Things I'm thankful for

Happy thanksgiving! While it has been interesting and challenging year, there are so many things to be thankful for:

1. tall Café Lattes.


2. my Nike Sportsband


3. my beat up running shoes.


4. Manny Pacquiao for putting the Philippines in the map though the world now thinks all 97 million Pinoys are boxers.


5. Kaye Flores’ blog who gave me the idea of the “Something new every week” bit.


6. Efren Penaflorida, the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, who for one day had all major newspapers feature a headline that did not involve politics, natural disasters and Manny Pacquiao.


7. Bader Malabes who single-handedly transformed me from DLSU basketball fan to DLSU basketball analyst.


8. Sausage McMuffins and hash browns


9. my 2009 hideous Starbucks planner


10. my Logitech wireless mouse.


11. the relocation of our office from Makati to Mandaluyong. No more Makati rush hour traffic!


12. Hershey, my Chihuahua who listens to me whine all night and still thinks I’m a good guy.


13. my subleads – KC Caringal, Jeff Bandejas, Gerie Elman and Ester Fernandez who have managed to understand my orders no matter how incoherent I am on most days.


14. PLDT WeRoam which allows me to watch SportsCenter in traffic.


15. my unusual love for writing


16. my Nokia 5800 which gives me a decent camera phone, a radio and access to the Internet using my personal laptop.


17. Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, Wakefield, Bucholz, Ellsbury, Pedroia, Martinez, Ortiz, Papelbon for a good year.


18. weekends and holidays


19. my iPod Touch which not only provided me with music but also served as my photo portfolio, games and handy dandy notebook.


20. Dr. Gregory House who showed me that the world can coexist with an obnoxious, cocky, weird and limping team leader.


21. Photoshop


22. F.R.I.E.N.D.S. which reminded me that everything in life can be laughed at if you really want to.


23. Apocalypse: The Second World War, the special at National Geographic that made me appreciate world history a lot lot more.


24. Beef Yakiniku from Tokyo Tokyo


25. Carlos Mencia who gave me a different angle on how funny life is.


26. my Nikon DSLR


27. Plants vs Zombies which helped me forget about my troubles and showed me that you’ll be safe from zombies as long as you have a peashooter, sunflowers, garlic and some walnuts around.


28. Spencer Johnson who told me to move with the cheese.


29. My Nike Zoom Kobe 4 basketball shoes which I wore in all my games in the ABL. Yes, I was riding the bench most of the time, I got tired for standing still, I had more airballs than fouls and had more fouls than points… but at least I had cool new shoes.


30. The CIO Space Management team for letting me tag along in their team building.


31. Facebook which enabled me to reconnect with my friends despite a horrible work schedule.


32. Farmville which made me think how strawberries can grow in 2 hours while wheat takes 3 days.


33. Mafia Wars which taught me you can beat a whole group of people using Monkey Brain Stew and mashed potatoes.


34. Restaurant City… it was fun while it lasted.


35. Café World which taught me that you can get an existing concept, modify it a little and market it as your own while claiming all ownership of it.


36. Fishville which made my mom wonder why I spend 7 times a day feeding my virtual fish when my real fish at home is THIS close from evolving arms and legs so it can climb up and open the jar of fish food himself.


37. Dan Brown for showing me that there are 750 peso paperweights out there. Sorry for still not reading your book.


38. Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert


39. my car which despite nicks and scratches, a busted air filter, chipping paint and an oblong wheel never bailed out on me and never hit my wallet.


40. Ria for her dinner treats, Ben and Jerry’s in Singapore and the Portillo’s cake recipe.


41. my Diana Lomography camera for reminding me that I’m not a photo genius after all.


42. The hot air balloon festival.


43. the pesto panini sandwich from Joey Pepperoni.


44. Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street which makes me believe I was back at Borders in Chicago, one of my true happy places.


45. Bill Simmons


46. Digital Photographer magazines for giving me photography projects that I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) complete.


47. life who showed me that I miss 100% of shots I don’t take.


48. Jaye’s family who have welcomed me with open arms.


49. my family who have always been supportive despite all the practical jokes I played on them.


50. Jaye who has seen the darkest side of me but still thinks I’m more handsome than Piolo and John Lloyd combined, have more abs than Jacob Black, better in basketball than Lebron James, faster than Usain Bolt and more humble than the pope.