i first read a hardbound The Da Vinci Code.  then i got a hold of a paperback Angels & Demons and finished it. 

now i'm reading Digital Fortress, an ebook sent by my bestfriend.  i'm in my third Dan Brown book, so i guess it's obvious that i like his writings.  they're books i can't put off reading.  interesting.  it's not just fiction, it's a good source of facts too.

Digital Fortress... sounds like my courses in College - Digital Circuits, Digital Design, Digital Electronics.  mwehehe =)  after all, the book talks about algorithms, processors, and super computers.  so it's interesting.

i'm almost halfway through.  here are some excerpts:

Despite the opinion of many engineers that the newly proposed code-breaking computer
was impossible to build, the NSA lived by its motto: Everything is possible. The
impossible just takes longer.

The NSA felt the crunch immediately. The codes they were facing were no longer simple
substitution ciphers crackable with pencil and graph paper--they were computer-generated
hash functions that employed chaos theory and multiple symbolic alphabets to scramble
messages into seemingly hopeless randomness.

 

i wish i have chubby cheeks. 

last week, a couple of people said i'm losing weight.  hmm... maybe not literally, coz my weight doesn't really change that much.  i just feel my body gain or lose weight.  so maybe i look less healthy lately.  it's my face, i know.  i don't have healthy cheeks so it's really obvious when i lack good food and sleep.  somebody said i have black circles around my eyes.  yaiks! 

the worse thing is, i was on a lighter work load for the last 2-3 weeks.  and this week, since we started with Fall Semester, i'll be working full time again.  and it's a really busy semester for me.  it's just the middle of the first week and i already feel so tired.  oh no!  what will i be now?  a zombie?

but don't worry, i'm gaining again.  i've been eating A LOT.  and i think i got my old sleeping habits back.

the other day, i was watching Oprah and it was an episode with Sharon Stone (for Catwoman).  Oprah mentioned that she was interviewed once and was asked the question, "what are the things you know for sure?" and she wasn't able to answer.  so now she has that column in her magazine. 

watching that interview made me ask myself, what are the things i know for sure?


that there's AT LEAST 3 persons who TRULY love me.

there's a better place for us, much better than this Earth, and i want to be there.

i'm blessed with great family, friends, relationships and a lot of answered prayers.

God loves me.

money can't buy happiness.

i want to go home in December.


though i don't know where i'll be next year, or how i want to live the rest of my life, or when i can buy my own car... at least i know the things i wrote above, FOR SURE.  :)

i have always dreamed of my wedding.  i've been facinated with weddings since i was small.  maybe because i've seen my cousins and aunts get married, in our small church, happy and in love.  so i dreamed of the day i'll walk down the aisle, with my parents.  i dreamed of the person i love waiting for me at the end of the march.  i've been sure i wanted a romantic ceremony and a party full of fun afterwards.  there should be good music, flowers and a lot of smiles.  i want it to be beautiful.  this is really important to me.  it's a once in a lifetime event and i want to make sure i treasure it. 

so where's the but?  it's on the expenses.  i was talking to my bestfriend about weddings, and she reminded me it's really expensive to have a wedding.  which is so true.  venue, catering, and all the tiny details require money.  in the Philippines, a good video/photography package is about $1000.  why spend your money on a wedding when you can start a small business with that amount?  why spend that much for just one day of your wedding when you have a lifetime of marriage ahead of you?  the wedding ceremony is not an assurance that your life together will be happy.  why invest too much on it?

i want to keep my surname even if i get married.  why do i need to change it?  i was born with that name and i don't think marriage should make me change it.  i don't think it's an indication of my love or respect for my (future) husband.  another reason is that i have my father's surname, and i am an only daughter.  that means nobody else will keep his surname.  and he's an only son, so there's no Sandoval in his family anymore.  i really want to keep it.  and i have found a partner who's encouraging me to.  :)

but i'm not saying that carrying the husband's last name is not a good idea.  i just belive that marriage is not measured by carrying a common last name alone.  it doesn't make you less of a wife if you don't carry your husband's last name.

the only thought that's stopping me from making my mind on this is that if i'll have children, i want them to carry my husband's last name.  or is it even a choice?  i think it's automatic (common law).  then, my children and my husband will have that last name, then mine will be different.   hmmm... i'm not sure about taht.  i would like to have the same last name as my family. 

so then, i'm having second thoughts.

in the past 20+ years, i've lived in 3 places and visited a couple of Philippine provinces and a handful of countries.  they say Filipinos are everywhere, all countries around the world, from A to Z.  more and more friends and relatives are moving overseas.