Thursday, October 25, 2012

Meme time: 7 random things


Needing a distraction while writing a paper on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (yes, I am doing it just now when it has been due quite some time along with All Things Fall Apart by Achebe), I decided to wander around old posts from my favorite fashion blogger, fashiontoast, and decided to jump in an old meme. Memes exist since way back my LiveJournal days, I just never really got into them. Maybe I did a few but I haven't been tagged a lot even then. I'll, uhmn, try to do a few. There's not much outfit photos to post at the moment, anyway. I've been having random dinners and lunches out with old dorm mates, however---my girls, who want to hang out from time to time as they have moved into a cozier pad this time, feeling the dorm fees are quite high with every passing semester here.

Anyway, I'm putting forth 7 random facts about good 'ole me. Sorry this is one narcissistic post but, well, it's a meme for bloggers. And really, it's difficult to not be narcissistic when the blog owner has full command of a certain blog like this one. I don't really even get what meme means, someone please enlighten me?

1.  I've fancied going pure vegetarian for years now but can't seem to be so. I do have some triumphs here and there seeing as I am now occasionally just eating meat but going pure is the way to go then going vegan.  It's not just for the health benefits it gives but for ethical/environmental reasons as well. I am that kind of person, yes. People I've met everywhere say it's unhealthy but I will have to disagree.

2. Currently addicted to iced coffee, hot sweetened cocoa and Nutella cupcake. I don't drink my coffee hot anymore these days, it seems.

3. It amuses me when someone wears socks in the house or the dorm room. Never really got used to doing so. That probably goes with the fact that I have lived in a tropical country most of my life. 

4. I try to learn a language or two: since forever, it's been Japanese (on all 3 areas: reading, speaking and writing---mostly self-taught as I haven't decided on lessons yet) and French though it's mostly the former I focus on. :D And I would always fail at Kanji, always. Except maybe recognizing a few here and there.

5. I have this thing called 'momentary obsessions.' Two of them include Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War (a Vietnam-set war novel---considering it the book that changed my life and it is a must-read even for civilians who aren't in any way connected to the government) and the Japanese drama, Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu. There's something fun about room sharing with girls so you won't have to live alone and pay much for rent and all. 

6. Chocolate keeps me going. I can never live without even the cheapest ones I can find in the supermarket these days. To quote my current roomie, 'I need my daily dose of sugar,' or something along that line.

7. I do write fanfiction, I just never get to publish them just because... It goes with being a fangirl of many things, I guess, and being a literary studies graduate student. I'm currently imagining Usagi/Mamoru (yes, my childhood-and-up-to-now obsession since rediscovering the manga and all things the fade away scenes stand for---I am a romantic at heart, very, very hopeless one at that) in various scenarios like the characters in The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh or some other film/book I've watched/read. My old LJ is something I plan to use to post my fanfics. Better to post them there than in my fanfiction.net account since some or most of them have mature content. Erm...you know what I mean. 

Not tagging anyone so feel free to do this when you want to. Sorry, this was boring. There's really not much to find here---the perfect way to say I'm pretty much a boring person.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

quiet sunday

(photos by Kristel Punu)

Everybody's gone home and I and a few others are the only ones left in the dorm. Dumaguete is often really desolate on the semester's break, even Christmas and summer...but that's probably because most inhabitants of the not-so-city but in-between-that-of-a-city-and-well-developed-town are like me, university students. Though really, what I am completing is my graduate degree (masters) in Literary Studies.

Spent a fun day celebrating dorm mate Kristel's birthday today. Started out with a jog at the oval in which, I ended up recalling yoga poses learned from the yoga book gifted to my dad. I really should consider getting myself a yoga mat and attending some formal yoga classes. The latter are non-existent here and back home at the moment but I'll get to it once I find a good gym with a good yoga teacher employed in it. I've decided I am bringing the book with me so I could perform them from time to time. I don't really do anything too strenuous aside from swimming laps and the occasional jogging/brisk walking. A hearty breakfast followed and now I'm in the study room of the dorm, answering my comprehensive exam for Philippine Literature and reading Dean Francis Alfar's Salamanca for my independent reading paper. I just remembered I need to finish one for South East Asian literature as well. I already finished stuff with Latin American Literature although I might have failed the Jorge Luis Borges part of my teacher's bloody comprehensive exam.

