Tuesday Random Thought

I was going about my Twitter timeline when I saw a a tweet from a friend of mine:

"What makes two people come together? By fate or destiny?"

I replied:


"What makes two people come together? CHOICE."

You choose your fate, you choose your destiny. Basically, it all comes down to CHOICE... whether you want it bad enough or not, whether it's worth it or a waste of a time, whether it's good or bad, right or wrong.

Music Monday: Just The Way You Are

I spent my late Sunday afternoon with one of my closest guy friends, Kiko at the Powerplant Mall. As usual, we had the "lovelife" talk and I cannot remember exactly what it is I said that made him say: "Hindi ka hopeless romantic, romantically frustrated ka." (You're not a hopeless romantic, you're romantically frustrated.)

I think it was that old couple (and by old I mean wrinkly skin, gray hair and slow motion walk) that we passed by walking... holding hands. Fingers-intertwined kind of holding hands. I know, right? We don't get to see that anymore. It's like those kind of relationships are too rare, extinct.

So anyway, that statement from my friend got me second guessing my claim that I'm a hopeless romantic.

I realized I have been listening to this song for a while now. I don't think that makes me hopeless, I actually think it's frustration.




Just The Way You Are - Bruno Mars

Oh her eyes, her eyes
Make the stars look like they're not shining
Her hair, her hair
Falls perfectly without her trying

She's so beautiful
And I tell her every day

Yeah I know, I know
When I compliment her
She wont believe me
And its so, its so
Sad to think she don't see what I see

But every time she asks me do I look okay
I say

When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

Her nails, her nails
I could kiss them all day if she'd let me
Her laugh, her laugh
She hates but I think its so sexy

She's so beautiful
And I tell her every day

Oh you know, you know, you know
Id never ask you to change
If perfect is what you're searching for
Then just stay the same

So don't even bother asking
If you look okay
You know I say

When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

The way you are
The way you are
Girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

Get ready to be struck by Thunder!

I think it's amazing how blogging is rapidly becoming a tool for advertising, marketing, socializing or just simply sharing your writing skills about your choice of topics or niche. Every day we stumble upon new blogs born out of love of something, some we find interesting, some so-so, and some really promising.

I used to blog and blog hop every single day for the past years, I have had my share of visiting blogs and reading blog posts with content written just for the sake of being able to write something. I'm not judging any of those blogs, maybe some of them really are just for personal collection of their daily routines in life and maybe they just got too old for me. I need something new, funky, and has the local and foreign touch all in one. Don't we all want that? And although it may not be obvious with my older blog posts, I am actually a fan of fashion. I make my eyes pop and let myself drool over celebrity style blogs like  Who|What|Wear and now an addition to my daily routine of blog hopping: Steal Her Thunder.

Steal Her Thunder is a fashion/style blog by Maita Baello and Sacha Carlos. Yes, I personally know them so don't judge me with my shameless plugging of their new baby. *wink*

Their blog is not an ordinary one, you can read their opinions and suggestions in a "professional" but still hip way of writing. They have what they call "Thunder Watch" where they "show and tell what your favorite stars are wearing". From make-ups, clothes, shoes and other accessories, Steal Her Thunder has it all.

So get ready to be struck by thunder and steal those celebrities style by visiting Steal Her Thunder!

Have you Googled yourself?

One sign that I'm extremely out of my mind is when I start doing silly things and today is one of those days when I just feel like doing nothing but can't afford to not work yet I'm procrastinating a teeny tiny bit to relax, so I went to Google and typed "Mara De Guzman" and here's what I found on the first page of the search results:

It's cool that the first result is my blog and that the only link that's not mine is the second Twitter URL and the fourth result... aaaahhh... my 18th birthday celebration. Now I'm starting to have flashbacks.

Check out: Events! Events!

You'll read there about my birthday celebration written by my Debut Coordinator, there are also a few photos there, a testimonial I wrote for Events! Events! and a lot more of their previous clients.

If you have any upcoming events (e.g. wedding, birthdays, etc.) and is looking for someone to help you conceptualize and organize, Ernest (the founder of Events! Events!) will be of great help to you. He's amazing at what he does! Believe me. Events! Events! have also been featured in some local magazines here already and if I'm not mistaken, they have also appeared in Martha Stewart's Weddings magazine. You can go through their website and read about the past events that they've handled or you can leave me a comment here and I'll personally contact them for you.

Uhm, did I just plug? Oh well. Just in case any of you is in need of one. :)

Back to Google-ing yourself... have you ever tried it (well, I'm pretty sure a lot of you did already... don't deny!)? What results did you get?

I'm a curious girl.

Music Monday: Impossible

For the past weeks, I have been doing a lot of sound trippin' and I found myself listening to a variety of genres: House, Trance, R&B, Hiphop, Soul, Pop and even some OPM, Jazz and Reggae. Since I missed participating on Music Mondays, I'll start to post my music again every week.

