My nephew has a new puppy, also a Shih Tzu like my Zune, but this time a girl. She’s here, with my nephew and his older sister too. Finally, Zune is going to have a girlfriend! They named her Sharpei, from Disney’s Highschool Musical. She is so cute and cuddly, but quite feisty. She isn’t enjoying the attention that Zune is showering her with. Haha. One minute we think they’re playing, the next, well they sound more like they’re fighting!
They’ve got plenty of time to get along though. Sorry no pictures of her to show yet, maybe in another few weeks.
I am done reading the entire Twilight Saga, much to Alfred’s surprise. But I think I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for now, I don’t really want to spoil it for him. He reads my blog you see, and he’ll surely ask me about why I say what I say and so it will just spoil the reading part for him. 😉
Unfortunately, I don’t have any update for our weight loss program – because there’s still no program to speak of. I stayed home all weekend which means I didn’t go to the grocery to buy ingredients for salads that I could take to work with me everyday.
I’ve been thinking about taking those replacement diet stuff, you know, the ones where you’re supposed to just drink their special shakes in replacement for one of your meals? I don’t actually know anyone who has actually tried it and had significant weight loss though. I’ve been reading up on different product lines and testimonials about stuff like orovo. The only thing that keeps me from trying them out is the added cost.
Hmm… maybe I’ll walk to the office early morning tomorrow to pick up Alfred. That will be good exercise for me 🙂
I guess it is no surprise that my topic this week for the Online Book and Movie Online Fan Club is about the first half of the Twilight Saga. I have mentioned too many times on this blog (as well as over at my other blog) that I have picked them up, and was surprised that I did actually find them entertaining.
You see, I was prepared not to like Twilight.
I first had my hands on an actual copy of the book from some of the girls at work. I didn’t read it at the time – it didn’t look like any book I would usually pick up from the store. I had then read from different people’s blogs their various Twilight experiences. More of them liked it, but there are those too who found it lame. This was the most interesting review critique of Twilight that I’ve read; it’s what convinced me to go on and read.
I read Twilight twice. And I decided that I liked it enough to move on to the next. I must admit though, I didn’t particularly like learning the story from Bella’s point of view. The first chapters were dragging – I felt that the author was trying too hard to setup the climax. It got more interesting though from the middle, until the end. That made sense to me after visiting Stephenie Meyer’s website.
I don’t like Bella. I felt like she was self-centered the way she treated Charlie and her new friends (were they really her friends?). Then I realized she wasn’t self-centered, no not selfish. She was just so unwilling to like anybody, so unwilling to care. So bent on having a miserable time – on punishing herself. How many times did she mention tuning out while her new friends were around her? It annoyed me. If she didn’t want their company, she should have just said so.
Could there be really anyone as clumsy and accident magnet as she is? I am used to being called lampa. I’ve never been into sports as a kid. I’d trip and fall a lot, and that’s why I have scars all over. I hardly ever really enjoyed PE in school – I welcomed any way I could get an exemption (which wasn’t easy to get). But I was not/am not an accident magnet.
Back to Bella. I felt the author’s conscious effort to paint a picture of Bella that would be such a mismatch to the perfection that Edward was. But I could also see the hints of personality and traits that would make her his perfect fit. Strip Edward of his immortality and Adonis features, and I guess they would be a match. They complement each other.
Anyway, from the first book, Twilight, these are my favorite quotes, both uttered by Edward:
For almost ninety years I’ve walked among my
kind, and yours… all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not
realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you
weren’t alive yet.
and
just because we’ve been… dealt a certain hand… it doesn’t mean that
we can’t choose to rise above — to conquer the boundaries of a destiny
that none of us wanted.
The first one is so cheesy, but the second is inspiring, I guess. Makes me remember the line: Rage against the dying of the light. Did I get that right? Haha.
It wasn’t really the love story of Bella and Edward that I particularly liked in this book. It’s how the Cullens have bonded together. It’s how they’ve all of a sudden worked to protect Bella – not necessarily for her sake, but out of love for Edward. If I had one person who would do that for me – protect who/what I loved because they couldn’t endure seeing me without that love – I’d consider myself very lucky. I think I only really appreciated how deep their bonds are after reading this:
Alice interrupted this time, touching my cheek with her cold fingers.
“It’s been almost a century that Edward’s been alone. Now he’s found you.
You can’t see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so
long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next
hundred years if he loses you?”
Anyway, I could go on really. But it’s time I stopped myself.
So Alfred is reading Twilight now. He likes it – not because of the lovey dovey stuff, but because he likes vampire stories. I know he will enjoy New Moon and Eclipse even better. I’ve been trying to convince him to drop the book because he’ll go so much faster if I just told him the story. We can even go chapter by chapter if he wanted. Hehe. Looks like he’ll be reading this through from cover to cover though. Go for it my love 🙂
Now, go visit other players at the online BAM fan club HQ, or start by reading what movie Detter recommends.
Until the next Twilight post. Oh, and I might read the last book tomorrow.
That’s me – giddy as a highschool girl. And I don’t know why 🙂
I’ve just been hyper for several hours now. I think it’s got something to do with picking up New Moon to read but I’m not sure. I know it’s not the weather – it is raining cats and dogs, in fact, our place is flooded. Yep, you would think that learning that I couldn’t get home because the flood water is up to our gate would dampen my spirit – it didn’t!
