New Header… The Rest, To Follow

I have finally come up with a new header for this blog. Phew! That’s a total of 30 photos from when I was a kid until recently. Now that’s a LOT of me, eh? *LOL*

I wanted the header to give that retro feel so I did the effects like that. Very simple. Now, I can’t decide what to do with the rest of the layout. Hmmmmm…..

I’m still currently working on 2 projects plus a few writing and blogging gigs. I’ve been pretty productive lately amidst the humidity inside my room because our A/C’s still broken. We had it checked last night and they said it’s now the compressor that needs replacement. ARGH!

I’m thinking of replacing this very OLD A/C unit completely, but it’s an unplanned expense. I’ve got some things I’m saving up for so as much as I’d like to buy a new unit, I’d rather get this old one fixed…. for now, at least.

Well, that’s it. A quick post. It’s blogging day for me so watch out for new posts, particularly on Certified Foodies.

Ciao!

A Much-Needed Date with Someone Special

It's been months since I last went out on a date with a very special someone. I miss spending hours with that special someone, talking about almost anything we could think of while we laugh the minutes away. It's one of the best things in life.

Before you further analyze excitedly who my date was, here's a photo…

When It Rains, It Pours

That is exactly what I was thinking last night when I realized I’ve been thrown a couple of major problems the past few days. I am trying my best to be as positive as I can be since I’ve promised myself to never let ME feel down and low about any issue since, based on previous experiences, God always provides solutions to my problems, or at least alternatives, rather promptly. PLUS, I’m quite the glass-is-half-full type of gal, you know.

But, since it’s almost Christmas time, I feel like He’s letting me go through some really tough times because there are lessons I needed to learn. Oh, and I learned the hard way; three times the past month. @_@

Financially, we’re hanging in there. My father needs to go through an eye surgery and we’re putting all our effort on saving up for that. I also have one last payment for half of what I borrowed for my new computers at my shop. The other half, I still have 8 months to go. And I feel blessed that we’re getting opportunities left and right to help us with our financial burden.

Emotionally, I’m happy. Could I be happier? Oh, yes, most definitely. But, I’m trying to focus on all the positive things that are happening to me. I have so much to be thankful for that I don’t want to let anything upset me.

Everything happens for a reason. That’s what I’ve always believed in. And it’s been true all my life. Whenever I go through a major problem, there is always a purpose or conclusion that makes me realize that things just had to happen to me so I can be a better person towards others. For that, I’m thankful. I don’t think I’ll be the woman I am now without all of the trials and successes I went through.

Here are some changes or quick updates that I have gone through and will be happening in the next months:

• My brother and I were invited to write for an upcoming food magazine. We are so honored to be given this opportunity and we hope to share more about this as soon as the first print issue comes out.
• Our food blog, Certified Foodies, have been receiving attention from different important people and companies. We feel so blessed, flattered and oh so grateful. For this, we want to thank EVERYONE who supported us. It’s been a rollercoaster ride and we’ve been enjoying the whole time.
• Our food blog will be undergoing a MAJOR redesign next month to welcome 2012 and all that we’ve got planned next year. We’re so excited about this and I can’t wait to work on the design. Yey! :)
• My blog Pinay Reviewer has become one of my more active blogs because of the opportunities I’ve been given recently. I hope you’d check out this blog too. :)
• I’ll start travelling again by next month. I so miss discovering new places and local cuisines. Our last trip was December of 2011. I BADLY need a vacation from all the stress (financial, mental and emotional) I’ve been going through. I DESERVE a break. :)
• My bro and I have plans of putting up a new blog… I don’t want to jinx or reveal what that is all about yet. We were inspired by our first collaboration (our food blog) so it’s only fitting for us to start this new niche blog where we’ll share more of our adventures together aside from food.

Before I Fall Asleep…

It’s another typical day. I’m still awake at 6am working on projects (blog and design) and my mind seem to not tire one bit even with all these writing and conceptualizing I’m doing right now. I’d probably sleep at around 8 to 9am again. Pfftt.

I admit, I have insomnia. I’ve been dealing with this since high school. I’ll usually stay awake until around 3am even on a school day. What do I do? We didn’t have a computer yet back then so all I had was loud music coming out of my headphones while I read or write my own fictional stories or entries in my journal. I end up sleeping on my way to school aboard our service van. But, my insomnia, thankfully, has not affected my performance in school and even when I started working.

It was inevitable that right after college, I wanted to work in call centers. Aside from the tempting compensation packages they offer, the schedule was so right for my body clock. I sleep around noon and wake up at 5 to 6pm (sometimes even later depending on my schedule) to prepare for work.

Though for sure, this is a case of insomnia, most people I know who suffer from this chronic sleeplessness either are not full of energy and can’t function well. In my case, like what I mentioned earlier, it never affected my efficiency. Yes, I may have a couple of instances when I’d stare at someone or on the computer screen because my mind just went blank, but I still ALWAYS performed at my best. :D

I guess this is why I never really did anything to fix this. I know, most people would argue that it’s all about self-discipline. I tried to adjust my sleeping schedule, but I ended up tired and restless because I forced myself to sleep. My mind won’t stop thinking, even with a white noise machine (an ex-boyfriend gave me one), I can’t sleep when my mind knows it’s still dark outside.

If you’ve seen photos of my room in my past posts, you’d probably have noticed that my glass windows are all covered with red cartolina. It’s my way of helping my body think it’s still dark when I sleep. I know, I just contradicted my case of insomnia. But, it’s one of the weird things about me. *LOL*

I’ve done a couple of tricks to force myself to sleep like drinking alcohol (NOT recommended!), and even counting sheep. *LOL* The only thing that worked was doing a bunch of really tiring stuff on my computer. My mind and body will just give up and fade into sleep mode.

