mishie takes on the world

still new at 23 Part One

New place, new kind of busride, new and awesome people, new event, new game--all new experiences during my birthday!

I owe this post, mostly to myself, because I know I will regret not posting this, considering the amount of pictures I took. And I'll be honest, I didn't take that many pictures because I didn't really know anyone yet when I started the trip, but I'm glad that I got to know people along the way. It was an awesome new way to experience my birthday and I'll try to be as specific as I can in this post, although it's 2:51am and I have to be up to go to work in 3 hours. : |

So I start my story the day before, there was a commotion at work when we were told one of our officemates had won us a free lunch via a radio station!

I admit it's not the best photo of this bunch but I tried. There was a long wait before we actually got to eat anything, and by the time we did, people mobbed the pantry and I couldn't get a shot. Still being the new girl in the office also meant that I could (and didn't want to) be overly picture-y. 

I found out then that the officemate that won us the lunch had his birthday coming up which turned out to be the day after mine--literally! He was born a day after me, on the same year! What a coincidence. He was also going to AdCon, so we decided that it was going to be epic for us both!

Moving on to going to AdCon, I didn't get any pictures of the trip itself because it was 9pm and I just wanted to get some sleep. I wasn't sure what to expect so I thought I'd get as much sleep as I could. We had a rest-stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere that wasn't picture friendly and had the bathrooms that I only see in my nightmares (that it's a miracle I haven't dreamt of them since coming back!) and the bus we took had the lazyboy chairs which was pretty cool!

Upon getting to the bus terminal, some hubbub happened and our original accomodations did not follow through. 

As a result, we waited 2 hours in the terminal. I kept quiet the whole time because I was sleepy and still didn't know anyone. I did get to see this double rainbow though which is quite awesome!

 

And then eventually we found this quaint place two blocks from the terminal. The place was called the JoMcKayle Apartelle--according to our officemate, it was all thanks to a tricycle driver that we found the place. I took no pictures of the sign because it was too early in the morning to care and all I wanted to do was to catch up on sleep (did I mention that the bus ride from Manila to Naga is 10 hours long?). When I got the energy, it was only then that I took some pictures of our room. 

I ended up rooming with an officemate I had never met prior to that trip. I didn't mind since, at that point, I really didn't know anyone anyway so it didn't really matter. We stayed, at first at the second floor where all the other girls were and it was a very, very green room.

But before I had too much fun in this room shooting photos (and a room in which I thought would be awesome to have to myself to film a vlog in the future or something--I am to have a vlog room in my future apartment/house) people brought to our attention that the air conditioning wasn't working. When we informed the management about it, we were moved to a downstairs room temporarily and then permanently. I didn't mind it too much on the count of it was waaaay better and we had our own bathroom. Given, it was just as small but the "own bathroom thing" was a big plus. Also, the air conditioning was A-OK.

Yes, I do love thos curtains. As it turns out, our second room was even more inspiring to take pictures of because of this awesome lighting effect I got when the light hits our orange curtains! I took so many pictures while my roomate wasn't there and I just went nuts!

This is my side of the bed as you can see from the messy cover and the pretty white flats on the side. 

Oh, wouldn't it be nice to wake up to this kind of coloring every morning? Given that the room was too small--with the amount of tired I felt, I really just dove right into this bed and slept.

AND that's all for now. I realize now that 4 days of being out of town probably means 4 separate posts, so that's how it's going to go. 'Til part2! :D

 

Mishie

my first paycheck meal

So according to my uncle, it's a tradition to treat family to a meal after the first paycheck of your first job. I thought that it was just a thing we asked from our friends--but apparently it's something that relatives ask for too. And now that I'm the one that has the job, I had to do my turn of the tradition and treat out to a meal--my family!

This is one of the times I'm glad for a super small family because that means there are less mouths to feed. Haha! We ended up eating at Causeway, one of our favorite Chinese restaurants because of all the yummy dimsum! Also, my mum hasn't eaten here in years so there we went!

