i always pass by Ikeda Hall or Balay Kalinaw in UP when i’m on my way home. now that i’ll be moving to another place (still looking for one, though) soon, i know i’ll miss it. it looks very Asian to me. well, a fusion of different Asian cultures perhaps but the way it looks, the roof is not like a bahay kubo but more of those from Indonesia. wide facade/base for earthquakes, a veranda and large windows both for hot weather, terracotta tiles, roof overhang… perhaps i’d want a house designed like this. it’s not just a building but a landmark of Asian culture and heritage.

and since the annual “Pag-iilaw” of UP commenced last December 2 (the same day i attended the Koro Ilustrado concert. tsk!), most of the buildings in UP are now in wonderful Christmas lights. this is the first one i saw and took a picture of. the cold weather last night only increased my anticipation of Christmas, more so upon seeing Balay Kalinaw in lights! Pasko na nga talaga…

sige na, sige… nobody’s perfect. ako din, i make spelling errors very often. minsan nga yung THEIR and THEY’RE napag-papalit ko pa ng gamit eh. pero i just couldn’t help it…

was on my way to meet A in Boni so from Katipunan, i take the LRT going to Cubao then take the MRT from there to Boni station. and i usually pass by some tech shops along the way inside Farmer’s cubao. syempre, kaka-silip, kaka-window shopping, nakita ko to. and i knew i had to share it.

pinipigilan ko sarili ko tumawa noon. i was merely chuckling when i was taking a picture pero nung nakita ko pa yung isang item nila on display with a label, i just had to let a big laugh out. isang malakas na “haha” lang naman and then i covered my mouth. i didn’t get to take a picture though kasi by this time, i was drawing some attention from the CD-R King customers doing some window shopping as well.

what i saw was another item labeled “VEDIO converter”. honest mistake, i thought. but another item had the word VEDIO in it, too! too bad i didn’t see an item labeled VEDIO ADAFTER! ay nako, tatambling na talaga ako noon! lol! i had quite some exercise laughing then. i wonder kung andun pa mga yun ngayon… hehehe

CD-R King Farmer’s Cubao, spell check naman jan!!!

what funny signs have you seen lately?

everybody has one — a gift that they would never ever think of using. makes you wonder how well one person knows you because he gave you something that is (a)pretty much useless to you or (b)you would never think of buying for yourself because you don’t like it! friends sometimes do that. i once got a sando with some artwork reminiscent of Tribal Gear designs from my grandmother and i just had to flash a wide smile and say, “thank you!” i just couldn’t break her heart by showing a shocked face asking, “kelan ko susuotin ‘to?”

but a few days ago, one of my office-mates finally decided to pursue religious life as a nun. extreme as it may seem, she started to give-away her earthly possessions. i was one of the few “blessed” with her generosity. i say blessed with quotation marks because i can’t really be certain that her gift was a blessing. this is what she gave me:

not the white mug.

she knew i was into photography and i owned a digital camera… and it’s not that sophisticated, even! i own a 6.2MP point-and-shoot, low-end camera. perhaps, yes, i was attracted to lomography before but after seeing the price of maintaining the hobby, i eventually shied-away from it. plus there was too many choices. i just knew i would WANT ALL of them…

and so, the gift becomes a wonderful punishment. it is a blessing and a curse, so the cliche goes. nevertheless, this looks like a hobby i’m inheriting and bound to explore. let’s see how long this will last… probably as long as i have rolls of 120mm film from her.

