The First Quarter Of 2016

Eventful would be the best word to describe how my year started; my first toothache and a root canal, gutting fish, visa application and approval, loss of a dear family member, travel plans, a small vegetable plot and an aphid infestation, conflicts at work. An at the time that I started writing this, it was still February!

I had my first root canal. It wasn't as bad as I thought. The toothache that came before the root canal, however, was another story. I never had perfect teeth but my parents made sure that I had my teeth checked and cleaned by the dentist at least twice a year since I was in preschool. Going to the dentist is just routine. Mostly for check up and cleaning and the occasional filling if needed. I had some porcelain crowns installed when I was still in high school and had braces a few years ago but my teeth are clean, I have no cavities, I've never had a toothache in my life- until the first wk of January.

It started with a "zing" on a particular tooth. It felt strange as I seldom feel that "zing" or ngilo. I've tried having my tooth drilled without any anesthesia and not feel the zing. I thought it was nothing and just let it pass. The following day I felt the tooth was tender. Is that even possible? It was like my tooth had a bruise. However I just ignored the discomfort thinking that I just something hard and that it will just go away the following day. It did not.

The first time I felt something not normal on my tooth I was so sure which tooth was affected. Just two days after, I felt like my head was going to explode! I never felt anything like it in my life! My whole face was in pain and it took every bit of energy in my body just to open my mouth. That day I rushed to the dentist's clinic and made an appointment and the rest is history.

To be continued

It's Alive!

I've been busy with juggling work, chores, and trying to be a good wife to my funny husband (I'll write something about him soon), and getting a life.

However, when I'm lucky and I finish my chores earlier than usual, I have the occasional down time. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I watch movies. ‎But what I consider the most fulfilling is gardening. 

My mom had a lot of plants. She could grow almost anything and I am always amazed at how her plants would thrive under her care. You would think that I would inherit my mother's green thumb and love for plants. Green thumb, no. Love for plants, sure. I like looking at plants. I could identify more of them than other people could. But I just started taking care of plants very recently.

I was so sad when my puppy died. I experienced an overwhelming grief that I've never had before. I didn't know what to do. I realized that I had to take care of a living thing to keep me from getting depressed. But I'm not yet ready to have another pet. So the next best thing is taking care of our plants.

I already had orchids, water plants, and air plants, which my mom gave me when I went away to live in another city with my husband. They were relatively easy to take care of. 

When I was confident enough to add more to our little garden, we bought small Bromeliads, and then succulents and cacti. ‎So far most of them are still alive. I managed to kill one of our cacti- I over watered it.

I have also propagated some of our succulents. I lost some of the baby succulents along the way.  I also managed to grow a ginger plant just by sticking drying ginger in some soil. And now I'm trying to propagate basil by putting cuttings in water. And I am so very proud to say that I have managed to make five cuttings grow roots!

I read an article about it in the internet and thought I should give it a try.  And 15 days after, my "experiment" is going well. The article helped me a lot. Their instructions are very easy to follow even for a gardening newbie like me and they can have a lot of gardening tips.

Next challenge is to make them live when I plant it in soil!

Do you have a garden? What plants do you have? Do you have gardening tips to share?

On Chores

The hazy moon floats

On a sea of grayish clouds

The laundry awaits

Thank You For The Music

I was in the mall to buy some groceries when I chanced upon a backdrop on a stage, set up in the middle of the mall atrium, that says:

Avenida Musika - Brass Band Symphonic Competition
March 7, 1pm.

The competition is in connection with the annual musical festival of Tagum City which we celebrate every March, the Musikahan festival.

I finished my errands before 1pm and since I did not have other plans for the day, I decided to just stay a while and enjoy the free show.

I sat on a vacant monoblock chair provided for the audience and waited for the event to start. I waited, and waited. And waited. Until it was 245 when the event started.

How I hate tardiness.

After the introduction of the judges that lasted 30 mins (I am not exaggerating) the competition was on. And o boy how I enjoyed the show.

