Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

In my early years blogging, I never shared my blog to anyone. My blog then was mostly about my very emotional side, that blog is basically, more or less, like your hand written diary only that mine is in the world wide web. 

In 2009, I started mielyf.blogspot.com, a blog I never really planned to be huge, I created it out of boredom to fill some idled time during my work hours. It never occurred to me that one day from mielyf [that talks about jaMIE's life] it will be transferred to zupermia.com [and will get as much as 15684, as of today]. 

zupermia.com isn't something I planned about my life, as saintly as this may sound, I think it's God's will. From the bottom of my heart, to all the viewers, clickers, visitors and supporters of zupermia.com, Merry Christmas!!! May this Holiday Season bring Love, Peace, and Happiness to you and your loved ones!!! May you always know the warmth of family and friends, and may the coming year give you joy in your work and peace in your heart. 

May zupermia.com continue to give you great joy in your times of sadness, and warmth and comfort when trials comes your way. May this blogsite help you  find true love, happiness, and contentment in every post.

Cheers! 

Happy Holidays!

love, now and always, 

2011 Philippine Holidays

I'm one of those people who looks forward to long weekends every year. I was able to enjoy quite a lot of it this 2010. But, as disappointing as this may sound to me at least, there are lesser long weekends for the year 2011. 

On December 20, PNOY signed proclamation No. 84 that declares THE REGULAR HOLIDAYS, SPECIAL (NON-WORKING) DAYS, AND SPECIAL HOLIDAY (FOR ALL SCHOOLS) FOR THE YEAR 2011. [Get hold of Proclamation No. 84 copy here]

Regular Holidays: 

New Year’s Day – January 1 (Saturday)

Araw ng Kagitingan – April 9 (Saturday)

Maundy Thursday – April 21

Good Friday – April 22

Labor Day – May 1 (Sunday)

Independence Day – June 12 (Sunday)

National Heroes Day – August 29 (Last Monday of August)

Bonifacio Day – November 30 (Wednesday)

Christmas Day – December 25 (Sunday)

Rizal Day – December 30 (Friday)

Regular holidays are fixed holidays such as Christmas Day and New Year. The dates do not vary. These are holidays with or without announcements from government. Regular Holiday means no class, double pay or premium pay for employees who are required to work on that day. 

Special (Non-Working) Days:

Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21 (Sunday)

All Saints Day – November 1 (Tuesday)

Last Day of the Year – December 31 (Saturday) C. Special Holiday (for all schools)

EDSA Revolution Anniversary – February 25 (Friday)

Special Non working Holidays are Holidays declared or announced by the government. Dates may change and vary. i.e there was a mandate that some national holidays would be moved to the nearest Monday.

In 2011, for working girls and boys only three holidays gives us the long weekends: 

1. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday
2. National Heroes' Day (August 29, the last Monday of August)
3. Rizal Day (December 30, Friday).

For students, there are four long weekends. From the three holidays, the EDSA Revolution Anniversary on February 25 (Friday) is added.

BTW, we enjoyed 11 long weekends this 2010. Sadly, the new president is not as generous with the previous one. >.<

love, now and always, 

Tutti Frutti Year

This year was pretty much easier to deal with than the other years... Maybe because, obviously, I was single the whole year ( or maybe 2 or 3 guys didn't make it to what I was really looking for). 

Writing this blog post makes me feel like a celebrity winning an award, being called out, walking upon that grand stage and thanking a lot of people. It also makes me feel like winning a big lotto jackpot by just thinking about the achievements I was lucky to have this year.

There are negatives too but positivity outlive it. My 2010 is a good year to start my decade. 

January to May was the busiest time in my recent work. I never really experienced this before because in the Newspaper industry, everyday is cramming day. I have to admit that everything I do now is pretty much interesting. It might not have been the path that I was really aiming but for the mean time... it was the perfect one. I'm near to a 100 times thinking about quitting my job but I always settle down with the excuses of--I need this, I want this, I have to finish school first and so on and so forth--and the next day, I'm all brand new, refreshed for another century of work. 

• January- I was adjusting to the new year. 
• February- I bought my very first touch phone--x6. (Take note: the money I used was from my own salary.)

