At The Moment

It has been awhile since I last posted here. I just came from a two-week layover. I am currently suffering from Aerotitis. (Take it from a frequent flyer, people. Never ride an airplane with a cold. It’s murder.) I could not breathe from my nose and I could not hear 70% of what’s happening around me. Besides that, it felt like my face is being drilled by a dozen screwdrivers.

So now that I am back home and away from single digit degree Celsius weather and from a scarcity of meds, I can now finally treat myself. Hurrah!

First of all, I deeply apologize to my Blogmas peeps for not being able to contribute to the challenge. Two, I am also sorry for my prolonged absence. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track soon.

Fingers crossed.. Achoo!
Excuse me.

Blogtober Challenge 31: Passing It On

Welcome to the LAST post of the Blogtober Challenge!!!!!

Finally, whoo. That was the most exhilirating month ever!
May I celebrate now? Yeah? I can? Realy!? YAY!
*Party poppers burst*
* Fireworks blaze*
*Flash mob dances*
*A feast is served*

So, yeah, just a small celebration.

For my final Blogtober post, I want to share the Blogtober legacy. The last challenge is that I give some blog post ideas. Let me do some tweaking.

I will share with you a new monthly challenge that you can try yourself.

I call it the Slambook Challenge.

Here is how it goes.
You know those little answer books that we used to force our friends to fill up? It contains details of their likes, dislikes, beliefs and a message to the owner of the book at the end. In the Philippines, we call it a slambook or an autograph book.

The point of the Slambook Challenge is that a slambook question will be posted. Based on the question, the challenger will post a minimum of 500-word entry for that day. There is an option for a daily challenge for a month. There is an option for a yearlong challenge wherein there will be 12 challenges per month and four posts must be done for that specific challenge month.

For example, the question is “What is your favorite color?” Now, based on that question, you have to post a 500-word entry. The challenge is to think out of the box because how can you say that blue is your favorite color in a minimum of 500 words?
If you are a lifestyle blogger, then you can expand the post by writing about the psychology of color and its relevance to a person’s mood.
If you are a fashion blogger, then you can post your fashion items in a specific color or the trendy colors for the season.
If you are a cooking blogger, then you can post recipes using oranges or a specific color group.
If you are a mom blogger then maybe you can post about the color swashes that you use on your kids annd how they react to them.
If you are a review blogger then you can post a review for a title with a color in it (Orange Is The New Black, The Colour Purple, Yellow, R.E.D)
If you are a health blog then you can post the significance of color in different medical situations.

These are merely suggestions on how you can fulfill that 500-word entry. Of course, if you can explain your favorite color in 500 words then  that works too.

The 31 Slambook Monthly Challenge Questions

1. What is your name?
2. How old are you?
3. What is your gender?
4. When is your birthday?
5. Where do you live?
6. How many siblings do you have?
7. How did we meet?
8. Who are your friends?
9. What is your favourite color?
10. What is your favourite food/drink?
11. What is your favourite movie?
12. What is your favourite song/singer?
13. What is your favourite book?
14. What is your favourite quote?
15. What is your favourite school subject?
16. What is your favourite fashion item?
17. What is your favourite holiday?
18. Who is your favourite celebrity?
19. What are your hobbies?
20. What are your interests?
21. What are your fears?
22. Share a memorable experience.
23. Who is your crush?
24. Define love.
25. Define life.
26. What is your dream job?
27. What is your superpower?
28. What is your life-long dream?
29. If given all the opportunities, where do you want to go for a vacation/migration?
30. Are you happy?
31. Dedication

The 12 Yearlong Slambook Challenge Questions

1. What is your name?
2. When is your birthday?
3. Who are your friends?
4. What is your favourite color?
5. What is your favourite movie?
6. Who is your favourite celebrity?
7. What is your favourite school subject?
8. What are your fears?
9. Define love.
10. What is your life-long dream?
11. Are you happy?
12. Dedication.

That is it.

The Slambook Challenge

This is my last post for the Blogtober Challenge. This is me giving an opportunity for other bloggers to experience the same love, support, pride, frustration, stress, happiness, and fulfillment that I experienced while doing this challenge.

Thank you for supporting me. I invite you to try this challenge, or the one that I had just created, or just a challenge. Will you?

Reaching For The Star: The Liebster Award

The Liebster Award

Do you recall how heart-warming it is to receive positive feedback of your work? Well, if you are open-minded then you know how good it feels to receive any feedback at all either positive or negative.

With a month’s worth of blogging experience and two year’s worth of untutored writing experience, I feel like I am on Cloud Nine whenever someone reacts to my work. To think that I was happy enough… Then POOF! I was sent to Cloud Ten when I was nominated for the Liebster Award!

Blogtober Challenge 23: Big In 2.0.1.6.

I am a bit excited for this post. 23 days into the Blogtober Challenge and I have not still missed a single day! Congratulations to me!

Today, I am to discuss my blogging goals for next year.
Let’s do some numbers before I get down into details.

I aim for at least…

…300 WordPress followers
…1000 Twitter followers
…500 Instagram followers
…1 award recognition
…1 magazine feature
…1 completed daily project

Quite ambitious if I do say so myself.
The numbers are easy. Let me discuss the last item about the daily project.

