Currently Feeling >> at work
Currently Reading >> The Definitive Guide to Grails Second Edition

Update on my life so far:

I'm a working girl already! Hahaha

I work for Orange and Bronze Software Labs. Yap yap, the same company that took me in for my OJT two summers ago. I started working there January 14, 2009, which means that's one thing off my list of New Year's Resolutions. =)

I'm enjoying my work but I hate the 1.5 hour long commute. I often read a book to pass the time when riding the LRT. It's the only thing that keeps me sane. Though sometimes I can't read properly because commuters can be so violent when pushing to get in or out.

I miss my friends... A LOT. Arranging a gimmick is so difficult these days, everybody has different schedules and work hours. I'm glad that despite that, we all still got to go out and have fun. Like when we watched Yes Man and when we celebrated Kenneth's birthday.

Got to start being productive now, bye!

Disney turns its world over to unknown

Currently Feeling >> mischievous
Currently Reading >> Pride and Prejudice fanfic

My dad sent this to me. Just wanted to share hehehe



For more details...visit: www.sun7news.com
Will post soon about our trip to Batangas during the New Year's

Christmas 2008 in Baguio

Pines View Hotel, Baguio City

There are several reasons why I decided to postpone getting a job until 2009 starts. *This* is the one of the reasons - Baguio: The City of Pines.

Baguio holds a special place in my heart and memories. My first visit here was four years ago with my Ninang Anita. She was in remission then and it was probably the last time I've ever seen her back to her normal, pre-cancer self. She was sort of healthy then - on the mend, as some people would say. And I remember oh so clearly how she was so happy and energetic during that trip. I can't ever think of Baguio without thinking of her too.

Another reason why I love Baguio is because whenever I come here, I'm more of myself - willing to try anything, more malambing and more capable of (dare I say it...) a certain degree of recklessness.

Here’s a narration of our vacation so far:

December 23

Everyone woke up at the ungodly hour of 4'o clock in the morning and aside from the drunk men across the street loudly singing Love Me Tender (at least that's what I think they're singing...), everywhere else is dark and quiet.

We ate banana muffins for breakfast (courtesy of Atchie Ann and Ahya Nonoy) and then we left at around 5AM. I slept on and off in the car, catching glimpses of the sky turning from night to morning in between. At 7AM, we stopped at Luisita, Tarlac for coffee (hot choco for me) then hit the road again at around 7:45AM. I managed to sleep throughout the whole trip, only waking up when we reached the first gas station we encountered in Baguio.

We then proceeded to the Good Shepherd Convent (located at Gibraltar Road) to buy food stuff to give to friends and family back in Manila. At noon, we ate sinigang, vegetable salad and bistek at Choco-late de Batirol (located at CJH). Afterwards, we checked into our rooms at Pines View Hotel (located at 24 Legarda Road). After unpacking and checking if they really do provide Wi-Fi internet access in every room, everyone took siesta naps. Yes, even me... I proudly admit that I slept A LOT during our vacation here. Teehee

Afterwards, we ate dinner at The Golden Pine Hotel (located at the corner of Carino Sreet and Yandoc Street). This is the hotel we stayed in last year. We didn't check in here this year because my dad wanted to try out another hotel but we love the food they serve in their restaurant. They offer both Filipino and Chinese cuisine and so far, we have not been disappointed with any of the dishes we've ordered there.

December 24

Our day started with our complimentary breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. Since it's free, we were only given two options: a Filipino or an American breakfast. My dad went for the Filipino breakfast (daing na bangus with garlic rice and fried egg) while Mom, Shobe and I ordered the American breakfast (fried egg, ham and toasted bread with butter and jam).

We then went to the Lourdes Grotto, where we prayed the rosary as we climbed up the 252 steps. The grotto has undergone some reconstruction during the year. The steps are more even, the railings no longer rusty and they also added a nice deck at the top. Also, a new statue of Jesus was put up at the 2nd to the top deck in honor of the grotto’s 150th anniversary.

Afterwards, we went to Camp John Hay and ate lunch at Little John's. Like I mentioned here, they serve delicious baby back ribs and strawberry shakes. Yummy! After eating, we window shopped for a bit at the different Mile Hi Center stores and then went driving around the camp, familiarizing ourselves again with its roads and the locations of the different recreational activities we want to do.

Since we just ate lunch and there's nothing much else to do, Mama said we should just go back to our hotel, rest and come back later for horseback riding in the afternoon. So that's what we did. Back in our room, I went online for a bit to check my emails and plurks. After 30 minutes, I crashed again on my bed. The weirdest thing about my nap was that I managed to twist my body while I was asleep in such a way that when I woke up, my right cheek, arm and wrist had deep and really red crease marks all over it (which didn't fade for about an hour) and my left leg felt numb.

