Photo Sharing

At work, the new Friendster is not Facebook but Windows Live. It's become an addiction for many of our agents because it's accessible through the corporate firewall. 

I've recently posted my so-called self portraits and added a link to a slideshow from a blog post I did the other day. The slide show feature is amazing!  Some time ago, I made a decision to upload photos in Multiply, but I've found that uploading is so much easier in Windows Live. 

I posted another set of random photos, some taken by me, others by the boyfriend.  Officemates also take credit for some of the beautiful ones. My Maxine has been held by so many hands in her first week, she's made so many people smile, both in front and behind the lens.

Youth Camp photos, posted!

I posted a bunch of photos from the previous weekend over at Where the Moon Shines, and also on Facebook.

Yeah, can you believe it? I succumbed to all those FB invites after all.  All the requests and stuff can get overwhelming though. Ugh.

Credit Card Deals

I received this brochure in the mail today - showing me the discounts available for hotels across the country if I use my credit card this summer.  These promos are awesome and total buck busters, but one has got to be careful too.  Having discounts doesn't mean you should use your card incessantly, you still have to consider how much you'll be able to pay on your next due date.

Personally, I think I signed up with a good credit card company but I know many out there who are starting to think that signing up for their cards was a bad deal.  These are people who rushed the signup, not really pausing to think the pros and cons of having a credit card, or not comparing the different rates and perks offered by different companies.

In my previous job, we would sometimes pay bills or buy supplies using my boss' personal credit card.  At the time, we didn't even know that we could have signed up for a business credit card. Seriously, apparently you could get cash backs or deals for using one.  You just have to find the right card that offers such.

Often enough, you will see promotions everywhere about discounts and freebies for credit card users; since the cost of gasoline started to go high, we've seen credit card companies tying up with gas companies to offer rebate options/cash back promos.  One time, while my brother was driving me around, I had asked him if his card was eligible for such offers. Apparently, he has to have his current card converted to a gasoline card so he could benefit from the rebates.  I think he should go ahead and do it, everytime he'd gas up, he can drop his cash on a jar in his car and when it's time to pay his card bill, he can get money from the cash jar to pay it off.  That way, it's still like paying cash for the gasoline while enjoying the rebates that the credit card offers.

Well that's just an idea.

The point is, you not only have to be a responsible credit card owner, but the responsibility starts when you choose the right one for you. 

Our first fun weekend of 2009

Note: Long post ahead. Rather than dwell on the fact that my site is still down and I have been asked to disable my redirect before they can fix it, I'll just talk about the weekend I just had.

It feels like I just had a long weekend. On Tuesday evening, Alfred and I went to Greenhills, believing that it was the last day for their Night Market, as posted on their website (okay, this is really embarrassing because I just checked out the link now, and we actually looked at an archived page, and the dates were for last year's nightmarket!). When we got there at 8pm, the regular shops were already closing and the parking lot where the night market stood in December, was already cleared out.

 

We just decided to have dinner because I hadn't even had lunch. Our final choice was a filling meal at Max's. After the sumptuous meal, we checked out the section of Greenhills that was still open at that hour: the Promenade. We checked out Gourdo's and I admired all the baking and cake decorating stuff they had there. The only thing I picked up to take home though, was an oven thermometer.

We spent some time at Fully Booked too. There were so many interesting titles, but I restrained myself from making any purchase, there are still several books left on my to-be-read pile from months ago, plus books I got in November and December. I also figured I'd checkout my favorite second-hand bookshop before I buy never-been-owned books.

We were supposed to head home after leaving Fully Booked, in fact, we were already on our way down the escalator. Then I remembered that Iskul Bukol's LFS was supposed to start 10:35, and that was a little more than just 5 minutes away. The boyfriend is a big TVJ fan (hehe) and he really wanted to see it, so I asked him why not go see it now? We sure weren't sleepy yet anyway. 

It wasn't as funny a movie as I expected it would be. But it wasn't too bad either. There were inconsistencies too. Like the kid being able to speak Tagalog. I mean, by the time they were looking for the Peseta, the kid was already talking comfortably in Tagalog, but when they first found him in the hotel room, he couldn't understand Vic.

Anyway, after the movie, we braced ourselves for a difficult time finding a cab. Good thing was, there were several taxis lined up near the Music Museum entrance. Since it was already midnight, it was a nice quick ride home. 

Before leaving for Greenhills the other night, I took this photo of Esban, for my Project 365 Day 6 post:

That's Esban showing me what they did with this makeshift rooftop I took home with me from work the other day. It's a rooftop we used for bay decoration for Christmas. I took it home because they would be thrown out anyway. And what a waste that would be. Just as I predicted, the kids loved it! Since there were three more of this in the office, I took them home too so each of them would have one to play with.

The next day was almost spent just sleeping. But we didn't even let the rains stop us. We went to Quiapo to have Frankie's lens fixed (finally!), and to check out some iPhone clones. Alfred got Mang Romy to put in the missing screw on his PDA too. 

We had a nice walk (eventhough it was drizzling, and it was muddy) from Hidalgo to Raon, to Isetann. Then after walking around and having a snack of shrimp and pork siomai, plus two pieces each of mini bibingka from Bibingkinitan, we took a motorized pedicab from Isetann back to Hidalgo. Because it had been raining, it wasn't hot at all, and you couldn't smell pollution. Yes, you could smell the common street smells of Quiapo, but it wasn't really all that bad. 

