I picked this meme off the utterly funny blog Balut & Natto which chronicles the adventures [and misadventures] of Pinoy blogger Garando and his Japanese wife Garandee.

If you want to try this meme out for yourself, post a comment.  Be sure to tag ten other bloggers for this.  ;)

( 100 Truths! )

Biscotti – P 30.00 per piece, minimum order of 12

• Il Mediterraneo   Lemon biscotti studded with nutty poppy seeds and perfumed with cardamom
• La Columbina   Cocoa-flavored biscotti with a hint of vanilla and chunks of white, milk, and dark chocolate scattered through the dough
• Il Cinese   A rather Oriental-inspired cookie: almond-flavored cookies scented with ginger and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
• La Prima-Colazione   Perfect for breakfast on the go! Coffee-flavored biscotti with cinnamon and honey-almond granola.

Cupcakes and Muffins – P 30.00 per piece, minimum order of 12

• Little Witches   Dark chocolate cake with chocolate chips; gianduja (Nutella/hazelnut spread) topping
• Sassy Girls   Peanut butter cupcakes with caramel and chocolate
• Li’l Miss Sunshine   Citrus-flavored cupcakes with dried mangoes
• Daybreak Muffins   Carrot-pineapple muffins made with wheat flour and oatmeal
• Pomona Muffins   Apple muffins spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove

Please place your orders via email at midge.manlapig@gmail.com or call 0915-8517362 at least two weeks in advance.  For foreign readers, I'm so sorry: I'm only taking domestic orders at the moment.

 

There was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed.

One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in that condition for a long time, he said, 'Do you want to be well again?' 'Sir,' replied the sick man, 'I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.' Jesus said, 'Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.' The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around.

Now that day happened to be the Sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.' He replied, 'But the man who cured me told me, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around." ' They asked, 'Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around"? ' The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared, as the place was crowded.

After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, 'Now you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.'

The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus.

- John 5: 1-16

 

Physical illness is something I don't worry about much of the time, save perhaps for the occasional bout of allergic rhinitis and the eczema that flares up almost as soon as the temperature hits the middle and high thirties.

Well, that is until my doctor told me to start taking breaks earlier this year.

( Read more... )

While on my way to work this morning, I felt ready to give up, to throw in the towel.  The transition from one workplace to the next was beginning to tell on me.  It is a wearying experience and it did not help at all that some people at the office have been throwing verbal slurs, brickbats, and daggers at my back for the past few days.

It isn't easy to live with the fact that most people think I'm worthless, you see.

I told a friend of mine that I was ready to commit suicide.  To which, aforementioned friend told me "You are nowhere near worthless."

I'm grateful for such votes of confidence at a time like this.

And then a message popped into my inbox.

Hmm...

Let's just put it this way: I may not be able to smile right now, but it was like a thorn was finally plucked out of my side.

Just...relieved...really...

End of story.

weep not
   for days
      gone past,
shed not
   a tear
      for what
         you have
            lost.

stand on
   a hilltop
      look towards
         the horizon,
            the glorious
            sunrise...

it may
   look cold
      and gray
but see:

a new day -
   new things,
   new folk,
   new ways,
   new paths -
      begins to
      unfold.

Even as a kid, I was never really the sort you would refer to as skinny.  However, I wasn't even particularly fat, either.  To put it bluntly, I would say I was somewhere in between.  However, even that is a matter of perspective. 

I inherited my father's heavy bone structure and, alas, my maternal grandmother's curvaceous figure.  If I were, say, five or so inches taller, I'd qualify as an Amazonian beauty.  Unfortunately, I'm only five-foot-two-and-a-half; that I'm not particularly athletic either doesn't bode too well for Amazonian ambitions, ne?

( Read more... )

rage sears,
   surges,
     crackles like
         lighting
            through my
               veins:

      get thee
         behind me,
         fly away,
         mist off,
            thou foul
            thou misbegotten
            bastard spawn
               of hell!
        
            i abjure
               thee;
            i spurn
               thee -

i am
   no fool,
   no miscreant,
   no miserable
      worm -
   neither
      plaything
   nor
      puppet...

i am
   strong;
   my will
   shall break
   you -
      i refuse
      to let
      you
      break
      me.

god's
   in his
   heaven:
he watches
   over me,
   guides me,
   schools me
   in the
   truths
      i have
      to know
         to survive.

he watches
   over me,
he will
   guide my
      fist:
so i
   can crush
   you
   and your
   kind

once
and
for
all.

I am not sure as to how I'm going to begin this particular blog entry.

I came home Friday night feeling all perky and upbeat, only to find everyone rather subdued and reticent.  My mother asked me how my day was, but when she spoke it was like she was just out of it.  It seriously weirded me out.  When I headed over to where my dad was, that was the only time I discovered what was wrong.

The terminally ill granduncle I mentioned in the preface to this entry, passed away at 7:00 that very evening.

( Read more... )

peer
at me
through
the broken
glass:

   tell me
   what you
   see.

      you can't
      see the
      real me
      behind all
      those
      shards.

         chips of
         my soul:
         broken like
         glass,
         littering the
         space
         between us
         like sharp
         spikes
         on the
         ground -

(one misstep
and it's
over.)

peer
at me
through the
broken
glass:

   do you
   like
   what you
   see?

      a wreck,
      a faded
      ruin -
      the hollow
      shell
      of who
      i was.

         i seek
         retribution
         for my
         wounds,
         my aching
         heart,
         my fractured
         soul.

(and yes:
hell has
nothing
on a
woman's
wrath.)

i hide
   in the
      shadows
         and smile
            to myself:

my heart
   throbs for
      thee, and thou
         alone can strum
            the strings that
               play my melody;

but i
   live in dread,
      in horror - oh!
         the pain, the fear,
            the harrowing spectre
                of doubt and loathing
                     looms over me -
            the threatening
         shadow,
      the ogre
   of my own
making -
   and my sleep
      is unquiet, sad,
         fretfully fraught
            with nightmare
               visions wherein...

...wherein you
   shun me, mock
      me...

stop!
   stop!
      stop!

i must
   steel my
      heart and
         mind -
            i must free
         myself
      from my
   demons,
break away,
tear away,
fly unscathed
or fall fighting.

i cannot
   go on living
      this madness,
         this lie:

i'll have to
tell thee -
   sooner, mayhap,
   later, perhaps -

either way:
   let the chips
   fall where they
   may:

it shan't change
my love
for thee.