10 Simple Things That Make Me So Happy

Being happy is a choice and anyone can choose to be happy with a little help from seemingly average things. I am easily satisfied, I think, and here are the few things that make me really happy even during a particularly off day.

1. Eating my favorite food

I have a lot of favorite foods. I never tried to make a list before but if I did I think it would be about four to five pages long. Just thinking about buying a snack I wanted all day after work makes me so happy that I actually smile while I walk all the way to the mall. And who doesn’t love food, right? Food actually takes up most of my monthly budget and I don’t regret that at all.

2. Seeing cute and cuddly things on the Internet

Yes, I watch lots of cat videos, but no I am not confined to only watching cat videos. I actually watch anything cute and cuddly like pandas and foxes. I find that watching cute and cuddly things on the web makes me appreciate being alive even more. And if you haven’t seen anything cute and cuddly on the web, then your poor soul is definitely starving and needs to watch some cute animal videos right now.

3. Browsing through funny meme’s and gif’s

Funny meme’s and gif’s are the reason I can work productively and efficiently. Whenever I feel actually worn out and bored at work, I would browse through a few meme’s and gif’s. I would have a few restrained laughs in my office cubicle and I am good to go.  I love a good laugh and I thank the heavens for whoever created meme’s and gif’s.

4. Having new stuff and unboxing them

When I buy new stuff, which is not too often mind you, I basically can’t wait to go home to reap the packaging off and check or use my new stuff. I specially feel like this when I bought new make up. Even though I actually tried it on before I bought it, I would still feel the urge to immediately go home and wear it. Even if I would just be at home watching random Buzzfeed videos, I still want to wear it.

5. Being at the beach or pool

The truth is, I don’t know how to swim, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the water. Wading and just floating on a body of water is such a delight for me that even if I cannot swim, I find that I can stay hours in the water. I do plan to take swimming lessons someday, but right now I think I’ll just keep myself busy with floaters when I’m in the water.

6. Drinking my morning coffee

Mornings are typically hard for me. I am usually lethargic and out of it and cannot function well early in the morning. That’s why I need coffee. Coffee is my perk me up drink and I usually am not myself until I have had my morning coffee. It is one of the few things that I think I can never skip on because most of the time my mood depends on it. Thanks to coffee, I am able to function everyday properly.

7. Going to a destination/place I haven’t been

Going somewhere is always a welcome idea for me, specially if it’s somewhere I haven’t been before. I love seeing things I haven’t seen before and I love the feeling of discovering something new and experiencing them for myself. Even if the place I am going to is just around the corner, as long as I haven’t been there before, I will get excited.

8. Watching cartoons in the morning

As a kid, I often eat breakfast in front of the TV with the cartoons on before I go to school. As an adult, I still do that, but now it's watching cartoons before going to work. Why? Because it gives me a sense of nostalgia and helps me start the day with a few quick laughs. Oftentimes, I would just go to YouTube, search my favorite cartoon and I will start getting ready for work as it plays. It’s the perfect day starter for me.

9. Listening to my current favorite song

I could just close my eyes and fly away whenever I listen to my current favorite song. And I say current because I usually love a song for a certain period of time and then I look for others. I oftentimes would rather not see someone I know while I am on my way home because I would rather have my earphones stuck in my ear until I get home rather than try to strike up a conversation with a person I forgot what I was in common with.

10. Finding extra cash in my pocket/wallet

Do I need to explain this one? This is basically everybody’s favorite thing. My eyes become wide and almost teary eyed whenever I find extra cash in my jeans pocket, wallet or bag pockets. It’s the most amazing feeling. That feeling when you thought you have just a couple of bucks left and then extra money shows up. It’s like an orchestra strikes up in the background and I want to go down on my knees and thank the heavens for the wonderful surprise.

My Top 10 All Time Favorite Video Games

I am thankful, that as a child living in a third world country, that I was still able to have things that most kids in my country never did. I am thankful to my father who bought us Nintendo super nes and Sony Playstation’s 1 & 2. My siblings and I were also able to fight over a PSP when it came out. It makes me nostalgic just looking at pictures of old games we were able to play in these consoles. And over the years, I of course had a few favorites, and I will name 10 of them. But let me warn you, these are pretty ancient games. I have refrained from buying a PS4 until I have passed the board exam this year. And my laptop’s specs are way below gaming standards so I can’t even play DOTA 2 and such. Emulators actually became my savior. I got to play a bunch of games I would’ve missed otherwise since old consoles have been discontinued. So here goes my top 10 all time favorite video games listed in no particular order.

