why i love the morning shift

i have been working in a call center for two years and running, and the most common shift that CC employees have is the graveyard shift. thankfully, i had been transferred back to the morning shift, and am just so... loving it. really.

here are some reasons why:

getting to sleep in the nighttime.


having the feeling of being refreshed and rejuvenated. nothing beats relaxation the natural way!


walking in broad daylight with the wind blowing at your face.
(okay walang wind but... you get the picture. no pun intended )


seeing the sun set from your office window. ang ganda!

hay... gotta love working in the morning!

so today i hit the gym for the very first time

...thanks to mackey's complimentary gift check. yaaaaay! rockin' christmas gift! thanks girl!

some thoughts:

1. instead of intimidation and the usual condemnation-about-my-weight stuff i was actually looking forward to it. i dunno. *shrug* for one, it's not every day that things like these come your way for free. for another thing, i have that propensity to try anything once. besides, what have i got to lose?

2. it's FUN. yes, it is. i like the gym gadgets! it really gives you a sense of variety in the exercise and all. i have a favorite gadget already, unfortunately i don't know what it's called. basta it makes you all bounce. ang saya.

3. i was singing "perseverance" songs in my head. mga tipong "i will run and not grow weary...i will walk and not pass out..." hahaha! seriously!

4. whenever i got too excited thinking about these things the treadmill would remind me that my heart rate is getting too fast. ooops.

5. not much people on a friday afternoon. good good.

6. basta. fun.

 

will i be signing up for a membership now? i don't know. i am still thinking about it. but hey, i guess it wouldn't hurt.

boy, time does fly!

i remember writing this two days after i rose my hand during the altar call a little over a year ago. what can i say. funny how things turn out differently a year later. :) and i'm sure, the years after.

 ==

"hard work" // oct 17 2006 10:00 am

admittedly, being a baby Christian is hard work.

Jesus always stressed the importance of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

in my case, however... *sigh*.

last sunday the topic was on walking with God, and there were three ways in order for anyone to do this: first was obedience, second was agreement, and third was intimacy. enoch was the benchmark for walking with God. we don't know absolutely anything about him: all we know is that he lived for 365 years and didn't die. God just took him away, because he simply walked with God.

it was also stressed that God wasn't looking for diplomas or vital statistics or whatever--God just wants us to obey, agree, and be intimate with him. THAT simple.

admittedly i have a penchant for complicating things. i think and overthink, analyze and overanalyze. i find it difficult to accept simple truth. i'm not content with just what what is presented to me: it has to be proven down to the very last fiber. that belief is quite contradictory to the Christian faith, because that very word--faith--is the beginning and end of all things.

along with that is my (almost) natural tendency to criticize. my good friend karl characterized me as a nitpicker. admittedly, i do find pleasure in finding fault in things--especially other people. i tend to judge quickly. i mean, i claim to be a Christian yet I have like ten million sins a day. i'm turning into something i don't want to be: a hypocrite. then again that's when the simplicity of wanting to walk with God comes in. Lord, i don't want to be like that anymore. i don't want to judge and okray and just be freaking mean anymore.

what's on my mind these past few days

God is faithful, even in the littlest things.

 

 

 

...can you imagine how much more, in the BIGGER ones? ^-^

 

 

Jesus rocks!

randomness yet again

1. lately i find myself writing about a myriad of topics. siguro kasi there are a lot more things on my mind, and a lot more things that i enjoy sharing.

2. chores can be fun! i missed yesterday's speed-walk and my sister teena, thankfully, reminded me that it was my turn to, uh, make lampaso. so there. lampaso-ing is a nice substitute for exercise.

3. been thinking about the team reshuffling, a.k.a. all of the agents in our account being re-assigned to different teams. i was majorly "bonding" with my current teammates earlier today. i'm really gonna be missing them like heck.

4. i don't know how to use friendster anymore! for the longest time i was trying to figure out how to upload photos innit! hahaha! i've gotten so much used to multiply na kasi. what fun.

5. the past really can be funny.

things to be thankful for

1. exercise! this morning i speed-walked at the ball court behind our house for ONE HOUR. whew! best part is, i got a dose of morning sun and fresh air! panalo.  i am so thankful my left ankle is so much better!

2. lessons! in terms of the relationship department. and i quote from one of the people dearest to me, "a relationship is not a one-way street." simple as that.

