President!

This is not a post about politics, so rest easy because I'm not about to stress you out :)

I just wanted to share that my son got elected President of his school's computer club. I'm the happiest Mom on earth.

It was such a pleasant surprise when he told me the news. I wondered why he was running down the stairs and calling out my name when he arrived from school. Kasi pala may magandang balita. And, my oh my, he's got a lot of plans for the club!

I cannot stop smiling because this is the first time that he has been elected to office. A week ago we thought that the club would be dissolved. I didn't want him to end up in a club that he's not really interested in since I want him to be happily productive. I'm just really happy that he is doing something he loves and I hope he enjoys everything that goes with it.

Mana sa akin!

How Lola Techie Uses Google

I have a feeling if my Mama Lola was still alive she'd do the same thing!

*special thanks to Sweetie for the photo

Nobody

Mikko Plurked this awhile ago and it certainly entertained me -

I'm definitely looking forward to Mikko's version on his birthday (sabi niya) =)

Napoleon

I originally wanted to write about my pet pig since it was brought up in a conversation the past week, but this thing about Napoleon has been eating me up in the past few days.

Wikipedia says that the Napoleon Complex is a colloquial term describing an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said to affect some people, especially men, who are short in stature". Quite derogatory, but for this blog post isn't about men who are short in stature, but people who have severe inferiority complex.

You see I've fallen victim to a couple of people with this complex and when I was younger I would just cry, sometimes under my table. It was frustrating because I was taught by my parents never to answer back to "elders". I just accepted what they would hurl at me. I was too subservient. Too mabait. And stupid me I allowed them to conquer me.

Love. The worst kind of boyfriend one could have is the one who'd try to conquer your whole being. Calling the office guard to find out what time you left and who you were with in the elevator, controlling what you wear, where you go and what you eat is something that should scare the @#$% out of you.

At work. Someone told me the other day that politics starts when you bring 2 people together. And that's true because politics is about the struggle for power. I cannot explain how much pain I've been through with the trauma I got from Napoleons at work. It's hard to describe what I went through but I think you'd get the picture with this infamous line:

"You are after my job!"

I have since moved on and thankfully regained my battered self-esteem. It's been years and I just find it funny now. I guess I have since grown up and realized my worth better. The world is also huge, what you may think as big may just be a tiny dot in the ecosystem. And those Napoleons? I hear they are still very much the same. Defending their small little turf and getting more mean every single day.

It was a lesson that took me a long time to learn. I wish though I had my Mom's guts since she told me the other day that in her day she'd throw in some punches to defend herself. At least I have learned how to walk out at the right time. I do pray though that someday Napoleon(s) would realize that there is more to life than power and there are people who would love them if they will just let them in.

Slumbook Time!

I have 2 unfinished posts and bugged Pierre to do a slumbook post, so I thought I'd do one too.

1. Where is your dad right now?

Upstairs probably watching TV

2. Last time you kissed someone?
When Miguel got home from school a few hours ago

3. Name 5 things you did today.

ate adobo, worked, started 2 posts, Plurked and made 3 pandesal with cheese sandwiches

4. Last person you text messaged?
Maan Tolentino

5. What kind of phone do you have?
Nokia E71 and N70

6. Where does your bestfriend work?
Darwin has his own business. Anne works for the yellow pages and Tappy works for a broadcast company in Singapore.

7. What are you listening to?
I'm currently watching TV.

8. What do you smell like?
Irish Spring, just took a shower.

9. What color are your eyes?
brown

10. Have you ever done a Chinese fire drill?
What's that?

11. What color is your bedroom floor?
wood

12. Do you have a chair in your room? w/c room? bedroom?
yes, actually a loveseat in my bedroom

13. What are you doing tomorrow?

have 2 meetings, a training to conduct and attend the GTUG meet-up and see my Sweetie!

14. Do you know someone named Betsy?

Nope

15. What color is your mom’s hair?
brown

16. Do you have a dog?
Not anymore, Jolly is with our neighbor already. Sniff sniff.

17. Do you remember singing songs as a kid?
Of course!

18. Are you married?
Not yet.

19. When was the last time you talked to one of your siblings?
A few days ago when my Ate called.

20. Do you play an instrument?
Yup, the piano.

21. Do you like fire?
Nope. I'm terrified of it.

22. Are you allergic to anything?
A lot of stuff, chicken, crab, chocolate and cockroaches!

23. Do you have a crush on anyone?
Yes!

24. Do you have a bestfriend?
Yup, three!

25. Have you ever been to a spa?
Of course, last time was last week at Cagayan de Oro.

26. Did you take science all 4 yrs. of High School?
Yup, liked Chem and Physics.

27. Do you like butterflies?
Yes! See my butterfly post.

28. Do you miss someone right now?
Yup, I miss my Sweetie.

29. Do you think they miss u too?
Dapat lang!

30. Have you ever seen your school counselor?
Yes, when I was a kid, but I just went to accompany my friend.

WaterBlogged

Wet, wet, wet. That's how I was today.

Stayed up `til past 2 last night because I was chasing a deadline. Woke up really early for a call. Ate breakfast and then worked and worked and then...

Mom, "Where did the water come from?"

I looked to where she was pointing to and I was amazed with the amount of water that snuck in on me. Thank God Mom checked on me at the right time or else I might've been electrocuted.

Flash flood.

It's not the first time it happened. We all know the deal at home. Pull out plugs first and the put up whatever you can. The pain of cleaning up starts when the water subsides. And there's always the damage, but it hasn't been this bad for the longest time.