I now have fairly huge and dark eyebags that I try to cover with concealer everytime I go out. Here’s a photo I took a couple of days ago, a few minutes before I put on makeup.

I only had about 3 hours of sleep when I took this photo. Seeing this makes me more determined now to try ways to lessen the darkness of my eyebags.

I promise to work on my sleeplessness by next year. I know this isn’t healthy, but I’ve just got too many things to do these days that I end up lying in bed, thinking of a thousand things in my head which then makes me want to stay awake more to complete at least 2 tasks before I finally settle in. *sigh*

Alright, this is my last post for today. Will watch a couple of episodes of The Walking Dead (like this will make me sleepy, eh?) before I take a long nap. That’s what I call my sleeping now. @_@

Image credit: Sleepless

Running Out of Time…

It's past 5am on a cold Thursday morning and here I am, typing away after a realization that slightly ruined my fairly good night.

I have a lot of things I want to do with my life. I even have a REAL bucket list that I need to at least get 10 crossed off before I die. And I realized now that I haven't reached even half my full potential yet because of things and people holding me back.

This might be just another phase of quarter life crisis, but I feel like I need to step it up because I might be running out of time, you know.

I'm honestly tired of what's been happening, but I can't stop 'cause I think of how that will affect everyone around me.

2011 has been great to me, but it’s been painful and stressful too. I hope 2012 will treat me better emotionally.

*sigh* Konting tiis... @_@

Join my Giveaways this November 2011

I’ve been forgetting to also promote giveaways I have running on my other blogs here. For the past months, I think we hosted like about 10 giveaways on our other blogs already. It’s fun hosting a giveaway. If only I have the resources to do it more often, I would! ^_^

Right now, we’ve got 2 giveaways running. There’ll be another one coming up as one of the giveaways ends today, November 8th. I hope you stay tuned and always check on my other blog, Pinay Reviewer, as it’s where I post about my own latest giveaways and my finds or the ones I joined.

Though it’s been my promo or giveaway alerts blog, I have decided to turn Pinay Reviewer into my full-on review blog where I feature different products. From fashion, makeup (products, tools, and I’d probably post my own tuts there too), gadgets, or even eyelash growth products review, you’ll find in there. And this blog, Just Another Pixel, will be kept as my personal and travel blog.

Here are my current giveaways:

• Bon Appetea giveaway over at Certified Foodies – Win one of 2 sets of Php 500 worth of gift certificates to try or enjoy Bon Appetea’s milk teas. This ends today, November 8th, so make sure you join now!
• LazerXtreme giveaway over at Pinay Reviewer and Ken Avenue – Win EIGHT (8) free games / gift certificates from LazerXtreme. You can only use this at their Alabang Town Center branch though.

I might have a Crumpler giveaway soon on Pinay Reviewer plus some other giveaways, too. Just make sure you subscribe to updates on all my blogs to keep posted. :)

Is Your Happy, Stress-Free Day Worth 35 Cents?

Last week, Friday, my bro Ken and I were at the grocery shopping for ingredients and everything he’ll need for our birthday celebration that weekend. When we were checking out, in front of us was this man, in his late 40s probably, who started complaining about the change he received. I thought it was a big difference ‘cause he began mentioning about calling the supervisor. My jaw literally dropped and my eyes (and Ken’s) began to roll when we found out it was just a mere 35-cent difference.

I know, if you think about it, like what the guy kept on saying, if there were about a thousand customers who didn’t claim their missing Php 0.35 change, it can amount to Php 350.00. But, seriously, do you really need to call a supervisor for that?

If it was $0.35, I would understand calling on the supervisor or manager since it’ll amount to Php 14.00+. I think the man was a little overreacting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very particular with getting exact change whenever I shop. But, I know when not to make a big fuss about something as small as 35 cents!

Let me just make it clear. I’m not siding with the cashier or her management. They should always make sure they give the exact change to customers. But, they do ask if it’s okay every time if your change is a couple of cents off. I’m just saying he doesn’t really have to react so negatively over such a negligible situation.

Seriously, the guy spent, I think, about 10-15 minutes (it was the day before the long weekend so there were a lot of people shopping) waiting for the supervisor to come in and listen to him complain before finally giving the cashier some loose change so she can give him his 35 cents. Was it worth it, I kept asking myself. Was it worth the stress of freaking out over a few cents difference? I don’t think so. There are just some things we need to let go. We’ve got to learn how to brush off negative vibes, really. For sure, the man’s night was ruined by all his stressing over the 35 cents. Again, was it worth it?

After my birthday celebration and having written my musing for that day, I told myself I need to stop stressing about things that I shouldn’t really make a big deal of. I want to get back all the positive vibes that I feel I’ve lost the past months.

I bet there’ll be a lot of negative reactions towards this post considering the bigger picture, but hey, this is MY blog. That’s how I felt about that man’s behavior.

The cashier, though embarrassed by the whole situation, continued on with her job, passing our items on to the barcode scanner like nothing really happened. I pitied her ‘cause I’m sure she didn’t expect that outburst. So, when she asked me if it’s okay that my change was 15 cents less, I said, “No!” and immediately retracted my statement and said, “Joke lang!” (Just kidding’!). I swear, I can hear the nervousness behind her laughter. *LOL* I know, that was mean, but at least, I got her to laugh. ^_^

I feel like I’m more tolerant now of people’s flaws and mistakes, but not to the point of naivety. I want to live with a more positive outlook. Life’s too short to stress on the little things.