10 – Mother & Earthbound (GBA)

Mother

 

Earthbound

This is a recent favorite. I found out and got interested in this game last year when I watched an LP on this game by NintendoCapriSun (https://www.youtube.com/user/NintendoCapriSun) on YouTube. It’s an amazing game. I have never played a game that gave me so much feels as this game did. And what’s really amazing about it is that this is a 32-bit game and all of the emotions it was able to elicit in me were shown through a 32-bit animation. The gameplay is familiar enough if you have been able to play RPG games before. You basically walk around, talk to people and buy things you need while you also try to save the world from destruction and fight bad guys. Mother and Earthbound are basically made to have a bit of real world elements in them. You would save a game by calling your family at home, they have ATM’s where you can withdraw money and weapons are usually everyday items such as baseball bats and toy guns. There is a difference in the battle mode with Mother and Earthbound. Mother uses random encounters while Earthbound uses physical contact with an enemy to enter into battle mode. I can honestly say that this games difficulty level is on point. When I say on point I mean the difficulty level is enough that I did not get too frustrated and just gave up on finishing the game. I was still able to find techniques to use to beat bosses and finish quests. I love this game series because of the story, which is very typical of RPG’s but somehow it’s more relatable. I don’t know how to explain it exactly but the real world elements this series have really worked for me and this game series will be my favorite for a really long time.

09 – Pokemon (GBA)

Who doesn’t love Pokemon? You would either have to be insane or haven’t been able to play Pokemon to be able to not love it. I basically just put Pokemon and not any specific version of Pokemon for GBA because I was able to play most of them and I loved all of them. But the most recent version I have played is the Sapphire. What I love the most about Pokemon is the fact that you collect various species of pokemon’s. I love collecting so much that when I found out that in Sapphire, there are specific species that I cannot collect because it is specifically for the Ruby version, I just stopped playing because I was too upset. I also love that there are various mini games in the game itself that I do not get bored easily. Although I gave up on the game because of the collecting issue, I am still thinking about finally finishing the Sapphire version.  I think the next time I pick up this game I should concentrate on beating the Elite Four before I start hunting for the other pokemon’s. That way I get to finish one of the main quests in the game before I succumbed to frustration.

08 – Final Fantasy XII (PS 2)

This game has one of the most amazing game graphics I have ever seen. Of course I haven’t played games for PC or PS3 so that makes my statement less convincing. But for someone like me who played NES up to PS2, the graphics in this game is just so visually stunning that I am in awe every time the opening scene plays on the TV when I put this game on. I love most of the Final Fantasy game series of course, but this one just really blew me away. The plot is wonderful, the side quests keeps you busy and everything in this game just pulls you in. In fact I was so obsess with the side quests that it’s all I ever really do when I played it. I think my game did not progress the main story line for a month because I just kept finishing quests.  Of course I regretted not finishing this game. I still am hoping someday that I get to finish it and see the ending, but as of now, it’s not possible since I don’t have a PS2 or a PS3 console. I really love the characters in this game, I think this is the first time that I actually loved all the characters in an RPG game. My favorites were Princess Ashe and Fran. I also love collecting the Espers in this game because the scene when a character calls an Esper is really fantastic that I really want to see all of them. I loved every aspect of this game, this is one of the best games I played and I sure hope I can play this game again.

07 – Legend of Legaia (PS 1)

Legend of Legaia is one of those games that made me love RPG the more. I feel nostalgic just talking about this game. Remembering how I would come home from school and play this until either my siblings want to have their turn on the PS 1 or my mom tells me to stop. The story is pretty basic for an RPG, but for me at that time everything was brilliant about that game. The story centers around 3 main characters that go on a quest to vanquish the mist that is engulfing all of Legaia through the help of entities called Ra-Seru. The battle mode in this game is activated by random encounters and attacks are called “Arts” which include a combination of ether Right, Left, High & Low attacks. The boss battles in this game are no joke. I would sometimes spend a day or two leveling up just to get to a comfortable level where I can beat a boss. Luckily, there is a point system in this game where every time you purchase something, it is added to a card and you can choose to spend the points in this card as damage points to an enemy.  But you can’t always depend on the point card so leveling up is still the best option. Mini games are also abundant in this game. I go fishing, play Baka fighter and my favorite mini game is the Sol Fever Disco mini game. My childhood would not have been half as fun as it was if I was not able to play this game, so thank you Contrail & Prokion for developing this game.

