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After one sleepless night of dreadfully trying to figure out how to install a php script, I finally got it right. My new Q&A box is working!! Finally, a decent script in my site! :)

I read this article in Reader's Digest a few days ago about 1994's Miss Universe, Sushmita Sen.




I really had no intentions of reading the article, but seeing a photo caption of Dayanara Torres crowning her as the 1994 Miss Universe, I thought it was worth reading a few lines.

Needless to say, I find her life to be pretty interesting...and inspiring. Winning a prestigious title at an early age, yet keep her feet on the ground; inspiring other women through her work; fighting for the adoption of a special child and getting it despite her unconventional lifestyle; raising a supposedly-mentally-challenged child into one brilliant-witty-multilingual person.

Here are a few lines from her interview with Reader's Digest:

On her life after winning the Miss Universe...

SS: Oh God, that year! I went to 33 countries. I was often a state guest. I would sign in books in which I would see the signatures of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. I was living a dream.

In my first appearance in Acapulco, Mexico, I was sitting at the head of a huge table with Barbara, my travel manager, and the tourism minister, the health minister and other big shots. I was starving and these people were just going on talking to each other. So I turned to Barbara and said, "Please can we just go to the loo and eat something? I can't take this any more." She smiled and said, "You're the guest of honour. Till you touch fork to plate they can't. I am sure they are very hungry too!"

On being beautiful..

SS: Beauty for me is not something you can see. It's what you can't see. Beauty is the fabulous looking cover that attracts your attention to a book. But it's the material that holds your attention or you put the book down no matter how good the cover. I have always believed the book inside me is far more beautiful.

On her unconventional lifestyle...

SS: But there is no other way to be! My life is unique to myself. There is no handbook for living; the only thing that you have got is your own sense of rhythm. But you have to live your life in a way that doesn't damage anybody else.

On choosing which child to adopt...

SS: I called out "Renee" to the babies they showed me and the one that reacted was her.

On fighting for the baby's adoption...

SS: A baby between six to eight months old, healthy and happy, and female. Those were the only requirements. She didn't have to look like me, she could be fairer, darker. . . But they'd made a mistake when they brought this child out because she was not fit for adoption. Her head circumference was not that of a six-month-old baby because she'd been pumped with an immense amount of antibiotics. They'd predicted that within a year she would be mentally disabled. So they said, "We cannot give you this baby."

I threw the biggest fit. I said, "I have just made a connection with this child. I can't leave her here." So I went to Nanavati Hospital, and took a few paediatricians back to the orphanage.

They said she's not fit. So I went to a friend of mine who was also a paediatrician and said nobody will let me have this baby until I get a clear certificate saying there is hope. So he checked the baby and her reactions and said, "There's always hope. But she needs to spend time with lots of intelligent people who constantly talk to her to keep her mind ticking." The orphanage gave up and gave me the baby under foster care.


On raising her child despite the baby's condition and her hectic schedule...

SS: There were always people around to satisfy her psychological and educational needs. The standard rule was that when she woke up everybody would chat with her non-stop. She picked up languages because everybody was constantly talking to her. She speaks fluent Marathi because of the daima. She speaks fluent English because of all of us. She also speaks fluent Bengali and fluent Tamil.

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SS: We are going to play opposites, Renee. What is the opposite of shy?

Renee: Flamboyant.

SS: What is biological?

Renee: Boring. Because everybody's born from the stomach.

SS: And what is the opposite of biological?

Renee: Adopted. And adopted is special — it's born from the heart. I am adopted and I am special.

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SS: My mother is scared that when I have biological children, they will feel good for nothing because their elder sister will say, "Aah, you're so boring!"



Read the full article HERE.

Forwarded emails don't usually cath my attention and usually go straight to my Trash page.

But this one caught my eye when I opened my mail today. I've probably received this message more than 5 times already and I've never opened any of it. But today, it was the first email that I opened among the others.

Apparently, it seems to be the answer to all my questions that's been bothering me these past few days. Well, I wasnt really looking for answers but somehow, the message it contained made me feel better. Not all good, but a little better.

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season!

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. "

What struck me the most was this:

"Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season! "

...because every single word describes exactly what's happening right now.

