Monday, March 22, 2010

Grammar (Girl) Fanatic

I love words. I don't consider myself an expert in grammar at all (not by a long shot!), but that doesn't mean I can't love it. I hate it when people use the word "stuffs" or invite me to a drink at "Starbuck's."

Many years ago, I began listening to a podcast by GrammarGirl. She hosts a regular show on "Quick and Dirty Tips on Grammar." This girl is seriously intelligent, sarcastic, and funny at the same time.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing around Fully Booked and was DELIGHTED to find a book called "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." Obviously, I left the bookstore with a new book in my arms. Ahhh, sheer joy.

I read the book whenever I could. Of course, I had to deal with a lot of weird looks from my dad regarding my idea of fun and light reading.

Somewhere near the end of the book, Mignon Fogarty (her real name) mentioned that she had a Twitter account. I browsed through her tweets and found that she was attending a writing seminar in Pasadena that weekend.

Wait a minute! My brother was attending a writing seminar--in Pasadena!

This is a story of how, thanks to my wonderful brother, I now have my very first autograph. Apparently, they were seatmates. I am officially a fangirl.







Thursday, March 18, 2010

Battle Studies.

When John Mayer's Room for Squares came out in 2001, I was an instant fan.

Ever since I fell in love with his first album, I've hoped and prayed that he would come to the Philippines. I knew it was a long shot. I didn't care. I knew that eventually, he would run out of big countries to tour. He'd have to come here... right?



The ticket prices are not exactly friendly on the pocket, but... it's John Mayer. I don't need to watch from the VIP section (although that would be really nice!)... I just need to watch.

Tomorrow, I will count my coins. I will clean out my closet and see what I can sell. I will call Channel V and ask how much the early bird rate is. I will make JV promise that he will watch with me.

I will watch John Mayer. I will watch John Mayer. I will watch John Mayer.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Vocabulary #1.

re·sil·ience [ri-zil-yuhns, -zil-ee-uhns]
· ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.

They say that Filipinos are resilient people. Whether we face the wrath of nature or disastrous family feuds, we immediately smile, pick ourselves up, and move on.

Thank goodness my belongings are resilient, too.

The Nokia
I swear, my phone is dying on me. However, no one will believe me anymore--because I've been saying this for at least two years now.

At first, the problems were simple. I couldn't call. It was nothing that repeatedly restarting the phone couldn't solve.

Then, my phone decided that it wanted to die every single time I got a phone call longer than two minutes. The solution was a no-brainer: Get a new battery.

For a brief period of time, there was a phase wherein I thought I had sent a text message, only to find the message in my Draft folder hours later. No wonder no one would reply to my text messages--no one ever received them. I don't know how this particular problem fixed itself, but thank goodness it hasn't happened in a while.

One afternoon about two months ago, an annoyingly loud beeping sound came from my phone. I checked to see what was wrong, and I saw an extremely threatening GENERAL SYSTEM ERROR message repeatedly flashing on the screen. After taking the battery out and putting it back in a number of times, the phone finally worked again--contacts, messages and photos all still intact.

Since then, I have only been encountering minor problems, such as the phone's memory card not reading properly. It's no biggie. Restarting the phone or taking out the battery always seems to solve the problem.

Maybe my phone knows that I have no money to replace it? In a way, my Nokia seems to be doing its own version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, except the wolf doesn't ever seem to arrive. Phew.

Considering that I've had my phone since 2007, and that I've dropped it at least a thousand times, I'm not surprised that it's acted the way it has--but still. I'd rather it not die just yet.

The Nike
Now, the life of my rubber shoes is nowhere as long or as dramatic as my previous story... but my shoes deserve just as much credit for their wonderfully long and persistent life.

I don't remember the year I got my rubber shoes, but I'm pretty sure that they've been hitting the pavement for at least four years. No, err, not exactly regularly--but just the same, it's been a pretty long time.

Lately, I've decided to use my shoes again. However, it seems that they don't want to be used anymore.

My shoes have finally decided to cry out for help. Their cries are now getting so loud, that both the left and the right shoes have ever-so-slightly opened their mouths in despair. There they go, flapping their mouths open and close, gasping desperately for air with every step I take.

This brings me to my second vocabulary word for the day:

Super glue
–noun
Trademark. a brand of glue, containing a cyanoacrylate adhesive, that is quick-drying and strong.


Thursday, March 4, 2010

Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado.


Everyday, we are troubled by our pursuits to find the perfect job, to be in a relationship, to make more money... the list goes on. We all have our personal struggles, and these struggles consume us. These are our giants. We know what they are, but what we don’t know is how to face these giants and look them in the eye.

In Facing Your Giants, Max Lucado connects King David's journey with our everyday battles. David’s story is composed of so much more than how he defeated Goliath. David made many mistakes, and his relationship with the Lord was far from perfect. Like David, we need to be reminded that with God's help, we can conquer anything—even if we "aren't the strongest, the smartest, the best equipped, or the holiest."

Facing Your Giants is the first Max Lucado book I’ve ever read, and to be honest, reading through the many Bible verses took some getting used to. However, the book was well worth my time. I had very little knowledge of David before reading this book, and I very much appreciated how Lucado shows us that David was so… human.

This book is perfect for people who, like me, occasionally need to be reminded:
"Focus on giants—you stumble.
Focus on God—your giants tumble."

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of BookSneeze, a book review bloggers program. Find out more at BookSneeze.com! :)