I can't explain the excitement I felt when the first band started playing. I was actually expecting a loud, marching band type of music. It was not like that at all. And then I remembered; oh right, this was the symphonic brass band. It was like listening to the soundtrack of a movie.

I was able to recognize the songs played by the first contestant. New York, New York transitioned to My Way. Then my heart skipped a beat when they played Obla di Obla (life goes on bra! La la la life goes on!) and I thought I hope they'll play more Beatles songs.

Billie Jean was next and then a very beautiful rendition of the Visayan song, Usahay. I was really having a good time but their next set of songs was what made my day: they played a medley of Beatles songs.

I thought; I knew it! I knew they were going to play The Beatles, it's inevitable! I'm so happy I wasn't wrong.

They started with Hey Jude. It was‎ followed by one of my favorite songs, Martha My Dear. I used to sing that to our puppy, Wolfie Rabbit. But that's another story.

Then the played The Fool On The Hill and Norwegian Wood. Norwegian Wood! By a brass band! I wouldn't have imagined it being played without the sitar but the band made it work. I liked it so very much.

The next set of songs from the next group just went by so fast. I wasn't able to recognize most of them except for the themes from Star Wars and Jaws but I remember being so thrilled!
‎
I can't call myself a music lover as I can only appreciate a few styles and genres. I don't know what to call this type of music as I have little to no knowledge about music. But as far as I can remember, I've appreciated this kind of musical performances.
‎
I can't remember the last time I had so much fun. I am deeply grateful for those who made this possible. It was such an awesome experience. I went home with a happy heart, my soul richer because of the gift of music.

Welcome 2015

Welcome 2015!

Yes. I know It's a bit late. This should have been posted a month ago. However I lost my draft so I had to recall what was in my first draft.

Anyway, this is just a list of what I want to do this year. You'll notice that they're small plans. That is intentional as I want to be able to be happy with small victories.

1. Post at least 1 article on this blog per month- This post shall be considered my entry for January. This will be challenging for me as I can't figure out what to write. If I think of something and I don't write it down immediately, I forget.

2. Read and FINISH at least 1 book per month- Emphasis on the word finish as I tend to stop reading a book when it's almost finished. In fact last year, there were around 5 books that I wasn't able to finish. This has to stop. I am sure this year I will succeed!

3. Make at least 1 artwork per month. I used to be good at drawing and painting. Since I fell in love with Alistair and Joker, I never had the time to draw and paint anymore. This year will be different.

4. Email or text my friends at least once a month. Whether or not they respond will not matter. I will make an effort to reach out.

I actually feel good about 2015. I really think I will be successful in achieving my listed goals.

Happy new

I'm Back!

And so I read a blog article that inspired me to revive my own blog. As a result, I am struggling to write something that would hopefully make up for the 6 years that I have abandoned my blog.

I checked the last entry. It's dated April 2008. Obviously a lot has happened between April 2008 and 2014. 

It's not a matter of not having anything to write about that I am having a hard time with; it's where to start and what to not include.

Ok so here we go.

Updates:

I did not finish grad school. I'm too lazy to write my thesis.

I'm still working in the same company that hired me in 2008.  I've been given different roles and I've been transferred to other branches until I requested to be assigned in the branch that I'm currently in. My  present role is that of a customer service representative and area trainer.

I bought/ assembled my first gaming PC in 2011. I was introduced to the world of RPG. And I've been stuck there for 3 years. I've been in a relationship with Alistar (Dragon Age Origins) ever since. I've also flirted with Fenris (Dragon Age 2) and have been infatuated with Joker ( Mass Effect 1, 2, 3) since I played Mass Effect. I left my PC in my parent's house so I don't have a computer now. I haven't been able to play regularly since April 2014. I'm saving up for a new computer as Dragon Age Inquisition has been released last November.

I got married in 2013 thus the request for transfer to the office where I am currently assigned. And I am now living in another city. And is having a hard time adjusting and balancing work life and family life. Nobody said this is going to be a piece of cake but nobody told me it's going to be this difficult! I'm away from my family and friends. And the chores! THE CHORES! Anyway, we're both still alive so that's probably something!

