Week 4/52 : The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

I decided to wear red for this SP because my mom has been constantly reminding me that, while this year is supposed to be Ezra’s lucky year, this year will carry a lot of misfortunes for me (well, for people who are born in the year of the Ox).  She told me that the only way to counteract the bad luck is to wear red every single day of this year. I’m not sure where she read that, but I’m not too worried since I don’t really believe in horoscopes.

My title came from a quote by Helen Keller. I chose it because it sort of represents my mood at the moment. I’ve been feeling a little lost lately, like I have no idea what I’m supposed to do in the near future. Everything feels so uncertain. Ckloy tells me to just live one day at a time and enjoy each moment, which is a good idea, but I’d still feel better if I knew were my life was headed.

To be honest, this picture was originally supposed to be about censorship and freedom (because of the whole SOPA/PIPA thing), but I guess I’m a bit late since the issue seems to have calmed down a bit. I don’t really follow the news but from what I’ve read they decided to postpone it indefinitely because it lacks support from the government. (Although, from what I hear, ACTA passed. I haven’t really read much about it so I’m not sure how this will affect me yet.)

(EZRA) 4/52 : Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth – tame the dragon and the gift is yours.

This was Ezra’s portrait for Lunar New Year.  Sorry I’m uploading it a bit late here on my blog.  She was born during the year of the dragon (1988) so she’s pretty excited about this year being “her” year.  To celebrate, she asked me to make a photomanipulation of her summoning a dragon.

We call this her “May dragon ako, ikaw meron?” portrait XD

Stocks used for this manip:

• Moon brush from HERE
• Dragon stock from HERE
• All other brushes (textures and mist) are HERE

(Ezra got the title from a quote by Noela Evans.)

Hopes in Sky (Flying Lanterns)

About two weeks ago, my family attended Hopes in the Sky – a benefit event organized by the UPLB student council.  Lanterns were sold to raise funds for the victims of Typhoon Sendong.  They also invited some local bands and dance groups to perform that night.

My mom bought 4 lanterns for the event, one for each of us.  Ezra and I were pretty excited because it’s been a while since we last saw floating lanterns.  We used to see them every year in Myanmar during the Tazaungdaing Festival (AKA Festival of Lights).   I remember that we used to go out to our balcony to watch the lanterns at night.

(I saw a lot of floating lanterns during our stay in Myanmar, but I only have two experiences where I actually released one.  The first was during my 7th grade field study to Kyaik Htee Yo - our teachers bought some lanterns and we lit them outside the cottages where we stayed at.  The second time was when my mom bought one lantern during the Tazaungdaing Festival and we released it right outside our house – it hovered above us for a while but the wind got to it and I think it crashed somewhere in our neighbor’s backyard.  Luckily their house didn’t burn down.)

Anyway, the event started around 7pm but the lanterns weren’t released until around 9:30pm.  We were actually supposed to light them all together but a few people got a little impatient and lit their lanterns early during one of the band performances.  I can’t really blame them though, the organizers did say 7pm .  I’m sure most students wouldn’t mind staying up late to wait for the big event, but the fundraiser was open to everyone – including families with kids (and parents XD) who have bedtimes.   I even heard that some people from the next town also came to watch the lanterns.

I managed to take some pictures of the very first lantern that was lit that night:

Away she goes~

After the first lantern was released, many people started to light theirs too – including us:

My parents attaching the wax thingie to the bottom of the lantern

Week 3/52 : New year, new hair

I got a haircut about two weeks ago. I know I’ve always said that I missed my super long hair from 2009/2010 and that I’m trying to grow it out, but the dead and frizzy ends were such a pain to deal with. I spent about 2 weeks debating whether or not to cut it and in the end I decided that shorter and healthier hair sounds better than longer and dead ends.

I’m quite happy with how my hair turned out. I actually wanted it a bit shorter, but this is fine for now. Besides, I can always go back to the parlor and get another haircut if I’m still up for it in the future.

Some pictures of my damaged hair before I got it cut:

(Please pardon the huge eye bags and swollen face – I was still jet lagged when I took these.  I made the decision to cut my hair while we were on vacation and as soon as we got back to the Philippines, I booked an appointment at the salon XD)

 

You can clearly see how fried the ends are in this picture, tsk tsk

(EZRA) 3/52 : I’ll miss winter

Submitting this a bit late. It’s only the third week of 2012 and we’re already behind, ack!

