It is all about balance

It is all about balance.

Nature has its own way of taking what's not rightfully yours and giving to you what you really deserve.

It is a delicate scale with no specific timeline.

We must not be angry nor upset about it because that is really how life goes. If we try to counteract this, it will only result to catastrophic events.

I say, accept the nature of life and be more deserving of wonderful things. That way, you will not be one of those who stood at the edge of the cliff swearing "Life is Unfair!"

Life is fair.

It gives you all the chances you need. That is why, this would probably be my last post in this blog. I want to start a new one with a new twist. I am not one of those people who get things right the first time but I am willing to try again.

I hope I make good of this second. Let's cross our fingers!

Random Thought #2

Photo by me using SSGNote1

Random Thought #1

Photo by me using SSGNote1

     

Mani Monday: Matte Camo Nail Art in Honor of the Soldiers

A little more love can't be bad for anyone

It is already the 10th day of firefight in Zamboanga City. A lot of people wounded. Innocent children killed. Families displaced from their homes. Whoever wins this fight, the people will surely lose. 

Someday, I wish that pride will be the only thing wounded in people and innocent children are killed with tickles and laughter and families are displaced from their homes for better ones. Someday, I wish we don't need to send our young valiant men to fight with other men because of ideals bigger than them. Ideals they sometimes do not agree with or even understand.

But seeing these things happening now, that someday seems a little too far. Until then, we should give honor to the men and women who stand guard so that we can sleep peacefully in our homes, the men and women who risk being away from their families so that we could be with ours and the men and women who took the bullet and died so that we can walk the streets without fear.

We do not and must not condone any form of warfare but if it is inevitable, we do and must give honor to the men and women who are courageous enough to face it so that we don't have to.

 

How to do this mani?

1. Make a DIY matte top coat. It is super easy make! Just mix cornstarch in your clear polish.

How much cornstarch? (rhymes. wow)

- Well, it was trial and error for me. But I think I ended up with 2 parts clear polish, 1 part cornstarch.

2. Then, paint your nails black except for the ring finger.

3. While waiting for the other fingers to dry, make the camo on the ring finger.

4. After you finished doing the camo, your other fingers will mostly be dry. It is time to apply your DIY matte top coat. The consistency is thicker than usual and you might need to add a little more solvent. Don't worry about the creases though because they will dry flat. I used two coats of the DIY matte top coat for all the fingers for this mani.

5. Finally, using the black polish, I painted diagonal lines over the now matte black nails for that beautiful contrast between matte and glossy.

   

Whenever the thought of how bad and unfair life is creeps on me, I say to myself "Someone died so that you can live." I think of the pain that someone's family might be experiencing now and how I am demeaning their pain by not being happy with my life. Then, I will come to the realization that "Someone gave his life up for me, might as well make it worth his while"

Happiness is a Choice: Now in Bloglovin'

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Meet our new dog: Chibi

I've always wanted a new dog since  Ogie died of old age (*cry) and in my mind's eye, it is always a black furry girl dog.

So, when a good friend of mine from highschool posted cute black ShihPoo pups for sale, I immediately texted her. And after  a little reluctance from Neva's father (who doesn't want to be parted from the cute puppy), we came home with a new member of the family: Chibi.

 

 

 

My siblings and I have thought of the name Chibi for the dog. Chibi is is Japanese slang word for something small and cute. We came across this word while watching the anime, Prince of Tennis where the members of Seigaku team fondly calls Ryoma (the lead character) "O'chibi" because he is the smallest in the team. (Well, being the only freshman to be eligible to the team, this is justifiable.) Since Chibi is the smallest of the pups, we knew the name was perfect.

 

Ryoma is the one at the front most with the white cap

It turns out that name is not the only thing Chibi and Ryoma have in common. They also both have relentless energy. Chibi is such an active dog. She will only stop once she is dead tired. In the photo below, she actually has a cut in her right eye because of being too playful. She loves being tickled in the belly and licking faces. Her favorite game is the pabitin where you will dangle a cloth or a rope and she will catch it.

