A Bit Ready for Tomorrow

So precious holiday season in 2015 was spent in the office instead of at home. It's okay, as a family we hardly travel together and we see each other every weekends except when I have out-of-town trips. I see it as some sort of distraction to keep me from missing the Light too much. It was the first Christmas, first New Year that she was not with us.

Yesterday browsing through photos in my external HD, I found not a few pictures of her. And luckily she was, for the most part, my subject when I first got hold of my Sony camera in 2011. It's comforting to know that I have saved the videos which still make me laugh because of the silly things she does when on cam, knowing I am behind the camera.

Makes me thankful that at the very least these gadgets are attainable by ordinary people like me. In the 90s only the rich can afford camcorders.

Good news is that I finally was able to tick off five items on my holiday to-do list:

1. Write an article for an online newspaper about the ugly side of the holiday season. I focused more on the huge amount of trash and on illegal street vendors who block pedestrian pathways. The 24th and the 25th were days I finally took courage to bring my camera and do fieldwork in the metro, something I would always shy away from for fear of having my cam stolen.

2. Send photos of artifacts requested by an ex-professor. I have sent the same zipped file for her countless times before. I hope this is the last time. Digging through my files just eats up time for me thanks to my unfocused mind and my tendency to reminisce while looking up photos and videos.

3. Complete tasks for a new project.

4. Finish checking the articles for our little project which ended last November. It's a one-girl team doing all the checking of more than 700 articles!

5. Complete registrations to events. Fingers crossed with hopeful heart.

Now only a few more left:

1. Work on blog backlogs. But sometimes I question myself if it's still relevant. On the other hand, for memories' sake, I'll still do it.

-SG (with focus on my first day spent at Palau Ubin)

-South Korea

-Oriental Mindoro (done with the excavation part, will write about mapping)

-Cavinti falls + visita iglesia part 2 in Laguna

-Laguna part 1 continuation

-farm visit in Sta. Maria, Laguna (my 2015 weekends seem to be spent mostly either in Pangasinan or in Laguna).

-HK wetland park (this I really have to write about)

-Pangasinan part 1

-MX (Teotihuacan, National Museum of Anthropology, Vasconcelos Library)

-Theaters (Rak of Aegis, Mga Buhay na Apoy, Haring Lear)

-Movies (Oro Plata Mata, Stand By Me, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, +plane movies during my MX trip)

2. Transfer my Math noted to index cards. The materials are ready but I just found it hard to sneak this into my schedule.

3. Finish the books I started to read in 2015. Too many to mention. Classic drifter here, yo!

4. Work on my academic papers for publication based on my drafts. At least I was able to present these already. Worked in reverse of what happened in 2014 when I first had my full paper for presentation.

5. Finish the series I started from 2014. (Not really a priority... But I'm itching to share my thoughts on some cool anime series I stumbled upon.)

6. Play music. This I do occasionally to calm my overactive mind.

So there. I'm sure I will have another busy year this year. Bring it on, 2016!

Korean Airlines

For someone who's used to travelling on a budget, I cringe whenever I hear about expensive plane tickets when budget carriers are already in existence which allow even ordinary (and poor, like me) people to realize their dreams of travelling to different parts of the world. That has been one big on-going project of mine and I'm taking baby steps towards realizing it. Hopefully I get to travel to at least one new country each year. For the love of travel and of knowing new things, God knows how hard I work! But it would be even greater if I could have someone to sponsor my trips. LOL

Who would have thought that this year I would have the chance to get inside a more posh aircraft aside from that of Cebu Pacific. This year I had second thoughts about joining a tour in Korea because for one, tours do not allow one to really engage in a place in a meaningful way. All one does is hop inside the tour bus, go down, have your pics taken, go home and post pics on FB but there is no real depth to that experience. It is shallow, uninteresting, and definitely not for me who am fond of walking long distances.

Despite that, I said yes. Not out of love for my father whom I think would need my assistance since the last time he went on a trip with his friends he was sent to the hospital. I'm not the world's most dutiful daughter. My reason is more on the selfish side, this is an opportunity to go to Korea. If I were to wait for my friends to I wonder at what age I will be able to go there. At least the tour would be like a survey for me, if I liked the place, if there are places worthy of visit (i.e. Museums, historical places, big temples), then I'd definitely go back. I'm pretty sure there are many historical places like palaces and these are quite popular in their historical dramas.

