(photo: imaging-resource.com)

Nikon D40

=====================

ya, i know i have a camera already and this is the entry level dslr of nikon, but i don't know. there's an offer i can't resist. hmm.

i mean its perfect, especially since it IS the entry level. im no camera-whiz anyway.

(uuy, justifying)

was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday so i got meself a large nice cup-o-ice cream when i dropped off a friend at eastwood. after the slow but tense day i've just had plus c5 traffic, i deserved this.




nothing like a nice big cup of dairy queen to pick you up. I had mud pie. too bad i finished it all before i thought of taking a photo.


it wasn't originally part of my plan, but i headed straight to ateneo for dr. raul sunico's concert. he's a very popular concert pianist who is now the artistic director of ccp and the dean of the ust conservatory of music. i didn't know he was an atenean (grade school and high school)! anyway, he hardly gives a free concert, so i went to this one in the church of the gesu, which was part of the sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration of the ateneo.



i got to sit as dr. sunico's guest:) hehe. front row, baby!




the stage.

i thought the lighting was great. kudos to voltaire de jesus for that! it changed colors and shapes depending on the intensity of the music. it helped a lot in appreciating the music. plus they projected the title of the piece and the composer (with photo!) so it was very easy to digest. for someone like me who's not all that with classical music, this was such a treat!




this was the clearest of all my zoom-ed shots. he moved his head to the music so everything else was blurred.




needless to say, dr. sunico was superb! the audience loved him. his batchmates were beaming with pride. it was so aliw how they were still like this after all these years.




i had to take a photo of this particular grand piano's brand. it was so important that they had to import this from baguio. it came in late last thursday for dr. sunico's soundcheck thats why mimi (who coordinated) didn't make it to rehearsals. tita nanoo said this particular piano had extra keys. while other concert grands had keys up to LA, this one reached DO.

we were also able to join dr. sunico's simple reception after the program. barrio fiesta had a great repertoire of dishes, too bad my camera died on me already. i especially liked the kare-kare (so what's new?) and the halo-halo buffet. lovely food. and for free. i ain't complaining.


-o0o-


some other pleasant surprises for the day:







an officemate of mine gave me a pen from her hongkong trip last week. it's especially special, and quite a surprise actually, because we dont really know each other that much yet. but she really is the sweetest girl who has one of the heartiest laughs ive ever heard. and it doesn't hurt that the pen she gave me goes very nicely with my lucky white pen :)






i was also given this christmas lolly by my boss. i almost got insulted excited when i saw the tag that was attached to it! haha! five free days at fitness first! she required encouraged me to go try it out, sayang naman daw. my thoughts: how the heck am i supposed to eat some candy with fitness written all over it? lol! well at least the thought was there. she could have given it to anyone else, but instead she gave it to me. and i appreciate that. i should squeeze it into my december plans:)

ya know, i am always always reminded that im special in some way. even on the heaviest of days.

that's nice.

...to look kalat a lot like Christmas!

-o0o-

i was able to turn our christmas kalat from this



to this:




hihi.


we.. can ha..rdly sta..nd the wa..it, please Chri..stmas do..nt be laaaate!

recently, i have been thankful for:

1) new wind sheild tints- the world is suddenly clearer from inside my car.

2) new bosch wipers- so THAT'S how wipers are supposed to sound like!

3) new tailor- so THAT'S how my clothes should fit like! (obviously, i'm impressed)



plus:

- school hymn harangs

-dining out with friends

- surprise extra money in the bank

- buffalo wings


flaming wings, katipunan


don henrico's sta lucia AND tomas morato


-o0o-

God is good:)

come to papa.

altered, actually.

thank God for tailors. good ones.





its no secret that i have a neck as wide as a slim lady's waist. it makes buying clothes harder for me, especially corporate clothes. on my business trips to the US since 2006, i've bought loads of long-sleeved shirts with bigger neck sizes and have planned to have them altered to fit me. the problem is, because i require a larger neck size, the shirts that have it are either an XL or an XXL, which means i could fit 2 of me in the body of the shirt.

with pants, I have a certain fit in mind that could not be satisfied by all boutiques, even department stores that i've been to. they could either be too baggy, too tight, tight in the waist, in the leg area, crotch is too low, or too high, they come with pleats, etc.

