Quingdom.com

Happy Birthday, Ate She!

2010-03-10T00:48:30+08:00

Happy Birthday, Ate She!

May you continue to enlighten and inspire everyone with your creativity, kindness and love. I hope you succeed in whatever path your heart desires to take and I wish that the Lord continues to shower you and your family with bounteous blessings, happiness and unity.

Always,

Skarlet at Boy Katindig Jazz Café

2010-03-10T00:06:56+08:00

Lately, I've been tagging along with my parents when they go out and have some drinks and listen to live bands. That's how my social life has been the past few days. Hehehe! It can be fun. I just enjoy the free food and drinks!

Our latest night out was at the opening of Boy Katindig's Jazz Café. We went there in support of my parents' friend Skarlet who was a guest singer that night. She's the front woman of the popular 90's band Put3ska which was known for their song "Manila Girl."

Fortunately I had camera with me. I didn't miss the opportunity to take some pictures of the well-applauded Skarlet.

Click here for more pictures.

Bow,

Julia Gets Her First Haircut

2010-03-08T23:42:23+08:00

Summer's here! It's the best time for Julia to get her first haircut. Last Sunday, Julia's parents brought her to Cuts 4 Tots in SM MegaMall for a trim. With the help of The Backyardigans playing on video, she behaved as the barber cut her soft baby hair. Good thing I brought my camera along with me and so I took pictures of this milestone. The strands of the cut hair were kept as a memento.

Click here to see more pictures.

Bow,

Question of The Day: Who was the first musician you saw live?

2010-02-25T00:47:32+08:00

This is really interesting! And my answer says so much about me being an old soul. As far as I know, the first musician I saw live was Barry Manilow! Hehehehe!

My mom is a fanilow so when she learned that Barry Manilow was going to perform live in Manila, she didn't think twice about getting tickets. She got really good seats for her and dad.

At the day of the concert, she learned that my uncle and aunt were supposed to go too, but had to cancel. So they decided to give us the tickets. My parents had better seats, though. It was my first time to watch a concert and I really didn't get the idea. I was a grade schooler back then. I was annoyed with the people standing on their seats and screaming. I was covering my ears for the whole duration of the concert! Had I known that I would also be a fanilow later on in life, I would've swapped seats with my dad! During the intermission, my mom checked up on us and she found me silly for covering my ears. I'm sure they still remember the story until now.

Bow,

All-Positive Week

2010-02-23T00:23:50+08:00

It's always been a struggle for me to keep hoping for better things to come. Maybe it's my faith that is not strong enough or maybe I'm just naturally prone to depression - something that I wouldn't want to reoccur. Been there, done that.

Anyhow, to oppose the pessimism that has been lingering in my system the past few days, I decide to make the effort and establish an all-positive week. For one whole week, I'll try to think of only bright thoughts and good things that can happen in my life. It's easier said than done. I'm done with day one and so far, so good. It's helping me cope with the crossroad I'm currently facing.

By God's grace, I hope I can make it through the week.

Bow,

Question of The Day: What are your top ten pet peeves?

2010-02-22T09:00:00+08:00

Pet peeves. Ugh. We all have pet peeves. It ranges from the simplest to the most outrageous. Some are deemed unreasonable, but there are just some parts of our human nature that we cannot explain. To answer the Question of The Day, here are my top ten pet peeves:

10. Choppy phone lines
I think anyone would have this on his or her list. I'm not surprised that this has become one of my pet peeves. Having the chance to work in a telecommunications company, poor communication lines has always been one of the top complaints of subscribers. I couldn't blame them. I experience the inconvenience too!

9. Loud ringtones
Some people just don't know that the mobile phone ringtone is not for everyone to hear. It should be set at a certain level for it not to be intrusive. So, before leaving the house, I suggest you check the volume of your ringtone.

8. Red tape
Any form of unnecessary delay never fails to get in my nerves. Especially at work when I've got a long list of to-do's, an impediment is that last thing I would want to encounter.

7. Pens that skip
Whenever I shop for pens, I spend a significant amount of my shopping time testing them before checking them out at the cashier. I can be pretty anal about making sure that the pens are in perfect writing condition.

6. People who can't eliminate their fake twang
I cannot seem to understand why people who learned to speak English in an accent they are forced to do so cannot revert back to the English they grew up with. I can probably tolerate the way of speech, but the arrogance is just unforgivable.

5. Pay parking
I can't remember when establishments such as malls started charging for parking space. Shouldn't they be required to provide their customers free parking space? Even hospitals charge for parking space nowadays!

4. Cents used to mean centavos
A lot of Filipinos make the mistake of calling centavos, cents. I just can't stand the error. Cents and centavos are two different currencies! My sister and I share the same cent-iment.

3. Open doors
Maybe it's my obsessive-compulsive self, but I get uncomfortable when the door of the room I'm in is unclosed or in simpler terms, open. Hehehe! There must be a psychological explanation for this.

