From the monthly archives: November 2007
I was out today to buy clothes for tomorrow’s party. I used Sylvia to get me a Php 2000 worth outfit — black and silver bubble-skirt looking halter top (haha that’s all I can use to describe it), black leggings, underwear (hee) and black sandals. It’s supposed to be a Christmas party, but it’s Hollywood themed, so I guess this should do. No celebrities to copy, I just want to dress up for once. Hah. I know I’m probably going to get teased tomorrow by my oh-so-loving teammates, but I like what I bought. More spending tomorrow as I get a pedicure and my hair done (hot oiled and blow-dried or should I go for curls? But my hair is wavy already, I don’t want it to be frizzy). Cash or card? Cash. Maybe. Yes, I prepare too much for the party tomorrow, but it’s not a crime to actually get dressed right? :P Now if only I could motivate myself to exercise more…hmmm.
Has anyone noticed how cold it’s been lately? It started Tuesday this week, I think, when it was raining while I was on the way home. Now it’s not raining; it’s just cold. But I do like this cold weather since it would be easier to commute. Remember, it’s cold, not rain. I don’t like commuting when it’s raining…to think I used to love the rain. It’s not as cold as it is in the US, like in Las Vegas (does it even get cold there?), but it’s cold enough for a tropical country like the Philippines. Brrr.
The cold is a sure sign that Christmas is approaching…25 days to go! And yes, my Christmas spirit is here, especially after listening to all those Christmas songs they’re playing at the mall earlier. :) Yeah. I can’t wait for Simbang Gabi to start, and even to hear the carolers coming around (even if they sing the same song every single night). I can’t wait to start buying Christmas presents for people (and if you want to get me something too, here’s this year’s wishlist *wink wink nudge nudge*).
And then before we know it, this year’s ending and it’s 2008. And I’ll be turning 22. And I’ll be pressured more than ever to make that Sydney trip push through. Ah, I need to put all of these down on paper, yes?
I think I’ll go watch some Gossip Girl for a while. I will try to write a review of Enchanted ♥ by tomorrow if I have the time. :) This entry is so random, I like how it’s not laced with anything I worry about. :D
Have a nice Friday night everyone!
Hi friends,
Just this month, a big literary event happened. You may not know about it, but as of this counting, there are about 300+ Filipinos involved in it. This November, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) happened. NaNoWriMo is a month-long challenge for everyday people who ever wanted to write a novel, a.k.a. the one day novelist. You know, those people who say, “One day, I’m going to write a novel.” NaNoWriMo provides you with that one day. This is a challenge to write 50,000 words in the span of 30 days — approximately 1,667 words per day. This is one of the biggest writing events of the year participated in by 100,000 people of all ages from all over the world.
In case you don’t know (or maybe you haven’t been paying attention), I am the Municipal Liaison (ML) for the Philippines for NaNoWriMo 2007. Being an ML means I was put in charge in encouraging these fine Pinoy novelists for the month of November, as well as organize events for them. These writers have toiled their way to writing a novel this November, and even if some did not reach the 50,000 word mark, they are still considered as winners for the simple fact that they allowed themselves to be challenged by NaNoWriMo this month. This, then, deserves some sort of a victory party. The first ever victory party of the Filipino NaNoWriMo community to celebrate the end of the event, and to celebrate our own personal writing victories.
In connection with this, I, as the Municipal Liaison of the Filipino NaNoWriMo community, would like to ask for some help from any of the readers of my blog. See, although we are starting to be supported by a really great group, we are not funded by anyone. Most of the participants are students, and I am not as filthy rich as I want to. :D So I am asking for your kind help for any kind of prize donations that you may want to give to inspire these novelists. These prizes will be used as a raffle for all the participants who will join the victory party tentatively scheduled on December 8. These prizes could be anything that would inspire a writer to continue writing, such as:
- a journal
- a nice pen
- a writing book/manual — especially a copy of No Plot, No Problem!
- a book written during NaNoWriMo and published
- a novel about writing or reading (Jasper Fforde, anyone?)
- any book would do, actually :D
- coffee shop GCs, since writers like having write-a-thon’s at coffee shops
- bookstore GCs
- food – chocolates, potato chips — writers have to eat too
- bookmarks
- anything from The Office of Letters and Light Store (which ships here, I think)
Possible prizes are not limited to that. It could be as simple as a pin or as personal as a handwritten inspirational letter to a participant for NaNo 2008. It does not have to be as expensive as say, tickets to a Van Halen tour, just something a budding novelist could use to inspire him to continue to write. Cash donations will also be accepted, although I’m kind of wary with that. But if you do decide to give that, I assure you that (insert number here) stomachs will be happily filled by December 8.
