After six long days of pure pleasure, vacationing, and intense debate trainings, I am finally home.

Nothing beats the comfort of finally being home, but being the blog-hopper-fanatic that I am, I was especially excited to backread on some of my favorite blogs on the internet. However, as I was busy doing my rounds, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had won a blog award from yen. Here it is.

I feel so happy, since this is already my third blog award — and considering that I am new to blogging still, I feel particularly blessed to have been given these awards. I am planning to come up with my own blog awards soon, if only to recognize back the awesome blogs that keep me busy for the most part in a day.

I will post pictures soon of the adventure that was Bohol — but for the meantime, I intend to regain my strength by getting sleep. Lots and lots of sleep.

Here’s a concession: one of the few things that I wanted to have before I reached 25 would be (don’t laugh) a perfectly-chiseled body. This is because I usually associate a perfectly lean body with being healthy. Because of this, I wanted to be a gym buff, and just do away with all those useless flabs. Part of my motivation in wanting to have this body type is because almost all of my siblings have weight issues — and it would be a feat to stand out among them, or to give them motivation to lose weight.

In fact, I was so bent on achieving this that I once enrolled in a fitness gym, and for one whole month, I carried weights non-stop, did continuous lunges, and repeated several cardio procedures. After just two weeks, my body started to show some changes, albeit minor. However, due to school demands, I was unable to keep these exercises up. Because of this, my progress was significantly stalled.

I thought that perhaps, it would be better off to use supplemental aids to help me lose weight and achieve my dream type. I scoured through several websites, and looked for the most viable supplement. One interesting aid that I came across was fat burners. I found this particularly helpful because before anyone can get that chiseled body, he/she needs to burn fat first. This step of the process can be tricky — so this supplement is a heaven-sent, given that it aids in the elimination of fat before your body can be carved according to what you have always wanted to have.

I just hope that I can sustain this, and that soon, I can have that perfect fat burner brand that can immensely help me with my body struggles.

This is me  in my hotel room. This was taken right after our arrival, and before we partied like crazey.

Here in Bohol, one of the first few things that I noticed right away is the number of beautiful beaches that have pristine sand and blue waters. Actually, that was one of the first few things that I made sure I will be enjoying, even before I boarded the boat from Dumaguete. And because of this, I brought with me swimming gear, board shorts, snorkels, and other swimming apparel.

True to my expectations, I was greeted with a lot of beautiful scenery, and the beach front of Bohol (in the port) was already inviting and tempting. Right after the boat docked, I quickly changed to my swimming trunks, and together with my friends, we explored the beautiful waters of Panglao island. We made sure we did this, because we would actually be doing a lot of legwork in giving debate lectures to several high school debaters from Bohol.

However, what also caught my attention on the beach was the numerous seamen and sailors who were probably momentarily docking in the shore.

I paused for a moment, because ever since I was young, I was always fascinated with the maritime profession. This was largely because almost all of my uncles and cousins worked as seamen who were based in various locations across the globe. I always thought that: first, it would be awesome to have a job that would make me travel overseas and explore the different wonders of the world; but second, it would also be lonely to have a job that would require me to leave my family and be exposed to the dangers that are present when working as a seaman.

These dangers, after all, are quite real. In fact, we constantly hear numerous stories of American sailors who have had to endure the scarring horrors of health hazards and other adverse circumstances while on duty. But apparently, for Americans, the Jones Act of 1920 that was passed by Senator Wesley Jones was a statutory response that ensured the health of the workers. Apart from this guarantee, the Jones Act also aimed to protect them from negligence, as well as to give proper care and attention when they suffer injuries while in service. A Jones Act lawyer, more specifically, is someone who specialize in these particular cases, and they are the authorities when it comes to dealing with these adverse events.

I don’t know if I still think so much about being in the maritime industry right now, because as it  is, my interests have varied considerably — but it is still definitely one of the best professions in my mind.

Apart from being a vacationer here in Bohol, I am also a trainer for a city-wide debate tournament of high school students. Just today, I was part of a team of lecturers who gave some insight on how parliamentary debating is done. Together with my friends Anna, Carlo, and Therese (awesome debaters from my university’s debate society), we gave them tips on the basics of debating, in the hopes of witnessing a grand battle of wit and intellect as they dissect current problems and pressing issues that need discussion and discourse.

I was particularly impressed with the way these kids were being receptive to the learnings that we imparted to them. Boy, with kids this intelligent, I am excited for the future of parliamentary debating (since pretty soon, they will be enrolling in universities, and I hope they will try out for the debate varsity). However, I noticed that unlike kids who were in my generation during high school, most of them them were rather short, thin, and scrawny. I know that intellect is an important thing to have — but health should also be of equal stature to intelligence.

