No, It's Not A Clothes Hanger

Jer said it over and over again when I first decided to buy the bike - you are going to end up wasting your money. I was determined to prove him wrong.

My determination lasted a month. Now you can see that he has a new place to hang his dirty shirts. At least I don't see that many shirts on the floor anymore!

(To be fair to him that blue towel is mine!)

What Do You Need Support For?

I need support because I don't want to have to be the strong one all the time.

I need support because I don't want to have to be the responsible one all the time.

I need support because I don't want to have to be the adult all the time.

I need support because sometimes I just want to rest and feel that I am cared for and loved as much as I care for and love the people in my life.

Come Fly With Me!

Time for another quiz result! I love mythology so I took this test on BlogThings (What Mythological Creature Are You?) And I am...

You Are a Pegasus

You are a perfectionist, with an eye for beauty. You know how to live a good life - and you rarely deviate from your good taste. While you aren't outgoing, you have excellent social skills. People both admire you - and feel very comfortable around you.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Not exactly what I was expecting - well, I don't really know what I was expecting - but looks good. I don't know about the social skills, though. :-s

I Was This Close...

...to coming home with a new laptop. Jer and I went to Megamall to get a memory module for the desktop PC (Tori is her name). She has been acting up and wouldn't stop restarting so we thought we'd get the memory today and see if it fixes things. We're planning on getting a laptop in June but in the meantime, we want Tori up and working well.

Everything was just fine - until we were on our way out and we saw the Acer store. The center display was calling my name:

When it first came out, I had my eyes on it. It was way too expensive for me, though. It still is, actually. They have this promo where they have a a whole bunch of things with it - plus this beauty:

Jer fell in love with it.

He's such a good salesman. We stood there and talked with the saleslady and played with the laptop and monitor for a while and I was so close to giving in - giving in to myself, to Jer.

Practicality won - it usually does. I have other things to tend to, more important things than getting myself this laptop that I really really want (and am surely going to use a lot).

I still want it, though. :(

It's Not A Pigsty Anymore!

"Our house is like a pigsty!" That's what I told Jer the other night when I learned that he did not take the trash down - again. There are days when I can handle most of the things at home. Then there are days when I feel the need to throw things around because of frustration.

Neither of us is the neatest person in the world. We both work full time and we don't have much time to spend on cleaning up. In the past 2 months, I think we've tried cleaning up twice - with me ending up with majority of the work.

This past week, I decided to do something about it. I had had enough of it! Nope, I didn't clean - I looked for a cleaning lady who would come in once a week for the day. It was her first day today and boy, is she good! I feel so much better now.

Can You Ever Write Too Much?

I write for a living. I do have a "regular" office job but I still consider my freelance writing a major source of income. I really love doing it - it gives me the extra income that comes in very handy and it gives me pleasure as well.

Lately, though, I have been lagging on my writing assignments. Oh, I still turn them in on time but I do have my own schedule that I have set for myself. I do this so that I will be sure to turn them in on time - so in effect, I have two deadlines. Lately, I have been missing MY deadlines.

I have also noticed that sometimes, I do not feel the urge to write. (My personal blog is a different matter - I think I am becoming obsessed with it!)

Can it be that I am writing/working too much?

Visit From Daddy

Our family has always been a very tight knit one. Even if my sister left home at a very early age (high school) and then I left soon thereafter for college, we have always managed to remain a tight unit.

Lately, though, it seems as if I have been pulling away. I don't know why, maybe it's just because I feel uncomfortable being too close to people now. No excuses here, no explanations. It simply is.

Dad paid a short visit - he was in the area. I was getting ready for work. He was here only for a few minutes but I feel good. Sometimes, short visits are better than prolonged vacations with family sometimes. (With Sam and Silas as the exceptions, ha ha.)

When Things Start Going Right

I just let out a sigh of relief and thank God that finally, things seem to be falling into place - for now at least. The past weeks have been a bit hellish due to some things going on in my private life but this morning, suddenly, things just seem to have picked up a bit.

I have gotten so used to worrying and fretting that this seems to be a new feeling for me. I am liking it! :)

Big Love Leaves Me Confused

I don't get it - I just don't! We were supposed to spend this weekend watching the second season of Criminal Minds but Livi forgot to give me the DVD. So we ended up watching the first season of Big Love instead.

