Killer review

Review about Philippine Fashion Week. Click HERE.

Eyelavet.

101 Things in 1001 Days

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

This project was started by photographer Michael Green. To learn more about the nature of the project, click HERE.

Anyway, here’s my 101 Things in 1001 Days list:

Starting date: April 22, 2007
Deadline: January 22, 2010

1. Explore Singapore
2. Learn Spanish
3. Learn German
4. Go on a road trip with no predetermined destination
5. Hand in my resignation letter
6. Move to the US to work/study
7. Open a savings account and set aside half of my salary every month for a year
8. Paint at least one painting a month for a year
9. Go on my ultimate dream trip: backpacking across Europe
10. Lose 15 lbs.
11. Learn how to scuba dive
12. Go whale watching
13. Learn to surf
14. Visit at least 3 Asian countries (2 down, 1 to go!)
15. Get my long overdue driver’s license
16. Conquer my fear of heights: bungee jump / sky dive
17. Contribute or work in a magazine
18. Attend a creative writing seminar/workshop
19. Build up my writing portfolio
20. Learn web design, buy my own domain and create my own website
21. Brush up on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
22. Study Graphic Design
23. Get a credit card
24. Buy a digital SLR camera
25. Watch 3 of my favorite Broadway musicals (1 down!)
26. Try one new restaurant a month and write a review about it
27. Do Pilates regularly
28. Visit my hometown
29. Visit a museum / gallery every month and write a review about my fave art work there
30. Send a secret to Post Secret
31. Open an account in deviantart.com and sell 3 art works there
32. Sell all my old books. Keep only the ones I intend to read again.
33. Try speed dating! haha
34. Finish reading all the books I haven’t finished yet (I’ll post a list)
35. Sign up for Jazz dance class
36. Start a Wreck this Journal project
37. Start my own The Art of Looking Sideways project
38. Back up the files in my laptop
39. Visit New York and have that perfect NY moment again.
40. Visit Washington, D.C. again and go to all the Smithsonian museums
41. Treat my parents to a day at the spa
42. Learn a new art medium
43. Do a photographic review of my neighborhood
44. Get a study grant abroad
45. Volunteer for a non-profit organization
46. Reconnect with an old friend
47. Go diving in Samal island
48. Buy my mom an iPod shuffle to replace her mp3 player (which I, er, broke)
49. Go on a trip abroad all by myself
50. Tour the Philippines and write a travel book about it
51. Work for a travel magazine
52. Get a new hairstyle
53. Have a foreign film marathon
54. Read books about 10 of my favorite artists / historical figures
55. Back up the mp3 files in my Zen Micro Photo
56. Sell my Zen MP and buy an 80GB iPod video
57. Throw/give away all the things I haven’t used for a year
58. Make black & white film photography a hobby again
59. Avoid eating beef and pork for 2 months straight
60. Treat myself to a massage at least once a month for a year
61. Learn how to cook at least 3 of my favorite meals
62. Try applying for work at my favorite teacher’s marketing company
63. Find a freelance PR project
64. Make a photo journal/scrapbook about my 2005 US vacation
65. Find my missing Post Secret book!!! (huhu)
66. Watch a ballet production
67. Have lunch with Peach soon!
68. Go white water rafting or mountain climbing
69. Have lunch / dinner with someone I admire (a mentor)
70. Meet a rock star!
71. Watch an international band live in concert
72. Do at least 60 of the things in this list
73. Trace my roots
74. Start a book club
75. Organize an event by myself
76. Talk to my parents about my plans for the next two years
77. Earn a master’s degree in Marketing Communications
78. Spend a day alone once a month going places and taking pictures (or I can just go to a spa and pamper myself. haha)
79. Watch all of Johnny Depp’s movies!
80. Go on one of Carlos Celdran’s tours
81. Have a book signed by a favorite author
82. Get at least one of my brothers to start READING (good luck)
83. Buy gifts for my siblings for no reason whatsoever (Mina’s gonna looove this one)
84. Check out all my old journals (I have a box full at home in Davao) and determine which ones I can already throw away
85. Have a fling during my travel trips >:)
86. Learn how to make one of my favorite desserts
87. Pull a really big, carefully planned prank on someone >:)
88. Continue my piano lessons
89. Go to Australia
90. Meet you-know-who
91. Start a collection of really useless things (magnets wehe)
92. Find a jogging place near where I live (that’s not littered with poop of all varieties *yuck*)
93. Lead a healthier lifestyle
94. Be part of a musical production
95. Get acting lessons
96. Write two-liner blog entries for a month (starting on this one!)
97. Have a Sex & The City marathon
98. Design jewelry
99. A good deed a day keeps the karma away
100. Work for Discovery Communications, Inc. (Waaaah Travel and Living!!!)

Rassum frassum

I’m not going to be productive today.

I need sleep. Came home at the crack of dawn. And woke up to my irritating alarm a few hours later. It’s not even tomorrow yet. >:(

I am so not in the mood.

