2012: Basic Is Beautiful

I’ll ring in the New Year by sharing one of my key takeaways from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Let’s bring it on 2012!

Plants vs Zombies: The Local and Real Life Edition

Look what I found in the local park while trying to burn the chicken inato meal I had for dinner.

A plant

A group of zombies

And my Person A gobbled by a Repeater!

He always comes up with the funniest photos.

We’re sooo “in” with the crowd (read: ang jjeje lang naming dalawa). 

Cream Cheese Frosting

Let me introduce you to the best off the shelf cake frosting. Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting.

I initially thought of making one from scratch but cream cheese is too expensive for me to mess up with plus I have no patience to whip one for more than 5 minutes considering that I had 3 more dishes to make for noche buena.

Ako na ang nagmamagaling magMartha Stewart.

So I lathered the moist chocolate cake fresh from the oven and voila!

Cream Cheese-Frosted Moist Chocolate Cake.

It tastes so wicked that I am about to finish the whole layer off today. The next time you see me bloated, blame the cake.

Mission Accomplished

In 2 hours, I was able to crowd Jellybean's trunk with these:

Goodies from one of my favorite wastelands

Kiwi chocolates

And some travel accessories

No these are not mine to give but at no cost, I was Person A's personal shopper. Let me know if you are interested to avail of my services. Just kidding.

Sa dami ng pinamili ko, parang tatakbong class president lang ang drama. Seriously, his friends have been witness to the generosity and selflessness of this person especially when it comes to non-material things.

Let's keep this short and sweet.

I hope you are done with your Christmas shopping. If you haven't yet, family and friends won't mind if you help out the victims of Sendong in their name. *hint* *hint* I personally think this is the best Christmas gift this season.

Merry Christmas!

Hiatus: The Explanation

I went on a hiatus the end of November 'til first week of December. November was a jam-packed month: have to close out a lot of things at work, a couple of trainings to complete and some personal errands to make. December looks more or less the same, minus the training and load up on the parties.

Let me give you a quick roundup how I've been the past 3 weeks.

I went to a remote place south of the equator. In the line of work that I do, going to remote places is the in thing. The farther the place is, the cooler you get. I did it twice in a span of 3 weeks. 

The far-flung place is quite charming. It has at least 2 golf courses!

Tons of tennis courts.

And an interesting road crossing sign. 

Sometimes my mind interprets this sign as ape crossing. It entertained me for a few days.

Speaking of primates, I came across a group of 40 monkeys while jogging around one of the housing complexes inside the camp!

Like 40 monkeys grooming, roaming, climbing up trees and jumping on people's roofs. 

They also roam the grounds of my accommodation.

I was so amazed that the next time I jogged, I brought Fifi along to have his photo taken with the wild monkeys. The monkeys weren't in their spot that day but Fifs met a friendly and curious cat. 

The place I went to serves spicy food, 

so spicy that it triggered my gastroenteritis (read: hyperacidity, LBM and all the nasty things that come with it). I got dehydrated and ended up in the ER after 3 days. 

Through the whole ordeal I lost 6lbs. I am officially malnourished and scarily skinny. It's not so bad, at least I've got all the room in the world to pack the pounds by the end of December. -(",)-*wink*

So I kicked start the celebrations with our company Christmas party.

The next day, I went to a black tie (sort of) affair as Person A's date. Kailangan idilat ang mga mata. Kagagaling lang nyan sa sakit at 3 araw nang puyat. 

Food was great, entertainment was even better.

Joanna Ampil

and the Philharmonic Orchestra

Among the dignitaries, company executives, and government officials who graced the event, president Fidel V. Ramos stole the show. He has a lot of energy. He even convinced the audience to do a jumpshot. 

It must be the cigar. 

That was Friday. Saturday was spent with college friends 

And Sunday was with Person A's family. Life's wonderful, isn't it?

Now that I've explained my absence, I can go back to regular programming.

I terribly missed blogging.

Ang Pangarap ni Ernesto

My Househusband, Ikaw na! 

One of the seven entries in this year's Metro Manila Film Festival. 

According to Wikipedia, a househusband is a husband that chooses to stay at home instead of working at a career.

I can sense someone inviting me to a movie date. =P

P.S. Here's the rest of the 2011 MMFF entries.

Christmas Read

I dropped by the bookstore to get myself a Christmas gift.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Since its October 24 release, I've been eyeing to get a personal copy. If you've been following me, I am a fan of Steve Jobs. What's special with this biography is Mr. Jobs cooperated with this book: based on 40 interviews with the genius and more than a hundred with family members, friends, colleagues and competitors. He asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. 

Then Walter Isaacson wrote the book.

He has been the chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine. He has written the biography of Einstein and Franklin. When Steve Jobs requested Mr. Isaacson to write his biography, the author wondered whether Mr. Jobs saw himself as the natural successor of Einstein and Franklin.

I want the book because I want to understand what makes Steve Jobs tick.

Here's a page from the book.



This makes him human.

That and he reminds me of Leonard Hofstadter in his younger years. It's the smile and the sparkle in their eyes.

I am excited to leaf through page 1. What are you getting yourself this Christmas?

Purple-a Conchita

Purple used to be my favorite color. I just got old and boring so I switched to white. In remembrance of my purple-loving days, let me share with you my photo with Grimace. It was taken during Lei's birthday party.

So purple, don't you think?

Grimace was first introduced in 1971 as "Evil Grimace". He used to steal milk shakes and little debbies. In later iterations, evil was dropped from his name and was portrayed as a well-meaning simpleton with clumsy antics. Despite of his wide girth, Grimace took ballet lessons.

That is priceless.

You're so adorable Grimace.

