dennissepascual

Four out of five of my running shoes. My current favorite is the Free Run 2.0



My favorite pieces to wear at work. 



I'm in love with my 50mm lens. 

Yep, that's it for now.

When I was in grade school there was a sort of kiosk on wheels outside that me and my friends will always go to after school. It sold knick knacks like keychains and plastic toys--everyone went there. I remember going there and buying nylon strings for a quarter each. Then, when I get home, I'd string together four or five strings and make bracelets for me and my friends. But mostly for me, heh.

I don't remember who taught me how to make them, either it was a classmate or I picked it up somewhere. But here we are, ten years later and I still know how to make one.

I recently bought embroidery floss/string from eBay and have made a lot; mostly were given to friends/coworkers who wanted one. There is something so rewarding about making something and giving it to someone you love, because they know how long one bracelet took to make. I'm glad I have this to do in my spare time. 



I can't be bothered to organize this. But this is all I have left so far. I'm planning on moving from string to floss, which are apparently two different types of string. So I'm just gonna use all of this up first.




One of my leather bracelets broke and I wanted to re-use this horseshoe charm, so I'm remaking it into a friendship bracelet.





Almost done! I made a mistake of doing a one-side knot on both sides; I should have done a chevron print or something that mirrors one side because now it kind of formed into an angle. So when the bracelet wears out I'll probably make a new one out of it.



Clearer shot. Idk why I haven't tried this color combination before but it looks great.



Ta-da! All done. The one on the far left I did for a friend and the red and black one I made for myself; I don't take that one off. The blue and purple one is still on my desk, untouched. lol



These are two bracelets made on a whim; the one on the left I kind of just played around with it, testing out some knot pattern, lol. The one next to it is what I wear everyday.



And a closer view of the one I did for a friend. She loves it so all that was worth it :) 

***

I'm planning on making a crapton of bracelets to give away to my friends for Christmas. Idk if I'll actually go through with it but why not yeah?

If you need/want to start making friendship bracelets for yourself and friends, check out this site. Its the site that I use if I want to do a new pattern or bracelet type. :) 

Renewed my Flickr account and wondered why I haven't been using it for this blog. So I clicked through some photos and decided to post some of them here, kind of like a "Hello, I'm still trying!" kind of way. 



There is this sushi place about an hour away from where I live that I just love. Its funny because I didn't like sushi when I was in the Philippines. I blame it on my ignorance to good Japanese food, or because of that Japanese place you often see in malls (is it called Tokyo Tokyo?) but my knowledge of sushi was severely lacking. So I'm glad that when I moved here two years ago there was a lot of sushi places to explore. 



Sometime last year. I actually miss this. That's my mom by the way.



Getting my flu shot at work. Again, this was last year. Kind of funny when I think about that time, I was so afraid of needles that when I opened my eyes the nurse said it was already done. I didn't feel anything. Heh.







Did I ever mention that I love Pokemon? Because I do. 

-----

So that's it for now. Welcoming myself back to LJ, here's hoping it'll last this time (!)

 So, Valentine's Day is tomorrow.

I can go to two different directions. One, I would be all happy and ~romantic~ about it; Or two, I could be all sulky and miserable and I fucking hate this day its not even a real holiday its just a day to oversell flowers and chocolates and the idea of romance and oh my why am I alone on Valentine's Day I feel so alone and fat and I want to die.

Or, I can just tell you about my day. And then maybe do a little bit of the latter later. (Excellent wordplay? I THINK NOT.)

The weekend was pretty normal, to say the least.

I was working from 2-10 PM which meant I didn't have time to do anything else before or after. But I did have time for a little something. After work I played with my two cousins (they're adorable, and quite nice to be with) and it felt good to be wanted, even if its just by a two and three year old kid. I remember Deron and Diella racing down the stairs, bow and arrows and swords in their little hands, ready to battle with the Big Bad Monster aka me. HAHAHA. I love those kids, and I'm so happy I can see and hold and give them a hug and a kiss and get the same treatment. 

When I got to my room I was beat. Blame it on me playing too much with my cousins or the stress work is giving me, but I gave in. I couldn't do the no sleep on the weekends after work and pass out in the middle of the day routine. I was tired, and my heart wasn't in the right place. So I slept early, on the wrong side of the bed, with no pillow or blanket to hold on to. I slept but didn't dream of anything. I don't remember falling asleep at all. But I did. I think all those feelings consumed me in a way that my body couldn't really handle it, so it just gave up.

