 How difficult is it to follow indications? "Elevator capacity: 12 people" The Korean students in my building obviously could not comprehend this. A million of them crammed into our office building's elevator and promptly plunged down to their deaths.
Well I exaggerate of course. Hindi sila namatay pero nahulog ang elevator thereby making all the tenants of this building suffer. Thank God we're just in the 3rd floor but sometimes it sucks to have to walk up flights of stairs.
But as they say, when life throws you a watermelon, (shit mabigat ata iyon!) you make a watermelon shake with extra butong pakwan! So exercise kami ngayon. Yey! 100 calories will be gone soon!!!
Till then let this be a lesson to everyone to follow instructions! Time to walk down!
 After much waiting I finally got my headshot!!! Project Headshot is the genius brainchild of photographer Nico Cosme whose dream is to unite people through their social networking sites. Hence he engaged in this Headshot Project so that people can have a fantastic photograph that they can use for their online identity. I was one of the fortunate 200 who got shot by this upcoming dynamic photographer. Nico has already gone through Vietnam and Cambodia. His next stop will be Thailand, so to all you guys there stay tuned for his Bangkok trip.
I'm also excitedly waiting for the KL leg. I just might drop by to say hi to my friends there.
Till then ciao and in the spirit of Project Headshot: One World... Peace everybody!
 Throughout my career as an advertising writer, I searched for the perfect notebook. Most of my friends ask me, "why hunt for a paper notebook when you already have a laptop?" Despite being a technology buff, I'm sure a lot of you can agree with me that nothing beats the thrill you get when you jot down your thoughts on a clean sheet of paper. Sometimes, the thoughts are well organized. Other times, they are a random mess of incoherence that needs further processing. Nonetheless, during these moments it pays to have a notebook at hand to record that fleeting thought.
I've hunted high and low for the perfect notebook for me. Some notebooks I park after writing on just a few pages because something just isn't right about it. Sometimes, the paper is rough that it resists the flow of the pen. Other times, the paper sucks up so much ink and disperses it leaving ugly streaks where clean lines should be. So the perfect notebook for me is one that has a good clean smell and paper that is so smooth that one's pen flies over it with relative ease.
The search for my notebook came to an end last Christmas when my good friend from Hong Kong, Carol Fadri gifted me with a Moleskin planner. When I first saw the gift, I was actually excited because I have always been curious about the Moleskin line but was never invested in it enough to actually purchase one (it's bloody expensive to begin with!) So you can imagine my elation to finally receive one. I unwrapped it and savored the subtle scent of leather in the cover and as is my custom, I immediately brought the sheets near my nose and quickly sniffed the intoxicating fragrance of paper. I wrote my name on the notebook to brand it and it was love. The paper is creamy and my pens glide over them with such smoothness that it's hard to imagine. This first love is coming to an end soon as Carol's planner is about to run out of sheets.
So today, while waiting to get my Headshot, I decided to invest in my second Moleskin. It will be about a week before I can use it but I cannot wait to start my new romance with this fine specimen of notebook.
Here's to six more months of notetaking!
  While waiting for my Headshot, I decided to take this test that I saw in Ram's website and I was impressed to see that it is quite spot on. What do you guys think? Tama ba?
Dynamic Thinkers are confident and independent persons. They radiate enthusiasm and energy. Dynamic Thinkers pursue their objectives actively and energetically. They love nothing better than new challenges. This type is the born leader, competent, energetic and responsible. They have a sharp eye for errors and can criticise without mercy if they see the success of a project endangered. They are completely unconcerned as to whether they alienate anyone in the process. But they are always open to objective arguments; they love discussions, they are very gifted rhetorically and they are good at convincing and enthusing others.
As they are very sociable, Dynamic Thinkers like to have a lot of friends around them, preferably those with whom they can share their interests and discuss all sorts of subjects. They are very direct but never in an underhand or scheming manner. If you can bear being spoken to frankly, you have in them a loyal and unwavering advisor as friend. Everything new and unknown stimulates Dynamic Thinkers and awakens their curiosity. However, rules, routine and traditional things arouse their resistance. If something does not go the way they want it to, they can react rather pigheadedly and obstinately.
Dynamic Thinkers expect a great deal of themselves and of others. Whoever does not fit in with their scheme of things does not have it easy. They sometimes appear to be rather severe due to their frankness. Partners and family also find it difficult to satisfy Dynamic Thinkers. They know exactly what they want and compromising is inconceivable to them. Whoever has an Dynamic Thinker as partner should have a strong personality and have a great deal of independence and sufficient self-confidence in order to give this dominating type some opposition. Normally, for Dynamic Thinkers, a partnership only takes second place after their profession. But they like to have someone at their side who is a match for them intellectually, with whom they can pursue mutual objectives and have interesting discussions all night long; preferably factual discussions - sentimentalism and romance are not their thing.
