06.30.10

June 30 it is. see you at the movies!
Excited that Eclipse will soon be out...that means my favorite book of the series 'Breaking Dawn' is on its way to the big screen soon.

Mobile blogging

So I'm here in a coffee shop waiting for my friend who is obviously late and as i sip my java chip frap, i started people watching. A group of med students discussing about some lung disease and a couple of people whom i assume are husband and wife (coz of their identical rings) are chatting candidly. But then got bored of eavesdropping so i am now here typing and blogging and wondering where my friend is all at the same time.
A barista just came over and offered me a free taste of their new tea..something with flower i think .. I was not paying attention to what he was saying because i was actually looking at his teeth while he speaks. I was mesmerize by how straight and white they are.

Its the first thing that i look at when random people talks to me. I think i'm a teeth person. I like em white and straight. Don't really like looking at people with braces because i get distracted when there's something in it like the food that they just ate. Its just annoying.

Well i think i have to go back to this magazine i'm reading. And hope that my friend arrives sooner than later.


Sent from my Nokia phone

Planning to Buy an iPad?

If you are ..this diagram might be of help. I find it very funny and interesting at the same time..I this my friend Abi would be interested in this. Not because she plans to buy an iPad, but becase of the flow chart itself.. she drinks and breathe processes like these..(hehe! kidding!).

I think the person who made this was not a fan of iPad at all.. more of a PC guy or gal :)

New Blogger Template

As soon as I have read that Blogspot has updated their customize blogger template I was so excited to try it out. Have haven't updated my template for years and so glad that my prayers have been answered that they'd update their designs. And its so easy to use.. just choose, click and apply to blog. So hi-tech! haha!

I've spent almost half of my day just doing the face-lift (choosing what's the best design,background and layout) of my blog. Not because its hard to do but I can't make up my mind which template I like best with what background. I actually had 4 designs that I used for every 30 minutes before deciding to settle with this one..for now.

Here's what's new with my site with its customization :)

Wealth isn’t how much you earn

Wanted to put into good use what I saw from Google reader play last week, so I'm sharing this one with all of you. Makes sense and makes you think.. where the hell am I'm spending my hard earn money?

At age 25, Jim makes $100,000 a year. He’s constantly traveling for business. He has a large home in which he often doesn’t visit some rooms for months at a time. He eats out every single night. He drives a leased Lexus, which he updates every few years at the end of the lease. He buys a whole new wardrobe every six months, taking the leftovers to Goodwill. He spends everything he brings in.

At age 25, Bill makes $35,000 a year. He lives in a smaller home and doesn’t travel much. He makes most of his own meals at home. He drives a Toyota Corolla, which he owns free and clear. He wears clothes until they’re worn, then shops at Goodwill for replacements, often picking up Jim’s barely-worn clothes. At the end of the year, he usually has about $5,000 of his income left over, which he sticks into his stock investments which earn 8% a year.

In ten years, Jim’s net worth hasn’t grown a cent. In those same ten years, Bill has $72,000 in the bank. At the twenty year mark, Jim’s net worth still hasn’t grown a cent. In those same twenty years, Bill has built up $228,098 in the bank. At the thirty year mark, Jim’s still breaking even. Bill, on the other hand, has $566,416 in the bank.

At age sixty five, Jim hasn’t accumulated a cent and will be working for the man for the rest of his life. At the same age, Bill has $1.3 million in the bank and can do whatever he wants for the rest of his life – and probably already started doing that a few years earlier.

It doesn’t matter how much you earn. It matters how much you save. When I was twenty five, my net worth was negative and heading south rapidly. I spent more than I earned and I didn’t really worry about the consequences of it.

I figured if I had the money – or the credit – I certainly ought to spend it in whatever way made my life more enjoyable right now. I’m now thirty one. My net worth is still negative (although it would be positive if I counted the value of my home towards it, which I do not), but it grows every month in a positive direction and will soon become positive even without the house value.

One might immediately think that I must have made my life less enjoyable to make that change. Actually, my life is more enjoyable now. I have a better grasp on the things that actually make me happy and I don’t waste my money on things that don’t. I’m not chained to a desk and a career, fearing the pink slip – I set my own career rules and goals.

I’m not afraid of getting the mail any more and I don’t wake up at night worried about how I’m possibly going to make ends meet or pay all of this off in the future. Perhaps best of all, my financial position is improving every single month and I no longer see the long-term future as some kind of musty cloud that will “work itself out.” I know it’s getting better and I know that, if I continue on this path, I’ll be able to easily have some of the big things I actually want in life, like a beautiful house in the country with some wooded land in the back.

