Over The Hill

This expression actually means one is past his youthful vigor. This usually applies to those who reached their forties but I would like to apply it to myself, too. I already celebrated my big "Five-Oh" earlier this week and I could say that I am now in the middle of my life span. I would like to think that age is only a number, not being defensive here but it greatly helped maintaining my youthful perspective. I was quite flattered to read some birthday greetings on my Facebook page and mostly would say that I don't look like 50 years old. Well, that's what I am feeling most of the time. I want to always feel young and with vigor and it is a known fact that to maintain this is to stick to a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle means a healthy perspective in every aspect of your life. Living and enjoying life to the fullest in a good way. Surrounded by the love of your family and friends and guided by a spiritual love. A best buddy of mine once posted on his Facebook page something like this: If it rains money on one side and happiness on the other, which one you would choose? I would choose happiness as it brings on contentment on everything and money doesn't but everything.

Reaching your 50^th birthday is quite an accomplishment and therefore a milestone. I wanted to celebrate it with a big bang and I did it. I wanted to do it by myself and that's what I did. Although I seek some help from some of my closest friends but the bottom line most came from my pocket. I booked the place way ahead, before the new Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas actually opened their doors for business. As the date was fast approaching, more preparations have to be done to the minute details. It was my first time to hold a party in a hotel suite so I was both excited and nervous. Excited to see who will actually come from the invitations that I sent out through mails and Facebook invites. I was nervous about every detail of the party; the food, the drinks, and the venue itself. My strategy of specifying in my invitations to bring a bottle of wine instead of gifts actually worked. I had more booze than my guest could consume. Food-wise, I was on the safe side. I purposely set the party to start at 7pm, meaning most of the guests have had their dinner already. I hired a DJ to provide party music throughout the evening. The venue was the best part. I got one of the hotel's attractions, the wraparound terrace suite that usually cost a fortune but thankfully got a good deal on it. I thought I need more chairs for the guests to settle down but with the assurance of my close friends, everybody was doing fine. It was actually a party where guests were expected to interact with each other and not just sit around. We had the best view from our suite and that was worth everything for everybody.

I held my birthday party on February 5^th, 2 days earlier than my actual birth date to make sure that most of my guests were free on that day. What made my birthday celebration special was that my family back in the Philippines, spearheaded by my brother also held a birthday party for my honor on the same day. It was my first time to have a synchronized party globally. I am so blessed to have the love of my family. I can't ask for more.

What’s Your Favorite Mobile Apps?

Almost all of us own a smart phone or any latest hi-tech mobile phone like iPhone, BlackBerry, a Windows phone, Android powered phones and some latest Nokia models. These are the latest gadgets where we can connect with our friends, families and business associates with much ease and unbelievable speeds. Gone are the days where cell phones or mobile phones are only for placing phone calls; it evolves into a tool where text messages can be sent and received. It further advanced its capability of accessing the internet and therefore emails and multi-media messages can be easily exchanged.

Lately though, coupled with the existing network war as to who among them is the fastest, more powerful phones are in the market. Aside from making voice calls, text and multi-media messaging as well as emails, more cool features came up. These applications or "Apps" can easily be downloaded right on the mobile device either for free or with a fee.

I'm using a Nokia e71 smart phone and a Nokia C6 both powered with Symbian OS. I can download all the Apps to my heart's content from Nokia's OVI store where you can find a huge collection of Apps, music, games and videos. Other phone brands can also get their own applications from iTunes, Google Android Market or BlackBerry's AppWorld. Aside from my favorite social network Apps (yes, I'm addicted to Facebook and Twitter, I think), I have other useful applications like Wikipedia, Dictionary, Flight Info, Flashlight, Here and Now, Location & GPS among others. I do have some games but I'm not really into video games so I just maintained my favorite Solitaire, LOL!

My favorite application right now is called Shazam! It is an application where you can discover, buy and share any music from any sources. Just run the application, let it "listen" to the music say from radio, TV or a live performance. The program will match the music it heard against the database from their server and provide all the information about that music and the option to buy and share it with your friends. By the way, your device must always be connected online so having an unlimited internet connection is favorable.