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Adjectives which describe your typeextroverted, theoretical, logical, planning, rational, self-confident, ambitious, direct, open, severe, organised, determined, witty, independent, purposeful, dynamic, energetic, optimistic, competent, responsible, clever, intellectual, enthusiastic, demanding, structured, controlled, aggressive
These subjects could interest youliterature, sport (golf, tennis, running), travel, career, strategy games, politics
  To gym or not to gym, that is the question that is before me. Obviously the answer is yes. At 32, I'm not getting any younger so exercise is very critical to me and my health. My girth is increasing as we speak (although some of the expansion was stopped by a well-regimented diet) and my resistance is now back to my pre-flab days. So time to buckle down and sign up for a gym. Now comes the million dollar question... what gym do I sign up for?
And this is a question which I need you guys to help me decide.
Fitness First or Gold's Gym?
Paging all the gym buffs and bunnies out there. Please help me in this discernment process that I may make a choice that will not only benefit my physical health but my financial one as well!
 Shoes have been my weakness! Just while I was in KL, I managed to accumulate over 20 pairs of shoes. That's an average of 1.66667 shoes per month!!!! So I made a resolution to curtail my shoe spending. The ultimate test came when there was a sale in People are People and I stumbled upon a pair of loafers that I like.
Did I buy them? NO! BWAHAHA! Success!!!!
Now, sana I manage to resist the urge next time!
Happiness seems to be in everybody's mind these days. Over the last week, I have had many discussions with friends about happiness which prompted me to ask myself the question: "where can happiness be found?"
Happiness seems to be so elusive. I have friends who are single who are unhappy about being single and I have attached friends who are equally unhappy. On the flipside of the coin, I also have friends who are both happy being single or coupled. So what is the mystical secret of happiness? At first, the answer seemed to be quite elusive until, little by little, God seemed to have intervened directly in sharing with me the answer. The last few weeks have been a seeming endless following of affirmations to what constitutes happiness and the culmination of this affirmation happened last weekend when I stumbled into our Parish's Life in the Spirit Seminar (LSS).
Mind you, this LSS was not MY LSS. It was my sister's LSS and my role there was to simply drop by and affirm my sister. But God moves you in ways you don't expect. One of the key messages that I picked up doing the LSS was the message that happiness comes when you accept your circumstances and abandon yourself to them. One of the core messages of the LSS is the need to abandon yourself to the will of God. To let go and let God. For many years I have wrestled with what this meant and during this weekend a little bit of the curtain was drawn back. Why does abandonment make us happy? Because when I abandon myself to God's will I suddenly am effused with the peace that comes from knowing that WHATEVER circumstances I am in, God has moved me there in His infinite wisdom for my own benefit. God has seen the past, present and future. His putting me where I am means that that is the perfect place for me to be in to achieve what He wants for me. And since God doesn't make mistakes, siguro this is the best place talaga! Wow what a mind blowing thought. If I'm single, happiness! If I'm attached, happiness! If I returned to Manila, happiness!
Abandonment rocks and its actually the key that unlocks happiness. Once we learn to be happy where we are at the moment, it opens the doors to God's blessings.
End of sharing! Back to work!
 I wonder what happens at this point?
Ma-pipick up ba ako?
Hmmm, curious minds want to know.
 Last Saturday, while waiting for Made of Honor, Jolina, Stacey and I stumbled upon the Deal or No Deal Video Game in ATC. We had time to kill so we decided to plunk some cash down (actually Jolina did, Stacey and I just leeched off her Powercard. THANKS JOLS!) for a game of Deal or No Deal.
For a game that has nothing to do with skill and purely to do with luck IT WAS SO BLOODY STRESSFUL!!! I got so stressed to the point that my eyes watered!
My worst game was giving up 50 tickets that the banker offered me in exchange for 3 in my suitcase. Huhuhu.
Well losing fifty tickets I guess is okay. Much better than losing a million dollars I suppose. So here's to the next stressful game of DEAL OR NO DEAL!
 An honest to goodness bottle opener! Haven't used one of these since grade school! 
 Here's my proud Filipino shot in front of the Avon Breast Care Center in PGH!
Thanks to Angelo Aquino who conceptualized this fantastic project where he aims to feature over a thousand Proud Filipinos!
