things i'm glad we didn't have in '01, no.1: twitter

I had a lot of fun doing this. Srsly. Obvsly.

Truth be told, I'm kind of glad we didn't have Twitter when we were younger -- for one thing, it would've clobbered my poor attention span. Secondly, I couldn't imagine the amount of ill-advised Twitpics I would have taken under the influence of various substances. Thirdly, well -- I've said it before and I'd say it again now: the fact that there is no record anywhere makes it all the more special. Like this moment is really just about you and you and you and you and me. You know? :)

Also, also -- man, the amount of drivel I could have subjected all of you to while I was in the middle of SO MUCH TEENAGE HEARTBREAK. Oh, lord. To quote Ice -- I shudder at the thought. :)

Anyway -- this fantasy Twitter thread was fun to do! (Jobert and libraries. OTP! True story! Peace bro!) Also -- check out that TEN YEAR OLD ID PHOTO OF ME. I wonder where my UP ID is. That is the exact same face, I kid you not.

a toast to sept 29th ten years ago

Handwritten, September 2001.

I remember my introduction to gin -- I was sixteen, sitting in a friend's seventeenth birthday. We were in her house (Cleng, this is you) and we were this small group of girls sharing a liter of gin. Sabi nga ni Almi, who was with us that night -- Grabe, ang bata pa natin noon!

Over lunch today we were debating whether The Great Gin Drinking Spree Prior to the Great Kas 2 Field Trip happened on Sept. 28th or 29th, the 29th being Cleng's birthday. To settle it, Almi asked me to check my old blogs. And I really would have -- had I been already blogging at the time. I started blogging in 2002; before that, I'd been greatly into making these really corny and juvenile "class websites" on Netscape Composer, mostly for myself, because at the time I knew very little HTML, and NOBODY WAS ON THE INTERNET, REALLY. No Twitter, no social networks, not even Friendster, which I joined in 2003 and has since been packed up. Geocities, my initial host -- God bless its digital soul. (Though aminin niyo guys, most of us heaved sighs of relief when it went down -- I know I did.)

Anyway -- I finally decided that the Great Gin Drinking Spree was on Sept. 28, 2001, and the Kas Field Trip was on Sept. 29, 2001 -- A SOLID TEN YEARS AGO, GUYS. My first year in college was hands down one of the best and most memorable -- and the fact that it's all in our heads makes it all the more special: only a handful of photos and ZERO SOCIAL NETWORK UPDATES plus NO TWEETS AT ALL.

Which brings me to: I wonder how my social network feeds would have looked like had all these things existed when we were at our craziest. Oooh. A reimagining, anyone? :)

the midweek round-up, 9.28

Double celeb for Wy and Auntie

Wy turned fifteen on Monday while Auntie turned twenty on the 27th (haha) so we decided to make Sunday extra-special with a buffet lunch at Matsuri on Morato. Andrea has edited and labeled all the food photos over at her LJ post here -- needless to say, for a Japanese food junkie like me, THIS PLACE WAS HEAVENLY. A bit pricey at P595 per head, but man, you don't even have to stand to get to a buffet table, you just ask the waiter for bottomless refills of everything. That said, I'd totally do it again.

Afterwards, we met up with Andrea's former officemates at Cubao! They were awesome and we ate at Bellini's and I took their group photos, etc :) Awesome mini-reunion, thanks for letting me tag-along love!

Monday, I was at work on my day-off to finish something we're cooking up for the Read-Along -- I'm actually thankful I finished bulk of the work plus approvals on that day because as it turns out Tuesday was Pedring day.

Woke to scary winds Tuesday morning, and Andrea was just about to go out to work when her boss texted her to stay home. Lucky. I went to work early to escape power outage in the condo, tried to finish up leftover work from Monday, monitored the news, etc. Andrea was at work with me (it's like a mom taking her kid to work / a kid taking her mom to school kind of deal) and I'm thankful to have someone to ride the scary trike with at 9 p.m. that evening.

Today, two back-to-back meetings and I'm kinda spent. Oh, also caught Glee season 3 episode 2 (meh, as usual) and The New Girl pilot episode (meh, it's as bad as Skins US! I'M SORRY ZOOEY!)

Oh, oh and this -- Read-Along with Remington Friday morning! Geek Fight Friday night! Here, have photos:

Whee with Mart Escudero

With 7 Nation Army at Geek Fight!

