Lavender & Coffee Stains

Dear Me,

Before ushering 2007 in, allow me to look back at 2006 one last time.

What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
:: Go to the bar alone, sit in the darkest corner and wallow in self-pity. I have never felt so depressed (a lot of times) this year.


Did you keep your New Year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?
:: I don't think that I did keep them but I tried. Guess I did not try seriously hard enough. Make more for 2007? Oh, yes I will and I have the best intention of keeping them. There is nothing wrong in trying again and again.


Did anyone close to you give birth?
:: We are not really that close but an officemate did. The baby's name is Ashley.


Did anyone close to you die?
:: Yes, just recently. My paternal grandmother named Juana joined Our Creator a few days before All Saint's Day. May God bless her soul.


What countries did you visit?
:: Actually, none. I was pinning for Thailand or Singapore but nothing materialized. There were a lot of factors to consider (work schedule, personal activities, family concerns, money) and it was a huge headache contemplating all of them at once.


What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
:: I lacked the virtue of patience and level-headedness. I plan to exercise them both in 2007.


What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
:: The months of November and December; end of November and early part of December, actually. Our mountaineering group scaled Mt. Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines. Plus, the thought and the conviction that I will be back and reclaim the mountain's glory. =)


What was your biggest achievement of the year?
:: Climbing Mt. Apo despite some things that shouldn't have been.


What was your biggest failure?
:: It was not keeping a promise to myself about a certain aspect of my lovelife.


Did you suffer illness or injury?
:: Nope.


What was the best thing you bought?
:: Hahaha. I bought a lot of best things for the best people in my life, including those who aren't but just the same are important to me.


Whose behavior merited celebration?
:: My folks and my boyfriend. Truly, I have been the bitch that I am and despite that, they kept up with my tantrums, shortcomings, bitchiness. I never thought they could ever endure such things about me.


Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
:: No one. Strangers probably made me feel appalled but depressed? Not really.


Where did most of your money go?
:: Paying dues and spending for life's little luxuries. Hehehe.


What made you really really really excited?
:: Something that I prefer to be a secret. Well, I have been looking forward for it a long time. Sadly, I still have doubts.


What song will forever remind you of 2006?
:: I can't think of anything right now.


Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder?
:: It is almost the same, I guess.


thinner or fatter?
:: Thinner? Hehehe. I tried to be. I made efforts to be.


richer or poorer?
:: Just the same. Money comes in, comes out.


What do you wish you'd done more of?
:: Continuously doing the things I love - reading more books, writing my mind, travelling places, being able to do things/go to places by myself. I guessed I neglected the first three and forgot the last.


What do you wish you'd done less of?
:: Will PROCRASTINATION be considered an answer?


How will you be spending Christmas?
:: I spent it with my family and boyfriend at home, shopping and being down with the flu bug. Could you believe that I spend the 23rd and 24th in bed?!


How will you be spending New Year's?
:: A feast with the family, loved ones and friends at our house.


Did you fall in love in 2006?
:: More so. I tried to hate him a couple of times but I always end up falling deeper in love. Cheezy! =)


How many one-night stands?
:: Forbidden in my case.


What were your favorite TV programs?
:: The telly? I rarely watch telly.


Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
:: Oh yes. I hate her sluttiness. This year, she offended me big time.


What was the best book you read?
:: Since I had been a little behind with my book ritual, I'd say it was Marian Keyes' Sushi For Beginners. I recommend it to everyone.


What was your greatest musical discovery?
:: Nada.


What did you want and get?
:: A new mobile phone that I was planning to purchase but came to me as a holiday gift by a very special guy. *muah*


What did you want and not get?
:: A fully-loaded savings account. I tried but saving this year was really difficult to handle. Hmp.


What was your favorite film of this year?
:: I need to flashback 2006 because I can't decide which. Hmm.


What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
:: Hehehe. I can't remember what I did then and how old was I now.


What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
:: Being able to provide for a lot of things financially.


How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
:: Open yet limited.


What kept you sane?
:: My aspirations for the near future.


Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
:: Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt. Hehehe.


What political issue stirred you the most?
:: Honestly, I tried to stay away from local politics. It is simply too draining listening to their brouhaha. Despite that, I still make sure that I am aware of any political happenings in and out of the country. It pays to know something.


Whom did you miss?
:: A few, old good friends whom I haven't seen for ages. I wish I can really organize a reunion soon.


