I got this pretty tag from Heart of Rachel which is open to everyone. I am not much a red person, so I thought it would be challenging to find at least seven red things in the house. I got these (clockwise):

a.) Head of the lamp gifted to me during the housewarming. The lamp’s label/brand is “Lolo Jose”. Your guess is right, it is made in the Philippines. Yehey for the exports to UAE!
b.) 2010 Moleskine planner.
c.) Handycam/camcorder
d.) London bus souvenir item which is actually a sharpener. A friend’s pasalubong/gift to me two Decembers ago.
e.) First of the three-layer rack for the shoes that I rarely use. An open rack serves the others. On top are my current favorite footwears.
f.) The treadmill’s emergency button.
g.) My one and only red bag.

I picked this flower from the different sets of fresh blooms displayed in the office each week. Instant flashbacks:

• My Japanese hair.
• Before attempting to count the petals, I had to refresh my memory about the parts of the flower. I was not so sure if the pretty little pieces at the middle are still petals or are the pistil’s stigma.
• On a lighter note, it reminded me of the little girls who play with each petal with “he loves me, he loves me not…”  Anyway, I haven’t tried it. Though I wish I did. Had I tried, maybe I selected a flower with the fewest petal (which one?) or the one like in the photo, depending on my appetite of prolonging the agony (read: knowing the results). We know that there’s no truth in it. But it’s funny how at some point one’s innocence is entrusted to the petals for decision making.

How to save flood damaged photos:

1. Set the environment for restoring the photos by lowering the humidity and temperature in the room. Limit the amount of direct sunlight. Make sure the room is as dry as possible.
2. Prioritize the photos. Fix the photos with the most damage or those without copies first. Repair color photos before black and white photos.
3. Stick the damaged photos in the freezer if you don’t have time to repair them. Put the photos into a zip bag, place the bag into a container and put them in the freezer. The cold stops the photos from deteriorating and may even suck some of the moisture out them.
4. Clean the photos in clear, cold water. Be careful not to touch the surface of the photos. Instead, swirl them around in the water to remove any mud, dirt or grime.
5. Lay the wet photos face up on blotter paper. Blotter paper is an ultra-absorbent type of paper designed to absorb moisture away from the object placed on it. You want to dry the photo as soon as possible or it may begin to mold.
6. Place small weights to the corners of the photos to limit the edges curling. Be careful not the put the weights too far onto the surface of the photo or they could damage the emulsion.
7. Hang the photos from a clothesline. If you have a number of photos to dry, carefully pin them up to a clothes line and turn oscillating fans on them. Be careful to place the fans at a safe distance so they don’t cause the photos to curl in the breeze.

How to save flood damaged books:

1. Determine the type of book you’re dealing with. Books that have glossy pages or specialty coatings can only be restored by a professional. The best odds of successful restoration lie with hard cover books and standard paper. Also, if the book is easily replaceable, it may not be worth your time and effort to attempt restoration.
2. Determine the extent of the water damage. If the book has been floating in water for days, it is likely that that glue in the binding has loosened and this reduces the chances for successful restoration. If the book has already started to grow mold, it should not be restored at home. If it is irreplaceable, a professional may attempt the restoration. On the other hand, if the book has been recently soaked and you have recovered it from the water quickly, you have an excellent chance at drying the book out successfully.
3. Insert paper towels into the book about every ten or so pages. Lay a single layer of paper towel to cover the entire page. Use a premium brand of paper towel known for its absorption. Be very gentle when opening the wet book and turning soaked pages as they will easily tear. Close the book on the paper towels carefully.
4. Pull open a baby diaper and wrap around the outside of the book. Baby diapers are incredibly absorbent and will wick out moisture in the cover of the book better than a paper towel. The inside of the diaper should touch the book’s cover.
5. Lay board over top of book and weigh it down with bricks or cans. To help absorption of the water, the book needs pressure applied to it. Center the board over the front face of the diaper-wrapped book and place bricks or cans on the board to weigh it down. Remove the board and change the paper towels for fresh ones every two hours, replacing the board when you’re done.
6. Stand the book upright in front of the fan to finish drying. When the book’s pages are only slightly damp to the touch, remove the paper towels and diaper. Stand the book up on its end with the pages fanned open in front of a fan. Check book every two hours to test dryness. When pages feel dry to the touch, turn off the fan but leave the book upright for a few days to ensure that the spine is dry.

