A Clean Slate

Just finished upgrading to Snow Leopard. There's really not much difference from the previous Mac OS. I also cleaned house - backed up important stuff, deleted old, stale files, and reformatted my computer which took me a good few hours. Here's a screenshot of my Macbook now...

I also installed iLife '09 and iWork '09 as well as Office 2008. Whew! I still need to put back some of my documents, pictures and music as my computer is virtually empty, I don't even have my own desktop background yet :)

PhotoHunt: Surprise

Alex was really surprised by the camera's flash. Good thing he didn't cry, only momentarily stunned :)

See more PhotoHunter entries here.

District 9

I am not a fan of sci-fi movies, nevertheless, my brothers wanted to watch this one over Julie & Julia, which was my choice... Honestly, I could go without having seen this movie and I wouldn't miss out on anything but since I saw it already, there's really nothing much I could do about it except try not to think about the bad taste it left in my mouth.

The movie took a while to develop - I lost interest 10 minutes into it because of the documentary-like scenes that didn't really capture my attention. Add to the fact that the whole story centered on aliens living in our planet and the insane amount of gross and violent scenes, it really wasn't my type of movie up until it was almost over. Although I appreciated it ending the way it did.

Thinking about it afterwards, District 9 goes deeper than the usual sci-fi thrillers in that it opens our minds about segregation still existing in our world, desperation in poverty, division of classes, the corruption of power and the ruthless cruelty and uncompassionate human nature on the other side of the spectrum. This movie was an acquired taste, I liked the hint of satire but could really do without the guts and gore flying around in the screen while I'm eating my popcorn...

Litratong Pinoy: Hapunan

Isa sa mga paborito kong kainin ang lutong Koreano. Mabuti nalang at sa isang restaurant kami kumain ng hapunan, mahirap maghugas ng maraming pinggan! :)

Watering The Plants

"In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies."

-Katie, from Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!

PhotoHunt: Ripples

See more entries at the PhotoHunt blog.

Litratong Pinoy: Merienda

Tsaang pang-hapon [o afternoon tea] ang aming merienda isang araw. Mainam ito kapag ikaw ay hindi busog o gutom, kasama nang magandang usapan.

Magara ang pagka-disenyo ng mga palayok at nananatiling mainit ang tsa dahil sa apoy sa ilalim nito.

Mga panghimagas - cheesecake, ice cream, at cookies...
Isang kutsarita.

Garden In Bloom

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite overcanopied with with lucious woodbine,

With sweet-musk roses and eglantine.

- William Shakespeare from A Midsummer Night's Dream

Happily catching the sun's rays...

A bunch of violets.

Would you like to walk in fields of gold?
Beautifully straight stems.
Hope everyone has a happy week!

Camping Trip

Spent another lovely weekend camping. This time in a different place with more people. The location was better too, we had platforms for the tents so it was more comfortable to sleep in...

Instead of pegs we had to tie down the tent with rope :)
Set up our parents' tent too.
Mostly my brothers' luggage and things.
Hanging out with Jemn and my brother.
Hair ties are really essential at camp...
This was my hairstyle the entire weekend.
With Jean and Ronald.
One of my friend's tent was so big it wouldn't fit in the platforms, so it had to go on the ground.
Lovely couple who are still going strong after 20 years of married life :)
Gorgeous titas.
Had fun playing all sorts of games...

A few shots of my cute buddy, Justine...

Had a fun and relaxing time. Can't wait to do it again!

Shoe Haul

After a long time, I'm posting another shoe haul. I've been quite temperate with the shopping the past few months :) What I want to know is why I can't resist black heels. I have so many already but can't find a good reason not to buy these two from Michael Kors and Steve Madden, respectively...

I actually have these already in another color but couldn't resist not getting the black one too! I know, I am hopeless...
Finally got a pair of Birkenstocks. For years I've wondered what was it that made people swear by this brand of sandals that they continue to buy despite the price. I'm still breaking mine in so I don't find them particularly comfortable. Yet. The model of this particular one is Pisa. It seems like they name their sandals after different cities around the world.
And since I lost my Tevas earlier this year I didn't have anything suitable for camping/hiking so I bought a pair of Merrell hiking shoes. It's from a brand that I've heard of for a long time but haven't actually tried. So far, so good. It should last me a good 3-4 years or so with minimal use.
And that's it... I won't need shoes for a long, long time...

PhotoHunt: Artificial

At Madame Tussauds you will see a lot of celebrities preserved in wax. It's almost like the real thing except that everything is artificial from each strand of life-like hair to every pore and wrinkle. Here's one of the most recognizable geniuses of our time - Albert Einstein...

One of my favorite jazz singers, Billie Holiday...
And of course, Tina Turner and her famous legs...
Hard to believe they're not real, right?

See more PhotoHunter entries here.

Litratong Pinoy: Tanghalian

Tanghalian namin sa Gerry's Grill, SM Mall of Asia - sizzling kangkong, garlic rice, tuna sisig, crispy tadyang...

Sarap nito lalo na pagkatapos maglakad sa buong mall :)

G. I. Joe

Went to see G. I. Joe the other night. Almost 2 hours of action-packed scenes made for quite an entertaining yet predictable movie.

I don't know how much they spent in the production of this film but there were a LOT of special effects, and pretty cool, out-of-this-world gadgetry and weapons. Not much eye candy in the guy department except for Channing Tatum but the girl's costumes were pretty cool too...

I've never been a fan of the G. I. Joe franchise or comic books, for obvious reasons, but I did enjoy the movie especially the twist at the ending.

PhotoHunt: Low

How low can you go? My record lowest to date would be 100 feet below sea level aboard the Atlantis submarine in Barbados...

Here is a picture of the submarine - it can go all the way down to the ocean floor. Cool, huh?
No need to wear fancy scuba diving gear, and you won't get wet either :)
The color blue is the most vibrant after 90 feet as water filters out other colors of the sunlight.
A shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean...
This pales in comparison to the depth the Titanic has sunk - more than 12,000 feet! Now that's really low!

See more PhotoHunters posts here.

Litratong Pinoy: Almusal

Kanin at ulam ang lagi kong kinakain sa agahan. Mas nakakabusog kasi para sa akin ang almusal ng tipikal na Pilipino kesa sa cereal o tinapay at kape lamang.

Pula at dilaw na almusal - iba't-ibang luto ng itlog, mangga, tinapay, patatas at iba pa...
Marami pang mga lahok ang makikita sa Litratong Pinoy.