July update

WOW! I only have one single post in July and it's only one line. Was I that lazy, or I'm just too busy? As much as I want to blog, I was too focused on my projects, late night conference calls and staying up until the wee hours. I don't get enough sleep, I skip meals, it's just sooo unhealthy. But now that my project is coming to its near end, my life is back to normal! I still find time to go out on weekends and here's a quick roundup on what happened last month

1) COMICON
This has been a yearly event for us. We usually go on Saturdays but when I registered online a couple of weeks before the event, all tickets were sold out. I have no other option but to get the Sunday convention. I thought there's gonna be less people, but I was wrong.... it's packed with cosplayers and fanboys!

We actually have a plan on which booth to go first and what panel discussion to go next. I can say that we can be considered as "experts" now and give advice to all newbies out there =P The first on our list is to go to Kid Robot booth to see Simone but the line is already capped. Since Simone will do autograph signing from 11-2pm, we decided to go shopping first at Tokidoki booth. I bought 2 shirts for me, 2 shirts for Darwin, a Japanese inspired fan and a cute journal. I really did crazy shopping coz everything is on sale and I got a good deal. We then went to Harold & Kumar's panel interview and those two guys are really funny. Neil Patrick Harris wasn't able to make it though coz he's in Europe.. They announced that there will be another sequel!

After the panel, we went back to check Simone, but they already stopped people from going in line. Damns! and it was only 1:30pm!... I was really disappointed. We walked around and saw that Toy Qube's gonna have Tokidoki autograph signing too.. at 3pm. Yes! I was 2nd to the last!













I have accomplished my mission.. to see and get an autograph of Simone Legno.. I'm such a fan of his designs/art. He is really sooo nice.. he even asked me what character I'd like him to draw:

Simone: "Anything in particular?"
Me: "Can you please draw the cactus girl" (points to Sandy)

..I should have said "Sandy" but I forgot her name coz I got star strucked.. haha

Here are the tokidoki characters:
http://www.tokidoki-blog.com/category/tokidoki-characters/

Oh, we also met Seth Green..





We'll definitely be back next year! The most innovative costume we've seen is the myspace guy... take a look!



Flash back!
2007
2006

2) LA JOLLA
I googled for the best beach in San Diego and La Jolla Cove came up. It's one of the most photographed beaches in SoCal and I agree 100%. I love everything about it! We're planning to go back and stay here for the whole weekend. Shops close early though but I was able to get a nice halter top at Banana Republic.





3) AROUND LA with Darwin's cousins
Darwin's relatives are visiting from Canada and we became instant tourist guides. We went to all hot spots in LA, namely:
1) Walk of Fame & Kodak Theatre - everybody wont miss this place
2) The Grove - outdoor mall in LA
3) Melrose strip - stopped by at JapanLA where I buy tokidoki stuff
4) Beverly Center - high end mall in LA
5) Americana @ Brand - outdoor mall in Glendale

Dinner:
1) uWink in Hollywood - hi-tech resto
2) Cheesecake Factory - a chic restaurant, Pina thought it's a REAL factory =P
3) Versailles - my fave Cuban resto
4) CPK - Sig requested to eat here
5) Salu-Salo - Filipino resto in Glendale, farewell dinner part 2
6) A&W - Chinese family resto, farewell dinner part 2














4) MOVIES
July 17, 2008 - 12:01am at Arclight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood
The Dark Knight is the best movie this year (SATC comes second?! I know.. I know!!!) and Darwin was able to score a midnight screening tickets from craigslist.org. Due to high demand on this movie, they added 3am and 6am screenings on the day it came out. That's how crazy it was!

(excerpts from my multiply acct)
It has definitely lived up all its hype! I actually want to see it again.. maybe in IMAX. Heath Ledger is soooo great that there's a lot of buzz here in LA that he'll get a posthumous Oscar award. He has created the most twisted villain ever (referring to Joker)




X-Files: I Want to Believe (Jul 25)
It's nice to see Mulder & Scully again... the movie is like one of the episodes in TV.. weird, scary and full of suspense. As one of the X-Philes, I cheered, laughed and enjoyed watching X-Files IWTB. It has full of inside jokes.. a must see for ALL fans! Stay for the end credits!