You might also want to check:

• How to clean up after flood?
• How to fix or save a water damaged carpet?
• Food safety after flood
• How to salvage flood damaged clothing?

Once upon a time, a girl met her crush walking with his girl on the school lobby. She didn’t know she was crushing on him big time until that scenario snapped her. She ran to the other side and pretended she was minding her assigned plot/field for the gardening class. She hid there and confessed her hurt with the planted crops, unaware that she was already watering the ripening cabbage and soil with her tears.

(My humble beginning. My first ever small house.)

(Current housing pattern)

That was the first time I cried for a guy. Puppy Love? Maybe. With God’s grace, the crops survived the saltiness (and bitterness?) of my tears. Hahaha. I didn’t know I’d ever admit this embarrassment, and in my blog. It was not embarrassing at all that time because no one else knew it unless anyone saw me (meron nga kaya?). While I narrate this right now, I hardly mind at all but just laughing out. I know a number of high school batchmates read this blog but don’t leave comments. I know you’re giggling out there.

(I used to breed dogs but I sold some because I needed more space for the greenhouse, watermill and other items at the farm.)

(Benches and grill)

(Watermill)

The memories of my gardening class actually flourished when I started playing Farm Town (FT). Especially when I was planting cabbages since that’s the very same crop that witnessed my tears. FT reminded me much of the days when we were asked to plow, filter the worms and other soil’s parasites, plant seeds, witness the crops grow, water it, see beans leaves climb and crawl, harvest it, and eat the harvested crops which were the result of my sweat, hardwork… and tears.

Vocational Agriculture was an elective subject in my highschool following the state colleges curriculum. (Almost tantamount to a major = 2.5 units, eh. Like having my Anatomy and Physiology class as a 5-unit subject when I was a freshman in college. Lol.  A major for somebody completing BS Accountancy.  I enjoyed the class, anyway.) While most of my classmates abhorred it, talk about exposure to sun and dirt, I liked it a lot. I don’t know why, maybe because it was like experiencing another kind of life that time. I even remember devoting almost all of my weekends that school year going to my plot/assigned field.  Yeah, I was that engrossed. (Or maybe I was too masipag to visit/work on my plot during the weekend knowing that my crush-classmate would probably be there, too. Hahaha.)

(I made a number of changes in the farm layout. It was most difficult to move the animals.)

(Experimented on a lot of items. What about using the series of doghouse as playground fence?)

On the other hand, being a virtual farmer requires a different level of attention. When Jeanny invited me to play FT, I never thought I’d enjoy it. I tried it out of curiousity. Thanks to this game that I reactivated my Facebook account. That after logging in I go directly to FT application, most of the time. And just like most of the virtual farmers, I was hooked.

(I also experimented on different structure of farm entrance.)

(I coined “Jolly Jo” out of hale bale. I deleted it when I needed more space.)

The issue screams when you’re hooked to a game or something but you are time-constrained. Since FT is just but an extra-curricular activity, it definitely should not affect our work. I had to find means to make things reasonable (e.g. I could only play past midnight during the weekend, there were few times I failed my self-imposed rules). I never wanted to succumb to addiction, but yes I became addicted to a certain extent. I would admit that during the early stage, I would think of my farm before going to sleep and the first thought as I woke up goes to, “are my crops ready for harvest?, etc.?” I even plotted the Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis for each seed to my planner.

(The fields of cabbage. Heehee)

(When the flowers were not yet available in FT store, I planted sunflowers so frequently to make the farm livelier.)

