Swamplandia!

Just a quick post, I finally got my lazy ass to finish Karen Russell's "Swamplandia!" (yes it comes with an exclamation point!). I started reading it last month after I finished "Room", or so I think it was "Room" that I finished last. I had high hopes for this book since it consistently ranked as one of the best books of the year it was released (2011).  Honestly I found the prose rather boring, it didn't really hold interest to me. There were times I thought of abandoning the book, I kept waiting for the speed to pick up but it just never came together for me. But a quitter I am not, I powered through and finished it anyway. 

I must say that it got better towards the end when their lives were unraveling. The book is about a family of alligator wrestlers that lived on an island off the Florida swamps. I found it hard picturing the surroundings which was supposedly a beaten up crummy theme park that featured alligators and alligator wrestling. The main protagonist of the book is Ava, the youngest of the Bigtree kids. Personally, I identified more with Kiwi, the oldest of the Bigtree kids. He's more on the bookish-academic side of things. Being home schooled, they were quite innocent of the workings of the life in the mainland they came off as being unprepared for practical requisites of the real world.

The book shifts from a first person voice through Ava and a third person narrative through Kiwi's point of view. I would've loved to read a section on The Chief's background and more on the life of their mother, Hilola.

In the end you couldn't help but be on their side, the book ends before you could get a glimpse of how it ended up for the whole family but you can get snippets here and there specially on the last chapter proving that Ava continued her life on the mainland.

I wonder what I'll read next, my kindle is just bursting at the seams with unread books!

Back to semi reality

I just got back from a dream, a dream vacation that is. I went to Bali! Busog lahat ng senses, my eyes, my tummy lalo na my spirit. Bali is such a spiritual place, everywhere you go you're bound to see temples and people are so pious. It's no wonder Elizabeth Gilbert stayed there for the "pray" part of her "eat, pray, love" book.

It's back to just half/semi reality since I still have this week off from work. Right now I'll be on driving duties for the mother. 

I'll be working on comprehensive posts of this vacation once I sort things out. My bags are still a mess and I still have a lot of things and planning to do for the next vacation (yay!).

Crazy Rich Asians Casting

So I caught the CRA bug even though nobody I know was reading it, it just kept popping out on all the websites that I visit. Once I started reading I couldn't put my kindle down, I couldn't work because I get so antsy wanting to know what came next. The book is like a Dan Brown novel, it certainly is a page turner. Nakulangan lang ako sa ending, I was like "yun na yun?!?!?" the author left it open for the readers to infer on how things were gonna go down.

As the title suggests, the book is about the super rich in Asia. Being a student of Mandarin, I get the distinction that Overseas Chinese make with the Mainlanders. It is set mostly in Singapore, where the family of the main protagonist resides. It's a very Asian thing that I lot of us Filipinos get even though we're not of Chinese descent. I love that author infused Hokkien and even Malay expressions in the book (Hokkien is spoken here in the Philippines).

Anyway, the book has been picked up by the same company that made the Hunger Games into movies. A lot of speculation has been happening online on who they might cast in the movie. Limited lang naman ang knowledge ko of the Chinese and Hongkong movie stars, but the actors must be fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and sometimes Hokkien and Bahasa. These are my picks.

Let's start with Nicholas Young, my pick would be Godfrey Gao. Nick Young comes from an extremely wealthy family, as any protagonist in any story it's a requirement that looks very much like a movie star. He's an intellectual having completed advanced studies in Oxford and teaches History in NYU.

Godfrey Gao in Burberry

I would cast Zhang Ziyi for the role of Astrid Leong, who else can carry couture dresses with ease than Ziyi? In the book, Astrid is a very sophisticated woman who goes on couture fittings every Paris Fashion Week, she also splurges on jewelry whenever she has a problem. 

Zhang Ziyi as Astrid Leong

Takeshi Kaneshiro for Michael Teo, although he would need to bulk up.

