HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Hey all! I know it's not Halloween yet but it will be come midnight but I'll be on the road en route to Tuguegarao, Cagayan Valley (a ten hour drive) and I will be there for five days so... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



Speaking of Halloween, you have to watch Alone . It's a Thai scary movie from the maker of Shutter (another hit Thai movie).



Last Sunday my sister and I went driving to Kuya John's place and witnessed a horrible accident along Macapagal Boulevard. This owner jeep crashed into a poor guy's motorcycle! WE SAW THE WHOLE THING BECAUSE IT HAPPENED RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! Everything went on slow motion while it happened-- the jeep crashing onto the motorcyle and the motorcyle being crushed. After the car went passed the whole scenario my sister and I went, "OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED? IS THE MAN IN THE MOTORCYCLE STILL ALIVE?!" And we were shaking like crazy. When we got to Kuya John's village gate, we went back to the scene right in front of McDonald's Macapagal just to check out if the man is still alive because we couldn't get over what happened and it would eat us whole to leave it all a mystery whether the motorcycle guy survived the crash or not. Thank God! When we got there we saw that there were people helping the guy and his legs were moving so that's a good sign right? It was night so we didn't see the gory details like blood and all and boy was I glad I was spared from that! HAYAYAYAY! BE CAREFUL ALL YOU MOTORISTS OUT THERE! You know what's weird? Both jeep and motorcycle weren't even speeding! I guess one of them wasn't looking that's why they crashed!

I'm glad the dude was still alive. After that we (kuya John, Egy, my sister, and myself) went to BF Homes in Paranaque because I wanted to eat at Sinangag Express! And YUMMMAYYYY! Too bad the nearest Sinangag Express is at Taft! And that's already really far from home. We bought DVDs in Ruins right after and then to kuya John's place to watch the horror movie I mentioned earlier. You know I'm usually a tough cookie when watching horror flicks. I don't scream or anything but while watching Alone? I screamed three times! AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SCREAM! It just happened. So anyway, it's scary and you gotta love the twist in the end. WHAT A WELL WRITTEN MOVIE! Watch it, come one!

So yeah. That's it. I'm sleepy but I'm reserving sleep for later during the trip. It's going to be a long drive. I'm going with Alej and his family to spend All Souls Day and All Saints Day there.

So see you all in five days! =)

warning for future reference.

I suck at grammar and all that technical stuff. I'm the sort of writer who writes what she thinks regardless of punctuation marks and all that technical jazz. I was never good at grammar (the technical aspect of it) and everything I learned in grade school and high school about technical writing and grammar? It all flew out the window. I just follow my instincts when I write and it all flows from there. Maybe sometimes my instincts are just trustworthy that's why I can get away with writing.

I wish I remembered everything because it would have been handy especially when I write technical stuff (regarding legal matters) for my former professor. I forgot about the rules and everything else I learned in school. I wish I could eat a Grammar or Technical Writing book and digest every single rule there is to learn when it comes to writing.

Oh, what an irony! I was considered to write "well" in school but I suck at the technical aspect of it.

So for future reference, sorry if I commit grammatical errors. I really suck at it.

(I decided to put a disclaimer/warning after my father, who reads my blog, corrected a grammatical error I made. Grammar police, is that you? Haha kidding!)

On a slightly darker news....


NAGLUAT AKO. NA-PARDON SI ERAP. GANUN NALANG BA?!

Hello, Sniffles. I'm not happy to see you.

My colds are back. Sniffles are back. Teary eyes are back. UGGGHHHH. I hate this. I finished a fresh roll of tissue/toilet paper in just one day. It's annoying! I think it might be the weather-- one day it's hot and the next day it's cold. We're experiencing cloudy, rainy weather over here because of the low pressure area in the Visayas region. I hope it won't progress into a typhoon!

So I'm back to sneezing and taking antihistamine tablets again. Decolgen knocks the living daylight out of me when I finally surrunder to the drowse effect of the medicine. But while I'm fighting it (like now!) I feel weak and groggy. I'm lightheaded as hell.

On the lighter note, it's my favorite season already! In malls and supermarkets, I hear Christmas carols! I see Christmas lanterns, Christmas lights, and Christmas decorations! Isn't that awesome? The weather is also cooler especially at night. I love it! I can't belive it's just 60+ days before Christmas.

I want to blog more especially about my weekend but I'm too lightheaded to think clearly. So I'll go crash now. Good bye!

I'll leave you with my favorite baby picture of ate and me.

WOW LEGS!

for Ate

terrorism in makati

I've watched countless news on terrorism on tv, read about it on papers or on the internet news, and heard about it on the radio. All of these terrorism attacks happen faraway from home. Perhaps in the same country as I, yes, but bomb explosions and such happen faraway from Metro Manila. I thought I was safe. But I was wrong. When it strikes the mall you frequent and when you were supposed to be there on the same time the bomb exploded, that's a different story.