It's not right. Bottom line is, it's not meant to happen. It shouldnt. :(

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This is a sad post. Just pretend this entry doesnt exist.

Please read the previous one instead. It's a happier one.

P.S. This post is not for that Doctor below. Just so you know. :)

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Kilig!!!

Just got home from my completion duty in the Operating room. Although I only got to assist in one minor surgery the whole 9 hours I was there, okay lang kasi ang gwwwaaaaapppppooooooo ng surgeon! yeeeeeeeeeee!!!! kinikilg pa rin ako hangang ngayon!

We got bored around 10am coz there were no scheduled operations that morning. We were just sitting at the corner when Dr.N entered. I havent seen him since the summer of 2005 where we stayed in the social hall while waiting for delivery cases and how we'd silently giggle when he arrives coz he usually parks his motorcycle near us. We were quietly recalling those days [coz we're not really allowed to talk loudly in the OR] when suddenly our clinical instructor called me and asked if I had assisted in suturing a gunshot wound before. Since I havnt done it yet, she told me I'd be assisting Dr.N with his procedure! He was holding the door open while staring at me when I passed by him which made me nervous so I muttered a very low "Good morning, doc" and he might not have heard it but he loudly uttered "Good morning mam!" to me and my 3 classmates behind. Buti nalang at naka-mask ako at di na-obvious na hanggang tenga ang ngiti ko! hehehe

When the suturing was about to start, I left the room to get supplies from the other room and when I entered the room, he was standing right in front of me and said "and you're Maria Angelica" while reading my name plate. Turns out, he was introducing himself to the other students in the room [my support system coz I wouldve died of anxiety attacks if I was alone].

The procedure lasted for about an hour. He was nice enough not to take it against me when I didnt understand what he was asking for. Actually, he was REALLY nice. He even said thank you when he finished suturing the wound. I refused my friends' offer to take a picture of me and the surgeon during the procedure coz I was too nervous/anxious/heaven to realize that this might be the ONLY surgery I'd get to assist him. How lucky could I get? Stupeeed decision! Now I regeret it. Maraming kilig moments na di ko namalayan coz I was too busy being anxious the entire time. I only found out about it during lunch break when my friends were teasing me. I could only smile behind my face mask. Too bad he's married and has 2 kids. Hanggang dito nalang ang happy moments ko. Ewan, basta kinikilg pa rin ako.

After lunch, my friends got to assist in craniotomy [epidural hematoma, left hemisphere]. It was my first time to witness this kind of procedure and it was......shocking--exciting-eeewww-hwaaatt??--uughhhhhh. Surgeons and nurses kept calling me "Maria Angelica" since that's what's written in my name plate. It's good to know that the hospital staff takes time to call students by their name and not merely "miss" or "sir", but I wish I had a name plate with "LICA" on it coz Maria Angelica just sonds so cheessseeehh. One nurse even called me "Mar" in an attempt to shorten my name! As in, "Hey Mar!" na feeling close. hehehehe

Lesson learned: ALWAYS WEAR YOUR NAME PLATE. Doctors read it ya know. And maybe, just maybe, your crush surgeon will remember your name.

[Don't hope he'd recognize you outside of the Operating room coz he has no idea how you look like since all he can see beneath that cap and face mask is your eyes, untamed eyebrows and your forehead. So unless you take off your cap and mask (which by the way is prohibited and totally not an option), or unless the surgeon recognizes your eyes from all the other students in masks (which is almost impossible), the best memory you can give your surgeon is your name.]

A new, though unfinished, layout calls for a new entry. So what's up with me?

I've been on a self-imposed house arrest since Sunday last week. Havnt gone out since then. Hindi ako kinulong, nagrerebelde lang ako. Pano kasi, I was supposed to run erands with my mom last Saturday but then, my high school friends texted me that Letlet's leaving for the States early the next day [huh? I thought it was still on the 16th!!] and pupunta daw kaming beach after lunch. I realized this was the last time Im gonna see her for a very loooong time and being a barkada, bad/good influence and a classmate for 4 staright years in high school, being absent is not an option.

