purse-chase

I changed my mind, I adore Tony Moly's face masks. I tried and tested the cucumber masked thrice already and I'm loving it. I'm now on to another  'flavor' : pearl mask.

***

E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey has been recently gaining the spotlight and is officially a best-seller in UK. I am intrigued by the book dubbed as a "erotic mummy". I braved the National Bookstore only to find out that it was sold out! :( 

It its actually a trilogy (P455/book) and I can't wait to have my own copy.

According to my research, you'll either give the book a flop rating or five-star review. Because of the fuss it created, the trilogy is set for a movie adaptation. 

*50 shades photo from google

Go!

I have to start somewhere.

Barely three months after my graduation, ‘clairvoyance’ sided on me, I think I was somehow, able to see what could happen in the next two years and what my possible career options were. I had the chance to look into myself, assess my capacity and affirm what I want (at least, for the time being) and what I really picture myself to be.

I ought to start somewhere.

The past 90 days have been a rollercoaster ride—one day felt like forever, I thought I was already left behind, career-wise. I was so eager to jumpstart my life outside the university. I was excited.  

Lucky enough, the odds were on my side, many good opportunities knocked at my door. Events, although turned as they were because of personal lapses. I was a chicken, scared of what is and what might become. I guess, it’s just that I pictured myself already successful…to soon. Too soon, that I overlooked the idea that I have to take baby steps and start from the bottom.

And thus, I am starting somewhere.

 “It’s not that you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s just that you want to do everything (at the same time),” I read somewhere.

When you are past your teenage years but not yet an adult adult, you could not help but be carefree and juggle everything at once—thinking that you can handle them all, given the passion and energy of a twenty-something juvenile.

I want to travel. I want to be a writer/editor. I will take my Masteral, soon. I want to teach in UST. I want a love life. I want my own car. New clothes, every day. I want to be a speechwriter… I want and I will.

However, for the meantime, I have to be a jack-of-all-trades first, before I can successfully juggle my wide array of dreams. Para kahit saan, pwede mo akong isabak.

I guess, I have my father as my model: personality-wise and in terms of career-life. He is street-smart, a character which I am not. All my life, I have overflowing family support that I think I have grown a brat. And a street-smart ass, I will learn as I plunge into the working population and into the real bigger world.

Life is not all rainbows and butterflies, honey.

He is a people person, which again I am not. My father has dealt with persons from all walks of life. While, I have only dealt with friends, family and myself. If I want to be a good communicator, my parents always tell me, practice my verbal skills.

My father is a tough cookie. Well, I would like to see myself as one, but I am nothing compared to his experiences, he has been through vicissitudes while I am just about to start. I guess, a low-graded essay back in high school, doesn’t count?

With these I end, because I ought to start somewhere. #

20:20

This has nothing to do with a perfect vision (with which I would want to have, my eyesight is getting poorer and poorer), but with 'life lessons' to the twenty-something people out there!  To justify my title, it can be metaphorically associated with these post:

20 Things I Should Have Known at 20

(from here)

1. The world is trying to keep you stupid. From bank fees to interest rates to miracle diets, people who are not educated are easier to get money from and easier to lead. Educate yourself as much as possible for wealth, independence, and happiness. 

2. Do not have faith in institutions to educate you. By the time they build the curriculum, it’s likely that the system is outdated– sometimes utterly broken. You both learn and get respect from people worth getting it from by leading and doing, not by following.

3. Read as much as you can. Learn to speed read with high retention.Emerson Spartz taught me this while I was at a Summit Series event. If he reads 2-3 books a week, you can read one.

4. Connect with everyone, all the time. Be genuine about it. Learn to find something you like in each person, and then speak to that thing.

5. Don’t waste time being shy. Shyness is the belief that your emotions should be the arbitrators of your decision making process when the opposite is actually true.

