When it happened....

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there…to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out whom you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be but you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way. And sometimes things happen to you at the time that may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would never realize your potential, strength, will power or heart.

Well, everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck. Illness, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test limits of your soul. Without these small tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless. Basically, the people you meet affect your life. The successes and downfalls that you experience can create who you are, and the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact they are probably the most poignant and important ones.

If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious as to whom you will open your heart.

If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but also because they are teaching you to love and open your heart and eyes to the little things around you.

Make every day count. Appreciate everything that you possibly can, for you may never experience it again. Talk to people whom you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you. You can make anything you wish of your life. Create your own life and then go out and live it with absolutely no regrets. If you love someone tell them, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store. Learn a lesson in life each day that you live! Today is the tomorrow you were worried about yesterday.

“Its your HEART that makes you the BEST. You’re wonderful according to what YOU ARE not what you HAVE.”

“Treasure everything special to you… Make as many memories as you can. ‘Coz remember… LIFE IS not MEASURED by the breaths we take, but BY WHAT TAKES OUR BREATH AWAY!”

Lastly, “make GOD as the center of everything because LIFE is a walk to remember. Our tomorrows are determined by the steps we take each day. And the good news is – GOD will walk with us every step of the way.”

FRIEND or FIEND??!!!???....

For reasons we can never know, fate brings friend to friend, then leaves the rest to human nature. The results are mixed. While a few special friendships last a lifetime, the vast majority prove easier to leave behind. Some take years to fade away; others end spectacularly. Research shows that the quickest way to end a friendship is betrayal; the second-quickest, a canoe trip. In fact, we have to lose a few friends before we can appreciate their most important gift: the stories we share. In hearing these stories, you may begin to sense a deeper truth, that our friends and friendships are not as unique as we first believed. They’re more like summer movies: the dialogue changes (kind of) but the plots and characters keep recurring. Here’s a catalog of the archetypal friends that over the course of a life you’re likely to encounter again and again. BEWARE of your considered FRIENDS!

The Best Friend: The gold standard of friendships. A best friend listens but never judges, helps you out of a jam, tells it to you straight, and often forgives a debt. Best friends resemble invisible friends in that both are most common in childhood (and may not really exist).

The Old Friend: Ideally, a lifelong bond that stirs fond feelings and cherished memories—unless you’re a celebrity or out on parole. In reality, most old friendships are embedded in a complex economy of favors.

The Wild Friend: The friend whose bad behavior never ceases to entertain and may at times inspire you, for better or for worse. Though wild friends get a bad rap, they save as many lives as they ruin. Boring people—writers, for instance—desperately need wild friends. (lol)

The Ex-Friend: Don’t ask, but if you do, the answer may well involve money or sex. Or both.

The Scary Friend: Someone who never fails to nudge you out of your comfort zone—way out. Scary does not mean quirky. If a friend likes to spend his weekends re-enacting Civil War battles in period dress, that’s quirky. If he shows up at your door in uniform late on a weeknight, that’s scary.

The Boss Friend: A person higher on the org chart who thinks your brittle smile and the startled look in your eye is an invitation to further terrorize you outside the workplace. One reason golf is popular in the business world is that it gives underlings a way to pal around with their superiors and still stay 30 yards apart.

The Train or Bus Friend: A person who apparently shares your unquenchable interest in the weather and the fortunes of the local ball team.

The Confidant: Someone who wheedles more out of you than you planned to share. Sadly, many confidants are also talented gossips who will soon be bartering your deepest secrets for someone else’s.

The Single-Modifier Friend: Any companion you proudly describe, if only to yourself, with one word: for instance, "my gay friend" if you happen to be straight, and vice versa. You can train yourself out of the habit by slowly adding modifiers, as in "my neat gay friend" or, with practice, "my socially inept and secretly homophobic straight friend with a god awfully bad haircut."

The E-mail Friend: A digital update on the kind of letter-writing friendships that thrived in the era between the invention of ink and the arrival of cable. If the medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan claimed, then the message of most e-mail friendships is goofing off at work.

The Special-Interest Friend: Group friendships form around a shared passion—for soccer, French cooking, sky-diving. Special-interest friends often go by nicknames, usually be-cause they don’t know real names or anything else about each other be-yond their common interest. This can create problems. If you run into your softball team’s home run leader in the courthouse, it’s probably not a good idea to shout "Hey, Killer!" You might influence the jury.

