Goddess, I Am.

They say that by running for Congress (and winning), our president (she of the short stature and high self-regard) is hoping to become Speaker of the House so she can push for the change of our democracy to a parliamentary legislature and ultimately become Prime Minister.

Well, truth be told, from what I know and understand of how a parliament works, I think it would do this country a load of good – that is, as long as we don’t end up with a dwarf for a Prime Minister. I’ve always felt that the very essence of democracy is lost on people as undisciplined, belligerent, stubborn, and insular as the masses that make up the majority of the Filipinos – and most of Asia, for that matter (read: Thailand) – so a tough, authoritarian system of government is long overdue.

But let’s not get into all that, shall we?

Going back to the subject of parliament, how cool would it be if we had a Whip? And no, I’m not talking about ‘em whips of the S&M kind (sorry, Chin!). According to Wikipedia, “whips are party ‘enforcers’, who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy.” Wouldn’t it be cool if our government officials could stop bickering aimlessly for a change, or at least bicker with more sense because there’s someone around to keep them in line?

Oh, what I would do to become a Whip! If I ever do run for public office and become one, I would do the job one better by really wielding a whip. Then I will literally whip any party member who won’t agree to buy phentermine in bulk to reduce the national weight average, or whatever new drama the country might be facing by then.

Do you think it’s too early to start campaigning for the, umm, Whipship? Just a thought.

Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince is showing today, and I am absolutely giddy with excitement! I am not, however, looking forward to watching Dumbledore die, but hey, that’s what tissues are for.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited to watch a movie since Wall-E last year (and that’s saying something because I love, love, love movies, so I’m always excited). I have great expectations from the sixth Harry Potter movie because if I had a favorite book of the series, the Half-Blood Prince would be it. I sure hope the movie won’t disappoint!

Speaking of Wall-E, why does it take ages for Pixar films to get released in Asia? I’ve been dying to watch Up for the longest time, but though it was released in the US months ago, we have to wait until August to see it here. So, for the moment, I’m consoling myself with Wall-E (yet again), which is by far my favorite Pixar flick (so far). I just can’t get enough of this little guy:

I love how he gives a little shake when he hops off his little green line. M-O (Microbe Obliterator) is so cute, I could just squeeze him! (Though how one is supposed to squeeze a hunk of metal without some sort of heavy machinery is beyond me.)

On a side note, in a perfect world, we’ll have robots to do the dirty jobs for us, while we lie on mobile lounge chairs and get fat. We won’t have to worry about getting them social security disability from Allsup, though we might want to stock up on spare parts from True Value for good measure.

But then again, if robots are like M-O and Wall-E and Eve, I might not have the heart to make them work because they reek of cuteness, plus I don’t want to get fat, so let’s scratch that perfect world scenario. Maybe we can have Harry Potter-esque wands and spell books, instead?

Double, double toil and trouble; could somebody please stop Iris’ babble? Like, now?

How awesome is Cebu Pacific? In 2007, I booked a trip to Boracay in May (the trip that changed my life, but that’s another story for another day) for just a little over P2,000, round-trip. That same year, I bought a ticket to Hong Kong for about P3,000, also round-trip. I never got to use it, though, because I moved to Thailand and I had to travel through shitty Air Asia to Macau from Bangkok and take theTurbo Jet to Hong Kong. But hey, P3,000 is still not a bad figure to lose.

This year, they’re doing their fabulous seat sale again (only until the 24th, people!), and The Fiance and I booked tickets for 6 days in Boracay in June for just a little less than P3,000 for both of us. I’m so excited! It will be a pretty late honeymoon since we’re getting hitched in April, but, hey, at least I get to take my favorite man to my absolute favorite place this side of the world!

Maybe one day soon Cebu Pacific will start doing cheap-o flights out of Asia. Who knows? We might get the chance to go on one of those Orlando vacations soon-ish – not that America will be the first place I’d want to visit.

Aahhh… The joy of budget airlines and their overpriced cup noodles. Who could ask for anything more?

I’ve finally managed to tear myself away from sweet-talking vampires and hormonal adolescent werewolves to do some serious writing over the past few days. I had no idea just how “out-of-shape” (for lack of better words) I was until I had to practically pull out all my hair and cry hysterically just to get my brain working. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Because this post is my first post for the new year, I’m going to do exactly what everyone else does: nitpick on the year that just ended and make resolutions that I’m not likely to follow (okay, maybe I will…ish). Yes, I’m a conformist like that.

On Writing

This time last year, I wrote article after article without having to struggle. Somewhere along the way I became less of a writer and more of a businesswoman. I became much too engrossed in the money I was making that I stopped finding joy in writing and saw it as no more than a means to pay the bills. The more I looked at writing as a job, the more I found myself hating something that I used to love.

