Everything Under The Tropical Sun

Dear Santa,

I know I said that I wanted a Macbook AL for christmas but if it’s not too late, I’d like to change my request. I went into the iStore the other day and saw the MB Al but I didn’t really like it. I’d still the prefer the white macbook over the new one.

Again, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, I attached a photo with this letter. Thank you so much, Santa!

Love,
Jopie

I’ve always been particularly shy about this blog of mine. A lot of me goes into this and I’m not entirely sure if this is a good idea… but my life’s changed since the onset of this thing so it must be doing something very profound in my life at the moment (which by the way may be more a coincidence – but I don’t believe in them).

What started out as somewhat like a rant site for me… turned out to be just what it should be: a web log. My first few entries felt like I was writing for someone else. Reading a few of them again gives off a feeling that I was forced. I’m still trying to find my “voice” in all of this but slowly, I’m learning to love writing again. I’m not too confident with my grammar or the proper use of verbs, adjectives… that whole hullabaloo… who cares? (Stay away grammar police!)

Despite all these good things happening, I’ve still managed to shut up about this to my close friends (thanks for pointing that out, Teach!) and a flood of excuses came rushing forth when Teach confronted me about it. Made me think… it’s public (as opposed to my previous private blogs) and I did that intentionally. I am SUCH a paradox.

Anyway, after brooding over that for about a week, my husband and I bumped into a couple of friends in a bookstore: Joey and Margette. When asked what I was up to, some magic being (who amazingly turned out to be me) blurted that I have a blog… AND declared my URL.

Joey happens to be the facilitator of one of the seminars I took called Starshooters. It’s a seminar about going for your goals by breaking self-limiting habits and replacing them with ones that will help you achieve those goals. It seemed like sacrilege to hide what I’ve been really up to from him since my goal at the time is exactly what this blog embodies. I’ve learned so much from Starshooters that my husband and I still use the tools and techniques we learned from it… and that was 5 years ago! (Go check out his website: Powerspeak. I also placed a link in the sidebar)

I really couldn’t help but feel vulnerable at that time but a part me was also so proud of myself. It wasn’t until last Thursday when we met up with my husband’s cousin and his friend and his girlfriend that I was brave enough to mention this blog but not enough to actually mention the URL.

Two steps forward… one step back… *sigh*

– Note to self: You are courageous! You can’t win them all… and it’s okay. –

So here I am. Still so very happy I have this and the changes in my life may be a coincidence but I’ve always believed that once we find our true purpose, the world conspires and helps us out. I may not be SUPER courageous with marketing this to people who actually know me (my husband doesn’t count… for better or for worse we’re stuck together) but I’m getting there… I have no plans in turning back.

That’s it! I’m giving up on PCs. I had to reformat yet again last Friday and I’m not done re downloading some of the programs that I’ve been using.

Last Thursday morning, soon as I opened my laptop, it informed me that my system32 file was corrupted (whatever!) and that I had to insert the original installation disc my laptop came with to be able to repair it. Imagine my joy when I remembered burning back up discs of my restoration drive (which I didn’t need if I only knew that all I had to do was press F11 at the startup). But I dreaded finding out whether or not I’ll be able to retrieve my files (the ones I’ve been meaning to back up but haven’t because the lazy bee stung my big behind).

So I asked my husband who’s somehow an expert in reformatting PCs, if I would be able to retrieve my files and he said I would just as long as I choose the repair option rather than the destructive option during recovery. So there… I was so happy to find out that all was not lost. I lost one day, though since I couldn’t run home and get my recovery discs (again, I didn’t know that I could’ve gone without it). Good thing I took the afternoon off that day due to Justin’s birthday else I’d be brewing and finding ways to pick on Microsoft and let revenge grow in my mind (because there is absolutely nothing I can do to cause a dent in the mighty Microsoft’s life).

It’s been 3 days and though I backed up my programs and important files (they have always been safe and sound in my trusty external drive), I have those damn updates to download (and that’s service pack 3… a hefty number of bytes) plus other programs like the yahoo messenger, etc. I’m still thankful I have all my bookmarks, emails and photos. I would just die of anger if I lost any of those.

Based on experience, none of the macs in our office has ever needed to reformat and to think, they mainly deal with graphics which is usually very taxing to the computer (the time capsule helped ease all our minds). I am officially a convert. I am converting to the mac as soon as I get the resources to do so. I am estimating that it’ll be around march of next year. 3 months. I can wait.

Goodbye, PC. Hello, Mac.

It’s been a week since we let Courage and Ashley hang out in the warehouse during weekdays (because of the bigger space and my husband wanted to keep them close) and I have to say the mysterious power of pets is something that never ceases to amaze me.

Their current schedule is that they’ll stay at the warehouse (my husband’s turning them into junkyard dogs – I cringe at the thought!) during weekdays and on the weekend, they’ll hang out with us at our very cramped house (where they seem equally as happy being with us). So we started two weekends ago. They came home with us.

Our neighbors were swooning over them asking us a million questions whether we take them to the pet spa (i’m embarassed to admit that i do) and what do we feed them… who do they follow… what’s their routine… just random questions thrown at us while I was giving them a bath. So amazed at how they love the water and that they’d just sit down while I rubbed shampoo into their coats.

When it was time to go (this was Monday morning)… I was so shocked at the “Bye, Courage! Bye, Ashley!” from the neighbors. It was like a couple VIPs were leaving and weren’t coming back for like a year.

Then they went on to staying at the warehouse. A couple of my husband’s staff stays over during the weekdays so they could watch over them. It’s funny how last weekend, we asked one of them to stay instead of going back home to their families. Just to watch over our babies because we couldn’t get them ’til the next day.

We were worried that they’d give us all these excuses that they can’t because they have to go home, etc. But my husband was so surprised that without hesitation, one of them volunteered to stay and watch Courage and Ashley. Goes to show, one of them’s attached to my babies already.

Ah, the mysterious power of pets. I think they’re aware of the power they have over me (especially Courage) because they just know the right way to look at me and know that I’ll immediately hand over whatever treat I have in my hand. The greatest power they have is that they manage to take all the stress, worries, and negative feelings I had last week and made it all vanished. With a single day, I feel recharged and ready to face the world once more with a smile on my face.

It’s officially the last month of the year. I’ve already made my New Year’s resolution list and sad to say two of my resolutions for next year was carried over from this one. I’m not as determined as I hoped. Maybe I should add something else on my list: be determined. How do you think I can achieve that?

At least I got to do something I set my mind to during these last months of 2008: Finish my Christmas shopping early. We’re almost done. Not so hard to do on a tight budget (sorry guys, simple gifts this year… but much effort went to picking them out.) and a shorter list.

We also have 12 days of vacation!!! Can’t wait! I’m going to spend them with our families and our dogs. I don’t care if my mom would complain about my HUGE pooches but I’m bringing them with us on Christmas Eve at her house. Hehehe. That’ll be a riot.

So advance Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you all enjoy the very long holiday (I know we – my husband and I – need it very badly).