Who was the best new person(s) you met?
:: No one...


Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
:: That no matter how hard you try to hate the people close to your heart, they will always find a way to crawl back in.


Favorite memory of 2006?
:: Being able to put my best foot forward and that I am hoping I will be doing the same thing in 2007. This time, better than 2006. Hooray! =)

Dear Me,

Since it is the holiday season, watching the telly plus dvd is a must. After all, this season means vacation and vacation means resting. Yup, resting in the sofa watching the telly with the dvd player switched on and munching anything munch-able. Hehehe.

The thing is I really have lots of movies to watch (in dvd). I just thought of making this particular list should I be able to free my skeds of anything at all. Most of the movies listed below are from way back and probably don't ring a bell.

(1) Home Alone
This was the movie that brought the cute kid Macaulay Culkin to stardom. It was about 2 house robbers trying to rob a house during Christmas and a kid left alone at home, having an adventure of preventing the villains from taking their loot.

(2) Falling In Love
Cupid in December? He probably shoot the love arrow by mistake. Robert De Niro and Meryll Streep exchanged holiday shopping bags by accident leading them to a forbidden romance since both of them were separately married and had happy families.

(3) Gremlins
The movie starred Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Gizmo (the pet that multiplied into gremlins because some rules were broken). This movie was released in 1984 and produced by none other than, Steven Spielberg.

(4) Die Hard and Die Hard 2
With Bruce Willis in the title-role, it would be expected that this film would be action-packed. As John McClane, Willis played a cop who commonly dealt with his wife and terrorists in both movies.

(5) Eyes Wide Shut
A 1999 movie starring the ex-couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

(6) Picking Up and Dropping Off
A romantic comedy featuring Scott Wolf and Amanda Detmer in the mercy of love. Hehehe. I guess this one is just a show in foreign telly.

Except for Home Alone and the 2 Die Hard movies, I haven't watched the rest. I promise I will watch them once I find copies (VCD or DVD).

Dear Me,

To be honest, I have totally neglected reading my books. I keep on buying them and they are all scattered in my room. My bookshelves are already full and I really need more space to accommodate the new ones.

It is supposedly a monthly habit to finish one (1) book but I have a backlog starting July.




December 2006
. Sushi For Beginners by Marian Keyes

June 2006
. Random Hearts by Warren Adler

May 2006
. Stone Heart by Luanne Rice

April 2006
. Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler
. Pacific Vortex by Clive Cussler

March 2006
. Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler

February 2006
. 4th of July by James Patterson
. 3rd Degree by James Patterson

January 2006
. Still Waters by Tami Hoag




. Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler
. The Prometheus Deception by Robert Ludlum



Book Synopsis

Sushi For Beginners by Marian Keyes
Keyes' latest novel about hipster singles in the city takes place in Dublin, where they live and play and bemoan their romantic and professional fates. All the best elements of the popular literary trend in British chick-lit are here -- a lovable, yet awkward, every-girl heroine; the boss-cad with a heart of gold; the funky best friend and everyone dropped in a chic and happening workplace, the editorial offices of new Irish women's magazine Colleen. Ambitious fashionista Lisa has been summarily removed from her coveted editorship in London to one in Dublin, where she regularly barks orders to her rookie assistant, Ashling. World-class worrier Ashling vents with her friends Joy and Ted while secretly envying her friend Clodagh's domestic dream life. Clodagh, meanwhile, has been having strong urges to run away from her loving husband, demanding children and countryside manor.

Random Hearts by Warren Adler
Survivors of a tragic plane crash seek both meaning and closure to the discovery of their dead spouses' infidelity. In an ideal world, they would never have met. Vivien Simpson is a happy housewife with a young son who adores her successful lawyer husband. Edward Davis is an ambitious aide to an important Congressman who loves his wife. When an airplane crash brings about the discovery that their supposedly loving and now deceased spouses were involved in a deeply passionate love affair and possessed the same apartment key, they are devastated and baffled by the revelation. Determined to find the answers to their dilemma, they embark on a search for both the reasons for their spouses' infidelity and their place of assignation. In the process, they discover much about themselves and how the mysterious nature of love can render people too powerless to resist.