Very roomy interiors with 9 seats per row instead of the usual 6

Entertainment consisting of music, movies, books, and even games

I had chicken instead of beef bibimbap but used my dad's leftover chili paste

Anyway, the plane craft was really nice. It was the first time I got inside a big one so pardon my post about it. I was awed at how they took into consideration a passenger's need to kill time with their all in one console. They even had classical music!

Excited, I opted to watch a Spanish comedy film entitled Ochos apellidos. It is about a man from Seville who fell in love with a girl from the Basque region. They met in Seville and after a one night stand, the man pursued the girl all the way to the Basque and pretended to be of that region. He had to to get the girl since the Basque is a fiercely separatist region. It's witty and funny and I honestly enjoyed it because of many comedic elements although I'm not really into romcoms. I guess I'm more interested in knowing more about the culture of the Basque region more than anything else. 

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This is the first time I blogged while away on a trip. Will have to do this more often to prevent backlogs. 

Reminders

It's been a looooong time since I wrote something here in my blog. Just that for the last couple of months I had been too busy with a lot of things. Not that I am complaining; we all know getting busy is the best cure to a single heart. But because I was suddenly flooded with chores and there were just too many events I could not say no to (thus most times I would just end up in bed as soon as I arrive home), I have unfortunately neglected writing altogether. In fact even my non-digital diary is suffering from blank pages so I guess I'll have to find a way to spend time alone to rethink the recent past and to put them on paper.

Just why the obsession to accumulate records, you might ask. This is actually a project I have taken, a personal project supposedly, but which I don't mind sharing with strangers on the net. The reason being there is a huge chance that I'll end up a single woman and I hope that if that happens I can look back and see what I've done here on earth. It's just to somehow cushion the harsh blows of reality and see in my old age that at the very least, I tried to live a fruitful life despite the immanent chaos and the lack of meaning. It's a record of struggles and happy times, of different experiences which helped make life bearable, which somehow pushes me to live again tomorrow, and the day after....

In short, this blog is a reminder of things done and of things yet to be done.

For instance, some of the things I should have written about are:
1. My first ever time to join a group of strangers in a trek to a waterfalls in Laguna. At first, I was scared alright but before the day ended, I felt as if I have known some of them for a long time already.

2. My trip to HK where I got to hang out with my cousins whom I haven't seen for soooo long. I think it's been almost 20 years! And I got to know our other relatives there. Big plus includes getting to hike twice in that place known for shopping and Disneyland. And how can I forget the four museums that I visited??? Never mind the fact that my itinerary was ruined because of visits to relatives but oh well, we never see each other that often. I just wished I was able to prepare something really uniquely Filipino like for example cloth from Ilocos and the like as gifts for them.

View of Hong Kong from the Museum of Art in Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsui

3. Chino's violin recital last month where I was left utterly impressed. There just is something in him now that is sooo attractive. Well it helps that he decided to do away with the moustache hehe. I also discovered that he's soft-spoken. (I wonder if he'll be annoyed at me if he were to know me better since I'm too boyish and too well, too unladylike, in a word.)

4. The books I have finished reading but which I did not have time to write reviews. Oh well, it's not as if I was able to read many books these days given my ultra hectic schedule.

5. The conference I attended last month where I presented my paper. On second thought I might not write about it since there really wasn't much to say except that I was extra happy to have received free books for being a presentor. The books are in Filipino and are composed of essays on Philippine literature. Welcome addition to my already gigantic book collection. (reminder to suggest to the parents that I NEED big bookshelves in our room. I hope the sisters do not mind.)

6. The advanced Christmas wishlist. Doesn't matter if year after year I do not get the things I truly wish for but what the heck, making one is fun JUST BECAUSE. (never mind that nobody reads it or takes note of it. LOL!)

So there. Backlogs again so I'm not writing about my recent food trips except of course Ganeeza in Fisher Mall since I think I knew what 'love at first sight'... I mean, BITE. I now know where I can find some comfort when depression kicks in. And oh yeah, I prefer to shop there than say SM. SM is just too damn crowded I'm always eager to get out the moment I enter.

