This is mine.
1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV
However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him
You are a child of God, His treasured possession. He created you in His own image. He chose the day for you to be born. He has a plan and a purpose for your life. Cherish your birthverse.
BIRTHVERSE consists of 366 verses chosen from the 66 books of the Bible. Each verse correlates the chapter and verse with its month and day.
I know I don’t post much about some activities hubby and I do for our community. I just don’t feel I need to nor want to. After all, action is better than words (right?)… And I prefer to write about non-essential stuff which doesn’t require much thinking… Hahaha!
But recently, I realized that there are instances where words (well, written words) can also influence. I don’t consider myself an influential blogger since I blog for my own personal reasons… nor do I think of myself as an exceptional writer who can move people to action… but a few reads recently made me think. I figured (and hope) that by sharing some more important activities, experiences and messages, some persons (at least one) may learn from it and be moved to care about a cause.
Hmmm… so when do I have the time to write more meaningful stuff ? 
I was recently blog hopping and came across this post from Blogusvox. I was so moved by the video and the tragic reality it showed. We all know that this is happening and it is so easy to think and acknowledge it then forget it amidst our busy lives, so to see it captured on video like this… I just can’t find the right words especially looking at that smiling happy face of a little girl eating leftover food that was already thrown away in the garbage…
So I’d like to share this video as well…here’s the link.
It’s a very apt video to share these days… after all everyone is buzzing and complaining about our President’s lavish meals.
Yet while we go on cursing and castigating our President, have we taken a good look at ourselves? It doesn’t have to be the same proportion as to what our President spent, but are we not guilty as well of being wasteful at times — it may be on food, clothes, miscellaneous stuff for the house, personal fetishes, gimmiks, etcetera… considering the situation of many poor families in our society.
I know I am. Despite trying hard to practice, and to teach our kids as well, to be frugal and prudent, there are moments of weakness when we forget and spend irresponsibly. We may think that we are affecting and being irresponsible only to our own families, but as a priest and social worker once said, “spending unwisely and extravagantly is also being morally and socially irresponsible with so many suffering from poverty and hunger all over the world”.
I am not proud to admit it, but one thing that also turns me off are those who easily criticize others without realizing that they themselves are acting irresponsibly and have not taken any actions to help our country. That one I try my best to avoid.
This is not to say that we should all go starving ourselves as well to show our sympathy. It’s just to say that before we put the blame on people and organizations, let’s closely examine ourselves first.
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Just something I’d like to share…
One thing I learned and am proud of about hubby is his generosity. Many years back during the early years of our relationship, we were about to enter a fastfood restaurant when two or three street children blocked our way begging for alms. Instead of shooing them away or simply giving them coins, he invited them in, sat them on a table and ordered food for them.
I was so touched, my heart was bursting and I wanted to cry but kept the tears to myself, and smiled instead. I have not actually seen or met anyone brave enough to do this.
I say “brave” because many of us are cowards to show a different kind of generosity in public places, and risk the stare and opinions of others. We would rather just give money and walk away.
It was the first time I saw him do that, but definitely not the last. To this day, there are still random moments when he does that. And to this day, it has been our practice to give food instead of giving money to street kids begging for alms. At least with food, you know where it goes.
It’s been a month since our helpers left to go home to their family in the province. We haven’t found a replacement yet. There were some referrals but they just didn’t match to what we needed. So for about a month now, I have been doing all the house chores (with hubby’s help).
There are days when I feel so tired having to keep the house in order, and taking care of two kids, 6 and 2. Luckily, I have survived one month. I didn’t exactly grow up being used to doing chores in the house. I grew up with two (or sometimes three) maids to help around the house. I only learned to really do stuff the day I got married. No regrets though.
Even right now, sometimes it feels even great to have no help around the house (the only exception I don’t feel this way is when I’m really really tired and I don’t get enough time to lounge around my computer)… The kids are even learning to help around, and be more independent with no helper at their beck and call… which I believe is good.
I guess things would actually be a lot easier if there are chores which I don’t actually dread doing… and the top three tasks to get that award would be :
* Bringing out the garbage,
* Cleaning the toilet, and
* Ironing clothes.
Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn’t so. Personally, I’ve had moments where I’ll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I’ll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.