• March- I was invited as a guest speaker to my Alma Mater. ( The first one to speak actually...)
• April, May - crunchiest time of my working life. Yes, I almost lived in the office.
• June- After three years of not celebrating my birthday in the Philippines, I finally celebrated it here. It was so FAB! (2007- I was in US. 2008- I was in SG. 2009- My lola died, I didn't celebrate)
• January to June -  I was busy preparing for school. Hello UP.
• April to August- My US Family: Tito Pogs, Tita Irma, Julianne and, now, with Marco visited us. I enjoyed the bonding, especially with the kids.... if only we can live together and never leave our sides again, it would be heaven. 
• July to September - Nothing special... I'm just preparing for www.zupermia.com
• October- Mom's operation was successful. James and her evil-bitch X broke up. WWW.ZUPERMIA.COM was born
• November to December - Christmas feeling. Happy. And, oh, I'm back to school. #goodtimes #geektimes

Pretty much, that was the very quick summary of my 2010th. Awesome. Thank God for life. No one so close died this year was another thing to be thankful for. Being me alive is one, as well. Some of my family got sick but I'm still grateful that God guides us in every single step. God you Rock! 

My Family

To my wonderful family, my parents and brothers, I love you. Perhaps, this was the year where most of us, "Tear-ed", but, glad that we sticked together till the end. James, in one of our serious moments, said it was his most blessed and happiest year--he stopped schooling, went back again, finished his thesis, became an exhibitor, completed one module of Cisco, appointed as ADU's president for ROBOTICS, broke up with his first ever girlfriend(or should I say, first ever girlfriend he introduced... which is which brother?), cried, weaped, drunked so bad, moved on, passed all his subjects, saved a lot of money again and fell in love... AGAIN. I thank God for this...truly, it was a wonderful year for our family. Together-forever.


To my Multimedia workmates, every single day at work is a near death experience with you guys... not that every moment is dying but every moment is to be cherished as if it was the last. To my girlfriends, Kat, Ley, Sally, Nor, Svet, Weng, Cyn, Che, Iza, Eloise, Grace and everyone else, our girltalks in a line or two make me learn more about life, relationships, love in your POV's. Love it. Let's have some more next year. To the e-learners, sorry for always disturbing you. Yes, I talk a lot, loud. Let's bond more. MERGE! YEAH! To everyone in the office that attended my birthday, big thanks.

@ My Birthday

My girlfriends @my Birthday

To My Ragnarok family, it was an exciting year. The merge was exciting. WTC event was success. ROLS was gold. Everything seems to be in places. To DOTA ALL STAR guild, big thanks for adopting me. Way back when I was in college, I was never really proud that I was a gamer. Maybe, because a lot of people connotatively think that gamers cannot finish school and can't rock the world--but now, I am a one PROUD Gamer.

ROLS

DOTA ALL STAR

To my other friends, yes you. I lalalalove you. Thanks for sticking with me this year... more years. More. 

i love my LOLA's

To the readers of my blog, thanks for the page views. I don't get to earn money for this, BTW. But... Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. As I always say, your clicks MEANS the WORLD to me. I love all of you.... ZUPERMIAN's? [it sounds like crap... scrap it.]

To everyone else, thank you for the very lovely year. I couldn't think of any other way to rock the start of the decade. Perfect for me. Hopefully in the years to come we will still  stick like Plants and Zombies, Mario and Luigi, Sonic and Miles. 

Mahal ko kayo. Lahat kayo.

Wait, where's my award?

love, now and always, 

The New Peso

Looks like it's not only Santa that's coming to town, this December the new peso bills will be circulating around the country. 

from PNOY's FB

According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), The new generation currency will not just show fresh designs but will also showcase the new security feature to make the detection of fake money easier. 

As a matter of practice, central banks regularly change the designs of their money -- whether coins or banknotes--to guard against counterfeiters. By making it very difficult and costly for counterfeiters to produce exact copies of our money, we protect the integrity of our currency against criminals.

click to zoom

BSP will be changing the six bills: 20 peso, 50 peso, 100 peso, 200 peso, 500 peso and 1,000 peso. The new bills will be circulating this month. However for the 1 centavo, 5 centavo, 10 centavo, 25 centavo, 1 peso, 5 peso and 10 peso coin will be out in two years. 