Or maybe I'm just really tired and I'm over analyzing things. Again.

I woke up at around 11 and just stayed in bed for a good 30 minutes, just thinking. My mom knocked on my door and told me to eat. So, like an obedient little girl I put my robe and went downstairs and chatted with her over a plate of bacon. It was quite nice, actually. I like it when she talks about my childhood because I don't remember a lot except for the awful ones, and we laugh and she attempts to hug me while I shimmy my way out of it because, Mom, I'm not wearing a bra at the moment thankyouverymuch.

She asked me if I wanted to go out and I said no, I think I'll just stay in and clean my room to which she replied yeah you go do that its starting to look filthy again to which I replied in return haha you are hilarious mummy but yeah you're right. I went back upstairs and laid down for a bit. Do you know that feeling when you wake up, like you sort of need to do something but you don't remember what, and it consumes all your thoughts just guessing what the hell it is you're supposed to do. Yeah, today was that. 

I remembered a couple of things, though:

1. I need to clean my room.
2. I have to catch up with watching episodes of Chuck, because I've been putting it off for quite some time.
3. I'm contemplating on whether or not I should hold a garage sale because the amount of things that I have accumulated in my room for my year and a half stay here in America is astounding. 

My friend texted me and asked if I wanted to go out and eat Vietnamese food with her and her boyfriend to which I replied I can't, I'm cleaning my room and I can't just stop right now and leave it messier than it used to be. Sad part was she thought I was bailing out on her because one of our friends isn't coming as well to which I replied ITS NOT LIKE THAT OKAY, YOU DON'T KNOW OKAY I'M CLEANING MY ROOM. Fingers crossed she understands and tomorrow, when her boyfriend (who just so happens to be my coworker, haha) arrives he'll tell me its okay and that they understand. Still no reply from them so I'm hoping the whole its okay we understand thing happens tomorrow or else, gah.

I originally wanted to watch the movie Valentine's Day while cleaning. I did the same thing a couple of minutes before passing out last night. But I remembered it isn't a good idea to watch rom coms when Valentine's is just a day or two away, so after ten minutes I turned my TV off. Its still in the DVD player. I don't know if I ought to watch it again or just leave it there to rot. 

Instead of doing that mistake again I opted to watch Chuck. Spies, guns and Zachary Levi was actually the dose of medicine that I needed to cure me out of this sort of depression. Meanwhile my family went out and did some shopping.

It was around 6 or so when they came back and brought me food: Popeye's chicken.

I ate, went back upstairs to do some more cleaning. When I was done it was around 8 PM and I watched a little bit of the BAFTAs. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it would be to live in Europe, London in particular. I love a lot of things British: accents, Harry Potter, Andrew Garfield, Doctor Who and Andrew Garfield. Did I mention Andrew Garfield?

And here I am now. 12:21. Its technically Valentine's Day but I couldn't be bothered.

Getting myself a scoop of ice cream, taking my sheets from the dryer and ending the night with more Chuck, and no whining come tomorrow. 

 When I was young my grandmother used to bake cakes for weddings and birthdays. We had a storage-like room in the house which she turned into a makeshift bakery. Suddenly there were huge ovens and pans and icing and I think that was when I fell in love with baking. I would always watch her and our then-helper Lita (which I fondly call Lit-Lit, I miss her!) do their thing. I'd lick off the leftover cake batter from the bowl with my finger and eat all the iced flowers they'd make. 

They would always ask for my help, even if it was just to add a flower there or to clean a spot here; I guess they did that because they saw how much I wanted to be a part of it not because they needed another pair of hands. I would always wait for the customers who ordered the cakes to come to the house and I'd tell them that this is the best cake they'd ever taste and they'll laugh at me but I know its true. That saying about how something made with love is 100x better? My grandma's baking were a testament to that.

So one sleepless Saturday (it was my day off) I was looking for something to do. I haven't slept the night before so my mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts and a oh my I'm going to pass out and wake up after 8 hours feeling. I went downstairs and checked the pantry when I remembered that I bought 3 boxes of brownie mix at the supermarket a week ago. 

I decided it was time to fall in love with baking again.

There are a few things you need to know about me and baking: 1) I have never baked anything in my life. Not by myself, at least. 2) I am deathly afraid of setting the house on fire if I left the oven on for too long and 3) I am terrified that its not going to taste as good as I pictured it in my head.

