Year (2008) End Post

I spent the last few weeks of the year cleaning common areas of the house, removing cat/rat/roach droppings from the dirtiest corners of the house, dismantling 40-50 year old furnitures, disposing 30-40 year old garbage, and patching the holes in the ceilings in preparation for this day.

I already used up 10+ rolls of 33 meter duct tapes since November, in my effort to cover every crack and hole in our ceiling, and minimize the dust fall when firecrackers begins exploding today.

Because of that, I didn't have much time to prepare/think for this post. Indeed, time goes by pretty fast. :P

2008, for me, was really about "regaining my time". For the past few years, a great deal of my time was taken up by work, business trips, and overtime. This year was different.

I was able to spend more time at home with my family, with my sisters in particular. I had the chance to work, shop, and play with them as well. Some credit goes to my Nintendo Wii and DS Lite. :)

I was able to make some major and minor home repairs and improvements. Like replacing floor tiles, replacing old fluorescent lamps with compact fluorescents, covering tables with vinyl stickers, any many more. :)

My gaming skills were also restored and improved because of the Wii, thanks to my flexible work schedule, I inserted short Wii sessions in between work. >:)

The work from home setup also allowed me to attend tours, events and gatherings with friends without having to worry too much about schedule and location.

And the most important is the time I spent with Jasmine. :)

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2008 has been a really good year for me. I got to see a lot of people, acquired some cool toys and gadgets, learned some new stuffs, got my impacted wisdom tooth removed, visited some very nice places, attended weddings and parties, spent a lot but saved a lot as well.

2009 is probably going to be a tough year for me, as the effects of the Global Financial Crisis finally sets in. I'm keeping a positive outlook as we enter another uncertain year, but I must and I will prepare for the worst. :)

Happy New Year! :)

P.S. This post is not possible without Globe GPRS Services. Because some smart guy aimed a firecracker at the power line which effectively killed electricity in the whole block. (at around 12:01AM)

I sincerely hope/wish/pray/curse that the guy blows all his fingers off before this day ends.

4 Months Ago

Here's (finally) the second part of my Wedding and Reunion series.

To continue where I left off last time, we spent about an hour in Starbucks, talking mostly about work, future plans, and a bunch of Anime stuffs. Yes, we're the "geeks" of our batch. :P

The reception was held in Gloria Maris, Greenhills. We left Starbucks, Binondo just about 20 minutes before the "scheduled" time of reception, but managed to get there before the program started. We're late, but they're delayed. >:)

Ellyson did not join us because he had to stay home to look after his dad who just had surgery. We shared a table with our high school batchmates, the "populars", just like last year, during Kate's wedding.

There were 2 more tables for our batch, one was occupied by the "regulars", and the other was occupied by the "bullies". I'm using these general "labels" for discussion purposes only. My assesments are largely based from my experiences during our high school years. For some, there are only 2 classifications, "ang nangongopya" (copier), and "ang kinokopyahan" (copyee).

The event was generally fun, it was really nice to see and hear from them again after a fairly long period of time. Too bad these kinds of events are not well suitable for "catch up sessions" with old friends. Good thing that I'm not attached to most of my high school friends so there's not much to catch up. High school must have been boring for me. >:)

What's significant about this event is that, it was the first time I had wine (from grapes, not rice). At first, I refused to take it when my classmates coerced me to. They tried several times and failed repeatedly. The one who actually made me decide to take it was Noric, Nerissa's brother. He was our math/computer teacher. He was one of the reasons why I pursued Computer Science. He's also the one who offered me a position in Rebisco last year. :)

I'm not really the alcoholic type, but I guess I really had to make some exceptions. :P

Before the eating event ended, I got a chance to talk some classmates, who seemed to be quite interested or intrigued with my personal life, something new for someone like me. One offered to give me a ride back home but I told them I'm with Glenn and Magan.

After having our picture taken with Nerissa and Simson, we exchanged goodbyes and went home. I had to thank Glenn for generously giving us ride back home. :)

Until the next wedding event... :D

P.S. I guess Kim is next... He he...

The Frying Pan Incident

I accompanied Jasmine last week to pick a non-stick frying pan for their Secret Santa. It took us (actually her) a while to decided which frying pan to take.

She had a pretty hard time choosing and deciding which frying pan to take because some of them have dents and some have collected dust.

The incident led me to tell her (jokingly), "I imagine myself waking up one day, starving because she refuses to make breakfast after discovering the dent on the frying pan." He he he... :D

Reboot

I've been putting off my blog posts for the past couple of months now. I wanted to catch up before the year finally ends. This post serves as a 'reboot' for my dying blog. Dedicated to none other than Jasmine, of course. :)

Special thanks to Despair, Inc. for their simple yet powerful DIY tool. I also re-created my "Disappointment" lithograph using their tool.

I'm quite pleased with the results. :)