Stone Heart by Luanne Rice
Nomadic archaeologist Maria Dark is returning home again to the Connecticut shore -- a magical place where she, her sister Sophie and their brother Peter spent their childhood on the banks of Bell Stream. After fifteen years away, Maria hopes that she can rediscover the joy and optimism of her youth in the arms of her family. But things have changed. Maria’s siblings and her mother have weathered difficult times...and Sophie and her children are not as happy as they seem. Now Maria will embark upon an emotional journey–navigating the memories of a tender past–toward the truth at the heart of her family and the chance for a new beginning.

Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler
On an isolated Greek island, a World War I fighter plane attacks a modern U.S. Air Force base -- a mysterious saboteur preys on an American scientific expedition -- and Dirk Pitt plays a deadly game of hunter and hunted with the elusive head of an international smuggling ring.

Pacific Vortex by Clive Cussler
Dirk Pitt, death-defying adventurer and deep-sea expert, is out to the ultimate test as he plunges into the perilous waters of the Pacific Vortex -- a fog-shrouded sea zone where dozens of ships have vanished without a trace. The latest victim is the awesome superb Starbuck, America's deep-diving nuclear arsenal. Its loss poses an unthinkable threat to national defense. Pitt's job is to find it, salvage it, before the sea explodes. In a furious race against time, Pitt's mission swirls him into a battle with underwater assassins-and traps him in the arms of Summer Moran, the most stunningly exotic and dangerous toward disaster, Clive Cussler plummets his hero onto an ancient sunken island-the astonishing setting for the explosive climax of Pacific Vortex.

Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler
1954. Vixen 03 is down. The plane, bound for the Pacific carrying thirty-six Doomsday bombs -- canisters armed with quick-death germs of unbelievable potency -- vanishes. Vixen has in fact crashed into an ice-covered lake in Colorado. 1988. Dirk Pitt, who heroically raised the Titanic, discovers the wreckage of Vixen 03. But two deadly canisters are missing. They're in the hands of a terrorist group. Their lethal mission: to sail a battleship seventy-five miles up the Potomac and blast Washington, DC. to kingdom come. Only Dirk can stop them.

4th of July by James Patterson
Bright, tough SFPD Lt. Lindsay Boxer is battling police brutality charges while chasing down a clan of murderers. When a botched police arrest of two gun-toting minors expands from a shaky preliminary hearing to what promises to be a nerve-rattling jury trial of Lindsay, she flees the pre-trial media frenzy for the serene
haven of sister Cat's house in Half Moon Bay. But instead of finding relaxation and romance with her Homeland Security beau, Lindsay becomes embroiled in the ruthless crimes of a troika of killers who've been slashing and flogging victims all over town.

With surprisingly little aid from the Murder Club, Lindsay performs her detective handiwork (and steps on the toes of Half Moon's police chief). As more bodies surface, sketchy suspects like a smitten grease monkey and a slimy porn star emerge, then the murderous threesome set their sights on Lindsay.

3rd Degree by James Patterson
While jogging with her dog, Lindsay witnesses a bomb explosion that levels a house and kills several people inside. A group calling itself "August Spies" takes credit for the blast.

Lindsay learns the August Spies have a horrifying agenda, using gruesome homicidal acts to target corporate greed. They must be stopped before the world’s high-profile economic leaders meet in San Francisco for the G-8 conference.

Still Waters by Tami Hoag
The deepest waters hide the darkest secrets.
Life's a bitch and then you die.

When Elizabeth Stuart starts looking for a new home for herself and her son, somewhere she can recover from a particularly bruising divorce, Still Creek seems the answer to her dreams. Hidden in the lush Amish farmlands of Minnesota, Still Creek offers a sanctuary to the splintered family who look forward to settling down there. But on their arrival the locals are distinctly cool to the newcomers. And when Elizabeth becomes involved in a murder case, she realises that there is a lot more to life in Still Creek than meets the eye.

Dear Me,

I love watching Mr. Bean. Before, I didn't want to watch him because I thought he was annoyingly dumb. Well, I was wrong. The very first time I sat down (unintentionally) to watch him altered my impressions big time.

Mr. Bean is outrageously funny and adorable in his own stupid way. Starring Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean is a child in a grown man's body, so to speak. The laughter and the guffaws will shoot out once Mr. Bean start trying to solve various problems presented by everyday tasks and in the process, causing disruption.

Watching Mr. Bean during the lowest lows of one's spirit will make one forget the painful reality even just for a little while.

Next year, I am planning to complete my Mr. Bean dvd collection. =)

Dear Me,

I am not really out to compete with other blogs. I blog because I want to write down my thoughts. But for the fun of it, I am trying this out.

