Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

Ok, so I was reading last year’s year-ender post and my first post for 2011 and I realized that I got really blessed by God this 2011.

My 2011 year-ender post was a bit sad as I was trying to get over and move on from a really bad relationship. I was in a relationship with a guy who wasn’t into it and into me as much as I was into it and into him. What made it worse was that I was trying to make it work when he just gave up and started telling lies. When I found out about the lies, I finally couldn’t take it anymore and I just broke it up with him.

Enough about that. I’ve moved on from him. And starting this December, I thought I’d try to start to forgive him and myself for insisting on staying in that crappy relationship. It’s a work in progress that’ll spill over in 2012.

This whole 2011, I consciously didn’t try to date. I tried an online dating site but that didn’t work out. While I was an internet junkie, I was too lazy when it came to check my inbox. Plus, it didn’t help that the guys who messaged me were either way too old or weren’t my type. I didn’t try to date because I wanted to try being single for a while. Now that I’ve been single for a whole year, I might consider going back into the wading pool of dating.

Oh wait. I did go to ONE blind date set up by one of my friends. It was fun. The guy was nice. But there were just no sparks.

Also, this year, I think I was made to face a wrong decision that I made a few years ago. So, recently, I felt like I was moving on for the second time around from someone whom I really loved and I currently really miss. But I got to thinking about it and I realized that maybe I him more as a friend than as a lover/boyfriend. I don’t know if we could’ve lasted a long time. His schedule would’ve killed me and would’ve been the source of fights. Probably. Or we could’ve worked it out. Maybe. I don’t know. And so I just need to move on.

Work has been pretty interesting. Workmates have been fun and interesting to work with. I’ve become close to one more team mate aside from Charls. I’ve gotten a little wittier too. LOL. Or maybe C sets himself up too often and too much. I learned a lot. The learning process is a continuous process. And just when I think I got the hang of it, something happens and the learning starts all over again. At times, I’ve felt like I’ve made one step forward and two steps back. But I feel like I’ve learned from some of my mistakes and avoid them. Work-wise.

This year was also a good year for my relationships with my friends. There were some bumps along the way. There were times that I was upset or disappointed with some of them and I didn’t tell them about it. But I’m not perfect. I may have been overreacting at times or too sensitive about some things. And so I try to rationalize stuff to help me cope and get over my feelings immediately. Also, there were more good times than bad, like when I went to Singapore with two of my closest friends. That was a lot of fun.

Family life was good. Pretty much. It wasn’t all that smooth. But then it got better. And I am thankful to the Lord that my family is with me and we’re all still together. 2011 was a pretty peaceful year for us and so much better than the previous 5 or 6 years.

This year was a pretty good year for me. I got a lot of new things --- so much more than maybe last two or three years combined. I was able to afford more stuff, thanks to my well-paying job. This year, I got myself a new phone, some clothes, two pairs of branded jeans, five pairs of footwear, two bags, new underwear, an e-reader and a new TV.

The great Lord God has blessed me and family tremendously. He has given good health and love. And yes, a little bit of wealth through my job that I really like and almost love.

Thank You Lord for everything. May You continue to bless me, my family, my friends and their families with health, wealth, love and happiness in the coming 2012 and always.

Tomorrow, I will post my hopes and wishes for 2012.

For now dear readers, stalkers and blogwalkers, happy 2012.

Bruno Mars Sunday

I’m having a lazy Sunday. Well, a sentimental and lazy Sunday.

I wanted to listen to Bruno Mars’ Grenade. Then It Will Rain. Then The Lazy Song.

So, here’s all three videos for everyone who’s enjoying a sentimental and lazy Sunday.

 

 

iPod Touch vs Kindle Touch

So I’ve had my Kindle Touch for more than two weeks now and I must say I’m enjoying it so far.

But the screen refresh is still an issue for me. I might return it. Or not. It depends.

Anyway, I decided to write a short blog entry comparing my reading experience on the iPod Touch and my Kindle Touch.

Truth be told, what got me into the whole e-book reading experience was my iPod Touch. The iBooks app was pretty cool for me and I got to read maybe 4 or 5 books on my iPod Touch. I enjoyed it for a while. But it did give me eye strain. I experienced head ache some of the time so I would stop reading for an hour or two and then resume reading.

With the Kindle Touch, since it does read like paper, I don’t get the headaches as much. Not when the turning of the page works properly. When there’s a glitch and the Kindle refreshes the page every time, that’s when I get the headache. Probably because I find it annoying. Otherwise, I’m fine.

By the way, the Kindle Touch is only supposed to refresh the screen every 5 or 6 pages.

This is it for now. I’ll be going back to reading The Great Gatsby.

Inheritance: The Last Book from the Inheritance Cycle

I just read a book review right after deciding to write one and just before writing one. I’m afraid it might’ve clouded my thinking and thus producing a review a little less “epic” than what I was gunning for.

Image owned by Amazon.com

 

Okay. So what I wanted to initially say was that I enjoyed the book and it had such an effect on me that one day, I woke up worried/paranoid that someone was attacking my mind and I needed to sleep again to protect myself.