06 – Legend of Mana (PS 1)

This game is all about getting quests done. There is no main storyline here and you just basically do what quest you want until you get to that final quest. Some people will find this game too chaotic since it just lets you choose quests you want to finish and you have to actually create your own world through its unique “Land Make” system. But for me, who loves collecting anything and just checking off to do lists, this game seems like it was made for me. For me it wasn’t so chaotic since there are actually quests that are interrelated and I really love the graphics of this game, its very full of color and consists of adorable characters. And I am a sucker for adorable characters.  You can also do a lot of things in this game like creating armors & weapons. The game also has a pet system and your pets can also be used to assist you in battles. There is also a workshop that allows you to create instruments and build golems. All in all I think the fact that this game is just a bunch of quest put together works for me.

05 – The Legend of Heroes: Trails in The Sky (PSP)

 

Pic from- http://www.dualshockers.com/

This is another game that gave me so much feels. Just remembering the game makes me smile because of all the good banters and dialogues I am remembering in the game.  Playing this game is like reading a book for me, both literally and figuratively. I can barely put it down for the want of knowing what will happen next. The budding romance between the two main characters actually kept me going for the most part. I feel giddy whenever there is something sort of romantic in the way these two main characters interact. It’s just like watching a cheesy soap opera. And since I love old school graphics, I typically love the graphics of this game. Very traditional and the battle mode is although something I was not used to, it still was fairly easy to get the hang of. I actually cried during the ending of this game (so much feels), and I do not want to spoil it for anyone who wants to play this game in the future so I would just warn you, prepare for the tearjerker in the end. And this is actually the first chapter in the 3 part series of this game. It made me cry even more when I found out that the second chapters localization was still on going. Up until now, the English translation still hasn’t been finish. But I am still crossing my fingers because Xseed did not actually give up on this project yet, so why should I. According to Xseed, it would be release sometime this year.

04 – Resident Evil 3 (PS 1)

This game is the game of my childhood. I remember unboxing this game and just being so excited to play it. I played this game so much that I actually know most of the lines from the Jill and Carlos scenes. This is one of those games that I played so much that all there is to unlock has been unlock, even the infinite bullets I might add. I remember having a crush on Carlos and wanting to be Jill, Ha! But most of all I remember how wonderful this game is. The game is set in Raccoon City, a city that has been transformed into a zombie city with the help of Umbrella’s T-virus. You would have to battle zombies, zombie dogs, zombie crows, giant zombie worms, giant poisonous spiders and of course the infamous Nemesis. He is a creation of Umbrella and was made with the sole purpose of killing STARS members, which the main character is actually a member of. The graphics is mainly 2D with some 3D polygon graphics here and there. The gameplay is fairly easy to follow but what I love the most about this game is the action. There are scenes in the game where you actually have to choose between two critical choices that could result in a different game ending. Every time I play this game I get this rush and yes, Nemesis scares the living daylights out of me. The first few times I played this game, I was screaming and jumping up whenever the crows suddenly fly out of windows from a location I thought I already cleared up. I kept running away from Nemesis but gosh darn it, it feels good whenever I knock him out. If you want something that would keep you interested right to the end, then this is your game.

03 – Suikoden 2 (PS 1)

This is another one of those games that I have played over and over again because this is one of the hands down best RPG’s I have played ever. The story centers around two childhood friends that had to choose their own destinies. It has a really deep storyline that mostly focus on how these two friends will be able to get through the complexities of war. The gameplay is your basic RPG set up where there are 2 maps, the outside world and then the map when you enter a village, a dungeon or a specific area. The most fun thing to do in this game is building the Castle base for your army. It basically becomes bigger and bigger as you progress the storyline and get more of the 108 Stars of Destiny characters which is actually the key in determining the ending you will get. Get all of the 108 characters and the ending is good, not getting all of them will result in a bad ending. There are three battle modes in this game. The first one is when you encounter random enemies in a field or a dungeon. The second one is the army battle mode, where you have units you deploy in a grid like area and is more of a tactical battle mode. The third one is the duel battle mode, where the main character is challenged into a one on one combat and its up to the player to choose between Attack, Wild Attack and Defend. There are lots of mini games in the castle, and my favorite is the Hai Yo Cook-Off game, where Hai Yo is repeatedly being harassed for a super secret recipe and the only way to make them back off is by beating them in a cooking contest. The music in this game is also fantastic. Each city has different background music and all of them are wonderful and gives you an impression that they really worked hard in developing this game. If you haven’t been able to play this game yet then you better get going because you need to play this game and see for yourself how good it is.

