Should I Scrap This Photo?

I took this photo in 2000 with a fully manual camera. Notice anything unusual about it? Kindly click on photo to enlarge.


For a brief lesson in history (and why I'm saying this photo is quite unusual) visit my other blog.

Cookie Monster's Dilemma

I'm taking a break from scrapbooking. I think I'm all scrapped out. So I have been surfing the net. And here's something hilarious I happened to stumble upon.

It made my day.

Prison Break Schizophrenia

Sometime last year I would chance upon Prison Break when I surfed between channels 47 (Lifestyle Network) to 55 (Star Movies). I don't switch to other channels except when the KiDS watch their daily dose of too much cartoons or my DH insists on Discovery and National Geographic. And no, I don't watch local channels, especially now that the election campaign is on. (Don't ask though why I seem so updated on the travails of the Rounin and Maria Flordeluna.)

Anyway, I had always dismissed Prison Break as just another old violent testosterone-laden prison movie. So Season 1 came and went on channel 50 (Crime/Suspense) without me sparing it more than a glance. Then the season run of Desperate Housewives ended on channel 48 (Star World), and I was left with a gaping hole in my Tuesday night viewing schedule. The replacement is, you guessed it, Prison Break Season 1. And that was when I realized that the show is new. I had always thought it to be many years old because the actor who plays Michael Scofield reminds me of the actor who played Victor in the 1991 Julia Roberts movie, Dying Young. I watched episode 1 and I was hopelessly hooked.

The next Thursday, I caught the Prison Break Season 2 premiere on channel 50 and again, I was addicted. Because of the different storylines, you can follow season 2 easily even if you didn't watch season 1. Flashbacks to events in season 1 help you follow the story.

And here lies the cause of my schizophrenia or "the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements". One day, Michael Scofield is in prison, scheming to get out. And two days later, he and company have broken out, trying to keep out of prison.

Maybe I should just end my misery and go to Baby dvd-dvd and get a copy of the two seasons. But then what would I do at 9:00 PM Tuesday and Thursday evenings?

Diane Tagged Me

And though she didn't say that something bad will happen to me if I didn't respond to her tag, I am playing it safe. :-)

Here are my answers:

A - Available or single: taken by the same man since 1996
B - Best friend: my college roommates
C - Cake or pie: Mrs. Yulo's chocolate cake
D - Drink of choice: Coke
E - Essential item you use everyday: my scrunchie
F - Favorite color: pink and green
G - Gummy bears or worms: neither
H - Hometown: Tarlac, Tarlac
I - Indulgence: a day at The Spa
J - January or February: February (bday month of Diego, Kahlo, my mom and my MIL)
K - Kids & names: Diego Gabriel (named after Diego and Gabriela Silang, and Mexican muralist Diego Rivera), Sarah Melisande (named after The Little Princess and Princess Melisande from the animation movie Flight of Dragons. OK I really named her after Sarah Michelle Gellar and would have nicknamed her Buffy but my DH put his foot down), Kahlo Julia (named after Mexican painter Frida Kahlo)
L - Life is incomplete without? chocolates
M - Marriage date: September 27, 1997 and September 28, 1997 (long story)
N - Number of siblings: 3 brothers, 4 sisters
O - Oranges or apples: oranges dipped in dark chocolate
P - Phobias or fears: public speaking (but I'm usually OK once I get going)
Q - Fave quote: Been there, done that, scrapped a page about it.
R - Reason to smile: my KiDS' antics, dessert, a finished LO
S - Season: sale season
T - Tag 5 people: who hasn't been tagged by Diane???
U - Unknown fact about me: I have a gym membership (yes, di halata ano? hahaha)
V- Vegetable you don’t like: ampalaya
W - Worst habit: missing gym days
X - X-rays you've had: chest x-rays at least once a year
Y - Your fave food: pasta, seafoods
Z - Zodiac sign: Gemini

Julia in the Philippines

No, this is not a scrapbooking entry. Nor is it a happy one. But my blog's title is to live, love and laugh. And to live, we also have to experience death.

When I read and heard the news about the shootings in Virginia Tech, I sent a prayer to the 33 people who died senselessly. But it didn't really affect me so much, you know. Since it happened thousands of miles away, in a place and with people I know little about.

When I read in the news that the body of Julia Campbell, a peace corps volunteer in the Philippines has been found, I couldn't hold back my tears. Reading her blog again where she talks about her love of my country and with her last entry "Buhay Pa Tayo" had me sobbing uncontrollably. I don't really know Julia Campbell aside from what I have read in her blog, but this just hits too close to home.

Julia and I are both turning 40 this year (or she would have.) She left the rat race of New York to join the Peace Corps for Manila. If not for wanting not to leave my family behind, I would now be one of the rats in New York. I also briefly toyed with the idea of being a UN Volunteer in Sudan but unlike her, I wasn't brave enough. The worst of it all is, she died in Batad, my most favorite place in the world, where the people are warm and friendly, where the magnificent rice terraces almost reach the sky and embrace the small village nested within. I still cannot believe that something so horrific could have happened in that peaceful village.

My sincerest prayers go with Julia who was already supposed to go back home to her family and friends. In her blog profile she asked that we wish her luck. I am so so sorry that that luck had to end here in my beloved Philippines.

The Sweet Life

I received an e-mail from myscrapworks that a video coverage of last week's Scrapmeet 3 will be shown on The Sweet Life with Lucy Torres today. I wanted to see it - I might see myself in the video hehehe - so at exactly 6:30 PM, I parked myself in front of the TV and waited. Today's episode dealt with workshops, it being summer vacation in the Philippines, so most parents enrol their kids in different activities.


It was a pleasant surprise for me to see Diego when a video clip of their final performance at PETA (May 2006) was shown. Diego has been a PETA workshopper since he was six. Three of his godparents are PETA artists and I worked very closely with PETA in my previous reincarnation as grants administrator for an international foundation. We have had a very good experience with PETA and have always tried to watch all their plays. If Diego hasn't decided to take up sports this summer, he would again be a PETA workshopper.

Anyway, it was quite exciting to see the footage of the Scrapmeet. The camera panned the scrapbook layouts and even on film, WOW! Galing talaga. The activities were highlighted and Mabelle of myscrapworks and scrapper Joyce (?) Ejercito were interviewed about scrapbooking.

I didn't see myself amongst the crowd, but seeing my child earlier made the show for me. I was also reminded that I still have to request a copy of the final performance video from PETA!

Sanjaya Rules

...his own universe, as Simon Cowell put it. At least somebody (Sanjaya) is having fun. Feeling super-nova na siya. Di ko alam kung maaaliw ako o maaawa. Hahaha.

Sanjaya Rocks

Sanjaya is safe again. I rest my case.

American Idol Conspiracy

Sanjaya Malakar is not one of the better singers in this season's American Idol. Yesterday's rendition of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" was walang ka-dyugi-dyugi. It has no arrive (walang dating). But still tonight, he was declared safe, yet again.

Here's my theory: call center agents from India, the call center capital of the world, are using their international phone lines to call those 1-866 numbers and vote. Maybe hoping that Sanjaya will be the next Norah Jones?