(With Bursky and Toni, some of my neighbors. I hope I was able to screenshot all my neighbors’ visits.)

(With Redlan. He was going to harvest the pineapples.  Mind you, he’s the fastest harvester I’ve met.)

A friend before embracing virtual farming asked me, “What do you get from playing Farm Town?”. “It’s therapeutic,” I said. The charming background music actually adds to that. Though I mute it most of the time because I loved my playlists more. Playing FT or any game will and should generally be a stress reliever. That’s why whenever I notice that I’m already playing unreasonably, I try to wake myself up. I wanted to play responsibly.

I’ve finally leveled up from being a Tycoon (level 33) to Green Wizard (highest level, 34) last weekend. At 150,000 experience points (XP), I was able to buy the (most coveted) mansion which costs 1,000,000 FT coins. Wow, everyone wish this isn’t just virtual farming.

How did I become a Green Wizard without involving unnecessary stress and too much hardwork?

(a) I always reminded myself that it’s just a game and I just need to enjoy it.  Though in some days, this became a priority among my online activities. Lol.

(b) There’s an inherent competition (either competing with yourself, a neighbor, a family member, a friend, etc.) on several factors: leveling up, aesthetics, number of neighbors, outstanding balance of FT coins, etc. All the time, I know that I could and should never top all these. At different stages, I was attracted from leveling up to farm’s design, so on.

(c) Since I have a full-time job, I had to strategize on planting and harvesting behaviours/patterns. I would plant most of the time 3-day crops due for harvesting on the last day of the workweek. I would take care of the leveling up part on a day of the my 2-day weekend, I would plant 2-hour or 4-hour crops in a series to level up faster.

(d) Balance of FT coins was the least of my concern until I reached level 33 (had to save for the mansion). On a previous banker’s perspective, what will you do with your millions of FT coins while you’re still in a lower level – be satisfied with your balance without any interest accruing on it or invest a portion of it in buying real estate (i.e. small house, farm house, barn, pond and expensive items) to help me level up faster. If you’re a regular to my farm, you would notice the occasional renovation but you would hardly notice that the number of tangible assets there are materially moving. I would sell two farm houses for a ridiculous amount (to tell you, they have an unjust depreciation system in FT, e.g. if you buy a small house today at 70,000 FT coins and whether you sell it in the next hour or next month, the reselling price/net book value would be 2,100 FT coins).

So whenever I have enough FT coins, I never kept the funds idle. I’d buy different stuff. Hence, I leveled up fastly. Your most immediate question? How did I remain liquid and secure about sources of funds? Please read the next point.

(e) Building connections is very important.  I have business partners – neighbors and plain buddies (people I met at the marketplace who hired me or vice versa and accepted each other as FT buddies) whom I’ve entered into an agreement that we will exclusively hire each other during big harvests. However, we occasionally hire other farmers to do the harvest for us whether small or big to help back the community especially the newbies.

The marketplace is a good arena to observe and learn people’s behavior. Farmers gather there to hire or get hired. I rarely go there to seek employment though (i.e. harvesting job) since I have the exclusivity thing. But when I was a newbie, I’m a suki there.  Until I also noticed that there’s recession in the marketplace.  So many farmers seeking employment, less jobs available.  In general, while there, I avoided the rude and irritating players who kept on begging. For me, the best way to spend time there while waiting for opportunities is to converse with each other (there’s a chatboard there) about their location, culture, virtual farming, etc.   Or as the old saying goes, if you have nothing good to say, just clam up.  As to re-hiring non-neighbors, I don’t give another chance to those who don’t observe basic farming etiquette (LOL, ang arte ko) e.g. giving thanks for hiring them, etc.

(f) Keep on strategizing.

(g) In general, I begin with an end in mind. When I knew that I liked it, I wanted to reach level 34. Now that I graduated, expect me to retire soon (i.e. not to religiously play). I’d play mainly for the sake of helping my neighbors and/or newbies as source of harvest.

