A couple of major changes have happened to my problogging in the past few weeks. One of them was my choice, the other was dropped into my lap from thin air.

The first, I resigned my post on PlanetEye Traveler, writing about Philippine Culture and Travel. It was just time for me to let it go.

The other one is harder to adjust to. Early this week, the entire entertainment channel of b5media was shut down. About 50 bloggers were given the boot, not considerately, locking us out of our blogs without even the chance to say goodbye to the communities we built.

And so, Merry Royals was wrest away from me, just like that. Sure, it wasn’t truly mine, but I built that site from scratch. I even thought up the domain name (which I love!) and, save for a couple of guest posts, was written solely by me. I understand economics and dwindling ad revenues, but the firings could have been handled much more graciously. I shed a few tears over what happened, but I’m glad to say I’m now steadily working out the shock of it.

I believe the loss of the entire entertainment group is a big one for the company. Five years of SEO, talent and contacts thrown out the door. Quite difficult to understand that decision, really. In the end, though, maybe it’s all for the better. There are some top-rate writers in that group, with loyal followers who will (and have!) followed the writers to their own new sites. As one of the writers put it, b5 just might have empowered these bloggers to branch out on their own and finally be their own bosses. And that is always a good thing.

I do take several positive things from my b5 experience. I remember the early days of the company, when we were all passionate and excited and were a real community of bloggers. I have good memories of tetris tournaments.

I learned my blogging chops from the best. And, most of all, I made great friends. You’ll learn more about them in the coming days and weeks. We’re all just rather busy at the moment, reorganizing and restructuring our own endeavors. This is one tough (and wonderful and talented!) group of bloggers who are far from crushable. You haven’t seen the last of us, I promise.

And this is why I didn’t sign up for Project 365. The past days have been swallowed up with this thing or other, that weekly (much less daily!) blogging has been impossible. I have a few topics that I wanted to write about, but just never got around to it. I’m hoping that those posts will see the light one of these days.

For today, I want to share with you a very rare event in these parts of the world at this time of year. Background: In January, we’re usually under several inches deep of snow and several weeks’ worth of cloudy days. The sun shines only occasionally. Even more unusual is rain. To have these two come together at the same time is an extremely rare thing indeed.

And so, we were blessed and very excited to see this in our backyard last Sunday:

Twin rainbows. And these were not just tiny half-hearted things either. They were full-arc ginormous rainbows. I couldn’t get the entire span in one photo; I had to take three!

I have never been so excited to see a rainbow as I was on that day. I’m always thrilled to see these gorgeous colors in the sky, and it’s been a while since the last time I saw something like this. I piled coats on the kids and practically shoved them out the back door. I wasn’t going to let them miss this!

The camera really didn’t capture all its beauty, but I’m very glad I have these pictures to remind me of this day. It had been raining/drizzling the whole day (rather depressing, actually). I remember looking out my kitchen window at the field of wild grass behind our house. It was all orange from the setting sun. And that’s when I saw it. There was just a small window before the sun disappeared and the rainbow with it.

Rainbows are reminders of God’s promise to Noah that He will never send a flood to cover the whole earth again. To me, a rainbow brings to mind God’s promises in general. And that He still sends silent testaments of His faithfulness. I just have to take the time to listen.

MrsG, my friend from the lovely land of New Zealand, initiated Project 365 Days of 2010, where participants will capture “daily snippets of our lives in 2010 through the use of words and/or photos.”

A bunch of our friends are joining in, and I cheer them on! As I already told some of them in our email group, there’s no way I’ll be able to keep up a post/photo a day for 365 days. I know I’ll skip one, or two, or seven days and end up just throwing in the towel altogether. So, I’m not even starting.

But one of my plans for 2010 is to blog more for myself, here in my own little blog. So, I will shoot not for 365 posts, but for the more doable (for me, at least) 52. One for each week. That’s the goal – to have a post per week in this blog. If I happen to do more, then great. If not, it’s OK too. For now, I’m right on schedule, since my last post was last week!

Project 52 coincides with my scrapbooking goals this year. And that is to spend at least 30 minutes every week, preferably on Saturday night, to scrapbook. It’s a Saturday, so I’m off to play with some paper and glue, right about now.

At the start of 2009, I made a resolution to read more books. I didn’t quantify it, because I didn’t read that many books in 2008. I’m happy to say that I’ve definitely met this goal. I kept a record of the books, and I was able to do 26 in all! Yay me!

