Game of Words

It's scrabble time.....

I, together with my SFC buddies, Satty McScotty, Rob Cabalsa, Jefferson Alfaro spent our time playing scrabble on Thursday night. Good thing it's Friday the next day and we are all on a rest day.


Below were our recorded scores. Happy to have won in three separate games. But I lost in Game 5 with a score of 75 due to my inattentiveness. I was busy watching you tube videos of Billy Crawford during his stint in France. We all knew that Billy was famous then in all of Europe popularizing the hit songs "Keep on Trackin' and "Bright Lights". It also reminded me of my once presence in his major concert in the Philippines way back in 2006. To know more about Billy, please click this link Billy Crawford

I don't know if this will have a succession. I mean, if we'll still have a round two and so on. I hope so to at least be challenged and maintain my rank. LoL. hahaha! I've always been competitive in any of the sports game or mental exercises I've competed into. I still have this kind of attitude with me due to my stint in quiz bees in my college life.


We finished at around 3am since Rob was a bit tipsy already. Jeff and Rob had their share of  the famous "sadike"--a formulated but not regulated nor underwent quality inspection liquor here. As we all know, liquors are banned here in the kingdom. And if caught in the act, a severe punishment of I guess 50 lashes plus the reality of immediate deportation confronts the offender.


So, for the record, I never tried it and have no plan in the future. Good night guys! Oh sorry, it's good mornight na pala!


Keep safe you all. God bless -:)

Torture

-----00000-----

Dito sa loob sa kabila ng dingding

Sa likod ng pinto sa gitna ng dilim

Lumakad, tumayo, humiga, umupo

Isip lumilipad sa malayong-malayo

-----00000-----

Wala doon, wala dito

Wala sa kanya kundi na sa iyo

Ang umaga, ang tanghali, ang gabi, ang hapon

At ang bawat sandali ng bawat panahon

-----00000-----

Dito sa silid sa sulok sa gilid

Sa taas ng sahig, sa ibabaw ng banig

Bumiling biling, pumikit' dumilat

Diwa'y gising at kalat-kalat

-----00000-----

Hindi bangungot hindi panaginip

Hindi guni-guni o gawa ng isip

Sulyap sa saloobin ng isang hapo

Kapiraso ng pangarap na malabong malabo

-----00000-----

Dito sa ngayon, sa harap ng kasalukuyan

Sa likod ng kahapon, ikatlo sa kinabukasan

Nakaupo, nag-iisip sa gitna ng dilim

Naghahanap ng matulis na patalim

Wala doon, wala dito, walang makita ni kahit anino.

An Act of Silence

"I think a man who lives right and is right has more power in his silence than another man has by his words." - Phillip Brooks


And so I set the record straight. I'll pay more attention to silence. Silence will be my company for now. And as the title would speak I'll let it act on its own time. If you'd ask me how long will it take me, the answer is "uncertain". I just let things the way it is now and will just focus on all the highly important elements in my life now.


I am slowly disintegrating myself to what I consider less important. I'm detaching from it. I'm putting myself in isolation. More so like a solitary confinement. 


Indeed, time has flown so fast and like a water in a stream noisily running down through so fast, I can't bring back the time I've lost. The time where I could have said "I could have done this and done that". But, as they say, God has His reason for any single thing we experience. All I could do is to just see the wisdom in all of those things and learn from it. Capture it, hold it, and move on.


And I am moving on. And part of this journey is detaching myself from all the less important elements in me. Part of it is to create separate ways, moving on a separate path.


I'll create another world for me. I'll embark on new friendship. And yeah, I have started already and will nurture what is constantly blossoming.


This is my solid attempt to break out from the monotony of my life. I feel the need to and I will do it. Much has been said, words has its own sour bites in me.


All I can do is to take on a challenge which I will set for myself. A challenge not motivated by the prodding words of people around me. But it's more of a self-cry to change, more of an inner need to face the revolution within me.


And so the silent battle is on.

---------------00000---------------

The Dryness of Spirit in Me?

Marahil ay di na naging lingid sa inyo magiliw kong mambabasa kung bakit parang madalang pa sa patak ng ulan ang aking entry nitong mga nakaraang araw? or isang linggo na yata.


May pinagdadaanan lang ng personal ang inyong lingkod.


