Live for Today!

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That's why it's called the present!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Now -

-somebody is very proud of you.
-somebody is thinking of you.
-somebody is caring about you.
-somebody misses you.
-somebody wants to talk to you.
-somebody wants to be with you.
-somebody hopes you aren't in trouble.
-somebody is thankful for the support you have provided.
-somebody wants to hold your hand.
-somebody hopes everything turns out all right.
-somebody wants you to be happy.
-somebody wants you to find him/her.
-somebody is celebrating your successes.
-somebody wants to give you a gift.
-somebody thinks that you ARE a gift.
-somebody hopes you're not too cold, or too hot
-somebody wants to hug you
-somebody loves you.
-somebody admires your strength.
-somebody is thinking of you and smiling.
-somebody wants to be your shoulder to cry on.
-somebody wants to go out with you and have a lot of fun.
-somebody thinks the world of you.
-somebody wants to protect you
-somebody would do anything for you.
-somebody wants to be forgiven.
-somebody is grateful for your forgiveness.
-somebody wants to laugh with you.
-somebody remembers you and wishes that you were there.
-somebody is praising God for you.
-somebody needs to know that your love is unconditional.
-somebody values your advice.
-somebody wants to tell you how much they care.
-somebody wants to share their dreams with you.
-somebody wants to hold you in their arms.
-somebody wants YOU to hold them in your arms.
-somebody treasures your spirit.
-somebody wishes they could STOP time because of you.
-somebody praises God for your friendship and love.
-somebody can't wait to see you.
-somebody loves you for who you are.
-somebody loves the way you make them feel.
-somebody wants to be with you.
-somebody wants you to know they are there for you.
-somebody's glad that you're his/her friend.
-somebody wants to be your friend.
-somebody stayed up all night thinking about you.
-somebody is alive because of you.
-somebody is wishing that you noticed him/her.
-somebody wants to get to know you better.
-somebody wants to be near you.
-somebody misses your advice/guidance.
-somebody has faith in you.
-somebody trusts you.
-somebody needs you to send them this letter
-somebody needs your support.
-somebody needs you to have faith in them.
-somebody will cry when they read this.
-somebody needs you to let them be your friend.
-somebody hears a song that reminds them of you.

And I am happy to know there are people who truly worth my time. THANK YOU!

'Til my next stop..

Which will you choose? The Coffee of the Cup?

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. 

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some 

expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. 

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: 

"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. 

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. 

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups. 

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. 

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us." 

God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee! 

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything." 

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

"Til my next stop..

World War Z Experience

Last June 28, 2013, I bought the last full show ticket coz I thought I can't get inside the cinema and it's past 8pm. It started 7:10, the 2nd to the last show. I dropped by Cinema 2 and ask the staff if I could just get in anytime. They said Yes so I hurriedly went to Jolibee, the nearest foodshop and since I don't have the appetite to eat rice, I ordered B1:Burger-Fries-Upsize drinks.

When I finally sat down inside C2, I immediately ate the burger first and I was so hungry I seemed like a hungry zombie ready to eat a fresh host. I was halfway the movie though not bad because it gave me a lot of goosebumps even I haven't seen the first part. I still have one round of the movie for the last full show. The part that really got my soul out from my body and shivered my spine from top to bottom was when they were at the Belarus Plane.

God, I promised I was caught numb and shocked when the dog was barking at the door and the girl just opened it up and alas!! The face of the zombie scared me so much I threw my fries with ketchup up high and the girl sitting next to me was all but fries with ketchup on her pants. She shouted I almost dropped the plastic with fries in it. She's not angry I guess because she said it's okay.

Gosh!! I said sorry and after few minutes, I stood up and transferred to find another seat. Wahaha.. Yatapz nuon. Terrible. Because of the movie, I almost found my own war-with her.

If only LANGGA Monte.. you're there with me while watching that movie, makuratan pud ka. Pastilan sad sa tanang hadlok2x, though daghan ang kurat2x adto pa jud nga part nga gisabayan ug kaon ug fries and it's like a chain reaction. Because you are watching a heart-racing movie and people are shouting so loud your brain says to your hand 'throw it up'.. And I did. LOL!! Pasalamat dili coke float ang naitsa nako. Nah!! Minatay na jud!! Nangurog pa ko because of the weather, the atmosphere inside the cinema coz it's cold, the movie and the girl's reaction.

