So okay, what a day. I was out from morning – afternoon doing errands and personal errands. My entire afternoon was spent roaming around SM Mall of Asia until the person I’m supposed to meet shows up on our agreed time so I can get these new gadgets I ordered this morning. I’m certain that I have went around the entire mall in that 3 hours of waiting.

Three hours later, I got a confirmation text saying that the guy is at the meeting place and just approach him so I can pay up and get my items.

Sounds sleazy, huh? That’s what I thought, too. Lol. When I met the person (probably just one of the assistants of the person who runs the business where I got my gadgets), he seemed harmless. Anywaaaay!

New toys!!!

Can you guess which album this little birdy is from?

Aside from the obvious that I bought myself a new digicam and an external flash for my DSLR, can you guess what’s the other item that I bought?  

If anyone is curious, I bought them at this online store in Multiply called DBGadgets. I’ve known this site from way back, but it’s only my first time to buy from them. Initially, I would buy from Kimstore, but upon inquiring it turns out that they didn’t have the external flash on stock so I went with my 2nd option (their competitor — HAHA).

I didn’t want to buy just one out of the two items I wanted to get because it’d be a waste of time, effort and money. Also, I did not like that they (K) offered that we meet up at a place that’s not on their original list of preferred meet up places, yet when I offered to meet up at someplace I offered that’s not on their list, they immediately declined my request. Fair enough, I guess.

I would say that I got the best deal for these two items. It would also be the same if I went with Kimstore. Both these stores have very competitive prices, I must say. I have looked around: Shops in malls, Quiapo (through online messsageboards though), even outside the Philippines (when we went to HK). The items costed a lot more in those places than in this shop. The next time I plan to upgrade my DSLR, I’m definitely buying the body there instead of the local shops here.

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I was more than excited to go home as soon as I got ahold of my new toys (lol) but the jeep I rode took more than an hour to fill up before we could leave, not only that, the traffic was a killer. I didn’t get to use it until 4 hours later, and when I took photos of them to post on my blog!

Here’s the photo of the digicam and external flash out of their boxes.

Nikon P300

Nissin Di622 MK II

No problems so far. Yes, I recommend DBGadgets. I recommend this one and Kimstore, too. They’re both good, actually. I refer the latter to my friends a lot back in college, but since no one asks me where to get such items now, I don’t say anything.

I’ll reserve my opinions about the digicam on the review. That is *if* I get around my lazy ass to actually type it out. I’ve shot a couple of photos last night and I’m pretty pleased. Though I miss the DSLR-quality of the photos, I really can’t ask for anything more since this is a point and shoot camera and it will never come close to a DSLR (IMO).

The reason I bought this is to have a pocketable camera I can take out whenever I need to snap a photo of something in low-light (probably in get togethers in friends, that usually happens are night). As long as it is below f/2.0, decent flash, full HD (just for the sake of having a 1080p video), and can take quality photos.. I’ll take it.

A few things: Panorama isn’t that effective or good, 1080p is average. Sony HX9V is still superior with the video features (unfortunately I can’t afford that right now, so I had to compromise, lol).

Lastly…….

The bird photo is from Bamboo Mañalac’s first solo album titled “No Water, No Moon.” I haven’t listened to it yet. I will probably put it out tonight to play while I sleep. Here are a couple of photos.

Bamboo's "No Water, No Moon" solo album

Inside "No Water, No Moon"

Spine of "No Water, No Moon"

I’m digging the packaging. It’s quite big and definitely stands out in my CD/DVD collection. Such pretty minimalist work. I hope the songs inside won’t disappoint me. Well, for the record, he’s yet to disappoint me. Hahaha.

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Today is one of those days.

I woke up late today from staying up really late last night from watching trailers at YouTube mostly of Jim Caviezel’s movies and interviews. Go watch that particular interview of him with Will Ferrell when you can, that cracks me up everytime. )

When I woke up this afternoon it was almost 2pm. So, the usual, I go online and I chanced upon this website from one of the people I follow on tumblr. A site called 8tracks.com where you can make mixes consisting of 8 tracks (or more? not sure). Their only rule is your mix should not have more than two tracks of the same artist.

So much for a ‘quick mix’, making my first one actually took me an hour. From deciding which songs to put up to making the impromptu album art.

Be nice to my first ever legit quickly put up mix, please?