I'm starting with something a friend sang to me while she's driving:



Impossible - Shontelle


I remember years ago
Someone told me I should take
Caution when it comes to love
I did, I did
And you were strong and I was not
My illusion, my mistake
I was careless, I forgot
I did
And now when all is done
There is nothing to say
You have gone and so effortlessly
You have won
You can go ahead tell them

Tell them all I know now
Shout it from the roof top
Write it on the sky love
All we had is gone now
Tell them I was happy
And my heart is broken
All my scars are open
Tell them what I hoped would be
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible

Falling out of love is hard
Falling for betrayal is worst
Broken trust and broken hearts
I know, I know
Thinking all you need is there
Building faith on love is worst
Empty promises will wear
I know (i know)
And know when all is gone
There is nothing to say
And if you're done with embarrassing me
On your own you can go ahead tell them

Tell them all I know now
Shout it from the roof top
Write it on the sky love
All we had is gone now
Tell them I was happy
And my heart is broken
All my scars are open
Tell them what I hoped would be
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible

Ooh impossible (yeah yeah)

I remember years ago
Someone told me I should take
Caution when it comes to love
I did

Tell them all I know now
Shout it from the roof top
Write it on the sky love
All we had is gone now
Tell them I was happy (i was happy)
And my heart is broken
All my scars are open
Tell them what I hoped would be
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible
Impossible, impossible

I remember years ago
Someone told me I should take
Caution when it comes to love
I did

I know this is a sad song but it's kind of fitting for me to be singing this over the weekend.
Thanks Sassylove for "dedicating" this song to me. This song used to only have 6 Plays on my iTunes, now since Friday it went from 6 to 40.

Any song suggestions? :)

A Love Letter To No One.

There is no excuse for me not being here for the past month/s or so, I have just been too preoccupied and exhausted from work to be able to post about any updates from me. No worries, you haven't missed much and as of this writing, I am currently crawling out of my depression stage yet again.


I feel too mentally and emotionally burned out  to function properly... and that's nothing new if you have been following this blog since the beginning. It comes and it goes. This one however, made me crash right down at the pit and I can feel everything crumbling down. It's like this particular "problem" was the last straw to my already-falling-apart-life. I'm back at the bottom again.


I found this letter on my Facebook account from a friend and it touched me. I'm not sure exactly whether it helped it helped me feel better or actually made me a lot hopeless.


Read (this may be a bit long but it's worth your 5 minutes!):

My Daughter's Letter To The Man She Will Love Someday

Dear You,

I will admit that sometimes I really do wonder if you exist.

There is a part of every little girl’s heart that envisions her prince charming. At age three, it is usually of a man who can save her from the wrath of an evil stepmother, wake her from eternal slumber or give her that true love’s kiss.

In elementary school, he becomes the boy with the least cooties, the one who’s willing to cross the playground to share his Oreos even if it makes him a target for the week of all the other boys.

Come high school, it’s that boy you stand with at prom, who your father stared down at the door, who provided you with an experience complete with photos you will cringe at a decade later, a corsage that yellows in the refrigerator, and a faded memory of a night that seemed almost too magical to be real.

Nineteen years into this life, however, and still unwilling to give my heart away, I am still that same little girl who hopes for her prince charming. And although I wonder why it has taken you this long to sweep me off my feet and whisk me off to your palace on horseback, I know that it is probably because meeting you will be better than any fairytale I could’ve read as a kid.

A couple of heartbreaks and a few years wiser though, I will admit that there are times when I question your existence. Because I have yet to meet the guy who makes me hear songs like “All My Life” or “A Whole New World” in my head when I see him does not mean I don’t hope that it’ll ever happen.

I may already know you or may still meet you someday—something I leave completely up to God because I’m pretty sure our story will be epic.

However, I can’t promise you that I’d make the world’s most perfect princess. In fact I’ll probably keep you on your toes and amuse you with my eccentricities—there are a lot of them. I’ll probably steal a bunch of your T-shirts and turn them into shirt dresses, or drive you slightly mad with my obsessive compulsivity and my need to fix your collar constantly.

I can promise to be your best friend however—that person you can rant to after a rough day, the hand you can hold when you get sad, or the person you can text when situations get awkward.

I’ll probably mess up your hair sometimes and hug you for too long, but that’ll only be because I absolutely adore you. I’ll bury my head in your shoulder during scary movies and make you feel like superman when you kill those flying cockroaches that really shouldn’t exist. I’ll cook your favorite food on your birthday and try my best to make friends with your mom.

I’ll respect your nights-out with the boys and make you seem like the perfect guy to my barkada. I’ll watch basketball or soccer games with you, and not complain when you cheer too loudly at the TV set.

