I think it's safe to say that I have been neglecting my blog for some time now.  I thought for sure the vigor of a new year will get me posting again, but I must DO to be able to accomplish... and aside from lab papers and class notes, I haven't done much in the writing sector... but I am without regret.........

....check me out ya'll!!!  I'm teaching a yoga workshop!!  YAY ME!  

A Brave New Year

It seems a promise of a new and improved year in a form of resolutions solicits a month (or two) of slacking, and over-indulgence throughout the holidays.  Now that we are moving towards the end of the first week of the year, I have yet to resolve to quit or to start something.  Perhaps I am still coming down from the holiday buzz:  staying up late, eating a lot of junk food, and there are still wine bottles in my recycling bin even though we haven't had guests in a while.  And yet, I am not worried.  Next week, for sure, I'll snap back to pre-holiday habits, but as far as resolution goes, I haven't yet found one to commit to.

What I do find intriguing, is not the promise of excellence in a resolution, but the courage found in failures.  2011 proved to be a difficult time full of disappointments.  A flurry of activities/trips, that I thought would be enriching, actually taxed my spirits, resulting in this feeling of isolation.  The loss of a beloved uncle the year prior was still lingering; and to top it all off, I saw my homeland washed away by Hurricane Sendong - an occurrence so rare, the last time a flood came to the area was when my dad was five years old (and even still, not at the level of destruction).

Through unfulfilled expectations came renewed perspective.  In isolation, came an appreciation for solitude.  In the depth of my sadness, came clarity in my life's path and a deeper appreciation in relationships.  I cannot see the goodness from all the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Sendong.  However, it exposed the deforestation crisis due to legal/illegal logging and conversion of forests in to agricultural farms, which I hope the citizens of Mindanao will respond by doing more to protect their forests/environment.

To discover how painfully rewarding it is to see yourself through conflict, I liken to a Phoenix rising from its ashes.   The Mayan calendar predicts  doomsday this December 2012.  Even so, I am certain there will be a new way to exist...and if the doomsday prediction is debunked by the end of the year, I am confident I have the fortitude to face whatever adversity 2012, or 2013 for that matter, throws my way.

Fortune Pockets

I love saving fortunes from fortune cookies.  When I get them, I put them in my pocket in hopes that later on, I will include them in scrap books (which I never do - but I always intend to tho - that should count for something).  Instead, I just end up leaving them in my pockets, so when I wear the article of clothing that I wore when saving the fortune, I find them in the pockets.  And when I read them, I think - yay - I got a good fortune.  Even after a wash, it doesn't ruin the fortunes paper, it gets a bit soft, but its still in good shape, and I can still read the fortunes. 
So really, I take fortune cookies and turn them in to fortune pockets.  I can tell how often I wear a certain pants or shirt by the amount of fortunes I have in its pockets.  You guys should try it the next time you eat Chinese food.  Its good clean fun.

Time is Money!

When I asked my hubby, a recovered gamer who used to carry his own Xbox controller wherever he went, why he stopped playing video games, he tells me, that he realized he was being robbed of his time.  Even after 10 hours of Halo, or Metal Gear (or whatever was out at the time) nothing in his life was being accomplished.  Plus, for every new game, it would cost him approximately 2 hours of phone answering/circuit checking/boss loathing at work.  So with that in mind, he pushed the game system to the back of the entertainment unit and let it gather dust.  Seeing time this way, it's become easier to recognize the real value of our time.

There are only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.  A 40 hour work week takes up about 25% of that.  We pay for conveniences to get some of that time back, but it seems to never be enough of the other important stuff:  sleeping, eating, playing, relaxing and growing with yourself, your friends and your family.


A friend shared a story with me about an elderly woman who took 1 week to make 2 sacks to sell at her market to support her family.  Wanting to make a difference, a couple of American students decided to give her a sewing machine to improve her living condition.  A month or so later, the eager philanthropists wanted to see the impact of their generosity, and were surprised to find that the woman was still making and selling 2 sacks per week.  Confused the students asked if she used the machine at all.  The woman, explains that now that she has the sewing machine, she can make the 2 sacks faster and can spend more of her time doing the things that mattered to her the most.  The woman in the story did not wait for accumulated wealth to improve her life, instead, she prioritized her values and improved her quality of life immediately.


Last night, I saw In Time, a sci-fi, futuristic Bonnie and Clyde where time was the currency.  People exchanging minutes of their lives for a sandwich, two hours for a bus ride, a month for toll bridge, etc.  With that in mind, not only do things such as video games consume your day, but perhaps it also knocks off a few years off your life.