The Friend-You-Only-Drink-With Friend: A subspecies of the special-interest friend. In extreme cases you might not even recognize such people in the harsh light of day, having only seen them in the barroom glow—and from the side.

The Treatment Friend: Same as above, but in that harsh light. Like bonds formed at summer camps and religious retreats, treatment friendships may soon dim outside the virtual reality from which they grew.

The Road-Trip Friend: From Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady to Thelma and Louise, the rolling duo is ingrained in American myth. Romantic notions aside, a good road buddy can read a map, is willing to bathe, and has a credit card and a driver’s license—preferably in the same name.

The Secondhand Friend: When someone introduces you to someone else, supposedly because they think you’ll hit it off, it could be a clever strategy to ditch you both. Which is good: Secondhand friends are a better deal than new friends, which, like cars, lose 20 percent of their value once they leave the showroom floor.

The Dormant Friend: Every so often a dead friendship will spring back to life, bringing two people even closer together than they used to be. The reawakened friendship speaks to the mystery of friendship in general—especially if you’ve forgotten why you drifted apart. But give it time; you will be reminded.

The Friend with Benefits: Not the kid down the street with a trampoline or a parrot that swears. So long as someone is gaining something out of you, he’ll/she’ll surely stick around.

The judgmental friend: These are the kinds, those who give their opinion when it’s not asked for and is holier than you. You feel she’s passing judgment on your partner, house, job and decisions. She annoys you because she imposes her values on your life and seems to think that you can’t make a decision yourself.

The dependent friend: These kinds of friends can call you in the middle of the night with a crisis and even rings your mobile on a holiday. You feel responsible for her and often feel your life isn’t your own.

The smug friend: If you have this kind of friend then life’s a constant competition when you’re with her.

The frenemy friend: She’s supposed to be your friend, but sometimes you’re not sure, she won’t come out and say things but she makes dogs that dent your self-esteem.

The moaner friend: No one’s situation is as bad as this friend’s; no one works as hard or has such a stressful love life. She ignores your positive advice and certainly has no time to listen to your woes, they don’t compare.

ALCOHOL - Facts & Fiction

For all alcoholics and non-alcoholics; check this out!

This is all about common alcohol and drinking myths, with research based facts and statistics.

Myth
Alcohol destroys brain cells.
Fact
The moderate consumption of alcohol does not destroy brain cells. In fact it is often associated with improved cognitive (mental) functioning.

Myth
White wine is a good choice for a person who wants a light drink with less alcohol.
Fact
A glass of white or red wine, a bottle of beer, and a shot of whiskey or other distilled spirits all contain equivalent amounts of alcohol and are they same to a Breathalyzer. A standard drink is:
· A 12-ounce bottle or can of regular beer
· A 5-ounce glass of wine
· A one and 1/2 ounce of 80 proof distilled spirits (either straight or in a mixed drink).

Myth
A "beer belly" is caused by drinking beer.
Fact
A "beer belly" is caused by eating too much food. No beer or other alcohol beverage is necessary.

Myth
Switching between beer, wine and spirits will lead to intoxication more quickly than sticking to one type of alcohol beverage.
Fact
The level of blood alcohol content (BAC) is what determines sobriety or intoxication. Remember that a standard drink of beer, wine, or spirits contain equivalent amounts of alcohol. Alcohol is alcohol and a drink is a drink.

Myth
Drinking coffee will help a drunk person sober up.
Fact
Only time can sober up a person...not black coffee, cold showers, exercise, or any other common "cures." Alcohol leaves the body of virtually everyone at a constant rate of about .015 percent of blood alcohol content (BAC) per hour. Thus, a person with a BAC of .015 would be completely sober in an hour while a person with a BAC of ten times that (.15) would require 10 hours to become completely sober. This is true regardless of sex, age, weight, and similar factors.

Myth
Drinking long enough will cause a person to become alcoholic.
Fact
There is simply no scientific basis for this misperception, which appears to have its origin in temperance and prohibitionist ideology.

Myth
Drinking alcohol causes weight gain.
Fact
This is a very commonly believed myth, even among medical professionals, because alcohol has caloric value. However, extensive research around the world has found alcohol consumption be does not cause weight gain in men and is often associated with a small weight loss in women.

Myth
Alcohol stunts the growth of children and retards their development.
Fact
Scientific medical research does not support this old temperance scare tactic promoted by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, the Prohibition Party, and similar groups.

