back to blogging

I welcome myself back here to friendster blogs. ;)

Recently, I've been too busy thinking of what topics to post. And in my fickle and disturbed mind,
had already attempted to start two different sites for my blogs. Still, I'm not satisfied with my writings.
Still struggling to have a continuous flow of thoughts that would keep me writing. Not enough exciting
events to write of, insufficient motivation perhaps. Whatever the case, I find myself interested enough
to get my thoughts ready for the next few months of blogging.

More than half of 2007 had past. Much has to be done still. Here's my priority list of goals before
I can happily say goodbye to 2007:

One: Dream house. I have consulted with my father, I call him 'Papa', about my plans of building
our new house in Cavite. I showed him my drafts and rough sketches of a dream house that I
have been eagerly wanting to build. He slightly modified it, asked some questions, resketched
the house, estimated the cost, and have agreed to build it. It's fun drawing where the rooms will be,
where the stairs will be built (it's 2 floors with a rooftop, Papa fondly calls it a 2.5 building),
the overall design in general. I really have a lot to say about this dream house, and pardon me if
this writing has gone in disarray.

I designed it with a Europian castle in my mind. The era of the noble knights. After several revisions,
it now includes modern designs with a lot of modifications to fit my budget. I've chosen three colors
for the house, red, black and white. Up to now, since we started building last April 9,
it is not finished yet. I see my dream house standing proud by summer of 2008. And then my
plan is to prepare it for the graduation days of my brother, taking up Computer Engineering, and my
little sister, a Nursing student. I have to buy furnitures and beddings and curtains and study tables
and book shelves and gym equipments and a billiard table.

It's been very busy, the financing for it is a continuous source of headache and stress for me. Yet, I
consider this project as the best event of my young career. Working close with your family, planning
together, discussing and combining ideas with your loved ones - it has got to be the best!

Two: Boxer's Body. I've been in the gym for a year and a half. I still have a concentration of fats
around my belly. It's not a problem for me, I think its cute. I play with my belly tapping it like a drum.
Hahaha. But then again, the company outing in Cebu this November has got me worried. I have
stopped going into the gym for two months now.

I decided to go through an intensive cardio vascular training to go with the abdominal exercises to
trim my belly fats. It's so hard to maintain the weight training in the gym with my work schedule -
that is a month here in Manila and then the next month in Singapore, then back to Manila the
next month, then to Singapore again. So I just decided to take a boxer's training.

My new training program involves skipping ropes (4 sets with 75-100 repetitions per day), shadow
boxing (two 3-minute rounds of punching, weaving and footwork movements), push ups (30 counts followed by 25
counts for the next set), bicep curls (2 sets of 12 repetitions for each arm), tricep curls (2 sets of
12 repetitions for each arm), leg raises (for the lower abs, 40 counts per leg), crunches (upper abs,
50 counts), rowing crunches (lower and upper abs, 50 counts) and bicycle crunches (for the
oblique abs, 50 counts). I have done these sets of exercises every day except for Saturdays (I help
with the construction of the house) for 8 days now every 11 pm, when I reach home from the office.

That's the Manila schedule. In Singapore I will retain the abdominal exercises and the pushups.
I will be jogging every morning during weekdays except Fridays maybe to rest. And then go to
the hotel's gym during the weekends for weight training.

Three: Mastering C++. I've spent three years being a software engineer. At first, I just wanted to
work to support my family, and then try to get my Masters degree in Electronics Engineering,
preferably in the field of robotics. My work, which I appreciate and love to do, demands a lot from
my time and prevents me from reentering school. So I just decided to make the best out of it,
improve my software development skills while I'm at a software company.

I've learned a lot already from reading two C++ books, and I intend to learn more particularly about
software design, UML, and programming patterns in the next couple of months. I's never easy to
learn, it requires time and dedication and motivation. So what motivates me? I just like to give back
something to my company which have given me the opportunity to realize my dreams. My Masters
degree can wait for another two years perhaps.

Four: Blog weekly. In whatever you do, you feel better when you can do all the things you want to
do in life. It's like being able to hold and control things your own way. From time to time, doing what I
want to do despite a complicated and busy schedule makes my life a little easier and a lot more fun.
And writing has been one of my favorites. And so here I am trying to squeeze more of life out of me. ;)

Extras:
Team Pilipinas lost to Jordan recently in the FIBA asian basketball tournament serving as an
Olympic qualifier. Pilipinas is out of contention, but a lot of thanks to Kerby Raymundo and Jimmy
Alapag. They showed tremendous heart fighting for the country. Kerby with his 6'6 small frame
against the 6'10 and 7'1 centers of Iran and Kerby sent them to foul troubles never hesitating to
bang it up with the bigger guys. And Jimmy Alapag, the Mighty Mouse, help us beat team China
for the first time in 22 years. We lost in the tournament, but we never surrendered. That's fighting
spirit. Here's hoping that we could learn from our mistakes, continue with the current basketball
program for Team Pilipinas and maybe we can see the team in the 2012 London Olympics.

Rodel Mayol, my second favorite Filipino boxer, will be fighting for the world title this Sunday in the
supporting bouts for the Morales-Diaz WBC lightweight championship fight. Here's hoping he could
be the third Filipino world champion following the steps of Florante Condes
(IBF minimum weight champion) and Nonito Donaire (IBF flyweight champion).

Thanks for reading.