Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Day 1 Blog Challenge: A Recent Picture and 15 Facts About You


1. My name is Karla Patricia and I answer to either Karla, Patricia or any one of my nicknames – Jaja, Pat-Pat, Macky – and all its derivatives. I have so many names that it takes me a moment to think of which to introduce myself with. You see, I like to compartmentalize my friends/acquaintances by what they call me (e.g. work-related people know me as Karla, some high school teachers know me as Patricia, my high school barkada and classmates as well as my Brunei friends know me as Macky, my high school busmates call me Pat-Pat, and my family and college friends call me Jaja. It gets really confusing, I know. If I could do a P Diddy (or whatever he is called now) and rebrand myself, I would. The only problem is I don’t know which of my names I prefer to be called if I were to choose just one.


2. I am a graduate of UP Diliman with the course of ECE. I took and passed the board after graduation. And I have never used anything I’ve learned since then. I constantly refer to myself as hilaw na engineer!

3. I have lived and worked in 3 different Southeast Asian countries, not including the Philippines. I was in Brunei for 2 years, Singapore for 2 years and Indonesia for 1 year. Each country uses a different language (Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia), and I only learned a few short phrases for each.

4. I love to travel! I don’t care whether I’m alone (well, that was before I got married and had a baby) or with family, as long as I get away. I find it so interesting to be in a country with different customs, beliefs, fashion and interests.

5. I love shopping for clothes and accessories. Shoes, not so much. Bags, it’s not my fave to buy but I do love looking at high-end bags.

6. I have deep attachment to my clothes. I hardly give away those I really love, even if they barely fit. I can’t explain it really. I guess it’s because I associate every piece of clothing with a moment/event in my life, and by letting go of the clothing I am scared that I might forget the memories I have. Ridiculous, I know.

7. I love reading fiction books, especially of the series type. And I love re-reading them when I feel like it. If I were to guess, I’d say I’ve read most of my favourites at least 20 times each. Take for instance all 7 books of Harry Potter. I must have read books 1-7 (it has to be in order) more than 50 times!

8. I have never been a fan of computer/electronic games, except Jeopardy (PS2) and Scrabble. My only iPad game app is Words.

9. I love watching American tv series on DVDs. I have very little patience waiting for one episode to be shown on television each week so I wait until I get them on DVD. And then I usually watch 3-4 episodes per seating, more if it is really interesting. My current favourites are Criminal Minds, Bones, ANTM, CSI NY, Big Bang Theory, and Grey’s Anatomy.

10. I love Korean rom-con series, and I prefer to watch them in Korean with English subtitles. I love hearing people speak in Korean. It sounds so sweet and so malambing. I love it so much that I took a short introductory Korean language course in UP. It was so much fun!

11. I love salmon sashimi but it has to be eaten cold and with wasabi-soy sauce.

12. I love taking photos and keeping them as souvenirs. And I love the nostalgic feeling I get every time I look at old/new photos.

13. And because of fact number 12, I hate to delete my favourite photos on an SD card. This is why I have 6 SD cards (2 and 4GB capacity), and none of them have enough space to take in more than 100 photos at a time (at 1-2MB per photo).

14. I have really bad eyesight and have been wearing corrective eyeglasses/contact lenses for over 2/3 of my life. I seriously considered asking my parents for Lasik surgery as my 18th birthday gift, but I backed out and opted for a party instead

15. I have been a wife for 4.3 years and a mom for 2.3 years, and I’ve loved every second of it.

So, that’s it, 15 facts about me. When I started the list, I thought coming up with them would be a breeze. Not! After the third fact, I was at a loss at what other facts about me there are. Sure, I could have put in things like my shoe size and/or dress size, but wouldn’t that be so boring?

Hope these facts have entertained you even for a little while.

Do you reckon you know me a bit more now?


Blog Challenge

I chanced upon this Blog Challenge in one of the many blogs that I read (here’s the link to the blog - www.mommyfleur.com). And, as my blog is in dire need of defibrillation, I thought to take on the challenge.

I love how each challenge is about the little things that I normally wouldn’t think of writing an entry about. I also like (and am sort of scared of) the fact that the challenges will force me to review things about myself. If you think about it, in order to reinvent myself, I’d have to take a closer look first, right? So this challenge is really a must for me!

