One of those days...

::fmflores photography::2007::

It's just sad to see people who were trained with anger and pessimism all their lives. Their mindset is just too ideal that when they are "out there", they would never survive except on that tiny cage they are in.

It's a pity that they never experienced the perception of goodness. This clearly explains why it is too difficult for them to show affection, sincerity and warmth towards others as the "good" that they grew up with are all that can be seen and can be bought.

As stated in an article published by the International Herald Tribune as early as 1994: Rise in Materialism Prompts Worry about a Moral Decline: With more Money Fewer Values?...

...tsk tsk tsk...

Project "I DO" :: How's it goin'::

::How's it goin'?::


It's been one month and 10 days after I got engaged....and exactly 11 months before our wedding.

Out of the endless checklist, we have so far scratched out the wedding date (check out our wedding website) AND the Videographer...and the lucky winner is...(drum rolls please!)...Mayad Studios! (confetti everywhere!!! *whistles* weewheet!).

They are just spectacular! and (award winning too!)...and not cheap (argh!).

If there is one thing that we both would like to splurge on our big day that would definitely be the memories. It will always be that moment, that day at that place on that hour/s thus we will capture as much moments - candid or not as we could.

and so we shall relive that day over and over and over and over...and over and over...again...

Looking forward to meet the team (and to a very loooong vacation) once we are home in february. woohoo!

...okay so for the rest of the Project "I DO"...here we go!...

Proposal Story: Our picture perfect moment.

I was really tired and exhausted after touring almost all the major parts of Phuket so when we were back in our hotel around 4:45pm, I told Eric, I'll take a shower first  before we head out again to the streets of Patong.

Halfway through my shower, he started yelling "sunset! sunset is out!" then he loudly and repeatedly knocked on the bathroom door. He kept on blabbering that it might be too late if we dont go to the wharf soon, so I must hurry up...bla bla bla...and since it's his birthday, I wanted him to enjoy and let him do whatever he wants. 

Plus, Eric knew since then that I am always fascinated with sunset and sunrise (we both are). So there I was done with the shower, in a blip! and off to The Wharf.

As soon as we reached the The Wharf  we were just casually taking photos, and me kept talking about about the weather, and how nice the sunset is and hopefully, it'll be much better the following day etc etc. Eric was all along conversing with me only that he keeps on paying attention to the couple who were at "the spot" like it's taking them too long to leave (this is so unusual of Eric minding other people's biz)...but I didn't paid attention to it,  coz I myself wanted to go to "the spot" to get a better view of the sunset.

Minutes passsed, and the couple were still there, (i guess he was loosing his hope of making "it" perfect) so Eric started reminiscing about the time when he asked me to be his girlfriend 9 years ago(this was his supposedly intro), also on a (white) beach, while the sun is setting, it was also rainy that day and also on a September. I was casually and innocently responding to every word he said while taking photos.

One thing I haven't noticed is, he wasn't letting go of the DSLR, as most of the time, he would let me  use it because I have a better eye for composition than him though is very good with the technicals. I guess Eric just took advantage of that moment and he assumed I wouldn't take the camera from him anyway, as I am the one who always uses it...and again it's his birthday...(that guy is really clever!)

...finally the couple are leaving...

before "the question"

Eric  hurriedly asked me to go to "the spot", and yes of course! without any question I quickly paced and in fact walked past Eric and got ahead to "the spot" (he just knows me too well, that I'd do what I did). Then I was adoring the nature-- the sunset that is...how spectacular Phuket is then he started talking about that 9-years-ago-moment-at-that-beach again. I still didn't get the clue from there, I was responding to him yet totally ignoring him as well, I was paying more attention to the viewfinder.

...so the "click-clicks!" of the camera continued, then Eric suddenly asked me "can you please get me the 50mm lens?"…

From where I stood after "the question"

Okay, he's going for the macro shots nice! So, I headed towards the camera bag (which he mysteriously placed in the middle of the way) but I moved  it safely beside the railing where I stood (unaware of why he did placed it there so I just ruined it again). 

