the one inspired by ayn rand

i woke up today and saw a "blog.txt" file opened in my desktop PC. my dad has used the PC earlier to play "spiders" and he must have double-clicked on the file which was on the desktop unknowingly. i had almost forgotten about this file and was surprised to read what i had written months ago in it -- apparently during and after watching the video, "the law of attraction":

i want to be beautiful inside and outside.
i want to be able to wear beautiful clothes.
i want to have a smile in my face so that the people would come to know the grace that comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. i would like my friends and family to see the grace of the Lord in me so that they may know who my God is.
i want to find my soulmate, a man, a best friend whom i can grow old happily and content with. a man who will lead me closer to God.
i want to be able to support my family financially and abundantly.
i want to be able to take wonderful photos that people would seek out from all corners of the world. i want them to see God in my pictures and know that God who is forever loving and kind is with them.
i want to be healthy and live a long life. long enough to see my grandchildren and spend christmases with them.
i want to be able to travel to europe during summer.
i want to sing.
i want to grow deeper in my faith in God and to know God in a much deeper level and to love him and obey him more.
i want to be a woman who knows what it means to respect and to care and to have peace with myself, with God, and with others.
i want to be prosperous.
i want to be happy and make the people around me happy.

im a little hesitant to share the above with everyone, because they are very personal to me... but im writing them here just the same, if only to challenge myself to remain true to myself and to have a way of remembering who i wanted to be when i was younger. to be honest, when i read some of the things i had written (especially about the photography part), i laughed and felt somewhat embarassed for me! but then i realized, they may have been written months ago and they may sound silly now but i do remember writing (or more like, typing) them down with all honesty and truthfulness that i can find at the core of my being. these were my own thoughts and they were my dreams and the best thing i can do is embrace them instead of shove them off at the back of my mind and forget about them. sabi nga ni ayn rand, "the world we desired can be won... it exists, it is real, it is possible... (and the last part is my favorite)... it is yours." i really like that quote. obvious naman di ba, it's at the topmost portion of this blog!

here are my notes from the video. if you haven't seen it, you might find these absurd in the beginning and might easily dismiss it as just another "self-help" mechanism. however, to me the lessons are quite inspiring and have changed my perspective in a broader sense but at the same time allowed me to deal with the practical and more mundane problems we encounter in our daily lives better -- as long as i remember to apply it which lately, unfortunately, has not always been the case.

the law of attraction:
- make it clear in our minds what we want. we attract what we think about most.
- thoughts become things.
- every thought has a frequency. thoughts send out magnetic signals.
- creation is always happening. everytime an individual has a prolonged chronic way of thinking, they are in the creation process. something is going to manifest out of these thoughts.
- the mind is shaping the very thing that is being perceived.
- emotional guidance systems will help us understand what we're thinking. the thoughts cause our feelings.
- there are only two emotions: good (hope, happiness and love, optimism, contentment, belief, passion) and bad (guilt, anger, frustration, worry, blame, revenge)
- our feelings are a feedback mechanism. the better we feel, the more in alignment we are. the worse we feel, the more out of alignment we are.
- whatever it is you are feeling is a perfect reflection of what is in the process of becoming.
- you can begin to feel healthy, prosperous, or the love that surrounds you even if its not there. and the universe will correspond to the nature of your song.
- what you think and what you feel and what manifests is always a match.
- whatever thought has done in your life can be undone through a shift in your awareness.
- you create your own universe as you go along (winston churchill)
- guide your thoughts based upon they feel. be the creator of your own reality.
- the creative process is a step process. 1) ask what you want 2) answer - universe responds to your thoughts 3) receive
- pay attention to what you're attracted to.
- you can start with nothing. and out of nothing and out of no way, a way will be made.
- take the first step in faith. you dont have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
- how long will this take? its a matter of you being in alignment in the universe.
- most people offer the majority of their thoughts in response to what they are observing.
- all that we are is a result of what we have thought (buddha)
- start: with things you are grateful for. have an attitude of gratitude.
- powerful process: visualize. dwell upon the end result.
- its the feeling that creates the attraction
- when you have an inspired thought, you have to trust it and you have to act on it.
- next: list the positive aspects of the people you spend a lot of time with. things you like most about a person.
- you are the only one who creates your reality. no one else can think for you. only you. every bit of you.
- focus on what you want, not what you dont want
- lie: there's not enough good to go around
- truth: there's more than enough joy, love, idea in the world for everyone
- an affirmative thought is hundreds of times more powerful than a negative thought.