Back at CJH, we drove to Shalan Ni Kabajo to go horseback riding. Mom of course, didn't go riding with us. She took some initial pictures of us on our horses and then went on to have a cup of coffee and read magazines at Figaro.

My horse' name was Sprite and how I wished I was given another horse. He was very hard-headed and wouldn't follow my directions. He would gallop away from the guide and often attempt to kick anyone standing behind him. Shobe was much more fortunate. Her horse, Lacota, was much smaller and though he had a tendency to trot rather than walk, he was much gentler.

My legs and fingers were wobbly and numb when I got off my horse because I spent most of the ride clinging tightly to the saddle and reins. We rested for a bit and ate twister fries and a banana split. My sister and I then went target shooting at Paintball Republic. We then walked around (or wobbled around in my case) and watch artists play native music and light up bonfires at the Art Park.

At dusk, we went back to our hotel and rested for a bit. We decided to eat dinner at the hotel's restaurant and ordered take-out for our Noche Buena.

At the stroke of midnight, we prayed and then greeted each other a Merry Christmas. Then we exchanged gifts. My sister gave me new earphones and I gave her a hardbound book with all of her pictures in it. My parents said that their gift to me is the book: "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K.Rowling but they haven't bought it yet. They promised to buy me the book once we get back to Manila. Yay!

So that's what we've been doing since we came here. Earlier today, we went back again to the Lourdes Grotto to pray and thank God for giving us the means and opportunity to come here. Afterwards, we went to the Baguio Botanical Garden. We ate lunch at Cantinetta (located at CJH) then went back here to nap. When we woke up, we went to CJH again. Mom wanted to eat bibingka so we went to Choco-late de Batirol for some. Unfortunately, the place was packed with people and the service was too slow. When an hour has passed and they still haven’t serve our bibingka, we decided to cancel our order and go elsewhere to eat our dinner.

We ended up eating dinner at Golden Pines Hotel before going back to our hotel. So here I am, out on our veranda, soaking up the Baguio air.

I have to go and shower soon so I'll end this here. Tomorrow, we'll be going home and I'll miss Baguio sooooooooooooooooooooo much! I hope I can still come here again next year.

Books

Currently Feeling >> mellow
Currently Reading >> reviews about the books I haven't read on this list

I found this on Karol See's multiply site and couldn't resist:

Rules/Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own Multiply so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them. ;)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen <-- ABSOLUTE FAVE

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien <-- am addicted to this series

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling <-- loved all except for the last book

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible <-- finished reading the Illustrated Children's Bible... would that count?

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare <-- read most, not all

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell<

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy <-- unfinished... its too long...maybe someday I'll find the time and energy to finish it... maybe

25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams <-- All I know about this is that 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything... don't understand yet why so I want to read it

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky <-- unfinished... somehow can't get past the first few chapters

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy <-- same reason as # 27

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen <-- I think I've forgotten the story already, must reread...

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis <-- wouldn't this fall under #33 too?

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne <-- I saw a beautiful hard bound copy of this at Doulos. Wanted to buy but couldn't afford.

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen <-- hehehe is it so obvious that I'm an Austenite?

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding <-- after watching the movie, I lost interest in reading this

69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville <-- gah... tried to read... didn't succeed in finishing

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte's Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom <-- of all of Mitch Albom's books, I liked Tuesdays with Morrie best.

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle <--

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahll

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow... I obviously still have a long way to go. If anybody has any recommendations, feel free to tell me! Hehehe

N days ago....

Currently Feeling >>
Currently Reading >> Other people's plurks

Eight days ago, we had our defense for the Most Outstanding thesis award.

Eight days ago, we submitted the final deliverabls of our thesis.

Seven days ago, we had our final course card distribution day.

Seven days ago, we were "unofficially" college graduates already.

Six days ago, I was cleaning up the usual term end junk from both my actual desktop and my computer desktop.

Five days ago, I was given a job offer at Orange and Bronze.

Four days ago, I spent the whole day at home, watching Gossip Girl, reading books and resting.

Three days ago, I went with Adette, Can, Em, Fu, Mark, Kenneth and Robert to MOA where we celebrated Fu's birthday belatedly. Very very belatedly.

Three days ago, Fu treated us to lunch at David's Teahouse.

Three days ago, we watched Wall-E, again Fu's treat. We laughed
and cooed over the movie.

