oh ronnell, i can soo relate!!!

being the only kid has it's advantages and of course it's disadvantages. i'm super close with my mom but i think that i will perpetually be the baby in her life. no matter how old i am. i can still remember getting into fights with her about moving out and things like that. but i'd turn into putty when she'd cry and i'd finally just give in and forget about it until the next argument. i mean where else would you find a mom who still calls her son "my son, my love" ? yes folks, the macapinlac household.

so i was having a pretty crappy day, with losing my phone (and finding it) plus the fact that its been very routine here at work.

i remember when we were first starting icemag our goal was a simple one. when people do a search on google for internet rockstars we would be first link to come up. i'd like to be the first to announce that our dreams have been realized. so if you guys feel like it, congratulate the rest of the staff members, cause they're cool people too.

idiotic things that happen in my life (record # 2009)

i am never falling asleep on the couch again, at least, with my cellphone in my breast pocket. why? well things have a tendency to succome to the pull of gravity and always ends up in the places that cannot be seen with the naked eye or be reached by the hand. so i wake up and i pat around for my cellphone and after the panic that i lost it or dropped it and is now being run over by an 18 wheeler on the street, i come to the conclusion that it's probably in the office locked away on my desk.

so i take my dad's cellphone because i needed one just in case my car decides to stop in the middle of the highway.

this morning i was in a panic because my cellphone wasn't here and to make things worse there are "be careful of your things, because there's been theft around the office" posters going around. of course, this sends me into a panic and i call home and send my mom on a panic-striken frenzy to search for the missing cellphone. it's also quite amuzing that i was trying to explain to my mom that calling the cellphone won't work because it's on silent mode and the idea of a cellphone with a vibe feature is still a foreign concept to my mother. so my mom checks my car, my room, the whole downstairs. but doesn't bother checking the couch, until of course they've turned over every carpet fiber and unearthed every wire. guess where they found it? and how could i have possibly missed the phone especially when it has a bright yellow face plate.

i haven't been myself lately. i've been trying to deal with a lot of things that seem to be missing in my life.

it just seems like i'm supposed to be 28 years old already. according to my plan of 13 years ago; because right now i'm still supposed to be enjoying life. i shouldn't be worrying about kick starting my career. i had that planned at 28 years old. so here i am standing right on the base of one crossroad and i'm confused which road to take. now i totally understand how people had a hard time figuring out what to take in college. something that should make them happy or something that makes them money. the problem is that they just can't have a balance of both. unless of course you aim for learning how to be bill gates, then thats a different story. so here i am, wanting to go back to school because i miss it and i thought that taking something different and something interesting would make me happy. as of now, i'm pulling my hair trying to get a hold of my transcripts and getting applications to different schools. thanks theresa

so here we go again! check out the update.

i'm home! huh? yea you heard right, i'm home!

i had plans, lists of things to do and more plans that required me not sleeping. i've been sleepy though, whats weirder is that i've been fighting sleep for the past few days. sleep was my enemy. i've been having dreams that scarred me. the type of scared that makes you turn on the lights, crawl to the corner of your bed with your blankets completely covering you and just stare into the space. dreams are sometimes what makes makes sleeping worse. but theres only so much that the body can take.

today, i think that it has finally taken a toll on me. although i don't really know what it is. after a day at work which involved writing a program and babysitting it (similar to watching firewood burn), i went home and made many plans to leave the house and not stay in my room. i fell asleep.

dentists? i know there has to be a majority of people that hate them.

i've never had a problem with my teeth. my mom's very good at sounding like a broken turntable when it comes to repeating "study your lessons, brush your teeth, and behave" (plus the fact that back in the philippines i think they injected flouride in the drinking water). i've never had a problem with dentists my whole life, actually they love me. they tell me "ritchie, why do you even bother?" when they find that they don't even have to do anything other than the routine check-up. of course, my reply would be "oh i need a little ego boost once in a while right?" and just wait until they finish taking the x-ray.

so the real reason why i'm scared to even faulter on my dental maintenance can all be traced to an afternoon with my mom. i remember it clearly, i was young and she had to run a few errands. i was tagging along just hanging out while she finished things on her to-do list. one of the things was a visit to the dentist for a quick check up. little does she know that she had some sort of cavity which would require drilling and one of those mercury fillings. she was just lying down and i heard the dreaded drill sound and she was in pain! how did i know? well, just the fact that she looked like she was about to rip off the arm on the dentist chair and she accidentally kicked a small stool that was sitting close to her legs. it looked so bad, and it looked like it was so painful. from then on, it was either (1) brush my teeth or (2) drill and drilling wasn't an option.

