6

The number 6 in Chinese culture is said to be good for business. I prefer however the representation of the number 6 for happiness. Happiness is what describes my two months and one day being married to Gracele.

Such would not have been possible had it not been for the efforts of everyone involved. Gracele had already written a truly wonderful blog thanking everyone who attended and helped us in that special day on February 11, 2012. This blog entry is my own way of thanking everyone.

Let me share again what I said during the wedding. Gracele and I originally had this perfect plan for our wedding. The great Nathan Ford however reminded us that the problem with having the perfect plan is that it has too many moving parts and therefore has greater chances of failing. The best solution then is to start with the simplest plan. It's the quick, simple and ugly plan that's going to work when everything goes bad. After that it's just a matter of adding the other things.

We knew that the we needed to get married in church and make sure that the guests get to eat at the reception after. This is where St. Jude Church and Beverly View Events Pavillion came in. Special thanks therefore to Ms. Gigi of the Port and of course the very accommodating and efficient Father Raul.

The next step was to buy the souvenirs and just to reiterate, yes, we did indeed email Mr. Neil Gaiman for permission to reprint his quote.  The next steps were to buy the wedding cake (Cakes R 'Us), procure the flowers (Joy Ceniza) and obtain photography (Robo Formacion) and video (Jeremiah Cabrera).

It was then time to spice things up and we did just that by getting the services of our lovely ushers (Kat, Mikai, Waynes, Patty, Kay and En-en) and the alluring emcee (Ella). We also added the services of excellent violinists (c/o Bambi)

I guess that about covers it. There are some additional people though that I believe also deserves thanks.

First is Mr. Ben Bulatao. Although new to the UP community, he did provide a form of stress relief for us by participating gamely during the reception. Not to mention substituting as the candle sponsor.

I'm a bad mother...

There is of course the three musketeers who assisted us during the wedding ceremony in the person of Eukene, Mei Hua and Paul.

Yes, we're pretty!

What wedding ceremony doesn't have cute flower girls? We were blessed with three wonderful chikitings. So thank you to the three of you.

 I feel pretty...

 and happy...

and I don't like this song.

Let's not forget our readers who "demanded" to have their own pictures taken.

Back to work Monday.

We also would like to thank those who helped us during our pre-nuptial photo session. Thank you Mr. Robo Formacion for the interesting and creative concept.

Thank you also to those who worked behind the scenes: the Dy Family (Alvin, Freya & Athalia), Mia, Aiza and Hector.

Smiles all over.

Why "mas" serious?

Step? No.

 It's me yo!

 Thank you also to the UP students and cosplayers who participated.

Having fun the UP way.

Is that all? Well if you have been reading Gracele's blog and this one, there is actually one small thing that we didn't mention. Care to guess?

It's the rings. Then again, that's a story for another blog.

Thank you again to everyone!

 The power is yours!

13:27

It's not a ratio but rather it's a verse from the Holy Bible. My wife and I have this daily habit of reading from the bible before we get out of the house and go to work. Today's passage had a part that was rather surprising. To quote:

John 13:27 - "As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Hurry and do what you must!"

This is from our bible (Good New Bible, 1995) so I took time to look up what other versions said.

English Standard Version (2001) - Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

New American Standard Bible (1995) - After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly."

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.) - And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

International Standard Version (2008) - After he had taken the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do!"

These are just four of the many kinds of bible one can read but as we can see, everything seems consistent.

We can make make at least two conclusions then. The first is that Judas was not himself when he did what he did. The second is that Jesus knew what was happening as well as what was going to happen. This then begs the question, why didn't Jesus do anything to save Judas? He was after all in the business of saving people.

When I read that particular verse, a lot of conspiracy theories came into my head. As the day went by, I came upon a realization. A simple one at that. In order for the story of Jesus to be fully complete, it has to have a villain. Judas therefore was a perfect fit for the role.

Hero and villain stories are not uncommon. We have Batman and Joker. There's Superman and Lex Luthor. You could also count in Captain America and Red Skull. Spiderman and Green Goblin maybe? We even have that in the Philippines. Who could ever forget Fernando Poe Jr. and Paquito Diaz? How about Mara and Clara?

My point is simple. If we ever want to live a complete life, we need to have a villain. It does not need to be someone who wants world domination. It can be as simple as a person who manages to piss you off everyday.

I believe that the main purpose of having a villain is not to have someone to defeat. Rather it is someone that enables us to look inside ourselves and know that we can always be the better person.

I've met a lot of villains in my life and so far I can proudly say while I have never been able to actually defeat them, I have managed to always be better than them.

So who's the villain in your life?

Five

As of writing this particular post, I am maintaining five blogs. This does not include blogs sites that I have either forgotten existed or forgotten the password. To enumerate, my blogs are:

Words from a Heretic

I started this blog sometime in August 2004. It started out good enough considering that I had a lot of free time on my hands. I ended it in May 2007. Not really ended but sort of put the blog on hold. It was at this point that life became a bit complicated.

In a Nutshell

This blog was an attempt to surprise my then girlfriend and now wife Gracele. I starter this in April 2007. Due to some complications, I decided to discontinue this blog. This tied in with my plan to discontinue blogs for the meantime.

Officially? Just Me

Yet another attempt to share the love story of Jason & Gracele. I started it in October 2007 and it ended in the same month. I really don't know what happened with this one. If memory serves me right, this was the time we were working already in an internet cafe instead of an office.

Lightbulb Moments

This was supposed to be a review blog. Review what you ask? About almost anything. I started this in June 2011. My first review was on the Facebook game "Alter Space." The year though was hectic for me due to the fact that I had to attend a lot of seminar-workshops as well as attend to new duties as an administrator.

Life by the Numbers

This is my latest attempt to bring back my blogging habit. I can't promise anything but I will do what I can to maintain this one. Just wait and see and keep on reading.