Sparks light up American Idol

So, finally we now know who the American Idol winner is — Jordin Sparks! I watched AI live via ABC this morning while having breakfast and in between calls to the travel agent and planning my coming trip (things are going great for me these days).

Jordin, I’m not a record producer nor a talent manager but I bet you’ll go a long way girl.

What’s up with our van?

Aside from some maintenance work, our trusty van finally got it's annual registration renewed! Dad happily showed me the car registration sticker for 2007. Well I'm just glad it's registered already since I just learned that some drivers have not yet done so. They told us they lack funds for registration renewal which costs a lot since other expenses such as motor insurance and emission tests are included.
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Birthday noodles

I recently cooked a special noodle dish to celebrate my cutie sis’s birthday. She’s far away in Europe but it’s been a family tradition to celebrate birthdays of family members even when they’re not with us. I was so busy that day but found time to cook this:

Does it look like vegetarian noodles? hehehe… I used efuven noodles (they taste better than canton) and put some cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, chorizo bilbao, pork cubes and baby corn. We topped our lunch with fruits and ice cream for dessert. Yummy!

American Idol Top 2

“This is American Idol! And anything can happen,” Host Ryan Seacrest says. True enough. I was shocked to learn from a friend’s blog (I’ve been so busy lately I wasn’t able to watch AI) that Melinda Dolittle was booted out from the Top Three. Huh?! For me, she’s a real pro, I really thought it would be her and Jordin Sparks for the grand finals. Of course, judge Simon Cowell was dumbfounded as well.

  
So, it’s going to be Blake Lewis and Jordin left fighting it out in the AI arena on Tuesday. Who do you think would be the next American Idol? 

Getting into drugs isn’t cool

Most teens are hesitant at the start to do drugs, but most of them got lured by their peers with words like, “just try this once, it’s harmless” or “you’re such a sissy if you don’t join us,” thus they reluctantly got into pot sessions and eventually got hooked with substance abuse. I remember my brother’s classmate in high school, he was the smartest in their class, but unfortunately he messed around with drugs. His grades were affected, and he looked so haggard and thin. How tragic for a young teen, a talented one, to be affected with drug addiction. The stage of adolescence can be difficult enough, when teens are looking for acceptance and sometimes they mistakenly find it in the wrong company.

Once a person is in drugs, he may be in a state of denial, he thinks he doesn’t need anybody but deep inside, he is just so scared and confused, not knowing where to ask for help. This is where a drug rehab program can help addicts recover from addiction. There are many drug treatment programs available and choosing the right one can be confusing. Which program would be most effective for an addict’s needs? Choosing the best treatment program can be a lot easier with the help of a drug rehab referral service like 1800nodrugs.com where they guide and give advice to the patient and the family on which program is the best one for him. The factors involved are specific to individual needs, such as a comfortable home away from home, a calm and relaxed environment, and being at ease with the counselors. Their site is very informative and has interesting articles on addiction, alcoholism, drug trends and other related topics.

LVS = Last Video Syndrome?!

We all know there’s such a thing as an LSS (Last Song Syndrome) — you hear a song and it gets stuck in your mind, playing over and over again, sometimes you even hum or sing it unconsciously. This ‘syndrome’ is fine when the song happens to be one of your favorites, but could be irritating if it happens to be some song you disliked so much, such as that hyped shampoo commercial. Well, I guess you’ve experienced this many times before, but how about an LVS (Last Video Syndrome)? It’s happening to me too. I’m in an LSS/LVS syndrome lately.

Relient K’s single “Must Have Done Something Right,” from their latest album Five Score and Seven Years Ago and its video happen to be caught in my mind nowadays — my brain hears it playing in a loop, repeating some parts of the video every ticking second. While the song has a catchy melody, the video engages you in a chase over a poor soccer ball being kicked and thrown around the neighborhood with singer Matt Thiessen (looking different in a shaggy hairdo) desperately running after it. I just can’t get enough of this song, extremely cheesy and all, but I’m lovin’ it.
 

New clothes for me :)

Things are coming up great for me these days! I will be going soon to another country for a much-awaited project and I’m excited about this. Well, it’s a chance to meet and work with some interesting people from other countries, so I am thinking of getting myself some new clothes and accessories.

I got some great ideas browsing through the web and landing at the site of Electric Ladyland. They offer a lot of products and apparels, from stylish clothes, Tshirts, jeans, shorts, skirts, handbags, jewelry and even candles! You can shop in their site for denims with cool brands such as True Religion, Frankie B, Faith Connexion, and Rock & Republic Jeans.

I found this dainty-looking necklace while browsing through their featured jewelry products. I would love to wear this, it would add a feminine touch when I would be wearing some stiff-looking corporate attire during those days. 