6. If you feel weird about something during a relationship, that’s usually what you end up breaking up over.

7. Have as much contact as possible with older people. Personally, I met people at Podcamps. My friend Greg, at the age of 13, met his first future employer sitting next to him on a plane. The reason this is so valuable is because people your age don’t usually have the decision-making ability to help you very much. Also they know almost everything you will learn later, so ask them.

8. Find people that are cooler than you and hang out with them too. This and the corollary are both important: “don’t attempt to be average inside your group. Continuously attempt to be cooler than them (by doing cooler things, being more laid back, accepting, ambitious, etc.).”

9. You will become more conservative over time. This is just a fact. Those you surround yourself with create a kind of “bubble” that pushes you to support the status quo. For this reason, you need to do your craziest stuff NOW. Later on, you’ll become too afraid. Trust me.

10. Reduce all expenses as much as possible. I mean it. This creates a safety net that will allow you to do the crazier shit I mentioned above.

11. Instead of getting status through objects (which provide only temporary boosts), do it through experiences. In other words, a trip to Paris is a better choice than a new wardrobe. Studies show this also boosts happiness.

12. While you are living on the cheap, solve the money problem. Use the internet, because it’s like a cool little machine that helps you do your bidding. If you are currently living paycheck to paycheck, extend that to three weeks instead of two. Then, as you get better, you can think a month ahead, then three months, then six, and finally a year ahead. (The goal is to get to a point where you are thinking 5 years ahead.)

13. Learn to program.

14. Get a six-pack (or get thin, whatever your goal is) while you are young. Your hormones are in a better place to help you do this at a younger age. Don’t waste this opportunity, trust me.

15. Learn to cook. This will make everything much easier and it turns food from a chore + expensive habit into a pleasant + frugal one. I’m a big Jamie Oliver fan, but whatever you like is fine.

16. Sleep well. This and cooking will help with the six pack. If you think “I can sleep when I’m dead” or “I have too much to do to sleep,” I have news for you: you are INEFFICIENT, and sleep deprivation isn’t helping.

17. Get a reminder app for everything. Do not trust your own brain for your memory. Do not trust it for what you “feel like” you should be doing. Trust only the reminder app. I use RE.minder and Action Method.

18. Choose something huge to do, as well as allowing the waves of opportunity to help you along. If you don’t set goals, some stuff may happen, but if you do choose, lots more will.

19. Get known for one thing. Spend like 5 years doing it instead of flopping around all over the place. If you want to shift afterwards, go ahead. Like I said, choose something.

20. Don’t try to “fix” anyone. Instead, look for someone who isn’t broken.

love is pablo neruda

Okay, it might be OA to equate the poet, Pablo Neruda, with the four letter word. He has written well-acclaimed poems about the faces and phases of love, enough for him to be dubbed as the King of Hearts (at least, that's what I think).

Anyway, I would like to share some of my favorite Neruda poems starting off with, 'If You Forget Me.'

If You Forget Me

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
***

Don't Go Far Off

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?
***

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

right one

In the course of finding the right facial cleanser for oily skin, I stumbled upon Tony Moly's Tea Tree Seed Facial Foam:

Tony Moly, P178

I dated it to monitor how long it'll last

Just because I was supposed to buy a cleanser from Etude House that I've been eyeing for months but unfortunately out of stock! I've read in various blogs: dazzlermakeupandbeautyblog.com that Etude's Baking Powder Foam is good for acne-prone and shiny T-zone.

Etude House, P328

Nonetheless, Tony Moly's much cheaper, so I gave it a try. I also read in: beauty blogs , that Tony Moly is also as effective.
***
Hoping for an oil-free face the coming days!

we'll get used to it

     Manny Pacquiao failed to defend his boxing title against his opponent, Timothy Bradley.

     The country momentarily stopped its everyday chores to hope and anticipate yet again, that Pacquiao will bring home the bacon. But, as much as the Philippines wanted its ‘Pambansang Kamao’ to reign as the World Champion, one’s winning streak could not just go straight, unfaltering.

