What a great way to end the year, this entry is!

Three names you go by:
Lisa
Lay
Mona Lisa (eeek!)

Three screennames you have:
Ella Sonrie
Lisa_Jumpinfrack
My_Lisa

Three things you like about yourself:
I am a positive-thinker.
I am creative (I think).
I can learn things quickly.

Three things you dislike about yourself:
I am afraid of change.
I let insecurities get the best of me, sometimes.
I don’t like compliments. (Is that bad?)

Three parts of your heritage:
Filipino
Chinese
Spaniard

Three things that scare you:
A pack of rats crawling all over me.
Drowning.
Losing my freedom.

Three of your everyday essentials:
Moisturizer
Internet access
Toilet paper

Three things you are wearing right now:
Sweat pants
Tank top
Sweater

Three of your favorite bands/artists (at the moment):
Keith Urban
John Mayer
Five for Fighting

Three of your favorite songs at present:
You’re My Better Half (Keith Urban)
Daughters (John Mayer)
Dying (Five for Fighting)

Three things you want to do in the next 12 months:
Go to Spain.
Learn Spanish.
Learn to play the guitar.

Three things you want in a relationship (love is a given):
Respect
Humor
Space

Three physical things about the opposite sex (or same) that appeal to you:
Hair
Smile/Teeth
Wrist

Three things you just can't do:
Give directions.
Knit/Crochet without a pattern to guide me.
Pick colors for a website or a graphics project.

Three of your favorite hobbies:
Writing
Reading
Knitting/Crocheting

Three things you want to do really badly right now:
See Eduardo Noriega in El Lobo.
See Keith Urban in concert - up front.
Win the lottery.

Three careers you're considering:
Author
Entrepreneur
Head hunter

Three places you want to go on vacation:
Spain
Australia/New Zealand
Nova Scotia

Three things you want to do before you die:
Finish the book I’ve always wanted to write.
See all of Europe and America.
See all my nieces and nephews graduate from school and find their place in the world.

Three people who have to take this quiz now or die a slow death:
Myra
Myla
Julie

I was going through what I like to call my treasure chest the other night and found my old, old journals from way back. In the pages of one of them, towards the end of the book, I found these random quotes/poems I used to collect and list in a book under the heading “apple of the day”. I remember how I loved to collect them back then. Here’s a few that still makes me ponder:

“Quien bien te quiere te har`a llorar.” (Whoever really loves you will make you cry.) - Spanish Proverb

“But to see her was to love her, love but her, and love forever. Had we never loved so blindly, never met - or never parted - we had ne’er been brokenhearted.” - Robert Burns

“A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always helpful of romance and adventure.” - Charlie Chaplin

“But sometimes a woman’s love of being loved gets the better of her conscience.” - Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure”

“Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” - Carl Jung

“You have to believe in yourself, that’s the secret. Without it, you go down to defeat.” - Charlie Chaplin

“If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.” - Kahlil Gibran

“His thoughts were slow, his words were few and never formed to glisten but he was a joy to all his friends - you should have heard him listen.” - Unknown

“Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you have left open.” - John Barrymore

“As long as a secret is secure in your heart, you are its master and you can ride on it. As soon as you disclose it, it becomes your master and rides on you.” - Anonymous

“Life is but a stream, I go a fishing in.” - Henry David Thoreau

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying. And the same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying.” - Robert Harrick

“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower; hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” - William Blake

“Write it in your heart that everyday is the best day of the year.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.” - H. E. Fosdick

“Most of us spend 59 minutes an hour living in the past with regret for lost joys, or shame for things badly done - both utterly hopeless and weakening - or in a future wish we either long for or dread. The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle which is exactly what it is - a miracle and unrepeatable.” I.L. Miller

“Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.” - Millicent Fenwick

I can't believe I'm watching Jack Black and what seems to be a ridiculous movie called School of Rock. Everything from Jack Black seems ridiculous but I'm giving it a chance since there's nothing else to watch...

UPDATE: Saw Bridget Jones Diary: Edge of Reason. Read what I thought of it here.

This article refers to Eduardo Noriega's newest movie El Lobo (The Wolf). According to this article, "The Wolf opens on Friday in 175 cinemas in Spain and an international release of the film, which gets its title from Mikel Lejarza's codename, is planned for later this year." Did you read that? An international release of the film is planned for later this year. Oh, joy!!! Hope the release reaches our shore.

On a serious note, Scott Peterson was found guilty today of murdering his wife Lacy Peterson and their unborn child. Now I don't like the guy. I think he's the biggest liar who ever walked the face of the earth but was his lying evidence enough he killed his wife? Not to me. If there's one thing the guy is obviously guilty of it's that he had an affair with a chiropractic assistant and he is a congenital liar. Is he guilty of murder? I'm not convinced. The lack of physical evidence just doesn't convince me.

A few movies I'd like to see in theaters before the year ends:

Alfie - Can Jude Law be anymore gorgeous?

The Incredibles - Another winner from Pixar, I suppose. Seems interesting.