Takeshi Kaneshiro as Michael Teo

Angela Baby would be the perfect Araminta, although I would also consider Olga Kurylenko because in the book Araminta has certain Eurasion features because her mother came from Xinjiang.

Angela baby

Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko

Tony Leung for Philip Young, Nick's father. Tony Leung has been a favorite of mine ever since I saw that Zhang Yimou movie Hero.

Gong Li should be Eleanor Young.

Gong Li

Colin Khoo, Nick's best friend is said to be the most eligible bachelor in all of Singapore and is also extremely good looking, I thought of Daniel Henney kaso the book also describes him to be very tan almost like a surfer's complexion naisip ko naman si Wang Leehong who's on a darker side. He's also perfect because he seems to be very deep. 

Wang Leehom

Michelle Yeoh is just so regal I can't help but associate her with Shang SuYi, Nick's aristocratic grandmother. She's too young to play the grandmother role to a 30 year old, yun lang.

Michelle Yeoh

Kerry Chu is Rachel's mother, she came to America to raise Rachel on her own. I would cast Ming Nawen, Joy Luck Club diba?

  

Siwon Choi although Korean looks very much Chinese, I would cast him as Alistair Young the Hongkong movie star.

Siwon as Alistair

 I can't think of anyone pa for Rachel Chu, I have a bevy of other stars that I want to see in the film adaptation hehe.

Grabe Gravity

Last Tuesday was a Muslim holiday so walang pasok, the day before my officemate mentioned that the cinemas in Lucky Chinatown Mall were really good and that movies there only costs 100 Php. I didn't find that odd, I thought maybe because of the far off location they lowered the ticket costs. And so around 10 AM of Tuesday after hearing about the earthquake in Bohol, I decided to leave the house and try the cinemas. Gravity was still showing so that became my excuse to leave the house. I hailed a cab and told the driver to bring me to Lucky Chinatown Mall which was right by Divisoria. After more than an hour sobrang traffic I decided to just walk all the way to the mall, siguro I walked about 3 blocks pa. I couldn't believe that people were already going to Divisoria preempting holiday shopping. 

My officemate couldn't have been any more wrong, they sold tickets for 175 Php plus 50 Php food voucher so the ticket costs 225 Php. Well at least she was right about how nice the cinemas were, it was rather small, CR was clean, aircon was on full blast it was almost unbearable but most of all walang tao!!! There were only like 15 people inside the cinema. 

I decided to watch Gravity because of the buzz, it was the number 1 movie that week and almost everyone I knew has already seen it. Also, I'm a fan of Alfonso Cuaron's work, I think the 3rd Harry Potter movie which he directed is one of the best and who could forget Y Tu Mama Tambien?

The whole time I was watching the movie I couldn't relax, there was always that threat of something horrible happening in the movie. The story latches on to you and never gives you the chance to just relax and see the movie, it grips you and involves you. I was seated uncomfortably the whole time and my face was crumpled. In short, my kind of movie. The type that really bothers you haha. One of the people from the office told me na ang ganda daw in 3D and I agree I think it would've been really good in 3D with all the flying things in space. Super tense, di ko na napansin the visuals which were really good!

I've never been a fan of Sandra Bullock, I just don't get her but she was good in this movie. I purposely avoided the Daily Beast articles pointing the scientific inconsistensies in the movie prior to watching. I just don't want to be that critical, hindi naman ako naghahanap ng NASA levels ng reality I just wanted to be entertained.

One thing I couldn't help my self from thinking was that, pano kung sa North Korea pala sya nag-land? hehe

Watch it!

My Introduction To Ashtanga Part 1

I have always considered myself to be a devout Iyengar yogi, one that follows the Iyengar tradition of yoga under Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar. I started learning yoga about 4 years ago at the Iyengar Yoga Center Manila (IYCM) and the good effects that my body and state of mind have reaped I cannot stress enough on. Apart from those isolated times when my friend dragged me to attend an Anusara inspired yoga class and that complimentary  (free!) core vinyasa yoga class at the office which the HMO scheduled for the company, I have always practiced Iyengar yoga. 