Anyway, the weather’s been nice and cool here lately – but not cold enough for us to wear our heavy jackets, especially the ones with fur on them.  Ezra’s sad that she has to retire her furry poncho because it’s her favorite, so she asked me to take one last self portrait of her wearing it before she puts it away.  The “hat” that she’s wearing is actually the detachable fur trim on my jacket hood XD

Review : Wacom Bamboo Connect tablet

This is sort of a continuation of my previous post where I talked about getting the number 1 item on my Christmas wish list (a laptop).  In this entry I will talk about the 2nd item on my list – a graphics tablet.

I’ve already posted several entries here on my blog about how I decided to replace my 4-year old Wacom Bamboo Fun since it started experiencing some problems, so I won’t go into much detail about that again.   I was actually pretty happy with my tablet before it started going haywire so I tried to look for the same model, but they didn’t make them anymore.  (I read online that Wacom still sells Bamboo Fun tablets, but they upgraded it so it’s not really the same model that I want.)  This is what I ended up buying:

The Wacom Bamboo Connect.  I got it for around $80.

Inside the box you’ll find :

The CD which contains the installer

The pen – which is black

Say hello to Lily

About a month ago I posted my Christmas wishlist here on my blog.  The number one item on my list was a new laptop, which my parents agreed to get for me   I didn’t bother bringing my old laptop with me to California since I knew I was getting a new one so I used my mom’s Vaio during our first few days there.  Eventually she realized that she couldn’t get any work done with me hogging her laptop all the time so she decided it was time for us to drop by Frys Electronics to pick up my new baby.

I didn’t really have an idea which model I wanted at the time (I just said I wanted a VAIO) so we asked the sales assistant there for advice and he recommended this:

It’s the Sony VAIO VPCEG17 – 14 inch E Series laptop

Of course I got the one in pink  The box contained the laptop, battery, power cord and manual.

So shiny and prettyyyy~  I love the diamond-embossed texture on the lid

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New  Year~

(We don’t normally do much to celebrate Chinese New Year, but since we weren’t home when 2012 began, my mom decided to do her New Year’s tradition this day instead.)

Our family welcomed the lunar new year by having a mini-dinner party at home.  My mom brought out her special silverware and had the table set up nicely.  We didn’t have time to cook so we had takeout from Hen Lin and Ding Hao:

Fried rice, noodles, sweet and sour pork, siomai, cuapao, jellyfish, soup and almond jelly with lychee.  Nom nom nom~

12 “round” fruits for the 12 months of the year

(EZRA) 2/52 : Fading back to reality

Ezra was still stuck in vacation mode this week, but she realized that she had to face reality and get started on her thesis.  She says it felt like she had to wake up from a really good dream.

I had fun editing this. It’s been a while since I did a photomanipulation. It gave me a chance to try out my new tablet  I used the same  technique I did for this old self portrait, with a few modifications.

This photo made it into Flickr’s Explore.  It’s been three months since I last had a picture make it there so I was happy that this one made it, especially since this took me a while to edit

(I should probably make a new category here on my blog for my photomanipulations.  I’ve been dumping them in the “photography” category for the past two years.)

Week 2/52 : Warm puppy hugs always take the sadness away

I was really sad about having to leave California and come back to the Philippines last week – not because I don’t like it here or anything, but because it meant that my vacation has ended  It’s back to reality for me now.  But I cheered up instantly when I found these little guys waiting for me at home

Days before we left for California, one of our dogs (Jin) gave birth to one puppy. And while we were away, another one (Akira) gave birth to three more! We now have FOUR adorable little babies! I’m so happy! Puppies were on my Christmas wish list last month and I’m so thrilled that I now have four of them. But we’re not keeping them all. My dad is planning on selling two or three because we don’t have the space to take care of all of them But until then, we will continue providing these pups with all the love that they need.

(The bigger pup was the one that was born before we left to go on vacation, and the smaller one in my right hand is one of the three younger pups. I wanted to include them all in the picture but I couldn’t carry them all.)

Thanks again to my sister for helping me take this picture.

I’ll be posting more pictures of these little guys soon, so watch out for that