Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Ridiculous

I'm not at all for politics because I know what a dirty business it is, but this time I need to speak up about something. There are 3 Filipinos who were scheduled for death penalty and as of right now it has just been announced that they're already killed. I can still hear the muffled wailing of the families as background to a reporter's update.

The issue has something to do with illegal drugs and I couldn't care less about that, but to make the long story short they committed a crime and pissed China off real bad and so they were punished with a death sentence.

It's sad, really. But is it at all acceptable to protect criminals?

The Philippine government is acting like those guys were innocent and needed a "chance." I don't know why their sentence got rescheduled but they were given a few more months to live. To me that's alright, because they have families to say goodbye to. I do understand how it feels like to lose somebody.

But here is my honest opinion: They deserve it. They knew it was a crime in the first place. Justice HAS to be served. It's just too bad that it's how it rolls in China and they needed to die. They crossed a line in another country and they got what's equal to the crime they committed.

Sorry if I'm crossing anybody, especially the suspects' families. It's just ridiculous that they're wallowing in despair about wat's over & done. If it helps, they should just pray for their loved ones.

I hope this government stops protecting criminals. To give attention to Filipinos overseas is a good thing and of course, deaths of Filipinos out there shouldn't happen. But in this case, those three knew what they were in for. They knew there were going to be consequences. They did it because of poverty I'm sure, but that's not an excuse to be off the hook and be led to think they're special.

The only people who could have prevented their own deaths for happening were themselves. I'm sorry for their deaths, I'm sorry this had to happen, but it's justice.

Let's just call it a wake up call to everybody who's in illegal drug trade, and a lesson to everyone else.

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Monday, March 28, 2011

Party Party

Party time!
...
My baby cousin's Christening. May 26, 2011. Jai was a godfather.
...
...............
My cousin's son Schyler's 1st birthday.
March 27. 2011
And there's another one coming up on April 3rd. Fun fun fun!

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My Take on Sucker Punch

Jai and I saw Sucker Punch yesterday not because he's been begging me for days, but because I wanted to see it since I knew about it. This is a quick surprise review for y'all (and a bigger surprise for him I'm sure) so here it goes.

The story is plain and simple. Girl's mom dies and leaves her and her sister to their evil stepfather. He takes her to a mental institution and she's determined to find a way out of there. Take out the action scenes and I doubt it would last 15 minutes.

But I enjoyed it!

Some people wanna read too much between the lines but what they should really be doing is take it for what it is and meet it halfway. First of all, it's a fictional motion picture and it centers on a girl's imagination. How hard is it to understand that the sky is the limit with these movies? The film isn't perfect but it made an effort so I forgive its flaws.
Sucker Punch is like 90% CG but even so, real production design is still there and it's visually stunning. Costume and make-up are awesome. The girls looked great (except Vanessa Hudgens who looked like a real prostitute--STDs, zero class and high on a truckload of meth) but my personal favorites are Sweet Pea's warrior style that comes with a hoodie and Baby Doll's sailor style that was simple (her make-up was so intense that I guess they didn't wanna overdo her outfit). A bit whore-ish, yes, but I guess that was necessary. They could have worked a bit more on the script because it came on as mediocre and not too thought out, but the storyline is mindbending mindfuck. It will blow your mind which makes the movie's tagline "You will be unprepared" ever so fitting.
I don't wanna give too much away, but here's my 3 favorite parts of the movie:

1. Opening scene. I swear I was leaning forward in my seat and almost forgot Jai was sitting next to me. That hasn't happened to me in any theater before. That first part was grabbing and hard hitting. You never see something like that everyday.

2. First imagined fight scene. It was so badass and well done. Intense but smooth.

3. WWI (map). I especially liked Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone's sister act. That definitely stood out and I like their stance. Looked authentic, unlike the rest of the girls'.

The soundtrack is unbelievably GOOD. I've never been a fan of any of those artists, but now I am. Bjork, anyone?

