where the moon shines

A gentle pat on the back, a simple kudos email, small treats like these chocolate polvoron; sometimes that’s all it takes to show your people that you recognize their achievements and appreciate all their hard work.

When I first became a TM, I’d buy gummy bears for the team, and all sorts of candy treats that would keep them awake during their shift. When I moved on to other LOBs, I still took the habit with me. Sometimes we’d have donuts, or I’ll even bake them cupcakes. When I don’t have much extra money, Flat Tops or Cloud 9 would do. Since we have a payday bazaar, I’d share my finds with them, like those super yummy Choco cupcakes with fudge icing. Recently, it’s been these chocvorons that I hand out to the agents. (I don’t think I’d be doing that much anymore, to discourage them from eating right on their stations, haha.)

****

Yesterday I found out from my friend’s post that she’s pregnant, possibly with twins! No wonder the boyfriend says she looks bigger than normal (they work in the same building in Makati and he’s seen her recently, when I haven’t seen her in maybe six months or so). Well, she hasn’t actually confirmed details yet, but that’s amazing news. Her eldest is about 3 or 4 years old already and will probably make an awesome big sister She should definitely start looking for prenatal vitamins; I know that when it comes to pregnancy and caring for your baby it’s not one size fits all, there’s so much to consider. If I remember correctly she had to stop working during her first pregnancy on her doctors’ advise, I hope that doesn’t have to happen this time around.

For Project 365, I started actually using my Flickr account. I also joined up with the Shutter Sisters 365 pool.

Sadly, apart from uploading my own photos, I haven’t actually gone around to check out the other photos added to the pool. Not much anyway.

Here’s a snip (cut using Win7’s Snipping Tool) of how my Project 365 2010 photo set looks like. Don’t they just look cute ordered that way?

Click on the photo to view the set on Flickr.

The last one I’ve uploaded is a photo from the 29th of January (yes, I’m a few days behind):

Meet Snoopy (pronounced snow-pee, as preferred by my nephew E himself).

He’s cute isn’t he? He’s just about 3 months old, a cross between a Shih Tzu and King Charles.

No, he isn’t my baby, and he’s definitely not sired by my Zune. This is Esban’s new puppy. Took a bath on the afternoon of the 9th, by the gentle hands of my giant, haha

I know I already have a photo blog, and I’m supposed to fill my new photography blog with posts and photos. But I just can’t help setting up a new Project 365 blog, because I love how clean the blog service looks. Check it out and leave me comments

While I was blog hopping and Facebooking, I came across a site showcasing destin hotels. Beautiful location, and beautiful hotels too. How I wish we could just drop everything this weekend and fly away to celebrate our ten years in one of those luxury hotels. If only we had the resources…

This year, I hope to finally dig deeper into Photography. I’ve so far setup a new blog that will be devoted to just learning more about Photography: The {Newbie} Photography. There’s nothing there just yet, save the photos that came with the template I used. In time I hope…

• to house my Project 365 photos up there. Yes, I’m doing it again this year. And I hope that this time, I make it through to 365. I joined up at the Shutter Sisters 365 Flickr pool, go check it out and join us too.
• to have well thought out and carefully written posts that will explain the basics of digital photography to newbies. I had to sign up for a workshop, and eventually a six-week online class (Candice Stringham’s class at the Spraground is highly recommended), just to get a firm grasp of the basics. Others do not have the luxury of time, nor the money to pay for basics classes. I hope they find the blog. To be selfish about it, if I succeeded in writing something that will actually be helpful, that means I truly have learned the concepts.
• collaborate with other photographers, newbies, intermediate, and experts alike. Maybe I can find talented people who will hopefully write useful articles to further our learning of photography. Or maybe I can interview them and put together informative pieces.
• to have other newbie photographers collaborate with me. Maybe they can have their “column” or something.

It’s very much a work in progress. Nothing’s set in stone yet. Please pray that this blooms into something really beautiful

I’ve also signed up with Shutter Sisters, and I’ve been going around the site trying to take in the beautiful images. So far, I’ve been inspired by PictureHope.

There’s another membership site that I’m contemplating joining – Clickin’ Moms. There’s a membership fee though, and I don’t quite have the funds for it at this time. Maybe if I earn off traffic and ads on the new blog, I’ll allocate that to a Clickin’ Moms fund or something.

I have owned Maxine since May last year and yet I have not had given the craft the devotion I should have in order to show real improvement in the quality of my photos. Sometimes I think that the photos I used to take for P365 using the Kodak point and shoot than the regular pictures I take using Maxine. Why did I even buy a DSLR if that was going to be the case after all?

So there you go ladies and gentlemen, Photography is on my to-do-list for 2010. Along with the quest for the diet pill that works, although I think USANA’s Reset program may really be the answer to my weight issues. Do not worry, I will tell you all about it once I get on the program. Hmm, does anyone smell the beginnings of a spin-off blog on weight loss? Haha.

A friend commented (in person) on the lack of new photos uploaded to my blog.  I wanted to say it’s because I haven’t found the push to post the ones I’ve taken recently.  But to be truthful, it’s more because I haven’t really been taking much photos lately.

And that’s sad.

It wouldn’t be a sad fact if the reason for the lack of photos was that I’ve been baking during my free time. But that’s not true either.

Super sad.

So what have I been doing? Nothing really.

And I hate that.

I should schedule the things I’d like to try; devote time to take photos and learn more about photography. I should. Check back next week if I’ve done that already.

I should draw a list of stuff I want to bake and then run up a schedule to actually make them. This one I really want to do. Next week, check on my progress. Please.

Hay, shoulds. But these ones are the type I want to do. So I’m not complaining.

Oh, but I did snap photos of something today:

There’s a Pick & Mix kiosk near the building entrance and I pass by it everyday.  Today, I gave in to the pull of these sweeties (though there were plenty more I wanted to get).  You know what they are?  Inside those colorful candy-coating (some of them are pink!) are chocolate-coated sunflower seeds.  These are tiny! And yummy!