My dead gadgets now include my old Kodak V603 camera (my Canon G9 is still in the shop), Sony Ericsson phone and probably my son's CPU (he still doesn't know) but I'm hoping that it's still alive. As advised by my Plurk-friends, I wiped the CDs and hopefully they're still working. Other damaged stuff include, some books, bags, shoes, some of my MBA stuff, and my choir stuff (musical sheets).

Well, I survived with the help of my Mom and our helpers (I love you guys!). I've been meaning to clean up, but I've been so busy. I guess this is God's way of telling me, "Get going girl!"

Despite what happened I'm happy to note that the IT volunteers for the PPCRV site have put together the site in time for the PPCRV-NAMFREL Forum at Plaza Miranda today (great work team!), but this is just the beginning! Be a PPCRV volunteer!

God is good.

Donuts and a Talakayan Forum

Before I start making you hungry with donut-talk thought you guys might be interested to watch PPCRV's Talakayan Forum -

July 16, 2009, Thursday

4:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Plaza Miranda

*will also be shown via ANC from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

More info here.

========

I guess I'm a donut person even though my tonsils usually protest about the barrage of sugar. When I was a kid we usually had home-made donuts for merienda. Remember those mixes you could just buy from the grocery? I usually helped in mixing the batter and then my Tita would fry it and I'd have the time of my life sprinkling sugar on the donut. Nomnomnomnom.

Nowadays all you need to do is go to a donut shop and buy. So yesterday I decided to spend my afternoon and work at Krispy Kreme. If donut-scent was available as aroma oil, incense or a candle, I'd probably buy it because it keeps me awake, alert and productive!

I was surprised to see a lot of friends at KK yesterday and if I were to join the the Krispy Kreme Fave Fan Search I'd probably share my experience about why I like hanging out at Krispy Kreme. (1) Food + free wifi gets me going and productive and (2) Meeting up with friends.

Left to Right: Yummy donuts; with Sweetie;

My buddies from Y! Jonas and Ederic;

Jonas shows off 3D ultrasound of his baby

(photos by JayDJ and the last one from Az).

Yesterday was fun-filled (and I did work!) since I got to chat with a number of friends that I don't see often: Jonas and Ederic who I last saw together in Singapore a few months ago, Juned, Az, Lace, AJ, Nina, Eric the Reyna, Phoebe, Mom bloggers - Jane, Teacher Julie and Noemi.

Happy 6 dozen years Krispy Kreme!

07-08-09, Hotdogs, Ice and GTUG PH!

I started this post the other day and 56 hours later I had to erase what I started because it's not relevant anymore. Anyway, I wanted to do a post on July 8, 2009 because it was a unique day and 7-8-9 is not going to happen again anytime in my lifetime.

I've been so busy in the past two months I haven't had any time to sit down and do an honest to goodness post. I've been spending my extra time either bugging Sweetie/Miguel or sleeping and I've been terribly too busy to do stuff for the wedding. Arggghhh.

GOBBLE UP HOTDOGS! I managed to go to the launch of 7-Eleven's Big Bite Match promo and I just couldn't believe how Tom gobbled up 10 hotdog sandwiches in 3 minutes and 23 seconds! It took me more than 10 minutes to finish 1 whole sandwich. Anyway, if you have the appetite to gobble up 10 hotdog sandwiches in a flash then do join the contest. (That's Tom in the photo. He held the most number of hotdog sandwiches eaten in 2008 at 66 in 10 or 12 minutes. He looks like someone we all know from the geek world. Diba?)

ICE. I made plans to watch Ice Age 3 too since I got an invitation, but apparently the invites were no good since they opened up the event to free-signing and it was a mess after that. I got terribly annoyed `bout it and I the feedback I gave has been left unanswered. I haven't watched until now since I've been quite busy. Heard though that the movie was hilarious.

GTUG. I'm not as geeky as I want to be and now I regret not taking up computer science back in college (one of the things my Dad wanted me to do) and believe me when I say that my knees shake a lot whenever I need to do stuff in front of developers. It's a totally different world for me, but I can say that I'm making myself proud with my involvement with the Google Technology Users Group. Hopefully one day I'll make good my promise to Patrick that I'll learn Java (if he's 8-year old can do it, so can I! Hopefully).

Thanks to the famous blogger Winston for the photos.

Villa Estrella

I don't get to watch that many movies and I just choose what I watch. I was enamored with the trailer of Villa Estrella and thought it was a flick I should watch with Miguel and my niece. I also received 2 free tickets from HSBC in the mail so we went to the mall this evening to watch.

On the way to the mall we tried to scare each other and thought that we'd probably have a hard time sleeping. I even kidded Miguel that he might see the mumu kid by his window tonight.

My pulse rate did not even change throughout the movie.

The story was pretty straightforward. There were a couple of twists and turns, but I guess because it was quite linear the pace of the movie was crawling. I've watched a couple of local horror films in the past few years and I think what made them believable and scary (like T2) was because it was realistic. Also revenge as a driving force for a story just doesn't always work because we see that everyday on telenovelas.

The monster in the pool just wasn't believable. Empoy (as Otap in the movie) even asked the creature, "Are you a monster or an alien?" before he got sprayed with goo and eventually drowned in the pool. T2 gives me the shivers until now because I know the scary scenes in the movie came from stories that you'd here from local folk.

I think though the background music was awesome. The actors too were great, too bad the story just wasn't enough to raise my pulse rate.

But this is just my opinion and I'm not a movie critic. I'm just someone who likes watching Filipino made movies. Here's the trailer in case you wanna watch -