3. daddy! got to meet up with my dad earlier this week. dad and i hardly see each other now that he lives in baguio, but he made baba (sorry i don't know how to english this ) for business. daddy lent me a book and some strawberry jam. funny how dad still calls me "little girl" at twenty-two years of age. hehehe

4. grace at the workplace! somehow my job isn't as BAD as i initially thought it was. i've been whining about it incessantly for the past few months, and somehow i've begun to appreciate it! i remember what Paul said: "i have learned to be content whatever the circumstances...i can do everything through Him who gives me strength." o di ba?  sometimes i find it difficult to detach myself from discomforts that plague me, but at the end of the day it's bestest to just smile and be thankful.

5. fellowship! many of you guys, my friends, are just wonderful! i love you!

6. multiply back on convergys IT! yaheeeeey! wala lang.

7. the talents inC arts & media summit! which was held last monday and i honestly had no idea that such an event was happening that day! napadaan lang ako, literally. and i so loved, enjoyed, and learned from it.

 

i am so looking forward to another great week!

quickly only

- the every nation world conference is coming up real soon! like, in THREE DAYS! am i excited? you bet i am!

- i've been feeling out of sorts lately (don't we all fell like this from time to time?) but i feel that God's nudging, nay, pushing me in the right direction, to make the right choices. i feel like a little kid clutching His hand tightly, whimpering "i don't want to stray away, Dad!" and somehow i feel a lot better after doing so.

- i have no words to explain what's happening to me right now, actually... but there is something. like something BIG's gonna happen.

- things i plan to write about once i have the time: 1. the heroes tv series, and 2. a gadget review.

- all for now! God bless you guys!

yet another sky entry :D

i was yet again rambling about life's trivialities; nitpicking, whining, and complaining to God about even the smallest annoyance. i was simply tired.

i decided to climb up the 28th floor of my office building after dinner to do some last-minute surfing. the sky also looks great from that vantage point, but i wasn't really thinking about it then.

normally at six-ish, seven-ish there isn't much of a sky. but funnily enough there was!

and it looked something straight out of mordor. but instead of being creepy-looking... it was, woah. pretty.

hay. me of little faith talaga!

technology gone bust

earlier this morning...este, yesterday morning, i attempted to post an entry from my mobile phone. it was pretty longish for a message composed from a cellphone, and i actually had some txt wrds thrwn in fr gd measre. Ü

then "the operation timed out" or whatnot. i attempted to resubmit and somehow when i refreshed the page, it disappeared. which actually is a good thing, as i rambled about technology and how huge its effect is on humankind. that you and i have the power with a mouse click,or a few buttons on a mobile.

and then, the entry disappeared! so much for "power" hahaha!

decision making / young at heart (warning: super long!)

this is sorta hard to explain thru mere words because i need gesticulations. i need eye-widening, head-shaking, and lots of gigil. i need to show you how huge my smile is. i need you to hear how excited i am with EVERYTHING that's happening in my life.

but then i'm not in front of you, so the least that i can say is this:

God's taking charge of everything.

you see, i have a terrible habit called vaccilation. i have difficulty making a decision. i overanalyze. i lose sleep. i go around in circles, literally. in the worst cases of it, i consult other people, and hold on to their words. i even get second, third, and fourth opinions. when these opinions vastly differ, i suffer.

lately i have realized that just letting God decide makes it less complicated. psalm 118 says, "it is better to take refuge in God than to trust in man." suddenly, when i'm not sure about something... i ask God. simple.

a few months ago i joined my small group leader eunice and her friends at our church's singles convergence. i saw a poster of that church's youth service speaker series (it was on sports then, i think), and casually mentioned to her that i used to attend the youth services at our church in ortigas.

eunice's face lit up, as in really lit up. "gusto mo ba sa youth?" she asked.

i shrugged. okay lang, i said. i wasn't exactly youth-aged, but i was young. eunice then told me that she was going to connect me to iris, one of the youth leaders. i prayed about it, though, even if my heart wasn't really into it at the time.

fast-forward to a few weeks later. ate jeje, one of the small group leaders, asked me to accompany her friend's daughter at the saturday youth services. "she's a first-timer, make her feel welcome," ate jeje said.

i sat next to her and asked her the basics: name, school, course. she was from CSB taking up computer applications. after the service we chatted some more, and i found out that she liked the service. she liked the church. she even said that she wanted to be a christian.

i began to share lots of things in the two-minute walk to the donut shop. i wasn't so sure if that was actually a sign (if you could call it that) but... it felt so great talking with her.

the next day (as in THE NEXT DAY!) iris and i "accidentally" bumped into each other at the mall's elevator and exchanged numbers. she was with her older sister, who was a friend of eunice's.

i knew it was SOMETHING from God na. it was GLARING NEON ORANGE! this time i REALLY prayed about it. i said that if God really wanted me to be in with youth, i'd be GO. really GO! after all, He knew better!