One of the rare moments when she would sit still

She is a certified stress reliever and cuddle toy. I look forward to going home this weekend to play with her.

Life is a Fairytale

I used to doubt that life is one fairytale.

Now I confirmed that it is a fairytale but with action, drama, science fiction, horror and comedy at times. And the prince won't be the only good looking guy you will meet. You will meet gangsters, pranksters, hippies, men in black suits, men with no suits, sports jocks, nerds, geeks and superheroes. And the evil stepsister usual comes with "s", yes, evil stepsisters who can take the form of that perfect girl at school, the miss goody two shoes, the captain of the cheerleaders, the old lady who doesn't care about lines, the sexy lady who decided to ride the train in stilettos and sometimes your own mother. (I love you mom!).

It still has one thing in common though, both has happy endings. And, unlike a fairytale with only one happy ending, in real life, you can have a lot of happy endings. You can have happy endings everyday if you want to. Believe in happy endings because that is the only way you can put up with evil stepsisters and poisoned apples.

Never fall in love with a poet... by A Thomas Hawkins

I just want to share this beautiful poem I came across today in Hello Poetry.Com.

Never fall in love with a poet... 

Never fall in love with a poet
for their words are sometimes lies
on occasions they're a shield
on occasions a disguise

They will take you on a journey
upon which they bare their soul
in a bid to ease your burdens
in a bid to make you whole

But in every word they choose
for the stories that they tell
lies a little piece of heaven
and a little piece of hell

Tormented souls we poets are
sometimes quite broken and despaired
in search of lost expressions
missed by others who once cared

Never fall in love with a poet
unless you're prepared to share their pain
to hold them close on the darkest nights
over and again

My favorite lines are:

 But in every word they choose
for the stories that they tell
lies a little piece of heaven
and a little piece of hell

 Tormented souls we poets are
sometimes quite broken and despaired

 I haven't been writing poems for a long time. Sometimes I have the feeling but I can't find the right words. And, at other times I have the right words but they are empty without the right feeling. I hope to be able to strike both at the same time soon.

Yay for poets!
Yay for people unafraid to say how they feel!
Yay for people who knows the right words and how to say them!
Yay for inspiration!
Yay for poetry!

A Prayer

Lord, teach me to be cool in the midst of hot heads
Teach me to smile in the midst of frowns
Teach me to be patient in the midst of snaps
Teach me to whisper in the midst of raised voices
Teach me to focus in the midst of chaos
Teach me to laugh in the midst of tears
Teach me to differ in the midst of commonality
Teach me to love in the midst of hatred
Teach me to trust in the midst of betrayal
Teach me my Teacher.
Save me my Saviour.

Pentax Q: The Unboxing

I bought my Pentax Q from Gadgets Specialist. I found their ad in Sulit.Com.

I was very hesitant to buy online because of doubts on after purchase service but was convinced to buy because they claimed to have an official receipt and 1 year parts and service warranty.

I texted the number posted in their Sulit ad ( 09081747414) and immediately got a reply but from another number ( +639228179183).

Two hours later I have on my hands my new Pentax Q.

The item was delivered by Sir Ron. He was courteous and the transaction was smooth. He arrived earlier than the time he indicated and carefully explained the features of the camera.

It turned out that they are the same entity as CameraHaus, the official distributor of Pentax in the Philippines.
Now, here are the contents of the package I purchased from Gadgets Specialist aka Camera Haus.



1. Camera Neck Strap
2. Camera Body with battery
3. Standard Zoom and Standard Prime lens
4. Camera Bag
5. Camera Connector to PC and TV
6. Battery Charger and Cord (the plugs of the cord are like two poles not the usual flat type so you still have to buy an adaptor.
7. Silkypix Photoediting software installation CD
8. Warranty cards
9. Operating Manual
10. 8gb Transcend SD card (not shown in the picture)

We will not be doing the Pentax Q any justice if we will not discuss its size.

