Free WiFi Spots in Manila (and Beyond)

Song for the Moment: Jump on Foot by Holiday for Strings

I am really such a nice person. I mean, I think I was built to be in service or something. Hahaha. J

I came across a thread on philmug that asked for a list of all known free WiFi spots in Manila and beyond. There were a lot of helpful leads there, but it was difficult to follow because they were listed by different people from different areas. So being the ever-helpful and wifi-crazy person that I am, I decided to painstakingly collate and categorize all their leads according to areas.

Here’s the result. (I suggest you download this table from here and have it printed out. It’ll be very helpful!)

ALL BRANCHES
Establishment	Area
Chili's	All Branches
Fish & Co.	All Branches
Itallianni's	All Branches
TGIF	All Branches

ALABANG
Establishment	Area
Total Gas Station	Alabang Hills
Burger King	Alabang Town Center
San Francisco Coffee	BMW Bldg, Commerce Avenue
Swiss Inn	BMW Bldg, Commerce Avenue
Starbucks	Madrigal Avenue

BAGUIO
Establishment	Area
Zola Resto	Session Road

CAINTA
Establishment	Area
Petron Gas Station	Kisad Road Cor. Marcos Highway
Burger King	Marcos Highway
Goodah!	Marcos Highway
Mocha Blends @ Shell Gas Station	Marcos Highway

DAVAO – Most Hotels in Davao offer Free WiFi!
Establishment	Area
Hotel Lobby	Royal Mandaya Hotel

FORT BONIFACIO, TAGUIG CITY
Establishment	Area
Krispy Kreme	Bonifacio High Street
Seattle's Best	Bonifacio High Street
Po Lo Kai	Serendra
Bonifacio Technology Center	The Fort
Fuccini	The Fort
Pasto	The Fort
Pier One	The Fort

LAGUNA
Establishment	Area
Burger King	Calamba

LAS PIÑAS
Establishment	Area
Lifestyle Café	SM Southmall

MAGALLANES
Establishment	Area
Shell Gas Station	Magallanes

MAKATI
Establishment	Area
Starbucks	6750 Ayala Avenue
Robinson's Summit Bldg.	Ayala Avenue
Petron Gas Station	Bel Aire
Starbucks	China Bank Head Office, Paseo de Roxas Avenue
Petron Gas Station	Dasmariñas Village
Tang's / Tang City	Glorietta 3
Burger King	Glorietta 4
Bubba Gump	Greenbelt 3
CCW	Guijo Street
Pizza Hut	Insular Life Bldg., Ayala Avenue
Starbucks	Insular Life Bldg., Ayala Avenue
Joey Pepperoni	Leviste St., Salcedo
Hotel Lobby	Peninsula Manila
43F Yuchengco Tower	RCBC Plaza
Old Swiss Inn	Somerset Olympia Building
San Francisco Coffee	Somerset Olympia Building
Starbucks	VA Rufino Street cor. Valero Street
Philam Care Clinic

MANDALUYONG
Establishment	Area
The Legend Villas	Pioneer Street
Mallwide	Podium Mall
Mallwide	Robinson's Pioneer
Gloria Jeans	SM Megamall
Hawaiian BBQ	SM Megamall

MANILA
Establishment	Area
Baang Coffee	Mall of Asia
CW	Mall of Asia
ABAS	Malvar cor. Nakpil Streets, Malate
Taste Buds	Robinson's Place Ermita
Cerealicious	Sherwood's Place, Taft
Arellano University School of Law	Taft Avenue
Café Molinari	Vito Cruz Street
McDonald's	Vito Cruz Street (near DLSU)

MARIKINA
Establishment	Area
Rapide Car Service	A. Tuazon Street

NLEX
Establishment	Area
Petron Gas Station	NLEX, Between San Fernando & Angeles Exit

PAMPANGA
Establishment	Area
Burger King	SM Pampanga
Partyplace	SM Pampanga

PASIG CITY
Establishment	Area
Pier One	Ortigas Home Depot
SpeedyFix	Shaw Boulevard

