Tracy's Birthday and My New Nephew!

A while back, I posted something about going to the aquarium and eating at a seafood restaurant by the bay. Well, I found out from a reliable source that an aquarium trip wouldn't be worth it: its expensive ticket would allow a visitor only an hour of sightseeing, it is dinghy and uncompleted, and its far. So we decided instead to eat out and walk around to celebrate Tracy's birthday! It was a steak-and-sushi day spent by the beach. I took a lot of pictures, and some of them have already been posted on my Flickr photo stream. The highlight of the trip was the steakhouse, pretty pricey but satisfying. Maybe I'll blog about this restaurant one of these days, but for sure, I'd love to come back to the Highlands Steakhouse.

In other news, my new baby nephew has finally arrived! My sister River reports that our sister Naikee is doing well with her new baby. No further news yet, just some bits and pieces of information and a few pictures posted on Facebook. Here's my sister with Baby Jared:

WTF Items

Apparently, people used to think:

Some people think it a nifty idea to have their German shepherds chew on this dog toy:

 

 

Read the sources here and here.

Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

Speaking of banned classics, I have a (hard) copy of Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Truth is, I never thought much of this book. I read this when I was already in law school, and seeing as how I've encountered plenty of controversial pieces of literature in the past, this was something mild. Not that I think bad of it.

 

I could've taken my own photo of the book cover, but I was lazy :P

I found it cute how the blogger who wrote the article on the banned classics depicted this novel:

Audio Book Craze

apparently the novel has a movie version

 Apart from photography, I have found another distraction: audio books. This is an offshoot of law school, when I had to listed to audio codals in my iPod during commute, to remind me of lessons for the evening's class. I think I am beginning to prefer listening rather than reading books, especially that it enables me to use productively the time I spend commuting to and from work and other chores, which I use a considerable amount of time for. I am also looking at getting classical music for my iPod: just music with no words, most probably made with violin and piano. My boyfriend listens to gaming pod casts and all sorts of popular music. I guess this illustrates how different our tastes are, even when we have a lot of things in common. =)

Life and Times of Ronald Mc Donald

I think it was a year ago when I saw an article in a men's website compiling pictures of the clown unrelated to the famous fast food chain. Too bad I lost the link! Here's a pic that I found to which I couldn't resist putting a caption:

Ronald meets Lilliputians.

Attempt at Artsy Photos

Sunday found me and my boyfriend walking around at The Fort, each with their own goal in tow: him, to browse through sports stores looking at running shoes and I, testing my new camera.

I haven't read up much about digital photography, but since most of it is creativity I just decided to merely point and click for a day. Below are two photos I'm sort of proud about.

New Cam!

My boyfriend has decided to get my my Christmas present early this year, and after what seemed like forever I finally got a camera! Its a Kodak Easy Share C14 with an 8.2 megapixel resolution! I can't wait to use it on events and post my pictures on Geek Sugar's Cool Capture, Flickr or Picasa... I am not a very good photographer (yet) but I am planning to be one! Right after blogging this I am definitely Google-ing stuff about digital photography!

Schizophrenia

We sometimes eat lunch at the Promenade, usually pasta from Xocolat. Yesterday I was at Promenade again, eating pesto pasta and leafing through a magazine. I read an article about a woman who battled schizophrenia. She is now in her thirties, but she was diagnosed with the mental illness sometime in college, when she had been nineteen, a budding writer working with the University paper and with a bright future ahead of her. Somehow things went to a downward spiral when the disease took control of her life. She had parents, friends, and a community who accepts her, but when the voices became insistent, they all left and she was left alone.

Today at Digg I again saw an article on Schizophrenia. It described the same symptoms, and a woman who has battled the disease, albeit not the same woman described in the magazine article. The experience was likewise the same: a person who seemingly has everything and who loses everything all because of the voices in their heads.

Death and Life

I practice a very morbid exercise whenever I feel down. I learned the idea from a class in college, even though back then, it had a different purpose. In Social Science, our professor made us write our own epitaph and compose a story of how we are going to die. It's supposed to make us comfortable with the idea of death and dying and how both are linked to life. I sometimes use this activity to make me realize how life can still be beautiful, despite its flaws.

CRAMPS!

My boyfriend and I have recently taken up jogging as a hobby. Yesterday, we went to the University to jog around the academic oval, some 2 kilometers per lap. When I was finished running around a third of my first lap, I suddenly felt pain in my lower abs.

I reached our meeting place, at the peak of the oval in front of a certain building. I found a bench and sat down. By this time, I believe my lips were already turning white with pain. My knees were buckling under me and sweat was pouring down my temples. It felt like my uterus was being torn to pieces from inside of me and the residue wanted to get out of my mouth and my other parts!  Seriously, it was that painful. My head was throbbing and tears were forming in my eyes in pain!