Baker Bids Adieu......

....but not to you, folks. The Baker is simply bidding Adieu to the Blogger platform.

The Baker has finally found a new template for his blog. However, the move to a new template also meant that the Baker will also be moving to a new blogging platform. Moving forward, please update my blog address on your links so that they now point to this new bakeshop address.

There are still some kinks I need to iron out while I make the transition to my new bakery courtesy of Wordpress. One of which is that I still have to find a way to migrate your comments on my two most recent posts "Someday" and "Pictures and Thoughts From a Break" to the new blog. Any inputs on how to sort this problem from the Wordpress veterans among you will be deeply appreciated.

Although this will be my last entry on this platform, I will keep it open for the foreseeable future. I will also be downloading all my posts and your comments so as not to lose them just in case Google decides to zap this little site out of the blogosphere someday.

I hope that this switch to Wordpress will work for the long-term. Thanks and I hope to see you all again in my new neighborhood.

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

In Search Of A New Template

I've had this template for a few months now and although I love it and have managed to keep it looking neat and tidy, I'm now seriously thinking about replacing it.

It's now beset with technical problems. Although my blog posts and pictures show up fine, I can't say the same thing for the various stuff that I want displayed on the right column. I noticed over the last few months that this template only works well when viewed using Internet Explorer. When I try to access it using Firefox, I run into some technical problems.

For example, except for my profile on the right, everything else gets pushed way, way down on the screen. My blogroll and all the other links are only displayed after my last blog entry on the page.

In addition, its code is written in Spanish. I've found it hard to make some tweaks and adjustments to its overall appearance due to the simple fact that any tweaks I do will have to be done on a "trial and error" basis and thus could be quite time consuming.

My search for a new blog template has gone through fits and starts, mostly a result of a rather busy yearend work schedule. I haven't really had the time to sit down and focus on searching for a new template yet. I need to focus on it more one of these days.

Baker's Going On A Break

Folks, I will be away for a few days to take a much needed break.

To those of you who reside in the US, I wish you all in advance a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

To everyone else, take very good care of yourselves.

Although I won't miss my work, I'll certainly miss blogging and bloghopping through your sites. But I'll see you all again in a couple of weeks. Until then, take care everyone!

A Very Big Thanks!

I would just like to pause for a moment and thank a few blogger friends who, over the last couple of months were very kind to award yours truly.

First of all I would like to express my deepest thanks to both Blogusvox and Ever for sharing with me the Oops Award.

Accoding to the folks who came up with the Oops award, the award was created and is to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their humor and their talents, also for contributing to the blogging world in whatever medium. When you receive this award it is considered a “special honor”.

The following Uber Amazing Blog Award was given to me by one of my first blogger-friends, RDL. The Uber Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:
~ inspire you
~ make you smile and laugh
~ or maybe gives amazing information
~ a great read
~ has an amazing design
~ and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!

Her blog was one of the first I enjoyed reading and visiting when I was still new to blogging. As such, a very big THANKS goes out to her.

Last but not least, the following Friendship Award was given to me by Madbong23 all the way from New Zealand. I enjoy reading about his life stories and experiences in that special part of the world.

Friends, thank you very much again for these awards. I apologize that it took me quite a while before posting them on here but please know that I appreciate the thoughts behind them very much.

Sometimes Work Does Get In The Way...

..... of blogging and bloghopping. :D

My apologies dear online buddies because save for a few, I really haven't had the chance to stop by your blogs lately. I've been swamped with quite a bit of work these past few weeks that except for the occasional blog entry, I haven't really been able to visit your respective sites.

I had tight deadlines to meet that in fact, my recent blog entries were drafted and developed while I was on train rides home. Thus, an entry that would normally take a few hours to develop and complete took quite a number of days to conclude. In addition, a case of writer's block didn't make writing any easier.

Since my mind was tied up with work-related stuff, I decided to skip on the bloghopping for some time just to get a number of things off my desk. In addition, I didn't want to post half-ass comments (please pardon the expression) on your blogs knowing that I simply breezed through something that you took the time and effort to write and post.

Take care of yourselves, dear folks. My load at work is starting to lighten at this point. Thus, I should be able to visit your sites soon. I look forward to again reading the stories you wish to tell. I wish everyone well.