Wore this dress I got from a nearby boutique around here. It reminds me of something Alexa Chung would wear at times and the print is not too in your face either. It's a sort of pixelated/painted flowers and leaves pattern which is reminiscent of Luella's fun flowery prints way back in their NYFW's Spring 2008 show. Let's just say its just one of the many flowery dresses in my closet. I haven't really gotten around to getting a ton of them. My thrift shopping options here are pretty limited at most. I actually can't wait to come home.

dress, some boutique nearby; boots, forever 21; sunglasses, vintage; (not pictured/not seen in the picture) shoulder bag, ninwest

Saturday, October 20, 2012

this week

 
 
This week was for cupcakes and iced coffee, (yesterday) a big glass of margarita and pizza. And, of course, appropriately inappropriate vintage slip dresses, one of which has had it's lace taken off and shortened a bit. Lazy dressing, go figure.

It's been a busy-ish week with all the papers due and I still have a few more to work on until Wednesday next week and then I'm going home on Thursday. Mall sales, I don't think I can ever get used to. I only go when I want something or whatever. Robinsons Dumaguete went on crazy sale yesterday, that's what prompted this portion of the post. I'm probably glad I never went. I haven't done mall sales in eons either.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

silver and shiny


Bedroom shot. As much as I'd like to keep this shiny, oversized vintage number with me, I'm not prepared to challenge it's limited styling options. This one's going out to the ebay account I recently got the hang of using soon along with a few other things I have the heart of letting go already. Hmmmnn...I'll definitely be on a lookout for stuff to thrift and such to make my ebay account a little more livelier. It's pretty much bare and lifeless at the moment.

Accomplished a few good things today by staying in for half a day. The plan is to go to the library and read about women's literature in Latin America or something from the feminist side of that literary world. Laden with a ton of school work to finish today until tomorrow. Next week will definitely be a crazy week. Can't wait to be home the week after next!

the honey trees - wake the earth

(from here)

Put up as a reminder to thyself to get a copy when they stock up on it once again. A must listen if you like that dreamlike quality in the music you listen to. Yep, I'm into indie music more than mainstream most of the time. I used to be too mainstream in the past. Not sure what changed but changes happen.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

contemplating ugly shoes

 (photo from here)

Forever21 site says they're in grey but I think they're close to the olive color in the photo. They're actually on sale and still available in my size. But seeing as I might have to put purchase on hold on these things among a few others until at least the start of the second semester of the school year, I might as well just stalk it now and again. Stalking ugly shoes has become quite a habit these days. A pair of these might actually end my craving for ugly high heeled shoes or something. The last pair of misunderstood gladiators I had was from What a Girl Wants, my favorite local shop and they didn't last about a year. Three wears placed them in the graveyard which still saddens me to this day. If I don't get these then I might as well look into a pair from Aldo. I think these things would be good for walking. Yep, project heel whore transformation has commenced. Bye for quite awhile, flats.

It's the first time I've posted twice so yay to me. :)

weather inappropriate but comfy outfit


I didn't get to use the wall I meant to use this time but at least there's documentation today of what seems to be an outfit for the day that's weather inappropriate. Despite being windy, the sun has been shining out this afternoon. There're hints of clouds and I'm silently praying it would rain as the forecast I read was predicting. Never the less the top is quite comfortable to wear even in the searing heat as long as the sleeves are bunched until around the elbows. 

I should have done the trademark blogger pose like usual but this was taken with just a single shot or something like it.  I certainly do come up with the most awkward expressions.

The varied size of the photos currently disturb me. Is there an easy way to resize these to make them uniform through blogger or do I have to do them on Photoshop or something?
  
waffle knit (lightweight) sweater, vintage; lace shorts, from sparkleshop at multiply; tights, SM Department Store; ankle boots, Forever21

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

prototypical blogger pose and new favorite wall

(photo by Kristel Punu)

Life just became easier after finding this wall by the study room of the dorm. I think there will be more outfit documentations to come yet by means of this place. It's definitely better than having to go to the boulevard on a daily basis. It doesn't help that the place is conveniently accessible, too. 

It's finals week and I haven't taken a lot of things to twitter recently. I've been reading and reading and reading and getting disturbed by my room mate who's currently on a Grey's Anatomy marathon it seems. I'll be found studying in this area on a daily basis now. I have a ton of things to read and write this week, I've barely just started on the rest of the handouts for Latin American Literature. 

This is the only pouffy skirt I own at the moment. Wore it out to complement the wolf shirt which is one of my favorites from Forever 21 then balanced the whole thing with the pointy toe mid-heels from Primadonna. It's made of light denim so it's somehow forgivable both in color and make. I think it's high time I tried acquiring a ton of other skirts from Forever21 from bodycons to the pouffy types like this. I'm still miffed there's none of these in my size anymore online unless they restock.

