AIYS Conference

I got home from the AIYS (Asian Institute of Youth Studies) Conference yesterday morning. I was grogy, caught up some sleep. AIYS was awesome. I came down empowered and improved. There were around 50 delegates from 14 nations (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Saipan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, United States and the Philippines.) From there God had finally confirmed my calling to serve as a pastor in the youth ministry. I've been praying for God to answer my questions as I went up the mountain. After I graduated my life was at a halt. I didn't know if I would pursue my career as an architect or continue do ministry. Going up to AIYS opened doors and widened my perspective and vision for the youth. During the last days of the conference, most of us are already complaining about information overload because of the constant lecture and talks we sit on from 8 in the morning til 9 in the evening. But it is all good.

Anilao Dive

Last May 15 & 16 I went to Anilao, Batangas for my first dive. The experience was awesome, no words to express... We went down as deep as 80 feet. As I was going through the reefs, "How Great Thou Art" came into my mind and it revealed to me a new meaning as I was humming the song... "Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, 'How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, 'How great Thou art! How great Thou art!"

I'll be leaving for Anilao 12 hours from now. Not as I excited as I should be... It's always been this way.

Sittin' in front of the computer counting the seconds pass...

Tomorrow's election day. There is really no assurance who will win the presidency. I just hope that Bro. Eddie wins. One shot, one opportunity 'ka nga ni Eminem. Thank God holiday din tomorrow so that means no work.. hehe... bad employee. I really need rest. Life seems like a chase, like there's no stopping... heading nowhere. Yesterday was Mother's Day. I gave my mom a gift card to the spa. Hope she likes it. I'm not very showy of feelings. But I learned that there are five kinds of love language. Touch, giving gifts, quality time, words of appreciation and service. My love language is by giving gifts. You may think it is too shallow but that's how I show my love for a person. Now there goes the conflict: When two people communicate with different love languages... Just passing time... still don't want to sleep. Listening right now to True Faith's "H'wag Nalang Kaya"...

My PC is Alive!

Got the news from the shop yesterday. My PC files were restored! Thank God! Thank God!

Keeping Up with Life

Woke up around 8AM. Parents went to Angeles to pick up my grandfather. Our house in Angeles was already sold to a Swedish and now they don't know where to relocate the old man. My mother's father is the last remaining patriarch in the family. The old man seems stronger than he ought to be. I call him kong-kong, which supposedly means grandfather in Fukkien. My lolo is a Chinese immigrant during the 40's. I know he served during World War II having seen pictures. He married my lola, who is a Leytenian. Lately, have I known that I lolo had another family in China, which was common to most Chinese immigrants (See Mano Po 2). Now he's immobile. Having slipped in their bathroom, it snapped something in his spine which made him immobile. That guy can sometimes be stubborn I remember, most elders are in denial of their losing strength and youth. I think I heard he's got Parkinson's disease, I'm not very sure. I haven't got much to reminisce about him. Even being the second male grandchild (third grandchild). All hidden somewhere at the back of my mind. Yesterday, I went to process my student fee in the bank. I will be taking a two-week Campus Ministry course in Baguio next, next week. After that I was to shop for swimming trunks. But when I was at the mall, I felt it was an unnecessary expense, so I bought books instead which are equally unnecessary. I bought a dive book, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and T3 magazine. Right now time seems to drag my life with it. Just tagging along. With no sense of direction and long-term objective. My life is now at a halt. I even became to lazy to post on this blog. During the weekend. My computer got this bug that kept rebooting when I opened it. Windows won't start. I took it to the shop last Sunday. And the next day they told me, the hard drive crashed. No back-ups, no files. There goes a year's work and portfolio down the drain. There goes my extensive collection of mp3's. And other stuff which sure kick me with loss when I remember them one by one. The most sucking thing is that I was still in the middle of a project with a local political party, which now might have condemned me after calling them that my PC just crashed. But there is still hope, I hope. The shop is going to send it to another shop, in an effort to find another way to recover my files. O God, I hope you get those files back! Maybe this is one of the reasons, why my life right now is such a drag. My computer was my life and bread and butter and now it's gone. It's like experiencing amnesia. All those good memories/files... gone. I believe all things happen for a purpose. It's a cause and effect. I believe this is one of those things I refer to as 'discipline of the Lord' (Deut 11:2). I have not been quite the Christian I am supposed to be. Lately my devotions with Him is inconsistent. And I've been going over the fence and back. This morning I got the chance to spend time with Him. Read His Word. Hear His Words. I'm tired of being this weak person who justifies his weakness to jump over the fence. But accepting my weakness is the way for Him to work on me and through me. Somehow I realize my life is a routine, which before I considered to be adventure-istic, yet still alternative. With my preciuos PC gone, a large piece of my life was gone. By the way, I'm using my brother's PC, which was my first PC. And tomorrow, hopefully, I will be reunited with my PC, restored or formatted.

Have you noticed throughout all Filipino movies, when someone goes home with pasalubong, it consists of pancit, ice cream and fried chicken?

Just had lunch. Last was awesome. It was our first pool session. All geared up.. Sayang I didn't get to have myself photographed. We descended to a 12 feet pool. Scary at first but you just get used to it.

So weird... heard "We Are The Champions" this afternoon for the third time from a baby milk commerical...

Think about it: In the Philippines... 60's was the decade of Rock and Roll... 70's was the decade of Disco Fever... 80's was the decade of New Wave... 90's was the decade of Battle of the Bands... And in the millenium... Novelty Songs... Their goes a good pop-culture and music history down the drain. When will it stop? It was still bearable hearing these songs during the early years of its popularity... The Spaghetti Song by The Sexbomb Girls followed by Otso-Otso by Bayani Agbayani... with it's matching dance moves. But imagine the list of novelty songs available today. A novelty song geek can already burn a CD compilation/selection out of it. The lyrics are obviously sexually suggestive, and some of these songs have children singing in its choruses. And even if they claim it to be otherwise, the lyrics doesn't make sense and childish. Who even listens to these continuously...

Hate it when emotionally-demanding people suck the energies out of you...

Here at home just chilling... Nothing happened much last few days. Yesterday was our church outing. I assisted pastor in the water baptism. I'm glad these young people stepped in to be baptized. Well other than that. The whole outing was boring and tiring. I had water in my ears until now, and it makes me lose my balance, as if my vision is spinning. Makes me wonder if this would affect my pool sessions for scuba tomorrow evening. I feel wasted and tired. As much as I want to lie down and sleep. My mind keeps me from doing it. Somehow I feel resting and sleeping is just a waste of time. That explains my almost sleepless nights. Waste of time in a sense that my mind tells me I might miss out on important knowledge, opportunities and information. Am I beginning to sound whacko? Heard the song "We Are The Champions" two times today on TV, first was a children's mtv in Nick and another was sung in Pavarotti concert in an Asian channel. I just noticed the lyrics, its lyricist is my kind of guy: We are the champions my friend, We'll keep on fighting to the end; We are the champions, We are the champions, No time for losers 'Cause we are the champions of the world.