dream big!

taking a break from the holiday rush (and from our blog delinquency!) by sharing you what was shared with us.

a few weeks back, i had a friend arnel casanova come to our office to share his story with us.

if there's anyone who can say that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, it's him.

he was born into a very poor family,

and against all odds, he was able to finish school...

learning english through the old pages of old Newsweek magazines that were used to wrap fish in the market he worked in as a child...

working in a bakery (to get through college), and sleeping on its floors since he had nowhere to stay...

all this (and more) didn't stop him from succeeding...

and when i say "succeed", i mean

graduating with flying colors,

getting a law degree

(while working for a law degree, winning an honorary award from President Ramos for some peacekeeping work he had done),

... and yes... getting a degree in Harvard.

anything IS possible!

read more about him here.

in the presence of greatness

this week, i spent a lot of time taking in from the experts...

first from ashoka VP oliver kayser.

ashoka is a network and fund for the world's best social entrepreneurs.

beside oliver is one of ayala's head honchos (since they were the ones who brought him in).

i expected more from the small roundtable, honestly. i guess since i've read up so much on this field, i know a lot about it already. *nerd*

so the afternoon was more of a reassurance than a new lesson learned. (although i did learn that poland's gov't had good stuff we could learn from... more about that later...)

i also attended the 'creativity' anniversary talk at SLAB by my idol, gilda cordero.

she started the discussion with an activity with a table we were supposed to think of as something else...

here were some of the ideas...

a kariton...

a jeepney...

an insufficient shelter from the rain...

(guy underneath is an ADB head honcho)

(his wife makes things from trash... like this necklace she made from casette tapes, plastic blob from factories, etc... but more on her another time...)

kate used it as a stage and sang 'usahay' beautifully...

massage 'table'...

the rest of the talk was a discussion facilitated by the-1-billion-peso-science-museum-in-the-fort curator maribel garcia (more on her later)...

there was a lot of discussion... but to tell you the truth, i really would have rather heard more from the goddess.

but a little bird told me she was tired... i mean she is 79... but her spirit is definitely younger than all of ours.

anyway it's an honor just the same to be among all these greats.

yun lang :)

if you can't wait, get protected.

wow wow wow...

many thanks to wanggo! what an inspiration...

all of us can't get over his story, and most of all his courage to speak out...

he shared with us practical wisdom (like latex is better than rubber... water-based (or spit) better than oil-based...)...

and more profound wisdom too.

i also liked how he stressed on the value of waiting...

i'm not sure if he'll ever realize what impact he has made... and how he probably saved lives just by sharing an hour with us...

thank you, thank you, thank you!

condoms save lives... nuff said. (sorry, il papa).

why not, coconut

cool pix, sis.

speaking of creativity, a fren told me about this super cool gathering called T.E.D. (technology, entertainment, design).

what started off in 1984 as a yearly gathering of uber smart nerds sharing ideas about anything and everything became a super big gathering (in long island, and now in UK na rin) where the most inspirational thinkers and doers (think bill clinton, brian greene, bono, etc.) give the talk of their lives for 18 minutes.

the great thing is all speeches are free for everyone to watch and download from their website.

anyway, we now have our own version here -- called 'why not forum'.   i'm sure you've heard about it.

i took time out to watch one of the whynot talks -- mr. pagsi's talk, and pffhew, it was so inspiring.  twinpopbros are so lucky to have him as their mentor.

watch it here.

now i wanna watch all the talks in both TED and whynot.  dang!