QUEZON CITY
Establishment	Area
UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries	Diliman
Pancake House	E. Rodriguez Sr. Boulevard
Shakey's	E. Rodriguez Sr. Boulevard
Burger King	E. Rodriguez Sr. Boulevard
McDonald's	Eastwood City
Starbucks	Fairview (Near FEU Fairview Campus)
Mallwide	Gateway
Burger King	Mall of Asia
St. Peter Funeral	Quezon Avenue
Mallwide	Robinson's Galleria
Mallwide	Robinson's Metro East
Cafea Rest	Sgt. Esguerra Street (near ABS-CBN)
Burger King	SM Fairview
Brewing Point	Tierra Pura
Baang Coffee	Tomas Morato Avenue
CBTL	Tomas Morato Avenue
Gruppo Barbero	Tomas Morato Avenue
I Have Two Eggs	Tomas Morato Avenue
Kozui Green Tea	Tomas Morato Avenue
Pier One	Tomas Morato Avenue
Burger King	Tomas Morato Avenue
Jollibee	TriNoMa
McDonald's	TriNoMa
Krispy Kreme	TriNoMa

SAN JUAN
Establishment	Area
Waco's Café	Broadway Centrum
Jollibee	In front of V-Mall, Greenhills
Krispy Kreme	Greenhills
Theater Mall Food Center	Greenhills

SUCAT, PARAÑAQUE
Establishment	Area
Total Gas Station	Sucat Avenue

DISCLAIMER: I just collated EVERYTHING and put it on a sorted file. These are leads mentioned by people from the forum, and I cannot guarantee that all of them do have free WiFi. Nonetheless, it won’t hurt to ask the establishment’s manager. Sometimes, the WiFi access is free-for-all. But more often than not, these establishments have a secured network that requires a password request from the manager.

Erratum SIX Years Delayed!

Song of the Moment: Apologize by OneRepublic (featuring Timbaland)

For some reason, I found myself looking through my HIGHSCHOOL yearbook this evening and just discovered that we overlooked a typographical error on the book cover! Gaaaah! Why didn’t we notice that at all?

“Makeovers that Didn’t Require the Kit, Just the Fun of YOUR Years.”

YOUR should be FOUR (referring to FOUR years in high school), just in case you also missed that and didn’t twitch at the sight of that phrase.

Have you ever had a boo-boo from years ago that you just recently realized? Perhaps you suddenly understood why those words you said were hurtful. Perhaps you suddenly realized that what you did caused so much pain. Perhaps your eyes were opened to reckless, fun things you used to do but now they just seem juvenile and uncool. Would you apologize?

*Cue Apologize by OneRepublic* (Sorry just had to. Hehehe.)

But seriously, I think I would. I would apologize. I apologize. I think an apology, or anything for that matter, is better said late than brought to the grave and never resolved.

Of Anti-Aging Products and Make-Up

Song of the Moment: Cherry Lips by Garbage

Do you have a beauty regimen?

I do. In fact, I think my beauty regimen is a lot more complicated than most. I don’t really tell a lot of people about the beauty regimen I’ve developed for myself. Plus, I don’t necessarily bring this regimen with me when I travel, so this elaborate ceremony has never been witnessed by anyone else except myself. But when I’m at home, I really do pull out all the stops and devote a lot of time to this tedious process.

Here’s the ridiculous process I engage in every evening before I sleep and every morning while getting ready for work:

1. Face Shop Facial Wash + Pond’s Facial Wash (I normally do two facial washes --- one facial wash for pre-shower, one DURING my shower. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know either.
2. Face Shop Skin Toner
3. Pond’s Whitening Cream
4. Skincode Radiance Moisturizer
5. Boots No7 Restore and Renew Beauty Serum
6. Boots No7 Reviving Eye Gel + Clarins Eye Revive Beauty Flash (I use two kinds of eye cream too.)
7. Oxy-10 Vanishing Formula, if necessary
8. Kiehl’s Nourishing Cream + Udderly Smooth Udder Cream (I use either of the two for my feet, hands, elbows, etc.)
9. Boots Body Sculpting Cream (Targeted Areas Only)
10. Boots Stretchmark Corrector (Targeted Areas Only)
11. Jergens Skin Moisturizer (For the Entire Body)
12. DAY Only: Bath & Body Skin Moisturizer (Targeted Areas Only)
13. DAY Only: Bath & Body or Victoria's Secret Body Splash
14. DAY Only: YSL Baby Doll Perfume

I patiently abide by this process, hoping that this meticulous undertaking will be my ticket to looking young for a very long time. (And with fingers crossed, I hope that my sister keeps leaving slightly consumed bottles/containers of beauty creams for me to finish. Thanks, Ate!)