Maybe you are a positive person, but when you are around a certain individual, you feel negative. Or, maybe you have an idealistic view of the world and when you are with certain people, you are made to feel silly, unrealistic or delusional. Or, maybe you pride yourself in being completely independent and in control of your life, but when you are around a certain family member, you regress into a state of childhood.
Some of these situations, and yes, these people, can have a tremendously negative impact on our lives. And, although we are all human and have our ‘issues,’ some ‘issues’ are quite frankly, toxic. They are toxic to our happiness. They are toxic to our mental outlook. They are toxic to our self-esteem. And they are toxic to our lives. They can suck the life out of us and even shorten our lifespan.
Here are the worst of the toxic personalities out there and how to spot them:
1. Manipulative Mary: These individuals are experts at manipulation tactics. Is a matter of fact, you may not even realize you have been manipulated until it is too late. These individuals figure out what your ‘buttons’ are, and push them to get what they want.<
* Why they are toxic: These people have a way of eating away at your belief system and self-esteem. They find ways to make you do things that you don’t necessarily want to do and before you know it, you lose your sense of identity, your personal priorities and your ability to see the reality of the situation. The world all of a sudden becomes centered around their needs and their priorities.
2. Narcissistic Nancy: These people have an extreme sense of self-importance and believe that the world revolves around them. They are often not as sly as the Manipulative Marys of the world, but instead, tend to be a bit overt about getting their needs met. You often want to say to them “It isn’t always about you.”
* Why they are toxic: They are solely focused on their needs, leaving your needs in the dust. You are left disappointed and unfulfilled. Further, they zap your energy by getting you to focus so much on them, that you have nothing left for yourself.
3. Debbie Downers: These people can’t appreciate the positive in life. If you tell them that it is a beautiful day, they will tell you about the impending dreary forecast. If you tell them you aced a mid-term, they’ll tell you about how difficult the final is going to be.
* Why they are toxic: They take the joy out of everything. Your rosy outlook on life continues to get squashed with negativity. Before you know it, their negativity consumes you and you start looking at things with gray colored glasses yourself.
4. Judgmental Jims: When you see things as cute and quirky, they see things as strange and unattractive. If you find people’s unique perspectives refreshing, they find them ‘wrong’. If you like someone’s eclectic taste, they find it ‘disturbing’ or ‘bad’.
* Why they are toxic: Judgmental people are much like Debbie Downers. In a world where freedom rings, judgment is sooo over. If the world was a homogeneous place, life would be pretty boring. Spending a lot of time with these types can inadvertently convert you into a judgmental person as well.
5. Dream Killing Keiths: Every time you have an idea, these people tell you why you can’t do it. As you achieve, they try to pull you down. As you dream, they are the first to tell you it is impossible.
* Why they are toxic: These people are stuck in what is instead of what could be. Further, these individuals eat away at your self-esteem and your belief in yourself. Progress and change can only occur from doing new things and innovating, dreaming the impossible and reaching for the stars.
6. Insincere Illissas: You never quite feel that these people are being sincere. You tell a funny story, they give you a polite laugh. You feel depressed and sad and they give you a ‘there, there’ type response. You tell them you are excited about something and you get a very ho-hum response.
* Why they are toxic: People who aren’t sincere or genuine build relationships on superficial criteria. This breeds shallow, meaningless relationships. When you are really in need of a friend, they won’t be there. When you really need constructive criticism, they would rather tell you that you are great the way you are. When you need support, they would rather see you fail or make a fool of yourself.
7. Disrespectful Dannys: These people will say or do things at the most inappropriate times and in the most inappropriate ways. In essence, they are more subtle, grown up bullies. Maybe this person is a friend who you confided in and uses your secret against you. Maybe it is a family member who puts their busy-body nose into your affairs when it is none of their business. Or maybe, it is a colleague who says demeaning things to you.
* Why they are toxic: These people have no sense of boundaries and don’t respect your feelings or, for that matter, your privacy. These people will cause you to feel frustrated and disrespected.
8. Never Enough Nellies: You can never give enough to these people to make them happy. They take you for granted and have unrealistic expectations of you. They find ways to continually fault you and never take responsibility for anything themselves.
* Why they are toxic: You will spend so much time trying to please them, that you will end up losing yourself in the process. They will require all of your time and energy, leaving you worn out and your own needs sacrificed.
All of these personalities have several things in common.
