Improved YouTube

Are you like me?  Sometimes when I'm watching a clip on youtube, I type in something on the search field and hit enter, and forget that this would cut the clip and remove the page I'm on to load the results of the search.  It's happened frequently, and I find it frustrating.  This would mean I'd have to click the back button, reload the clip (which sometimes takes forever), open a new tab and a fresh page of youtube, and type in my search once more.

Thanks to Google, who bought youtube, and their continuous work on innovating their search tools, this is now a thing of the past.  I was delighted to discover the improved search mechanism of youtube.

While I was watching this clip, I typed in something in the search field.  I forgot that it's going to replace this page with the search results.

But this is what happened after I hit enter.

It continued to play the clip on one side of the page, and loaded the search results on the right side of the page.  Then I can drag the clip I like to the queue box below the video so that it loads it after the first clip ends.

Isn't that cool?    Ang babaw ng kaligayahan ko. :P

Hungover from Avenue Q

Last night, Beng, Paolo and Deepa joined Nards and I at RCBC Plaza to watch Avenue Q.  It was the first time for Paolo and Deepa, and the second time for Nards, Beng and I.  We love Avenue Q; we can't stop raving about it.

Quick review: The cast is pretty much the same except for Calvin Millado who replaced Rycharde Everley for the role of Brian.  All the actors are as good as I remembered.  Nards and I think that Aiza was even better than before.  We were all impressed with Rachel Alejandro.  She was fantastic!  I think she truly belongs on stage. I also liked Joel Trinidad who portrayed three different characters: Trekkie, Nicky and the Bad Idea Bear.

Even though we all knew the punchlines, we still found it hilarious.  And we sang along when they sang our favorite songs.

One thing Nards and I were bothered with (and we didn't realized we were both bothered by it, until he mentioned it as I am writing this blog entry) Felix Rivera was holding his puppets hand whenever he gestures instead of the pole that is attached to his puppets hand.  It's trivial and doesn't reduce our pleasure over the play but we were both uncomfortable watching him hold his puppets. :P

I'm glad that Paolo and Deepa loved it as much as we did.  (Deepa loved it so much, she was channeling Lucy the Slut as we drove her home.)

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I'm always delighted to see friends whom I haven't seen in a long time.  It was such a bonus last night that  Deepa and I ran into our old college friend whom we haven't seen since junior year.  Nards also ran into friends from UPM.


Beng saw the Legally Blonde The Musical poster which will be running middle of this year.  (Mental Note: Must reserve tickets for that as soon as possible.)  I'll have to remember to borrow her CD of the Broadway cast recording.


We all went home, and Beng and Paolo crashed in our living room.  Paolo mentioned that he would take off first thing tomorrow, and I was surprised to see him and Beng contemplating on where to order breakfast when I got down.  It's always fun spending time with my siblings, and we just lazed around the house today,  watching movies, and napping.  All of us were clearly hungover from the play.  I start singing "If you were gay...." and they all join in "that'll be okay... "  Mga adik talaga.


(This blog entry's title was inspired by my sister's FB status.)

Green Thumb

Obsessing, might be too strong a word to use, but this is certainly what Nards and I somewhat feel about our first plant/tree.  Last week, as we were leaving our parent's place, and loading the car with pabaon (i.e. ulam, freshly picked fruits, linens, etc), my Dad picked up a Neem tree from the garden and handed it to Nards.  They (in-laws included) are all afraid I'm going to contract Dengue again, and are doing everything possible to keep mosquitoes away from me. 

We now officially have our first plant/tree. 


Unfortunately, the 45 minute drive from my parents' to our place, and the 15 minute wait it had to endure as we went up and down the elevators unloading everything, the poor Neem tree was traumatized from the ends of its roots to the tips of its delicate leaves.  For the first two days, we watched all the stems, sprouting from the main branch, droop and the leaves curl up and wilt.  I watered it moderately once a day per instructions of my Dad, hummed to it, gave it words of encouragement and still it continued to droop.

Until today, when we saw a few sprigs of fresh green leaves.

There is hope! Haha!

Nards and I went to the Manila Seedling Bank a couple of days ago to buy potting mix to make our first tree more comfy in our balcony.  On a whim, I bought three small Lavender plants.   I figured our little tree could use a little company. 

Our balcony, though tiny, looks nice with the Neem tree in one corner and the three little pots of Lavender lined up against the wall.  Early in the morning and late in the afternoon, their wonderful scents waft inside the house.   It's just lovely.  Sometimes, I'd pinch off half a leaf, and give it to Nards.  He loves the smell of Lavender.

Nards and I plan to put up a rack there and get more fragrant herbs.  We'll see what we can get from my Mother-In-Law's garden and from another trip to the seedling bank.  I'll definitely get basil and oregano.  Because I like making my own pesto, and cooking pasta dishes. Nards wants aloe vera. 