My life now is something I’ll happily trade having a shiny new Lexus and an iPhone and a set of high-end golf clubs and eating out every night for. In exchange, I’m not worried about the future and I have career and personal freedom I would never otherwise have. Wealth has little to do with how much you earn. It’s how you spend – or save – it.

source:CSMonitor

Google Reader >> Play

If you are a Google fan like me, you know what a Google reader is. If you have a Gmail, and subscribed to Google reader, you'll see a shortcut at the upper left portion of your gmail screen. But for those who are not fans of Google and does not have a gmail account,a Google reader is a web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. Is that too technical for you? We'll its like you are subscribed to a magazine that you receive the monthly issue right at your doorstep. But on this case, its subscription on your favorite websites that sends you updates daily on your google account. Gets?

Okay, so I am subscribed to Cuteoverload for some uber cute photos of animals that makes me smile all the time, PopSugar for my daily doze of Hollywood! Boston Globe's The Big Picture for News Stories in Photographs, the Kitchn for some cooking tips and inspirations and the WebUrbanist for some visual culture and weird stuff. All these feeds are in text format which I am okay within. I'm not hard to please.really. But when Google came up with something completely different (as the title of the Google Reader blog), I was so eager to try it out.

Garrett Wu wrote: "experimental product from the Google Reader team that makes the best stuff in Reader more accessible for everyone, while giving Reader users a new way to view their feeds. It’s called Google Reader Play, and it’s a new way to browse interesting stuff on the web that’s easy to use and personalized to the things you like. Best of all, there’s no set-up required: visit google.com/reader/play to give it a try."

And so I gave it a try and loved it! Random information around the world in just a click of a mouse. I even learned that scientist has prove that  HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) is bad for us...

sample screenshot for you to visualize how great this stuff is. Try it!

Buttered Veggies .. and some cooking secrets

Julia Child said that when a food taste good, it must be the butter. And I do agree! I love food with butter. It makes the food not just smell good but taste even better than by just adding a cooking oil.

I tried to do this recipe a few months back but it didn't taste as good as this one for I have over cooked the vegetables. This is another reality in cooking. I'm no expert in cooking but in eating.. I know when the veggies are cooked just right or over cooked. And who wants to eat an over cooked saggy veggies? yuck!

And so I found the secret in steaming the veggies to have that crunchy taste even after several days in the fridge.

After cutting your veggies to the desired size  (there's no rule which veggies are the right one to be used for this recipe.. its up to the one cooking and the people they'll be serving it to- but for me, its always, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and chayote. Other opt to include baby corn , baguio beans and celery.) Boil 2 cups of water, as soon it starts to boil and heavy steam appears, place your vegetables on top of the steamer pot and cover for 10 minutes. No more. No less. Remove the vegetables from the steaming pot and set aside. Remove the covers so that it won't cooked itself any further with its steam. Let it cool in room temperature.

Another secret I discovered is that if you add a small amount of cooking oil in your butter, the butter will not burn...I get a lot or "really" and 'Oh' and 'Aaahh' when I share this secret to my friends.

And so before adding in your butter on the pan, put 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil or cooking oil first. Then add your butter. The amount of butter will depend on the amount of vegetables you want to cook. Toss in the vegetables like what they do on TV.. hehe! ( I do this just to make me feel like a real chef..but not too high of course! ). Add some salt and pepper to taste. But for this recipe, I used Knorr Real Sarap seasoning for flavor. (opps.. free endorsement!)

Serve at once while its hot!

Enjoy this side dish with steamed or fried fish :)

look what i got from AJ this afternoon...

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Oscar's Curse

They say you can never have everything in this world. You win some you lose some.

 For Sandra Bullock, who recently won the Best Actress for her Oscar Winning performance in Blind Side (which I have yet to see), this seem to be true since her husband, Jesse James, has allegedly been cheating on her. The tattooed vixen named Michelle "Bombshell" McGee admitted to this saying while Bullock was in Atlanta working on the movie, she had sex at least once a week with the "Monster Garage" star.

And so people have come to a conclusion that the little golden man has a curse. Since most ladies who won this coveted award have a not so happy ending when it comes to their love lives. I can name a few.. There’s Hillary Swank split with her husband Chad Lowe, Kate Winslet, who has just announced her separation from Sam Mendes. Did Halle Berry split with ex-husband after she won the Oscar for Monster Ball?? Can’t remember that one. And who will forget Reese Witherspoon’s separation with Ryan Phillippe.

Another theory comes along that their husbands can’t handle the pressure of their wives being more famous and (will earn even more) money than them. It’s an ego thing I guess. That’s why the cheating starts. To show the women who are in control.. And there goes the marriage down the drain. They win and then they lose. Life isn’t fair. Never is.

i'm addicted to colored gel pens!

