Accreditation as I see it

Dali,
manghabol kita ka ramig kag tun-og kang bag-ong bun-ag nga adlaw.

This is a late post of my personal snapshots taken of the fuzz that is called AACUP Level 1 Accreditation. These photos are the sights that I rose up to one morning (December 10th, if I'm not mistaken) when we stayed overnight at school to prepare for it:

 The fog makes the oval behind the mango trees look as if a hundred invisible sprinters has started an early run on it, and disappeared in a cloud of dust. This is just outside the School of Education building.

An Appallingly Forgetful Geek

I've been rooting to attend the first-ever Iloilo Comic Con (Robinson's Place, December 1, 2012) ever since Nong Donne posted about it a couple months back. I think I even scribbled it on my organizer and put an entry on my cellphone's calendar.

But I forgot.

Amazing moments that transpired so far on my 27th year

Amazed.

 Alternate title: My first semester as a part-time instructor in a college situated in a non-urban environment

Also: How life has been so far, for the first whole year (it’s not actually a year but I feel like it has been) that I spent in a non-urban environment

I know I do this all the time. I come to you and delight in you and then I leave you because I become too busy with my life. But remember this, you’re always in my mind.

Blurry Sunsets

Because words escape me often nowadays.

Dorano, Dorano, you made me weep

It's the first of those days in a month and I'm feeling wonderfully weepy. Random things are making me shed tears of inexplicable origin. Among those things is this sidebar story I read while researching about the Olympics on Encarta Encyclopedia:

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Italian marathon runner Dorando Pietri became one of the most famous Olympic athletes in 1908 for the manner in which he lost the marathon event. British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, described Pietri’s final few agonizing yards in this account. American runner John Hayes, who crossed the finish line second, was awarded the gold medal.

Thank you, Lord!

My birthday face! I painted this yesterday on my birthday --this is how colorful my life has become!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for birthday gifts that you have given, both great and small! Thank you for all the people and experiences that have helped shaped my entire 27 years.

Love,

Your child, Maia

"Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!" -Psalm 16:8

Prayers for my birthday

"Lord, always, always, always guide me. Show me the way. Light up my birthday candles and show me the proper path to follow when my cellphone battery goes out and I find myself in darkness."  -the short, silly version

I just got this pic from Google. But count the candles, there's really 27 of them!

Today, I am celebrating my 27^th year of being born into this amazing world. I wanted to write about some 27 things that I am grateful for on my birthday, or 27 wishes or prayers.I thought about it and realized that I have more than 27 things to be thankful for (although I may come up with the 27 most important later today. *wink2x* Who knows? I might I just surprise you). I also realized that for the wishes/prayers, I actually just have a few important ones.

If I were a rock star, I would be very, very afraid now

Morbid thoughts on becoming (Forever) 27

 

If I were a rock star, and not just any rock star but a superstitious rock star, I would be a shivering, nervous piece of wreck by now. My thoughts would be plagued by the inevitable tragedy (becoming part of the special group called Forever 27 Club) that's going to befall me any day from two days to 365 days from now --my 27th year in this world, an age when most rock stars who are true to their music choose to die, with tragic as their preferred approach to dying.

My gratitude list

Just for today

I know I haven't done the other list yet, but this just cannot wait. Otherwise, I'll completely forget all about it. And this is a pretty important list, mind you. It's my gratitude list. Just for today, because after today, there will still be a lot to be grateful for.

So here they are -- the things that I am thankful to God for:

• Family
• Friends
• Wonderful nephews and nieces
• Inspiring people – writers, artists, teachers, celebrities
• TV shows to watch, movies to watch, books to read
• My love for drawing/painting rekindled
• My love and zest for writing rekindled
• A hope that I’ll get that part-time teaching job in (secret for now)
• Showing me that announcement in the school's website by accident 
• Showing me the way to follow, and making sure I follow it even if it's too foggy still to see the road-- which is to be of benefit to others 
• Brewing in me a sense of responsibility that I have never felt before—please Lord, make this “tuloy-tuloy” na.
• Again, finally able to write/ discover that I indeed have a potential to help people as a writer, but first of course, I need to become a better one 
•  Making me love you more and more and not letting go of me – meaning, I’m happy that I know you more deeply now as compared before 
•  Letting me discover the best in everyone instead of their worst 
•  Giving me strength in times when I am tested by conflict, negative emotions, etc. 
•  Again, a time to write, a peace of mind to write, a clearer, more headstrong, and purpose-driven attitude to write 
•  A surge of ideas to write about! Thank you! 
•  Reminding me always that nothing is impossible in you!

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.    -Psalm 118:1 

Things have become new

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
-2 Corinthians 5:17

 It's June and it has been long time since I wrote in this blog --this blog which, if you look at it, seemed to be a lost blog --and that is exactly what I had been --lost, very lost.

June may be the sixth month in a year, but for me, it represents a new beginning. It's just aptly so, for somebody like me who is bound to be a teacher, because June represents the start of a new school year here in the Philippines. And this is my June now--new life, new opportunities.

I wanted to simply delete this blog, but then decided to leave it as it is-- with all my unorganized, unclassified, infrequently updated posts intact for everybody who comes across my blog to see, and for me to be reminded of just how 'lost' I had been.

Right now, for me, this is just a beginning of my true journey to become the best person that God created me to be. I may not be 'there' yet, in fact, the truth is I believe, I am just starting out like a newly sprouted seed, but with the help of our Lord, with prayers from family and friends, I will grow.

Wake me, Supermoon

The moon has been and will always be one of my favorite things. Everytime I travel at night, like when I'd be late in going home from the city, the sight of the moon right outside the FilCab (commuter van service in our town) window makes my heart miss a beat. I can truly attest that the full moon indeed is force that stirs powerful desires from the hearts of women. It drove me to full blown impassioned writing in the middle of the night during high school. It inspired me to create poems about love found and lost. Staring at the moon transported my mind out my room and into the night.

Almost a year ago, on March 19, 2011, the moon came closest to the earth on its elliptical orbit and many lucky people, and luckier photographers, all over the world were able to witness, and capture (in the case of the photographers) Luna at her full grandeur.

I missed seeing this rare phenomenon last year although I remember seeing this on the news. Either that, or I read about it on Facebook. Anyway, March 19,  I knew I was out at Jesther's (one of my former creative writing students) 18th birthday party at El Dorado. A few days before, I guess you could say I was already feeling the supermoon's pull because I was out, or rather in(doors) with a werewolf.

And so since I missed blogging about this uber-duper-extra-supermoon, let me do so now. Hmm.. Come to think of it, this topic wasn't even included among the list of things I should have blogged about the past year. I also haven't really thought about the moon the way I once regarded it for a long, long time now and along with that lost devotion/belief went a bit of my ability to dream, my ability to soar into the unknown. So this post is just proper.

Enough of the intro, here's the actual body of my post-- ten of the 50 awe-inspiring pictures of the supermoon taken by amateur and professional photographers, as featured in Buzzfeed.com:

1. Williamstown, Australia
 
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2. Upstate New York
 
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3. Miami, Florida
 
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4. Portugal
  
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5. Athens, Greece

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 6. The Netherlands
 
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7. Mexico City

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8. Colorado
 
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9. Bangalore, India
 
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10. Germany
 
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These are my choicest picks of the 50 photographs featured. I hope they've re-inspired you as they did me. To view the rest of these amazing supermoon photos, click here.