Pink Pearl Drop Bead Necklace
from Gerard Yosca Jewelry

Super busy Mom!

Today is Mother’s Day but where’s my Mom??? Having been appointed with a big responsibility as Vicariate Coordinator by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), she’s been busy lately attending meetings, following up on important matters, preparing the volunteers for the elections tomorrow. Well, that’s my Super Mom! Anyway, we will be meeting her for dinner later. I hope they’ll finish with the meeting soon. I noticed there’s not much publicity going on for the Moms, the much-awaited elections tomorrow might have overshadowed this special day. I wonder if those politicians still remembered to greet their Moms too? Gotta go…

Happy Mother’s day to all the Moms in the world!

Google Trends

The guys at Google Labs are cooking up something cool. One of the programs they’re working on is Google Trends, it’s a nifty tool for analyzing search trends for certain keywords. This program is in its development stage yet, so the results are still approximations. Nevertheless, I tried using it recently and found the results really interesting. How does it work? Just go to the Google Trends website, enter a keyword and click ‘Search Trends’. You can also input more keywords for comparison, just separate each with a comma. You will then be taken to a page which shows some graphs and charts.

Spider-Man 4

After watching Spider-Man 3, I’m pretty sure there would be a 4th installment. And this was confirmed by director Sam Raimi saying that Sony Pictures would not only be doing the 4th but also the 5th and 6th installments of the popular franchise. 

Some things were left unsettled in Spider-Man 3, like that alien symbiote piece left at Dr. Curt Connors lab, with the possibility of escaping from its container and transforming him to the Lizard, one of Spidey’s enemies in the Marvel comics universe. Another thing is the Sandman disappearing to nowhere. He’s still alive and that makes me suspicious about his next move. Note that these villains are not your ordinary crooks with tattoos, they're extremely dangerous!
 

Spidey fans at the official site’s message boards are discussing about new villains surfacing like Carnage and the possibility of the Goblins coming back. Well, I would like Venom to be resurrected in 4 though. I’m sure he would give Spidey some challenge, though too many villainous characters might ruin the plot. 

Photos from Spider-Man 3 official site

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Getting restless with no electricity

What would life be without electricity? And how would you use your time if there’s no electricity for a day?

My computer suddenly turned off at 8AM this morning. Oh no…not another power outage! Arghhh…no computer, no Internet, no fan, no microwave, no refrigerator, no cold water, no lights, no TV… I was getting restless. Good thing I was able to save my work before it happened. I grabbed a book which made me so sleepy after reading a few chapters. After lunch, with still no signs of electricity, I took a nap. There wasn’t even a slight breeze coming from the windows, the hot afternoon sun woke me up after a while. I roamed around the house, doing anything to keep me busy, getting impatient, asking my Dad for the nth time when the lights would come back.

The outage lasted longer than expected. I was wondering why our electric company took more time with the repair and maintenance. Maybe they’re just being careful, like those rhinoplasty experts performing delicate nose surgery on their patients. While returning to the book I was reading, I heard a slight whirr, it was the fan slowly turning its blades. Then I heard the computer humming softly with the lights on. Electricity’s back! Now I’m working again. Thanks to all the geniuses and the scientists who made all these essential inventions and devices to make our world a better place.

TLC sandwich

Today I made the yummiest sandwich ever! It’s a TLC sandwich which means the main ingredients are Tomatoes, Lettuce and Cheese. Here’s the simple recipe: spread mayonnaise on both slices of bread, put lettuce over the spread, flatten a bit. Put on the slices of tomatoes, then distribute the sliced cheese over it. (I used Eden cheese hotdog flavor and it’s really yummy, the hotdog bits actually made it taste like cheese pimiento.) Cover with the other slice of bread on top. Heat in microwave for 10 seconds and presto, it’s done. I bet even multimillionaire and philanthropist George Lindemann Jr would enjoy eating this yummy and healthy snack! 

Fiesta = food

Today is the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker and also our subdivision’s fiesta celebration. It’s a Filipino tradition to hold parties or cook special food during fiestas. After the thanksgiving Mass at 9:00 AM, everybody proceeded to the house of the homeowners association’s president. What a sumptuous potluck ‘brunch’ (breakfast-lunch) it was! The table was filled with mostly Filipino dishes – my fave was the ibos (glutinous rice) which tasted so yummy when paired with the ripe mangoes. There were other native snacks like pancit molo for the soup, maja blanca, puto topped with cheese, bihon guisado, and many more.

Anyway, we had some visitors at home today, though they came not for the fiesta but to get some stocks. They knew it’s our subdivision’s fiesta though and they jokingly told me, “mamista kami di ah!” (We’ll have fiesta here!) I just laughed and told them we didn’t cook or prepared anything, but there’s lots of food in our neighbor’s house.