2013 and Liebster Award

First day of the year (at least in the Chinese calendar) and though I want as much to start this post with a prelude of good things to come, I knew I’m headed for a rather frustrating (no decent photo to go with it) and disappointing one. Another not-so-good parts were the deaths I have to go through early on: my Lola passed away due to complications of her stroke, lost my five-year-old cat to cat virus and my soon–to-be-mine puppy died due to unknown reason. I think it’s because of an undigested bone.

My only compensation for this first 2013 post is that I was nominated by Dani of Awesome in Manila the Liebster Award. It’s something given to bloggers with less than 200 followers. The rules are simple: once nominated, post 11 facts about yourself, answer the awarder’s questions, post questions of your own and nominate 11 other friends. So let’s get going.

11 Facts about me 

1. Loves the feeling of sadness, melancholy and nostalgia.
2. Daydreams a lot.
3. An Ailurophile.
4. Prone to chapped lips.
5. Wishes to be taller (at least 5’5” please).
6. Fancies apple and molar-shaped objects.
7. Addicted to crime series (The Following, Bones, Fringe).

8. Likes to pet a bat, tarantula, tiger and a lot more.
9. Wants to be a Forensic anthropologist in the next lifetime.
10. Not a Buddhist but tries to follow Buddha’s teachings.
11. Never knew High School existed until last day of enrollment of the nearby High School.

October in a Nutshell

Let's see what October had brought me.

• Found out that the record of my singing when I was a child was lost (maybe erased) on the tape.

Just a little back story: Dad was fond of recording music/voice on tape. He was able to record my a bit of my of singing wooden heart. Sayang, I wanted to record it on phone or convert it to mp3.  I hope we can retrieve it again.

• Was able to find Cd's I've burned when I was still in 1st year high school. they are consist of M2M's two albums, an album of Mandy Moore and another one by Blue. So glad to find out that they're still working except for Blue.
• Attended a Karma, Reincarnation and Soulmates seminar with sis. Thanks Dad for sponsoring.
• Done with Fringe Season 2 finally.
• Watched a back-to-back Hayao Miyazaki films.
• Borrowed a vintage Polaroid camera. Will used as a prop for a future shoot.
• Was supposed to go to the cemetery with my family and Lola. We're already in front of the cemetery when Lola had a stroke (it was her third) and we witnessed it firsthand. It was a scary experience but she was doing fine now. Thank God. 
• Was supposed to attend 10th Eternal Death Wake Anniversary for the Halloween but we simply can't. So we just compensated by visiting the National Museum while it still had free entrance.

Mornings are Beginnings

Last Saturday was a fateful one.

I learned to look life on a new perspective. 

I had free myself from grudges.

I was able to clear the blur, yet I still feel tremendously lost in it. I hope when the right time comes, everything will be clear. Perhaps even clearer.

Certain things will never be the same again.

September Report

This month was okay. Nothing too fancy but much better than August. Let's find find out why:

• Finally done with the voter's registration and it only took 15 minutes to finish. Thanks to the easy, breezy, (beautiful cover girl) processing of COMELEC in Las Piñas City. Was also able to purchase some mail stamps to add to my sister's and I growing stamp collection. Talk about philately.
• Helped my cousin with his abstract painting that also served as my first attempt working on that field. The result? Let's just say I'm not happy with it.
• Sis and I visited Heroes, an art exhibit by the late Tony de Zuñiga. His works are just awesome. It's just sad that cameras are not allowed inside. The only photos I got was the exhibit's poster and some of his works (outside the gallery) which I took when I watched Cinemalaya last July. Also had a glimpse of The Phantom of the Opera exhibit. I hope I could watch the show itself this month. After that, we headed to the bookstore and meet up with Dad who just finished his bowling tournament with his colleagues. Sadly, they didn't win. 
• Discovered a film called Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and it was instantly added on my list of  my favorite films.
• We also had a yellow love bird as our one night only guest. A neighbor asked us to keep it for the night because he couldn't go home that night. Since we don't have a cage, we put it inside Suerte's (my kitten) house. Suerte was pretty upset when she saw the bird. As a result (and maybe as her form of disapproval), she didn't use her litter box for two days. What a kitten!
• Started my job hunting and I've been targeting a certain gov't. office. I hope everything will fall into place.
• So glad that Different Sunday is back! It's a six-hour radio show aired every Sunday at Jam 88.3. It plays covers, versions and everything in between (as it says on their FB page). I discovered  it last month and enjoyed their awesome, relaxing, and nostalgic playlist. Another good thing about it is that, it has few commercials, if not none at all. Though there are stingers played on almost every song, these are very quick. Later on, I found out that it was the show's last episode on the day I discovered it. So I was very excited to know it's back on a new time slot (6pm- midnight) and new set of stingers.
• Last day of the month was supposed to be spent on Cosplay Mania '12 on the very last minute but changed my mind he very last minute. Talk about fickle mindedness.  The rest of the night was spent listening to Different Sunday.