Grabeh jud. You'll lose your voice after watching it and surely, hospital is your final destination.

THUMBS UP!!

                                        'Til my next stop..

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. - Thomas Jefferson

June 3 has ended right and it was perfect and because of this, I would like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to my FAMILY, FRIENDS, Monte Balistoy's family and to all who supported me all the way of my 27 years of existence and of course, for those who greeted me thru text, call, chat, e-mail and personal greetings. I LOVE YOU♥

Thank you also for those who will still send late birthday messages later or tomorrow. 

Thanks to Bernardo Bernardo and Marc Helgesen for your messages. You are my special guests. That's for SURE! 

And lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to my cousins for finding this photo of John Lloyd Cruz's personal greeting to ME.. LOL! Sikat!!WAHAHAHa..

THANK YOU SO MUCH.. 

from the BOTTOM OF MY HEART♥♥♥ — feeling loved, satisfied, extremely blissful and BLESSED.

Here are some photos taken during my pre-birthday celebration held at SM City Cebu. We had lunch at Greenwich, movie watching, halo-halo craze at Ice Castle, videoke at World of Fun and lastly, coffee break at Bo's Coffee last June 1.

 

June 1 until Yesterday were one of the happiest times of my LIFE♥

'Til my next stop!

Going Twenty Seven

Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.

God! THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU.
Time flies so fast and I can't believe that I am almost at the end of the calendar. GOSH. Where has my life gone?

There are lots of things that happened in my previous life and good or bad, I am thankful for all of them. Good, when all people expect their life to turn out really great and for those whose life has been a wonderful silver platter, then they can always rejoice. Bad, for some who have been through HELL and took all the smiles on their faces, they can always be grateful because of the lessons they learned whether they like it or not and either they accept certain circumstances in their life positively or negatively.

When you are young, you think of a fairy tale-kind of life. Like prince charming saving you from the tower, everything you hold will turn into gold or when you have problems, in just one click of a hand every heartaches and dramas will disappear into thin air. But as we grow older, we understand that life is no fairy tale. There are no genies to give us three wishes, no animals or dwarfs that could help us when we are in trouble and especially no prince charming that can save us from the wicked witch. Only US that can make our dreams into a fairy tale and it depends on us how to make it magical.

Our world is real and I realized it after graduating college. My life has been a roller coaster ride when sometimes I am up in the air and other times, I am trying to climb going to the top. It was so hard for me to look for a job at first, when the employer declined your application, when you think it is unfair that the applicant hired together with you is no better than yourself. But that's how life works. And that is God's way to show that we can't always have what we want when what He does is preparing us for something even better. And I want to say to my GOD..

So in my coming birthday, I am turning 27 and AGE is an attitude. Let me say this. I want to be 

It is okay?!! Hahaha

I am still young physically and at HEART. LOL. I compiled some photos that has the number 27 and I'll explain what do these photos mean to me.

I like to go to anybody else's birthday, and if I'm invited I'm a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays.- Mikhail Baryshnikov 

 Well, partly true as what the author said. Even when I was young, my parents don't really celebrate a huge party but only a family gathering. I haven't invited friends to our house yet and my family is not really sociably-kind of people and for me, honestly I envy some friends of mine when they invite me to their house. I can only invite my friends to eat in a restaurant or to go somewhere and I am okay with that. At least I can still celebrate birthdays.

 When I was a teenager, I used to play billiards with my classmates. It was fun when you play with your boy friends. Haha.. And it was a good thing I found this picture. 

 One of my wildest dream is to have a tattoo on my body. Isn't it cynical? I am not that type of a person who's into this but if given a chance, I want to have one on my hips near the butt. LOL!

Watching sports are boring but I find this quite interesting because of the word "WIN". I want to be a winner every day of my life. I know I am not perfect but in God's grace, I want to pursue everything even how hard they are and to be great in God's eyes.

Winners are people with definite purpose in life. - Denis Waitley

 The actress of 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl. Gosh, how she managed to wear all of those clothes and keep them? I admire her so much because she has attended 27 weddings of her friends and had the chance to keep them in the closet. I only attended few and no gowns kept inside my closet. Haha   

 I want to be 27 FOREVER but that is ridiculous and super kaloka, right? I don't want to stay forever like this because it's fun to go through all stages in your life until you die. SUPERB!

 If I am going to hold my birthday party soon in my own house with my husband and kids, I want to share my movie night disease with my friends and have sleepover. Amazing!

