La Vida Loca

I started doing 30 day challenges in 2014. For me, it was just a game. I wanted to see how much discipline I can enforce upon myself either by detoxifying from something I have become addicted to (ex. social media) or adding a habit to my daily routine (ex. journal writing). When it comes to food, I’ve explored 30 days with no rice, no alcohol, no junk, no sweets – but all at different times. In an ideal world, we should just stop eating all of those at the same time, forever and ever. But different people have different methods of shaping their lifestyles. I have found, accidentally, that, this one works for me.

When I cut up a big challenge into smaller challenges, it becomes easier to swallow. So easy that it is inexcusable for me not to do it. I set myself up to gain a streak of small successes every day, which encourages me to tread on towards the end. Continue reading “No Sweets for 30 Days: Recalibrating the Palate”

I haven’t written anything well thought of for a very long time. And though I didn’t have all the time in the world to do this, I did put some effort into writing my last letter to my friends in the previous company I worked in. I sent this on my supposed last day (“supposed” because I got cut off my e-mail on the morning of my last day – that’s another story). And so here it goes:

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Hello my friends!

I ran the numbers.

On a regular day, we spend about 1 hour preparing for work, 2 hours on the road to and from work, 9 hours at work, and another 2 hours thinking or talking about work (y’know, group chat). If I slept for 7 hours a day, that’s easily 82% of my whole waking weekday.

If I lived to be a hundred years old, I would have spent 6% of my entire life with you. (Chances are I would only live to 70, in which case that would have been 9% of my life!)

So. O.M.G. I should have really, really made the most out of my stay here at Smart. What a shame, otherwise. The good news is, because of all of you people, I’d like to believe I did. Continue reading “A Farewell Letter”

I want to write. And that is why I am here again, reintroducing myself in 2014, 3 years after I started this blog. Back then, I used this mainly as an avenue to find myself. It had no theme, no categories, no rules, no boundaries. It was meant to be a personal journal after all. From there, it molded itself into a travel blog. And it was a good ride, joining travel communities, exploring the country and nearby lands (the Philippines is a gem, by the way), taking upside down photos in every single island I set my foot on – all those things. I still get e-mails from people in other parts of the world complimenting my stories, photos and whatnot. It is them, actually, who inspired me to get my ass back here, trading sleep for a Great Perhaps.

And in this search for the Great Perhaps, I feel there is a need for a Great Shake Up. This blog. My perspective of the world. Life in general. We are going to break the walls we built around us in the past years. They are old after all (things get old so quickly these days). We are getting on a boat is what I’m saying, and we’ll push it to the sea, and we’ll see where it goes.

I guess we could say this is still a travel blog of some sort, although this time it’s more like a life travel blog. Or something. Hell, I really don’t know. And, perhaps, that’s the point.

“Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it. Doing what you’re afraid of, going out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that, that’s what life is. You might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s really special. And if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself.”