Anyway, this is where it gets weird. After applying one beauty cream after another, I involve myself in a slightly shorter process of applying make-up to make myself look “older”:

1. Liquid Foundation
2. Powder Foundation
3. Eye Shadow (Cream or Powder)
4. Liquid Eye Liner
5. Blush
6. Lip Balm + Lipstick + Lip Gloss
7. Concealer + Powder Foundation

So I actually make so much effort to slow down the aging process, but nevertheless toil through a similar amount of energy to look older than my age. It blows my mind, now that I’m realizing it. What do I really want to do with my face? Make myself look younger or older?

Metaphorically, this weird beauty regimen is my illustration of how people can get fixated with the past and the future, and totally forget that they are living in the now. Now that I’m thinking about it, perhaps my age is just the right age. I look old enough, but I still manifest a vibrant youth. I don’t need to cling on to my baby face years, neither do I have to aspire to be someone I’ll only become in due time. And this face is all I have, right at this very moment… that’s all that matters.

But that metaphor up there could just be an overreading of things. My beauty regimen is just a curious thing I do without any explanations. I’m just weird like that sometimes.

That's my army right there. Hehehe.

I Power and Net Neutrality

Song of the Moment: Time to Pretend by MGMT

Athene the Best Paladin of the World started out in YouTube, after gaining massive hits on all his YouTube videoas, thanks to each video's display button showing raunchy photos of his gf, "My Bitch" and later known as Tania. Soon after, they launched a campaign to vacate seats in the Belgian Parliament, offering a blowjob from his gf for every vote marked as "NEE" --- they offered 40,000 blow jobs and received requests for 400,000 blow jobs. (If you're a guy and didn't know about this, click here to see the site and feel worse.) At the heart of it all, the campaign was really meant to decentralize power in last year's election for the Belgian Parliament and therefore, help curtail abuse of power.

Later on, the same group started a website documenting the last 90-days of a woman intending to commit suicide. This was, of course, not a real suicide but a campaign to raise awareness regarding suicide, to fight against the suicide culture ---- a disturbing culture that glorifies taking one's life.

I'm not really a fan of their methods, but I admire their passion. In both cases, this group utilized scandalous ways to get attention and eventually tapped a lot of internet users into reading about their causes --- which is more successful than most online advocacies out there.

Recently, they launched another campaign for net neutrality. Lifting from their website: "Net neutrality has been a much debated issue for several years now and there have been many lawsuits in cases where an Internet provider blocked access to a certain competitor's site or simply crippled download speeds on services that they felt were using up too much of their bandwidth." Basically, net neutrality ensures that we will have the freedom to access the websites we want and should be privileged to access. There are nuances to this issue, especially in restricting access to underaged minors; but their advocacy primarily targets prohibitive access to sites that require a commercial fee on top of ad revenues or sites that prohibit access simply because it's against certain cultures.

A recent development on their website claims that:

"Every significant Internet provider around the globe is currently in talks with access and content providers to transform the internet into a television-like medium: no more freedom, you pay for a small commercial package of sites you can visit and you'll have to pay for seperate subscriptions for every site that's not in the package. "

In other words, think cable TV for the internet.

Think limited sites against a certain fee you have to pay.

Internet will never be the same anymore.

For more information, read about the issue on this site: http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality

Say NO to Net Neutrality! Spread the word!

The Perfect One

Song of the Moment: How We Breathe by Pinback

"I like him, but he’s not my ideal guy.”

These were my friend’s words as she explained her weird dilemma. She was feeling bad about failing to recognize the things the guy did for her to show his intentions. She eventually appeared cold even if she was interested in him. What struck me the most was this: She couldn’t imagine being with the guy anyway because he wasn’t “her type.”

My friend was partly a victim of unconsciously and unnecessarily weeding out the guys she thinks she won’t like. Many times, we look at a man or a woman from head to toe and consult our checklist before we even decide to explore dating. He has to be taller than me. She must be very organized with her things. He has to be a gentleman. She must be nurturing. He has to be earning an X amount of money. She has to have at least 34-25-34 vital statistics. We do a natural selection in our head and as a result, often unconsciously shut out those people who do not pass the criteria. Which is, off the top of my head, 90% of the population? We’re seriously doing something wrong here.

