The Sunday Currently (vol. 1)

i decided to start this series of Sunday Currently posts as an alternative to life-lately-s and my-week-in-photos because the former doesn't really have a proper format, and the latter i can't sustain cos i suck at taking pictures. i see a lot of bloggers doing this too and it's fun reading about their lives without having to go through a brand placement! hehe

btw, do i have to be tagged to do this? cos i'm tagging myself now hahaha

ETA (May 1, 2015): uhhh, do i have to credit who invented this thing? cos i'm tamad to research. tag me maybe :) 

Currently

Reading

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, which was shortly interrupted by 4 leaked episodes of Game of Thrones, which i regret watching because it's such a huge cliffy, and now i have to wait a month for the 5th episode. why didn't i think of this earlier? argh.

Writing

this update, and my Jaqen H'gar post! HAHA as for pending stuff, tons as usual. a blogger never really runs out of backlogs, no?

Listening

to some retro lovin' from the radio

Thinking

about how to go about the many pages i have to design for this current gig i'm working on. i'm so happy and blessed i got recommended for another project right after i finished the last one. hopefully i never run out of opportunities. i need to save up for my tuition fee! <3

Smelling

nothing. uhm, it's really humid though but it doesn't smell like anything in particular in this part of our house (dining).

Wishing

that my mom would snap out of her paranoia about microwaves. she bought one last friday because she was thrilled about the microwaved mug cake i made recently. but now she kept the appliance hidden in its box cos she got scared of the negative effects it will have on us in the long run. this household needs a lot of counseling from mythbusters. 

Wearing

some tattered shirt and holed shorts. typical home clothes.

Loving

Jaqen H'gar. madly at that. i'm actually drafting an entire post for him. you just wait. haha

Wanting

to save for a bike (a small white-red Merida Big Seven 20 PLEASE!) and my tuition fee still. hehe

Needing

another bath. it's just so freaking hot. XD  also, i need to recommit myself to my daily devotions. :)

Feeling

relieved and cool about life, finally (which is rare cos i never run out of things to whine about esp my work haha). after a long chikahan slash VG-turned-one2one with grace yesterday, i realized that i shouldn't be taking myself too seriously knowing that i tend to be overemotional about things. but that's not really what we talked about HAHA, it just dawned on me while we were talking to each other.

how's your sunday? :)

[Quick Test] Sony DSC-QX10

i came to Sony earlier to try out their DSC-QX10, an attachable lens-style camera that you can pair with your smartphone via wifi or NFC.

i've always wanted to try my hands on photography but didn't want to indulge on another gadget since my Z1 Compact pretty much has the aptitude for quality photographs. however, i wanted something that could come at par with entry-level DSLR's, which is compact and affordable at the very least. so when i learned about this attachable lens thing, i promised to test it out one day (after downloading Sony PlayMemories)... and today is that day!

anyway, here's a list of features (complete specs here), followed by my non-technical quick-test experience... cos i really just want to try it hahaha:

• Sony G Lens with 10x optical zoom
• 18.2MP EXMOR R CMOS image sensor
• BIONZ image processing engine
• Optical steadyshot
• NFC and Wi-Fi
• Bundled smartphone attachment

What i liked:

it's compact and semi-affordable if you didn't want to buy an actual DSLR. it retails at Php 10,999.00 and could be cheaper in online stores hehe. now, i wouldn't really say it's that affordable because i haven't any basis on how much normal DSLRs are haha

it has a rechargeable and removeable battery. you can hook it to a usb plug, or to a powerbank. :) it also has a microSD slot for storage. photos may be saved on the phone or on the lens' memory card, wherever you want. useful if you're just borrowing a phone and didn't want to eat its memory. hehe

the pictures are nice, sharp, and has excellent zoom quality. it also has a better auto-focus. here are samples i took from the miniature village at the showroom:

i'm really no photographer so i appreciate how it came out nicely, and better than what i took from my own smartphone which sports a 20MP camera: 

i find that my phone's captures are more exposed, and badly angled (but that's on me lololol)

What I didn't like

On speed

IT LAGS and that's a major major concern. it can become very frustrating specially when you're up for some candid shots. it lags when you zoom hard, and when you pan it across the room. THAT SUCKS RIGHT? the sales attendant told me it's due to wifi interference from the many PlayMemories-managed devices in the room. but i was skeptic. what if i wanted to buy everything in the room? or i'm in some PlayMemories club and we decided to shoot together? then we'll blow each other's receptions then? it can't. it can't be just that. haha 

On device pairing

pairing to a device over wifi is easy, you just have to supply a password (stickered on the battery flap) when your device detects it, then you're good to go.

pairing over NFC though, is easier! you just have to turn on the NFC on your phone and touch it with the lens, and voila! PlayMemories will launch and you're ready to go! near fields communication babyyyy! <3

but of course, i put this under the "What i didn't like" section, so here's the sad thing. I HAD TO REMOVE MY PHONE CASE for the NFC pairing to work. and that sucks. T___T; apparently, the case hinders my phone's NFC-ness huhu. i failed to validate if that was just a pairing issue though, i mean if i removed the case, pair it, then put it back again. that scenario. hehe

So, will I buy it?