Myth
Binge drinking is an epidemic problem on college campuses.
Fact
Binge drinking is clinically and commonly viewed as a period of extended intoxication lasting at least several days during which time the binger drops out of usual life activities. Few university students engage in such bingeing behavior. However, a number sometimes consume at least four drinks in day (or at least five for men). Although many of these young people may never even become intoxicated, they are branded as binge drinkers by some researchers. This practice deceptively inflates the number of apparent binge drinkers. In reality, the proportion of college students who drink continues to decline, as does the percentage of those who drink heavily.

Myth
Men and women of the same height and weight can drink the same.
Fact
Women are affected more rapidly because they tend to have a slightly higher proportion of fat to lean muscle tissue, thus concentrating alcohol a little more easily in their lower percentage of body water. They also have less of an enzyme (dehydrogenase) that metabolizes or breaks down alcohol, 9 and hormonal changes during their menstrual cycle might also affect alcohol absorption to some degree.

Myth
A single sip of alcohol by a pregnant woman can cause her child to have fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
Fact
Extensive medical research studying hundreds of thousands of women from around the world fails to find scientific evidence that light drinking, much less a sip of alcohol by an expectant mother, can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Of course, the very safest choice would be to abstain during the period of gestation.

Myth
People who abstain from alcohol are "alcohol-free."
Fact
Every person produces alcohol normally in the body 24 hours each and every day from birth until death. Therefore, we always have alcohol in our bodies.

Myth
Alcohol abuse is an increasing problem among young people.
Fact
Heavy alcohol use among people in the US 17 years of age or younger actually dropped by an amazing two-thirds (65.9 percent) between 1985 and 1997, according to federal government research. The proportion of young people who consumed any alcohol within the previous month dropped from 50% to 19% in about the same period. Other federally funded research also documents the continuing decline in both drinking and drinking abuse among young people. Similarly, alcohol-related traffic injuries and fatalities among young people continue to drop. Deaths associated with young drinking drivers aged 16 to 24 decreased almost half (47%) in a recent 15-year period.

Myth
People in the US are generally heavy consumers of alcohol.
Fact
The US isn't even among the top ten alcohol consuming countries. Top 10 Alcohol Consuming Countries on per capita Basis Country / Consumption in Gallons of absolute or pure alcohol: At a consumption rate of only 1.74 per person, the US falls far down at 32nd on the list.

Myth
Alcohol advertising increases drinking problems.
Fact
Hundreds of scientific research studies around the world have clearly demonstrated that alcohol advertising does not lead to increases in drinking abuse or drinking problems. Alcohol advertising continues because effective ads can increase a brand's share of the total market.

Myth
Bottles of tequila contain a worm.
Fact
There is no worm in tequila. It's in mescal, a spirit beverage distilled from a different plant. And it's not actually a worm, but a butterfly caterpillar (Hipopta Agavis) called a gurano.

Myth
People who can "hold their liquor" are to be envied.
Fact
People who can drink heavily without becoming intoxicated have probably developed a tolerance for alcohol, which can indicate the onset of dependency.

Myth
Many lives would be saved if everyone abstained from alcohol.
Fact
Some lives would be saved from accidents now caused by intoxication and from health problems caused by alcohol abuse. However, many other lives would be lost from increases in coronary heart disease. For example, estimates from 13 studies suggest that as many as 135,884 additional deaths would occur each year in the US from coronary heart disease alone because of abstinence.

Myth
Drunkenness and alcoholism are the same thing.
Fact
Many non-alcoholics on occasion become intoxicated or drunk. However, if they are not addicted to alcohol, they are not alcoholic. Of course, intoxication is never completely safe or risk-free and should be avoided. It is better either to abstain or to drink in moderation. While consuming alcohol sensibly is associated with better health and longer life, the abuse of alcohol is associated with many undesirable health outcomes.

Myth
Alcohol is the cause of alcoholism.
Fact
As a governmental alcohol agency has explained, "Alcohol no more causes alcoholism than sugar causes diabetes." The agency points out that if alcohol caused alcoholism then all drinkers would be alcoholics. In fact, a belief common among members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is that people are born alcoholic and are not caused to be alcoholic by alcohol or anything in their experience. They argue that many people are born and die alcoholic without ever having had a sip of alcohol. Of course, a person can't be a drinking or practicing alcoholic without alcohol.

Myth
If alcohol were less available there would be fewer alcoholics.
Fact
This is an idea that has been tested through prohibition in the US and a number of other countries. There is no association between the availability of alcohol and alcoholism.