So anyway, this post just ended up with a few reminders (or things my readers can expect in the days to come).

Note: I can't believe I just blogged using my tablet. Maybe I ought to do this more often so I can blog anytime anywhere.

May 2013

May this year has been a mixture of many things. Following April spent mostly away from home, May saw my life going back to normal, meaning that I follow the work-home and occasional work-home-gimmick routine again.

The day I got back from Palawan on the last day of April, our team lead announced that on that coming Friday, we'd be heading off to Tali Beach for our team outing. I was aghast, feeling that a war might ensue between me and my parents as they have a tendency to get mad when I tell them I'd be travelling away from home. But realizing that controlling me is impossible now, I went on ahead even while suffering from LBM.

I joined our company's sportsfest, signing up in the bowling tournament. I'm no bowler, I very rarely go to the bowling alley but I wanted to try it again and the rest is history. I luckily landed in the finals, having passed the elimination round. But I brought shame to myself when I ended up the weakest link in my team. Oh well, at least I had fun.

I finally finished season 1 of Game of Thrones. It's one of those few TV series that got me really hooked I always end up doing a marathon. Before May ended, I got my hands on season 2.

Dates with close friends kept me sane again. My archaeo friends and I met in our usual date place and watched Star Trek Into Darkness. I am no Star Trek fan, am not even familiar with the storyline, though I do read about it a lot, and I know that its popular character is Dr. Spock who's got a funny hairstyle. Unfortunately I was so tired after a day's work that I fell asleep. I felt like I threw money into the garbage can afterwards.

My other dates are happily spent in Maginhawa and Greenhills Town Center where food are not as expensive. As seems to be a monthly habit, I found myself in another formal dinner this month with a friend ar Ilustrado in Intramuros. It was raining then, which I consider bad luck. I don't go to Intramuros when it rains. I was traumatized once at having had to seek shelter in NCCA Gallery because suddenly the streets were flooded following a downpour which didn't even last an hour.

I'm back to reading again. It probably must be the weather which has become a bit kinder with cool winds at night, setting the mood for continuous reading again. And I've drawn another list of books I will read for the coming cold months. (And looking forward to free some space for new books...)

That, and I'm proud to say that this month has been quite productive when it comes to blogging. I finally finished blogging about my whole Ho Chih Minh trip. Still have lots more to write about (Shanghai and Palawan). Since I'm not travelling any time soon, I'm expecting myself to at least finish writing about my Palawan experience. As of writing I have edited pictures I will be needing for my two blog posts.

Laptop Gives up on Me Again

Early this morning, when I turned on my laptop, I was greeted with a window to change my graphics card settings. Curious, I navigated the window and changed a bit of the settings. Then I proceeded to blogging, determined to finish blogging about my first trip to Vietnam. (I was already lagging behind my schedule.)

An hour later, my screen display flickered. I thought it was just my battery about to go empty so I plugged in the adapter. All of a sudden the screen display turned black. Something's wrong so I restarted my laptop and tried to see what's happened, to no avail. The screen kept on flickering and everything would go black. It happened many times during my attempt to log into my systems.

I just bought my machine two months ago during a sale. I should have known that something is not right when an electronic gadget's price is slashed by more than 50%. Now I will have to find a reputable laptop repair shop and have my machine fixed.

In the meantime, I'm using my sister's machine. My blogging activities will lessen dramatically because of this present ordeal. On the other hand, while it is tempting to whine and complain, I am controlling myself not to cry injustice when there are far more people who are burdened with graver problems. I leave everything to luck and fate, as usual. (And I hope I get my machine up and running again.)

Topblogstories: Blog-Referring Site?

Lately I notice the sudden increase of traffic to my blog. Checking the stats, I found out that one site is the cause, topblogstories.com. The URL is flattering but one shouldn't really be. Clicking on the link (which is a wrong move as I would learn later on), I found out that the link directs to a porn site! I wouldn't want my personal blog to be associated with such!

So off I did some research on the internet and found out that other bloggers are also complaining of the same problem. I searched on ways on how to solve this problem but it turns out that Google is actually not doing anything. The only helpful information I found on the internet can be found HERE.

The links are harmless, unless clicked. I guess I have to contain my curiosity.