Currently craving impossibly high-heeled gladiators to play with but I got these online instead. Mayhaps they'll be getting a lot of wear this fall/winter season with all the celebrations coming in. And if I do get to attend them and I don't get stuck in Dumaguete until Christmas. It was really the gold heels that got me into them. Suddenly I'm imagining them with anything white and black, yes, I am that boring, apparently. Pops of color are a requirement to make my outfits livelier I think, but I'll get into that some other time. I'm already stalking a bright light blue bag and an orange one from Aly Mae. I'm not sure if they'll still be available by next week when I can decide to finally get one of them.

I find my natural hair color boring but it's been that way after my aunt experimented with it with highlights and light brown dye. I'm thinking about getting highlights again. Any other ideas as to what to do with my hair out there? I come out with none most of the time seeing as I'm not much of a hair- and nail-salon person.

Now, I'm going back out to read just because this Grey's Anatomy marathon my room mate is into is distracting. Very, very distracting. I'm not even into Grey's Anatomy.  

Forever21 shirt, Never Been Kissed (random Robinsons Department Store brand) denim skirt, Primadonna heels, random (gifted) necklace worn as bracelet

Sunday, October 7, 2012

learning to love BB: a reaction to a blog post

I am supposed to be reading and writing---well, there's more than enough time for that today considering I don't plan on going out anytime unless it is to buy something or whatever---as early as now since finals week is coming in but I ended up stumbling on Bryan Boy's I Fucking Hate Filipinos and I just had to put a halt to some things and reflect (or really, not since I don't think that deep at all on some things). Now, if I weren't me, I probably would be offended having read this as it's really all about Filipinos (like myself) but I'm me (despite being a Filipina---I'm female, so go figure) so I actually find this amusing and very agreeable on about every angle, on just about every point. For once, there's someone who doesn't mind every natural thing given him---a gem of a guy **insert a ton of hearts here**. And that I have to agree on everything he's ever talked about in the post. I think it's better than being pretentious and wishing something you really can't be. I, myself, can't fathom the craze on glutathione products and every whitening method created and mass-produced/performed for the public in the local scene who wish to be white when really, brown is all there is to it for instance. I even steer clear of Cyleina's black pearl/glutathione bars given I'm addicted to organic stuff at the moment because I'm basically more into caring for myself and my skin that into trying to whiten myself up to something I'm not. Okay, now I'm yammering on about skin colors and being comfortable in your own skin. I think what it really boils down to is being comfortable with the way you are. And I like that. Oh and yes, those "can I be your friend?" messages...I recently had this experience...yesterday, actually. Some guy sends me a text asking if we could be friends. I don't even know him nor do I know whom he got my number and details from which is just...creepy. Call me a snob or whatever but those messages, that kind of question asked over and over is quite annoying. That doesn't need to be asked except perhaps in some cases, but friendship really just develops overtime. (So to anyone in real life that asks me that question on the phone or whatever, don't be offended when in the end I don't follow through.)

On a random note---and this one cropped in during the usual after-dinner conversation with dorm mates yesternight---that's related to the said guy that sent me the cliched question in a text. That he proceeded to type in Tagalog jejemon which made me mull over the thought of how he is in real life. The three of us (dormers) out to dinner at this time decided speaking jejemon and getting into that trend is pretty much pointless. I only feel mildly irritated about it but most of the time, I don't understand it nor do I get the hype around it. I do find it quite frustrating when you send people text messages in the common, everyday English and Bisaya/Cebuano dialect (or Tagalog, in some special cases such as when I text, e-mail people who are from up north and know only that and everyday English) and they send you a reply in the entirely alien short messaging (I refuse to use 'text' and every derivation of it as I see it improper to do so) language that is jejemon. Is it too much to ask to be reciprocated with a proper, straight text message and not something so alien to my neanderthalic mind? Yes, I live in a cave where that's concerned. I'm not the very trendy kind in the first place. Oh, and Special mention to the 'nym' on the text I read that was supposed to be 'name'. Talk about alien language. It's abuse of common, everyday English and I find it not insulting but rather a really good way to kill education in the English Language and structure, word usage included, ingrained by means of repetition---heaven knows I'm sick of those exercises I had back in grade school and high school in English I'm just so happy I'm over that part of my life---in the head since primary school or grade school. Simply put, it's overkill for the intellect even if intellect is diminishing with every moment spent without reading or something similar.

