// Quarter Life Monologues

It’s been a while since an actual human being entrusted her blog design to me. Truth be told, the last time a stranger contacted me to redesign her Blogger template was two years ago, back in May 2005 when tables were the in-thing; CSS was alien; and the blogosphere, simpler. Overwhelmingly enough, that girl, Maan, still has that froggy layout on. And I often wonder why. :P Hehe.

Since then, however, it’s either I became too busy with other things that I had no choice but to turn down requests for redesign, or, I simply became too self-conscious about my craft that I preferred to just have my mess on my own domains for my own enjoyment or disgust. Hehe.

And then she came along, and after a few months of knowing her through her blog, a dinner date and coffee at Cravings, and some texts and emails here and there, I knew that I just couldn’t turn down her request. And what an honor it was to tweak the online journal of a renown journalist and blogger, not to mention a very kind-hearted 40something such as her.

And what more of an honor (horror??!) to be called the “wisest 20something I know” by The Cathy Babao herself. (Wow, the pressure! LOL.) Seeing my link on her blogroll, lined up with highly respectable people who blog about life, careers, politics, charity work, family, and faith, (you get the drift), brings this sudden weight of pressure on me. I mean, imagine Kuya Bojie of Batibot singing, “alin, alin, alin ang naiba..” and everyone’s finger would point at my link. Get the picture?? Que horror!

Ohwells, at least the disclaimer is right there on the link text itself — “20something” being the operative word. 20somethings are still somehow entitled to be stupid and immature at times anyway, right? :P

Creating the design was a breeze, I actually had fun playing with Photoshop again. But the hardcoding part was more difficult than I thought. I originally made this really complicated layout using tables, hoping that I could make it work with the new Blogger set-up, but after hours of trying, I had to accept the grim reality that I’m not ready for complex CSS and table-less coding just yet. So I ended up just modifying an existing Blogger template and incorporating with it the header that I made. All things considered, I was kindof satisfied na rin with how things turned out.

So hey, check it out. I’m no Joni Ang or Liz Buenaflor or Mae Paulino. But well, I can always try. LOL. At the very least, I can help out modify Blogger layouts and make blog headers, if you’re sick of the usual Blogger template choices. Nope, no Wordpress themes and table-less stuff for me yet. I have a lot to learn.

In the end, it was a win-win case for me. I got a breather from all the SEO and writing I have to do, but more importantly, getting to know a new friend, getting a glimpse of mid-life through her, and being inspired, was the icing on the cake. It was lovely meeting you, Miss Cathy, and let me just say.. the feeling is mutual as I see you to be one of the wisest women I know online and offline as well. :)

Tonight, my friends and I were having our usual talk over coffee (and siopao, and mais con hielo, and whatever finger food was available) with Pastor Dave (who happens to be my Ninong too) and his lovely wife, Ninang Nory. Being about 20 years older than we are, I sometimes feel as if they’re in a constant lookout for ways to “connect” with our generation. And I have to say, as far as the generation gap is concerned, they are pretty much successful bridging it in. They’re definitely the coolest forty*bleep* yearolds in the planet.

There are, however, some bloopers here and there. And here’s the winning moment tonight:

Pastor Dave: “What’s that site you were talking about again..? Uh, pantyhose.com?”

The rest of us, staring at him, confused.

Pastor Dave: “The one with those videos you were all laughing about..?”

And then it dawned on her.

Normi: “Ohhh you mean happyslip.com!!
All: Oooohhhh!!

It was, of course, followed by an endless round of laughter. Pantyhose.com pala ha. :P

I guess there’s still generation gap, after all. :)

The night went on like that. But on top of all the laughter were insightful views about life, and relationships, and faith, and God, and family, and making the right choices, and just about anything under the sun. From as serious as spirituality and Bible doctrines to as trivial as pantyhose.com, er, happyslip.com, we all had our triple dose of self-reflections and realizations (more like reminders) that somehow fueled us up to face the world again.

My happy thoughts for the day: Faith. Friends. Laughter. And love everywhere. I’m stuffed. ♥

Oh, and Ninong Dave, if you’re reading this, it’s hap-py-slip, ok? :)

Yesterday was my first day back in the office since Dad passed away, and I wasn’t feeling well. On top of the emotional struggles I was going through, I had tummy cramps (what I first thought was dysmenorrhea lang) and back aches that were so painful I started to worry.

