Ramblings and Brain farts

Wow Magic Sing!

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We’ve been talking about it and we had even decided before that Mom was going to get one in exchange for her Credit Card rewards, but it was only today that the plan finally fell through – we are proud owners of a Wow Magic Sing Concerto Edition sing-a-long system! Wahaha 🙂

If you are Pinoy or if you know someone who has Pinoy in his blood, then you know what this Magic Sing is all about. It’s a “magic mic” that you can plug in to your TV or Home Entertainment System. It has it’s own library of songs (I think this one has 2000) and it also has a built-in scoring system – Karaoke style!

You don’t need to memorize the lyrics, or the tune/melody, because there’s a guide for you. Yes, remember the follow-the-whatever-object-flies-around-over-the-words/lyrics in the Looney Tunes shows of old? It’s a lot like that.

Videokes are now not just found in night clubs, or in gatherings/celebrations. You will find one in many street corners, in the mall, in gaming arcades. They are all over. And always, you will always find someone willing to belt it out.

My family is no exemption. Although we do prefer to do so in the confines of our small compound here. 😉

The Magic Mics (there’s two in the set) had to wait until just before midnight before I could take them out of their box. We had dinner downstairs for my niece Hanna’s ninth birthday and I lingered there to chitchat with my cousins some more. When I finally came home, my brother was about to leave for work, my Dad was already fast asleep, and my Mom was the only one left still up.

I didn’t wait to be told twice to checkout our latest toy. I opened it up, read enough of the manual to know how to set it up properly. And then there I was singing.

I scored 74 for the first song – WHAT?! Haha. But for the rest of the time, I got this:

Yup – I’m an excellent singer. Haha! 🙂 My Mom didn’t sing tonight but she sat through several songs before she turned in for the night. She must have told my Dad what I was doing because he actually came downstairs to check it out. Of course I let him have the mic for two Beatles songs. Yeah, just two. I gave myself an hour to enjoy singing (with the TV volume turned down to avoid waking the neighbors) but my concert actually ran for two hours! Fun 🙂

Now we wouldn’t have to spend additional money to rent Videoke systems for our Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve gatherings. We would need amplifiers and loud speakers to still be able to compete with neighbors on the other side of the creek though. Hehe.

Random thoughts on a Sunday morning

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* I missed Scrapbook Saturday. I’ll make it up next week.

* I spent 14 hours at work last night. There was a time when Overtime was the norm for me, averaging 12 hours. But it hasn’t been that way in a long time. Today was not bad though, I stayed just because I wanted too and not necessarily because I had work to do.

* I just finished New Moon and I actually loved it better then Twilight. Haha. I read it in less than eight hours. I’ve a feeling I’ll post about this again one of these days. 😉

* Can’t get over the amount of tax I am paying this government, much less the gross tax payments coming from this household. Sheesh.

* I noticed how big my tummy is. I am fat, not pregnant. But sometimes it’s nice to think about having my own baby and shopping for baby clothes and all the things they need. Years ago, I’d walk in to the department store and the Infant section just beckoned to me. I would walk around, first checking the toys, then the bottles. Next to the teeny tiny clothes that I enjoyed looking through, my next favorite baby items have got to be the beddings, and the strollers. It’s always cute to look at toddlers in their strollers – at the mall, or out on their daily walks. Or infants snug and so comfortably laying there wherever their parents took them. Ahhh…. Wait, I used to browse through infant sections a lot because there was always a baby in the extended family. Just saying. 🙂

* This was a good week at work. Hopefully next week is just as good. Could it be because I’ve actually been sleeping better at home? Maybe.

* It’s a weekend, let’s all have a good one 🙂

Thursday Thirteen #14 – Books!

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For this edition of my Thursday Thirteen, I list the books on my current to-read pile.

to-read pile!

to-read pile!

There are plenty of other books in the house that I haven’t read and would love to read too. It just so happens that I bought the ones on this pile myself – mostly second-hand.

