vetlongwalks home & pf

obviously, i'm still a bit glum over the news that there's a super typhoon coming our way, my flight to manila and ultimately the concert i was supposed to watch while in manila were canceled. so, rather than continue to rant about the "unfairness" of the universe by first hitting the visayas region with earthquakes and now this typhoon coming our way, i headed over at youtube to watch, what else but music videos by the band. WARNING: video overload!!! here are a few that they're known for from their more than 16-year career: PUSH (1997)

awhile back, i was just ranting about how the universe was telling me that there's no chance i could ever watch matchbox twenty live in my lifetime. i pointed out the several factors that were preventing me from watching the concert. as soon as i finished writing that post , i shared it over at my FB page and one of my officemates commented that the concert was canceled. not to believe right away, i googled the news to verify, and this was what i found over at InterAksyon Entertainment's website: below is the text of that news clip: Due to the threat of supertyphoon Yolanda, the management of Matchbox Twenty decided to cancel the band’s concert at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday. In a press release, concert promoter Music Management International said, “The band is disappointed”, but added that weather conditions had made travel to the Philippines dangerous. For refunds, ticketholders may call SM Tickets at 4702222 or return their tickets at the outlets where they were ...

UNIVERSE, YOU WIN. I GET IT NOW. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. when I learned about that the band is coming to manila last october 30, 2013 , i was both ecstatic and sad. glad because i never thought that they're ever coming to the philippines! i once promised myself that should they ever include the philippines as one of their tour stops, I WILL definitely going to watch it - by hook or by crook. then i was sad because with their concert only 10 days away, i didn't think i could cough up enough money to watch it. in between learning about the concert and october 31, 2013, i found myself searching the Internet

darn. first it was linkin park (august 2013), and now them: their concert is just 10 days away and i learned of it just now! i don't think i can cough up enough moolah to be able to see these beautiful guys, even from afar. their cheapest ticket is pegged at 1,060 pesos. i don't mind attending concerts from afar, especially since that's what i can only afford. when my brother told me about this concert earlier tonight, i did some quick calculation and search: airfare ticket (estimate): 3,000 terminal fee: 400 (if not included in the ticket) (200 mactan/200 naia) taxi fare: 500 (T3 - MOA Arena - T3) food (dinner 8/breakfast 9): 500 overnight hotel: 2,000 or go straight to airport after concert i truly want to go and hear rob thomas sing live, but doing so constitutes a big breach to the plan of saving up. well, i could just tell myself, that i can start saving after this, haha. perhaps, the brief aftershock felt earlier is telling me to give myself a shak...

i just received a mailer from Jaime Lorenzo, Jr. MD of IMG-Wealth Academy. he's a licensed medical doctor who's become a Financial Educator. the mailer is an invitation to a financial seminar. while i've no permission to post this here, i believe dr. lorenzo wouldn't mind. ( FYI: he doesn't know me personally. so no strings attached here. not selling anything. i simply believe in making known avenues that can help filipinos rise from utter poverty) . i'm taking liberties here because the last time i attended the same seminar conducted by him and his wife, i was of the impression that financial literacy among filipinos is one of his and wife's advocacy. so, i'm copy-pasting most of the contents in the mailer here. i truly believe this is a seminar that EVERY FILIPINO, should attend.

i've been wanting to have an e-reader for the longest time. i like reading books and with the limited space i have, collecting books is becoming impractical. while i'm still arguing in my head that a real 'paper' book is far more superior than an e-reader, i still couldn't help myself into thinking about getting an e-reader. although i'm no techy and don't easily get envious with the latest gadgets available in the market, an e-reader is a different story. in fact, i'm envious of people who own a kindle. i want to have one, but the more practical me is unwilling to part hard-earned moolah for an expensive gadget. so my search to find a cheaper e-reader, led me to KOBO . i learned that kobo can be a good alternative to kindle. so i readily looked it up and learned that there are no KOBO retailers here in the philippines. darn. the closest retailer to the philppines is Swindon Books. B U T ---wait for it --- it's in HONG KONG. at that time, i ...

sometime back, i posted a few pictures about some bookshelves that i love i specifically mentioned that i love the bookshelf shown below the most. i love it because the message is direct: READ. it comes across to me as inspirational and encouraging. photo by Kim Yokota , taken from NK (Nordiska Kompaniet) in Stockholm Sweden

i love visiting new places. if i have money to burn, i'll probably be hopping from one island to another, one continent to next. while the possibility of ever covering the world may be impossible for me, it sure doesn't stop me from encouraging others to hop on planes and see the world. SO, i was mighty glad that sometime july this year, one of my teachers had the chance to travel.

unlike me, my couches aren't immune to transformation. when i moved into my pet house, i didn't have enough money. so, in order to make it livable, i bought pieces of furniture one at a time. one of the first few pieces i bought were these two couches. yep, mismatched couches! the small one is somewhat beige in color while the other is super dark brown. i was actually fine with these mismatched couches until boredom hit me and i turned to my sewing machine to make slipcovers . during a trip to manila in march 2011, i found these pink and brown striped fabric in one of the fabric stores in market, market.

