Keep walking

Took a bow, now off to college. But first, yes he took a bow.

My brother's finally gotten his high school diploma 2 weeks ago, and the family was of course there to support him!

Grad ceremonies are just really exciting. Always eventful, fun and engaging. NO. NOT AT ALL.

I am blunt today (whoops!) so let's just say that my sister and I passed time by roaming the campus and looking for food and taking photos. :)

Forced sister to model Piattos for me. Not bad. Hahaha.

Time just has its way of sneaking up and surprising. I can't believe my brother's going to college now! I am tempted to give him all the advice about studying, school activities, friends, relationships, and every other thing just about that 7 year phase of my own life -- but what fun would that bring him? I will keep my mouth shut, you bet. He has the right to find out things by himself, learn on his own, and experience what needs to be delved on. Probably the best guidance that I could just give him is to always remember to learn from everything, and then to keep on walking - no matter what.

Congrats Sijyl! :)

Well hello, summer!

Summer just arrived a wee bit early this year, and I'm at yes and no with it. It's a happy season I have to say and all the get-togethers with friends make these three months something to look forward to. My problem though is dressing up fit for the weather, having a closet filled with three-fourths and longsleeves. But blah. The office aircon can fix that. Haha!

Went to Splash Mountain Resort in Los Banos, Laguna last weekend! A friend needed some support and what better way to give such than while having fun in the water! Best part is it's just a little over an hour worth of drive. The place was not too crowded so swimming was actually possible (except I don't know how to swim, surprise!). Stayed for the night and it was a blast. :)

A tourist to home.

Home, Melchor Hall (right)

UP will forever be my second home. I just spent so much time in here that being away for just a few months to a little over a year already gives me that nostalgic vibe whenever I go back. I may have overstayed here in the count of academic years, but there will never be enough time to experience, absorb, and appreciate this beautiful place. :)

Playground

Home cooked meal. <3

Meryenda to miss.

My dad Oble photobombing

Went back to UP 2 weeks ago with my officemates. 3 of us went to UP, one from Ateneo, and one lives inside the campus! Super cool that my circle of officemates and I live barely an hour away from each other for easier quick tambays. Hoping this becomes a regular thing. We were in total tourist mode, taking pictures and strolling the place and foodtripping like it was the last day of class. UP Diliman's a sanctuary, really. Never gets old. :)

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*all pictures from Kayle.

Cupcakes by Cupcake Lab

After almost a quarter of a year, The Cupcake Project's next review finally surfaces. I haven't abandoned this project, no, I am just too lazy to upload. Truth is this one's still from last year's photos! I just write my keywords in a piece of paper and keep it til I finally get the time energy willingness right mood to start transferring them.

For this post, I'll be reviewing 2 cupcakes from 1 shop! :)

The Maker: Cupcake Lab
The variety: Red Velvet
Price: P75
Branch: The Podium

Cupcake Lab is not something I chanced upon at the Podium. I intentionally went here after having googled for a cupcake store that's near our office. I remember that day, the level of my craving for a cupcake was almost annoyingly crazy that I even bothered my officemates to come with me at the Podium. I just bought the minis back then, and I liked them well enough to go back and purchase full sized cupcakes, as shown in this entry.

I have to tell you, Cupcake Lab's Red Velvet IS MOIST. It's dense but not too packed, which is a good texture if you ask me. It's moist enough that it sticks to the teeth and fingers, a little messy to eat as I feel like it's slowly melting. I don't know if that's good or bad but no denying it tastes so good.

It's during these times that I wish Lucas was born a bit earlier. Haha. :D

It has a soft cake, may be too sweet for some or probably just because it's very filling. You know those moments of having too much of something good? Yes. The minis I initially tasted were I guess the perfect size; halfway into eating this full sized version I was ready to give up. But I finished it, of course. The cream cheese is a little sour, with the texture reminding me of childhood icing of cakes.

The size of this can be overwhelming, I recommend you share it with someone. :)

OUT OF 5:

Melts in your mouth: 4.8

Moisture: 4

Packed or Light: halfway, but dense.

Value for Money: 4

Raving? Yes.

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Next up, a different kind of cupcake, from the same store.

The variety: Green Tea
Price: P90
Branch: The Podium

The Cupcake Project involves reviewing Red Velvet cupcakes, Peppermint cupcakes, and varieties that are different. Well this one I consider different.

I really like green tea. From drinks to make up and soap ingredients, knowing that what I drink/eat/use is made of/have green tea/ green tea leaves/ green tea extracts give me that reassuring feeling. I don't exactly know where I got this but I'm sure we all have our own theories that back up our ways of life - even if some of them are unexplainable. :) Or maybe this one's just another evidence of my weirdness. I'd prefer that, really. Okay Ghoent, stop.