My friend has been single since birth, and she admits that she doesn’t know how to deal with people. Okay, point taken. But what she also has to realize is that the only way to find the Perfect One for her is to explore the vast ocean of fishes with an eye for opportunity, not by making a list of qualities in her logical head and finding the puzzle piece of a man to match. I say, go ahead and go crazy with your hits-and-misses! I can’t really claim to be an expert in matchmaking, but I realized that I had to flirt with/date so many boys/guys/men and go so far as being heartbroken 4-5 times (and I’m only 24 years old!), before I was able to find the perfect one for me. And the funny thing was, HE turned out to be the last person I would date. When I first met him, I tried to entertain the thought of dating him. Note, I don’t leave any stone unturned and look at every single person as an opportunity. But somehow, I always ended up cringing at that idea back then because he was too arrogant, too tall, too lanky, a bit unreliable, etc.

What I thoroughly didn’t expect was change. (And I should have expected this because change is after all the single constant in this world, right?)

He changed. And I changed. Somehow, our desires found each other, and at the end, it could not be helped anymore. “It just happened,” as many of those How-To books will tell you about finding the Right One. “It just happened” seems so difficult to understand, but you see, “It just happened” was actually an end result of years and years of trial and error. It was a result of years and years of slowly and unknowingly being prepared for the one person I was meant to be with.

My father would tell me, “You have to lessen your perfectionism, because you’ll always find yourself stuck at the planning, and never even reaching the execution. You have to trust that things will just work out, even if you haven’t completely thought things through.” The truth is, no matter how good a planner you are (which I apparently am), sometimes the hit-and-miss approach is the only way for you to open up doors you never knew you had the keys to.

We can’t always expect that the road to finding the Perfect One will be a smoothly-paved road; there will be an abundance of roadblocks along the way. We can’t always expect that the people we’ll meet will fit our criteria; for all we know, our criteria for the Perfect One may not even be the right criteria for who we are. We just have to keep looking forward, seize opportunities as they come, make mistakes along the way and reap the ultimate gift of being prepared for the Perfect One.

And while you’re at it, enjoy the ride!

A Revamped Blog

Song of the Moment: Built to Last by Melee

I am a blogger after all.

See, if you know me well, I have quite a frequent posting of "blog entries" over Multiply. So today, I decided to commit to blogging to do two things: a) actually make official my objective for blogging which is to talk about love and life from the eyes of a twenty-something, and; b) to ensure that I document my life in a manner that I'll be comfortable with.

I revisited my old blog, gave it a new name and will now face the tedious process of migrating all the blog entries I had from a social network that SHOULD NOT be used for blogging purposes. So obviously, the next few entries prior to this are actually migrated blog entries.

Afterwhich, I will commence a blog-a-thon of sorts. Go easy on me, but my goal is to write at least one entry per day until I get the hang of things as I actually shed light on a phenomenon we all feel we're tackling alone, but we're really not: Quarter-Life Crisis. I have no intention of being one of those popular bloggers out there, but I'd like to meet some of you too! Feel free to say hello and drop me a line.

So that first line up there is explained, I'd like to include one song from my iPod's 3000++ songs to capture my feeling at the very moment I'm blogging. That pretty much captures every blogger's aspiration, doesn't it?

Lastly, so you can navigate better across the blogs, entries are categorized as:
1. Old Blog - Old Entries from a Previous Life.. erm, Blog

2. About the Blog - Random Stuff about the blogger or the blog's developments
3. Anger Management - Expect a rant from entries with this tag. These entries are more for my own consumption than yours. This blog is also my outlet, you know.
4. Being Human - Philosophical entries that generally deal with introspection and discernment about humanity. Partly geeky, partly eureeka-ish.
5. Call to Arms - Entries about social causes or advocacies I support. I will also use this blog as a means to get people to read/talk about issues.
6. Inspirational - Entries I found absolutely entertaining and heartwarming that's worth the "forward" button. I'm generally not fond of forwarding stuff, so these will be exceptional.
7. Dilemma - These entries will have me juxtapose two realities and talk about the grey area in between. Think pros and cons of moral dilemmas or issues.
8. Change - These entries will talk about change and metamorphosis --- something we're often too afraid to do but will actually be good for us.
9. Love - Finally, these entries will talk about the ever elusive but ever talked about theme of love. What's a quarter-life crisis with this drama?

NOTE: Other categories will come as I develop this blog further. This is developmental, so they say.

That's it. I hope you enjoy the blog! Stay tuned.

If Social Restraints Can Be Thrown Out the Window...

