AngelBQ

I find myself reading more nowadays than typing. I discovered that fact when I, at this point, suddenly becomes conscious of the sound of the keyboard and me tapping away. So let the typing continue….

Note: This is made in 4 days, so “yesterday” might not mean yesterday.

:::Emotions, burnout and the comfort of a mother:::

So where do I even begin. Let’s just summarize how the emotional rollercoaster has been for me in the last 2 months (since my real post back in June 28).

I had some really crappy days resulting in absences from my classes and lots of catch ups (that’s after the prioritizing steps I took collapsed to nothingness). I then took some baby steps to improve. Doing catch up and trying to gain the lessons I missed, and yes I did manage to catch up on most of it, although I still have some to go. Then, I grew tired, fatigued and just overwhelmed. It all just peeked yesterday as I had my emotional release with my mom, and boy am I just glad I have this incredibly compassionate and wise woman as my mother.

It felt so good to get the emotions that kept boiling up inside, out. Right where they belong, and not suppressed to cause damage or hinder development and progress. It felt good too, to talk about the time I suffered depression in the medical terms, which is not what I was going through now, but where I was heading to if I wouldn’t change direction soon. With some inner motivation and a support group, I think I’ll do fine pretty soon. I just want to draw closer to God again so I can be replenished with the strength, hope and much needed faith in all things good.

Again, I can’t emphasize how well my mother knows me and how to address my emotions, worries and anxieties. This is like being cradled and lullabied, but in an adult version. My husband comforts me in his own way, putting a smile on my face and letting me realize how happy I am to have love in my life, while my mom says the right words to put me in place without pressure or prejudice.

:::One of the culprits:::

I know that this computer lifestyle of mine is unhealthy in the excessive proportion. I am working to cutting that down little by little as well as changing the routines.

It feels like it is swallowing me up. If I had not had my course, it would be an almost 20 hour ordeal like it was before.

Just look at these things; You fill up your kaboodle wishlist to the rim (I can’t of course forget a single item and even made folders for not so much favorite, but good stuff which I know I would never reach anyway…And if I find an item in a blog I need to kaboodle, but don’t immediately, I have a “to kaboodle” folder in evernote, and if I don’t get to do it in Evernote, I’d have to use the “Keep new” in bloglines, talk about obsession!), you shop till you drop (will I even get to use all these stuff in this lifetime with the phase I am scrapping, my existing stuff and phase of shopping new items+CT stuff???) and then you have to organize and/or back up (each and every files).

You have bloglines and read 100’s of feeds (and you find more interesting blogs to read) and then add the interesting articles/images to Evernote. Those activities alone takes hours and weeks. And the problem with me is my nature of being a perfectionist. I can not forget that one item, that one article, that one thing I have to reply to or that one thing I HAVE to do.

Much like when I was a wawie and monitored the emails. I would organize each interesting ones to a folder and the ones I didn’t get to read, but intend to read on another folder. I couldn’t simply miss one. And so when time was getting scarce for waw and I found myself needing more time to scrap, my newfound hobby at that time, I didn’t unsubscribe, I just didn’t organize them under folders anymore. It was just hard to let go and know I would miss out. Not that I would actually go back to these folders at any time. I simply don’t have the time. In the end, I finally told myself to let go, but now I still have thirty thousand plus mails in yahoo inbox folder alone that I can’t find time to delete.

Same with Evernote and saving articles and inspirations. I wonder how on earth am I going to get some time to re-read these articles when time isn’t enough to track and save these articles. Although the images I saved and the lists I made, I will be able to go back to (because I need the lists and it’s easy to through images).

And newsletters is also saved in folders although I won’t probably open it again. My hotmail also has digiscrap folders when I don’t even reread them (at this date, I finally deleted them!).

This blog isn’t different. I need to jot down everything bloggable. If something I want to blog about pops in my mind during course or another activity, I write it down on paper and put it in my “to blog” list.

Point is, it’s an everlasting cycle. Even if I cut time browsing the DST forums, even if QOTC is finished, even if I have just scrapped 4 layouts lately and even if I stepped down from one CT (MFD) among others (I even just had to turn down an opportunity just recently), I still am finding myself new ways to fill the time gap.

Like today, where I got lost in this controversial blog and controversial threads. Not healthy with all the negativity by the way, and also Boom, you suddenly lost a lot of time I could have used on much more important and useful activity. Like spending more time with my family who aren’t going to be with us forever here in Norway or my husband I only get to be with in the weekends (except saying bye when I have to go to school and he arrives home on the weekdays).