Hannah has been telling me how funny it is - and she was right. Jer and I found the series quite entertaining and we finished the whole season in one weekend. However, I just can't come to terms about how those women could adjust to the situation. No, they were more than adjusted - they seemed to like it, even treasure the arrangement.

Now I know that it is just a TV show - it is not real life. Then again, this has happened, and is probably happening today. How is it possible? Am I being close minded? Is my understanding being limited by my upbringing and what I consider to be right and wrong?

I should stop thinking too much and just enjoy the show for what it's worth, no? I can't wait to watch the second season...

My Worst (Work) Nightmare

It happened once and it happened again - the hard drive in my laptop crashed! When it happened a month or so ago, I was not that alarmed. The IT guys were able to fix it in a snap. Today, though, it seemed as if it was not going to be fixed! They were all alarmed and were saying that since the laptop is still under warranty, they would just have to replace the hard disk.

That's fine - except that I had tons of files on the hard disk. Since this is my work laptop I am talking about, you can just imagine what a disaster that would be if recovery of the files was not a possibility!

I prayed - hard - and thank God, they were able to do something about it. A word of warning was given to me, though. The hard disk seems bound to fail any time so I should back up my files.

Burn session all day for me!

Not So Pleasant Banana Leaf

I have been meaning to write about Banana Leaf since we ate a couple of weeks ago but I just didn't have the time. Anyhow, that was the day I hung out with Hannah and Nikki at The Block. The husbands were supposed to be there but everything turned out perfectly as we had time to relax with each other.

After watching the U2 3D movie, we were starving as we hadn't had lunch yet. So we went around looking for a new place to eat at. The Banana Leaf caught our attention as we had not tried it yet and it seemed like a promising place - they specialize in a fusion of Asian cuisine. I was particularly excited by the Hainanese Chicken, which is one of my favorite dishes. It was very disappointing to say the least. The half chicken was more like half a breast:

For almost 300 pesos, it was certainly not worth it! The chicken itself was fine - tender and not dry. The ginger dip that went with it was awful, though. The texture was mushy and the taste indescribable.

I am not the only one to be disappointed - Cowlicks shares some pictures in her blog.

In fairness to the restaurant, their flat bread dipped in condensed milk was good. I forget the name - sorry about that. I was just overwhelmed with disappointment because of the chicken. If you ever come across Banana Leaf, I suggest that you go somewhere else.

Me and My Not-So-Green Thumb

I don't take after my mom when it comes to a lot of things and one of them is having a green thumb. No matter how hard I try, it seems that I am just not cut out for taking care of plants.

When we moved into our new apartment last year, I tried my hand at taking care of several potted plants. After all, how hard could it be? Alas, a couple of months after mom gave me 4 pots, 2 of the plants were dying. She told me I should only water them once a week - and I did! I don't know why, but they just gave up on me so I returned the 2 pots - maybe mom could do wonders and bring them back to life.

End of story? Not really. I have a stubborn streak. I was determined to keep on trying with the two pots left. Today, almost a year later, I am quite proud that one of the plants is still alive - although not exactly thriving as some of the leaves are turning yellow-green. Look at this:
Now isn't that lovely? I never thought I'd take joy in having a potted plant but these tiny white flowers greeting me in the morning just perks me up.

By the way, don't bother asking me what kind of plant this is - I have no freaking idea!

Life is a dream...

...and all dreams must end upon waking up. So the Aiel believe. If you are a Robert Jordan fan, you would know what I am talking about. I am in the process of re-reading the series in anticipation of the last book, which is supposed to be finished by his son sometime in the future. I don't have much spare time to read so I grab any chance that I can find.

Today, I found it quite apt that as I was reading Book 5 on the way to a colleague's wake, I read that line. The series may be nothing but fantasy, but who is to say that insights from it cannot be related to real life?

As we navigated our way through Manila's awful Friday traffic jam, I sat there in the van thinking. Life is indeed some kind of a dream - sometimes everything is all bright and rosy and you don't want to wake up. Other times, things become nightmarish, making you want to end it all. Yet other times, things seem to go by so quickly you are not even aware of what is going on.

