Revelations

I finally told Gunter about the existence of this blog, which I seriously wanted to be kept hidden for a while. I feel lighter now, though, because then I wouldn't have to merely tell him that i'm "writing" when I'm actually blogging.

The day's not over yet, and the feeling of lightness and bliss I feel right now are obviously fleeting. Gunter lent me some cash to buy a replacement for my broken headphones. I'm not one to ask money from anyone, even if we are close, but this time I have to be realistic. I wouldn't be able to speak to him, otherwise. His condition was that I peruse the leftover money to buy myself a nice cup of coffee. I wouldn't say no to that, either.

Uni, on the other hand, left me with mixed emotions. It was both nerve-wracking and fun. A random quiz here and surprise postponements of classes there, it was rather unusual of my rather boring and average classes. A teacher's comment about my personal life divulged to other members of the faculty bummed me. Not that it had any actual damaging effect or anything, I just really dislike it w

Terrifying Tremors

A little more than a year ago, the first "mall" in my slowly-growing city of Surigao opened it's doors. Ever so curious, my younger sister and I decided to check out the opening. As expected of Surigaonons, it looked like more than half of the city's population decided to check it out as well. Oblivious to necessity, we didn't tell anyone that we're going there.

At first sight, it was spacious and I'm pretty sure many people were in awe at it's sheer size compared to the other infrastructures in the city. My sister and I were happily surprised when we found huge stacks of books on sale at the second floor. After digging through a bunch of barely-interesting books, we both found a couple that we liked...that is, until the earthquake shook the entire building.

Researching it afterwards, I found that it wasn't that strong but for some reason being inside a new building while it was happening wasn't good. The entire floor swayed and the glass on the ceiling broke off. People were screaming and hiding under the tables. I could hear murmurs of prayers and profanities, it was all a little surprising for me. When the building stopped swaying, everyone rushed to the exits, pretty much everyone looked shaken and scared. 

People gathered outside the building, as medics and police started to arrive. Children were reunited with their parents who were separated during the shuffle. Up to this day, my sister and I still feel a bit bummed that we didn't get to buy those books we had on our hands. 

Supermoon and Siomai

The entire sunday was pretty bland. I've never liked Sundays for many reasons and this time was no different. I refused to go to church and pretty much spent the morning sleeping in on Skype with my boyfriend. It's the one thing I enjoy when he's sleeping. I love how I can sleep in with him despite the distance. 

By late afternoon, I was already itching to get out of the house go somewhere else. Luckily, my parents had plans to go to the city so, as much as I'm not a huge fan of tagging along, I went with them. First stop was the newly opened Parkway Market. It was obviously not in it's completed plan yet, but they've pushed back their schedule so many times already. It wasn't particularly big too, but in this small city anything that bustles with activity has the capacity to attract attention. 

I was glad to see a Master Siomai food cart in there. It's easy to snack on and I've been a big fan of them ever since I've tried them about four years ago back when I went to my first uni in a big city. I missed out on the Tuna Siomai so I tried their Shark's Fin Siomai and one Japanese shuumai. Of course, I had them spicy :)

Before heading to the hospital and back home, we visited some relatives. I didn't get off the car though, because my eyes were transfixed on the big golden ball of majesty that crowned the barely cloudy sky. June 23rd of 2013 was blessed with an event where the moon is so close to the Earth, the closest the Moon has ever gotten to the Earth this year and it won't happen again until August 10, 2014. For the entire trip back home, all I could think of was when I'd be able to witness the same moon at the same space and time with Gunter. 

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Things Aren't What They Seem...

Second week after classes has started and I’m already tired of it. After a doubly terrible day yesterday (a missed opportunity and a wardrobe malfunction), I was already eager for the day to end by noon. I didn’t really expect a quiet Saturday with my parents present although having the both of them gone for most of the time proved to be a nice surprise. 

My dad came home at around noon, and at around 4PM we wanted to check out the Parkway Mall opening. The place was really packed, and even the parking lots were filled with customers’ cars. We drove all the way to the city and eventually grabbed a snack at McDonald’s. We rarely eat fast food so this was a nice change. In my tiny town, there's very few fast food chains and McDonald's just opened here about 3 months ago. 