I guess one of the methods that these kids can use is by using, in extreme circumstances, human growth hormone as a supplemental aid.

The wonders of science, I got to thinking, has allowed people to get hold of substances naturally occurring and synthesized by the body. However, there are some unfortunate individuals who are deficient in certain hormones. I am such a geek, but anyway, for what it’s worth, I think this is a pretty good shot at enhancing these kids’ general well-being.

I can’t wait for the debate tournament this Thursday!

Finally, after a series of stressful days and nonstop work, I am giving myself a breather.

A vacation, I know, is something that can help me declutter for a moment, take the time to breathe again, and be amused with the simple joys of nature.

This is the reason why I am now in Bohol.

This place is unlike any other place here in the Philippines, because apart from the beautiful weather, the temperate climate, and the warmth of the locals, it also has a number of beautiful beaches that have white sand and clean, blue waters. Apart from these natural wonders, Bohol is also home to the tarsier, an endangered marsupial that thrives in Bohol’s lush forests and preserved habitats.

I will be here for 7 days, and I intend to make the most out of my vacation, which is why as early as now, I am already meticulously planning out my itinerary for the next 6 days or so.

La vita e bella.

My mother, who is just entering her 60′s, recently complained of hating the mirror lately.

At first, this baffled me — because my mom has never been consumed with vanity (unlike me, ha). She always took pride in the fact that her hair’s graying was an indication of her life’s progression, and that it should be flaunted, rather than be concealed with black hair dye.

Two days ago however, she was quite irritated to see that several lines were forming in her forehead area. And then she ranted about how these lines were causing her to age faster than usual.

To be completely honest, I was quite taken aback by what she said. She is, after all, one of the few people who did not fuss about aging and everything that came with it. But knowing that we often get irrational as we get older (I can attest to this), I tried to calm her down by giving her my three cents worth to do away with this problem, or if not, to mitigate the possibility of more wrinkles forming:

First, I told her to keep smiling even when her days are not as happy as she wants them to be. (Yes, smiling is your most potent weapon against the earth’s gravity.)

Second, I told her to constantly think that she has awesome children who can make her day anytime soon. (Yes, it’s true, ha.)

And third, she can look for a good wrinkle cream that can help lighten the visibility of her wrinkles.

Apparently, she took my words positively, and she smiled back at me.

Good deed for the day, DONE.

Right now, the entire city has transformed into one big party.

I just arrived from the boulevard where three makeshift stages have been strategically placed in street corners because the end of the buglasan celebration, apparently, needs to be a BANG.

literally, thousands of people were checking out the festive music and sidewalk stalls that sold stickers, shirts, accessories, and other colorful apparel. at around 10:00 PM, the sky was even bursting with life and color as the awesome fireworks display painted the evening sky with red, blue, and yellow.

it couldn’t get any better than this.

Corollary to that acne reviews post that I made two days ago, right now, I need to sleep. And when I say sleep, I mean hibernate for a very long time.

This is due to the fact that lately, I have been getting fewer winks because of my ghost writing jobs. My body system has adapted to the long hours of staying awake, but I intend to stop this madness soon.

This is because: first, I tend to be more irate when I lack sleep; and second, I am losing weight fast because of this sleeping problem.

Because the internet is awesome and it has so many options when it comes to dealing with this problem, I looked up some of the best sleep aids that can help me have more restful sleep.

Seriously, I think that as we get older, sleeping becomes a luxury — but we need more of it, because it is what sustains us and makes us ready for the rampage that we refer to as everyday living.

Anyhow, I wish to rest for a very loooooooooooong time now, because I know that my body deserves to recuperate from the endless partying and good times.

Wish me luck!

This morning, as I was about to remove clutter from my old email address, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have kept a number (okay, a couple of hundred, lol) old pictures in there. In fact, I dedicated an entire folder for my vanity altar (shame). It made me smile, because I have not seen those pictures for a very long time — and apart from me smiling, it also evoked certain emotions that I could not understand.

I could not understand it, but in a way, it made me miss my past. Just looking at those pictures from yesteryears made me realize how much I’ve grown, both physically and emotionally (I hope, ha). I felt an unusual fluctuation of emotions that at one point, I even asked myself: am I still the same person that I was before or have I become a stranger to my past self? Anyway, just for kicks, here’s a picture of myself (I know I run the risk of being called vain, ha) six years ago:

Here’s a picture of me now:

Is there much difference or not really? What do you think?