I've been traveling a bit since 2008. As I've been more financially able because of my job. I haven't been abroad yet but I will soon. 

About the happy journal, i actually forgot about it. I guess I'll just have to start again, won't I? And I know just the place that has all the space for me to fill with happy (or not) thoughts.

newly empowered

i'm so lucky i was sent to cebu for counter selling training.

our facilitators were very effective and i learned a lot. i never knew that before you become a good sales person, you have to be comfortable with yourself, you have to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses; not just as a sales person but as an individual, and if you have doubts in your abilities, clients can smell those doubts and that will affect your effectivity/productivity as a sales person.

what's good about the training was it's not only about selling. it was also about self awareness and personality development.

because of the training i was able to think about what i like and i don't like about myself. through the video exercises, i was able to see how i look when i walk and talk and interact with other people. i'll be able to improve my unlikeable habits when speaking, minimize my hand gestures if necessary, change my tone of voice, etc.

the activity was also a self- esteem booster. after the activities, we were given feedback by the facilitator. and so far, the feedbacks they gave me were good and although i did not win in the individual selling activity, our team even won a prize for the group selling activity. happy happy!

now i'm back to work. i'm very proud of myself and i feel empowered.

alive forever more

for those who are interested, i'm still alive.

i have a new job which i am very much enjoying because aside from the relatively stress free work environment, i learn new things and i get to be with one of my closest college friends.

i'm also very much outdated with what's happening in the naruto world. the last manga chapter i read was 390, i think- the one where sasuke and itachi were killing eachother.

i haven't talked with ice in ages. next pay day i am going to buy a phone card so i can call her. i haven't seen iroll since the kapatagan trip- pictures to follow.

i barely have a social life because i have to work on weekends and i hate staying up late.

i started a happy moments journal but i haven't written anything on it since april 16th- not because i don't have happy moments but because i'm too lazy to write.

i'm crazy in love with gael garcia bernal after watching el crimen el padre amaro. i searched all the video shops i know of for y tu mama tambien and succeeded. i watched the movie 6 times in 4 days. i swear i am going to name my first child after gael garcia bernal.

i finished the japanese drama entitled 1 litre of tears. it's a good watch and it's not entitled 1 litre of tears for no reason.

i'm trying to finish haibane renmei, a 13 episode anime created by yoshitoshi abe. he's the person responsible for niea under seven, a very briliant but under rated series. that reminds me, after watching haibane renmei, i should watch niea under seven again.

i have a new pair of glasses. rimless frame c/o my father. i like it because it's light but i have to put on eye make up because the lenses are so clear they makes my racoon visible.

i'm going to cebu tomorrow and i'll be back on wednesday. it's an official business trip. i haven't prepared clothes yet. just thinking about packing makes me tired. hahay.

happy new year!

although i didn't have as much money as i used to have when i was with my past 2 jobs, i had a very happy new year. i enjoyed everyday of my holiday vacation (without pay, of course). i attended 3 parties in our school, 1 xmas party/ reunion with my college classmates, 1 ukaya barkada dinner and 1 get- together dinner with my boyfriend's high school friends. i almost ran out of money but i had a blast.

i'm missing my friend ice. she's in another country. my new year could have been happier if she was around.

anime updates

and now, for the long over due updates!

beck: mongolian chop squad

still can't get over koyuki's rendition of the beatles classic I' VE GOT A FEELING.

the anime started out slow and bored me until the middle part. it's a really good thing that i did not give up on it. i think how the anime ended was "right". because that's what happens in real life anyway.

death note- major spoilers

i love love love death note! the art is fantastic. the plot is not very new but because of the anime's fast pace and the believable characters, i got hooked- until i got to the part where L dies.

the anime should have ended with L's death. new characters are introduced and the story becomes cheesy and the pace slowed big time. it redeems itself with its last few episodes.

raito dies in the end. i hate the manga ending. some people thinks it's how he should die considering the things he did but i believe raito didn't deserve to die that way. he was already defeated, and that was enough.

the anime ending is way better.

i love raito's character. he starts out as a normal student and then becomes a self righteous person who thinks he's god. but despite his incredible way of calculating how things will turn out and unbelievably strong will to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, he's still very human.