Song of the Moment: Falls on Me by Fuel

This is my random DARIA moment. Hehe.

Have you ever had the most tactless set of words you want to say to someone but just can't due to some invisible social walls? Because your source of income depends on it. Or because you're already married to the schmuck. Or because you were born into the Brady Bunch. Or because you gave birth to the Brady Bunch. Or because you're a nun in a convent, but you aspire to be a prostitute at night. You get the picture.

Here are some random things I want to yell out to anyone it applies to. One or more applies to certain people. One or more may not apply to anyone at all. One or more may just sound so bad-ass even if they are meant for fictional characters like the tooth fairy. (Oh, Sorry. Did I just ruin years of childhood bliss?)

1. You have a dead end job. Either you get out of it or die in the process. They don't call it DEAD end for nothing.

2. You don't have a job, and you don't have a lot of friends. Well, boo hoo. Get out of that couch and do something with your life.

3. Admit it. You're just with him/her for his/her money. You may be living the lifestyle you wanted, but not the life you wanted.

4. Who sets the rules in your life? You do.

5. You're too young. You don't know sh*t about the world.

6. You're too old. You don't know sh*t about the world.

7. You listen to people when they say you're too young/old. So, when will you ever be just the right age for anything?

8. Stay away from me, energy vampires. I've had enough of your drama.

9. I won't always be here. Let's see how you deal with that.

10. You're too cheerful. It's annoying.

11. You think they care about what you need and what you want? Awww. That's cute. See, they don't really like you, honey. They just like how you bring money to their cause.

12. Why are you being such a victim? The world does not revolve around you.

13. Don't be so naive. You've been fantasizing about this all your life.

14. Don't be so pretentious. You know you want this and you don't want that.

15. At the extremes of the spectrum, there are only carnal needs and higher needs. Why are you dwelling in the in-between?

16. You think your late night, sick sad little world is happiness? Then, why do you always wake up with a bad hangover, next to someone you don't even know? That's being happy all right. Yesiree.

17. Thinking about different ways you can kill someone doesn't mean you will. Have fun.

18. Make up your mind! The world will not wait for your ego.

19. So you're thin and that's beautiful? You're probably just as much of a stick in bed.

20. "OMG. I can't believe you just said that." OMG. What century are you stuck in?

Now if one or more of these statements hit you in the head and make you go "You're right" while nodding apologetically, then I guess I actually wrote that for you after all. You just needed someone to tell you the painful truth about who you are and where you are at the moment. But yeah, that's just forcing puzzle pieces to fit together. Hehehe. But seriously. May someone actually tell you these things so you'll wake up and get your life all stirred up to utter excitement.

How about you? What's that one tactless remark you've been dying to say to [insert name here]? Go crazy.

The Thin Line Between Recklessness and Embracing Life

Song of the Moment: Remember to Breathe by Dashboard Confessional

Yesterday, I was made to sit through over two hours of grueling film, as I watched the highly acclaimed movie “Into the Wild” --- written and directed by Sean Penn. The motion picture garnered two Oscar nominations, Best Achievement in Editing and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, among other notable nominations and distinctions across award-giving bodies in the international film industry. I loosely categorize it as an indie film, but that will depend on your judgment. The story goes this way:

Alex, a young man fresh from Emory College, decides to just leave the material society behind to go on a journey into Alaska's wilderness. He meets many curious characters along the way, and somehow, he manages to leave an indelible mark on each one in the same manner that he learns from each one. He made his own rules, followed where the wind would take him, and just stripped down his lifestyle to the very basics.

Obviously, it would have been a different story all together if a girl played the lead. I can’t even begin to imagine doing what he did. There were points during the movie that made me shake my head and say, “That’s just reckless.” But the very core of the story lies in the adventurous, free spirited footsteps of someone on a quest towards a spiritual revolution, abandoning all the dangerous pretenses of the world and embracing the basic truth of being.

For me, the question I'd like to ask here is, “How can we differentiate a reckless decision from an act of embracing life?” We live in a society that has long perfected traditions, written laws, infrastructures and technology that all exist to help us go through life with a comforting sense of order and safety. We say to ourselves, “Things will go as smooth as I intended, as long as I have X.” X could stand for a degree in college, work experience and wisdom that comes with age. X could stand for money, power and influence. X could stand for a new law, a new government system and political reforms. X could stand for the newest laptop model, a state-of-the-art PDA and the new hybrid vehicle. But admittedly, X is a by-product of the unceasing evolution of Man and consequently, his changing needs. Perhaps in his earliest experiences, there were no X's to begin with. And yet he seemed to have lived as he felt he should and was satisfied. That was sufficient.