Then I unzipped the camera bag…

Whoa! Sparkles and glitters in the tiny box stared right back at me...omg! it's a ring! an engagement ring! - is it?

 Yes! it is!!! but I can't get myself to really say those words, instead what came out was..."ano ni?!”  ("what is this?!") for neither both of us  couldn't remember  how many times I asked that question…

Eric on the otherhand, after a while of speechlessness, he was beside me and managed to utter "tindog anay kay maluhod ko” ("will you stand-up coz I'm going to kneel"). hahaha!

Sunset at "the spot" 

...so I stood but without taking my eyes of the ring, coz I felt like, the moment I took my eyes off it or if  I'm going to blink, I might wake-up and realize that I was still in my room back in Singapore.  I have never felt so awkward, nervous, shaky and spaced-out with Eric until that day. 

 I panicked because I didn't know how to react. So I started laughing -- really hard! like I saw or heard something really funny then I when I paused, Eric (poor thing) lost all his focus all he forgot all of what he wanted to tell me because I got him distracted, so he just straight away asked 

 "will you marry me?” 

 ...and I started laughing again, because I am shocked, nervous and happy. When I stopped laughing he asked me again "te? (well?) will you marry me?” and that's when I gave him my  sweetest answer. 

I said YES

-the end-

Our "so-cold" life

if you complain that you do not have enough.
if you are whinning about how cruel life is.
if you are too passive to care for yourself
if you are simply oblivious to the wonderful things around you...
and if you have already given up and kept on giving up because of some circumstances then...

look at yourself in the mirror, count how many arms and legs you have then watch this video.






...so what's up with all the complains, the whinning and all those things?...

Thoughts from slumber

                                                                          fmflores::Photo::08

We did not endure life,

But is life who endured us - our human and selfish nature.
It unfailingly taught us things unimaginable for as long as we live.

When life itself surrenders only then we realize...

what we had. 
what it could have been.
what we should have done.
what we should have said. 


...it is always too late.
then we linger on the memory - memories
                                            ...for a while


...and so we move on
and the  overwhelming loss slips away
 
we never learn...

This is It.

I am never an MJ fan, ever. Though undeniably, his music has this "effect" on people. Yes please, count me in. It's just difficult to not like his songs and not stop from liking it each and everytime you listen to it.

My most favorite among his songs is the "Man in The Mirror". Surprisingly it was the finale of his memorial. Thus here I am, not letting go of that moment.

As the Man in the Mirror's intro is playing, I waited for that "hiccup" like I always do and...nothing...just the instruments. I was just hearing the instruments, staring at the microphone on spotlight in an empty stage with the silent and dispersing crowd. That was the emptiest, the most abandoned stage I have ever seen and the saddest music I have ever heard. It was a very awkward moment for the song and that's where I felt the "loss"

I will never get to hear that favorite song being sang live...ever.

Happy Father's Day Papa John...

You are one of the most annoying thing in the world because:

1. You always like to torment me by asking me to hand you that same belt you'll use for your disciplinarian act! god it was indeed a pain in the a**!

2. You're like the CIA, you know where to find me, who I'm with and you always keep track of things most especially my class schedules and my grades (oh! those grades for crying out loud!) most especially during college.

3. You just have things to say...all the time!

4. ...you have many more things to say!

5. You always lecture about how you are able to work your way through things, your school, your work and life in general that I (errr... we - yep! count sis and bro in) can already memorize those lines...."ako sang una...bla bla bla...."

YOU are the best thing that ever happened to me because:

1. I have learned to be prudent in making decisions and choosing what's best for me because you always like to torment me by asking me to hand you that same belt you'll use to for your disciplinarian act! god it was indeed a pain in the a**!

2. I have earned my degree because you're like the CIA, you know where to find me, who I'm with and you always keep track of things most especially my class schedules and my grades (oh! those grades for crying out loud!) most especially during college.

3. I am now 200% independent and now living on my own because you always lecture about how you are able to work your way through things, your school, your work and life in general that I (well, we - yep! count sis and bro in) can already memorize those lines...."ako sang una...bla bla bla...."

