gestalt prayer

I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.

(Fritz Perls, "Gestalt Therapy Verbatim", 1969)

banana chips

watching shonen knife's "banana chips" music video while eating banana chips. this song reminds me of high school days and the heyday of mtv. and the song always gets stuck in my head whenever i eat banana chips. banana chips... banana chips... banana chips... oh yeah! *lakas maka-LSS. :P*

on a totally unrelated note, i'm really glad that i've gotten my little sister into reading, and most importantly: buying books. here's a pic of some of her most recent purchases that has kept me busy recently:

yes, that's an animated shounen knife on my screen. :P

i went through the books like a hungry dog and after a few days, have no more left to read. :( among all these books, i guess i liked "the perks of being a wallflower" the most. it's different from all the books i've read before (in a good way). i've read "tuesdays with morrie" years ago and loved it. "for one more day" was good too but i liked wallflower more. bob ong's "lumayo ka nga sa akin" also had a different format, but i didn't enjoy it quite as well as his previous books. i still think his debut work "A B N K K B S N P L A Ko?!" is the best he has ever done. that's just my 2 cents worth, though. oh well, gotta go raid some bookstores soon!

kawaii

meet my youngest cousin ten-ten chan. she has the cutest, curly hair and the thickest eyelashes. :) i took this pic last month, when her family was here in pinas for the holiday season. they're back in japan now, though. mahiyain/suplada siya in person but sooooo kulit when on video chat. the trick to get her to warm up to you is to bring out a camera. once she sees a camera, she'll smile and be friendly na agad. cute noh? :) btw, she loves the computer/laptop - that's a computer mouse she's holding in this picture. she will probably grow up to be a techie kiddo someday. :)

what's up?

yeah. i know that i haven't been put up any posts for such a long time now. blame the crappy, crappy internet connection that we just got fixed. anyway, let me get you caught up with my boring crap-tastic life.

• went to cebu-bohol-sumilon island with a friend in the first week of december. will do lengthy post soon.
• spent time with my cousins who were on vacation in pinas over the holiday season- they've been living in japan for the past few years.
• spent the holiday season with my family - and hid in my room once the clock struck 12 on new year's eve. i hate the smoke from the fireworks. (arte ko lang. hehe)
• caught up with high school friends - and got updated with the latest chismis. :P one of them came home from aussie and another will be leaving for canada soon. uwahhh. they're leaving one by one! :(
• stayed with my grandma at the hospital - we had her admitted in the hospital because she had difficulty breathing. turns out she had some kidney stones and had to undergo operation. been staying with her too  after she was released from the hospital.
• finally got around to reading half of what's on the "to-be-read" file on my bookshelf

oh, and we were robbed. yeah. pinasok ung bahay namin sa cavite. at multiple times na pala. the thief has been taking clothes from our house and selling them. we didn't realize that this has been happening because me and my sister stay in apartments out of cavite too - my sister in los banos, laguna and me in quezon city. so whenever we go looking for clothes back home and can't find them, we automatically think that they're most likely in our apartment in lb/qc. but the last incident, pati jewelries and cameras kinuha. although we've already caught the culprit - and gotten some stuff back, we will never know the extent of what we've lost. just last week, they returned some clothes - some of which were mine and i had no idea AT ALL that they were missing. sigh.

anyway, i'll have to finish uploading pictures and videos - i owe lots of pictures to my friends and family. will be updating with posts about my most recent travel soon. ciao!

decipher me

sometimes, you scheme, plan and steer a situation into a specific direction because you fear the consequences should things go the other way around. then things don't go the way they should and what you fear the most happens. but then you realize that there really wasn't anything to fear at all... because after your most dreaded circumstances comes to reality, things turn out not half as bad as you thought they would be. in fact, the dreaded situation is even better than anything you've ever hoped for!

wala lang. posting my encrypted thoughts because i feel so blessed. even second chances can have their own second chances too. :)

let there be light

a little bit of light painting because i'm bored. :P

made this using a cheap lighter with a built in mini-flashlight. i might get better better flashlights (or as them english people call it: torch) in the future to get a thicker light-pen width. i'm still much, much more into landscape photography though. well, not in a professional kind of way. more of a hobbyist siguro. :) i just love taking snapshots of the places i've been to. amateur as i may be, there's that wonderful feeling of getting a good shot - something i would love looking at and would invoke memories of the place whenever i see the picture. but to be honest, it takes me lots of crappy shots to get something decent. haha. :D

in the meantime, i am preparing for my cebu-bohol-sumilon island getaway with a friend this sunday so expect lots and lots of pictures in the upcoming posts. still debating with myself if i'm gonna do the sky adventure or not though. i'm afraid of heights, you know.

oh, and in preparation for the trip i bought some stuff which are totally unnecessary. haha. but i have been planning on getting them for quite a while now so i guess i'm being fair enough to myself. :P

travel purchase #1: a microfiber towel

because i always, always bring my own towel when traveling. and it takes up too much space! i've been eyeing a certain brand of microfiber towels that offers stitching in names as well but i found this 100-peso not-so-microfiber-towel in one of the kiosks at sm north so i bought it without second thought. hope it's as absorbent as it advertises!

travel purchase #2: a rubberducky dry bag from stoked

to protect my gadgets whenever i'm gonna be near water. one of my friends brought a dry bag with her during our white-water rafting adventure in cdo and i've been wanting to get one ever since.

travel purchase #3: a limited edition pair of havaianas

though i've promised myself eons ago that i will never, ever succumb to buying pricey pairs of flip-flops, i just couldn't resist that adorable kokeshi design. :P i've been justifying this purchase with my cheapskate self by citing reasons such as "it was on sale!" and "it's better to buy a pricey one than cheap ones that wouldn't last!".

and now i don't have enough money to buy an underwater case for my camera. haha. anyway, i found this waterproof gadget protector in powerbooks which may (or may not) be able to protect my digicam at powerbooks. i do hope it will do the job. :P

i've actually been planning to buy all these stuff for about 2 years now. i'm actually pretty amazed that i've got all of them before my upcoming trip. :)

here's to hoping for clear, sunny skies for the first week of december. :)

to be fulfilled - christmas 2012 :)

My mom got into the Christmas spirit early and set up our Christmas tree in the first half of September. Not that there's anything unusual about it since the Yuletide Season in the Philippines starts as soon as the -ber months come around.

And so this year, following my mom's example, I am making a list of my gifts early. Well, gifts for myself, that is. What?! Did I fool you into thinking I was a nice little girl? :P 

look at me! :)

And so here it is: 2 things I'm planning to get for my selfish self this Christmas. (Note: List not final - the author may find more stuff to add to this to-be-fulfilled-by-myself-wishlist.) :)

1. a new Navi Planner
I used to get the Starbucks planner each year since I started working but was introduced to the Navi Planner by my product trainer (at the time) during the end of 2009. Navi, I think, is made with travel-crazy people like me in mind. And I just loved the cover. It's not girly but it's not too formal either.

2. my own personal Embosser/Dry Seal
My roommate once mentioned that a common friend of ours uses his own custom made dry seal to emboss his name on his books with. Being the bibliophile that I am, I thought this was a great idea and wanted one for myself too. I found this good deal at CashCashPinoy yesterday but I was too late. The deal was already sold out. :( I did take note of the company's address and might give them a visit, though.

So there you have it - just a couple of things I've wanted to get for myself but haven't and promise to get myself this Christmas. :)