Hello, 2012!

AND WE ARE UP AND OFF!

Update your bookmarks:

http://the.lastgirl.net

the 2011 yearender

2011 was Awesome.

The post-birthday post

Turned 27 yesterday and was with family. Played LazerTag at the Alabang Town Center with sibs and cousins and respective significant others where applicable, then bowled at Starmall before eating at Army Navy for snacks. Then met up with the uncles and aunts at home in the evening after their respective work shifts.

BTW--Best up-side of being officially out to immediate and extended family: The question, How old are you? doesn't get automatically followed up with, When are you getting married?

In summary: All's gooooood. Nothing beats family. :)

ALL RIGHT. PHOTOGRAPHS!

mix: momoxmas 2011

Due to insistent public demand: Your Christmas Makeout Mix.

Because baby, it's cold outside.

DOWNLOAD: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 (Going down [lol] 3 Jan 11)

twenty-seven

Last day at 26, as tomorrow I'm turning 27! Wow, time flies so fast. Right now, I've just come from a drinking session with Max, and nothing makes me feel older than when I'm out with younger people haha.

So here I am, three bottles of beer later and halfway through a glass of wine.

(Cut for drunken blather, kindly indulge)

because the best things in life are Libre!

To cap the party season we had Libre's "toned down"/"subdued" party on Thursday!

To summarize: Beer, giant pizza, truncated Christmas songs (Free app kasi! Hanggang fifth day of Christmas lang haha!), Ang Siko ni ZsaZsa, a makeshift photobooth, limpak-limpak na PASABOG (mahaha) and of course -- endless videoke! I got home around 5 a.m. -- feeling nineteen! (cue Tegan and Sara here)

ANYWAY: A few photos to illustrate the night, if you please. (Thanks to Almi and Mau for the photos!)

(Under cut)

we interrupt this program: lost girl 2.12

It's our favorite succubus' birthday, and if there's anything Buffy has taught me, it's that birthdays are never good days. Le Sigh.

Anyway, this is why I shouldn't be left alone watching things. By myself. With wine in the fridge. I need to cuddle huhu.

Oh, Bo. Come, cuddle.

(Cut for spoilers. And FEELINGS.)

party (fuel) rock: make your own (editorial) party

Editorial peeps pitched in to hold a simple Christmas party in the office on Tuesday night -- simple but thoroughly fantastic, btw, even if I didn't win anything at the raffle-slash-Sendong fund raiser.
As always, the best part about any Editorial party: Old and new friends, TOGETHER! So fantastic to see some "alumni" in the house!

Also: Back due to insistent public demand: Party Fuel cocktails.

(Photos under cut! Thanks to Almi for letting me gak some of hers!)

december so far

So much to be thankful for these past few days: Girlfriend introduced to me to the wonder that is Katsu House's superduper delicious teriyaki makis and they. are. AWESOME. Shoutout to Laura and her fantastic cooking/discovery skills! You should all go and try some for yourself! Check out Katsu House's Facebook! (Don't walk -- run!)

Part of my December-long Birthday Celeb! I love you love! This was awesome and supernom!

Sunday was Annual meet up with the Ates Day a.k.a. M & V's joint birthday celeb! Here be a photo of us inside Abe's in Serendra. A hearty lunch laced with laughter -- thank you as always!

This group around one table -- always a riot!

Abe's Knockout Knuckles. I can still feel you in my system oh gad.

Abe's lechon. Omygad pampabata talaga ang menu nung Linggo. XD

Speaking of the holidays -- the Department has released the Official Christmas Greeting ID for 2011! Seasons Greetings from all of us! (LOL me official greeting? Mamaya may video na yan. Jaraaan!)

Happy Holidays! Lab, Schatz, Maryi, Ana, Me, Almi, Ma'am, Lawrence.

Real life note: I guess I'm totally pushing through with graduate studies this coming January at DLSU. Here's hoping my studying/social skills aren't entirely outmoded yet. Haha. (I've been [over]thinking this -- it's been years since I've been That New Girl, and I'm sort of out of practice.)