I’ll know the difference between giving you space and being constantly there for you—even if it means sitting and playing video games with you or taking hot chocolate runs when it rains.

I’ll listen to your music and we’ll go on epic adventures together—seeing the world, taking awesome pictures, eating awesome food, and never running out of things to tell each other along the way.

I won’t be waiting for you to sweep me off my feet and take me on a magic carpet ride, because I know I won’t need anything like that to fall for you—I will love you for you.

You will be that someone to make goofy faces with in pictures, to lace fingers with when I’m lonely, and to take long walks under the stars with on the beach.

You’ll be the guy who takes me the way I am—and will laugh as I burst into Disney song or pick out pink wallpaper.

You’ll be that someone I envision a future with—us filling out visa forms as we travel the universe, picking out our first dog together and arguing about what to name it, or being snap-happy stage parents in our preschooler’s annual mini-plays. And I keep hoping that maybe someday when we find each other, you will become that someone whose smile I wake up to in the morning and the last one I speak to every night.

So to the man I know does exist, and who will help me maybe make sense of the world someday, this man I can’t wait to love. Please know that I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. But for now, I wait. Fingers crossed and palms held together, I hope that you’re out there somewhere, waiting for me, too.

With the hope I will be yours for always,

Me

Here is the LINK if you want to check out the complete article.

FIFA World Cup 2010 & Wimbledon 2010

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Well, not really 100% but I'm here now reporting for duty! The past couple of months kept me too preoccupied to function, my brain was (and still is) drained from all the drafting I've been doing for work, FIFA and Wimbledon are on, and the hours just seem to fly by so fast I didn't notice it's almost the end of June.

Are you guys watching, too? This is my first time to stay up this late and watch, it's 3:40AM Chile vs. Spain. Earlier, I was switching channels from FIFA to Wimbledon because Federer was on and Roddick was next. I can't concentrate. Sorry.

Just checking up on you guys! Update me!

My FIFA teams:

Brazil and Portugal
Spain
Argentina
England and USA's doing pretty good too.

My Wimbledon bet/s:

Roger Federer (like you don't know that!)
Andy Roddick (again)

Follow me on TWITTER!

I need help with Apple!

No, not my friend Apple. Apple as in the company.

It's true how they say "when it rains, it pours" because now, I don't use my laptop's battery anymore, my wristpad is slowly chipping off on the sides and just the other night while I was wiping my laptop clean, I noticed the lower body on the screen is already a little "loose", it doesn't "stick" as compared to the sides. I can press it and see the "stickiness" gone.

What's making me feel so frustrated and upset right now is that it has been 2 years since I got this laptop, meaning, the 1-year warranty that I was not able to use during its first year with me because I didn't experience any defects or problems, is now gone. Useless. Wasted.

I don't think I afford spending P 6,500 for the battery and P 7,500 for the unibody replacement. No. I CAN'T. I know my laptop is still alive and surviving without the batter and with chip offs on the lower part of the wristpad but I couldn't stand seeing it slowly deteriorating right in front of my eyes. :|

Now, what I'm trying to do is have my Mom talk to Apple in California (where she bought my laptop) and ask if there is anything they can do to at least give me my 1-year warranty's worth. Even if it's just a battery replacement, or the unibody replacement or even both!

I tried asking from Apple stores here in Manila but they weren't too helpful at all.

Please Apple. Pretty, pretty please! It wasn't my fault my MacBook didn't show any signs of defect or any sort of problems within the duration of the warranty and besides, it's not as if I intentionally let my battery implode or let my wristpad crack and I HAVE NOT USED MY WARRANTY. Please let me experience my warranty! :(

I have always been an Apple lover and I have heard so many great service stories from friends and relatives about Apple. I'm hoping they'll grant my request.

Music Monday: Express Yourself - Glee Cover

I was watching the Madonna tribute episode of Glee yesterday and this song kind of stuck on me. 
Maybe because it's catchy, upbeat and it totally hit home with no dramatic melodies or lyrics. 
It was hip and fun and I loved it!

I hope you guys enjoy listening to this one. I can't find a decent Madonna video of this song 
so I just used Glee's cover instead. I think the cast did a good job on this song and the entire 
episode of Madonna.