4 years ago, the IYCM studio was at the 21st floor of the LKG Tower along Ayala, it was practically a hop and a skip away from the office so I was able to practice almost every day. There were even times when I would attend classes during my lunch breaks. The studio was small but big enough for the small community of yogis that religiously attended class there. About 2 years ago they got another space in Joya Tower in Rockwell, at first they tried operating 2 studios at the same time, the original studio at LKG and the new one in Rockwell but they had few teachers, they only had I think about 4 or 5 teachers that regularly taught that time so they had a hard time plus the space in Rockwell was theirs whereas the LKG studio was leased. Until they finally closed the original studio and had all the classes at Rockwell. It took a while for me to get used to the idea of dragging my butt all the way to the new studio, going there and having no car meant that I had to take the Guadalupe Ibabaw jeep from Ayala, and endure the 40 minute ride to Rockwell. The jeep's route made it impossible for me to relax during the ride because I was always under pressure of having to get to Rockwell in time for the 7 PM class (I get off at 6 PM). Getting to class on time was my biggest frustration, it was already hard to get on a Guadalupe Ibabaw jeep at rush hour it was harder even during the rainy season when jeeps were scarce, traffic naman ang kalaban starting November all the way until the end of December. Last month I only got to attend 2 classes the entire month, it was always raining at ang hirap sumakay, 6:30 na I'm still in Ayala waiting for a jeep. I grew tired of this defeatist routine and so I made the hard decision of attending another yoga school even if it meant steering away from Iyengar. 

And so this month, I started attending classes at Echo Yoga which is temporarily housed in Templa Wellness, the studio is just a 5 minute walk from my office so it's really near. Chillax na yung papunta I didn't have to walk like a madman going to the studio. I chose to start with the Gentle Flow class since I didn't have any background in Ashtanga. The teacher was very good, she pulled me aside after class and asked me where I practiced she said that it was evident that I had experience because i knew how the poses worked. Bonggang pawis lang, I felt like my forehead was leaking perspiration. The next week I mustered enough courage to try the Intro to Astanga class, like in Bikram where they had a set of poses and a sequence that they adhere to ganun din in Ashtanga. I was told that it was the primary series that we did. It took some adjustments on my part because there were variations in how they did the poses, some went against what I believed in but I did as I was instructed anyway because I wanted to have an open mind and experience what the others were experiencing and maybe theirs just might be the better way. 

I always told myself that before I resign to a lifetime of practicing Iyengar that I would have to try other forms, how could I honestly confine myself when I haven't experienced the other forms right? But deep down I know that my heart is with Iyengar just like I know that no matter how many issues I disagree with the Catholic Church on I just know that Catholicism is deeply rooted in me. I'm not saying I'll stop attending Ashtanga classes because I really enjoyed the primary series class and look forward to learning more but I'll always be an Iyengar yogi first and other forms after. I'm no yoga snob as what the others think.

For more info on Ashtanga Yoga click here.

For more info on Echo Yoga click here

Pelicula Pelikula 2013

This year I managed to watch 4 films from this year's Pelicula offerings. I was able to watch Colgados de un Sueno first (my previous post) then I went on to watch 3 more films which I'll talk about here in this post.

