i. food "gloatage"
Sometimes, I waste perfectly good blogging opportunities just because I'm too eager to dig into my food. Case in point, tonight, John's Mom treated us to dinner at Renaissance Hotel's Emperor Court. There's something nice about being treated like a VIP in a nice restaurant. Don't get me wrong, their food is usually good even if we're dining by ourselves (like during the holiday buffet late last year) but I guess the staff make an effort to put their best foot forward when she's around.

Anyway, instead of being the snap-happy food blogger I usually am, I just ate slowly and relished every bite. I'd love to blog about it, but the fact is, with no pictures to show, it'll be a very boring post. So instead, allow me to gloat about the creamy, crispy, fleshy Hot Mango Prawn Salad, the meaty, resilient, oh so yummy Scallops in Black Bean thingie, the Oriental-style Spring Rolls with crunchy, crispy bits inside, and the steaming hot eggplants, minced pork and something else cooked in a clay pot. Obviously, I wasn't there to work---as evinced by the fact that I couldn't even bother to remember the names of everything I was stuffing in my mouth. It was soooo good. Heck, even the Yang Chow Fried Rice was priceless---it had a special distinctive smokey flavor that's achieved by only the best yang chow fried rice. Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face. And to top it off, Mango Pudding! Some days, you really just have to put that camera and pen down and stuff your face happy!

ii. heeheehee
Something happy is coming tomorrow. I don't know how I'll last until the evening. So tempted to slip out during lunch and grab happiness by the neckstrap.

iii. april 8
Yay! Zettai Kareshi! Mizushima Hiro! I can't wait.

iv. see you later, space cowboy!
FYI folks, John's leaving for an 18-month training stint with Marriot in Guam. His flight's on April 11. Don't forget to say bye-bye!

i. after the legend
Finished watching Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi / The Legend of the First King’s Four Gods a few days ago. After a couple of nights of minimal sleep, we finally finished it. My mom and I started and ended the series on opposite camps---she was empathizing with Kajin / Kiha, misunderstood, victim of circumstances evil girl while I was happily cheering for wild, street urchin Sujini who was the poised, valiant warrior princess Seoh in her past life.

( Cut for spoilers )

Thankfully, Dian came to my rescue with this link about the original script to the last episode. It really makes me feel better and I like to think of it as canon. Even if I can't watch it, it's nice to think that this is what really happened.

ii. ever so busy
We've been so busy at work these past few days. Almost daily overtime coupled with a weekend at the office. So the holiday starting tomorrow will be such a welcome respite. I'm crossing my fingers that nothing will happen to screw it up. Yes, it's that bad. I feel like I can't really rejoice until I'm already on my way home tonight.

Productive to do list:
• Fix up things that need to be fixed up with Kitchen Cow, including layout tweaks, additional plug-ins, and new articles.
• Shoot dollies.
• Get some sewing projects going.
• Bake macaroons. It's very specific since I already bought the dry ingredients a few weeks ago. *laughs*
• Scan some more of Gokusen v11 for our Gokusen scanlations project. Plus, edit my next few assignments.
• Troubleshoot my lighting set-up.
• Do research on possible freelance writing programs.
• Put together a sample work portfolio for freelance writing projects.
• Design and make business cards.
• Get started on 365 Toy Project again.
• Redesign / reconfigure This Doll's Life

What's more likely to happen:
• Start playing Layton again as I have finished (finally!) Apollo Justice.
• Read some of the books I borrowed from Chris.
• Trawl Dollie Mixtures and Flickr for dollie piccies.
• Nap.
• Eat potato chips.
• Snooze.
• Watch anime / jdrama.
• Read manga.
• Be lucky to accomplish at least one thing on productive list.

iii. objection!
I want more Ace Attorney action! Apollo Justice was one wild ride, and I want more! Joining Phoenix, Godot and Iris as my favorite Ace Attorney characters are Apollo, Trucy, Ema Skye and Gavin---Klavier, not Kristoph. So much fun! I hope they release Ace Attorney 5 already. Last I heard, Capcom did a press release about it May 2007. I just hope it comes out soon and is followed by an English language version at once as well. Makes me wonder who'll be in it. A defense-attorney-again Phoenix? Herr forehead Apollo? Or a totally new lawyer?

iv. photo request meme
I've seen Jannie and more recently, Cla do this. Now I want to join in the fun!

