Comfort does not come with the price

I have to admit that I'm really a brand-conscious shopper. Me and my husband have always shared this belief that if it's expensive, there must be something why it's expensive. Whenever we shop, we would always opt for the things which what people call as "branded".

Actually, when I was younger...hmm..probably, aged 8 to 12, I don't mind having clothes, shoes or things which are just bought from "palengke". My sister has always been the one who's overly brand-conscious. Whenever we shop for our christmas clothes, she would whisper to my mother that they would go to a nearby "Guess" shop (her fave brand even when she was still young) right after my mother finish shopping for me in a "palengke" stall. And I wouldn't mind at all... I care less about the brand that time, as long as I have comfortable clothes or things that I want. My logic was "why would I buy a piece of clothing when I could buy 10 pieces of clothing with the same price?"

But things change. These days I often choose "quality over quantity". Whenever we shop, I usually look for the brands. I'm kind of loyal to particular brands for some categories. My reason now is oftentimes, if it's not branded, it has no quality. But now, I've proven that this rule is aptly described as "oftentimes"....but I have to add, "not all the time".

Aside from the facts above about myself, I have to say that I'm also very fond of shoes. (Not to mention that I just realized that I've been buying shoes at least once a week these past few months, oh my god, stop it, Lei!!!). And 2 weeks ago, I bought this particular shoe that I've been eyeing for since we went to LA. I was very happy wearing it. I felt like I was "Rebecca Bloomwood" (yes, the shopaholic lady from Sophie Kinsella's novel series) thinking that people would call me "the girl with the X-brand shoes". And it was true, when I wore it in the office, almost everyone was asking me, "Ms. Lei, is that "X-brand" shoe you're wearing?". And you won't believe that most of these people asking me are guys. And I asked them why they know the shoe brand when it's a female brand, and they answered, "well, every single woman I know is crazy about it...and that includes my wife". :)

So, as I've said, I was too happy wearing it. But just after two days, my feet began aching. But I ignored it. "Who damn cares?!? Everyone's raving about this! Maybe I'm just hallucinating."

So, I pretended that my feet were not aching...that the shoes are perfect for my feet! Come Friday, I wore it again since it's "dress-down" day. By 3:30PM, I headed to my car and was too excited to drive home.

Usually, before I drive home, I change my shoes to my driving shoes. I have specifically bought this pair of shoes which I wear for long drives. But that time, since the new shoes I have are flats, I decided not to change my shoes anymore. Driving from Indiana to Illinois usually takes 3 to 4 hours (that is if I'm not overspeeding, ooopppsss...this requires a separate entry). So, I drove home. Peaceful...happy...peaceful...happy...but wait! I have only driven 20 miles at that time...and I suddenly realized that my feet are sorely aching!!! It was too painful! I decided to slow down and look for my shoes inside the car and probably change while driving. But wait, I have put my driving shoes inside my luggage which is in the trunk! Shit!

I was on a highway and I didn't want to stop just to change shoes. I just ignored the pain and kept on shifting my left foot over my right foot on the pedal whenever I come to a halt.

This happened on Friday...It's Monday already...but it's still hurting...

And here's what I got, "swollen feet"...and this comes with numbing pain that I often wake up in wee hours because of the tingling sensations.

I don't know if it's obvious from the picture but my right foot's fingers are bigger than the ones in my left foot. I have to use the magazine as the background para hindi naman nakakadiri yung picture (I don't like looking at pictures of anyone's feet, even my own). Even until now, I can't sleep because of the pain. Promise! I'm getting concerned already that I might go to the hospital this coming weekend to have this checked. I'm thinking that it could be probably because the shoes I wore have small space for my toes...which was aggravated by the long drive and heavy traffic.

And this is the culprit...

Aren't they cute? (oopps, I forgot that I should hate this pair of shoes. I have the brown pair, by the way). :)

Anyways, that's the lesson I learned. Now, I left the shoes in our apartment. I rested it in its box...and it might probably stay there for a quite a while. (hmm...I hope my feet will heal soon).

Laurels, laurels...

I got this award from Mahryska:

Thanks, Poidy!!! (I actually don't deserve an award coz I know I'm a bad blogger...irregular blogging and nonsense topics, hehehe. But they say, it's bad to refuse an award, so there you go...)