A Little Housekeeping

I did a little housekeeping on my blog today. It was getting too cluttered for my taste and for its own good that I decided to trash some of the widgets that I had installed previously.

The casualties from this round of blog cleanup are the following:

1. Google's Adsense - It didn't really make much sense to keep it since the revenues from it are a joke. A beggar would probably make more money in a bad day than a blogger would make from Adsense in a year. Thus it's gone.

2. Technorati - I didn't find much meaning with the statistic or number this tag provided. I link to other bloggers' sites because I like what they write and not for the purpose of displaying a higher Technorati number. Thus, I showed this one the door.

3. Recent Comments - This particular software was so unreliable. It sometimes displayed the readers' comments and sometimes it didn't. I hate inconsistency and thus, this widget is history.

4. Million Blog List - I'm already on their list as #968 and so there's no further need to display it on my blog. There's not much significance to the number #968 anyway since my blog is not the one millionth on the list. :D

There. That's it for now. Less clutter to see and deal with on a daily basis.

"Take 5" Tag

This is a nice little tag from Dr. Clairebear that involved quite a bit of digging through one's blog archives. I had to do so because of the following rules:

Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know each of them a little bit better.

Thus, as per the tag's rules, I linked some select posts to the key words given.

Family. - Story of the beginnings of a courtship many years ago.

Friends. - Memories about my hometown and some of the family friends and personalities there.

Myself. - Memories about a favorite eatery in Metro Manila

Love. - A song and thoughts about a special someone.

Anything. - A funny story that actually took place in a province in Mindanao (southern Philippines) 20 years ago.

Although the tag rules require that I tag 5 people to do this tag, I'm not tagging anyone in particular. I'm giving you guys a break. Hehehe However, please feel free to do the tag if you so wish.

Okay, now it's back to work for me before I get fired. :D

Thanks For The Awards

I would just like to express my sincerest thanks to some blogger-friends who handed awards to me over the past few weeks. But let me apologize too to both Fingertalks and Gizelle for my tardiness in posting the awards. There are times when life and job simply get in the way of blogging. Hehehe Anyway, here are those awards:

First off, a big thanks to Fingertalks for the following "Arte Y Pico" Award. Her blog has been for me a constant source of inspirational quotes and lessons.


Lots of thanks also go out to Gizelle for this "Photography Buddy" award. Through the photographs she regularly features on her site, I've come to admire the beauty of both the people and city of Vienna, Austria where she and her family (especially her cute kids) are currently based.


And last but certainly not least, thanks go out to PrinsesaMusang for the following "Brillante Award". Although still new to the blogosphere, Her Royal Highness has impressed her readers not only with the quality of her posts but also with the thought she puts into them. I won't be surprised if this young lady becomes the recipient of the Carlos Palanca Award for Literature someday.


Thanks again, ladies, for the kind thoughts and words. I appreciate them a lot.

A "6 x 4" Meme

RJ tagged me for this meme. I am calling it a "6 x 4" meme because for each of its six questions, the blogger is asked to provide four answers. Anyway, here are the meme's rules:

Click copy/paste, type in your answers and tag four people in your lists! Don’t forget to change my answers to the questions with that of yours.

1. Four places I go to, over and over:

Outside of work, these are the places I go to to unwind:

* Hoboken, NJ - Frank Sinatra's birthplace, the city sits right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. One can go for a morning or evening stroll along Frank Sinatra Drive by the Hudson River where one is given a great view of the Manhattan skyline.
* My basement - It's the only place in my house that stays cool throughout the summer. This is where I get to relax to either watch my DVDs or play my CDs.
* Atlantic City, NJ - Although I don't really gamble, I love going to this place for the entertainment it provides. Plus, the city is by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and has a long boardwalk one can take a leasurely stroll on. This was an activity I used to enjoy doing with my late uncle. However, now that he's gone, my visits to this place will certainly become quite rare.
* Philippines - As RJ said on his blog, I'll keep going to the above mentioned places until I come home.

