11/365 : Moon

Apparently, since the moon is supposedly large tonight, I felt like photographing it. However, I only have a point-and-shoot, *and* I missed shooting it when it was still low. Hence a garbled picture. I just thought of trying to be funny, and doing an E.T. Phone Home.

Yes, that bright thing is the moon. I shot it from our own backyard, in ISO1600. yuck. I tried to photoshop it a bit, but hmm, I kind of liked the original better, so I just settled with a few tweaks in levels.

And hmmm. Someone important is [really] mad at me right now. To the point of cursing me in something as public as Facebook. Oh well, I want to try and talk to her about it, but I need some time to think about it.

Anyway, I finally got the final songlist for our gig on the 24th (we had a few "final" versions :p). So, I tried to get some down while Ching was sleeping. For those interested, we'll be playing the following songs :

1. Paramore - Decode
2. Paramore - That's What You Get
3. Boys Like Girls - Thunder
4. Lindsay Lohan - Ultimate
5. Maroon 5 - This Love
6. Maroon 5 - Won't Go Home Without You
7. Oliver James - Long Time Coming
8. Switchfoot - Dare You To Move
9. Seether feat. Amy Lee - Broken

So, we only have around two more practice sessions, but we have quite a list to practice. Hahahahaha. Wish us luck guys. >___>

10/365 : Saturday

Saturdays these days are somewhat straightforward, really. I'd most probably just be in the house, strolling about, sitting in front of the computer, listening to music, texting people, talking to Ching, eating, trying to read. Saturdays really are the days when I grow fatter. :p

Today, Tita Shirley and Audrey, one of her daughters, came over the house. And we just ended up talking about a few stuff. Business dealings, finances, future planning. Adult stuff. Tita kept telling stories about the stuff going on in their business while my mom did her best keeping an attentive ear. I just ate chicken pastel. :p

I really should be studying for my Japanese oral examination on Monday. I did try, but I just couldn't keep at it long enough to make it worthwhile. I really need somebody to talk to in Japanese, and I don't know anyone available enough to do that.

And oh, the image on my laptop shows the Facebook event for the 2008 Adobo Design Competition. For those of you who delve in graphic and video design, maybe you'd be interested in participating. There is no entry fee, as far as I know, and there is also no limit to the number of entries you can submit. It's a pretty major event, so heck, if you have the time, why not? :p

9/365 : Sonic Blastman

First weekend off Christmas vacation, so me and a few officemates decided to hit the mall right after Friday work. We eventually just spent a few minutes over at the local arcade before we went our separate ways. And yeah, we ended up playing Sonic Blastman. That's me on the computer screen.

Today, I also found out that I passed the first part of my company's internal level 3 Nihongo certification exam (from last Monday), so I'm up for an oral exam / interview this coming Monday. I really don't know how to prepare for it over the weekend though. I'm short of friends that can really speak the language. I hope I find something though; maybe I'll just brush up on my vocabulary or something.

And oh yeah, we finally got an answer. And I'm really happy that it was way better than we were worried it could be. Not the best, I must admit, but I'd definitely take it over most of the stuff that we were expecting.

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Here are two more of the Sonic Blastman pictures. One is of Crisel, and the other is of Kath.

8/365 : Cryptic

Nothing noteworthy really happened today save for one thing. One way or another, it had to happen sometime.

Of course, there had always been the wanting. Like I said, it had to happen. Given the situation, most people just plain don't know how to go about it, and I know we were no exception.

I expect lack of sleep, and a lack of concentration at work until an answer finally arrives.

EDIT | Oh, make that two things. That was really immature of him.

7/365 : annual medical exam

Because of some net problems, I missed three blog entries here :( So I'm back-posting those three. Sorry for that.

Today we had our annual medical exam for the company. You know, to make sure that we're all fit and healthy to go to work, that we're keeping off drugs, and that no one is the wiser as to whether the girls are pregnant or not.

And I guess they're really serious about it too: the administration only told us of the exam schedule the day before it had to be done, right before everyone was dismissed to go to work. And guess whose section had to go through the whole ordeal first thing in the morning the next day?

Well anyway, those thoughts aside, it wasn't so bad. Aside from the facts that I had to strip twice in front of someone, had to pee while somebody was watching, and had a needle pricked twice on me, I was also told that my left eye will eventually have to be lasered if I wanted it to improve, and that I also needed a Dowel crown for one of my teeth. Hm.

At least we got to have the whole morning off due to the exam. :p Off work, at least.

The picture is of me and my officemates waiting in line for our x-ray snapshot. Here are some more pictures from then:

6/365 : untitled

Today was another realllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy slow day at the office. >___>

Like I was already downing cup after cup of coffee, and the occasional serving of coke, but I couldn't manage to stay completely awake. Most of the day was governed by menial tasks (although starting tomorrow, I should be starting on better ones), primarily ones for documentation.

This picture was taken in a nearby starbucks, because everyone in the section really wanted to get some coffee. Apparently, everyone thought it was a slow day as well. I'm with Kath in this picture.

There was a bit of a highlight today though: we got treated to a free lunch courtesy of our business trippers, and Alrey who just came back home from the province? So Alrey brought Lechon Kawali and Crispy Pata for lunch. Everyone enjoyed the rare treat, of course. :p

Little did we know (we found out after everyone had settled down after eating) that the meat for those viands weren't actually pork, but rather from a bayawak, which is a really large lizard? Haha :p Honestly, I thought that the food was good while I was eating it.