Wanted (Jul 3)
Angelina ROCKS! James is so gwapo but he fits more on romance/comedy movie than action flick. The storyline is Matrix + Fight Club.

The Orphanage (Jul 12)
Thomas scares the hell out of me. I can't sleep when I watch horror movies that's why I hate it.

5) EVENTS
-Aldrin's Christening (Jul 20)
We're both asked to be godparents of Aldrin Ralph. He has the most number of godparents during the ceremony.. you know how Filipino's are.. the more, the merrier. I think there's 8 pairs of ninongs and ninangs. =P He's the 2nd baby in our group! The first one is Alyssa and both are lovely kids of Raffy and Roanne.

-Clubbin SD Style (Jul 26)
Clubs in San Diego close early.. unlike in LA, clubs close at 2am. We met up our friends at the VIP section of the club and they're all drunk already! Dinah keeps throwing away her $500 Miu Miu pumps because her feet hurts. She's really funny when she gets drunk.

-Naomi's Farewell Dinner (Jul 27)
She's one of our Indonesian friends and she's a graduate from fashion school. She's the one you'll see in a Channel bag and Gucci dress... very fashionista. You will be missed! We had dinner at Manna Korean BBQ and coffee at Cafe Aroma

















6) OTHER STUFF
-3G iPhone (Jul 11)
-Earthquake (Jul 29)

Pismo Beach

May 28, Memorial weekend at Pismo beach with my cousins. (more later)

Two-part weekend

PART 1: Seal beach
May 13, I can't remember the last time I went to the beach.. I know it's close where I live and it will only take me 10-15 minutes to Venice or Santa Monica beach.. I dunno, maybe I just take it for granted since I know the beach will always be there =P Anyways, it's a last minute thing.. we only planned it the day before. We're choosing between Newport or Manhattan, but we ended up going to Seal beach. Why if you may ask.. because there's dogs I can play with!!! Geesh.

Helpful sites:
http://www.beachcalifornia.com/sitelist.html
http://boomersint.org/pchwy/scalbch.htm







Check list:
- beach mat (finally.. nagamit din! hehehe)
- coleman cooler
- food: sandwich, junk food, water
- sunblock, moisturizer
- Shopaholic book, Nintendo DS, ipod

I love making a list.. I love planning.. Love it! So, we left at 11ish and then Darwin's Garmin nav system led us to the beach. We missed one turn but we didn't get lost. One thing I don't like is that it's a little annoying coz it repeatly says "Recalculating..." everytime you make a wrong turn. But we totally relied to the nav system. So cool.

We got there around 1ish.. It's a nice beach.. had picnic, read my book, played my DS. We stayed there for a couple of hours coz I can't take the heat anymore. I'd love to stay longer but it's just too much. We bought cinnamon rolls which is sooo delicious.. coz it's homemade, got me a souvenir magnet.

Afterwards, we went to Long Beach marina, then Cerritos mall, then 3rd Street Promenade. We had dinner at Palms Thai (Darwin's fave)... Oh, and we're really hungry by the time we get there.. I think we had dinner at 11:30pm.

New shops at 3rd Street Promenade






Mother's Day
May 14, I sent my mom an ecard. I already sent her my gift through Ate Kay who's in the Philippines right now. Since mom likes Princess Diana so much, I gave here this heavy book that I got from Barnes & Noble. She liked it. I called my aunt and greeted them too. I watched United 93 with Joyce. I gave her coaster for mother's day.. as well as Darwin's mom (white orchids - since she like flowers) and his grandma (scented candle - coz she's very religious). Went to mass then we visited Darwin's mom.. chat for a while.



PART 2: The Da Vinci Code
May 19, went to The Galleria in Sherman Oaks at around 9pm to watch The Da Vinci Code with Darwin. Actually, he wants to see Over the Hedge since he already read the book.. but I insisted coz I got curious with all the buzz and the controversy that the book has created. =P There's a line and we're able to get the 10:30pm show. The theatre was already full when we got in but we still managed to get the "sweet" seat.