If you would be kind enough to help me out and continue to inspire these Pinoy writers, kindly post a comment here so I can contact you, or just use the contact form and please put NaNoWriMo 2007 on the subject field so I know it’s about NaNo.
Thank you for reading this post, and I hope to hear from any of you readers (however few you may be) soon. :)
Tina (tinamats)
ML for the Philippines
NaNoWriMo 2007
Disclaimer: This is not an official NaNoWriMo site, nor is this request sponsored by NaNoWriMo. The content has not been reviewed by National Novel Writing Month. For more information on National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org.
Warning: This entry is very ranty, maybe a bit selfish. Please excuse me, a corporate slave has been interrupted from her work. Let me let out some steam, please.
And I thought today would be a peaceful day, you know, since there’s only the real work I have to deal with, no extra-curricular activities. Plus, it’s the weekend, so I look forward to shopping tomorrow with Happy for something to wear for Saturday’s company Christmas party…and then relax on Sunday while capturing this video for work. You know, a nice, normal, quiet weekend — something to recover from the stress of the week.
But other people have other plans ((Read: The Makati Standoff)). And everyone’s affected ((Read: Manila curfew)).
If you happen to be in the country and you don’t know what’s going on, you are probably not watching the news…so here’s a short version: two grown men — a senator and a general — decided to throw a tantrum because the people won’t hear their side and lock themselves up in a hotel. Oh and they brought friends too! Hey, maybe they listen to us now!
Six hours later…“FINE! I’ll go out now and surrender…but only because I don’t want people to get hurt!” *Ignores all the guests staying in the hotel who had to go out because of what he did, the workers in Makati who got hassled, and all the people who got hassled because of the curfew imposed as a result of this whole shenanigan.* Oh, at least no one got hurt, right? They’re hassled, yes, but they’re not hurt! It’s okay! The Manila Peninsula has a tank smashed up the front entrance that destroyed the hotel entrance and probably their nice ceiling lighting? Cool! But no one’s hurt, right? The place is just badly damaged, but don’t worry, you can fix that! Oh, media people? Sorry we had to use you as human shields, and sorry, we’ll use you as well so some of us can try to go out. You might get arrested, but don’t worry, it’s okay! You’ll get out! Your networks will let you out! Everyone ready? Okai, we go nao! Ktnxbai!
Hay. Sorry for the sarcasm, I’m just annoyed. I’m probably going to take a lot of heat with what I’m about to say, but I’m annoyed because this is my last night of late shift, and I had a lot of stuff to finish tonight, which I couldn’t because I had to go home and I can’t work on it at home because I don’t have a work-issued laptop. Ah, I’ve become such a corporate slave that all I think about is work, work, work.
I guess at some point in the past few years since EDSA Dos, I have become a bit apathetic over these things. It had a point back then, but people keep on overusing the rally power that we had, that it’s become tiring. Remember those rallies in Makati two years ago, the one where entire Ayala was closed to traffic because people decided to rally? Where they left Makati very dirty afterwards, hassling all the workers because all underpasses and overpasses are closed and no bus passes in Ayala so everyone has to walk all the way to Glorietta to ride the MRT? It’s just too much. And now this! It’s tiring, really.
I’m not pro-administration or pro-opposition, but this is just crazy. And selfish. The way they tried to call attention and get the other side to do their bidding and point fingers to blame other people for the misfortune of our country is plain selfish, when in reality everyone is at fault. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you threw away your trash on the street and not look for a garbage can? When was the last time you one-upped your friend because you wanted to get more for yourself? When was the last time I ignored someone who needed my help? When was the last time I thought of someone other than myself? And see how selfish I was a few paragraphs back, when I was talking about how this entire thing disturbed me from work and I hardly even throught of everyone in Makati who is affected and might have been hurt in this entire ordeal?
I’m still proud to be a Filipino, and I still hope for the best in this country. I just hope that the people in position will decide to side with the Filipino people — who they are supposed to be serving, anyway — for once, and not stage things like these that really shows how much they only think of themselves.
Alright, enough ranting. The disgruntled (hee, favorite word at work right now) corporate slave will just sleep and pray everything is normal — as much as it can be — tomorrow.
Keep safe, everyone.
November has indeed been crazy, but let me just say: IT’S (ALMOST) OVER!
