Color My Ways With Words

How can January be closing already? Wasn’t it just yesterday I was telling everyone about the gunpowder cloud sitting over Metro Manila? *blink*

In any case, January 2012 has been a good month so far. My credit card debt situation is looking more rational. As far as one bank is concerned, two of their cards are dead to me, and if they unblock the third, then once I pay that off, it will be dead to me as well. *nods* Two other banks will be made happy by prompt payments, and God in his mercy willing, my financial mourning will have turned into dancing by next quarter. Maybe not disco dancing, more of a slow drag – but IF things go well, then hubby will not be walking in on a missis having tearful breakdowns over finances any more.

In other news. I have taken up the beloved female past time of “doing” my nails. *grin* Polish is cheap (what, you didn’t seriously think I would be buying Revlon and such, at their ridiculous prices? Not to mention that the way I use my hands doing housework, the manicure would be shot in a day!), and it gets me into the whole skin care thing again.

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I got to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie last week. *bounce* I thoroughly enjoyed it; the part where Mary walks in on Mycroft sauntering about in the nude had me in stitches; the poor woman, not knowing where to put her eyes! Of course, if I compare Stephen Fry’s Mycroft to the descriptions I remember in The Canon…Fry is definitely more of a visual treat. The poor family butler (giving the nod to the mention that the Holmes brothers come from a line of landed gentry)! And Carruthers – looks like Mycroft’s civil servant (is he?) version of Jeeves. I like how Mary was portrayed, in the canon, she was far from a typical Victorian lady subject to the vapors.

WHY DID THEY NOT PUT IN THE SCENE THAT WAS SHOWN IN THE TRAILER? *POUT* (those who have seen both trailer and movie will know which scene is missing)

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The country is in the process of running the impeachment trial of our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Among other things, he is accused of betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and ill-gotten wealth. Whether the prosecution can make things stick is a question still in the air. Because seriously? They opened by saying THEY WERE NOT PREPARED (someone has been hitting the Mark Reads/Mark Watches site really hard) to prosecute the article of impeachment scheduled for the day. Seeing as how they were saying for weeks before the trial that they were ready…IDK, it doesn’t inspire much confidence on my part. Plus, in the two weeks that the trial has been going, there hasn’t been a day where the prosecution wasn’t lectured, cautioned, advised, and actually yelled at by the presiding judge and our most feisty senator-judge (Miriam Defensor-Santiago, recently named to the International Criminal Court). Not very auspicious.

Well, Monday is another week, I suppose. *dies*

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Total non sequitur: I would like to win the Reader’s Digest raffle grand prize. That is all.

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What else. The kittycats are doing well. Will have to schedule little Guapa-cat for spaying, she’s already six or seven months, poor wee baby. Qbie also is the lively little babycat he was before he got sick. I still give him his liver supplements, but he is, thank God, very sweet about downing the syrup (Jetepar, 1ml twice daily).

My body is definitely changing as I grow older. Used to be that when my cycle arrived, it arrived, without fanfare or fuss. In recent years, though, the week before Aunt Flo comes to visit, is a fog of headaches, tummy upsets, back pain, and SLEEPY. Intensity varies, but still…I hate the sleepy phase, when all my body wants to do is sleep when I want to be doing something else that requires me to be fully awake. Ah well. There is ibuprofen in the house if things get too bad, coffee, liniment, and a loving husband. I’ll deal.

So at the moment, I am feeling better than I have been in a very long while. And for that I am grateful. January has been a month of tying up loose ends, and I suspect February will be the same. Perhaps March I can hope for new beginnings. We’ll see.

I am so very close to financial stability (after a fashion) that I can taste it. Spent the whole morning wiping out bills, and am nearly as wiped out as the bills. sigh

The ball is in the bank’s court now; so positive vibes and prayers that all will be well, will be much appreciated.

Now to drown myself in fanfic, the better to sleep well.