As in our previous visits to Quiapo, we went into the church to pray a bit. We were surprised that there were a lot of people, because we knew that the feast of the Nazarene wasn't until Friday, the 9th. As it happens, there are pre-event programs ongoing already. 

Because there was already a crowd at the back of the Church. The image of the Black Nazarene was being returned to it's storage after what I assumed was a short parade/program at the plaza. Everywhere you look, there were devotees waving their handkerchiefs, and cloths

 that bear an image of Christ, and some prayers. I'll share those photos too, but first up, here's the photo I took from when were at Plaza Miranda, right in front of Quiapo Church (click the photo for a larger view):

Thankfully, it was a cloudy and rainy day. Had it not been so, I'm sure I would've developed a migraine because of the heat and the crowd. Hidalgo street wasn't as crowded as in our previous visits. Seems like they cleaned out the road for the event, there wasn't as many vendors out as there used to be. 

From Hidalgo, we took another motorized pedicab to the 168 Mall.  We ended up buying new curtains for the room (love it!), plus curtains for my brother's room too. Alfred already put them up, and they look wonderful! I also got three pairs of jean for 730 pesos (less than 20 dollars!), while Alfred got himself a pair of shorts. We also ended up buying a few DVDs of movies and TV series.

I expected a difficult time hailing a cab home, but it wasn't too bad. Traffic wasn't very cooperative though. I ended up sleeping on the way and waking up with a headache. But even that didn't ruin my day. We ended the day by watching a movie when everyone was already asleep. It was a local movie starring Toni Gonzaga and Vhong Navarro - My only you. Rock n' Roll! :)

Oh well, why couldn't we just have regular days like these all the time? ;)

Project 365 - Day 5

Update on Verabear.net

The site is still unavailable. I received an email from support, get this: asking what link was showing the error. Uh hello? Didn't I send a screenshot? Doesn't it show the URL? And to think that he was the same person who emailed back when I encountered this issue before. Shouldn't he already know what to do about it? Ugh. 

Rant over.

Project 365 - Day 5

A few days before saying goodbye to 2008, I found a link from Hummie's World to this cool blog where I found a link to a very very cute desk calendar. I followed the links and downloaded the file.

It took until the morning of the fifth for me to print out a sample. Icut out the printouts as directed, and then set them up like so. Isn't it just the cutest? I had suggested to my mom that she can give some of these away to her officemates so I printed and cut out four sets of these! She actually requested more but I ran out of gsm 220 paper. I really like how it turned out and if I just had space for it on my office desk, I would totally plant one there. 

I printed these out on my Canon Pixma printer. It's amazing how the colored cartridge has shown the prompt for low ink for months but I am still able to get good quality color prints. The colored ink I purchased just before Christmas still sits here unopened. I am not complaining, of course. It's amazing.

I have a day 6 photo, but am too lazy to continue posting. I'd also have to delay sharing Esban's photos. I didn't get much sleep this morning/afternoon because we were tuned in to the Congressional hearing on the case of the Alabang Boys. I've got some thoughts on that issue that I'd like to share too. I'll try tomorrow. Tonight, I sleep. :) 

Project 365 - Day 4

I took this photo before going to bed this morning. It's been extra cold these past two days, and though Zune doesn't seem to be complaining, I figured he'd appreciate a blanket. I covered him with this towel and he didn't try taking it off or anything!

Esban also took photos today, and I'm thinking of having him start his own Project 365. I can setup a blog for him, and post the photos myself, along with whatever he wants to say. I don't have time to post them up right now, but he took great shots of dad's toy cars. I promise to put them up tomorrow.

Project 365 - Day 3

Photo number three is that of our new Canon scanner. Mom and Dad bought it yesterday so we could scan our old family photos. I've already set it up, and will probably start using it tonight. 

Day 2 - Project365

These are Zune's vet vaccination/deworming records. In my excitement to pick him up and take him home yesterday,  I forgot to bring the blue one with me (the original which I even got from the breeder).  So the doctor we went to gave me a new booklet.

Project 365 - Day 1

I have decided to jump in and do my own Project 365: A Photo for Each Day. Who knows, this might even spark 365 layouts for this year. Or not. :)

Here's my first photo, taken January 1st:

Those are hoops that are part of a set, the missing part is the pole. It's a toy that teaches kids to aim accurately. These hoops gave us hours of fun during our Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. We made a contest out of how many hoops we can successfully land on the pole. I think that the most one person got that night was five out of eight. Everyone enjoyed playing - the kids did well, and the adults had fun too!

Because I was game master at Christmas, I didn't really get to try this out. Come New Year's Day, I seized the chance to try my hand at it. I didn't do to well, haha! Just one out of eight!

That's what really makes our Christmases and New Years fun, just hanging out with each other and playing all sorts of games for the kids. I don't remember when this started; we used to just eat, open gifts, and do our own thing. But this new tradition is way more fun of course. 

I heard that they played a new game on New Year's Eve. It was something that 8 year-old Adam came up with, using something that he got for Christmas. I don't know what it was, I'll ask around and find pictures.