Its 1AM, playing scrabble in Yahoo Games. Nothing to do.. I mean, I'm procrastinating. Still had tons of work to do. Two of my major projects are almost done in time for some Christmas shopping.. not. Everyday has been hard, financially, and even I could feel the pressure of not being able to pull out a bill from my wallet. I hope.. and pray that God would grant me a laptop for Christmas, so that I could work while in school. I just enrolled in bible school. I only got to enroll 3 subjects (9 units) as recommended by my adviser. Last week I took three exams for my admission to Asian Seminary for Christian Ministry, the name of my school. I'm taking Masters in Divinity.. sounds like I would be studying how to be a hermit.. its not. Anyway, I passed the exams. The school is multi-racial but Koreans are a majority. I got interviewed by an old American lady and a black African, which was the dean of education. It was a pressure. The questions were in abstract/theoretical form.. the kind that gets my logical/practical brain on its feet. This is it. No turning back. I'll be spending more than 3 years of my life in this school. The horizon looks far. Back to my Christmas wish list: 1. A laptop with DVD/CDRW, large screen, Intel Centrino and fine aesthetics. 2. An apple iPod 3. A mini-DV camcorder... I saw in the news this evening.. Taal is in red alert. The volcano scientists were monitoring the volcano for possible eruption. Imagine we were just on that spot just last Monday.. cool. Hope it erupts long before our retreat or hope it wouldn't erupt at all. Bad retreat publicity. Tired, but don't wanna sleep. Lots of ideas and concepts going through my mind...

Taal at sunset from our outrigger 

Taal at sundown 

Another view of the crater 

The main crater lake. From above, the water is so blue. You can see water bubbling with steam and sulfur. One can also bathe in here and some say its water have does something (good) with your skin. 

Taal Volcano in the background. Before going here, I didn't know that the famous Taal Volcano we see in postcards is not the active volcano that erupted the latest but the one we're going up to. 

Yesterday, I went to Tagaytay City to do an ocular visit for our Youth Summer Retreat in May 2005. While there we took the opportunity to visit the famous Taal Volcano. 

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing thy grace Streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it Mount of thy redeeming love Here I raise mine Ebenezer Hither by thy help I'm come And I hope, by thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God He, to rescue me from danger Interposed his precious blood O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let thy goodness, like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to thee Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart, O take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above Robert Robinson, 1735-1790

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Jesus (Gospel of Matthew 11:28-30)

Left house at 10AM to gym. Haven't got breakfast, so after putting my stuff in the gym locker I went out to have breakfast or lunch.. it's 11AM. Ate macaroni salad at Wendy's.. So conio-looking with the fork and the salad.. haha. Got full more than I expected, now I was worried if I might get appendecitis when I start at 11:30... Finished 2PM, I often procrastinate. After gym bought a Dairy Queen Blizzard ice cream, haha.. Similar to the BEST ICE CREAM I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE at Enchanted Kingdom.. Rocky Road.. Similar in composition but miles away from the BEST ICE CREAM I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE.. I thought of watching movie so I watched Feng Shui... A local horror movie, like The Grudge or The Ring (I havent seen these movies though). I'm not really a fan of horror flicks, I was intruiged by the title.. somehow it relates to the Chinese culture so I watched it. Feng Shui was a better than I expected of Filipino horror films. I specially liked the story except for how the people were dying.. Example, this guy who was born on the year of the rabbit was killed in a road accident involving a Philippine rabbit bus liner.. one of the main characters who was born on the year of the horse was almost killed by a 'kabayo ng plantsa (ironing board.. kabayo means horse)' (that made me laugh..) and eventually died when she fell on cases of bottles of Red Horse beer.. see the picture.. I remember when my family were still Catholi-Buddhists, a fusion of religion common to Filipino-Chinese.. Feng shui was a common part of our lives. Don't do this, don't do that.. don't anger the spirits.. I'm glad we're done with that.. we have found the truth in Jesus.

Saturday. Woke up at 5 for an early jog with Brznf & Jerald. Had only 4 hours of sleep. We jogged and walked from Binondo to Intramuros to Cultural Center. Met Johannsen at McDonalds in Vito Cruz for breakfast. After jogging went to SM West to go to gym. I signed up to a one-year program day before, which I was not sure if I can complete. My friend or my friend's contact in the gym talked me to enlist. So there I am in my first day in the gym. Did some routine exercises like before. Few hours after, I became dizzy and almost collapsed. I found out I had low blood pressure.. This was the first time I had low blood. The trainers assisted me to their clinic and laid me in bed to rest for a while while takeing my blood pressure regularly. The staff had been very accomodating. After a few minutes, I returned to normal blood and set off early to go home and rest. It was due to my lack of sleep that I got low blood they said. Tomorrow I'll be going to gym again.

:)