Fireproof

anybody who wants a different/special kind of mush should watch Fireproof... it's the deep kind which I pray one day I'll have too.

I said it before, I'll say it again, I hope and pray one day I get to dedicate/sing this song to someone:


Bless the Broken Road -Rascal Flatts

I set out on a narrow way, many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true

That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
Yes He did

I think about the years I spent, just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost, and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there, you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true

That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

But now I'm just rolling home into my lover's arms
This much I know is true

That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

wrong lane...

today marks the fourth time i got caught in the streets of Metro. Sure I drove in Florida and Texas but I was very careful and conscious especially with the speed limits and all... (but I so wanted to maximize those freeways and our rentals haha). I had a few overspeeding jaunts and beating the red light here and there but not intentionally. It's usually when the "kaskasera" in me and Manila-traffic mindset kicks in.

It's no fun to get caught but I guess you can say that again I am caught red-handed although I would like to argue that my first two offenses were somewhat questionable. The first time was when I was barely driving by myself after I turned eighteen along EDSA. I was going to take a right to head to Quezon Ave and being a careful, slow driver afraid of buses I slowly eased myself  to the outer lanes as soon as the MRT overpass was above us. Little did I know that there was a dotted line not a few meters after I made the switch. Of course, there was someone waiting there to apprehend me for being in the yellow lane. Young, nervous and everything I later found myself crying... The officer took pity on me and let me off the hook. I was not doing it on purpose really.

I can't really plead innocence about the crying part to escape punishment the second time around. This time I was taking a right again from Quezon City Circle into I think that was west Ave (wherever the golf course and trinoma is)... I think I tried to speed away but unfortunately for me they had a bike and accused me of "swerving" . I think at the back of my mind I was pissed and not willing to get caught at the same time so I tried the same formula. This was still when I was in 3rd year college. I can still remember it was around December because Cha and I were going to buy sandals for our maskipaps costume... Wow that's two in one year! :D

Come 2005, I drove the car without a plate as per my parent's consent. I can't remember why we didn't have one yet but they just told me that it was ok. Again I was along Q. Ave when I got caught. I felt awful lying I ended up bribing them with not 1, or 2 but 500!!!

Today, I hated what i had to do yet again. I didn't turn right and eventually caused traffic. However, I was waiting for the officer to explain to me in full detail what is going to happen. I was kind of up for the seminar since I work nights anyway. And besides, Pasig is not that far so I figured it won't be too much of a hassle and I just have to bear with it. But then, the officer scrapped the seminar (he tried threatening me that it's supposed to be for three days) and went on to say that I'll just have to pay a fine. He was obviously taking his time to wait when I would say the magic words but I didn't budge just yet... and then he told me that the fine is supposedly 500. You have got to be kidding me... I guess I'm just plain ignorant here and didn't know a lot of things. But heck I have not been in any major accidents (thank God) and this is the first time in 5 years... Oh well, I so hated what I ended up doing but I did it anyway. All the while, I was like Plato trying to wash my hands of the crime I was committing... *sigh oh well I hope I don't have to resort to something like that again. It feels awful knowing that you're actually contributing to shady deals this government have become known for and struggling to deal with... there goes 100...

amazing race

(The Amazing Race 15 Episode 7 Part 3)
and here i thought i was watching the latest season of the amazing race on AXN. apparently not! and i've already missed a lot of the seasons... in any case, i can still remember the first time they aired the first challenge above. It was really tough and kind of memorable among the tasks that they had prepared for the racers.

I think my dad and I would make an interesting pair if we were to join. We tend to get on each other's nerves easily and most likely end up arguing and bickering all throughout. Add to that the fact that we're both stubborn. He may be athletic but we're like both clumsy and walking twisters/accidents-waiting-to-happen. I'm also quite lame and all that... Not exactly the strongest but if that could get me to experience "racing" in other places then that would definitely be quite an experience...