Making mixtapes for me is kind of a hit and miss thing. I don’t get it sometimes, like, is there a formula for it? All I know is, what was running in my mind while deciding the songs is that they should be mellow, chill and ‘light sounding’ songs. I hope those three were achieved with the songs I put in here.

Not The First Time Lily Dreams On: A Rainy Saturday Mix by Anna
(this list is not in order but these are the songs I put in)

• 1. The Weepies – Stars
• 2. Jason Mraz – Summer Breeze
• 3. Jack Johnson – Hope
• 4. Norah Jones – Don’t Know Why
• 5. Ingrid Michaelson – The Way I Am
• 6. Feist – Brandy Alexander
• 7. Cultured Pearls – Not This Time
• 8. Cotten Mather – Lily Dreams On

Incase you haven’t figured it out yet, the title is a mashup of the last two songs. XD

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Tiring but it was satisfying in a way that I was busy all day. Hey, at least I got out of the house after all the weeks of rotting like a vegetable. )

Here’s a teaser from my busy Saturday. The rest of the photos are under the cut!

Edrik, Jortz, Kervin, Andrew, Nem fooling around

Boys will be boys, hahaha.

Um, most of my photos are of them because since I graduated late (my friends, “barkada” if you will, graduated last July) I didn’t know most of the people I’m graduating with in this batch ‘cept for these people. Hm, no, wait, I do know most of the people as familiar faces. As for acquaintances, I didn’t get a proper photo with them though because we were in a hurry to get our photos shot, my cap kept falling off and that annoyed me, tldr, mopey Anna had difficulty asking people to take photos w/ other people lol. K.

PART I: GRADUATION REHEARSALS

Early morning, we all had to gather round at the PICC to rehearse our graduation which will be next Saturday. I arrived late because of the traffic along Buendia just after you get down from SkyWay. I thought they were going to punish latecomers (lol), so I really forced the driver to drive fast. Fortunately I arrived like 10 minutes before 8AM. When I got there, I heard that they’re starting the rehearsals for the 2nd time cause there weren’t many people during the first run.

The usual, a dry run of the graduation happened, spent mostly the next 3 hours glued to my seat and looking at all sides from time to time. Trying to ease boredom. Usual announcements, instructions, and reminders were brought up too.

Around 12 noon, we were dismissed and told to go back to the school’s main building and there will be a class pictorial after lunch. Hurriedly went back there w/ my friend and had ‘brunch’. Went upstairs to the auditorium at 1:30PM for that photoshoot. Apparently, the auditorium was flippin empty and only a couple of people were inside. One of them is my friend’s friend who’s in a different course.

This is probably my only decent photo from that graduation rehearsal! It’s a photo of me and Kylle. She’s a friend of my HS classmate who happens to study in CSB too. Her course is different from mine tho, I’m in MMA and she’s in HRIM. She insisted we sit in their area, too, hahaha. Anyway. I think I’ve overdone my makeup here, I just realized. I don’t even wanna know how I looked like in the class picture now.

I was wearing a casual corporate outfit here. I liked how I looked despite how uncomfortable it was for me to move around. I changed my top to a graphic tshirt right after lol.

Kylle and I

More photos of the boys.. Hrr, I just shot photos away just to say I took something. =)) I kinda wanted the class photoshoot to be done already cuz I wanted to leave and get the school part of this day over with.

Edrik and Kervin

Jortz, Edrik, Andrew, Nem

Patrick, Edrik and a guy whose name escapes me

Jortz and Edrik

After this class pictorial, we had to go a couple of floors down to have our photo taken (wearing the graduation toga) for our transcript. Holybejeesus, we were greeted by a growing queue of students waiting for their turn to have their photo taken. We lined up but gave up after 30 minutes because that line was just ridiculous. Ironically, as soon as we left our spot in that snake of a line, it started moving up until they were able to entertain everyone who patiently lined up. Ugh. )

Whatever. There’s always the week when we return the togas to have our photo taken. So Andrew and I headed to Clarizze’s house so we can finally hangout and eat at this Mexican resto we’ve been talking about for weeks.

PART II: CONDO TIEMZ

Mochi (the dog) and Drew

Stayed a little bit longer in Clarizze’s loft because there’s so much to do in there! Play with her dog, look at trailers of upcoming films and TV series on her awesome computer, gossip =)), and make fun of this guy. HAHAHA JUST KIDDING DREW LOLZ. Each time spent in her room is koality, I tell ya.