Uhm nope. i was sold with the quality of photos but the lags are a huge letdown. :(

this sucks major balls

due to some network congestion, the company decided to block off a ton of websites that would eat up bandwidth while they haven't acquired new server switches yet (i don't really understand what i'm talking about)... facebook included, rendering me useless in having myself updated w/ my freelance work and all that. anyway, it only meant i have to channel my boredom some place else, like my blog and twitter, and stick to communicating w/ clients via email.

so what's up?

in my previous post i shared with you my success in whipping up a microwaved mug cake and my excitement over trying out other cake mixes. i figured i didn't have to make everything from scratch since when it comes to eating, i'm more interested in the food than the process (unlike success, where it's the journey that matters. ano raaaw haha) so there's no shame in using boxed mixes! it's not like i want to be a baker. haha

on the other hand, i still wish to get fired (or just released from this bond) without being too scandalous about it. everyone seems to be moving on with with their careers and i'm kindof stuck not doing anything... probably because they can't put me anywhere else i could be useful. -_-; i used to think as long as it pays well i could drive myself into working my ass of, but even the pay doesn't get me driven enough (cos it's not enough lol). or maybe i'm just not talented enough for this. puro enough haha. i wish they could let me design but i guess they wouldn't give me that liberty without proving myself worthy in other tasks which is totally unrelated to what i want to do. hay.

i feel like a shark on a tree climbing contest.

of course there's the saner option, instead of whining daily about the current state of my enthusiasm... the wisest thing to do is to find alternatives within the company that could lessen this burden.

a little earlier i talked (well, ranted a bit) to a couple of my officemates about my career drafts (aka positions i wanted to try because i'm not allowed to resign yet) and it turned out very... ano ba, liberating. like some thorn was taken off my uhm, throat? hahaha i was about to say my stemmed body but at the cost of a poor mental image i might impart, i decided to stay human na lang hehe.

ANYWAY, at the very least... i was comforted knowing that

1) i have options
2) i'm not alone
3) it doesn't suck so much here, you just have to know how to navigate around and find your place.

gaaaawd i sound like such an emotional wreck no? HAHAHA

nuff about the work i hate, and more about the work i love...

i've never been more inspired to develop my artistic skills. i wish i could self-study my way into it, but i can't seem to work on my discipline enough to even produce a single artwork in a week (well, that's the plan). i would hoard pens and papers but leave them in an abandoned stache. i never seem to find time to properly use them. most of my recent pieces (if you could call it that) are on papers towels and notebooks... but hardly any on my supposed drawing pads! >XS

i've always wanted to enroll in a multimedia arts course, and guess what... i just did! well it's only a single module (digital illustration and page design) because that's as much as i can afford for now. i plan to take other modules when i've saved enough. then probably go full force in freelancing. chos lang. classes will start this May and i'm so freakin excited!! <3 exactly the software skills i lack, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. <3

oh Lord, thaaank you so much! <3

oh well, time to go! :D

[Recipe] Microwaved Mug Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Thank you Nuffnang and My Great Food! <3

yesterday i picked up this uber heavy loot from Nuffnang! thank you soooo much! i won this as consolation prize for joining their San Miguel #MyGreatFoodIn15Seconds contest where i shared a super easy Nacho Salad recipe using select Pure Foods and Magnolia products. will post about it soon (uhm.. promise XD).

anyway, when i checked the bags, i instantly picked out Magnolia Devils Food Cake cake mix because ooooooh! it's the perfect chance to try making a microwaved mug cake! i've always been curious about it! XD

aaand i did! the last time i tried my hands on baking was when i was in highschool. i tried to make a banana cake for my friends but they confused it for some kind of a pudding so i realized naaaaah, not for me.

i do however, enjoy assisting my sister when she bakes cookies or tuna turnovers. i love messing with her doughs haha. XD

oryt, here's the super easy recipe. i did the batter last night, and brought it to the office cos we didn't have a microwave at home. haha 

Ingredients:

- Magnolia Devil's Food Cake cake mix (150g)

- 3 eggs

- 1 cup water

- 1/2 cup oil

- Magnolia Vanilla Ice Cream 

everything's quite on the box you know! haha

Procedure:

- just mix everything except for the ice cream. if you have an electric beater good for you! but if you don't, ready a fork cos you're up for a good arm exercise! 

well, if you need more guidance on this part, what i did was:

- put the cake mix in a bowl

- add 1 cup water and mix thorougly

- when it's mixed well, add the 1/2 cup oil. it will gloss up to a pretty shiny fudge :3

- then add the eggs and mix altogether until it's in a very thick and shiny fudgey consistency. the batter's done!