My posts for this blog has been considerably few for this month, and I blame it all on National Novel Writing Month. Writing a 50,000 word novel in a month is no joke, and this year it’s hard because I’m not so in love with my story as I used to the past years. Then again, my past three novels have self-insertions in it, and most of the other charaters are based on the people around me, so it’s easy to write. This year, there’s no self-insertion as the characters are based on mostly my imagination, not on other people I know (So teammates, no one is in the novel this year. Maybe next year?), though my friends and I made a cameo (Heh. That’s blatant self-insertion!).
Oh yeah, I reached 50,121 words today, and once I saw my word count was enough, I stopped writing and I intend to bury that novel in Aslan until I can look at it again in the face. It’s not that I do not like my novel this year — I do. I just don’t like the way I wrote it. I feel like I lost my writing skills in the middle of the month, and you would not believe the amount of word padding I did in this novel just so I can get to my word count. Bah. Quantity over quality. I’ll get back to it when I feel like it. David and Marianne can wait (and oh yeah, I scrapped the entire Marianne recovering from drug rehab thing…it’s to heavy to write). Right now, let me rest and start making a dent on my long overdue reading list. Pride and Prejudice, here I come!
The next crazy thing that’s about to end together with this month is my first time as night shift for work. Hay, finally! Okay, I admit that I might have complained a bit about my being night shift but I did shut up in the middle of the month and managed being on night shift quite well. It was interesting to see so many people on our floor and to see how many things I can finish doing at night. I admit that I wrote a lot for NaNo during my shift, when I’m out of things to do. The only thing that made this month’s shift crazy is that we have this really demanding client, plus all our extracurricular activities that we all said yes to. O_o; Okay, it was a nice kind of busy, but it kept me too much on my toes that now, I just want to relax. And do the normal work we used to do.
Today’s my last day of night shift for this year (since tomorrow we’ll be on holiday), and come Monday, I am a happy morning person again. :) Yay. Will I go on night shift again or try mid-shift next time? It would depend on the need, actually. See, being on night shift has really nice financial perks. :> But let’s see how it goes. I’m not even sure when my next schedule is. :P
Hopefully the craziness with work especially this particular client would be over by today, just so it’s some kind of a clean slate by Monday. :)
So it’s almost December! My tentative list of things to do for December are:
- Get that Dreamhost hosting plan and start transferring my files.
- Change domain name registrars.
- Make a new layout.
- Start putting more effort on Mission: Sydney
- Organize NaNoWriMo Thank God it’s Over (TGIO) meet up.
- Christmas shopping!
- Christmas parties (first one on Saturday for work)
- Read, read, read!
And now I shall go to work. Later I shall post about something serious, and Enchanted ♥ ♥ ♥ . Keep safe, everyone. :)
I loved that movie (I’m referring to the post title). You know, where there’s a gigantic worm eating up people who walk on the desert ground and they made it explode at the end?
Anyway, today was another busy day at work, which what things have been for the past few weeks. I’m so busy I can hardly write in my novel this week, and this is supposed to be crunch time. Hay life. Today our team had to finish this photo book that some people asked us to do for this big boss who came to town. It felt like thesis all over again, where some of my teammates pulled all nighters while I went on day shift today just to help them. Such is life. Good thing I like my job and I’m used to these things that’s why it doesn’t bother me (although my seriously whacked body clock is).
So lunchtime today, my YFC Docu household “anak” came over for an interview and we had lunch. We bought food for some of my teammates and when we got back, the first thing they said was, “Did you feel the earthquake?”
We were, “Was there an earthquake?”
Apparently, it was really strong at our floor (we were at the 9th floor). I hardly felt anything while I was in KFC, where there’s a lot of people, and I don’t think the people lining up with me felt anything too. Everyone was asking about that then, and I felt like such a loser for not feeling it.
Or…not really. I’m the kind of person who sleeps through an earthquake, you know? There was this particular magnitude 7.0 or something earthquake a few years back that happened at night, and I slept right through it. I do remember hearing my parents waking up and saying that the ground is shaking, but I thought it was just a dream…when I woke up and went to mass, it was all they could talk about. I can be such a sound sleeper that I can sleep through anything, even if it’s a radio on a stereo cabinet playing really loud music. And that’s kind of weird too, since when I’m awake and it’s silent, I feel earthquakes easily.
I wonder why I can write so much about an earthquake when I can’t even churn out 2000+ words in my novel. Gah. This means I should write now.
Last week of night shift! But I think I’m going mid tomorrow since my body clock is still whacked. I can’t wait to go back to day shift on Monday.
Last comment before I go: my mom’s watching Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2, and they just played Everything’s Right by Matt Wertz. Coolness. Okay, I go write now.