Should you try playing Farm Town? It depends. It’s really addictive. If you think you won’t be able to responsibly play, try no more. BUT, you’d miss the fun. Lol.

Whichever game (or anything) you’re hooked into right now, be responsible. It’s supposed to make you feel and get better.

PS. I had a fever on Thursday afternoon. I was motivated by FT to recover faster, so that I can play. Hahaha. Of course, there’s another way to read that one.

My spirit was willing, but my eyes were weak (or maybe because I have pre-set my mind to sleep earlier for a long battle ahead at work the next day, that’s today). So I unconsciously fell asleep after Stevie Wonder sung.

Thanks to All Bright Reference for this video wherein the memorial in its entirety was recorded.

Wow, I just noticed. This is the longest title amongst my posts in the history. I wouldn’t edit. It’s about MJ, anyway. May he rest in peace.

When buying tops, I sometimes get torn with the colors. I would end up buying two the same day. I never thought it would go beyond that. I bought the pink pair (as shown above) first. That day I equally liked the white one, but dismissed the idea. How to combat impulsive buying and know if you absolutely like the thing? Normally, I go for a two-week test or more as applicable. If it kept bugging me (and haunted me in my dreams, hahaha) while unintentionally thinking about it, the bell rings. So I got the other pair weeks later. I absolutely have a happy feet as summer kicks off.

Why do women love shoes? Don’t ask the former first lady about imeldification. Remember the time of our christening/baptism? We wore a different pair in the church, in the reception, and in the house.

I’m sure you do have your own explanation.

I’m using Gmail’s desk theme. I’m loving it. There are rotating images of stabilo, pins, etc.

The footer really made me smile. As you’ll see, there’s an apple there. True enough, I always have something to bite on my desk (cereals, fruits, chocolates, etc.) But no, take the CD out.

What’s your Gmail theme? Any unusual item that we can expect to see on your desk?

Yeah, Plurk is blocked across UAE. Hence, I couldn’t exactly relate to what some bloggers-plurkers had written last month. And finally I’m now a plurker and I’m enjoying it (yay!). If there’s a wish, it will be granted (the other form of saying there’s a means if you really want something). Let’s just say that there came a good soul who paved the way to my simple wish.  Even if it means that I can only do this at home.  And we’re 4 hours behind Philippines time.  So most of the Filipino plurkers are in zzzzzz (sleep) state.

Plurking is like microblogging. There is immediate interaction, instant sharing of files, links, etc.. the karma (points) is challenging, but what I like most (well, it serves me that way) is that I can be more personal here. I can just kick on some randomness that I probably cannot do that instant here. Either because it’s too personal as of that moment or it doesn’t qualify as something ‘bloggable’.

It’s my first week in Plurk and I’m surprised with the random things that I plurked so far:

• Last wednesday, I slipped off (again!) so the swollen left foot.   But the preceding fall is worse.
• Recently I got a little panicky because I wasn’t able to access my control panel.  Heehee.  The blood rush.
• My seemingly being so engaged in TFC during weekends.  Unbelievable because I’m such a Kapuso back home.  I’m now a Kapamilya.  That’s another story.
• That I was finally pricked again after over 6 months.  Since I came in the Gulf, I never had a facial treatment and dismissed my other monthly/periodic rituals.  There are lotsa salons and spas here, but I was just looking for something.  Finally I found a Filipina/100% true-blooded Filipino salon to get me back to my old ways in Flawless Center and other vanities. Haha.

Randomness, that is.   You can see me/add me in Plurk here.

I hardly find time to blog lately. 

I have been a streetbug for almost two weeks now, numb of the queues, patience tested once again, and a lot more.  Being that type of bug for this period blessed me with enough dirt and sweating around and these gave me a couple of big pimples -  I rarely get.

I am not ranting, I actually don’t mind getting dirty, holding worms, soil, yucky lucid stuff would be fine.  It is just a fact that trying to tie loose ends with little period is so overwhelming and aaaahh, at times, I wanted to chicken out because I thought I am not going to see finish line anymore.  Now, I am getting there. 

