Month: January 2018

Categories
Life TV

Weird Stuff and Other Stuff

I’m reading quite a lot now ever since I got my new Kindle. It’s my Christmas gift to myself. I’m so in love with it. It’s easy on the eyes and the battery lasts for weeks. I’m (still) currently reading A Storm of Swords. The Red Wedding just happened. Catelyn’s death was quite different from the series. In the book, her face was attacked by ravens and she was laughing. Weird.

I just finished a new series called The End of the F***ing World. It was weird as well but very entertaining. I even shed a few tears on a couple of episodes. I love weird characters. They’re very interesting to watch and they make you think a lot. I feel like painting Alyssa. The girl protagonist. So the series is about an angsty teenage girl (Alyssa) who has this idea of potentially falling in love with this another weird kid in school after saying to his face that he’s a shitty skater (an odd way to start a relationship). And a psychopathic teenage boy who wants to upgrade from killing animals to killing people. And his first target? Alyssa. Twisted, I know. A romantic black comedy. I love it.

I started having diet meals delivered to me again. One, because I want to eat healthy. And two, because I’m lazy. It’s quite expensive but it’s healthy, delicious, and worry-free.

My head hurts. I got super annoyed earlier then I felt pain at the back of my head. I need to be more insensitive.

Days ago, I figured something about myself that I do not like. It’s either I think too far ahead or I dwell too much in the past. It’s like I’m forgetting to live in the present which makes me out of focus. I want to change that.

My head is hurting a bit more now. Bye.

PS:

I drew Alyssa but it doesn’t look like her. 

Categories
Art

Back to Being a Student

Yesterday, I finally started my graphic design career track. I enrolled for a package course in PCCI (Philippine Center for Creative Imaging). A training center for Adobe applications (and others) with Adobe certified instructors. At first I had second thoughts in enrolling; but I decided that this kind of environment, where there are instructors and hands on activities, would be more beneficial for me rather than self studying everything.

I would be taking up the Adobe classes next month; but yesterday, I attended a 1-day class about the fundamentals of digital imaging. It was like an intro class before you get to deal with the main Adobe stuff. It was really informative and I learned that digital imaging is sooo complicated than what it seems. That’s when I realized that enrolling with them was worth it.

Funny thing about attending classes (in my experience), you will get to meet different kinds of people in each class. I had this same feeling when I attended my drawing and watercolor workshops last year. I feel intimidated by them because most of the people that I meet in every class are the so-called yayamanins. Kung hindi coño, English ng English. It’s very obvious that they were brought up differently. But in fairness, they are very friendly. I’m just not used to being around with those kind of people.

This one friendly girl approached me because she noticed that I wrote my name in calligraphy. We started our conversation from there. Syempre napapa-English din ako. English sya eh. Haha. Then at one point in our conversation when she learned I was a nurse, she asked me, “You graduated from UST?” I’m not sure how she assumed that. Maybe most of the nurses she knows graduated from that school? Haha. So I said no. May naalala tuloy akong kwento ni Benson na may isa kaming batchmate from highschool na nagppretend na hindi sya sa probinsya nag-graduate ng highschool. Poser much. 😅 Even though the people I commonly meet are not my kind of crowd, they were very amusing to talk and listen to (a sample topic that they had were their trips in Europe 😄).

So going back to the main topic, I’m so excited for next month. I would get to learn Adobe Illustrator first. I’ve been using Illustrator for some time now but I know that I have so much to learn still. I can’t wait to include these trainings in my resume.

Last week, I painted this:

I received many good feedback so I was very pleased. I hope tomorrow I get to paint again.

