When I was in kindergarten, I had a hard time understanding Math specifically the lesson in  “greater than- less than-equal to” equations. My mother, being a teacher, helped me understand the lesson by using analogy . In a manner of storytelling, she told me that the sign corresponding greater than/less than/equal to is  Pacman  (the famous computer game back then), while the numbers in the equation represent the amount of apples . She told me I have to point Pacman’s mouth to the larger amount so he can eat more apples. I never failed at greater than/less than/equal to lesson ever again. SOURCE: h ttp://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/2012/08/montessori-inspired-greater-than-less.html Outliers  by Malcolm Gladwell is a lot like my mom’s way of teaching me Math. It is composed of analogies and stories that helped me understand the wisdom behind success. It will not tell you what to do, it will ask you to analyze the roots of success and w...

Elow elow elow Dear Reader! So, today, I bought new set of earrings and I realized, I haven't really talked about my piercing experience. So, I thought maybe I should answer some common questions about my piercings and piercing in general. How many piercings do you have? As of the moment, I have a total of six individual piercings. Three on the left ear, three on the right. When did you get them and why? 1. The first pair was done when I was four or five years old. I remember my father bringing me to a little health center and telling me to just tilt my head and that was it. I don't have much to say about this piercing because it was like a "default" kind of thing - sort of a tradition or one of those mandatory things a girl has to go through-  so nothing special in this pair. Also, I was too young to remember how it felt like. Too young to even comprehend. But I remember being happy having the privilege to wear such pretty gold earrings. I had the rest ...

Happy Tuesday everyone! I have just realized that the first quarter of 2014 have passed and I am loving my year so far. There are times when I wish I could have done more but I guess it's better to give myself a pat on the back and celebrate my successes rather than being too harsh on myself. Sometimes, I tend to forget I can only do enough. First week of March, I was able to celebrate Fat Tuesday with my church friends. Fat Tuesday, if you have no idea what it is, is  the day before Ash Wednesday--the start of Lenten season.  Since Fat Tuesday is the day before fasting and abstinence, devout Catholics are having a merry gathering of food and laughter before pursuing a month of sacrifice and soul-searching.   Aside from the beginning of Lenten season, March also marks the start of summer. I had an early summer with my friends at Bakas River, Norzagaray, Bulacan. The place is such a marvellous tranquil, perfect for escaping the urban life. . ...

I was doing a little stroll along beauty section when the sales assistant asked me, "Ma'am, ano pong nilagay niyo sa kilay nio, ang ganda kasi e, sanay na sanay kayo magkilay..." "Maam, what product did you use on your eyebrows? You are really good on doing your brows!"  Truth is, I wasn't always this good with brows. I had my fair share of uneven brows, messy brows, overplucked, bushy, wrong shape, wrong curves. But by having those mistakes, I learned how to perfect my brows, I learned by doing, which I think is one of the most important thing when it comes to make-up. You learn every single time you do it. I still do mistakes from time to time, and I am still improving every single day, but I guess that's just the beauty of make-up. Sometimes, you've created a masterpiece, sometimes, you've created a trash... in that way, you enhance your skills. Okay,did I just became very sentimental about eyebrows? Yes, I did. Anyways,  ...

"My mother used to say to me, "You can’t eat beauty, it doesn’t feed you." And these words played and bothered me, I didn’t really understand them until finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume. It was something that I just had to be. And what my mother meant by saying that "you can’t eat beauty" was that you can’t rely on beauty to sustain you.  What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul."

I'm still surprised when friends won't believe when I tell them my hair is naturally curly and that I never had a digi perm or any curling method done. People have been seeing me with rebonded straight hair for the past 12 years, (I thought it was only 10) and they have kind of believed my hair is naturally straight. And frankly, I, too, have forgotten how I looked like with curly hair. I have to rummage a box of old photos to help me remember how my curls looked like a decade ago and why do I even have it straightened. Was it that bad? After almost an hour of looking for old photos of my natural curls- this I realized to my chagrin - I rarely wore my curly hair down when I was a teenager. That was basically the reason why I had my hair rebonded. I did not know what to do with my curls. I did not know how to maximize my curls, its beauty, how to style it, how to play with it. And also- hair entails personality. You see, living in this country,...

This is my third time to go to this yearly event hosted by BDJ. First time, I went with a friend (Well, hello Ghem!). The next one, boyfie was with me. This time, I decided to just go by myself . I tried to maximize the event so I spent the whole afternoon going from one booth to another. I also pre-registered to two talks/seminars to get an insight or two. If you haven't heard of them yet, BDJ is a community of empowered bellas. Actually, it all started with a kikay planner- The Belle de jour Power planner. Then a community was formed involving mostly users of planners and  kikay girls alike. As for me, I've been a BDJ planner user for five years. I go to the event (if time allows me to) because this is where I can buy the new and upcoming planner in a much lower price compared to its selling price. I bought my new planner for only 500 pesos as opposed to its original selling price of 580. Also, the event is actually pretty cool. You can go around, win some fu...