I’m always surprised at how different the pictures of food are with the actual products. I had a Double Cheeseburger, Large Fries, and Iced Coffee. The pickles brought a weird zing to my tastebuds haha /not a pickle person. 

 

The only thing I imagined while picking through the fries was how it’d be like when Gunter and I do eat fries together and just talking and giggling. There was nothing special about their fries though, they were even saltier than I expected and a little greasy too. 

The Iced Vanilla Coffee was my favourite. I’m a coffee person and although I wouldn’t consider McDonalds’ as a good coffee-brewer, sometimes the caffeine kick is all that’s important. It was fun imagining how I’d be meekly sipping on my coffee while Gunter sitting across me in our little booth being all hot, funny and gorgeous. Haha, a girl can dream right? :)

Pre-NaNoWriMo Preparations

This year, I intend to join the 2013 National Novel Writing Month (which happens in November) and actually start writing a novel. To prepare for it, I figured I should start outlining the things I need to do.  They're just bare necessities, I figured. 

A favourite of mine is conceptualization and planning characters. Many aspiring writers I know get a lot of character and plot ideas but those usually derail their current projects. I wish to get rid of that, or at least minimize it so I can have the maximum time writing about relevant things. 

I've already chosen my writing tool Scrivener, developed by Literature and Latte. It's not free, but it has cool features that would prove important to me. The corkboard feature is kinda cool :)

I have to plan for many things because I figured I'd be particularly busy during November especially with the documentation for the systems proposal for uni. I really want to participate this year, and at least have a considerable amount written after the event so I can continue at my own pace. So excited!

Slow Days and Wednesdays

Another non-working day for the Philippines today. Normally I would enjoy the lack of need to be present at university but the old folks grasps are much too tight on these days. I've never enjoyed their company. There's so many things they fuss about and I just  find the whole thing rather "maturing". I didn't really expect to be cut off some slack even if I'm sick. I'm just glad my boyfriend's been really supportive and caring, I'm so grateful.

Last Tuesday, I enjoyed a rather laid back hour with a couple of my classmates at the uni cafeteria. It wasn't the usual gang I hang out with except a couple but it was fun nonetheless. I wish I'd get comfortable with them visiting my house soon, haha. Which reminds me, I don't really miss my old friends. That's probably rather heartless of me considering we shared so many memories but oh well....best not to dawdle and get depressed.

I have a lot of catching up to do with my blogs, in terms of content and design. I'm satisfied with the re-branding and redesign of this blog, and I still have to create new content for Sparkling Spectacles. I've got quite a long day ahead for me today.

Surigao Good Eats: Mandarin Tea Garden

It's Monday again, which means it's another five days of possible anxiety attacks at uni. I need to figure out a way to enjoy college. Although, yesterday my family had a quite nice dinner at a restaurant. We're not really one to splurge at fancy restaurants, as long as it's delicious and worthy of it's price then it's good.

One such restaurant in my tiny city would be Mandarin Tea Garden. Originating from Davao City, the one in my city has just recently opened. We've been there a couple of times and have never been disappointed by the food or the service. The place isn't big, compared to the hotel's own restaurant to which it is situated beside.

The Mandarin Tea Garden in my city is located at the Ground Floor of Parkway Hotel along the National Highway. I'm planning to take Gunter here. He's gotten particularly skinny the last couple of months and i'm determined to feed him as much meat as I can, haha.

LDR Stuff: Skype Sleeping

It's a luxury for couples to be able to comfortable take a night's rest with their SO's on a soft bed. But for people (like me) who's SO is otherwise-located, being able to sleep and also hear them while sleeping is already quite a luxury. This is a little indulgent, others would say, but for not having that special person in snuggling distance I personally think this is worth it.

May also be used to spy on Costa

Now, I know many couples have their own routines to do this so I'm just going to highlight what we do. Here's a short background before I start enumerating things. He's in Germany, I'm from the Philippines. That's almost a 7000 mile distance between that that also comes with a six-hour time difference. Normally, when he gets home from university, I'm already sleeping. Depending on our schedules, I am able to wake him up and he's able to join me in my sleep if he'd like to take a nap. 

How is this possible? Here's our recipe for Skype Sleeping!