02 – Monster Rancher 2 (PS 1)

If you are like me who just loves the idea of collecting pets or in this games case, monsters, then this is your game. This is a very enjoyable game where you get to raise a battle monster that would join tournaments to battle for the top rank and be considered the strongest monster in the land. Raising a monster in this game also means training them to gain strength, speed and other essential attributes that are needed to be able to join the tournament. My favorite monster to raise is the Hare. The Hare is a cute bunny with a big jiggly belly that throws punches at its enemies. I collected almost all of the breeds of this monster and I just find this monster so cute that I just can’t seem to take care of much else but this one. It’s actually quite sad whenever a monster die’s, my heart becomes heavy every single time a pet monster dies. The most interesting feature about this game is the CD-generated monsters you can have.  You basically put a CD, most type of CD’s are good, and then a monster is generated through that CD, which can either be unique or just a basic breed of monster. This is a game that has unlimited replay potential and the graphics are very lovely and for someone like me who is sucker for cute characters, this game just really went straight to my heart.

01 – Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley (PSP)

I love almost all of the games in the Harvest Moon series, but this particular title is what I remember the most since I am currently replaying this one. Harvest Moon is basically a farming game, where you plant seeds, water the plants, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, feed the cows and also milk them. You also get to raise a horse that can be then registered to race on Race Day. The games story starts with the main character inheriting his diseased grandfathers farm. But the town where the farm is currently located is actually in danger of being torn down to make way for Funland, an amusement park. He was then force by a Goddess and her little sprites into saving the town from being torn down. You basically live a life of a farmer in this game. You also have the option to marry any of the eligible bachelorettes in this town. But before anything else you must find ways to save the town to be able to succeed in the game. In order to save the town, you either have to pay 50k to the Funland CEO or make the town into either a Nature Preserve or turn it into a desirable Tourist Destination. This game actually takes a lot of time to finish since you take one day at a time to play it. This is a game for people who just basically want to enjoy a game that is not too fast pace and play the role of a farmer/savior/bachelor.

Women And What They Wear

I once saw a post in facebook that goes like “Ayaw mabastos, ang ikli ng suot”, translated to English it means, “Does not want to be disrespected but wears skimpy outfits”. I think we can all agree that this is directed to a girl right? I have heard enough of this to know for sure that even though there wasn’t anything in the said post indicating that it was a girl this was being said to, that the person who posted this was in fact referring to a girl wearing something skimpy. Now let us dissect this post and try to really understand what it means. A woman wearing something skimpy and revealing is asking for it, that is what this post basically means.

Men take off their clothes outside, mainly their shirts, without being told that they are too revealing and are asking for it. So basically, with women, when we wear something a bit more revealing or that it’s shorter or low-cut we are asking for it? That is like the most effed up thing ever. What this post is actually saying is that when a woman wears a short something that she is basically asking for perverted people to leer on her, catcall her and stare at her, is that it? Can’t a woman just wear something short because it is so humid and hot that it is much more comfortable to wear something shorter? No person has the right to assume that someone is asking for it simply because of what they are wearing.

I mean I do understand that people have eyes and we can’t all prevent them to not look or judge women based solely on what they wear. But come on, this was posted by a guy who is my age and who I know has gone to college and studied and had proper education. Do men today still think like this? I know this is turning somewhat into a rant but I just find it difficult to accept that men nowadays still think like this. We are living in the 21^st century, where men and women have equal rights, and some people still want to believe that a woman is asking for it when she wears skimpy clothes? Unbelievable!

6 Filipino Ways of Thinking That Needs to Change

I am not saying that all Filipinos have this kind of mind set. And I am not saying that I am so clean that I also do not have this kind of mind set. But I do know that in our society, the ways of thinking listed below are present and needs to change. I grew up believing in some of this “beliefs” and as I got older, I got to realize that there is something wrong with them. I don’t know if we would ever get pass this way of thinking, but I do hope that we could see that these beliefs aren’t helping and that little by little we could stop ourselves from thinking this way.

1. Thinking that PH made products are not quality products.

I am for one guilty of committing this ugly way of thinking. I go to Watsons often and when I do, I tend to go for the imported make-up brands like Revlon and Loreal, I think I once bought a lipstick by Ever Bilena and it actually has the same quality as some of the imported brand lipsticks I bought. But I completely disregarded this thought because I was so used to looking for imported brands because I believed that they are better and that anything made here is sub par. This has to stop! I need to let myself take a chance at products made here because number one, it would be far cheaper, number two, I would help a Philippine company and number three, I do not have the right to judge something just because everybody else instilled a belief in me which I haven’t even been able to prove to be true, and that last one could be a logic I can use for almost everything in this world.

