app matters

saw my sister-in-law and my nephew in the garage... they're going out...

my sister-in-law asked whether i want to go with them...

me: 'is <niece> going?'

sister-in-law: 'no... she went somewhere else...'

me: 'in that case, pass... if <niece> is going then i'll join you because we can check in [in swarm] together...'

if i'm tired and you invite me, whether or not you have swarm would influence my response... ;")

a little less

earth hour... 8:30 to 9:30 pm... i was at my parents' place... lights off but my sister's tv was on...

me: 'why is your tv on?'

sister: 'i'm just going to finish this...'

hmmm... the clock did strike 8:30 while the singers were mid-song... understandable...

i stayed on...

sister: 'why are you watching?'

me: 'your tv's already on... i'm not adding to the [electricity] consumption...'

okay...

she did turn it off after the production number...

hmmm...  not quite enough and i'm not sure whether good enough...

get a life

friend requested me to buy chocolate for his (prospective) girl...

okay...

then this morning i check my phone and see a text message from him asking for my account number so he could transfer his payment.

timestamp of the message?
5:32 a.m.!

wah!

i know there are people who feel uneasy when they have a payable. but c'mon, there are so many things (people <3) in life worthier of getting up to than money.

first things first.
just save money for later.

too long

ordered a chicken meal at mcdonald's and it came with a McFreeze. i opted for Frozen Coke. i set aside half then consumed just half (wahaha... i'm not a fan). i intended to give the other half to my sister.

so i went home and changed clothes then absent-mindedly did all sorts of things around the house. when finally i was already going to my parents' place where my sister lives, i saw the McFreeze near my door! wah! i've forgotten all about it! it has liquefied!

aw! i can't give anyone a melted McFreeze. i therefore just drank it myself.

nothing bad.
nothing great.
meh...  ; p

hot and cold

i usually buy just a pint of ice cream. i let it melt then consume it in one sitting as if it's a thick milkshake.

yesterday, i got a half gallon instead and brought it to my parents' place to share with my sisters. guess what, nighttime already and neither has touched it! and they don't feel like having any.

really???

hmmm... me, i think i can have ice cream anytime...

bring it on... <D

test of friendship

sister: 'i thought <friend> is coming?'

me: 'yes...'

sister: 'why haven't you showered?'

me: 'i will after he leaves...'

sister: 'should be before he arrives...'

me: 'what if he arrives while i'm in the shower?
(i take hour-long showers) i told him to postpone because i'm grimy fixing things but he wants now so be it. he told me he accepts me regardless of how i smell.'

we've been friends a long time. we've had best foot forward. we've seen bad hair day. it's time for the nose knows... ; p

pause the pose

taking pics of a bar of choc...

sister:  'have you taken pics of the other chocs?'

me:  'yes...'

sister:  'the one at the bottom part of the ref?'

me:  'aw, no...'

sister:  'take a pic of the one in the box so i can eat it already...'

eh?!  wahaha...  it's been there a week!

i like to take pics of foodstuff around the house (uhm, anything anywhere, actually)...  but that should not prevent anyone from eating anything anytime...

the best things are not always captured by a lens...  they're kept in the heart...  sometimes digested in the tummy...  ; )

closer

my sister called me to say she has cupcakes...  as is my wont, i brought a cam to take pics...  from upstairs, i saw on the table round stuff that looked rather ordinary...  i retreated...

my sister goes, 'not those!  the ones under...'

i walked over and saw big cupcakes...  picture-worthy, hehe...

sometimes you have to get close to see the good...

make it better

shirt print:

without
me
it's just
aweso

haha...

sometime back i saw another version:

awe
so
me

little me can make a big difference... awesome!