2. Mismatched spoon and fork
Do you know that it's impossible for me to enjoy my meal if I'm using mismatched spoon and fork? Well, I would probably have to make an exception if I'm famished, but on a regular day I would have to have matching spoon and fork to have a great meal.

1. Wrong use of the word pictorial
You're probably expecting a photography-related pet peeve. Here it is! And it's the top item. Pictorial is often used to pertain to a photo shoot. I'm sorry, my friends, but pictorial is actually a synonym for graphic. Also, it can be used as a noun that means "a newspaper or periodical with pictures as a main feature" (Apple Dictionary).

There you have it. My top 10 pet peeves. What are yours?

Bow,

Julia Learns to Pose

2010-02-19T23:01:50+08:00

My niece Julia learns how to pose. She's so adorable! I just take out my camera and she knows what to do - smile, pose and just be cute! She's got a variety of looks!

Click here to see the whole set.

Bow,

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T09:00:00+08:00

Wishing everyone a great year filled with love!

As the new year of the Chinese calendar enters, allow me to share with you the pictures I took during our household's celebration of New Year last January. Hehehe! Shame on me for neglecting to post them on time.

Since we don't have relatives coming to our house during New Year's Eve, we decided to just eat out and join in the official countdown of Quezon City at Eastwood City, Libis. We had dinner at Momo Café as we watched the performances of Kyla, Jett Pangan and The Dawn, and Arnel Pineda of Journey, among others.

Here are the pictures I took of the artists:

And what is a countdown without fireworks to welcome the new year? I still have to learn the art of taking photos of fireworks. Nevertheless, here are the pictures:

After going through a month and a half of 2010, I do feel the need start over. May this inspire us to start with a clean slate and push ourselves to do better. There's no turning back.

Click here to see more pictures.

Bow,

Quality Time with Family and Friends

2010-02-13T05:37:24+08:00

Good morning, readers!

I'm still awake and I don't have plans of sleeping anytime soon. Not until I finish my Saturday duties. I have to monitoring something on TV and it will air show at 10:30 am. Think I'm crazy for not getting rest? I'm too afraid that if I get some shut-eye, I would over sleep and miss the show. I'd rather stay awake and be sure that I catch it on TV than think of my well-being first and risk neglecting my duty.

Moving on to something more substantial, I want to share that I'm so blessed that I can still spend time with my family and friends no matter how short the time is. Just last night, I headed to Podium right after work to reunite with some college friends. Although we had to adjourn our small gathering earlier than expected, it was still worthwhile. It was still time well-spent. After that I went straight to Stone House to meet my mother and sister for a short night out. I was supposed to go to the venue with them, but since I had to meet with my friends (they asked me out first), I promised I would follow afterwards. And I did.

That made my day. Seeing people I love after a hard day's work was enough to make up for the stress and pressures of being employed. If it's not too much to ask, I hope I'd have more time with them.

Now, back to my zombie self.

Bow,

Question of The Day: What was the first job that changed your life?

2010-02-07T16:07:41+08:00

Having a new design has a positive effect in me. I suddenly want to keep on posting entries! I just hope I can keep up the enthusiasm. Anyway, in the pursuit of having something in my site, I turn to Question of the Day. It's a feature of TypePad, which was adapted from Vox. There's this small box on the side of the dashboard page where a random question would appear. It helps bloggers think of topics to write about, especially when nothing really interesting is happening. Here goes...

Question of the day: What was the first job that changed your life?

This is easy for me to answer since I've only had two jobs and I've been in my current job for barely 7 months. I would have to say that my first job, as a customer service associate, changed my life. Aside from it being my first job, there are other reasons I can say why it has changed my life the most.

The best lesson I've learned in that line of work was patience. Everyday I was subjected to a deluge of problems and complaints, all waiting to be resolved without delay. Every customer is important and I had to listen to his or her litany of predicaments with the services. I tell you, any person would be more irate than the customer her or she if talking to. To be able to take that nature of work, I had to be armed with a lot of patience, first and foremost.

Because of this, I learned to appreciate simple things in life and at work. At times, all I wanted was to be free from all the stress that the job was pressing on me. It could get into me and out of my system in ugly forms. I learned how to find time to relax. I am only human after all. I could only handle so much.

My mother thought I wouldn't stand the job. Neither did I. But I was able to stay in that company for more than a year. I learned to take on the challenge of work and have the discipline to give my best in whatever task is assigned to me.

I tried to see more of the good things than the bad in the situation. I gained good friends, the opportunity to earn my own money and positive qualities that I can firmly say made me a better person. If not for the things I've learned in my first job, I wouldn't have the courage and skill to get to where I am right now. I'm blessed to have had the first job that served as my springboard for bigger and better things.

Such is a life-changing job.

Bow,

P.S.

Ask me this question again in a year and I may answer it differently. Hehehe!