Photo request! List up to three things you'd like me to take pictures of. Give me a week to do this, and once I'm done, I'll post your requests.

Just a note, I reserve the right to turn down requests if they're not feasible, are expensive, or is obscene / pornographic.

And Cla, no, you can not request for a Junpei x Seiji yaoi photoshoot.

i. assistant to genius
I was reading Neil Gaiman's journal entry about him writing The Graveyard Book by hand and having his assistant type it up and I think that would be a magnificent job, being Neil Gaiman's assistant. You get to read his stuff in its rawest form and you get to pester him about what happens next.

Assistant to literary genius. Pretty nice job description, huh?

ii. surfacing
After a busy past few days, I finally got a full night's sleep last night. After a quick Sweet and Sour Prawn Dumpling Rice dinner from Luk Yuen, I got in the car's back seat, instead of the passenger seat where I usually stay, grabbed a pillow and said goodnight.

It was a pretty good nap because when I woke up, we were already at home. I knew we were making a stop-over at my cousin's house to pick something up---and we did---which probably shows how deeply I was sleeping because I didn't even stir when we got there.

When we got home, roughly at 10 pm, I quickly switched Tsukiko (my PC) on, figuring I'd post a few photos before I sleep. But first, I wanted to snuggle my pillows while Tsuki booted up. Only to wake up at 7am.

Well, sleep is good!

iii. ebay strike?
I had no idea that this was happening, but even if I am not an ebay seller (I do have intentions to list some items in the near future), I believe this will still have a trickle down effect to my future transactions as a buyer. If you guys shop on ebay too, please read up:

Dolly culture link where I first encountered it - Quick rundown about where things stand.

Additional links:
CNN money
Auction Bytes

i. sewing pwned
This is the second time I tried to make a t-shirt from the same pattern and I fail again. The first time I used a slightly scaled up pattern to make a shirt for Seiji. It was too small---it looked like a muscle tee with too thin sleeves. Not a look I want for geekboy-slash-reluctant bishounen. So I turned it into a comfy loose shirt/blouse for Aki instead.

Still, I didn't want a simple t-shirt to PWN me so I tried making another shirt, this time for Aki. I figured it was a simple enough pattern and I thought I knew where I made mistakes with Seiji's tee so I upped the ante and decided to do double sleeves. You know, those shirts which look layered but really aren't?

Well, I failed again. At first I thought it had to do with the cloth I used. Partly, it was to blame cause I used really soft fabric so I had a hard time sewing it on the machine. But it occurred to me that the sleeves were too wonky. So I grabbed my tape measure and checked out the pattern. Stoopid pattern, the sleeves are too small! Still, taking more than an hour to make a t-shirt...and on a sewing machine nonetheless deflated my crafting ego so I think I'll postpone it for tomorrow. And I'll probably go rip up a spare t-shirt and use that for material instead. Thankfully, we still have a couple lying around from those promotional Christmas giveaways. You know, shirts with company names on it?

Anyway, I'll just leave that for tomorrow. If I'm inspired, I'll probably do another stab at that 1920s Flapper dress I made for the last DM Swap and make one for Aki. I was supposed to sew her one for Halloween but work got the better of me.

ii. waiting
I feel like a little girl waiting for Christmas morning. That's how I've felt since Wednesday---It's all a I wish it were Saturday already. I'm taking a gamble that the post office is open tomorrow and I can get Seiji's wig. I know, I know, what's waiting another two days for Monday? It really makes a difference for me to get it tomorrow versus getting it on Monday because it gives me an extra weekend day to shoot. And of course, the excitement in seeing how Seiji'll look with his new wig is totally keeling me.

iii. totally bumming
Incidentally, all this waiting has put my life on hold. I've been doing nothing productive at all, save doing one update for Kitchencow. So far, my days revolve around eating, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping again, trying to finish yamada tarou monogatari, and alternating between the last Phoenix Wright Justice For All case and The Sims 2: Castaway.