Kagaya ng nakasulat sa pamagat, nakakaranas ako ngayon ng "weakening of the spirit". -- ito yong tinatawag na "spiritual dryness". Ouchh! parang ang lalim ba? Oo, malalim nga yata kasi there comes a point na I feel like my spirit is not ablaze. I feel like I'm so weak inside. All my vulnerabilities attacked me.


Maging ako man ay di ko naiintindihan ang aking sarili sa mga nangyayari ngayon. Maging sa pagsusulat ay biglang di ako naging interesado. Parang ayaw ko ng magsulat.


Sa mga nakakakilala sa akin ng husto, ito'y isang maaaring nakakagulat na pahayag. Batid kasi nila kung gaano ako kakulet or ka "ligalig" kapag kasama nila ako.


Pero, nilalabanan ko naman ang aking sitwasyon. Alam kung pagsubok lang ito. Ang nakakatawa at nakakainis na rin eh kung paanong parang di na ako nasanay sa mga challenges na dumadating sa akin. Parang tuwing may bagong dating, I feel like I'm always a newbie to it. 


Ganunpaman, kakayanin ko ang lahat ng ito. Maaaring nakaramdam lang ako ng mga pressures these past days kaya siguro bumigay ang emotional side ko. Plus, di pa maganda ang pakiramdam ko physically. Siguro nagkahalo-halo na rin.


Siguro nga napapanahon na. Napapanahon ng magkaroon ako ng "unclogging of unwanted elements in me". Kaya I'm looking forward na  to going back sa Pilipinas para makabisita nang muli sa aking favorite spot-- ang Blessed Sacrament ng Nature Church sa Las Pinas -- ang lugar kung saan ako naging member ng SFC (Singles For Christ). Doon ko ibubuhos ang lahat ng mga dapat kung ipagtapat sa diyos. Doon ko nanamnamin ang pakikipag-usap sa Panginoon in silence. Kung saan ako'y magiging isang listener lang. 


Kung nangangailangan man ng pagpatak ng luha ang magiging tagpong iyon, then so be it. Thy will be done!

Making A Memory

They were born

They breathe in & breathe out

They shared a life

They’ve dwelled for a while

They laughed, sometimes needed a cry

They inspired

They lit up

They shone down

They struggled

Yet didn’t survive

To those departed loved ones

Making a memory for once

Is a thousand and one night in an instant

THANK YOU

For a short-lived encounter

P.S. --> My own way of paying tribute to the departed ones

A Domino of Bad Luck

WARNING: This post isn't so interesting, it may bore you up. Don't risk or else you'll regret reading it. LoL!


I've had a nice sleep last night though mine only fitted for five hours since it's almost midnight when we've finished our rosary prayer intention for bro. Ronnie Bautista.


I opened my eyes at around 5:30 in the morning - my usual waking time. But, since it's still comfy to sleep I luckily managed to snatch almost an hour of extended sleep. And when the clock hits at 6:30 in the morning I finally rose up and fixed myself and the bed. By the way I slept at the "House of Voices" since bro. Sattie McScotty requested my presence that night.


Had to woke him up since I need to go back to my flat to fix myself up for office. And so he quickly ran to the shower room and had his bath. 


We left at around 7:00am and since no traffic disturbed us, we arrived in my flat at around 7:15am.  Had to rush up since I'm staying at the third floor of the building. I got in and opened my room. Immediately, I pick up my towel and under garment and quickly entered our shower room. Believed me, I finished consuming only a five minutes shower session. Gone out of the bathroom and dressed up and bingo! I'm done. It was like I'm competing for a Guinness World Record contest. 


And so I went down, a really fast paced walk was the scenario early morning. Luckily, I reached our office at exactly 7:30 in the morning. Whew! the exact time where I should get in. Quickly gone up and sat down at my office station. Opened my PC and started my daily routine. Then, suddenly I remember we have a schedule training today and nine o'clock is the call time. This is a further training for me in the system and to Talal, Bassam and Abdullah their first since they are newbies in our company.


While waiting for the nine o'clock time, I busied myself doing routine works: follow-up purchasing emails, inquiry for new suppliers, calling suppliers for our orders, a routine Skype chat/talk with our representative in China (Engr. Adil), and the enslaving daily stock transfer encoding in the system. I can't put all my works here--running it down would literally showing my work closet. LoL! 


So when was the domino effect of bad luck happened? Where did it all started?


Here's the story of my not-so-good day of November 02, 2011. I don't know if it has something to do with the observation of the "All Souls Day" or it's just a coincidence.