Ingredients (umm...applications/hardware to use)

• A decent internet connection
• Skype (of course)
• Headphones - must be comfortable enough to wear in bed if preferred.
• decent-quality webcam - while some of us are comfortable with sleeping in a room with a random light source on, and we'd want decent lighting so our SO's could actually see us and not just stare in total darkness. this all depends on what you'd like.
• F.lux - I use this to control the amount of blue light my laptop gives off when it's the only lit-up thing at night that usually gives me headaches. 

Procedure

1. Set up your laptop/PC. It should be in a place that doesn't get too hot too quick. If on a PC, perhaps an external webcam would be easily manoeuvred so that it shows you when your SO calls. I use a laptop so it's always pointed to me.
2. If you're comfortable with wearing headphones/earphones at night, you can. I personally wear mine to bed, and it's not that uncomfortable since i normally sleep on my back.
3. I've configured my Skype to accept calls automatically from people in my contacts, and for the camera to automatically run. My boyfriend has the same set-up. I know many of you aren't comfortable with this set-up. It's just that we really don't have any people on our contacts who would randomly start a call.
4. I've installed F.lux to regulate the brightness/blue light my laptop emits at night. It really helps a lot, especially to those who are uncomfortable sleeping with bright lights.
5. For those who wants to try a more secured method, there is a program that lets you select a specific contact to allow certain actions to. You can download it [here]. There are some issues with it though but it should run with no problems. Another method is using TeamViewer so your SO can accept the call themselves with no bother to you.
6. SLEEP! Of course. It can't be skype sleeping if you aren't asleep! And just wait for your SO to come snuggling up to you once they are able to :
7. Don't forget to tell them to set up the same thing so you both can do it whenever the other wants. 

Enjoy!

Tomfooleries and Skylarkings

No, the post title doesn't have anything to do with the post itself. Sorry to disappoint. I think I've just rewatched South Park so many times.

I don't really have anything planned for the weekend but...for the sake of satisfying my compulsive need to write up a list I CAN do, let's make a list!

• Read this list of "creepy" wikipedia articles. - I've already read some pages from this list, and some are new to me so this should be fun. 
• List down some tiaras I can write up on the Sparkling Spectacles blog. I've got less than 8 down and I'm pretty sure I can do better than that.
• Write a character chart for this character I have in mind before I forget about it. Sidebar: Research about hooker culture....don't ask... 
• Watch more Criminal Minds. No need to elaborate. 

Late Monthsary Present and More!

I don't like surprises. So when my boyfriend told me he has a surprise for me, I flipped and ignored him for the rest of the evening. I know it's bitchy, but he knows really well how much I despise surprises. I'd much rather know what I'm getting and then anxiously wait for it. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but yeah. I'm a derp.

He sent me a huge photobook + CD of one of my favourite Korean acts, TVXQ's Keep Your Head Down, as well as the Korean and Chinese versions of my sister's favourite Korean acts, EXO's XOXO. My sister was pretty much freaking out when we unboxed the whole thing, and since I didn't expect the photobook we thought they mistakenly sent us the package. 

There's two EXO socks included too, which was cute haha. I'm glad I don't have classes tomorrow for Independence Day. Tomorrow, I'm thinking of compiling/brainstorming a couple of DIY projects I can do, that is, if my parents decide to not ruin the day for me. So excited :)

There's 104 Days of Summer Vacation and School Comes Along Just To End It

In exactly 30 minutes, uni officially starts for me. Unlike many people, I don't enjoy college as much. Perhaps  it's the socially anxious side of me that makes me paranoid having people in my personal bubble. I don't mind the interaction in itself, but it's more of the lack of people who share the same interests with me and the boredom that brings to the whole college experience. I am always open to new friendships but keeping them seems to be difficult for me. 
Perhaps I can spend my in-between classes time at the library? The biggest bummer I feel is the fact that I'm not able to wake my boyfriend up from slumber day to day now with my class schedule. I really do hope I can get used to classes and find a workable, non-boring routine that accommodates the things that I enjoy and the things that are less-fun but needed to be done. In short, I need to find BALANCE.  I'm particularly glad I've started this blog to chronicle my progress.