So what is reckless then? And what do we mean when we say we should truly embrace life? Try categorizing each one below, and find out what forces are ultimately controlling (or conflicting in) your life.

1. Committing to a pure love with no regard for financial stability, age qualification, parental consent and social divide

2. Choosing a college degree or a job that you love but will guarantee a lifelong struggle for survival

3. Not finishing your education to pursue your dreams

4. Fighting for a cause, even if it means endangering your own family's welfare

5. Dying for a country based on principles alone

6. Rallying behind truth and justice, even if the rest of the world would rather remain with the convenient status quo

7. Choosing the road less traveled that is against the norms driven by your gender, race, religion, social class, etc.

We have a personal choice to make every day... of either being secured by society's progressive values system or being empowered by a strong inner voice. There aren't necessarily any correct answers, nor are there single answers to every question we ask. All we have are differing perspectives in pursuit of different aspirations, within an entire lifetime of balancing acts.

MOTION: This house believes we should stop singing "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse.

Song of the Moment: Rehab by Amy Winehouse.

"They tried to make me go to rehab. I said no, no, no."

And in this debate, I would so eagerly volunteer to be the government prime minister, as long as I use the program cited on Glenn Beck's article entitled, "America Needs a 12-step Program." The great thing about this article is that we can apply it to our own country, and well, even our own personal progress and failure.

Anyway, I lifted the article from this link (jumps to CNN.com). Read on and take a moment to reflect about your own life.

Glenn Beck: America needs a 12-step program
Editor's note: "Glenn Beck" is on Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- My name is Glenn Beck, and I am a recovering alcoholic.
It took me a lot of years and a lot of pain to be able to say those words and really believe them. Along the way, I was arrogant, greedy and self-destructive.

But the worst part was that I didn't see any of it.

Even at the lowest, darkest points of my life, I still thought of myself as that successful guy who everyone loved. I was the life of the party, the guy who could do no wrong -- the guy who everyone else only wished they could be. At least that's what I thought.

Now I know better. People weren't looking at me with envy; they were looking at me with disgust as they watched me throw away everything I had worked so hard for.

I think America can relate.

Through hard work and unwavering principles, America took itself from a far-fetched idea to the greatest, most compassionate, most free country the world has ever known. But as our success has grown, so has our arrogance.

We've compromised our values, sold out our principles and used our freedoms to justify giving more power to the government. In the first century of America's life, its government was afraid of its citizens. Now, it's the other way around.

Maybe America should consider starting on the same kind of 12-step program that's helped millions of other addicts who couldn't see that they were slowly killing themselves. Here's my version of it, condensed to six steps since I know that Americans are way too lazy to stick around for all 12.

Step One: Admit we are not powerless.
Take a look at our Constitution. Not just a transcript; find an actual picture of it. The first three words, "We the People," are at least four times larger than the others. Do you think that was an accident? Of course not. Our framers chose those words, and made them that size, because they knew they were the answer to any problem we would ever face.

Step Two: Believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
I think this one pretty much speaks for itself.

Step Three: Decide to take our power back.
A recent polls says 81 percent of Americans now say that our country is on the wrong track. If you're one of those people, who do you blame? The Bush administration? Congress? The media?
Here's a crazy idea: How about blaming ourselves?

If you don't like the fact that your city has led the country in poverty and homelessness for the last 10 years, then ELECT SOMEONE NEW. Stop voting for the same people from the same party every year.

Our power hasn't gone away (see Step One), it's just been masked by politicians who are tearing us apart for their own gain. We need to reclaim that power, and then we need to use it.

Step Four: Make a complete and fearless moral inventory.
Alcoholics aren't exactly big fans of introspection and self-examination, but this is one of the most important steps to recovery.

What are America's faults? What are our assets? By taking stock of both, we can start to work on maximizing our strengths and eliminating our weaknesses. It sounds simple, but when's the last time you really thought about what America does right? That brings me to Step Five.

Step Five: Admit our wrongs, and our rights.
We're constantly reminded about America's faults and flaws, but what about our achievements?
If you want to teach our kids about Vietnam, that's fine, but you better also teach them about World War II. And if you want to talk about our wars, you better also talk about our welfare. America is one of the most charitable countries in the history of the world, yet our mistakes are always glorified far more than our generosity. That needs to be reversed.