Three days ago, we ate dinner together at Shakey's and took lots and lots of pictures.

Two days ago, I went shopping with my family at Powerplant. ^_^

Yesterday, I learned how to commute to Ortigas.

Yesterday, I had my HP interview. (Pray for me )

Yesterday, we found out David, Adette, Robert and Fu got Most Oustanding Thesis Gold Medal for their thesis! Woot!

Today, we had a job exam at Tera System. Got a headache over the exam and the information sheet they made us answer.

Yay! I'm done with school!!!! Now, onto the "real" world!!!!





To Do List for the following days:
- continue cleaning up desktop
- clean up closet
- finish thesis conference paper
- practice walking/running while wearing the heels I would be wearing for my cousin's wedding.

Ocean Park

Currently Feeling >>
Currently Reading >> Nothing :(

Two weeks ago, my Dad took us to Manila Ocean Park as an advance birthday celebration for me and a surprise for my sister who was about to start her 4th year in highschool after a few days. It was fun ^_^, it seemed to end too soon but meh...lots of pretty fish... I would have preferred seeing them by scuba diving into the ocean though ^_~. Alas... that must remain a dream for now.

The real highlight of the day was dinner. My dad took us to eat at Yurakuen Japanese Restaurant at Manila Diamond Hotel. He ordered Wagyu steaks for us and wow! Delicious!!!! The steak was so soft and tender, not at all gummy and rough. I am now forever ruined for other steaks... these were the best! Hahaha

The restaurant's aesthethics were pretty awesome too. Kind of like a glass atrium surrounded by ponds and trees. Inside, there were these metal trees with clear plastic leaves spread around amidst the tables. It was so cozy.  ^_^

Below are some of the pictures we took, mouse over the images to zoom in and read the pic's description. The slideshow may take a while to load though, so if you're impatient... erm... never mind?? Hihihi

Before School Starts...

Currently Feeling >> Loved
Currently Reading >> (Actually rereading) A Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I've been putting of writing this post since last week... I can't help it, I don't want this summer to end just yet. It's my last summer vacation as a student. This time next year, I'll (hopefully) be a member of the working class already.

And that's as far as I'll allow myself to wallow. No use being sad about it, I want to face the question marks of my future as cheerfully and as positively as I can.

I have to say though, this has been one of the most memorable summer vacations of my life. I didn't go off to some exotic or foreign location (aside from my trip to Subic with my friends that is). I merely stayed at home with my family, which in my opinion was more fun.

It's been comedy central here at home. I don't mean that we're all doing stand up comedy here... just that my Mom and I got into watching comedy series this summer. In the mornings, we watch Everybody Loves Raymond then Will and Grace back to back on the Velvet Channel. Then after that, every spare time during the day, we'd watch the Friends DVD set we bought. I used to watch Friends every night during highschool, my favorite characters were Joey, Chandler and Monica. Mom only discovered the show when my sister and I asked her to buy the dvd set for us this summer. We managed to finish watching all 10 seasons already. Mom loves Joey's antics, Dad likes both Joey and Phoebe. I'm still a Chandler fan (as always) while my sister prefers Rachel.

My family also became addicted to season 7 of American Idol. My Dad was the first to get hooked, followed by my Mom then my sister and me. The four of us were split into two; from the moment he sang Billie Jean, my Dad and I became David Cook fans while Mom and Shobe on the other hand, immediately got taken with David Archuleta's sweet smile and even sweeter voice. So every week, when we watched every showdown and results show, we'd goad and tease each other about the other's favorites and be united in our dislike for Ramiele Malubay and Brooke White.

It turns out that we're pretty good in choosing our favorites since both reached the top 2. We were all huddled together in Mom and Dad's bed this morning to find out which of the two Davids won on the live broadcasting of the results show. I'm sure you all know by now that David Cook won. Dad's been gloating that fact over Mom the whole day while Mom pouts and tells Dad that he has to take us out for dinner since his favorite won. It's pretty funny to watch the two of them banter over the whole thing. ^_^

I did more than just watch TV throughout the summer though. I also downloaded and watched Code Geass R2 as well as Fated to Love You, Gokusen 3, Bones and CSI:NY episodes on my laptop. Teehee ^_~

On a more serious note, everyday I set aside time to work on the story design of our thesis. We are currently in the process of finishing up the rest of the moral lessons that our story generator can choose from. Afterwards, we still have to test our thesis and write up the piles of documentation the school requires.

It's been a wonderful summer break for me. School officially starts next week on the 26th and hopefully, it would be a good and fun term for me and my friends. ^_^