So, Blogtober inspired me and pushed me to my writing and management limits. I have written things that I did not think that I could think of in a span of five hours or less.

I like pushing myself so I’m going overboard and starting a 365 daily project starting 1 January 2016.
It is like there are too many signs. While in the midst of all the Blogtober chaos, I bought this book called Recharge Your Design Batteries. It is a nice book. Go check it out.

Then the other day, I saw this creative journal called 365: A Daily Creative Journal: Make Something Everyday And Change Your Life! by Noah Scalin.

He sounded familiar and so I scanned the pages to find out that he was the mastermind behind the Skull-a-Day project which was featured in that creativity book that I bought. I was already inspired by him then to push on with Blogtober but to find a journal that he actually wrote… I bought it in an instant.

So yeah, I’m going to do a daily project for a year. If Mr. Scalin chose skulls then I choose planes.

Why? I love to fly. I love the wind. I love the freedom.

And because I have already published my intention to create this project then I have no choice but to push on with it unless I want to be a laughing stock.

Honestly, I need all the help and support that I could get.

And since I am all about goals today then I might as well stretch it. By 2017, I am to publish my own book.

Oh God, please support and pray for my sanity. Hahahaha

Blogtober Challenge 22: IG is for Insta-Gratification

Blogtober Challenge 20: The Evolution of My Workspace

I wish I have a desk. I wish I did. I used to have one. During my school days.

Once I stepped into the alumni batch, my parents thought it fit to disassemble and dismantle my desk.

My heart broke.

I was proud of it. I used to have those Re-Ment miniatures and cute little pencil holders. Then I used to have those colorful notepads and notebooks. I had assorted clear books and those Japanese DIY magazine on the top shelf of my desk.

When my school desk was destroyed, my things were brought outside and packed in garbage bags. I had to go out one night and do some scavenger hunting.

At least, I had one picture of it. Well, I tried looking for it. I can’t find it anywhere. Let me just sob in a corner for two minutes.

When I started to go into cabin crew training up to my first year of flying, I has shifted my amusement for my late great school desk to my bedroom headboard. It had Pop! Figures and photos of myself in large gold-leaf frames. I also had my notebooks and Harry Potter memorabilia. Then, I was also proud of my growing snowglobe collection.

My bedroom headboard during my post-school and pre-flying years

After my first year in flying, I transferred all my stuff to a glass cabinet. I only left my notebooks on my headboard resulting in my current ‘desk’.

My current ‘desk’

So yeah, its a mess.

The box contains assorted art supplies, too many and too much of an assortment to mention.

I miss my old desk. Although, the lack of desk taught me to work with what I have and to maximize my thoughts and ideas.

I guess it was all good in the end. It will still sound good to have a proper desk though.

Blogtober Challenge 19: How To Make Scrambled Eggs

I don’t know how to cook. But, I love breakfast food. I could eat breakfast all day. (Yeap, take down notes, boys)

I can cook breakfast food. That is because the recipes can be found behind the box of flour or whatever and as long as you make that then whatever you add to it is still acceptable. Breakfast food is very open to interpretation and adaptation.

So, for today, I am tasked by Blogtober to share my favorite recipe. This is the only one that I have mastered (only recently). Let me put on my imaginary chef’s hat and I will teach you how to make scrambled eggs.

SCRAMBLED EGGS, yes, you read right.

Oh but these are not just any kind of scrambled eggs. You can’t physically eat them. But, it will satisfy you nonetheless..

Blogtober Challenge 18: I Should Have Known

Forgive me for sounding redundant. The next challenge for Blogtober is that I share some things that I should have known five years ago.

I was 18 years old five years ago. Looking back, I realized that the girl from five years ago does not exist anymore.

I have learned and experienced so much during the course of five years that it evolved me into the person that I am today.

Those are things that if my 18-year-old knew and experienced during that time then she would be distraught beyond her mind.

So, no. As with the future, I have no  to foresee or in this case to undo my past. There is nothing that I would wish to inform my younger self.

There is a reason why and when things happen. I believe that whatever achievement or trial that we experience in whatever point of our life is timed at that moment for a reason.

Sure, I could easily tell my younger self all the preparations and solutions that she should take in the future. I could easily tell her the mistakes that I made and how she should avoid such.

But, I won’t.

I told you. I do not like to know what is about to happen. Where is the fun in that? That is like playing an RPG game while reading it’s complete guide and following it to the last letter. You may achieve happily ever after but the experience would not be as fulfilling as if you figured things out for yourself.

Call it spoiler-phobia if you will.

How about you? What are your thoughts on what to say to your younger self?

Blogtober Challenge 17: Empathy For The Newbie

What gives me the right to preach? What gives me the authority to say what must be done? What makes me accountable for all that I can advice?

Blogtober Challenge 17 is all about the tips that I could give to new bloggers. It sounds quite unreliable that I, a new blogger, will tell other new bloggers what to do to get better in their craft.

That is the purpose of Struggling To Be A Human Being. I am here to empathize. I know hard it is to start a new blog. I am not here to give tips. I would rather call them personal experiences of mine that works for me.

Blogtober Challenge 15: I Love This Blogger Because…

Halfway through the month and now I am panicking. I learned of the topics of the next few challenges and I am scared as I do not have an answer to most of them. Just like this one…

Who is a blogger that you admire?