We headed to the training center "Motakamel Office". I was with four office mates summing up to five people. We arrived at around 9:15am. We had a short chat with the trainer and after that we proceeded to the formal module of the topic. I won't elaborate what it was since it won't matter to you.


The training went on until 1:00PM. It was really weird when I realized that I failed to bring my keys with me. It was stucked in my office table's drawer. And the dilemma started to fill in. So, a domino effect for the bad luck I got today really stressed me out.


As a result of forgotten set of keys, I wasn't able to get back to my flat for my lunch. We have a two-shift schedule at work and it's the reason why I always go home for lunch.  My mobile was in low battery and eventually emptied. I tried to call using Abdullah's mobile one of our office mates who has the office key but his mobile was off. I tried another one but to my surprised he didn't have the key too. Feeling frustrated, I just gave a big sigh. I was inside the car of Abdullah and even Abdullah and Talal were like a bit worried about me since worst case scenario was that "I'll be staying outside and wait until the 3:00 prayer finished. 


Talal offered me his flat to stay while I wait for the prayer time (sallah prayer). But he told me that he'll be back in the office at 4:30pm and I can't afford that since I have lots of things to accomplished. Losing an hour would really make a difference. Plus he was staying in Khobar. So, since I was riding with Abdullah's car I just told him to drop me by at a Filipino Restaurant. At least I can spend more than half an hour of eating my lunch for the purpose of killing the time. But I was forced to went out since the restaurant closes before prayer time. I was forced to leave and stay in front of our office for almost an hour since I got out of the restaurant at around 2:30 and office time is 3:30. 


Now, I was like a wanderer trying to fit in to the street. I stayed for an hour outside our office. I can't even peek in to my mobile since the battery was empty. Boredom quickly sets in and I hate it big time.


But, I did what I'm at best. I just write this article to kill the remaining time before our office resume. And this entry was like a non-sense to me. It's like a narration of a stressed individual clouded with frustration for a domino effect of unexpected things today.


LoL! At least I still was able to use my boredom to write this. 

Gone Too Soon

Life is so short..............


Life is full of surprises. It may bring you one great wide smile yet put you in tears in a wink of an eye.


You can be caught unprepared. It's like a sun that rises in the morning and sets before dusk.


Truth to what late Michael Jackson's lines in his famous song Gone Too Soon which says: "Like a comet blazin' across the evening sky; Gone too soon. Like a rainbow fading in a twinklin' eye; Gone too soon." This is how I can relate the sudden loss of a dear brother in SFC whose life has been so colorful during his time with us.


It's like he was just here the other day and gone the other night.


It's so devastating. We can never measure up how we are affected of his sudden demise. All that we could think of are those moments when we're still together, laughing our hearts out, collectively putting all our might serving God in a very strict land.


But now, he's gone. He will never come back. We won't see him face to face again. We will never have the chance to hear his voice.  Never will we experience again the tenderness of his attitude. The selfless brother who always offer anything for the community. A brother who would choose to walk under the blistering heat of the sun just to attend our household meeting or activities in our community.


Now, who will graciously offer us free donuts even without asking? Who will call in the middle of the night and tell endless stories of loneliness, of triumph, of hope,  of encouragement, and of faith? Who will cook our favorite "sinigang na ulo ng lapu-lapu" for the Dammam Boys --one of our favorites and his expertise?


No more Ronnie Bautista. It pains us realizing that we never got the chance to know the full extent of his sufferings. We never got the chance to step up with our help when we're needed the most.


Bro. Ronnie, you will be dearly missed. Eventhough, we can never fathom the deep of God's reason for choosing you to depart early yet we know you are safe and secure in His loving arms. We may have run short of our goodness to you when we're together but God will fill the missing part under his care.


Goodbye bro. We will cherish the good memories, the unsolicited advices that we gained from you and we'll try to emulate the unparalleled love and passion for service that you've shown to us.


May you REST IN PEACE.


God bless you......

A Hopeful Expecting Less

The last time I entered a contest or a competition was way back in college. During my quiz bee stints inside the campus and inter-university competitions.

My last memory of losing was when I participated in a "Brain Twister" in Holy Trinity College in Quezon City wherein I just ranked 8 out of 33 participants. It's a brain drain though. Competing against the toughest kids from the likes of UP-D, UST, PUP, PLM, Ateneo and etc. brought me in awe. I just can't believe I'm among them. It was like "do I belong here" kind of feeling. LoL. Doubting as I was, I just concentrated and did my thing. In the end, I lost. Though, I would say it's a graceful loss. A real fighter never quits and despite on a losing end, still finishes the battle.