4. I have have learned responsibility because you just have things to say...all the time!

5. I have learned life's lessons I will never learn once I'm already "out there" because you have many more things to say!

6. If I will have to elaborate all of those things, then I might need a few hundred pages to type those in.

Happy Father's Day Papa John...You're the man!

Why Is my colleague an Idiot.

Scene A:

me : Hey ****** I created a new folder named REV C so all drawings revised after feb 23,
must be saved on this folder ok?

Idiot: SORRY?

(I repeated my sentence)

Idiot: Revise the what? what are those revisions for? we're only on the REV B stage
how did you get a REV c?

me : (wtf!)

Scene B:

Secretary: ******, can u adjust this text box? coz it's too tight they (bosses) have no
space to sign.

Idiot : Sorry?

(Secretary repeats her statement)

Idiot : sign what? u did not told me to sign anything.

Scene C:

Idiot : Are you finished emailing the drawings?

Me : I already did, oh! btw I used my gmail instead of outlook coz i think
gmail can hold larger multiple files.

Idiot : Sorry?

(I repeated my sentence)

Idiot : who did you gmail? and why?


Imagine all this kind of conversation every moment, of every single goddamn day!!!!!!

....right now this is my damn freakin' song!
"loathing, unadulterated loathing...for your face, your voice, your clothing. let's just say, I loathe it all! with every little trait however small makes my very flesh begin to crawl..." - Wicked OST

...yes I am whinning, after a reeeeeeally long time, I am again whinning so spare me the this freakin' moment. argh!

My 30 Cents....

 

As I was ending my day I was able to do a good deed! (halo shining, ting! *wink*wink*).  I was queuing for my regular after-work waffle treat with my colleague Al. There was a little boy about 7 - 8 years old, who was queuing before me. He bought a $1.50 Peanut waffle but he is short of 30 cents. He said he thought the one he want was $1.20. 

Okay, if you are curious if they we're speaking in chinese, well they are actually and no! up until now, I still don't know how to speak chinese except for words like "tapaw" - take out/take-away. and that's it! 

Anyway, I kind of decipher what was going on when the little guy and and waffle dude we're referring to the price posted in front of the stall. I thought waffle dude will just let little guy pass, but well, waffle dude really means business. So there I was, asking waffle dude, how much does little guy need to get the peanut waffle and there you go I gave waffle dude my 30cents! 30 cents, to give the little boy his peanut waffle, topped with a really huge smile with a free and sincere gratitude.

Who says you can't buy happiness, in fact it's not even expensive. It feels really great today doing little things that meant so much to others.  

The Most Beautiful Gas Station in the World

Nothing beats the classic as they say. I stumbled into this blog on www.architecturalrecord.com. Unfortunately I have to purchase the whole article (from a different website) so I can read it (ha! no way!) good thing the blogger has a few words straight from the article itself.  What really caught my attention is the name MIES VAN DER ROHE as I was reading through the blog. Van Der Rohe - father of modernism (worked with Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius-big names!).

He also designed the first ever glass house, the Farnsworth house.

                                          Believe it or not but this was designed in 1950

Anyway, the most beautiful gas station in the world is the Esso gas station in Quebec and has been designed in the 60's.  

...Needless for me to say anything, thus let me just I quote the writer:

"The thing really is beautiful; it's so unassuming, like a lot of great artworks,"

"It's of a great simplicity, and it's a building that was really thought out. It's not overstated, it's very modest, very functional, and very well designed," said Dinu Bumbaru, the director of Heritage Montreal, who has described it as the "Ritz" of gas stations.

"The filling station was a departure from the garish corporate colours, neon signs and blinding flood lighting of most modern service stations."

That's why I always live by Leonardo Da Vinci's words "Simplicity is the ultimate form of Sophistication"

Sadly, they don't make gasoline stations like these anymore...

Jamitay & Kyler's First birthday two decades from now...

