[Project FeeTrail July 2014]: Here in Hero's Home

As I have posted in instagram, it has been more than two decades since I set foot inside the house of Philippines' National Hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. This deserves to be in my Project FeeTrail.

I remember when I was in second grade and we went to this house for our class field trip. I still recall the stair case, the wishing well, the four post bed that looked like those in horror movies.

New additions now are documents up for display like this log book of Jose Rizal's mother (?), I think, jotting down expenses. Cute, because we have similar handwriting but hers is fancier and it is also nice to know she does the accounting of the budget.

Second photo to the right below shows Dr. Rizal's relative, hanging out at his tombstone. I do not know where his tombstone is, but all I know is he was shot in Luneta Park. And because the reflection of my feet is included in the photos, these made it to this blog post hehe.

And I gotta brush up on my history.

When you get a @talk2globe TEXT SCAM from @suncelltweets user

My sister got scammed into sending a 50 pesos load off her post paid plan into a number, thinking she might received a price or something. Til now I can't believe she got scammed, maybe she was bored. Good thing, it was only 50 pesos. I have a screen shot of that message somewhere, I forgot to post it before.

With three mobile networks in the Philippines, Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular, I guess its pretty normal for people now to have two phones since Sun Cellular launched its unlimited calls and text years ago, and after partnering with SMART. It saves a lot, but I can't deal with having two phones or network at the same time. I have a sun cellular number that I never got around to using but sim is still activated.

But what I don't get is when you text scam from a Sun Cellular Mobile Network, pretending to be a Globe advisory:

Eh ano naman ngayon kung 500th Cellsite? 

I was bored and was tempted to make a day of it, but then, it will only make me unproductive.

So warning to fellow Globe users, I know we get spammed a lot, (I even reported it), start ignoring those numbers and start blocking them (I did!). Once you block them, every time there will be another spam/advertisement text, you would see the message and IOS would only give you the option to dismiss to get rid of it out of your screen like this:

And you will no longer be able to retrieve that message once you hit dismiss.

If you're using an iPhone, you can check how to block numbers here, for Android users click here.

Jesus calmed the storm #Glendaph

Much has been posted about Typhoon Glenda and as of this writing, we do not have electricity for over a week now and we have intermittent water supply.

It is during these times that people go back to the basics. Lord, despite the typhoon, please let us have water (supply). Then came mobile signal and internet signal, then electricity. The sales of generators have risen up, that it gets out of stock the moment new stocks came in. When I was young, only businesses (owners) and rich people have generators, now people can afford it. Not that it has gotten cheaper. Anyway...

As I was praying really hard during the storm and my sister was in our other house near UPLB, there's this one verse that keeps on entering my mind: "Jesus Calms the Storm".

Mark 4:35-41New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Calms the Storm35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

And he did. Hours later after I slightly passed out, the storm calmed down. I wrapped my phone in plastic and started taking photos of what happened outside the house.

I took off the plastic wrapped around my phone to take better photos.

I prayed: "Lord, please, not the windshield. It's very expensive (to have it repaired)."

And here's what I got. My heart can take this.

I thought our little cabana would be roofless by now, but it was not.

Stuff thrown everywhere. I found our chair at the back.

My mother and I got into the car to rush to my sister in UP. Here's the guard house (photo by mom)

Photo taken at the bridge.

Thank you Lord, we got friendly neighbors to help us out. We managed to restore our tree with assistance.

 Almost all roads are not passable. In pili drive alone, there are 11 pili trees that were uprooted. We went to UPLB to bring one of the guys who helped us for anti- tetanus injection. I waited at the area of the Japanese Nihon Koen and took some photos.

I did not take much because I don't want to use up all my phone's battery, even if I didn't have signal.

To this date, UPLB is working over time for the campus clean up. Photos below shows pic taken last week, the right one shows pic taken early this morning.

Right now its business as usual in our office. Thank goodness, we have a generator and intermittent internet connection. Better than none, I tell you.

Remember when I was supposed to go to Thailand? It's a good thing I did not push through with the trip because otherwise, I wouldn't be home when Typhoon Glenda happened.

I would probably be having a nervous breakdown somewhere at the airport.

I'm starting to think my cancelled and wasted plane tickets are blessings in disguise, because last year I was supposed to go to Bohol for my 30th birthday, then Bohol had an earthquake before I even booked my hotel.

Thank you Lord.

(More photos of typhoon Glenda, by this photographer that I saw taking photos that day. )

Probably the best Make Up Tutorial to this date.

This year, I have cut down on my make up purchase and only buy the necessary ones. Most of the time I am only wearing powder and lipstick but most of the time, just bare face.

It must a phase or it must be the age, but after seeing make up stories online, I realized the advantage of wearing less make up.

Today, I found a really good make up tutorial. I love the confidence of this beauty video blogger. Watch this. This is definitely worth your time. 

Mid Year Report Card

Happy fourth of July! And I can't believe in a snap, it's already July. I started this year feeling very positive and got my vision board up and running for this and coming years. But mid year bumps are inevitable. For the first six months of this year...

• I joined the internet list of 52 week savings in order to apply financial lessons I learned (but failed some parts so I modified the contribution).
• I have a new goddaughter, my friends baby, Madison Brigh. 
• I have set up a Facebook page for this blog (as suggested to me before, you can add me here). 
• I met Filipino award winning broadcast journalist Ms. Jessica Soho.
• I booked an impulsive plane ticket and went to Japan with my sister.
• I got myself an iPad Air in Japan (after much self-convincing)
• After years of wanting a daruma doll, I finally got myself an authentic daruma doll!
• My paper for accepted for an international conference in Bangkok, Thailand. (Then the whole thing got cancelled due to Thailand's martial law.)
• I attended my Master's graduation (just for formality, since I already graduated last year)
• I finished our Japan Scrapbook during the holidays.
• I printed out photos of my graduation and vacation trip (been waiting for the time to do that because people just don't do it anymore)
• I had a second viral blog post. The first one is the Oblation run last year and the second one is a swindling incident caught on CCTV.
• I started waking up at 5am and now enjoys early mornings (I also have a walking buddy)
• I started to seriously take care of my health (doctor's orders)
• I took Achi to the doctor and have a CT Scan (which showed good results, Thank God. we've been planning to do that for the longest time.)
• I kept a gratitude journal but have not been updating it lately. I have to do it again

Also on a personal note I have been:

• Working really hard on being a more calm person.
• Training myself not to sweat the small stuff.
• Trying to listen more and less talk (really!)
• Learning not to be emotionally involved and attached.
• Exploring my faith and working on a personal relationship with God.

Honestly, it's not all flowers and rainbows but I am extremely grateful.

So how's your first half of the year?

The Kim Kardashian App

How about some randomness for my first entry for the month of July?

One time in 2012, Kuya Stew asked me "Why do you watch those American Reality rubbish?" I just popped the player for the Keeping up with the Kardashians (#KUWTK) that I downloaded and the next thing I knew, he watched an entire short season with me.

I like watching KUWTK, it's my guilty pleasure. Some indulge in boy bawang, I take pleasure in watching the scripted reality show of the Kardashians. Scott Disick is my favorite now among the males (not the Scott pre-Mason era) and Khloe is my favorite Kardashian.

Kim, honestly is the prettiest of all, not to mention the one who opened the doors for fame in the family. Surprisingly, Kim is the richest and most boring character in the reality show. That is why it is surprising she came up with a new business venture called Kim Kardashian Hollywood game app, I mean what is interesting about Kim Kardashian?

And because it is free, I decided to download and try to play it.  Here are the lowdown on the app:

 1. You need to be online to play it. If that isn't high maintenance enough.

 2. You get to have an avatar who works as a sales assistant and with an annoying gesture/habit of always looking at her nails and looking bored at her job.

You get to play dress up and choose the outfit for the day.

 3. You get to have a boss.

 4. It's a "task"game. You are given a Q&A with what to do and you just tap the few options to complete your mission.

 5. I like that it comes with dialogues and Kim's voice speaks the line. Although, not all lines are covered though.

 6. Kim is nice in the game and invites the sales assistant to be a model for a day and attend photo shoots and parties and again, your avatar will choose what outfit to wear to the party.

7. Some character dilemma is in the game like, would you show up at work even though you want to party with Kim Kardashian? Stuff like that.

And because it was so boring, I logged out and no longer played.

I wish they came up with the whole family instead and not have to be online to play it. I can imagine that it would be a riot now that the two little Jenner girls (Kendall and Kylie) have grown up.