Weekend, How I Love Thee!

I dearly love the weekend.  It's the only time I can relax, enjoy 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep, show off my poor cooking skills, and stream movies online.  

Because Friday is work-from-home-day, it is thus safe to assume that, in my present job, weekend starts unofficially then.  I say unofficially because we still need to clock in at least 8 hours of work.  The only difference is that we work in the comfort of our rooms and are spared the horrible morning and evening traffic. Working from home also means waking up an hour or two later than my usual waking time, and not worrying about what to wear to the office. 

My weekend officially  starts when I finish updating the last report, or when I upload all of my good references for a particular study.  It's eating/movie/sleeping time for me then.  I also cook on weekends to compensate for the fat-saturated/MSG-laden food I usually consume on weekdays.  By cook I mean just throwing everything into my multi-cooker and boiling/frying/steaming the stuff for a few minutes.  Hehehe.  Yes, I'm that lazy and I'm that inept when it comes to the kitchen.  So far, I've made spaghetti (nowhere as yummy as my  mom's, but edible), siomai, soup, and chicken rice, steamed chicken breast fillet, etc.  So far I'm still alive and healthy, so that means I'm actually capable of not poisoning anyone with my cooking.  Yay!  That's an achievement for kitchen-phobic people like me. 

Movies are also a big part of my weekends.  I watch anything from Lord of the Rings to Star Trek to Harry Potter.  I also love watching The Big Bang Theory because I can relate to all the nerdiness of the characters.  Because of the internet, I can now also watch re-runs of my favorite college shows like Smallville, Charmed and Friends. This is way cheaper than buying DVD or Blu-Ray sets of these TV series.  

Arts and crafts is another weekend activity I enjoy doing.  It's nothing fancy.  I just string up a few beads and make earrings and bracelets out of them, or I fold a piece of paper to make something useful like a box in which to store my bead jewelry and paper tapes.  I never thought I'd enjoy things like this, having considered myself as above shallow things.  Hehehe.  I know, I was maddeningly pompous back when I was younger.

So, I better get back to my movies and my homemade spaghetti before it gets cold.  Thank God for weekends!  

Cooked by a kitchen-phobic.

Crafts galore.  I made the pink and yellow boxes via origami.  I was also responsible for the red bead Christmas tree on my gift tag for last year's Christmas party.  :)

Updates

Goodness!  It's been six months since my last entry, and now that I've realized it, I'm torn between horror (at my laziness to write more often) and amusement at the thought that I've been blissfully immersed in work since September.  

Not that I mind working hard.  I happen to have the one of the most unusual work schedules there is - three office days, one library day, and one work-from-home day - and I also happen to be immensely enjoying both my job and the people I work with.  Having been in my present job for more than a year now, I guess I can safely conclude that one can have a cool job and officemates who are not from hell if only he/she keeps his/her eyes and mind open to such opportunities.  

So what have I been up to for the past six months?  Let's see.  Reading dozens of patents that range from weird to weirder, from wifi to polymerase chain reaction.  Preparing search instructions for the foreign language researchers.  Preparing plenty of reports.  "Papa hunting" in Greenbelt after several hours in the library (yes, I do my library research in a school in Makati).  Going home for the holidays late last year (will post about that later).  Going with the office guys on our first ever out-of-town trip (will write about that, too).  

Until then, stay tuned.  :) 

My McDelivery avatar.  Haha.  So me. 

A Charmed One's (Handmade) Charms

I've been making my own earrings and bracelets for a year now, after I accidentally stumbled on a blog that extolled the joys of making accessories from beads.  I loved looking at the pictures of lovely handmade bead earrings, and that was when my hands itched to do the same.  

Making my own jewelry has its benefits, foremost of which is the fact that I can make customized earrings without having my ears pierced.  Yes, you read it right.  My ears aren't pierced for personal and health reasons, and this has prevented me from wearing earrings for the first three decades of my life.  Late last year, however, I found out that Papemelroti sells clip-on earrings, and I hoarded different designs that I can wear everyday.  

I was all the more overjoyed when I learned that I can wear dangling earrings if I used clip-on findings instead of the usual post.  With crazy designs of bead earrings in mind, I searched the Web for stores that sold such earring findings.  My online quest directed me to a little store in Quiapo called Wellmanson.  It sells basically all raw materials needed for making bead jewelry and accessories.  If you're someone who likes to work with her hands (like me), you'll spend hours browsing their shelves of lovely beads.  

Because Quiapo is just a few blocks away from my dorm, I visited Wellmanson on my way home from work.  I had to brave the usual Quiapo crowds, but it was worth it.  I immediately bought several packs of clip-on earring findings (similar to the ones I'd found online), strings of beads,different pins, and multi-purpose pliers.  I blew half a week's budget for these little things, but I didn't mind because I was excited to start making my own accessories.  