With all the crazy schedules, I proved once again that if I really, really want it, I can get it (harhar)!  Well, I am talking about the Coffee Prince marathon that I did last weekend.  I started friday night and I sacrificed much of my current so little sleep.  I did the marathon on saturday and sunday wee hours, stopped, and finally concluded after an hour in the afternoon.

I am not typically hooked to any telenovelas especially the local ones, these are impractical and unmapped.  I knew that I want it once I got a copycat of the series.  I started with the Meteor Garden, non-compact DVDs that time, and I still keep the several discs.  In 2005, I got engrossed with Lovers in Paris even if I so didn’t like the main actors physically.  I just thought that such was the lightest flick that moment that can help to unwind.  I loved Love Story in Harvard for a while  but I discontinued following it since it became melodramatic.  It was trying to resemble Love Story (authored by Erich Segal).  But their version is awful.

And this year, Coffee Prince’s teaser was good enough that even if I catched only a few tagalized episodes, I got a copycat right away and found time to see it, even if it would take no sleep (unbelievable)!  The story was real simple, just the twist of the boyish character is integrated.  The main characters Arthur Choi and Andy Go sounded like Jerry Yan’s and Barbie’s characters in Meteor Garden.  We just love the picture of seemingly endless arguments.

My random thoughts about this:

(a)  The characters here liked ice cream much.  In one episode, granny was eating this before breakfast.  While Arthur and Andy ate this after brushing their teeth because it would taste better.  I totally agree, that’s my habit.  There are some stuff which are yummier when eaten right after dental vanity.

(b) Something went wrong with the wardrobe sequencing.  Arthur and Andy’s mother incidentally wore the same clothes in one scene after the other.

(c)  Errol, Arthur’s cousin, resembles Ely Buendia (of the defunct Eraserheads and now lead vocalist of Mongol), incidentally characterized a musical director.

(d)  It is absolutely impossible not to notice that Andy is femme.  Especially when they were at the apple farm.  She insisted not to bathe with the guys, structure questioned, and a lot more.  Anyhow, these are forgiveable for the sake of the story.

(e) The parents’ and grandma’s objection is expected and it is amazing that this picture was taken lightly in the series.  No much “you and me against the world” and “i will disown you, blah, blah” here.  Nice, nice.

(f)  Andy Go, after becoming a certified barista came back from the overseas study, didn’t look prettier and womanly.  I hope she became like her usual self in Korea (with long straight hair and dressed like Iya Villania most of the time).

(g) Rags to riches story would always be fascinating and inspiring and this tends to give the viewers the feeling of wanting to be in their shoes.

(h)  A coffee shop is a feasible biz.

(i) The second floor of the shop seemed like a little crappy. Looked like a sort of hideout for some talks.

(j)  The coffee personnel regularly yells with each other and seemed okay with the costumers.  Weird.

(k)  Andy, Arthur, almost everyone ran several times to that little space outside the shop – another hideout for emotion outbursts.

(l)  Money or pride?

(m)  When you are doing a marathon with no breaks, you are so into it that you actually wished and felt that you are one of the characters.

(n) At some point I wished I were Andy because of the innocence, kindness… it must be really cool to be boyish, hehe.  But most of the time, I wished  I were Arthur with his arguments, wits, charm, and well, in case I am a guy, I want to look like him physically. After all we almost have the same birthdates and we got the same year.  Bear with me, I am positive of Arthur Choi fever.

(o)  The english subtitles are grammatically hillarious, but fine.  I actually felt that I understood well some series without looking at it, hehe.  These would familiarize you to basic Korean greetings/ words.  Also, the tagalized/dubbed version was put into the context to mean another thing (some dialogues).  Not good. 

(p)  In real life, Andy used to be a member of an all female singing group.  While Arthur is currently out of the film and modeling scenes to comply with the required two years military service for men in South Korea.

What else?

I hope this Choi fever would be over tomorrow.

Good night.