if you haven't watched or read death note yet, i suggest you search the net for websites with free anime/ manga downloads and read/ watch it now!

moonlane gardens

what is wrong with our bands today?! after rico blanco, si clem castro ng orange and lemons naman ngayon!

why? why?! WHY!

bakit iiwan ng idol ko ang banda nya?! huhuhu!

bye bye na

is rico blanco really leaving rivermaya? why now when they're doing so well?!

rivermaya is not rivermaya without him. rico blanco is rivermaya.

death note

Yagami Raito, a top-ranking high school kid, is spacing out one day at school when he notices a weird notebook lying on the school yard, entitled "death note". It looks like some prank from a sick individual, since it's telling that if you write the name of a certain person in it while having his/her face in ones mind, that person will die, anyway and anytime you like it to happen. Even if it looks like a trick, Raito sees it as a real thing.

His last doubts are gone when one day he finds a hideous monster in his own room: a real god of death, a shinigami called Ryuuku that claims the death note was once his but now acts as a special bond between him and Raito. With the death note, Raito has the power to kill without breaking a sweat and he decides to use his power to protect the innocent and kill all the brutal criminals in this world and to be truly a human god. But then he gets over his first kills and the whole world wakes up and realizes that something is happening and things start to get out of hand...

http://www.point-blank.cc

i watched death note's first episode because my friend digi kept on insisting that i should. he has not yet watched the whole episode but he kept on telling me that the story was cool and the animation was awesome. how he knew that death note's story was good without even watching the first episode, i have no idea.

anyway, i'm getting tired of honey and clover because nothing much happens and i'm getting bored and i'm really not into shojou so i gave death note a try.

so far, i like the animation. i like how the characters look. and the dark/ gothic, witch hunter robin like vibe is cool. i checked out the manga and the artwork is even better.

the plot is not new at all: a boy who wants to rid the earth of all evil but whose means is morally questionable. the end justifies the means type. we saw it in yuu yuu hakusho's sensui shinobu already and a number of other anime series. i'm kind curious how the story will develop. since i've only watched the 1st anime episode and read the 1st chapter. i'm eager to know what would make this series different and what other anime reviewers are raving about.

i've been downloading DN's other episodes and manga chapters here in the office since the internet here is faster.hehe. it will be done before the day ends today. i'll be able to watch episode 2 tonight and read the other manga chapters tomorrow. i can't wait!

3- 5- 4

hebi goes to a department store run by cats to get their very own uniform.

konoha organizes an itsuki search team.

everybody wants itachi.

it's getting boring. when are they going to fight?

marinera

ako ay kasalukuyang nababaliw sa FISH TYCOON!

hindi ko mapigilan ang sarili ko sa pagcheck ng mga isda ko every minute. punyemas! ano ba to?! kahit sa trabaho mga isda ko parin ang iniisip ko!

waaahhh! naka apat na beses na kong tumawag sa kapatid ko sa bahay para icheck kung ano na nangyari sa mga isda ko!!

nasisiraan na ako ng baiiiiit!!!!

jolly bee

another macro photo attempt.

i never thought it's sooo hard to take a picture of a bee. pag lumalapit ako, lumilipat ng flower! buti nalang nakatsamba.

taken outside our house. cropped with photoshop.

the OD

i went to the doctor last monday and found out that i had asthma. i've been coughing on an off for two to three weeks already. i tried taking mucosulvan (tama ba spelling?) but didn't work so i decided to go to the doctor.

when i told the doctor that my coughing occurs at night, he told me that i have allergic cough/ asthma. i didn't want to believe him so i asked if he's sure. he told me he is. so he gave me celestamine and salbutamol.

two hours after i took the medicines, nanginig ang mga kamay ko. i thought that was because of the anti allergy. na od pala ako ng salbutamol. haha. i stopped taking the meds. baka mamatay pako.hehe. i'll call my doctor this afternoon to tell him i know how it feels to be oded.haha

update:

i called my doctor and he told me that most people feel that kind of side effect- shaking and palpitations. he advised me to cut the tablet in half to lessen the side effect.

updates

i'm back from outerspace!

still suffering from vacation hang over. we had a blast in bohol!

back to the real world. i still have a thesis proposal to finish before may. waaaahhh!