Kyler Clark - Feb 5, 2008

Chelsea Zara - Feb 1, 2008

In case we still haven't met, I am your ninang from land far far away...we've never met and I've only seen your pictures patiently updated by your mothers (don't hate her for posting your you-think-its-embarassing photos online, it's actually what your admirers want to see). I am writing about this so that you kiddies, when you are old enough and your parents can trust you over the internet (oh! you have no idea how many dark and dangerous things are out here) and hopefully read your ninang's "sensible thoughlessness". You will not consider me as gone-and-vanished ninang (just THE invisible ninang). You see, when you guys were born I wasn't there, most especially you Kyler, we are time zones away from each other. The day you were born, it was the day after I became an Architect (in the Philippines) that's how I will always remember your birthday. While you little Jamitay, it was three days before my excruciating anticipation ended (ask your mom, she knows how excruciating is excruciating). That's why I consider both your birthdays as a very special one, I believe that two angels were sent o me on that week of Feb 2008. Anyway, yeah it just feels really sad that on the three most important events of your innocent lives, I wasn't there. I won't have my own slice of story to tell you. One of which is your birth, how loud you cried or how you pooed on your diapers while I was carrying you, etc, etc. Two, your Christening. I will not be surprised if one these days when we have the chance to meet each other you will hide behind your mom's or you dad's back and peek at that stranger who is gesturing to carry you (in Kyler's case that if you are still a toddler when we finally meet). The last and final of all is your first birthday. It's suppose to be the culminating event of the beginning of your officially "adult" life, where you get your first bruise from your first steps, first song and a whole lot of firsts. Unfortunately I am here, typing all these excuses (haha!). Although here's one thing I can promise you both, by this time you can already read this, and for sure you maybe find it awkward coz we never really hang out when you guys were still toddlers. If ever somebody broke your heart (especially you Jamitay) message me right away and I'll be all ears on you, I promise!

And you superman (for sure you'll hate this nickname by the time you read this) I really don't know if you'll be a sports enthusiast, or a toy collector and maybe perhaps a reader like me but sure! A little bonding won't hurt not unless you like to bungee jump, then maybe we can arrange a different ninang-and-ina-anak bonding. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the both of you!!! your invisible godmother, Fran

Food for thought

If there is one thing about my family that I am proud of, that would be cooking!  My mom, cooks really, reeally good! My bro makes the best adobo I have tasted! and I must say, I also quite have the skill. BUT not baking. The first and the last time I baked was on my sophomore year in high school cooking class, it was a flop. 

Since me and 'le boyfriend aren't going anywhere on our week long "Gong Xi Fa Cai" vacation, I figured, why not try one of the recipes that came with the rice cooker we bought last christmas. It's been lying aroung for officially two months now, and we haven't really used it. So, I scanned the list of the recipes and I spotted MOCHA BUTTER CAKE...in the rice cooker?...interesting!

And so...Saturday night, inspite the exhaustion from cleaning the whole day, I still raced to Fairprice (everyone was in panic-buying mode, since stores will be closed for a week) and bought the ingredients for my rice cooker experiment. Came sunday afternoon, my first few attempts in making the batter was already a flop. Thank goodness Joyce still had a bunch of butter left from her cookie-baking too so I borrowed one bar from her and so the second round went on. Thankfully (again) Kim is also around who happens to have an HRM background. She's already done this thing over and over and so she helped me with the icing and the terminologies, like "fold half of the...into the...". I mean what the hell does fold mean?... 


 
It was almost nine when I removed THE cake from the rice cooker...I just baked my first cake! (in a rice cooker) yey! Now, Icing time...everything was fine, until I started decorating with the brown icing. It was a disaster! I know there are different ways (or was it types) of mixing the sugar and the egg for a different type of icing but what the heck, I only know one! Kim is to the rescue again (good thing she was still awake). and then tadaa!!! my first official  Cake topped with cadbury chocolate almonds.