I left most of my stuff in her condo because there’s no way in hell I’m bringing my graduation toga to the bar tonight.

PART III: AN UNEXPECTED MEXICAN DINNER

Finally we arrive at MOA after pulling ourselves out from the condo. Before we had early dinner, we went around the Cyber area of the mall to check out their gadgets on sale. I was hoping I’d see the camera I’ve been eyeing for many months now in person but they didn’t have it on stock. Ah well.

Mexicali is where we had our dinner. I was excited to eat something Mexican after 3 days of just having Taco Bell. I was excited that it wasn’t Taco Bell for a change!

Mexicali, SM Mall of Asia branch

I like the color scheme of their menu

Drew and Clarizze

Drew and I, and the plate of enchiladas.

Our orders finally arrived while we were busy taking photos and laughing from inside jokes inside the resto. It felt like we were the only noisy customers there. Lol, as always. What else is new?

I don’t really remember the name of our orders and just rely on what I see from my google search. If the photo is similar, I just assume that’s the same thing too. )

Chicken Enchilada with Mexican Rice and Salad, Clarizze's order

Beef and cheese enchiladas

Burrito and tacos, Drew's order

Clarizze and I eating

I realized that I forgot to take a photo of my order when my plate was nearly empty. I didn’t like what I ordered, tbh lol. It smelled funky and tasted really different. Far from my expectations. Ah well, it’s a good thing I didnt’ get to take a photo of it. But it was a Arroz Ala Cubana that I got. Solved my problem by trading food with my friends. I traded the beef part for Drew’s tacos and took half of Clarizze’s burrito. ) We couldn’t really finish our orders by ourselves so it was a good deal. I kept the bananas, they didn’t want it eh.

For my first time in Mexicali I would give it a 2.5/5 rating. I probably just ordered the wrong dish. I was expecting the burrito to be, hmm, tasty at least. But it was drowned in onion and tomato. Lol. It was a BEEF and CHEESE burrito. I liked the white dip tho. Their prices are alright, too. Not too expensive nor cheap. Just right in the middle. Maybe I will come back, but for now, I better stick with a “Mexican” (inspired) resto I know best.. Taco Bell.

Moving on… after our Mexican dinner, we roamed around the mall until we had to go our separate ways. Few hours later we’ll be heading to the bar to watch Fuseboxx!

PART IV: FUSEBOXX @ 1951

Fuseboxx during soundcheck

Fuseboxx during their set

It’s my first time to go to this music bar in Manila called 1951. In a nutshell, it’s the old Penguin bar in a new name. I like how cozy it is for me and not too crowded and mainstream, hahaha. Got pulled in by Clarizze to watch Fuseboxx with her. They’re the only band I seem to be watching a lot live nowadays because I only go to gigs when she invites me to. On my own I really don’t feel that active in the scene anymore to attend that many shows of bands I like unlike 5 years ago when I used to follow Pupil on their every gig as much as possible.

Ah well, I guess I’ve outgrown it, but once in a while I definitely want to relive those moments, hence coming with her to every Fuseboxx gig she wants me to, or shows of other musicians are okay too!

Fuseboxx bassist Mico Ong in black.

Colie Herb, the second band who played. We were upstairs at this time.

1951 music bar is awesome. They have a cozy atmosphere, a happy and humbling crowd, yummy (looking, because I didn’t order anything aside from the usual cheese sticks) food and guhreat must-listen-to bands! The place is also located in the part of Manila that seems to be somehow nostalgic, and it’s close to school, too! Hope to be back there soon.. I’d like to try their pizza and perhaps order some cheese sticks to-go. Lol.

Somewhere in this photo is Ben Kenney's look alike, lol.

Back to the band, if you love prog then you gotta try listening to some of Fuseboxx songs. I’ve yet to memorize most of their songs but I already have a couple of favorites.

Notice that there are artworks posted on the walls in the photos above? The bar also doubles as a place where you can setup art exhibits and sell artworks! I took a photo of some that I like but I have absolutely no idea who the artists behind these works are. So sorry.

Artworks

Closeup of an artwork I liked located at the 3rd floor

Details of the mix media artwork

All photos in this post were shot using a Leca D-Lux 3. Don’t really like this camera but it’s the only light camera I can find around the house, and this belongs to my dad. My Canon A640 is not really in the best working shape anymore. I wanna upgrade my digicam soon, hehe.

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