Welcome, 2008! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!! :)

Okay, I know, it's a tad bit late. :D But what the heck, it's still a NEW YEAR! :) Everyone has celebrated, blown up fireworks and written their resolutions. It's a time to look at ourselves and see what we need to change and start over with. A time to appreciate everyone who had helped us in the year and those whom we want to make even more memories with. :)

So let's welcome this new year 2008 with a list. XD :))

Things to Expect in 2008!

1. New friends. :)

We meet new people everyday, and we'll never know who might be our new best friend or maybe even our new crush. :> hehe. But whatever the case, don't miss an oppurtunity to shake the hand of someone new.

2. New memories!

Every year, something happens that makes a difference in our lives. Whether it be an outing with your friends, a conversation over the phone with your relative, or even just a stroll in your neighborhood, expect to learn something new and to add a new moment to remember in your hearts. :)

3. New mistakes. :

We are only human. We will make mistakes once in a while. They may be small, or they may be life changing. But whatever our mistakes are, we should look at them in a positive view and grab the lesson that needs to be learnt from it! Mistakes are given to us by our God for us to change our wrongdoings and to realize what needs to be fixed in our lives. Mistakes can either make us better people, or worse. You decide. ;)

4. New disasters. :(

Well, let's hope not. But it's true: things happen, things that are out of our control. There was 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Asia... and the list goes on. But again, look at them as oppurtunities! Oppurtunities to lend a hand, to help out, and to show our concern. And when lives are lost, it is an oppurtunity to see our lives in a different light. We can realize how blessed we are, and be more thankful for the lives given to us. :)

5. New lessons. :)

"You learn something new everyday." This saying is true. :) But only a few lessons stick in our minds, and in our hearts, too. They may be learnt through a person, through an experience, through a mistake, or through some epiphany, maybe. However they are discovered, let's remember that they all come from our Lord, and that we have to use them for the good of all. :) (woaaah. haha.)

Happy new year to everyone. :) Hope your 2008 is gonna be even better than our '07. :>

God bless, take care.

Love,
Nicah.

P.S. I know how to solve a Rubik's Cube. :>

P.P.S. I'm sorry, I had no time to Christmas post. XD This year nalang. :D

Reaching Out

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a long while. But I'm back! :) And with an experience I'd like to share. :D

Yesterday was a really cool day.

Our school has an program called the Kapitbahay Outreach Program. "Kapitbahay", in Tagalog, means "neighbor", and the idea is that we reach out to our less-fortunate neighbors from different squatter areas and public schools. And yesterday, we had our Grade 7 Kapitbahay.

It was raining early in the morning yesterday, so the original plan, to ride a jeepney to Krus Na Ligas Public School, was cancelled. Instead, the students will be coming to us. With our ensaymadas and tetra pack juices ready, and with our donation of books and school supplies at hand, we were ready for them.

They each came in one by one, going to their respective ates, whom were expected to take care of their kids for the rest of the wet morning. My partner and I received a boy named Rinnel. He looked much like the quiet type. Gabin (meh partner) and I asked him about his family and his life at school.
He has 6 other siblings, each studying at the same school. His dad works as a carpenter, and his mom stays at home to care for him and his siblings. His favorite subject is Math, and he enjoys drawing more than reading. Someday, he wants to become a teacher.

Talking to him was interesting. I realized that he lived a pretty much normal life, with family and school, and with the same dreams as anyone else. And he definitely wasn't the shy type.

My partner and I began to read to him, when he said that he wanted to read on his own. So he read the Filipino book out loud to us, and Gabin and I were surprised when he was reading even more fluently then she and I were! :) I couldn't help but smile.
During to Response to Literature portion of the program, Rinnel drew his favorite character, a talking car, with cartoonist-like precision. He wanted his drawing to look exactly like the one in the book. We were again surprised with his perfectionist style and how headstrong he was on completing the drawing. :)

It was time to eat. We offered him a really yummy-looking ensaymada and some juice. He said he wasn't hungry. Although we begged him to eat, he really didn't want to. It was kind of weird to us. Then we realized we should ask him why, and he responded, in Tagalog, "I want to bring it home to my family." My partner and I smiled, and said that he could have more to take home after he ate. He smiled and took a bite. :)

Saying goodbye was bittersweet. All of my classmates enjoyed spending time with their Kapitbahay kid, and all of us were surprised to see their works of art and to hear how well they understood the story read to them. The kids were clearly happy to bring home new pencils, crayons and books. Not to mention food. But their hugs goodbye made us want to spend more time with them. :( And when they left, all we had left to remember them by were our memories.