Tuesday, I was able to see La Ultima Pelicula a film by Raya Martin. Hipster Crowd alert! Going up the escalator to the Greenbelt 3 Cinema level, I already saw a familiar face but I couldn't put a name to it. We almost made it to the Cervantes table in front of the entrance about the same time. I saw Raya Martin (I knew his face because I've been following his career and also recently followed him on instagram) talking to the head of Cervantes Manila and immediately introduced the guy I was tailing at the escalators. I heard him say that he teaches Politics and History at University then it dawned on me that he must be Leloy Claudio, famous for challenging Tito Sotto on a debate when the whole plagiarism debacle was going on. Raya (first name basis ito feeling close) went to thank several people involved in making the film before the film started. Then I saw the most amazing person, Armi Millare, the vocalist of Up Dharma Down, with Kawayan de Guia. I was screaming inside!!! I wanted to approach her and tell her how much I love her and her band pero tinamaan ako ng hiya, wrong timing as always. I contend with the knowledge that I was once seated 2 rows behind her inside the cinema. The movie was...weird. I have no other words to describe it. It was just wasn't for me, it's beyond my comprehension. It's hard to say something about that which I don't understand. 

The next movie I saw was Promocion Fantasma, the lead actor was familiar but I couldn't recall from which movie. I was itching to google the film right then and there but I resisted and saved it for an idle moment at the office the next day. Turns out the lead actor's name is Raul Arevalo and I was right, he was also in Primos and Gordos both films I saw from previous Pelicula Pelikula's. The movie was a teenage comedy, it was very light and funny and I would very much encourage anyone to watch it. I had a blast watching this movie! Watch the trailer here:

Finally, the last movie I saw was Samurai. Nung una akala ko it was one of those foreign (meaning other than Spanish) movies that were made by a Spanish director just like what they showed last year with Buried (Ryan Reynolds) and a Colossus of Rhodes yun pala the movie was shot in Argentina and it had bits spoken in Spanish and Nihongo. The movie was about a family that moved to Argentina after the emperor abolished the samurai class, the plot is largely about the grandson we set off on a journey to find Saigo, a good friend of his dead grandfather. I didn't pay much attention to movie sad to say, my mind was wandering off outside trying to figure out how I was gonna get home because it was raining like hell outside.

Honestly, I feel like the movies this year are not as strong as previous years lalo na last year when they had the likes of Grupo 7, Pan Negre, No Habra Paz Para Los Malvados and Lo Mejor de Eva but still I'm grateful for the chance to see Spanish films here in Manila. I hope one day I'll find time to study Spanish!

Si Idol Zedd

I'm sure we've all heard the song Clarity and I'm pretty sure the tune also got stuck to your head. The melody is really catchy and it's really hard to get it out of your system. I myself have suffered a serious case of LSS over this song but I never really bothered to find out who sang it. 

Lately, I've been crushing on Hayley Williams from Paramore and started listening to their songs. I downloaded their album but I was looking for "Stay the Night" which wasn't there, so I googled it and turns out the song is credited to this artist named Zedd with Hayley Williams only featured for that song. Again googling "ZEDD" and started educating myself on who this Zedd person is. My jaw dropped when I found out that he's just 24 freakin years old and already super successful. He has his own album, has produced tunes for Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. The bio on his website says that he has always been musically inclined and both his parents are classically trained musicians. 

Anton Zaslavski aka Zedd (pic from spin.com)

What I'd do to be this young and be this successful, he looks adorbs! 

Somebody bring this guy to the Philippines!

Colgados de Un Sueno

Every year around October, Instituto Cervantes Manila organizes Pelicula Pelikula, a Spanish Film Festival that shows Spanish language films in Greenbelt. I have religiously attended this film fest for something like 4 years now and make sure that I get to watch as much films as I can. Aside from being a fan of movies in general, I love watching foreign films because it's like I get to travel, through Pelicula I have seen Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico and Buenos Aires. 

This year, time flew by so fast that I almost forgot about Pelicula, luckily I made a note on my organizer at the beginning of the year to check Cervantes' website for the schedules around this time.

Friday night I went to my first Pelicula which happened to be a documentary about the contributions of Fernando Zobel to Spanish art.The documentary was entitled "Colgados de un Sueno" which was taken from the Museum Mr Zobel established in the town of Cuenca in Spain. Fernando Zobel is part of the prominent families in Manila, very rich! Below is the trailer to the documentary.