I had fun that day! one those "my firsts" day. Especially on the part where I was decorating the cake with the brown icing. When I served it to everyone, Guess what?! I've had good feedback. For sure, that wasn't anything like Bread-Talk or Bengawan Solo or maybe Bob's (in Bacolod) but not bad for a start right?  which means...I should add baking as a hobby...

I just got two new Chiffon cake recipes. this will keep me busy for the rest of the week. in the meantime here's a slice for all of you out there! My Mocha Butter Cake...and oh! it'll be nice with a chamomille honey & vanilla english tea...enjoy!  





 

My Grimmerie

About a year ago, after my board exam, I rewarded myself with a long rest and book to free my mind from all the 3-month "academic" reading (and memorizing). So I got me Wicked by Gregory Mcguire. I was Suppose to actually buy "Confessions of the Ugly Step-Sister" unfortunately, Powerbooks ran out of stock and on the shelf, I only have to choose between Mirror Mirror, Wicked and Lost.

Since Wicked was the only marked with "The New York Times Bestseller" and when I read all three synopses, Wicked got my attention. ..and so there it was, I found myself half-deciding between Gregory Mcguire and Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead) which I ended up buying both books.

When I got back to work (MSA) Anne A-the ever broadway fanatic, showed me a youtube vid. On it was a witch with green skin. ELPHABA! I thought. then Anne was, saying something about the broadway, so on and so forth, I didn't really catch what she was saying, coz I was paying full attention to the video. Suddenly it hit me. WICKED HAS BROADWAY!

When I was back on my thoughts Anne was still talking to Ditto (I miss you papu..muah!), about Taye Diggs and etc etc. Although that time, I was still hooked with few reward-books for myself so I didn't bother looking up Wicked over the net..UNTIL...

About a couple months ago, I reread wicked again (yeah I brought the book with me, psycho!). Then I was reminded of the Broadway! So,  I bugged 'le boyfriend to find me the OST in every corner of the web (oh! he's really good in finding stuff over the net!). Viola! he got me the OST (just like that! I know!), and It's been my "recently Played" list on my iPOD for weeks (up to now) and as well as on my machine at home (guess what! it's what I'm listening to while writing this entry).

Anyway, sadly IF ever I get the chance to watch the Musical I will no longer see Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, all the casting has already been changed YEARS AGO (such a late bloomer, aren't I?) . I'm just crossing my fingers that they will be playing the roles in the movie...YES! Universal Pictures is working on producing the movie.

Wicked!!!

Writing Resolutions

Writing Resolutions

We've aLL heard this many times before, New Year's Resolution. It's been over-killed (slash) over-used that some of us don't bother having one anymore. I for one, I'm still coming up (errr...still TRYING) with a new year's resolution. I mean the simplest and most realistic resolution...one that I can manage to do if not each and every day then maybe most of the time.

The last time I had a new year’s resolution that I really followed by heart was the new year of 2005. I said "I am never to buy pirated DVD and Audio CD this year!" HA! guess what? it kind of stayed with me even up to now...most especially now that I moved here in Singapore. Why would one pursue buying a pirated (if you can find one around here) copy of your favorite Album or DVD when HMV or Gramophone is cutting three-fourths of its price?

I guess, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't have to be the new year to change ones ways or to discipline oneself....ooopss!!! a thought just occurred to me, my 2009 new years resolution would be: To Blog More!!! Somehow, writing is one of those that I wanted to do. I tried it once but it didn't work out (thankfully!). It turned out that I have to do something else for a living...certainly not writing, (what are the odds?!). Yeah a little twist on my life story right there.

That's it for now...I need some more inspirations to come up with a much interesting entry...I need my dose of caffeine...badly...very badly...

laters!

2008 in 40 Seconds

Amazing video isn't it? I stumbled into this "One Year in 40 Seconds" vid while browsing through the net and it made me think...yeah one year is really quick, all the things that have happened, were still as fresh like it was just a couple of months ago....

Four seasons in a year, one birthday,one Christmas, 12 monthsaries, one anniversary and several holidays. Each different from another, how are we going to make this year a different and meaningful one?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  TO ONE AND ALL!