Dork note: I am in the middle of a Major Online Revamp Project or something or other. Will probably launch around my birthday (My 27th! Can you believe it!). Stick around for details. Heh. Kala mo naman iPhone 4S ang ila-launch ko (HUHU IPHONE 4S.)

Miscellaneous and potentially cryptic: "We would make the strangest of friends."

That's it. Big day tomorrow and I'm just kind of jittery and all over the place. Wish me luck!

sabado nights!

This year's block party was yet another videoke party! We dougie'd, we super bass'd, we party rock'd and even tried to get the other rooms to conga line with us! Hahaha! The photos would probably do it no justice, so here are a couple of photos I nicked from these Facebook albums. Maraming salamat for letting me gak!

(Photos under cuuuut!)

last friday night

The Inquirer turned 26 yesterday! Aaaaand as has been the tradition for seven straight years now, we usher in the December party season with the Grand Anniversary Party!

But before that, here be the Inquirer's Page One and the readership survey we wrote for the issue. :)

We're Number One!

And before we proceed to illustrations of last Friday night (heh), a summary: We ate, we laughed, we cheered (Editorial won! Nice one guys!), we danced like we were in a workout class, and more importantly: we drank.

ONTO THE FESTIVITIES.

(cut for photos!)

the little team that could

Here be Monday night's Quill crew:
L-R: Sir Chito, Me, SPR, Ruth, Margie, Ta Nitz, Ms Miner, Bianca, Ate Ellen.
This photo taken from Ms Margie's Facebook post. Thank you!

Let me start by saying that this time last year, we were literally on our knees, packing boxes to be shipped to some 20 other venues outside Metro Manila in preparation for the 25 simultaneous sessions last Dec. 4.

Of course, last year, while dutifully checking lists and counting notebooks and cutting packaging tape and printing labels, we weren't even thinking about the Quill awards -- what we just wanted to do was, of course, just send out the 60 boxes to the 20 venues and just get this thing off the ground.

(But really, my choice moment, and I will never tire of retelling this: I found myself sitting in an Inquirer truck at 4 in the morning outside the domestic airport, waiting for a man I knew only by name, whose family was boarding a flight to Batanes. As we all know, that flight eventually got canceled -- I woke to a 9 am phone call telling me that, and I spent most of that day looking for another guy to take those boxes to Batanes, because, hey, it's From Batanes to Tawi-Tawi. Batanes was not an option, it was a requirement.)

It's been roughly a year since we pulled that off, with the help of hundreds of Inquirer employee-volunteers, partner organizations and of course the Inquirer bureaus. In last year's Post-Mortem, I wrote:

That said -- I wasn't kidding when I said many hands have kept us afloat -- what I've seen in the past few months while organizing this thing is something I'd never forget. I guess it's true what they say -- Build it and they will come.


They all did. And as they say, the rest is history.

At the time, I knew I was in the middle of something huge, and last Monday, when the team bagged an Award of Excellence at the Philippine Quill Awards, and was eventually named Overall Winner for Division 1 -- there are a few things that could rival the utter joy of that moment. More than the trophies and the photos and being on stage and all that -- it's the fact that the team was there to celebrate together that really got to me.

2011 Philippine Quill
OVERALL WINNER
Division 1 - Communication Management
25 Simultaneous Inquirer Read-Along:
Telling the Story to Empower,
To Inspire from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi
Philippine Daily Inquirer

You know how they say that you're the sum of the people you spend the most time with? Well, how about this: Since 2007, I have been spending a ridiculous amount of time with the most creative and hardworking group that I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and as with all things that end up to be surprisingly amazing, it all started with a small idea.

(Rest under cut, with Photos!)

we interrupt this program: lost girl

I am in love with this doctor. Yep. I love how she wears her confusion on her proverbial sleeve. Fantastic, Zoie Palmer. Fantastic. I love your face. Also: In any given show, I always fall in love with the girl... who reminds me of me. #fact

And now for an even briefer news round-up, just to get my journalist-y feelings out of the way: This day has been insane I tell you -- in the morning the Commission on Elections voted to charge former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo with electoral sabotage in connection with the alleged rigging of the 2007 senatorial election results in Maguindanao. And then the Pasay RTC released an arrest warrant for her. ALL IN THE SAME DAY. I mean, this never happens in this country, really. By 6:30 p.m. we were watching the cops say they'd just served the warrant in a fucking hospital. Unbelievable. It's like Grey's Anatomy and Law & Order rolled into one. Just saying.