And today is also Ching's first day back into university for the winter term (today, at least in Canada). I know she'll do really well. :) She's still a little sick though, so I'm still a bit worried, and she has a class until 9:30pm tonight too.

5/365 : workspace

So yeah, I went back to work today. Not a lot of tasks yet; I just had to update my manhour reports, and my performance appraisals. I happen to have left a few pending documents before the Christmas vacation, and they came back to haunt me two weeks after. Hahaha.

And yes, I really did forget that we even had an internal Japanese examination slated for this morning. So I got to office without even any review or practice, and just threw myself into the Japanese level 3 exam. I expected my vocabulary to bomb, I did good on grammar and listening, and I thought the Kanji section was a breeze. ;) If I pass this, I go on to the conversation part of the examination, which is to be held next Monday.

Hopefully, I pass so that I get an instant salary increase (everybody wants that). Also, I hope I also pass the JLPT level 3 last December for an instant hefty bonus! Yay! :D We find out the results to both around February or March.

I also talked to Ching over lunch, and I was really glad to hear her lively again. :) The past few days, it was really obvious that she was having a hard time with the cough and cold (and the imminent fever), and I guess the negative-twenty-something-degree winter didn't really help. But I'm really relieved to feel that she's actually getting better. :)

And one last anecdote: one of my officemates actually brought durian (jackfruit?) into office today? Like a real honest-to-goodness durian fruit, and not just the candies either. And GOD, it stank up half the office floor! :p Everyone was smelling like durian by the end of the day, that I swear, I think I used up a quarter of our first aid clinical alcohol just so I don't notice the smell half the time.

And yes, that's me at my desk, reading a new specifications document that Reji pulled up for me, while drinking some coffee I whipped up with the Hazelnut Coffeemate I recently bought. :p

4/365 : streetsidelampshade

I guess, while everybody aims to make the last day of their vacations really [rock], for the most of us, we just realize how anticlimactic it really is when we get to it.

Tomorrow I go back to work. My vacation had been fun, even though we had plans for a somewhat more fulfilling one (that sadly did not push through), but again, it was fulfilling in its own grand way.

I was kind of apathetic the whole day today; I managed to get off my behind and snap the base picture for this photomanip during the night time. When I got back to my desk though, I found that I used the wrong ISO settings for it, and the image had too much noise and JPEG artifacts. >_______> That's sort of the reason why I had to drastically edit this in Photoshop. No major manipulations though, just some stuff to mask / hide the image noise.

Oh, how I really wish I could afford an SLR/DSLR camera, especially in situations like these.

Anyway, I'm half-dreading, half-excited for tomorrow. We have another Japanese exam, gah.

And Ching is still sick. :( I find myself worrying so much for her, especially with school coming up.

3/365 : steel and string

Okay, this post is late.

I attended my clan's (the Aban clan's) family reunion tonight, and much as I would have liked to split and leave early (most of the time, I really was just idle anyway), I couldn't. I ended up staying there until past midnight, and I got here at home at around half past that.

The festivities were okay, for the most part. My brother (Gian) and me won this parlor game involving concentration, pointing fingers and counting from one to seven (I still haven't gotten to opening the box that I got as a prize). I met some of my dearest cousins that I haven't seen for some time too.

I also got to talk to Ching too when I got home. We didn't really have much of a chance to talk before the party, 'cause I had to prepare and she also had to do some stuff. She's still sick though, and I'm just hoping that it doesn't get any worse. She's starting school on Jan 6 AB Time (I'll be starting work on Jan 5 PH Time too), and hopefully she's not sick anymore by then.

2/365 : acoustic

I've always thought that there was something really romantic about a well-played song on a good acoustic guitar.

I started playing the guitar when I was in 2nd year HS (that would make it around year 2000?), primarily to impress girls. It might sound so low now, and it never did work, but I really am glad of the experiences I've had because of my guitar spin-offs.

Right now, I'm also venturing into electric guitars ('cause, as I found out a good while later, acoustics and electrics really take on a different set of disciplines), and various forms of percussion. So far, I'd say that my fingers really work best on an acoustic.

I took this picture on a timer shot, without a tripod (gosh, I really wish now that I bought one of those gorillapods™ when I was in Japan!) on ISO80 with a yellow lamp right on the guitar. Slightly minimal photo manipulation: cropping off of some parts of the photo into black, a bit of leveling and b&c, a bit of tweaking with the hues, and a run through smart sharpening (CS2).

I also toyed around with the idea of a black and white shot, but figured that I've been leaning on b&w too much for my shots lately. Besides, the color one looks a bit fresher and less drab.

Tell me what you think. :)

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Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to view the original copies. Somehow, they lose quality when they're resized to fit these blog entries. :p

1/365 : kickstart 2009!

Chingching suggested that I start this off with a webcam screenshot of myself. I thought that it was a pretty good idea.

Ever since the latter of last year, the closest we've ever really gotten to actually [seeing each other] was through webcam conversations. And seriously, if it weren't for that, I know that what we have now would most probably not have progressed as well as it has.

So, to start a year of which I keep blabbering of being thankful about, I post a symbolism of what I actually am most thankful for. Never mind that my image editing seems crappy right now; never mind that a webcam really gets crappy images to start with. I know that I'm most thankful for her; that we believe that whatever the situation, we'd always find ways.

And don't mind me being somewhat [sappy] for now; it's the first day of the year! And much like birthdays, people should do whatever they want on the first day of any year. :p

Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope 2009 brings better tidings than any of the past years did.

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And if you're interested, my friend Erika is also doing the 365 Days of 2009 Project over on her recently reincarnated blog. Be sure to check her entries out from time to time too. :)