Viva, Las Vegas!

Wahoooooo! I am so happy.

This just in from the Peacock: "NBC has renewed its veteran drama series Las Vegas (Fridays, 9 pm/ET) for a fifth high-rolling season through 2007-08, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment.


'The cast and producers have consistently given us what we want from Las Vegas — pure entertainment — and we're looking forward to another fun ride next season with the show,' said Reilly."

I got to have my Josh Duhamel fix.

Obsessed Completely

I have accepted that The O.C. has ended (February 22, 2007). I will just remember it for the great show that it was. After watching the series finale, I did not really want The O.C. to do another season because it was perfect.

It was the best episode of the entire series; it gave us closure to all the characters. Summer and Seth's wedding was the greatest; I honestly did not expect it. Ryan and the kid were amazing.


The episode made me cry, honestly.

The last 10 minutes however, were incredible. The flashbacks to the pilot and season one was good and the way it ended with Ryan seeing the kid was just perfect. It was just great to see it come full circle.

Cheers to Ellen!

She was amazing! I do watch her show everyday, and the Oscar’s last night was just the best because it had Ellen Degeneres as the host.

Congratulations on her monologue, she is so funny and she looked so relaxed, very natural, even her outfits, and hair & make up looked great too. She even managed to work a dance in!


My sides hurt from laughing so much. I love to laugh. We all love to laugh. The world needs to laugh.

Ellen, you go girl!

Love and Time

Once upon a time, there was an island where all feelings lived Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others including Love.

One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all repaired their boats and left. Love was the only one who stayed.

Love wanted to persevere until the last possible moment. When the island was almost sinking, Love decided to ask for help. Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, "Richness, can you take me with you?" Richness answered, "No, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you." Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel.

"Vanity, please help me!" "I can't help you Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered. Sadness was close by so Love asked for help, "Sadness, let me Go with you." "Oh...Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!" Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her!

Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come Love, I will take you." It was an elder. Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that he even forgot to ask the elder her name. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way.

Love realizing how much he owed the elder asked Knowledge, another elder, "Who helped me?" "It was Time," Knowledge answered.

"Time?" asked Love. "But why did Time help me?"

Knowledge smiled with deep Wisdom and answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is."

Let us bring out the love in our lives --- and watch what happens.

Hearts Day!

Live well,
Laugh often,
And let your heart fall in love
With the beauty of each day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dating Dictionary

As we approach Valentine’s Day...

Valentine's Vernacular: A Dating Dictionary...

DATING: The process of spending enormous amounts of money, time, and energy to get better acquainted with a person whom you don't especially like in the present and will learn to like a lot less in the future.

EASY: A term used to describe a woman who has the morals of a man.

EYE CONTACT: A method utilized by a single woman to communicate to a man that she is interested in him. Despite being advised to do so, many women have difficulty looking a man directly in the eyes, not necessarily due to the shyness, but usually due to the fact that a woman's eyes are not located in her chest.

FRIEND: A member of the opposite sex who has some flaw which makes sleeping with him/her totally unappealing.

INDIFFERENCE: A woman's feeling toward a man that is interpreted by the man as "playing hard to get."

IRRITATING HABIT: What the endearing little qualities that initially attract two people to each other turn into after a few months together.

NYMPHOMANIAC: A man's term for a woman who wants to do it more often than he does.

SOBER: A condition in which it is almost impossible to fall in love.

ATTRACTION: The act of associating horniness with a particular person.

LOVE AT 1st SIGHT: What occurs when two extremely horny, but not entirely choosy people meet.

LAW OF RELATIVITY: How attractive a given person appears to be is directly proportionate to how unattractive your date is.

Woo Hoo!

Hats off to You!

Another Shared Moment

The kiss was cute and sweet, beyond expectations. I cannot stop smiling!

Thank you, Lolai!

I loved how they talked before hand. It was just awesome.

I am a Filipina!

You think you really know Filipinos. Then read the article my sister forwarded.

What makes the Filipino Special?
Source: Ed Lapiz, INQ7.net, 1 December 2006

Filipinos are brown. Their color is at the center of human racial strains. This point is not racism, but for many Filipinos to realize that our color should not be a source or reason for an inferiority complex. While we pine for a fair complexion, white people are religiously tanning themselves whenever they could, under the sun or some artificial light, just to approximate the Filipino complexion.

Filipinos are a touching people. We have lots of love and are not afraid to show it. We almost inevitably create human chains with our perennial akbay (arm around another shoulder), hawak (hold), yakap (embrace), himas (caress), kalabit (touch with the tip of the finger), kalong (sitting on someone's lap), etc.

We are always reaching out, always seeking interconnection.