     I am not a boxing enthusiast but I somehow, saw Pacquiao’s overthrow. I saw it coming—and I have a lot of reasons to say it so.  (Although, of course I wanted him to win!)

     Blame it to age gap, Pacquiao looked puny compared to his much younger opponent. And i noticed that he’s not robust-looking, a macho, muscle-man, like he used to be. Or perhaps he has become too much sure of himself? Nonetheless, Manny has more than a handful of experience compared to Bradley.

    On the other hand, I believe one’s triumph does not depend on his age, robustness or name. Sometimes, time alters one’s fate. Timing is everything.

     Manny has already reached the peak of his career and is basking on the triumph of glory. In fact, he has juggled more than he should—boxing, politics, showbiz, business, faith-healing (?)...

     Kidding aside, Manny’s career is already written down on history. Today’s event does not only apply to Pacquiao’s career but to anybody else’s: we cannot stay on our thrones, forever.  Eventually, our shine will fade and we’ll retire.

     I just hope that our ‘Pambansang Kamao’ will step up from this experience. Nevertheless, i salute Manny Pacquiao.One episode of lost doesn't define us.

present tense

The back-to-school mood and the rainy days that June bring render me to contemplate on what the future may bring.  

“Life will not wait for you. Hindi ka hihintayin. ‘WAG KANG MAGMAMAGANDA SA BUHAY. ‘WAG MO S’YANG PAGMAMAGANDAHAN.” 

Ferdie Lopez, my Literature professor, said in his Twitter account. It was comically stated but thought provoking nonetheless: seize the day and grab every opportunity that knocks on our doors.  

I believe that it takes time, courage and patience before a person can look back on the pavement he has made throughout the course of life and see the fruits of his labor. However, the impromptu episodes in the itinerary of life add color, excitement and test a person’s faith on how firm his dreams are.

Experience, this will earn me personal and career growths. Nobody knows what the future is. Is it exciting? Scary, perhaps? Both, I guess both…

Notwithstanding, we are of the present tense. 

review on Tonly Moly's face masks

Stingy yet cool—this is what I felt when I used Tony Moly’s Face Mask that I bought for P58.

I have never used any facemask hence, I could not compare it to other masks/packs available in the market. Since the instruction was written in Korean, I did not understand a thing; I merely relied on the series of drawings. For a maximized effect, I opted to refrigerate it first for a cooling effect.

Pomegranate promotes elasticized, moist and youthful skin, the packaging said.

Pro/s: Relaxes the face, skin feels taut

Con/s: Impractical (I think that the mask should at least, be used twice because, I noticed that there are still Pomegranate juices that apparently my face did not absorb.)  

Rating: 2.5/5 (relatively high for a first time user)

Will I use it again? Maybe. 

i see ghost              

                                    

back to school?

Nostalgia sets in as I enter the premises of a department store: it screams of back-to-school atmosphere.
Black shoes in wide array of designs available on the racks, notebooks, cute pens and other school merchandises fill up the entire floor.
I may not be coming back to school these coming days and will not be seen uniform-clad anytime soon (although I have plans of taking up my Masteral in the coming years). But for the meantime, here is my outfit wishlist, I am taking on the corporate/mature attire:

Office basics: (photos from forever21.com)

Black stilettos may be a good choice but for me nude and sturdy-heel shoes is a better option. The color gives an illusion of longer and leaner legs.
















I want this blazer because i think it can go casual and corporate at the same. Adds oomph to drab outfits.














Midi skirt is regal and fashionable at the same time.

Gold-plated bib necklace! :">










***
Anyhow, I may not be hitting textbooks soon, but I got me some novels to keep me company:
Cultures of Opposition (Kosak), Flights of Love (Schlink), Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi) and Wuthering Heights (Bronte).

Hello June, hi rainy days!