P.S. Since the Ber months are here, I accompanied this post with a bokeh shot of Christmas lights (taken from here), signalling the Holidays. Ciao Guys! :D

Not-So-Kind August

I'm not in the mood for introductions right now so let's get going.

• Enjoyed watching the recent Olympics and found myself cheering for Russia most of the time. Not that I didn't support our country. It's just that the sports I look forward to (such as Synchronized Swimming and Gymnastics) every Olympics didn't have a Philippine representative.
• My family was lucky that the flood didn't fully enter the house during Habagat but the rainy season had left us with damp stuffs due to dripping ceilings. This led us to have some sort of general cleaning that also led me to find things I thought I lost and things I didn't know I posses in the first place. I was also surprised to realize that I've been hiding a lot of coins all over the house. I think I found more than a hundred pesos all in all. Haha.
• I promise myself to watch every Academy Awards Best Picture nominee that I will encounter. This month I was able to watch Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) directed by Stephen Daldry. Good story and good plot. I love Oskar Schell's character (played by Thomas Horn). I think   Horn is someone to watch out for. In fact, he has won twice in Phoenix Film Critics Society for Breakthrough Performance on Camera and Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role - Male. My next stop would be Inglorious Bastards.
• Made sure that I've accomplished certain things before I resume my job hunting (haven't been able to do it due to bad weather). I've also cut my hair as if that matters.

Here are the not-so-kind parts:

• For days, I've been depressed for I was blaming myself for a loss of a guinea pig and death of a kitten and I wasn't even responsible for those things. It's just that I kept on thinking the might have beens. If it was an ideal situation, I could have saved and adopted them.
• After that phase, another one followed. This time I was faced with an old enemy of mine and it's none other than my self. I was consumed by self-loathing, shame, disappointments, frustrations and the like. Not to mention a series of painful memories came crashing down. Basically, I was miserable but I'm doing good now. I'm get used to this phase but it's still difficult every time. Ahh, my vicious mental and emotional cycle.
• And guess what? My insomnia has gotten worse. I always woke every afternoon. Damn it! I'll make sure I'll fix that soon.

I hope September would be kinder. 

I realized the photos I'm posting for the previous months are way irrelevant for my posts. Anyway, the one above was taken from my Flicker.

What's Up July?

Yes, I'm back after eons of inactivity! And I do apologize for that. Anyway, this is my supposed-to-be photo diary so you probably know the drill so let's past the intro, shall we?