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got back from hk a couple of days ago. like any other travels, there's always something i'd like to covet for myself. one of the few things that caught my fancy apart from hk's skyline and night lights is this advertisement. i took this snapshot at hk international airport. who doesnt want a bathroom like this?

a what? it's a phrase that was the topic of a bo sanchez mp3 i was listening to last night. it talks about finding your emotional WHY - the very thing that makes you wanna pursue a dream, or the very reason that will make you quit a bad habit. in that talk, he painted this very vivid picture. it goes something like this: a person talking to a father (my way of saying, i can't exactly remember if it was a make-believe story by bo sanchez or if he was talking about a real conversation he had with another person who was having a difficult time breaking the habit of smoking. anyway, i'm digressing. Father: help. i really would want to stop smoking. but i really just can't. i've tried countless of times, but i just can't do it. Man: do you love your daughter? Father: yes, i do. Man: what would you do for your daughter? Father: i would DO ANYTHING for my daughter. Man: ok. imagine this. someone is holding your daughter hostage. the man has his arm around you...

the past few days, i've been obsessing about bookshelves. i want any one of these unique bookshelves in my house PRONTO! some wishful thinking, right? come on, tell me - don't you want to have one yourself? yin yang bookshelf from bookshelves.com tree-inspired bookshelf from al2698.com cave bookshelf from sakura adachi photo by Kim Yokota , taken from NK (Nordiska Kompaniet) in Stockholm Sweden photo taken from enpundit.com LOVE THEM ALL! but like the "READ" bookshelf most. not only is the design unique, but it also inspire and encourage.

YAY!!! Can't wait. The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Armand M. Nicholi Jr. Throughout the ages, many of the world's greatest thinkers have wrestled with the concept of -- and belief in -- God. It may seem unlikely that any new arguments or insights could be raised, but the twentieth century managed to produce two brilliant men with two diametrically opposed views about the question of God: Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. They never had an actual meeting, but in The Question of God, their arguments are placed side by side for the very first time. For more than twenty-five years, Armand Nicholi has taught a course at Harvard that compares the philosophical arguments of both men. In The Question of God, Dr. Nicholi presents the writings and letters of Lewis and Freud, allowing them to "speak" for themselves on the subject of belief and disbelief. Both men considered the problem of pain and su...

so, here i was tinkering numbers. i was bent on making myself debt-free. my efforts towards that goal have almost paid off. as of writing, i've successfully eliminated one. as soon as i have my free voucher, i'll be closing the account for good. now, i'm down to just 2 cards with a little less than 5K for one card, and less than 3K in another. but what do i know? i was bored, and somehow the bookstore i once visited in seoul popped in my head. at bandi and luni's bookstore, seoul. september 4, 2010 as i know that most of south korea are online, i went to google and hit bandi and luni's. next thing i new, i was contacting a couple of friends in korea, and well... 17,040 won 14,920 won 19,200 won since i've been introduced to christian literature, i've been wanting to get hold of these books. sadly, i couldn't find them in either national bookstore or fully booked. i've considered buying through amazon, but shipping c...

yesterday was just an ordinary saturday for me. right after i paid for my electricity bill, i headed to my sister's office to have the yearly flu shot. after that, headed to sm for family lunch, and then to ayala center to pay more bills. tired and hungry from getting to one establishment after another, i decided to grab dinner before returning home to mactan. as i was getting down from the escalator, i noticed a few people gathered at the ayala activity center. curious, i took a peek at what's happening and saw the backdrop that says "Broadway Special with Isay Alvarez and Robert Sena." the backdrop also said that the show starts at 6:30 P.M. my phone's clock showed that it was almost 7 PM and no sign yet of the singing couple. on stage, there was a young man with his guitar singing. looking at the seats before the stage, i spied a few empty seats. thus, i hurriedly went down, hungry and all, to the empty front row seats. WOW! AMAZING! I couldn't believ...

let me get a thundering "WOW!!!" out of the way first. i want to shout a loud WOW because i just realize that in a few years from now, the next big decade i'll hit will be the big FOUR ZERO. r-e-a-l-l-y. looking back at the years that had been, it got me thinking - were there things in the past that i could have done differently? on one end, i'd say - definitely there were things i could have done differently in my life. but on the other end, i couldn't shrug off the thought that if i'd done things differently, then i wouldn't be what i am now.

september 15, 2012 - a date forever etched in the mind of one of us five. to help her remember that day, here's a few pictures from the photo booth company during her wedding. i got the pictures below from the facebook page of kramfotobooth under juv and joan's wedding album. i don't care much about photobooths as i usually don't know what to do or how to act, but this one is different. i actually remember having fun doing this. so, to continue with my "reminiscing mood", i give you my friends, and their family.