Incidentally, if anyone can point me to a good to decent strategy guide for Castaway, I'd appreciate it. My google skills can't locate any and I suck at Spear Fishing.

EDIT:
iv. i dreamt of oguri shun? O.o
No no no. Before anything else, I would like to say that this was a perfectly innocent dream since I'm not even a shun-fangirl in the first place. That's why I find it extremely weird, dreaming of him.

Anyway, I'm not one to remember most parts of a dream, but this time, I remember going to someone's wedding and Shun showed up there, also as a guest. There was something wrong with the wedding---I don't remember what anymore---but anyway, there was a slight delay. Chris nudged me, saying Shun was looking for a ride to get some smokes at a convenience store so she wanted to volunteer me. Now I have issues with parking so I was worried whether we could get a decent parking slot when we got back from the store, especially since it would be 4pm soon and the Sunday masses would start so parking would be more difficult.

Still, being a starstruck fangirl (hey, I may not be a fan but he's still Oguri Shun! He might be able to introduce me to Toma or Matsujun or Hiro!) we did drive him to 7-11. I can't remember what happened in between but back in the church, he hung out with us as we were customizing Pinkies with khursten and rotch. Yes. Customizing pinkies. In church. Where I was supposed to be attending a friend's wedding. With Shun chatting us up.

Then it occurs to me. "Where did I park the car?" Because I didn't remember parking it. Then I remembered driving up to the church and us getting out of the car then going to the Pinky custom thing BUT I DON'T REMEMBER PARKING THE CAR, much less killing the engine or locking it.

An "OH SHIT" moment has me dashing to the front of the church, hoping that the car's still there thinking, "OMFG my mom's never letting me drive ever again" plus "How the hell will I cover the car's cost and I hope it's covered by insurance." All the while Shun's tailing me, asking me what the matter was.

Then I realized that even if I was with Oguri Shun, losing the car was a bigger deal and I want to wake up from this dream if it is a dream.

And I managed to wake myself up.

So Shun vs. wrath of Mother? Mother wins.

Still, I wonder whether it would've been the same equation, had it been:

- Christian Bale
- Kimura Takuya
- Matsumoto Jun
- Mizushima Hiro
- Tamaki Hiroshi

(alphabetized to avoid them being jealous of each other)

i. stardust yay
He says Stardust will be released in Manila Oct. 17 this year. YAY! At least now I know I was right in not buying the pirated version and just waiting for the cinema screening. Neil makes me feel like the Philippines is not just a dot on the globe.

Yay!

ii. sleep
It feels weird being able to sleep for a whole 8 hours. Last night, I just did a teeny amount of surfing then promptly slept at around 9pm. Sure, I didn't get to do the stuff I planned (tweak plug-ins, organize photos, update blog) but still, I feel weirdly refreshed.

And it's a Friday! All hail Fridays!

i. i rejoiced too early T_T;;
This morning, I logged on to my online banking account and cheered. Yay, my paypal verification was processed quicker than I expected, and I can finally pay my seller. So I started proceedings.

Until I got to the payment part and was told that my paypal was limited. WTF? I initiated proceedings last week. I entered my EXPUSE thingie whatever thingamager before initiating payment.

Apparently, they want me to upload a utility bill. And no, I can't use my mobile bill. WTF? The only bill I have with my address on it is my credit card bill. Ugh. Their solution is that I fax them some documents with a farking explanation on why I don't have a utility bill. I hope they find my credit card bill and driver's license acceptable. Ugh. So pissy pissy me off. The trouble I go through for Nina. She better be worth it.

Oh yeah, to maybe if I give her a name, she'll become really mine and lend me her Pullip luck with the proceedings? Hnnn...unless she hates the name I give her then chooses to stay with the seller. T_T;;

ii. my brain, it's mush
Ever had days when you feel like no matter what, you can't write anything decent anymore? When you're just pushing yourself and your brain is all a splodgy mush? A dry splodgy mush that no matter how hard you squeeze, won't release liquid anymore.