Here's the Blog Challenge:

Day 01 - A recent picture and 15 facts about you

Day 02 - Favorite movies

Day 03 - Favorite TV shows

Day 04 - Favorite books

Day 05 - Favorite quotes

Day 06 - Favorite songs

Day 07 - The meaning behind your blog name

Day 08 - Cravings

Day 09 - Pet peeves

Day 10 - A Photo of you taken over ten years ago

Day 11 - Nicknames you have and why

Day 12 - Something you bought recently

Day 13 - Something you want to buy

Day 14 - Things you love

Day 15 - Your celebrity crush

Day 16 - A favorite food

Day 17 - A photo of your family

Day 18 - What you like best about each member of your family

Day 19 - A fun memory

Day 20 - A hobby of yours

Day 21 - Your fears

Day 22 - Your current relationship

Day 23 - A letter to your parents

Day 24 - About your childhood

Day 25 - A favorite photo

Day 26 - Who do you admire and inspire

Day 27 - What's in your bag?

Day 28 - A place you love

Day 29 - A person you love

Day 30 - Hopes, dreams and plans for the future


Given my track record, I wonder until which day I can last? Hmmm.

Life at 5Mbps

When Sky Broadband sent us fliers to entice us to change our existing unlimited broadband connection at 1Mbps to their 15GB limit at 5Mbps connection, I was not interested but my husband was. I tried to argue that for our usage and purpose, which is mostly just internet surfing, emails and those basic stuff, we don't really need a faster connection; our current connection was more than enough and I have had very few problems with it. But, no, he overruled me and decided to try it out for a month. The Sky Broadband customer service agent told him that the 15GB download limit is over 100 hours of youtube-ing plus other stuff, so he wasn't too worried.

Lo and behold, barely two weeks after we switched plans, our internet gets cut off - we have reached our limit. Crazy! I don't know how we consumed it so fast. We hardly download songs or movies, and I didn't watch any streaming videos the whole time. The difference between this plan and other normal post-paid plans is that when you reach your "paid" limit, they just cut you off. You need to pay first before you get additional minutes. In a way it's a good idea so you don't get a major shock when you get your bill at the end of the month. However, it is such a big hassle, especially since we got cut off on a weekend. Yikes!

So now I'm really trying to cut back on unnecessary surfing. We've asked the Sky Broadband customer service agent to revert us back to our old plan, but he said they can only do that after our 1 month of paid service is over. Boo.

Life at 5Mbps may be really fast, but it's very limiting. Definitely not for me.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Plans

I am a work at home mom, and because of this, I rarely go out of the house. If ever I do, it is usually just to run errands or to go bring my daughter to visit my parents. So my fashion choices are mostly jeans, plain t's and flats. Boring but comfortable.

That is why I am thrilled to have an excuse to somehow dress up (a nice dinner with friends, a trip to the mall, that sort of thing). It's far and few in between, but I get really excited!

For the rest of July, I have a few things lined up:

July 23 - Smart All-Star Weekend (NBA all-stars vs PBA selection)
July 30 - my cousin Anna's debut
July 31 - photo shoot with photography classmates

I know to some people this is not much, but for me this is already quite a busy schedule. Exciting!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Photo book

Have you ever heard of Artscow?

It is this web-based program that allows you to upload your photos, select which ones you like and have them developed and delivered to your home. Of course since they are based in the States and shipping to Manila is expensive, I don't use that service. What I do use is their customized photo books. They have several sizes and you can choose embellishments, fonts, lay outs, the works! It is digital scrapbooking heaven!

Anyway, they have this 1-day promo of the customized 8x8 photo book with 30 pages for just USD9.99 shipped (usual price of the photo book is USD14.99 plus 7.99 for standard shipping).

Of course I had to avail of the promo!

Thing is, my saved designs are all 20 pages only. So I spent the whole day editing one of my saved (but unordered) designs and changed it to a 30-page book. It was rushed but I think I did a pretty good job nonetheless.

Standard shipping to Manila takes about 3-4 weeks but I'll be sure to take a photo and show it to you when it arrives.

Visit their website at www.artscow.com and get your creative juices (and all sorts of photo kaartehan) flowing!

Have fun!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Second Chance

Remember my goal last year? To go/do a photo shoot with my photography classmates?

Well, I might just have another chance to fulfill that, albeit a year late!

A classmate has organized a photo shoot for July 31, and I have already said I'd be attending! We're still finalizing the details, but we have narrowed it down to either UP or QC Circle, both venues mere minutes away from where I live. So, yay!

I know my photo skills are already rusty to the point that I have seriously considered selling my gear. So this photo shoot is so timely, it's amazing.

Hopefully I get good shots so I can have the guts to post them here.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

New Me = New Stuff


Check out my new stuff after an impromptu trip to Greenbelt:

My first-ever Swatch watch

Aldo platforms (my alternative to the expensive JC Lita)

They are so different, it’s hilarious - one is so sweet and dainty, the other chunky and boho. And I absolutely love both of them!

Now my problem is when and where to use them. Can’t wait!