Shainne Hostalero

May 31 - June 1, 2014; Sabang Beach, Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines June 7 - 8, 2013; White Beach, Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines I am somehow a Puerto Galera kind of girl, even those time that it wasn't that too mainstream yet. Exploring the beach life, getting sunkissed tan skin and salty hair are the things I love whenever I set foot on the beach. Puerto Galera, is by far, the nearest white beach and accessible beach I can go to whenever I feel like it or whenever I feel like I needed some place to cool my mind.  This 2014 (and 2012 and 2013), I went to a series of heartbreaks. Every year it seems to have something achy though I am still thankful. Not everytime is a heartbreak to endure, there are still times that I feel I'm on a cloud 9, happiness that are bound to last forever or something to that effect if there's really none.  I am not afraid to travel alone. I love it, actually. It makes me know myself more. My mistakes, weaknesses, and s

April 16 - 19, 2014; Banaue - Sagada - Benguet Now that the year is soon to be over, I finally found time to blog about my 2014 adventures. I know that these might not be glamorous like the others but these adventures made me see myself and how life should be despite of the challenges, sadness and all negativity. Amen! Banaue - Sagada -Benguet tour could be one of the most unforgettable trip I had in my entire life. I spent it with awesome friends and of course my bestfriend included. This trip was meant to be enjoyed and somehow forget - nature is indeed the best answer and a remedy to cure a broken heart! Hahaha! It made me realized that there was more to life than visions of how things you want them to be. Because somehow, what we want is not always what we need. You just have to take it all in! We left Quezon City around 6:00 or 7:00PM then on with the road. The travel lasted for 16 hours, stops included. Then the next day, we dropped by in Banaue to see the Rice Terrac

It's ON! The All-New MSI GS70 Stealth Has It!  The MSI GS70 Stealth Whoa! is the first thing I thought of and came out from my mouth when I first saw the MSI GS70 Stealth. I could not believe that this big-screen laptop can be this amazing! Typing these words using the MSI GS70 Stealth just makes the entire usage experience awesome. Gaming, internet surfing and working are all in one place. The Specifications The MSI GS70 Stealth carry the latest operating system of Windows - the Windows 8.1. It has the latest 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor that boosts up its speed; it offers an enthusiast level NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 765M graphic card with GDDR discrete graphics card that provides great performance and ultra image quality. MSI GS70 Stealth may be 17" big but it is the thinnest and lightest 17" gaming notebook the market has to offer today. An additional of Super RAID with 2 SSD RAID0 gives you over 900MB/s reading speed and has a dual fan t

People often think that their happiness depends on others - it can add to what happiness is really like but always remember that happiness lies within you, you alone. In this life, we work so hard to fit in, we go with the norms, the new trends and to what other people think is right; that even if we don't like it at times, we still do it because we are after everyone's admiration and acceptance. Finding happiness isn't a chore; it's a commitment, a decision, a mindset and a destination. Time may lead us to a fail measure sometimes but it's a part of it. We can't change any situation because we can't control everything but what we can do is to change our attitude towards it. Things hurt us sometimes, give us the feeling of numbness and scrape our hearts out - it sucks but that's how we learn. Sometimes, the universe gives us challenges or trials that are so hard, we can't even bear; by the time we surpass it, we won't be able to forget the less

The Good Read:                  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (c) Shainne Hostalero This book was one of the many books I have read before. On this renovated blog of mine, I have decided to share the books and articles that made sense to me, moved me or caught me in between of this mad life. It's pretty much amazing how gloomy things and days can turn so vibrant when reading a book. It's mesmerizing. I felt like I have different worlds aside from the one I was into. I remember buying this book in Fully Booked when I was waiting for a friend. I bought it along side with Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood which I have yet to share - a power-enriched book too like a nutritious food, only it touches deeper than internal, if you know what I mean. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is about Denny Swift, a former race car driver turned Customer Service Representative, his dog, Enzo and his whole family and career matters. Very timely, we all revolv

The Good Read:                        The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell A gloomy Sunday approached some good read. While I was searching for things to read, I came across this one chapter of The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, by which, it discussed Appearance and Reality as one of the distinctions that cause most trouble in Philosophy. According to Bertrand Russell (which I thought of and agreed upon as well), "As soon as we try to be more precise, our troubles begin." There was a huge point there and we all can see it, it was obvious. Most of the time, we react based on what we see and what we think we believed in. And I guess, there is an enormous influence of the mind if and when we are going to believe something. Sometimes, even we see and we feel that those things are true and certain, we try to cross the point that there is still something strange about it; and we make ourselves believe that the truth is not the truth but a lie or a mis