Some of our oh-so-favorite foods in Causeway! I'd show you my shot of the Century Egg and Jellyfish but it was a measy shot because we had eaten most of it before I got the chance to take a photo of it! Here are the rest though: super yummy! :D

Me dad and bro enjoying all of our yummy food! We were so surprised at the sheer size of the Yangchow fried rice that we had gotten but the four of us ended up eating a large portion of it anyway! :))

Me and me mum munchin' down on our chow! Okay, to be honest, I really dislike it when people call food "chow." I just thought I'd try and see how it sounded like coming from me. Rest assured you shan't be hearing me say it again.

 

Terribly full and will diet (which I am calling 10x1) starting tomorrow,

Mishie

new day. new week. new year.

I think I am in love with parallelalisms in my blog titles. They've just got to look nice and memorable.

Anyhoo, without going into too much detail because I'd really like to accompany all the details with pictures, I had celebrated my 23rd birthday in Camarines Sur during the weekend--at the 22nd Advertising Congress (a first upcoming travel blog? I wonder how that will go! haha!). I was both hesitant and excited about it, but luckily things went well and I was able to enjoy it loads even if I was with (at first) strangers in a strange place. I gained new insights about the place and people I work with and now I can say that I have celebrated my birthday at least once away from the presence of my family.

This week also feels good. I'm expecting the first actual inflow of work and I hope that I can handle it. : )

 

That's all for now. Will be back with more.

 

Mishie

something new. something old.

So there are a few changes in my life at this point. Last time I wrote, I think I hinted that those changes were already on their way. Well, now they're here and they're quite strange, but I guess exciting changes.

And with that, I begin with my "something new." Number one off the top of that list is my shiny, new job. Yep. Someone actually thought it would be a good idea to hire me. Heh-heh. But, no, seriously I'm quite thankful for this job. Even if I still, every now and then, ask myself what came over me to try even looking for a job so fresh out of college, I am in awe about how fast I was able to get employed. Imagine me, receiving a job offer right after the second interview--to be accepted or rejected in the next two days!

I started working exactly a month after my graduation. I don't know if it's just me, but I have this sneaking suspicious that I might be one of the firsts, if not the first, person from my batch to start working. On the work itself--it's something I'm confident about doing. Granted that I have never actually had this type of thing as my work before, I still think that it is, as they say, "right up my alley." I haven't been on the job very long--I'm currently on my fourth day and only handling one set of duties, but I'm quite eager to see where I go with this. It is a very good thing though, that even if I'm still about to get used to this job--I mean, its a more detailed version of something that we used to do back in college (very quick and briefly)--I am just very happy that it involves something that I am quite fond of: the Internet.

No, I still won't be able to make videos or lurk through YouTube like I used to. I mean, there are no restrictions when it comes to what sites we can or cannot browse through, but for my own sake--and for the sake of professionalism--I won't be spending too much time combing through vlogs. That means I have to spend more of my time watching cute babies, crazy special effects videos, lolcats, funny dogs and other viral videos. Yep, those come with the job description and I'm seriously kid you not.

I think I'm also very lucky that, within just my first week on the job I get to go to the 22nd AdCongress here--to be held in Camarines Sur. For those not in the know, Camarines Sur (which we locals shorten as "CamSur") is very far from the Metro Manila area. To prove this, my officemates (ooh, look I get to say "officemates" now) and I are going to be taking a bus, while everyone has taken either a train or a plane. The plane ride, I think takes 1-2hours tops. Meanwhile, we travel on bus that leaves at 9pm-ish and gets to the region my 4-frickin-AM. Seven hours, my friends. Seven, long and butt-paining hours on a bus. Well, gives me time to get to know my new officemates. And, to be fair (and as a consolation) it takes longer to get there via train. So I'll consider myself lucky, Thank You Very Much.

That brings me to my "something old": me.

Yep, I'll be going to CamSur this weekend--my birthday weekend. And as I'll be with officemates and new friends that means that I'm going to be turning 23 without my family for the first time in my entire life. My. Entire. Life.

Now this portion is going to me, as a disclaimer, another one of those things where I rant about something that seems like a no-brainer, not a big deal to most people--but is just the most pain-staking thing for me. Yep, one of those. So feel free to check out now if you don't care about the inner workings of my mind.