 She is one of the icons in the music industry and one of my favorite singers. How did she handle all paparazzis and issues about her. Imagine about the intense rumor that the reason she dated all the boyfriends she had was just to make or create a song. Doesn't she have inspirations? She is so exquisite.

 I am at the point of my life where marriage is an important ingredient in a life of late 20's - especially women. I want to play with my children while I am still strong and not like an old woman who wants to stay at home and do some embroidery. What a nightmare! 

 I want to do 26 things for this year while I am still 27 years old and I still have to think about it. Check my blog soon for this update. 

 One of my favorite actress in Glee. Quinn Fabray. She is really a great actress and beautiful. And good thing we have the same age bracket. She is two months older than me. Great! 

 Do I have to include this? I have a lot of goals in my life especially health-related but not bad if I give these a try. I always do the following except number 1 because I am super thin before but not now because I am getting fatter, number 3 because I guess I eat less than 1000 calories (that's too much??), and number 5 - SODA which is part of my daily meal's life. How can I eat my meal without soft drinks? HMM..

 I don't know yet!kkk

I included this though this is not necessary. I have a hubby who is very supportive and I want to tell him everyday as long as I am still strong of how much he means to me and i really love him..SO MUCH! 

This year, I pray that whatever happens in my life, I will love my age wholeheartedly and I will do my best to do good to give thanks to my LORD♥

I love my life even when I say I don't. Life has been good to me because nothing bad happened to my family for the past years though my grandmother died because of old age. Life is beautiful. God gives us problems to solve on his condition - TO TRUST HIM. And I am fully aware that we don't have a bed of roses. We only have GOD who is so merciful and so loving.

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. - Robert Frost 

Thank you for the gift of life - for every single breath that I take, for every sunrise and sunset, for every fresh hope, for every smile and happiness, sadness and loneliness, for my family, friends, and all loved ones. Thank you so much. 

'Til my next stop..

Valentine's Day Facts

Looking for Love

141 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine's Day a procrastinator's delight. (Source: Hallmark research)

Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine's Day by purchasing a greeting card. (Source: Hallmark research)

There are 119 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages. Corresponding numbers for the following race and ethnic groups are:

• Hispanics: 153 men per 100 women
• Asians (single race): 132 men per 100 women (This ratio is not significantly different from that for Hispanics or non-Hispanic whites.)
• Non-Hispanic whites (single race): 120 men per 100 women
• Blacks (single race): 92 men per 100 women (The numbers of black men and women in this age group are not significantly different from one another.

There are 34 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages. Corresponding numbers for the following race and ethnic groups are:

• Hispanics: 38 men per 100 women
• Non-Hispanic whites (single race): 33 men per 100 women
• Blacks (single race): 33 men per 100 women
• Asians (single race): 28 men per 100 women

(Note: None of the ratios for the individual groups differ significantly from one another nor from the ratio for all people age 65 or older.)

904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.

Be Mine

2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.

112,185 marriages were performed in Nevada during 2008. So many couples "tie the knot" in the Silver State that it ranked fourth nationally in marriages, even though it's total population that year among states was 35th.

The estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men are 25.9 and 27.6 respectively, in 2008. The age for women rose 4.2 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 3.6 years.

Men and women in northeastern states generally have a higher median age at first marriage than the national average. In Massachusetts, for example, women were a median of 27.4 years old and men 29.1 years of age at first marriage. States where people typically marry young include Utah, where women were a median of 21.9 years and men, 23.9 years.

57% and 60% of American women and men, respectively, are 15 or older and currently married (includes those who are separated).

70%: The percentage of men and women ages 30 to 34 in 2008 who had been married at some point in their lives - either currently or formerly.

4.9 million opposite-sex cohabitating couples maintained households in 2005. These couples comprised 4.3 percent of all households.

Candy is Dandy

1,241: The number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2004. These establishments employed 43,322 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments with 136, followed by Pennsylvania with 122.

515 locations produced nonchocolate confectionary products in 2004. These establishments employed 22,234 people.

The total value of shipments in 2004 for firms producing chocolate and cocoa products was $13.9 billion. Nonchocolate confectionery product manufacturing, meanwhile, was a $5.7 billion industry.

3,467 Number of confectionery and nut stores in the United States in 2004. Often referred to as candy stores, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine's Day.

The per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005 was 25.7 pounds. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year.