Fresh Faced Canvas

Last weekend, I was in Union to face paint at the Festival on the Green event.  When I say face paint, I mean SIX hours straight of not just squabbling siblings, or "don't touch that"s and "get that out of your mouth"s, but also seis horas of funny snippets of conversations, improved brush strokes and fresh faced canvas.


I recall being impressed with parents' creativity to convince their kid(s) that the taffy and cupcake display of bath products at the Lily and Eve booth right next to the line, was not for eating.  If ever they want to indulge their kids with a candy bath, however, then they should have picked up a pack or two.  I'm not sure how long the line was, but I got an idea from comments about waiting for an hour to get their turn.  But I wasn't worried, and continued to give each kid my focused attention.  I can also still visualize those priceless expressions from those kids when they saw their finished face. 

The entire day was such a blur, I liken it to running marathons.  Complete with bodiless arms handing over snacks and drinks as well as holding your pee for longer than you should. 

I cannot recall the last time I allowed myself the luxury of painting for that many hours.  Releasing the tension due to the lack of an artistic outlet, multiplied by the eagerness in children.  It's no wonder I was still energized at the after "party" dinner at Van Gogh's Ear, despite having only four hours of sleep the night before.  I'm sure it was the reason I felt a smile creep on my face as I went to bed that evening.  Possibly also the reason I was able to focus an entire day on writing papers and studying for exams the following day.  But, definitely the reason I put myself out there to provide face painting as a service  Wish me luck!

Help Wanted: Soda Drinker

Museo Pambata display

When diy projects are successful, we show off and take photos in all sorts of angles with varied backgrounds.  However, when a bowl made of magazine scraps result in what looks like a giant wad of chewed up gum, we toss the whole thing and forget it even happen.  And that's why you don't see any photos of that thing in this post.  Instead, here are photos of my new hanging "pot" made out of a soda bottle.  I got this idea visiting the Museo Pambata, (at right) a children's interactive museum in Manila, PI.  Since we don't drink soda, it took a while to acquire the one bottle.  I still have a few smaller plants outside enduring the temperature changes waiting for someone to come by and finish another bottle of soda.  In the meantime, the one strawberry plant is saved.


Materials:

• empty and rinsed soda bottle
• marker
• box cutter
• string
• drill

Procedure:

1. drill a hole through the center of the bottom of the bottle large enough to thread the string through
2. drill another hole through the bottle cap.   
3. thread the string through the holes.  cut the string to 2 pieces, and knot off each end to keep string from getting through the holes.
4. draw 2 large squares and cut out using the box cutter
5. fill the rounded end with soil and insert plant.
6. hang bottle up-side-down with bottle cap pointing down..

 I cut the string I'm holding and knotted it off to keep the string from falling through the holes.

bottom string allows the water to filter on to the next bottle (coming soon) or a planter.

Future Shock Absorbers

I went to Barnes and Noble the other day.  Walking in, I noticed a slew of Zombie books... an entire display of zombie books.  I'm not the one to shirk at zombie themed media, but has anyone else noticed an emergence of apocalyptic themes?  NOT post apocalyptic as they did with the Mad Max movies in the 80s, but in the process of....a present day realization that the ish hit the fan.  Even the Planet of the Apes took it back to present day to explain how primates took over the future with Rise of the Planet Apes released this year.

In a way Hollywood has given us an outlet to our current economic environmental problems.  Can't make your mortgage payment today?  Not to worry, bankers won't hound you anymore because they've been replaced by zombies.  The price of gas went up another couple of dollars due to limited oil resources?  Who cares! We are going to somehow figure out how to jump through a wormhole to live in another planet like in Fox's new show Nova Terra about a fugitive crossing planetary borders only to be hired as a sheriff - not much promise for this future society..

Of course zombies aren't walking around taking over our cities, but cannibalism has been a constant trend in wallstreet where executives are eating up people's livelihood.   And with our brainless, insatiable consumer habits, who's to say we aren't zombies ourselves already.

Scientific discoveries have also fueled our hope that things will be solved and the human race will prevail.  With the discovery of so many planets in the Goldilocks zone (not too hot and not too cold) eventually they'll find a planet we can designate as our new home.   Along with the discovery of a sub-atomic particle faster than the speed of light, it won't be long until we're booking our vacation to Risa (the pleasure planet in Star Trek).

I would say if art imitates life, this is one of those cases.  Except these stories resolve in a way that's comforting to allow us to continue on our destructive and wasteful ways.