******

orange and lemons is the BOMB! grabe! enjoy talaga ako last night! ang swerte ko talaga. we breathed the same air! we were in the same area! waaaahhh!


may crush pa ako! yung look alike ni john lennon. may picture pa talaga ako with him and we shook hands! hay nakoy! i need air!!


ang ganda ng boses nya. super ang energy nila na magperform! and they sang beatles' songs!
until now, i'm still high.


picture yourself in a boat on a river
with tangerine trees and marmalade skies
somebody calls you
you answer quite slowly
a girl with kaleidoscope eyes
celophane flowers of yellow and green
towering over your head
you see a girl with the sun in her eyes
and she's gone
lucy in the sky with diamonds
lucy in the sky with diamonds
ahhh
aaaahhhh

waiting

12: 28 pm

eyad's wait is over. he's in their school's chapel right now. attending mass. he's high with excitement because he's going to graduate (finally!) from law school this april.

i am so happy for him. i have witnessed what he has gone through for the past five years. i remember when he told me he wanted to go to law school. i was still on my fourth year in college then. i wasn't very happy that he was going to school. i was extremely selfish when i was younger. i wanted to spend more time with him. that time, we only saw each other once a week. and eyad going to law school meant that we'd see each other less. but i never told him what i thought. i told him to go and be what he wants to be. and law school it was.

his first year in law was the most difficult time for us. i had to adjust to his new schedule. i'm at school from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon and his classes started at 5 in the afternoon and ended at 9 in the evening. we couldn't see each other on weekdays because of our schedule and because i was in the boondocks of upmin and he was in downtown ateneo. we communicated through text messages but i could not expect fast replies from him because he was busy with his reading. although i had to give him credit for making sure that we see eachother once a week. thankfully, we made it through.

his second year wasn't any easier. i had graduated from college and was working in one of the big hotels in our area. and on my way home, i would pass by their school. i would hate that school for stealing my boyfriend from me. it was stupid but that was what i felt. kung naghanap nalang sya ng trabaho after nyang makagraduate ng college, e di sana magkasama kami after work and on weekends. pero hindi. and it hurt me a lot. i was his girlfriend at his convenience and that time, i made sure he knew what i felt.

i was finally able to adjust on his third year. and on the fourth year, i was still his girlfriend at his convenience and i almost ok with everything. waiting (and hurting), i have decided, was the price i had to pay for loving. of course there were days when i had to be with him but could not because of his schedule. or there were times when i was angry with him but i could not tell him because i know he shouldn't carry additional burden because he had a lot of more important things to be worried/ thought about. i had to stretch my patience. i had to be more considerate with his situation. we still made sure that we go out at least once a week.

he became very busy on his fifth year. and it became a problem for us. i felt that i was being taken for granted. graduating was his priority. i was a distraction. but whenever he needed me, i was just a text message away. i would cancel all my appointments because i know he needed me. when he was having a tough time, i was there to lift his spirit.

i called him immediately the moment i received his text message that he's finally graduating this april. he's one step nearer to his dream of becoming a lawyer.

****
4: 52 pm

he went out with his friends to "attend mass, offer thanks giving, visit the pink sisters". he told me three hours ago that he'd meet me somewhere after lunch. i waited and waited but he never came. unfortunately for me, he has forgotten about me.

now that he's going to graduate, he doesn't have any exams to think about. he doesn't have tons of readings to finish. i can finally tell him that i have been waiting for him for almost six years. i've stuck with him through the good and bad times. he has made me wait for a very long time and i have reached my limit. i can't wait for him anymore.

ugly teeth chapter 347

so sasuke defeats orochimaru and then calls this naked boy with ugly teeth.

what's with his teeth? does he use his teeth in combat? is he related to that akatsuki shark man?

i'm getting bored with the manga already.

i hope something exciting comes up. soon.