I need to let go, I need to divert and I need to cut out the perfectionist attitude. Applying the latter to every activity will restrict me to happiness and enjoying my life, as well as acceptance and contentment. As Aggie so wisely put it, choose happiness. A small phrase, but the word choose in this context is so powerful. We are what we want us to be, but we just have to decide to make that step. That is not always easy to do, but it is rewarding I know. It requires willpower and faith in the things to come.

:::One of the remedies:::

I must say that one thing that I have accepted and moved on about is baby matters. I am willing to wait and I am willing today to accept my situation whatever that will be (of course that means today. I can’t guarantee that if anything bad should happen to me again with regards to pregnancy, that I will not have a moment like I suffered from before). It will depend on my state of mind that time, but I am working on preparing myself mentally for any such moment.

I have however this adorable baby right now that makes my heart melt and pulls me away from the computer with such great force (as opposed to before when NOTHING could pull me away, even if nature’s calling). He is the reason I don’t wake up heavily in the morning when I hear that sweet giggle. I just bounce off the bed and head next door to where this adorable little sweetness is charming me with his traits and faces and sounds he makes. I didn’t know how happy one can be when someone so small and innocent reacts to my making fun faces and sounds.

Of course I have been taking pictures like crazy. Sometimes not enough. He grows up so fast and I anticipate every day what kind of new faces or sounds he will make. He is forming his personality so rapidly.

Here are some pictures. I have so much more that I haven’t edited and watermarked yet.

Look at that acrobat!

He is not actually crying. He’s trying to imitate us whistling.

His “mag exercise tayo tuwing umaga” routine.

I am number one, LOL.

He’s into biting now that he got teeth. I let him bite me, which is bearable (cause I love to see him gigil). It’s his nail scratching on face that hurts more.

Amazed at the trees outside. He likes nature, colorful flowers, red toys and garments, remote controls, moving items, cellphones and cars.

Having a good laugh.

With mommy dearest who he just recently recognized as his mother. He sobs most of the time, if she leaves him temporarily, although it does subside after a little while, unless he wants breastmilk.

He is very active and has so many expressions. He is behind in his motoric skills. He goes to a PT to learn bit by bit how to crawl. So he has a playmat now and a toy a bit heavy so he won’t be able to carry it when he rolls over. Our favorite activity together is watching the abc song in youtube.com. It always catches his attention. He also claps his hands and sing (at least he tries to).

The pics above are a bit “outdated”. I am saving some new for scraps, but here’s a couple more that are from recent.

Besides from this cute being, I also have the rest of the family here. Mom, dad and sis are keeping us company and dad’s cooking is making me gain some weight (not that much, but I look healthier). I think my mom and dad will be sad to leave us in Norway (they extended beyond their original plan, which is three month from July 9 when they arrived. Their new departure will be November). Look how much they enjoy their apo/grandson.

Dad’s cooking/sidedish.

Of course it’s quite different than me and Bizzi’s alone period which we also enjoyed, but having the family over is different and besides we have to enjoy them while they are here.

:::Home:::

Adding to the troubles of my mind is water leakage in our apartment. Since we live in an apartment, the expenses will be shouldered on their insurance, but the work is slow and they come in so long intervals. The positive side is that we will get new stuff, new flooring and new kitchen tiles. Also, even if they won’t shoulder it, we will change the interior of the closet and put wallpaper on the entrance. The entrance will get tiles instead of wooden floors to avoid future wet wooden floor that have to be ripped off. The leak started in the kitchen. It was dripping from the kitchen vent above the stove. Bizzi noticed it. It’s good that we noticed it before sleeping or we would wake up to wet kitchen floor and counter. We put buckets under the vent and rushed to find a representative of the apartment union. The entrance got wet too since the tube which we found out got worn out and made the hole the water flowed from, goes through the entrance.

Here are the damages:

Where it all started.

The entrance after ripping off the wooden floor.

The wardrobe area right outside our bedroom.

The wall they ripped off in the wardrobe area also damaged by water and moist.

And when this happened, our house was a M-E-S-S.

The interior of the closet scattered everywhere. Our clothes everywhere!

We had to use the outer space to relocate stuff.

And our dinner table to.