120mm film is P200 a piece. (doh)

if only i had internet for the 10-day training i had in tacloban, i would have had more things to write. andami na kasi nangyari. araw-araw, andaming impressions naiiwan saken ng siyudad na yon. andaming missed “Kodak” moments din. things that i now wish i could have taken a picture of to show what tacloban city was really like. not just the places we went to but also how it is at night when all is quiet na.

it may be a little futile to gather all the emotions i had when i got there. hindi na siya kasing-intense eh. mas may awe and wonder ka, coupled with fear and excitement pag first time mo umapak sa isang lugar. lalo na kung you don’t speak the local language.

unang lapag palang sa airport, sabi ko, dapat nakunan ko na ng picture yung grounds ng airport. it was flat (natural! airport yun diba?) and you could see a boat on the horizon. it was a beautiful combination of green, blue, white and the black tarmac. the airport itself is no 5-star hotel but that was irrelevant when we landed. what greeted us was this:

and it was absolutely breathtaking — a sign of good things to come during our stay in tacloban city in the next few days.

first thing we had to do, though, was get from the airport to the city proper to register and leave our stuff at our hotel. since taxis were quite expensive… Php 150 pinaka murang singil samen, naglakas-loob na lang kami mag-jeepney. being with a girl companion, sort of nag-alangan ako pero dahil first time din niya bumyahe, ang sabi ko na lang eh, “sige lang! adventure to!” half-lying about my courage to ride the jeepney to i don’t know where exactly. thank goodness nakarating naman kami sa registration and sa mga hotel namen. magkahiwalay pa kami! nevertheless, masaya pa din. and dahil di din namen sure what to sample and where to sample the local cuisine, we had to resort to Plan B — Chicken McDo. lol…

lol

just sharing one of a few photos taken at the office.

and this is from a point and shoot camera! woot!!! hahaha… well, we had a few ‘better’ cameras lying around but mine was the only working one. one friend lost his DSLR batteries, our Canon A570 (i think) had no batteries either. and our pro photographer was nowhere in sight! probably off to a different site taking the photos, too. so, armed with my Kodak C613, *click*

failed

*click*

too bright

*click*

blurred photo

*click*

oooops… accidentally fired the camera

*click*

there we go!!! gotcha!

received this as a wedding souvenir/giveaway from a college friend. november pa sila kinasal (if i remember right) and then namulaklak na siya nung una pero i forgot to take a pic. ngayon, di ko na pinalampas. so pretty!

one problem, di ako taxonomist or a biology major. does anyone know what plant this is?

“The Heritage Bells are among the artifacts from the Padre Faura campus.
The bell of 1832 was dedicated to Our Lady of Peace.
The bell of 1932 bears the seal of the Society of Jesus.”

the site of the Heritage Bells monument is inside the AdMU Campus in front of Rizal Library.

when my dad attended his HS reunion, he took KC (my digital camera) with him. and since there was no cook for that day, my sister and i decided to do as we please and cooked up some ‘new’ dishes, i.e. those that we wouldn’t cook on a normal day. and to document it, i used my (well, now my sister’s) new “Nokia 6300″.

the menu was 2 simple dishes. 1.) buttered corn and carrots and 2.) grilled bbq chicken.

but of course, being an unplanned menu, we didn’t have the right ingredients. the butter changed to margarine so it’s now ‘margarined corn and carrots’ and no chicken was available so we had to go to our local sari-sari store. good thing they had fresh meat!

the hardest part of these recipes is the chopping (of the carrots at least). we have a surplus of canned corn kernels so we used that. cooking’s a sinch. heat a tablespoon of margarine in wok, cook carrots until tender, then add canned corn kernels. i put a little pepper. just because i liked to. i think i overcooked it a bit but they were still edible! haha

next, the chicken. instant solution: Mama Sita’s BBQ marinade mix! haha… marinated (hah! i had to Google the difference between the two!) the chicken while preparing carrots. after about just an hour, i prepped the turbo broiler, set the temp to 100-120 degrees for about 12 mins each side, total of about half an hour. i rubbed a little paprika on the chicken to aid in a little browning. the result? BAD CAMERA PHONE SHOTS! boohoo…

- you’re bored in the office
- you don’t want to do your job
- you discovered a new app
- you started tinkering and google-ing how-to’s
- you have the creativity level of a goose

Answer: