mishie takes on the world

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

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

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

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

so my brother's laptop broke...

To be honest, I don't think he takes care of it well enough. Regardless of how many times my dad and I tell him to run scans or defragment his laptop and scan the drives he sticks in it, he doesn't. That, and he's always lugging it around so it gets bumped and banged and stuff--its motherboard is now at risk of saying good-bye. 

When he and my dad were talking about getting him a new, cheaper (but still new) laptop, I was a bit cross. I painstakingly took care of my own Toshiba (all of us at home own Toshiba laptops) for nearing six and a half years now and while I've wanted a new laptop for a while now (around two years already) I told myself that I will keep Toshi (name of my laptop) alive until he decides to give up on me or when the time is right.

I've been telling myself that graduation time would be the perfect time to do it. I mean, new life, out of school, new things to look forward to, it might be the perfect time to buy a laptop and start anew. But then again, a friend of mine made perfect sense when he said that perhaps the best time to get a new laptop is now. Since I'm always complaining and having so many problems with Toshi, and since its thesis and I'm always having trouble with making my videos for my main and collaboration channels on YouTube, that now would be the best time to get a new laptop. Since now is the problematic time, it would be a nice time to buy a new laptop to solve that problem. It made sense and I'm actually considering it now. It's close to graduation anyhow. 

So now I'm looking into the laptop of my dreams, the Macbook Pro. I knew I always wanted one. After seeing all the people in the industry and experiencing the Mac life during our internship, I've realized that it suits me as a person. Also, I can't wait to get my hands on iLife!

The only two questions now are which Macbook Pro to get and when?

  
 Click-y the picture and compare the 13" and the lower-end 15"!

I'm so torn between the two seriously!

 

Also, I'm thinking of finally reviving Mishiellaneous from the depths of the ocean. Since its now college basketball season (UAAP, it's called), schools are now at the height of their school spirit. Best take advantage of that, methinks. 

My mum did say too that in case my brother does end up getting a new laptop, she'll give me the same amount used to buy that laptop in cash--since she wants to be fair. 

I love my mother. 

Love, Mishie

 

The Last Week.

It's been a while since I've blogged properly, and I miss it. 

Before anything else, I just need to vent out before I implode. Sometimes my father acts like a child. And I know I inherited my temper from him. I hope I can manage and have some anger management. We never know when he's in a really good mood and there is a severe lack of consistency. 

I'm using my computer, he comes down the stairs, slams the front door and then he shuts off the lights like I wasn't there. What? And he's the one always telling me to use a light when I'm on the computer. C'mon.

I love my dad. I just don't get him sometimes. I've stopped trying to understand and not take things personally. 

Anyway, onto what I wanted to say. The Last Week. 

Into the last week of our internship, one of my thesismates who spends time in the Advertising Department of the agency with me got her iMac transfered to another girl who came back to the agency. So with a lack of computer, I decided to give her mine and just go back to the basics. There is only so much I can do on the computer nowadays. In the past month or so that we've been there, I've just realized that. 

So my last week was spent with an computer-less desk. And in as much as I love the iMac that I got to use, I can't wait to just have my own and go back to writing for now.

I've started writing in my journal again. I don't know how long that'll last but I do hope I keep it up. There's a different sense of release of frustrations and thoughts when it comes right down to it. 

 

Yes, that is a Venom head on the desk. It spent about a month next to us and to be honest, its quite distracting. 

I also got my hands on the new Arashi album! I missed them so much, I just had to transfer all the songs to my phone at once! It's beautiful. There's something distinctly Arashi and something new in their album. The sound is just love. 

I also bought a DFTBA (Don't Forget To Be Awesome!) notebook in the department store a couple of weeks back. I found a picture of it, and became aware of its existence from the EffYeahNerdfighters tumblr account. Finding this one was a treasure because all of the spiral bound notebooks were gone! People, I bet, did not forget to be awesome. I just wished I could find them all online and tell them "in person."

Last Wednesday, my thesismates and I agreed to eat at Max's to try the Chicken-All-You-Can promo. Its crazy how many chickens you can eat, as opposed to another food chain's Unlimited Rice gimmick. Since it was our last week, my thesis mates and I have been eating out at one restaurant to another. I failed to get pictures of them all because most of the time I was just dying to eat, but this was the first dinner we had so of course I had to take pictures. We even had a little competition of who could eat the most chickens.

Okay, sorry if it's a bit disgusting but I just wanted to remember just how many chickens sacrificed their lives for our gluttony. Sorry, Chickens. If anything, you were really good.

For some reason my thesis group aren't too much of photo people. I consider it a treasure when we get to take photos. I plan to have these printed along with some other photos I've been wanting printed out. 

And finally, when the competition ended, we had a three-way tie. : ) 

It was pretty intense. Right after I didn't think I could eat anymore, but then we had Korean ice cream at a quaint little Korean grocery store nearby. It was nice to walk around The Fort area at night. It's a nice place to just walk around and think. If it's not raining too much I should go around. : )

A few more things happened! I also finally bought my tickets to the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 8:10 showing at the PowerPlant Mall! : )

It was quite a dilemma actually trying to decide who I wanted to watch with. On one hand, it was already tradition for my family and I to watch the films in the theater on the opening day, as per my insistance. But then again, this was the last film and yet I've never watched the film with fellow fans apart from the time my groupmates and I organized a film viewing for our events class. In any case, I decided to go with the former. Why break tradition on the last film, right? But I'll also be watching a few hours ahead with my friend Chris who wanted to watch the films with high school friends. Thing is, I'm the only friend actually available on that day itself so I'll have to do. I'm rightfully excited now. I was able to catch the premiere online and I was squealing at two in the morning because of it. I teared up in the office after watching the speeches of the main cast and J.K. Rowling. I think I might have just died of nostalgia, sadness, happiness and hope. 

