The Secret Ingredient

This morning...

Me: ok ba yung timpla ng oatmeal mo? (is the flavor of your oatmeal okay?)
JS: masarap yung oatmeal. (it's good)
Me: haha you know what I put in the oatmeal?
JS: love?
Me: ahahaha
Me: spit
Me: hahahaha
Me: hinde, i put in a bit of cookie butter (no, I put in a bit of cookie butter)

New wedding blog post!

New post up in our wedding blog!

I'm so happy I finally got around to putting up a new post in our wedding blog. It's been a bit over five months since the wedding and I haven't written any supplier reviews. This is the first and hopefully the rest of the posts will follow continuously.

Man, my tummy is still sad from seeing all the food and not being able to eat any of them.

Throwback Thursdays: Concerts

Yes, yes, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and posting a Throwback Thursday entry. The idea of Throwback Thursday is to post a photo from a long time ago and post it in social media websites. Seeing people posting "old" photos inspired me to look into my archive of photos. I decided to compile photos taken from concerts I've been to.

Daddy Lines

My sister and I are currently re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes while our dad is playing on the iPad in another part of the room. While watching episode 10 of Season 4 "Hush"...

(Show) Xander: I care about you.
(Show) Anya: How much?
Dad: (immediately exclaims, while still playing on the iPad) 50 cents!

Welcome!

Welcome to the new francesyeo.com! I've been away for a while because I've been working on my blog host transfer. After much thought I finally decided to move blog hosts because style customization in my old blog host was sorely limited. I was able to import all my existing posts but, unfortunately, I lost all my comments due to technical difficulties. Ohwell.

Again, like I said in my farewell post over at my old blog host:

If you’re following me through http://www.francesyeo.com then you have no problems since I’ve re-pointed my domain to the new blog host and you should be directed there instead of here. If you’re following me through wordpress follow then please follow me through my domain instead. You can just add my domain “www.francesyeo.com” in your “Blogs I Follow” list.

The Liebster Award

Years ago when I was in elementary school I was nominated for class president by one of my classmates (out of nowhere). Up to now I still have no idea why I was nominated. Unsurprisingly, I didn't win and only got two votes while the other nominee got the rest of votes, including mine. The nomination and the two votes were odd, but flattering.

The Nocturnals

It's 2 am and I'm playing Grace Potter & the Nocturnals in the background while my sisters and I are doing our own stuff in the study.

Daisy: What are we listening to ba?
Me: Uhm, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals.
Daisy: Ah, just like us - nocturnals.
Me: Hahaha!

Goodbye, Ethan

You were with me in my high school graduation creative shot photo.

You were with me for half my life.

I'll miss you.

Movie Marathon Thursday

Yay for holidays! Jex and I watched two movies yesterday. I wanted to watch both of them with him before he flies off to Perth again.

Ergonomy Problems

I have the poorest posture and form when I'm on the computer. I'm pretty sure I don't follow the correct way of typing (this finger goes where and whatnot) either. So, I am more or less just like any average computer user.

Unfortunately, I've experienced the downside of being so careless with my posture and form. The day before my wedding (oh, yes, I got married! But that's for another few more posts) I was feeling some pain on my right arm, running from my wrist until my elbow towards the inner part of my arm. The pain was tolerable so I thought it might just be because of the pre-wedding stress or I was tired.

One Big Five

Congratulations to the Ateneo Blue Eagles for winning the UAAP Season 75 Basketball championships!

I only got to watch one game this year and only on TV (not live *sad face*). All the other times I was out busy doing something or in the office "watching" through Twitter while working. Nonetheless, I have always been a supporter of the team. Good job guys! Ang sarap maging Atenista! One big fight! One big five!

Semi-rant Post

Stress levels are like woah since last week. I have two weeks left until my leave starts for the wedding and both weeks are already full of stuff for work. I am not as worried on the wedding stuff since we're more or less set already (I think) with only some details to finalize.

Funny, though, both Jex and I will be paneling for project defenses a week before our wedding. It's, honestly, a welcome break from real world work. I look forward to telling students that their problems can be solved by the all powerful MS Excel.

Scammers Galore

The Free GC

A week ago or so I got a call from an unknown number on my mobile phone. I answered it despite the unknown number because sometimes they're valid calls from people I do know.

