Life and Stuff | PatriciaSpot

Birthday Week (Day 1) : The Office Birthday Surprise

Posted by pat on Sep 22, 2009 in Life and Stuff | 0 comments

So after lunch, I began getting busy working on my desk when Mikey calls me over to the pantry,”Judd wants to talk to you”. I’m like, “What does he need? Weird” So I walk over and then Judd jumps out of the pantry to keep me from going in. Apparently, Mikey called me in a bit prematurely. Whoops too late, i saw what they were doing inside. They prepared a little birthday surprise for me. lol. The mastermind? Carlos.

I go inside anyway and they were lighting the cake. (Surprise fail!) They brought out 25 “no die” candles, stuck ‘em in the cake, and tried to light them. It took them a while to get them all lit and by the time they were done lighting the candles, some of them were half burnt. Then they turn to me told me to BLOW THE CANDLES. Apparently, it WAS for me after all.

So there i was trying to blow 25 candles that just wouldn’t die (ever heard of them magic candles). The more I blew, the thicker the smoke become. It got quite…. bad actually. Any thicker and the sprinklers would’ve gone off. Now THAT would’ve been hilarious.

Check the video:

Birthday cake blow fail!“What the hell. Bat ganyan!? Parang everlasting candles?”“fire fire! Pshhhh”” Parang inihaw na cake” “the smoke the smoke. Oh god the smoke.”“eeww, cancerous” “Epic FAIL!”

There I am, trying to blow candles and trying hard not laugh. I have no idea why my movements were all prissy. I wish I dressed up a bit this morning! I look like a total dork the video. I need a make over… baaad. I didn’t really care to look good today.

After that candle-blowing episode, we had to scrape off the icing on top as it was covered with ashes. What can expect after 25 candles..

(photo by: Carlos Palma)

It was really quite funny. Hilarious moment I tell you. Smoke Alarms, candles that won’t die, Miss Tec (the Admin head) getting upset, ashes in the cake….

I want to thank the Nuffnang peeps (Judd, Carlos, Anne) and the Molve peeps (Mikey and peeps for the little surprise. That was really sweet of you guys.

WordCamp 2009 and My Lovely Bowl of Pho

Posted by pat on Sep 21, 2009 in Events, Life and Stuff, Websphere | 3 comments

(Pictures from Carlos a.k.a Existential Walker and Judd) Thanks guys. I will use my own pictures once I get my own camera. ‘Til then, I’ll have to contend with my crappy P&S cam, and leeching.

WordCamp 2009

Last Saturday, I attended my first WordCamp seminar.WordCamp is a conference/seminar focused on WordPress. It was co-presented by Mozilla and hosted by the Mindanao Bloggers Group at AIM, Makati. It was ….. interesting. First thing’s first. Sorry blogger but it seems that I may want to migrate to wordpress (oh no, bots crawling my system now. Don’t suspend my account!). That’s as much as I can say since the rest of the info was basically technical. No matter how much I tried to focus and understand, it all seemed like a blur to me. *bleary eyed* I’ll probably just ask Judd and Carlos to help me out. lol. I know, I know. I should at least have a surface understanding of it all since I work in the internet industry for crying out loud.

That’s me smiling in a supposedly candid picture. Beside me are Judd and Marcelle who’s happily plurking on my netbook since his laptop won’t pick up the wifi signal

My favorite parts were the segments on vlogging and bloggers’ roles in the coming National Philippine Elections 2010. That’ll be a whole separate post but I really liked the points of the speaker. For those who think bloggers are just a bunch of lazy bums with nothing to do with their lives, you are starkly wrong. There is much the blogsphere can do. It gives a voice to regular people like you and me. It can be a really powerful tool.

As for vlogging (video blogs), its still at its infancy stage. Think Happy Slip and Moymoy Palaboy . Right now, most of the vlogs I’ve encountered are just about random crazy stuff that people come up with. “Productive Boredom” is what I’d call it. I’m just real curious as to how its going to evolve. Definitely, someone will come up with a socio-political vlog. That I’m very excited to see. I’d make one if I could but I just don’t have the time and resources.

What would I vlog about if I had time to vlog?

1) I’d vlog about different positive things that are happening around the metro – like GK, or concerts for a cause, organic Philippine-made products (or Philippine made products in general),some cool youth initiatives like Ako Mismo. I think the Ako Mismo people and the Juan Tama people should come up with vlogs.

2) I’d vlog about being a frustrated fashionista and a fashion disaster on the road of transformation and conversion because she’s seen “the light”. haha!

Anyway…

I think the best part of it all was meeting new people (I always like meeting people) – the Mozilla people, the Mindanao Bloggers, Jehz Lau, and the other bloggers (you know who you are). There are so many cool ideas out there. Hope to see ‘em all emerge into reality.