Bit by bit, we did manage to relocate stuff properly, but still they are not in their proper place. Our terrace are still filled with stuff. You can say that if it used to be chaos, now it’s organized chaos.

Imagine what I felt after spending 3 weeks of cleaning the place inch by inch. Even buying new stuff and redecorating. Here is how it looked like after I cleaned and redecorated and before the incident.

First off, our bedroom:

Bought new covers (the b&w baroque) for half price.

I love the color schemes on this pillow.

These are real. I miss them. They died when we left for vacation one week in the summer. At the same time me and Bizzi went, so did mom and the gang to Italy. When I came home, they had wilted.

So now, I have these fakes. I find the colors a bit too vivid though, but oh well.

These I found while going my shopping route one day. I was drooling for Alicia Bocks creation at Etsy store (see below) when I found these already framed and no shipping cost and waiting time. These will do for now. Etsy.com is a wonderful resource of creative and artistic stuff!

That picture on the white frame with sis and nephew is from blow up babies Serendra. That’s a cool place and studio. Best I’ve seen of studio in the Philippines so far.

I edited a studio pic as part of our first out of two prenup session with Dinolara. I also had my trial make up this day. Anyway, I recolored the background to fit the frame and enhanced the picture’s color and added glow.

Loved those boxes. It came in a set of three.

‘

I used to have a small container for my hair stuff and now I have some more space, yay!

I love going to the flower store now (the big one in Alnabru, Mester Grønn). Love their real flowers, as well as the fake silkflowers (they are expensive though) and their different pots. The pot above is reminiscent of IOD digiscrap papers.

The red artwork is from my sis. It wasn’t finished actually and she did this a while ago and never managed to continue. I like it the way it is though.

I actually have a retro picture of me as a baby in mom’s lap now. It was taken in the studio and the muted colors and red backdraft was perfect for the frame and the rest of the decors.

And here is the entrance area:

We didn’t want to throw the shelf that was there before so we just put it up vertically to fit the space.

This was before:

And last, the living room area:

I overwatered this cactus and it exists no more, buhu.

I am drawn to baroque and shabby romantic with jewel aqua, turquoise and pinks. The eclectic retro is also appealing. So is vintage charm, foliage and silhouettes, oriental wallpapers and bird cages. I am also in love with wallpaper again. There is this place we went to,interiørland, who has lovely wallpapers and interior stuff. I also want to go to a flea market for some old finds. I just bought this new interior mag that was sold on an introductory price and they had lots of interesting projects where that turned flea market finds to treasures. Nowadays, I find myself daydreaming about a hobby/family room where I can improvise and be creative.

I just love interior design and can’t wait till our apartment is fixed. Although I probably won’t do so many changes since this is not really our house. My sis bought a new sofa with an L shape and leather in beige (we’ll receive it in some weeks). We want to lighten it up here a bit and with a neutral and light color, we can put any pillow in it. We have to store the grey sleeping sofa in the mean time. We will also receive a new Shelley chair since the leg of our last one broke (for that kind of price, it really shouldn’t break at all!). We chose a lighter color than the red one we had for the replacement. It will take 7-8 weeks they said.

Here is an example of a Shelly chair. This was taken from internet. Ours was red and had a different leg.

For the wallpaper, we chose a light colored embossed baroque print with a shiny background. For the tiles in the kitchen, we chose this laminated like brick shaped tile with craquelure effect paired and different neutral hues per tile with stones border.

These are Ikea’s wardrobe interior system customizable (Pax sytem). Ikea’s website even has a wonderful program/module where you can plan your space complete with measurement and stuff. It will be nice to get rid of those baskets. (Image capture screen from Ikea’s site. See the flash presentation on this page)

In my home shopping list too, I have some tvshop.no items too. Like this steam blaster and juicer. I am not the type to buy stuff from tvshop, but i hear good reviews from real people. And hubby and I love fresh juice with no additives. Other from that I also wish for a waffle machine, saute pan, fonduemaker and a new vacuum cleaner.

By the way, the leader of the apartment union got us this flower since he sympathized with our situation. How thoughtful.

:::Some recent events:::

These are the stuff I have been up to lately:

2 weekends ago, we were blessed with beautiful weather, and I really mean beautiful. For one like me who failed to suck in the little we have of sun and warm weather this year, I was ecstatic to be out at this time. After school that friday, I went to meet a wawie friend. I would never imagine to meet up and have a reunion with someone I got to know in a Philippine community. Minnie, who married a Norwegian in a beautiful Boracay wedding, emailed me that she was already here. She had been here since February actually. She lives not far from us and the city.