Rule: Copy the entire list and add your name at the bottom. And tag at least 5 friends. (But you can tag as many as you like): Thea, my scrappy side, Childstar, abie, aggie, alpha, apple, apols, jacqui, jane, jody, joy, mike, kelly, mich, peachy, dorxie, Butchay, lena, anna, sheryll, pat, gracie, cheche, thet, Heidi 2, Heidi, Maeyo, Mahryska, Lei

I'm now giving this award to: Jenki, and Sarah.

Change me!

I’m not the really the type of shirking jobs by feigning illness. I’m not even habitually absent from work. When I have a deadline, I finish the job on the dot. But when I say I’m not really feeling well, I mean it…I truly mean it.

But I guess, there are just some people around who thinks otherwise. Maybe because they’re guilty of the act they’re accusing me of.

Yes, it’s true that I went to St. Patrick’s day on Saturday. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that I got drunk that day. Was there ever a rule that everyone should drink on that occasion? And the ultimate question, when you’re on sick leave for just one day, does it necessarily mean you’re just faking it?

C’mon! Grow up, people!

(Ika nga ng iba, “Change me!” in Tagalog – “Ibahin nyo ako!”hahaha)

From Filipino to Irish

Happy St. Patrick's day to all! Enjoy the green beer! *Tired* would be an understatement if I would use that to describe what I felt yesterday. We spent our Saturday celebrating the St. Patrick's Day. It's really fun watching the parade and cool outfits of different people. Everyone was wearing green clothes and accessories. There were also some who wore Leprechaun/Elf outfits!

I'll post the photos some other time.

***************************************************************************

I missed the feeling of having a sudden urge for shopping. And since we went to Downtown Chicago yesterday, I felt the old feeling. I had so much fun...picking and buying gifts for our families in the Philippines. The only question is when would I come back home to give these gifts? I personally don't know. I've been planning to go home on May 2008 but just looking at the fare prices, it makes me gulp. With the fare price, I can buy the whole set of furnitures that we need for our home that we still lack. With the fare price, I can buy the 1 year supply of vitamins and medicines of my parents. With the fare price, I can make the downpayment for my father's dream car. With the fare price, I can buy the most expensive lens that I want. With the fare price, I can buy 3 iPhones. With the fare price, I can buy 2 or 3 Louis Vuitton bags or Coach bags. Bottomline, I can buy lots of things with the fare price of ORD-MNL-ORD. But hey, the feeling of seeing your family is priceless, isn't it?

But...I have to add...I also need additional money for pasalubongs and something to spend for Pinas getaways. I wouldn't want to just stay at home on my vacation!

Ponyang...

Actually, my husband hates it when people give names to non-living things, if you know what I mean, hehehe! But then, I can't help it. I have to give name now since I have to identify it from my rented car like for example whenever Randy's asking which car to use.

For 1 month now, I've been renting a car from Enterprise which I use going to/from Indiana-Illinois every week. Before, I usually leave Randy at Illinois where he just takes public transportation going to and from work. But just recently, he was able to get an Instructional Permit. With that, he can drive as long as there's somebody with him who has a valid driver's license. At first, there's no need for us to buy a car at this point, coz he can't drive without me. But then, for him to be able to acquire a valid driver's license, he needs to take a road test for which you must bring your own car or probably a friend's car.

But sad to say, our friends near our place all own stick shift cars...which we both do not know how to drive. So there, we decided to buy our own. It's a 2008 Pontiac G6 which so far is a good make/model. It has also this On-star feature which they gave us free for 1 year. The feature is not only cool but more importantly, delivers safety and protection to the car and users. They also gave us free 30-minute call time so I can call Randy or whoever without having to pull out and dial my phone.