Barely There: Essie's Hi Maintenance

I am on a painting spree.

The nail polish kind. 

This is Hi Maintenance from Essie. An extra light shade of pink. First and second coat render a sheer polish perfect for french mani/pedi or the barely there effect. Third coat would give the nails a very sweet shade of pale pink, perfect for most skin tones. 

I find it too girly for my taste but this will probably be my go to shade whenever I am in the mood to color my world pink.

Winter is Coming: HBO's Clash of Kings

Here's a teaser of HBO's Game of Thrones second season. It is based on Clash of Kings, the second book of GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series. 

I am excited.

Winter has come for me. 

First, I waited a few months after AFFC for the July release of ADWD. That's nothing compared to the 6-year wait of other ASOIF fans. I shouldn't complain. Second, ADWD tied a lot of loose ends but it has also created more. 

I can't wait for WOW and DOS!

GRRM, please don't torment me anymore. I can hardly take it.

I apologize for the non-GRRM fans, here's a glossary:

ASOIF - A Song of Ice and Fire

AFFC - A Feast for Crows

ADWD - A Dance with Dragons

WOW - Winds of Winter

DOS - Dreams of Spring

GRRM - George R.R. Martin

Down and Out

I was silent the whole week. I need to earn money so Maybe She's That Girl has to take a back seat to my day job. Meet the wonderful people I was with the whole week. The 2 other teams are also as awesome.

Project case was intense. Work hours were cuh-razy. Food was extremely spicy and we all went home thinking it was one of the best experience we had. I gained friends from at least 5 countries, so who am I to complain?

My accommodation has a curious pole in the living room. Are we thinking of the same thing?

Had some downtime last Sunday and took a walk around the camp, this is a lovely pedestrian lane.



Walking around in my trainers was just an excuse to head to the commissary to buy a Magnum

Selecta should start selling this wonderful ice cream bar in the Philippines.

And you know what the best part is, Fifi gained a new friend!

Meet Space Clam, Fifi's friend from down under. Space Clam also travels the world and used to have his own shrine in an office space of a mining company.

How cool can that get?

Khaki

I paint my toes from time to time, to get out of my boring cubbyhole of wearing thy nails bare. The reason why I rarely paint it is to prevent discoloration. I tend to choose neutral shades and sweet pastels although I do blood red when I am in the mood. 

The color is not me. Ang pangit lang ng paa ko dito.

In my latest trip to the salon, my eyes was hooked to this shade brown/gray.

Essie's Case Study, a rich camel beige shade. 

It's a very safe color, matches with most footwear color.

And a nail polish care tip I go by: Use a base coat before painting with any color to PREVENT DISCOLORATION. Neighborhood salons don't do this ( kwarenta lang naman ang manicure dun), so I suggest you bring your own and have it applied on your nail.

That's my Khaki infatuation for the week.

Are You Typical?

I am not.

Considering the typical person is a 28-year old, Han Chinese Man.

Whatever.

This video is informative.

P.S. I find this post interesting. We just hit 14,000 views. Yay! 14,000 and 7,000,000,000 just make sense. And if you factor in 28, these three numbers are all multiples of 7.

I am mumbling.

Life Is

And I am finishing a slice of Kitchen's Best Chocolate Obsession while watching Zooey Deschanel in New Girl.

That's life for me on a holiday Monday afternoon.

Cry Baby: Makati Med Edition

My posts are starting to get boring. No, I am boring to begin with so let me rephrase that "I am now twice boring". This blog is not a food blog but I love to eat and I am happy to share what I stuff inside my awesome < 90 lbs self so this non-food blog has turned into a food blog wanna be. Anyway, that's not the story I want to tell. I simply want to get out of this boring bubble so let me share a sort-of interesting thing that happened yesterday.

At 8:30 in the morning, I was outside the doctor's office waiting for my 9AM appointment. I am dreading this check up because well this could mean a million things and this could end hundreds of things that I want to do.  Plus I am really scared of my life-long bone deformity. (If I am speaking vague here, I am still not comfortable to share my medical condition so please bear with me. I might share it with you one of these days). 

I actually brought an Islander-wearing chaperone, nakakalamang lang yan ng kaunti sa Spartan at mas matibay yan sa Havaianas, because I need all the emotional support. Plus, Person A has been bugging me to go to the doctor for years... so this is it.

To calm my nerves and document what I feel, I took this photo and minutes later I was called inside the doctor's office.

After I finished my appointment, I approached Person A

Me: I am getting a second opinion. It's generally okay.

Person A: (confused) Why? How did it go?

Me: (Straight-faced) Let's go. Let's have breakfast.

Person A and I walked down the hall and seconds later, I cried. Major CRYola along the hallway - mugto mata, uhog and all. Good thing there was a row of vacant seats where I sat, cried my eyes out, calmed a bit and filled a confused Person A what was going on.

Person A: Bakit ka umiiyak?

Me: Kasi sinabihan ako ng doctor na "Wag kang makulit" 

Para lang akong 7 years old. Nakakahiya. 

I did not cry because of the prognosis. Thankfully, everything is well with me - that's according to the doctor. I cried because of one silly, probably innocent phrase that was uttered by the doctor when we were discussing my condition. He was dead serious when he said that after I gently and cheerfully mentioned to him the result of the test that he requested. The result was different from his interpretation of the data. 

So I cheered myself up with red-meat breakfast at Mercato

ManilaQ's Bagwang = Bagnet + Bawang

Angus Beef Tapa from the Tapa Lady

And later in the day, Kitchen's Best Purple Yam Cake

Again, it's all about me. 

Ako na ang umiyak dahil napagalitan ng doctor.