we all met for the first time in 1996 as freshmen of u.p. cebu college's psychology program. miss debi, marini, ivy, and joan were of the same circle, while i keep my own company here and there. we were friends all through our four years of college nevertheless. i was adopted into the fold when miss debi and i found ourselves jobless. she fresh from a stint in manila, while i did a 2-year hiatus from the world after graduation in 2000.

photographs are not common in our family. thus, i don't have many pictures of me as a child. below is the oldest, and perhaps the only picture i have of me as a child. this faded photograph of me was taken on my 2nd birthday, almost 32 years ago.

how do you lose something you never had? the question keeps popping in my head. i don't why. so, i decided to pause and look the question in the eye and see if something jumps out. firstly, is the question logical? can you actually lose something that isn't in your possession? secondly, should the question be taken at face value? but what could be the underlying meaning behind the question, if there's any, at all? lastly, is the question coming from the 'bottomest' pit of my gut? am i suppose to realize something from the question? if the question comes from my innermost self, does it mean there is something out there waiting to unravel? but that the question remains in my deepest pit could only mean the answer to it could actually blow my mind away, and i'm just not ready to hear it. does this mean i'm in denial over something? wowaah.. let's stop right there. i don't think my questions make sense. do they? to you?

a week ago, i mentioned in this blog post that the summer heat in the philippines has started to get to me. chopping the mane off has been dominating my thoughts the past days. well, today isn't any different and the result is this:

my hair? that is the question that's been nagging at me the past few days. see, it is officially SUMMER here in the philippines and the SUN is at its mightiest and brightiest. i normally don't grow my hair very long. primarily because i hate having to maintain it, exert extra effort at combing it every now and then. over the years, i usually keep my hair "wash and wear" style. i'm fortunate enough to have straight hair that i could just finger-comb it, and all is well with the world. but with the summer heat, having a long hair is kind of a nuisance to me. my bangs constantly irritate my eyes, and with so much hair on my head, i feel like i'm inside an oven - literally. thus, each day since last saturday, i couldn't stop thinking about chopping my mane off and have a boy cut. so what's stopping me?

WARNING!!! photo credit: legaljuice.com i was encoding english expressions for work early today, when i came upon this passage from a book i was using: When none of my children managed to drop by my house for weeks, I was more than a little miffed. Eventually though, a visit was arranged. My husband admonished me not to cause hard feelings by complaining about their lack of attention, so I didn't say a word. I just had them fill out name tags when they entered. - author unknown if i weren't in my station, i'd probably be laughing my hearts out. i just love the humor, and it's too great not to share. boy, you've got to love women and their cleverness!!! here's another one that equally gave me a smile. i found below from a post over at instanthumour.com cheers to all mothers in the world and a BIG salute to cleverness(wink :)

this is a test... ...still figuring out why in some posts my side bar appears at the bottom of the page.. according to what i've read so far, reason for the problem is BAD HTML. as mentioned in a previous post entitled "messed up blog", i'm not well-versed with html coding. so, right now, i'm just gonna do what one article suggested, find out which blog post is giving the messed-up page look. a friend's comment mentioned that the post "messed up blog" actually looked all right. so, it beats me, which among the posts is causing the problem... so searching...

one of the guaranteed things you will find when you visit my home is little stuff bought from places i was fortunate enough to visit in and out of the country ( haha, so pretentious!) . lest you think that i have a vast collection or am very well-traveled, let me be quick to add that i only meant little knick-knacks, ref magnets mostly, and they are not that plenty YET . moreover, i haven't been to that many places here and abroad. after i've outgrown the habit of buying souvenir shirts, i moved on to buying something for my little pet house. as i can't afford the stuff that i truly want for my pet house, i compromised by getting myself a ref magnet bearing the town/city's name and any small household item i could carry back home. as i'm known to hate carrying anything, i usually just pick out those that i can stuff inside my bag/suitcase. the biggest so far i got for my house are the two orange stools from bohol in 2011 and the hanging lamp i got from coron, pal...

valentine's day once again. for some reason, i like it this year. unlike the previous years, there's no feelings of dread. no feelings of inadequacy. (haha, i'm not wearing black! i usually do in the past years for odd reasons) being single ALL my life, there were years that i questioned how 'unlovable' i must be to remain where i am: unattached . will it ever happen in my lifetime when i hear an xy say the words, "be mine?"? truth be told, i sometimes wonder if i am a failure for the inability to fulfill a basic evolutionary function: pair attachment . but i guess as you age you learn acceptance. you learn not to be hard on yourself because there are things that are beyond your control. to just let go and just live gloriously the best way you know how. am i only saying this to not appear and sound like a loser?<!--more> NO. i'm saying this for the reason that i've accepted that one's marital status is not the end all and be all. in my ...