Myth
College life leads to drinking by most students who enter as abstainers.
Fact
According to Federal statistics, most students arrive at college with prior drinking experience and te proportion of drinkers doesn't increase greatly during college.

Myth
Although not totally incorrect, but certainly not the whole truth, is the assertion that the younger children are when they have their first drink the more likely they are to experience drinking problems.
Fact
Generally speaking, people who on their own begin drinking either much earlier or much later than their peers begin are more likely to experience subsequent drinking problems. This appears to result from the fact that either behavior tends to reflect a tendency to be deviant. Therefore, delaying the age of first drink would not influence the incidence of drinking problems because it would not change the underlying predisposition to be deviant and to experience drinking problems. And, of course, children who are taught moderation by their parents are less likely to abuse alcohol or have drinking problems.

source: Alcohol Problems and Solutions

Advantages and disadvantages of "SOMEONE" …

Well, my purpose of posting this is to make other people realize that everything has its advantages and disadvantages like in the case of having “SOMEONE”. I know that everybody has experienced this or experiencing this…. (lol)

Advantages of having someone:
- if you want to go out, you can ask him/her.(no doubt, papayag agad un!)
- kung gusto mo ng kausap, talk wth him/her. (for sure pakikingan ka nya)
- may kakamusta sayo every hour, every minute. (kung pede nga every second pa.)
- may manlilibre sayo sa pamasahe, sa pagkain… (parang may atm kang kasama! Hehehehe!)
- dadamayan ka pag nalulungkot ka, kakampihan ka pag-inaapi ka. (wow! Manananggol!)
- always on the go ka at laging beautiful. (syempre inspired at para naman di na sya tumingin sa iba! Uyy! Blooming, nag MYRA-E ang lola..LOL)

Disadvantages of having someone:
- you can’t go out of course without the permission of your bf/gf. (waaahh!paalam ka muna!)
- papansinin ang suot mo kung sobra ng revealing. (hehehe… takpan kasi ang dapat takpan, mag baro’t saya ka na lang!)
- kung mag-uusap man kayo, minsan may kasamang little quarrels, hangang sa maging sagutan, sigawan, sakitan… oppss! Tama na.. hehehehe!! (kasi minsan nagseselos na sya sa kinukwento mo! Behave kasi!)
- di ka na makagawa ng sarili mong gawain kasi naiistorbo ka sa concern nya! (tawag ng tawag…txt ng txt…. wow! Mommy kaw ba yan?!)
- pag nag-away kayo, minsan nasasama sa trabaho ang pag ka bad trip sa jowa. (di na makapag-concentrate dahil sa inis, minsan di na namamansin sa mga co-worker, damay ba kami?!)
- at nagiging sinungaling na… (syempre para lang makasama mo sya… iba na ang pinapaalam mo… waahhh! Liar!)

para lang yan sa mga may someone… ito pa!

Advantages of NOT having someone:
- always free sa gimik. (paalam ka na lang sa parents mo!)
- you can wear anything you want! (keber ba ninyo kung ano suot ko!)
- wala kang ililibre!! (syempre ikaw lang mag isa eh!)
- wala kang tatandaang celebration ng daysary, weeksary, monthsary, anniversary, at kung ano ano pang mga sary-sary.
- You can do whatever you want! Sky is the limit mga repapipz!

Disadvantages of NOT having someone: (huhuhu! :-C)
- wala kang partner pag nagsama-sama ang friends mo with their boyfriends. (waaaahh! Loner?! Grab ka na lang sa tabi! wehehehe)
- you cant grab basta basta your friends (specially pag may jowa ang friend mo) without the permission of their jowa, kailangan mo pang hiramin ang friend mo sa kanya. O kaya mag pa sched ka ng appointment! (wow sosyal! Hectic ang shed!)
- pag kasama mo ang friend mo and jowa nya para kang chaperon! (yaya, ikaw ba yan?!)
- at syempre lagi kang magiging chaperon. (hmm… how cruel!)
- pag nag uusap ang friends mo about their jowa, tatahimik ka na lang. (kasi wala kang mai-share sa usapan.. hmmp! No comment!)
- (I don’t know if this is advantage or disadvantage) you will be a good listener. kasi nga wala kang mai-share na experience about having someone, kaya listen ka na lang. (Learn from THEIR experience kumbaga.)
- at syempre you will always feel the loneliness and envy at times…(waaahhh!!)

7 kinds of PRIDE

I’ve read this from one of the forums that my friend introduced to me. I know that this can help well for your reflection. Promiz!