i know it sounds the same as what we've already heard dati pa when "the power of positive thinking" literature came out. it has been years since that book became a best-seller tapos eto na naman, "the law of attraction", a rephrasal, repackaging. but why is this re-surfacing after so many years and why did it become a best-seller yet again? i guess everyone needs a little bit of encouragement once in a while. or we all need to find a way to battle the negatives in the world, ourselves included. i really dont know... but i do know that there is something about affirmative thought and re-thinking these affirmative thoughts that must be good. im trying it out already as i write this! and without exaggeration, im telling you, i feel good about it :)

the one with gino and marjo

thanks to the organizers of aperturista's first ga, i was given the chance to shoot models at my alma mater. something i've always wanted to do ever since i started photography. i enjoyed shooting that day so much, that i stayed longer than i originally intended to. shooting with the other 20+ photographers was a challenge given that we had limited number of strobes, triggers and models at the start. but once you get the hang of it, you can concentrate on the subject and start having fun. salamat to the make-up artist (Julius Uy) and the models (Gino Cabrillas and Marjo Guzman) for putting up with us! i never heard a single complaint from the models even though there were instances that we would ask them to repeat again and again what they have already done before -- sit on the ground and look pensive, stand-up and face the wall then look at the camera, etc. at times we had to repeat their poses simply because we were not able to trigger our flash. i never heard them complain although they seemed tired at some point. galing, very impressive attitude! i hope to see them again in future shoots. nakakatuwa talaga.

anyway, sana matuwa rin kayo sa mga output, folks. there's more in my multiply site. feel free to check them out. thanks and God bless!




Gino Cabrillas



Marjo Guzman

the one from the Blue Man

something i read from mitch albom's "five people you meet in heaven" this morning:

the only time we waste
is the time we spend thinking we are alone

house rules

something i learned last night from watching the season 4 marathon of "house" on DVD:

the moment you stop questioning
would be the moment you stop hoping

inip


kabigan falls
Originally uploaded by gezelle

all i wanted to do today was look at photos from my trips to ilocos and la union earlier this year and post-process them -- crop them, change their hue, saturation, tilt them -- and then upload them to flickr and check to see if someone has made any comments on them or favorited them. here's a photo taken from my ilocos trip. there's more in my flickr account. old photos. newly edited.

hay.... i guess im still very much bummed about the cancellation of that travel photography class which we were organizing and was supposed to have been an overnight trip to bolinao on the last weekend of june. we were supposed to stay at puerto del sol and take pictures around. i was soooo looking forward to that. and then it got canceled due to budget constraints which we only learned about two weeks before the planned trip.

hay.... bakit ba ganon??? i wanted to see nature and get out of town. i wanted to take photos of those fishermen and the low tide and the lighthouse...

i wanted so much to do anything with photography that i asked the tricycle driver earlier to stop in the middle of the road so i can take photos of children on my way to work this morning. i had the camera mounted on the tripod before i made my unusual request and i had made several tests already while the tricycle was running to make sure exposure was somewhat alright. the photos turned out well. ill try to upload them soon.

hay... kelan na kaya uli ako makakalabas ng maynila at makakapag-shoot ng kalikasan, ng kapaligiran, ng pamayanan, ng mamamayan?!

hay... nakakainip.

estudyante slash opismeyt


tatlo sa mga naging estudyante ko nung isang taon ang nandito na rin sa avanade ngayon. yung dalawa sa kanila ay kasama sa larawan sa itaas -- eto yung dalawang lalaki mula sa kanan. kahit alam ko na natanggap sila sa kompanya, nagulat pa rin ako nang husto nang makita ko sila dito sa opisina kaninang umaga. akalain mo... parang kailan lang ng kinuha ang litratong ito. parang kailan lang ng naging titser ako. parang kailan lang nang turuan nila akong mag-billiard. ngayon, gradweyt na sila at may trabaho na! sana naman mailibre nila ako sa unang sweldo nila :)

nasaan na kaya yung iba... halos 20 kasi ang mga estudyante ko dati. naka-gradweyt na kaya lahat? yung isa raw nasa HP... e yung iba kaya?