Ramblings and Brain farts

AJ’s smile and early morning ramblings

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It’s 4 o’clock on a Monday morning and I am wide awake. I feel like I had slept off Sunday although I didn’t really. It’s just a relief that now, I am up, showered, and headache-free. But my my, I am hungry!

To get my mind off food (although I should probably heed my body this time, I wouldn’t want to have another tummy episode later), let me just show you my current desktop:

Photos from AJ's first birthday - 6/18/2005

Photos from AJ's 1st birthday - 6-18-2005

Credits: Desktop Calendar template freebie by Mushy. Background papers and elemenst form the PopN’Art kit by the Scrapbook Graphic Girls – freebie from Scrap N’Art

That’s my nephew AJ on his 1st birthday, three years ago. Isn’t he just cute?

Oh and I was going through my Multiply Inbox and found this. I first heard of lomo from another blogger and I immediately asked a photographer hobbyist friend about it. I was under the impression at the time that one needed special filmand printing services for lomo; apparently I was wrong. The cameras are fairly inexpensive, if I still want one by the end of this week I’d probably order one 🙂

I actually visit the seller to checkout their Local Obagi set. I don’t have a lot of pimples but my skin is prone to black/whiteheads and I have those white pockets of oil all over sometimes. I didn’t see a price tag but I’ve sent them an inquiry already. It all boils down to the cost. It’s not a necessity for me at this point, but if it will be more cost effective that having facials then I’d take it.

I realized that the story of our Bohol adventure isn’t complete yet, now is probably a good time as any to get back to it. I’m not sure if a single post would be able to finish it off, but I know I’d like to take time in writing them. Sunday morning on TV, Kim Atienza’s Matang Lawin, I saw him cruise through Loboc River at night. I knew it was going to be awesome at night – he saw hundreds of fireflies! It was such a beautiful sight. 

It’s still way too early to take Zune out for a walk, and he’s sleeping. Yet I can already hear little Sharpei yelping two doors down. I still haven’t taken a photo of them together, but I’ve already got a very appropriate journalling for Zune’s behavior when I do get to scrap a layout of them. Haha 🙂 

My friend and colleague, Ingrid, signed up for a Globe post-paid line because they had a promo at our office over the weekend. It was a great deal actually because the phone that came with the Plan 500 already has a 3-megapixel camera among it’s other  brilliant features. Our first Kodak digicam was 3.2MP, so no one can really say that that small phone’s photos aren’t of good quality. If I had one, I’d probably buy a micro sd card for it for extra storage. It’s a Samsung phone and it’s really cute, small, and lightweight. I thought my phone was small, but that one was even smaller!

Anyway, enough of this chatter. Lemme grab a bite before I hunker down on my next Bohol post. Until then! 🙂

Counting years, counting calories.

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Thank you so much for your comments on my UP100 layout. I realized I didn’t post the story behind the photo and the layout, so here goes.

When we first walked the streets of Diliman as freshmen students, and gone up the steps of Palma Hall and its Annex – our beloved PHAn – the University of the Philippines was just celebrating it’s 90th foundation anniversary. Now, it’s Centennial year. 

Ten years, that’s how long we’ve known each other. Ten years of friendship. 🙂

Because our paths crossed in UP, the UP will always be part of us when we celebrate our friendship. There’s seven of us in the group but only three in that picture: Arianne, Yrish and Mayeen. 

This Centennial year, there are a lot of ways that the UP community is celebrating – this includes the release of memorabilias. And what are UP girls to do with all those collectables? Why, grab ’em of course! That’s Mayeen showing the rest of us her piece of the limited edition hundred peso notes that were released this week. I have one myself but I don’t bring it with me anymore. I used to have two crumpled pieces in my purse but I accidentally gave one to a taxi driver when I was paying in a hurry. When I got a better looking piece, I parted with the last crumpled one. Haha. 

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Reasons to be happy – friendship and new tower!

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Yep, that is me alright – miss hap-hap-happy! 🙂 

I endured not having the use of my desktop PC for several days, and I am now rewarded with a much faster and reliable system!

Short of dumping my old PC in the trash, Alfred and I bounded to Gilmore Avenue and came home almost two hours later with boxes and boxes that held what would make up my new PC tower. I blabbed about it over there, so if you want to know a little more of the specs of my brand new tower, go there and read up. 😉

Another reason to smile is this poem shared by fellow blogger Dette of Mammadawg and MuthahoodCrib fame:

We need friends for many reasons,
all throughout the season.
We need friends to comfort us
when we are sad,
and to have fun with us when we are glad.

We need friends to give us good advice,
We need someone we can count on,
and treat us nice.

We need friends to remember us
one we have passed
sharing memories that will always last.

Spread the poem of FRIENDSHIP:

1. Everyday Life 2. Words of Love 3. Sheng’s Simple Thoughts 4. Me and My World 5.Real Expectation 6. Muthahood Crib 7. Verabear 8. Add yours here!

 

I’m only spreading this to one other friend though: Tracy 🙂

 

I, and the rest of the family, Alfred included, are looking forward to our new fitness equipments. Okay, I haven’t actually confirmed if my parents made the purchase, but my dad is suddenly motivated to exercise. We’ve had this treadmill for years but it mostly just gathers dust, until my dad started using it again daily since last week. 