• Months ago. I've mentioned that I've been preparing for something. Now is the time for the reveal: me and sis took the Civil Service Exam (CSE) Professional Level and we've been busy reviewing for it. The outcome? We're so glad that we passed ... even though we're literally sleepless on the exam day itself (hello insomnia!). Thank you Dad for making us drink Bacchus that kept us awake the whole time and helped us answer the questions the best way that we could. Thanks also for fetching us and patiently waiting for us until the exam was over. Ultimately, thank you for your support. :)
• Done my annual tradition of religiously watching Eiga Sai for the 5th year. Watched seven movies in all. Might watch the remaining three in UPD.
• Also done another annual tradition of mine of watching Cinemalaya for the 6th year. Watched only two films because I was broke. Moreover, I saw one of my favorite local writers, Ricky Lee. Yay! A lot of good things happened during my attendance. More of those on a separate post. I promise!
• Read a novel called The Gods and their Machines.  A sci-fi fantasy by Oisin Mcgann. I've been into a lot of self-help books for over a yaer so it's refreshing to read novels again. Anyway, the book is an interesting read but it left me hanging in the end (I demand part 2). Also, still reading The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.
• Finally had a telescope, a sky and land telescope to be exact. I tell you what, sis and I have been wanting to own one for the longest time. Now all that is left to do is familiarize ourselves with it (it's kinda tricky) to be legit sky voyeurs.
• Bought myself a black pre-loved creepers for only a hundred pesos. It's a major steal baby! 
• Had improved my sleep by 20%. I kinow that's barely an improvement but I'll definitely fix myself soon.

That would be all. See you guys at my August updates. :)

Photo above was taken from my post here.

I'm Not Dead: My (Supposedly) May Photodiary

Warning: Lengthy post ahead to make up for not updating regularly.

May has already ended and the rainy season officially started on this side of the world. Some probably won't agree but I prefer this season over summer, not to mention scorching, season we had weeks ago. 

So, how's everyone? As for me, I'm excited to go back to school though that certain time of my life was over. I miss school especially college. That's certainly one of the best years of my life until graduation came and everyone's busy growing up and making a living while I'm left rusting. But this rusting phase will certainly be over soon for I'm ready to start and ready to fight. Ahh, enough of this emoness. Let's check May's highlights.

• done preparing for that something and I hope everything falls into place.
• stopped my picture diary for a while but hopefully I'll come back to it again this June.
• visited a Korean store and got some awesome loot.
• started watching Grimm.
• done watching Prison Break Season 2.
• also watched The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo (US version). Though I still prefer the original film, I'm more attracted to Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara) on this one.
• been bitten by a dog and the best part of it is injections. Three in a row. Haha.
• started shooting on film only to find out that the film wasn't placed properly. So yeah, back to square one.
• finally got a pottermore account. Yay!
• still in the process of fixing my screwed up sleeping pattern.

EDIT: I watched the original version of The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo again and I still prefer it only I realized that I have equal attraction to Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara who both played Lisbeth Salander.

Lastly, this blog will be on hiatus mode again. Yes, for the nth time. Our computer is still dead and without it, I can't take photos since it's the only place I store and post-process them. If your suggesting computer shop? I'm sorry but I won't take the risk of having viruses on any of my files. But, I'll shoot again on film starting this month so let's see where it would lead to. Okay? I might be back by the end of June. See you again. Tata for now.  :)

PS: The photo above is one of the photos I took last year. You can also view some of them on my Tumblr and Flicker.

April Photo(less) Diary

As the title suggests, this is a photo less photo diary but I can assure you guys that there's a handful of photos waiting to be post-processed and I do promise to post them as soon as the computer's fixed. Actually, I expected that would be able to post at least twice a week for this month (thanks to queue settings) despite the fact that I'm mostly staying at home this summer season. But due to our computer's "death", I simply can't.

Anyway, I still see to it that I can go online at least once a week (hello computer shop!), so here I am. The computer's "death" won't stop me from updating, right? And since this is a photo less post, here are April's happenings in bullets.

• been preparing for a really important stuff. might reveal it around June or July.
• went to the Arcade with Sis and a cousin.
• started a picture diary (this is mainly composed of doodles of each day's highlights)
• got myself an underwater camera, two tumblers and a black lipstick
• Dad gave me a brown malong. 
• he also bought Pingkoy, a pink Easter monkey. Dad is the one responsible for his name. it's the combination of the words pink + unggoy (monkey). honestly,  it's meant for my three-year-old niece but it's way too cute that I told her that it was Dad's birthday present for me. hehe.
• had a mocha cake for my 23rd birthday. also had a milk tea, some cookies and sweets.
• sleep, sleep and sleep.
• watched some movies I already watched.