Equipped with heavy bag, my camera included I went to the pier and snapped a bit before heading over at our meeting place.

I went window shopping and a bit actual shopping before I got the text that she was already there.

We ate at Friday’s. Got a cozy couch spot outside. Unfortunately, the sun wasn’t screened, so we got direct sun on us. We ordered some snacks/sampler plate and some refreshing drinks to go with that.

Then we went to my fave dessert place which also Minnie loved, Pascal. We had that light chocolate mousse cake slice with hazelnut flavor. Inside where we also sat, there was this mirror that solved my problem of getting a shot of us two together. Lots of kuwento/chatting and some were unnecessary to talk about since she apparently read my blog’s archives. That’s a good thing about blog, you can maximize the time, hehe.

There was a gallery in the same building where they had an exhibition. i forgot to take note what exhibition, but some stuff was displayed outside the gallery. One of the stuff was this styrofoam creation.

I like how the light was inside and made the styrofoam be semi transparent and the light shine through. Zooming in, you can see a Mac book package was used among others.

We proceeded to walk downwards to the heart of the city. The city was bustling with life which is quite opposite of winter time here. Lots of street performers. Among them;

After we parted ways, I went to meet my sis, hubby and nephew to visit a friend who got birth to a baby boy, Nicklas.

In the lift going down from the subway.

And here’s the cute baby boy.

We ate waffles with homemade strawberry jam. Best jam I ever tasted.

Last weekend, we had the much anticipated and much postponed date with just me and hubby. We ate sushi at our fave place. It’s a bit expensive there, but it’s so good. This is our fourth time here. Two of them was with friends.

The ponzu sashimi is our absolute fave. It’s the sauce that is the main component and which separates it from other sashimis in other places. The variety is also a plus. I like the whale.

The crispy asparagus is also a treat in that dish.

We also had tempura (crispy scampi) makis, crispy futo maki (cooked salmon and asparagus) with teriyaki sauce and mongo bongo maki (tuna and mango). We wrapped it up with coffee mocha. We walked a bit, shopped a bit and we closed the evening with watching the movie “Die Hard 4″. Cool movie, even though he’s inches from being a superhero with all his powers and neverending stamina and tolerance for pain.

Here are more photos from that day:

I look so pandak/small. Pardon, I mean petite…hehe.

In the subway.

Hubby took this of a lit ad.

Rewinding a bit to our one week travel to the west side of Norway, Ålesund. The scenery was fantastic on the way there and back.

I love Totally Rad Actions. The original of the photo above is this one:

Taken by hubby.

This was so much better in reality. It was so majestic as we sat in our small car and the nature just keep revealing itself as we swung in the curves and saw the next peak after the other. The afternoon glow of the sun was amazing as it reached the tops.

Back in Oslo, we attended a wedding the following week, a kurdish wedding.

On the way to the wedding. The gradient effect is actually a product of the gradually tinted window. With skies like this, it’s nice to use an infrared b&w effect.

Me and my curls, lol. At the end of the evening, there wasn’t much curls left. I finally got to wear the beaded skirt from this post.

The guys in their suits and ties.

It was fun waiting for the bride and groom. There was a long path heading to the venue. We went out as we heard the trumpets and drums and saw the parade surrounding the bride and groom. The singer inside the venue could be heard from outside.

I got to dance kurdish again.

My hubby’s fave singer who was hired for the wedding. He was supposed to sing for our wedding, but someone had booked him first in France.

There are mostly guys in the pics, reason being that the girls don’t like to display their pictures online, so respect…

Other than those events, we have been sleeping over a lot the first weeks of the vacation at my inlaws in Fredrikstad and Heggedal. Reason being that there were a lot of visits from relatives in Germany, Sweden and immediate family from England and the west side of Norway where we were.

We had fun watching the game between Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the Asian soccer finals. Imagine the noise and excitement in a house filled with Iraqi kurdish and a set of drums.

Painted for the occasion. One of the players in the Iraq team was from the kurdish region, thus the Kurdish flag.

We also had visitors at our place from relatives.

Used textures on the last combined with a free urban acid action. Their father, my cousin, also is very interested in Photography. I bumped into him when I picked the hood for the 50 mm. He was looking for a camera bag and asked if the one he was holding was recommendable. Turns out he was holding the Lowepro bag that I had. Stealth reporter 200. I said yes, because I like the space and how it is divided. I’ve seen better looking, but it is nice in functionality.