This year, I want to write – and I mean, really write – again. I want to enjoy what I do again, have fun with words again, and essentially be a better writer. Maybe I’ll write a book, or maybe I’ll just blog more often, who knows? Oh, and I’m seriously leaning towards monetizing this blog. That’s as good an exercise in writing as any, though I’m still balking at the idea of writing about things that would be all wrong here. We’ll see.

On My Finances

I probably earned more money last year alone than in 4 years of working put together. So am I financially solvent? The answer is a dismal “I should be.“ I should have enough money by now to allow myself to be frivolous from time to time. I should have a lot more than a few hundred dollars in my savings account by now. But I don’t. I made a lot of mistakes last year. I spent too much, and although it’s for mostly good reasons, too much is still too much. I can’t help but feel cheated.

This year, I’m going to pay closer attention to my finances. I’m going to stop indulging myself and the people I love too often. I’ll spend wisely, live on less, and save what I’ve slaved over. I would like to invest on something and earn a bit of passive income to increase my retirement fund, especially when I’m hell-bent on being able to retire by the time I’m 40. I’m also going to start looking at insurance quotes for myself and The Fiance. I will be looking at several options within the next few months, and I hope to increase my savings many times over by the end of the year.

On Our Relationship

This year was a very significant one for myself and The Fiance. The end of February saw us moving in together when we’ve both never lived with other people (family excluded) before. Months later, he uprooted himself from Thailand and moved back to Cebu with me. Most recently, he asked me to marry him – something that I never expected, considering how he made it clear right from the start that he had an aversion to marriage.

But it wasn’t always happy, happy, joy, joy. We had some really bad fights – fights so nasty that we’ve almost called it quits. But we haven’t, and that matters most. No matter how bad it got (and mind you, the last one had me shrieking like a banshee at the top of my lungs – something that I never used to do), we were both always willing to talk things over and fix things as soon as we’ve both calmed down. I like to think that it has made our relationship stronger and that we now understand each other a lot better.

This year, we intend to get married. I don’t want anything grand, nor do I want a lot of people around. There are very few people who I can still call friends, and I suppose, in this case, it’s a good thing because I won’t be obliged to feed a hungry mob who have all but forgotten about me while I was in Thailand. I want my wedding small, intimate, and preferably costing no more than 20-Gs. (Man, I’m cheap!) Whatever. I just want to be Mrs. Young!

On The Family

Here’s one thing that I realized when I moved to Thailand in 2007: I can’t live without my family. Or I can, but I don’t want to. I don’t think anyone else in the world has a mum as awesome as mine and a sister as adorable, and I can’t remember why I even wanted to leave home in the first place (okay, I was bored out of my eyeballs). Indeed, there’s nothing like being away from home to make you want to go back to it.

This year, I want to build our little family venture into something big to give all of us more financial security, especially my sister and her baby. For some strange reason, we’ve all been hit by the entrepreneurial bug. We’re also studiously turning our money trees every morning and analyzing the feng sui calendar. Is this our minuscule Chinese heritage at work? Not a bad theory, as long as I don’t turn yellow.

On Travel

Last year, I vowed to myself that I will go to Europe this year. Unfortunately, my savings account isn’t going to make that possible anytime soon, so Florence will have to wait until 2010 at the earliest.

This doesn’t mean that I will be putting myself under house arrest. Au contraire! After being away for a year, I realized that Las Islas Filipinas actually has quite a lot to offer. Thailand’s beaches has nothing – and I mean, nothing – on our really good islands – and I should know because I made it a point to visit as many beaches as I could to see what the fuss was about while I was there.

This year, therefore, will see me and The Fiance traipsing through the archipelago and (hopefully) swimming with whale sharks. I also want to visit more of Asia – though I’m definitely not going back to Thailand, even if someone pays me a million baht!

On My Nails

This one deserves an entire section all to itself. After a lifetime of biting – no, eating – my nails like they’re Scottish shortbread, I finally managed to successfully grow them. Admittedly, it wasn’t by choice. I had a toothache so bad that I couldn’t partake on my usual, umm, diet (gross, I know), and before I knew it, my nails were nice and long and tougher than cow hooves.

This year, I’m going to keep my nails nice and long and tougher than cow hooves. I will have them trimmed, buffed, and polished in every pretty color of the rainbow. Who would’ve thought being a girl was this much fun?

So this sums up what I want this year. There are some things I didn’t include, like a MacBook and a vibrator (every girl has to have one, haha!), because they’re trivial, trivial, trivial.

(Belated) Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s to a year of love, trust funds, and French manicures.