Briget Jones' Diary: Edge of Reason - The first Bridget Jones' Diary movie is one of my favorite movies to date so I am very much looking forward to this second and Colin Firth (Mark Darcy)! I must say though that the teaser trailer is turning me off a bit because the Hugh Grant character is back when in the book he doesn't have a whole lot of presence.

Mar adentro (The Sea Inside) - Two words: Alejandro Amenabar

El Lobo (Wolf) - I wish! This is Eduardo Noriega's recent release, now showing in Spain only. Wish I was there...

For the first, after a long time, my job is making me want to cry.

The only time this has ever happened to me was one month into the job, when an angry and difficult candidate questioned my recruitment process and threatened to take me in front of the Civil Service commission. When you’re new to the job and the process, complaints like that can be very intimidating and makes you question yourself and what you’ve done. I have since learned to defend my process and decisions and am confident in everything I do so that candidates – no matter how angry or how much more educated and experienced they are than I am – no longer intimidate me.

But today…today has just been so crazy and it’s not even 10 AM yet. I came in to a blinking phone (signaling lots of messages) and a cluttered email inbox on account that I was out of the office all day yesterday conducting a janitorial exam for 89 candidates vying for 1 vacancy. I get right into the email and after 3 messages I was ready to cry and go home. It wasn’t the email per se, but just the stress of the last couple of months that has finally caught up with me.

I feel like I’m drowning but can’t pinpoint why. Every corner in my office and every item on my desk is a nightmarish reminder that I have to do this and do that. I dread every time my phone rings and every time I open my online applicant tracking system because it can only be a new problem. Everyone in the office has been so helpful but some things I just can’t delegate and those are the ones that take the most time and cause the most anxiety. SCREAM! I hate feeling like this!

And to top it all, I am genuinely sad that John Kerry lost and we have to face four more of years of George W. Bush. Consider me one of those few folks who are contemplating moving to Canada now that he’s re-elected. The future looks bleak and it’s not helping my mood at all...

I wish I could pull a Harry Potter disappearing act for the entire month of November. There is so much stuff to do before Thanksgiving break that I just want to run away from. How did I manage to screw up my holidays by taking on so much more? Everytime I start thinking about all the new tests I have to create and administer, I get goose-bumps and near-panic attacks, it's ridiculous! Sigh...

Day One of the user conference I'm currently attending turned out to be a real snoozer! I had three cups of coffee - before lunch - and I still struggled to stay alert. Too much time was spent on irrelevant information, as far as I'm concerned. If the crew running the show surveyed us all after the first hour, they'd realize that we, the attendees, would rather we have an extended Q and A session or break-out into groups so that we can talk amongst ourselves how we do things and how each agency uses the system more efficiently.

Major snoozer, though I have to say that one of speakers look a lot like Michael Vartan's long-lost, distant cousin. Not as drop-dead gorgeous as Michael Vartan - definitely none of the chiseled jaws that define Agent Vaughn - but enough to get him labeled "easy on the eyes."

In the airplane this afternoon, on my way to Las Vegas, I read my horoscope from one of the in-flight magazines. It said something like this: remember to find down-time amidst these hectic days. You owe it to yourself.

Damn right, I am going to find some down-time! I'm in Las Vegas for a conference but come weekend, it's all play baby! Don't exactly know what I'll be doing since I don't gamble and I usually come to Vegas to watch Keith Urban or a few years back, the Backstreet Boys and now I don't have a show to watch. But I'm Las Vegas -- no one worries about what to do in Vegas so I'll just play it by ear. My sisters will have to treat me to a very good dinner though as my birthday gift. YEAH! Start thinking of a good restaurant...

By the way, Ted by United sucks! Aisles are tiny, seats are crappy and uncomfortable as hell! And they didn't have Cranberry-Apple juice which is my new favorite and the bag of mix-nuts they handed out had about 5 pieces of nuts. Honestly! Crappy!

The dreaded custodian recruitment is open again... Aghhh!!! I always get so many applications for this and there's so many follow-up phone calls I have to make because amazingly enough - or not - a lot of these candidates do not follow instructions. It's open one day and already I have 15 applications - 7 I had to call because information provided was incomplete. Aghhh!!!

I can't wait for Vancouver this weekend and Las Vegas next weekend. Though Las Vegas is going to be work for the first couple of days, it won't feel like it. I'm in Las Vegas, baby! No one works in Vegas, conference or no conference!

Have you noticed that in every training class or every conference or meeting there is always that one person in the group who tends to irritate the rest of us? Yeah, they're the ones who either really says stupid things or asks stupid questions or the ones who always like to ruffle their own feather in front of everyone else. It never fails, there's always one.

I attended a Grant Writing class a week ago and there was this one guy in class who is definitely on my list of people who should never be allowed to talk again. Every word that came out of his mouth was a compliment of how great he was, how high and mighty he was compared to us normal people and how I have a Master's degree here and a Doctorate's degree here. Yuck! He made me want to puke. Unfortunately for me and the rest, the class is meeting up for part two of the course this Wednesday. The rest of us have to sit through another 8 hours of his stupidity...