Sunday Morning, Rain Is Falling

Late update! Hope I get most things covered on this post.  Yesterday, my boyfriend and I celebrated our first month of being officially together. We've known each other for much longer than that though. It feels like we've been together for a long time yet the month that passed seemed so quick and everything seems so surreal. Sure, there were some tears and lots of feelings but we're both very blessed to have each other in our lives. Being in a long-distance relationship sucks a lot. We're both each other's support system and I'm just very thankful that I have him to support me.

Standing my laptop on it's side for shits and giggles, and
then he pops in and takes a  peek hehe

Waking up, I immediately got a cold spell and started sneezing all over. The early hours were cold and drizzly, so i'm thankful for the cup of hot chocolate I had before heading off for church. I'm not particularly religious, but with the kind of parents I have It's just best not to argue with unreasonable people.
I realize that tomorrow is the end of my freedom. Uni will start and I'm going to have classes. I hope my profs stick to their original schedules and not haggle for hours that are only beneficial for them. I only have one class tomorrow though, hopefully that'll help me start to get used to routine. I've never liked schedules, or routine in my life. I like having this sense of orderly chaos (perhaps that's a problem? hehe) around me. It usually keeps with the surprises. 

Don't Get Stuck In The Doldrums

Being stuck in a small town with no library and no book store, the only way I can satisfy my interests is reading through the Internet. Sure, there are tiny stores that sell outdated books but none of them particularly grab my attention. I like reading in my spare time (though there's not a lot of that) and on any particular subject that interests me at that time. The subjects could vary from academic things, crime and science fiction, to Young Adult titles.

I can't possibly list all books I like, though the last one I reread is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I am reading it to my boyfriend who I think is finally engrossed in the story. The story is very creative, full of puns tucked neatly in wisdom every growing child should learn.

"Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life"

 My interests were reignited when I caught the 1970 movie version of the book on Turner Classic Movies and I immediately got nostalgic.I loved the movie, but it left out and changed (not to a huge degree, really) some parts from the book. Immediately I picked up the book and got the epub version of it (illustrated, of course) for my phone. Rather unfortunate that I had to read most of it while working on some things at uni.

I heard there's a movie/documentary to celebrate the Fiftieth anniversary. Not entirely sure when it's going to be released but I can't wait to watch it!

On Birthdays and Presents

My boyfriend sent me a box of stuff for my birthday this year and it was more than I actually imagined. It took a long time to get here but patience really does pay. I've never wanted any presents on my birthday. I normally just eat with my family and friends (separately!) at some place and then sleep it on. I don't know when I became this desensitized to birthday celebrations, maybe I just really didn't see the point of celebrating a day that reminds me that I'm older.

Still, my birthday was made fun and memorable by my boyfriend. We weren't together yet during my birthday but that didn't stop him from writing me a poem and singing me a song :) On his birthday though, I managed to paint something for him and although it wasn't really anything in comparison to his presents, I'm still glad he liked them.

I have some ideas to make inexpensive presents and I can't wait to get started on making them! :)

On Artistic Endeavors

When my boyfriend sent me a box of acrylic paints, I knew I had to paint his "soul animal" - the fox. I'm not that good, though I wish I was but that's why people practice right?

I still have a lot to learn, evidently, but I'm glad he always appreciates everything that I do no matter how derpy the end result usually is. I should work on drawing chibi foxes and tigers. I plan on making presents for  him. He worked hard on the presents he gave me, I feel like I can't top that with any present I can just buy. 

This one is based on a picture of him. I suck a lot at shading and I couldn't even follow the lighting on the image because the light was behind him and it created very sharp contrasting shades. I still like this one though, probably the best sketch I made of him so far, hehe.

I work with coding and databases, though art and writing are some passions that I really can't stop pursuing. I hope I'd have a chance to pursue them more soon :)

Restart

What an emotional whirlwind that half-year was! I finished everything I need to begin the academic year with a clean slate...well, as clean as it can get. I know I can't undo my mistakes but I've got to move on. It was difficult but I feel that I'm ready to take on future and get back on track.

The last two months were particularly terrible, what with the emotional burdens my personal problems were causing me. My boyfriend, who currently resides in Germany, I feel was also burdened by it. I would randomly call him in the middle of the night (for him) because I was close to having a panic attack. That was really unfair and I'm glad I'm in a better place now. 

This is the last personal blog I'm ever going to make, hehe. I really need stability and permanence in my life. Now if only I'd remember to update this regularly.