2. Four people who e-mail me regularly:

* Former co-workers from my first job
* Former high school and college classmates
* Con men who claim to be from either Nigeria or Russia who want to gain access to my bank account
* Headhunters - There are basically two kinds: Those legitimate ones who provide me with job leads either within or outside of my current industry and ones who offer to perform a certain "job" for me. :D

3. Four of my favorite places to eat:

* Crown Palace (Marlboro, NJ) - This restaurant is in my opinion has the best Chinese dimsum and provides the most professional service of any Chinese restaurant within the Central NJ area.
* Amber's for their Pancit Malabon - Pure pancit Malabon heaven. :D
* Burger King - I love the Whopper.
* GoodAh - for their longsilog and for sentimental reasons. (However, Tapa King might soon nudge GoodAh from my list of four favorite places. We shall see. Hehehe)

4. Four places i’d rather be:

* Anywhere with my love
* Manila
* Makati
* California

5. Four TV shows I could watch over and over:

* Two And a Half Men
* Twilight Zone (reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel)
* Saturday Night Live
* Three's Company (whenever reruns of this show that starred the late John Ritter are shown on American cable tv channels)

As you can see from the shows I listed above, except for the Twilight Zone whose episodes focus on the bizarre and mysterious, I am very partial towards comedy shows whenever I sit in front of the tv. They provide me with a break from the stresses of daily life.

6. Four people I think will respond:

* Mari
* Nyl
* Aline
* Neuroticsister

Ladies, please don't let me down. Naks! Hahaha Thanks in advance.

A Baker's Erotic Tale

Snglguy tagged me for this meme that requires one to come up with a short erotica of not more than 200 words, and with the additional condition that the following words be used only once in the story:

1. sleepover
2. whip
3. handcuffs
4. leather
5. sexy
6. threesome
7. hairy
8. shotgun
9. squeeze
10. explosion

Thus, here is the Baker's first ever attempt at writing a lousy, I mean, salacious story. :D

It wasn't going to be the usual sleepover, at least not the platonic type. She walked into my humble bakery early one Monday morning clad in a sexy leather outfit and brandishing a whip.

Through the haze of the heat from my bakeshop's ovens, she had appeared. I immediately felt shy and insecure being clad in my usual hanging Speedo tank top, loose basketball shorts, and green Crocs.

She didn't care one bit about my appearance. She came up to me, squeezed my manhood through my shorts and said, "I've been watching you for days now from the sari-sari store across the street. Seeing you in that sando drenched with sweat turns me on real bad. In my dreams, I've put you in handcuffs and kissed your very hairy ass."

The sight of luscious red lips on a woman in such a seductive outfit led to a premature explosion within my poor shorts. She pulled my shorts down and licked the cum off my penis that remained stiff as a shotgun within her hot mouth.

Finally, an invitation to three days of round-the-clock threesomes with her sister left me no choice but to close my bakeshop that week.

I'm not tagging anyone for this meme. Please feel free to write one if you so wish.

The Baker Answers Some Random Questions

My buddy, Photo Cache, tagged me to answer a few random questions. Thus, I present below my supposedly random responses. Hehehe :D


1. WHAT WAS I DOING 10 YEARS AGO?

I was working for a telecommunications company that was based in New Jersey. My job then was very different from what I'm doing today. The job I had at the time was in the Information Technology (IT) field. I was managing a software quality assurance team that supported an automated credit and collections management system that the company used to facilitate account collection from its delinquent customers. My team's responsibility was to make sure that any enhancement or modification to the system's features or functionality was adequately tested prior to full implementation.

Although the job paid well, I was already feeling quite unhappy with my IT career at the time. I had been in it for several years at that point and I no longer felt any passion for the job. I had wanted to go back to my true passion: the work I'm currently doing. Plus, the great guy who was my boss left the department that year to move to another and in his place came this ugly, inconsiderate, micromanaging woman with no social life to speak of.

It is awful enough that one has lost his/her passion for one's job. It becomes a lot worse if one works in a job he/she no longer loves and for a boss that he/she absolutely abhors.

This lady was an awful boss due to the following:

a. She loved to call meetings at noon and at 5 in the afternoon, at a time when people are ready to call it a day. (None of her meetings lasted less than an hour.)
b. She loved to gossip about people in the office, even about people we didn't personally know.
c. She loved to waste time during meetings by talking about a lot of non-work related stuff.
d. If you did 98% right and 2% wrong on your job, she is the type who will focus on the 2% you did wrong and make it sound that you screwed the whole thing up.
e. She engaged in favoritism and would coerce her managers to give her favorites high performance appraisals and therefore high bonuses.
f. She always thought she was right.
g. She was a micromanager who often overruled her managers just to get things done in the way she wanted them done.
h. She was a disgusting sight. Physically ugly with thinning hair, dark rings around her eyes, and rotting teeth.