I brought my laptop along with me so I can watch The Social Network again. I honestly am in love with this movie and I regret that I didn't watch it on the big screen. Jesse Eisenberg is so good in this movie, it hurts.

Haha so here we go, photos! :)



I was hungry, so prior to setting up, I made a sandwich. 




Like I always say, om nom nom nom.

Right. Back to baking. 






When you mix 'em all together it'll look like this. And those are chocolate chip chunks. 



Set the oven in 325 degress and wait for 30 minutes. Let it cool after. 

I was so nervous but when I pulled it out of the oven the whole kitchen smelled like brownies and it was heaven. 




The whole time I was like why does it look so scrunched up but haha it really is supposed to look like that.




The finished product. I had two pieces and I was surprised that it tasted so good. My younger brother had some. We had a rather funny conversation about it.

Me: Do you like it?
Brother: Yeah, its good.
Me: No, really, did you like it?
Brother: (still chewing) Yes it tastes good. Really.
Me: And you're not just saying that because I'm your sister and its 9 in the morning. Right?
Brother: Right. 
Me: Are you sure it tastes goo--
Brother: (interrupting me mid-sentence, he's getting annoyed) ITS GOOD OKAY! ITS REALLY REALLY GOOD! 
Me: You don't have to shout you know.
Brother: You confuse me.

**
So, would I do this again? Yes, definitely. I think having a hobby (aside from reading books and living in the Internet) is a good thing. I may not be the the greatest cook, but I think I have the chance of being a good baker.

Just like my grandma. :) 

 To sort of "welcome" 2011, I did minor changes to this blog account of mine which I keep neglecting:

• Deleted all my previous entries except for one entry, but that's set in private so its okay.
• Post-processed my photos for this entry and uploaded them to Flickr, because I don't want to waste my Pro account.
• Changed my theme. It looks nice, no?

January was a bleak month, to be honest. As much as I want to do as many major transformations in my life its just not working. But I'm trying, so there's progress, even if its a slow-moving one.

So enough about that, here are some photos that I took this January during my spare time (which is every Sunday and/or when I get home from work):



Field Notes calendar that I tacked on my wall. I'm starting to write down things and right now Field Notes > Moleskine.



I used to see these streetlights right before turning in the corner going to my previous job (working for my mom, heh) I was looking at files and I saw this one and I don't know, I liked it. Reminded me of something I like doing (um, looking out the window and taking pictures) Did a little Photoshop and voila.



I never got to try it since this was a present from my mom's friend to my brothers. They each had one of those. What did I get? A scarf. If that's not a sign from up above to lose weight, I don't know what is.



This bottle of water is divine. And it should be: It costs $3.50 per bottle. (At Starbucks, lol)



Cookie coin pouch! I keep fooling everyone at work with this. It looks so real in real life, especially when I put it on a paper plate during break time. HAHAHA. I got it while mindlessly rifling rack per rack at this really embarrassing store that I will not name but I'm happy I went inside or else I would not have this cookie.




The back part. My only fear is putting too many coins because it might rip or something.



I've been seeing a lot of people on my Dashboard mentioning this book so I got curious and got a copy. Surprisingly, I got mine at TJ Maxx $2 less than the original price. This was when I started writing my thoughts/quotes/reactions in my Field Notes. Its actually a pretty good book and I'm surprised its not YA fiction. I found this at the Kid's Section. 




I took a break from reading (around two weeks) because work and stress piled up and my mind was too frazzled to even bother picking up a book. But Monday, due to a particular dilemma at work, I bought this book at Borders and brought it with me. I read it on the way to work, on breaks, while waiting to clock out. I took down notes. It was different for me but in a good way; I found my love for books again. 

I ordered this book off of Amazon when Carina (@presidents of Tumblr, if you're not familiar) posted this book. I have another Foer book and it is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which I need to read again, actually. I've only read a quarter of it and I don't think at the time I was ready for it. And I guess because this book (Tree of Codes) was so special and so far out (who says far out anymore? Just me? Okay then.) my purchase was backordered (is that even a term?) and it was scheduled to arrive December. So I was like, okay, It'll be my Christmas present to myself. But then another email from Amazon came saying that they are sorry but they are currently out of stock and blah blah blah I didn't even care anymore. 

But surprise, surprise. It came on the first week of 2011. I'm quite amazed at this book, and I have yet to read it but like ELIC, I don't think I'm ready to dive into Foer's work just yet.