You'd enjoy the movie.. I did =) The book/movie is misleading because Brown mixed in some facts and twisted others. Dme nya rin inembento.. like yun cryptex.. I googled it right after we got home and he just coined it. =P

Here's a link that's shows Brown’s “Facts” versus Historical Facts:
http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=2747

Overall.. Ron Howard did a good job. He made the movie exciting. Later, I'm gonna watch National Geographic's History of the Templar Knights.


Christening
Here are some pictures from Ajae's Christening last May 20. Our digicam got lowbat kaya konti lng pictures =P Anyways, we went to Loida's house first before going to Stargazer to test the projector coz Darwin's part of the "technical" team, as what me and Loida's sister calls it.. coz her husband is part of it too =P It worked but the audio is messed up so they just used magic mic as the background music.

Enjoy the pics...



Inspired by Saab's Kaleidoscope World

Darwin and I tried our best to look silly.. here's the result.. =P

Masaya

Galit

Gulat


Movies: United 93, Fun with Dick and Jane (dvd), The Da Vinci Code, Match Point (dvd)

Jalama Paradise

Culture shock... that's all I can say.. It's way too different from Hermosa and Santa Monica beach coz Jalama is isolated from the city. They reserved it's natural beauty.. seagulls flying.. scattered limestones, campers ground.. Nice..

When we got there, I asked for a map coz I don't want us get lost again. Yeah, we got lost on our way to the beach from skydiving site, but it's ok.. the scenic drive to the beach was great. Ollie reserved an area for camping so we didn't pay any entrance fee. I changed my outfit to beach wear at Mads' tent coz walking in jeans is really not comfortable. We walked, talked and of course took a lot of pictures..

Click here for a larger view


Ollie's mom called everyone for lunch and we had BBQ and adobong manok with kamatis. Kelly's boylets came too and she introduced everyone to us. They're nice.. it's good to see how Americans like Filipino foods.. they really like adobo. We played 1-2-3 pass after lunch and instead of putting powder on the loser's face, we used Kelly's eyeliner.. It's funny coz we have to think of crazy things to draw on ones face.

Archie, Eric and I left at 6ish and the rest of the group stayed for camping. I would really want to stay but I have a lot of commitments to finish. We did a lot of photo-op before leaving the beach.. it's really captivating. I wanna go back here.. http://www.jalamabeach.com/ I got home around 8ish and watched my skydiving video with Darwin. He was so proud of me.. hehehe Neither I cant believe I was able to do it...

Beach Atlast!!!

It was a nice sunny afternoon when Darwin and I went to Hermosa Beach. Quality time with my sweetie again.. It's perfect... sun is up but it's not that hot, it's breezy and there's lots of activities to do like beach volleyball, fishing, roller blading. We walked along the shore.. I love to feel the water.. actually I want to swim but I dont have my bathing suit with me... I miss the beach so much that I wanted to stay longer.. We watched the surfers wait for the BIG wave at the pier. It's the best beach I've seen so far in LA. There's Redondo, Venice and Santa Monica. We ate french fries in one of the diners there and headed to my apartment to rest.





That evening, we went to Gladstones in Universal Citywalk to celebrate Sherinie's birthday. The whole barkada is "almost" complete. Jhun cant make it because of the accident that happened to him a couple of days ago. It's nice to meet and catch up with them again. Here are some pictures...


From left sitting: Chris, Eric, Paulo, Darwin, Sherwin. kneeling: Raf and Allan


From left: Arvie (Eric's date), Roanne (wife of Raff - Happy Anniversary), Me, and Jannie (gf of Sherwin)

I ordered garlic shrimp with scallops and it's very delicious. I love shrimp!!! Darwin and the twins had paella and it's served in a BIG bowl. Eric kidded if there's a bowl bigger than those.. hahaha We all laughed. All the guys are funny especially Sherwin coz he gives these "innocent" punch lines like he doesn't know anything and sometimes he mispronounce a word.. he reminds me of my brother, DJ.



Yesterday, we watched "First Daugther" at Northridge. It's a "feel good movie" and I'm sooo kileeg while watching it. I squeeze Darwin's hand everytime there's a kileg scene.. sorry Darwin if it's too tight.. We craved for chocolate cake while watching the movie coz it was shown three times where Katie's eating her favorite cake. After the movie, we ordered Brownie Finale at Claim Jumper and I took a picture of the cake. Yum-yum!!!



Had a great weekend!!!