Meeting the students, especially Rinnel, has changed my attitude towards my studies, and towards the less-fortunate. Those kids were just like any kids in the fourth grade, except that maybe they really work hard to get high grades, they listen in class, and they study because they're thankful for the oppurtunity, and they want to make their families happy. Makes me want to do better at school, myself. :)

If someday you read this Rinnel, thanks. :) God bless, take care! :)

Nicah.

The Greatest Bookstore In The Philippines.

I was there. I saw the spendor. And what can I say? "Woah."

My mom took me there 2 days ago, since she had a meeting at the Starbucks INSIDE the bookstore. Fully-Booked, it's called. Fully-Booked is one of the more high-class bookstores in the Philippines, it's way up there with Sketchbooks and A Different Kind of Bookstore.

It has 4 floors up, and a basement. Yes, a basement. And the books and materials and resources? Oh my. I can't even say how NICE they were. Here are some pictures I took. (which reminded me of some of my friends. :P)

CD rack. Yes, they sell music. o.O JazzPER. :))

Ok, this is just funny. :)) I got it from the inside of a "weird toys" book. :)) Reminded me of Regina. :P

NANCY DREW!!! Love the colors. :D Reminded me of Josh and Mishka! :D

It's just a nice quote. :D

Anyway, yeah... I bought a cute hardbound notebook so I could start a diary again. :)

Pero grabe, I felt like I was in ME heaven. Books, coffee and music. It was awesome!!! Even when my mom was done with her meeting, I still needed more time to explore the store. It was sooo COOL.

You guys should check it out soon. :D It's at Bonifacio High Street. it's huge. Can't miss it. :P

God bless you guys, take care ya'll!

Nicah.

Life Verses. :D

Just recently, I remembered a challenge our discipleship group leader gave us. She said to find a life verse. She said that a life verse is a Bible verse that best applies to your life, or a Bible verse that strikes you in a different way than other verses. So anyway, I decided to take the challenge. :) I found 2 verses that affected me most.

1. Psalm 73:25
My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
I really like this verse because it is such a great encouragement and assurance of God's love. It says that people are weak, and we can't do everything on our own. In fact, we can't do anything on our own. So when our own strength fails, and when we think we can't take it anymore, God is the strength of our hearts. He loves us so much, and He'll help us keep on going. :) He's the reason why we can go on even after a fight with our parents or a struggle we have, or whatever.. :)

Here's a song that came from this verse:

Whom have I in heaven but You
There is nothing on earth I desire beside You
My heart and my strength many times they fail
But there is one truth that always will prevail

God is the strength of my heart
God is the strength of my heart
God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever, forever

2. 1 Timothy 4:12
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
I like this one, too, because it tells us that even the young, and maybe those who aren't as smart or tall or even as pretty as others can be an example to other other people. And for me, it says that I can make a difference for God in the lives of other people. :) And that pushes me even more to be a better person. :)

Being able to find my life verse/s is a great achievement for me. :) Praise God. If you guys have a life verse too, feel free to share it with me! :) Comment please. :D

God bless you guys, take care! :)

When the cup cakes,
Nicah

P.S. I miss you JI people!

STORM! Bwahahaha!

The storm(s) that've been hitting us are driving me NUTS. And I'm not even talking about pecan, or pea. It's COCO. As in, CocoNUTS.

My jokes are getting cornier by the second. o.O

Anyway, for those of you whom haven't heard (you people probably live on mars or something), the Philippines has been Downpour City for the past week. Thursday of last week, classes were cancelled due to the strong rains (by the way, I woke up that morning and STILL went to school. Who says we can't hang out at sCOOL during a storm? *wink*).