NO--I was just joking. Come back. Don't leave me. I have no friends. :'(

So I've never spent a birthday without my family. That's because we have this tradition of always eating out on that day. When I was younger and still in grade school and high school, it used to feel like a really big deal when it was my birthday. Since we always rode the bus to and from school on normal days, it felt so special when our mom and dad would leave their work early to fetch us. We would go to a restaurant or a hotel buffet after they fetched us and, as much as possible, we tried eating in a new place every birthday.  In short, I felt very bad-ass during my birthdays back then.

When I entered college and being fetched wasn't such a big deal anymore, what made birthdays special was still finding a new place to eat--having the stomach for buffets and having a more open stomach for other types of food.

Now that my mom's here, I get to experience that as a whole family again, something that I didn't get to do for half of high school and the whole of college. So, I think it goes without saying that it was a very hard decision for me to say "yes" to going to CamSur.

Actually, in a way, it was my parents that decided for me. They knew that I was in a new job, that I needed to get to know the new people I was with and that I had originally wanted to go (way before my mom decided and booked her flight home) and I was torn up about it falling on the day on my birthday two years back as well. Well, in a way, I'm glad they did decide for me because I knew that I wouldn't have been able to.

So, I will be turning older on Saturday, in a new place with new people. I won't hold any expectations because I don't want to over-expect and then be underwhelmed. Bring it on 7-hour bus ride and strange new places and friends. Uh-huh, I'm living life on the edge. Watch me.

 

Mishie

 

 

flushing out the feelings.

There are a number of things currently going on in my life right now. Among them are (although I won't be able to touch on them all): job-hunting, living life with my mum, video blogging, working on commissions and NaNoWriMo.

Job hunting has been quite an experience. I've been to a number of interviews and gone through a couple of tests, another that I will have to undergo soon. I even went to very far places just to go to interviews. Without poisoning the well for what might happen in the future, it seems to be going well. There are a few pros and cons that I might decide to discuss in length next time, but for now that's probably all that you need to know. 

NaNoWriMo's also a thing I'm doing this month of November. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Google it for more info about it as you won't find it explained here. We're supposedly on Day Seven today with about 10,000 words. Unfortunately, I've been feeling a bit uninspired recently and with all the other things I've got going on, I'd be blessed with a small miracle if I found the missing words I need to fill in the void of what I need to write. 

But the purpose of this blog is not to update you on those things, but to tell you about why I can't move on with any of these things. Something rather strange and spontaneous happened today. Well, no, to be honest with you I guess it's not all that strange, more like it was unexpected that I liked. 

There is a friend I have that I used to have a crush on back in grade school. That in itself is not the secret because even he knows about that. What is surprising though is that we went out today. Yes, albeit being friends as we went out and had coffee today, it was just odd that I found myself in that position. 

I have never once been alone with him. Ever. Not in grade school or any time after that. I have certainly never talked to him face to face. One on one. So when he invited me to meet up and have coffee, I was properly freaked out. 

To be clear here: I don't have a crush on the guy anymore. But you can imagine my 12-year old self freaking out because this has never happened to her. 

Apart from the ocassional awkward silence of me or him just staring out or checking our phones, I think it went pretty well. I wouldn't mind hanging out again now that I've gotten over that first hurdle. That is, if he hasn't already been bored by me. 

I found myself, however, scared of meeting him because I might dig up a time capsule that I spent so long and hard to cover up and get rid of. I don't want to have to go through what I did before again. Not anymore. So I'm trying to talk about it as much as possible so that it doesn't have to come at that point. 

There is so much more I'd like to say but I'm now starting to think that the internet might not be the place for it. 

Until next time. 

 

 

lots of life to live.

So while I've been away from all of this, I have been living life. Obviously, as implied by my last entry, my mum has come home. You won't see her in any of these pictures because she's camera shy and even if I know she might not ever find out about it, I want to respect her. : ) I will post some decent looking family pictures though. I hope she finds that okay.

Basically, there's been too much life to live for me to blog about everyday--that and I have been doing something else--vlogging my life. In many ways, I think vlogging achieves something that type-written blogs can't: it captures the exact expressions and feelings you had from that day and editing videos/footage together helps you capture and remember it even better. 