- place some 2-3tbsp. of the batter on a mug and microwave for 2-3 minutes. :D

- serve with vanilla ice cream on top! or whipped cream! OR BOTH!!! <3

Microwaving tips (naks):

- the longer you microwave it, the harder the cake gets so make sure you don't over cook it if you want it mejo moist. mine was kindof dry and hard at the bottom. though it looks moist on the outside i gathered it's probably just the oil hehe

- as much as possible, put only 1 mug at a time. shared this with my officemates so we crammed 5 mugs in the oven. the result was, it didn't rise so much, but it was cooked fine naman. none of that round cute fluffy top though huhu.

- max the batter to 2-3tbsp. per mug, you don't want it to overflow and well, you need space for TOPPINGS! <3

that's it! very very easy and straightforward. just do the mix and microwave! best with vanilla ice cream so far! looking to make some other cake flavors like PANCAKES MAYBE? with whipped cream and maple syrup, or even blueberries. OMG i have to buy a microwave T____T

How to Retire Before the Age of 50

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5 stupid things i once did for my crushes

That i'm careful not to repeat, and hopeful i've outgrown somehow. i wouldn't know. haha

1. Did his homework

I feel like a complete version of the generic nerd in teen flicks vying to get a cheerleader's attention by presenting to do her homework. Well, i'm proud to say i outdid that hollywood nerd! how? cos i made not just a homework, but an exercise and a project too! and not only that, i also did it for 4 of his friends! and beat this will you, i did all of them in a single day, while doing my own school project, and while being sleepless for 2 days. BEST NERD EVER.

lol i'm exagerrating, they're actually 3-in-1 projects so i really just did 5 projects... they're very easy though, AND I GOT PAID OKAY? the rest are true though, i was in the middle of doing my own project, i haven't slept in 2 days, and he called late at night and announced a 12-hour turn around time.

i'm not stupid okay, i told him no! who would agree to that?! but he pleaded like i'm the only one who could help him (and the friends he hasn't mentioned yet) and how it's too late to find another person (like he actually spent the day convincing others before me), and how it's going to be super easy for me because it's a computer project (oh. well), and how i'm so pretty and smart and perfect... gullible

hence, this first item. XS

2. became a scriptwriter

hesitant as i was, i succumbed to some invisible force (aka his charm) beckoning me to write dialogues for a back to back play his theater club is staging where he is acting.  stupid me even suggested to create playbills for it as marketing collateral... and well, nobody knew what it was so i ended up doing it. all the writing, designing, and manual stapling of some 150 wretched copies of those stupid booklets.

well, i was reimbursed for the photocopying, and he said the playbills were such a flip it sold-out (more like handed-out cos they weren't really for sale). i also earned more of his respect (which i'd like to call ganda points) cos i'm not only the best nerd ever (uhm yeah, same guy), but i'm also a good scripts person! i'm the perfect (slave) girl for him!

oh the play was a blockbuster. he was such a good actor. HAHA. see, he even got me to write for him.

3. drew his face and showed it to him

astig diba? but not when you're a complete stranger to him!

it didn't exactly happen that way! HAHAHA, and thankfully this isn't the same guy anymore. whew.
let me rephrase the item:

drew his face and accidentally showed it to him. uhuh, creeper confirmed.

yeah much better. you see, i'm an avid doodler specially when i'm bored in class! so one time during such a class, i was mindlessly doodling some aliens and UFOs and letterings per usual, and decided to put him in my doodleland. i drew him in a jersey (varsity basketball represent! aaargh, i'm such a sucker for the popular types. deym u meg cabot), and added more stuff to fill the page haha. suddenly he came to me and said, "ang galing naman" or something like that (i don't really remember), and reached for my paper to take a look. i happily obliged, after all it was a proud piece haha! when i got my drawing back i couldn't contain my kilig, until my eyes fixed itself on the cartoon version of him.

then i realized. he didn't know i have a crush on him. my innards gave a nervous twitch as i imagined what could have crossed his mind if he did saw his face on that paper. i cried inside, looked back at the drawing and defeatedly tried to convince myself that it didn't really look like him, maybe he didn't notice.