Flowers

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2005 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $397 million. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($289 million).

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2005 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $39 million. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were third in receipts ($39 million)to lilies ($76.9 million) and tulips ($39.1 million).

There were 21,667 florists nationwide in 2004. These businesses employed 109,915 people.

Jewelry

There were 28,772 jewelry stores in the United States in 2004. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2006, these stores sold $2.6 billion worth of merchandise. (This figure has not been adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading day differences or price changes). The merchandise at these locations could well have been produced at one of the nation's 1,864 jewelry manufacturing establishments. The manufacture of jewelry was an $9 billion industry in 2004.

Data courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau 

Valentine's Day..Akward Day

The history of Valentine's Day--and the story of its patron saint--is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and--most importantly--romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Origins of Valentine's Day: A Pagan Festival in February

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial--which probably occurred around A.D. 270--others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

Valentine's Day: A Day of Romance

Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”--at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Typical Valentine's Day Greetings

In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings.

Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap." Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Joan of Arc

Today marks the 600th anniversary of Joan of Arc’s birth—maybe. No official records of the date exist, and Joan herself could only guess she was 19 during her trial for heresy in 1431. (Her friends and relatives provided the same estimate for her birth year—1412—during the posthumous hearings that nullified her conviction two decades later.) In the years following the execution of the iconic French heroine and Roman Catholic saint, her birthday came to be celebrated on January 6, the day of the Epiphany in the Christian religion. To commemorate the occasion, here are a few facts about the legendary “Maid of Orléans” that might come as a surprise.

 

1. Joan’s real name was Jehanne d’Arc, Jehanne Tarc, Jehanne Romée or possibly Jehanne de Vouthon—but she didn’t go by any of these.
Joan didn’t hail from a place called Arc, as the typical Anglicization of her father’s surname, d’Arc (sometimes rendered as Darc or Tarc), might imply. Instead, Jehanne—or Jehanette, as she was known—grew up in Domrémy, a village in northeastern France, the daughter of a farmer and his devoutly Catholic wife. During her trial before an ecclesiastical court in 1431, Joan referred to herself only as “Jehanne la Pucelle” (“Joan the Maid”) and initially testified that she didn’t know her last name. She later explained that her father was called Jacques d’Arc and her mother Isabelle Romée, adding that in her hometown daughters often took their mothers’ surnames. In medieval France, where family names were neither fixed nor widely used, “Romée” simply designated a person who had made a pilgrimage to Rome or another religiously significant destination; other sources suggest that Joan’s mother went by Isabelle de Vouthon.

2. In modern times, some doctors and scholars have “diagnosed” Joan of Arc with disorders ranging from epilepsy to schizophrenia.
Around the age of 12 or 13, Joan of Arc apparently began hearing voices and experiencing visions, which she interpreted as signs from God. During her trial, she testified that angels and saints first told her merely to attend church and live piously; later, they began instructing her to deliver France from the invading English and establish Charles VII, the uncrowned heir to the French throne, as the country’s rightful king. The Maid asserted that a bright light often accompanied the visions and that she heard the voices more distinctly when bells sounded. Based on these details, some experts have suggested that Joan suffered from one of numerous neurological and psychiatric condition that trigger hallucinations or delusions, including migraines, bipolar disorder and brain lesions, to name just a few. Yet another theory holds that she contracted bovine tuberculosis, which can cause seizures and dementia, from drinking unpasteurized milk and tending cattle as a young girl.

3. While commander of the French army, Joan of Arc didn’t participate in active combat.
Though remembered as a fearless warrior and considered a heroine of the Hundred Years’ War between France and England, Joan never actually fought in battle or killed an opponent. Instead, she would accompany her men as a sort of inspirational mascot, brandishing her banner in place of a weapon. She was also responsible for outlining military strategies, directing troops and proposing diplomatic solutions to the English (all of which they rejected). Despite her distance from the front lines, Joan was wounded at least twice, taking an arrow to the shoulder during her famed Orléans campaign and a crossbow bolt to the thigh during her failed bid to liberate Paris.