So it texted my mom around lunch time that I couldnt go with her because of Letlet [I was confident that she was gonna let me go coz Letlet's one of my few friends my mom trusts], pero hello, she told me to be home at 5! 5pm!! Eh daig ko pa yata ang high school eh! So di ko nalang pinansin. True enough pagdating ng 5, she was already calling me!! Ano bah! Nakakabad trip talaga. I didnt answer her calls and texted her instead. Pero she insisted at nawalan na rin ako ng gana. So I went home para wala ng gulo. Since then, di ko siya kinausap til yesterday.

I know parents worry, pero HELLO!! 5pm! Im 20!! Graduate na nga ako sa college eh! Tas 5pm pa yung curfew ko? Buti pa nga nung may pasok pa, nakakauwi pako ng 2am. And besides, di naman ordinary party yung pinuntahan ko eh, kay Letlet yun and she was leaving the next day and she knows that Letlet's one of my close friends! So instead of arguing with her, di ko nalang siya kinausap, as in total silence.

Im not that rude pero we all have our limits and I prefer to shut my mouth when Im mad kaysa naman ano pang masabi ko. So yun, I didnt talk to her til yesterday. Medyo ok nako ngayon pero naiinis pa rin ako pag naalala ko yun. So i try not to think about it much.

Pero I feel guilty kasi di ako nakapaggoodbye ng maayos kay Letlet. When I left, nag goodbye ako pero parang goodbye lang na magkikita kami the next day or kung kelan namin gusto. When I was on my way home, that's when it really hit me, dun ko narealize na matagal ko siyang di makikita. Exagge but it's true. It feels different when you dont see each other often but you know she's gonna show up when you text her. Now, you dont see each other but you can still text her but you know she's not gonna be there when you text her to meet you in an hour. Iba pa rin yung may physical presence. :(

HOI LETLET! IF YOU READ THIS, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! NGANONG WALA GI-ANNOUNCE UG SAYO ANG PARTY!! :P

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On a lighter note, sorry at medyo magulo pa tong layout ko. Nagsawa rin ako dun sa orange and colored stripes layout.

*My links looks so....ordinary. Pasensya na, di ko pa kasi alam kung pano i-edit yung css ng blogrolling.com. The only reason why I managed my links there is because they have this feature which updates me with the links who have new entries in their blogs. It saves my time from visiting every single link to check for new updates.

*May plugboard na rin pala sa right side bar, kung sino man yung gustong mag-post ng buttons. Wala, trip lang.


*The Bisaya Bloggers link is back. Sorry nakalimutan kong ilagay eversince lumipat ako dito sa magicpurple. Patawad. :)

**And oh, the return of the wicked Google adds!! More to come. Pabayaaan nyo nalang. :)

Yun lang muna. Have to go somewhere and end my self imposed house arrest today. Babush!

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Oooiiii, tag nga muna from Irish and Airah:

Instructions: Name ten (10) of life's simple pleasures that you like the most, then pick ten (10) people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used.

1. Sleeping late and waking up verrryyy late.
2. Melon flavored pearl coolers.
3. Free text to any network 24/7.
4. Undistracted internet time.
5. Finding exctly what you're looking for in Google.
6. Blog hopping.
7. Painting shirts and shoes.
8. Soundtripping during idle moments.
9. Corny jokes
10. World peace. :)

Im tagging YOU! Oo, uh-huh, ikaw! You reading this right this moment!! Oopss, wag tumakas!! I know you! Alam kong pumunta ka dito! :P Makonsensya ka naman. :)

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Last pahabol, thanks for all the concern about that comentor. I havnt figured out who he/she is but Im quite convinced that it was his link that he left here. Ginamit lang niya yung link ng iba. So my appologies rin sa mga nadamay. Feace braddah! :)

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AYYYYYYY!!!! Before I forget, Page.ph is offereing site sponsorship nga pala! They're giving away free .ph domains and web hosting for a year to chosen blogs. So if you think you deserve that space, mag apply kayo sa site nila. Basta may contacts page sila dun and include your url na rin so that they can check your website. Gutso ko lang i-share, kasi di nako pwede mag-apply dun, so kayo nalang. Enjoy! Hope you get it! :)

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SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO PUBLISH BLOGS IN MY SUBDOMAIN!Plano ko sana mag-host ng blogs para di masayan tong web space ko, pero I cant seem to figure out kung pano magpublish ng Blogger blogs under my subdomains. HELP! HELP! HELP!