My New Posts and Journals

Dear Readers and Followers:

I promised I will post new entries. It just so happened, I posted them in another one of my online blog. For those of you interested in knowing how I treated my Bartholin's Cyst, head to this link:

Bartholin's Cyst and How I healed Myself

I also wrote about my Pregnancies in the same blog

My Pregnancy: First Half

My Pregnancy: Second Half


So sorry for the inconvenience. I might start posting there more often so if you like what I write, you might want to follow threesprites.wordpress.com. See you there!


xxx

Warm Up After Months of Hiatus

Seven months has passed since last I have blogged and in those seven months I have struggled with my inner demons, wondering how to improve my situation. Actually, I am pretty well off compared to other people in this time of hardship: staying at home, not working, and relaxing while taking care of my new-born. I gave birth to my son last February. Thank you! I am a proud mom of one of the most adorable infants.

I endured sixteen long hours of labour, which so far, has been the most excruciatingly painful experience I have ever had. The last five hours of Picotin induction sent me reeling from torment and despite the aid of epidural, the level of pain was such that I have never had before, I couldn’t even scream. Nope. My boyfriend (no, we’re not married) told me so. I was so dazed from the pain and medicine that I whispered and groaned. By the sixteenth hour, I gathered what remaining strength I had left to push out a 3.8 kilo baby from my vagina all the while screaming in my head, “I don’t want a ceasarian! I don’t want a ceasarian! I don’t want a ceasarian!!!! Please come out, baby!”

I was successful .

By May, I developed a cyst. I will elaborate more on that later in a separate entry. I was thinking of documenting it three months ago but I wanted to wait it out and experiment to make sure it’s effective first. So far, this is another success story you will hear about in a while.

Anyway, I . . .  am heavily dependent on my parents. They are very forgiving despite their foul mouth and fury, which they only release within closed walls--- BUT! with an adorable grandson that has long been waited for, they couldn’t simply toss us out of the house. Hey, he’s a possible heir to their assets! I am very grateful of my parent’s generosity. However, I would be happier if they wouldn’t emotionally berate, be over bearing and controlling. Well, we can’t have it all, right? Or am I wrong?

Perhaps, if I would just try to be a little nicer and sweeter the way I am to my boyfriend and son then my parents (my mom in particular) would lessen their grip. Or would they? It’s kind of hard trying to change your attitude to someone when you’ve been that way to them for such a long time and vice versa. Although I have noticed my mom is trying her best to be nice on her part. She’s trying so hard it’s almost embarrassing. And a little awkward if I may add.

She has been suggesting that if I were to run my own business, I only have to ask them. Still, I cannot just do that without anything to show them, right?

I’ve been watching several How-To-Do’s on Youtube and other online medias, focusing on baking and coffees and I have thought of several ways to nudge my mom towards a generous pay-check: serve her with a cake using available resources at home or make her coffee with nice decorations—pro-style on it every morning. Will those little acts convince her that I am ready to start my own business? I wonder . . . I have confidence with the technical nuances of a business . . . I just need a little persuasion.

And hey!! Once I get my own business I’ll have more to write and more to experiment on. And hopefully more exposure to successful people who will help me become the best I can be. Cause right now I am surrounded by negative people who thinks they’re oppressed when the truth is, they’re the ones keeping themselves in poor condition.

Upcoming Entries Are:

 1.      Registering your baby in the NSO Muntinlupa, Philippines
 2.      Bartholin’s Cyst: What it is and how I treated it
 3.      Obtaining a Passport (Filipino)
 4.      Registering your baby in Belgium while Offshore.
 5.      Obtaining a Passport (Belgian)
 6.      Taking Care Of a baby 0 to 6 Months Old.

So, I hope you’d check in and read them. They may or may not come in the order as above, just to warn you. I have a lot to catch up on my blogging. See you soon!!! 

I Am Offering My Service as An Artist on Fiverr

Hey guys!!!

I am looking to collect some cash for my future projects (it's a secret for now) and have recently opened an account at fiverr.com which is a site where people can advertise micro jobs they will do for $5. I am offering my service as an artist there, drawing pictures of yourself, your pet or your favorite character in two of my styles: of caricature and chibi illustration.

My instructions are simple:

1. Send me a high resolution picture of yourself/your pet/favorite character and describe in your message what style you want the illustration in: Chibi or Caricature.  
2. 5$ per character; no background or color. Only black and white.
3. $10 dollars additional if you want colors
4. $10 dollars additional if you want backgrounds
5. Make your orders clear to me in a message before ordering. 
6. Maximum 5 days delivery.  
7. $20 for PNG/PSD file of your order

If you are articulate with your orders, I can send it to you in 1~2 days. It also depends on how many you order. Payment is done via paypal and you must open your own fiverr account there to order.