The film selections this year I feel is not as strong as previous years, selections are also quite limited. The duration I think is shorter this year, last year it was something like 2 full weeks with 2 cinemas showing different films at the same time. Check out the schedules here:

Pelicula 2013 schedules from cervantes website

I've bought tickets in advance for 3 other nights that I'm free, I bought tickets for "La Ultima Pelicula", "Promocion Fantasma" and "Samurai". I'm excited to see La Ultima Pelicula because this one is by Raya Martin.

For more information on the films you may check out Instituto Cervantes' website.

Flashback Friday: Boyzone

Nood nood din ng Boyzone videos pag may time, these guys were so big back in the 90's. This is one of my favorite Boyzone songs.

So what happened to them? 

Ronan Keating is probably the most famous of the band members, last I heard of him he was on the Australian version of the X Factor and still continues to record music.

Stephen Gately unfortunately met an untimely death in 2009 when he was just 33. 

Find your Yoga

There are so many types of yoga out there, how does one choose? I downloaded this guide from the internet, it came from yogatrail.com to help you choose which tradition is right for you.

I have been practicing yoga for like 4 years now, I'm a devout practitioner of the Iyengar Yoga tradition which follows the teachings of Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar. In the guide above it says that if you have a touch of OCD then you should try Iyengar. I think it comes from the way the classes are taught, poses are practiced over and over again with details so minute every muscle in the body has a direction. It worked wonders for my body, not only has my posture improved my asthma totally disappeared. I can't guarantee everyone will find it as good as I did but in my heart I know that yoga is for everyone and that the world would be a better place if everyone started practicing yoga.

In Manila, you can learn the basics of Iyengar yoga at the Iyengar Yoga Center Manila.

PFW: Rick Owens

Forget Dior, forget Alexander Wang at Balenciaga. I'm sorry Alber it's not Lanvin either. Paris fashion week's best show for me, none other than Rick Owens. Theatrical kung theatrical, levelz lang ng performance art. He invited American college students who were members of different steps groups to model his latest collection.

Check out the facial expressions, menacing kung menacing.

Read Robin Givhan's review here. 

Sana Dati

Last friday, I was supposed to have dinner with friends from college but someone tested positive for Dengue so dinner got cancelled. Last minute (yeah right like I don't often do it) I checked clickthecity.com to see what movies are on, fortunately I saw that Sana Dati was showing in Greenbelt so I decided to watch it. Sana Dati is part of the last Cinemalaya festival, as much as I wanted to I failed to see any of the movies that participated which was such a shame since the entries this year were very good. Buti na lang Sana Dati got released commercially, I have read good reviews about the movie but went to it without much expectations. (I managed to catch "Instant Mommy" pala, it was good but I felt underwhelmed)

The movie revolves around a wedding and the hours leading up to it, flashbacks were used to depict how the main conflict came about. The lead seems unsure of she's gonna go through with the wedding. 

So here's what I thought of the movie, it was fresh! As far as Pinoy film making goes this was a definite step forward. It's different from mainstream movies it has that fresh feel to it. Acting wise the actors were great, in my opinion everyone stepped up their game for this movie. I had a bias against Lovi Poe who plays the lead actress, I didn't like her and I went into it determined to hate her but in the process she won me over. Benjamin Alves has this classic leading man features, TJ Trinidad was so good in this movie and Paolo Avelino as well plays these characters real well. The film won a slew of awards including acting awards for TJ Trinidad and best direction for Jerrold Tarog. But more than the acting what struck me the most was the cinematography, busog na busog yung mga mata ko with the images it delivered. The director is a master of those poignant moments where the actors didn't have to do anything, the camera did the work. Scenes were so beautiful I don't know how they managed to do it given that the setting was just some small and unknown hotel in the city.

