plans + procrastination

I wasn't able to get tickets to the UAAP Cheerdance Competition which is happening this Saturday. Sad. :(

But on the bright side, I signed the contract for my new part time job yesterday and I've scheduled my shifts earlier. So yay! Money for my luho coming soo-oo-ooon! :P

Aaaaaand my sister promised to go to the 32nd Manila Internnational Book Fair this Saturday. *jumps up and down in excitement kahit na sa totoong buhay eh wala naman nakong perang pambili ng libro*

I've also got some new travel plans that I'm really looking forward to! I'll be spending 5 blissful days in Coron from October 19 to 23 in celebration of a friend's birthday. Birthday shots + beautiful beaches = one hell of a trip. I am soooooo excited!

Btw, I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork right now but my mind can't take schoolwork for a prolonged period of time. I need to have a lot of breaks between studying. Most of the time, mas mahaba pa ung breaks kesa sa pag-aaral na nagagawa ko. Unless I'm cramming. Dun lang talaga tumotodo ang attention ko sa studies. Tsk. Once a crammer, always a crammer.

Pero alam mo ba, sabi sa Wikipedia, "Most healthy teenagers and adults are unable to sustain attention on one thing for more than about 20 minutes at a time, although they can choose repeatedly to re-focus on the same thing". Pero feeling ko, ung attention span ko eh less than the average. Mga 5-10 minutes lang. And my mind constantly refuses to re-focus on studying. I am also a HUGE procrastinator when it comes to my studies. Pag humaharap ako sa mga modules ko bigla akong gaganahang maglinis ng kwarto/ mag-clean-up ng e-mail/ kumain(speaking of pagkain - parang bigla akong nagutom)/ mag-blog (parang ngaun)/ at kung anu-ano pang gawain basta hindi involved sa pag-aaral. Gah. Tamad. Sobra. Magkakadrive na lang ulit ako mag-aral pag malapit (as in super lapit) na ung deadlines ng exams ko. (FYI, home schooled ako. I schedule my exams whenever I want to take them basta maximum is 4 months after enrollment.)

Okay. Sige na. Titigilan ko na ang pagpoprocrastinate. Mag-aaral na ko pramis. Pero maghahanap muna ko ng makakain. Masamang mag-aral ng walang laman ang tyan. (Excuses) Hehe.

~Alright. I'm outta here.

22nd Philippine Travel Mart

I had no one to go with and had barely a thousand pesos in my pocket but that didn't stop me from going to the 22nd Philippine Travel Mart last Saturday. Talk about being travel crazy. Haha. :)

Well, I knew that I was gonna be able to get a lot of free brochures and some freebies so I decided to check it out even though I had just a little money with me. I've got a trip to Cebu-Bohol (and maybe Bantayan Island too if we're not too pressed for time) lined up for December and a few friends were inviting me to go with them to Coron in October and to Siargao and Boracay in November. I figured I'd be able to at least check some booths for infos on those locations. I enjoyed checking out the different booths. I must have gone around the whole venue three times! :P

my favorite booth - i love the flowers and fruits idea. :)

i badly wanted to try sitting on this
- but i would've looked stupid
since i was all alone. :(

magayon - the only bicolano word i know. :P

i love how organic laoag's booth is.

under the sea, under the seeeaaaaaaaa. :P

Well, having less than a thousand pesos, I thought I'll leave the travel mart with just these brochures but I did get a free membership to Resort's World (and they gave me a free bag and a pen). I've never been to Resort's World, though. :P

I was also able to get a reservation for 6-8 people at the Caliraya Resort Club (reservation fee of only 500 pesos). Oh and I got a heap of brochures. Haha. I like the Intramuros brochure the most - it's not the usual glossy brochure.

I also got some travel magazines for free - these are gonna be a tremendous help for my Cebu trip. :) To sum it up, the 40-pesos (student price, beybeh. :D) entrance fee is definitely worth it. Wish I could be there again (with a lot more moolah) next year! :)

what must be done to start "she's come undone"

I rewarded myself with a new(ish) used book yesterday because I've been studying my ass off for the past weeks. I've got just one more module exam to finish. After that, I'm off to do a little review and then it's gonna be the time to take my final exams! Must get all 6 exams done by the 12th of September! I'm feeling all the pressure now! Oh well, just a few months from now (most likely half a year or just a little bit more) and it'll be all worth it! :)

Btw, the book is Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone". Bought it for P250 at my favorite secondhand bookstore in UP - Bookshoppe sa Peyups. It's the shop behind the waiting shed between SC and the Post Office. I always buy 3-4 books when I go there so Ate (Sorry, I don't know the seller's name. Must ask her when I go back.) was asking me: "Ito lang?". LOL. Sorry Ate, I'm on a tight budget right now. :P

Now all I have to do is stop myself from reading the book until I get through my exams. To be honest, I'll probably cheat a little by reading a few pages during study breaks. Hah! Self-control, where are yooouu?

chicken VS egg

I am counting my chickens before my eggs have hatched.