Mine's like that today. Working on a tedious task. Well, it's simple. I just need to write a tagline. But when you're trying to revise a tagline, the second one in a set of similar projects, and you can't come up with anything new anymore, it's frustrating. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargggggggh.

Uguuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~~~

Enough plz. I need some more lolGaimanz.

i. random thought
We're always the hardest on ourselves, aren't we? Gawd so emo. Someone hit me with a blunt object---




PUT THAT OVEN DOWN!

ii. i bought shoes
I actually bought a pair of shoes impulsively. Because it was cute. Not because I needed a pair, but just because I thought it was cute. Sure it was pretty cheap since I bought it from Greenhills, still. It's hard to comprehend.

I. Bought. Pretty. Shoes.

iii. toycon
Went to the ToyCon yesterday. There were a lot of booths and exhibits, but I wasn't too excited. I felt like there was just a homogenous mix of superhero toys, but then, I probably wasn't the target market.

Proof that the event didn't get me too excited was my laziness in taking pics. I wouldn't even have whipped Natsume out if the Kalye Pinky girls hadn't pointed out that the KP display was prime pinky photo op.

So, I decided to go snap some---



RIN-CHAN! GET AWAY FROM THE YAOI!

iv. pullip
Help me. The Pullip cuteness is sucking me in. I actually made an inquiry about getting a Nina. So cute. T_T;; I can sew clothes for her!

*Is eyed by an angry pinky head with no face that's waiting to be customized*
No Face¹: Oh, so you have free time to sew?
Kaoko: Uhm---

¹Not to be confused with the Spirited Away No Face.

i. egads! i actually took date photos!
Note: Hehe, Julls must be so proud of me. Admittedly, this post is influenced by her usual date recaps.

( Saturday, Saturday! Lalalalalalalala! )

( ! )

ii. rabucon random thought
Isn't Lovely Complex a comedy? Then why am I crying?

iii. the tears don't stop
And I thought Rabucon was the tearjerker. Noooo. I had to watch the last two episodes of Ugly Betty, just to close the season. Gyeaaaaaaaah! How do they expect us to wait for Season 2?

iv. kitchen success!
I made Korokke! That's Japanese-style beef croquettes. Sure, I can always buy at Hatchin---in fact, I still have half a dozen cream korokke in the freezer---but the fact was, I defrosted ground beef and I didn't know what to do with it. I figured it was time for an experiment. What a success it was! Next time, I'm going to go for Cream Korokke :D Oh, and if anybody wants to try it out as well, I photo-documented it and put it up at kitchencow.

- you can't get up from bed to defrost something for tomorrow's bento
- you've no energy to watch the latest shoujo anime you downloaded
- swallowing your food feels like a chore
- you don't even have the energy to open your windows even if it means the room would be more refreshing
- you can't even be bothered to unwrap your newest Pinky package from Japan

Despite not giving them a formal welcome yet, I took a couple of snapshots this morning. Meet Emma and Aoi.



Emma Miko is half-Japanese, half-British. She grew up in London but eventually moved to Japan for high school. She looks tough but is really a shy, sweet girl.

Maki Aoi is Hachiko's sister. Like Hachi, she's a bit haughty. Yes, she's named after Miyazaki Aoi who played Komatsu Nana aka Hachi in the Nana movie.

When I first saw Julls chronicle her day in photos, I knew I wanted to do the same thing myself. The rules were, if I recall correctly, to take a photo for each hour of your day. But time constraints, forgetfulness, and a broken camera didn't let me do so.

This time however, with Natsume at my side, I decided to give it a go. Too bad Shi-chan found out about it and decided to make it a Kao Onee-chan and me pictorial instead. Oh well. I'll give her center stage now.



06:16 am. Nee-chan isn't awake yet even though her alarm clock went off half an hour ago. Much as I'd want to let her sleep in, I have to wake her up already. That's her, sleeping behind me. Now let's see how I can wake her up... *grabs a thick book from the shelf*

( image heavy, 994kb total )

i. earthquake blues
Asia still hasn't recovered from the Taiwan earthquake. We're still posting all time lows bandwidth-wise. My torrent downloads are at a low 10k to as much as just 40k. I who's supposed to be enjoying a 1.5 mbps connection.