I lended him “Understanding Exposures” and we shared a tip or two. I also shared that Amazon has cheaper books and that I heard raves about the shipping and service. He has now ordered 3 more books from there. His camera by the way is Canon 30D.

::Retail therapy:::

One of my main activities this summer has been shopping. That of course has led to added space problem and a short lived guilt after each spree.

-Makeup-

Love of makeup has returned after discovering MAC cosmetics entering the Norwegian market. My first purchase involved an eyeshadow brush, img. 1 (expensive, this was only bought after an ending sales tactic of the MAC counter lady), a neutral eyeshade img. 6 (color: grain) to have underneath the darker eyeshadows, a metallic colored fluidliner, img. 2 & 7 and 2 pie cut sponge for foundations, img. 9.

Second time around, I went back for a little more shocking colors. Eve’s video Tambourine appealed to me. She is sporting the C-Shock collection, img. 11 in honor of her. I bought eyeshadow, color: Bang on Blue, img. 3-5, black fluidliner, img. 10 and brush cleaning fluid, img. 8.

I got one of the blue shaded on the make up above.

Wearing the fluidliner. It applies so well and so smoothly. And it’s really waterproof. As i rubbed and scrubbed with the facial wipes, it didn’t wear off.

I seldom get to wear make up, but lately I have gotten some excuses and it’s fun to be girl sometimes.

My fave make up is eyeshadows and rouge and I also love to collect brushes. It looks fun to be a make up artist. Lately, I’ve been dipping the brushes with water first before dabbing on the eyeshadow. It makes the color more metallic and stronger and creamier. It also stays much longer. I don’t know if it has damaging effect in the brush or the eyeshadow.

These are next on my wishlist from MAC. I like Lancome too, YSL and Dior, but MAC has more choices and cheaper. I think my next purchase would be the creamy rouge. It sits better even without foundation and it gives a more dewy (natural) look. And I would need to pair that up with the second brush that is for cream based products. Look at the eyeshadow colors and you should really go to their counter to see exactly how many choices they have.

I also like how Mac promotes their product. Besides from Eve, I like their previous Barbie collection.

I also like this tool belt from visage.no. to hold my brushes. There’s not enough slots in my makeup briefcase and some slots are too narrow.

-Garments-

Of course I also bought clothes. Most of them baby clothes. Still waiting to be distributed. Some from Monsoon and some from Benetton. Some went to Bizzi’s family and some will go to my family and friends.

On our date, just as the stores were closing, I got to buy this huge poncho that would be so cozy for autumn.I got it 70 % off at H&M.

I like the cut and style. A bit above knees and high collar. Very 60 era, if I have the correct decade. I also like the lace work. I saw this hanging with other clothes that have been in the fitting room. Someone apparently changed their mind. It was a 34 and usually 34 is too small for me, especially with H&M, but I took the chance since it was closing time. I think it was 70 or 75 percent off.

This is the poncho. That bag is new too. Bought it in Accesorize, while I was buying baby/children clothes. Accesorize has same owner as Monsoon. Bag was 70 % off too.

Other stuff I bought is a shoe from Bianco, also on sale. A creamy ballet type shoe with lacquer finish.You can see it another picture above.

I should be buying more shoes and sweaters instead of these things (I like shopping for summer clothes more than winter). I really need them more. At least sweater. I have really outdated sporty kind that I don’t like any more. By the way, it was so nice to clean the closets. We emptied a lot of things we didn’t need. 4 big black trash bags was filled and emptied at Freetex containers. It will be sold again (revenue will go to charity) and items that can’t be sold, will be recycled.

I also bought some accessories. I actually haven’t bought accessories in a while (except for bags), but that used to be my favorite thing to buy. Almost all of these are bough on sale and some ridiculously low prices.

I bought these as a set in Bianco. I was sure it was sold by piece in another branch. I should have bought it then. I think this is like a part of the mix and match genre. Anyway, I bought it because of the middle one.

These were so low priced and matched the outfit I bought in Oasis further down.

Bought the yellow one for the outfits below. I like that the earrings are crocheted.

I bought this at 50 % off at Oasis. I love that store. It wasn’t there when I last went there. It has a nice fit and design and I love the color scheme. On a photography note, I had a hard time with the lightmetering on this one and getting a fair exposure throughout the picture. I hang it up in the window and the sun was really bright outside. Even with the built in flash I couldn’t make it work.