I ended up working for her for three more years and as a result, I went through a period of depression. I often hated Sunday afternoons and evenings because of the thought that once Monday morning came, I would have to deal with her and her crap again for another week. Needless to say, I felt so much joy the day I finally left her team in 2002. She was one of a kind.


2. WHAT ARE THE FIVE THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY?

a. Pack up my things and get ready to check out of the hotel first thing in the morning. (I'm currently at the end of a one-week assignment in Alexandria, Virginia.)
b. Take some pictures of a nearby park by the banks of the Potomac River.
c. Finish this tag.
d. Prepare for my project's closing meeting tomorrow morning.
e. End the evening with a nice, long talk on the phone with my SO.


3. SNACKS I ENJOY:

a. Chippy
b. Adobong Mani (Filipino garlic-roasted peanuts)
c. Pringle's Potato Chips (Sour Cream n' Onion flavor)
d. Cornick


4. PLACES WHERE I LIVED:

a. City of Manila
b. SSS Village - Marikina City
c. Marcelo Green Village - Paranaque City
d. Alexandria, Virginia
e. Somerset County, New York Metro area


5. THINGS I’D DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE:

If I were a billionaire (in US dollars), I'll do the following:

a. Set up a foundation to run a well-funded and well-maintained orphanage.
b. Set up a foundation to set up and maintain public libraries in the poorest areas in my country.
c. Fund and support efforts to preserve performances of Filipino artists on film, tv, and radio.
d. Buy a nice home for myself and immediate family members.
e. Buy my own island in the Philippines.
f. Travel.
g. Invest a significant portion of the money so that its earnings could fund Items a, b, and c on this particular list.


6. PEOPLE I WANT TO KNOW MORE ARE:

The last time I did a tag, I passed it on to the ladies. Now, I'm passing this tag on to the following gentlemen:

a. Monaco
b. Rudy
c. Blogusvox
d. RJ

Thanks in advance for doing this tag, guys!

A Cute Little Tag

I was tagged by Mec to do this nice little tag. :)

The following shows the tag questions and my responses to each:

Have you ever gone on a blind date? Yes, with a girl who went to college with a former officemate. Date was set up by that former officemate.

Skipped school? Yes, one time in high school and a "few" times in college. Hehe

Been on a plane? YES!! Too many times for my own good.

Been lost? Twice, and both happened at night and in very bad neighborhoods here in the US. One was in Detroit and the other was in Brooklyn.

Swam in the ocean? No, one of my big regrets in life is that I can't swim.

Cried yourself to sleep? Yes, I have. Several times.

Played cops and robbers? Yes, lots of times. :D

Played dolls? I'll be lying if I said I didn't. As a kid, I did it a few times to entertain my younger sister. (Yeah, sure.)

Recently colored with crayons? No.

Sang Karaoke? Yes, I have but I only do songs that are within my vocal range. (Naks!)

Paid for a meal with coins only? Yes, I have. I'm definitely dating myself with this answer but when I was a kid, a school meal can be purchased with just peso coins. :D

Done something you said you wouldn't? A lot of times. No further comment. :D

Cheated on a test? On a few quizzes, yes. On examinations, no.

Made prank phone calls? Yes, back in high school. Whenever I knew that my classmate (who was my "barkada" at the time) was not at home, I would call his place just to speak to his pretty sister who was a year older.

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Yes.

Danced in the rain? No, I simply played in the rain. I would not be caught dead dancing in the rain for fear that it might lead people to question either my sexual orientation or the state of my mental health.

Written a letter to Santa Claus? No, I was too lazy to write one.

Watched the sun rise with someone you care about? I have watched the sun BEGIN to rise with someone I cared about. Hehehe

Been kissed under the mistletoe? No.

Gone ice skating? Yes.