Here’s the list of books, mostly fiction, that I read in 2009:

1. The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Unabridged Classics) / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Author), Scott McKowen (Illustrator)

2. ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income / Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

3. Anne of Green Gables / Lucy Maud Montgomery

4. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

5. The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks

6. The Letter Writer / Ann Rinaldi

7. Remember Me? / Sophie Kinsella

8. A Wrinkle in Time / Madeleine L’Engle

9. The Wedding / Nicholas Sparks

10. The Testament / John Grisham

11. Wings / Aprilynne Pike

12. The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Liming Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life / by Leo Babauta

13. New Moon / Stephenie Meyer

14. True Believer / Nicholas Sparks

15. Nights in Rodanthe / Nicholas Sparks

16. Eclipse / Stephenie Meyer

17. Breaking Dawn / Stephenie Meyer

18. On Writing / Stephen King

19. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy / Jeanne Birdsall

20. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) / Rick Riordan

21.  Holes / Louis Sachar

22. Bud, Not Buddy / Christopher Paul Curtis

23. The Magician’s Elephant / Kate DiCamillo

24. Prada and Prejudice / Mandy Hubbard

25.  A Wind in the Door / Madeleine L’Engle

26. Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen

***

So for 2010, my reading goal is simply to top 26!

Last October, I took an online class on Point of View, offered by the RWA Online Chapter. I’m not a member of RWA, and don’t even write romance. But their classes are open to non-members for a small fee, and the topic was timely for me, so I signed up. The workshop consisted of written lectures, short assignments, a main homework and interaction with the lecturers, Jess Granger and Angie Fox.

The workshop was worth every penny I paid. It was a good overview of POV, plus the exercises and critiques were very helpful. The excerpt below is my final homework, a result of the writing prompts and comments from both lecturers and fellow students. It’s not a part of any work in progress of mine, but the premise is an idea I had for a story a while back. I hope you like it!

The Rehearsal

Elizabeth looked up at the yellow streamers hanging from the rafters of the auditorium. Their long tails twirled gently down to bob in delicate loops above the baby grand piano. The hum of the air conditioner mixed with the restrained hubbub around her.

The raised platform where the performers would be standing on was decorated with multi-colored paper flowers to match the fiesta theme. Elizabeth knew exactly where on that platform she would be tomorrow. She clasped her hands together and was surprised at how steady they were.

Elizabeth met Philip’s gaze across the semi-darkness of the theater. She smiled at him, trying to ignore the crowd of their classmates that always seemed to gather around him.

"He’s so sweet, isn’t he?" Jenni appeared beside her, her long gown swishing on the wood floor as she moved.

"Huh?" Elizabeth glanced at her best friend and handed her one of the flowered bonnets from the bench by the stage door.

"Philip. He’s very sweet. He’s the most adorable gentlemanly guy ever. Well, of course, you already know that," said Jenni, who had plopped the bonnet on her head. "I thought I saw him out there somewhere." She poked her head out of the door to look, the hat hanging on precariously.

"Yup, he’s over by the first row." Elizabeth waved her hand in Philip’s direction. Philip grinned and waved back, causing her heart to flutter. She ducked her head and picked up the sheet music she would use today, pretending to make sure the pages were in order.

"Did you know Philip carried Mrs. Dempsey’s books for her this morning? He actually made her smile! You are just sooo lucky, you know? John thinks that that opening-doors-for-ladies routine is so lame, but I think it’s adorable. Oooh, are you still doing Fidelio? I’ve never been able to mmmmphrzz ddnn." Jenni’s last sentence was lost when she stuck several hairpins between her lips, so she could fix the bonnet in her hair.

Elizabeth nodded. "I know Fidelio already, so I didn’t have to work on it much." She knew their music director Mr. Walden wouldn’t mind if she changed it at the last minute. It had been hard to find the time to practice without anyone knowing what she was doing. She just hoped she got the words right. It wouldn’t sound the same without the dulcimer, but maybe Philip would still recognize it. She hugged her secret to herself, conscious of her sudden grin and trying to hide it from the boy who was still gazing at her from across the room.

Elizabeth heard her name called out on stage. With a little shiver of excitement, she picked up her skirts and stepped out for her rehearsal.

****