So a woman answers and introduces herself (but I can't remember her name now) and says that I've qualified to win a GC for a stay at the Crown Regency hotels. She goes on to explain the details and says that she just needs me to answer several questions. I can't remember all the questions she asked because it all sounded normal to me. I just remember her asking when my last vacation was (both local and international) and where I went as well as my income (which I declined to give). I asked how they got a hold of my contact details and she just said that "maybe" one of my friends referred me. I honestly don't remember any other details aside from that. I was most probably very busy that day and was dealing with a lot of stuff at work so I didn't think much of it. I also didn't sense anything fishy that time because I knew Crown Regency and we went there for the Sky Adventure a few years ago in Cebu. I forgot about the call.

Earlier this afternoon I got another call from another woman who introduced herself as "Andy". She reminded me of the first call from "Daisy" and told me that I had won the GC for a stay at any of their Crown Regency hotels. She rambles on about the details of the prize, saying that it has no expiry date, that I can use it to stay in Crown Regency Cebu or Davao, and that I just need to claim it from their office. So easy! She tells me where their office is and what time I can claim it. She also told me there was going to be a free buffet dinner for us. She also told me I need to claim it by tomorrow. Why? *shrugs* I just told her I'll see if I can make it and told her to text me the details. My spider senses were tingling.

I Googled around and found a bunch of blog entries about them. Then I got the text from "Andy" and confirmed that it was indeed the same scheme being described in the different blogs.

NBI Clearance Woes

So, I had to get an NBI clearance for work, which I really hated because of the new system where everyone is back to zero and has to apply for a new one instead of just renewing their old ones. But, of course, I had no choice.

I woke up early and was at Ever Gotesco Commonwealth by 7 am last July 18, Wednesday. The line for the NBI clearance is on the "unexposed" side of the mall, opposite of where cars usually enter the mall and park. If you're not sure then just ask a guard there. The line was already long when I got there, no surprise, and when I got to the end of the line there was a sort of attendance sheet where you write down your name. I was the 208th person in line.

Traffic

Over 30 minutes ago Jex texted me that the shuttle he's in hasn't moved for almost 30 minutes. A few minutes ago I check up on the traffic situation. He says no, they still haven't moved. Less than a minute later he suddenly texts me:

"We MOVED! OMG it's barely at 5km per hour but it feels like I'm on a JET."

Sad sad traffic in Manila.

Marketing Fail/Success?

We saw this advertisement in the mall:

It just looks and sounds so wrong! But I just had to take a photo. Blurred out the details, because it felt appropriate to do so.

Poor kid, I wonder if he knew where they were going to use his picture.

Marketing-wise, I guess it works because it sure is eye-catching haha.

A7X Experience

I think it was around three or four years ago that Jex and I were talking about how awesome it would be to be able to watch Avenged Sevenfold live. We became fans of the band by discovering "Bat Country" from a Devil May Cry AMV. After being able to "play" their songs on Rock Band 2 Jex became a fan of The Rev because he was the better drummer on game between the two of us. I became a fan just because they made awesome music. Unfortunately, The Rev died even before we even heard of rumors that the band was touring to Asia. Jex and I were sad because we'll never get the chance to watch him play with Avenged Sevenfold live.

A few months ago I saw some tweets on my feed about Avenged Sevenfold coming to Manila for a concert. I went crazy. I told Jex "WE HAVE TO WATCH. IT'S A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE!" The only other time I reacted that wild to an upcoming concert was for the 30 Seconds to Mars concert last year (which we watched!) There was no argument needed really. We were watching the concert!

Manhwa

Manhwa is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons (common usage also includes animated cartoons).
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhwa

So, I guess manhwa is just the Korean counterpart of the Japanese manga, which I'm more familiar with.

My Shiny Teeth and Me

I love watching "The Fairly OddParents" especially after a long day at the office. Nothing like awesome cartoons for de-stressing. Anyway, in one of the episodes there's a song called "My Shiny Teeth and Me" sung by Chip Skylark, a singing celebrity in the cartoon. Just a while ago I looked for the song on YouTube to play out loud for my sisters to hear.

Name that Game!

I was looking through 9Gag and came across a certain post with screen shots of an old NES games. My sister saw this and as I scrolled down to the part with a certain game's screen shots we had a funny conversation...

Sister: Uy, I miss that game! What's it called...Cobra! Uhh...
Me: *buries face in hands, trying not to laugh*
Sister: Uh...Ah! Commando!
Me: It's CONTRA! Ahahahahaha!!!
Sister: Ahahahahaha!!