1) the more these people get away with their behavior, the more they will continue.
2) Unfortunately, most of these people don’t see that what they do is wrong and as a result, talking to them about it will fall on deaf ears, leaving you wondering if you are the crazy one.
3) Most of these people get worse with age, making their impact on you stronger with time.
Frankly, life is too short to spend your time dealing with toxicity. If you can, avoid spending mucho time with people who are indicative of these behaviors and you’ll feel a lot happier. Have you encountered these personalities? What have you done? Any personalities you would add?
*by Brett Blumenthal
We spent the long weekend visiting an old town where I spent five years of my childhood (and early teens). It’s been a long time since I visited that place. It was just too bad though that we were unable to visit the compound where we used to live and the school I went to during our residence there. Security is very strict, and since most of the people we know who lived there before have moved on to other places as well, so we didn’t have any excuse to use to get in and visit.
It would have been nice to go around the housing once more and let our kids run across the vast fields of grass (and golf course surrounding the houses) like we used to do when we were kids. It would have been a great photo opportunity and relive and take photos of memorable places of my childhood… Yes, all were would haves.
Anyway, we still had fun visiting Mt. Samat and swimming in a newly opened resort.
Which is the most dangerous keyword to search for using public search engines these days?
It’s “screensavers” with a maximum risk of 59.1 percent, according to McAfee’s recently released report “The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms“.
Upon searching for 2,658 unique popular keywords and phrases across 413,368 unique URLs, McAfee’s research concludes that lyrics and anything that includes ‘free” has the highest risk percentage of exposing users to malware and fraudulent web sites. The research further states that the category with the safest risk profile are health-related search terms.
Here are more findings:
This isn’t the first time McAfee is attempting to assess the risk percentage of particular search terms, as the company did similar studies in 2006 and 2007. And whereas the research attempts to raise awareness on malicious practices applied by cybercriminals, it also has the potential to leave a lot of people with a false feeling of security since it’s basically scratching the surface of a very dynamic problem.
*taken from an article in zdnet.com
*full article here
Our parish sponsored a four-part series of free parenting talks. We were able to attend the first two sessions, missed the third and hoping would be able to attend the last one on May 23.
The nice thing about the parish leading such an activity is the talks cover both spiritual and psychological aspects on parenting. The first part of each talk is delivered by a priest and gives a biblical basis as to how we should raise our children in relation to the theme of the talk, while the second part is delivered by a lay person who talks about the topic from a socio-psychological perspective.
One of the things we discussed and learned were general personality traits of a child based on their birth order. Of course, there are always exceptions to the general rule.
*I seemed to have missed taking notes on the qualities of an eldest child… where was I?
Only child - “strives to get his own way, be the center of attention”
+ Creative
+ Often acts very grown-up
+ Positive peer relationships as an adult
- May be pampered, spoiled, self-centered
- Relies on service from others, rather than being self-reliant
- Feels incompetent (adults are more capable)
Second child – “strives to catch up or overtake”
+ Sociable
+ Puts forth best effort
+ Develops abilities lacking in oldest child
- May rebel
- Can become “bad” child if oldest is “good”
- May be uncertain of abilities if oldest is successful
Middle child – “strives to make life fair”
+ Adaptable
+ Concerned with justice
+ Knows how to get along with all kinds of people
- Feels “squeezed” — may push others down to elevate self
- May be “problem child”
- Feels doesn’t have place
Youngest child – “strives to get service”
+ Knows how to influence others
+ Charming
+ Friendly
- May be manipulative
- Expects others to take care of his or her responsibilities
- Feels inferior or overtakes other siblings
How true is this based on your own birth order among your siblings or among your kids?
Adam Lambert
Although I have not been able to religiously follow this whole season of American Idol (unlike the past seasons), I have seen enough to rally for a favorite contender.
Yes, it’s Adam. I don’t like it that he’s so gay (and at times theatrical), yet I still find his performances great compared to the other contestants.
Earlier in the season, I was rooting for Danny Gokey who was booted off last week. But as the show progressed, I was slowly getting bored with Gokey and I found Adam consistently delivering exceptional performances.
Being a fan of Tears for Fears and a lover of the song “Mad World”, Adam’s rendition of the song has become one of my favorites. With that performance, he had definitely gotten my vote!
This is his second performance of the song (during the finale)…