Sucks really. I can't start downloading Hana Yori Dango Season 2, that new Kimura Takuya Drama, Goong 2, Lunch no Juou, Gakuen Alice, Ugly Betty and all sorts of stuff I've been wanting to download. I'm way behind on Manga downloads either since I have a hard time keeping up minimum connection speeds on IRC. Hell, I can't even visit LJ from my house, hence the inability to update this blog. And I had so much to blog about. I can make a feeble attempt to encapsulate all the stuff I initially wanted to blog about, but it's still not the same.

I feel so pathetic; yes, I am a net whore. *sob sob*

ii. something to put a smile on my face
On the brighter side, the Canon people have finally called me up and have informed me that the replacement unit for my Canon IXUS II has finally arrived and can be picked up by Thursday. They're giving me a Canon IXUS 55, I assume because the IXUS II has long been phased out.

I immediately googled it, and yay! Happiness. It's a 5.0 megapix (upgrade from the IXUS II's 3.2), 3.0 cm macro (I dunno if this is better than the IXUS II's since I couldn't find the macro info for that cam), a bigger LCD screen, and MANUAL FOCUSING! Yay!

I can't wait to bento! I can't wait to take Pinky pics. I can't wait to take pics in general! I really should make this the year of the camwhore. I just realized how few pics of myself I have. But then, would I really want to remind myself of how much weight I've gained?

iii. pinky addiction
I'm feeding my pinky addiction with something else, other than just buying pinkies. I am now the owner of gajillions of sculpting material (Premo Sculpey and paper clay) from Volty and Chris (THANKIES!). I've also bought loads of craft tools, like an exacto knife, a cutting mat, a metal ruler---all seemingly cheap until I start adding up the costs.

Oh well. At least it's something to feed creativity, and not something to feed my mouth. ^_^;; No weight gain there, right?

iv. resolutions
I made a lot of new years resolutions. Plus I had a lot of ideas on what to blog about for new years. But frankly they've all slipped my mind. All I remember is that I have to lose weight, and try to save money. Maybe I'll get in the mood to do that resolution / recap post again, maybe I won't. Let's just wait and see.

v. what i've been watching / reading
And because I've been spending less time in front of the computer, I've been watching stuff on TV instead. It's something easier to do now since we bought a TV for the room last December. So my mom and I have a TV each; luckily, I get to watch on the bedroom TV since she prefers watching in the living room so she can do chores while doing so. I like the room TV since I moved the DVD player there. So it's a win-win situation.

So far, I've done a Haruhi Suzumiya marathon, and an Arrested Development one. I love Kyon, I love his seiyuu. I love the 5 main characters of Haruhi Suzumiya, so I'll be getting the complete Pinky set, prolly. I like how I don't have characters I detest or feel ambivalent towards in the series. That's surely a rarity.

Arrested Development I really enjoyed watching. I finished the first two seasons in just a few days plus a weekend. I have a teeny tiny crush on Michael Bluth, I guess. Especially when he's so clueless. Must find season 3. (Which I prolly could find online if only the net weren't so wonky -_-;;)

Oh yeah, and I'm now up to date with Japanese One Piece manga releases. Or well, at least the fan translated ones. FRANKY IS UGLY! Hahahaha. But he's likeable in a way. At least he's really reliable when it comes to battle. I still love Sanji, but what else is new?

vi. saving? who am I kidding?
Considering I've spent a large part of the afternoon shopping for manga. I even bought a couple already, only to cancel the transaction when I realized it wouldn't reach my San Francisco aunt in time for her 4th week of January trip to Manila. Now I'm getting my Texas aunt's address instead so I can buy the books in time for her early February trip.

Plus, I'm prolly buying a few additional toys when my mom buys me her promised Christmas gift of re-ments. Aaaack. Must have more self-control.

