Excited Earth

Happy Friday :)
Friday, it's time for Blogging for Fun, and I am glad to be able to join my Blogging for Fun group this Friday. This Friday is about letter E, and of course, the first thing that came to my mind is "Elizabeth" :) However, I do not know what to talk about Elizabeth, so I thought of "Excited Earth". Why Excited Earth? For one, I am excited, since it is weekend again :).
 
Here are some of my excited Earth pictures:
 
1. Reflections of Fall
 

Bishop Creek Canyon, Eastern Sierra, CA

North Lake, Bishop, CA

Fishing

2. Reflections of the Night

San Diego @ night

and ending with another set of two E's, Excited Electrons :)

Birds in Flight

Have Happy Halloween weekeng everyone.

Shopping made easy

I enjoy shopping. I always say to friends and colleagues that it is one of the highlights of my weekend, shopping. From groceries to ladies and kids wear, bags to footwears, and almost anything in betweens. However, the hubby and the little one are both not keen on it. My man thought its a waste of time going around in circles. It's a shame because i actually love shopping with them. I thought to myself there must be a better solution to smart shopping. A place where i can save time, energy and money going around and comparing the price and quality of those stuff i needed and wanted. The good news is, yes, there is.

photo credit: Shopwiki

There is this amazing online site, Shopwiki, which can give you the varied prices, show you the quality of the product and could find you the rarest of item your heart desires. NO, that's not the best part yet. You know it doesn't matter which corner of the world you may be, Shopwiki, is at your service. Be it in the great outback of Australia, the historic and charming countries of UK, and the beautiful backdrop of Netherlands. it is expanding and growing to conquer the world. Not a bad conqueror, don't you agree?

photo credit: Shopwiki

Shop wise! You can plan your shopping armed with the knowledge that you have the best buy of the day. It saves you money - by comparing the best deal and price. It saves you energy - walking around for those stuff you needed. And the best part is, it saves you time - the precious commodity of life.

by Eng
 October 30, 2009

I am Dreaming of Sand

Father Crowley Point, Death Valley National Park

My mind is just blank and tired right now, and of all places, I have been missing and really aching to go back to the desert! Though we have lots of sand here from the beaches in San Diego, but I am missing the desert's sand!

I truly miss the time I am rolling and hiking in this desert full of sand!

to better understand my appreciation for the desert as much as the mountains and the oceans, you can visit my post here "The Desert Through My Eyes".

Anyway, have been everywhere today, I believe that's what happen when the mind is very tired! You just simply want to walk...walk...and walk....and enjoy the fullness of life in our natural world! Here's my weekend reality right now in San Diego, thankfully, though have been busy, but the outdoors have not taken a backseat at all.

Life by the Beach ( would you believe this is actually right next to the beach? )

My fish find at the beach :)

Some Wildflowers by the Beach

Up the Mountains

Colors @ The Mountains

The Hills and Valleys

Dominica, an island nation.

image credit:http://www.dominica.dm

Dominica: Explore! Hike! Dive! Relax! Dominica - land of beautiful valleys and lushful vegetation, of boiling lakes and tropical forest, of nature reserves and underwater landscape. A place that caters to everyone, any taste and lifestyles- from snorkeling to hiking, from exploring to canyoneering, from beauty rest to wellness - simply put, its a taste of heaven on earth!

image credit:http://www.dominica.dm

Dominica is known to have active volcanoes. It's largest boiling lake , 2nd in the world, is a testament to an active geothermal basin on earth. Some of these volcanic hot springs happens to be at the bottom of falls. Imagine enjoying a fresh cool water cascading down the falls and a warm sulfuric steam at its bottom , truly a nature's wonder. Experience Dominica's 365 rivers rushing to the sea, its National Parks, lush vegetation which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This place is a haven for the great outdoors enthusiasts and nature lovers. Dominica invites you to Explore! Hike! Discover! Experience canyoneering- the ultimate and exciting sport for those who seeks great adventure - to keep one occupied body and mind. This involves climbing, hiking, diving, snorkeling, swimming and rappelling to waterfalls - a sure way to give you a taste of Indiana Jones escapades without the bad guys! It is also well known to be the Whale Watching Capital of the Carribean - no extravagant statement intended. The place boast an outstanding 22 species of whale sited within its territorial waters. It can almost guarantee one a glimpse of this fantastic creatures in one's visit. If you prefer to give yourself a bit of a pampering, they do have spa's for beauty treatment and enjoy the relaxing comfort of massages to ease those stiffness and sores of everyday conundrum.

Come and visit Dominica, feel the beat of a carribean drums and dance to its music. It is the closest to what paradise can be!

Blogging For Fun Friday- B is for Butterfly

Okay, it is Saturday now, and I am one day late :) I know my Blogging for Fun family will understand why my post is a day late, and why I only thrive on weekends now :(

This week's theme is anything that starts with "B", and with so many "B" in my mind, starting with over 30 pictures of "bees, birds, butterflies and blossoms", i finally decided to just focus on butterflies so that your screen won't get pictures overload :)

From 30 pictures, I finally decided to just share these ten butterfly photos :) . I am copying Icy's style in giving captions to the photos in this post, though my captions are not as catchy and as witty the way she presents her wonderful photos, but I believe I tried hard enough :) Here goes, hope you will enjoy them!

1. Black Loves White

2. Look at Me, Please.....

 3. What Are You Looking At?

4. Can you please give me some privacy?

5. Eyes on Camera, please :)

6. Side Glance

7. I am working......

8. I am a Happy Brown!

9. I spread my wings!

10. Though I have been whipped by the wind, but I can still spread my wings and fly!

PS....I am glad to see several of my friends into photography now, Cher has her new Cher Sanz Photoblog, congratulations to you Cher! Also, Tes and Eng have been wonderfully sharing their photos, so proud of you dear friends. Truly, the gift of nature is all around us and is free, it is up to us if we take them.

Also, congratulations to Che for having also a new blog, Uncovering a Culture, which focuses on Filipino culture.  Thanks Che for showcasing our very own.

Brown Visits Pink

Brown visits Pink!

Brown Butterfly Visiting Pink Flower

As you may have observed, I can't update my blog as often anymore as I used to. Since I sort of shifted career ( not a 100% shift since I am still in teaching, but just at different level, from college to high school, and different subject, from Chemistry to Math) and had to manage between new responsibilities at work, and doing my own assignments for my teacher credentialing preparation classes, I had to choose which ones first. Of course, family, work and studies come first, relaxation comes next ( that is beach and hiking ) and blogging has taken a backseat.

However, as some of you may have known, I am a part of the small blogging group, The Salitype Society. As I have shared to you before in my post here, together with some of my friends, we worked together to come up with a blog, The Salitype Society, where our goal is to be able to send a child to school from our blogging earnings. Our blog has gone a long way and we are proud to say that we are very close now to realizing our dream of supporting a scholar from the Philippines. Like what Tes ( one of the members of The Salitype Society ) of The Craftista said, education is freedom, it is liberation from poverty! Unlike in US where there is a law on "No Child Left Behind", sadly, we are not yet at that level in our home country. There are still a lot of our young children not able to access education. It is our wish to empower some deprived kids and bring them to school.

And since this blog has been skipping a lot of earning opportunities, I decided to invite my friends at Salitype Society to be guest authors in this blog to write for some assignments that will help us generate more funds at Salitype. Whatever opportunity I can not write because I hardly have no time to write on weekdays, I will share to them. And Eng, one of the authors behind Salitype, started today to write for this blog. You can find her post about stem cell research here. Eng's favorite color is brown, my favorite color is pink, thus the title, "Brown Visits Pink".

Also, as most of you have known, another typhoon had hit our country, thankfully, it is not the same region that was heavily devastated by the last typhoon. Some of my Filipino blogging friends, like Cherie, Tes, Ebie and Cher, has dedicated several of their posts and also their time for the victims of the recent typhoon. I know there are a lot of areas in the Pacific devastated by natural calamities right now, and if you wish to help for the Philippines, you can visit the Philippine National Red Cross site, and for other countries, Cherie has the listings on how you may be able to help not only the Philippines but also the other countries that were recently devastated by natural calamities.

Again, I thank you for your time visiting my site, and I hope you won't be surprised if sometimes, you would see some posts here which are not written by me, but by some of my friends, who share my goal to give the gift of EDUCATION AND FREEDOM to the kids who need it most.

Each month is a promise

I am Eng. I am a woman. I am enjoying life day by day because i am free, i am loved, i am healthy. I look at the sun rising each morning and say to myself, another day has come, a new opportunity to live life to its fullest.

I am a mother. I enjoy what everyday brings knowing i can hear my daughter, Ysa, laughing at my silly jokes, watching her play, looking at her growing and glowing in each passing day.

I am a wife. It gives me comfort to feel my husband's warm embrace. His soothing words are my assurance when i am feeling down. His love, my strength and rock.

I am above all, human. I've seen so much death in my life, loss, sufferings. I know too well the pain of losing loved ones to cancer. I feel and i know. The pain lingers longer and deeper,but there is hope. The sun sets each day only to rise again the next morning, maybe even brighter than before.

There must be an answer to every question even if its " I don't know" after giving it your best shot. Breast cancer is one of the leading caused of death in woman population.The answer to breast cancer maybe lurks within us. Science is moving forward in finding the answer, if not the cure,yet. Leading reseachers at C'elle find a humane way of finding those elusive answers by harvesting the stem cell in the lining of the womb which is shed by monthly menstrual flow. There is after all, a monumental used for what is widely considered as unsanitary blood lost. The best deal of it all, which you will also find more information in C'elle Blog, once proven, is that these stem cell will benefit people genetically linked to you.

We can fight breast cancer one day at a time, one small step in a long search for an answer, each month is a promise.

Was It Hot?

In my previous post, a picture of the Wild Wild West, there were several questions if it was hot, and they can almost feel the hotness and dryness of the place.

To answer, here are some pictures that has "us" in the pictures, and probably you can find the answer if it was hot.

The Thumb, Monument Valley

( looks hot and dry, right?)

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Hmmmm, why do we all wear sweaters/ light jackets? And what is that white strip at the back of the butte? Let us take a closer look.

Monument Valley

And even closer

Snowcapped Mountain Surrounding Monument Valley

To answer the question, it was not hot when we were there, which was spring 2009, about mid April. It was not cold either, at least, it was not below freezing. The temperature was in the 40s- 50s ( below 10 degree Celsius). It can be below freezing here in the winter, yet hot in the summer. But being in the desert, it was very dry as we needed to apply lip moisturizer more often.

The best time to visit Monument Valley and other interesting places in the Grand Circle is actually fall and spring (winter can be too cold for some), but the peak visitation would you believe, is summer? This was our best trip so far in terms of weather, we did not have to turn on any air- conditioner nor heater. It was neither hot nor cold, just comfortable.

Dwarfed

Dwarfed by Redwood Trees