ive tried a handful of tailors in the past and i always end up dissatisfied. thankfully, i've found a tailor who's efficient. i just gave a sample shirt that i liked the fit of, tweaked the measurements a bit, and left. and they delivered exactly what i wanted.

so far, ive had 8 shirts done already. im so happy that my closet is slowly turning into something with pieces i could actually wear. i have options now, and dressing up is a lot easier.

i'm also happy that my purchases from years ago were not just a waste of money. before, they were just big shirts. now, i could actually wear them:)

plus i saved 40 hours of hard labor. i tried doing it myself before but ended up with sleepless nights as a shirt would take me 5 hours to finish. paying for alteration is so worth it.

pants will definitely follow. and then some jackets.

this is addicting!

green mini cooper in valle 1

accidentally. i went into the wrong street and had to make a u-turn.

-o0o-

red mini cooper with b&w checked sidemirrors in alabang hills



the closest ive ever gotten to what choi han kyul had.

was getting gas at total in alabang hills while waiting for a client meeting when i saw this. i almost heard the hallelujah chorus.

-o0o-

red mini cooper




i don't remember where i took this. it was probably the same one from alabang hills.

im such a stalker.

typical telemarketing day at the Cathay Land Sales office about 2005:

anne: hello sir?
client: hello, sino ito?
anne: hello sir! si anne pu 'to, remember, na-meet ko kayo yesterday sa (insert place here)??
client: oh ya, i remember! hello, ms. puto!

(lol!)


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its been almost a full month since we lost our dear friend to stupid dengue. we had the best times together, and after everyone left, we only had each other (including iris and benedict) to rely on for strength to carry on with our jobs.


benedict, iris, jnl, anne

(this photo was SUCH a premonition of what was going to happen the year after. it's our first photo of us four together)


ive been hearing stories of how anne has been 'present' the past month. from sir ryan's globe duo phone call from her (he and his brother swear it was anne's voice on the other end of the line. the number could never be contacted after that phone call) to kat and vange's dreams of her. Unfortunately, i don't have any stories/encounters.

until this morning.


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i was rushing to leave the house this morning when i saw this on my car:





it was right where i could see it!

and it's yellow!




i bet we all know of how butterflies are associated with departed loved ones, right? i believe it has something to do with their metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly, and how people 'transform' into a more beautiful, perfect being after death.

i just KNEW it was anne!

it reminded me of the makasaysayang yellow shorts that she'd always wear:



all hands beach, subic  (2005)



caylabne bay resort, cavite (2006)



caylabne bay resort, cavite (2007)



caylabne bay resort, cavite (2007)

i swear, she wore those shorts til she couldn't fit into them anymore. it's such a shame that she would never be able to fit into them again. ever. and she was on the way to losing the pounds already! that was one of her goals, really (to be able to wear them again). shame, shame, shame.





we seriously miss you, anne.


*sigh*

i always want to see the good side of things. though i know it could be dangerous sometimes (meaning, we could always over analize and justify too much) or hard to do altogether, i choose to believe that everything happens as part of God's perfect plan.

ondoy followed by peping and news of another typhoon coming = hell on earth, and seriously, it scares the sh*t out of me. is God telling us something? definitely. is he punishing us? im not sure. but whether (weather) its a warning/reminder/sign, i dont think anyone expected it to be this monstrous.


(photo: ashley d. crystal)


i remember one of peabo bryson's songs which goes:

"Love always finds a way
When the clouds have no silver lining
She comes through shining
Love always sees the light
Through the darkest night
In a small way
Love always finds a way"

and i believe that the silver lining in all this ondoy drama is the filipino's bayanihan culture 'shining through'.



(photo: deejayap)



(photo: kevin tatco)


and despite all this, you know what? life goes on.


(photo: media tumbler.com)


galeng no?