Features of the new bill:

• New set of designs - It looks more savvy and elegant. The colors are very vibrant and all the designs showcase Filipino touch. 
• New security features - The new bills include embossed prints, serial numbers, security fibers, watermarks, security thread, optically variable device, optically variable ink, and a see-through mark. (The see-through mark is the word "Pilipino" written in Baybayin, a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system, which can only be seen completely when the note is viewed against the light.)

The NEW Look:

P500 bill 

Obverse: Former Pres. Cory Aquino and husband Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

Reverse: Palawan’s Subterranean River National Park and the blue-naped parrot, which thrives in the forests of Palawan and Mindoro

P1,000 bill

Obverse: Josefa Llanes Escoda, Vicente P. Lim, and Jose Abad Santos

Reverse: Tubbataha Reef

Marine Park and the South Sea Pearl, which is produced by oysters that thrive in the South Seas of which the Sulu Sea is part

P200 bill

Obverse: Former Pres. Diosdado Macapagal

Reverse: Bohol’s Chocolate Hills and the Philippine tarsier, one of the world’s smallest primates

P100 bill

Obverse: Former Pres. Manuel A. Roxas

Reverse: Mayon Volcano and the “butanding” or whale shark, the world’s largest fish and the main attraction of Donsol, Sorsogon

P50 bill

Obverse: Former Pres. Sergio Osmeña

Reverse: Taal Lake and the Giant Trevally (locally known as Maliputo), a delicious milky fish

P20 bill

Obverse: Manuel L.Quezon

Reverse: Banaue Rice Terraces and a palm civet from the Cordilleras, which are famous for producing the civet cat coffee or kapeng alamid.

The old peso bills will remain its circulation for three years after the new bills were out. After three years all the old bills and coins will be phased out. 

Thanks to http://ravenfoxhaven.blogspot.com and  http://noypistuff.blogspot.com for the photos.

love, now and always, 

All the Links Lead to One--YOU!

A lot of us have multiple online profiles scattered across various services, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Twitter. And one problem we face is pulling all of this information together to build a single on-line identity — be it for personal use, or to create a professional on-line profile. 

About.me is a new place where you can create a splash-page style one-page website for your online profile. Your about.me page can have your picture, your bio and links to your various social profiles, your websites and blogs.

About.me is in private mode so you can’t create profiles yet but they do allow you to reserve your names – if the username (vanity URL) you are looking for is available, they’ll reserve it for you and will send you a confirmation over email.

Glad that I reserved mine way ahead...

about.me/zupermia

What are you waiting for? Create your personal splash page now! Build a personal and dynamic splash page that points visitors to your content from around the web! 

Know how many people how many people see your profile, where they're coming from, and what they do on your page at about.me's statistic page! 

Check out some beautiful about.me pages that are now live – Om Malik, Lindsay Campbell, Tony Conradand Ryan Chris (they are co-founders).

love, now and always, 

LI.......................FE!

Every time a man comes into my life, the only thing that I ask God is to stop anything between us as soon as possible, if this man is not the right one for me. For quite some time, God has been doing a good-great job with what I'm asking him. 

I'm actually starting to lose hope that God will send the right one: willing to wait, worth the pain, and will be there for me. Sometimes I even ask myself, why would God want someone as sinful as I am to be happy? Do I pray every night? Or rosary every Wednesday, at least? Go to church? Am I a good person? I find most of my answers here no--I'm not a good person-- Not evil, though, but a bad one. 

Why would God want someone like me to be his child? Why? With all the things that I have, People always think that it's perfect. But, if you are in my shoes... you will understand why suicide plans are always an occurrence, why a teardrop falls from eye-to eye.

It's not an easy life. I bet everyone would shout the same. It's not an easy life and yet, we still make things complicated. We love, we hate. 

love, now and always, 

Chick Flicks To Go

Christmas is just around the corner. Days are getting shorter, nights are getting longer, and popcorn pops....jumps for December air. It’s payback time Bella's!!! Here are the upcoming chick-centered flicks that you can blackmail your man to watch with you before you ultimately love him.

love, now and always, 

Justin Bieber live in Manila on May 10

FINALLY!

WHAT: Youtube sensation turned tween Idol, Justin Bieber, is coming to Manila

WHEN: May 10

WHERE: MOA Concert Grounds 

------------

From Philippine Star: 

Justin Bieber (simply “JB” to his fans) will have a concert at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Concert Grounds on May 10 next year.

It’s Smart which is producing the concert in cooperation with Music Management International & AEDI which confirmed the good news.