When I logged in to my blog and saw the number of spam comments that Akismet has caught in the last 24 hours, I thought surely the giddiness would dissipate. Yeah – for about firve seconds!
Not even finding out that my blog has plummeted to PR0 from PR3 a month ago. I though that would upset me, but it didn’t. Really.
So why am I giddy? I don’t know. But I don’t mind. It’s good to be happy. 🙂
I have a small mirror right in front of me here at my desk and I can never count how many times in a day I look at my reflection. Today, giddy as I am, I’ve smiled at myself SO MANY times! I usually check to be sure there’s nothing in my eyes (because there’s always something) or that there are no blotches on my skin (as there tends to be when it’s cold – and it’s always cold in here). But today, my attention was caught by two zits, side by side on my cheek – nearer to the side of my face really.
No I’m not concerned, and I am not self-conscious about it – I’m at an age when I’m way past that, I guess. So no need for Proactiv or any treatments of the sort. It did remind me of the time when I’d regularly go for facial treatments. That was during my first year to work here – the first year my monthly salary was in the five-digits! Now, I don’t think it’s practical to do that anymore. There are so many other things I’d rather spend for, or save up the money for.
In my excitement about the Magic Sing (see 2 posts down), I forgot other things I had originally intended to blog about on Sunday night.
When neither one of us in a hurry, or tripping over ourselves from sleep deprivation – I truly enjoy going on a shopping spree with Alfred. Last Sunday, that’s what we did and it was fun!
I had secretly wished we’d go to Cubao again so I can buy yarn from Maning’s for a project but Alfred wanted to avoid the UAAP crowd. As it turns out, half of the population was at the Araneta that afternoon, but the other half was in Trinoma! Aside from the Pampers event at the Activity Center of the huge mall, we could see no other reason why the place was packed. Seriously, there was a LOT of people in there.
Because this outing was specifically intended to be a jeans hunt for Alfred, he led the way. We still managed to land ourselves in the area where the Sports boutiques are – he was also secretly wishing something: that he’d find a pair of trainers that he loved on sale. Now I didn’t intend to buy anything that day, but I happened to see some thing(s) I like and that actually fit me, so I swiped away (not on credit, it was using my ATM as a debit card 😉 ).
So there was my first purchase at the Puma shop – a knitted sweater in some shade of gold.
They had it in black too, but when I tried the golden one on, it actually looked better than I anticipated (it isn’t the shining/shimmering gold type okay). I really like how it looks on me. It was Alfred’s vote to take the golden one. If I was on my own, I’d either have passed on it, or taken home the black one.
Next stop was the Landmark Department Store. Alfred was looking for a pair of blue pants for his mom – we were going to buy one for her as a birthday present. We searched and searched for the perfect pair but we ended up buying this cute, light blouse for me instead. At first, Alfred wasn’t keen on me getting that blouse, but when he saw it on me – he gave it a thumbs up. It’s not my usual style – but I think the light and airy feel of it reflects my personality better.
Why is Alfred’s opinion so important when I shop for my own clothes? It’s not because he has to approve what I wear and how I wear them. Not that at all. It’s just that when it comes to what looks good on me, I trust his taste. I don’t agree a hundred percent of the time, of course, but I do listen to him like 70%. Hehe. It’s a running joke between us that I think he’s gay!
We also needed to have some photos printed for Papa that day so dropping it off at Kodak Express was our first agenda. As with most other shops in Trinoma, Kodak Express was full too. We didn’t have to wait too long to be attended to though. They have staff there who Photoshop the photos before printing. In my mind, I was thinking, what’s the point? Why do they need to have their photos edited? This girl was laying over somebody else’s hair on top of this girl’s head in the photo. What was up with that? As Alfred and I were exchanging smiles and glances, I thought that’s what he was thinking too. No – he actually liked the idea of working part-time in such a place. Okay…
But why couldn’t the day just be perfect? We weren’t rushing even though Alfred had to go straight to work from the mall. We really were just enjoying ourselves there. More after the jump.
I’ve been trying to save up or earn extra so I could buy a:
– Sturdy, and heavy duty Oven
– And a DSLR camera (Recently added to the list. Okay, I’ve got a perfectly good point and shoot but Alfred and I would so love a DSLR. This is not a priority, but something tells me we might get one sooner than the oven.)
I’ve got some money from making truffles. And I’ve earned almost ten thousand pesos from blogging. Frustratingly, the first two times I withdrew money from Paypal, I chose to transfer to my BDO account. Big mistake. Apparently I just gave away 400 pesos to BDO when UnionBank would not have charged me anything for the same service. Serves me right for not finding out beforehand if there were any charges for such transactions.
But the bigger problem is that, I didn’t really get to “save” the extra money I earned. Not in the sense that they are kept away specifically for the purpose for which they were originally intended. So now I’m thinking of opening a separate savings account that would really be for that purpose.
Hay, I haven’t even talked about wracking my brains for ways to afford a wedding next year.
And totally going against the “save up” theme of this post, I actually spent on digital scrapbooking supplies tonight. I got this:
Alfred dear, before you react, I haven’t bought anything online in at least two months. So this was just a treat. 🙂