Since my mum has come home there have been a lot of changes around here: all of them I like. For other members of the family, it's still taking some getting used to, especially all the cleaning that's been going around here. But on a whole, I think this is for the better. 

I've also graduated since then. The march itself wasn't that big of a deal as compared to the feeling of family I felt for the rest of the day. That was incredible. Looking back on that day, I don't remember the ceremony almost. I remember our meal and the events that followed more vividly. 

This is our first family picture since my mum came home and I'm very happy with this; especially so since I then convinced my family to do a series of wacky shots, this being the best one: 

I don't look my wackiest here, myself but I don't care. Everyone else is happy-looking. That's what matters.

In other news, I've been vlogging. I've already mentioned that. Instead of bombarding you with the videos that I've made in the past month (I'm doing this thing called Vlogtober wherein I make a video blog everyday for the entire month of October), I'll just show you the latest one, one that I'm actually very happy with amongst all my other Vlogtober videos:

 

 

VidCon is an annual video convention created by the Vlogbrothers, Hank and John Green. They created the convention as a way to bring the YouTube community together, whether or not these people are part of this sub-community called Nerdfighters. I'm a Nerdfighter myself which means that being able to go to VidCon will mean something tremendous for me. 

That and also because now more than ever I feel myself as part of this community. Small my own circle may be compared to the YouTubers and those that have are bigger and have been actively vlogging longer, I feel like going there will make me really happy and will bring me amongst people that are more like me than people I've come to know in person. 

On that note (a side note, at that) I think lines have now completely blurred with regard to the Friends, Real Life Friends and Internet Friends. I don't know how to term things anymore because these things have become so real to me, these people so real that I'm not sure how I go about talking about them to other people. More on that later, I guess.

Going back, here's for what happened today. Great lunch at my Tita Nena's house. She's not actually my aunt, but she's the aunt of my mum. That makes her the sister of my grandmother. But since everyone calls her that, that's the way I've come to call her too. 

Long story short we had an amazing, Filipino-themed lunch today. I was properly stuffed! I have Filipino food almost everyday at home but these were the ones that I hardly ate anymore. So I'm pretty happy to have eaten them today. All but the Brownie Ala Mode, that one's not Filipino. 

Enough talk, here are pictures to get your mouth watering!

As my mum says "YUM-MEH!"

 

Love, Mishie

9 Days to Go

On September 19, 2004, my mum left for the United States.

Up until recently I had always told myself that my mum had gone 2005, not 2004. I thought that she'd have been gone for 6 years--not 7. Obviously all those years have passed and really soon, she's going to be home. I don't think there are any words to express how excited I am.

That being said, that was what I was thinking of while chatting with her yesterday. It was a miraculous day: our passports came with our US Visas. We were extremely nervous about whether we would get them or not. I woke up in limbo between dream and waking states to hear the phone ringing and while I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed at the time. Something in my gut told me to answer the phone. Good thing too, there came our passports with a shiny new visa written with ten years. :D

I showed them to my mum and I loved seeing how happy it made her. And I relished the thought that we wouldn't have to be talking through Skype or battling with the internet connection soon, not anymore.

Notice how we're both wearing buns on our heads. Like mother-like daughter. I can't wait! Thank you for all Your wonderful blessings, Lord! I am forever grateful!

 

Love, Mishie

 

Dovingly Yours.

Going back a bit to the topic of Thesis. Althroughout the experience I had my digicam with me. Whether it was because I was going to put up a video for YouTube or because I just felt more secure having it with me, I had it.

Luckily I was always able to take some footage of us working, mundane as it might have seemed at the time (or odd to my thesismates). But lo and behold: the experience that was thesis (rehashed in 3minutes or so).

Music "Okey" by Marching Band, they're pretty awesome. : )

 

 

Cheers, Mishie

I'd Like to Live a Vlogger's Life

I guess not reallly just any vlogger's life because, in essence, if I consider myself a vlogger (which I do) then I already do lead a vloggers life.