Back to the cupcake! The frosting of this cupcake is solid, a little sugary-icing in terms of texture and taste. The green leaf is a harder candy. The cupcake at first bite is really moist, with a creamy texture that I really liked. I could taste the green tea there.

Reaching the middle part you'll get to taste (and see) the red bean core. This one's a surprise. It was a bit dry and bitter, and there wasn't enough moisture nor sweetness from the cupcake or frosting to counter it. The cupcake's an acquired taste for sure, and I tell you I love acquired tastes so I will definitely give this a second go in the future. I just hope they made minis for this.

I almost didn't finish the cupcake, to tell you the truth. It was a little crumbly, and not for everyone. I wanted to eat salt after finishing it because there was a gracious serving of red bean that was too much for the cupcake. It's filling, and I give it an A for effort.

OUT OF 5:

Melts in your mouth: 3.5

Moisture: 3

Packed or Light: packed side

Value for Money: 2.7

Raving? Not today.

Look, Lucas.

I talk about saving up in my last post and now we have me here, ready to tell you more about the very first gadget that I bought.

Gadget. What a weird word. Doesn't really roll off the tongue quite smoothly. So to be consistent with the financial shizz I talked about previously, let's call this one, an investment. LOL yun lang pala.

Everyone, meet mi new camera, LUCAS! :)

"Hello hello hello!!", he says back.

Could someone "crave" for something nonfood? No? Sure? I did. Haha. I have long been researching for the best place to buy Canon's Powershot S100 (after weeks of reading research for my camera requirements lol). You know me, I research. I saw a few places through sulit.com.ph that offer this 21k-worth of camera (Canon price) for only P12.7k - 15k, all of them seemingly legit. But that required cash payment and since I didn't have that much (money, or courage) to let go in one sitting, I let the obsession pass.

But what do you do when you spot this camera at SM Appliance center, at 30% OFF?? What? What do you do?? You buy it, that's what! 21k down to 14.7k. Wows. I asked for itay to ~kindly swipe his card for me~ hihihi. And I pay him in installments. The discount only holds for cash or straight card purchases. Staggered payments would only merit 20%off, so there. This comes with a 4GB mem card and a hard case Case Logic for free. Yeyyyyy tears.

The salesperson tells me the sale is exclusive to SM Appliance center (I believe him because I check cyberzone ALWAYS), and there are only 5units left of this (as of Feb. 10) in all their SM branches. The sale is because of the release of S110. Can you feel my happiness? Can you? Can youuuuu?

Anyway, here are my test shots, after playing with the filters etc. The camera also has manual mode settings for focal length, shutter speed, and that aperture shizz that I am yet to study, so these shots are all under automode. Whooo haha well enough for me.

All unedited, uncropped, but resized and watermarked:

Color Accent filter

Nostalgic filter

Miniature filter

Monochrome - Black and White filter

Automode

Automode

Monochrome - Sepia filter

Color Accent filter

Toy Camera filter

Automode

Love all of them! There are other filters that I didn't show here, didn't have the time yet to fully play with the features. These are all raw, and not bad for that. I'd probably adjust the contrast and brightness of some if I were to tweak it, just to suit my taste in love for colors - and because my laptop settings are very different from my camera's display. These shots actually look more washed out when transferred to my other laptop. All the same, I am really happy with this purchase! :) :) :)

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Oh hey wait, how'd you spend Valentine's day? :) I spent it with some of my officemates, had dinner and of course dessert! Below are my very first food shots from that dinner! All also unedited, uncropped, but resized and watermarked.

Banana Almond Crepe

Blueberry Cheesecake

Mango Parfait

We ate at McDo for dinner because we wanted to spend more for dessert. Haha! So we ate at Tokyo Cafe for these. Not bad! Big servings, and delish. I wanted to eat cake but my lent sacrifice is to abstain from cake/cupcake/donuts/fudgee bar haha aka any bread that's sweet. I declared Pan de Manila's Ensaymada and Pesto bread etc as the borderline, meaning they are allowed. And I'll also be abstaining from milk tea. Huhuhu things I love, goodluck. So I had the crepe for Valentine's! :)

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Weeee goodbye to my noisy, grainy shots (especially for indoor and lowlight photos -- my first camera requirement!) now! Hopefully Lucas will help me document life just a little better. Haha!

Btw, I named the camera Lucas because first, I want it to be a guy. Representative of its compact and classic design (I hope that doesn't sound sexist.). And two: because of brother's suggestion. I was asking him of his UFC characters' names, and some of them were: Shinji Rodriguez, Frank Coleman, Jack Carron, Gerard Slade, Max Mitchell, Lucas Griffin etc. I stopped him at Lucas, because I really liked its ring. Brother then tells me Lucas is his best online record player. Pshhh. SOLD!

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Sooo, have a happy weekend! :)

"Let's take a picture! From what perspective would you like to see the world today?" - Lucas, my camera.