Sticks and Stones Break Bones

I hank You for all my positive thoughts dear Lord. Please keep them coming. :)

When bones break and they have to heal you put them in a cast to set them right. The skin gets itchy and of course the cast itself is heavy but in the end, if you wait for the right time, the bones will set and not before long everything is back to normal.

Thank you for the rainbow, the sunrise, the promise of another tomorrow. Thank You for the gift of hope. Thank You for allowing us to heal in Your time. Thank You for always providing a way to set things straight.

Whenever I feel itchy ease me, whenever the cast feels heavy please support me and whenever I tire of waiting, send me a rainbow, a sunrise, a promise of another tomorrow. My hope is in You alone.

Thank You. :)

PS:

Thank You for giving me such a colorful rainbow. :) It is so vibrant, I cannot wait! :)

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Burn Baby Burn

Dear Lord, I thank You for the fuel. The past two days have been amazing. Please keep the fuel burning. I really feel like I just might be ready.

I have to do away with mediocrity and for once just go for gold haha! I cannot, cannot stop. Must not lose momentum. Hopefully, inertia is great enough.

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Testing

Hello!

Just testing something. Ignore. :)

Xiao!

I was able to taste this amalgamation of meat and soup paradise
wrapped in dimsum wrapper in Taipei. I almost missed it so I can go
around the city some more... You know how I can be when in a foreign
place but the Taiwanese professor I was in partnership with urged me
to come with them to a famous restaurant that turned out to be Din Tae
Fung. I was able to try their first ever restaurant. We ordered
different types of dimsum, I will post the pictures here as soon as I
find them in my hard disk. The dimsums I tried are the best ever I
have tried.

In 2010, I was happy to have been able to go to Hong Kong because Din
Tae Fung has a branch there. I was able to try the Silver Cord branch
at Kowloon. The branch did not disappoint. I was so happy because I
was able to allow my family to try the Xiao Long Bao there.

In the Philippines, I have tried some restaurants that serve Xiao Long
Bao. I have decided to write about them here so I will not forget. :)

There is Suzhou in Mabini. The wrapper is too thick for me but other
than that, this is actually alright. The price is 90Php per four
pieces. I love their ginger sauce. The place is not upscale but the
food is great.

I have also tried Shilin and I must say this is the closest to Din Tae
Fung. The price is 250 for every 10 pieces if I am not mistaken. This
is located at the Podium.

Today, yesterday and three days ago (Yes, I have been frequenting
Golden Bay), I was able to try the Xiao Long Pao at Golden Bay in
Macapagal. I was disappointed all three times, the Xiao Long Pao does
not have enough soup inside and it does not have the same flavor.
Their sauce is not as good as the sauce provided by Suzhou too... I
love their Snow Lady though. (An absolute must try!)

I would like to try Crystal Jade restaurant in Greenhills. I have not
tried that place yet. I hope too soon though. :)

Xiao! :)

Paper Writing

The reason why my proposal writing keeps on taking a backseat is
because I write papers. I am so excited about the paper that I am
writing right now. I initially thought the deadline was today but
fortunately deadline is almost a month from now *whew!*! I hope the
paper gets in, not because I am excited to go out of the country again
but because I really, really want this paper to get published. I am
really happy with our findings and I want it to be out there. I want
the paper to be reviewed by the experts. :)

The other paper that I have been praying for to get accepted, got
accepted *woohoo!!!*. This is going to get published by Springer and I
am soh happy!!! This conference will be at Diliman and I will not be
going out of the country for this, and yet, notice how happy I am, I
think I am maturing as a researcher *haha*! This conference was
organized by Osaka University. :)

I will be leaving the country some time this October for Hanoi,
Vietnam for a conference. I have also been praying for the paper to
get into this conference. Thank You Lord for your generosity. :) I
have never been to Vietnam and yes, I am excited! I hope I get to do
some fun stuff while there.

Okay, back to the paper that I was writing! :)

P.S.

Yesterday and the day before have been above average wonderful. Thank
You dear Lord for the surprises that You bring my way. It makes me
giddy. Truly, You have blessed me. Please help me take care of Your
blessings. Sometimes I doubt because it is hard to believe that You
have given somebody as lowly as me so much. I realize that You do this
so that I may be able to channel Your love to others. Thank You for
entrusting me with so much. :)

You make me happy. I smile for You and because of You.

Silver Lining

I have been out of my element lately!

As I left my friend's car tonight, I caught myself tangled with the seatbelt and my jacket! Seriously! I ended up laughing my heart out, out of sheer frustration! *aargh!!!* What is wrong with me?

I am growing constellations of pimples (understatement!) on my chin. I have accidentally overwritten a file that is soh important to me I cannot even begin to describe. For a while, I thought I would keep it to myself, thinking my friends would judge me. The minute I saw my closest friend though, everything just poured out. I almost cried. My friend did not judge me. Instead, he found possible solutions to my problem. I was so relieved. I am glad he was able to see my pain. Not only did he try to provide solutions, he also cheered me up with his magic tricks.

Thank You for sending me people who are really there to help out. While today was such a stressful day, I was not able to hear mass and all, I felt Your presence through the people who were there for me.

Thank You because through them, I feel Your love.

Gift of Present

Another trimester has ended and I have once more given the grades of my students. They have given me the things that they have learned in the Personal Effectiveness subject that I teach.