On the first day of vacation my laziness gave to meeeeeh:

a few hours of napping
a couple of hours watching anime
a few hours cleaning house (while watching dubbed anime)
2 hours helping my mom Christmas shop
a few hours playing Disciples 2
a couple of hours reading one piece manga
30 minutes driving to the mall (After which, I realized I left my wallet at home, hence I was driving without a license. So, my mom drove us home later on instead ^_^;;)
1 new blouse
half of Ella Enchanted (the movie)
3 potato skins and some cajun chicken fingers

and a promise from my mom to get me a set of re-ment!


Yeah yeah. It totally doesn't go with the tune. I didn't accomplish anything at all, but hell. It's vacation time! How can I not be happy?

Plans for the remaining days:
- do pinky arts & crafts
- do bento arts & crafts
- watch anime / dorama / movies I borrowed from workmates
- more house cleaning
- start some sort of personal fitness routine
- catch up on lj flist / lj communities
- back up my downloaded videos / manga on dvd (so I can get precious HD space back)

Edit
Sigh. Pinky arts & crafts quandry. I've been meaning to do my Tamaki custom for ages now but haven't gotten around to doing it. Long story, but in the end, I thought I'd repaint my new Arcueid doll head to have purple eyes. Now, I'm realizing how that can be stupid. Arc is a tad more expensive, rarer, and I'm worried I might regret it after watching Tsukihime, which is among the series I have lined up for this week.

Aaack. It's so shallow, I know, but Pinkies are consuming my life right now. Ugh. Back to earth, kao. Back to earth. *hits head repeatedly on desk*

i. morning! oh morning!
It doesn’t take much to move me. Or in this case, make me happy. But what started out as a normal everyday morning is shaping up to be a fantastic day, simply with the addition of one thing I’ve been missing a lot.

A bento! Today, I got up early, cracked open my newest acquisition (a bento box shaped like Hello Kitty’s head) and cooked. There’s something nice about cooking during cold mornings. And having the luxury of sipping a cup of coffee while doing so. Not only do you feel accomplished after having packed a lovely lunch, you get the added benefit of sweating, so taking a cold bath feels so much better afterwards. Unlike when you rush to the bathroom right after you get up. I usually end up staring at the water before facing the music.

Ah, my darling bento. I miss you so. *huggles box* Thanks to Cla (24fps) for bringing her camera to work so I could photograph lunch. At least I’ll finally get to update my food blog (kitchencow).

ii. holiday wish list
*Clears throat* It's that time of year again, hope people who love me enough see this. :D

( Hear Snow White sing 'I'm wishing...' )


iii. fictional schmex meme
Schmex (to quote khursten (khursten) who I got the meme from.) meme!

List down 10 fictional characters that you'd fool around with.
( Do you really want to know how depraved I am? )


iv. soundtrack meme
From Joy (joybur).

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.

( Kao's baduy results )

Now that is one screwed up movie.


v. fangirls never make sense
Funny Tamaki Hiroshi convo over YM:

kaoko25: Hiro-chaaaaan. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
kaoko25: Sheht. It's so unfair.
kaoko25: How can one guy be so schmexy?
myrya_sterling: have no idea... but he must be the reason God made man.

What was promising to be a stressful day turned out pretty nice. I started it off with the latest episode of Nodame Cantabile, getting a chance to oogle my latest bishounen crush.

Spent the day hard at work, wracking my brains over interesting copy challenges. A few minutes giggling like a psychotic weirdo over a Roy Mustang figure; a surprise from Chris (ficsation) and Eilleen. Then a few more minutes announcing to the world that I have a yaoi set-up on my workstation (a regular on my workstation is Edward Elric. Get the picture?) A couple of hours midday eating with my happy work colleagues. Another few hours spent with John (padpad), watching Happy Feet. (What I think of Happy Feet is another story though. -_-;;)

Finally, capped the day off with the first episode of Rurouni Kenshin. It served as a good reminder as to why I fell in love with Kenshin in the first place. At least now I may finally be inspired to write that Kenshin bishounen profile.

All in all, it's a good day. Thanks friends :D

i. wasted weekend
This weekend has been so unproductive. I had tons of stuff planned: Pinky Mods, Movie date, Cooking experiments...all down the drain because my back is killing me.