Picture on the left is our own car while on the right is the rented one. I opted not to use "Ponyang" (yep, the name of Kaye Abad in Tabing Ilog aside from "Eds", hehehe!) going to Indiana due to the countless potholes and terrible driving condition. So, I just use the camry going on weekdays, driving more than 350 miles per week (since it's just adopted, I did not assign it any specific name). But I have to admit, I really love my rented car more than Ponyang, maybe? or maybe not...I don't know. But what I know is I easily get attached to things. I find it hard to give up or sell things which I have for a considerable period of time. Would you believe that at once, I rented a car which I had for more than 1 month (my longest time of renting before) and when I returned it, I literally cried and cried! Randy was at first laughing but when I still continued crying, he then started to pacify me. He proved at that time that I really value things as if they are really "living" things. Well, I guess that's one of my weird traits... when I was younger, whenever my cousins would sleep over at our house my parents would describe me as "...wag mo gagalawin gamit nyan, magagalit yan sayo. Pag sa kanya, sa kanya lang." That's probably also why it's not really in my character to borrow things...if I need it, I should have it. Is that bad or good?!?

DST now on!

Last November, I was so happy when the DST went off.  I was able to sleep for additional 1 hour.  But now that the DST has started, I feel the opposite :(

I was terribly tired last night.  We had so many errands yesterday (first from the list is Randy's road test which I'd rather not post about it, hahaha...may magagalit sakin!).  So, aside from "THAT" thing, I went to Enterprise rent-a-car coz I left my eyeglass case when I returned my Camry last week, replaced it with Altima, then just after driving for 4 miles, went back again to Enterprise and get my Camry back, hahaha! (The Altima that I got had a problem with the engine, it has this weird loud sound everytime I go beyond 40mph!).  Then after going to Enterprise, I went back to Randy to fetch him from his road test.  Then after that, we went to the bank to deposit Randy's first paycheck, hehehe (na naligaw kami at napunta kami bigla sa I-294 highway papuntang western suburbs, blame it to the super reliable GPS, sarcastic ako nyan!).  Then after the bank, we were supposed to go to COMED (utility company) to register the apartment under my name.  But then, dahil sa windang ang kasama ko at nasa state of shock kahapon (that I'd rather not tell why, hahaha...parang may clue na siguro kayo), eh mali ang naitype nyang address sa GPS at napabalik kami dun sa pinanggalingan namin imbes na sa COMED! Grrrr....

Finally, we were able to reach the Comed...sa sobrang inis ko eh binigay ko na kay Randy ang manibela para mahimasmasan, hehehe! After Comed, we then went to Schaumburg Pontiac GMC (oooppsss...hehehe.. I was able to buy our own car na...last 2 weeks.  No blog post yet!) to have the keyless entry system installed in our car.  The key that we got is just the manual key.  According to them, we have to pay for the keyless entry system separately...*sigh*.  But no choice, sobrang hassle pag wala, lalo na pag nagssnow, that you need to get in the car the moment you step out of the building.  After that, we then went to Woodfield mall para lalong mahimasmasan ang kasama ko, hahaha..

...And there! So, just remembering the whole day yesterday makes me run out of breath.  Ang kainis pa eh the DST started today...so I had to wake up one hour earlier for the Sunday mass.  I'm soooo tired!!! Buti na lang, I already filed a one day leave for tomorrow...hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Not again

Last year it was my father who was rushed to the hospital. Now it's my mother. My father was rushed to the hospital last year, April 3, 2007 (Dubai date). And this year, March 3, 2008 (US date), my mother was rushed this time. What's with the "3"?

Please pray for her fast and safe recovery. These days have not been good to me and my friends. I have received many prayer favors from many friends for their loved ones...and never thought that I would do the same.

I am supposed to be happy...because of the recent happening that I even haven't blogged about. But I'd rather post this first... please pray...God, please help us once again.

Surprise... for free!

I had a plan...but hesitated to pursue it. Kasi naman palagi na lang ako ang nangsusurprise lang...hmph! But then buti na lang tinuloy ko pa rin, hehehe! So this is what happened.

We stayed in a hotel for our first 3 months here and because of that I registered to a certain hotel point system rewards where I get credited of number of points for each day of stay in that hotel or even to some other hotels which are part of their hotel group. An accumulated number of point can be redeemed for rewards (which you can choose from many options). For those in Dubai, this is similar with "Air Miles".

