Hello, 2012!

AND WE ARE UP AND OFF!

Update your bookmarks:

http://the.lastgirl.net

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!

this week, on the Internets

USB Cassette Converter by CD-R King (Php780)

Discovered earlier today that, not only does CD-R King have practically everything -- it has something that'd convert your old cassette mixtapes to MP3 FORMAT. (And while you're at it -- also a safe box disguised as a cereal box. Really.)

Indeed, this has been a rather interesting week for online finds. (More under cut: Longreads, etc etc)

steve jobs (1955-2011)

Steve Jobs: Innovator, visionary, icon. 1955-2011

Woke to news this morning that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had just passed away. Such a heavy feeling. Just how big is this loss? Time Magazine stopped their presses on the issue they had just put to bed that afternoon and called an emergency meeting to devote a new issue to Jobs. If that doesn't make the hairs on your arms stand, I don't know what will.

I'm not what you can call an Apple fan -- my first Apple purchase was the iPod touch I gave Andrea for Christmas a few years ago. I bought myself an iPod classic soon after, then bought Almi's iPod nano as a gift to my brother -- and that about ends my list of Apple products. (10/10 EDIT: Ugh, I forgot about my sister's iPod touch, and our not-so-brief obsession with Tilt to Live! Haha! Still no Android equivalent, boo.)

I have iTunes on my non-Mac netbook -- an old version at that, since I'm too lazy to get an update -- and have since warded off my desires for an iPad or a MacBook: Too pricey, would probably burn a hole in my pocket for a long time, and, as my girlfriend often reminds me: What do you need it for? (For the record: She's right. I get by just fine on Windows, an old Nokia qwerty phone, and my trusty Android tablet.)

But more than his products, to me Steve Jobs is primarily an inspiration -- a man diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, he lived SEVEN YEARS MORE (a whole lot longer than his doctors expected, at every front, A MIRACLE) to introduce the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad -- and to inspire an entire generation.

This generation includes me. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

Here's a link to his famous 2005 commencement address to graduates of Stanford, and my favorite passage from that speech:

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

I'll be sure to remember, sir.

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? :)

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

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.)

galaxytab must-haves

I've had my Samsung GalaxyTab since February this year and these days I've been using it for doing basically everything on the go -- keeping up with social networks, taking and sharing photos, syncing docs with my home and office desktops, reading comic books and ebooks and even a bit of word processing on the side.

In light of Eliza's recent purchase of a Galaxytab (and her subsequent plea on Twitter for app recs), here are the stuff I use more often. Under cut---

(Ang hirap-hirap-hirap hindi mag-flail. Kailangan daw respectable ang tono ko para galangin. ANYWAY.)

oh, wait

Most of this post is in the form of a caption. To wit:

Oh, LOL. Not like I have plenty of free time (only that I am forced by poverty to stay indoors this weekend and do this)
Oh wow. So I redesign my dotcom roughly every year. Entirely too rusty, I had to use cheatsheets with my CSS, etc. but man, Notepad++ is my new best friend.
ALSO -- who is this dork who makes a Twitter feed for her dotcom? That would be me. Finally, somewhere I can stash my cleanwebsitelayout-pr0n, or something.
Version notes: Oh, handwritten logo! It sucks, but you should've seen the earlier attempts. And man -- 2002-2011? NINE YEARS. I'm so throwing a decade-old party next year.

kwentuhan lang

(Cut for old school)

psa

Oh man. So occasionally, there will be times when I am going to have to rave about work-related things that are NOT read-along related (LOL).

This is one of those times, and today I will be raving about the Inquirer's Digital Edition.

Things I am loving right now: A digital version of the Inquirer in my Galaxy Tab EVERY MORNING.

senior year, psa, etc.

Senior Year

First things first: Andrea and I watched Senior Year this afternoon. We loved it. (Cut for possible spoilers)

life roundup, week ending 4.7

(Under cut: Sucker Punch, Hop, and a few other age-related things)

say hi to mom

Said hi to mom today. She's all right.

All Saints' weekend at my parents' home. This afternoon, Auntie and I bought flowers for mom in Alabang -- a basket of leafy things for P30 and a bunch of yellow flowers for P100. Auntie's arrangement powers know no boundaries. Jaraaan -- parang P500 bouquet pero hindi singmahal haha.