I feel so Old man, each movement I make, especially when bending over is included, is such a killer. I had to go through hell just to shampoo my hair since I usually shampoo it bent over. I think I'm delusional about the length of my hair, I probably think it's still long enough to warrant bending over shampooing.

Earlier I was quite worried that it was some acute form of heartburn, but then, since I keep stretching, I finally pinpointed the source of pain as my back, somewhere near my left shoulderblade.

My mom blames the fact that I'm vegetating in front of the PC. But what can I do, it's the only thing I can accomplish without having to move much. At least all my manga scans are arranged prettily. I even managed to burn a few gigs off to DVDRs. Oh well. Another week of drudgery coming up. Hope I still get to file for a vacation day on Friday since my cousin's taking me bargain shopping for Christmas presents.

ii. cheap thrills
I've been in advertising for close to two years now, but I still get kicks from seeing my work in whatever final form it's supposed to be in. I don't get much exciting projects since we're mostly below-the-line, but I still have a handful of projects I'm really really proud of, like a couple of really really pretty recipe brochures.

Today was a special day though, because one of our print ads came out. Yay! Sure, it's not my first print ad, but what makes it special is that it's one of the few that's still remotely looks like the first draft. I mean, I can still say it's my work and know it's true! Yay! So shallow, no? Hahaha!

i. cow is baka
Stoopid me. I spent bits and pieces of the day writing an LJ entry, mostly Nodame Cantabile pimpage, as well as pestering 24fps for photoshop tips to improve my icon making skills. Since there was still work to do, I wasn't able to apply my update to LJ, update kitchencow, nor upload the new userpic. Around 4pm, right before one of our brainstorming sessions, the office internet connection died.

Our meeting finished at around 5pm and still no internet. Since there was no hope of it getting fixed til tomorrow, I decided to just bring all my unuploaded crap home and upload from here. I fixed it nice and neat in one folder, then went and watched TVCs to while away the time til we could go home. In my happy daze watching funny ads from all over...I forgot to transfer the files to Yukiko.

Oh well, I guess that just means two bento updates tomorrow, and a couple of stale LJ update snippets. Darn, to think I was proud of my new Pinky:Street icon.

ii. on the brighter side of things
I was panicking this morning, and in fact, started abovementioned unposted LJ entry with a note about still not finding my pinkies. Happily, I decided to search again, and the said wayward girls have come to surface. I really have loads of junk lying around. So now, Rinchan, Shichan, Hachiko, Sakura, Chun-Li, and Sakura finally get to meet Rui aka Tamaki. Yay! Pinky party time!

i. monday blues
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. We were originally scheduled to pitch for a new account on Tuesday. So that made Monday the official day for finishing everything up and ironing out all the details. Despite that, with it being a Monday, I felt crabby and directionless. I couldn't make heads or tails of what I was supposed to do. I felt like I had no creative fibre (not even a bone, a fibre would've sufficed) in my body.

At that point, I was thinking that Tuesdays were the worst day for pitches. Or major presentations for that matter since you have to work hard on a Monday while your spirits are probably suffering from weekend hangovers. I felt that even a Monday pitch would be better than a Tuesday one, even if it meant not being able to go out and have fun on the preceeding Friday night. I thought Thursdays would be best. That occupies your boring Wednesdays, you're probably energized after having surpassed Monday, and it leaves you feeling euphoric and fulfilled on Thursday, leading to a happy Friday, then the weekend.

I guess some kind god out there (probably the god of hung-over copywriters) decreed to move our pitch to Thursday. Yay.

ii. and so we went to the mall
Because of the suddenly freed up schedule, we (the creative team plus our bosses) decided to push through with going to Rockwell, a local, out-of-the-way-from-mass-transport, richie rich mall. I've only been there a handful of times. The first few to meet with clients during my first job, and the most recent one was during the Neil Gaiman book signing.