To be an A-List Celebrity in Hollywood, it's all about the amount of Vanity Fair, GQ, and People Magazine covers you can score. To be an A-List Bloglebrity on the Internet, it’s all about the amount of link love you can score.

Bloglebrity status can be computed via the technorati-powered widget created by the kineda.com owner. The blog's celebrity status will fall on any of the 4 groupings.

The Low Authority Group [D-List Bloggers]
(3-9 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
The average blog age (the number of days that the blog has been in existence) is about 228 days, which shows a real commitment to blogging. However, bloggers of this type average only 12 posts per month, meaning that their posting habits are generally dedicated but infrequent.

The Middle Authority Group [C-List Bloggers]
(10-99 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
This contrasts somewhat with the second group, which enjoys an average age not much older than the first at 260 days and which posts 50% more frequently than the first. There is a clear correlation between posting volume and Technorati authority ranking.

The High Authority Group [B-List Bloggers]
(100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.

The Very High Authority Group [A-List Bloggers]
(500 or more blogs linking in the last 6 months)
In the final group we see what might be considered the blogging elite. This group, which represents more than 4,000 blogs, exhibits a radical shift in post frequency as well as blog age. Bloggers of this type have been at it longer – a year and a half on average – and post nearly twice a day, an increase in posting volume of over 100% from the previous group. Many of the blogs in this category, in fact, are about as old as Technorati and we’ve grown up together. Some of these are full-fledge professional enterprises that post many, many times per day and behave increasingly like our friends in the mainstream media. As has been widely reported, the impact of these bloggers on our cultures and democracies is increasingly dramatic.

After submitting my blog link in the technorati-powered widget box, my blog was placed in the high authority group with 146 links in the last 180 days, making me a a B-List Blogger!

Dear Me,

Last week, I engaged myself in a dvd marathon watching. My choices were kinda eclectic for my taste and I had a fun time watching a few episodes from Las Vegas, NCIS, CSI Miami, CSI Las Vegas, CSI New York.

Alongside, I also watched the movies: (1) The Little Man, (2) Shake, Rattle and Roll 2k5 (a Tagalog movie).

At first, I thought The Little Man was a boring movie. Well, I discovered that as the movie went on, I found myself laughing (though there were times I would like to vomit due to some yucky scenes) and liked it because of some amusing and yet touching scenes.

Watching the Tagalog movie Shake, Rattle and Roll 2k5 was actually unintentional. I was looking for other dvds in the pile but I got curious how these 4 movies-in-1 dvd would fare in the dvd player screen considering that it was an imitated copy. Well, I was surprised. It wasn't like a pirated copy because not once did I experience any blur or blushes. It was perfect. Hehehe. As I said there were 4 movies in that dvd copy but I only opted to watch this one.

Shake, Rattle and Roll 2k5 was a 3-in-1 movie - 3 tales in 1 movie. The 1st one was entitled "Poso"; the 2nd one was "The Aquarium" and the 3rd one was "The Secret of San Joaquin." Among the three, I enjoyed the 1st one. It wasn't that deep but I couldn't prevent myself from laughing when I see comedienne Ai-Ai delas Alas' face. Though there were times that some of her scenes were dull, still I had a few, good laughs.

Note to self: I will watch Shake, Rattle and Roll 8 this month or by January 2007.

Dear Me,

Do you know what your BMI is? BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a statistical estimate of a person's weight against his height. Check whether you are underweight, healthy, overweight or obese.

Check your Body Mass Index (BMI) here.

To determine your BMI, you should know your height in feet and inches (not in centimeters) and your weight in pounds (not in kilograms). Just enter these data and your BMI will be determined automatically.

BMI results:
< 18.5 -----> Underweight
18.5 - 24.9 -----> Healthy
25.0 - 29.9 -----> Overweight
30.0 > -----> Obese

I checked mine and I fell in the Healthy category. Either of these two: BMI @ 19.9 or @ 20.5, I'm healthy.

BMI also called the Quetelet Index was invented sometime in 1830-1850 by a Belgian polymath (person who has great knowledge of various fields) named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was an astronomer, statistician, mathematician and sociologist. He introduced statistical methods in the field of social sciences. Till this day, his Quetelet Index has survived minor variations since.

Dear Me,

I am not in a blogging mood right now but I love to post these awesome photos from National Geographic as promised.











There's more to come...