I had my orientation for my part time job yesterday and I'm already speculating on what to spend my probable earnings on. Gah! Hey, big spender alter-ego! You better keep yourself in check!

Anyway, on the top of my how-I-want-to-spend-my-eagerly-anticipated-yet-nonexistent-at-the-moment-first-salary list is getting myself a hard-bound copy of Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine". I'm a hardcore Sword of Truth fan and I love Richard and Kahlan from the deepest bottom of my heart. Oh, and if you feel like I've spoken a whole new language in my last couple of sentences then you better get your ass off to the nearest bookstore and get a copy of Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule" - the first of the 11-book series "The Sword of Truth". I personally describe this series as a cross between Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. It's got magic and romance and war and politics all rolled into one. Just wait till you read all about Mord-Siths and Mud People and Pillars of Creation and Raug'Moss and D'Harans and Sisters of the Light and and AND...


Damn! My inner geek just exploded.

celebrating with mer-nel's

Yesterday was my dad's 56th birthday so we had a lot of food in the house last night. And while I decided not to eat rice, I don't think I should be proud of having achieved that. 'Cause even though I did not have rice, I did eat A LOT. I had pancit canton + 2 heaping bowls of lomi + clubhouse sandwich(ES) + french fries + chocolates for dinner. Yeah. Glutton me struck again. Boooooo.

Oh, and to celebrate, my sister (who studies in UPLB) brought home a chocolate cake from Mer-Nel's. Mer-Nel's is popular for their heart-shaped choco cakes. I had a small slice and found that it was good but too sweet for my taste. (Pero mahina ang tolerance ko sa sweets so baka ako lang ung natatamisan masyado.) Anyway, Happy Birthday, Tata! :) (I call my dad Tata but my sister calls him Papa - thus the greeting on the cake. I think my brother calls him Tata too. Weird but that's just the way it is. We all - me, sis and bro - call our mom Mama, though.)

Gaaaah. I just realized that I missed today's episode of Junior Masterchef Pinoy Edition. I saw just the last few minutes of the show. :( (Mukhang sosyal ang mga batang contestants ha. :P) I was soooo looking forward to watching it because I loved JMC Australia. I wonder where I can stream this online...

Hmmm...

 **off to find a site that streams JMC Pinoy Edition. buhbyeeeee.~**

MOVE

And just when I've been patting myself on the back for not being travel-crazy lately, I find this video.

Gaaaaah! Must. Travel. Soon.



MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

busybee

I have been busy as a bee lately. Pero ngaun pa talaga ko nagka-time magpost. haha. :) I thought my schedule will be less hectic now that my sister's 18th birthday is over and done with but I'm left with more things to do now.

1. I've been editing the pictures I took on her birthday. Ako ang official photographer-photographeran dahil nag-deal kami ni Mama na hahatian niya ko sa bayad ng DSLR basta ako ang magpipicture sa debut. Eh di sige! I will not say no to minimizing my expenses. Haha. But I do hope the amateur pictures that I took are good enough. :P

Anyway, I was planning on checking out the photo printing shops at Hidalgo to look for places where I could have the pictures printed on a photo book. But then I found a deal online offering a 6x8 hard bound photobook for only Php495.00 - delivery included. And they have a software that you can download for easier photobook creation and customization.The offer is still on at Metrodeal so go ahead and grab a voucher if you want one too. :) Sana lang maayos ang printing service nila. This is the first time that I'm trying their services out.

2. My housemates and I had to look for a new house because our current house is gonna be renovated by the end of this month and we have no idea what they're planning to do with the house. The renovation actually seems to be demolition of the current house and building rooms for rent instead. So we just decided to look for a new place. AND we found a GREAT place yesterday! Happy, happy. :) We're moving out on Sunday and we are just sooooo excited. :)

3. Because of the debut preparations and all the drinking I did last month, I have put off studying for my exams. Patay! Now I really have to study, study, STUDY! I have barely 2 months left to take my exams! :/

4. And because I've spent too much for my birthday, I need some moolah. I applied for a part time job around a couple of weeks back and I'm to go through a certification in 2 days! Wish me luck. I'm in bad need money right now. :P