I guess I've had 5 quiz bees wherein I've participated way back in college. It's enjoyable yet brought high amount of pressure as you are prodded to review and review...again and again.

It had been my attitude ever since I joined in a contest to be hopeful yet expecting less. As I'm constantly reminded of the floods of disappointment if I set the bar one step higher. 

Another solid motivation to write & inspire more

And this year, I feel like I'm a newbie once again in a competition. Well, for one, I didn't explore this kind of a battle--writing competition? Are you sure? that's what I pressed on myself. I'm not even a communication arts graduate neither had a degree in mass communication or journalism. Though that was my first choice before I ended my high school saga. But, triggered by my strong belief that "To be excellent is not confined only to those who had their expertise in their chosen field, but it also favors the heart of a determined Juan". And so I went in to join this year's Middle East Conference "Reflection Writing Contest".

My love for writing pushed me to participate, plus the support of those SFCs who believed in me boosted at par my confidence. The twist was this, "when I saw the email coming from our yahoo groups I got excited and murmured to myself saying "I'll join this one". Few days after, bro. Aris Espanola also told me to try joining and encourage other SFCs to participate as well. And so I did what was asked of me. 

The gift for a hopeful expecting less

But, due to my usual pre-occupied schedule and with lots of things constantly running in my mind, I forgot to make my entry early as it could be. Later when I realized that it was the last day already when I saw I guess an email or a FB notifications from the head secretariat warning about that day's deadline. And so I crammed a bit. I was like, will I still make it? will I still compose a credible entry? Lots of questions were flowing in my neuron that put me a little uncomfy and unease.

I read once again the criteria. While reading I came across this statement: "Pray before you write so that you'll be guided by the Holy Spirit". And so I did just that. 

The fruit of my labor

It was early in the afternoon on that deadline day when I finished a 200-words maximum requirements for my entry. Did few revisions and gotcha! I'm done. So, I immediately emailed it for submission in Riyadh for shortlisting.  The idea of shortlisting gave me again the unusual "butterflies in my stomach". Questioning again my credibility and capacity. The dilemma was that, it took another week for the announcement of the final 3 entries for KSA. So the eager me patiently waited. 

Then came the announcement after a week of waiting, I was on break when I received the SMS message from Sis. Jodie and she indirectly broke the good news to me by just saying "check you email". Seeing the words had put me in ecstatic mood. I knew that it was good news. And luckily, I made it as one of the top three contenders from KSA.

Moving ahead, now came the MEC proper. I just asked some SFC and CFC friends to hear over my entry during the announcement. Though I'm hopeful but I've already accepted the idea that "it's not all about winning but the sheer dedication of participating is what mattered to me". And led me to think that in case I win, it just a secondary thing for me. It's like a bonus. A topping in a cake. 

Finally, our former CFC Parents Coordinator here in the East broke the news to me and my good friend Joevan Gertes of Riyadh. Though my entry didnt' bag the top prize, the thought of being given a special award was more than winning the whole thing. It's a gift for my fiancee who celebrated her birthday on the 29th. Intangible at it was, she was delighted of it.

This is the testament of my faith put in writing. A concrete memorabilia that propels my spirit to inspire others, to be of person to others. The willful spirit in me who is a hopeful expecting less.

Follow Me

Follow Me! I'm begging....LoL!


I've started blogging officially last year. As far back as I can recall it was August of 2010 but not so active compared today. I've been writing though but not in blogs. I remember my account in the once famous "friendster". Poor site, I guess it was converted more as gaming site since it was outdone, outwitted, and outsmarted by other social network such as these enslaving and addicting Facebook and Twitter. Not to discount the fact that MySpace, Tumbler, Multiply and etc. had their own followings too.


Now, I'm more addicted to blogging. As a self-acclaim writer (kuno!), I decided to step-up in my writing. A hesitant me took it so long to explore online blogging since I'm the type of homo-sapien whose literally not tech-savvy enough to easily know all about this blogging thing by myself.


Few of my techie-friends would tell me "Jay, you're such a dumb-ass in the tech-world". Yeah, they're so true as I'm not really smart when it comes to technological advances and innovation. Well, perhaps because I'm not really putting my focus into it. Plus the fact that I don't follow trends of any kind. Let's put it this way, "I'm living a simple life" or "I'm trying to simplify my life." Hahaha! Such excuses...hahaha. Uhu! Actually, it's not really an excuse. I've decided to just live by my needs and not by my wants. It's more on necessity than pure luxury.