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a) will unlock the “post as private” option on my Twitter logs, or no one on LJ will know what’s happening to me at the rate my life is going. pity the app I use doesn’t send me the logs via email so I could dink around with it before posting to Dreamwidth, which auto posts to LJ, but alas…

b) will stop updating my WordPress blog mirror effective February, and keep it as an archive (or move it to Blogger with all the other archives)

c) hi, my name is Cindy, and I am a tablet addict. would cheerfully give up my netbook for a bigger wifi tablet if it would only run my scanner. I’ve seen reviews of the Asus Transformer, but need more research. or really, invest in a linux friendly scanner first.

life’s good. it’s dividend day today, and the cash inflow will help get me back on track financially. it’s going to be busy around here later, though. ciao!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Had myself a wee bit of a crying jag this morning, contemplating all the payables. Felt better afterwards, but am still feeling all “meh” about how paying off one bill in full by mistake has led to so much financial chaos. shrug Ah well. Life! One learns to deal and enjoy it meantime.

As someone tweeted: “Smile! God didn’t wake you up to be a grumpy grouch.” Amen.

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The best part about following up balances with companies?

The wonderful wait times you get when dealing with the automated systems that are supposed to make your life easier. snort

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This morning I went through the headache-inducing experience of sorting through the papers that have been accumulating since October 2011, preparatory to filing them.

I have missing billing statements, so have been on the phone to various entities trying to ascertain what my balances are and how to pay off the most urgent. So far, so good, but I am cutting it close.

Things will work out. Have worn my teeth to the bone biting the bullet, but at least I have my gums left…

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let’s see: made fried rice for breakfast, out of leftover stuff. YUM.

received news that my financials may look better before month-end. good! (so of course the credit card of one bank decides to throw me a left hook. bah.)

got Dad to pay for Ma’s PT. good.
was able to buy fixings for lunch and dinner. good.
finished writing assignments. GOOD.
was able to buy food for cats. good.
am now having online time on desktop. GOOD.

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hm. thinking about it, I may stop mirroring my journal on WordPress at month-end. maybe.

got credit card statement today. it shows amount due paid in full (if two days late), but bank has blocked my card and now everything is due all at once? called bank and voiced puzzlement and concern how this could be, why block card if everything is current anyway?

nice person at Collections says I am not in arrears – yet. gave me the minimum amount to pay; will pay usual installment and call again.

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down memory lane ini!…..

TO ALL PINOY KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 50′s, 60′s, 70′s and early 80′s!

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne, smoked and/or drank San Miguel Beer or Syoktong, while they carried us. The manghihilot was the cheapest way to deliver babies. Dinala ka ba ng nanay mo sa pediatrician for DPT? While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, cortal or medicol, ate isaw, and didn’t worry about diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints , pati na yung walker (andador )natin, matigas na kahoy or rattan at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), ( noon cloth or rattan duyan lang tied to the posts or ceiling, babies fell asleep sa sobrang hilo ) and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

Take-out food was limited to Ongpin’s pansit or Aling Toyangs pre-cooked ulam in kalderos. No pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Jollibee; and, coffee was just kape hinde ga-mahal as in Starbucks.
As children, we would ride in jeepneys libre pag kandong, hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na)

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata) Did you make your own saranggola and pasted bubog on the strings?

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711(minsan straight from the faucet or poso) walang 711 noon, sari-sari store ni Mang Akong to buy sarsi, suntan, RC cola or choco-vim.

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this or contracted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine , pampatangkad daw , took raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren’t sick or overweight kasi nga …….

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso, habulan at taguan.Tandaan mo ba PIKO, step-no-step- yes, trumpo, garter & mala-ahas sa haba na goma? Kung naulan, jackstones, pick-up sticks or sungka, bahay-bahayan, tinda-tindahan, titser-teacher- an or swimming sa baha or kangkungan.

No one was able to reach us all day (di uso ang cellphone, walang beepers). And yes, we were O.K. Sipol lang ni tatay ang meron noon!

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD’s, no cellphones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters, Facebook. MSN etc. …….. …WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them! TV viewing was a treat, kilala mo ba si Popeye, Gumby, Betty Boop & followed the bouncing ball in Melody Tunes? That was karaoke then, LOL!