by the end of june it was announced that our schedule at work would be changed: i would be working friday nights. conveniently (!!!), iris's small group was 6pm friday, and youth services were an hour later.

it was the shiny red cherry to my black forest cake.

you know how AMAZING all of this was? everything was just thrown in my face without me knowing!!! it felt like GOD PLANNED IT ALL ALONG. i didn't have to vacillate, praningize, or obsess over any detail, because IT WAS LAID OUT FOR ME. there was NO NEED FOR WORRY. after all, He knows the plans has has for us! to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us a HOPE and a FUTURE!!!

isn't just all of this AMAZING!?

i thank God for just ALL of this. He had more power than i of little faith had initially thought. He knew. He JUST KNEW.

PANALO ka Lord. HALLELUIA.

these are a few of my favorite things

yours may be raindrops, rosies, or whiskers on kittens. but here's a list of things that make me happy, in no particular order:

1. watching sunsets. i make it a point to go to work extra early (like mga 530pm) to watch the sun set from the 28th floor of my building. words cannot explain. pramis.

2. listening to the ipod, especially if i'm walking. it feels like i'm starring in my own movie and i'm listening to my own soundtrack.

3. watching sunsets while listening to classical music. best song to listen to? kanon in D. you can find it here.

4. our laptop, mommy's christmas gift to teena and me. it's more than i can ever ask for.  actually, natapunan ko nga siya ng pineapple juice last tuesday night... pero MIRACULOUSLY! NAAYOS SIYA!!!!! like BACK TO NORMAL that weekend! ANG GALING NI GOD!!! ahahahaha pinagpray ko talaga siya, AS IN! THANK YOU LORD! :) i will be MORE MORE MORE CAREFUL this time!

5. fireworks. i have always loved fireworks! maybe cos new year's is one of my favorite holidays and it coincidentally is my mom's birthday. anyway, i remember nung birthday ko (by the way i never got to wrote the long birthday post na... hahaha), and i was about to sleep. so sinasara ko yung mga bintana just in case umulan. i parted my curtain and saw FIREWORKS out my window, at eleven pm of june 6 2007.

and this really really good feeling literally welled up in my heart right then and there. and i knew there was this really goofy end-to-end ear-to-ear smile on my face. and suddenly my eyes got wet. and i was so THANKFUL that day. like God knew that it was the BEST way to end my birthday.

6. writing materials, especially notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils. there is nothing like pouring your thoughts out using pencil and paper.

7. hanging out in bookstores. i can stay in powerbooks/bestsellers/fully booked/a different bookstore/wherever na may seat for HOURS. bestsellers is my favorite pa rin.

8. waking up after ten or so hours of sleep. because i have a wonderfully wacky schedule, i value sleep. i really do.

9. DVD's of tv series. teena just bought heroes, csi: new york, and the third season of HOUSE! yaaaay! finally i have something to watch on lazy afternoons!

hmmm...eto na lang muna. i'll be adding more as soon as more ideas pop up

it always pays to look up

today--tonight--was the first night of work, and i was yet again checking mail, reading multiply updates, and basically killing time before i dial and make singil americans.

in between navigating pages i managed to look out the window.

i never realized how pretty the sky looked from the 28th floor of a building, at 630ish in the evening--with swatches of blue, pink, and gray innit.

i still can't stop staring! it's right in front of me as i type this.

 

ah, the wonders of the universe. thank you God!!!

a quick version of my life so far

random thoughts, in no particular order:

1. growing in the faith is awesome. i've just gotten back to the basics. i've been attending "one to one" discipleship and small group meetings. i've learned so many things already! it feels like growing up all over again. (i wonder how "christian adolescence" would be like? hmmm...) funnily enough, theory suddenly wants to be put into practice!

2. looking forward to more EN07 busy/fun-ness. by God's rockingness we've finished the script!  the work isn't quite over yet, but i'm looking forward to whatever needs to be done. it feels like i'm playing this PC game, and i'm on to level two. that's the best way to describe it i guess.

3. the whole arts thingy really is wired in my system.  i find myself thinking out loud while watching snippets movies on my lunch break. "wow ganda ng shot," sabay mimicking the camera using my hand. and then after lunch i'd talk and talk and talk about how films are at 24 frames a second and such. then i'd go about discussing German Expressionism in the next heartbeat. i loooove being a com arts major!

4. events ministry is the best in the universe! i'm borrowing the thought from this blog. i feel so right at home where i am now. *sniff*

5. i'm EXCITED to finish thesis! enough said.