More power Angelo and great project!
   Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu!!!! It's 12 midnight and I'm still at work. The price for pitches I suppose! This week is yet another mega-pitch week. I have some pitches tomorrow, some on wednesday. Thank God for a respite on Thursday but more pitches on Friday! Arrghhh!!!
I hope that we win most of them.
Well to relieve myself of stress while brainstorming I decided to take a trip to Paris, the Pacific Ocean and Yosemite Park. Ahhh the joys of a holodeck.
PAGOD NA AKO! I WANT TO GO HOME!
  Since time immemorial I have always been misconstrued to be a doctor. People who do not know me automatically assume that I am a practitioner of the medical arts. However, thanks to Annie Carpio MD, I am now an certified Medical Doctor as well. The secret to my Doogie Howser success? Med School in a Box! A quick education in the medical arts guaranteed to provide you with an honest to goodness Medical Degree, in LATIN no less?
In one day, I breezed through the course and graduated with flying colors. So now, everyone of you may address me as Dr. Francis Miranda MD.
Now if you'll excuse me, I will now begin my specialization in UROLOGY and NEUROSURGERY. I should be done by tonight.
Till then, stay healthy!
   I had a rather interesting morning. I was in a client's office early for a presentation so before I went up to show my slides I decided to review them at the cafe at the first floor of their office building. The blend of my interest was the "alamid" blend. Why is this quite intriguing for a hardy coffee drinker like me? Well the process by how "alamid" is made is what makes for an interesting coffee table experience.
The alamid is the Philippine Civet Cat. It lives in the provinces of the Philippines, specifically where coffee plants are grown. The reason being is that it feasts on coffee cherries. It eats them whole, including the coffee bean. And this is where the miracle, or depending on how you look at it, the grossness happens. The bean passes through the alamid's gastrointestinal system where enzymes curdle and process it. The animal then shits out the beans which are gathered by the farmers, cleaned, roasted and brought to stores to be savored by curious animals like myself.
So there I was, with a cup of steaming alamid coffee. How was the experience? Let's put it this way, I took one sip and all my eyes bursted open. This was a stronger blend from the Starbucks fare that I have been used to. By noon, my heart was still palpitating. A unique experience to say the least. Who would've thought that shitty coffee would be this good?
I'd definitely try it again but for now I will content myself with the knowledge that I have ingested something that passed through another animals intestinal track.
Bon apetit everyone!
 | [none] | Jun 6, '08 9:28 PM
for everyone |
 Impressive! There's signal in the open seas!
| [none] | Jun 6, '08 8:11 PM
for everyone |
 It's a long weekend and to celebrate our freedom from corporate responsibilities we've decided to hie off to Corregidor. Kris, Stacey and i packed our bags at six am and boarded our boat to Corregidor. So here we are moving out of Manila Bay. Francis signing out! See you on the island!
 I took the mrt today because i needed to go to Trinoma for an ocular. Its no Singapore or even Kl mrt but it gets the job done. Its reasonably clean and aside from the crowd its quite comfortable. Breezed through Edsa in cold comfort while all the motorists on the road had to contend with horrible traffic. It got me thinking on how wonderful life in metro manila would be if we had trains cris-crossing the city. Not only do we save the environment but we also save our wallets from the horrible assault it gets from rising oil prices. I really hope that we have more trains. Look its my station now. Ten minutes and i'm where i need to be. Cheers!
 Change always necessitates some adjustment. My one month in Manila has been an experiment in trying to find out what schedule works for me. I used to have the mistaken notion that waking up late and leaving the house late would save me a ton of pain from traffic. Then I realized that waking up early actually saves me that and helps me get a ton of work done. The last two days I have been leaving the house at 700AM and wow... ZERO TRAFFIC! I love it! I'm in the office by 7:30 with enough time to leisurely sit down read the papers, drink some coffee and write some coffee.
And yes, also time to camwhore.
Wala lang... time to get back to work!
  Hospitals have never been my thing. Ever since my mom got sick and we had to make the rounds of hospitals all over Manila I have always been a bit wary of them, which is quite funny considering that everyone seems to think that I am a doctor.
This morning I had to not only go to a hospital but I also had to visit the Cancer center of the Philippine General Hospital. The purpose of my visit was to talk to women who were fighting breast cancer for an audio-video presentation I was working on for Avon. The reason for the video is to help garner support for this great work that Avon was doing for breast cancer survivors in the Philippines. To this effect I went to the Avon Breast Care Center which is a facility within the breast center of PGH that helps underprivileged women fight this disease through free chemotherapy as well as support groups. I was asked to join their monthly support group where I was to moderate in an attempt to find nice stories to tell in our video.