As of end of January, I already accumulated 70,000+ points which I can redeem for $350 Gift Cards from a wide selection of stores. So, I had an idea then! I was planning to use the GCs to buy my gift to Randy on Vday and his Bday! But it my mistake that I only called to redeem the points, 3 days before the Vday and 6 days before his Bday! The rep told me that it would take 2 to 4 weeks before the GCs will arrive. So I talked to almost all the reps to make it possible to ship the GCs asap! Then, they told me to pay $25 to expedite the shipment, so I paid.

On Feb 13, Randy texted me that there's a UPS note in front of our door telling him to pick up a certain package for me which they left at the leasing office of our apartment because no one's around when they came. So I told myself, "This must be it!". Randy had no idea. He got the package na but I still never told him about it. But then, he opened it, without telling me! (I was still in Indiana at this time and by the way, I chose GCs from Circuit City, a gadget store). I thought medyo may idea na...but then he was thinking pala na bibili ako ng flash with those GCs...so medyo kinabahan sya since flash nga ang gift nya sakin (see my previous post). On Friday night, when I arrived, he surprised me with his gift... but there, I also told him that the GCs are for him...hehehe! I am supposed to buy him PS3 and would just add extra on the total amount. To cut the long story short, we were able the PS3 he's been dying to have:

O diba, nakalibre ako ng gip! hehehe...Thanks to triprewards! Pero hindi pala, I was also forced to buy the TV kasi napag alaman namin na sobrang mahal ng wire na ginagamit nila dito to run the PS3 on laptop screen. Since we still don't have TV and dahil medyo nanlumo si Randy when he knew na hindi nya pa magagamit ang PS3, I had to use yung money na pinagbentahan ng TV namin sa Dubai to buy the new TV...anyway, that's the main use of it, right?!? hehehe...

P.S. Now, I'm again earning points in my triprewards account...hmmm... sana nga redeemable to cash na lang ang points para magamit ko rin to pay the utilities, rent, etc, hahaha...parang naging income ko na ang points :)

My 2008 valentines day

"Marami ang namamatay sa maling akala" -- this phrase hit me after the valentines day. As most of you know, my better half has no sense of surprisal. Sometimes he would even prefer not to celebrate occasions. Well, I can't blame him because they were brought up like that...before, he and his siblings would not even be greeted "happy birthday" in their house. (Wawa naman Randy boy noh?!? hehehe). I've been trying to change him since we became "we". I'm actually the opposite. Almost all the occasions of the year are so special to me...I would throw tantrums before if my parents or my siblings wouldn't greet me "happy birthday" first thing in the morning. And I also love giving surprises!

Last valentines day, Randy and I were away from each other. I was working onsite at Indiana while he was in Illinois. I just usually go home on weekends. So, since we're away, I didn't really expect that he would have something for me or even greet me. In other words, I already gave up changing his impression on occasions. I was even a bit snappy at him last Feb 14. Because everytime I think that I have a husband but no valentine, I get really pissed off. He greeted me "Happy valentines day" on the night of Feb 13. But come Feb 14, nadah! No greetings, no pasaring, as in nothing! So, there...I was really mad deep inside. I have plans to surprise him but always was taken aback to pursue it because of this. In the night of Feb 14 (Thursday), he asked me where his "lotion" is. So I told him, "it's under the bathroom sink".

On Feb 15, I already went home to Illinois. Upon arrival at home, he was again asking where his lotion is! Well, I got really pissed off...I still have in my head that time that nothing unusual happened in my valentines day. So, with burning eyes and face, I stomped to our bathroom, opened the sink closet, and voila! I found this:

I was stunned and went back to the sala with tears drooping from my eyes. And he was smiling intently at me. I told him I will read the message in the card before we sleep. But he insisted that I read it on the spot. So I read it. It has a very touching message...plus an instruction at the bottom. That I need to search for my gift which is just near the sponge bob figure placed on top of the fridge, just in front of the cupboards. This is where I found my gift...inside the cupboard:

It was covered with green wrap and magazine leaves. I was soo eager to open it that I forgot to take a picture of it. But here it is:

It's a Speedlite 430EX!!! I've been wanting to purchase this for so long but always shift my attention to some other things like clothes, bags or shoes, hehehe. I even can remember posting n one of my friendster surveys that this is the one I want to receive for Valentines Day! According to Randy, he was not able to read it (wushuuu!). He also told me that when I was in Indiana, he contacted Edward (my colleague who went back to Dubai from Indiana for his vacation) and asked for my client's address because he's planning to send me flowers. But Edward doesn't know the address, hahaha! It's a very huge facility kasi. And he didn't want naman to send the flowers to the hotel...wala raw appeal, asus!