4. Joan of Arc had a famously volatile temper.
Once placed in control of the French army, the teenage peasant didn’t hesitate to chew out prestigious knights for swearing, behaving indecently, skipping Mass or dismissing her battle plans; she even accused her noble patrons of spinelessness in their dealings with the English. According to a witnesses at her retrial, Joan once tried to slap a Scottish soldier—the Scots teamed up with France during the Hundred Years’ War—who had eaten stolen meat. She also supposedly drove away the mistresses and prostitutes who traveled with her army at swordpoint, hitting one or two in the process. And personal attacks by the English, who called her rude names and joked that she should return home to her cows, reportedly made Joan’s blood boil. The Maid’s short fuse is evident in transcripts of her court hearings; when a clergyman with a thick regional accent asked what language her voices spoke, for instance, she retorted that they spoke French far better than he did.

5. Contrary to popular belief, Joan of Arc wasn’t burned at the stake for witchcraft—at least not technically.
After falling into enemy hands in 1430, Joan of Arc was tried in the English stronghold of Rouen by an ecclesiastical court. The 70 charges against her ranged from sorcery to horse theft, but by May 1431 they had been whittled down to just 12, most related to her wearing of men’s clothing and claims that God had directly contacted her. Offered life imprisonment in exchange for an admission of guilt, Joan signed a document confessing her alleged sins and promising to change her ways. (It has been speculated that the illiterate Joan never knew what she’d put her name—or, more accurately, her mark of a cross—to.) Several days later, possibly due to threats of violence or rape from her guards, Joan put her male attire back on; she then told the angry judges who visited her cell that her voices had reappeared. It was these two acts that earned Joan a conviction as a “relapsed heretic” and sent her to the stake.

6. From 1434 to 1440, Joan’s brothers passed an imposter off as their sister, claiming she’d escaped execution.
One of several women who posed as Joan in the years following her death, Claude des Armoises resembled the well-known heretic and had supposedly participated in military campaigns while dressed in men’s clothing. She and two of Joan’s brothers, Jean and Pierre, crafted a scheme in which Claude presented herself to the people of Orléans, pretending to have fled her captors and married a knight while living in obscurity. The trio received lavish gifts and traveled from one festive reception to the next until Claude finally admitted their subterfuge to Charles VII, whose ascension Joan had engineered in 1429. Despite their involvement in the deception, Jean and Pierre played key roles in successfully petitioning Pope Callixtus III for Joan’s retrial, having presumably given up the charade of her survival by the 1450s.

7. Joan of Arc inspired the ever-popular bob haircut, which originated in Paris in 1909.
The voices that commanded the teenage Joan to don men’s clothing and expel the English from France also told her to crop her long hair. She wore it in the pageboy style common among knights of her era until guards shaved her head shortly before her execution. In 1909, the Polish-born hairdresser known as Monsieur Antoine—one of Paris’ most sought-after stylists—began cutting his fashionable clients’ tresses in a short “bob,” citing Joan of Arc as his inspiration. The look really caught on in the 1920s, popularized by silent film stars and embraced by the flapper set. While women continue to request bob cuts to this day, another of Antoine’s legendary experiments—dyeing his dog’s hair blue—hasn’t stood the test of time.

An Earthquake that Changed Everything

I was on the 5th floor administering the entrance level test with the regular students (these are the students who come here in the Philippines alone - different from university students who come here by GROUP). I had just finished my interview with the regular students and arranged the chairs and tables so that Mr. Leon won't be shouting at me. Otherwise, I would yell at him as well if he did that to me.

Suddenly, I felt the floor shaked a bit and I thought students were running to go down because it was nearly 12:00 noon and when I went out, students were freely walking on their feet as I approached a student who stayed nearby AVR5 and I noticed some students and teachers were walking fast and I couldn't grasp what was happening then. When the student asked me "Is this an earthquake?", I suddenly rushed to my feet as I answered her "YES!" and immediately ran off to the stairs where everyone's faces panicked because the whole floor was shaking to its soul and I wasn't aware or totally forgot as I would say that I left my things (cellphone, money, book and test papers) to AVR 5.

With my hands and feet shaked to its bones,I could feel the whole building danced in its rhythm as I approached the ground floor. I saw people running on the stairs and good thing they weren't screaming at all..

When I reached the safe ground, I realized that things were really different. It was a "not-so-good" thing to do especially people were running downstairs and pushing each other just to be the first in line. Our General  Manager was so furious that he reprimanded some people in the office because of the misbehaviour of the teachers and students. Was it our fault? Duh!

And that was it. That was the earthquake that changed my viewpoint in life, my feelings..all!

Too bad can't get rid of the tremor easily..

February 6,2012..that thing changed me.

Gift of the Magi

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.