But I'm talking about an active vlogger's life. I guess if you take that in to context that simply means a vlogger that puts up a lot of videos. Yes, true. But also, videos with actual content that start discussions. And I don't want to be a trendsetter or anything on YouTube, but it seems to me that people on YouTube get to lead a very contentful YouTube career (usually Partners but contentful equals Partner and Partner equals contentful is not always the case).

I like watching people that actually have something to say that make me oh, "Oh yes that's right." If you look at it in essence though, video logging is about logging your own life. It was only when the YouTube community started did talking and engaging viewers become so important. But I guess that's exactly what I'm trying to do: be more engaging.

I like seeing vloggers be elsewhere also, outdoors, conventions, with other YouTubers, in another country, what have you. I like the thought of YouTubers actually getting together and becoming real friends.

I, myself, have gained some people that I like to call my friends as well, not just YouTube friends. Actually, something that EmilyTheBrave said in one of her videos made sense to me, that people that become famous because of YouTube were put on a pedestal by the people who watch them. So in a symbiosis of sorts (and I can't believe I just used a Biological term) Makers and Watchers cannot have longevity without each other. Without good makers, watchers may die away, and without constant watchers makers get discouraged and never develop.

I hope that I do develop though, with or without watchers. I won't like though that I haven't thought about what it would be like to be one of The Makers, but I'm quite amazed by itself that I have a somewhat small viewership. I'd like to keep them and get to know them more. : )

 

 

Thesis In a Gist

I have yet to come back fully to this (blogging). 

It was the first thing I wanted to do after thesis was over and done with. Unfortunately, I had to recuperate from a month-long stay away from home and a lot of bumming to enjoy.

I'm still enjoying the Bum Life, as I call it. I am not bumming, per se; but I am not employed and I'm just enjoying that time by being productive in other areas. 

But to share just a bit first about the month and a half that was thesis:

After practicum at Ogilvy we immediately "went to work" on our thesis. This was followed by two successive sleepovers at Alex' condo (a house detatched from their actual house area) that we, in the end (and for reasons that I shall not disclose here) called it The Love Nest. 

Basically we lived like dorm-mates, with each other on and off for an entire month--or an entire month total. We did everything from showers to grocery shopping to eating and drinking (for inspiration) in the place and we took it upon ourselves to try and enjoy every minute of it.

I think we watched a summarized total of about twenty movies, not counting those we watched there after we submitted our thesis. I cannot tell you how enjoyable that time was, considering that while we've worked with each other many a time, we've had our arguments still.

This time though, we didn't have any. We had some discussions in which we disagreed but comparing those to the times we actually had Times of Silence due to clashing, this was smooth sailing. I guess that's great because our time of working wonderfully together came at the time when it was most crucial. 

Without going through the actual campaign we've come up with, I'll say we're very happy with it. Given that we weren't the most prepared group when it came down to the actual presentation (as usual with all our presentations for classes) we went to the defense without actual practice or runthroughs and we ended up fumbling. But I think what mattered most in the end was that we were able to answer the panels' questions and we had a strong enough concept to merit us, yes, that Best Thesis Nomination.

Granted that we, as a group, did not care much whether we got the award or not, we were still very happy to be considered. After all, we were all Double Degree majors and going through two, two theses was acheivement enough. I'm glad that somehow our professors found us worthy. 

So a month later, I was not the same person. Not only was I not a student anymore but I was also someone with a lot more experience than I had anticipated I would have. I had literally gone to The North and back and now, here I am. 

Regardless of what happens after graduation (which is a lot of awesome, for sure) I will remember The Second Thesis very fondly. 

That being the very gist of it all, here are some photos of me, my thesismates (the Dovers) and our panelists.

Unfortunately we weren't able to take a photo with our mentor, but nevertheless, we thank him very much for guiding us and believing in us (even when there was a point when we had no faith left). : ) 

Here's what my bed area looked like when I came home. In the brief times that I had "Apparated" home to restock on clothes and whatnot, I had just dumped everything on my bed. After finally coming home last August 13 (but not before partying the night away with another AdCreate party!), I came back to look at this mess. I just had to smile with amusment.

Cheers,

Mishie