Gah. I just woke up from a five hour nap. It’s fine, of course, but the thing is, I need to be at work early tomorrow, so I don’t need any naps today since I won’t be staying up all night. Ergh. I was supposed to have a productive afternoon writing, but no. Hmph.
Anyway, I’m too lazy to update this other blog (been too lazy lately to update any other blog, for that matter), so I’ll rant and update about my NaNoWriMo novel here. I’m currently at 36k+ words, which is not bad since I’m over the 35K thing, which should make all things easy…but really, it’s not. I’m aiming to get at least 40k words tonight, which means I have 10k words left to write for the next four days. Why four days? I’m going to be out on Friday for MV Doulos, All Leopard Day and lunch with Tuesday and Happy. I could cram writing at night, but not more than 1000 words please.
So why am I going to work early tomorrow when I’m still at night shift? Well, a big boss at work is coming to town, and my team was asked to help out with making a photo book for the guy. Two of my teammates were assigned as photographers, two of my teammates will work as the layout artists and we have a printer and a photobook that needs to be filled up. I offered my services to cut and paste them in the photobook (even if I seriously suck at cutting…but that’s why I offered my paper trimmer up as well :D). My part of the deal starts in the afternoon, so I could just go to work then, but I’ve got leftover work from another client at work (argh, argh, argh), and I need to finish it ASAP so if I have any revisions I could finish it immediately…hence my drive to get to work early to finish that first before any of the photo book stuff. *whew*
I knew November was going to be crazy, but this is…just…crazy. See emphasis, please.
This feels so much like school. Haha. Crunch time!
This point is totally senseless. But I guess the nap worked because I feel like I’m running on a full battery, so that should get more work done. Here’s to writing 4000 more words tonight.
But wait. CSI:NY Season 4 Episode 9 waits. Eeep.
Argh. I have 65 pages to edit tonight for one of our clients, and my head is already reeling from a previous conversation my teammate and I had with this previous client. This previous client had been a bit of a headache for the past weeks, and now we’re trying to fix it but there’s so many pages to edit! :( Especially for me, since I have about five requests from that client, and it’s driving me nuts!
I miss day shift.
Speaking of day shift, since tomorrow and Friday are US holidays (Happy Thanksgiving :D), I’m going to mid shift tomorrow and day shift on Friday since there’s no use staying up late. Our floor is mainly a night shift floor so it’s quite alive at night, but this coming weekend would mean this floor would be empty. I planned to bring DVDs and whatnot to watch, but then it’s silly; I’ll just go to work in the morning. :)
Ack. So. Many. Pages!!! ~x( And I’m itching to write my novel to catch up on my word count. I finally found my groove, and my characters are finally talking to each other, plus I can finally see the scenes play out in my head, but I’ve got no time to write! I thought night shift would give me more time, but nooo, I’m swamped with work every single day. :( Hay.
I just realized, this is the first time I complained about my work, right? Interesting.
Anyway, it’s just 1 1/2 weeks till I end my night shift, and it’s going to be some months again before I do this. It’s interesting to see how many things I can do in a night, but it’s tiring to be sleeping during daytime instead of night time. My body clock is still screwed up, but I’ve adjusted already. It’s going to take more an a Hamilton watch before I could adjust back to day again. –;
I guess I better get back to work if I want to clock in some noveling time later. 65 pages I shall conquer j00!
The first time I had a checking account was when I transferred to my new job. I never really knew what the difference between a savings account and a checking account was because I always had a savings account. Though I was confused a couple of times on that, like when I deposited cash on my friend’s account but mistakenly checked Savings instead of Checking (or was it Current?). Ooops!
Anyway I found out what is the main difference of a checking account from a savings account soon after: checking account comes with — you guessed it — checks. Yay, and that’s it, I think. When I opened my checking account here at work, I was surprised to learn that we had to pay a certain amount for our checks. O_o Ergh. I wish we did not have to, but then again, it’s not like I have any choice, so I still paid for it.
But I have to say, having a checkbook is quite convenient, especially when I’m paying for my bills and my debts to my mother. Yes, there’s the hassle of the three-day clearing and the possibility that the check would bounce (but it wouldn’t as long as there’s money in the account, so there), but it’s way easier to bring around a check than have wads of cash (not that I have that ;) ) lying around in my bag to do payment. :D And it’s easier to pay in exact amount too, instead of scrounging around for coins or making an over-payment to pay for bills. :D
Overall, I’m managing well with my checks. :)
Now where did this post come from? Totally random, eh? Aside from the link (hee, moolah!), it’s because it’s 1:50am and I’m at work and I’ve got a series of online trainings I’ve got to finish for this week and I feel like I don’t know how to write anymore and that I still want to strangle my NaNo 2007 characters. *sigh* So if this post did not make any sense to you…well, feel free to skip it. :D Hee. Good morning world!