Filipinos are linguists. Put a Filipino in any city, any town around the world. Give him a few months or even weeks and he will speak the local language. Filipinos are adept at learning and speaking languages. In fact, it is not uncommon for Filipinos to speak at least three: his dialect, Filipino, and English. If they work abroad, many speak an added language, the host country's language.

In addition, Tagalog is not 'sexist.' While many "conscious" and "enlightened" people today are just now striving to be "politically correct" in their language, in the process, bending to absurd depths to coin "gender sensitive" words, Tagalog has evolved gender-neutral words since time immemorial - asawa (husband or wife), anak (son or daughter), magulang (father or mother), kapatid (brother or sister), biyenan (father-in-law or mother-in-law) , manugang (son- or daughter-in- law), bayani (hero or heroine), etc. Our languages and dialects are advanced and, indeed, sophisticated! No wonder Jose Rizal, the quintessential Filipino, spoke some twenty-two languages!

Filipinos are "groupists." We love human interaction and company. We always surround ourselves with people and we hover over them, too. According to Dr. Patricia Licuanan, a psychologist from Ateneo and Miriam College, an average Filipino would have and know at least 300 relatives.

At work, we live bayanihan (mutual help); at play, we want a kalaro (playmate) more than a laruan (toy). At socials, our invitations are open and it is common even for guests to invite and bring in other guests. In transit, we do not want to be separated from our group. So what do we do when there is no more space in a vehicle? Kalung-kalong! (sit on another's lap). No one would ever suggest splitting a group and waiting for another vehicle with more space!

Filipinos are weavers. One look at our baskets, mats, clothes, and other crafts will reveal the skill of the Filipino weaver and his inclination to weaving. This art is a metaphor of the Filipino trait. We are social weavers. We weave theirs into ours, so that we all become parts of one another. We place a lot of premium on pakikisama (getting along) and pakikipagkapwa (relating). At almost any cost, the Filipino will avoid the two worst labels, walang pakikisama (no comradeship) and walang pakikipagkapwa (cannot relate).

We love to blend and harmonize with people, we like to include them in our "tribe," in our "family"-and we like to be included in other people's families, too.

Therefore we call our friend's mother nanay or mommy; we call a friend's sister ate (eldest sister), and so on. We even call strangers tita (aunt) or tito (uncle), tatang (grandfather), etc.

So extensive is our social openness and interrelation that we have specific titles for extended relations like hipag (sister-in-law’s spouse), balae (child-in-law’s parents), inaanak (godchild), ninong/ninang (godparents) kinakapatid (godparent's child), etc. In addition, we have the profound 'ka' institution, loosely translated as "equal to the same kind" as in kasama (of the same company), kaisa (of the same cause), kapanalig (of the same belief), etc. In our social fiber, we treat other people as co-equals.

Filipinos, because of their social "weaving" traditions, make for excellent team members.

Filipinos are adventurers. We have a tradition of separation. Our myths and legends speak of heroes and heroines who almost always get separated from their families and loved ones and are taken by circumstance to far-away lands where they find wealth or power.

Our Spanish colonial history is filled with separations caused by the reduccion (hamletting) and the forced migration to build towns, churches, fortresses or galleons. American occupation enlarged the space of Filipino wandering, including America, and there are documented evidences of Filipino presence in America as far back as 1587.

Filipinos now compose the world's largest population of overseas workers, populating and sometimes "threshing" major capitals, minor towns, and even remote villages around the world. Filipino adventurism has made us today's citizens of the world, bringing the bagoong (salty shrimp paste), pansit (sauteed noodles), siopao (meat-filled dough), kare-kare (peanut-flavored dish), dinuguan (innards cooked in pork blood), balut (duck egg embryo), and adobo (meat vinaigrette), along with the tabo (ladle) and tsinelas (slippers) all over the world.

Filipinos are excellent at adjustments and improvisation, managing to recreate their home, or to feel at home anywhere.

Filipinos have pakiramdam (deep feeling/ discernment). We can feel what others feel, sometimes even anticipate it. Being manhid (insensitive) is one of the worst labels on anyone, to be avoided at all costs. We know when a guest is hungry though he insists on the contrary.

We can tell if people are lovers even if they're miles apart. We know if a person is offended though he may purposely smile. We know because we feel. In our pakikipagkapwa (fraternizing in oneness), we not only get to slip into another man's shoes, but also into his heart.

We have a superbly developed and honored gift of discernment that makes us excellent leaders, counselors, and go-betweens.

Filipinos are very spiritual. We are transcendent. We transcend the physical world, see the unseen and hear the unheard. We have a deep sense of kaba (premonition) and kutob (hunch). A Filipino wife will instinctively feel her husband or child is going astray, whether or not telltale signs present themselves.