While peeking to some blog sites earlier, a thought just popped-out of me. I've noticed most of the bloggers have followers more than 20 and holy crap! mine was like 13? How is that? LoL! So, I've decided to search some tips on how to gain followers in my blog. And here are few of the tips I browsed:


Rule #1. Stay on topic: Pick a topic that you love and stick to it. 
Rule #2. Optimize your blog. Learn to use key words to get more traffic in the search engines.
Rule #3. Keep your post short. There are few people that will read anything longer than a few paragraphs.


LoL! And I officially declare those three rules a 100% horse manure, not to mention BORING.


I present to you Single Dad Laughing's revised list.


Rule #1- Write about whatever the heck you want to write about. You can keep some general topics. But if you haven't noticed, SDL is all over the place and most survive the experience intact.
Rule #2- What is optimization? Why worry about search? Somebody clicking in because a friend told them to come visit is 10,000 times powerful than somebody clicking in the search engines. Focus on what will make that happen instead.
Rule #3- Keep it serious? Are you serious? Yes, most of the time, but use however many words you need to use if you're putting an important message out there. The bullying post is somewhere in the area of 4,000 words. That's around 19 pages, double spaced, and in it's first three days it had more than a quarter million views.
Rule #4- In addition to the message, pictures of really cute children in cowboy hats seem to work well too. Attempts at whistling are a big plus.


Rolling on floor while laughing my heart's out! At least the revised rules didn't disappoint me as I'm doing what's stated in there. I mean, most of them. I don't need to worry whether my post would go five miles long. It's up to one interested reader to patiently scroll down and read more. And I'll rely on the "word of mouth" marketing strategy more. LoL! :)


Note on Rules: Excerpts from Dan Pearce article.

The Carpet List

Laughing out loud mode! hahaha.


Look at the title? It should be my bucket list or wish list instead of that one. But since I am working in a place where carpets abound, I just thought it might be a good idea to borrow this word just to make it different. LoL


This post was inspired by Kay's entry "31 Things To Do In One Year". Here's a link of her blog: Life Is Kulayful. It seems cool right? 


I'll be coming back to Manila on Nov. 18, 2011 @4:10pm. That's the exact landing of the plane that will be carrying us back home. So, I think of things I will do while spending my 37 days vacation. I'll list down 20 of 'em. I just hope I'll be able to accomplish these carpet list of mine. If so, then, it would be great. 


1. Visit a bookstore in Alabang Town Center and buy at least 2 new books.
2. Treat my family in a posh restaurant in late November or in my birthday
3. Watch at least 5 great movies 
4. Date with my God's Gift in a very relaxing place somewhere in the South of Manila
5. Meet up with my batchmates/classmates in any day in December.
6. Have a photo-shoot with my family.
8. Walk in the pathways of Intramuros with my soon-to-be-wife.
7. Throw a party on my birthday in Dec. 7
9. Do 7 acts of kindness for my family.
10. Attend an exhibit for "small and medium enterprise" business start-up.
11. Do an apprentice nature photo-shoot using our Nikon DSLR D5100 camera.
12. Hang-out with my "Smashers Badminton Club" in Paseo De Sta.Rosa.
13. Play badminton at least 3-4 times within the duration of my vacation.
14. Attend the mass in all Sundays within Nov. 19-Dec. 27 of 2011.
15. Do a getaway with my wife (this time, we're married already) in any tourist spot accessible by a bus.
16. Jump-start the feasibility study for the business I am brewing. 
17. Compile photos of my family (those which are retrievable and current)
18. Jog at least daily (if I'll stay in my sister's house)
19. Tightly hug my tatay and nanay in my wedding day.
20. Make love with my wife twice a day. LoL. Now, that is darn crazy! hahaha! (It's honeymoon peeps. wheww!-understandable.LoL :)


And last but definitely not the least. @21--Meet fellow bloggers in Manila. LoL. Sorry SweetKay...blame it to my poor memory. Got a memory gap now. LoL. Peace! Peace!


Well, these are my carpet list. Multi-tasking with office work while doing this list is awesome. Two priorities getting done in almost an hour. By the way, accomplishing these things are at random and so never expect it will be done according to the numbers.


Readers! What are your wish list? Feel free to write down you comments. :)