Highway to Happy

I am the absolute impulsive buyer- when it comes to nerdy things associated with my favorite activity: READING. What an exciting life I have, right? Thumb things, silly (often never used) bookmarks, electronic dictionaries, even a bookmark dictionary, plus a rechargeable booklight- I own all those. The moment I see reading accessories in Fully Booked, I get magnetized. The few times I was able to let go of an item, I lost sleep and returned to the bookstore the very next day.

Despite this seemingly uncontrollable nerdy spending, there is one reading gadget I know I will never purchase. Okay, NEVER is such a final term. But I’m sure I wouldn’t crave having one in the near future.

Electronic Readers

There was a brief phase I seriously contemplated on getting one. But while I was surfing the net for reviews on Kindle and Nook, I found myself typing the URL of my favorite porn site: Bookshelf Porn, that is. It brought me back to my ultimate dream of having my very own library. Few clicks into the site and I was off to daydream about my future batcave. And the plan of buying a Kindle was thrown out the window, too.

Last week, though, I made a step into paperless reading, since I’m aware this is more nature-friendly and I have to de-clutter my room somehow. There is a compromise I am willing to make, in spite of my 'owning a library' dream. And it is this:

OFFICEMATES/FRIENDS

We spent the entire long weekend… how else?.. working! Trying our very best to beat an impossible deadline. Spending those grueling hours seemed more than bearable, fun, even, because of these people. In between temple run breaks, endless exchanges of witty remarks and long dinner breaks, we managed to keep each other sane, while producing quality outputs, of course.

The last couple of years spent with these people feel more like an extension of College than a first job: nurturing new friendships, lack of sleep, living off an allowance (thanks to our poor man’s salary) and doing crazy things without any worries.

Adults who know better will always warn you to never, ever accept a job just because of the salary. I am sure as hell not guilty of that.

Working for money is so overrated. Try working for friends.

Tuesday night dinner at Kitchen, Greenbelt 3

We are a bunch of fun-loving, crazy, sarcastic people. The picture above was taken during our first outside-of-school group meeting initiated by a “Let’s have UBE, groupmates!” text invitation. UBE stands for “ultimate bonding experience”, which was very fitting since we spent more hours sharing snippets of our personal lives than the actual finals presentation planning. The controversial topic for the night was, of course, love. We all willingly shared whatever's on top of our brains until it got too late we had to cut our bonding short.

Since we were all stressed out that night, we ended our UBE with a round of drinks.

A first for me

Our professor told us that the people we meet in her class will be the friends we will keep throughout the program. If she happens to be right, honestly, I wouldn't mind.

A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever



Neil Gaiman says it all.
This year I'm taking my cue from this genius.

Most people have vision boards. I have a cluttered office wall full of post-its. HAD. I accumulated more than 20 inspiring notes throughout the past year. Each one symbolizes a certain phase of 2011. I figured it would be fulfilling to look back using these colorful pieces of paper.

Here are the ones worth sharing:

I specifically remember writing this one to remind me to take my MBA entrance exam. Initially, my plan was to do it in June but other things came up, had to miss a term and finally took the exam late August.

This Santa NEVER fails!