The Little Things...

No one says 'Good Morning' to strangers anymore, at least not in the sincere way.

The security in your building will greet you everyday while rummaging through your purse in case you happen to be carrying a pen-sized bomb. You want to tell him, "For God's sake, I come here everyday knowing you'll violate the privacy of my stuff, haven't u realized by now that i'm not a shady character out to blow up this place?!" Besides a wooden stick is hardly a radar for WMDs.

Anyway, what I'm really getting at is, sometimes the littlest of nicest things can come from the people you least expect to get it from. This morning, the fx-taxi driver greeted us 'Good Morning' in what I thought was the most sincere good-morning I've heard in years. The nice old man fell short of saying 'Welcome and enjoy your ride.' But that would be overdoing it, wouldn't it?

That good-morning struck me like a freshly brewed coffee in the morning, not a passive waste of breath but lacks a sarcastic tone, too--it's just right. And it was a gesture worth immortalizing in this blog.

Of course, after that I had to face the hideous traffic and come in late to work again! But at least, it's reassuring to know that good things happen to us everyday. We just need to find them in the simple things that come our way.

Virtual Angel? Not...haha!

My friend Allen is like my virtual best friend.

We met working for a virtual company, and in the year and a half that we've worked together we've only met around 10 times. But online we're like Siskel & Ebert, ranting and raving about tireless company policies that change way faster than you can say P-O-L-I-C-Y. Or we'll simply talk about the ways of the world that we, more often than not, find ridiculous and recipes for a bad comedy. Work becomes easier and tolerable to handle with her around.

She has several cats but her favorite is one named Aloof who gives her allergy, unending scratches, and slow-healing rashes. But she loves her cats, she picks them up from the streets and acts as surrogate mother to those poor orphans.

And since she's still working from home, traffic for her means: "My blanket got in my way going to the computer."

We don't work together anymore, but I still find refuge in her whenever I'm having a bad day or work simply becomes repetitive or too much to handle for a day. Or when everyone else around me looks at me like I'm some alien thrown into earth and they just don't get me.

Allen surely gets me, because we're so much alike i guess. She's a friend i can count on even in her physical absence. Thank god for technology, I have a friend in cyberspace I can call in anytime.

My Meatballs Dilemma

My best friend Gilu was very nice to treat me for pizza last night. At the same time i was craving for meatballs. But having ordered a 14" pizza all for our devouring, he denied me of my craving.

But the unfortunate aborted love affair of my tummy with meatballs haunted me in my dream, in my day dream, all through my lunch, and onward through my dinner. I've called my friends to persuade them to have meatballs with me but they, too, refused.

I guess you would say I should go get my own meatballs then. But it's no fun eating alone, and besides I want someone else to buy it for me :p It's not just the meatballs, it's the principle of getting them for free! Yes, the best things in life are free. And right this moment the best thing for me is free meatballs!!!!

Stevie Wonder Makes Me Cry

I love Stevie Wonder. He's pure genius. When my brain is a container of mixed up thoughts I listen to Stevie and he will clear up my messy and over-indulging self.

He's my prozak, my anti-depressant. My pro bono shrink. He lifts up my spirits and brightens my mood. Even his saddest songs can bring my spirits to float, like in a magic castle, walking on a carpet of clouds. And they make me cry, though tears of joy. His music is a combination of poetry and philosophy, like a modern day Kahlil Gibran. Who can sing.

I love Stevie. He makes me smile, he makes me laugh, and he makes me cry.

Contemplating While in the Middle of Traffic

i used to dwell on being sad
but now it's just a passing thought
i refuse to feel nor to taste
i despise its bitter residue on my mouth
but not say i've embraced happy
the sunshiny bath can burn me
and have me sulk just the same
i stand on this state
taking each blow indifferently
like an aging tree wretched
by time and tempests
and i stand here like a stone.
numb and alone.

-- 4/15/05

Chocolate as Health Food

Can chocolate be sweet for your heart? A growing body of research suggests the answer is a qualified yes.

The latest is a small study done in Italy indicating that eating chocolate could have an effect on blood pressure and protect against diabetes. Participants who ate 100 grams of dark chocolate — equivalent to a little more than two 1.45-ounce Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bars — every day for 15 days had lower blood pressure and improved sensitivity to insulin, meaning they were better able to metabolize blood sugar. Those who ate roughly the same amount of white chocolate every day saw no improvement in these areas.

The compounds in dark chocolate responsible for heart benefits are called flavanols. These substances, which are found in plant-based foods, stimulate production of chemical messengers that help keep the lining of blood vessels healthy, explains Sandra M. Hannum, a research dietitian at the University of Illinois' division of nutritional sciences in Urbana. "Flavanols also delay — but don't stop — blood clotting. So you have less platelet aggregation, which means you're less likely to get a blood clot that might cause a heart attack or stroke," she says. full story

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Good news for dark chocolate addicts like me. harhar. --selzki

Has Cookie Monster given up sweets?

NEW YORK (AP) -- Something must be wrong in the land of Muppets.

First PBS announced that "Sesame Street" would kick off its 35th season this week with a multiyear story arc about healthy habits. No problem there; childhood obesity rates are soaring. Then I learned of changes that turned my "Sesame Street" world upside-down.

My beloved blue, furry monster -- who sang "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" -- is now advocating eating healthy. There's even a new song -- "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," where Cookie Monster learns there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods.

"Sacrilege!" I cried. "That's akin to Oscar the Grouch being nice and clean." (Co-workers gave me strange looks. But I didn't care.). View full story here.

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Whatever happened to fun TV? Does everything have to be politically-correct :( This is one reason kids grow old too fast these days-- weight conscious and more concerned with how they look. Focusing more on the outside rather than inside, childhood evaporates way too fast. --selzki

Oh my...

A news item from a Philippine newspaper read:

"AS the Vatican prepared to select a successor to Pope John Paul II, church leaders in the Philippines, Asia's largest Roman Catholic nation, urged the College of Cardinals not to elect a "liberal" pontiff.

The Filipino church said that the leader of the world's more than one billion Roman Catholics must uphold church doctrine on such issues as marriage, abortion, birth control, and priesthood for women.

The Philippines is one of few countries in the world where the majority Catholics are in broad agreement with the Vatican in its opposition to abortion, artificial contraceptives, and the ordination of women priests, among other contentious issues besetting the religion in the West.

In this Southeast Asian former Spanish colony, abortion and divorce are against the law, and condoms and birth control pills are unpopular.

"If the pope is a liberal it is against the law of God," said Ramon Arguelles, the archbishop of Lipa City south of Manila.

"Liberalism is a no-no because it is anti-God, so you cannot have a pope that is anti-God," he told Agence France-Presse in an interview.

"You must have a pope who can interpret very well the laws of God and the laws of nature," said Arguelles."

Duh! Do these people read their Bible? Jesus was a liberal that's why he was crucified! Poor ignorant souls. God must be turning in his seat thinking: "Laws? I made laws?"