I wonder if there's a way for us to expand our balcony...  Either that or get a bigger house. :P

There is Good News Here

Today was my first time to visit the Manila Bulletin offices.  Nards and I drove there today to visit Deepa and hopefully Marbee to give them our long over due holiday presents - sets of personalized note cards that we ordered from Femme Fafel.  Deepa was tickled at the shag art version of herself.  Sadly, Marbee was out on a shoot in Tagaytay, so we left hers with her colleague.

Deepa said we should get the latest version of WE.

Wedding Essentials January to June 2010

 So we got a copy, read it and saw this:

 

Thanks Jessie, Deepa and Marbee! :)

Blame it on Twitter. And Plurk.

Thanks to these two platforms, I've completely lost my ability to blog.  They make it so darn easy to let me post stuff (text, photos and videos) online both from my computer and my phone.  They are the most reliable chat platforms on my mobile.   And it's connected to FB, so commenting, liking and disliking posts is easy whether I'm at home, stuck in traffic, at a shoot or any place where my phone gets a signal.  It's annoyingly addictive and convenient.

After Nards and I watched Julie and Julia, I realized I missed blogging.  I have always been a journal-writing-girl.  I started writing in journals when I was nine and moved it to documents saved on floppies (a la Doogie Howser - I even got the same blue screen and white text format) when my parents gave me a desktop computer in high school. When I was teaching in UP, I moved to blogging when I got invited to livejournal.   I was delighted that my cousins and friends abroad are updated with just this one medium.  It sure saved me from writing the same news over and over in letters for a handful of people.  (Claire was a testament to this!  We used to write each other every three days!)   I do enjoy writing and posting, and it's easy to exchange news with family and friends. 

I want to go back to blogging regularly.  Nards encourages me to do so.  (He noticed the folder in my hard drive that has a load of photos that I was planning to blog about.)  This means I have to re-learn to write down my thoughts beyond the 140 character limit that I'm used to.   And to organize the photos in my blog folder.  Good luck to me. :P

Avenue Q

There's going to be another run!  Can't wait! 

We watched the previous run with Beng and Rizal.  Nards and I are excited to see it again; already reserved tickets for March.  I must ring Rizal and ask if he wants to watch again.

Wicked

Nards and I have called it a day, and we're in bed reading.  I was reading a trashy romance novel that Nards' previous roommate left behind.  (I find reading them dreadfully boring which means they are highly successful in putting me to sleep.)

I've read half a paragraph and was about to nod off, when Nards said, "wawa naman si Elphaba." 

Earlier that day, Beng lent us Wicked.  I was still in the midst of a novel we picked up earlier, so Nards read it first.

"Why? What happened?  I love Elphaba!"


"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

"No," I sighed. "I'll wait til you're done."

"There, there," he replied with a smile.

I know she's the wicked witch of the west.  And she died in the most undignified manner.  But I love the way they portrayed her in the book and in the musical.   Idina Menzel was the perfect Elphaba.

Sisters

I grew up with them.   As a family, we went to their convent every week to hear Sunday mass.  Nards and I are unable to join them now because it's too far, but we try to go as much as we can.  They're a very important part of my life, and I know that they are always keeping us in their prayers.

When my parents said that the sisters needed to get photos of themselves for some documents, Nards and I eagerly volunteered and we decided to make a full-blown shoot out of it.  We dropped by the convent pretty early and though we missed their early morning mass, we were able to join them for breakfast.  Breakfast at the convent is always a delicious meal.    I felt like I was back in high school at a three day retreat.

The shoot took an hour at the most, as the sisters had to do their adoration.  We worked fast, and even had time to snap some candids.  Here are a few of the photos we took.

December Haul

I can't believe it myself.  But here I am, with a traincase that my Mom gave me for Christmas, and filling it slowly with goodies.  Here's what I got last December.

My new traincase. :)  Thanks Mom!

Nards' Christmas present: Urban Decay Book of Shadows 2. I love it!

A little care package from Steph that she got from Sephora. She got me something from Benefit that works wonders especially when I need to put on make up on the fly.

A couple of Nyx stuff. More to come at the end of the month.

Pixi items plus a Pop freebie.

The ultimate lip palette.

Everything I need is in this little box from Pixi. Pixi rocks!

Green Christmas

Last December, I was determined to make it a green Christmas.  I was mindful of the amount of trash presents always generated.   So, I decided to use paper that was already in the house that we dispose eventually: pages from the directory provided by the local phone company. 

Instead of a ribbon, I folded origami flowers to replace the usual scads of ribbons that I use on presents; and, instead of using tape for the other gifts, I used reusable foil ties that I got from Saizen.

I think they looked cute.  And very cheap too.  My Mom and Mother-in-Law liked it and are both eager to do the same thing. 

Photos by Nards