wanderbug

Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. speculation could this be...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:29:00 +0800

Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon.

*speculation* could this be all those journalists who have been abducted in the past?

pinoytumblr: joserizal: Efren Peñaflorida - CNN Hero of the...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:43:59 +0800

joserizal:

Efren Peñaflorida - CNN Hero of the Year

Considering the other nominees up for the title, I can definitely say that Efren totally deserved to be hero of the year. The other remarkable thing about him is that he was once a child sponsored by World Vision. World Vision helps underprivileged children gain the education they need. Efren did nothing more than pay it forward, in that extraordinary way that only he can — practically a miracle compounded upon by years of determination and indomitable hope, and of course the support of the people around him.

How many of us leave the charities at what they do because of a general distrust to where the money goes? How many of us grow cynical and stop believing that their reaching out makes a difference? Efren Peñaflorida is living proof that, if we give each other a hand, the ripples of change and upliftment way transcend the little steps we took to make it possible.

So, congratulations Efren.

—-

I feel like after the September we had, things are finally looking up, somewhat. The tides are turning. I hope we’re finally on a roll towards a better future.

"What need do I have of my own toilet?” asks Nagamma Shilpiri, who came to Dharavi from Andhra..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:25:15 +0800

““What need do I have of my own toilet?” asks Nagamma Shilpiri, who came to Dharavi from Andhra Pradesh 20 years ago and now lives with her crippled father and 13 other relatives in two 150-square-foot (14 square meters) rooms. Certainly, Shilpiri is embarrassed by the lack of privacy when she squats in the early morning haze beside Mahim Creek. But the idea of a personal flush toilet offends her. To use all that water for so few people seems a stupid, even sinful, waste.”

- Dharavi - National Geographic Magazine (via archresearch)

"If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax; I’d limber up. I..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:29:47 +0800

“

If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax; I’d limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I’m one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after the other, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had it to do over again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over again, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dance; I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

”

- Nadine Stair (via justbesplendid)

Dear 15 - Love, 28.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:19:52 +0800

projectlyric:

[A letter to myself at the age of 15; as catalyzed by Erica Paredes.]

Things are going to be okay. I need you to remember that, because though the roughest part is over, there’s still heartache waiting to come into rotation. And it will remain that way for a long time to come, but it gets easier to handle over time - primarily because it’ll come to the point where you know not to sweat the small stuff, but more intrinsically, that God does exist and once you understand the master plan, the hurt becomes a catalyst for happiness.

I’ll give you the good news, and the bad news. Take both with a grain of salt.

Mom and Dad are never going to get back together. As a matter of fact, it seems like the happiest days are over for both of them. Maybe Mom still has a phase of her life ahead where she’ll find complete peace and a sense of accomplishment, but Dad…well. Dad died, Sarah. And he finally learned to reach out to you towards the end, but you had already shut the door. Albert took it pretty hard, and the house is still not the home from our childhood, but with every day, week, month, year that goes by, it’s getting better. You’re going to find yourself retracing a great deal, filtering out the chaos, and saving the beauty of the days in Hong Kong - the trips around the world. The good that Mom and Dad showed you; their strength, their dedication, their love of culture and travel, the music - these, you must take with you. The bad; isolation, anger, pride - these, you must learn to leave behind. And when you no longer make the mistakes that they made, and your children no longer make the mistakes that you made, their children will continue to improve, and live in growth and love, and this will be your way of saying thank you.

Your dreams of success? They’re all going to come true. Well, maybe not the Advertising Executive part, but you’ll find yourself tied to the industry really soon. You’ll be on MTV, and you’ll be good at what you do. I know you’re already starting to make your own money doing commercials and things - and I’ll tell you this much: your career is going to be a source of pride and solace for you in the years to come. Remember to treat everyone with respect and gratitude. There will be a number of not-so-real friends and colleagues along the way, but love, even them, with reckless abandon. It’ll be worth it. You will find yourself on the top of the world. Do not forget that though you were born to reach for the sky, and live with your head in the clouds, that your feet must always stay firmly planted on the ground. Stay true to that never-waning voice from within that tells you you can do more. You can. Oh, and Sarah - you’ll earn a great deal of money in a short amount of time. 60% of it needs to go straight to savings. The other 40%? Get creative and start a business with part of it. Keep some for you, donate some to the less fortunate, pamper your loved ones with the rest.