Been skinny dipping outdoors? I used to as a toddler when grown-ups still thought that it was a cute thing for me to do. :D I don't think they'll show much appreciation if they see me do it now. :D

Favorite drink I'm allowed on a regular basis - Orange juice

Tattoos? None.

Body piercings? None.

Vacation spot? There's no place like HOME.

Eaten cookies for dinner? No, I'm not too fond of cookies. Overall, I find them too sweet and too rich for my taste.

Ever been on TV? Yes, given where my cousin and I sat, I was seen on camera quite a number of times while at a PBA game.

Ever been in a car accident? Yes, a few times.

Favorite number and why? 5 because of my birth date.

Favorite movie? Unfortunately, there's too many to mention. In my profile, I attempted to list some of them.

Favorite holiday? Spending time with people I love is my idea of a favorite holiday. None of the official ones really matter to me.

Favorite smells? I have to pass on this one. :D

What do you do to relax? Read the papers, listen to CDs, and watch old movies.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Living happily with my loved ones.

Now, in return, I'm tagging my blog buddies: Mari, Miranda, Photo Cache, and Nyl. Thanks in advance, ladies. :)

Seven Baker Facts

I was tagged by my buddy, Luna Miranda, to do this meme. I found it quite fun to do even if it required some deep soul searching on my part. Naks!

Anyways, the Rules of the meme are as follows:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let those 7 people know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Having done with the proper introduction, here are 7 more facts about me:

1. I part my hair at the left. I've combed my hair in the exact same way since I was in my early elementary years.

2. My apologies to fans of the following artists but I absolutely cannot stand Basil Valdez and Side A. I find Basil's songs very depressing and boring. Side A ranks as a close second because I find their songs and their performances lacking in both edge and energy. I feel that those guys (Side A) just stand before a microphone, play their instruments, and sing without much movement. I would much rather that someone push me off the roof of a tall building than have me listen to both artists' CDs for even just a few minutes.

3. I am a big pancit bihon, pancit Malabon, and pancit luglog addict. I can survive for the rest of my life on these three dishes. I love my SO's pancit bihon by the way. (Plugging ba? Hehehe) For dessert, I love taho and Puto Binan.

4. I can play the piano and read music. However, one of my regrets in life was when I decided to stop taking piano lessons when I was in sixth grade. I should have continued with it. Another frustration I have is that I never learned to play the guitar. Although I can't play it, I've dreamt lots of times of becoming a session guitarist.

5. I play a mean game of table tennis. My parents taught me to play the game when I was 11 years old. It remains as one of my passions although I don't get to play much anymore.

6. I love reading articles that relate to Architecture and Civil Engineering, especially when the topics are about historic homes, buildings, and public infrastructure such as tunnels, dams, bridges, etc. I am simply amazed at the amount of thought and effort that made those structures not only aesthetically pleasing but also very functional.

7. Although we have a lot of Math wizards in the Panaderos clan, I am definitely not one of them. I developed an early love for the English language courtesy of my mother who was a wide reader. She taught me reading and reading comprehension. She was very strict with homework and whenever I misbehaved, even sermons I heard from my mother were laced with English quotations whenever she wanted to stress a particular point. The following are actual examples:
7a) "You are like a tree without a shade." - Translation: You're so useless and stupid.
7b) "If you can't take it as food, take it as medicine." - Translation: Eat your fruits and vegetables, damn it!
7c) "You're a man without a star." - Translation: You better develop some ambitions young man or else you're out of this house!

That's it for now. I am not going to tag anyone in particular but please feel free to do this tag if you so desire.

The Baker Goes On A Mini-Hiatus

I'll be on a brief one-week mini-hiatus from blogging. There are some matters I need to attend to and as a result, my blogging has to take the backseat for just a few days. Nothing bad or negative so please don't worry about me. I'll be fine.

I say mini-hiatus for I don't think it will be a complete break from posting any blog entry. I may be able to sneak in one or two during the week.

I'll probably bloghop whenever I get the chance but I seriously doubt that I will have the time to post a blog entry due to a rather tight schedule. Will try my best though. :)

Anyway, please take care of yourselves and I'll see you all in a bit. Who knows? You might even see me in one of your regular haunts. :)

Photo Hunt: Shoes

This week's Photo Hunt theme is Shoes.


My contribution to this week's theme is a picture of my left shoe. I took the picture at work earlier this week.