Express Yourself lyrics


(spoken:)
Come on girls
Do you believe in love?
'Cause I got something to say about it
And it goes something like this

(sung)
Don't go for second best baby
Put your love to the test
You know, you know, you've got to
Make him express how he feels
And maybe then you'll know your love is real

You don't need diamond rings
Or eighteen karat gold
Fancy cars that go very fast
You know they never last, no, no

What you need is a big strong hand
To lift ya to your higher ground
Make you feel like a queen on a throne
Make him love you 'til you can't come down

Don't go for second best baby
Put your love to the test
You know, you know, you've got to
Make him express how he feels
And maybe then you'll know your love is real

Long stem roses are the way to your heart
But he needs to start with your head
Satin sheets are very romantic
What happens when you're not in bed

You deserve the best in life
So if the time isn't right then move on
Second best is never enough
You'll do much better baby on your own

Don't go for second best baby
Put your love to the test
You know, you know, you've got to
Make him express how he feels
And maybe then you'll know your love is real

Express yourself
You've got to make him
Express himself
Hey, hey, hey, hey

So if you want it right now
Make him show you how
Express what he's got
Oh baby ready or not

And when you're gone he might regret it, gret it
Think about the love he once had
Try to carry on, but he just won't get it, get it (Oh)
He'll be back on his knees, so please

Don't go for second best baby
Put your love to the test
You know, you know, you've got to
Make him express how he feels
And maybe then you'll know your love is real

Express yourself
You've got to make him
Express himself
Hey, hey, hey, hey

So if you want it right now
Make him show you how
Express what he's got
Oh baby ready or not

Express Yourself
Express Yourself
So if you want it right now
Better make him show you how (Make him show you how)
Baby ready or not

Express Yourself
Express Yourself
You know, you know, you know
So if you want it right now
Better make him show you how

Lyrics from: LetsSingIt 

Can you see my Adsense Ads?

Hi guys, so this is weird... but can you please please please let me know if you can see my Google Adsense ads here and on my other blog, Mara's Appetite?

I am not sure whether it's my browsers (Firefox and Safari) or my internet connection has been terrible lately that's why it won't load but I'm worried that my earnings will get affected (not that I get a thousand hits every day but still...) and I don't like the sight of my blog having these white spaces on the sidebar.

Help!

Movie Review: The Stepfather (2009) & Sorority Row (2009)

I spent my Friday and Saturday at home, relaxing and trying to unwind and free my mind of my current "worries". After finishing my work and watching my late night soap, I watched The Stepfather (2009) and Sorority Row (2009) the night after.Both movies are remakes which the originals I haven't seen so I cannot compare which ones are better however, I can compare these two remakes to a lot of other horror/thriller/suspense movies that I have seen and I'm pretty much sure you have also seen.


The Stepfather is a 1987 remake which reminds me of several suspense movies I have watched on cable and those straight-to-DVDs that were not worth watching in the cinemas. It was fortunate I didn't expect anything great about this movie, at least I didn't get disappointed. There is nothing and I say nothing great about this movie, was this shown in the theaters? It was too boring, too predictable, too much waste of a time.

It's so dull that even if I tell you the whole story, I won't be giving away any spoilers. Yes, it is that predictable.


Sorority Row is a 1983 remake which is a lot similar to the movies I Know What You Did Last Summer, Black Christmas, Scream, well you know... those kind of movies. It's about an accidental murder cover-up and how after several months the 5 sorority girls involved and those who knew about the secret get killed one by one.

I read mostly good reviews for this movie (on IMDB) but in my opinion, it's just too typical, too predictable and has got nothing new to offer. I am a fan or suspense/thriller movies. I enjoy guessing who the killer is, I find it entertaining when a shocking twist happens in the middle or near the end of the movie, and I get frustrated (and happy) when my guess is incorrect. Sorority Row is predictable in a way that I already had an idea who the killer was (and I was right) even before the middle of the movie but I'll give it to them that they made me scream a couple of times, made me jumpy and kept me uncertain about my guess (which I didn't change) who the killer is.

Overall rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
Watch only if you are bored. Do not set any day to watch these movies. Just go "Oh, I have nothing to do at home. I've done my laundry, cooked meals, cleaned the entire house and now want to sleep so I'll watch The Stepfather or Sorority Row."

Friday Frustrations: 3 things

Technically, it is already Sunday but because there were circumstances that were not in my control, I will only get to post an entry here today.

What circumstances? My frustration?

I am slowly losing interest in something and I have to set my mind and find out what I really want to do with it.

Anyway, the previous month and last the 5-days of this week has been a huge upset and frustration to me.

1. I feel bored, drained and unhappy with what I'm doing. I used to enjoy it but now I'm thinking nothing's changing, it's just brain-juice draining and just plain blah. I need to come up with a backup plan before deciding on anything.

2. My Wi-Fi router here at home is busted and now I have to take turns with my brother for the direct cable of the internet. He stays longer online than I do.

3. My laptop's battery is bloated and it cost P7,500 ($170) for a new one. If I don't replace it, I'll have to bear with a trackpad, trackbutton and keyboard that has a mind of their own; clicking, highlighting and deleting on its own. So now, I removed my battery and is using the adapter ALL day.

Blah, blah, blah. I can feel my frustration going sky high especially with number 1.
Lord, help me.