So, there! As I've said before, my 2008 valentines day has now become my most memorable valentines day! I just wonder if 2009 would beat it.... hmmm...

new haircut! (totoo na to, promise, hehehe!)

Oh well, I've been wanting to do this and finally, I was able to do it last weekend! It was funny coz the hairdresser kept on asking me if I'm really sure that I want to cut my hair really short. Before, the length of my hair was almost close to my waist (that is measuring the longest part of it since I have layered hair). But my hair became really dry because of frequent blow-drying and being too lazy to do the Matrix oil treatment once a week (as prescribed by the "rebonder" -- nang imbento ng term eh no).

And since I really hate seeing the ends of my hair which are soooo as in "uber" dry, I decided to cut them (more than) half off! And these are the pictures of "before" and "after":

BEFORE: AFTER:

Now, what do you think? Sabi ni Randy parang naging "in" daw ang itsura ko, hehehe. (Ah ganon, dati pala mukha akong losyang, yari ka sakin!). I feel more comfortable now with my new hair, parang gumaan ang pakiramdam, hehehe. Feeling ko kasi lahat ng sustansya ko sa katawan, kinukuha ng buhok ko dati :(

Soooo bussyyy!

I actually have lots of things to blog about but my time isn't really cooperating. Not that I'm busy with work, but I'm soo busy managing my personal, career and married life, naks! Seriously, lately I have lots of things to do. We just moved to a new apartment and now slowly buying things to fill in our empty habitat.

I haven't blogged about the v-day happening or maybe I should call it post-vday! Well, I can say that this vday has beat out my 2004 vday (fyi, I was considering before the 2004 vday as the most memorable one). And today is Randy's birthday, of course I also have some stories and pictures to share.

I haven't been busy like this before (well, I'm talking of being busy with non-work related stuff).

Have a nice week ahead for everyone! :)

Happy puso!

...just wanna greet everyone...

HAPPY PUSO!

Well, this is the first time that I celebrate valentine's day away from Randy. But eventhough, I'm not sad or lonely at all. Maybe I know that he's just 155 miles away (to be exact!) from me...

Good thing though that we'll celebrate his birthday together on Sunday. What's in store? Hmm...nothing much.

Is it really worth to buy iPhone?

Related to my previous post, I already got hold of the phone that everyone’s talking about (okay, somebody might react…not “everybody” but “most people” should be more appropriate…if you can’t live with “most people” term that I used, then just shut up, you’re not a normal being then).

There are actually lots of people I know who kept on bugging me to get them iPhone and ship to them. But I just kept on saying that I couldn’t think of a way to purchase an iPhone for them without the AT&T contract. I tried opening/using my phone without activating it with AT&T but it didn’t work. And I don’t want to take the risk of buying an iPhone for them and only to find out that it really doesn’t work without the AT&T contract. I know there are some who sell unlocked iPhones but I’d rather suggest to just buy the iPhone from these people instead of me buying for them and shipping those to them (take note these iPhones that I can buy here are still “locked” so they might still need to have them “unlocked”). So, that’s the explanation I have for those of you asking me to buy iPhones. J

It’s been only 3 days now since I officially became a proud owner of such phone. Why proud? Let me prove my point. Everytime I take out my phone (but not necessarily showing them off), I can always (and I mean always!) hear the people around me start talking about iPhone or Apple products. This usually happens in restaurants. Some of the quotes I heard were:

(1) “…nothing can beat that plus it’s an Apple product!”

(2) “…well, I just hope they would offer that in other network providers”

(3) “…I heard they will start opening the market in Europe soon.”

(4) “…that phone is really cooooolllll!”

(5) “…One of my nephews has that…so my son is now also crazy over it. And me too!”

So, there… so it’s indeed right to use “most people” in my first sentence of this post (pasintabi lang sa mga Apple antagonists).

