...yet. But given that I've invested a significant amount of resources on building my new rig, plus the fact that it's performing superbly...why should I spend time on 2 systems when I'm enjoying myself immensely on just one? Not to mention the fact that I've already hooked up the 360's controllers to my new rig...absolutely no need to play the 360 right now.

That is, until Gears of War 3 comes out...

4. Spend a bit more time with the family. Sounds odd to put this under the first principle, but in my experience my folks are super experts in pointing out unnecessary stuff in my life - on that and that alone, why shouldn't I? On another note, I haven't exactly held the World Record for "spending the best quality time with my family" so I figure that it's something worth doing.

Principle 2 - focus more on preparing for the future. The future is fast approaching (yeheess, sounds like a line from a DLSU marketing campaign), and I'm not exactly 18 years old anymore, so I'd rather focus more on preparing for the future - not at the expense of enjoying and learning from the present, of course, but deprioritizing just "living for the moment" as opposed to "enjoying the present but living for the future."

5. Save. Save. Save. And then save up some more. I spent a bit more on myself in 2009 then I had originally planned, so my savings took a dip. Of course, I don't regret a single thing that I had spent on last year - for the stuff I spent on myself, well, my fashion sense did go up a couple of notches from the gutter (many thanks to Gail, Paulo, Anama, Anj, Falqi, Gloria, Jia, and Mars for that!). However, a lot of the things that I bought were impulsive in nature as opposed to a well thought off purchase, so in 2010 I resolve to dump more money into savings rather than buying stuff for myself. 

6. Get my back fixed. Yes, my infamous back is...well, back again. I'm not getting any younger, so the earlier I get this fixed, the better. Given my "worst-case scenario" option, I can and should exhaust all possible options before going for that one. And in line with this resolution...

7. Exercise and lose weight via running or yoga. Yes, must stop procrastinating on this. Running is something that I had started in 2009 but since December I had slowed down on this. Must be more consistent - not just to lose weight, but to strengthen my back muscles.

...and yes, you read right, that's Yoga. I was lucky enough to work with Maritoni Tordesillas in one of my current initiatives and she really encouraged me to try 1:1 yoga sessions to get my back strengthened up. So I'll be giving that a shot - again, given the worst case alternative, it's something I'd really want to do.

8. Eat healthily - you ain't 18 anymore. As much as I hate to admit it, I can't eat 15 pieces of kwek-kwek anymore and live to tell the tale (especially since our family's prone to high cholesterol). It's not as if I need to eat like a cow. But proper portion control, down on the sweets, and a little more greens will go a long way.

There you go - 8 resolutions for 2010. Now the only thing left for me to do is to come up with a way to track the progress. :) Hmmm, time to work on another tracker, maybe Falqi can help.....

The Annual Review: Chad in 2009

2009 was the best year of my life.

(Now how's that for a one-line summary of my blog entry?)

Way back in January 2009, when I started this blog, I only had one promise to myself: that I would live life to the fullest in 2009, and with the way the year turned it, I happily declare that I have achieved my promise to myself.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the details of what made 2009 the best year of my life, so here we go:

1. Living my life as myself. For far too long in my life I've always tried to live up to the world's expectations of myself - hence the statement of some of my friends that I "grew up too fast." In 2009 I decided to stop trying to live up to what everyone wants me to be and just decided to be myself. It was liberating to realize that people who still like and love me for being just me: a bookish geeky guy-next-door. :)

2. Having a much more personal relationship with God. I may not be as active as my mom is in the Church, but since 2009 I've had a much more meaningful and deeper relationship with God. I haven't changed my outward habits - I still go to Church once a week - but my prayers have been more frequent and have been more of "conversations" with Him as opposed to simple requests for help. I find myself thanking Him everyday, literally, for I was so blessed in 2009 and there's so much to be thankful for. 

3. My family rocks. Big time. 2009 was not just the year that I got closer to my parents (though there's still some work to be done there!), but it was also a year that my sister and her entire family visited for the holidays. The last time we were all together was in June 2007 and it was such a blast having them over. We did so many things while they were here: had a trip to Cebu, had a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law in Tagaytay, went to Punta Fuego along with some of my cousins, and had a blast during the New Year fireworks. They just left for home a couple of hours back and I must admit to being sad - the house is so quiet now. Granted that it was super noisy when they were here, and it was quite tiring too - but it was FUN. The house had never been so noisy and full of fun that I miss them all - it's going to be quite a long time before we're all together again, and I'll miss them all till that time comes.

4. Gail and her meeting the entire family. How can I not be utterly happy and blessed with Gail? She's the most thoughtful, sweet, caring, loving, patient, and brutally honest (which I absolutely love) person ever. I've never felt so loved an cared for, and the future has never been so bright and clear for me when it comes to spending my life with her. I'm so happy that my parents love her for who she is, and I'm also very happy that she met and spent a lot of time with my sister and her family. Christmas of 2009 will always be remembered as one of my best Christmases ever not just because my entire family was here, but also because Gail spent virtually the entire Christmas holiday season with our family. I can't even begin to describe the joy I have the my family loves Gail for who she is, and that Gail loves my family for who they are. :) What more could one ask for?

5. My true friends. I can count on my fingers and toes the number of friends that I trust with my life - and I consider myself the richest man in the world for them. They stuck with me through thick and thin, something I can never repay them for. Not just that, but I also love how my true friends and Gail have meshed - I'm done with the days where parts of my life are compartmentalized from each other. 

6. My career. Yes, despite some setbacks brought about by forces beyond my sphere of influence, I'm still happy with where I am. I must admit to being super sad in the latter half of 2009 as a lot of my close friends have left P&G for other companies; however, I made the choice to make a long term investment in my current job and it's beginning to pay dividends. Definitely a long way to go, but I like where I am (so far) and I like where its going (so far).

2009 was the best year of my life - but given that all the things that I'm thankful for in 2009 are still present in 2010, I'm supremely confident that by this time next year, I'll say that 2010 trumped 2009 in being the best year ever. :)

Till that time comes, I'm going to enjoy 2010 as much as I can. :) Hang out for my next post: Resolutions 2010!