The shot was rather hurried because I didn't want my boss to see me taking a picture of my shoe. He would have found it quite weird and he would have busted my chops no end. :)

Have a great weekend, folks!

Replying to A (Supposed) Kid's Question

I was tagged by Monaco for this meme. It is fairly easy because all one needs to do is respond to a kid's question. (I need to be introduced to this rather perceptive kid. Who knows? He might end up becoming a Pope or the Dalai Lama someday. Hehe) Anyway.....

Copy here:
1. Answer the Kid’s Question by Gregory Stock, PH.D. (Remember: Don’t respond as you think others want you to. Respond the way you actually feel!)
2. Add your name (linked to your blog)
3. Tag everybody else!

Kid’s Question #1
If you were the ruler of the world and you could have anything you wanted as well as have people do anything you wanted, do you think you would get greedy and mean or would you be a good and fair ruler?

My Answer:
If I were the ruler of the world, I would work on establishing a fair and free trading system between all nations. I firmly believe that the world has enough resources to sustain and feed everybody. It is just a matter of coming up with a system to make sure that the world's resources are distributed equitably and fairly. No nation will be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction, including the ones that first developed them.

On the personal side of things, the authors of the blogs I link to will be guaranteed Cabinet positions in my administration. :D

However, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can be a big head and say to everyone that absolute power will never corrupt me. And if I do say that I will most certainly be lying. I just hope and pray that I will remain wise enough to carefully select the people I will surround myself with. I hope that some, if not all, of them would be courageous enough to remind me of the moral responsibility that comes with such power. Should they fail to stop me from my corrupt ways, I hope that some, if not all, of them would have the courage to shoot me dead before I end up bringing the world back to the problems it faced when I first took power.

Participants:

Jhong, Alpha, Women Xplore, Em, Something Purple, Our Journey to Life, My Planet Purple, Princess Bela, Princess Vien, cookie jar of entertainment, allinkorea, kim, idealpinkrose, korean food, Jackie’s Everyday Life, Jackie Simply Pinay, A Whole New World, Tasteful Voyage, A Mom’s note, There’s no place like home, The Girlicious side of a woman, Discoveries, My Online Journal, Thoughts Of Me, Precious Words, In My Kitchen, Em, Something Purple, Bigeyedgal, Chronic Shopper, A Simple Life, Hailey’s Beats and Bits, ,Hailey’s Domain, PinayWAHM, Teacher’s Corner, ZangCaesar, Read my Mind, A Man of My Town, You're NEXT!

I decided not to tag anybody else for this exercise. Feel free to do so in case you want to respond to the question.

Photo Hunt: Share ANY Photo

This week's Photo Hunt theme is Share ANY Photo.


My contribution to this week's theme is a picture I took when I was out in Carlsbad, California a few years ago.

The picture above is a depiction of a San Francisco city scene, probably the city's famed Marina area, at Legoland's theme park. All structures you see (including the roads) were built out of Lego bricks. The park's truly worth a visit for aside from San Francisco, this park also showcased replicas of other cities around the United States such as Washington D.C., New Orleans, and New York City.

Who Am I?

I was tagged by Mec for this meme that I found to be quite fun to do.

I AM.... a person who enjoys the simple pleasures of life. I tend to zero in on things that truly matter to me. I value substance over form. Although I also enjoy and avail of the material comforts in life, I do not consider myself as materialistic.

I WANT.... a Playstation 3 (Oops! I think I just made a liar out of myself based on the last sentence I wrote above. Hehe Well, anyway, for every rule there's an exception, ok?.)

I HAVE.... a very deep affection and a very soft spot for kids. I probably got this from my father who was, and still is, a favorite uncle to my cousins. To hear children laugh is, for me, one of those things that make life worth living.

I WISH.... I was devastatingly handsome. Naks! Hahaha Seriously, I wish I got to meet my grandparents and my father's siblings who were no longer around by the time I was born.

I HATE.... to see very good things and very good lives come to an end.

I FEAR.... the loss of a loved one and not necessarily just through death.

I SEARCH.... for meaning in any major activity I embark on in life.

I WONDER.... at times if I'm truly in the right religion given all the nasty things (conquests of foreign lands, the Crusades, the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, etc.) that have been committed in its name for thousands of years.