The treadmill was also my equipment of choice when I used to go to the gym. The ones there are electronic, and were more comfortable for me to use than the one we have here at home. If dad is getting a stationary bike though, there’s something I would definitely make time to use. 

Remember that Alfred and I are supposed to be on a program now? Well I still wouldn’t remove the supposed in that sentence. But you should see how animated our conversation got when I told Alfred about the pending arrival of new workout equipment. I just hope he does get to use it. He says he’s really looking forward to getting rid of his beer belly. I’m not quite confident. I’ve been kidding him and saying that he should probably pop bodybuilding supplements because he needs all the help he can get to have a body that girls would swoon over. 🙂

My favorite part of his body is still his chest and all the way to the shoulders, because of the way I feel so comfortable just snuggled there. I don’t really want that to become rock solid, but lifting weights might just give him the build that I know he wants too.

Me. Family. Others.

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I had a good rant yesterday but I still didn’t get right down to the bottom line. It seems that I am easily derailed from my original line of thought. I get easily distracted these days.

My mind is working overtime – I have so many ideas and so many things I want to do. It’s like hearing voices in your head and you don’t know who to listen to first.

So what is the bottom line? I guess it’s that I am not involved in something bigger than myself. It’s that whatever I do now, it’s all just for myself mainly. I can’t even really say I am helping my family.

I’ve had it so easy. My parents were always able to provide for us. The one time or another that we’ve been in crisis – I didn’t truly feel it. They’ve never really put the burden on my brother or on me, to take over support of the entire family. There never really was that pressure. Okay, so maybe I had it easier than my brother did.

When I took my first job with the NGO, I was never required to give any portion of my salary to the family. Except to pay for the water bill – which isn’t that big. Well, for one, my pay – there really wasn’t that much of it. I knew that my mom would’ve just preferred that I save the extra that I got. Which I didn’t do, by the way. When my brother started working at a call center, it was already clear how much of his salary was going to the family. I didn’t hear him complain though.

When it was my time to earn bigger, well, they still didn’t really require anything from me. I don’t know exactly when my dad asked me to eventually give a fixed amount to my mom on a monthly basis – but even that wasn’t strictly implemented. Mom doesn’t remind us you see. She’d take what we’d give. Oh and the amount was less than half my brother’s contribution. For awhile I paid for our ISP, because I really was using it most of the time, but even that sort of was taken out of my hands eventually.

So I was already earning as much as my brother was but he was still was the only one religiously contributing to household expenses. Yet he’s still the one who was able to save up – ugh his savings is probably ten times more than mine!

My dad sort of reminded me about this. And he really does have a point. I should pick up some of the slack (my terms not his). So for the last two months, I’ve been contributing to the family income. Still not much, but at least there’s some.

And I’m thinking of doing a little more.

I’ll probably volunteer to cover the water bill again. No way am I going to shoulder electricity – leave that to the one who has an airconditioned room. Or maybe it should be the phone/Internet bill this time around? We’ll see.

And since I am the last person to leave the house at daytime, I will clean up. Nothing too exhausting – just sweep the flour, dust the tables, and keep everything in order. That way I’ll get my brother off my back too about his having to tidy up when he gets home from work. Maybe I’d be more keen on cleaning up if we had one of those Miele vacuum cleaners. Nah, I don’t think so, not really.

Maybe when I succeed in this, when I do even just a little for my family, I’ll be able to crawl out of  my shell once again and step out onto the bigger world. Maybe then I can reconnect with others and do something for a cause that’s bigger than just myself.

Wrapped up in my own world: ignoring the China milk scare & others too

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There was a time when I was appalled by other young people’s apathy. I vividly remember hearing, back when I was a junior in college, hearing this senior girl so worried about because she was not going to get the – was that a condo or a car? – that her dad had promised her. When I heard that, I felt disgusted- how could she worry about such trivial things when there were so many other important things to worry about? When there were so many issues plaguing the country at the time?

In time, I realized I was wrong to trivialize what she felt were her issues. I was wrong to judge.

But at that time in my life, as was years earlier and years since, I was a social activist – particularly on children’s issues. Having been raised by parents who were in the thick of action in the upheaval that was the Martial Law years, I was brought up aware of what’s happening to my surroundings. It also helped that I went to highschool where there was some of that too.

So what I’ve become now, is a little unimaginable for myself.

I used to think it was impossible, but I have become wrapped up in my own little world. I care less now. And I’m not sure that is all very good.

I do not wish to judge others, believe me, because we all write about what we want to, what we feel, what affects us. But I am judging myself, in a way. Because, as I said, I have become another a slightly different version of the person I thought I would grow up to be.

I’d like to think that this has nothing to do with the career change that I did more than three years ago. That switching careers wasn’t a complete change in lifestyle. I cringe to think of myself as a total sellout. Though I don’t doubt that there are others who may think that way.

But look at my blog, notice how I almost never post about other people, about social issues, anymore? I never really thought about it until now. I blog about most things, I only keep my deepest secrets to myself really. The rest I share.

I realized this because, well, the China milk scare has been in the headlines for some time now. And then there’s the tragedy in the mines of Benguet. Yet none of those two newsmakers have found their way through here. The worst part is that I was only vaguely aware of the Benguet mine disaster – I thought it was in some other country.

I had not picked up the papers, and I have not been paying attention to the news on TV apparently. Shame on me.

Enough with the ranting.

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