Halfway through the day, I contacted a doctor-friend, told him how I was feeling, and asked him to prescribe me anything that would give me immediate relief. I was desperate.

“Take Feldene Flash, 1 tablet, dissolve under tongue. If pain persists, punta ka na sa ER,” he simply texted. And so, to the nearest drug store, I went.

Amazingly, ten minutes after taking Feldene Flash, the pain was gone. All of it. (That fast? That easy?)

I don’t know how it happened, and what Feldene Flash has that made the pain go away. I didn’t bother trying to find out either. What mattered was suddenly, the day was easier to bear.

Now if only there’s a medicine that could take away that other form of pain — the one that comes with change; and letting go of something you’re not ready to let go of yet; and missing someone you can’t anymore have – please, let me know.

I need an overdose.

(Why does it feel like I have to take cobwebs off this site everytime I decide to press the “Write Post” button? Pfft.)

Hey. Look where I am now.

I didn’t expect that a time would come when I’d fall prey to the “elite” coffee shop culture where one pays around 150php worth of iced coffee and 200php worth of GlobeQuest credits in exchange for 2 measly hours of wifi connection and some snazzy ambience. So. Not. Me. (Or so I thought).

But living in an apartment with no telephone lines (and other related technology) to offer, and with the nearest hotspot in the form of Starbucks just few blocks away, I have to say, I don’t have much of a choice. Taking DELLilah the Laptop (his, not mine) whit me to Starbucks Pearl Drive, I suddenly hate myself for being judgmental of those people who hang out at coffee shops with their cute little laptops while sipping their fraps. Gag. I’ve crossovered.

Anyway. Since I’ve paid 400 bucks already (eww), I might as well make the most out of it and blog about, er, things I thought of blogging about but was not able to blog about because I’m so full of excuses (lame, I know). If only I had the time, and the will, and the internet access, I would have extensively blogged about:

(1) Pinkseo.Info getting banned out of Statcounter. My bandwidth has gone way beyond the limit that free accounts provide, hence, it’s either I upgrade to paid account, or they cut me off. It’s irritating and thrilling at the same time. Averaging around 9,000 unique visitors a day (where did that come from again??!), it would have been more exciting if the Ituloy Angsulong race was still on. My Google rank is still going up, see? Haynaku. I really should do something grand about that site. Think, think, think. (Suggestions, anyone?)

(2) Importing my four years worth of blogposts from there to here, following Joni’s step-by-step Importing-Tabulas-to-Wordpress initiative, to no avail. After successfully transferring my ten most recent posts, I came to accept the grim reality that I’m not (and never will I be) as patient as she is, and it’s gona take me 10 years to transfer all of them in. It did help, however, that I at least tried. You see, my attempt gave me no choice but to browse and read through four years worth of icky melodrama–making me realize in the end that it’s really better to just keep them there, after all, that’s where they should be–archived forever, haha. (I’m taking the “leave the past behind” mantra literally here, come on, help me out).

(3) Being tagged by some (online) friends–one I finally met face-to-face and one I was reunited with through the Ituloy Angsulong Night–to help out in the Stage and Decorations committee of Philippine Blog Awards 07. The pinoy online community is creating some noise, one big event after the other. (Watch out, The Third Iblog Summit is next.) And I feel honored to be part of it, in a way. At least this time they know me as “Riz”, and not “Pink”.

(4) Trusting people, and work issues, and Michael Scofield (coz my post about him has brought me quite a number of hits from search engines, coolness), and how much I love Music and Lyrics, and other mundane things I used to enjoy blogging about. Ang tamadtamadtamad ko na talagaaa.

Okaay now. My time is running out, and I’m getting kind of sleepy, and there’s work tomorrow, and I’m blabbering again, so I have. To Stop. Now.

The race (and the season) is over. Yesterday was the last day of collecting those little Starbucks stickers, and claiming the limited edition planners. Were you able to get yours?

As I was trying to clean my closet last night, I found my Starbucks planner lying underneath piles of bags, and cds, and clothes. Gah. So much for those overly priced Starbucks drinks. I barely touched my journal, I know, but I opened it anyway, and found this one (and only) entry I forgot I wrote on one of its pages.

Read the rest of this entry »