The film also won an award for Best Original Music Score which was something that I also appreciated, lalo na the end scene. In my FB post after watching the movie I said that there are times when movie scenes meet the perfect song, the end scene of Sana Dati by Jerrold Tarog met "Indak" by Up Dharma Down and it was a thousand levels of awesomeness. As soon as the first beat played I already recognized the song and I instantaneously started cursing in Tagalog. The combination of the scene and the song hit me straight in the gut, I was already familiar with the song prior to the movie actually it is one of my favorites from their Capacities album so I knew how the scene together with the song will go down. The song choice was genius! 

The young (?) and impressionable me

This post is about my ever changing career aspirations as influenced by what TV series I am currently watching.

Sometimes I think I’m a bit crazy, okay a lot of times I think I’m crazy. A lot of times I don’t know what I’m doing with my life (queue drama music) like what position I’m working towards, as the gist that appears below my blog’s name appears I seem to be floating. A lot of times I discard thoughts about career orientation and long term goals because I simply don’t know how to deal with these questions. And so the meandering mind I have has always floated and took fancy on different career options over time. This would be perfectly normal for a young person, not someone experiencing a bout with quarter life crisis. I have been working for financial institutions for all my professional life, after graduation I took a job with a big financial conglomerate that lead me to what I’m doing now. Even now I still consider switching career paths; I’ve recently started watching Newsroom the one with Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer and now want to become a serious journalist. In fairness to me, I really have considered a career in journalism in my past life. I was part of my School paper in high school and competed in inter school writing contests achieving moderate success haha! When I filled in my application to UP I chose Journalism as my first choice, Biology as my second (I wanted to become a doctor!).

In my freshman year in UP, our block took a career assessment test administered by the guidance counselor, I later found out that nobody really took that test. The test said that I’m an introvert and preferred working alone in a quiet and peaceful environment, most fit career was a LIBRARIAN (pak na pak) followed by being a LAWYER (vindicated!). I love reading and loved spending time in the library which was quiet and ventilation was really good.

Below is the sequence of my ever fleeting career aspirations as far as my memory can recall:

In this order

Ally McBeal - (Neurotic) Lawyer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Vampire Slayer (for realz!)

Grey's Anatomy - Doctor, the kind that doesn't include blood

The Big Bang Theory - Physicist, really considered shifting majors to Applied Physics during my undergrad

Suits - good looking Lawyer

Newsroom - Journalist, although Sloane Sabbith makes a strong point for me to work on a Masters in Econ

An exception to this is when I was reading the book Emperor of all Maladies written by Siddharta Mukherjee which influenced me to be a cancer researcher, oooh more than that I also wanted to be Mathematician when I read another book by Marcus duSautoy I’ll do another post about this later.

Come to think of it I thank God I didn’t think of becoming a drug dealer when I got hooked on Weeds!!!

Isabel Marant x H&M, the men's collection

Months ago, H&M announced that their next designer collaboration was with Isabel Marant, the purveyor of all things french girl chic. H&M regularly does designer collaborations that every year draws massive crowds to their gates hoping to get designer clothes at a fast fashion retail price. Their last collaboration was with Margiela, some years ago I went agog trying to contact friends abroad in order to get my hands on the Lanvin x H&M items. My friend Tina in Luxembourg scored me the tiger shirt which I treasure up to now.

My brain cells exploded upon reading the news that Isabel Marant would design a diffusion for H&M which meant that she would also be designing men's items which was always the case with these collaborations. After months of waiting, we are finally able to google the exact items that will be on sale come November 14 at H&M stores worldwide. These are the items that I'm considering, all pictures are from the GQ website.

30 USD

35 USD

60 USD

60 USD

30 USD

Yeah I know what you're thinking, my selection are boring. With the exception of that red sweater not all have that Isabel Marant trademark design but I dare say no, au contraire she's always been about easy dressing. Her looks are always somewhat disheveled like everything was randomly selected but it all looks good. I'm always for a good shirt that you can throw on anytime, relaxed and easy to pair with any pants shoes combo.

See all Isabel Marant x H&M Menswear pieces including prices here . 

