Thursday, June 30, 2011

Lights Out @ 10pm

The picture says it all - WITH LOVE!

This is a light switch near the main door to my eldest daughter's dorm room. I placed that note to remind her of the dorm rule and also as a personal reminder that she needs to be asleep on or before 10pm to prevent the trigger factors to her medical condition. It's not life-threatening but it could be a serious problem if she ignores the 'trigger factors.' So I hope and pray that she's an obedient daughter!

I Need To Take A New Look At Life

Certainly, I've done sooooo many mistakes in life. Some I regret, others I don't. As they say in Church - sins of omission and sins of commission. I likewise regret not doing some things I wish I had done a decade ago. There were wise decisions and also very dumb decisions when opportunities knocked on my door. Anyway, I'm still young, I think. There's no age limit in taking chances, right? 

Well, I really need to start a new outlook in life. I need to go out. [This is another story which I will share one of these days to you.] And explore my world.

Lord, just give me the strength and the will, please. The energy drinks don't work. :/


Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Random Find From the Net #1




*so true of my life! 

A bright blessed day

I see skies of blue and clouds of white,
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night... And I think to myself, what a wonderful world!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Masks We Wear

"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin."

Which language do you think in?

clipart from Yahoo Images

Okay, for now this question got me into thinking.

I am a Filipina - born and raised in the beautiful country called the Philippines. The National language is called Filipino. Another name for Filipino is Tagalog. And alongside Tagalog are the numerous dialects endemic only to their region. And within a region, there are more several local dialects native to their local community.

Take for example, Region 2, otherwise known as the Cagayan Valley Region. It is composed of five provinces, namely: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino. It has three cities; Cauayan City, Tuguegarao City (the regional center) and Santiago City ( the commercial center). In Batanes, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino, the principal dialect is Ilocano. In Cagayan, there are Ibanag, Gaddang and Ilocano dialects. In Isabela it is Ilocano, Ilongot, and Negrito dialects. Don't forget the minority dialects like Yogad and Ivatan, too.

So, this is what makes me think: if a person grew up in a local rural community where everyone is speaking a local dialect, went to school and learned Tagalog as the primary medium of instruction then studied English as a second language because almost all the books at school are written in English (!)...and say, that person became very fluent in the command of both Tagalog and the English language...in what language (or dialect) do you think he would be thinking in?

If I apply this personally to myself, I say most of the time my thoughts are in Tagalog, like 70% of the time that is. And the rest, I think in English. But it's not 70% pure Tagalog or 30% pure English! I believe I think in some sort of Tag-lish language. A mix of both.

Mahirap din ang pure English ah! Parang that's reserved fo formal school projects lang. :)

But why not in pure Tagalog? Maybe because of the heavy influence of media (TV, radio) and of course, the internet. San ka ba nakakita ng webpage na pure Tagalog ang content? There are too many English words that have no direct translation in Filipino/Tagalog. Napapahaba tuloy ang pagtranslate ng pangungusap into Filipino para lang ma-i-convey what the original sentence truly meant.

Lol. [Feeling ko tuloy, Fil-Am ako. Hahah]

But honestly, this is how it works for me. As long as I can fully express myself to other people in any language convenient for me and for the listener, then it's well and good!

Oh don't forget of couse the body language. It's one thing that will always accompany our words- the way we express them.

I don't claim to be an expert in the command of the English language. But I know when something 'sounds' incorrect. I do love my country's language - I've written and published poetry in it's form (that's another story). What I don't like these days is the 'textspeak'. Also known as 'jejemon' in this country.

Oh I've seen some young prefessionals writing the words l8r for later, w8 for wait, etc on their notes. Wow, modern language is taking some form of revolutionary transformation.

Sa sobrang high tech na, lahat minamadali na. Pati pagsulat ganun na rin. Sa pag-iisip kaya? Do you think words like 'wait' as it is correctly spelled or like 'w8'?

Hahah. Nakakaloka rin ano? Anyway, I admit I am sometimes guilty of writing those words in textspeak form when texting. It saves a lot time indeed. But do I think of those words in the same way I texted them? Ewww, I think so. :/

So, what's the bottomline of this discussion? You think in the way you speak...and write.

See you later or c u l8r?

Good day! :)

Monday, June 27, 2011

FIRST of So Many To Come

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me.  ~Author Unknown

It has been weeks since I wanted to start a new blogger.com account. My first account is still somewhere out there on the 'net but I don't feel like going back to it for reasons that even I cannot discern. I just don't want to use that one anymore. Every time I would sign in on that account, it brings some sort of melancholy. Maybe because I posted my thoughts and feelings there when my mom was dying of cervical cancer. Maybe that's it. So, it's better to leave it that way. Like a memorial of some sort to my mom. I miss her a lot and recently I often find myself thinking of what life might have been if both my dad and mom were still alive to this date. I miss them both truly.

Anyway, I hope this blogger account would be witness to my so-so life and I hope to have the courage and strength to put into words my feelings and thoughts about my life, my kids, my husband, my family, my community, and everything else that I think I should immortalize on this online journal.

There's something that's bugging me, though. My husband is against my habit of posting what I feel on Facebook shoutout. His view differs from mine when it comes to social netwoking sites. I feel like he's censoring what I should put in there so I recently stopped posting photos and anything that really matters to me. I update it with quotes every now and then so my friends won't think I'm missing in action. But those updates are not the real stuff I wanted to share. And perhaps that's one reason why I have been longing to create this account since a few weeks ago.

Well, here I am. So what do I put in here? Should I consider telling my husband about this account or should I keep this a secret? Do I intend to share this with friends and random people telling them who I really am or should I maintain my privacy and sign this as anonymous or with a pen name?

Hmmm..we'll see what will happen next time I post here.

The quote above, I really like it!

And this one too:

"In the end everything will be okay; if it's not okay, it's not the end."