Anyway, interesting finds on the Internet these past few days:

- Thought Catalog: "Why is it when we lose lovers, we lose places?"
- Tumblr: Gotye's "Hearts a Mess"
- Poetry: Eliza's "Prayer" on Stone Telling 5 
- ... and Mashable says: No, you aren't quitting Facebook (and I kind of agree.)

blogger's new dynamic views

My posts tagged "beach" in Blogger's new "Magazine" dynamic view

Just a quick note to say -- I am digging Blogger's new Dynamic Views.

Read more about that on Blogger Buzz

and now, for something that will make you feel old (really)

Trust your sister to use a seven-year-old photo to illustrate her point. Hey you look adorbs in your tie! Just sayin'.

Most of you would probably remember my younger brother as that small kid who used to visit me during PTC / this little boy who used to suddenly show up in my college boarding house / that kid you probably kissed during my graduation / that boy who used to be MUCH SHORTER THAN I AM / etc.

Well. He's turning fifteen on Monday. Oh wow. Time flies.

Happy birthday Wy! I'm still looking for your pictures!

the midweek round-up, 9.21

Anniversary week! ♥♥♥

A few things:

- Went to the Manila International Book Fair on Sunday with her folks. Not as outstanding as our previous visits, but thoroughly enjoyed just the same. I got my friend Caloy's "Corpus" from the UST Press, while Andrea got Lourd's "Super Panalo Sounds," which, from what I heard, is also super panalo.

- As part of my anniversary loot for her, I gave her the Samsung Galaxy Mini that came with my new Smart unlimited data plan, which she is currently thoroughly enjoying. (e.g. by taking photos of herself as twins, etc.)

Hello there!

- Exchanged anniversary gifts a few days early! On account of our low EQs hehe. I did this series of 48-word stories for her on Tumblr a.k.a. mixed media (LOL -- there's an Issuu file, and audio files everywhere, because I secretly like reading things aloud, etc) also, meta: It is easier to write something lengthy than it is trying to trim things down to a certain word count. This was a new experience for me as a writer. /end meta.

48-words on Tumblr.

48 words on Issuu

- But as usual, I have been trumped yet again by an AWESOME 365-DAYS-IN-THE-MAKING COLLAGE MINI-BOOK. Shet. True to form, love. True to form. It has collages and drawings and stories and, believe it or not, scratch and sniff portions.

I love you, my multi-talented loverrrr.

n.b. Here's Andrea's account of the weekend!

(There are more things under this cut!)

app crush

I'd like to introduce you to my latest app crush, If this then that. Basically, it's a site that allows you to automate tasks over the Internet. How? Simply put, it lets you define an "if I do this" task and an "and then this happens here" result.

REALLY!

So far here's how I use it: If I tweet anything on my @thegshift account (excluding @replies), then IFTTT automatically ships the tweets to a notebook I keep on Evernote -- incidentally, also an app crush.

Why I like this automation: I used to be able to collate my tweets via LoudTweet (which used to ship the compilation to my old LJ), but that service was interrupted when I decided to turn my Twitter account to private. Which was a bummer, but now, it seems like I've found a way to compile my tweets without having to open up my account. Which is nifty. VERY NIFTY.

the pottermore post

So last week, I got into the Pottermore craze when I finally got my welcome e-mail (after weeks of whining, heh).

The experience so far has proved to be very magical indeed -- the graphics are awesome, you get to find things by zooming in, there's a lot of meta going on about J.K. Rowling's process as a writer (a personal favorite, absolutely -- I have enjoyed what I have read so far about things not in the book), PLUS I totally got my wand and GOT SORTED.

Well, as far as SORTING goes, you all know how that turned out:

Slytherins: Sleek, powerful, misunderstood.

(Here's why I agree with the Sorting Hat's decision-- WARNING: SPOILERS. Just in case you care.)

the weekend round-up

Rare these days that I have ~a social life, so I take every opportunity to blog about it whenever I have one! Haha! :))

ANYWAY!

Friday night

Happy birthday, Ate Chona! Various photos with Maricar, Val and Drea -- same guys I went to Nagsasa with this summer! Every lakad is an adventure, charot! :))

First time to get to visit the famous Midnight Mercato at The Fort on the occasion of Ate Chona's birthday. It was a rainy night but we braved the puddles nevertheless. It was jampacked! I had fantastic steak with rice, and then we had cheese flautas, and then we had chicken skin and then we had smores cake and then we had BEER ICE CREAM. Which tasted weird, but hey, awesome idea is awesome, innit.

Saturday morning:

After the session, we talked about her experience as a young Muslim woman growing up in Australia during 9/11 and what being a "fully Muslim woman" means to her. Surprising and inspiring.

I usually shy away from late Friday night outings whenever I had a Read-Along session set that following morning, but thankfully I was able to wake early enough in time for that Saturday morning's session with Kylie Padilla.

