thankful for january

1. A great New Year's Eve and buffet breakfast.
2. Birthdays: Dad, Chesca, lola, and friends.
3. The return of Mica and Mapa.

4. More yummy restaurant food. 

5. Decent, not so terror professors.
6. Family gatherings. More food!

7. A surprise visit from Tita Marivic.
8. More reading.
9. More movies (in theaters, and less on downloads and DVDs)
10. More patience.
11. More pictures.
12. Life learnings.
13. Cheap entertainment.
14. Blessings. Blessings. Blessings.
15. Ever so dependable family, boyfriend and friends.

January happiness! Been clinging on to the simple joys because I'm learning to content myself with what I can rather than what I cannot. And it feels nice.

project 365

Some proof that I am actually still working on Project 365. The Krispy Kreme photo is for January 11, and the Starbucks photo is for January 15. I decided to show these photos because they are some of the decent, okay-looking ones that I took with the phone. Unfortunately I'm quite disappointed with some (or most) of my 365. Looking at how others actually take time and put effort in taking photos for their project, I am absolutely embarrassed with the turn out of mine. I have some photos that are dreadful and really not worthy of being part of the project. But because it was the only photo I took that day (when it was night time, and relying only on mild fluorescent), I included it because I didn't want to fail myself and be shot-less for one day.

Krispy Kreme at home.

Starbucks by Santuario

After working on the project for only 19 days, I have to say that I'm already having some difficulty. Much of it is encountered during the days spent at school, where I find it difficult to find time to find a subject--an interesting subject, and time to actually go around (considering I don't have breaks this term). I usually end up finding something at home when the sun's almost gone and the lighting is horrible, which I really really hate. The best of course, are during the weekends when I'm out with friends or family, and I have more time and a variety of subjects when searching for the day's photo.

As of now I still can't imagine myself continuing the project till the last day of 2012. But after reading about some girl on the Huffington Post who took the 365 Project to another level and took videos instead of photos, I would be embarrassed to fail. Wish me (even more) luck!

habitat for humanity

Last January 7, 2012, the Habitat for Humanity Philippines Youth Council put together a "Barkada Build" in Navotas for the young members of the organization and other young volunteers willing to help. The volunteers were asked to do the usual laying of the blocks and grouting to make the foundation of the houses that will be the future homes of some of the people squatting in that area.

Because it was a "Barkada Build," I didn't expect there to be as much people as the 1K for 1DAY build we had last year. But seeing the number of names that confirmed on the event on Facebook lead me to think that a lot of young volunteers would be present to help. Unfortunately, not a lot of those that put "attending" actually showed up, which lead to less houses worked on and excess food. Don't get me wrong--a lot of work was done in just a day. The volunteers that came worked fast and were able to do a lot just before the rain started to pour. But of course, more hands would've been able to bring out more work done. The upside of this was getting the opportunity to have small talks with the engineers of the projects whose attention was more focused on the volunteers, in order to check on what the volunteers were doing and how they were doing it, and to find out what materials were needed to make the build more efficient. Despite the less number of people that came, I think the Barkada Build was still a success. It would actually be nice to have it often because mini builds like this one will give more opportunities to volunteers who are not available on major build days to still help.

On May 12, 2012, Habitat plans on having another huge build that consists of 2,000 volunteers from all over the world, so volunteers from other countries are being called out as well to join in and help. If you are interested in joining, just let me know and I can inform someone from the Youth Council :)

This was my photo of the day for my 365 (I still prefer to call it 365 rather than 366)

The rest of the photos were taken by Alec Yatco during the Barkada Build.

hippie day

Just a week ago, Tabby, Pia, and I (tried) to bring out the (feeling) models in ourselves to pose for a shoot Mig and Alec wanted to do. Mig chose to make the theme hippie, so Tabs, Pia and I tried to put together our clothes and accessories to make the hippie-est look we could come up with. I don't think we ended up looking exactly like the girls in Mig's pegs for the shoot, but we tried!

The set of the shoot was suppose to be in a vacant lot in Ayala, but since we were limited in time, the Yatco brothers decided to just work on it in Tabby's garden. They even brought props to add to the hippie look of the shoot. Cute!

Here are the photos Alec took. I wouldn't want an extremely photo heavy post so I took advantage of the Facebook album thumbnail format and just print screened our solo photos to make a 6-photo entry.

With the help of some Bar, the awkwardness and consciousness we felt at the beginning of the shoot eventually went away. It ended up being really fun, and I honestly hope that we can do more shoots like this with the two awesome photographers in the near future! Thanks Mig and Alec :)

daddy songs

Butterfly Kisses and I Loved Her First. Two daddy songs that are sure to make the emotional, senti ones cry like I did!

