Are you feeling down and out? Do you have the need to shake off the bad vibes that you feel are sloooowly creeping up on you? Do you need a song to perk you up, make you sit straight up and say YEAH??!!!

This my dear friends is the song for you. This has been on repeat in my playlist for about a month now. If you can’t tell I’ve been feeling a little down in the dumps lately and aside from chocolates and cake, a feel good rah-rah song helps me to go on and to go forth.

“Shake It Out” is from Florence + The Machine’s 2nd CD, Ceremonials. Florence Welch’s vocals soar through this piece and it’s got a chorus that you can’t help but sing along with. This is my fight song!

I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I’m gonna cut it out and then restart
Cause I like to keep my issues strong
It’s always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

What’s your rah-rah-you-can-do-it!-manalo-matalo-cute-pa-rin-ako fight song?!

Have an awesome and inspired weekend everyone! FIGHT!

Steve Jobs fought the good fight against an unusual form of pancreatic cancer. He died on Oct. 6, 2011.

He is a modern-day revolutionary who reinvented the “click” wheel and led a company who single-handedly shaped how we consume music and entertainment. As a music fan, the iPod changed my life. My first iPod was a silver mini and my love affair with music grew even more. Now as a mom, I don’t know what I’d do without my iPhone and the apps that keep DW busy, entertained and educated in brief quiet spurts therefore allowing me to do my other motherly tasks.

Thank you so much Steve Jobs.

*quote is from http://www.philgerbyshak.com/steve-jobs-quotes/

Sam was enthusiastic and giddy and everyone at the table felt her excitement! I can’t blame her, if I’ve published a book under Random House  New York and I’m on the cusp of my global book launch, I’ll be shooting sparks from the tips of my hair to my toes too!

Who’s Samantha Sotto you ask? In a nutshell– Sam’s a mom who parked herself at Starbucks Katipunan because she didn’t want to trek back to Paranaque (wasting gas and toll fare) while her kids were at pre-school class at the Ateneo. Those 3-hour waits bore her first novel — Before Ever After.

Sam’s journey to becoming a published author is awe-inspiring to say the least. She’s never had any formal training but what she has is a wealth of experiences from years of traveling.  She drew a lot from her own experiences and credits Google as an important  research tool for the book (if you’ve read the book you’d know why!)

She shared so much during the meet-up but I surely learned a lot.  My  light bulb moment came when I learned how Sam wrote:

She Wrote for Herself – It’s like that cliché “dance like no one is looking, etc” which is true in a lot of ways. Sam wrote for herself and I imagined how wonderfully freeing that must have been.

I remembered how I wrote in my early days of blogging and it was in a voice that has been muffled nowadays. I chalk it up to being more mature and careful – this blog reaches a lot of people daily and with that comes the responsibility of being balanced. My old blog is still alive and my “younger” voice still resonates in that little corner of the world wide web. I do miss my old voice sometimes just because it was so much more fun and forthcoming. I should definitely bring it back.

Sam also said that she treated writing as her vacation. That is such a refreshing perspective and I couldn’t agree with it more. My day job involves a ridiculous amount of technical writing which makes people wonder where do I get the time and the strength to blog? Well there you go folks, I’m on vacation! I have escaped from the land of annual reports and proxy statements and I’m hiding in the land of the DWs!!

I was able to interview Sam too and I’ll post that soon as well as book review of Before Ever After . I was just so pumped up and inspired after meeting Sam in person that I just had to share what I learned right away!  (I know I am such a nerd)

Thank you so much Sam! Idol!