Not too many people yet in the memorial park today -- could be that they're coming in full force later tonight and leaving tomorrow morning. In any case, we'll drop by again tomorrow before heading back north to avoid tomorrow's deluge.

*

Also: I didn't know I could connect flat screen monitors to Panda until TODAY. This information makes me very happy since I could use a 15-in screen with these eyes. YAY.

EDIT:
(cut for things I did with this flatscreen a.k.a. watching old videos of The Corrs)

domain redesign update

That time of the month again -- when I tinker with CSS and everything else. Netvibes' graphic and webdesign feeds are the best, ngl.

[newly revamped domain here]

rolling with the punches

You know what they say -- you gotta roll with the punches. I've been resisting this auto-template-design-thing for ages, but then in the absence of code I can cannibalize for "older entries" -- le sigh. I'm usually not comfortable using anything I don't understand the barebones of (I looked at this design's HTML and it's all like... pfft.) but what the hell. It's supposed to be easier, so.

Slow clap, you win Blogger. First you stop my FTP, and now I'm even abandoning the rugged comfort of classic templates for this alien autothing. *sob*

(I am willing to bet that didn't make sense at all.)

*

Sunday summary:

+ Finally, Dad got around to installing one of those double-lock things I've been planning to install. Christ, how had I ever thought of installing these things alone? My father, armed with electric drills and chisels and stuff, and an experienced carpenter with x number of years under his belt (snicker) took a couple of hours just finishing the thing. In conclusion: Whatever age, dads are always super. Thanks Dad. :*

+ Feature SMGC purchase of the day: Casual rubber shoes and heavy duty PE shoes for Wy, casual shoes for me, WOODEN MUG HANGER-WHATEVER (love!) In conclusion: So happy.

+ So, I've discovered a new song from Lifehouse?
Lifehouse - From where you are by thegshift

oh, a domain?

LOL so I actually managed to code a bit of my 2008 backlog at the domain TODAY.

Productivity is productive, and dorky intermission is dorky. (Oh, I've totally forgotten having written this, by the way.)

i wanna be where the boys are!

Oh man, The Runaways. You know I'm totally smitten with something when they suddenly show up as blog template design, I kid you not.

Number of times I've re-watched the movie, in whole or in part: seven EIGHT.

Standard disclaimer: Dakota Fanning is SIXTEEN, you guys.

*

Pardon all this red, though. Some movies strike me as a sort of color, and definitely, cherry references aside, this film is RED. Brutal, still-raw-wake-of-fingernails-down-your-back RED.

Also, Kahlua may or may not be at fault for all this pretty subdued yellows.

*

Yesterday, the parentals picked me up for some late snacks/early dinner with my siblings at Banapple on Morato. Their food is good AND cheap, yum. Also, I finally saw my sister's new flat, and man, her bathroom is HUGE.

How huge?

Me: (upon opening the door) WOW, CHRIST. Ilang shower stalls meron sa loob nito, tatlo?
Krista: Sabi ko sayo eh.
Me: Shet, ang hirap linisin niyaaaaan.

LOL. Of course, my first concern would be cleaning it. Actually, I wanted to clean it upon seeing it... okay, WEIRD.

ALSO! I met my brother's supposedly "annoying" roommate (LOL "dark" horse - tm PDI inauguration supplement) yesterday. And he was CUUUUUUUTE. I mean, how can you hate a little boy who looks like Mort from Madagascar?:


Here, an illustration for your guidance.

HAHAHA. Also, have you seen my brother? He is now taller than Krista, and you know Krista's like, a ~giant or something. Haha. Growth spurt ahoy!

Wy: (Nagsusumbong, annoyed) I mean, he switches the lights on to text, in the middle of the night -- ano ba wala bang ilaw yung fone niya?!
Me and Krista: BITCH PLZ. HAHAHAHAAH.

I swear, my brother is going to be Queen/King Bee or something! I APPROVE! Wala pang nakakakuha ng ganyang status sa aming magkakapatid as far as high school is concerned! GO TEAM GO!

Oh man, siblings. How are yours? ♥