Filipino spirituality makes him invoke divine presence or intervention at nearly every bend of his journey. Rightly or wrongly, Filipinos are almost always acknowledging, invoking or driving away spirits into and from their lives. Seemingly trivial or even incoherent events can take on spiritual significance and will be given such space or consideration.

The Filipino has a sophisticated, developed pakiramdam. The Filipino, though becoming more and more modern (hence, materialistic) is still very spiritual in essence. This inherent and deep spirituality makes the Filipino, once correctly Christianized, a major exponent of the faith.

Filipinos are timeless. Despite the nearly half-a-millennium encroachment of the western clock into our lives, Filipinos-unless on very formal or official functions-still measure time not in hours and minutes but with feeling. This style is ingrained deep in our psyche. Our time is diffused, not framed. Our appointments are defined by umaga (morning), tanghali (noon), hapon (afternoon), or gabi (evening).

Our most exact time reference is probably katanghaliang tapat (high noon), which still allows many minutes of leeway. That is how Filipino trysts and occasions are timed: there is really no definite time.

A Filipino event has no clear-cut beginning or ending. We have a fiesta, but there is bisperas (eve) and the day after the fiesta is still considered a good time to visit. The Filipino Christmas is not confined to December 25th; it somehow begins months before December and extends up to the first days of January.

Filipinos say good-bye to guests first at the head of the stairs, then down at the descamo (landing), the entresuelo (mezzanine), the pintuan (doorway), the tarangkahan (gate), and if the departing persons are to take public transportation, up to the bus stop or station. Other people's tardiness and extended stays can really be annoying, but this peculiarity is also the charm of Filipinos who, governed by timelessness, show how their brothers elsewhere how to find more time to be kind and accommodating rather than prompt and exact.

Filipinos are space-less. As in the concept of time, the Filipino concept of space is not numerical. We will not usually express space in miles or kilometers but with feeling in malayo (far) or malapit (near).

Alongside numberless-ness, Filipino space is also boundless. Indigenous culture did not divide land into private lots but kept it open for all to partake of its abundance.

The Filipino has remained avidly "space-less" in many ways. The interior of the bahay kubo (hut) can easily become receiving room, sleeping room, kitchen, dining room, chapel, funeral parlor, etc. depending on the time of the day or the needs of the moment.

The same is true with the bahay na bato (stone house). Space just flows into the next space, so that the divisions between the sala, caida, comedor, or vilada may only be faintly suggested by overhead arches of filigree. In much the same way, Filipino concept of space can be so diffused that a party may creep into and actually appropriate the street! A family business like a sari-sari store or talyer (production or work area) may extend to the sidewalk and street. Provincial folks dry palay (rice grain) on highways! Religious groups of various persuasions habitually and matter-of-factly commandeer the streets for processions and parades.

It is not uncommon to close a street to accommodate private functions. Filipinos eat, sleep, chat, socialize, quarrel, even urinate, nearly everywhere or just anywhere!

"Space-lessness" in the face of modern, especially urban life, can be unlawful and really counter-productive. On the other hand, when viewed from the Filipino's context, it is just another manifestation of his spiritually and communal values. Adapted well to today's context, which may mean unstoppable urbanization, Filipino spaceless-ness may even be the answer and counter balance to humanity's greed, selfishness and isolation.

So what makes the Filipino special? We are brown, spiritual, timeless, space-less, linguist, groupist, weavers and adventurers. Seldom do all these profound qualities find personification in a people. Filipinos should allow - and should be allowed to contribute their special traits to the world-wide human community - but first, we should know and like ourselves. (Light Touch Magazine Special issue, vol. 8 number 3, Copyright 2004, Glad Tidings Publication)

I am proud and will forever be proud to be a Filipina!

Chocolate Chip Cookie

According to some online quiz at least.

Chocolate Chip lovers are loyal and dependable. You're probably a bit of a traditionalist and, therefore, may find it difficult to try new things. Family and friends are very important to you and you work hard to maintain connections among your loved ones. You have a small group of friends you've known forever and spend time with regularly, and you are the one everyone comes running to for advice. You relish your role as the nurturer and comforter, and your friends repay you by gently reminding you to take care of yourself -- along with everyone else!

What's Your Cookie Personality?

HP and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last of seven installments of the boy wizard’s adventures, will be published July 21, author J.K. Rowling announced.

Excellent news. At least we know now, not too long to wait.

Goobye, Newport Beach

“The sun will set for the last time on THE O.C. when the series ends its four-season run this February 22, 2007.”

I was still in Hoola-land when I learned about the on-coming death of one of the TV series that I have loved to watch. You can even ask my brother that I shed tears upon hearing the news. Why? Because I so 'heart' Ryan Atwood and Seth Cohen.

Definitely, I will catch the emotional ending and the fondest of farewells of the Cohens, the Coopers and Ryan and Taylor in the momentous series finale of The O.C.