The Pentax Q is a little bit smaller in width compared to a pair of sunglasses.



With the Standard Prime Lens, it is almost as thick as half of the pair of sunglasses.


And it reaches to the other side with the Standard Zoom Lens.



And it can be held comfortably with one hand even with the lens facing you (perfect for selfies!)


Stay tuned for the first shots and the start of my long journey in manual photography :)

Pentax Q: My New Camera

Yay!
After months of searching for reviews online and lurking camera stores, I finally purchased a camera to substitute my phone camera.

I have been taking pictures with my Galaxy Note. It takes great photos and offers a lot of apps for post processing.

But it:
-doesn't do well in low light

Selfie at a night party.

-doesn't offer any zoom power

Jason Mraz Concert in the Philippines. I was in Upper Box A.

-can sometimes be scary to take out because it might get snatched or something.

A bit grainy picture of the Manila Bay post sunset. I was so scared to take out my phone I lift my bag with it

I just knew I had to get another camera.

My first love was the Samsung Galaxy Camera having a powerful zoom with access to all the post processing apps.
But being a clumsy girl, tt was a big and awkward camera for me to hold. I almost dropped the display while trying to shoot and with one hand. Eeeks.
And then there's the price, P25,000 for a camera? Cannot be.

My second choice was the Fujifilm S2980. It was at the other end of the price range amounting to only P7,000. Image quality is not that stellar but for the price, I could live with it. Plus it offers more manual controls compared to other cameras in its price range.

The turn offs were the size (it is almost the size of a DSLR) and the AA batteries. I have doubts with regards to the power. I also find it sad because the rechargeable batteries and charger are not yet included.

My third choice was the Pentax Q. I first saw it while looking around for a camera. My initial thought was that is was a scaled down model of some camera. So I was shocked when the saleslady told me it is a working camera.

Of course, I googled it and I fell in love. It is dubbed as the world's smallest interchangeable lens camera.

According to a lot of forums and reviews, the only negative thing about it is its price. It was launched 2011 in the Philippines wih a hefty P39,000 price tag for a single lens kit. WOW.

Well, it is now only P17,000 for a two lens kit so I went ahead and bought it!

Stay tuned for my next posts on the unboxing, first impressions and features!

Mani Monday: Glittery Red

Last June 20 was my father's 48th birthday. In celebration, my mom and dad cooked the best kare-kare and best palabok in the world. It was a small celebration with just my aunts, uncles and cousins.

Pose for the pic Ate Anne!

After the kalderos of the best palabok and the best kare-kare in the world were scraped to the bottom, my kikay ninang, Ninang Cel (the gorgeous sexy lady who also brought the J. Co donuts. Haha) and first SL, Ate Anne suggested that we clean and paint our nails.
Yay it's Mani Monday time!
This week's Mani Monday is red with dots of silver glitter and the reverse for the accent nail.
And, another thing to note, this is the first time that the mani on my right hand is better than that on my left hand!
Maybe with a little practice, I can make both hands better!

Yay for Mani Mondays!
Yay for more practice!

Love And Hate Relationship

It was one of those mornings when it takes a lot of self control not to wring someone's neck. I wanted to fill this post with morning rants but I have a better plan.

Remember the saying "The world gives you what you give to the world?" I thought that if I write all about the things that happened this morning that I hate, the world will echo this hate to me. Well, I don't know about you but I don't want more hate in this world. I want love. I want more love.

So, instead of writing:
-I hate (negative thing no. 1)
I will write:
- I love (opposite of negative thing no.1)

Sounds easy right?

Here's my list:
-I love strangers who think of others when riding a jeepney. I love the way they sit properly so that you can be comfortable too.
-I love jeepney drivers who leave the terminal to let other drivers have their share of passengers.
-I love men who use their hands to help old ladies get on the jeepney and not pretend to accidentally touch ladies next to them.
-I love proper and orderly jeepney terminals.
-I love smokers who do not smoke while walking so the person walking behind him will not have smoke all over the face.
-I love a sincere "Good morning."
-I love arriving earlier than expected.