Now if only somebody would just bring H&M here that would be so great!

Flashback Friday : LFO

Once upon a time I considered myself as a budding rapper, yes a rapper how gangsta right? Well it's not exactly rap but I've been drawn to fastly sung songs hehe. Mga Jumpin' Jumpin' ng Desitny's Child at The Remedy ni Mraz and of course TLC songs hahaha soo high school.

Anyway, this was one of the songs I used to "rap" to hehe LFO - Summer Girls.

This song was followed by Girl on TV where Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared sikat na sikat sya non. A few years ago I heard a sad story that Rich Cronin from this band died very young at just 36.

You're Welcome

I'm stuck in high school, what can I say I love high school life? That was the epitome of being immature and carefree for me. I've always associated certain parts of my life to specific songs or TV series I watched during those time, high school for me was all about Dawson's Creek, Ally McBeal, Popular and of course BtVS (that's Buffy the Vampire Slayer to you dummy!). With the exception of Ally McBeal all are high school themed and up to now I couldn't pass up a good high school themed TV series.

I came to watching Awkward from several posts by Cecile van Straten (http://chuvaness.com/), awkward is about the high school life of Jenna Hamilton who wanted to be popular but then gained popularity for notorious reasons, of course the show being in high school hindi mawawala ang love triangle angle. During the first 2 (or was it 3?) seasons she was torn between Matty and Jake .

Hindi din mawawala ang best friends a.k.a. the sidekicks. Tamara is like the lame friend you want to dump but she's a real friend so you shouldn't... I mean couldn't! Ming for me is the cool asian girl who gets to dethrone the asian mafia leader and becomes the ring leader later on.

Awkward Cast (from nowhitenoise.com)

The gem in this show is really Sadie Saxton with her ubiquitous bitchy but not bitchy tagline "you're welcome". Below are some of the best Sadie "you're welcomes". 

Anyhoo I'm excited for the new season! Jenna has a new love interest and more drama ensues!

You're welcome!

Beachy Feeling

I recently downloaded White Noise Lite in my Android device, this app plays white noise which they claim has an effect on sleep. I zoned in on this app after I heard an ad on the radio that tells about a website that specifically only plays white noise which is said to have a soothing effect on babies making their sleep longer and also relaxing for adults. Well you know me, anything that has a good effect on the body and I'm all for it.

White Noise Lite (image from Android Market)

The app contain sounds such as Airplane Travel, Beach Waves Crashing, Chimes Chiming, Crickets Chirping, Extreme Rain Pouring, Grandfather Clock, Oscillating Fan, Thunder Storm, Train Ride, White Noise or a combination of your choice my personal choice being Beach Waves + Chimes. I listen to this while I'm at work in front of my computer and crunching numbers. I have to say that it's effective, the sounds have a soothing effect on me. Sometimes I suffer from panic attacks when I'm on cramped public transportation , I suddenly hyperventilate and have this urge to get out whatever vehicle I'm on sana it works on that too.

The app is free on the android market, you can download additional sounds for a fee. I think it's also available for IOs. 

Additional white noise free download here:

http://whitenoisemarket.com/blog/

Listening to beach waves got me all beachy ang longing for the beach, meanwhile aside from listening to the waves on my phone I also get the same beachy feeling from this music video, Someday by Sugar Ray. Sigh...

Fibr Power Pinays

Volleyball is really gaining momentum here in our country, for as long as I could remember Basketball has always been the biggest sporting event that Filipinos follow it all changed recently when crowds started to draw in and watch live games of the v-league. For someone who has been playing the sport it's a big boost of confidence, gone are the days when the sport wasn't considered as important as basketball.

Naks gumigitna! Photo from Sandy Bediones

There was a brief moment when the country caught volleyball mania, this was during the 90's when the World Grand Prix was held here. We were able to watch world class volleyball as top teams like Brazil, China, Cuba, Japan and Russia came over several times for a leg or 2 of the WGP. Sadly, the Pinoy's interest in the sport wavered and this culminated in the absence of our country getting represented in international competitions.