Here is a close up of the middle section. I like the seams. I am such a detail freak. Moving on to H&M, I found a bag at 50 % off with the same color scheme, eureka.

Other stuff I loved this season

I love the lengths in this season as well as the grey and school socialite trend. Images 1-6 is from Oasis. 4&6 are absolute faves, but I find them so expensive. Sometimes, even if Oasis has a sale, I find some tops and items to be still very pricey. The blue and yellow dress I bought though was ok at just 200 plus. Images 6-8 and 12 is from Mango, while 10 and 11 is from Morgan Toi.

All shoes is from Bianco except for the last. I like the tweed in the shoes. Fave is the 3rd and 4th. The last reminds me a bit of our color motif. I saw some really nice shoes on sale at Nine west. The chain that owns Oasis, now have this shoe salon and their clothing store called Principles in Norway. I still find spending more than 200 for a shoe a bit too steep for me. Although I shop in volumes, I still see myself thrifty. I only do the round on each sale season and I never spend more than 250 for a shoe or a garment. I can spend a bit more when it comes to jackets, boots, suits and dresses, but not other stuff.

After seeing Betsey Johnson’s house featured on this new fashion blog I am following, it led me to look at her creations. I love her mini dresses.

And I truly love the 2nd top on this collage from Oh joy’s blog. Detail work just blows me away.

By the way, I also got two new stuff that I didn’t shop for myself. My sister gave it to me when she took the one day cruise to Denmark.

The Gucci Envy me was my gift from her. It smelled wonderful. I have a few perfumes, but I keep them for the longest time. My first perfume I ever bought isn’t even used up. I also got the green floral printed skirt in a picture further up from Vero Moda from her.

She also bought chocolate for me since I love any type of Kinder chocolate. Of course what is a trip without Ferrero Rocher. Yum.

-Albums-

I got my shutterfly album, yay. I call this first one: Collection 1. It contains scraps about hubby, me and us.

The shutterfly action worked well. The only thing that didn’t turn out as expected is the back part where I used the template on the web. The cardboard peel part did not extend to the edge. Just missed a cm or so. No biggie. Also I didn’t expect 50 pages to be so thin.

The cover has a glossy laminated feel finish. I ordered an album at mypublisher.com long time ago (they may have improved now) and this was so much better bookbound. More polished and sturdy feel.

The scrap above I forgot to save a high resolution of, so I included it as part of the front page. I used another page template. That way it didn’t become pixelated. Anyway, Shutterfly warns if the resolution is not sufficient.

When at 12×12 you really see some faults. Too dark shadows and like the example above where the text isn’t clipped to the strips. Bloopers. There are aslo points where I wished that I had lowered the opacity of the text to look more natural.

On the page above, the crafty background turned a bit too red. Probably a calibration issue?

Their pages have a glossy finish.

Then we also received another album when mom and dad came. Our heavy album courtesy of Dino Lara from our wedding in the Philippines. It’s really heavy and great quality.

:::Internet and computers:::

So I had a pretty weird incident last week. I was looking at who was looking at my friendster profile and then I see a picture of myself staring back at me. I clicked on the profile of this Alpha Richie and she has a small version of the picture that is my primary pic. Looks like she just right clicked and saved the picture on the limited front page of my profile. I commented and I reported it to friendster, but still is there. I heard about people whose pictures been used by others without permission. Therefore, I am a bit hesitant on posting others kids and besides I watermark them, except for one pic I forgot further up of Samuel. I never knew I get use for watermarking. So now I changed my primary pic at friendster with watermark for those who won’t be able to get in my actual profile. You never know nowadays. But seriously, friendster should have removed it by now.

Then on another day prior to that, I got several emails that informed me that my account in digital photography school forum is temporarily blocked because of wrong password. I haven’t even logged in there for a couple of days and weeks. I wonder why they were trying to get in using my account. Creepy.

We often hear people suffering from fraud and scam in internet so please be cautious before clicking that link, opening that email or posting that picture and make sure your virus definitions are up to date.