Whew! That felt a lot better. From now on, instead of ranting I will continue with this love and hate relationship.

Happy Friday!

Mani Monday: Independence Day Mani

Mabuhay ang Kalayaan ng Pilipinas!

This infamous phrase was shouted by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in the balcony of an ancestral house in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898. It concluded the centuries long fight and struggle from Spain.
That day was also the debut of our national flag sewn by Marcela Agoncillo.



This is the inspiration for this week's Mani Monday.



For a country, independence means being able to protect its people and their welfare while being able maintain good relations with other countries.
For a person, independence means being able to make your own decisions and being able to stand by it.

So now, the inevitable question: is the Philippines an independent country?
Maybe not yet. I think we are still in the middle rung of the ladder to independence. An independent country is comprised of independent people bonded by a common love to their motherland.

So until every Filipino can say with his head raised with pride, "Ako'y isang Pinoy sa puso't diwa!", the Philippines will be one person shy from being independent.

Mani Monday: Lace-y Black

It's been a very busy week for me. Deadlines. Deadlines. Deadlines. Well, I promised myself I will not let work-related stress invade my blog so let's move on from that.

So, this week's Mani Monday is drawn in black lace over SanSan Precious Platinum and Klik Colorless.

Mani Monday: Lace-y Black Nail Art

For each nail, I painted the diagonal half  with the Precious Platinum and the other half with Colorless.
Then, once dry, I drew on them with Permanent Marker.
I, then, topped it with more colorless. I should've skipped this step though because the mark of the marker cracked and the nail polish bubbled.

Oh well, lesson learned.

 I actually am getting the hang of doing my nails every Sunday for my Mani Monday. Maybe next time I will post step by step instructions with pictures (once I get my new camera!).

I cannot say the same for the rest of the week though (YET). But I will try my very best!

Taste It Tuesday: Homemade Milk Tea

It is that limbo once again between the summer and rainy season. It rains sporadically making the weather hotter and more humid. Ugh!

What better way to beat this moody weather than a tall glass of cold milk tea!

But a P150 price tag makes it a little less enticing. So, I decided to make my own.


Here's the process I used: (it's fairly easy!)

1. In a pan, boil 1/2 cup of water with 2 teabags. I used Lipton Peppermint Herbal Infusion. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to taste.
2. Once it came to a boil, pour it to a tall glass half full with water.
3. Add another 1/2 cup to the pan with the teabags and heat until boiling. This is to ensure that you have extracted all the infusion.
4. Pour it to the glass and add ice cubes. You can also put in inside the freezer for a few minutes to make sure it is extra cold.

Here is my final product:



Paired with pork adobo and 2 cups of rice, perfect dinner!

Maybe I can experiment with flavors too using flavored teas! Oh, oh and I can also try making my own pearls!

Definitely excited for the next Taste It Tuesday!

Mani Monday: Italian Nude

It's Mani Monday once again!
I found a nail polish from Klik named Italian Nude. Do Italians really turn this pink when they are nude? Haha.

I decided to pair with an equally sexy color, Caronia Black Satin with a dot of SanSan Pink.

I came up with this design:


Writing this now, I realized it looked like a gothic Santa hat. Haha.

For my toes, I didn't want to be all matchy-matchy but I used the same color scheme. My toes are teeny tiny. Taping was a bit difficult but a success nonetheless.
Here is the result:

My toes look like piggies. Haha. But I'm proud of them. They look like baby toes. Haha

Yay for another Mani Monday!