-hindi mo kame kaya, ondoy!-

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we were flooded too (in our office) which we didn't really expect because we made sure our restaurant/office is high. but the flood outside apparently reached waist-deep, so we got knee-high water inside. We really didn't know. the strong winds and heavy rains caused some leaks in our house so dad and mum passed by the office to get vulca-seal after church. when they saw mud on the floor of the resto and office, they knew we had a lot of cleaning up to do.

our whole sunday (september 27) was spent cleaning. just us five in the family, no one else. we attacked in work clothes and set-up the component (actually, ipod and speakers lang naman. lol!). the sister and i were 'ice skating' on the soapy tiled floors while the parents and the brother laughed (no, actually, the brother was corny. he didn't laugh. lol!).

in all our dugyot glory, we headed to kfc for a quick meal, my treat (yeheees!). we were so embarrassed that we were all so dirty (but hey, everyone else was flooded too, right?) but we burst into laughter when we realized that mum was still wearing her gold hoop earrings all along. (donya, through and through. lol!)

the day turned out be be a much called for bonding experience that we hadn't experienced in a long time. too bad no photos were taken. we were busy havin' a great time! we couldn't even complain one bit because we know how lucky we were to have had such minimal damage. hay, Lord, Thank You!!

how's that for a silver lining??;)

cant say enough how i love love love weekend markets. everything's fresh. they have everything from fresh fruits to fresh produce, to freshly cooked food:)

this weekend market especially felt fresh. because it was raining. (my hair! my hair!!! haha!)

salcedo market is one place that's hard (for me) to go to, but is always worth the travel.




it just looks empty here, but there were lots of people. everyone was avoiding the rain.






effin' good food

 




the deadly ginisang bagoong bacolod--- bagoong with chicharon on top. i didn't even dare.






tonight's dinner. WINNER with rice. i'm sure winner also with pasta. i think i'm going back next week.






still calling my name. my will power was stronger. but my friend's wasn't.

she was thinking of the many possibilities to eat it on the way home. with grilled eggplant and tomatoes, among others.

my mouth's watering. okay, ill stop now.






hungarian sausages!!

i got the cheezy one. in some kind of bread. with pickle relish, mustard, ketchup and LOTS of mayonnaise.

but i didnt get to eat it. joal did. huhuhu.




so i guess i really have to go back next week:)

for now, off to harang reh.

'God is like rexona, He never lets me down' :)

i got a lot of reactions from this status message on facebook, and you know what, i guess because it's true. i've once shared with my friends how i have this note posted on my small room corkboard that says '3 blessings' which serves as my reminder to see and count all the good things that happened to me, no matter how bad the day seemed. and whenever i see and start to count, i always (always, always...) go beyond three. God has been good. very very good.

thank you Lord for everything! thank you for the very fast and so far still very fruitful 2009. im excited for your plans for me and i know you will never leave my side:)


___________________________________________________________________________



PS. really off-topic, but please take care of my beloved doc hof. it breaks my heart that i wont be there for his farewell tomorrow. i'll surely miss the wise man with the umbrella :(


(image: google images)
 

me wanna watch astro boy.

now, now, NOW.

 

(video: SummitScreeningRoom@youtube)

its amazing how fragments of my childhood pop-up one by one in HD (hello optimus prime and cobra commander).

if only they could make tumbang-preso and langit-lupa (im-im-impiyerno) in HD (labo). but nothing beats the real thing, IMHO.

i remember my friends and i smuggling our g.i. joe's and paperclips (and my aunt's stash of thread) to the nearby santan (retro!) bush (among others) outside my house when i was younger. we created treetop hideouts for our 'teams' and tied thread from one tiny branch to the other. the paperclips were either tied or wound onto the action figures' arms and torsos so that we could have our own SKY COMMANDERS!

remember?


(photo: retrojunk.com)

it was expensive to get the real thing


(photo: parrygamepreserve.com)

so we improvised. and had hours and hours of fun. and brownouts did not matter because we didn't need electricity.

i hope kids nowadays could experience what we experienced before.

i hope my (future) kids would, too.

good thing i kept all my playdough stuff from my wonder years, all sealed and protected in their respective boxes, mind you. i guess i'll have to get a new batch of clay, though (claydough. lol!)

or maybe create it from scratch! if i could only remember the ingredients...