Now my dear girl, your ideals on love and perfection? They’ll be shattered, shredded, set on fire, then dampened. Then when you feel like all is lost, they will be elevated to heights you never imagined. Sex. I know the word makes you cringe and blush right now, but you need to listen. I know you want to wait for the right guy to lose your virginity to. I know you said you’d wait til you were at least 21. I’m telling you now, that you are on the right track. But sometimes the only way for you to learn lessons, is for everything you know and stand for, to be stripped from you. And it breaks my heart to have to tell you this, but it will be. Pay attention now.

You will be 16 years old, and graduate as the youngest in your class - some say, the youngest in your school’s recent history. You will feel empowered and in control. You will feel free. Soon after graduation, that source of pride and sense of self will be robbed from you. I want to tell you that you could’ve kicked and punched him harder, you could have screamed louder - there were people there that day, that may have heard you. I want to be there to hug you afterwards, and even if you still choose not to tell anybody, I want you to know that the decision you made to stay with him - hoping it would make things right…hoping you would fall in love and be able to say that he was the right guy after all…you were lying to yourself with such frightening severity. Don’t ever, EVER, do that again. But know that the hate will dissipate. You will forgive, both him and yourself. Eventually, it will be beyond okay.

There will be people in your life that play important roles. Know that some are there to teach you a lesson, then move on. Others are there for you to teach a lesson to. Do not belittle or idolize anyone. You are all equal in many respects, and everyone - rich or poor, young or old, positive or negative - everyone has something you can stand to learn from. Always listen as well as you talk. Always say what you mean, and mean what you say. Listen to your elders - they are wise with experience, and though you will need to live through these yourself to truly understand, you will be better prepared knowing that those generations ahead of you, all went through similar things.

You told Mom a couple of years ago that you didn’t want to take First Communion. You told her you were too young to understand what it meant, and wanted to see what other religions stood for before you committed. How you knew that at the age of 8 is a mystery, but I’ll tell you this much - you finally took your First Communion on the day of your church wedding. You were finally ready. God, and the concept of religion, will change drastically for you as the years flow by. I ask that you never let it be a source of confusion, or a burden. Your relationship with Him will grow as you mature, and it is possibly the most beautiful relationship you will ever have, so find love in it.

There is so much more I want to tell you, and I’m beginning to think this may be a source of inspiration for the book I want to write. The book that you want to write. I guess there’s something you as a 15 year old can still teach me - something you can help me find again. Your marriage, your daughter, your friends…it paints a beautiful picture. I’ll continue working on it sometime, but for now, let me leave you with a blessing:

Dear 15 -

You do not feel beautiful. You are.

You do not feel loved. You are.

You think dreams are games you play with your imagination. They are more than that. They’re the blueprint for your life.

You will ultimately be, beyond okay.

Love,

28.

I wonder if it’s going to take seven more years for me to be able to write to myself with this much grace and compassion and wisdom. This was such a beautiful read.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved,..."

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:09:30 +0800

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”

- Jack Kerouac, of course

(via juliaallison)

juliaallison: At Stanford Business School this morning, sitting...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:05:03 +0800

juliaallison:

At Stanford Business School this morning, sitting in on a brilliant class in leadership.

All it takes is one vote. Ten days, Philippines. Get ready for...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:14:38 +0800

All it takes is one vote. Ten days, Philippines. Get ready for it.

How to make a really bad Powerpoint presentation 2. When...

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:41:45 +0800

How to make a really bad Powerpoint presentation

2. When you’re allotted 30 minutes for your speech, make more than a hundred slides.

3. When you’re allotted 30 minutes for your speech, make sure it actually lasts one hour and fifteen minutes.

4. Get all your information from one book.

5. Spell (and pronounce) lavender as LAVANDER and burgundy as BURGANDY so everyone will take you seriously.

6. When people start acting bored, believe that it’s not your fault and ask the waiters for another round of coffee.

7. Be so specific it doesn’t even apply anymore to the audience. For example, give tips on how to be an attractive grocery store (like, make your store smell like freshly baked bread and put flowers near the entrance) when you are speaking to a group of apparel retailers, computer retailers, and hardware store owners.

8. Don’t bother making sense.

"One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of..."