For now I'll just settle with watching back episodes. Wonder when I'll get to travel again. Someday soon i hope!

blog revival

I haven't quite yet figured what I want to do with this blog. I probably just blog anything I feel like blogging. It seems that twitter renewed my interest in this as sometimes it seems no longer enough. Also, one good thing about it is that it opened my eyes to the possibilities of posting anything under the sun.... You see, I tended to limit myself to blogging when I'm feeling all dramatic. Hopefully I get to change that... Think so far, that's what I've been doing. I do want to be able to blog something with substance once in a while lest I become labelled as too darn shallow.

Here's to a whole new blogging experience! :)

online window shopping

you can say i am definitely hooked. while it doesn't come close to the real deal and getting to see the merchandise up close, it has its perks.

to date, I have only 3 online purchases to boot.
1. slik tripod from B&H photo and video
2. dkny watch from amazon

3. galeries from ebay

picture from seller

I can't give my verdict yet whether or not the gamble i took when i "splurged" online for items 2 and 3 are worth it since I had it delivered to a friend who's on assignment in the US. I won't be seeing them until she gets back hopefully this November. I have my fingers crossed that they are all good though. I can't wait to see them (and use them)! I am not too worried about the amazon purchase since a lot of the people I know in my circle have tried its service and so far been happy with all their purchases. But for ebay, you could say I am still a skeptic. I hope my judgement was spot on with the item and seller to make my first ebay experience a good one and not scarring!

here's the thing though, I think I'm having issues from stopping. Well at least from online window shopping. You could also say that I am wondering or tempted to buy some "finds" which I think I can eventually sell here. I am playing with the idea of trying my hand at selling stuff but I am not too sure whether or not I can do it. Maybe I should just go for it but right now the price isn't right for me to just risk it. Sure, I should start small but then again  the opportunity that's right before me is different. Dunno if I should grab it or not or maybe rethink that it might not be an opportunity after all! What do you think?

emo saturday

this much i will admit...

i miss those days when you made me feel loved... the way you made me think and feel i was loved... that kind of love... even if a fool in love...

almost a year since the realization and turbulence.

it was good while it lasted. :)

why did i have to see this?

 ok another low EQ moment... just when I was happy and contented with my galeries purchase (btw congratulate me, I managed to resist the urge to get the beige one as well!!!), I saw this on sale at kate spade:

Darn they are cute! Maybe just maybe if I saw these first I would have gotten them(either because I can only wish I could get both) instead of the galeries la fayette. Ladies, if you are looking to get the galeries as your first LC, you might want to check them out first. I'd say these are strong contenders don't you think?

**If I saw a coupon lying somewhere I'd probably get the black one as a "gift" for my mom for her 50th birthday... then I can borrow from her... hmmmm... nah! too selfish! I'm probably better off giving her cash and letting her shop for herself.

surprise blessing

I am not trying to justify my most recent purchase (aside from the LC bag) but I got a surprise blessing that just gave me that boost to just go for it. Introducing my first IPOD Shuffle:

but yes, I've been thinking about it for some time now... initially because ipod touch was too bulky for jogging.  When that broke, my old ipod classic is just too darn old and that iphone4 is still up in the air. Finally, something to plug in when I'm feeling anti-social. No need to hide in the laboratory or something. Again, thanks bossings, thank you Lord it was a welcome-very much appreciated-surprise-blessing!

and then my in-earphone broke! haha just have to do with the free earphone and the sony headphone... but in-earphone, why now???

define valet

search online and one of the definitions you'll run into is this:
"Parking arrangements provided by a commercial establishment, such as a restaurant, whereby patrons leave their cars at the entrance and attendants park and retrieve them."


bottomline it is an extra service for added convenience to avoid the hassles of having to find your own parking space in a commercial area. Apparently, our idea is different than those in MOA. If you tell someone who had to put up with a 2hour traffic, rounded up the place twice already to look for a parking space and is running late for an event that they can try another "valet area" since the one you queued up for is already full, you're pretty sure to get somebody pissed off. This is especially if that someone came across an empty parking lot reserved for valet parking and the guard at the area referred you to the exact place telling you that it's already full. Don't even try to argue that if the two valet areas are not separate how would you know where your car is parked. That's BS! When you're availing the service you don't care where it's parked! You leave your keys, they park it for you and when you're ready to leave, you pay the bill and they get it for you!