6. malapit na birthday koooo! haven't realized that it's all of five days left. omaigash! i have so much to say about this, but i have to go; i have one2one eh. byers!

again, i've learned

"surrender" makes you a winner, and does not equate to loser.

 

 

i'm posting way too many one-liners lately. i promise once i have the time and chunk coherence, i will blog "normally."

let me know what you think about this:

"God sometimes lacks subtlety, but only on days that we lack sensitivity and common sense."

unexplainable joy

i may be busy, i hardly get any zzzz, i get zitty, and i have certain complaints about life, but...

 

 

 

i find myself having joy and being at peace with myself.

 

 

and for some reason, i don't need to know the reason/s why.

 

 

 

//edit: i'm sorry! i can't help the mush.

i like lists.

many, many, many things that are occupying my thoughts at present:

1. consecutive prods: a wedding saturday night, a debut on sunday, and the ENLI worship summit from monday to wednesday. whew!

2. upcoming work at the EN07 world conference, which i really am excited about. i can't think about it without being all kilig. i've also met the girl with the similar name as mine--we'll be working on the same team, even!

3. the vcf singles' night which just concluded earlier was real fun! i really am looking forward for more of these events. yahoo!

4. my birthday, which is more than a week away. i like birthdays, i really do. for this year, i am giving myself a GIANT print bible. i prefer large type and large spaces when reading, and seeing this particular brown-and-orange bible in our resource center really caught my fancy. it may be really huge and heavy, but at least i have visual comfortability. besides, it's a good way for me to work my biceps.

5. seguing back to seriousness, i have learned many things this week. somehow God's making everything--even the bad, annoying, urghk! stuff--fall into place. everything's interconnected in a weird way. i can't explain it.

next in line

was on my way to work when i heard this song on the FX. back in the day (when i was seven, ok), i was majorly LSS-ing on this song without really knowing what it meant. fourteen years later, i fianlly i figured it out.

==

Next in Line
After Image

What has life to offer me when I grow old?
What's there to look forward to beyond the biting cold
('Cause) They say it's difficult, yes, stereotypical.

What's there beyond sleep, eat, work in this cruel life
Ain't there nothin' else 'round here but human strife
'Cause they say it's difficult, yes, stereotypical
Gotta be conventional, you can't be so radical.

(So I'll/And) sing this song to all of (my/our) age
For these are the questions we've got to face
For in this cycle that we call life
We are the ones who are next in line

What has life to offer me when I grow old?
What's there to look forward to beyond the biting cold
('Cause) They say it's difficult, yes, stereotypical.
Gotta be conventional, you can't be so radical.

(So I'll/And) sing this song to all of (my/our) age
For these are the questions we've got to face
For in this cycle that we call life
We are the ones who are next in line

And we gotta work, we gotta feel (we gotta feel)
Let's open our eyes and do whatever it takes
We gotta work, we gotta feel (we gotta feel)
Let's open our eyes, oh-woh.

i've got chills, they're multiplyin'

have you had that feeling where you've been doing something for a long time, and each and every time you do that certain thing it always feels like the first time?

amazing.

==

elections are coming up in a few days. funny how your point of view suddenly shifts from one end to another.

in this light, i'd like to eat some words i've scribbled in this journal. i apologize for the rantiness and negativity. i really should DO SOMETHING instead of just whine and lament.

go go go pilipinas! hindi man ako rehistrado, pero may silbi pa rin ako!

what's in a name

yesterday i went to the ENLI building in fort bonifacio for the EN07 auditions. performers and production staff were needed for this july's world conference, and as usual, i was excited as all heck.

after a short wait i was interviewed by darlene, one of the directors. upon introducing myself she laughingly informed me that there was a volunteer who had the same name as mine, only spelled with a C.

of course, that got me really intrigued!  it's not every day that i meet someone with the same--or at least similar--name as mine. growing up i've always been associated with either the nail polish or the soap, which of course i royally hated to bits!

i even hated my name for so many reasons: aside from the previous, it was too uncommon, and too short. i remember asking my mom to have my name changed to "kim." mom laughed at me and told me that "kim" was a name for goats (i apologize to the kims who might read this. it was my mom's way of, you know, convincing me otherwise). unfortunately, my then four-year-old mind refused to accept that!

of course i learned to live with, and LOVE my name. daddy once told me that "karess" was a variation of the greek "karis," which meant graceful (click here). also, i learned to love its uniqueness and shortness. the one-of-a-kindness got to me, especially when signing up for log-in names. i didn't need to think too hard about what to use, hahaha!  

i lived with the jokes, too. ever wondered why my name is so long on your multiply contact list?