Goodnight, Heidi

I’ve just arrived from Natividad, Guagua, Pampanga. Jenjen Domocmat-Mendoza, her hubby Jovy, kuya Ever, and I went to pay our last respects to our friend, HEIDI APOSTOL.

She is now literally resting in peace.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for her recovery. I was praying for a miracle, but I know that God knows best. And, that He is trustworthy. 

Please continue praying for her family–especially for her parents (her dad already suffered a stroke before; her mom also had a mild stroke last August.).

Thank God for Jesus–His death and resurrection assures us all that Heidi is just sleeping now and would soon wake up upon Jesus’ call when He comes again to claim His people. That FACT (of Christ’s second coming) gives us hope.

So for now, it’s just goodnight, Heidi. See you on the resurrection morning.

Prayer Request for Heidi Apostol

A Cure for Discouragement

I didn’t plan on chatting tonight. I was merely greeting my friend for another Sabbath. However, I sensed his discouragement. And so, I ended up chatting with him for a bit, trying to make him see the positive. He’s an intelligent and very talented guy–there should be no room for discouragement in his life.

I know, I know. That’s not a guarantee to a discouragement-free life. I, myself, feel discouraged too at times. And it’s not an easy thing to shake off, specially when just everything in your world seems to be going wrong and you feel like you’re such a failure in life.

Discouragement is a normal thing. It’s part and parcel of life. We should learn to accept that and live with it. But that doesn’t mean that we need to dwell on it.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean we will be free from discouragement. On the contrary, with the devil doing his best to make us doubt our salvation and Christian growth experiences, attacks of discouragements for Christians will probably be doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled.

Just remember this: God can be trusted. He promised us that everything He would allow into our lives will only be those that we, THROUGH HIS STRENGTH, could overcome. That, WITH HIM, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

We can take Him at His Word on that.

The Making of Angelina Jolie

Click on photo to watch how my friend, artist Jay Mosquera, draws Angelina Jolie.

Babs is Back!

October 16, 2008 at around 12:16 A.M., Daphne texted to ask if I could accompany her to the airport on Friday, October 17. Good thing I had a clear schedule for Friday because a few minutes after Daphne’s text, Babs asked me the same thing via our chat conversation on Yahoo! Messenger.

He was coming home.  

Babs left for Dubai just June of this year. His trip home this month was rather unexpected. He had gone there to work and that was what he had been doing up until the day before he left Dubai. However, since his work visa was still in the works, he had to come home for a minimum of 30 days according to Dubai laws. And come home, he did–to our (ME and Daphne’s) great delight!

His employer bought him a laptop before he left Dubai, just so he could still keep working from here. Lucky dude. He got a monster of a laptop! It’s a brand new HP DV7-1070EE. Powered to the core, it is perhaps the ultimate desktop replacement!

Babs kept mum about his homecoming, wanting to surprise his mom. And to be sure they would, he and Daphne left Manila late in the afternoon so they’d arrive at AUP (Adventist University of the Philippines) when it was already dark. 

I didn’t hear Babs’ mom scream in delight upon seeing Babs last Saturday night. But I did hear all about it from my friend She. She lives in a house several meters away and heard Babs’ mom all the way in the sanctuary of her room as she was chatting me up on her PC. Later, she said the scream turned to laughter. Wow. That must have been a sight to see. I can imagine the joy Babs’ mom felt upon seeing her boy. 

Welcome home, Babs! I do hope your employer decides to just keep you working from here!

What I Want . . .

I want a music box. One that’s got a water globe on top.

So far I haven’t found one to my liking yet. I’ve got to like what it looks like, but I also have to like the music that goes with it. Right now, the music I want with it is “Way Back Into Love.”

Does anybody know where I could have one somewhat custom made that isn’t overly expensive?

I’d appreciate the help.

Photo Blogging

Since I’m into photography now, you’ll be seeing more and more photos on my blog — more photos taken by M.E. that is. 

What I do is upload them to my Multiply account and then post some of them here, too.

Here are a few of the recent ones I took:

In Memory of Neil

Our lives touched one brief moment of time. Seven days to be exact. He joined the Palawan Youth Build my friend Davy and I organized in 2004. One week. That was it. After that we never really got together again, except during accidental meetings exchanging simple hi’s and hello’s–that sort of thing. 

Last Saturday morning, Davy gave me a call. “Neil is dead,” he said. He died of leukemia. Wow. And I didn’t even know he was sick. I guess we weren’t close enough to know the details of each other’s lives. Regardless of that one little detail, it still felt weird hearing that someone so young and so vibrant has died. He was full of the vigor of young manhood during our Youth Build days.

Davy asked me if I would attend his funeral today. I told him I can’t since I have an appointment and Neil’s place in Quezon Province is too far away. Honestly, I don’t think I would’ve gone even if I didn’t have my appointment at UPFI this afternoon. It’s not that I don’t want to pay my last respects. It’s that I just don’t want to see him in that lifeless state. I have the photos we took during our Palawan trip. I think I prefer to remember him that way–young, energetic, naughty but nice–alive. 

Goodbye, Neil. See you when Jesus comes again . . . .

  (more…)

Cropped To Its Doom!

Part of the final requirement for our FPPF Basic Photography Workshop was to submit an environmental portrait. The photo below was what I had intended to submit. However, since the required size is 8″ x 10″, my photo had to be cropped to the lower photo below, completely destroying the framing effect I made with the tree and just making it a distracting piece of stump. (Arrgh. That was so frustrating.)I guess the next thing I’ve got to learn is to get used to manually adjusting my framing–before I take my shots, making room for the cropping that an 8″ x 10″ photo gets.
I couldn’t get too close to the subjects–flying debris kept hitting me and it hurt! Plus the place was quite muddy too.

FPPF Batch 14 2008 Basic Photography Workshop Still Life Photo Contest Winners and Finalists

The top ten out of 42 entries:

1st place    Mark Anthony L. Ducay  (4.196)

2nd place   Malou Escasa (4.106)

3rd place    Mary Catherine S. Valencia (4.013)

4th place    Terence James S. Castañares (4.005)

5th place    Marvie L. Lazo (3.943)

6th place    Patrizia H. Vinluan (3.816)

7th place    Denise Cheng (3.753)

8th place    Emmanuel N. Garcia (3.640)

9th place    Gerard Victor O. Dello (3.626)

10th place  Roberto A. Dela Paz (3.575)

(other photos to follow soon)