So, hop into my fiverr profile!! I hope to hear from you, soon!;D

 

An Alternative:

If you don't want to open an account on fiverr but would like for me to draw you something for $5 dollars, that could be arranged. Just private message me through my working email address below with your images attached:

email: phamiel.op@gmail.com
title: Caricature/Chibi Drawing Request

Again, payment method will be through paypal. Unless you live on the same country as I do, then I could instruct you otherwise.

Below are some examples of my drawing style and stuff I worked on:

I hope you like what you see!!!

Origin of the Proverb, "Blood is thicker than Water"

"Blood is thicker than water" is a common proverb shared and spread amongst families all across the globe. Although I was taught it conveys the importance of family over friends, there was a loose screw that refused to fit the meaning together with those words. Parents would tell you that "blood" is a metaphor for family while "water" is the metaphor for friends. However, such explanation didn't make sense to me because I have never heard of 'friends' being personified by water.

Another thing that disturbed me is the idea of giving importance to the family no matter how dysfunctional or detrimental it could become to one's mental state. Why would you sacrifice your own happiness to help a member who consistently suffers from dependent personality disorder, is alcoholic or even a drug addict? I cannot accept this thinking. I set out to search for the origin of the the proverb and discovered that people has been using the proverb wrong.

Years of peace have changed the meaning of this proverb turning it from a politically related dictum into a family phrase. Yes! In the past, "Blood is thicker than water" was a wisdom amongst soldiers, generals and leaders and it had a complete opposite meaning from today's interpretation. For people during the warring eras it simply meant something like, " My allegiance to the confederate is more important than my family."

Way back before the time of Jesus Christ, leaders of nations would swear allegiance in a ritual called the blood pact or the covenant:

 . . . suppose two nations desired to enter into covenant. Each nation would select a representative, and the representatives would meet; weapons would be exchanged, i.e., the strengths of each nation would be swapped. Cloaks would be exchanged; for the cloak was the 'selfhood' of each man and thus each nation. Then, covenant sacrifices were brought, two bulls. The bulls would be split down the middle, and between the halves would be a pool of blood. Then the representatives would walk through the blood and around the drawn carcasses in a figure eight (this is the provenance of the symbol for infinity). And they would finish their promenade standing in the blood, facing each other. And the statement being made was this "this covenant is to life, and if it is broken, I will die even as this animal has died. Unto death I make my vow." (Radic)

Other representatives of nations would even end the ritual by cutting the center of their palm and mixing their blood together in a handshake, signifying that the covenant cannot be unbound unless by death. One of the early record of this type of covenant in the Philippines was in 1565 between Miguel Lopez de Legazpi of Spain and Rajah Sikatuna of Bohol, which was a little after the Battle of Mactan (I have actually visited the site of the Blood Pact twice!).

The covenant was a quintessential part of an alliance between nations what with matter of life and death being involved. Men of ancient past have done this for quite some time as history has shown and it's not just something that comes out of a Bible. Perhaps we should give the Bible the benefit of the doubt and reconsider it as a reliable source rather than invalidating its foundations in its entirety.  But I digress.

So, for the leaders of the past, the "blood" in the phrase in discussion is the covenant. As for the water it simply symbolizes the amniotic fluid in the womb, shared by siblings or family (which makes a lot more sense than saying that it symbolizes your friends) as pointed out by a Congregational Leader, Richard R. Pustelniak in his article, "How Shall I Know?" :

This phrase has completely lost its original, covenant-related, meaning. Today, it is interpreted as meaning that blood-related family members are to be considered as more important than anyone else. However, the original meaning is, "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb," (2 Terms)

I am very much relieved having discovered the phrase's original meaning for I thought the world has gone mad. It is a lot easier for me to accept the primordial instead of the former. If you think about it, breaking a covenant is a lot riskier than helping your family because you not only lose your reputation, status and prestige as a leader or a representative but you also lose your own life. I totally buy this.



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 Pustelniak, Richard R. "How Shall I know? The Blood Covenant" Beit Avanim Chaiot, Inc., a Messianic Jewish Congregation. http://www.bac2torah.com/covenant-Print.htm
Oct 1. 1994 Mon. Jan 21. 2013

Radic, Randall E Dr. "The Covenants." Grace Notes.
http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/covenants/covenants.html
n.d. Mon. Jan 21. 2013.