Play On, Percussion

Most people who know me now may not have the slightest idea that I used to be in a band back in college. Yes, I was one of the vocalists in a 5-man band and we did play a few gigs back in the late 90s. No, I don't have an amazing voice, but more than enough to keep people entertained and having a good time. These days, it seems I lost touch probably because of things I went through after I left the band. My family didn't even know I was in the band and I don't think they believed me. *LOL*

I remember spending hours with my bandmates singing Alanis Morissette songs, among others. But, one of the things I've wanted to do back then was play the drums. I felt like it's one of the coolest things I can ever accomplish because of how complicated it was, for me, to play this percussion.

For some people, when they see bands performing, they zoom in on the vocalists or the lead guitarist. Me? I focus on the drummer. You may not know it, but playing drums requires power, musicality and style. How should I know? I've dated like 4 of them and was even in a long-time relationship with a drummer who can play as bad-ass as Lars Ulrich of Metallica, like he's got octopus-arms and legs.

He tried to teach me how to play the drums. Turns out, I'm not that coordinated. It was an exciting experience though. I miss those jamming sessions with him and my bandmates. I even had plans of buying Roland electronic drums so we can all jam at home without worrying about a pretty bulky drumset. My ex-boyfriend's band didn't have their own equipment and studio so they rent out this place whenever they need to practice for a major gig. He planned on buying his own drumset too, but his parents wouldn't let him.

When I got to talk to my ex-boyfriend a few months ago, he told me he hasn't played the drums for over 6 years and he seriously miss it. He was truly talented so I honestly thought he'll be well-known. If only I can help him rekindle his love for music and playing percussion.

Nowadays, I just enjoy playing loud music at home, but my taste for music has changed. From metal / rock music, I now prefer anything acoustic and R&B. What a change, eh? But, whenever I go out with friends and a band plays, still, I always, always channel all my attention towards the one behind the drums - an obsession that I think will stay with me forever.

Making Your Home Comfortable and Cozy

One of the main aspects of your home is the furniture, and comfortable furniture will make your house much cozier for you and your guests. Of course, all the different furniture available makes it difficult to choose exactly what you need for your house. Seating is possibly one of the most important things that you need to consider, as you need somewhere to sit and relax yourself and also somewhere for your guests to sit when they visit.

Most people look for the most comfortable pieces of furniture that they can find. Comfort is always at the front of your mind when furniture shopping, and that's one of the reasons why recliners are so popular. Recliners are a great addition to your living room, and enable you to relax at the end of the day. More than one recliner in the same room can make it look cluttered; however, if you have a large room, you can get away with having two recliners or even more. This is perfect is you live with a partner or you have a large family. As you're likely to have a bigger house, you can afford to have more furniture in the rooms. If you have an apartment or flat, you can fit a sofa in the living room for your guests and a comfortable recliner for yourself.

Bean bag chairs are a great idea if you have children. Rather than spending a lot of money buying extra chairs and then trying to find the space to put them, you can simply get the odd bean bag here and there. They are great for a child's bedroom, as you won't often have enough space for chunky furniture. A bean bag on the floor is extremely comfortable and your child will love bouncing on it and relaxing!

The Remnants of The Vow

No, I haven't been married or taken a vow of commitment to anyone yet. I meant the movie, The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum.

 

When I saw the trailer of the movie months ago, I couldn't wait to finally see it on the big screen. And last week, I finally got to watch it with my bro. Not my ideal movie date, but we were at the mall completing an assignment and agreed on watching it since he also loves it. My bro and I are both hopeless romantics (have you read our article on the maiden issue of Breakfast Magazine? *wink*) so it was a no-brainer choosing which movie we wanted to see.

Anyway, going back to the movie, it reminded me so much of 50 First Dates, which I LOVED. I know it'll be painful to watch another heart-breaking story about the experience or what you go through when a loved one loses all memories of you. For me, it's worst than knowing they fell out of love. Don't you agree?

I really don't like writing movie reviews. I prefer to sit back and watch, be in the moment and not worry about having to remember the important parts of the story to write about it later. My mind's not programmed for that so I'm just sharing with you what I felt while watching the movie and, just like the title of this post said, what I think about now that I have watched it.

The story wasn't actually as heart-breaking as you would've imagined. Throughout the movie, they show us glimpses of how Paige (Rachel) and Leo (Channing) met, how they fell in love, and how much they care and make each other complete. So, to lose all that in a freak car accident is the worst thing that can happen I can imagine. Well, aside from death, I mean.