Back when I was in high school, my friend Nikki introduced me to the song Butterfly Kisses. On a road trip to Lago De Oro with her and some of our friends, she played the song and introduced it as her dad's song to her. Being the emotional person that I am, of course I cried! It's such a sentimental song, and once the image of your own dad comes into mind while listening to it, wala na! There goes the tears.

Here's a lyric video of Butterfly Kisses. Might come out as extra cheesy to some, but I will forever find it to be sweet and sad.

A few weeks back naman, my cousins Miggy and Mari introduced me to another song called I Loved Her First. It's a father's song to the man his daughter will marry. It didn't hit me as hard as Butterfly Kisses did, probably because the song isn't really addressed to the daughter. But I still teared anyway. Haha watch it!

5 of 365

Here's my Jan 5 photo. It's a picture of the Absinthe Tabby brought home from France as one of her pasalubongs for the barkada. We drank it during my surprise birthday party at Anton's place, and I really liked the bottle so I took it home with me.

365

After much deliberation, I have decided to try out Project 365. I watched my friend Alec work on his last year, and I'm feeling quite doubtful towards my attempt to finish it. I know, so much for keeping positive thoughts! But 365 days.. or rather 366, since 2012 is a leap year.. I don't know. Sounds so simple, but when the busier days come, I don't know if i'll be able to keep up. I unconsciously took photos with my phone almost everyday last year just because I happened to stumble upon something I found interesting. But now that I, to some extent, feel required to take photos because I voluntarily put this project upon myself, I think it would be a bit more difficult. But there's no harm in trying it out, so here goes!

Above my sister's bed

This is my photo for Jan 4. For the record, I plan on only using my phone for this. In as much as I know it would be better to use one of the many cameras we have here at home, I think it's more convenient and more plausible to pursue it if I just used my phone first. Maybe if I actually succeed in this project, I'll upgrade to using the G9 or even an SLR. Wish me luck!

D

40 lessons for strength

Once again I am glued to a new post by Marc and Angel's Practical Tips for Productive Living: The 40 Lessons for Finding Strength in Hard Times. I love how the thought of visiting this blog always comes up at the most random and perfect moments. Every time I visit to check for a new post, I am greeted by one with the most spot on lines and words of wisdom I've been needing to hear in order to put more sense into certain things in life.

The 40 Lessons for Finding Strength in Hard Times. Check it out. It might be able to give you some sort of positive view on things that you are currently negative about or are struggling in trying to understand. It may sound a bit repetitive, but just keep reading because each number can have a slightly different meaning  even though it sounds like one of the ones you've just read.

So much things to keep in mind and take in, but really a list of pure positivity to start the year right.

2011-2012

 Cheers to a year full of trials, learnings, blessings and experiences, and to another year spent with the loved ones. 2011 was an absolute blur that went by so shockingly fast, and was composed of a good balance of fortunate and unfortunate events, happy and sad, easy and difficult, & fun and dull happenings. In my 20 years of living, it has by far been the busiest and most stressful one--with school, friends and love. But despite that I'm quite thankful for it because of all the things I've gained this year that helped build my person.

2012 is a crucial year. Stepping into it just gets me nervous and uneasy, and it's not because I believe it  to be the year the world will end. There are just a lot of imminent changes that could or could not happen within the year, and I have no absolute clue of how it could possibly turn out. This is just like the time I was dreading my second term of third year college, and was hoping I could magically breeze through it. Eventually I got through the term, and now that it's over, I realized that it wasn't so bad. So right now I am just keeping that in mind and am trying to psych myself to have a more positive outlook on what's to come, just so that I don't spoil the coming days worrying about what could happen.

NYE CELEBRATION
The countdown to 2012 was spent eating, drinking, taking photos, and lighting fireworks with the family. New Year's Eve is always spent at home with the siblings, parents, my grandmother and dad's brother. And in as much as we had thoughts of spending it elsewhere, the thought that this NYE might be the last one in the house lead us to stick to tradition and spend it at home.

 

All NYE countdown photos taken by my dad.

After the countdown celebration was over, more celebrating was done at 7th High with my other family. 

All 7th High photos taken by Alec Yatco

This year's NYE celebration is probably one of the best ones in my books. I don't usually have great NYE's, but i'm happy to say that this year, that average NYE streak has been broken. I had a great time with my family and friends, and I'm really hoping that this great start to 2012 is followed by a great year.

Happy New Year!

D