There's a lot of debate going on about what is imagined and what is reality, but these movies leave that up to the audience. It's not the best film in the world but it certainly isn't the worst, so I would recommend it. If you would like to see 300 with a twist of Alice in Wonderland, I guess you would wanna see this.

A little tip: don't just watch, listen. Relax and enjoy it. There are some things to think about, but don't stress yourself too much. It's a fun ride.

score: 8/10

ps.
Vanessa Hudgens was so worthless in this, and so was her character. She deserved her fate. And YES I hate Vanessa Hudgenxxx. And that sobbing/leaning against a wall/sliding down to the floor thing? God, woman! Take some acting lessons or something. I loaaathe youuu.

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Pinterest

Please send me an invite! THANK YOUUUU

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Subtly Lighter

I never imagined I would actually get my hair dyed. But I did. And I've been wanting to do it for weeks.

It's a lighter shade of brown now and it's not what I expected. I wanted a much lighter shade, but this has to do for the meantime.
See? Not much a of a difference, right? And the lighting certainly didn't help either. Anyway, it's more obvious under the sun.

But they say changing something about your hair actually means you want something to change about your life, and you're just externalizing that out. I think that's true.

I had a hard time sleeping last night because I was frustrated. I tried searching the interwebs for a place we could call our own but to no avail. My husband and I have decided that we want to move out soon and live more independently, but we're still at the planning stage. We're in a very complicated situation.

Budget is also tight nowadays, and if we're fortunate enough to find a place, we're gonna have to fire Iaine's nanny to save more money. (Sorry.)

Reality bites, but I swear we're gonna bite harder. BRING IT ON!

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Jeean Lanting - freelance creative designer

- Services available only in the Philippines -

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Monday, March 14, 2011

My One and Only

It appears that as of today, Iaine is 1 year 1 month 1 week and 1 day old. And I'm writing about it just because. I mean how often does that happen?

Edit: I had to go back and edit this post. It was supposed to have ended with that question mark above but then I realized I haven't blogged about Iaine's newly perfected skill:

WALKING.

You read that right, yes, she can WALK! She can walk for long distances now without holding onto something. This has been going on for about a week and only for the past two days did I see her do it like a pro. Like she's been doing it for months!

I know the development of babies vary so I never felt disappointed that Iaine learned walking a bit later than others. I hear about babies starting to walk at the ages of 8 months, 9 months, even 1 and a half and to me it doesn't matter. I knew Iaine would be ready at her own pace so I didn't need any measures to force her. I did train her, yes, but exhaust her til she passes out, no.

I'm so proud of her right now. So very proud.

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Our Decision, Not Just Mine

I'm a SAHM turned WM turned SAHM back again and some people have been bugging me for months to return to work. I'm a registered nurse. I went to a university to finish BS Nursing which is a four year course, then after I graduated I signed up for a review program that lasted almost a year. After that, I took a painfully hard 2-day licensure examination and then earned my license after that first take. Took a lot of hard work and to not do anything about my degree would be a a shame and waste of potential. But honestly, under the present circumstances I'm good right where I am... It's safe to say--for now.

Today I saw Iaine take the most number of steps so far. There are no words to describe how I felt. Or maybe it's how Katie (Horton Hears a Who) put it: In my world,everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows--and poop butterflies!

This morning, we woke up at almost the same time, rolled around in bed for a good 30 minutes just feeling comfortable in a sea of fluffy pillows and soft sheets. Staring at each other. She, touching my face. Me, giving her loving cuddles and kisses. She, smiling and making the most adorable facial expressions. Us, playing hide and seek under my blanket. Then I thought to myself, how can I miss this for the world?

Jai's case is different. He's the father, the husband and he's a very good at it. He's very hardworking and I completely and absolutely understand why he has to work 5 days a week and not be with us. We have agreed about that in the first place and I don't have a problem with it. Sure, sometimes I miss him, sometimes wish I could work too and contribute to making ends meet but it doesn't mean I don't like being a housewife and taking care of our child.