I was at Greenhills Shopping Center with Alej yesterday when his uncle called and asked where we were. He said there's a stampede going on at the Glorietta as they spoke. We didn't know what was happening during the time so we continued what we were doing. As we were leaving the parking lot a few thirty minutes later, my sister called from her office asking me where I was. She said there was an explosion at Glorietta and advised me to say out of malls for the day. I turned on the radio in the car and switched on to AM frequency to listen to the news. From Greenhills all the way to Eastwood, Alej and I were tuned in on what was happening. I was also texting Bea and I'm glad my Makati friends were not in the vicinity (as selfish as that may sound).

I was shocked. Sad. Broken. I didn't know how to react. You know when you live your life in a carefree manner laughing at foreginers/outsiders who are scared out of their wits to set foot in the Philippines in fear of being terrorized, it does not sound right to be scared IN YOUR OWN HOME (PHILIPPINES). I am scared. I was even more scared when I realized that I was supposed to meet with Jennie at 1PM in Glorietta had my LCA arrived on time. Isn't that scary?

Alej sometimes park near the Glorietta 2, Timezone-Foodchannel entrance. I still can't shake it out of my mind-- what if my LCA did arrive, the meeting with Jennie did push through, and we chose to park at our regular parking space? :(

My heart goes out to the victims-- the hundreds wounded and the nine dead. It is an abominable act to set explosives in such a public place such as the Glorietta mall. The people who died did not deserve to die a death as horrible as a bomb explosion. My heart breaks because this terror act affects the country as a whole. We are restless and scared out of our wits. We felt safe in a famous mall like Glorietta where everyone goes. If we're not safe in a mall that we used to trust, where will we feel safe? The security checks could have helped BUT IT DID NOT. I always knew that they were useless. I don't even think the security guards know what they're searching for when they search the bags of people and cars before entering the parking area!

I'm angry. I'm angry because a preposterous act happened IN MY HOME. THIS IS BAD PUBLICITY FOR THE COUNTRY. We already have a bad projection towards the world and now this. It is INHUMAN.

Justice must be served.

The Newest Baby

So it was false alarm afterall. The second false alarm. :( My LCA Refurb hasn't arrived yet because it's out of stock at the LSI, I think. But it always pays to be patient so I'm going to practice that now. Good thing I have a new toy to divert my attention to: the HOLGA 135BC!

What is it?
- It's a 35mm Holga. Meaning, you use ordinary 35mm film to feed it.
- It has B Setting for long exposure shots
- It has a tripod mount
- It has a plug for cable release
- It has a multiple exposure capability!
- It has a hotshoe! (good thing I have an external Vivitar flash and a Colorsplash flash coming up)
- Lastly, IT HAS MEAN VIGNETTING LIKE THE LCA!!!
- MORE? It costs way way less than the LCA (but lets not get carried away, the LCA is still the Queen Lomo haha!)

This is a controversial Holga model because according to the few owners who have this kind of Holga, they think it's an illegitimate model because the LSI isn't marketing it. They're not marketing it because it's a good LCA alternative for a low price or it's an upcoming model. I don't know, I'm not sure. It's either a "Frankenstein" Holga or a model that is still in the testing phase and someone leaked it to the market so ta-da! Ebay has it. But I don't know...Frankenstein or not, legal or illegal, I still like it because of it's LCA-ish photos (THE MAD VIGNETTING!) and the capabilities of this fantastic little plastic camera.

So yeahhh...here it is:










I'm so excited to finish my test roll so I can see the photos. But lately I've been confined to the house and there's nothing much to take photos of here. I'll share photos once I get the test roll processed and scanned.

Here are sample photos from the camera from Flickr users. Like I said, there aren't many Holga 135bc users yet so there are only a few photos on Flickr.

today is good news day

After being sick for four days, I'm back in the game! Nasasawa na ko matulog. The past four days were sleeping days for me. With my heavy head, clogged nose, and watery eyes, all I wanted to do was stay in bed. It was impossible to sit in front of the computer and resume my "life as usual" or even watch tv for more than 15 minutes. I don't think it was an allergy from smoke. I think it was a virus that I caught from someone in the same room as I was when I went clubbing. Ughhh. And maybe the smoke aggravated it or something. Oh well! (just a note for my worried titos/titas: I don't smoke, my friends and other people do).