  1. New Moon – Book 2 of the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. I just finished reading Twilight for the second time and I’ll probably start this one in a day or two. I gotta post about the recent two books I finished reading before I start another though.
  2. Eclipse – Book 3 of the Twilight Saga. Okay, it’s obvious that I already own all four books in the series. I figured I’d buy them at once while Fully Booked at Gateway still had paperback stocks. I actually had to reserve these via email. The first three books were picked up for me by my friend Vanette, while Breaking Dawn in paperback was restocked only last weekend. The CS peeps over at Fully Booked were kind enough to inform me that it was already available so I picked it up on Monday.
  3. Breaking Dawn – Book 4. Alfred is interested in reading the saga and I am encouraging him because it is rare that he shows interests in books. I’m not sure how he’d react to the cheesy stuff though.
  4. My Friend Leonard – James Frey. I had read A Million Little Pieces and was moved, sometimes disturbed, by the story. I don’t care if he embellished and if it wasn’t 100% truthful, he had very powerful words and he painted pictures that people should see. I am looking forward to this one, and I am assuming it will revolve around the same Leonard that was part of the first book. While I was at the bookstore, I found out about a third novel that Frey wrote. If I still like this one, I’d most probably be getting that too.
  5. Lirael – by Garth Nix. Book 2 of the Abhorsen series. It’s been years since I read the first of the trilogy: Sabriel. It’s a Young Adult Fantasy and I love it!  The main character in the first book is a young girl. Lirael will continue on with what had happened after the events in the first book took place. I’m hoping I can dig out the first book so I could jog my memory a bit before I start on Lirael.
  6. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo. I’ve seen the concert, loved the songs and even sang them, but I’ve never read the book. I must admit it’s thickness is quite intimidating, but I think I can handle it  🙂
  7. Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. You gotta take one when you take the other right? Haha. I wonder if I’ll understand much of what is written in these two books?
  8. Anna Karenin by Leo Tolstoy.
  9. PS I Love You by Cecilia Ahern – Loved the movie, I’m sure I will love the book even more.
  10. The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin, Nicola Kraus. Here’s another title whose movie adaptation I enjoyed watching.
  11. The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg – I had read two or three of her novels before and I truly enjoyed them. So full of heart. I’ve already forgotten what this one is about, but I’m sure I will like it.
  12. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella – I have missed her writing and woulld love to just sitback and enjoy some light reading again 🙂
  13. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger – Can you believe that I didn’t see the movie? I’ll read this, and then watch.

There are at least two more titles upstairs that should be on this pile, including Scottoline’s Daddy’s Girl. I’d love to skip work and just spend entire days reading and then blogging about them (and maybe even giving them away if I could figure out the logistics for that). Then I’d have visits to the bookshops to look forward to again. I really love walking into bookshops and letting titles draw me in. I have not tried book shopping online because I know I’d be addicted.  Maybe it’s a blessing that Amazon books don’t deliver to the Philippines. 😉

Checkout my previous TT’s here and here. Also don’t forget to sign Mr Linky, and leave a comment so I can go visit you too. :)

Kids. Prayers. and a Freebie :)

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Wow. Since coming back from Bohol, I have not spent as much time on the computer lately, as I used too.

Pre-Bohol, my days off work were alternately spent between sleeping and all things related to my blogging. This weekend, I have been sleeping, yes, but I haven’t been on the computer much.

Kids.

Whenever I get the chance, I take a nephew or a niece (or two, or more) with me, or tell stories about them to anyone who would care to listen. It is not at all surprising that the whole extended family is interested in what happens with each child – be it at school or elsewhere.

My 11-year old niece Dal, E’s elder sister,  was in a concert yesterday and all hands were on deck to support her. Even my Papa (grandfather) came with us to watch. It was a showcase of sorts and it was more like a school presentation than a concert, but it was fun to watch 🙂

While at the mall a few months ago with my cousin Candy, Dal was approached by a talent scout and was asked to audition for a spot at a kiddie show at some UHF channel. After discussing things with her parents, they decided to give it a go. She was accepted to attend a series of workshops. It went on from some time in May and they had their graduation rights on Sunday before last. I learned last night that she had already been chosen to be one of just 10 new kids to join the show. Yay!