I had a job offer laid out in front of me and all I had to do was just show up on the first day. The benefits sounded satisfactory with a bit of consequence, but in the long run it would have been a good call. I had a hard time thinking about it but I turned it down. Some people thought I was crazy, saying it was a great opportunity and because I can leave Iaine at home while I work. Iaine has a nanny and she's a great help but she's not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed (Juno reference) so I'm not comfortable with the idea of leaving Iaine with her for 8-9 hours a day/5 days a week. And being the mother, I can't exactly leave her the responsibility of helping Iaine out with her milestones. I should be the one seeing and participating in Iaine's everyday accomplishments. It's only fair that there should at least be one us (me and Jai) who represents the other and make Iaine's childhood as wonderful as possible.

So here's my argument: Maybe I could live til I'm a hundered years old? Can anybody seriously tell me I'm literally running out of time? How much time, then? In my point of view I have plenty of time to work on my career and be the most efficient nurse in history. Iaine's childhood doesn't last a hundred years. Every second, her brain is trying put the pieces together, trying to understand, trying to make her do things. She's at the stage of exploration and as my husband put it, the world is her playground. We plan to let her roam freely with us behind her back. I choose to be the mother who puts my child first before anything else. I want to be the mother who has a close relationship with my daughter. We want to be the parents who she runs to when she skins her knee for the first time, takes a first spoonful on her own, and maybe meet her first best friend. I wanna see her run to her Poppa when he gets home from working so hard. And I don't see anything wrong with all this.

I have nothing against working moms. Believe me I've been there. But right now I choose to stay home. When I think Iaine gets old enough to not need me 24 hours a day, then you can talk me into wearing scrubs again.

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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

So Beautiful


[photos from my SIL's iPod touch]

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Friday, March 4, 2011

Just Because

Marriage vows are promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops.
Our wedding day. August 1, 2009.

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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Blogs Into Books

Right now I'm back home. Iaine and I are spending a few days here at my parent's house where I grew up and I'm sitting here in my old bed with my back against the headboard, my head rested on 3 big pillows and my fingers typing away on the soft keys of my sister's netbook. It feels great to be here... maybe that's why I had the urge to write another post.

I follow a lot of blogs and one of them had a recent post about her blog being turned into memoirs. Books. And I thought, OMG that's such an awesome idea.

I mean have you ever thought about the possibility of your blog just... disappearing? Like what if the Blogger peoples randomly decided to cut you out of their system to allow more cyberspace or whatever? Or what if they had some technical issues and deleted your blog? That happened to my husband, btw. He contacted the Blogger admins and made sure he would get his blog back. I think it took some time for them to retrieve it but whatever, it wasn't a pleasant experience I'm sure.

So anyway, this blog-into-books thing is genius. A lot of bloggers already have this idea but I'm referring to a specific kind of publishing. In the US, I hear there are stores that offer this kind of service and I wish we have something like that here in PH. It's such a great idea especially for mommy bloggers because it's a way to immortalize memories -- the good and the bad.

I wonder if blogs would go obsolete by the time Iaine reaches adulthood. But what if, right? Wouldn't it be nice to have something tangible that keeps written memories of yesteryears?

As I am sitting here typing the last paragraph of this entry and simultaneously watching my beautiful Iaine from a distance, full of innocence and charm, basking in the glory of the morning sun with birds' chirps in the background, I am once again reminded that when she gets older she wouldn't remember any of this. So... I am seriously thinking about getting a book done. No pressure, just an option, but I am thinking about it.

ps.
Iaine brushed my hair for the first time. I am in the clouds!

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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

My Husband, The Great!

Jai texted me today and told me to open my e-mail. He forwarded me an announcement from his bosses that said... HE JUST GOT PROMOTED! I am so proud of him!!!! Congratulations, Love! That is truly a well-deserved reward for all the hard work you're doing for our family.
WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

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