...is not a baby any longer!

she's on tour with the UST Singers (her nth one!) and is now in the US. she's coming home in a few days.

i was so glad to stumble upon this photo of her with my friends:



that's jd, jaimie (zeh 'baby sister'), chris ong, and friend (heehee. sorry i dont know her name. yet.)

chris and jds are friends from ACS who are now based in san francisco. they hosted jai and "friend". im sure they did cartwheels over chris' gourmet sandwiches!!

thanks to ate noreen (my san francisco host) for taking this lovely photo. it was taken at the end of their san francisco stop while they were waiting for the ride of the group to LA. i wish i was there. if only for michael jackson (IF ONLY FOR MICHAEL JACKSON??? [high-pitched]).

im glad jai was able to spend time with friends from my group. there was rina and gp in new york, and chris and jd here. and friendster leo and zsazsa too! im glad she's in the same, er, 'industry' as i am. i know how enjoyable concert tours could be. this is one thing we have in common (touring) but being able to talk about the same hosts (ate noreen! nikko! ate marsha! chris s! all of you! miss you all!), concert venues, places we've been to.. it's almost as if we've travelled together, which we havent done in a LONG time. these are things we will be talking about till we're old and wrinkly.  :)

but, *sigh*, they've been there for over a month already. at this point, i think i'm way past that (being on tour for a long time). hindi ko na kaya. i mean, i love my friends to death, but i'd probably be pulling all my hair out by the end of the month. i dont know. the best way i could probably put it is how my friend said it: it's very 'now'. i mean, i get tired of shopping too, you know? (HAHA.) thank God we have short and sweet trips with the ACS. :)

(which i never blogged about. hmm...)

hurry home jai... dear kuya is expecting pasalubong misses you already! ^_-


 

after blogging about that lethargic saturday, I rang my friend onyl to ask him about some person I read about online.  my query led to another topic, and then another, and then.. waaait.. medyo nakahalata na ako. ano ang cellphone ko, landline??? so we decided to just meet and catch up over late dinner. i went out after all.


i met up with him at starbs in rockwell, then we convoyed to this thai place he was recommending. i was like, 'ooh, at least rockwell. nice place, probably air conditioned, with a nice asian ambience'.


boy was I unprepared for what was coming.


we drove out of the rockwell compound and into the side streets. then lo and behold: there was SOM’S.



(too bad I didn’t bring a more decent camera. like I said, I was totally unprepared. forgive the cellphone images, will you?)


som’s is this rustic (rustic?!!) house in makati where they serve, well, home-cooked thai dishes. it’s amazing that at past 10pm, they still had a lot of diners. and i'm talking yuppies and expats a! I was kinda kilig hearing the spanish conversation going on beside me. it felt like I was back in barcelona, eating at some al fresco café/diner... only with aggressive pinoy mosquitos feasting on my yummy bare arms. ouch!


this was their ‘set-up’, literally across the street:



as my friend aui would probably put it: gusto nyo pala ng rustic, ha! hehe. kudos to the owners for placing little glasses with tealights on each table. it added to the overall effect. at least there was a hint of ambience.


anyway, the food:


since my friend had eaten already, we just ordered something for starters, one rice meal, and one kind of dessert. everything to share-- meaning I ate most of it, and he just shared with me. hehe.


for starters, we got catfish salad:



not bad, but after you’ve tried the catfish salad of people’s palace in greenbelt 3, nothing comes close.


i honestly do not remember the name of this dish:



it was some rice dish surrounded by sautéed pieces of chicken, veggies, and an in-your-face amount of chili peppers, then topped with an egg, sunny-side up. The first bite was good, until I bit into the pepper. It was too spicy for me, I think I ate it all quickly so I could proceed right onto dessert.
 

we were supposed to get the green curry (beef), but they didn’t have it that night. this was the guy’s (manager? owner?) recommendation- the name was too complicated, we couldn’t even say it right while ordering it. and i wont even bother asking onyl. if you know him, you’d know why :)


anyway, he got this sticky rice and mango dish for dessert:



basically, it was malagkit with some sort of thick, sweet coconut milk sauce served with a slice of mango. it’s very filipino, if you think about it. nothing great, but it was okay. i think i enjoyed this the most.


overall, if you’d like to have cheap thai food carenderia style, i’d recommend it. i think you go there for the experience though, more than the food. if my friends invite me for another som’s adventure, i’d probably come back to try their other dishes, but me picking this as a place to eat: maybe.


..or maybe not. :)
 

my spurt of merriment for the day :)

--------------------------------

for pia. and gutsy.

okay, for the kiddies and the sesqui-tandrez who give a shit..