We climbed walls and trees (to get aratiles and catch salagubang & tutubi – tied them on the neck with a string), fell out of trees, got cut or "bukol", broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream, fish balls & inihaw na baga. We were not afraid of getting sick or germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns, gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan, pero masaya pa rin ang lahat. We made up games with sticks (syatong), and cans (tumbang preso) and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay… paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked a lot, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made to the team. Those who didn’t pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala iyang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tingnan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO’s, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who’ve had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS – The big letters are because your eyes may not be able to read this if they were typed any smaller (at your age!)

. . . unfortunately i wasnt able to copy the original post kaya iisa lang ang size & style ng font . . . (via Butsch Portento)

So before I get distracted by anything else, I’m going to sit right down and write me a blog post. No cuts for the moment, so bear with me. Or you could always apply the “tl;dr principle”. *grin*

2011 is behind me now, and my goodness, what a year *that* was. I am glad that it is over. God willing and the gunpowder stays dry, 2012 is going to be a better year. New Year’s Eve started off on the right foot, with no one in the immediate vicinity of the house investing in pyrotech stuff. I kid you not, some of the stuff that people can buy right now could easily be repurposed into IEDs, they are just that bad. Quite a few of those monster firecrackers are illegal imports and substandard into the bargain – with the often tragic results of people ending up disabled as the New Year comes in.

We will not talk about the Libyan rebel-like practice of firing guns indiscriminately in the air, with more tragic results. It seems that this year, there wasn’t as much of this type of “celebration” going on, which is a good way to start things.

Myself, I am in a financial wringer, but as long as I can say I am surviving, I know things will work out. It’s happened before, though not, I think, with the intensity of the last six months or so. If only there was a way I could have a rest from wondering when the next shoe will fall, life would be a lot easier to manage. *shrug* What will be, will be.

In brighter news: the daughter of Ramon’s cousin, who was a flower girl at our wedding these 20 years past, recently graduated from Stony Brook University. Cum laude! Cookie (the proud mother, and deservedly so) sent us pictures of the event – and it is amazing how Angela (the grad) and her sisters Dorothy and Bernadette, the wee kids I knew when they were still in the Philippines, have grown into gorgeous young women. They are *beautiful*! It’s always a heartwarming thing to see immigrant family do well in the States.

Well, at least for 99% of the people I know, it would be a heartwarming thing. There’s the 1% determined to rain on the parade, one way or another. Fortunately, such are easily ignored, thank heavens!

Our New Year dinner was a simple one: Majestic ham, pancit canton, fruit salad, rice, Coke and sparkly grape juice. Ma turned over the making of the fruit salad to me, and apparently I have mastered the technique to her satisfaction. *grin* Two cans of Nestle Cream, one can of condensed milk; well-drained fruit cocktail, a small jar of cherries and a large jar of strawberry nata de coco, not to forget one of the gift apples from the next-door neighbors, and two small boxes of raisins. Half the finished product was gone by the time we left the dinner table, so I think it turned out rather well.

I managed to intercept the cooking of the pancit sauce in time to get the maid to add the important things like chicken liver, Chinese sausage, and the cilantro. As only 20% of the final product now sits in the refrigerator for tomorrow’s lunch, I think that was a success as well.

Of course, there is no way anyone could go wrong with Majestic ham. It is THE go-to ham for generations of Filipinos, along with Excelente and (I think it’s called) Adelina’s from Chinatown. We started working on the half leg on my birthday (Christmas Day) and then put it back in the freezer till New Year’s Eve. Since then it has been found in the macaroni sopas, the munggo, random slices of bread, and as part of either lunch or dinner.

I see where LJ has been tweaking stuff to everyone’s dissatisfaction again. Ah well, Dreamwidth has been my home for quite a bit now, and as long as the cross-posting works, anyone reading me on LJ can still do that. I have a little Android app on my Tabbie that does what Loudtwitter and Twittinesis used to do for me: gather up all my tweets for the day and post them to LJ. It has a nifty setting to post the tweets as private-only, which is a very good thing, as the formatting might wreck various layouts if out in the open.

So. I think that’s all for the moment. I’ll sign off here and try to catch up with all the posts I haven’t read yet. Catch you soon, and may 2012 bring good fortune to us all!