I enjoyed the book. I couldn’t put it (well, my Kindle) down for days. But it did have some flaws. A lot of the mysteries that were uncovered in the first three books remained unsolved and a lot more questions were raised in this book.

You see, I’ve waited for this book as soon as I finished reading Brisingr. Worth the wait? Yes. But it kind of looks like the whole thing was rushed and I am just a smidge disappointed that things ended the way they did. Although, I must admit, that whole fight scene with Galbatorix was satisfying, save for the fact that there was Dauthdaert. I think it should’ve maybe been Zar’roc or Brisingr who killed Shruikan.

Anyway, this book is a must read only if you’ve read the first three. Otherwise, you won’t get most of what’s in it.

The Kindle Touch: Good for Reading But Needs Improvement

This week, I also got the new Kindle Touch (yes, I got a lot of my online shopping items this week) and the amFilm Premium Screen Protector.

Since I marked it as a gift (for myself, obviously), it came in an unmarked box. And inside the box, was well, the box for the Kindle Touch (KT).

No, it didn’t come that way. I was too excited and immediately powered it up and I was only able to take some pictures after two days.

To be accurate, the one I got was the Kindle Touch with Special Offers. As you can see from the picture above, that’s how the ads are being displayed when the KT is in sleep mode.

When I took the picture, I took off the flash because there was glare from the flash. Yes, there’s glare. I haven’t tried reading under the sun but I did read by the window yesterday. It was perfect and I did feel like I was reading a book.

 

If you can see from my poorly taken picture, the display from my KT looks like as if it’s really ink on paper. The very small triangular thing on the upper right hand of the KT is for when you bookmark a page. What you do is you tap on the upper right hand and it automatically bookmarks a page for you. You can go reading another book or shop on the Kindle store. When you tap on the book that you bookmarked, it’ll go to the page you bookmarked. This whole bookmark thing, I found really clever. I used to do it with my own books – fold a small part of the page of the book I was reading so that it formed a triangle. I wasn’t fond of the real rectangular bookmarks with ribbons then and I’m not now. I also tried reading on my iPod Touch and when you bookmark that, a red bookmark thing appears. But this bookmark thing on the KT, I thought was cute and clever.

Anyway, the KT is NOT perfect. I have several concerns:

• The page refreshes! Every. Single. Time! In the three days I’ve owned the KT, there was a time that it didn’t do that. I don’t know what happened. I haven’t dropped it and no heavy pressure put on the KT to make it behave that way. I made sure to turn off the Page Refresh option but it still does it! It is an annoyance to me.
• I found that the KT isn’t as intuitive to the touch and I feel that it is a little slow. But that’s coming from someone who’s used to the intuitiveness and fast response of the iPod touch. But this is not to say that it’s not useful. I do like the tapping on the margin for page turns and I do like the convenience of tapping on a word to see the definition. I can’t imagine pushing on some buttons to get to a word.
• I wish there was something for adjusting the contrast/brightness. While I think that the display is clear, don’t get me wrong on this but I do think/wish that there was something for adjusting the contrast. I personally might’ve adjusted the contrast a tiny bit just to make the ink darker. But that’s just me.
• The Kindle Store is a little weird. So I saw an ad for the Best Books of 2011. I tap to it, right? It redirects me to a page that says that an email has been sent to me. I go to my email and click on the link. Then I check out the titles and see a book that I might be interested in. I go to my KT and click on the Shopping Cart icon. I type in the title of the book I’m interested in (The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan) and I was surprised to see that it didn’t come up in the search. Weird. Why advertise something that won’t come up in the search using the KT?

Overall, the KT delivers in it’s promise of being a great ebook reader. It does fast page turns, connects via wi-fi fairly quickly and easily and you can lose yourself reading (save for that annoying refresh thing that it does). But I think it can use a software upgrade to maybe fix the whole contrast thing and being able to find things in the Kindle Store.

Do I love it? Because I don’t like it refreshing every page, no. But I like it enough to give it a 4-star rating.

Shoe-pping Online with Shoe Room

I don’t like shoes a lot and I guess that’s the reason why I don’t have a lot of shoes. I stick to flats and sneakers and rarely do I go out in heels nowadays (but let me admit that I do miss going out and walking in high heels). When I go into the mall, I still gravitate towards high heels and rarely look at the flat shoes.

But Helga Weber blogged about Shoe Room and I was intrigued. The designs she picked and blogged about were super cute that I had to shamelessly copy them. Not all three that she got, just two.

I took some pics to show you what they look like:

This is silver with red lining.

 

An all black pair of shoes for when I go to the office.

Blue and red shoes for an outfit that doesn’t exist in my closet.

Finally, the shoes come in this reusable bag.

Shoes cost less than Php 400 each and shipping for all three shoes was Php 60.

To be honest, they fit perfectly but I haven’t been able to walk around them yet. And since I haven’t walked around in them yet, I’m hoping they’ll be comfortable for walks around the city.

Check out Shoe Room. Abby is really nice and accommodating.