So that's basically April is all about. To make up for the missing photos, here's a video of one of my favorite Japanese musicians, Mika Nakashima.

Quick Updates and Hello 23!

Some of you are probably enjoying the much-deserved summer break. As for me, I am staying at home for the rest of summer. Yes, this is my kind of life every summer. But I'm pretty used to it. Just went out tonight to do an obligatory birthday post. Talk about hikikomori life. Haha. But I'm busy doing something else. I'll just reveal it when I reveal it (what? lol). 


By the way, I tweeted last week that our computer's dead (again) and it happened just when I'm about to post my blog posts on queue. Tough luck, huh? Hence, the reason why I couldn't update as much as I want to. I'm actually blogging in the computer shop right now and this is the first time. I also want to post photos but I  am yet to post-process them at home. Ugh, when am I able to maintain to post at least once a week? I really hope our computer will be fixed asap.


I also turned 23 today. How time flies? Nothing special really. I don't usually celebrate my birthday. Just a normal day with my family. But some milk tea, cookies and sweets won't hurt. Hohoho!  * u * 
For now, I'll leave you with the latest music videos from one of my favorite K-pop and K-rock groups. Enjoy!

March Photodiary

Random Things

I was supposed to make my recent blog post until I saw Dani's blog. I haven’t done something like this before so I gave it a try. Hmm, let’s see.

1. If you had the chance to go back in time for 24 hours, where and when would you go?

I would go back to the time when I’m deciding on what course to take up in college. Because right now, I realized that I should’ve taken a more Art-related course or Anthropology perhaps.

2. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?

My favorite champorado. Yum!

3. Would you break the law to save a loved one?

If that’s my last resort, hell yes.

4. Do you remember a time when you were extremely upset? Does it still matter now?

I haven’t been extremely upset, at least not yet but I always get upset why some people become so extremely selfish.

5. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

I don’t really care if others will judge me or not. They can say what they want. What’s more important to me is how I look at myself. Thank you.

February Photodiary

The One that Got Away

I was supposed to post this last Valentine’s but I didn’t get online that day. Anyway, I still decided to post this even if it’s rather late.  

This post is in reference to Katy Perry’s song that talks about a lost love. Just like the song, I also had someone that got away, only it wasn’t a lover. It’s an adorable kitten.

Ninja, Voyeur or Insurgent?

That is M, my sleeping buddy. I bought him (I’d like to think he is male) over a year now from a thrift shop near our place for only 50 php and we’re stuck like glue ever since.  If he looks familiar, that is because he is one of Totoro’s friends in the anime movie, My Neighbor, Totoro. 

Anyway, I got him washed couple of days back and to my horror, his ears started to become floppy.  Apparently, my trusty buddy is showing signs of wear and tear. In fact, he had his ears stitched months ago. Good thing Mom put him inside a pillowcase to avoid further damage. Too bad, I can’t see his entire cuteness anymore. But at least, it’s less depressing to see him. Now he looks like a ninja or even a voyeur or an insurgent. Nah, he’s too cute for those, what do you think?

January Photodiary

Welcome to my first ever monthly photo diary. I intended to do a weekly one but I realized that a monthly photo diary is more manageable and fits my needs especially it takes days/weeks before I’m able to post again. I’m excited! Let’s start.

Welcome to Corby’s Closet!

My first post for the year Alas! January was quite busy for me for I did the final preparations for my online shop. More details below. :) 

Last Saturday was very special because one of my dreams was finally realized. I officially opened Corby’s Closet, my online shop that sells pre-loved clothing. Yay! 

 

Oh man, it was my dream to start a business way back in college but at the time I was aiming to sell accessories. Sadly, I didn’t push through with it due to my hectic student life. After some time I rekindled my interest and decided to sell pre-loved clothing on the net. Hence, Corby’s Closet was conceptualized. I am fond of alternative fashion that’s why the clothes you’ll be seeing are distinctive and most of all affordable. I also plan to sell accessories and whatnot occasionally.