There are seven kinds of pride: uninhibited, wounded, procrastinating, uncaring, sulking, pious, and quiet.

1. The uninhibited pride is a kind of pride that tries to make one self look good on the outside, but the inside is as rotten as an apple in the trash heap. One is all show no substance.

2. Wounded pride is a kind of pride that aims too high or expects something too much and once failure comes we are very hurt and we don’t want to accept our fault.

3. Procrastinating pride is a kind of pride that puts off anything till it’s too late. This kind of pride hinders us to change for the best.

4. Uncaring pride is a kind of pride that keeps us preoccupied and unconcerned for others. We wish to be all on our own comfort. And when trouble comes we are hurt.

5. Sulking pride is the kind of pride that makes us feel we are truly self-sufficient, preventing us from asking help. The down side is, because we feel superior we push people away and when we are faced with troubles we are hurt that they are away.

6. Pious pride is a kind of pride that hampers our view of the self. We feel we are free from defects, or even worse free from sin. We also tend to show off our good works to please the crowd (just like the Pharisees in Jesus' time).

7. Quiet pride is the pride that tends to parade all the achievements we were able to attain. This makes us feel invulnerable to failure and loss. And usually, they also think they know everything.

Complexities of LOVE

Love is the biggest oxymoron of all. How is it an oxymoron? Well, let us see…

Oxymoron is a figure of speech that entails two normal but contradicting facts. In a way, oxymoron is also like an ironic situation or statement.

A great poet once authored a loving and very ironic piece on love being an oxymoron, all the while enumerating the many reasons why people keep falling.

According to this poet, people basically keep falling because of the many ironies of love. We fall only when we start standing up for love. We fall only when we start climbing the mountainous complexities of love. That is how love is an oxymoron. Because whatever you say about it, no matter how different they are, would always stay true. It is hard to explain, yet it’s easy enough to understand.

It is easy to fall in love; however it is also hard to be in love. We seem to easily fall in love with someone who would not even give us the time of day but cannot find the a place in our heart to give a chance to a person who seems to love us so much and would do anything for us.

You do not know how love works because it is too confusing but yet you understand its inner workings in your heart and life.

When we fall in love, we find it irritating that people who does not necessarily approve of our relationship with the other person, keeps bugging us with reasons why we fell in love. But in the end we keep telling them, that we do not have any reason why we fell in love, we just know that we do. But when someone really supportive of our relationship asks why we fell in love with a certain person, we easily enumerate the many reasons why we love that person.

It’s funny that when we fall in love, we try to tell the other person that we love them for what they are and change would not be necessary. Then again on the course of the relationship itself, we make simple comments about how much of a slob the other person is, or how she does not make an effort to look pretty. And when this argument is brought up (about not changing) the most common reason we hear is that I am not trying to change you, I just want you to be a better person. Is becoming a better person quintessential to both parties?

Even those who faithfully pursued their beloved feel the irony of love. After endless days of hoping and praying for the day that the other person will feel the same way, the magical time comes and they become blissful. For the first time the sun seems to shine from the perfect spot, the wind seems to blow with just the right breeze... they now feel how blissfully wonderful it is to be alive, yet they feel that they could die any moment too.

And when we are really in love, the simple things affect us in simple ways. We say that the immensity of the problem, however miniscule the problem is, makes it unbearable for us to continue with the relationship. Nevertheless, when our partner apologizes and promises to change for the nth time, we tell ourselves and everyone around us, that there is nothing that we cannot handle.

And when one is just about done with the many hurt that love has brought upon their lives, suddenly love twists it all around and the almost perfect significant other comes cruising to your life.

But the funniest and weirdest part of falling in love would have to be how love can make us all knowing and stupid at the same time. For many of us, we could not even begin to start counting the countless times that we spent handing out advices to friends and people close to us about their love problems, but when it finally happens to us, we find ourselves, lost for words.

Even the geniuses are baffled with love, because as much as love is an oxymoron, sometimes it causes us to be morons. It is funny but also sad and
true.

Maybe just paranoid...

I can’t explain how I feel right now. I don’t know if I’m just becoming paranoid. Gosh… it deeply sucks! I can’t control my tears from fallin’… Hope I can cope up with this. What can I do to bring out my drive on this once again… what’s happening totally piss me off. I think my IQ has gone below average. I hate being like this. I want to be strong. I don’t want to be so emotional. I don’t want to be affected. But I am….