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:57:00 +0800

““One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of one’s ability. There is a special sense of satisfaction, a pride in surveying such a work, a work which is rounded, full, exact, complete in its parts, which the superficial person who leaves his or her work in a slovenly, slipshod, half-finished condition, can never know. It is this conscientious completeness which turns any work into art. The smallest task, well done, becomes a miracle of achievement.””

- Og Mandino (via justbesplendid)

Everybody has gone through so much suffering the past couple of...

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:04:03 +0800

Everybody has gone through so much suffering the past couple of days but I know now that we as Filipinos are bigger than this. This flood will not get the better of us — even if it feels that way now I am determined not to let this flood wash over us helplessly. And I am amazed at all the unknown heroes who have sacrificed their own lives for their fellow Filipinos.I did not know it was possible, but here we are, giving our lives so that others may live. I am the smaller person now for not having enough faith, but I feel I am standing on the shoulders of giants as their own immeasurable hope and intense bayanihan spirit breathe new life into the citizens around them.

At the rate we’re going, I now know we can pull ourselves out of anything. And it really takes all of us; we can’t leave it all for the government to pick up the pieces of our own misdoings. I just hope it won’t stop, I hope it won’t stop even after the flood’s out of our systems. I hope it won’t stop until the Philippines is lifted fully out of the mire (literally and figuratively).

I don’t want to gloss over the very real tragedies that happened during the flood. But I hope our spirits are lifted up even just a little by an entire nation working together to save each other.

We can do this. This flood won’t hold us down.

polaroidgirl: Come fly away with me!

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:38:57 +0800

polaroidgirl:

Come fly away with me!

shotgunserenade: theblast: (via juliedaniel)

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:34:58 +0800

shotgunserenade:

theblast:

(via juliedaniel)

The Great Ikea Debate: Verdana or Futura? Sorry to be...

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:42:00 +0800

The Great Ikea Debate: Verdana or Futura?

Sorry to be nitpicking, but Ikea just doesn’t look the same without Futura.

Click on the photo to read more about the typographic hoopla.

Quoteskin

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:26:57 +0800

Quoteskin

Creative Truths on the Behance Network

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:26:24 +0800

Creative Truths on the Behance Network

Three Days Rule [4.21]

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:35:27 +0800

Barney: Jesus waited three days to come back to life. It was perfect! If he had only waited one day, a lot of people wouldn't have even heard he died. They'd be all, "Hey Jesus, what up?" and Jesus would probably be like, "What up? I died yesterday!" and they'd be all, "Uh, you look pretty alive to me, dude..." and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the dude'd be like "Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro..." And he's not gonna come back on a Saturday. Everybody's busy, doing chores, workin' the loom, trimmin' the beard, NO. He waited the perfect number of days, three. Plus it's Sunday, so everyone's in church already, and they're all in there like "Oh no, Jesus is dead", and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin' up the aisle, everyone's totally psyched, and FYI, that's when he invented the high five. That's why we wait three days to call a woman, because that's how long Jesus wants us to wait.

"When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront..."

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:45:56 +0800

“When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival depends on them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life.”

- Paolo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

Via postsecret

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:42:28 +0800

Via postsecret

Kirstie: “the best thing about that movie were my jokes...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:50:01 +0800

Kirstie: “the best thing about that movie were my jokes and interesting facts about sharks!! =)”

Aside from the Unborn being the first scary movie that didn’t scare me (and everybody knows I get scared way too easily), the fact that there was this person beside me randomly reading jokes from a shark book didn’t help.

But sleepover: fun.

wanderbug

Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. *speculation* could this be...

pinoytumblr: joserizal: Efren Peñaflorida - CNN Hero of the...

"What need do I have of my own toilet?” asks Nagamma Shilpiri, who came to Dharavi from Andhra..."

"If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax; I’d limber up. I..."

Dear 15 - Love, 28.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved,..."

juliaallison: At Stanford Business School this morning, sitting...

All it takes is one vote. Ten days, Philippines. Get ready for...

How to make a really bad Powerpoint presentation 2. When...

"One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of..."

Everybody has gone through so much suffering the past couple of...

polaroidgirl: Come fly away with me!

shotgunserenade: theblast: (via juliedaniel)

The Great Ikea Debate: Verdana or Futura? Sorry to be...

Quoteskin

Creative Truths on the Behance Network

Three Days Rule [4.21]

"When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront..."

Via postsecret

Kirstie: “the best thing about that movie were my jokes...

Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. speculation could this be...