Also (another thing that I’m very excited about), I will be joining BGC Art Mart!!! My very first bazaar! That’s why I need to create more products to sell before April. Hihihi. Participating in a bazaar is one of my goals late last year. I can’t believe that it will happen real soon. ❤️

Thank you Kenneth for being supportive in everything I do. He lets me do all of this without question. The Adobe classes were pretty expensive but he was still really encouraging. Thank you! 😘

PS: My Christmas gift might arrive today! 😁

Categories
Family Life Pals Travel

2017 Highlights

I’ve been meaning to do this kind of post to just put everything that I want to remember for 2017 in a nugget. So here it is:

  • Spent the New Year with F Buddies at our place. My parents were pretty strict back then; even after I graduated college. So having my friends over for a drinking session for the very first time was very unusual and memorable for me.
  • Jen, our previous LNC teammate, was back from Abu Dhabi (or was it Dubai?) and so we got together and went to our favorite spot (Rue Bourbon). It was another rare occasion.
  • Summer was spent with friends at a private resort. Loads of fun.
  • After 8 years, I finally went back to Singapore! Singapore was my first out of the country experience. It was 2011 and Nick, Xali, and I were fresh grads when we decided to try our luck to work there as nurses. We were there for three weeks and stayed not at a hotel but at Xali’s uncle’s apartment so we kind of felt like a true local. I enjoyed every minute of it. We did our own laundry, bought groceries, cooked almost everyday, watched a movie (my first 3D movie), played the lottery, etc. I even learned how to ride a bike there. So when I had the chance to go back to Singapore to visit Kenneth’s dad, I was really really excited.
  • Tricia, our youngest sibling, graduated from college. Our parents’ pride and relief were pretty apparent since all four of us were already finished with school. Finally.
  • Our dear grandfather passed away. I get teary eyed thinking about it now. We loved him so much and we extremely miss him everyday. 😔
  • Our relatives from the UK had a 1-month vacation here in the Philippines. Our cousins grew up so tall and cute and lovely. I miss them so bad.
  • We got married again, at a church this time. It was a bittersweet moment because our grandfather just passed away. It felt wrong having to celebrate our wedding when we were still mourning.
  • Attended 3 weddings and 1 christening this year
  • This was the year of “artventure”. I rekindled my passion for art and experimented with watercolor, digital design, and calligraphy. I missed being in a school-like setting so attending those art workshops were really fun and refreshing.
  • Celebrated Miguel’s 7th birthday, our cutest cousin yet. I’m still hoping for a baby boy from Ate Beng2.
  • DIY takoyaki at some resto and tried making homemade gyoza but failed. It was bland.
  • Went back to Japan (my favorite country) with Nick, Benson, Bryan and Irving. I feel like I would never get tired of this country. There’s just so much to see and explore! They have the most helpful and friendliest people ever. I purchased my first professional watercolors here as well.
  • Discovered I have gall stones. Boo!
  • We had our so-called honeymoon in Korea. It was our first time there and it was an extremely cold November (as low as 6 °C). It was a fresh experience but we can’t help but compare it to Japan. And there was a time when we got really mad at each other and separated for a while. So for me, memories of Korea were not that enjoyable. But I got to experience autumn (one of the things in my bucket list). It was breathtaking. ❤️
  • I sold my first artwork! It was very satisfying. I’m really proud of myself and I’m so excited where this artventure takes me.
  • Had our F Buddies Christmas Party/open forum. Everybody cried except Xali (boringgg 😂). I think I’ll reserve another post detailing the events and explaining why there was a lot of crying involved.
  • I got a Kindle for Christmas! It doesn’t get here until mid-January though.
  • Isabelle and Illysa, our cute cousins, hosted our 2017 Slumber Party. It was amusing how the two sisters really prepared for the party (prepared the plan of activities, invitations, balloons, snacks). Activities involved were a modeling showdown, watching a scary movie (but we ended up watching their parents’ wedding), blind makeover challenge, sharing secrets, etc. The party ended after the blind makeover game when Illysa cried because her makeup was “ugly”. It was still a lot of fun and I can’t wait for next year’s slumber party. They keep me young (channeling Regina’s mom 😂).

Paalam 2017!