The speakers

My Lovely Pho

I’ve been craving for Pho since Friday night. After WordCamp, the Nuffies were nice enough to agree and eat at Pho Hoa.

(My Pho is actually the one in the background. Carlos’ is the on in the foreground. Oh well, I’m just leaching pictures anyway. He takes really cool pictures doesn’t he? Check out his food food blog Foodie MAnila )

Pho is my ultimate comfort and happy food. I like it with LOTS of chopped chilli and the red hot sauce you see in the picture. Extra Spicy is the way to go baby

This morning’s insights

Posted by pat on Sep 8, 2009 in Life and Stuff | 3 comments

What I’ll write here are just little thought tidbits that flowed in this morning. Nothing profound or philosophical. Just little thoughts that I would want to more or less immortalize (or as long as the blogspot servers stay intact, hehe).

Its a Tuesday morning. And since it was a long weekend, its the first day of the week.
Me and my over active mind…

Grandpa, sales and Yoga.

When my grand parents’ driver, Benjo, is available, I ask him to drive me to work. Today is one of those days that I’m lucky he’s available. The sky is dark grey and its been raining the past few days. It would’ve been a real bitch to take public transportation… and trust me, from my place, taking public transport on a rainy is quite difficult.

Well, when the car arrived, I jumped in so I may be off to work. When I got in, my grandpa was inside as he was going to the bank. The trip was basically simple chit chat about work and what’s been going on with me. Being the sweet person that my grandpa is, he started giving advice on things he feels would help me. He’s always like that… always trying to help. Most of the time, its unsolicited and occasionally condescending (after all, I’m more street smart than he thinks I am) but I’m touched the fact that he’s always made it a point to try to impart some knowledge that he feels will help me.

Today it was about Sales and Yoga. Regarding sales, let’s just say I gained a trainer without me knowing I had one. haha! But its all good as his advice was very practical and true.

As for yoga, he insists thate despite the fact that no longer take Bikram yoga classes, I should continue the exercises. Come to think of it…. I should.

I’m lucky. Not eveyrone gets to meet his/her grandpa. Moreover, not everyone has one as caring as mine.

Opportunity rewards people who step outside their comfort zone

Now from my older brother from a different mother, Trent Ham. No, we’ve never met. Its just, I love reading his blog and the comments people leave after his posts. There’s always something new to learn, some insightful. If its not new, its something that I need reminding on.

Today, is about stepping out of my comfort zone. Its pretty timely as there is something that has been bugging me. Its been playing at the back of head the past two days. It involves at lot of what-if’s, a lot of “is-it-worth-it’s”, and a lot of “should-I-risk-it’s”. Yes, one moment, I’m confident about my decision, then next… I wonder if its worth going for. Well, I guess I got the answer this morning.

This is a situation very close to my heart and sometimes has the ability to impair my logical trail of thought. So, I’m trying to be as objective as I can with it.. whatever the case, I think I know the answer to my question….

Once more, I’m confident in my decision (I hope the person/s invovled are confident in it too). Yes, once the necessary things are in place, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. And when I mean stepping out of my comfort zone, this means a lot of things. Is it worth it? I hope so. Am I strong enough to deal with the consequcnes that it may bring? I’ll have to be. What the hell, we live but one life.

Simple pleasures – vanity and nerdiness

Posted by pat on Sep 1, 2009 in Life and Stuff, Simple Highs | 0 comments

I’ll cut myself some slack and admit, ok I have my vain moments (haha don’t we all?). And because I don’t really take the time to pamper myself, it a big deal for me to actually go to the salon and have someone fuss over me. And that’s what I did today – I got a hair trim, a manicure, pedicure. Its been a while. I forgot how good it feels to just sit there while someone cleans your nails and snips your hair.

For the girls, don’t you love how your hair is perfect when you step out of the salon? Just the right amoung of volume, body, and shine. Thats thanks to the blow-drying along with the hair sirum. Because I love how my hair looks at the moment, I’m posting it. I took a picture because I know once the blow dried effect fades, its waves, curls, and frizz galore again (unless I go get myself some Kerastase. But its just so expensive). I’m not going to shampoo tonight . Hopefully its still pretty tomorrow.

As for my little petite feet (feel free to scrutinize and criticize), I told myuself, oh what the heck. I’ll get a manicure. Its a desrved treat for my abused feet. They deserve some TLC and sass. After all, I walk around, I work hard and I’ll be kicking ass. Might as well do it with some class.

Nerdy pleasures

Its all because of Nuffnang. Everyday, we are heavily exposed to the internet along with the latest of updates in technology and software. I used to not have any patience for dealing with software applications. Simple “how-to’s” stressed me out and exploring the potential of a practicular online or software tool wasn’t exactly a hobby of mine. Now, I get giddy, yes, giddy, over things like the Flock browser, Google reader.. and my latest love – Google calendar which I synchronize with Mozilla Sunbird! (Is this me?!)