(photo: www.themarklim.com)


i can't decide whether it's funny, cute or ting. okay, it's all of those :)

haha! aww.. ting!




 

i had the slowest saturday today.




and i had the weirdest junk food combination this late afternoon:


oIshi marty's cracklin' vegetarian chicharon                   plus                hershey's hot chocolate from 7-11         
                                                     


...

...

...

okaaaay, you can say eww now.

the vegetarian chicharon's actually quite good, and the bag says 0g trans fat so, you know, i willingly suspended my disbelief, just for the heck of it. and the hot choco was good, i remember discovering that they had it in manila finally (the 7-11 coffee corners back in the US were the bomb! and the dollar-for-three huge cookies were the best things! they kept me awake for my inter-state roadtrips) and that made me frequent 7-11 again. i usually shift french vanilla capuccino and the hot chocolate.

today's cup though was not that great, i dont know why. then pair it up with the chicharon, then disaster. but you know what? i was too... 'blah' to even care.

and that's after i ate chicken asado siopao. maybe because that was the only thing they had? i don't know.


it's a saturday night and i'm here, surfing the net, indoors. i have no urge to even go out. am i really getting old or am i just weird today?

photo: xiao_tian_jelly

i can't wait to be on tour/tourist mode again!

hell yeah, i know i wont look like any of these payotot guys, but who cares? magbo-bonnet ako, baket? lol!

double beetch!:P

...

*siiiiiigh* i need a break!
 

i was pleasantly surprised to launch Firefox and find this on my Yahoo homepage:

 

it's RUDY on the Yahoo featured news clips!!!!

click here for the article.



daniel "rudy" ruettiger is the main character from one of my most favorite movies of all-time.




sean astin of The Goonies and Lord of the Rings fame played rudy:
 

he was a small man that wanted to play so much for the Fighting Irish, the football team of the University of Notre Dame. despite limitations financially, educationally (low grades) and physically (he was too short to be part of the team), he worked hard on acheiving his goal and eventually made it to the team and finally was able to play before he graduated. it took a lot of heart to do what he did, i suggest you go watch it and see what i mean.

i first saw this film when we had our training for my first job. we had the best officers, and they knew exactly what to show us to motivate and train us. i've seen it a couple of times already as a trainee and as a trainor myself, and it never fails to make me or the toughest of my officemates cry. nakaka-miss.

this is Rudy being carried out of the field after his team won the game. no one has ever been carried out of the field ever since (at least as of the movie release-1993).

he's one of those success stories everyone looks up to, and he now has written many inspirational books, has established the Rudy Foundation for children's advocacy and gives inspirational talks around the US, for a fee of course. and he doesn't come cheap.

talk about making a difference. and earning from it.


here's a homemade trailer i found at youtube. the guy couldn't find the original trailer so he made one himself. not the best but it captured what the movie was all about.



watch the movie!!!





(photos: movies.yahoo.com and google images)

 

before i exit:

this is coffee prince's yoon eun hye as go eun chan:

     

 

this is yoon eun hye as her

( GORGEOUS SELF )

... how could you not love her?;)

귀여워 !! \(",_,")/

 

yes, i have it. *sob*

i don't know why but i've had this obsession with anything korean (and japanese, and taiwanese, actually. so anything asian?) since coffee prince. i hate it, but i don't. get it?

and then there was news that sandara park was part of a new girl group. from chuvaness, of course. i swear i abhorred her when she was still 'hot' in manila. now i couldn't get enough of her! i find her so cuute!:)




i mean, look at her!!!!:D



anyway, she's part of this girl group 2ne1. they're a bunch of cute girlies and they look like this:



this is their 'street' get-up.


and like this:



'space version' of their video.

they're surprisingly cool. they were launched about a month ago and they have different versions for their video 'FIRE'.

i like the street version:

 

the other girl is also cute, Park Bom. she's the one with the long hair and who sings the main vocals.



the other two does the rapping and the dancing and sandara is supposed to be the 'fresh' voice. personally, i think she just provides the superstar factor (or simply: hatak). but minzy and cl are good.


gaaa! i know them by name!!


enough. enough of this.

충분히 되겠군요!


(i dont even remember where i got these pictures, but thank you, whoever you are!!)