Project 365: Feb. 19, 2011 (day050): Girly Red Toes

After a great afternoon bonding with my high school girl friends, I went home and noticed that the nearby nail spa had a promo for foot spa and pedicure. Being the usual foot-spa addict that I am, I availed of the promo. When I was being asked what's my preferred color for the nail polish, I just blurted out "Red.. Bright Red!". I don't know what got into me and I chose that color. I am not usually the type of girl who goes for red for my nail polish. Usually, I go for the more subtle pearl pink or pearl white or beige. I only choose red for special occassions like Christmas and my birthday. Oh well.. perhaps, sometimes, it's okay to break the monotony of things. Besides, looking at my toes, it doesn't look that bad. Good luck to me come Friday next week - the day I usually wear sandals in the office! :D

Project 365: Jan.12, 2011 (day012): Ninong & I

Due to our "uncommon" family setup, Zion has two daddy figures here at home - my Dad (his grandfather) and my brother (his uncle). Incidentally, my brother is also his Ninong (i.e. godfather). Since their age brackets are much closer, Zion gets his dose of antics from mostly from my brother. And though they get along well, when Zion gets rowdy and out-of-control, it is only my brother who can make him sit still and behave. My brother and I do not always see eye to eye, but I am always thankful to him for being a good uncle and even father-figure to Zion. :-)

Project 365: Jan. 10, 2011 (day010): Got Your Back Spongebob

Monday has always been a tough day for almost everyone here at home (with my Dad as an exemption being the steadfast workaholic that he is). It seems that we have that "weekend hangover", wishing we can extend the weekend even by a few hours. My Zion is no exemption. Waking him up for his morning bath and breakfast is a tedious task. Telling him that he will go to school adds up to the challenge. As we adults get creative in our threats to get him out of bed, Zion gets even more creative with his excuses to stay in bed (e.g. asks for more milk, tells us that his towel and uniform got lost, tells us that it is still Saturday, tells us that they have no school). But one thing that can surely wake him up is threatening him that his prized Spongebob-backpack will be thrown out of the house. Threaten him with this, and you'll get him up and awake in no time. :-)

Project365: Jan.08, 2011 (day008): Little Photographer

When I was able to finally buy a DSLR camera, I was thinking that my old, shutterlag-stricken point-and-shoot camera will seldom be used. Perhaps only during those occassions when it is inconvenient to bring the DSLR. But these thoughts vanished, when I saw my 4-year old son Zion, taking (wild and sometimes blurred) shots using the old camera. He would ask me to buy the 2 AA batteries and borrow the camera. I let him take those pictures, as long as an adult watches over him and the camera. Start him young in photography. At least, I know my old camera will not rust inside the drawer. Somebody found interest in it. :-)

Project365: Jan.04, 2011 (day004): pAKing Lot

I was watching my son at play today. He was busy with all his small toy cars. At first he was busy moving the cars, as if they were running on the expressway, free from traffic. Next, he lined up his cars, "bumper-to-bumper" style. He then told me that his cars were stuck in "tafik" (i.e. my son's bulol-version of the word traffic). Finally, he arranged his cars side-by-side. Now this ignited my curiosity as I am not sure if he knows the technical term for the place where cars are parked. To my surprise and utmost amusement, he answered that his cars are now in the "PAKING lot". This is, of course, my son's bulol-version of the word "paRking lot". ;-)

Project 365: Jan.03, 2011 (day003) - Blowin' Bubbles

My son Zion has one favorite toy here at home. Since I don't know the "technical term" for this toy, I call it the "bubble maker", because that's what it does - create bubbles from the soapy liquid inside a bright green bottle. Sometimes I enjoy watching Zion blow those bubbles. It brings back memories of my own childhood. Well it was quite crude then. We had to pick gumamela flowers, pound these flowers, and mix it with powdered detergent soap and water. For the round "mold", my childhood buddies and I would usually get some piece from our walis tingting (i.e. broom), turn one of the ends to form a circle for our bubbles. Kids of today are lucky. No need for all these preparations. They can just ask their moms/dads to buy it from the malls.

My Photoshop Attempt (Non-Digiscrapping)

Today was the start of my Desktop Publishing class at Nego-Skwela in Quezon City. We will be tackling the basics of Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw for the next 3 days. I already have an idea as to how Adobe Photoshop works, but my idea is only limited to using Adobe Photoshop in digital scrapbooking (see my WaRpEd & TwIsTeD digital scrapbook site). I really haven't maximized its powers by using it for photo-editing and its image adjustment powers. So today's discussion was really exciting. I get to learn the crafty art of extraction, image adjustment (i.e. remove unwanted marks or blemishes, make people look sexier or bloated in their pics, replacing the faces in existing photos). I must say I still have a llllllllooooooootttt to learn and lllllooooottttttttssss of practice to do. But I guess, today was a good start. Hopefully, I'll get to learn more things in the next 2 days. So to give you an idea of how crazy my Photoshop talent could be, just look at the naughty poster that I've created for my brother who has just joined the ROTC corps in their school.

Facebook Family Addiction

This will be a short post. I just can't help but blog about it, since it's really becoming the "in" thing here at home.

An old saying goes,"The family that prays together, stays together". Well, let me modify this a little to describe my family's current "addiction" - the family that plays together, stays together.

This is so true for my family now. Lately, almost all of us are addicted to various applications in Facebook - my brother had chosen to establish his own eatery/carinderia (sorry bro, yours really look like a carinderia.. hehehe.. Ü) at Restaurant City; my mom tries her hand raising cows, growing rice paddies and strawberry fields at FarmVille; and I get to pursue my dream to burn rubber in Street Racing. Not that my Dad has no participation at all, but having experienced life as a farmer in the province, he advises my mom on how to setup her crops in FarmVille. It was fun watching my parents while they are discussing on which crops should be near each other, and which animals should be placed far from the crops. My mom grew in the city, so she listens intently to my Dad's advice. From a distance one would think that they are seriously discussing about the planned family business or the budget for the week. But try to come closer, and you can hear them discuss about rice paddies, cows, cattle, and strawberry fields.

As for me and my brother, we're quite contented with the "domains" we have chosen. My brother maintains his carinderia (I mean restaurant.. tee hee!!) very well, sometimes asking me or my cousin the answer to the secret question to get the ingredient of the day. After playing with Restaurant City for quite sometime, he has acquired this sense of order in arranging his restaurant furnitures and fixtures (i.e. the toilet is no longer located at the center of the dining tables nor close to the stove). As for me, I am still in the process of recruiting more peeps to have a larger crew, upgrading my ZYN-OIL NSX and Nissan Supra race cars, buying cars and properties to increase my stash, and most importantly race and race and race, to reach my ultimate goal - the Skilled LA Street Champ title.

I may setup my own farm, barn, or eatery (or restaurant, depending on how it would look like) one of these days, and my brother might try his hands in racing. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing for my Mom. She gave up on Street Racing the first time she tried it. It's not her cup of tea, daw. Hopefully, she'll be able to detach herself from the other farm-related apps in Facebook and try some other games. Till then, we'll be stuck in our little worlds, drowning in this addiction we all love.

Gotta go now... Just noticed that my Health, Gas, and Adrenaline are now replenished... Ciao! :-)