Step Six: Be ready to remove our defects.
Just like an alcoholic, we simply cannot go from sleeping on the street to perfection overnight. This is a big ship, and it takes a long time to turn it around.

But we have to start somewhere, and the best place is with the defects that almost all of us agree on. For example, does anyone really believe that being addicted to Saudi Arabia's oil is a good idea? What about China owning billions of our debt? Speaking of debt, what about the fact that we've saddled our children with $53 trillion in future Social Security and Medicare obligations?

But before we can address any problems, we have to first admit we have them. Many of us are in denial about just how divided we've become. We think that it's just the election or the war that's tearing us apart, but the truth is, it's much larger than that. We're every bit as arrogant, greedy and self-destructive as I was when I hit bottom.

Fortunately, it's not hopeless. It never is. If a program can work on a rodeo clown like me, it can definitely work for a country as great as ours. But until we're able to stand up and say, "Hello, my name is America and I have a problem," we'll never even have a chance.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

PS: I apologize to those people who really thought this entry was about Amy Winehouse. =)

The Quest to Be Interesting

Song of the Moment: Sparkle Me by The Buffseeds

She's an introvert, perennial home buddy, nicey-nice, bring-home-to-your-mama girly girl. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Most days, she'd rather stay home, fix herself a gourmet sandwich and read a good book or watch DVDs. She does a lot of lurking around the Internet from the comfort of her room - drooling over her future Macbook, for instance, or browsing through people's photos on social networks. She is a lover of the peace and the quiet. So, if you'd make her choose, she'd immediately prefer coffee/wine conversations over a club crawl. She doesn't find those fitness dance classes as effective and rewarding as working out/running alone. She feels uncomfortable doing her shopping with another person because she doesn't want anyone slowing her down or hearing someone else's opinion on her fashion sense. However, she still believes she's living a good lie.. errr, life. She absolutely loves to travel, preferably on her own and with a sizeable pocket money. She truly enjoys long drives when she's on the wheel; it's absurdly therapeutic for her. She gets all giddy when she just discovered a new restaurant/movie/music artist or she's about to try out a new cultural/historical activity. And she makes time to hang out and go a bit crazy with the girlfriends, even though she's already in a really serious relationship. Bottomline, I'd like to think that, in spite of her being perceived by the public as a quiet good girl, she still comes out pretty interesting over all.

And then someone says, "The Good Girls don't make the headlines." I thought about that and I tried recalling if there are honest-to-goodness nice girls out there who really got everyone's attention. So it hit me, the good girls who reach the headlines are either dead or are suddenly not-so-nice-after-all (read: as in the selling genius of Girls Gone Wild). Not fair. Why can't good girls be interesting too?

Or perhaps, the nice girl just doesn't know how to sell herself, in fear of rudely stealing the spotlight from someone else. "What's up with you, nice girl? Who else can give you a spotlight except yourself?" I guess it really has something to do with how much she puts out there in order to be noticed... and eventually, remembered. (aside: This sounds like high school all over again. Oh well!)

She has this dilemma about group conversations; she's not a "butt in" person. If you see her with a group, she's probably the token quiet person in the whole table. She has all these ideas in her pretty 'lil head, what with the myriad of blogs and websites she visits. But she just cannot seem to find the rhythm in a group conversation --- that is, knowing when she can make the perfect punchline. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that in the family dinner table, she was taught NOT to interrupt... so she'd wait.. and wait.. and wait... until the perfect timing has gone by. There's nothing really wrong with respecting someone else's speaking time, but I wish she knew how to speak more and to stop over-listening. Gasp! There's such a thing as excessive listening!
Ok, so I'm the nice girl who wants to be interesting, but still comes out pretty boring as I'm the quiet one in a group because I persistently respect other people's space. With that said, I'd like to officially embark on a Quest to Be Interesting here. So....

I resolve to say anything and everything I feel like saying, and catch that perfect timing.

I resolve to just jump, and let the net appear.

I resolve to read and read, and share and share.

I resolve to imagine things in my head and act them out like I'm in a play.

I resolve to be interesting.

Good girls can make the headlines too. Just you wait. But, someday I'm just going to look back at this post and say to myself, "Man, was that really necessary?"