prime gods

It’s almost 2010! Aside from fulfilling my usual goals of learning Nihonggo, going to Japan, putting up my own income-generating-asset-business, saving up to 300K, and getting a life insurance for my parents, I intend to do the things Jorge Luis Borge failed to do when he was still my age and only realized it when he was already 85 and dying:

Instantes (Instants)

If I were able to live my life a new,
In the next I would try to commit more errors.
I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more.
I would be more foolish than I’ve been,
In fact, I would take few things seriously.
I would be less hygienic.
I would run more risks,
take more vacations,
contemplate more sunsets,
climb more mountains, swim more rivers.
I would go to more places where I’ve never been,
I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans,
I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.

I was one of those people that lived sensibly
and prolifically each minute of his life;
Of course I had moments of happiness.
If I could go back I would try
to have only good moments.

Because if you didn’t know, of that is life made:
only of moments; Don’t lose the now.

I was one of those that never
went anywhere without a thermometer,
a hot-water bottle,
an umbrella, and a parachute;
If I could live again, I would travel lighter.

If I could live again,
I would begin to walk barefoot from the beginning of spring
and I would continue barefoot until autumn ends.
I would take more cart rides,
contemplate more dawns,
and play with more children,
If I had another life ahead of me.

But already you see, I am 85,
and I know that I am dying.

Carpe Diem. Live life. Choose to be happy. For life is just too short to waste it on regrets.

For the Media Noche or midnight meal on December 31, New Year’s Eve (Trivia: this is a feast that is also supposed to symbolize our hopes for a prosperous New Year) our entire family decided to cook and/or prepare a dish each. Of course, mine is my highly coveted, award winning chicken curry! ^_^

My mom already made sure that everything we will need for the preparation is available and are in good condition – from the chopping boards, clean running water in the kitchen faucet and knives, to the ingredients and dining utensils. Aside from my chicken curry, I will also be contributing a very luscious, “one of the tastiest” leche flan, thanks to my friend, Mark, who gave me two boxes as present this holiday season. I can’t wait for the feast!

These days, you’ll find everything and anything in malls. As I was waiting for a friend of mine, this newly opened fitness center caught my attention. They had some of those high tech cardiovascular machines and treadmill and of course, sauna and steam areas. But those were not the stuff that caught my attention, it was actually their staff – all wearing bikinis! It turned out that they were not really part of the staff, but members of the yoga class.

What is nice about this fitness center is that they don’t just cater the young adults age range. They also have classes for children and old people. Off topic, I remember reading an article about how your muscles degrade while you age. I guess it’s safe to assume that these folks are well aware of the health benefits they get from exercise. They look great though and not as stressed as one would have normally expected. It seems that living healthy really pays off, at least from what I saw. Which makes me wonder, if I grow old, will I be as diligent as them? Knowing myself, I probably could not… at least for now. I better call my grandparents later so I can give them a heads up about this one.

It’s December! White Christmases really makes this holiday season more cozy and romantic. Then again, what would really make this season cozier is if we all gather around the fireplace or have a heated blanket wrapped around us while drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. Mmmmm… how yummy and comfy can you get?

For those planning to go on a road trip this December, you can actually stay warm and cozy with this ideal travel companion which I accidentally saw while buying my sister a wedding gift – 12v Heated Travel Throw. With this, you no longer need to worry about car disputes over the heater since the heated blanket is perfect for warming one bench seat or two bucket seats at a time. Also, the 8 foot power cord can reach to virtually any seat in the vehicle.

Worried about the electricity it will consume? It has a safety timer which prevents battery drain and overheating. Plus, the fused 12-volt cigarette lighter plug features an LED indicator light. To cap it off, because it’s made of super-soft polar fleece, the throw provides comfort even if it’s not plugged in.

Now isn’t that just warm and cozy? ^_^

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, my sister Anne is getting married next year. She’ll be moving to New York or New Jersey once she’s married and would like to work asap. The only problem is she’s not yet done with her school but would still like to finish her degree. I’m pretty optimistic about her finishing her studies though, because nowadays, you can find and enroll in a high-quality online university.

An example of this is the Western Governors Online University or WGU – a non-profit and Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities accredited university. Not only can you study anytime and anywhere (as long as you have an Internet connection of course), you need not worry about the high cost. This is because compared to other known online universities, at WGU, you pay for the time, not the credit hours, since they charge tuition at a flat rate every six months. Also, compared to others, the tuition for their bachelors degree online is just typically half the cost!

Imagine that, a high-quality education with flexible schedule that’s almost half the normal price! Anyway, after reviewing the school more, my sister Anne confirmed that she will definitely sign up for it next year.

I’m so sleepy right now yet I just woke up! Last night I had a fun night with Julia and her cousin Michael. She came to our city to attend a friend’s wedding so she called me after to meet. We basically spent the nights bar hopping and drinking. So now even after three shots of espresso, I am still not sober. Fortunately, my boss is on vacation so I can just sleep on my desk the whole day.

The night was worth it though. We got to chat after so many years. There is still lots of catching up to do but we did not have enough time to talk because their flight back to Mexico is this morning. So, she invited me to go to her city on summer, all expense paid! She is from Cancun, Mexico in the East Coast but I know not much about the place. So I googled Cancun vacations and I was amazed to find out that it was one of the summer capitals of Mexico! Cancun vacation packages showed up first on the results.Lot’s of beaches, clubs, and resorts. I instantly sobered up after seeing the search results. now I am so excited that I forgot about Christmas already. haha.

I can’t even remember the last time I did something to lose weight. For most folks of my age, they really didn’t care and so did I before. There was this instance though that I tried watching this TV show about a contest for obese guys and gals trying to lose weight. Their efforts were amazing so I got hooked into watching it. Then it made me interested to become healthy and physically fit. I knew that if those people can do it then so can I. So when I faced the mirror, I saw the flabs and the double chin and the love handle, that’s the time when I started to do something about it. I began with fat burners; slimming herbal Tea to be exact. And then after a few weeks of drinking herbal tea I decided to enroll myself in Yoga class. The effects were great! In just a short while, I started to lose several pounds. Now when I look into a mirror, I see a very healthy me. Not only do I look good but I also feel good as well. Watching that TV show really paid off, I guess.

My sister Anne is getting married on January 2010. The entire family is excited about it. It’s the first wedding in the family, after all. Everyone was kidding on who needs to start taking weight loss pills so they’ll look exceptionally gorgeous for the wedding.

Anyway, it’s just going to be a simple civil wedding for my sister. Nothing fancy really. But I did make her and her fiancé read the 1001 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married. They were very grateful, actually, and are happy that they jive in almost all their answers to the questions. I’m planning to have my brother and his girlfriend read it when it’s their turn. I have a feeling we’ll have more than one wedding celebration in 2010 0;)

Last weekend, I received a package from a friend of mine from the Philippines. It was a flash drive full of pictures from my last year’s trip to their province. I viewed the pictures in my laptop, they were all great until my computer hung up.

I was not so sure then what went wrong so I just ignored the problem and restarted my laptop. Again It restarted. That time I was already worried because most of my files were not backed up.

I asked help from a friend of mine to see if he can do something about my laptop. He did some checks and voila! He pinpointed the problem. A rootkit virus infected my laptop which cause my system registry to be corrupted. I had a free antivirus installed but it turned out to be ineffective. So I was advised to get a licensed antivirus and back up my files. I always thought that a free updated antivirus is already enough to secure my pc from being infected. I was wrong. And so I learned that free antivirus software covers only some basic security stuff. Later I’ll warn my friend about the virus so that she could do a scan on her PC.