Forgive me for the lack of posts. Being on night shift does not give me a lot of time, and until now I’m still lacking words for my NaNo novel, and it’s seriously draining me. I’ve never written anything this serious before and my characters are refusing to talk to each other like they should. Gah.
But this post is not about that. :) Earlier today yesterday, I watched the theater adaptation Dogeaters with Julie. I loved the play, and it made me want to buy the book to read how it is. I did not buy the book, not only because I do not want to charge it in my card, but because I do not have space to keep it at home.
Okay, so maybe I do, but it’s all a mess.
Anyway, one of the things I’ve been campaigning for since my brother moved the sofa bed to his own room was my own bookshelf. The state of my room is, my computer is on my desk, where my favorite books are, while the other books that I have (all 300+ of them) are spread all around the room. I really want to clear the one on my desk and on my chest of drawers because it’s so messy, but there’s nowhere to put it. No bookshelf. :(
I want a good and solid bookshelf. I don’t want a plastic one as it will collapse after some time. I want one made of wood, like the ones below which I found in Ikea (which also sells nice baby cribs and baby furniture), which could definitely hold my books:
Looks nice, diba?
If my room was big eough, I’d get something like this:
Or maybe something bigger. Like a floor-to-ceiling bookcase. Hmmm. :-?
I swear, after NaNoWriMo, I’m gonna read, read, read. I am so disappointed at how bad my writing and vocabulary is for this year’s NaNo. Argh. :( From December until October next year, I will build my vocabulary and read!
I am such a geek for writing a post about bookcases. Haha. Can anyone tell me where I can buy really nice bookcases in Manila? If only we have Ikea here, I would get it there. Wait…I’m gonna make someone get it there. ;) Hello, Christmas list. :D
If at some point you found this post not making sense, it’s just me still awake at 3:00am so I would adjust to night shift tonight. Hay. Two more weeks!
Back to NaNo-ing. Good morning everyone!
I stuck my iPod Triskal on Guilo (My office PC) today to play my music loud since the other night shift people on the neighboring cubicles weren’t there yet. I opened iTunes and a software update shows up. Now if it’s an iTunes update, I usually ignore it since iTunes is such a big memory hogger that any other update it adds means it hogs more memory (A habit I formed with Ginger, my old laptop. Well, now that I have Aslan, I don’t think of that anymore, hee!). But since it’s an iPod software update, I clicked OK and let the computer do its work.
Later, when people started coming in, I decided to unplug my iPod so I can listen to my music in private. I clicked on Shuffle Songs but it wasn’t working, which made me wonder if Triskal is acting up…so I decided to just go to my current favorite song (Until You by Dave Barnes) and play it from there but…
WHERE DID MY SONGS GO?!
My iPod was completely empty! :( I wondered if I unplugged it prematurely, so I tried plugging it in again. I looked at iTunes and there were all my songs! I unplugged it again…and it’s gone again! ARGH!!!
I was panicking real bad and wondering how will I get through the night shift without my songs. I decided to restore my iPod, but I have to back it up first, so I started dragging the songs out to Guilo’s desktop. Then I did some browsing and some places were no help (seriously), until I got to this entry. And I quote:
Apple has released an iPod software update, version 1.2.2. This update is supposed to have some ‘bug fixes’. How important these fixes are to the enjoyment of your iPod is still undetermined.
Many users, myself included, have experienced an issue after installing the update where all the iPod menus are now blank even though it appears to have been properly synced with iTunes. This renders the iPod completely useless and unplayable.
The problem seems to occur when Windows users with 5th generation iPods install the 1.2.2 update before installing the 7.5 update to iTunes.
To avoid this problem install the iTunes 7.5 update and restart before applying the 1.2.2 update to your iPod.
If you’ve already installed 1.2.2 and are suffering from this problem then update iTunes to the current 7.5, restart, and resynch your iPod.
Argh, what a hassle. I went off to download iTunes 7.5, and then installed it (had trouble with installing QuickTime pa, hmph!), but when it’s finally installed, I plugged Triskal in again, and it worked fine. :) Whew.
Lesson learned: Don’t take iTunes updates forgranted. I’m just happy Guilo is a relatively fast computer that I can run Lotus Notes, MS Word, Firefox, Photoshop and iTunes all at the same time. :)