4. stalked him

common right? i'm not familiar with the levels of stalking normal crushing teenage girls would do. but before i was introduced to my crush and became friends, i already knew his cellphone number, his middle name, his ex-girlfriend, his full address, his religion, the name of his parents, the high school he went to, where he worked previously, etc. it didn't really take so much digging on my part. i worked in the library and we used to keep these info cards of everyone who has a library card so i took the basic info there... and resisted the urge to tear off his 1x1 pic HAHA. the rest i got from the student records. whaaat?! oh yes... it took months for me to get hold of it but thankfully nobody noticed!

what i meant was, it took me some months to get myself transferred to the admin office after working some year at the library as a student assistant. it was information heaven. everything i needed to know about him was in the office. BWAHAHAHA

5. cried over him

oh dear. i'm the type of person who never wants to be discovered by my crushes. i'm happy just watching them from afar, taking infos from the student portal, stalking them on facebook, taking notes every now and then if they're still single, mentally bashing their girlfriends if they have one, etc. i'm okay that way. i really am. cos i didn't want to be their girlfriend, it's too uncomfortable. and i'm not the type of person to pursue her crushes anyway.

so one day, when one of my girl friends told me (out of concern cos i've been acting more stupidly than ever) that my crush knows i'm crushing on him... i just cried. especially when i learned that it was my other girl friend who told him. i was betraaaayed!! this is waaaar!! that's supposed to be a secret! but more importantly, how long has he known?! and is that why he's been hanging around a lot? i thought it was destiny that pulled us together! HAHAHAHA and he kept asking me darned favors! i even did his project and that stupid playbill (oh yeah, same guy)! but apparently, guys are all the same (uhm, for the sake of expression hahaha)! i felt grossly taken advantage of! chos. i deleted the princely mental image of him and sourly replaced it with an evil, user-friendly, jerk of all trades.

but not really. HAHA after a few months when some of my feelings have died down, i learned (from one of the school heads he worked under) that he has a crush on me too! finally all the hard work paid off! chooos! of course i mentally rejoiced! too bad i was already into someone else when i learned of it haha.

but anyway, i had to let it sink that i had a crush on him first, then he knew, so he probably tried to see if i was likeable enough, then decided to have a crush on me too! i would slap him if he didn't think i was likeable enough with all that effort.
----

uhm, to be fair. the guy from #1,2,4,5 was a really nice person. he wasn't that bad entirely. he didn't seem to be the type of person to actually take advantage of someone's feelings and for the most part assured me that i'm being compensated for whatever favors he asked. awow. he paid me for the project (#1), and tried to get me a free shirt (#2, but ended up w/ just a discount but it's okay, it's not like he got paid too).

so there. i came up with this post cos i was backreading yesterday and noticed how big the "Crushes" label is on the tag cloud so i lurked there for a while, and ended up laughing so hard at my younger (not that i've aged a lot) self for being so so stupidly head over heels over my major crushes. hahaha

what about you? what's the stupidest thing you did for someone you like? XD

the problem with midshift

i'm done doing the graveyard shift finally! only a few days more before i go back to my default shift (daaaaaaay). for now i'll be doing the midshift (2pm-11pm or 3pm-12mn) for maybe 2 more days hehe striking em out cos i'm still not sure about my shift for the coming days! but at least, i'm out of the graveyard! haha

what i love about midshift:

- it saved me 50% of my daily budget. i realized that my parents usually go out for business after lunch, so there's my free ride!

- i'm getting 8 (or more) hours of sleep. homaygaaaas. this is very very rare. even if i go to sleep at 3am, i convulsively wake up at around 11am, way ahead of my alarm clock, and also my shift. and because i'm up early, i get to enjoy a full breakfast, a complete shower (HAHA), and still have time to help with the dishes (naks). what an achievement!

- and that's because my free hours were pushed to the start of the day so it was forcibly consumed by more sleep, and a longer prep time for work. when i'm in dayshift, my free hours are towards the end of the day... and i don't usually spend that by sleeping early (who does?) haha it's either by watching TV, or browsing the internet, or blogging, etc. never by sleeping early. i'm happy that because of this shift, i am able to sleep more! haha

but of course there's a con...

- i needed that time after office hours to work on my other projects (read: freelance), and it's hard that i can't find the time for it anymore (at least for now hehe). doing it in the morning is weird cos i'm just warming up my brain, plus, the feeling that you don't have enough time to accomplish anything discourages me from actually starting something. haha

---

oh well!