On a brighter note, I read about this really sad show in the papers. It’s called “Miss Ugly (No More)” and I’m thinking it’s the pinoy version of The Swan, that surgical makeover show that became a big hit in the US a few years back.

I only wish I knew about it earlier. Because I could have done Hot Stuff here a favor by entering her in the contest. Darn it. There goes my good deed of the day.

Goodness.

I think I just put the itch in bitch back there. This is what lack of sleep does to me. It turns me into a monster. And Hot Stuff was actually being helpful earlier.

I think in another life, we could be friends. Then again, in my next life, I’ll be a Vuitton bag. She will be Secosana. Or a pair of orange crocs.

*Wilhemina Slater laugh*

If I have offended anyone, beat it.
Today is To-Hell-With-Being-Civil Day. Mark that in your calendars.

Anyway. I think I’ll take the half day off. I’ll just finish this blasted report and I’m out.

—–

Quote of the day:

“Out of my way, Fat Boy!!!”
Helga Pataki, Hey Arnold

Sweet Escape

Sometimes the extent of the whole blogging community amazes me.

Like today, I clicked on one of the links from my blog and then went on to click another link to another blog from the same blog that was linked to the one that was linked to mine and then went on to click another link to another blog and found myself writing this really long sentence that I think does not even make sense anymore. Anyway, I stopped with all the clicking and finally found myself here.

It’s a blog owned by Keri Smith, an illustrator, writer, and guerilla artist who wanders through life in search of new ideas.

I’m thinking of doing her Wreck this Journal project. First, I need to buy myself a blank journal though. The current one I have is a bit fancy schmancy (Really nice japanese print at the cover…and it’s RED so I’m in love with it) so it’ll probably hurt me like hell when I do crazy things to it. Creative Destruction.

I find myself embarking on a lot of “projects” lately. It all started when I went on my usual stroll along blogging lane and found myself staring at photographer Michael Green’s journal. He has this 101 Things in 1001 Days project and it’s this way better, more motivating version of a New Year’s Resolution. Just click on the link because I’m too lazy to even explain it myself. Besides, don’t you think the name says it all?

Anyway, I’ve already compiled a 101 in 1001 list but I haven’t gotten around to posting it yet. I’m not in the mood to leave our air-conditioned den to go up to my room because the hallway leading to my golden yellow haven (haven = the most friggin’ gasgas word in real estate writing history) is scorching hot. And I didn’t bother bringing Logan the Laptop (yes that is his name) down when I went up to get my clothes before I took the most refreshing shower EVER!!! I felt like I was being reborn!!! (Aquarian)

Gad. I think today was probably the hottest day of the year. But I saw in the paper this morning that it was bound to become even hotter in May. Is the universe out to get me??? If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the sun trying its darnedest best to roast me alive!!!

BUT THE HEAT’S NOT GOING TO GET ME DOWN.

SEE, TODAY…

and this is such a lame segue…

TODAY…I FINALLY BOOKED MY FLIGHT TO SINGAPORE!!!! YEAAAAAHHH I’M LEAVING MANILA!!!

For good!!!!

Liar liar pants on F–stop right there.

…for a good eight days anyway.

So my friend told me that if I found the Manila heat hot, I’ll probably find the heat in Singapore even more unbearable.

INSERT: Kramer from Seinfeld in a steam room: “It’s like a sauna in here.” I love Kramer. He’s a total nut case.

Anyway, I don’t care if it’s like a sauna in Singapore, I still wouldn’t change my trip’s schedule for anything in the world!!!

I just need the vacation. I need to escape from The Toad and The Dragon Lady (no, this is not a fairy tale), my clients, the dreary beige (BEIGE for the love of GAAAD!!!) walls of the office, the Manila Traffic…I need time away from it all.

Hopefully, I’ll come back from my trip a more relaxed and clearheaded person. I need to climb out of the rut I buried myself in the past couple of months. I can’t wait

====

This post is dedicated to Mabuhay Miles. Haha!

Sanjaya Anthem

Saw this in Entertainment Tonight. Apparently, it’s the most downloaded video today. Haha riot!

letters again

Steffi recommended another book compiling letters.

It’s called The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time, a compilation of correspondences between a number of history’s most prominent figures. Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera. Ernest Hemingway to Mary Welsh (Ernest you womanizer you). Anais Nin to Henry Miller. Marc Chagall to Bella Chagall. And that’s just naming a few. Eyelavet. I want to buy it. I better head over to Fully Booked and see if they have a copy.

Speaking of Fully Booked, I went to Serendra recently and saw that they’re building a 3-storey Fully Booked store there!!! OMG. You now know where to find me people! Hehehe

I love being a nerd.

The last time I went to San Francisco, I think I made daily trips to Borders Bookstore right across Union Square. I love how they let you spend an entire day there reading. I wanted to apply for a part time job there, particularly after seeing how cute one of the guys working there was. We flirted right across the cash register while I was returning one of the books I bought a week earlier. Apparently, he noticed I practically lived in the building as I was there almost everyday. And, erm, it wasn’t really the first time I returned a book I purchased because I was addicted to the 30-day return policy.

