My Ten Favorite Quotes about Love

Image from favimages.com

There are over ten thousand quotes about love and loving in the Web. But the following ten are my favorites. I have a feeling you have your own favorites. I will be glad to hear from you.

1. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

2. “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”
― Alfred Tennyson

3. “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

4. “A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

5. “Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby

6. “The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

7. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
― Anonymous, Holy Bible: New International Version

8. “Where there is love there is life.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

9. “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
― Mother Teresa

10. “This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Reference: www.goodreads.com

My Personal Tips for Effective Blogging

So You want to Blog? Here's my personal tips for successful blogging based on my blogging experiences.

When I was in graduate school two decades ago, I attended a two day seminar in how to write effectively. The most important information that I learned from that seminar was to write simply. Another useful information was to make short sentences. The last useful item I learned was try to use the active voice instead of the passive voice when you can. The above three basic information you should follow, if you want to write effectively and be a successful blogger.

I was always wondering whose original ideas were the above. Today,I found it was a quote from George Orwell as follows:

“Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon
word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.”


If you plan on writing a blog, remember that majority of your readers just scan on the information, unless your topic is really interesting. Most readers like to read simple and concise articles, poems or short stories.

Another tip is to check your grammar and spelling. Most readers are turn off on misspellings and glaring errors in grammar. I also learned from my blogging
experiences (I have been blogging since 2008) that articles that deals with sex, politics and religion attract the most page views.

The use of headings, bullets and lists are good and useful. Your list however should not be too long.

When I was still writing for the ViewsHound writing site ( became defunct in December, 2011), I won only two awards out of the sixty articles that I wrote.
The articles that won the awards were my personal experiences ($50-gold award-Childhood experiences during the Japanese-American War in the Philippines) and my wife's personal experiences ($15-bronze award- Extrasensory Perception and Clairvoyance). My two-award winning articles showed that writing informally about your personal experiences, in a conversational style is good and effective.

My other advice to would be bloggers is to write not only to inform but also to entertain. A little humor to your postings will not hurt. Moreover, you should get to the point quickly. Do not write an article that exceeds more than one page if at all possible. After one page, most readers are tired, so unless your article is extremely exciting and controversial, your readers will lost interest.

Last but not least, always try to have an attention getting title to your post. Finally, if you write from the heart, nothing can go wrong! I wish you a Happy Blogging experience!

Marinduque Beloved-An Acrostic Poem

Mt Malindig and Poctoy White Beach

My first attempt to write an acrostic and free style poem about our second home- Marinduque-Beloved. I hope you like it.

M ajestic Mount Malinding and its sulfur springs,
A bundance of fresh sea foods, fruits and vegetables;
R eknowned for its hospitable residents and the Putong
I sland of my dreams and my beloved second home.
N eglected sometimes by its leaders and balikbayans,
D evelopment of its natural resources sometimes butchered.
U nder the guise of political scheming, its residents suffer,
Q uite silence from majority of its residents.
U nity needed, but not attained due to crab mentality,
E manates apathy, indifference retards progress to my Island.

B eyond its borders, former residents are concerned
E very thing in this island paradise I treasured;
L et my dreams of the place be a tourist mecca,
O vershadowed sometimes by enmity and jealousy.
V erdant hills, white sands beaches, panoramic views,
E lixir of my life, my beloved Marinduque,
D reams and goals of my life be a reality soon!

I never claimed to be a poet, so if this poem stinks, I will understand.
The last time I wrote a poem was during my high school days in the 1950's.
Comments, anyone?

Kalutang Playing in Marinduque

Kalutang Ensemble


If you are not from Marinduque, you probably have not heard of the word "Kalutang".
Each of the school children as seen in the video above holds in each hand the end of specially chosen branch of the kwatingan tree found on the island, carefully cut to a specifications.

The banging together of the identical pair of wood on selected points along their length and at specific striking angles produces notes of definite pitches and of tonal quality that remotely resembles a cross between an unsustained marimba and castanets.

Thus, the kalutang belongs to the class of musical instrument that is generally classified as concussion idiophones. These instruments range in size from about ten inches in length and an inch in diameter for the soprano section to 4 feet and a diameter of 6 inches for the bass.

Due to the method used to produce sound, the kalutang bands of Marinduque never uses any additional percussion instruments. The percussion and rhythm have been integrated naturally in the manner and style these peculiar instruments are played according to an article published in the provincial website, www.marinduque.gov.ph

How Many Styles of Poetry do you Know?

Today, I learned a new word-an acrostic poem. Learning a new word is exciting and I thank my friend (VV) who is a budding poet and writer for this new knowledge. This experience inspired me to do some internet search on the types and styles of poems. I found an article that is very informative and was written by Gary Hess. In his article he listed 55 types of poems or poetry. Some of the types or styles I have never heard before. Allow me to quote 15 of the types that I have heard before as follows:

A Chateau Du Mer Acrostic Poem by Vic Vizarra

1. Acrostic
Poetry that certain letters, usually the first in each line form a word or message when read in a sequence.

2. Ballade
Poetry which has three stanzas of seven, eight or ten lines and a shorter final stanza of four or five. All stanzas end with the same one line refrain.

3. Blank verse
A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and is often unobtrusive. The iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of speech.

4. Elegy
A sad and thoughtful poem about the death of an individual.

5. Free verse (vers libre)
Poetry written in either rhyme or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern.

6. Haiku
A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five morae, usually containing a season word. .

7. Limerick
A short sometimes vulgar, humorous poem consisting of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables, rhyme and have the same verbal rhythm. The 3rd and 4th lines have five to seven syllables, rhyme and have the same rhythm.
type of writing.

8. Ode
A lengthy lyric poem typically of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanza structure.

9. Quatrain
A stanza or poem consisting of four lines. Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme while having a similar number of syllables.

10. Senryu
A short Japanese style poem, similar to haiku in structure that treats human beings rather than nature: Often in a humorous or satiric way.

11. Shakespearean
A 14-line sonnet consisting of three quatrains of abab cdcd efef followed by a couplet, gg. Shakespearean sonnets generally use iambic pentameter.

12. Sonnet
A lyric poem that consists of 14 lines which usually have one or more conventional rhyme schemes. .

13. Tanka
A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the other seven.

14. Verse
A single metrical line of poetry.

15. Visual
The visual arrangement of text, images, and symbols to help convey the meaning of the work. Visual poetry is sometimes referred to as a type of concrete poetry.

I hope you learned a few words today.

Reference: 55 Types of Poetry Forms by www.poemofquotes.com

My 25 Favorites Quotes for Inspiration

There are several hundreds of quotes for inspiration and motivation published in the Internet. However, the following 25 quotes inspires and motivates me when I feel down, depressed and useless. Do you have a favorite?

1. Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force - that thoughts rule the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. I intend to live forever, or die trying.
Groucho Marx

4. Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
Helen Keller

5. A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Bruce Lee

6. Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
Eleanor Roosevelt

7.

8. Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
Salvador Dali

9. I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.
Donald Trump

10. We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.
Jean Paul

11. Dreams are necessary to life.
Anais Nin

12. Just as a flower which seems beautiful and has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of the man who speaks them but does them not.
John Dewey

13. Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.
John Dewey

14. Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.
Herbert Hoover

15. Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.
Michael Jordan

16. Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don't settle for them.
Mia Hamm

17. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
Napolean Hill

18. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
Bill Cosby

19. The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination
Carl Rogers

20.

21. Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.
William Faulkner

22. A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.
Thomas Carlyle

23. The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
Bertrand Russell

24. The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
Vince Lombardi

25. Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
Emily Dickinson

Source: famousquotes.123.com