Following that big blast (or rather, pour), there were rains and drizzles, although that was just in Manila. The provinces in Northern Luzon were continually being hit, resulting in floods. BIG floods. Floods reaching rooftops and engulfing trees. Floods that pushed the people living there to buy and build small boats to get around.

Anyway, last Wednesday, classes were suspended. It was weird for us taking the quarterly exams because by the time the suspension was announced, we were already dimissed. :)) Oh well. Lastly, classes yesterday and today were cancelled (perhaps to build up the suspense of receiving our exam results?). Floods are continually being a problem to people in our provinces, and people living beside canals and creeks.

The report that you have been reading is actually what's been happening in Manila. I don't really know much about what's been happening farther away. o.O

Other than the suspension of classes and the very cool weather, the storms have brought about some good results. :) First of all, there was a drought two or three weeks ago. Guess what happened to it. :D Bye bye. :D The rain has supplied enough more than enough water to make our rice fields and vegetables grow. Then of course our water supplies have increased dramatically. :) Proving, of course, that there's a silver lining in every cloud (in this case, heavy, water-filled clouds).

But we can't forget our fellow countrymen (and women!) who are suffering. :( As mentioned before, the rain has brought about outrageous floods. Which of course bring about floating rats and cockroaches. Ick. But more seriously than that, adults and children alike have drowned and lost lives in this storm. :( last week's Thursday-Friday storm (from what I heard, I was probably not even updated) resulted in 10 losses. :( Siiigh.

I know God will continue to take care of us despite this disastrous event. Please just continue to pray for us. :) Thanks. God bless you guys, take care! :)

Nicah.

OTHER LINKS:
To learn more about Downpour City, for weather forecasts and results:CLICK THIS
My friend (who loves Pi/Pie), Josh, has a strong view on this current weather. Potential Al Gore, perhaps? Hehe. :D Here's his blog entry: CLICK THIS!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Yes, I'm sure the title has been overused already by this time. And I'm sure most of you have already read it. But I just CANNOT leave this entry inside my head: I must come out (that sounded so wrong XD).

I received my copy of this wondrous, amazing, SPECTACULAR book the day it was released. I was ecstatic! And at the same time, disappointed, since I knew I would be busy the WHOLE WEEK... No exaggerrating: WHOLE WEEK.

You can imagine how much of the book I got done. If you can't: not a lot. Or at least, not as much as I expected I would finish. Most of my friends had finished it the day after it was released; some the same day it was released. And they were all pretty much waiting for me to finish. I had to fight off the spoilers and those annoyances like "You know what Nicah, *insertnamehere* dies!" It was so annoying (quote and quote: annoyances)!

Anyway, I finished it. And before anybody can get mad at me...

WARNING: DO NOT READ THE TEXT IN PURPLE BELOW UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY READ THE BOOK. YOU WILL HATE ME AND YOURSELVES FOR SPOILING IT.

I was actually a bit disappointed that most of the book's setting was out of Hogwarts. I missed all the adventures and discoveries the trio, Hermione, Ron, and Harry made; being the rebels that they are. But I cannot deny how cool it ended up being: how all the books became clearly intertwined; how Harry (and everybody else) grew up and their feelings, actions and language has changed, now that they're in their 7th year at Hogwarts; and how everything ends up bittersweet (I've never been a fan of the sweet stuff). J.K. Rowling is made of magic. *bows in reverence*

Voldemort. How I've grown to hate him while reading each and every book. It's great to find out that he finally dies: and even if it was expected, the way he died, and the way Harry killed him was spectacular. I was a bit confused, admittedly. The end of the book was much of a blur, with everybody dueling, Mrs. Weasley's shrieking of "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU *female dog*!", and of course Harry finally knowing everything, EVERYTHING about Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape. It was a bit hard to keep up. But once you understand it, and see how everything falls into place, it's truly a spectacular book.

