// Guitarchic Dot Net* My Life, One Strum at a Time

I wouldn’t have known this if Jayvee didn’t holler me about it. This site, Guitarchic Dot Net, ranks number 4 over at Ratified.Org, a local site that acknowleges the Philippines’ TOP 100 blogs.

I had to laugh. How could that be? I mean, there’s simply no way I could have gotten ahead of Macalua.Com! (Haha, yun eh.) Joni and I were laughing about it coz apparently, she ranks 6th. Curious, we searched the website to find out how Ratified.Org ranks blogs.

Ratified.org is a new directory featuring the best Filipino blogs in the blogosphere. Using data from Technorati.com, each blog’s statistics such as rank, links and other information are gathered and stored, therefore “ratifying” it. The data is then used as the basis for ranking Ratified.org’s top 100 Philippine blogs. (From Ratified.Org.)

I guess that’s why Joni and I are up on top. *insert evil laugh* Backlinks, yepyep. Thanks, WP. :P

Anyway, what made me smile even more was when I saw that this girl, Me-anne, of Enchantedlilypad.blogspot.com, made it to number 5. Three years ago, when I was still creating blogger templates (for a cause), Me-anne was actually one of those people who contacted me to redesign her blog, and it’s heartwarming to see that up to now, the design’s still up! Thanks, girl.

Sigh. Simple joys. Wala lang. :)

You know what who I really miss right now? The hamsters. (Yup, missing them at 3 in the morning — something’s seriously wrong about this, I know.)

It was a difficult decision to part with them, since I’ve gotten used to having them in the apartment and being able to feed them and play with them after work. But since I’ve been spending more time in Caloocan the past few days, I decided to leave the hamsters in my Mom’s care (which turned out good because Mom’s so aliw naman of them.) Sorry kiddos, mommy has to work for your future. You have to stay with Grandmom for the meantime. :P

I wonder what they’re doing now. Sleeping probably. Or rattling their cage because they can’t sleep. Oddly, it has become a hobby of mine to take pictures of them in their most candid sleeping positions.

At one point, while in the car, Chuchu fell asleep on my hand, and I was able to preserve the moment in pixels. So cute. :) Chichi loves squeezing herself in the tube with her head in the opening, while Chu wants it inside the wheel. These creatures are most adorable when they’re asleep!! (Er, don’t we all? :P Hehe.)

Hay. Can’t wait to be with them na. More so, I can’t wait for this week to be over. :(

We interrupt our regular programming for this groundbreaking news. Riz got herself injured from her previous badminton escapade, because of a friggin badminton racket.

But fear not, she’s okay, and is reported to be getting ready for the next match. Any takers? :P (LOL)

(Enter Riz) Ok, ok, fine. It’s just a minor cut on my right index finger. Hehe. What can I say, anything can be blogworthy these days. :)

Last Friday, I got a breather from all SEM and admin-related stuff at work and found myself decorating the department’s bulletin board with Camz for a change. So there we were, sprawled on the office floor, with scraps of colored papers and yarns and star-shaped pushpins scattered on the floor with us. Some officemates were actually envious because we were doing something FUN. :P

The “diversion” brought me back to those scrapbooking days when I’d mesh together torn papers, magazines, stickers, and sentimental junk (in the form of movie tickets, receipts, dried flower petals, chocolate and candy wrappers, butterfly wings!!, etc), on my Starbucks journal, just to satisfy my need for a creative outlet. Exactly what I needed — forget Photoshop and be as far away from technology as possible, even for a day. :P

Consequently, I’ve been taking a lot of “breathers” and doing stuff that are beyond my usual routine because I need to (1) be preoccupied and (2) be around people. So I started playing badminton again last week with three lovely lovely ladies who I happen to be sharing this revived pro-active approach to the prevalent singlehood and quarter-life syndrome with. And since our two consecutive badminton sessions last week turned out to be fun, we all decided to declare Tuesdays and Thursdays “badminton nights” (our version). :D What can I say? Nothing beats girl bonding over badminton sessions that have NO RULES.

With Tel, Min, Aster and Moi. More pics over there.
(Not that they’re worth looking at, haha.)

Meanwhile, I also started teaching basic piano lessons to this adorable little girl, Koreen (check out her multiply account, gah, kids these days are sooo technologically advanced!), and with her contagious eagerness to learn, I had to sacrifice my Friday night gimiks (if any) to give way to a weekly summer-long piano session with her. Last Friday was fun. More than me teaching her something, I actually think I learned more from her. By the end of the night, she was able to play “Seek Ye First” and “As the Deer” in Key of D (duh, parang sonata) full well. As for me, I got self-fulfillment at its best. The kid’s a breath of fresh air.

Right now, I’m at home in Caloocan, enjoying the day off with my Mom. I miss my Dad. I’ll miss him always. Mondays used to be our family day. It was a Monday when he passed away. It was a Monday when I last saw him smile, last spent time with him. Mondays will never be the same again. I’ll never be the same.

But well, life goes on, and you can expect that it will take you to a roller coaster ride of emotions, and heartbreaks, and victories, and defining moments and experiences that will change your life forever. No one knows what the tides will bring. Best you can do is to keep breathing and go with the flow, seize the day, take risks, live life to the fullest, carpe diem, you know the drill: Make the most out of every opportunity; Take your chance whenever you can, and while you still can — coz you’d never know when it’s the last chance you’d get.

One death was more than enough for a family to bear, what more 32 young lives to the whole State of Virginia — including thousands of dreams that came with each life.

It’s quite disturbing to know that the guy who was responsible for the, by far, worst mass killing in the whole of United States was a 23 year old Asian (my age), who, quite obviously, kept a lot of angst and confusion in his heart while he was still alive. More than hating him for what he did, I feel sorry that he had to live and end his life that way.

Like Xai, I’ve been thinking a lot about death lately, and how it should be more of a celebration (of life) rather than grieving for the loss. Xai said in her blog (and I quote coz I couldn’t have said it any better):

Come to think of it, life and death are two inseparable extremes. What bridges them is an eternally debated concept of a greater power [yes, greater than the big bang]. Death is reflective of the kind of life you lead. Similarly, life is an image on the kind of death you perceive.

Life is more than being the absence of death because for some people living means dying and dying is living. Point is, they’re so correlated, and you can’t have one without the other.

The tragic Virginia Tech Massacre is another lesson learned for all of us. While some are saying that the Columbine Massacre should have warned us already, and security should have been given more attention to, this recent tragedy is ultimately beyond our control. To celebrate life each day as if it’s our last, to say “I love you” to those we love while we still can, to make a difference in the lives of those people God sends our way, and to reach out to those who feel unloved — perhaps these are the real lessons to be learned from all of these.

On April 30, this blog will take part in the One Day Blog Silence, in honor of the victims of the Virginia Tech Tragedy. You might want to join too. All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect, reflect and empathy.

Navigate to Onedayblogsilence.com to know more. Or see who is also writing about this @ Technorati.