On Books 2012

Last Christmas I got myself “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” unfortunately I haven’t finish reading it. Reasons: I was lazy and I guess reading also requires mood and ambience. Moody and I can’t find the right ambience (---yeah yeah I know!). I also got a hardbound copy 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami it was given to me last Christmas by a good friend  and you know I haven’t started on it because--- I’m lazy! So by mid February I was anxious with my being overly lazy. I was concern with my enthusiasm and I can’t find my, my spot. So I told myself I need a starter, something to jump start my dead battery.

Bam! There I found Hunger Games!  Like freakish and monstrous, I can’t stop reading, page after page. I was obsessed with Katniss Evergreen and Peeta Mellark. I was fancying Cinna and The Capitol people, The Arena and the Cornucopia and all the districts and the Tributes from each district. I got mad, I cried, I laugh and fell in love with each turn of events.

I have to halt myself for simple reasons like I need to sleep, eat and live. I was back. Just like last year when I needed to summon my lost desire for reading. I finished the 3 series in less than 3 weeks, allotting only two days each week for each book because if not I know I’ll be spoiling my mood and be tired after. So when I saw the preview of Hunger Games I can’t control my emotion, teary eyes and shaking voice, overwhelmed. I wonder why  I never check on them whenever I visit the bookstores and I almost missed the series. Well, still lucky because out of boredom and curiosity I search to find the ebook and there!

Now I’m back to reading.

(HAHAHAHA!

This is happening so frequently, I can hear my mother saying “Levz, jack of all traits, master of nothing” hahaha! See? I have disconnected myself from almost everything…I’m back to, I’m back, blah blah blah! Now I’m scolding myself because all I can think of in every post I write here is I’m back! I’m back! Argh!

Enough of that!)

Anyways, I’ll be starting on 1Q84 I think I had enough warm-up, I wanted to read that book when I’m ready so I can give my full concentration. I’ll also be refreshing myself with Tolkien since Hobbit will be showing soon and it’s been like more than half a decade since I’ve read that book. Not to mention that I need to catch up with those books I failed to finish.

By the way, while reading Hunger Games these two songs are constantly on loop. In my opinion, can be a good soundtrack for the book. Just sharing! Try it, Listen and Enjoy!





Have fun!

Hey 2012! I’m late!

Well this is my first entry this year and I hate to admit there are tons I need to go back to and recall. All the things that made me temporarily abandon this blog. I went to Cebu last January and I’m planning a lot of hike this summer but I’m staying away from buying plane tickets and going outside Luzon, I’m on a big budget control for a very important reason. But I know Luzon won’t fail me because there are a lot of great mountains to climb and pristine beaches to swim, so for the mean time until that big event is done I’ll be playing within Luzon.

And my Flintstone’s family is a little active lately, many things we do together that requires time and effort on my part, but what’s there to waste when it comes to family? Family comes first and I’m really thankful I was born to be with them, I wouldn’t trade my place with anyone, no money, treasure or power can make me change my mind. I have the perfect extended family, I must say.   

  

There are a lot of frustration at the start of the year. Well, First, I fail to attend Laneway Festival because my budget was allotted for our Cebu trip. Even if I manage to save a little to make the plan a little feasible I was caught in unexpected circumstances in Cebu. We were left by our plane which means we have to buy a regular priced ticket, Hassle and ouch on my pocket. Second, I had planed various climb for February but weather’s unpredictable and natural calamities are my biggest fear. So I got myself busy with what I can easy do like eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping, drinking and reading lols. I’m boring, lol.

Well, aside from my daily human routine I had quietly slipped away from every social medium, maybe I got tired. I slowly vanished from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and etc. I rarely open my laptop, I have a bunch of blogs and websites which I visit regularly for the past two years but slowly I drifted away from that practice. I badly needed that rest, at least to get a breather from all the stress and to free my mind. I went to look over what I have missed after being trap in a world that connects everything via thin thread. It was not bad. I feel that I had disconnected well enough, well rested to quietly start again in a clean slate.  So here, at a snail's pace, I’m coming back to this blog and bits by bits I’ll be visiting and trailing again those blogs and websites again.

See you around!

Thou Shall Not Steal ---PHOTOS!?

I will let you guys know why we should not steal photos or put a watermarks at  the images that we do not own. There are few people who need to be educated on this matter. I’ve seen great photos posted at facebook, twitter, tumblr and whatnot, and it bothers me that some just carelessly put watermarks as if they own the photos. Internet is a fascinating world; everything is spoon-fed, available or just a few clicks away. Internet is designed to make everything accessible, we are being spoiled with all the information we can get and if you happened to encounter someone who is as curious as me, well chances are, you might end up being busted, hehe .