(Oh, look. The paper ran the story today on Page One. Thanks, editors! -- on PDI: Read-along session marks Peace Month)

Session was with Service for Peace, a non-government org advocating peace through community development. The kids we had were from their Muslim community of peace in QC and their Christian community of peace in Mandaluyong. As with every session -- an eye-opener, this one. Thanks for coming over! :)

Saturday night
Just the same, I shy away from late Saturday night outings when I've been awake so early in the morning for the Read-Along (man, I'm getting old), BUT Arigatohato's EP launch at B-Side was too awesome to pass up! Got home at 4 in the morning! (Naks, at B-Side. Kala mo parang bente anyos lang. Haha!)

Went to the thing with Andrea, who knew Arigato, Hato singer Cat (When we were introduced I was a total dork, starstruck etc; I shook her hand and flailed at how awesome her set was. Haha.)

When I got there after work, Andrea was with Marie and Poxy, and then we bumped into Nayna and Mak at Wabisabi, and then into JC and Cass at the gig itself. Awesome night was awesome. A few notes:

• That Techy Romantics set! - *swoon* That girl sure knows how to move. Christ, I can't even.
• That Pedicab set! - *pants* -- Oh wow, that sure felt like a workout.
• That couch was an awesome idea -- if I were a smoker. I wouldn't have moved AT ALL but damn, the smoke got to choking level. Yo kids smoking is bad for you, etc. Charot, you'll quit on your own when you're 25 or something.
• Also -- got filmed by a group doing a documentary on Meiday! While having a round of beer with JC and Cass while Outerhope etc were playing above our heads. Talking (more like, yelling over the roaring music haha!) about web startups and geek fight and stuff.
• Had too many bottles of beer! San Miguel Apple is Cali Shandy with Alcohol, which is nice, if you're into that kind of thing.
• Got home at 4 a.m.! Naks, parang bente anyos lang.

Anyway -- PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!:

(Photos and Sunday, under cut)

the 9/11 post

The Inquirer's Sept. 11, 2011 front page

For the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 bombings, I condensed profiles from various sources (The New York Times mostly - link to their 9/11 interactive website here) for the twenty Filipinos who perished in the attacks. (On PDI: Roll of Remembrance: Bells toll for 20 Filipinos)

Spent Friday afternoon reading through every story -- some of them shouldn't have been there, some were in the middle of wedding plans, some found their love in New York, some had families in the Philippines waiting. All the stories were still heartbreaking even after all these years. (One of them was a former boss's sister. That was the most heartbreaking piece, IMO.)

*

Other interesting reads about 9/11:
- The 9/11 Commission's final report (More than 2,600 dead in the WTC alone)
- The Losses of 9/11 by the Numbers - NYTimes
- Via The New York Review of Books (@nybooks): Joan Didion’s “Fixed Opinions, or The Hinge of History”
- Wikileaks released text pager intercepts covering the 24 hours surrounding 9/11/2001. It's a massive read, but chilling just the same. I still get goose bumps reading things like, Please call home in between announcements of planes hitting the towers.

*

Here's a personal 9/11 flashback: At that moment, I was in my boarding house, preparing for the following day's class. I was a freshman in UP and I got the heads up from the weirdest person -- a boy I used to like in high school texted me to say I should turn on the TV to CNN because the Twin Towers in New York just got hit by planes.

That was the last time I heard from him. It felt odd, getting that text; I guess I really was That Girl from your High School Whom You Text About CNN. Haha.

Anyway, so I went to the boarding house's main living room and asked the landlady if we could watch TV, and then there it was. What a sight.

the midweek round-up: 9.07

A quick round-up of what has happened since last week:

- Lawrence created this poster, in which we invite you to "spot your newest fave teen stars" (zoom in for total effect of Things that Cannot be Unseen) -- http://t.co/FbF0st8 

- So I've been watching Kim Chiu do a bit of cross-dressing on My Binondo Girl. Quick summary/spoilers for the uninterested: So Kim's character dresses up to be a boy (a very pogi boy LOL -- I mean, see for yourself) so she would be recognized by her Chinese (Filipino-Chinese?) father, who has been aching for his first-born son Yuan (who is Kim's brother and who has already died). My question -- Is her character technically lesbian -- since she wants to be male for acceptance's sake? Or do you have to be a girl who is attracted to girls to be lesbian? My head hurts. Meanwhile, I saw the guy who plays Kim Chiu's dad at Rustan's in Power Plant. He is pogi. Hihi.

- This awesome link find via my friends on Twitter: http://t.co/6ubB1yN

(The rest under cut)