I remember the catch phrase from an iPhone advertisement that says something like "there is an App for everything". Apps are here supposedly to make our lives easier…oh well if you want your life becomes easier, there's an App for that.

So how about you? What's your favorite App?

The Preparation

This week is my last chance to complete my preparations for my own big Five Oh birthday bash this coming Saturday.
I requested off for the whole week as I foresee that I may have more things to accomplish. The venue has been booked since early December 2010. I have bought myself a new pair of black pants ang a yellow-checkered shirt to compliment my golden anniversary. The plastic wine glasses as well as the disposable cutleries were all packed in a box. A DJ has been booked to provide the party music and set the mood for the aoccassion. Invitations were also sent out since last month of January so what I need to do is to cross my fingers and hope that majority if not all of my invited friends will attend.
One thing that I will be missing though is my own brother. Initially, he planned to come over to attend my celebration but I guess he is not yet fit to undergo a long travel after his kidney transplant. I will definitely miss him. Since he could not come to attend, we planned that my close relatives back in my hometown will also have their own version of my birthday celebration. They will hold it also this coming Saturday. Although my actual birth date is still on February 7th, a Monday for this year, I planned to hold the party much earlier specifically Febuary 5th, a Saturday, in oder to maximize the attedance. This coming Thursday, I will start ordering food for the party. I probably come up with a list of things to do so that I wont be missing anything.
I pray to God in heaven that my celebration will run smoothly and with no hassles at all.

New Year Resolution

With the end of the current year 2010 and the looming arrival of 2011, people around the world have in some ways come up with a goal to improve one's life. But new year's resolution is much easier to make than to keep it all throughout the year.
Here are the most common, Top 5 New Year's resolutions I found while searching online:

1. Lose weight. I guess you were thinking on this, too.
2. Spend more time with friends and family. Most people are busy with their life's business that sometimes you take for granted the most important people in your life.
3. Get out of debt. The current economic situation probably triggered this to make it into third place.
4. Quit smoking. Just like the top resolution of losing weight, quiting smoking is one tough goal to pursue. It will take a lot of strong will, self-discipline, and determination in order to succeed. There are always a lot of help and resources to help and guide you towards your goal.
5. Do more in community. I'm not sure about the statistics but I know that there are still a lot of kind-hearted people willing to help our unfortunate brothers and sisters. If you're resources are in abundance, it would be good to give back to the community. Try it, you will feel good. I have done it before with my community organization.

Now, it's my turn to come up with my own new year's resolution for 2011. I want to improve and maintain my health. I am currently doing some steps to pursue this goal. I've been trying to regularly exercise in the gym. I've been watching my diet and the kind of food and drinks to take. This year, I have discovered that I have only one functional kidney left and I intend to keep it healthy in order to outlive it. The next step is to work closely with my nephrologist in order to be successful.

How about you? What's your new year's resolution for 2011?

Happy New Year to one and all. Wishing you good health and prosperity for 2011 and beyond.

Simple Christmas Celebration

The world was so excited with the coming of Christmas Day. Preparations for food and gifts were done just to catch-up with the festivities. After Christmas Day, people are now looking forward towards the end of the year and the start of the new year. For the past three years, I've been celebrating Christmas and the coming of the New Year away from my family because I was working on these holidays. This year is no exception. Dec 24th and the 25th were on a Friday and Saturday respectively. The same will also happen for Dec 31st and Jan 1 of 2011 as these are my regular working days.

I was planning to go through these holidays as simple as possible, and I was able to send some christmas greeting cards to my friends and relatives. With the use of the advancement of technology nowadays, I sent christmas cards using online merchants. I went to these greeting cards website, designed my own card using a not-so-old family picture. I let the site mail the cards to my intended recepients in order to save some mailing times. For the rest of my friends and family, I used my social network account in order to greet them.