In the room were around 20 women of different ages all united in one thing, each of them had breast cancer. Some have been battling the disease for only a few months, whereas others were survivors for over a dozen years. It's in sharing stories that each of them find strength. And boy what moving stories were these. Being poor they each narrated how they had to scrounge the city for support to help them pay for their next chemotherapy. How some of them, nauseated from the last bout of chemo had to go home to a giant mountain of laundry. They narrate stories of a woman whose bone mets were so severe that her legs shattered while walking, yet despite this they still forge forward fighting for their lives.
The women there all shared one common thing. It's the appreciation of tomorrow. How many of us are thankful when we wake up in the morning? On occasion, I have found myself rueing the fact that its another morning. Yet for these women, every day is a blessing from above. Every morning is beautiful and a birthday is a milestone because of the uncertainty they face on whether they will be around to blow the candles next year. These women have looked at death in the face and have shrugged their shoulders. Cancer they say, allowed them to talk about death and cease to be afraid of it. A spunky grandmother with white hair surprised me when she started talking about her being prepared for her funeral if and when it happens. Such spunk and energy surprised me because she talked about her coffin selections with such cheerfulness. For most of them cancer is a blessing because it allowed them to refocus their lives on what counts. For a person who lost his mother to cancer, I found it hard to swallow that but I definitely saw the truth in it.
I left PGH moved. I was inspired by the strength of these women and awed at how much good can come out of companies who decide to plunk a portion of their earnings and share it with the less fortunate. The Avon Breast Care center is a small attack in the great battle against cancer but a invaluable front it is. If every company out there dedicated a portion of what they earn to helping others, I'm sure our country would be a better place indeed. Thank you Avon for the great work you've done and to the new lolas I've met, God bless your strong hearts and keep on fighting!
And yes, everyone once more thought I was a doctor. For some weird reason everyone in the room thought that I was an oncologist until the end of the session when they asked me where I was practicing my oncology to which I said, uhm... i'm not an oncologist. They laughed and said that I looked like an oncologist. Kulang na lang, white coat. So I suppose I should've been a doctor. Hahaha! Too late for that now!
The founder of Opus Dei, St. Josemaria had a saying in Spanish that goes, "Para servir, servir." It's a play of words because in Spanish, servir can mean "to serve" but it can also mean "to be useful." So string it up together it means, "to be useful serve." Such a strong statement that strikes me to this very day. Oftentimes we find meaning in our lives in the mistaken notion that WE should be served. Most of us work our asses off to rise up the corporate ladder so that we become bosses and have people do our bidding or even servants to do our things for us.
How many times have we forgotten the Biblical phrase uttered by Jesus himself, "the Son of Man came, not to be served but to served." Service has always been at the heart of my being although there are a lot of moments when I've forgotten this fact and have focused on wanting to be served. Going back to Manila and being reunited with my Singles Family reawakened this in me again. Ever since I came back, I felt like I was being moved to serve in the Teaching ministry. I guess it springs from my love of teaching. Truth be told, it's a misconception of people that my passion is fellowship. The reality of the situation is that my love has always been teaching, although one thing I have always learnt is to serve where one is called to serve.
After all the responsibilities thrown on me in KL, I suddenly desired to serve in teaching as a plain jane member. No intention of having a servant-leader role because I realized how fun it was to be just an SE member. Everything changed until dinner with my shepherd May last week. During dinner, I told her I was being moved to teaching and that I wanted to help institutionalize a formation program for the Singles Apostolate. She said that she liked my idea and wanted me to consider another idea of hers: "Would I want to be the teaching tricoord?"
If photographers were there, they would've snapped a shot of me worthy of the gossip websites. My jaws literally dropped and I asked her: "Uhm are you joking?" May said nope.I felt like a train ran into me. What a wicked sense of humor God has. Not even in Manila for one month and I get thrust into another position of responsibility. Well, time to put my money where my mouth is. If I'm wanted to serve in this capacity, then by golly I'm gonna. So I said yes.
Post-yes, aftermath. How do I feel? Excited yet scared. Teaching is such a big responsibility but I'm sure that with the help of my fellow tricoordy, depty-tricoords and teaching team, we're going to serve this apostolate the way she wants to be served. All I ask I guess is prayers that I'm strong enough to overcome my weaknesses and serve as a good teacher to this apostolate.
So guys, pray for us ha?
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