JB fans have a good reason to rejoice after they got disappointed when Justin didn’t come with Usher earlier this year for a rumored “brief appearance” on Usher’s show also held at the MOA. Justin is managed by Usher’s recording company.

During his album promo last October in Japan, Justin was presented with various awards from the management of Universal Music in Indonesia, China, Malaysia and the Philippines for achieving sales of over 280,000 (digital combined), 30,000 of which is for combined sales of his albums My World, My World 2.0 and My Worlds in the Philippines.

Incidentally, did you know that Justin has a Philippine connection? He’s being linked to Filipina singer Jasmine Villegas. His background singers belong to a Fil-Am band named Legaci, his back-up dancers are Filipinos, and his shows usually feature the dance group Poreotix from America’s Best Dance Crew that happens to have Filipino members as well.

Note: For sponsorship and ticket inquiries about Justin Bieber’s May 10, 2011 concert, call landline 494-4787.

love, now and always, 

2010 Christmas Wishlist

[UPDATE: The items "strikethrough-ed" were already given and not a part of the list anymore.

Christmas is just around the corner... and I just realized that I haven't posted my wishlist for this season. Wishlist, yes—my yearly tradition to post the crappy things I want for Christmas. Beware for its just purely material things in here. 

Over the years, around one to three wishes were granted. Don't you just love it when something you really really want was given to you? As for me, I love receiving gift and I love it more when what I want was given. Plus, it lessens the stress of the people around me of thinking what gift to give. 

Here's my list: 

(in no particular order)

1. Portable Book Light Clip 

I think I have two book lights but the clipper is already broken. If you are thinking of a good gift to give me, this would be one of them and surely this would be really really helpful. As most of you know, I read a lot in the car/bus during my travel. 

Price: From 50 php to 500php

Where to Buy: Japan Home Center, Bookstores, Divi 

[Anything would do... take away Hello Kitty from the picture and I'm good with it.]

2. Steering Wheel Cover

I prefer the Hello Kitty one but black and pink combinations looks good for Chimie(my car's name) too.

Price: 500php ++

Where to Buy: Auto Shops, Hello Kitty stores

3. Philips Earphones Colour Tunes Pink

I love this earphones. I used to have this, but, several months ago the left ear already gave up. =( I'm really  planning to buy the same pair and style, for it served me well for about two years. If you want to give me a gift this Christmas that I would really use to the lifetime of two years... GIVE THIS! 

Price: Less than 700php

Where to Buy: Music Stores, Electronic and Gadget hubs, Malls, etc.

4. iPhone 4 Case or other accessories (Pink or Fuchsia)

Y'all know that I'll be buying an iPhone anytime soon. I might buy this before Christmas. So, I'll appreciate it if what you'll give me will be of good used to this new toy of mine. Though, I'm still thorn between iPhone 4 and iPhone 5... Help me decide by giving me an iPhone 4 accessory.

Price: 300 to 500 php

Where to Buy: Electronic and Gadget hubs, Malls, etc.

5. Girly Camera Strap [DSLR]

I've been wanting a cute girly camera strap ever since I bought Sonya. So, please you know what to do. 

Price: 500 to 2,000

Where to Buy: Online, Quiapo, Malls, etc.

6. UP Official Jacket

I bet any Fighting Maroon would love this. I will never forget the person who will give this to me... and on my Graduation, might be two years from now, I will invite you! I promise! C'mon gimme...I will truly cherish this gift. 

Price: 2,400++

Where to buy: Adidas Kiosks

7. Starbucks Stainless Steel Tumble

I don't have to elaborate on this stuff... red, stainless, lovely... COFFEE! Thanks in advance! Or you can just give me GC's =)
Price: Around $20.00 [I'll check the local price]
Where to buy: Starbucks Cafe

8. The gift of choice 

Yes, money. Only because some people are really too busy to buy gifts and I have the time so... the gift of choice is your resort. 

So, that's my Christmas list for this year. As I always say every year, you don't have to give me these things but if you would I'd appreciate it if you do give. Also, a sweet Merry Christmas text message would do, a warm Christmas call is even better and if you drop by our house on Christmas Day that's the best. Who knows? I might even give you a special gift. Plus, you get to enjoy the food, fun and games our family will be preparing. Merry Christmas!!!

love, now and always,