Anyway, I actually had fun this Monday. A Monday of all days. We ate lunch at...somewhere I'm not supposed to identify. The food was good. And free. Yay for working lunches. Then relaxed a bit for free coffee at Starbucks. "If we win the account, that's when we have coffee at UCC. For now, it's Starbucks," to quote my boss. It was a leisurely break, an enjoyable leisurely break. Times like this, I really appreciate the people at work. Really grateful. It was a nice way to start the week.

iii. screwed up priorities
I was down to my last 700 pesos which I had to stretch til payday. Not bad, if I could keep my expenses down to just transportation. I had enough food for bentoing over the week so I was set on food at least.

But I heard Hobbitoi had new stuff, so I had to see. Even the sales lady, to my surprise, greeted me with a cheerful, "May bagong dating kami!" (We have new stock!). I mean, I didn't even know she already knew me by face. Anyway, after seeing this lovely face looking back at me, I had to say bye-bye to P500.



Okay. She's a bit bratty, and it's good that Rin-chan & Shi-chan were able to hold Sakura back from decapitating her ^_^;; But I think she's a good kid and will probably settle down in a few days.

iv. small victory
I drove us home from ATC. And for once, nadda. Zip. Nothing negative from my mom. And I knew that I was doing well too since I made no major booboos. Maybe taking a few potholes too fast but nothing major. And I parked with minimal guidance. Yay! Improving.

I wanted to whine about not having electricity for...how many days now? Well, it was 96 hours at 9 am this morning. I really couldn't be bothered to count, all I wanted to do was catch up with bentolunch, update kitchencow and whine and whine.

But right now, I'm grinning from ear to ear with Tama-love. The ending wasn't as definite as I wanted, but hey, I'll take what the universe dishes out. The horrid ordeal can wait. Right now, I'm suffused with Tamaki-joy.

And you have to admit, Tamaki really is luv.

(Pinky custom want list has grown from Tamaki to Tama-Haru. Must drop by ATC to buy Rui later.)

Edit:
I love my new userpics :D

i. anything for food!
I really don't make sense when it comes to food. Shrimp and crab never fails to give me indigestion. On good days, it makes me rush to the bathroom. On bad days, it's torture. It gives me that kind of throbbing mind-numbing pain that puts me in a daze.

Today, my mom brought home loads of steamed gigantor-sized crab flown in fresh from Mindanao. Throwing common sense out of the window, I grabbed some rice, washed my hands and tucked away, gleefully dipping the crab meat in vinegar before stuffing my face. The fatty coral was rich, red, and delicious. The claws were gigantic; one claw, just the claw mind you, the upper segment not included, was overflowing from my grasp. The rice was freshly cooked; the vinegar lightly salted. Needless to say, I was one happy piglet.

Now, an hour later, I hear faint rumblings in my tummy. Shall it be sheer torture, or will it pass? Ah well. It was probably worth it.

ii. self-control girl is me
So proud. I have better self-control lately. I actually manage to be content with an episode or two of jdrama in the evenings, reinforcing a in bed by 12 policy. Well, right now, it's over my "curfew" but hey, at least I managed to stop watching when I said I will. Let's hope the next episodes aren't dreadful cliffhangers.

Never have I felt a day this wasted. Not wasted as in, "Wow pare, I'm so senglots (Man, I'm so drunk)" but wasted as in, "I spent a WHOLE day trying to do this and this is what I get?"

I took a day off from work to get a non-pro driver's license. Got it finally. Wasted an entire day just to get it. Time spent waiting? Hours and hours. Literally, a whole working day. Actual time used to fix stuff? An hour tops.

It started out funny since I had this big problem peeing for the drug test. I had to drink:

- a bottle of lipton iced tea
- a cup of coffee
- 1 500ml bottle of distilled water

Only to be told that they were serious, I had to fill at least 3/4s of the bottle (something similar in size to those vitamin bottles). I only managed what? 1 cm? So it was ANOTHER 500ml bottle of water for me.

Gawd. It's funny, considering that at work, everyone knows I have to go to the bathroom every few minutes or so. And now when I needed to go, I couldn't Gaaaaah! Talk about performance anxiety.

Then, the actual LTO paperwork / redtape / farce started, and nothing was funny anymore. No wonder I never see good driver's license pics. Everyone's too pissed off to smile.