My first few attempts were really pathetic, and I almost gave up if not for the thought of finally wearing dangling earrings designed by me and made by my own hands.  I succeeded after several more agonizing tries, and I felt so rewarded.  

My first few attempts at making dangling clip-ons.  The item on the upper left is my very first pair.

After some pretty basic designs, I started to get adventurous and combine beads of different shapes and colors.  These turned out to be okay, as in okay enough to wear to work.  From this point, I started a very crazy love affair with dangling clip-on earrings in differing designs and colors.  

My later (and better) attempts.  The pair in the center is one of my favorite earrings.  I wear them to almost everywhere.  The green pair is what I call my "Kryptonite earrings"; I made them to ward off Superman's charms. :))

I later got more comfortable in making these earrings, and I began to closely observe the jewelry worn by the ladies of "The Tudors".  It's one of my favorite TV shows (pre-Big Bang Theory), and I love the elaborate clothes and jewelry so much that I was inspired to make more elaborate earrings whose style more or less reflects the show.  This was when I began to be more imaginative and creative in styling my beaded charms.  Notice that the earrings are longer and heavier than the previous ones I'd made.  They sometimes hurt my earlobes, but that's a small price to pay for looking good in them. :)

Earrings inspired by "The Tudors". 

Aside from earrings, I've also made a few simple bracelets just for fun. 

Not a few people might wonder why someone as geeky as me would choose making bead jewelry over some other geeky hobby like collecting Star Wars or Lord of the Rings stuff.  Mind you, I'm a huge fan and I watch them over and over again, but sometimes it's good to do go into something totally different. It develops the undeveloped part of your brain, and you'll be in for a surprise once you try something different. 

Making pretty beaded things with my own hands is my way of de-stressing after a long day at the office or the library.  It helps keep my sanity and equilibrium intact, and lets me get in touch with my creative side.  

Day at the Museum

I've always wanted to visit the National Museum, but for some reason, almost all of my plans have gone awry.  If it's not work, it's health issues (e.g., colds, sore throat, etc).  Today, however, I finally got the chance to visit the place.  This museum visit is perhaps one proof that a meticulously planned schedule sometimes just doesn't work, and that one has to be a little more spontaneous especially during weekends.  

My only regret was arriving two hours before closing time, so I wasn't really able to see and examine everything.  The PhP 150 fee, however, was worth every centavo.  

There was a lecture on indigenous fabrics on the fourth floor, so I went there first to listen a bit and take pictures.  The talk was already ongoing when I got there.  It was very interesting, and it made me realize that locally-made fabrics are lovely and eco-friendly.  

A lady weaving pineapple fibers.  

After the talk, I wandered into the gallery full of fabric-related artifacts - belts, threads, dresses and gowns.

Abaca threads / fibers

Spinning wheel

This is one cool belt. :)

                             

I love the wedding gown made from pineapple cloth.   I'm not so sure about the train, though. :) 

 
I moved on to other galleries.  I would have loved to stay and examine each object on display, but I was running out of time and SD card memory.  :(

Ancient Filipino alphabet

Philippine flora and fauna... I felt sorry for the poor dead creatures on display.

Various artifacts from pre-Hispanic times.  Frankly, I could stay at the museum all day and not get tired of moving from gallery to gallery, taking pictures and asking endless questions.  

These pictures are only from the galleries on the 4th and 3rd floors.  I still haven't looked at the paintings yet, so I will definitely go back armed with both time and a larger SD card memory.  

I'm Back

I missed writing new entries on this blog, but things have piled up in the past two months and I was kept really busy with my new job and the physical biochemistry course I was required to take last semester.  Most of my time, however, was eaten up by phy biochem what with all the makeup lectures and exams in quick succession.  Still, I was relieved and happy that all turned out well, and that I passed the hellish course while still maintaining a respectable (by grad school standards) GWA.  Those sleepless nights spent memorizing nonsense have paid off, and I'm ecstatic at having successfully hurdled my last course in graduate school.  Which means that my Mondays can now be spent in the library searching for prior art on the patents that will be assigned to me by my boss.  Also, I will finally have time to plan my experiments and see to it that I get very good data, so I can march down the aisle in red stilettos come April.  

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the sem that was.  

Take-home exam on basic chromatography. 

Watching "The Big Bang Theory" in the lab. 

Thermodynamics

More thermodynamics 

Haggard after Exam #2

Dear Lolo

Dear Lolo,

My tears are falling in torrents and my hands are shaking as I write this.  Just when I thought I'd had the perfect day - dinner with friends and new-found friends at a good resto - I opened my inbox to a message from my cousin  informing me that you passed away in your sleep earlier today (August 23).  At first I was shocked and frozen, unable to shed even a tear as the news first failed to register in my endorphin-saturated brain.  Then slowly, the sad truth began to sink in, and the tears fell unbidden. 