;")

simplify

at a mall...  saw fjallraven kanken bags...

niece:  'how do you pronounce that?'

me:  'aw...  i'm not really sure...'

niece:  'okay...  let's settle for 'bag'...'

stick to what you know...  ; p

talk is cheap

friend trying to locate me...

friend:  'what car did you bring?'

me:  'the BMW!  you want mercedes?'

hahaha...  actually, i drive a toyota...  ;"p

in my time

passed by a store display showing kaia gerber...

me to niece: 'that's cindy crawford's daughter...'

niece: 'who's that?'

aw... generation gap... ;"}

all or nothing

supposed to go to Oyster Boy.  before leaving, i checked out the place in foursquare.  category was Restaurant.  i tried to edit to Seafood Restaurant.  the place had a lot of check-ins so my edit did not take effect, wah.  (i'm just a low-level superuser, SU3.  highest SU level is 10.)

i need upvotes and if i post in the forum i'm not sure my request would be implemented right away.

hmmm...  resched...  i want to use my x3 Life Aquatic sticker...  ;")

search no more

i was supposed to do some tech support on my sister's laptop and the first obstacle i hurdled was...  ta-daaannnn!!!  finding the power button, wah!

i've checked all over, top, sides, front, back, even bottom, haha (#desperate) only to realize that it's just right in front of me  ->  on the lower left of the screen panel itself!

♩ ♪  sometimes the very thing you're looking for
is the one thing you can't see  ♫ ♬

;")

rework

at the bank today, my deposits included six hundred pesos of five peso coins. my mom wrapped them in P100 rolls, i.e., 20 coins per roll.

at the counter, the teller gave me a coin pouch and told me to put 100 pieces there.

ok.

i unwrapped five of the rolls and poured the coins inside the plastic pouch.

done.

so the teller was processing my non-coin deposits when another bank employee, a supervisor, i suppose, came over to give the teller something. upon seeing the coins, she told the teller they should be in tens, i.e., 10 pieces per roll. the teller therefore poured out the loose coins from the pouch and the two of them started taping the coins in tens.

wahehe...

connected

my niece is on vacation and i've been keeping tabs of her through Swarm.

so ok, she checked in here.  she checked in there.  since she's in a foreign country, the place names sometimes display two versions:  the local name in local characters in addition to the english name in the english alphabet.

yesterday though was i surprised when i saw her check in someplace with a name purely in the local characters.

me:  'haha...  how'd she know this is where she should check in?  she can't read the characters!'

uhm, yeah, she could have compared.  the app is supposed to display first/suggest the venue closest to where you are anyway.  plus it could show names in other languages.

on my end, even if i don't understand the characters, i could see the category of her check-in.  i could also see photos of the place uploaded not just by my niece but by other users of the app as well.

even from afar, i know that she went to this tallll building, to a theme park, to outlet stores, to a karting place...

she is having fun and i'm so happy she can nondisruptively let me know her whereabouts real-time and i can check her out without being obtrusive.

thank you, Foursquare Swarm...  : )

holding on

i have this tassel curtain that i like (think door-height length). whenever i use it though, it causes me a lot inconvenience. my clothes, my bag, anything and everything often get caught in it. i've spent countless minutes untangling stuff from it's hold.

now i have hanging a regular curtain. sooo convenient. going in and out is a breeze.

you'd think given that i'd give up my tassel curtain for good. uhm, nah. i like it so much i'm willing to put up with certain things just to have it.

the going doesn't have to be easy.
it simply has to be worth it.

cause for joy

i just renewed my car registration. unlike in previous years, this time they released the sticker together with the O.R. no need to go back. no need to call to check availability. i was so happy, haha...

it really used to be like that for yearrrrrssss.  it's just in the recent past that it suddenly became come-back-for-your-sticker-after-N-weeks (that turn to months).

there are so many things that are the way they should be but they don't really bring joy anymore. they're really expected to be like that anyway. the moment they're not, that's when disappointment sets in.

i'm just thinking i should be happy for everything that's right without having to experience them being wrong.

wait

keeping tabs of my niece who's on vacation...

they went to this restaurant... ei, one other person is checked in through swarm there... nice... : )

later they went to this building... eh?! 64 of them were there! 64!

i've long wanted to unlock a swarm badge. you were supposed to get it when there are 50 people currently checked in at a venue.

i think the most i've encountered so far is 17. i have yet to find where my kind hang out, hehe...

anyway, my niece was with 63 others and yet she didn't unlock the sticker. i dunno whether it's because the others were detected just through pilgrim or -> Swarm has retired the sticker.

wah... i hope not the latter...

direct and indirect

my niece tells me her friend will be taking videos...

me:  'does she have enough storage?'

niece:  'she doesn't have a memory card...'

me:  'i'll lend her...  SD or microSD?'

niece:  'it's for a camera...'

me:  'probably SD...'