Finally, in the process of purchasing said Harry Potter tickets at the PowerPlant Cinema, I was able to get my hands on the new Peso Bills! :D

Our bills are European now. I've saved these two bills since their the first that I've gotten of the sort. Once I get another set, I'll feel free to spend them. There are only so few in circulation at the moment that I just have to save these.

Last Thursday, we left our internship early to head on over to school to get our graduation assessment form thingies. Unfortunately they said that day wasn't the day we were supposed to get it and we'd have to come back some other time (for me, that's tomorrow). But while we were there, we took the time to go buy our favorite Milk Tea drink in Zentea. And I finally had the chance to visit my org friends. 

They were busy as usual. Now more than ever. Because construction was being undergone by our beloved Medrano, the AdCreate took over a large part of what we call the Yuch Cave. They've really settled themselves in: there were boxes and books and all sorts of things in there. I was so surprised that they haven't been reprimanded yet. But given how our org suddenly became homeless, this seemed suffice.  

I got a few hugs which I thoroughly enjoyed. Narcissistic as it seems, it felt good to be missed. I gathered a few updates from people--some of which I enjoyed, and some of which I don't know what to think or feel about, but I was glad I was able to come back even for a while. 

I wish I could have taken more pictures with everyone, but everyone was so busy!

And as for the updates that I wasn't exactly through thrilled about, I'll get over it. I was just too happy to have seen everyone again. Even if I've been feeling alienated for a while (another post for this, I think) I still love them to bits. 

Only one month left until thesis submission and defense! My academic life is fast approaching its end!

Love, Mishie

P.S. I drove alone for the first time last Friday! I mean, not me with a passenger; as in, me by myself, to the office, parked in reverse and drove home before the rain caught up to me--it was awesome! Here's an ugly but memorable photo! : D

Coming to an End.

This July, a few things are coming to and end. 

This Friday will be our last day here at our on the job training. That means, thesis is officially underway and we start our trek into graduation. In my own way, I'll miss this place. While truth be told, things could have been different, there is still a fondness that I've grown to this place. Unlike in my previous intern experience where I interacted mostly with my fellow interns, I got to interact with more practicioners. We didn't get to do the things that I did last summer but at the same time, this was still an, altogether different experience. 

I met another great friend at least. 

This is Jackie! : ) She's my new friend from my internship. Apart from being bubbly and all, she's super friendly and super nice. I sometimes wonder to myself how a shy person like me is able to make friends with these types of people. 

Also, here is a photo of me, my thesismates and Jackie. We have very few group pictures so this is a treasure of sorts. 

Funnily what I'll miss the most is this iMac. I know its a bit silly a while doing things on my laptop still feels more at home, this iMac experience has got me drooling for a new iMac of my very own. It's gone down in my Things I Plan To Buy With My Own Money list along with a Macbook Pro 15" and video editing software (I could always just download or something but I think buying it would eliminate a lot of problems). 

I enjoyed this time with my thesis mates and I'm sure we've only just begun down this road. 

Number two: Harry Potter is a little over a week away. Needless to say I'm rolling over and jumping off the roof of this 26-floor building about it. I haven't bought tickets at this point but I'm hoping to solve that lack-of-ticket problem within today. 

I said my Thank You's to J.K. Rowling via this video I've put up on my YouTube channel:

 

Thank you for a wonderous and whimsical childhood, J.K. Rowling. :)

 

I don't want to talk more about the end of this second thing just yet. It hasn't quite sunk in yet. Hopefully one day I'll be able to talk about it. I think most of what I've wanted to say is already in this video since it is 6:06 minutes long (not as long as I thought it would be, to be honest--but I'm glad it got down to this size). But I'm sure there is loads more I want to say about my experience with the fandom. That was, after all, eleven years of my life. 

That's all for now. I'm sure I owe a lot of pictures of the things I've been doing recently that I have yet to upload. I'll be sure to work on that soon! I miss posting here! :D

 

Love, Mishie

and this post is so random.

I haven't blogged in a while and that somewhat upsets me. While I've now come up with 7, I'd like to think content-full videos, and around 4 videos on my collab channel I still think that blogging should become more second-nature to me than video-making. 

Before anything else though, SHOE POST!---UGH okay no, it's not loading. Maybe I can just load it later.

Anyway, I've been lurking around Apple.com recently. I'm convinced to buy the MacBookPro 15" when the OS X Lion comes out. I also now want to update my iPod Touch with the new iOS5. I just need to get my butt up and do it.

Speaking of getting my butt up and doing stuff, I've been on a Mishiellaneous hiatus recently. I seriously want to keep it going but I just don't know what I'm doing anymore. I'm shaming my mom, I'm sure things'll pick up once she gets home. I want to branch out more so I'll see how I can do that. I think these new Keep Calm bagtags I'm thinking of will do the trick but I have to do them. Hhnnggh.

I think I'm starting to get used to churning out videos every week. Thing is, my laptop's old so editing is a pain. I have to borrow my brother's laptop every week just to render. I dislike being such an inconvenience.

Oh, my fish passed away recently and now my doggie is ill. I'm scared. I will have to call the vet soon.

Two other things: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Pottermore.

One. I reread the book (save for the epilogue) and I can't wait to get my hands on the tickets for the July14 showing! And Pottermore, whatever it is, it better be epic for getting us fans in a frenzy. 

It's the rainy season again. I'm not thrilled, but at least I can layer up! :)

One last thing (and this post is so random): I sort of fancy someone in the office right now. HAHAHA. I sound like a spazz saying it. Let's just call him Rupert. :))