Patrick Tan

A little update on what happened on the weeklong celebration of my birthday... ok, the weeklong was just stir. But this year's birthday was fun.

SATURDAY. The youth at church "surprised" me with balloons with personal notes in them that I needed to pop. Before they came out I knew there was already something fishy going on. But it did surprised me with the way their surprise gift. I was touched. They told me that I shoot burst the balloons by sitting on them. I told them I'm scared of bursting a balloon with my butt (Since the dawn of my childhood party days and friend's I never joined a pop-a-baloon relay). So I just stomped on them! But they managed to convince me to pop just one. We celebrated with lots of food and my favorite ice cream! Thanks guys!

MONDAY. At 12MN text messages started coming. In the morning I had to go to school. This week's our foundation week. And I had to compete in a poster-making contest. It was great. I think we did good. I came in an hour late. Just then I was told that the time limit is 2 hours. Eventually, we did not made it within 2 hours. But we still finished the poster. I don't like unfinished projects I told my partner. Feedbacks we're positive. I think we worked on it for 3 hours. After that had lunch with Erene and Emmanuel. Then went to Reef Check to do some review on the website I was doing for them. They liked it. Went home. Celebrated with family.

TUESDAY. Had Bible Study with Metro students at 2. Then went to Central AG to meet UDM students and celebrate again. This time it was a triple-celebration. It was Glady, Harold and my birthday that were celebrated.

New Blogger

I moved to the "new" blogger. I tried importing my blog to Wordpress but I realized it has a hard time loading and the interface is not so good. Then it began, my blogger is publishing weird. Paragraphs are not being recognized. Good thing, blogger has a new version (beta) with new features. So hopefully the Blogger team could still merge my old and new blogs. For those who's still looking for my previous entries you can check it out here. So bear with me as I start building up my blog again. Happy blogging!

Some good features:

Category tags (Finally!)
Movable and customize widgets

Jesus You Are

"It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning."

Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist, 1988

Had a very tiring week. Stressful. Work, school and ministry catching up on me. Yesterday morning and this morning I drove for more than three hours visiting churches to promote for our sectional youth event. Weirdest day today. I was caught by an MMDA for changing lanes in the U turn slot in EDSA-Pasay. I thought my license would be confiscated. I've been caught a number of times. Mostly in Makati. But today was different. I was fined, my license returned and I will just have to pay the fine in the bank. After that, went to Blue Wave to have lunch. On the way out, we were halted by the parking attendant asking for my parking ticket. I had none. I entered the parking lot without paying, unknown that there was a parking fee & unknown that I entered through the exit gate (My bad. The exit sign was so big, but swear I didn't see it when I entered). And the guy was like asking me to pay P80 fine. They were saying they didn't leave their post. But how could a car sneak under nose without noticing? They called their OIC. My argument was they were giving me a fine for a mistake I commited because of their negligence. My hats off to the OIC. He reprimanded the parking attendant. But he also reprimanded my gently saying "ignorance of the law is not an excuse". All the time I thought their was parking fee, but wala naman pala! They let me go. Driving to church I thought, those drained my energy. It snowballed until youth fellowship. I was really drained.

My lolo is getting cremated on Monday. After church went to the funeral. Keeping vigil on the funeral also contributed to my stressful week. I wasn't also able to spend much study time since my works are in the laptop. Returning home, my mom told me that our househelp, the one who took care of my lolo, saw my lolo at our house, in their room, sitting on a wheelchair, smiling back! That caught me off-guard. I hate that feeling. I thought my mom shouldn't have told me that.

Tomorrow, my parents aren't going to church, they're staying in the funeral. Just me and my bro.

Still after all these... God, You're the best! Thank you for the grace that is continuously leading me in the completion of the good work You have given me.

Few days ago, I started reading The Alchemist again, finally I'm understanding it. First time I read it was a hard read. I'm enjoying it now. Now it speaks to me. I feel for Santiago the shepherd. How he met the old king and went to journey for his Personal Legend yet to realize that it was not an easy feat that he begins to doubt his Personal Legend. But one thing pushes him to pursue: the old kings prophectic words. Sometimes sitautions shake your faith, cause you to be discouraged and wish to head back home. But the thing that keeps me pursuing my Personal Legend is His call and promise in my life.

Home

Night has past, darkness gone
Slumber is a time of searching and infinity
I wake up amongst legions but yet alone
Alone because I chose to be
For feet soiled cannot enter Thy house
Yet Thy shores yearns for a son
Endless sunsets and vast horizons calling
Come home

Woke up at 12NN today. I had a good rest. My mom woke me up to tell me my grandfather is not breathing. After a few minutes, I went down to find my aunt crying beside my lolo's bed. He is gone. I am not that sad. 'Cause finally my lolo is somewhere out of pain, incapacity and misery. For the last few weeks he's been in the hospital. Last time I saw him I was shocked to see him skin and bones. Finally his ordeal is over. He's in the funeral right now with his chidren. Some still flying to Manila to see him for the last time.

What a hot item! ...
I found this at SM San Lazaro last Sunday while parents went to supermarket. They're having a sale next weekend. I restrained myself from shopping. Save it for next week. :)

Original Me

The Caucasian Me

The Middle-Eastern Me

The Black Me

The Prehistoric Me

http://www.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~morph/Transformer/