Also if somebody is already irritated with the "complicated" system that deviates from the normal or generally accepted idea asks a question make sure to get back at them when you can't give them an answer right away. Don't leave them hanging!

Make sure to put up signs to indicate where the line is and if it is full so people are not misled.

Follow these and you don't have to deal with angry people with raised voices requesting as a last resort to file a complaint.

That was exactly what happened to us at MOA for the John Mayer concert. I am still frustrated with how they do things but feel sorry for those who had to take the beating from us. They were kind enough to put up with us and it's sad that should we have filed a complaint they are most likely the ones to suffer consequences when in fact it is the system that we are complaining about. I sure hope they simplify things and put more order into it. My brother thinks the organizers of the concert are partly to blame as well.

10.10.10

so while others decided to make 10.10.10 all the more memorable by marrying their special someone or participating in civic-related activities, my brother and I decided to participate in HSBC's promo.

to kick off my day, I finally jogged again with my sister at the UP Acad Oval. I just love jogging there especially on Sundays when all four lanes are open for joggers and bikers. We didn't last though so after a little over an hour we found ourselves in Mcdo frontera verde eating breakfast. ZCM was about to get another car wash at Big Bert's since we were already in the area after trying to convince my sister. But the queue was long and I couldn't get my sister to wait any longer so we left and headed home anyway. On one hand, I was also anxious to find out whether or not I won my first ever Ebay bid. Whether or not it was a successful transaction remains to be seen when my friend gets the item on my behalf...  This venture deserves another entry altogether. Obviously, at this point, I've already forgotten the HSBC promo I was looking forward to if not for a text from a friend. When I tuned in, it was already too late as apparently it was only for an hour and it already takes around 10 minutes just to get to the main roads from where we're at. But the catch amongst all these is that one of the participating stations was at J. Vargas! It's just about 500 meters or less from where Big Bert's is! If I had gotten the car wash, I would have probably been able to gas up at Caltex for just 10/liter. never mind that I almost never gas up at Caltex and I have consumed more or less just 15 liters (max is 30 liters). It's a pity but not one of those things you'd feel too bad for a long time.

flashback the night before, my brother's GRP fuel indicator is flashing. He doesn't have much cash so he'll just gas up with what he can spare, 100. I chipped in an extra 100 but of course it didn't do much. What am I getting at here? Well, obviously my brother who is still a student doesn't have much cash to spare to allow him to get a full tank considering that his card has expired and he's yet to receive its replacement.

When he wakes up and finds out how true the promo is, he figures he needs it. I was not feeling well enough even to drive a stick so I just went along with him to lend him my card. thanks to twitter we got a tip on one of the sites. It seems many people still underestimate the power of twitter but heck, it's real time and word sure spreads fast! Actually, I think we were also just darn resourceful because there was just only three tweets that said something about the station being a potential promo site. I think we got there an hour before it was set to kick off and boy it was craazy out there. I kind of feel for the organizers who had to deal with the added pressure of the news leakage. It was fun though. We didn't get into too much trouble for nothing and though we had to wait for almost two hours, GRP got its taste of a full tank. 39 liters of Caltex Gold for just 700+. And since its caltex and HSBC you still get a rebate. Cool huh? even though I am not the one who benefited from the cheap gasoline, I am having second thoughts at giving up my HSBC. Those kinds of promos make you think twice.

Now I wonder, what's in store for citibank cardholders? I am not one yet but it seems like it's a race for enticing promos and freebies among the different credit card companies. I am pretty sure it was an effective campaign for HSBC considering the stations they chose are "strategic" areas if you consider the demographics and it's probably a matter of time when one of the other credit card companies launches their own gimmick. I hope BPI comes up with a good one though. But as much as I hate to say it although I am not liking the "perks" from BPI so far, I would probably stick with them though... if they grant my application once  I decide to get a skymiles card...