A huge typhoon is currently wreaking havoc in the Philippines right now, and although I can say that most of us here in Manila are relatively safe, sadly I can't say the same for my countrymen based in the storm's path of destruction. I particularly feel for those who live in Bohol and Cebu as they have already gone through so much in the past month and the last thing they need is for this natural disaster to *knocks on wood* claim more lives and destroy more property.

At a time like this, there is nothing much to do except keep a level mind and

The words are from the song Be Calm, one of my favorites from one of the best bands I have ever listened to - Fun. There's just something about Nate Ruess's voice that instantly calms me and reminds me that everything is okay with the world. Other people watch cat videos when they're sad; I watch Fun.'s live performances. Nate is so wildly passionate when he sings, making him so handsome in my eyes that it hurts. It doesn't hurt that his voice has the same excellent quality both live and recorded! I love him so much and it is my fervent wish to watch him live in concert.

I hope hearing his voice has the same effect on you.

Be safe, be calm. ♥

Lazada.com.ph is cooking up something huge for all online shoppers, so deliciously tempting that everyone will become a shopaholic. It’s an online revolution—and when we say revolution, your world will definitely be turned upside down!

Brace yourselves for this year’s BIGGEST ONLINE SALE! Awesome new deals, incredibly massive discounts, and irresistible bargain items are sure to capture your computer screens that you can’t help but click on the BUY NOW button.

Expect never-before-seen markdowns, extra special promotions, tons of exciting giveaways, and bargain with limited stocks. Get those fingers ready do so some swift clicking. Be prepared with your computers, check your Internet connections, and man your accounts. It’s going to be an exciting, revolutionary November at Lazada!

If you haven’t made a Lazada account yet, sign up now! It’s quick and easy. Feel free to contact our customer service hotline if you need assistance. To know more about these sensational deals, be sure to log on next week from November 11 to 17. And make sure you check back for the weeks to come because this is only the beginning, brought to you by Lazada Philippines!

It was too early in the morning to be fangirling but I couldn't help it! If you are a fan of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy and are eagerly awaiting the movie adaptation of Catching Fire like me, then you are in for a treat! Subway has released an exclusive online debut of an all new TV spot featuring Christina Aguilera's contribution to the Catching Fire OST and IT. IS. PERFECT.

Coincidentally, I also finished rereading Catching Fire in the van on the way to work this morning. Collins deserves a lot of credit for making me feel like I was reading it for the first time! Granted that I first read the book three years ago and I never found the need to read it again until a month before the movie is shown because it's just too heartbreaking, but all the emotions I felt - happiness, grief, faith that the spirit will triumph over any adversity, panic, despair, disgust at human folly, rooting for my favorite fictional characters who do not have the odds among their favor, among others - are still there, magnified even more because being older (and hopefully wiser) has made me understand more from this dystopian fictional universe that, truth be told and frighteningly so, might not be too far from reality.

Others have turned their noses up on the series because it "belongs to the Young Adult genre". Excusez moi, but The Hunger Games is much more than that. Yes, there's a love triangle between three teenagers, but there are a lot more at play - complex characters with different motivations, subterfuges, deception, the consequences of having an insatiable thirst for power, politics, the society's skewed obsession with celebrities and reality TV, friendships and alliances even while having preconceived prejudices... I could go on all day, but I guess what I'm trying to say is don't knock it 'til you've read even the first few chapters at least.

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What it all boils down to is that Catching Fire is my favorite book in the trilogy and I am counting down the days until I am inside the cinema, watching the movie.

Have you always dreamed of being a model? Do you wake up each day feeling in your bones that seeing your face in huge advertising campaigns or beauty/ fashion editorials is your destiny? Are you waiting for that perfect opportunity?

You're in luck because MAYBELLINE New York  is on the lookout for eight ladies who will be the 2014 Top Models of 8-in-1 Clear Smooth BB!

Because MAYBELLINE Clear Smooth 8-in-1 BB gives you perfect skin with its eight healthy benefits, we’re looking for all aspiring models who believe they have what it takes to be one of the eight MAYBELLINE New York BB Top Models who will represent Clear Smooth 8-in-1 BB in a photoshoot and win a P100,000 modeling contract with Ideal People Models.

Do you think you have what it takes to be one of these eight girls?

HOW TO JOIN
Interested ladies ages 15 and above* can join via the 2014 BB TOP MODELS Application on the MAYBELLINE Philippines Facebook Page starting today until November 30, 2013. Candidates should provide the following for participation to be valid:

(1) Headshot
(2) Body Shot
(3) One-sentence statement on why they believe they should be a MAYBELLINE BB Cream Top Model

*Ages 15-17 are required to submit parental permission to participate.

HOW TO WIN 

Candidates should collect as many votes as possible for a chance to be part of the finals. Each voter is allowed to vote a candidate only once, and can vote for up to 10 candidates. 

The top 30 candidates who get the most number of votes will be invited to a casting on December 6, 2013. The jury composed of representatives from MAYBELLINE NEW YORK and Ideal People Models will select the Top 8 winners.

THE PRIZES
• 8 winners will be named MAYBELLINE 2014 BB Top Models and be ambassadors for Clear Smooth 8-in-1 BB for a year.
• The highest scoring model will receive an exclusive 1-year modeling contract worth P100,000 with Ideal People Models, one of the country’s most reputable modeling agencies, while the runner up will receive a P50,000 contract.

