What to expect when you're expecting a wedding album, Kuya Stew

Dear Kuya, since you're getting married in 25 days starting tomorrow, I thought I might as well give you a preview of how your wedding album would look like.

Yes, there would be a photo of the bride's wedding gown. In the Philippines, it's the bride's big day.

 Yes, there will be a photo of even the most mundane objects such as shoes. It's included in the protocol.

How to survive a concert via General Admission: American Idol S11 Live Tour

Last week, my sister, her beau and my grad school friends attended a concert. We planned it out of a whim weeks before because we all feel like we needed a break.

I've been to Araneta, but I don't remember watching a concert. So I consider last week my first to watch a concert in Araneta via General Admission. Our ticket costs less than a grand and we chose to just listen to them live and don't want to throw in more than 2k for the next level of General Admission.

I'm actually surprised to find a mixture of the crowd in GAs. Most of them are really just into the music and just wants to dance along. of course, it wouldn't complete without concert trolls pushing against your body. I am reminded last week why I am not a fan of concerts: I have this ridiculously wild fear of sweaty crowds that might tick a potential stampede. I certainly do not want to be a statistic. But I managed to survive the concert by following these steps:

1. Load up with food before the concert.
2. Make sure you hydrate yourself enough to survive for three hours without having the need to pee.
3. Make sure to bring low maintenance, on-the-go, fun and easy going friends. I honestly cannot think I can survive if not for the fun people I am with.

The entrance

More after the jump!

The Grad School Diaries: Episode 13 - Rappler.Com at UPLB

Pardon the lazy blogger in me. I’ve been so busy this week and I am trying to squeeze in this little post before I head of to my next appointment. Oh yes, this week will be the start of the many busy weeks of my life this year.

Anyway, last Wednesday, Rappler came to UPLB. As the secretary of DevCom Graduate Students Association, I am required to attend, participate and involve myself in planning. Good thing, our President, Derek, is a full-time student, he was the one who really organized almost the whole thing, together with UPLB’s Office of Public Relations (OPR).

Anyone who is obsessed into social media (ehem!) knows what Rappler is. For those who don’t:, here's an excerpt from Rappler's Bio from the official website:

Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves). It's a new world of limitless collaboration enabled by new technology and connected by social media.
We at Rappler promise uncompromised journalism that - hopefully - inspires smart conversations and ignites a thirst for change.
We are veteran journalists trained in broadcast, print and web disciplines working with young, idealistic digital natives eager to report and find solutions to problems. We are web artists, designers, publishers and professionals combining the best of broadcasting and IT processes.
We won’t be complete without YOU.
Technology now allows us to work in ways never before possible to create connected communities and to tap “the wisdom of crowds,” the process of harnessing a group's collective answer which, under the right conditions, have proven to be better than any single expert opinion.
To help set up these conditions, we began nationwide workshops with our Move.PH chat series. In the age when everyone is a reporter, it’s good to discuss standards, responsibilities and ethics. Our journalists are running workshops and engaging the public in ways we have rarely done before.

So here we are at 10 in the morning preparing for the event at 1pm: 

Jennifer Aniston's Funny New Ad

This has got to be one of the cutest ads I've seen. And oh how I miss Jennifer Aniston as Rachel.  Jennifer Aniston stars in this funny ad for smart water making it look like they're taken from Jen's security tapes.

Kuya stew thinks Jennifer's character, Rachel, [in Friends] is a bitch. He keeps on saying how Jennifer Aniston has manly features and the only good thing about her is her rockin' body and her gorgeous hair.

After watching the video, I think Jennifer Aniston's real appeal really came from her hair.  What do you think?

(source)

Dear @laiahdear, This is how I show my appreciation

Because last week, you got me Jane Green’s new book:

  let me show you my appreciation by giving you... ADAM LEVINE.

Oh how I would love to be hand model for this! 

I can already hear you screaming like a hyena. 

Franco and I would love to ditch our graduate school officer duties to join you at the Maroon 5 concert tonight if it wasn’t for the guilt.

And work obligations.

And being responsible and all that. Haha.

Have fun at the concert and do not forget to scream your lungs out for me! 

(photo source) 

Hair Confessions: A year of Curls

It has been a year since I decided to screw hair rebonding and go for digital perm. And it's been a year since I've been experimenting hair products and a year of receiving emails and comments asking for recommendations.

I will always say that getting my hair digitally permed is one of the best decisions I've made about my really moody hair. It saved me a lot of stress and preparation time. I've always wanted a wash and wear hair style but a boy's cut never suited my face shape and I learned it the hard way back in high school! (Oh the que horror!)

Finally I decided to curl it up and do it wash and wear style!  This is how much my hair have grown.

Pardon the 2012 photo, my hair was not prepared to be photographed so it was not arrange for blogging 

My hair confessions:

• Since I got my hair permed, I never left the house without curling mousse/gel/serum on my hair. 
• I've tried at least 3 different hair colors before I finally settled to this color.
• I have retouched my hair color twice because ever since my sister has trimmed my supposedly side swept bangs, and had been coloring my hair using the DIYs you see at the market, my hair seemed to grow a lot faster.
• I condition everyday and shampoo every other day and never got a hot oil treatment at the salon. I guess you be the judge.
• Oh another thing, I've never had it trimmed. Except for my bangs.

This is how it looks like so far:

I'm still thinking if I'm going to re-curl it again, but my sister told me that I don't need it yet. I really love the way it's low maintenance and how I can just tie it up in a bun on a not so good hair day. I can wear it both Summer and Christmas season! My sister says it looks better this way than the first few days of getting it permed because it looks so curl-up and up-tight but this hair looks carefree.

I think I need to trim down the edges. It looks like I'm full of hair but I've pretty much lost some amount of hair like I can donate it to make a wig.

(Check out my previous hair product reviews here)

Cafe Subresal

It was my first time to go to Cafe Subresal. I've been seeing that establishment since last year and I never really bothered to come and check it out. So when my friends and I were supposed to meet up at nearby restaurant who happened to be closed on that night, this became our Plan B and I was pleasantly surprised.

Read more after the jump!

FRIENDS vs HIMYM: The Super Similarities

If you were to ask me how I would like to spend my Friday night, it would be me in my pajamas, playing couch potato and watching Friends series.

I got into the FRIENDS bandwagon late but years ago, a friend of mine sent me complete seasons of FRIENDS to help me catch up. Though during that time I’ve been told that “How I met your Mother” is the new “FRIENDS” I still prefer the old FRIENDS series.

While waiting for the new season of How I met your mother, I’ve been watching re-runs of FRIENDS and saw a lot of similarities. I’ve been waiting for someone to do a screencap of the super similiarities until today, this morning, I finally found it!!!

(source)

Now I wonder, where did the inspiration behind FRIENDS came from?