when i give my niece the SD card, she tells me her friend needs the small one used on phones...

me:  'her camera uses microSD?  the small card?'

niece:  'no...  she'll insert it in one that size then that's the one she'll use on the camera...'

me:  'oh...  adaptor...  this one you don't need an adaptor anymore because it's already an SD card...  you use an adaptor only when you have a microSD so you can insert it in an SD slot...'

two-step vs one-step...  bridging technology...

ironic

i attended a graduation today.
the summa cum laude delivered a speech
and he had five messages for his fellow graduates.

what struck me most
was when he said
grades are not everything.

i agree with him
but my immediate reaction was,
as a summa cum laude,
he can afford to say that.

hear that from a goat
and it would sound like an excuse.

more than meets the eye

today, this lifelogging app i use gave me 100 bonus points for a check-in because it's International Women's Day.  i had a x3 sticker so the 100 became 300 points.

and then some guy i don't know greeted me "happy international women's day" when we passed each other on the road.

little things mean a lot.

prohibitive

on the phone with the owner of a plumbing services company... i was telling him this shut-off thingy under my bathroom sink broke and the thread was left inside so i could not just plug in a replacement... i add the same thing happened to the faucet in my shower and i was able to fix it myself -> i just watched youtube videos... i said my work turned out really well and there's no leak whatsoever...

he chuckles: 'maybe i could hire you, ma'am...'

eh?

hahaha...

i know that's a joke but still lemme say some things i am willing to, would love to, do for myself... but if you tell me you'd hire me to do it for someone else, i'd tell you to hire someone else...

just because i know how to wash my car does not mean you could hire me to wash your car... well, maybe you could -> but i'd charge you the price of a car... ; p

spared

i was at the city hall today. the previous times i went there, parking was almost always a pain. i'd be circling the place over and over to find some space in which to squeeze my car. sometimes i'd just park outside (no, not near) then walk to the compound.

today, therefore, i did not bring a car. i was thinking though if i see open slots i'd be somehow dismayed.

ta-daaan!!! vehicles were again parked all over for lack of space!

hahaha... i've never been so happy seeing full parking in my life... ;"P

and then i saw other drivers looking for a slot. aw! i know how that is.

i sympathize... : }

present

my sister-in-law gave me baci chocs.  i immediately popped one in my mouth then read the insert:  "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

me:  'wah!  i don't like this!'

sister-in-law:  'why?'

me:  'that means he's not around...  i want someone present...'

to love and to hold...  literally...

variety

there's this lifelogging game that i play and for every picture that you upload you get 5 points. now i have x3 stickers so my points triple to 15 per pic.

in this game, you get bonus points for maintaining streaks. i have a 41-week streak at juice bars and i get an additional 15 points for that. ×3, therefore 45.

it is easy to maintain the streak. but the pics i might have to drop. these are just stalls. i don't wanna be posting pics of the same stall over and over again.

hmmm... maybe i could take a pic of the different bananas in each bunch.

wahaha... #desperate

pipeline

at church today, there was a group of new graduates of the dressmaking course offered by the parish.  awww!!!  i've long wanted to enroll in a sewing class. i've made inquiries before, actually.  ' has yet to materialize though.

there are so many things i want to do. i used to tell myself i'll tackle them all when i'm retired.

now i'm retired, the list just keeps getting longer and the ones i've wanted for much longer i never really put in higher priority.

it's not about how long you've wanted something.
it's about how much you want it relative to the rest.

say something

at a restaurant/bakeshop chain whose turtle pie i love... my sister was told no slices (just whole cakes) are available... she therefore settled for something else...

me to dining assistant: 'miss, could you tell your manager to stock up on slices? this is my third time here since you opened (just around ten weeks ago) and all three times you didn't have a slice of turtle pie. there are only two of us, don't tell me we'll have to buy a whole cake for dessert just so we could have turtle pie...'

the dining assistant was so nice and said she'll check...

ta-daaannn... when she came back she said slices are available...

sometimes you just have to speak up...

good and bad

someone sent me a screenshot of the venue edit board for the philippines.

it was a pleasant surprise, at least initially. i was on top of the edit board. if you add up the edits made by those in second and third place, their total is just around 9% of mine! whoa!

soon after i felt a little sad though. not many are doing edits for the philippines. : (