As I’ve said, it’s been only 3 days… but then I haven’t found any weak point of the phone. I got the newly released (Feb 5, 2008) 16GB iPhone which is fairly enough capacity to store music, videos, photos, etc. It comes with a dock, headset/earphone, USB charger, charger adaptor, wipe rug and Apple stickers (which you usually get in Apple products, hehehe. Pati yun sinama eh noh).

Just like with its countless advertisements, it has many, many features which you will find very enticing. Instead of enumerating them, I prefer just to enumerate the functions I discovered which I really enjoy making use of. I didn’t bother to read the manual, my bad! I was too excited to use it and plus, I was kind of familiar already with the basic functions (ikaw ba naman ang maka-more than sampung balik sa mga Apple stores “ever since the world began” para lang takamin ang sarili mo, bwahahaha!).

So, here are the functions I really appreciate. This just a very personal list and should not be used commercially (as if naman na may magkakainteres na ireproduce ang mga yan, hahaha!). Some of them are also capabilities of my previous phone which I already handed down to my hubby, but there are still many many more features! Actually I still can’t think of any capability of my other phone (which I use) that does not exist with iPhone…

(1) Voicemail is very much easy to access. There’s a separate menu/option for Voicemail. I might need to quote here the wikipedia -- "The iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail feature allowing users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to and deleted in a non-chronological order by choosing any message from an on-screen list." -

(2) Text messages, weather data, etc. cannot be easily deleted. Sometimes, we mistakenly delete some of our data, but iPhone has this function that before you can delete a specific data, you first have to flip the stop sign vertically and press . No more erroneous deletion of data!

(3) The Weather Channel for multiple cities. For a frequent traveler and moreso, driver, this is very much needed. This is one my must-haves these days!

(4) There’s a Sleep/Wake mode to conserve battery life which also exists in my Treo before.

(5) Wi-fi capable that you can turn on/off. With this, you can surf the net either thru wi-fi or AT&T network (e.g., Edge).

(6) This is my most favorite -- Google Maps! You can select if you want to show the:

a. Satellite – this is like the Google earth! So you can actually see the buildings, streets and other establishments!

b. Hybrid – just like the Satellite in letter A but with the street labels! Navigation made easy!

c. List/Map – this is the standard google map that you can find online.

…and just like the normal google map online, you can drop pins (or in other words, add another destination along your way or change route), and also you can ask for directions with Start/End customizations.

d. It also has a compass for you to know the right direction

(7) Contacts – you can store multiple numbers and other infos (with customized labels for your own reference) for a single contact/name.

(8) Mail program where you can store your gmail, yahoo, etc., or even your company’s email provider. Plus, the mail program is also highly customizable (e.g., how often do you want your iPhone to check for new mails, how many messages you want to be displayed, Font size, Signature, etc)

(9) Youtube player

(10) Usage monitor – this records the total number of minutes and megs of data consumed. It also maintains a monitor of the total number of hours you have consumed since the battery’s last full charge. This is even categorized as “Usage (this is when you’re using the phone)” and “Standby (idle time)”

(11) When a phone number is being showed in your mail or in your browser page, you can directly call that number by just tapping it! This is also a capability of the recently launched Leopard OS for macs.

(12) Widely customizable iPod! It has many settings on how you want the songs to be played.

(13) World Clock – I can easily check the current time in many different countries/cities. This one is very useful function for a frequent traveler or just someone who often meets either by teleconference or online with some other business colleagues.

(14) You can easily access iTunes. One of the best ways to kill the time!

(15) You can store “Favorites” from your contacts to easily access the numbers you frequently call.

For more information of its features, visit the Apple website or this wiki.

So, to answer the question if it’s really worth to buy iPhone, well it depends on your priorities. For me, I’m willing to spend more as long as I get my “needs and wants”… but of course still having something left for other necessities.

We're moving!

Whew..tired..tired...and tired. I just came from work, started packing our things and finally finished loading our stuff in the car. We're finally moving to an aparment somewhere in Mount Prospect, IL tomorrow. Can you believe it...that we haven't seen the apartment and yet we're transferring already? Oh yes. We had no choice. We had no time left..because I'll be driving towards Indiana on Monday morning.

I just hope that our apartment will just be fine. This was referred to me by a friend I knew through the Chicago thread in Pinoyexchange. By tomorrow, we'll be neighbors and we'll do the weekly grocery together.