Are you going to join the Search? Crossing my fingers for you! I know how good it feels when a dream comes true, so I am wishing the same for you. ♥

A little over a month ago, after gushing over how beautiful the song The Gambler by fun. is (seriously, listen to it and gush with me ♥), Alvin remarked about how I must love romantic endings, and I said I'm okay with sad endings so long as they are well-written.

Ladies and gents, liking that song opened a can of worms as before I knew it, I was agreeing to this assignment.

Alvin: Here's a series of (tough) questions: What qualifies a story as "well-written"? Can you cite three examples of well-written stories and why you consider them such?
Me: That's tough, but CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I do not claim to be an infallible writer who has the right to judge whether a piece of written work is great or not; this is just an attempt to accomplish this assignment {as a segue to another project we're working on} using the personal measures I have devised in the years I have been reading books/ watching movies/ listening to songs and writing about them.

For me, any story transmitted through any medium (literature, film, song, photograph, etc.) can be considered well-written depending on its:

• Content. Does it offer something new, or does it sound like a rip-off of something that has already been done a thousand times before? 
• Cohesiveness. How do the elements strewn in tie together? If foreshadowing is used, is it employed effectively? Is the ending feasible or did it come out of nowhere? I recognize that suspension of disbelief is needed once in a while, but I don't like it when stories jump the shark.
• Development. Do the characters change as the story progresses or do they remain soulless cardboard caricatures? Does the story rise and fall or does it feel too long and dragging?
• Form. Does the viewer or reader relate to it or does it alienate others? However brilliant your message is, if it gets lost in translation, then your work did not serve its purpose.
• Appeal to human emotions. My emotions in particular. Almost all stories that made me feel feels, I've considered well-written. Huh. I may not be as good at this as I thought because I am a big sap made of cheese and mush, but there you go. Is it something that, even after a considerable time has passed, the reader or viewer has fond memories of reading or watching?

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In movies as in books, I've always been partial to those with good dialogue. Show me something with lines that have been rehashed 'til kingdom come and I will show you my rolling eyes, but show me characters who speak like real people in real life and I will definitely take notice. Except for the third movie in this next list, here are some I've already written a LOT of times about (I love the movies so much I even bought the book versions of their respective screenplays). I wanted to use them as examples because aside from being one-of-a-kind and passing the criteria I posted above, these are written works I wish I wrote myself.

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. My all-time favorite movie. I wrote about this here and several many posts after, but that is the most significant.
• Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight. I considered these as one since they belong in a trilogy. I wrote about them here, here, and here. I reiterate, the lines here are so beautiful it hurts.
• Amélie. This is so embarrassing, but it was my first time to see this movie today. I included it here because I identified with Amélie's character so much. Watching it was like a breath of fresh air on a hot and humid summer day. Oh, what joy.

I am terribly shy and awkward but I love meeting new people because I'm a big nerd who loves learning new things in every way I can. I'm thankful that my line of work allows me to interact with a lot of interesting people who are all very passionate in their fields while also helping me develop my social skills somehow in the process. One of the nicest and smartest persons I met is Alvin of Business What Ifs, a business blog for short attention spans. I'm a fan of how he delivers his message using the least number of words as possible; his posts are always clear, concise, and cohesive, whereas I go on and on and on. I really enjoy talking to him both online and offline because he's very fun and easy to talk to even though he hasn't read any of The Hunger Games books nor watched even the trailer. He agreed to write a guest post for my blog and I thought this is a nice deviation to mix things up, especially for me who prefers fiction over non-fiction. Because, you know:

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I talk too much, sorry about that. Before I digress to another topic again, let me present to you some words of wisdom from Mr. Short Attention Span himself.

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Howdy, fellow book lovers! Do you read non-fiction books from cover to cover?

I used to, but not anymore. My short attention span won't allow me.

I still consume books (both physical and digital versions), but I only digest portions that interest me.

Imagine eating a succulent pork chop... it's perfectly fine to cut off the juicy fat.

Because of this, I realized that I don't have a favorite book, but I do have a long list of favorite lessons. Here are the "classics" from the first books I read over a decade ago...

1) Rich Dad, Poor Dad:
Responding to criticisms about his "mediocre" writing skills, Robert Kiyosaki said, "I'm a best-selling author, not a best-writing author."

2) Make Millions Marketing:
Roger Konopasek practically required entrepreneurs to answer these questions: What clients do I want for my business? How do I want them to treat me? What does my business look like to my clients?

3) Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway:
The title itself is pretty motivational, but I like the way Dr. Susan Jeffers emphasized the flawed logic of people who stay locked in awful situations simply because they've invested so much and it would be a shame not to continue. We must take a U-turn when we discover that we're going the wrong way!

4) Don't Sweat the Small Stuff:
Again, the title alone is self-explanatory. It has become a personal reminder when little things don't go my way.

What about you, what lessons have you extracted from your favorite books?

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Ladies and gents, seeing how the introduction is longer than the post itself is proof of how concise yet effective his writing is. Whether you have a business or not, or interested in putting up a business or content with being a consumer maybe, I'm sure you'll enjoy Alvin's bite-sized posts. Visit his blog for more. 

Grab a copy of the one-page (yeah, just one!) resource guide:
"Five Time-Saving Tools That You're Probably Not Aware Of ... And They're FREE!"