I can imagine being completely in love with someone, my world almost revolving around that love, the relationship, being married. And, then, because of a terrible accident, he forgets about me COMPLETELY. The hardest part about the situation of Leo in the movie is Paige is a completely different person - the person she was years before she met him.... before she became the person Leo fell in love with and who loved him oh-so tenderly.

Oh wait, that's not the worst part. Paige came back as her old self, still in love with her ex who she broke up with years ago. Ugh. If I was Leo, I might've started a war. *LOL*

Kiddin' aside, the movie made me think about the possibility of meeting someone who will stand by me, no matter what happens, and be there 'til I find myself again, accident or no accident. Y'know what I mean? It's not just about Paige losing her memories, but for me, the movie delivered a different message to me. I need to be with someone who would be there even when there are times I don't know who I am, and I'm lost.... times when I'm confused about what I wanted to do with life and he'll be there to push me, rather gently, towards knowing what I wanted to do in life. Someone who'll hold my hand while I find my way back. Someone who'll be EXTREMELY patient with me when I act stubborn or like I don't care. I can be a bitch sometimes, you know.

I've been in love and loved truly, deeply and madly before. I know how it feels like to be loved completely, but I want something unconditional. Something beyond myself, beyond what I can imagine and what I have experienced. I want that once in a lifetime love.

I mentioned earlier that The Vow is not a truly heart-breaking movie. The saying, "Love is patient" never rang truest than in the love story of Leo and Paige. Leo patiently waited for her to fall in love with him again, for her to let him help bring back how they were before the accident. And, eventually, how selfless of Leo to let go and accept the fact that Paige might not be able to love him again the way she did before. For me, that's true love.

A Quick Update : Switch!!

I seriously miss blogging or writing on my space here. Though I do love my other blogs too, I feel more intimate when I'm writing here. I've been stumped with work and I haven't had a chance to sit still and write one decent, well-thought out post. I hope this will change in the coming weeks as I adjust better to my new job along with my other responsibilities.

So, for a quick update, earlier this morning, my brother Ken agreed to switch rooms with me. My nanay saw my room earlier and she thought it was a fricking mess. I won't argue with her. It is. And I'm really trying to keep things organized, but then new stuff starts piling up. Argh. I think I'm starting to hoard again. @_@

It may be because of all the stress and personal issues I've been dealing with lately. I'm okay. I'm doing better, but I've had better days. I am hopeful things will turn out great in the end.

Anyway, going back to the switching of rooms, since I need more space for work, my nanay had this brilliant idea that I switch rooms with Ken. His room is bigger than mine and he barely have any important things in there anyway. :P

My plans for my soon-to-be bigger room is to organize all my things on the wall shelves, buy a home office table or computer desk, and hopefully, buy me a new bed too.

Also, since I need to really start exercising, I decided to buy gym equipment for home use. I know, I know. You might be reading this and thinking, "oh, exercise equipment at home don't work 'cause you'll be too lazy to actually hop onto them and do anything". Seriously, if I won't go through with this, I'll end up not exercising at all. Might as well take the chance, right? And just push myself once they're here already.

My initial plan was to buy an elliptical. I mentioned that on this blog a couple of times, but, since I'm not the only one who'll be using it, I decided to purchase a stationary bike first. After that, a treadmill for me and Ken.

My nanay wants me to purchase yoga mat bags and exercise DVDs too. I don't know where she thinks all those equipment will fit in the house, but maybe we can convert or build another room here somewhere. We'll see. :)

Pictured above is the stationary bike I'm planning on buying from an online seller. My barkada told me to search for a secondhand bike instead, but I'm not really fond of anything used. I'll prioritize this bike first so I can already start getting active again. I need to lose a lot of weight! ^_^

I Will Always Love You, Whitney

A number of my favorite celebrities passed away in the past years, but I think I never felt this affected. I never even wrote about them here. I guess it’s because I grew up listening to Whitney Houston. I can say we had more history, y’know.

I remember singing "Greatest Love of All” after being forced by my ninang at a family gathering. Whitney made me dance along “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”. Her music accompanied me during those heartaches. I cried my eyes out listening to “All at Once”, “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, and “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”. Her songs “Run to You”, “I Have Nothing” were my anthems when I fell in love again.

She’s got this powerful voice that will never be forgotten. I remember watching videos of her performances and being amazed by her commanding stage presence, the astonishing quality of her voice, and how easily and smoothly she can hit those fricking high notes. I LOVE HER.