I'm just hoping for a peaceful and enjoyable life in this new apartment and neighborhood.

P.S. I just heard there's a nearby Pinoy store. That is really a plus!

Massage please...

After an all day's work, there's never been better than a full body massage. I'm really addicted to massages. Everytime I come home from work and lay in our bed, I would ask Randy to give me a soothing massage. And he never failed me in keeping my body relaxed while he do his massage techniques. But lately, I've been thinking of these massage chairs that we keep on seeing in the department stores. We even saw one in my uncle's house in Los Angeles.

So, I've been thinking of buying one of those massage chairs. Well, as one of our options, here's the Massage Chairs by Human Touch. Just looking at their chairs, I already feel the soothing relief that these chairs will give me and my husband. They have this capability to follow the contour of your body and hit the tight muscles and sore you've been wailing about.

I actually tried sitting on one of their chairs at the nearest "Sharper Image" shop 2 weeks ago. And wow, it indeed gave me that relaxing feeling. It just so happens that we still don't have our permanent house now. But once we got, maybe I should try and buy one. Let's see...

You can definitely see the world in $8!

Last year, I had my spectacles for almost 3 years replaced. Just for the frames, I had to pay almost $250 (with some amount slashed because of their pre-winter sale). Then for the lenses, I had to pay $80. In total? A whoooping $330 just for the spectacles. (If I would tell this to my father, he would kill me, for sure...that is if I would be begging him for the money to buy this, hehehe.) Well, thanks to my *then* company..they shouldered a part of the lump sum amount.

But now, I've been planning to buy my husband his new set of eyeglasses. Yes, we're both wearing artificial eyes (if you would call it that way). But then, I couldn't afford to spend that fortune at this time just for his specs. Not because it's not for me...but somehow, I came to realize that I could have bought a cheaper frame/lens.

Especially now that I heard about Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case!, maybe I would try to visit them one of these days! What's $8 compared to the hundred dollars people spend for their specs? It's quite unbelievable...but why not try it! The reason why they offer cheaper prices is because they're selling their own manufactured frames directly to the customers.

The Better Side of the Philippines

From my inbox months ago (I just thought of posting this today for several reasons I'd rather not mention):

The following was
written by INTEL General Manager Robin Martin about the Philippines:


Filipinos (including the press, business people and myself) tend to dwell too much on the "negative" side, and this affects the perception of foreigners, even the ones who have lived here for a while. The negative perception of the Philippines is way disproportionate to reality when compared to countries like Columbia , Egypt , Middl e East, Africa , etc.

Let us all help our country by balancing the negative with the positive especially when we talk to foreigners, whether based here or abroad. Looking back and comparing the Philippines today and 1995 (the year I came back), I was struck by how much our country has progressed physically.

Consider the following:

1. The great telecom infrastructure that we have now did not exist in 1995. 1995 was the year the telecom industry was deregulated. Since then billions of dollars have been invested in both fixed line and cellular networks producing a system with over 5,000 kms of fiber optic backbone at a world competitive cost. >From a fixed line capacity of about 900,000 in 1995 we now have over 7 million. Cellular phones practically did not exist in 1995; now we have over 11 million line capacity.

2. The MRT, many of the EDSA flyovers (including the Ayala Avenue flyover), the SKYWAY, Rockwell and Glorietta 4, the Fort, NAIA terminal 2 and most of the new skyscrapers were not yet built in 1995.

3. If you drive to the provinces, you will notice that national roads are now of good quality (international quality asphalt roads). I just went to Iba, Zambales last week and I was impressed that even a not so frequently travelled road was of very good quality.

4. Philippine exports have increased by 600% over the past eight years. There are many, many more examples of progress over the last eight years. Philippine mangoes are now exported to the US and Europe .

Additional tidbits to make our people prouder:

1. INTEL has been in the Philippines for 28 years. The Philippines plant is where Intel's most advanced products are launched, including the Pentium IV. By the end of 2002, Philippine operations became Intel's biggest assembly and testing operations worldwide.

2. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has been operating in Baguio for over 20 years. The Baguio plant is the largest producer of DSP chips in the world. DSP chips are the brains behind cellphones. TI's Baguio plant produces the chip that powers 100% of all NOKIA cellphones and 80% of Erickson cellphones in the world.

3. TOSHIBA laptops are produced in Santa Rosa , Laguna.

4. If you drive a BENZ, BMW, or a VOLVO, there is a good chance that the ABS system in your car was made in the Philippines .

5. TREND-MICRO , makers of one of the top anti virus software PC-Cillin (I may have mispelled this) develops its "cures" for viruses right here in Eastwood Libis, Quezon City . When a virus breaks in any computer system in the world, they try to find a solution within 45 minutes of finding the virus.

6 . Today a majority of the top ten U.S. Call Center firms in the U.S. have set up operations in the Philippines . This is one area in which I believe we are the best in the world in terms of value for money.

7. America Online (AOL) has 1,000 people in Clark answering 90% of AOL's global e-mail inquiries.

8. PROCTOR & GAMBLE has over 400 people right here in Makati (average age 23 years) doing back-up office work to their Asian operations including finance, accounting, Human Resources and payments processing.

9. Among many other things it does for its regional operations network in the Asia-Pacific region here in Manila , CITIBANK also does its global ATM programming locally.

10. This is the fir st year ever that the Philippines will be exporting cars in quantity courtesy of FORD Philippines. (I have an idea this article was written between 2001 - 2002, so this operation should have been on-going for the last 3 years or so. CYN)

11. The government is shedding off graft and corruption slowly but surely. This is the first time in our history that a former president is in jail and facing charges of plunder. Despite all odds, we are still pursuing the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos now enjoyed by his unrepentant heirs.

Next time you travel abroad and meet business associates tell them the good news. A big part of our problem is perception and one of the biggest battles can be won simply by believing and by making others believe. This message is shared by good citizens of the Philippines who persevere to hope and work for our country.

56,000,000 Filipinos speak, read and write in English even if we have our own national language. Speaking a second language takes a certain kind of unique intelligence.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER FILIPINOS!!!

My name is LEILANI

Since everyone is doing this, I might as well do this:

What Leilani Means

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Panning

This is already a late post. I actually already posted this in my Multiply account. I have cross-posting activated however, for the reason I don't know, this post did not come through this blogger account.

Another topic in Photography that I'm somehow struggling (you might be wondering what topic I master...well, actually, none. I'm actually a "Jill of all trade, master of none!") is the PANNING.

Practicing panning I can say, can be really fun but somehow also frustrating. There's really no specific technique on how to do it but I can say that you really need PATIENCE in this attempt. Once you master the skills of doing it, you will be able to produce amazing results.

I really love panning shots! It really depicts motion and action. You don't just see still photos -- pictures become moving objects in your naked eye.

As I will quote one of the websites I usually visit: "The basic idea behind panning as a technique is that you pan your camera along in time with the moving subject and end up getting a relatively sharp subject but a blurred background."

As for the outputs of my first attempt, I was very glad that I produced "considered good (for me)" results in my 1st and 3rd shots in a row of continuous shooting. I did not expect that I would be able to produce these shots. We were just walking along Magnificent Mile in N. Michigan Ave and I spotted an oncoming bus. I pulled my camera and began shooting every vehicle... I was then surprised to see these 2 favorites:




Looking at my outputs, I think I need some more tweaking to be done. But so far, I'm pretty satisfied. I have in mind some other interesting subjects to shoot for Panning... let's see... :)

Low light photography

Well, I must admit that I was preoccupied with some other stuff lately that I completely forgot about my hobby. Well I can say that I did not forget it...I was just too lazy to upload outputs.

So, to somehow compensate my absences, here are just some of the shots I got in low light conditions. As bits of information, I still don't have Speedlite (I've been planning to buy one but my attention always gets diverted to some other things to buy) and I'm still struggling in shooting low light conditions. I'm too lazy to bring my tripod...and *pasmado* ako...so, I'm guessing I really don't have future in shooting in night modes. But well, it's not really bad to try it sometimes. Here are just some of my feeble attempts:



NOTES:
Date: December 29, 2007
Location: California Adventure (Disneyland, Los Angeles)

Well, only these are for now... I'm still struggling, as I've said. :(