Sigh.

I miss the states. I miss hanging out at museums every first tuesday of the month (free entrance for this cheapskate). I miss having what I call my ‘New York Moments. ‘ Like the time when I had coffee with this French tourist I met at the Metropolitan Museum. I met him after my grandmother failed to take my picture beside my favorite Van Gogh painting for the umpteenth time (it was always blurry because mommy’s hands were shaky hehe) and I asked him to do it as a favor after seeing him smiling at me from across the room.

We had coffee after while mommy went off to meet our other relatives and daddy (actually, nawala nalang siya nang parang bula. haha). His accent made it a bit hard for me to make out some of the things he was saying but I had a lovely time talking away the (huhu) 40 minutes I had left before heading out to see Chicago. He asked if I wanted to check out the Guggenheim Museum with him the following day but it was already my last day in New York then (I’m cursed with impossibly sucky timing). That was probably one of the best conversations I had ever.

Sigh.

Enough with the reminiscing. I always end up depressed when I do this. Reminds me of the reality of me being stuck HERE when there’s a whole world out there for me to see.

Bah, humbug.

I know it’s stupid and irrational but I’m blaming this one on the dragon lady. The same way I blame her for 9/11, world violence, cruelty to animals and the apocalypse. Seriously, I just can’t STAND her right now. She made sure that Friday the 13th lived up to its reputation. She’s like Ebenezer Scrooge before the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future paid a visit. She’s Baba Yaga in the flesh. She’s the Big Bad Wolf in sheep’s clothing. She’s every villain I never grew to like (I usually love villains in the story). She’s…she’s…she’s a friggin monster!!!

——-

Comment from Steffi:

You left out Hurricane Katrina and the Asian Tsunami. Baba Yaga has a lot of explaining to do for those.

I think she also caused my sudden and irrational 5-pound weight gain. See?! Her evil travels across the miles. *lol*

Miami crazy

Waaaah my best friend Au is having the grandest time in Miami!!!

I just got an email from her about her adventures and misadventures during the first three days of her trip! It was one hell of a roller coaster ride! But all is good now (she escaped trailer trash hell and is now living in a beautiful house in Coral Gables) and I’m so proud of her!

*sniff*

The baby is now a thriving escape artist.

Well, what do you know? All our Au-Tricia-spider-web scheming in college finally paid off! LOL

Miss you Bruna! Can’t wait to hear about the latest big adventure!

letters

I’m a sucker for love letters.

Lurked at Jessica Zafra’s blog earlier today and I read about the correspondence between Ernest Hemingway and Marlene Dietrich.

To him she was “my little Kraut”, or “daughter”, to her he was simply “Papa” – and it was love at first sight when they met aboard a French ocean liner in 1934.

Hemingway and Dietrich started writing to each other when he was 50 and she was 47, remaining in close contact until the writer’s suicide in 1961. But they never consummated their love, because of what Hemingway referred to as “unsynchronised passion”.

*sigh*

My friend also has this book compiling the correspondence between Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt.

From the first year they met, Heidegger, already a famous philosopher, and Arendt, then a first-year student, until a few months before their deaths, they corresponded. What happened between them then will never be known, but both would cherish their brief intimacy for the rest of their lives.

The ravages of history would soon take them in quite different directions. After Hitler took power in Germany in 1933, Heidegger became rector of the university in Freiburg, delivering a notorious pro-Nazi address that has been the subject of considerable controversy. Arendt, a Jew, fled Germany the same year, heading first to Paris and then to New York. In the decades to come, Heidegger would be recognized as perhaps the most significant philosopher of the twentieth century, while Arendt would establish herself as a voice of conscience in a century of tyranny and war.

Illuminating, revealing, and tender throughout, this correspondence offers a glimpse into the inner lives of two major philosophers.

While I love shooting out emails to whoever cares to receive them, I can’t help but miss receiving old school snail mail letters from friends and, ahem, prospects. There’s just something about old school letters that trump emails in my book. Perhaps its the novelty behind it. Or maybe it’s because you just KNOW that someone exerted a lot of effort into it.

And there’s just something sexy about guys with very good penmanship.

I had this teacher in college once and he used to give us photocopies of his notes on a particular subject we were discussing at that point and his handwriting was just divine. Bold, effortless strokes. I’d kill for him to write me a letter. He wasn’t much of a looker but I can always pretend it was Johnny Depp writing me.

Or Ewan McGregor a la Pillow Book. Writing doesn’t necessarily have to be on paper. Haha. Gotta watch that movie again soon.

Bashing 101

Check out this girl’s review of the pinoy version of America’s Next Top Model.

While I can’t help but agree with most (if not all…actually, ALL) of the things she’s saying…I think she needs to take a long cool dip in the pool. Simmer down, tiger!

====

Quote of the day:

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. (Guess who)

Adios, mi amigos!

Public service announcement

My immune system finally caved.

I’m stuck at home with only a fever to keep me company.

It’s going to be a long day.