Amidst of all the craziness, I want to take the day to ponder on ways how I could express gratitude. The lucky I get, the blessed I will be and everything else, whether good or bad is just enough reason for me to be grateful. You are the fire giving me heat, the water that keeps me fresh and the best poem among the best ones I have inside my head. My heart is filled with such happiness I couldn't describe. A happiness that I can't even explain to anybody. Perhaps, it's true; that you wouldn't be able to describe such feeling because it should be felt. I take it all in. Of all the craziness in this damn universe and along the things that gives pain to our asses, you are my favorite pain in the ass (and I hope I am your favorite as well). What I have with you can't be bought by a billion dollars and that's for sure. Loving you is like having a diarrhea, I just can't hold it in! Hahaha! You are my favorite song on a rainy day. You are my favorite weather

When you have found and lost something, have repeated that cycle for several times and finally stick to the 'found,' you definitely want to cut all modes and reasons why the universe should not need to proceed to turning it upside down again. You will do all sort of things to blunder why you are deserving for that single 'thing' or 'person' you can be grateful for the rest of your life. And you might say the battle still continues or the battle is yet to begin again. But you know that it's not a battle, it's not a war, and you can't even identify it entirely, what it really is puzzles you. None of those words you know might be suitable for the gesture.  You'd like to think that there's really something wrong with you, still. You will blame yourself again and again and you will lose your self-worth one more freakin' time. You don't want to, of course. You can't help but think, that one day you'll wake up and the univers

Years ago, I met a guy. What we had, what we have and going to have, I know for sure, is and will be amazing no matter what the weather and rough the road is and will be. That I fell in love with him is not a myth. My love for him is an elemental part of a certain space. And I was very surprised to discover that I have such capacity to love someone that way. He is the one I would like to give the last piece of everything I have, even the last fry. He better damn refuse when it comes to that last fry, though. I write this because I want to let him know how much I value him and I'm hoping he won't be annoyed. I promise to be kind, always. That being kind means, in this context, is that I promise not to be annoying. I can't find the words to tell him that he is worth far more than any thing bought somewhere. And he is worthy of my every second, minute and hour, even at the baddest state of the sphere. He is worthy of every milli ampere my universe battery has. He is on

Thanks to my good friend for this. I say thank you for your kind words! You made me feel so good! *** I saw Shainne the first time in a state university - she wasn't a student there, she was just sitting there (according to her). She indeed wore just shirt, pants and sneakers, her hair on a pony tail, a big shoulder bag and that was just it. But she looked so different, she looked like she should be somewhere else - partying or drinking, maybe. Shainne, I thought, belong to the maarte and sosyal  ones. After that encounter, she showed me the opposite of what I have thought of her.  She is very simple and the one thing I wasn't wrong about my impression of her is, she has class. When you look at her, you will know she's smart. Shainne is the kind of woman you want to be with, you will crave to be with and you will be happy to be with.  She might be quiet at some point but when you get to know her you would know she is animated. She can make fun of anything unde

We are embraced by the will of the motherland to free us from anyone who claimed before us. We are nurtured and equipped by our own spirits, full of nationalism and the fervor to fight. We are colonized, we are in mixed of cultures and religions. We are the country that was mold by the power of its own people to be united as one. Today, as we celebrate our independence, questions might be bugging us... are we really free? It has been declared, it was written in the history, but are we really free ? Or are we our own prisoners? We are free from other nations but are we free from ourselves? Do we make our own detainees? Mournful to think about but it's true. Observe we must. The outtakes of the government, the despairing circumstance of graft and corruption, and the various occurrences this Republic underwent that didn't serve its people. We are declared free and independent yet we suffocate ourselves by our own agendas that wouldn't serve us at all. Predicaments of

I was then so young, about seven or eight and I still can remember how the rivalry works or perhaps if not the rivalry, a certain conflict that every neighbor goes through. Back then, I was not really paying attention and I did not know where and how it all started. I have never heard his voice, or maybe just once, when he was trying to shoo me away from their backyard. I never had a conversation with him, never. One day, I saw people outside of their home, doors and windows were all open and there were lights everywhere. I saw that it was a wake, someone died. The coffin was inside their home with flowers and sash, Mang  Ben, as we all call him already bid his goodbye.  I just have few encounters with Mang  Ben - when I was a kid, a college student, and the last would be when I was already working. I just heard he was hit by a stroke, maybe two or three years ago but he recovered. Sometimes, I saw him walking around the neighborhood wearing his blue or green slippers; his one

Many of us are still hoping that this catastrophic saga will end; but we just can't seem to be convinced that it will be over soon. We are hooked; the people involved in this case felt like celebrities - having the public attention, concerning about the ratings and faces on the frontpage of every newspaper, feeling like stars and surely is, the apple of everyone's eyes. Well, in fact, this is true to life and not some kind of fiction. While we can't get our money back, we keep on spending more. Spending more for their health care, security services, hearings/trials, everything that they need and yet we can't get the truth. Shame that these politicians are on their positions doing nothing but spending the country's money for their own good, yet they are given consideration on everything. They bought properties - house and lot, vehicles, and other personal stuff while many of us Filipinos are lying on the streets, still recovering from the typhoon that hit us, luc

In the middle of a work-day someone will try to put up a conversation that goes: Friend: How's adulthood treating you so far? Me: Didn't you get the memo? Adulthood is horrible. F: But you are one and you know a lot about it and about stuff, in general. M: Yes, you're right. I know, a little... but do you know that I wish I didn't know the things I know now? F: And why? M: Because it sucks. When you know a lot of things, you also know that what you know isn't enough or you know that you actually know nothing.

Funny how a writer cannot write on her own blog and update it. I'm guilty. My current work is a combination of marketing and journalism - well, not that kind of journalism you have in mind but a closer to that. I can write many inspirational/motivational and stating-facts articles in a day and can't update my personal blog because, *ehem* I'm dedicated. Yes naman ! I went to Sagada, Mount Province last holy week and that's my next post would be. I was thinking if ever the events and the turn-out of everything would be fresh when I blog about it later than expected; but I thought, yes, of course. Those kind of experience would be fresh always in my head and wouldn't be forgotten except if I'll have an amnesia, which I think I can regain back once my memory is off-the-charts again. So many travel plans this year! Hoping to push through!! You know what they say, "Travel not to escape life but not life to escape you."

"When you write articles for a living, you are giving the readers a piece of your head or yeah, perhaps a piece of you, the whole you. And I guess, somehow, it reflects you, define you and open you up to what the universe is like." As we all know after college we should and must start working - that's the norm. You don't waste time having too much vacation or being a bum because neither you want to waste what you have studied in a college or university for how many years. So, you start looking, you start planning and you start to picture out what you want to become for the next years to come.  Unusual things will come along the way, and like everything and everyone else, it goes to - you not knowing or you totally aware of what's really going on. You will learn the hard way, that's the promise of our lives but you must not despair my dear, for it will be worth it and you will be stronger, smarter and braver than you think. I worked for three (3) di

To the best Lola in the world, happy birthday! I'm happy to have started my life with you and if the Lord permit, to end it with you also. I know I haven't thanked you enough, you and Papa for everything you've given me ever since I was able to stand up on my own, literally. I might stay home not talking or maybe you're having this impression of me that I'm not listening but I tell you, Ma, I know every little thing about your stories. Thank you, Ma. Thank you for being there when my world seems like it's falling apart. Thank you for telling me that everything's going to be alright even though, sometimes, we know that it's not going to be at all but yeah, thanks. Thank you, Ma for making each day wonderful. For making me feel like I'm not alone. For everything you've done. For the unconditional love you and Papa showered me. No words can express how much I love the both of you. Even my actions aren't enough to elaborate how much I love

There are so many surprises about life that will leave your jaw dropped. Those things you weren't even expecting to happen and those things you really wished to happen that actually happened more than you expect it to be. I have few questions about life, why did it treat me like that and how I'm going to survive. Life, in general, doesn't get easier, you just get stronger. It isn't fair but how you view things will make it so much different. Sometimes we ask for more than we should get and we get less of what we truly deserve. And it's just that. No matter how we feel inferior, no matter how we feel less of a person, it won't change the fact that life is really like that, it will change how we truly view things in life. I've been around with people. Different classes, different characteristics, different outlook in life but at the end of the day as I was assessing everything, it came to me that we all want a single thing or a single moment in life, the

This weekend, I want to open up a Project Happiness that will run here on my blog for the whole 2014. I started blogging way way before, I tried different platforms and it all became an outlet for me to share my happiness, sorrows, other related emotions and activities online - even anything under the sun... from politics to mostly personal. I'm happy with the simple things I have now so I just to share it via this platform. I have been busy about work and life in general after I graduated and I didn't have too much time to write, take a lot of sensible photos and travel. This year I want to do all of those, starting little by little then make it big. Project Happiness: Movies I have yet to see (or seen) this year Travels Workout People Books Nature And everything else in between. First entry for my Project Happiness would be my week program to be in shape, be healthy and gain weight - be sexy! Hahaha! Yesterday, I went to the grocery to buy food for the entire