Sadly, I wasn’t as vocal of my love for her when she disappeared in the music scene. Not really disappeared as I still hear and watch people sing and perform along her songs. But, after all the addiction, her dwindling health, it seems like most people have already forgotten about her.

After the very sad news of Whitney Houston’s death, Twitter’s trending topic is “RIP Whitney Houston”. I saw multiple posts on Facebook and comments on YouTube videos of her singing. I read through the reactions from people, and I thought to myself, what if she knew how greatly she has affected so many people, if we were only this vocal BEFORE all the addiction, will she go there? Will she end up like this? :(

I LOVE PINTEREST!

Sorry, I had to post the title in all capitals. I just LOVE Pinterest! I’ve joined this social photo sharing website over a month ago and I can tell you, I’m HOOKED!

I’m a very visual person. I usually don’t like reading a block of text, even though I get too narrative or talkative when writing or blogging. Images or texts designed on a photo or even a plain background appeal more to me than reading regular text. And from the success of Pinterest, I say there are more visual people out there than we’re aware of.

I love how easy it is for you to connect with others who share the same liking for different things. I’ve got a shameless # of boards – 38! *LOL* Here’s a screenshot of my Pinterest page (click if you want to view it and follow me):

I tried to not follow too many people, but there are just plenty of interesting pinners out there! I follow mostly those who post yummy photos of food, cool designs, hilarious photos, and a li’l of fashion and beauty.

You can check photos I pinned here: http://pinterest.com/blankpixels/pins/

You’d see mostly food on there, but I also pin unique nail arts, my wish lists for our kitchen and home in general, accessories like titanium wedding bands, bags, shoes, and a ton more!

I also use Pinterest to promote my blog posts. It’s a quick way to get some traffic too. Make sure you add the Pin It bookmarklet on your browsers so it’ll be easier for you to pin anything you see online.

Leave your Pinterest links and I’ll check you out. :)

Meet Our New Puppy…

If you’ve been following my posts here on my blog, Facebook or on Twitter, you probably already know how much we love our pets. Here’s a list of how many pets we currently have now:

• 3 adult dogs – Levi, Choco and Marcel (Stacie, our 9-year old dog, sadly passed away weeks ago… )
• 4 puppies – Choco and Levi’s babies. 2 of them will be adopted by my BFF and my nanay’s colleague.
• 4 adult cats – Maui, Orange, Bochok, and Bechay
• 3 kittens – Bechay’s babies

That’s a total of 14 pets! I’ve blogged about them here. They’re everywhere you go. When I open my bedroom door, I would usually see either Marcel sleeping right outside, or Bochok running towards the door to try to get inside.

When you’re in the kitchen, you’d see Maui and Bochok hanging out near the sink / kitchen counter. Bechay is at the living room, tending to her babies. And now, we have a new baby roaming around the house:

We haven’t named her yet because we weren’t convinced we wanted to keep her ‘til she started jumping out of their box / cage made in bamboo sticks. She’s a truly brave soul, and very sweet too, like her dad, Levi.

Here’s a photo of Levi when he was a baby, alongside a photo of… oh darn, we have to name her already! LOL

We All Need a Mute Button

We all change. Our experiences mold us into either someone we’re proud of or a person we hate. It’s inevitable. We have control over it, yes, but most of the time, we realize what’s going on when it’s too late… when we’ve already said hurtful things or we’ve done something really stupid.

For the past week, I’ve been really stressed. No, it’s not about my new job or any of my sideline projects because I love what I’m doing. In fact, I should be singing in glee because of all the opportunities coming my way for the past months. But, for some reason, I found myself almost in the verge of depression. And that’s not the worst part. I’ve acted somewhat hatefully towards people I care about. I may be right. My feelings may be justified. However, I detest seeing myself acting that way towards others. This isn’t me.

Then, I thought… and wished I had a mute button. That way, when I’m feeling any amount of negativity that I wanted to let out, I can just press it and I can continuously rant without people hearing the words coming out of my mouth. OR I can type away all my emotions and honest thoughts, and the person on the other end will only see blank text or messages.

But, then again, I should be working on this from within me. I’m tired of some of the things that has been said and done to me repeatedly and I honestly thought of ways I can escape this. No, I’m not suicidal. I value and respect myself and my life enough to not go there. I believe I just need a complete respite, far away from whatever and whoever’s causing me to feel this way. For now, though, I need to get my emotions in check, just like what I always do before they erupted to almost an emotional breakdown.