Merry Christmas!

Hope you are enjoying the holidays with your loved ones! ^^

083. Minimalism

I've been reading a lot of articles/posts about minimalism. My favorite site is Becoming Minimalist.

I live in a house with 3 bedrooms and 3 t&b. I look around and I feel suffocated by the amount of things I own.

Starting today, I will embark on a quest to de-clutter my house. I will follow this principle: Keep only the things that you love and need.

It will be a long journey. I don't think it can be done within a few months since I frequently travel for work.

 Minimalism is not only about de-cluttering one's house. But it's a start. :)

082. In love with paper planners

Since my last post about purchasing a Raspberry Saffiano, I got more in love with paper planners. There are lots of facebook groups and blogs that are dedicated to planning so it was easier for me to feed this planner love. :)

To-date, I have
1 A5 Kikki K Lilac planner - used as home and health planner
1 Personal Raspberry Saffiano - used as my budget and finance planner
1 Personal Purple Malden - used as my personal and work planner
1 Pocket Raspberry Zipped Pennybridge - used as wallet
1 Pocket Purple Malden - not used, since it's in NY. :)
1 Hobonichi Techo cousin - used as my journal

Trying not to purchase anymore but I am thinking of using a personal domino as my calendar archive. Let's see, I'm trying a no-Spend April so might buy it in May, haha :)

081. Slow Down now

Came across this story while I was browsing thru my favorite productivity sites -

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn’t say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, “Do you have a fixed parking space? I’ve noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot.” To which he replied, “Since we’re here early we’ll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don’t you think? Imagine my face.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of “hurry” and “craziness” generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of “having in quantity” (life status) versus “having with quality”, “life quality” or the “quality of being”. French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US’s attention, pupils of the fast and the “do it now!”.

This no-rush attitude doesn’t represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the “now”, present and concrete, versus the “global”, undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans’ essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It’s time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.

Note to self: Slow Down Now!

I love this site International Institution of Not Doing Much.

080. First Filofax

I've fallen into a rabbit hole of all things filofax.

For the past few years, I've been using my Starbucks planner to somehow organize my life, haha.
It's effective but I want the customization that filofaxes can offer.

So, I ordered my very first filofax personal organizer in Purple (of course!) Saffiano leather. It arrived in our house in.. New York... lol. My sister will ship it today so hopefully, I can receive it next week.

So excited!!! ^^

079. Rant: smart(doesn't)care

Nov 2013
I was in Japan and I used smart's unlimited data roaming service using their partner's network.

Dec 2013
I received my November bill and was surprised to see Php 16,000 charged to my account for roaming charges.. I was only expecting around Php 2000 since I stayed for just 4 days. I raised a billing dispute with them via their customer service. They said they will need to email their partner network to get the detail of the charges.

Jan 2013-Nov 2014
I frequently called up their unreliable customer service to follow up on my issue since I don't like seeing that Php 16,000 in my billing statement every month. Usual response: We'll follow up, Ma'am.

Nov 2014
I received a call from them and they are demanding that I pay my outstanding balance. Imagine my confusion which turned into anger. You demand that I pay considering  I raised a dispute??? They can't even produce support to claim that I used the Php 16,000.

Icing to cake: After the call, they immediately disconnected my line. Great. /rolling in sarcasm
More icing to the cake: they gave out the details to me via the call without verifying that they are really talking to the account holder. Nice.

Nov 8, 2014
I went to the smart store in SM Aura and asked to permanently disconnect my line. Why would I stick to a network that do that to me?
The CSR has the audacity to ask me the reason why I am disconnecting my line. I literally laughed out loud and said to him, "After hearing my experience, you are still asking me that? Please write terrible customer service as the reason." (Checking the document, he did not write it. See how great they are?)

I might be Php 16,000 short today but definitely good riddance, smart.

I know that there is a reason why I still stick with Globe for 14 years.

I just put subscribing to smart a moment of weakness and put the whole experience under 'lessons learned'. Never again, smart. Never again.

078. Revisiting

2.5 years since my last post. Some of those I follow are still active in the blogging world! That's good to see! ^^

077. so true~

076. New post after a year

Wow. Been a long time since I've been here. Nothing much happened in the last year or so.

I started taking good care of my skin though. Been trying out Korean skin care products a week ago so let's see if there's any effect. I wish to be pretty someday. Haha.

Been into JYJ for the past year, no actually for the past 8+ years. lol. Got to see them in Seoul, Thailand, Taiwan, Beijing, New Jersey, San Jose, LA, Tokyo, Ibaraki last year for their worldwide concert tour~ Hoping I'll get to see them in Chile and Peru this March! ^^

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing okay. I miss y'all!

075. Guangzhou

view from my hotel room

arrived in Guangzhou this afternoon. will stay for 3 weeks for work. can I survive?

074. Bleh

I feel so alone right now.