Since I was in the hospital where I worked, the passing of the Christmas Eve was a quick one. The hospital management provided a special free holiday meal for the night shift staff. On the day itself, I went to hear mass right after my work. I also spent lunch with my parents on that day. Right after lunch, it was my time to hit the bed in preparation for my work that evening. On that evening at work, I tried to monitor the Christmas party of my family back in the Philippines. We used a messenger site in order to transmit voice and video content over the internet. Unfortunately, the internet connection where the party was held was very slow. Since my internet connection was fast enough, my video images were clearly viewed at the other end but the video that I got from them were flickering and erratic and the quality of the images were not good. Since I was still working at that time, I decided to hang up the video call and just wait for the pictures to be posted and shared online.

The most important thing though, is that I was able to greet the child Jesus on his birthday and spent a holiday meal with my parents.

To those who were not able to receive my greetings, whether by mail or online, I wish you all the best for this Christmas Season and a prosperous and healthy New Year 2011.

A Time To Be Thankful

The long holiday season is here. It starts with Thanksgiving all throughout the Christmas season. This year, just like last year, I will not have a chance to be with my family be it on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year's Day. The Thanksgiving always fall on a Thursday while this year's Christmas and New Year's days will fall on Saturdays and that all mean that I'll be working on these days. As what I've said last year, I'll be working in the hospital saving lives while the rest of the world is partying and having fun with their loved ones.

Nevertheless, I still have all the chances in the world to be thankful to God for all the blessings that I and my family received this year. I am thankful that my parents were able to celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary last July. I am forever thankful that they still remain in good health. I am likewise thankful to the Lord for giving my only brother a new lease in life. Last May of this year, he received a new kidney from a Good Samaritan. He was suffering from kidney failure for a year until someone offered his kidney to him. I considered my brother a walking miracle, a testament how the Lord blessed him with a new life. I am also thankful that God gave me a warning to take care more of myself specially my health. With my desire to help my brother, I also discovered that I too have a major issue on my health. Lately, I got accidentally involved with a social crisis and because of this I know who my real friends are. I promised myself to be contented with this set of friends as I know that they will be with me through and through. I am also thankful that I found a friend in this foreign land that became very special to me. I know that whatever happen to both of us, we remain for each other forever. Thankful to somebody special although far away from me, is loving and thinking of me from somewhere out there.

There is so much to be thankful for and what I just mentioned are the prominent ones that happened this year. How about you, what are you be thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Let’s Do The Zumba

My general health is not in very good shape right now. I only have one working kidney as what I have discovered when I tried to donate for my brother. I therefore decided to improve my health but put some breaks on my heavy iron pumping in the gym. I concentrated more on the cardio training than weight training. Back in the Philippines, I was a fanatic to aerobic dancing and step aerobics classes and I could not deny that it worked in reducing my weight as well as maintaining it for quite awhile. Right now that I am here in America, I tried to regularly go to the gym and join the step aerobics classes being offered. Unfortunately, the class schedules were changed and I had a hard time attending to the classes that would fit my schedule. I work at night and I could not stay longer in the gym in the morning because I have to catch some needed sleep. Zumba classes were introduced and I was excited to know that there were some classes that fit perfectly with my schedule. I now do the Zumba twice a week, Mondays & Thursdays at 9:15am.

Zumba fitness is a fitness dance exercise program that keeps everyone motivated by creating a party like atmosphere. Zumba instructors will take their students through a combination of dance steps such as merengue, reggaetone and salsa. Zumba also incorporates fitness exercises such as bicep curls, knee lifts and squats. Zumba fitness is mostly about "booty shaking" dance moves that makes everyone laugh, smile and let loose. Zumba music uses mostly Latin rhythms but does contain other upbeat music from swing all the way to calypso. Zumba is all about the music and is probably the most important element in the class.

I still do my weight training but I no longer carry to heavy iron. I'm just crazy about Zumba, great music and killer moves, who will not be addicted with it. Cmon, let's all do the Zumba!