Thursday Tricks: Sleepyti.me Bedtime Calculator

School starts on Monday. Though I'm no longer a student, I still need to wake up earlier to compensate for the expected heavy traffic (ugh!). There are times when I sleep early but still find it difficult to wake up. And what's worse, I'd still feel sleepy the whole day as if my body got so used to sleeping that it's all it wants to do!
Waking up early is one of my waterloos especially during the cold weather when your pillow is cool and comfortable and you can curl underneath your blanket while wearing Blues Clues socks..... Alright, before I fall asleep, the trick we will feature this Thursday is Sleepyti.me Bed time Calculator

The interface is very intuitive. You just have to specify the hour and minute you have to wake up and hit calculate! My friends working night shift can also choose PM instead of AM.
So for me, I need to be up by 4:45 AM (just 15 minutes earlier than my current wake up time. Hihi).

After hitting calculate, this is what I got:

7:45 is impossible, 9:15 is a little on the borderline and 12:15 is too late. So, 10:45 it is!
Also on the results page are some reminders.

So by 10:30 I should already be in bed with eyes closed. Fairly doable!
I'll update this post with feedback on how it went for me. You should try it too!

Yay for better sleeping patterns!
Yay for waking up early!

Wordy Wednesday: Slow Motion Drowning

Water up to my throat
Threatening my quivering breaths
Climbing my skin in creepy slow motion
I'm drowning
I'm drowning in slow motion
My legs flail helplessly to gain ground
My arms scream loudly with no sound
My eyes have given up
Raining tears in a suicide attempt
And I ask myself:
Why did I drown myself in this ocean?
If I am the willing victim, who is this damsel whining?
Are the waves worth the cliff jump?
Are you still worth the drowning?
Are you still worth the slow motion drowning?

Glazed Pork With Carabao Mangoes

It was one of those evenings when I want something other than plain fried pork or pork adobo. I did a quick search and was inspired by the Glazed Pork Recipe of Budget Bytes.

It looked fairly easy to make. The pork we have on hand was thinly cut so there is no need for an oven. I revised it a bit to add onions and carabao mangoes.

Here's my version:


Ingredients:
-4 pieces of thinly sliced pork
-1 tablespoon of sugar
-salt and pepper
-oil
- 1 small onion
-carabao mangoes for the side dish (I had this sudden inspiration while peeling the carabao mangoes intended to be eaten separately)

Procedure

1. Wash the pork pieces and dry them with paper towel (Don't skip drying. I'll explain later).

2. Rub the pieces with salt, pepper and sugar.

3. Leave it for a few minutes while heating the oil.

4. When your oil is hot enough ( my quick test is to place your hand a foot above the pan, if you feel the heat from there, it is hot enough), fry the onions until they become soft and translucent.

5. Place your pieces on the pan. Because I did not dry my chops, the sugar I rubbed in dissolved. So I poured the dissolved sugar to the pan as well and left it uncovered to allow the water to evaporate.

6.To pass the time while waiting for it to boil, I peeled the carabao mangoes I was going to eat after dinner and had a sudden inspiration of including it to the dish. So I sliced it into strips and added it to the boiling mixture.

7. Turn the chops to the other side. When the water evaporated, the sugar and onion will caramelize. You will see it sticking to the pan. So whenever you turn the chops, be sure to rub it to the sides so that the glaze will stick to the pork.

8. After about 5 minutes of frying on each side, you are now ready to serve!

The pork turned out nice, sweet and tender and the mango gave its flavor a surprise kick.

Perfect for those summer craving nights!

Taste it Tuesday: Snack Substitute First Edition

Today's Taste It Tuesday is all about snack substitutes. Throughout my snacking life (yes I am a fan!), I equate snacks to fast food or junk food. I have a particularly soft spot for the Hawaiian pizza of Pizza Hut which you can buy for P55 for two slices. Sounds like a great deal, right?

Yessss, until you look up it's nutritional contents. With the help of My Fitness Pal.Com, I was able to find out what I was really eating.

For Taste It Tuesdays Snack Sub, I prowled the grocery store to find a better snack alternative. It must satisfy the following criteria:

1. Easy to find.
2.  About the same price range as my snack substitute (in this case, P55)
3.  Equally filling and tasty and
4. Healthier

After a few minutes, I found this wonderful combo: a small apple and Nestle Fruit Selection Yogurt.