Can not seem to get enough of them these days.
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PhotBlog: building

Saw this when i arrived home from work. I ask my son, is that a rocket ship?
AJ replied: no mommy that's a building. Haha! Indeed it is.

CARS

They say that repetition is the key to learning. But what if your child wants to watch the same cartoon over and over and over again?

Yes, this is the current situation with my son AJ. (Who is by the way turning 4 this coming June). The cartoon is question is CARS (a pixar animated movie). He can watch this cartoon over and over for the whole day, 7 x a week. When he gets tired of Tom Mater and Lightning McQueen, he ask us to change the channel to Disney Playhouse. Oh boy! my hubby and I already memorized the lines and the sequence of the film.. the funny thing is that, AJ too knows the lines and repeats them .. though not as clear ..but you would understand bits and pieces of the words. He also sang along during the scene where MAC and McQueen drive through the freeway to get to LA as well as the scene where McQueen and Sally took a drive around Radiator Spring.

Oh how I wish he gets over this already so we can watch a new one :)

Just a bit of Trivia: CARS was the last movie we watched before I went into labor and gave birth to AJ. I still remember the date, It's June 11,2006. After watching, I noticed a spotting and went to the hospital. I thought I was in labor already but my cervix is still close. So they asked me to go home and come back if I feel any contractions. June 13, at 2:24am I gave birth to little AJ :)

Pinoy Pride

Makes me proud of the achievements of Pinoys abroad. May it be in sports, theater, entertainment etc. And after seeing this video of Charice..I'd say she's on her way to stardom.. Hello Grammys! :)

Move over Rhianna, Ciara and Beyonce..make way for Charice! I like this Pyramid song.. hope all the songs in her up coming album is a variety though. Good Luck Girl! May you have a lot of iTunes download :)

A Funny Wedding Video

The Groom is a friend and I have known him to be really funny. And this video of his wedding that he shared to me just made my day...Ang Galing!

Alvin Teng & Gayle Go Wedding from Wang Videography on Vimeo.


P.S. Parkour ^[1] (English: the art of moving) is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment.^[2] It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, as if moving in an emergency situation. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed. The object of parkour is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. The obstacles can be anything in one's environment, but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of the many suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails.

Baby Toby

I've been staring at the monitor for a few minutes and not knowing how to start this entry. I learned that a colleague from my previous company just lost her son. He was 5 days old. No matter how old the child is, I could not imagine the grief she is going through. No words can ever give meaning to what a parent especially a mother feels when she looses a child.

It may be a coincidence that I just saw the episode of MMK where Vilma Santos played the mother and Maja Saldor played the daughter who died of epilepsy. Vilma said to Ricky (Davao) who was her husband..."Kapag namatayan ka ng asawa, ang tawag sa'yo biyuda o biyudo o balo. Kapag namatayan ka ng magulang, ang tawag sa'yo ulila. Pero kapag namatayan ka ng anak, anong tawag dun? Wala, kasing walang salita para sa sakit na nararamdaman ng isang ina na namatayan ng kanyang anak."

The line struck a cord so deep that tears just came rushing down my eyes. I get emotional when it comes to parent-child relationship. Maybe because I'm a mother and I have gone through the pains and the sacrifices. Could never imagine that kind of pain.. and will never wish for anyone to experience it.

To G, Be strong. Though it may sound cliche, but its true. God has His reasons.

And so I offer a silent pray to Baby Toby. Another angel in heaven. Rest in Peace.

spicy sardines pasta

Reposting this for those craving for a seafood pasta. Bon Appétit.

xoxo.

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About a week ago, the person in charge of our quarterly regional newsletter sent an email to all the staff to share their recipes. It can be a native food or any food recipe that you want to share.


Finally, I can share the recipe of my favorite pasta dish 'spicy sardines pasta'.

I tasted this pasta at Kitchen in Greenbelt and liked it so much .. I tried to cook it at home.. and I would say... its more delicious because it was my labor of love... ang hirap kaya mag tanggal ng scales at mag debone ng sardinas haha!

so here it is..

Ingredients:

250g of Linguine Pasta

2 bottles Spanish Style Sardines in olive oil (or corn oil) (mild hot or extra hot)

10 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil (or corn oil)

salt and ground black pepper to taste

chopped Basil leaves (fresh or dried)

1/3 cup (80 g) grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook Pasta as instructed in package. set aside.

2. Finely chop sardines (remove the scales and deboned). set aside.

3. In a pan, heat olive oil and saute the garlic until light brown.

4. Add chopped sardines, basil leaves, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

5. Toss in the cooked pasta.

Serve with parmesan cheese and toasted herb bread.

Servings: 6 persons