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for August 2008.
After a series of two long weekends, it makes me wonder if those two long weekends were worth it. Interestingly, right after last week’s four-day weekend (which I enjoyed very much), I got back to work and saw…there’s more work. :| And I really wouldn’t be surprised that I would be faced with even more work when I get back on Tuesday.
I wouldn’t sound this sarcastic and stressed if I was only dealing with normal work. But for some reason, life started wooshing in after this (sort of kind of) big choice I made last week, life suddenly started wooshing in. Hay life, so ironic. On top of work, there’s a presentation I need to work on and deliver next week, meetings to attend to, extracurricular things, and personal stuff I need to plan and go to — dinners, trips, etc. And I know that a few weeks ago, I’d sacrifice all the personal stuff, such as Vegas vacations and going home early, so I can finish work. But ever since I told myself I’d give time for myself after the weeks of busy-ness, I’m so ready to put my personal stuff first before anything else, yes, including work.
Talk about change. :P
But I must strike balance. Yes, balance. Work-life balance, oh yeah.
But just take a look at this calendar:
Crazy huh? And there’s still more coming, I can feel it.
But I will not think about it too much, especially since I have one more day of weekend left for tomorrow. :) I’ll get through this last week of August with flying colors. By God’s grace. :) And come September, I’ll be able to start sort of a new. :D Happy Sunday, everyone!
In our line of work, not everyone follows whatever holiday the government declare. Since most of the people at work follow different clients/timezones/countries, they’d have to follow what their client/timezone/country calls especially with holidays. But, since we’re servicing global clients, our team follows Philippine holidays, and because our country has so many holidays, you know what that means. :P
Yes, I love Philippine holidays. I don’t really agree about moving the holidays to Mondays and all, but I admit that I love having long weekends. :)
Let’s take this four-day weekend for example. Friday night was movie night at work, and my friends and I watched Wall-E, which was a really cute movie. :D It was followed by dinner with some friends and then preparations for the next day’s outing, a first for my team. There weren’t too many of us that we’d need to buy a bus to transport us all there, but there were a lot of people who came, which made it a fun event still. :D
Saturday and Sunday was a trip to Laguna with my teammates and other friends from the account and friend of friends. Fun times playing cards, videoke, billiards, swimming and of course, drinking. :P It’s been a while since I did this; and last summer outing doesn’t count because I was the organizer and this time I was just a participant. :D Got home Sunday with a major headache (haha), and slept it off until mass time.
Yesterday, I spent the day at Shang, roaming around looking for clothes and books while waiting for my best friend who I was supposed to meet. It was fun meeting up with her again since the last time we saw each other was last…May, and we hardly talk lately because of our busy schedules. Yummy (but expensive) dinner at Green Tomato, but good company, so it makes up for it.
Today, the last day of my long weekend, is the day I am supposed to do some extra curricular stuff at work so I can get a headstart on them. Of course, lazy me hasn’t started yet, but I will…in a while. :) I’ll be doing some baking tonight too, just for kicks and for a friend’s birthday this week. If this goes well, I’ll probably be baking this for the holidays too.
So that’s my long weekend. :D How was yours? :)
Rating: 
What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?
Academy Award®-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (”Finding Nemo”) and the inventive storytellers and technical geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios (”The Incredibles,” “Cars,” “Ratatouille”) transport moviegoers to a galaxy not so very far away for a new computer-animated cosmic comedy about a determined robot named WALL-E.
After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen.
I’ve been curious about Wall-E ever since I’ve seen the trailer, and I’m really glad that we got this movie for Movie Night at work. :)
Wall-E is pretty much a silent movie, and the first thirty minutes or so of the movie showed what Wall-E was doing in a very deserted and polluted Earth. Together with a cockroach friend, Wall-E goes by his everyday life doing what he was programmed to do (his directive) by compacting trash, but also doing some searching and collecting of random odds and ends he finds in his beat-up lunchbox. At the end of his day, he goes home, sets aside all his collections and then watches his favorite old movie Hello Dolly, trying out their dance moves and wishing for someone to “hold hands” with.
Then comes EVE, an advanced robot (with more computer memory than Wall-E) from the Axiom, where all human beings are staying because of the polluted state of the Earth. She’s an interesting robot, one who we thought was pretty but had anger management issues and is far from demure. :P Eve pays little attention to Wall-E at first, who was smitten with her and tries to win her attention. It wasn’t until she was saved from a sandstorm that she finally paid some attention to Wall-E, who tried to win her over by showing her all his random collections (including a VERY cute dance number), but it wasn’t until he showed her the plant he found that she went into hibernate mode, waiting for the mother ship to pick her up.
(More…)
After the disappointing read that is also known as Breaking Dawn (sorry, I still can’t help but kind of mourn over that book, as what Toni also did), I’m back to reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite books. :) I can’t wait to read the rest of it but I’m taking it slow since it’s not for fast reading — this book is meant to be read slowly, page by page, just as how Elizabeth Gilbert enjoyed her food in Italy.