Now, let's check our criteria:

1. It is easy to find! You can buy apples at most grocery stores and fruit stalls by the road (for an even cheaper price). The yogurt, although less common, can still be found in most grocery and convenience stores.
2. The apple is priced P14 (you can buy it for P10 in fruit stalls) while the yogurt is P29. Adding that up makes P43, P12 less than our budget!
3. This apple I bought was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. In fact, I wasn't able to eat it all because my brother took a slice for himself! Haha. The yogurt was creamy and the fruit bits tasted like the real thing.
4. I again consulted my new good friend, My Fitness Pal.Com and made a table of comparison.

 Our Snack Sub won 12 is to 1! This means that you get at lot more for paying less. What a deal!
Yay for a healthier snack!
Certified Snack Subbing Success!

Mani Mondays: Summer Nostalgia

With the rains starting to pour every few days or so, I can't help but feel nostalgic for summer. This summer has been filled with a lot of new adventures, fun thrills, heartbreaks and realizations. I just don't want it to end yet!

So this week's Mani Monday is all about summer.

I used Caronia Sweet Surprise, Caronia Stellar, Caronia Sunkissed and Caress Mango.

For the yellow base, I brushed alternate layers of Caronia Sweet Surprise and Caress Mango. It gave my nails a very sunny look. I then dotted the tips with Caronia Sunkissed in the center surrounded by three dots of Caronia Stellar. Here is the end product:

It is pretty simple to make. Perfect for a quick summer fix.

Copying Tables in PDF to Excel

I am currently scouting for population data of species for our market study. All was going well (meaning all the data can be exported directly to Excel for easy tabulation and counting). Until I found this file on the list of registered horses from the Philippine Racing Commission.

It was in PDF file and whenever I try to save it to text, it saves in one column.

If you are like me who is lazy enough to fix the file manually in Excel (and who is optimistic that there is a better alternative *wink!), you will thank Ray Kurzweil, inventor of the Optical Character Recognition or OCR. What it does basically is recognize typewritten, printed or even handwritten text in images and convert it to a digital form that is searchable and editable. No more manual encoding!

Now, this may sound like an expensive software but it surprisingly isn't. In fact, there are OCR online sites that will let you convert your image for free! The most dependable one for me in terms of recognition accuracy  is OnlineOCR.net.

Here is the screenshot of the converted registered horses file.

Cool right?

But this site has its limitations also (don't we all?).

• You can only convert one page of image a time (The image above is only the first page out the 42 pages in the PDF file).
• You can convert at most 20 pages if you create an account because they will give you free credits

 However, beyond that you have to purchase credits.

But who needs to purchase if you can just snip your files into separate files, right?

And, like all other OCR's there is no perfect tool for recognition (at least not yet) so it is still better to double check the recognition before you hand it to your boss. At least, you can now use Spelling and Grammar to help you with that.

Now that Ray saved you a lot of encoding time, you should utilize that saved time properly. Smile for the whole time you should have been encoding. You may look silly but you will feel a lot better.

KFC Mini Bucket Of Fries With Cheese And Salsa

I came across the KFC Mini Bucket of Fries with Cheese and Salsa as I was looking for merienda today. I was intrigued. By the sound of it, I thought "lasagna"!

I excitedly ordered and paid P69. Expensive, I know but how will I know if it's worth it if I don't try?

Well, it isn't worth it. For starters, the cheese shaved on top was not melted. So in order to eat it, you have to coat the fries in salsa so the cheese will stick to it. The salsa is drizzled on the fries itself so you have to eat fast or else your fries will be somewhat soggy.



I found myself constantly drinking water while eating to push the fries down. Major case of "umay."

I have always loved KFC's fries because it's thick and crispy and chewy at the same time. But this serving did not really sit well with me.

Maybe if they served this with melted cheese on top and a separate salsa dip, it would be a hit.

So, although it was filling and heavy, I still need something else to satisfy my tummy. (A decent excuse to have merienda no.2 *wink)