And of course, who can forget the epilogue? :> The book could've done without it, but of course, what kind of self-respecting author like J.K. Rowling keeps her fans dangling like that, right? :)

OK YOU GUYS, YOU CAN READ NOW. ;)

I will miss reading about Harry Potter, his adventures, and the lessons he learned along the way. Harry Potter will forever be a part of my life. I will never forget how a 1st grade student fell in love with The Sorcerer's Stone, and stayed true to Harry until she, herself was in her 7th year at her school. And she will continue to dream and wonder of him, of how he lived his life with love, friendship, and fame.

I may sound like a drama queen, but this is how I feel. Live with it. :P

Hats off to Ms. Rowling, and may Harry's story live with us forever. :)

Take care guys, God bless. :)

May your swords stay sharp, your heart filled with love, and your wands enticed with magic. ;)

Kids Nowadays

Today, I was reading the blogs of a few of my friends. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. But I noticed something: Us kids are getting more and more aware of the world around us.

One friend of mine wrote about PEACE, and how our world is far from achieving it. And, in my opinion, almost all of the other problems we have in the world fall under the lack of PEACE. Problems such as corruption, discrimination, poverty and violence [just to name a few].

I know that there are a lot of skeptics out there who might be saying "The world's a big place, there's peace everywhere!" or maybe, "That war in Iran? That's only ONE war. Name me 5 wars that occured in the past 5 years THEN I'll be worried." Believe me people, WE NEED TO ACT TODAY.

If you don't believe me, take a look at this:

Just A FEW Of The Problems That Our World Faces

1. Corruption
Being a Filipino, I know all about this. Who cares if I'm just almost 13, corruption is EVERYWHERE. In my country, our people is divided into 3 groups: the rich, the fortunate, and the poor. And just so you can picture how corrupt it is in the Philippines: the way the money goes around is one way. The rich just get richer and richer, and the poor just get poorer and poorer. And that's just in the Philippines. The rest of the world has its own corrupt issues as well. In countries, political leaders bribing and stealing, and sometimes even killing. In offices, the smart yet less-fortunate workers lose their jobs to the less-smart but very-fortunate ones. I'm sure you can even name some forms of corruption in your schools or neighborhoods.

Cor-rup-tion - n. 1. impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle 2. inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means

Corruption is everywhere. Whether it's about money, or popularity, or whatever, it's everywhere.

2. Discrimination
Racism, sexism, ethnicism and even hairism, if you want to get really specific. They are all forms of discrimination. People are killed and marginalized and looked down on like trash just because of where they're from, or how they look, or what their religion is. Another friend of mine talked about the movie "Freedom Writers", just another example of people are getting more and more aware of discrimination.

Is there really any reason to discriminate others? People, we are all human beings. We all have feelings. We have minds that think, and hearts that beat. We were all created by one superior being we call our God. If we look at the palms of our hands, are they not all the same color?

Think about it.

3. Poverty
More and more people end up on the streets everyday. More children with no futures are born into poor families every second. This is happening all over the world. In the Philippines alone, 80% of the estimated 91 million population is in poverty. And a part of that 80% are children. "The youth is our future." What future do we then face...?

A lot of us are thinking... Why don't they just get jobs? Corruption. Why don't other people help them? Discrimination. Why don't they try to help themselves with the projects the government offers? Because they feel they can provide for themselves, even when the answer is right in front of them.

4. Violence
War, murder and even just small cat-fights between classmates, they are all forms of violence. A lot of video games portray real fighting scenes and war set-ups. Guess what? Your little brother has been playing with it.
A lot of people don't realize how serious the problem of violence is becoming. Why? Because it's become a part of everyday life. Seeing a 5 year old kid kick his younger sibling is just as common as seeing water in the toilet.

We cannot be ignorant to how the youth is growing up - and that is with violence all around them.


Us kids are the future. What we are right now is what our world faces. And right now, we know what's going on. We know what needs to be changed.
Question: What can we do?
Answer: Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Let's act today.

Take care you guys, and may God be with you. :)

Love your neighbor as yourself. --Mark 12:31