What kind of world do you want? This is the title of the song by Five for Fighting.

The song starts with:

Got a package full of wishes, a Time Machine, a magic wand, a globe made out of gold.

And ends with:

What kind of world do you want, think anything, let’s start at the start, build a masterpiece, History starts now, be careful what you wish for, Start now.

Nothing earth shattering with the lyrics. The beat of the song is rather good and easy to the ears. So why am I blogging about this? Because http://whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/ is the first music video site that gives back. One of the charities it supports is the Autism Speaks.org.

Click here for the complete lyrics.

Now that you have seen the links (I just hope you did) I would like to ask you, dear friends: “What kind of world do you want?”

Filipinos are known worldwide for their sunny smiles. Yes, we always find reasons to smile and laugh. Women particularly are smiling and laughing creatures. Most of us have lines on the forehead as well as laugh lines around the mouth and crow’s feet lines around the eyes. So have do we have doubts when we see women more advanced in age than us mere mortals with smooth and plain facial skins? To those who are constantly photographed, they need to take care of their skin. They go to great lengths to have their skin taken cared of by experts. Never mind if the skin peeling, or skin bleaching or botox cost can be expensive. As long as the lines disappear and they look young, risks can be overlook. But for me, I think facial lines have their own story to tell and if they do tell, these stories would be very interesting indeed.

I have read somewhere that one of the things women can’t fight a winning battle with is that battle (more like a waging war) with gravity. Yes, as we grow older, the pull of gravity becomes stronger. Its like everything is sagging, everything suddenly heavy and weary and want to get down to rest. Whereas we are worried before with tummy bulges as to why they seem to never go away? The same goes to the upper body part where the breasts are. Twelve years later and with three children brought me my tummy bulges which are even bigger than my chest. Suddenly the term “physical body enhancement” has took a new meaning for me. Not that I can afford augmentation mammoplasty now and in the near future. A lot of clinic specializing in this has mushroomed in our country and in other countries. Some have savvy terms like cosmetic surgery or New Jersey breast augmentation or cosmetic plastic surgical procedure. This of course, entails risks. Would I be willing to take the risk? Or would I choose to be safe and just wear the padded underwear apparel for a fuller look?

Tina tagged me in an interesting meme. I must admit this is my first time to join a tag. I often “ignored” doing this but now I decided to give it a shot. In this tag, you are to name seven songs that you are currently listening to and tag seven other people.

We have an eclectic selection. The children like to listen to instrumental songs from the SIMS Makin’ Magic cd-rom. The selections are the nearest or next best thing we can get them to listen to classical music. DD1 can do some of the selections here on keyboards and flute. Hubby and I like to listen to jazz. I also like the oh-so-noisy rock with a lot of guitar adlib and New Wave. The current selections we are listening to are varied but these are the ones I really like. So here goes the songs and the CDs:

1. James Taylor - Carolina on my Mind, Your Smiling Face, Mexico
2. Steely Dan - Midnight Cruiser, Hey, Nineteen, Kid Charlemagne
3. Jack Johnson - Drink the Water,
4. DMB or Dave Matthews Band - Say Goodbye, When the World Ends
5. Fastball - Flake, Out of my Head, Are You Ready for the Fallout
6. The SIMS Makin’ Magic CD - sometimes I want to say yuck when the kids want to play the CD but there are times when we just hum the selections! This is a mix of clarinet, accordion, strings and other effects all rolled into one. DD1 even wants to have her own accordion! Told her to just be satisfied with the instruments in the KORG X5 that we have, which sounds almost the same as the real thing. She is the one who usually uses this, with big headphones on.
7. My classical music CD. I know I have been neglecting playing this CD. Some of the CDs in the collection got lost somewhere. Sigh.

I’m tagging Annamanila, Mary, Ann, Angel, Andrea, Auee, Niceheart. Does it look like an alphabetical order from the PMN? Hope you find time for this tag. Please ignore if this tag has been sent to you. Thanks!

If I have a lot of money like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Lindemann Jr, Donald Trump or Oprah Winfrey, what would I do with the lot of these? I would probably still work, in a school built for special needs children named after my parents. I would probably save for my children’s future. I would probably have a foundation to help intelligent and deserving students but have no financial capability to pay for school. I would probably have my parents’ house, as well as the house we are staying in, repaired, fixed and/or remodeled. I would probably help my MIL with some of her financial obligations. And not forgetting my dreams of seeing Death Valley and Baja California, I would also visit the ruins in Europe and Egypt as well as the Yucatan ruins in South America after which I would go home to the house I have built for my family. The one near Tagaytay. Nice to know I still have the zest to dream big dreams. This is free, anyway. As for now, I so need to go to bed because it is way past midnight and I still have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

What if questions for pre-teens in Pre-Teen Connection group today:

1. If you are stranded in a desert island, what three things would you want to bring with you?

2. Mommy is in the bathroom and the doorbell rings. What do you do?

3. One of your classmates has a party. Almost all of your classmates were invited but you weren’t. What would you feel? What would you do?

4. One classmate has the tendency to tease you in school. He/She really says mean words in front of your other classmates. What would you do?

5. What are the most memorable family moments that you cherish?

6. One of your friends told you that another friend is spreading malicious and bad gossip about you. How would you feel? What would you do?

7. What would you do if two of your closest friends are fighting and they want you to choose sides?

8. If God would give you a chance to grant three requests in your prayers, what would those three requests be?

9. What do you do when you are really, really angry? What do you think are the proper ways to express your anger?

10. You have younger brother/sister. What are the things that they do to that make you really angry?

11. How would you handle the feeling that you want to physically hurt your little brother or sister because they are so annoying? And noisy. And they mess your things.

12. Do you lie? What are the things you lie about? Why do you do so? Do you think it is for your best interest if you do? There are some things you have or you can tell your parents. There are some things that they need to know, especially if you are being hurt.

13. If given the chance to do what you want for a day, what would you do?

14. What place would you rather spend for a vacation?

15. How would you deal with people in a park/mall/beach who you saw just threw their garbage where they were whereas you had a plastic bag where you put all your garbage?

16. If you have millions worth of money, what would you spend on?

17. If given the chance to excel at a certain skill, what would that skill be?

18. What are your strengths? What skills do you think you have that will help you achieve your goals?

19. What are your weaknesses? What are these and how do these weaknesses make you unable to achieve your goals?

20. Now that the new school year is about to start what are your expectations? What would you do in order to have a more successful and fun school year ahead of you?