My screen is behaving weird again. Suddenly it shut off the other day and then it came on the next moment. Weeks ago it was shutting on and off like blinking with an eye. Maybe it’s the screen’s driver that is causing the shutdown. The report after the shutdown is that there is driver conflict. I think it’s soon time to buy another screen. The other computer has now got a flat screen courtesy of sister in law and company who bought a new computer with flat screen included. Now it looks pretty small because the bulky back is not there anymore and the space surrounding the screen itself, but the screen itself is proportional to the old one.

Other internet/computer stuff

• Subscribed to now.abs.cbn and mom and dad get to watch news and we learned about the “willyonaryo” controversy.
• At Facebook I was able to get in touch with my classmate in elementary and high school as well as neighbors here in Norway. Friendster is more for my Philippine friends while Facebook is more on the Norwegian. I do have digiscrapper friends in my facebook. I like that you can do more stuff in facebook although I don’t usually install the new applications. I like the groups and I like the album and tagging people in pictures function. Here is my profile.
• In digiscrap, I have nothing new to share. Not been so productive lately, especially with the chaos around. I haven’t been shopping so much too. I organized my kaboodle and minimized my top 2 list. I didn’t need all of those stuff, but of course they are filling up again as designers come up with new lovely stuff like Kim Christensen’s new alpha tag and stitches at scrapartist. My recent purchase was Gina Miller’s collab with Natalie braxton. Since it was going to be removed from the shelf by the end of August, I had to go get it. I really like the elements.
• Digiscrappers are such versatile and technical folks, and the fun thing is that the age group are from very young to fairly old. And they are animators, graphic designers, bloggers, website builders, photographers and computer troubleshooters. No wonder this hobby takes so much time.
• Stand up and scrap is a new contest and I am tempted to join, but i don’t want to dive into something time consuming at this point, especially now with exams nearing. The whole assigning numbers to contestants is also fun, but eventually I guess photos and style will reveal the entries. The prizes are awesome and would definitely empty kaboodle plus minimize digiscrap shopping. Best wishes to those who decided to join. I am gonna be following closely in the sideline.

:::Photography:::

I haven’t got much tips to share this time. Haven’t been reading much lately. Just been editing and getting used to my workflow.

I have to share though this Philippine wedding supplier who I stumbled upon on videographer Jason Magabanua’s blog. They are called Mangored. I want another wedding so they can make albums for me. They are really edgy and they make their own illustrations. Check them out here.

Another thing that is a hype in photography is the adding texture to photos. Through Danielle Thompson’s blog, I found out about free textures in textureking and I used one of the textures there to make this.

Jesh de Rox I guess started this trend and he also sells textures.

Here are some other pics I want to share:

I have a thing for seen from above pics nowadays.

Look who dropped by on our backyard. A baby porcupine.

By the way, my sister borrowed my camera on her trip to Danmark and she got so scared because she thought she had damaged it. Actually, it was a damage from when we went on vacation. I dropped in our marble floor. Terible. Man was she scared…lol. I had a feeling that it was what she was referring to when she said, I have something to tell you about the camera…. I am just relieved that it was what I thought it was.

:::Almost there:::

If you’re still here, then kudos to you. My gosh I have been making this entry for the longest time. 4 days in the writing, and much more before that preparing the images and so forth. I am even sick of the images now, hehe.

Some other stuff before I end blabbering:

• Almost every morning before going to school, I drop by at Bagel & Juice and get fresh smoothie or juice. It taste so fresh. Just thick enough and no additives. I dropped the morning mocha since i feel this make me wake up more and besides it keeps me going for the day with natural energy. Bagel & Juice recently got best reviews and points out of all the smoothie outlets in town.
• My workplans changed as I was going through different phase. At one point I was looking for permanent job and ready to abandon the course for stability. Now, I am sticking it out and today’s agenda included sends a lot of practicum appliactions. I am so fickle minded at times.
• Day off today on monday. They are doing computer upgrades on school. I have had day offs as absences, but guilt free day offs are best. Like me anticipating class cancellation because of storm back in high school/college in Philippines.

My last thingy before I really split, a tag from Aggie. Really late, but you know the saying…than never…

Name five of the best nights in your life (In am not going to disclose all dates for different reasons, one of which I simply don’t remember)

• Our first wedding day: September 3, 2005
• When we hooked up
• Our first day in Boracay together. We were in bliss among such nice surroundings.
• The positive test (morning, but nevertheless)
• Our 2nd wedding day: February 12, 2006

I ma not good in tagging and I have seen this go around already so if you haven’t been tagged yet, please consider yourself tagged, ok. Have a nice week.