Today, I went to all the places we usually go to. I wanted to feel what it's like to walk there alone, like really. I wanted to see how I am, how I can carry things and how can I eventually go on. I absorbed everything. I felt it all once again but surprisingly, those I felt weren't heavy. I didn't feel I lost something - perhaps I have accepted it and understood it; no pushing, no anything, just acceptance and understanding. I sat there, that certain place I used to be where exactly when I was waiting for you to arrive. I sat there, reminisce and I didn't feel heavy - my chest wasn't shrinking anymore as much as it used to, as much as it supposed to be then. I sat there with all the dry leaves, dry area, leaves falling down, and I felt fine because perhaps I have accepted it and I don't want to ignore the acceptance. I stayed there because that's how I do it, stay. I told myself that: before, I used to wait here, sat here, excited to receive a call or

I thank the Lord above for a great weekend! Weekend well-spent as they say. Indeed, mine is one! I spent the day with special people who are actually, day by day, bit by bit, mean something to me - awesome! I therefore realize that this simple life that I have or we have can be incredible and extraordinary if we know how to enjoy it and be content to whatever we have. Life might be tough most of the time but it surely gives us some time to breathe and unwind for a while. Nothing could ever beat a simple yet happy disposition. How lovely. :)

In a world where emotions sometimes overrule our real identities, it's hard to flex, bend then remember. Sometimes, what we decide on during those times that we were angry become our regrets; if not regrets, our grievances in the long run. People are all responsible of what they feel and how they feel it at the very first place. It takes an open mind to gather all realization and actualization. It takes one bite of reality for this - for us to accept that we have made a mistake, for us to let go of our pride and apologize for what we have said and done. In this world that we are living in where politics has its own way of busting the whole republic, safe to say that its not fully just law - how we abide or how we violate but there are emotions that are actually involved. It will just take a good and dedicated public servant to use it for what is right and what is indeed true. Anger depicts hate and it is indeed a strong colloquy. Money, fame and temptations are the roots of a

Sometimes, I find myself sleepy or perhaps not sleepy but escaping the world doing my own creative stuff or just simply relaxing. My work requires me to generate ideas, conceptualize, execute and be totally ingenious. FUN, challenging and motivating. Awesome, indeed. I'm not a morning person and I always believe I can be categorized otherwise. But I don't know if I am an evening bird, too. When you see life moving while you're just standing where you are, you will be amazed on how it can move so fast. In a blink, it will all be different. To cope with the fast-paced life we have, we don't need to just stand there, watch the game and cheer or cry if it becomes awful. We need to dance with the music even if we really don't know how to dance or even if we really don't want to dance, if I may just add. We need to be awake most of the time and we need to be on our proper state of minds because if we can't, this life will leave us, it will turn our nows to n

U2's tribute to Nelson Mandela. Thank you for what you have done for humanity. You are the only one yet this world needs more people like you. Ordinary Love by U2 video from YouTube We can't feel any further if We can't feel ordinary love We cannot reach any higher We can't deal with ordinary love

2014 is the year we believed... the year of changes - well, always every turn. I guess, the reason behind this is the fact that we are still hoping that something is going to change. For the better. 2013 was full of disarray yet we still managed to get through. Every single Filipino is aware of what happened at the high-top offices or sectors of the country - corruption. Janet Napoles, the alleged mastermind pissed us off, turn our butts and head around for she did not confess anything and from there we do not know if she ever will.  There are so many things that this vulnerable country cannot contain anymore. Instead of solving, we are all looking on the side of "who's to blame" for this government mobocracy. One thing is for sure, we are all going to be saddened by the truth; and by not knowing it at all, I guess.  They say Janet Napoles can save us by singing her heart out to name all the politicians that are into this alleged Pork-Barrel Scam - Janet Napol

New year, new dreams, new challenges and as the cliche goes... new life. New hope for the whole country as well. This is sign that we have another year to conquer the thing we call life, third-world it may seem but nonetheless, positive, vibrant and hopeful. Norms are changing, another transition is finally taking its place and perhaps a brand new way will be constructed. Everyone aims to be better if not the best, hoping that each thing will come in our favor and fortune will take its place next. This generation would be the courage of our tomorrows but I might have to take a step back and assess how it will go or if we are really sure about this. When I was a kid, I fascinated about cash registers, toy doctor kits, chalks and blackboards and class records. The oldies would then asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up - enthusiastically I answered: to be a cashier (cash registers are cute, right?), a doctor or a teacher. Later on, I wanted to be a news reporter, a businesswoma