I giggled when reading about the point raised on the same post on Filipinos being grammar nazis. I think I can be, at some point but seeing as I'm doing literature studies as my masters/graduate studies, I don't really see the point of proper or "perfect" grammar in things like blog entries and such unless they're violations on the basic grammar rules. Now that's based on common sense, really. I might be a bit peeved by that kind of murdering of the common, everyday (I think this belongs to the 'colloquial' category) English language but I don't really go about correcting people on it. Other than that, I don't care about the violations on more complex grammar rules. I tend to commit them at some point in time. But to be honest? Even some forms of literature have had stuff in them that violated set grammar rules from time to time. In my current phase, I think the only ones who have the liberty to correct anyone on word usage, violations on grammar rules and such are those who've studied linguistics or ELS (English Language Studies) and some other forms of it, those who've studied the English language (syntax and all) as a whole. But I think they shouldn't either seeing as it's common, everyday, colloquial spoken English they're trying to correct---my way of saying, correcting everyday, spoken English is just pointless. Veering a bit from the point but still somehow staying on point, I actually tried getting into the more technical part of English like that of ELS or TOEFL at the beginning of my years as a masters in English student but that somehow left a sour taste in my mouth. I never did like nor will I ever like conforming to a set of rigid rules be it in the use of English, spoken and written, or in some other thing like personal style and basically the way I live my life. At some point, some insignificant (perhaps over-the-top, superfluous, rather absurd and non-personally-related) rule or two should be broken for the sake of creativity and self-expression.

And before I jeopardize the rest of my day I plan to spend on reading, lazing about and just writing my literary papers sans the grammar rule violations I think I will be committing in the process of doing so (I do commit a ton, recently), I'm going to end this post by nodding to this one point raised in the post I agree with to the tee: "Filipino showbiz is SOOOO fucking beneath me." I actually hate gossip stuff on tv, nor do I gossip about other people other than if they'd done something that violates the way I see things. Don't even get me started on those shows on tv and the gossipy stuff that end up destroying an individual person. Gossip is gossip. They're pointless and synonymous to rumours. To which I'd say, gossip on because I don't care and I like to live life my way. And yes, "violate" and every form of it is the word of the day.

Friday, October 5, 2012

2-week-absence

 (photos by Kristel Punu)
An accurate description of my 2-week-blogosphere absence in a nutshell. Absence may have been longer than that, however. This one includes almost a week spent at home doing practically nothing besides experimenting with stuff in between attending family events that was primary focus at that time. I should have been reading and catching up with school work instead I waste a ton of time doing zilch, all things irrelevant---bunny ears diy  included.

First time I brought out the oversized plaid shirt (obviously a men's kind of shirt) two nights ago and I ended up sleeping in it. Falling in love with the extreme comfort oversized stuff more and more and more now. A lot of my recent acquisitions, thrifted mostly, are going that way I don't think I feel even sorry for myself. My tights obsession has just sky-rocketed but maybe it's because it's technically borderline fall-winter in some parts of the world and it's definitely getting colder at night here. I plan to acquire some knee-high, thigh-high, over-the-knees stuff in the near future. Havoc will be sought everywhere the minute I get my hands on any of their kind. This is how I'm becoming more and more Parisienne chic au naturale (awkward phrasing, it's an attempt that remains still awkward)...and would legitimately be one...in my very, very distant dreams. 

  

And some random thing done with the hair yesterday in addition to diy-ing my own dry shampoo. Not going to waste money buying something that might not otherwise fit with my hair well at the moment. Probably at least until I can afford them but otherwise, DIY stuff is practical for me most of the time and they're not hazardous to the health which is something I really like about them.

 (my instagram photos c/o tumblr)

On the school front, I need to finish a ton of readings and papers today. Doubt there's something of utter importance I need to do outside of anything else but books and short stories to read and write reports on so I might as well stay in until at least lunch time or something. Part of the reason why I wasn't around for awhile in the blogosphere is my laptop dying on me. It's all fixed now although I doubt 1,500 Php is justifiable price enough for the little repairs this one seemed to require. They never did send me any text message saying it could be claimed already or not apart from that they sent asking for my password.

Taking late lunch/breakfast at 1 in the afternoon. Perfect. I'm not going out to get notes until around 2:30 or 3:30 in the afternoon so I'm going to drown in Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness followed by short stories for tomorrow's reports and a few others. Booksale fun yesterday was, well, fun. I meant to go there to look for something for my Southeast Asian Literature class---seminar paper---but I ended up with one for that and Patti Smith's Just Kids. I've been stalking this autobiographical book since coming across a post on it on Freepeople's blog.

Anyway, off I go to read a bit and perhaps start on some papers then whatever else is up today.