I used to be pro paper planners. Now my pretty red trusty Moleskin planner is about to become obsolete. I found something awesome – Google Calendar. I love how the lay out makes it easy to plan out events and tasks. Google has really poured brains in this one. It has so many cool features : world clock, weather report, calendar sharing, calendar alarm, etc. Organized properly, its like having a part time-assistant . Now if only I can sync my tasks with my Mozilla Sunbird, my life will be complete. Oh, and I get to save trees.

As for flock, call me a floc-aholic. If you have not yet heard about Flock, its the web browser designed to make your online life easier. Its ALMOST your one-stop-shop for all your social network needs.

Here’s a little vid on Flock for you: Flock!

Not everyone is crazy about it. Then again, different strokes for different folks. If you are like me: follows blogs, subscribes to RSS feeds for news here and there, facebooks a lot, uploads pictures a lot, needs to be constantly updated on the status of your email inbox, etc…. give it a try. It may not be as fast as Chrome but it definitely owns when it comes to organizing your online life.

I’m quite surprised at how I’m awed by all this. Its amazing how people come up with these ideas and how they execute such. They are on a different level. On my end, I’ll just stick on online marketing and advertising. haha!

I have not come to that point where I can be considered a techno freak. In the techno-nerd scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, I’m probably level 2 or 3? I have a long way to go. I’m not yet there but I may well be on my way.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Because I’m a frustrated interior designer..

Posted by pat on Aug 30, 2009 in Art Music Culture, Life and Stuff | 2 comments

I’m a frustrated interior designer. Its one of those things that I would looove to study if I were to study again. But that’s a big IF. For now, I settle by feasting my eyes on pictures of designs that I find totally awesome.

To get my visual fix, I go to this website : CoolHunter

The stuff that really inspire me are bar design and concept store design. I feel like a kid at a candy store when I see creative store design, and out of the box concepts for bar design. Totally fantastic.

Here are some of my favorites:

ChinaDoll Club, Beijing

I love the burst of color and the blending of hues. The lights, the mirrors, the pictures, and how the colors bounce off the black seats. Imagine stepping into this club… you’re greeted by a splash of color and booming music. Mind explosion.

Aesop Store, Zurich

Aesop is known to have out of the box designs for their stores. They are always very clean-cut, precise, ergonomically smart, yet still visually attractive.

There is a lot more where that came from. The sight I usually surf for my design fix is, as mentioned,The CoolHunter. This site features architecture, travel, events, food, advertisements.. etc. from all over the world. Even design from my dear Philippines was featured (unfortunately, I think the designer of this this space was by an Australian firm and not by a local group)

Take a look:Bowling Alley in SM Mall of Asia

I would recommend that website anyday to anyone who loves looking at design. Its not the only one but definitely one of the favorites.

Ok, now I want to go create something…

Sundays are Made of These

Posted by pat on Aug 25, 2009 in Life and Stuff, Simple Highs | 5 comments

I wake from my dad’s incessant knock on the door. I check the clock and see “7:30″. I grumble. 7:30 am on a Sunday morning? Its just too early for anything. After a night of partying hard, or watching DVDs, or reading (when on nerd mode), I just want to sleep in on a Sunday morning.

Yet over the years, week after week, I find myself getting up at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Its not my parents’ knocking on the door that gets me on my feet. Its something else. Its something in the air, a scent that flows into my room after they give up on waking me…. the scent of Sunday breakfast.

For as long as I can remember, Sunday breakfast has been a ritual in this house. Its something I look forward to and greatly enjoy. Its not just the food but the conversation that comes with it. Its usually the time of the week when everyone is home and eager to talk about the affairs of the past week. When i say everyone, that my parents, me, and my SIX other siblings (yes, for those who don’t know, I’m the eldest of SEVEN kids). So you can imagine how noisy it gets. Everyone wants to tell his/her story. No, sorry. Everyone COMPETES to tell his/her story. I just shake my head and watch the fiasco.

Oh yes, Sundays are made of these.

The Sunday Menu.

This menu hasn’t changed much over the years. For as long as I can remember, its always been this.. with variations from time to time. Its so good that no one has any plans of changing it.

1) Pancakes made from scratch
2) Home mode bacon which we order from my parents’ friend
3) Pork and beans
4) fruit
5) brewed coffee or green tea.

Who wouldn’t get up at the smell of fresh pancakes, bacon, and coffee brewing? Heck even with a bad hangover, I’d get up for this. If I happened to sleep over a friend’s house because it was just too late to go home, I’d make it a point to be early enough to be home for this…. even if I slept at 5am. Insane I know.

The week just ain’t complete without this.

After breakfast, we do some random chilling. This past Sunday, the agenda was “play with the poopie dogs”