I REGRET.... having to leave my country for a better life elsewhere.

I LOVE.... Loving and being loved.

I ALWAYS.... arrive for meetings, appointments and dates either on time or ahead of time. I absolutely hate being tardy. I would rather wait for the other person than have the person wait for me.

I AM NOT.... gay.

I DANCE.... to entertain kids and to make them laugh. Mimicking Stevie Wonder's moves never fails to elicit laughter even from kids who hardly know of him. (You guys ought to try it too some time. It works I tell you. Hehe) But the moment another adult walks into the room I promptly stop. :D

I SING.... in my head a lot of times and regardless of my mood.

I CRY.... whenever I hear of kids being physically or psychologically harmed, neglected or abused. They didn't ask to be brought into this world so why should they be made to suffer?

I WRITE.... because I can express what's in my heart and mind better through writing.

I WON.... several Math and Science contests for my class in 6th grade. It led the homeroom teacher of another class to complain as to why I was always competing and winning. Ha! Sore loser.

I AM CONFUSED.... as to why some people just go with the flow and not question things. For me, a mind is a terrible thing to waste and to simply go with the flow leads to inappropriate or incorrect decisions and wasted time and effort.

I NEED.... to know WHY I'm being asked to do or believe in certain things. I am a skeptic. I will steadfastly refuse to do or believe in anything until someone has convinced me of its logic.

I SHOULD.... take a bath more often! Hahaha Was just joking there, ok? Hehehe But seriously, I should exercise more to keep my weight down and cut down on drinks and food that contain a lot of sugar. This is due to the sad fact that complications from the big "D" have killed a number of members of the Panaderos clan.

THE LAST THOUGHT YOU GO TO SLEEP WITH IS.... the people I love.

Now I am tagging Dr_Clairebear, Liquid, and Mitsuru.

Photo Hunt: Time

This week's Photo Humt theme is Time.


My take on this week's theme is the Passage of Time as illustrated by the two photos below that I took over the last few months.


This photo was taken a few months ago when Winter was at its height. Not a single leaf on any of the oak trees.


A few months later, we see the signs of Spring. We're witnessing the greening of the exact same oak trees. We're also seeing a more generous amount of sunlight being cast on those trees.

A Blog's Little Milestone

I interrupt this blog's regular programming with the following announcement.

This post marks a milestone in this blog's young life for it happens to be this blog's 100th entry. :-D

To that announcement some of you might react by asking "Eh ano ngayon?" or "So what?"

To that, my humble response would be, "So totoo lang, wala. Gusto ko lang i-celebrate. Bakit?!?! May angal kayo?!?!" or translated in English, "Nothing really. I just wanted to mark the event. Why?!?! You guys have a problem with that?!?!" :)

But seriously....

This blog first saw the light of day in January of this year, when the winter season was at its coldest. The nights were long, the trees were without their leaves and hardly a pretty bird could be seen in the sky. I took my first tentative steps then to find an outlet to express my views on life and things, share whatever knowledge I had to whoever was interested out there, and to basically practice my writing.



It's been close to four full months since that very first post. Winter's over and Spring is in full swing. The various trees have their leaves growing back in different shapes and colors. The days are longer and the birds are back singing in the trees.

In the weeks and months since that very first day, I've gained quite a number of friends online and regular visitors to the site. I've also gained a number of regular readers, some who choose to remain silent. But regardless of whether you post a comment or not, your visits mean a lot to me. To each person I've linked my blog to, I just want to say "Thank you." Thanks for welcoming me to your online "home" and for sharing your talents, knowledge, experiences, and life lessons.

To those who choose to read my blog in silence, I hope you find my posts sensible, if not all, then I hope at least a majority of them. If you think the writing's turned awful, please feel free to break your silence and post a scathing criticism or remark. Although you might hurt my feelings in the process, I promise that I will refrain from asking for your home address, computer i.p. address, and/or phone number (whether landline or cell) just for the sole purpose of inflicting a counterresponse, measured or otherwise. Hehe

But seriously (again), I am truly grateful to all of you who stop by to read and visit. Your reads, visits, and comments are all truly appreciated. Thanks.

Now back to this blog's regularly scheduled programming.