I was supposed to open it last year but there were things that always get out of hand. Fortunately, I was able to tie up loose ends somehow. Another thing is that I learned everything from scratch. Basically, everything was self-taught. Geez, it has been a roller coaster ride but the happiness that comes with it feels like a personal achievement. It was definitely worth it. View our first collection here. By the way, Corby's Closet also have a Facebook like page.

Let’s all hope it would be great. Cheers! 

Hello Water Dragon!

The year that was

So yeah this year is about to end and there is nothing we can do about it. This year has a fair share of ups and downs, well at least for me. I won’t be dwelling on the downs. I’ve done things that I’m not really proud of but I don’t regret them. I know things like those happen for a reason. I’ve learned my lessons and will still learn some more. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m thankful for everything: family, friends, people who support and believe in me, pets, Zephyr, giveaways I’ve won, couple of life lessons, connecting and meeting with people I look up to (and stalk), having been able to know myself more and setting straight goals in my life and all the other blessings. Again, I'm very thankful.

The year that hopefully will be

New Year is fast approaching which means it’s time for New Year’s resolutions once again. I have a couple of them but I won’t be posting them here so that I’ll be the only one who knows that I fail myself for the nth time. Bwahaha! ^o^ Seriously though, I just don’t want them to backfire on me knowing that I posted it where everyone knows about it. So what I’ll be posting instead are the improvements I want to do/see in my blog.

Limit lengthy posts – you probably noticed by now that I tend to write lengthy posts (like this one) and I don’t want the readers to bore to death with my seemingly irrelevant stories, comments and whatever.

Better photos -  I've been taking photos with Zephyr (my dslr) for almost a year  now and I can say that I've improve. But still, I need to work hard a lot on my photography skills and this blog will witness that magical journey with Zephyr.

Change layout and banner – One of the things I’ve learned this year is basic html and css. What a better way to use them in my own blog, right? I also want my banner to be customized.

Have identity – I’ve been blogging for a year now and I don’t know where this blog is leading up to. But we’ll see. I intended to make this as my outlet for things that’s happening in my life and it served me that way until it became a burden to me to post regularly and I want that to change.

I know this is not blog related but the ultimate thing that I want for next year is to be a better person I want to be better in all aspects of my life. Pursue dreams and endeavors. Be more creative and hardworking. Make this year my year!

So that’s it. I’m about to finish my obligatory year-end post with what I’ve said, this year is about to end and we can’t do anything about it. Earth will continue to rotate but what we can do is make the New Year (and all the succeeding years) a better year for all of us.

Happy 2012 you guys! Be safe. (^_^)v

Remembering NU 107

It has been officially a year since we last heard NU107 on the airwaves. I’ve been a fan of the station myself and I love their shows especially their remote control weekends. To complement my nostalgia, I’m posting these photos (from the scrapbook which I am yet to return) taken by my classmates during our radio tour in the station last 2007. 

 

My Myspace Resurrected

I had updated my Myspace account. I have it for years now but didn't really use it that much since I've only sign up to stalk someone. Hehe. But I haven't added that someone because my account's language was Latino. I didn't know how it happened, it might be my fault. But I didn't mind anyway since I can still see that person's account because it's public. What I didn't like was that even though I understand some few Latino words, I still struggled to get around my account like changing the language into English. I just got lucky that I guessed how to log out. 

So after ages, I opened it again and tried to delete it and it suddenly hit me to Google how to change its language into English (I'm such a dork I know, I should've thought of that before!). Found some instructions, followed them and viola, I succeeded.

And this made me keep my account...but I will not use it that often because I only keep it to show support to my favorite bands and artists (by adding them) and to receive updates from them as well. I also added some bands and artists I like. As for that someone, I finally added her but I don't think she will accept it because it's been years since she last updated but that's fine I'm still stalking her on FB. Haha!

Bon Voyage for the Afterlife

All of my memories
Keep you near
In silent moments
Imagine you’d be here

-Memories, Within Temptation

For the loving memory of my cat. Corby, you will surely be missed. ♥