I took Neozep...must have taken around eight pills in four days but IT DID NOT WORK. Alej thinks it's because the ones I took were the "non-drowsy" ones that are less effective than the regular ones that can knock the living daylight out of you. My sister caught whatever I had too so last night she came home sick from work sniffing like I've been sniffing the whole day. It was difficult waking up in the morning praying that you're already better but then you start sneezing and the whole sick thing repeats itself all over again. It was frustrating! So I got fed up this afternoon and asked our household help to buy DECOLGEN from the drug store. And yey! After a pill, I was okay already!

You know whenever I'm sick and my body feels really awful? I CRY. Yeah, like I sob silently and I also noticed how I look for my mother everytime I get sick. It's because I grew up with my mother nursing me whenever I'm sick. She makes me juice, she feeds me noodle soup, and wipes my forehead with a damp face towel. She takes care of me whenever I'm sick and because she's oceans away, I missed her MORE while I was sick. That's the sort of mother I'd like to be-- always hands-on when taking care of her kids. I miss my Mama. But oh well, this is growing up.

I'm still taking meds just to be sure it's gone. My voice still sounds funny. But all is good! I'm back in the game!

Plus, Alej spent the afternoon with me. And MY LCA IS READY FOR PICK UP! OH, FRIDAY, I CAN'T WAIT TILL YOU'RE HERE! =D

Thank you, Lord. Last night I wasn't in pain but I cried a little because I was having difficulty sleeping and breathing plus my head weighed a ton. It was uncomfortable to feel groggy for days that's why I cried of frustration because I took my meds regularly but I still wasn't getting any better. Then I prayed to get better because it helps everytime I get bad headaches. So last night I did the same thing and NOW I'M BETTER! =D THANK YOU, LORD!

Oh, last Friday I had my hair permed. I'm not going back to being straight anymore! (pun not intended hehe!)


Talk about wash and wear! Low maintenance. Yeheyyy!

Also, A BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY FRIEND MARK VINCENT OMEGA!! His dance video won the Pepsikat promotional contest. He's going to Bangkok tomorrow to watch the Black Eyed Peas! Watch the video, you guys! It's so coool!!! Ingat, Mark! We labyu! Parang nung Saturday lang we were talking about you wanting to go to Hong Kong or Thailand for a shopping trip!

Watch his cool moves here and look for Mark Vincent Omega:
http://www.pepsiworld.com.ph/pepsikat.html

sleep? what sleep?

Man, I haven't slept yet. I mean I TRIED to sleep-- closed my eyes and thought about peaceful things but that didn't help. I never learn my lesson-- DON'T DRINK STRONG COFFEE WHEN YOU PLAN TO SLEEP AT NIGHT! But my caramel machiatto wasn't even strong. It's an irony why I still love caffeine despite the effect it has on my body just like alcohol. I hate this. I'm restless. I tried going back to sleep but I couldn't.

The fact that I found out yesterday that the Lomo LCA that I've been waiting for for almost a month now isn't coming didn't help me sleep either. I was contemplating on whether to wait for the LCA (made in Russia) or go for the LCA+ (made in China) instead. Then I settled for waiting until the first week of November. If it's still out of stock, then I'll make other plans.

This is bad. I was never good at waiting and being patient but I'm being put the test. Hopefully, something good will come out of waiting.

the Breslin kids

OHMYDEARNESS! Imagine my shock to find out that my two (out of three) most favorite kid actors in Hollywood are are SIBLINGS!!! I don't know why I didn't think about it before! Who am I talking about?

Spencer Breslin (Disney's The Kid, Cat in the Hat, Raising Helen, etc.)


and Abigail Breslin (Raising Helen, No Reservations, Little Miss Sunshine, etc.)



OH, WOW! Oh, WOW! This is awesome. HAHA!

And they played siblings in Rainsing Helen!

Haha wala lang. :) Just sharing!

The Return of the Mad Woman Blogger on Blogspot

It's funny how my name Gail is synonymous to the title The Mad Woman Blogger. Just because I'm online the whole day doesn't mean I'm blogging all the time, you know. But I think I do blog all the time. What am I supposed to do? Talk to myself in the mirror? So what if I like publishing my thoughts online? Does that make me an attention whore? I don't know about that but I just love to write that's all.

So the blogspot is back! Ta-da! I figured since my parents are away and some of my relatives are bloggers themselves, it'll be a good idea to resurrect the public blog so you know, we can comment on each other's posts. Haha! I know, I have really a fun aunt and uncles who are bloggers themselves and since my parents are away too, they'll probably read this blog.

So yehhh, if you took me off your link lists, please put me back. :)

Anyway, this was Saturday night with my best people... my high school friends: Trinoma, Timog for more food and drinks, and then Starbucks. We all coincidentally wore BROWN that night. HOW WEIRD!

It was fun!

Credits to Rash for the photos (he's not in these!).