One thing I realized - which I am sure many other have done so before me - life is something that we have only for now. It is something that we have a certain degree of control over and whatever measure of control we have, we should use it to the fullest. Everything else should be taken in stride.

Thank you, God for giving me the chance to live this dream and for giving me the opportunity to grow in the face of adverse circumstances. One day, I, too, shall wake from this dream. Yet while I am still deep in slumber, I shall walk my dreams the best I can.

All Hyped Up

Moving has always been an exciting thing for me. I have moved from one apartment to another a lot of times in the past several years and settling in a new place never gets old for me. I may not have physically moved homes last night but migrating blog hosters (albeit free platforms) is something that still excites me. I guess because with this move to Blogger, there are so many potential opportunities that I see in the near future - and I am all hyped up about that. I guess that's why I am bit upbeat this morning.

On the other hand, I am not looking forward to going to work even though it's a Friday (which of course means that I can stay at home all weekend!). The reason calls for another post - it's just too depressing and frustrating to write about right now. Maybe later.

My Kind of Thinker

Your Thinking is Abstract and Sequential

You like to do research and collect lots of information. The more facts you have, the easier it is for you to learn. You need to figure things out for yourself and consider all possibilities. You tend to become an expert in the subjects that you study. It's difficult for you to work with people who know less than you do. You aren't a very patient teacher, and you don't like convincing people that you're right.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

Yep, that last line is definitely me!

I Just Moved!

I remember starting a blog on Blogger years ago - I never maintained it and I don't even remember the URL. Then last year, I created my personal blog on Wordpress, simply because I was more familiar with it due to my freelance writing jobs. Now I am back with Blogger.

How did this come about?

I decided to apply for --- last month and I got denied because my blog was Wordpress. So I decided to try Blogger once more. My biggest problem was importing my Wordpress blog to Blogger since I wanted my old posts to remain. I didn't realize that that would present a problem - it seems that everybody and their mom are migrating from Blogger to Wordpress but not the other way around!

Fancy my finding a tool that imported Wordpress blogs to Blogger. You can find it here: http://zeaster.blogspot.com/2007/02/blogsync-with-gui-coming-import-your.html.

I really appreciate whoever created this nifty tool. Here's to you!

Now, let's see how I settle in in my new home.

3D Virgin No More

As embarrassing as it may be, I have to admit that I had never seen a 3D movie until last Saturday.  And what a way to experience 3D for the first time!  I went to see the first ever 3D concert with Hannah and Nikki and boy, was it great!  The U2 3D movie should be watched by anyone who calls himself a decent U2 fan.  It makes me all the more excited about the rumor going around that U2 is coming to Manila in October.  Nikki told me that it is confirmed and that Petron is a sponsor.  I hope this is true - I'll definitely be there!

How Intuitive Am I?

You Are 76% Intuitive

You are a very intuitive person. And luckily, your intuition is normally right. You're wise enough to know that relying on intuition alone can be dangerous. When your intuition seems really off, you tend to ignore it - and look at the facts instead.

How Intuitive Are You?

U23D Movie Widget

U23D Movie Widget

R.I.P. Krups

Jer and I are are definitely way too attached to our gadgets - our babies.  He even names the major toys we have!  Meet Gilbert, our fridge.  Then there's Jethro, our PS3.  Oh, don't forget Tori, our desktop PC - and the newest addition to our family is Herbie, the A/C.  Talk about weird, huh?

I am sad that we never got to name our coffee maker, so I'll just call him Krups.  He was a wedding gift from Hannah, which makes me all more morose because the pot is all over the floor - in tiny glass pieces.  I wrote about this incident in another blog - Brewed Coffee.  Now I have to get another one. :(

Death and Living

I don't know Aunt Betty. I have never met her. But I do know that she was someone special in Jerry's life and that makes her special to me as well. She passed away last Saturday and we found out only last night. I see myself as the practical person in our relationship but last night, I saw how sometimes, practical is not the way to go. Not when it comes to death, not even when it comes to living. Jerry called off work and we hung out at Gweilo's and Prince of Persia till late night. Then we hung out in our living room till early morning. I realized that even when there is a practical path to take, sometimes what one needs most is to just shed practicality and let things hang.