What Christmas Really Means

I just had to share this! I hope my friends Elson and Clara won't mind.

Elson, proud father of two sons, took this picture a couple of days ago, 12 days before Christmas at the most, but here's what I notice: no Christmas decor at this part of the house! Of course it's a very odd nook to expect to find Christmas decor at, the bamboo couch being just against the small counter that divides the kitchen and the living room but I'm just saying... :) 

No, the reason why I think this picture is really special is that it radiates pure joy! For me, this is Christmas. Who needs decor if you have happiness in the home? :)

Look at Finn's face... even in profile you see the happy wonder (and a hint of mischief) as he holds out his finger to gently poke his baby brother Diego's head... perhaps to see if he was real? I can only wonder what thoughts are running through his curious little mind! He's a little over two years old now but he's keeping a lot of his more intelligible thoughts to himself at the moment, preferring to keep his parents in suspense a little bit more and possibly waiting for the perfect moment to amaze them with complete sentences. He's probably decided to give Diego this Christmas time to be the center of everyone's attention.. :)

And my dearest friend Clara, is it a relief to finally give birth again? :-)  As much of a workaholic as you are, I must say this picture shows how motherhood seems to suit you too. :)  I'm sure it's not always as easy as it looks, but it is worth all the trouble isn't it?

As for Elson, you know the old cliche "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? Well, your knack for sharing to the world how you see things through your pictures show how beautiful you thought this little scene was since you captured it so well! I can almost see you smiling behind the camera. More pictures to come I hope.

Anyway, here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas, and I hope we all find our own source of Christmas joy this season. :) Peace and love.

Angkor WHAT?

Every time I tell people I'd like to go the Cambodia someday and see the Angkor Wat, the first thing they ask is "What are you gonna do there?" And in my mind I say "Duh, I just told you!" But I try to explain better and say, "Well, like I said, I'd like to go and SEE the Angkor Wat.. that's what I'm going to do there." More critical people will dare to ask further, "Yes, but what will you really DO there?" At this point I give up pretending that I'm talking to someone with even just an ounce of historical interest. My brother summed up this general reaction with a very simple question: Angkor What??

But maybe I'm too harsh. I guess not everyone can be awed by ancient structures dating back to more than a thousand years ago. Maybe not everyone can appreciate the wonder and intricacy of bas-relief sculptures. Can you imagine how long it must have taken to sculpt (out of stone!) even one of the millions of figures and pictures scaling the outer and inner walls of the various temples? At the rate we regard sculptors, painters, photographers - artists in general - today, those people, long ago, who carved pictures on stone walls with no help from modern technology, were gods.

And then again, maybe not everyone likes the feeling of realizing that as much as we are each unique individuals, important and powerful in our own right and domain, within the sheer antiquity of these temples, we are but specks of dust in the space and time continuum. At most we live to be a hundred, if we're lucky. By that count, these temples have survived at least 10-12 generations of people being born and dying. We come and go. The temples remain.

Kite Runner

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author:	Khaled Hosseini

Certainly one of the most amazing stories of loyalty, love, sacrifice, betrayal, and redemption I've ever read... of friendship, brotherhood, family, and culture. I didn't even get to a quarter of the book before I started crying. And you just can't stop because even if you know its fiction, you also know that it could very well happen in real life. Very well written, you can actually imagine the kites flying overhead. Definitely a must read.

Here is a link to a synopsis of the book (please copy and paste): http://www.khaledhosseini.com/hosseini-books-kiterunner.html

2 AM

No, this is not a version of Anna Nalick's song Breathe, there is no guy or any guy-related heartbreak. I'm actually just taking a breather before I have to start writing a convincingly serious one-pager that I have to submit tomorrow. (Yes, so you can stop reading now.) Anyway, how soon my future career starts depends on this one page. That's how serious it is. But of course, as usual, my mind works only when I'm hours away from deadline.. so here I am. Killing more time, writing before writing. Which means this paper is really a big thing since I only post blogs when big things happen. ha!

My arsenal is complete for tonight's late night... a cup of brewed coffee (no sugar), a night light, broadband connection, and earphones, in case I suddenly have the urge to listen to music (which is very rare when I'm writing). But who knows if some movie I'm downloading suddenly finishes downloading... an hour or two would be a good break! ;-P

Incidentally my coffee is in a new white cup that has the word "coffee" printed all over it, along with real-looking coffee beans, and a picture of a coffeemaker and... guess what?... a cup of coffee. Imagine that? Whoever thought up the print on this cup wanted to make sure you only use it for coffee, nothing else. One of these days I'm gonna use it and try having some coffee without actual coffee in it, and see if I get the same satisfaction.

For those of you who actually got to this part, sorry to have wasted your time on my ramblings. You're a good friend. ;-) See you soon!

Boracay '07 (June 11-15, 2007)

I tried staying away from this over-crowded tourist destination as long as I could... but one day I just couldn't help it anymore and decided to see for myself what all the fuss was about. ;P I'm not hurrying to go back or anything like that, but it certainly is a BEAUTIFUL, beautiful island paradise.

One day model

http://mountainpinesfarm.com/map.html
when you have a photographer friend, you never know when you may be asked to pose for last-minute shots!

Three Cups of Tea

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	Greg Mortenson

5-star rating for the sheer wonder of Greg Mortenson's story and what he did (and is still doing!) to help the people in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan! This is a must-read for those who are looking for proof that ordinary people CAN help change the world! ...and for those, like me, who need to be reminded time and again...this is why I'm keeping this book on my shelf. ;p

Visit the website at: http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

Snorkeling @ Duka (Sept 13, 2008)

That's me ready to swim off and greet my underwater friends. Thanks Angelo for the great photography! :)

I always grab the chance to go snorkeling -- the underwater life is a colorful reminder that amazing treasures are hidden just below the surface... and most of the time, we just really need to take risks and jump! :)

A Dream Come True... and then some

Finally composing a blog entry... and nothing but this wonderful dream come true has inspired me to finally share a story. :)

My 'baby' sister won our local beauty pageant... oh, hey... let me say that again: TOOTSIE is Ms. Kagay-an 2008! Wooooooooohhooooooooo! You can't imagine how much more shouting I did during the coronation night... yes, me, shouting. I know, I'm not the type. But then again its not everyday your little sister (who isn't so little by the way) is suddenly up on stage with more than a thousand people watching her, besting 14 other candidates! And what makes me prouder is that she didn't do this with her saccharine smile and grace -- she used her brains!! Which just proves all over again that those of us who have the power of logical thought have an edge over the mindless Barbie dolls walking the earth. (No, I'm not mad, he he.)

She does give me fresh hope in humanity --- that people like her, who DREAM of joining beauty pageants, who eat pineapples for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner for a month, who says "no , thank you" to yummy pizza --- well, that they can exist to be that seemingly vain and yet not be. Not really.

Having a crown on her head... it was her dream. And she went for it.

And no, I'm not gonna stop there and leave you with that fairy tale ending... the reality is so much better!! Along with that absolutely fake crown came an amazingly cute but extraordinarily functional notebook -- HP no less, 8.9" display, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard disk... need I say more, I mean you do realize she got this for FREE!!!! And a trip to the US/Turkey, a 21" TV, some money, a lot of other giveaways and did I mention a notebook???  The one she got for free? Damn! Why didn't I ever think of that???

What else can I say? You've made me so proud my dearest little sister, and you've inspired me to go after my own dreams. Thank you.

Singapore (July 10-17, 2008)

You haven't been to Singapore if you don't have a picture with the Merlion.

These are random pictures from my trip to Singapore, which I now fondly call "Legoland," for all its "blockish" orderliness.