073. Nails~

New color on my nails.

Yes, it's purple. Biased is biased.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

072. Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Let's make 2011 an awesome year! :)

071. Flight to Costa Rica

Delta has wi-fi onboard some of their aircrafts now. That's why I'm able to write this post.

Halfway through my trip to San Jose, the pilot announced that we are going back to Atlanta due to a mechanical error.

People around me was like whyyyy?!!! What's the problem?!! Oh em geeee!!!

Me?

I'm.... tweeting and FBing people. The stewardess asked me if I was in a state of shock since I don't have any reaction. I was like no, I'm calm enough coz the pilot said we can still turn around and not ... crash.

People were like eh is she for realzzz??

Morbid as it may sound, I am not afraid of dying. It's like if it's my time then it is my time. I don't have any qualms of having unfinished business.

Prolly coz I lost too many people since last year, the most painful of which is the death of my dad.

Thano goodness for wifi onboard. I can die in style coz I was able to tweet and semd msgs to my loved ones. Hahaha :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Plane

070. UK

I always wondered if UK, England, and Great Britain are one and the same. Good ol wiki provided the answer. :)

UK - consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
Great Britain - consists of England, Scotland, and Wales
England - largest country of UK

Uhmm, as usual, pointless na naman. Hahaha.

During my off-days, aside from pub crawling, I went to several castles -- Alnwick castle and Edinburgh castle are the most prominent. Alnwick is where they shot the Harry Potter films. Edinburgh is in Scotland and one of the oldest castles.

Here are some pics from my trip -

I wasn't able to explore some of the rooms in Alnwick coz the Duke and his family were there so some rooms were off limits and picture taking inside the castle is limited.

I had fun exploring the grounds though. I felt like a princess. Hinahanap ko nga ang tiara ko eh. Feelingera lang. Haha! :D

069. Brain poop

How can one say that he/she is attractive?
I see/hear a lot of people telling others how attractive they are. Sometimes I agree... Sometimes it makes me think...

Is that self-confidence speaking? or should I remind myself that beauty is relative?

On a personal note, I always think of myself as normal-looking -- someone you can meet on the street and forget about after a few seconds.

068. Lamppie post

I've tweeted last night that lamp posts are my bffs when I am in the UK. I almost got blown by the wind on my way back to the hotel last night. But lamppie saved me so I am dedicating this post to IT. *LOL*

Taken on my way to work this morning. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

067. Updatesss

A lot has happened since my last entry. in bullet points coz I'm lazy like that.

• Costa Rican crushie came to Manila. He's no longer my crush by the way. Arggh.
• Went on vacation with MkSurf8, RKGreg, and their friends for 10 days.
• Took my mom to NY for a well-deserved break
• Flew to Amsterdam the day after. Met my friend and partied. There are things I saw which made me o_O but it was all good.
• Flying to UK now for business meetings.

 Schipol is one of my fave airports. It's the central hub in Europe but it is organized so I love it.

I also love KLM. Ang guapo nun FA na na-assign samin. Hehehe. :D

It's different pa rin if you're travelling alone wala akong pictures bwiset pero it is the time to reflect on things.

066. Random cheesy moment

Had a chat with Geeky bear yesterday over YM. We were talking about my crush and then he asked --


Geeky bear: Nasaan na ba si *crush* ngayon?

Ruby: Eto, andito parin sa puso ko.

Na-speechless at nabilaukan si Geeky bear sa sagot ko. Hahaha!

--> geeky bear

065. Birthday post

My first name is Diana. Ruby is just my 2nd name and I don't really use it offline. I was named Diana coz I was born when Prince Charles married Princess Diana. Ruby coz it's my birthstone.

Wala lang. Wala ako maisip na intro. Hehe. :D

I usually have a week long celebration mainly because I have different sets of friends -- high school, college, F4 fandom, Kpop fandom, Jpop fandom, and the newly added beki friends.

But this year, I didn't find it appropriate to have a party coz of my dad's death. I still cry everytime I go to sleep. I miss my dad so much. Daddy's girl eh.

Anyways, I can't turn down naman invites to go out coz that will be rude. I feel blessed that I have friends who never forget my birthday. :D

One of the best things that happened is that I got a call from R after 5 years of not speaking. I want to say I'm not bitter anymore. Hehe. So now, perfect na ang track record ko with the ex-es. lahat sila friends ko na! hahaha! Ang rationale lang is: why burn bridges with someone, who in one point of your life, became your most important one?! :D

Ang nakakatawa they were my "dates" for the weekend! Breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner. Naman! Paano ako magkakaroon ng bagong bf niyan if sila pa din ang kasama ko. Hehe. Oks lang. Love spending time with them. :)

Overall, it was a good weekend except that MGG is leaving for SF na.

I definitely will have a celebration next year. Aba, that's the big 3-0. Dapat i-celebrate! :D