I am amazed at how much they have put the things I have presented in class to practice. Now, if only I can do that too... *haha* The best perk of being a teacher is to hear the sincere "Thank You" of the students. I really am grateful for being in this profession.

Another perk is being able to join the swim meet! :)

I had my second swim meet today!

I won first place out of two swimmers! :) Not bad *hahaha*! My time is 55 seconds. Still not the 30 seconds I am gunning for but hopefully with practice I will get there. Now, everyone has been heckling me about being a swimming champion this year and last year (where I had nobody to swim against) *haha*! I told them I will get a jacket that says Back-to-Back. They told me they'll get a three-peat shirt for next year *haha*.

It was fun swimming but I was a nervous wreck the night before because I had to be conscious about my sleeping position lest my left shoulder might hurt. I also had this bad case of palpitations because of a caffeinated drink a friend gave me. Being the glutton that I am, I drank the Figaro drink, as a result, I was palpitating until I fell asleep. I was up until three in the morning! Early this morning, I was still having difficulty breathing and my heart rate has not normalized completely but I had to get myself together. I was still able to do two laps before we competed. :)

Since I have been up until three in the morning, I really should be going to bed now.

Good night world!

Thank You Lord for the gift of the present. May I always remember that I should worry not what tomorrow brings because You got my back. :)


P.S.
The homily last Friday was beautiful. In a way, I think it might be an answer to a question that has long been lingering in my neurotic head.

The gospel was about Jesus saying how the highest of commandments are, "Love God above all else. Love others as you love yourself.".

The priest said something that struck me (not verbatim, his version was soh much nicer): "Sometimes we are afraid to love because we are afraid of getting hurt. We think that by not loving, we will not get hurt. This is true, but to love is to live and so to not love is to not reach life's full potential."

I quite agree. To love is to give others the power to hurt us.

Cue in music. *And I'm ready to take a chance again, ready to put my love on the line... * *wahahaha*

Seriously though, my application is to think about this. I am not sure if this is an answer to a question in my head. If it is, I thank You Lord.

Baggage Free

I have finally done what I should have done for a long time. De-clutter. I am not sure why I have kept them for so long *haha!*. I feel so light!

This is considering that I have not been running lately. :)

The One

Everybody can go back on their word. All, save for one. That is Jesus. He will always keep His promise and for that I am grateful. And hopeful.

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Lolo Duh-ed's

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... maybe because I have been trying so hard to forget... *hehe!*

My friends and I tried the Eat-All-You-Can Sirloin, Wagyu, US Ribeye, Prawns, Risotto, Mashed Potato, Rice at Lolo Dad's Brasserie for only 1200 Php+ 10%.

It was a rather disappointing experience. The beef were not consistent in size. I am talking drastic inconsistencies here. Too bad I did not take pictures because I did not bring with me a decent camera. Some were of decent size, some were really like meat scraps.

I was served rare instead of medium well once. My friend was served grilled instead of baked prawns (twice!). When we told the server it was wrong, the waiter wanted my friend to eat it. When my friend refused, the server just left it on the table for us to still eat it... Talk about force feeding. Our orders got switched. The sirloin was not tender. At all. There were wagyus that were decent but most of it was not tender either. Sauce got spilled on the table cloth so the waiter took my friend's table napkin to cover the mess! It took a really long time before food came out. I was served cold steak. If Gordon Ramsay were there, he would just switch off the kitchen.

I had high expectations because I have heard wonderful things about Lolo Dad's along Quirino Avenue. The 6750 Lolo Dad's sucks. We even saw a cockroach on the window. Yes, it was inside the restaurant. Service sucked big time. The only time there were waiters waiting was the time when Tony Boy Cojuangco was inside. the restaurant.

The waiter volunteered the information that the chefs were at a competition. My theory is that since the chefs were at the competition, the waiters had to cook and random strangers waited on tables. This explains the bad food and the bad service.

To conclude, we are not going to go back.

Here Comes The Sun

I am now, yet again, basking in sunshine. I realized that the reason why I was not feeling warm is because I have been hiding far too long underneath the shed. Silly me thought, I was going to get the sun to come in eventually if I stayed hidden long enough. It is good that it has finally dawned on me that the sun is too cosmic, too hot, too significant for a mere mortal like me to will it to come inside my cold hole.

Being happy is a choice.

Recognizing your blessings is a choice.

For a while, I have forgotten this.

Thank You for sending people to remind me that this is the secret to happiness.

Thank You for the acts of thoughtfulness that abound each day.

Eclipse

Efforts are not in vain. I am sorry I focus on mistakes. They almost eclipsed the most beautiful thing. I am such an ingrate. I have to do more reminiscing to see how fortunate I am.

I muwt put this eclipse behind me. Like the eclipse, this does not happen often. I can certainly overlook a moment of darkness for many years of sunshine.

Thank You Lord for the experience, may we really learn from it.

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Victor Hugo

While his works known to me are tragic because he is not one to sugarcoat and pretend happy endings will always happen, there is one page in Les Miserables that made me realize that through all the harsh realities this is what you can revel in:

You are loved in spite and despite of who you are. Loved more tha. you can ever understand and cared for more than you possibly deserve.

I think it is also quie amazing if I can also feel the same towards another:

To love in spite and despite of, more than I can underetand and care for more than the other deserves.

because in the end this is the kind of love that the Lord gives. We were built in His likeness and so we are probably built to love like Him as well.

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