OKAY. Now we have that out of the way. Care for a little Doccubus action?

midweek round-up, 11.09

Undas 2011. Requisite "Hi mom" photo. Hi mom.

This better be a quick one because I am up to here in plans: In the tradition of Outdoing Ourselves with Every Outing, the ever creative Read-Along team is putting up a two-day marathon of reading events (this, from last year's oh, let's do 25 of them nationwide AT THE SAME TIME.) by the end of the month, so until then I'll be, let's say, a bit all over the place. I can't wait for December. Seriously.

Just a rundown of things -- spent Undas 2011 with the family, watched the pseudo-MGB Halloween special (pseudo because it's not MGB, just something that Kabayan happened to host, hehe, but in all a good effort, that) then reported for work on Nov 1st, because it was a Tuesday.

On Nov. 1, my Research brethren and I did a bit of a Halloween photo shoot: (The rest under cut, for your own good hehe)

dear lost girl 2x06,

This via http://fuckyeahbo-lauren.tumblr.com/
I officially have feelings.

(spoilers for Lost Girl 2x06 under cut, though I'm sorry that GIF has to stay out of it -- because, hello.)

WARNING: INCOHERENT FLAILING.

mix: parties are made for mashups

 

Oh man, I've been having too much fun on Grooveshark lately. Here be a playlist of wicked mashups: Parties are made for mashups (and vice versa) -- ngl MGMT, Far East Movement, Enya, Prodigy, Eurythmics, Lady Gaga, Nelly Furtado and Robert Miles. How am I still alive. How are you still sitting there and not dancing?!

video dump, 10.26

Jeez, how is it only Wednesday? Haha. Here's a story to tell our mother when I come visit her grave this weekend: Ma, true to form, Nobyembre na naman at nababaliw na naman ako. Haha.

Anyway! Here be a massive video dump: M83, What's your number? and a few miscellaneous things under cut:

monthsary weekend round-up

I took this photo hehe. ILU love. 49 months! That's longer than my college education already! HAHA.

Marked our 49th month on Saturday and spent most of Sunday walking around (30%) and eating (70%). FORTY NINE MONTHS. I know, right, who'd have thought we were here for the proverbial long haul? Haha. Love is funny. Here's Andrea's account of the fantastic food-trip-Sunday over at her LJ (complete with photos!)

*

Also on Sunday, Andrea joined in the bi-annual Read-A-Thon and finished six books. Hurray for avid readers!

*

Meanwhile -- I've been considering my battle plan for the upcoming Nanowrimo 2011 (a.k.a. November! Let's torture ourselves!), primarily because, looking back, I had fun last year. (And I even have proof of it right here) I can't believe I just said that, but there. 2011 hasn't been a big year for writing AT ALL (except for a couple of things I finished earlier this year), and I happened upon a PDF of maps, letters and a brief guide to navigating scars while cleaning out my harddrive this morning and I'm all inexplicably weepy. JFC I need Happy Lemon in my life right now.

Anyway, last year's piece was, mostly: heat, beaches, quiet. This year, let's go for the opposite: cold, deserted roads after dark, and, well, running away from explosions and robots and gunfire.

Or maybe not. Which is the best thing about this exercise: It could be about anything.

mix: frightened rabbit playlist

What? No love for Frightened Rabbit hereabouts? RIDICULOUS.

• Nothing Like You | this is a story, and you're not in it.
• The Twist | you twist and whisper the wrong name
• My Backwards Walk | i'm working on erasing you
• Things | like new skin from old skin that'd barely been lived in
• Floating in the Forth | i'll steer myself through drunken waves

Grooveshark ILU - [Playlist]

mix: endings

This photo taken during Lilie's wedding. Nice shoes, Budi.

• The New Radicals - I hope I just didn't give away the ending
• Earlimart - It's okay to think about the ending
• Taken by Cars - Logistical nightmare