I posted this particular passage over at my other blogs and I thought I’d post it here too since it’s really, really insightful and interesting. This is also the passage I read from a friend’s Livejournal which made me want to buy the book. :D
“What’s got you all wadded up?” he drawls, toothpick in mouth, as usual.
“Don’t ask,” I say, but then I start talking and tell him every bit of it, concluding with, “And worst of all, I can’t stop obsessing over David. I thought I was over him, but it’s all coming up again.”
He says, “Give it another six months, you’ll feel better.”
“I’ve already given it twelve months, Richard.”
“Then give it six more. Just keep throwin’ six months at it till it goes away. Stuff like this takes time.”
I exhale hotly through my nose, bull-like.
“Groceries,” Richard says, “listen to me. Someday you’re gonna look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You’ll see that you were in mourning and your heart was broken, but your life was changing and you were in the best possible place in the world for it — in a beautiful place of worship, surrounded by grace. Take this time, every minute of it. Let things work themselves out here in India.”
“But I really loved him.”
“Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don’t you see what happened? The guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching. I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that’s just the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That’s just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries — you have the capacity to someday love the whole world. It’s your destiny. Don’t laugh.”
“I’m not laughing.” I was actually crying. “And please don’t laugh at me now, but I think the reason it’s so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate.”
“He probably was. Your problem is you don’t understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just can’t let this one go. It’s over, Groceries. David’s purpose was to shake you up, drive you out of that marriage that you needed to leave, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life , then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now it’s over. Problem is, you can’t accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. You’re like a dog at the dump, baby — you’re just lickin’ at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you’re not careful, that can’s gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.”
“But I love him.”
“So love him.”
“But I miss him.”
“So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it. You’re afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you’ll really be alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to eath of what will happen if she’s really alone. But here’s what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you’re using right now to obsess about this guy, you’ll have a vacuum there, an open spot — a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with that doorway? It will rush in — God will rush in — and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go.“
- Eat, Pray, Love: A Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert, pp. 197-199
Beautiful, isn’t it? I’ve already dog-eared a lot of pages in this book because of all the quotable quotes I found, which I will copy in my journal for easier recall. :D Yeahba.
Anyway, it’s another Monday and I’ve already got two meetings lined up for today, a card design to finish and a cash advance that I really need to process. Busy, busy day, no time for any other things like reading or PS3. By God’s grace, I’ll go through this day with flying colors. :)
Happy Monday everyone!
Rating: 
When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?
To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she has endured a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife to reach the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs.
So the series ends. I’ve read and reviewed the past three books and I can say that they grew to be one of my favorite and most recommended series for this year. Although I’m not as big of a fan as other people I know, I liked the books. I liked the characters (most of them, anyway), and I was very, very curious at how Stephenie would end the series.
(WARNING: Minor spoilers in the next few paragraphs)
Breaking Dawn was…interesting. There were a lot of unexpected moments, but there were also a lot of expected moments. I didn’t exactly like it that much, mostly because it seemed to have lost the conflict that was shown in the first three novels. The only palpable conflict I got there was Jacob’s when he was agonizing over Bella’s safety and humanity…but the rest of the “conflicts” were put into neat little packages that didn’t sit well with me. It’s just too…perfect. Where’s the danger? Where’s the tension between the tribes? Seriously, the blurb at the back of the book did NOT fit the novel at all.
In some ways the book was entertaining, but I felt that it totally deviated from what the first three books were about. It’s both fast and slow, and everything fell into place too perfectly that it’s not relatable anymore. One may identify with Jacob’s agony at losing Bella, but even that was watered down too. Bella became even more clingy and selfish, in my opinion, and Edward…well, to be honest, I hardly felt him. It was all, “Bella, Bella, Bella.” No wonder Bella turned to be a bit self-centered, yes? Oh, she hated hurting everyone, yes, but she still ends up doing so because of her fixation on Edward.
Saving graces of the book? I loved the Jacob parts, but the real winners in the book for me were Emmett and Seth. I loved all of Emmett’s lines (I can actually imagine Kellan Lutz being Emmett in the book now) and Seth’s childlike attitude and eagerness to help his friends and be of service to the pack (kind of like reminds me of an over-excited dog who takes pet supplements). Oh, and in a way, I was amused with the Romanian vampires who showed up, and the new vampires are interesting, but they were too many introduced at a short span of time, and it feels to convenient that they’re all “at peace” with each other.
So, all in all, although I was quite amused with some parts of the book, I really didn’t like it as much as I thought it would. It’s just…too much. Harry Potter did have a happy ending, but it took a lot of hardships (and death) before he got there. Harry managed to mature even more in the 700+ pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I was hoping Bella would do the same thing within the 700+ pages of Breaking Dawn, but…no. Oh well.
If you’re a Twilight fan, you might still want to read this, but if you’re not a huge fan, I’d suggest you stop at Eclipse. The ending of Eclipse seems much more satisfying than Breaking Dawn’s. Plus I wouldn’t recommend this book for any of the young girls given its content.
More comments under the cut, but be warned, these are major spoilers.
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