2. Pets that have “lahi” or have a certain breed are the only pets that matter.

We have here in the Philippines what you would call an askal and a pusakal, meaning “asong kalye” and “pusang kalye”, this is what we would normally call dogs and cats that does not have a certain breed.  I had a cat, and he is a pusakal. My cat died last year, and it was like my heart got broken and I cried every time I remembered that he was gone. For a week people kept asking me why I looked miserable, and I told them the reason. And the first question they would ask me was “May lahi?”, and I would stare at them and try to calm myself before answering because what I want to yell at them was, he was my pet, and what does  “lahi” have to do with why I am sad that my pet cat died?

I also have witnessed families keeping dogs, askals mainly, being kept on a leash and was only ever there because they want left over foods to not go to waste. And if there aren’t left overs, then tough luck for the dog. Although I do understand the logic that every last scrap of food should not go to waste, I also find it cruel that the dog only ever gets to eat when there are left-overs. And I really have seen firsthand a couple of families do this, and this really needs to stop. Your dog or cat is not just some accessory or a thing use for left-over disposal just because they don’t have a certain breed. They have feelings and should be loved just like how you love your chihuahua’s and German Sheperd’s and Siamese cat’s. Give them a chance at a happy life too.

3. The need to prepare lavish meals whenever there is an occasion even if it meant being in debt for a year.

Christmas, New Year, Binyag ni JunJun, Birthday ni JunJun, Fiesta and other occasions we celebrate here in the Philippines are not complete without lavish meals that is only possible through “utang” or borrowed money. I am not saying that all Filipinos does this, some actually are able to save enough for the occasion to be able to prepare these lavish meals without having to borrow money. But a lot of times, people here go to so much trouble just to be able to prepare extravagant meals for people who they only knew a little or people they do not even like. We should stop this for a bunch of reasons, but two of the main reasons being, one, you can always opt for a simple celebration that does not involve the whole town so you do not have to spend too much. An intimate dinner with your family will always beat a fiesta like celebration with people you only half knew, so why not just do that instead. And two, is being in debt for a year worth it? I know some will say it is, but no it never is worth it you know. And if being in debt for a year for you is ok, then you seriously have issue’s that needs fixing and you should definitely seek help.

4. The belief that marrying a foreigner is the key to having a good life.

I know parents mean well when they want their children to find a foreign national that could take them to the United States, or the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It even almost does not matter where in the world you will be taken to just as long as its another country and that its a foreigner you will be getting married to. And I am not against inter racial marriage, just to be clear, what I am against and I think is a thinking that really needs to change is the way of thinking people have here about marrying foreigners. And I am not only talking about the parents, most people I meet think that all your existing problems will be solve if you landed a foreigner for a husband or a wife. They will think you are swerte or lucky when you marry a foreigner. And yes, maybe you are lucky when you marry a foreigner, but people need to stop pushing relatives or daughters or friends to date a foreigner even when they do not want to simply because they believe that it is the only way to a good life. Let them choose, let them not be coaxed into something, let them simply marry the person they want to.

5. That people who are more than 30 has no right to have a job.

I went to google, typed job vacancies in Manila. Then I browsed through the first 3 job ads. Not more than 30 years of age in the job qualifications section was a prominent entry. I went to google again and typed job vacancies in Canada. Guess what, age limit has not been mentioned in all the 3 postings I have checked. I again went to google and typed job vacancies in Singapore, again age limit has not been mentioned in the 3 job postings I checked. So whats wrong with being 30 here in the Philippines? Why do employers here hate people who are more than 30? Can somebody explain this to me? Maybe someone working in a recruitment firm can enlighten me on the rules set up by companies here in hiring people. Because I just don’t get why you can’t hire a person who is more than 30. Is this one of those only in the Philippines thing? Obviously, this needs to stop. There are a lot of Filipino’s struggling to get a job and setting this age limit thing is not helping.

6. Its perfectly ok to ask money from relatives abroad. It’s perfectly normal.

People here who go abroad typically has one goal in mind. To be the bread-winner of the family. And that is such a noble decision, sometimes people who decide to do this even forget their own needs and postpone making a family of their own just to be able to provide their parents and siblings everything they would ever need. While I know that this is not a bad thing, sometimes it can be. Because the person working abroad is sacrificing so much and sometimes it takes them so many years before they are finally able to have savings of their own. And then other relatives ask money from them like their millionaires or something. This is not ok, people here should also work and not just ask money and then live like rockstars and spend money like there is no tomorrow. I know a few people who do this and I feel sorry for the relatives of this people who work abroad. Knowing that they would probably have to support this rockstars financially for the rest of their lives because they think they have their own personal money machine is really sad.

Again, not all Filipino’s have this way of thinking. But being a Filipino has allowed me to see that most of us think this way. And it’s important that we try to see past of what has been the norm here and widen our perspective.