With your passing, I've officially lost both sets of loving grandparents, and that is such a terrible loss.  After all, I was the one apo who had the greatest tendency of being spoiled by the grandparents.  You may not be my biological grandfather (you being Mommy's stepfather who took on the paternal role when Lolo Euling was killed more than fifty years ago), but you loved me like a real granddaughter.  I faintly recall you giving four-year-old me two one-peso coins - considered a fortune for kids growing up in the mid-80's - while my much-older cousins got only half the amount.  I can also recall that you were firm in your decision - no matter how unfair it was to my school-age cousins at that time - to give me that amount.  Well, I cannot remember what I'd bought with the two pesos you gave me, but it made me feel special and loved.  I guess it was always in your nature to be so generous to us kids, and even to our parents. 

I can also remember one incident on a long-ago summer evening when all of my maternal cousins and I piled into your green car, and you took us joyriding in the streets of Bacolod.  You yelled at us several times because we were all screaming and laughing, and must have gotten to your nerves.  Yet all was forgiven when we reached home and you never mentioned that one pasaway incident to our parents. 

You were funny.  You used to sing your own version of "Mexicali Rose" that sent us into fits of laughter.  You'd say the funniest things at random moments, and these sayings were so unique that we kept them in memory and then go into fresh gales of laughter whenever a saying or two was mentioned.  You were also a frustrated member of the PNP, and you'd always wear your "Bantay Bayan" jacket with pride and visit your "general friends" at Camp Crame whenever you were in Manila (or so you said).  

You were so obsessed with men in uniform that I'd had to warn Strawberry Cheesecake (who was in the uniformed services back then) to not mention this fact to you in the event that you met.  But then again, you'll never meet him so I can put my fears of embarrassment to rest.  

I can go on and on with the fond, funny and embarrassing memories we've had of you through the years, but the space here isn't sufficient to contain them all.  One of these days, when the grief will have become bearable, your apos and step-apos will recount these memories and go into fits of laughter and relive again the unique person that you were.

We will miss you terribly, Lolo, but we are also relieved that you had been given respite after your long hard life.  Sleep well until that long-foretold and long hoped-for blessed morning of the resurrection when the whole family will be reunited.

We love you.   

Back to Basics?

Note: Something happened to my laptop before the long weekend, and I had to have it reformatted to make it run faster.  I was initially worried that the reformatting and repair will continue through the long weekend, depriving me of my precious sci-fi movie time.  Hence this little entry dated August 17, 2012.

My laptop is in the repair shop as I write this, and I have no idea when I'll get it back and how much it's going to cost me.  I shudder at having to pay thousands of pesos, and I'm hoping against hope that my wallet won't be burned that much.

Too bad, it's a long weekend and I have been looking forward to watching all episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings.  Most of them, unfortunately, are stored in m laptop, so chances of watching them are now nil.  

It is comforting, however, that I'd bought several books earlier this week because they were on sale in Booksale.  There's all three volumes of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, a novel entitled Piano Lessons, and a really geeky book on organic synthesis using the disconnection approach.  Why I bought the geeky book, I have no idea.  Professional curiosity perhaps.  Anyway,  these five books cost less than PhP600, very reasonable compared to brand-new ones which cost twice the amount I'd paid for in Booksale. 

Seeing all these books on my desk makes me want to grab one, head out to the nearest coffee shop and immerse myself in the pages while sipping a cup of overpriced coffee and munching overpriced pastries.  I used to do that when I was a freshman in graduate school.  Strawberry Cheesecake - a classmate in one of my graduate courses back then - and I would stay at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf from about nine in the morning to a quarter of an hour before class. We would then dash out of Robinson's Place and into Salcedo Hall, where biochem lectures are held.  I guess it was also during these coffee-book-and-talks moment that fell head-over-heels in love with him.  I still am, but I'll save the gory details for another entry.

In a way, it feels nostalgic and comforting to be holding an actual book and turning actual pages instead of just opening a file and using a mouse or touchpad to navigate the pages.  It's as if I'm transported to my childhood, a time when laptops, e-books and wi-fi were unheard-of.  A time when I preferred reading to playing with the neighborhood kids, and fancied myself to be one of the Hardy Boys and their friends.  A time when I would go to a real music store to buy a particular piano piece or a music book, instead of just googling it and downloading the file to my sheet music folder.  

Perhaps this momentary absence of my laptop will help me reconnect with my old-school side.  I've almost forgotten the thrill of lying in bed, head propped by pillows, while engrossed in the chapters of a book.  Or the coziness of savoring each page, eating Chips Ahoy dunked in cold milk and being wrapped in a blanket while listening to the sound of raindrops during rainy days. Thinking about these things doesn't make the absence of my laptop horrible.  On the contrary, it helps activate my long-dormant neurons.  

Oh well, back to basics.  For now.