We were all so proud of our girl, and it’s not just because she’s ours. She was so confident up there dancing. I always knew she could dance gracefully but this was the first time I saw her do so quite confidently. She wasn’t conscious at all in front of a full auditorium!

Here’s a video of the kids performing outside, just for me, three years ago. Dal is the one to the very left.

Prayers.

Joy, a friend of mine from Asia ACTs, was with us at the concert too. She had known Dal and the other kids from when I would take them to work or to an event we had.

From the concert and some snacks, we went to see Daddy Abueva at the hospital. He had suffered a stroke (there’s a more technical term to what actually happened) while in Davao with his son and son-in-law checking out wood for his various projects. With the doctor’s approval, and with an actual doctor accompanying them, he was flown back to Manila a few days ago.

We were there for about five hours. Yep, that was a long visit. We didn’t really intend it to be that long, specially knowing that he needed to rest.  But only Mommy Abueva was there when we arrived and we actually got around to chatting with her and keeping her company. In my years at Asia ACTs, and the many times she had us over for dinner, I didn’t really get the chance to just chat with Dra. Abueva like that. It was actually very easy. 🙂

There were other visitors too, and then eventually, Kuya Jimmy (Ate Ami’s husband) and son Dino came over; then Kuya Lawin, who was taking night watch. That was our signal to exit, we didn’t realize it was already late!

Daddy Abueva doesn’t seem to be in any danger anymore, in fact, he is raring to get back on his feet. But he still needs to rest, and go through some therapy. Being in bed though has not stopped him from being his funny self. 🙂

The family would appreciate prayers for Daddy Abueva’s fast and full recovery.

Freebie.

No, I am not giving away anything. But Flergs is. I’ve been a fan of Flergs for some time now and I couldn’t pass up the chance to win a kit that she had made.

Growing in Grace Magazine is running a promo to give readers the chance to win the Dusk Mini Kit, or perhaps even the entire Dusk til Dawn set? See the lovely new badge over at my sidebar? Click on it so you can read all about the promo. Before you go though, check this out:

This is my current desktop wallpaper. It’s a freebie desktop from Flergs’ blog and it was made using stuff from the kit in the promo. I just plopped it over one of my photos at the white sand beach of Panglao Island in Bohol 🙂

Go on over and check out the promo and the freebie desktop. You know you want to 😉

Other stuff. Come on, you’ve made it this far in my post, take a few more minutes 🙂 Thank you!

Yesterday, I saw a banner over at the tennis courts about individual lessons. I had asked my mom to check it out further since the court is just right in front of her office building. If I can afford it, I’d give it a shot. It’s been four years since I first tried the sport, with my uncle giving me free lessons.

Tennis would give me the much needed full body workout, and probably the kick in the butt I’ve been needing to get back to losing weight. I’m still not sure if FitRight is helping me out in that department, though I think it is. I’ve also been thinking about dietpills lately. I used to swear never to go near any product like that, but maybe it ain’t so bad?

Back to work?!

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I already had half of the second installment of our Bohol getaway typed up and I’ve settled myself in front of Alfred’s laptop to post it. I’m not in the mood to publish it though, his mouse is so darn funky! I’m afraid it’s taking the pleasure away from blogging. Haha. Seriously, the next post is going to be about the tour of the sites and will have lots of photos. I don’t want to be just frustrated while posting it because the mouse takes forever to go where I want it to.

The trip was such a great and happy experience and I don’t want it’s memory to be tainted. LOL!

Back at work yesterday, it wasn’t so bad. Save for the hundreds of mail I had to catch up on, everything seemed to be just right. The Baguio girls are back from their long vacation and we exchanged pasalubongs for each other,  they brought me Ube from the Good Shepherd Convent, and chocolate crinkles too. Yum!

I also saw the list of winners for the recent raffle draw that Alfred had entries for. Too bad he didn’t win. There were cellphones and MP3 players given away and he had said that he wanted to win one for me. We never get anything from raffle draws! Haha.

I think he just wants to win an MP3 player for me because he doesn’t want me borrowing his iPod a lot, and he knows I won’t buy one for myself!

Anyway, I gotta get two more hours of sleep and then I’ll be back with vacation post number 2. I hope you stay tuned!

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