The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

The thing with my weekends is that I often stay up late watching movies on tv or in my computer. So that by the time it’s Monday and I’m suppose to start working online, I am so sleepy. Like this morning, I unfortunately got up at almost 10 am so that after lunch I was too sleepy again. My short nap turned into a long sleep so that I got up at around 343 pm. I went straight to the bathroom to take a bath. By the time I got out of there, it was past 4 pm.

I decided against light coffee (in fact bawal sa akin yan, matigas lang ang ulo ko) for fear of staying up too late tonight. Besides, it was still very hot in here so I opted for cold water instead and had some left over banana-ques which we had for breakfast. We’re having some rain in the early evening for a few days now, which unfortunately do not help in bringing down the hot temeperature out here. Alam mo yon? Lalong uminit pagkatapos ng ulan.

Anyways…I hope I’ll be sleeping early tonight. I will really do my best to do so just to break the series. It is always better to sleep early and then get up early.

Hmmm…maybe I should put myself on a treadmill?

Well…obviously I am closely following the turn out of American Idol. I have influenced all family members to watch this show, including my mother. He he.

Two were eliminated this week as a consequence to the judges’ save of Matt Giraud last week. The two eliminated were Lil’ Rounds and Anoop Desai.  Which wasn’t surprising, these two were getting it depending on recent performances.

Thus, the Top 5 are the following:

1. Adam Lambert

2. Danny Gokey

3. Allison Iraheta

4. Matt Giraud

5. Kris Allen

I predict that Kris Allen is going to be eliminated next week and then Matt Giraud the following week, despite his oozing charm. The Idol seat is going to be a toss coin between Adam, Danny and Allison depending on how America votes.

Adam is a strong force this season, having gotten a standing ovation from the judges a few weeks ago — something that has never happened in Idol history. You really cannot deny the singing prowess of this guy.

Danny has a lot of heart and that fact radiates in all his performances. If America is getting an emotional connection with him, he will certainly get the most votes.

Allison is a 16-year old who sounds like she has been singing for 60 years. She has definitely made all her performances a distinct Allison-original that the judges are looking for. I loved her most in the first week when she sang “Alone” without any effort, as if she was just breathing normally. And then of course her version of the Steven Tyler classic that was made into the themesong of the movie Armageddon (whose title I forgot!), which is just fantastic. I love her red hair! Although the show business industry may have to slip her some lipo-6 black. I think she might be ‘fat’ according to industry standards (that sucks!).

I’ll keep on staying tuned, I wanna know who’s going to succeed David Cook.

Last week, one of twins (the older one, Nat) graduated with a degree in IT. Of course my mother had tears of joy. If my father is still alive, he’d have more tears than my mother. Of course, his dream was for all his kids to finish college, after which bahala ka na sa buhay mo.

Next year, the other twin will be graduating too with a degree in Marine Engineering. How’s that with a father who was a jeepney driver? Well…he had big dreams even if he had a hole in his pocket. The very reason I was sent to college, was not only so I can have a better life later, but also so that my siblings can have a shot at college too.

Well…his dreams are coming true. Nat asked me: Ano na gagawin ko ngayon Ate? Well…sabi ko: welcome to the world of the unemployed. Maghanap ka ng trabaho! It is easier these days because you can apply online. When I started, me and my classmates had to walk inside the Canlubang Industrial Estate to give our resumes to the guard. Of course, they won’t let you in, you didn’t have an appointment, so you gotta have to deal with the guard at the gate. And who can forget? I don’t buy newspapers…but I buy the Sunday Edition of The Manila Bulletin just to check out the job ads. Consequently, I sent all sorts of job application by snail mail!

(more…)

I’ve just realized that I’ve got tons of digital photos taken since Raine was born. I used to take photos of Raine monthly even before he turned a year old. Most of them solo pictures of him. Like Anoop Desai (American Idol contestant), Raine will probably hate those photos when he grows up. Well…I just couldn’t help myself!

Now those photos are still un-printed. They remain digital photos saved in my hard disk and back-up CDs. Yes, the photos I thought were lost in the old PC that broke down were not lost. They were actually saved in back-up CDs.  I just misplaced the said CDs. They’ve been recently found. Hurray!

Most of the old photos are not in my Flickr pro account.

Like this one: taken on August 2003

And this one: taken July 2006

Now…Raine will really hate me when he discovers this in the future! Ha ha ha. That pink baby tub is the only pink thingy I bought when I bought baby stuff. All the others were neutral colors (yellow, yellow green in white background) because i do not know yet the sex of my baby at that time. Well…sabi nga, pink is a man’s color too! Bumagay naman kay Raine ang kulay nitong tub nya.

Walang magawa ang brother ko ngayong semana santa. Dahil meron syang electric head shaver, kinalbo nya ang mga bata. Ngayon, tatlo na silang kalbo dito sa bahay namin!

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

It has always been…like Christmas holiday, holy week is like a family reunion in my family. However, I have to admit, that those years I was in LB, I did not come home always on Christmases and holy weeks. I especially hate coming home on holy week because of the congestion in all terminals and in the buses as well. My parents must have hated me for not coming home. Those days, I preferred being alone in the holidays or spending it with other people, mostly my friends and their families. Not always though, 85% of the time I came home.

Now I appreciate the fact that my brother comes home with his family on holy weeks. We just all hang out, eating together and talking a lot about stuff.  Raine is specially happy that he can play with his cousin. I also appreciate his presence, it’s fun to have another kid in the house, beside Raine.

They’ve been here since Sunday and are leaving on Saturday. Yet, we haven’t been to the beach yet. We just got contented hanging out around the house: cooking, eating, etc. Obviously we don’t fast! He he. But we don’t pig out either…

So I realized that you don’t have to be somewhere else for the holidays like this holy week. You can even be home together with your family to have fun. That’s just what matters, really.

My brother (a seaman) brought home a touch-screen phone from China — a Nokia E75. The phone is a dual-sim one and so i went ga-ga over it. Instead of carrying 2 extra cellphones, I happily exchanged my two Nokias (6233 and 1112) to this one. My brother agreed with the exchange since his wife’s cellphone is already malfunctioning.

And so I have gotten the hang of using the stylus…until yesterday morning when the touch-screen is suddenly not functioning anymore.

I don’t know what happened. Except that once night when there was a thunderstorm, I covered this cellphone with 1 old issue of Reader’s Digest magazine. Could that be the reason why the touch-screen is now kaput? But then in my brother’s own words…we can’t trust this one because it is made in China. He he he.

Well…this is a first for me. My brother said, you can’t imagine all the imitated gadgets in China, which includes the N95 and the iPhone. Many of his pinoy-mates bought those too and a sattelite dish and receiver package that will put Dream sattelite out of business. Suffice to say that the pinoy seamen went on shopping galore once they docked in China.