I know a lot of people who are really amazing in taking stills with their camera and I commend them, with all praises. So, aside from what I have stated above, this also aims to educate or to give tiny bits of information to some photo enthusiast by being careful in sharing their craft and how to research (just in case they don't know this yet). Unfortunately, I also fail on this (I'm very amateur in photography though), as I carelessly post my photos without even marking or sealing it, with that I risk the chance of my photos being stolen by someone.

So to cut it all short, I want to introduce GOOGLE IMAGE. Google Image is a service provide by Goggle. Yes Google, if you see the image icon or word located at the upper part of your Google screen, then that’s what I’m talking about. Check out the image (or better yet, go to Goggle and click the "Image"):

Google Image can help you search for images in the web. It will give you the sites where that image was used or taken.  Just drag the photo that you wish to locate and let Google do the searching for you. Just like so:

And the result! Tadah!

As you can see in the Image above, the photo that I dragged from my Facebook account is the same photo I've use here in Blogspot and Tumblr. I used it as a header therefore Google has identified that image and matched it with both of my accounts. You can also try and search for more popular or less popular photos and see where it takes you, because I tried using it and so far it hasn't failed me. One thing I noticed though, your original photos posted in Facebook or Twitter will not be recognized, unless you copied or posted it in your Facebook from another source. And so, If you have photos and you wish to know if those are being used in a website or a blog or if you want to know if that photo is originally from someone, then that’s the best tool that you can use. But if you wish to search thoroughly or you want a more advance tool, then you can also try TinEye.

TinyEye is an Image Search Engine developed for that special need, it can give you details of an image or a page containing an image. It will search for the other usage of the image, the time of their appearance including modified image based on the original image posted and so on.

I’m not really sure if there’s a violation for the people who steal photos in the internet. as far as I’m concern the internet culture doesn’t stop anyone from reposting images found in the web, but there are some ethical internet users who are good in giving credits, they link back the photos to the site of the owner or they mention the name or at least note that the photo is not theirs. What I do know is, ethically speaking, we should not put watermarks or claim photos under our name if it is not our original. If we find a photo amazing or good then maybe we can repost it even without giving credits,(if we really don’t have time to search for it or whatever reasons we have) just don’t steal recognition from someone. On the other hand, if you are an aspiring photographer aiming to earn from what you are doing, it is important to make the necessary protection for your craft. alrighty!?

So that’s it, that’s all I have for today I hope we can all be careful or at least let’s not make a fool out of ourselves by being stupid, hehehe. Don’t watermark the photos that are not yours, don’t claim something that others work hard on. Live an honest life by exploring your talent, we are all gifted. We just need to put more passion in what we are doing!

Live a great life everyone ^^

Hamilo Coast Beach Bumming!

Last October 2, my friends and I decided to pack our things and check the beach. I have a friend who knows someone who owns a unit in Hamilo Coast, so my good friend got us a pass to stay at the exclusive beach club, hehe!

The trip was 3-4 hours drive from Manila. We were facing a bad weather so we have to be extra careful on the road. On the way we made some stopover at Tagaytay to buy all of the stuffs that we will need. It was cold and foggy that day, we arrived in Tagaytay at 2 in the afternoon and it seriously looks like 6pm, and it was raining on and off. But we were being mischievous taking pictures and having fun, not minding the bad weather and time.

I Doddle Oodles of Noodles

Few days before our Halloween party I was approached to help in designing the place for our celebration. At first Mutya was asking for the white gown, the gown I wore last 2009. I said, what for? She said she’ll hang it as a display. I told her, well, our party’s theme is cosplay and we should follow that theme. So I suggested another idea.

My idea is to create a back draft for the party and design it with doodles. Kawaii doodles of modern but cartoonish type of drawings. And since it was my suggestion she asked me a favor to do it, which I merrily accepted since I love doodling-- a lot. So I search for some ideas and patterns to follow and I found some drafts upon searching here on the internet.

BOOOOHOOO NOVEMBER

I said I’ll be back here at mygoodriddance right? didn’t I? Ain’t it? Hahaha! OK, so just recently we had our Halloween party. Just like any other companies who'd go through the tradition annually, we so-so have that too! Lol I wanna look back and see how I came up with the last three years.

Scary Theme’ 2009 I came up as a white lady. My costume came from my mom, she had this gown hidden in her closet and as you could see it’s really scary but mind you guys during the 70’s her gown is the “IT” thing! She can be called fabulous just wearing her immaculate white gown.

Fantasy’ 2010 I spend a little time with this it’s a tutu and I had it customized, by saying that I meant I spend money. It was created by one of my friend’s couturier. I top it with a white racerback and accessorized it with a colorful necklace and flower laced headband. My idea was to come as a ballerina with chunky heels hahaha.