Power Pinays, photo from Jheck Dionela's IG

Now that the sport is alive, people have taken action and reformed the national team with the aim of sending the teams to international competitions. This started months ago and a selection from the top teams in the V-league were chosen to represent the country in Vietnam for the Asian Zonals qualification. Now, another team has been formed that played in Thailand for the Asian Volleyball Championships. The videos below are from their match against China. 

Sadly, we lost that game but it wasn't as if it was unexpected. China being the taller and more experienced of the two easily won. China's spikers had a field day with what little to no blocking from our girls, the effort was certainly there but they were just too damn tall, too damn high leapers and all around too damn good. I'm just happy that they got the chance to play against a team like China, a team that sits among the top teams of the FIVB rankings. 

Gata the libero is back to her original form, Royce Tubino was a revelation as an open hitter and Maizo was dependable as always. Ang sarap ng feeling pag nakakakuha sila ng point against China, nakaka-proud!

We all have very high hopes for this team, I just hope they find enough and consistent funding to continue their training and hopefully train abroad. There was also an issue among local clubs not allowing their players to play for the national team, sana mawala na yun we badly need their services playing for the flag.

Now if we could only reform the Men's National Team.

Knock knock

Viktor Poletaev is knocking on Maxim Mikhaylov's door.

Heir apparent to Maxim Mikhaylov, this guy can JUMP! I wonder when they'd sign him up for the Russian Men's Seniors team.

Sana ganito din ako kataas tumalon, haha!

Daydreaming of my next Holiday

For people who work for banks and financial institutions here in the Philippines, it’s a well-known fact that the BSP (Central Bank of the Philippines) requires employees of banks and financial institutions to go on a two week leave every year. They say it’s a form of audit to have someone temporarily take over your job while you go on leave others say it’s because working for banks are very stressful so everyone’s mandated to go on leave.

Whatever the real reason behind this I wouldn’t bother researching, or maybe I’ll reserve it for some time when I’ve reached that level of boredom but now I’ll contend myself with knowing that I’m allowed 10 days off from work. I haven’t taken my mandatory leave yet, I scheduled to do it on the 2nd and 3rd week of November and so I’m racking my brains out trying to figure out how to spend my holidays.

I wasn’t always like this you know, there was a time when I considered going on leave quite bothersome because of all the prep work I had to do transferring my work load to another person in the team. But I grew up and grew weary of working, this would be the third straight year I would go on a mandatory leave.

Last year I went on a solo and spontaneous backpacking trip of Central Visayas. I did the Cebu-Bohol-Negros Oriental-Siquijor route which I did for 10 days. The result was a once in a lifetime experience worthy of a separate blog post. Here are some pictures.

Exploring Bantayan Island on a Motorbike

Bantayan Island, endless stretch of white sand

Supercat going to Bohol from Cebu

Man made forest in Bohol

This year, I haven’t made up my mind yet. Early this year I had in mind this Northern Mindanao route which would take me to Surigao, Siargao and Dinagat Islands and making a beeline to Bucas Grande then after some googling session I fixated on a Indochina Route going from Cambodia to Thailand then crossing the border to Laos. Then, I found out that air tickets going to Osaka was quite within reach, I’ve always wanted to go to Kyoto which is quite near Osaka.

Option 1: Bucas Grande (photo from bucasgrande.com)

Option 2: Cambodia-Thailand-Northern Laos Route (phot from tucantravel.com)

Option 3: Osaka-Kyoto (photo from 123rf.com)

I’m planning on going by myself again this year, a solo trip for me is easier as you do not have to constantly consider what the other person wants to do, where to eat, where to go next or where to shop. Now if I could only make up my mind and also find money to spend on my holiday haha! Maybe I’ll just surprise myself, spontaneously buying plane tickets and booking rooms right before my leave starts.