fear and pain, yes folks ritchie is scared of pain.

according the the morning radio show i listen to while driving to work, young men in their 20's should be careful because cougars are in season.

this was a bit disturbing because they were talking about how women in their 40's go to clubs, doing the lambada to the disco remix of total eclipse of the heart and hitting on college guys (which was deemed as "the prey" or "bushy white tailed deer"). and they even had a self-admitted cougar to call in and talk about how great it was to be a cougar. not to mention giving tips to the cougar pups (women in their 20's) and pumas (women in their 30's) and i remember something about gate keepers and a tranquilizer gun. i'm not quite sure, but i kinda zoned out at this point of the discussion.

the reason why i bring this up is because last night i saw one in full effect (i guess you could call it an unexpected safari). i was with 2 other friends, taking a break from the computer and decided to see the latest john cusack flick (i admit that i didn't want to see it, but hank azaria makes this movie all worth it). and right there and then, there was a couple sitting in the back before the movie started totally into each other. the only thing these guys weren't doing were taking each other's clothes off. no worries, i didn't even think about it until the lady turned her head my way. dang! she looked like she was old enough to be my aunt. ick! plus the guy she was with couldn't have been older than 25.

so mental note, next time i'm going clubbing. i'm bringing a tranquilizer gun so i can catch me a cougar protect myself from cougars.

an open letter to vancouver bus drivers part 2.

alright guys, jokes over. please stop striking. you've made your point. you guys make a lot of money for driving a large vehicle and you do it with a total subpar attitude. but we don't care about that anymore guys (and the girls who look like guys). just because you want translink to give you more money, benefits etc. you disturb the lives of the people around you (meaning me).

but see your plan had a little flaw. by dragging it this long (100+ days), people have gotten used to carpooling. now i guess you people aren't really needed anymore. we've gotten along fine with the traffic and the increased number of cars on the road. now where does this leave you? no where. so might as well take your great big paycheques and start driving the busses again (otherwise we'd have to replace you all with robots or something like that).

you already have a law to defend you against sane motorists like me. i've also noticed the "bus only" lane that just finished construction. too bad there's no busses to use it, now it's just taking up space and turned what used to be a 3 lane road into 2 alley-like roads. all for who? you! who else could it have been?

but honestly, i really think you guys should just go back to work. we do miss taking the bus. there are some of us who would rather ride with the idiotic driver that everyone avoids than be the people outside avoiding collision with the crates that you busses.

if i've ever seen any bizarre pictures, this would be one of those times.

so i've been working on a stupid idea.

in my head it's almost become an obsession. it's almost taken a lot of my free time and i'm amazed at how well i can control myself from doing (and accomplish) other work. it's almost like having blinders and trying to run through a forest. the only thing you can deal with is whatever is infront of you and what your obsessing over. right now i'm obsessing over a stupid idea.

did i say that it was a stupid idea?

but on a totally different note, there are people participating in the icemag blog. to my surprise. i'm really happy too, so happy that i tried posting my own stuff. now back to work!

geeking out infront of the computer all day yesterday wasn't that bad.

actually when i say that i geeked out it usually means that i spent the day coding a really useless program. like that time when i tried my hand at the tamagotchi cartman (which did unthinkable things that we will never talk of ever again). so let me explain, i've been reading this new book that has my complete attention focused on it 24 hours 7 days a week. it's a really good book and i can't stress that enough, but somewhere in the middle of the book the character talks about writing a program that tracks the interruption times. meaning, it tracks down the times a person gets interrupted from his work and how long at the end of the day producing statistics on the recorded times. it really sparked my interest (for some really really odd reason). so i opened up visual basic and started coding this funky application.

well, let this be a lesson to people. when you develop appliations spec it out first. because your brain turns into the client and it starts expanding the scope slowly. "what if you could put it in the system tray" it'll say or "why don't you have it keep historical data?", and of course since you're bound by contract you do it. so lets just say that the basic functionality was done in 15 minutes but i worked on it for a good 2 hours getting it just right.

i know i'm crazy and should be comitted to a mental hospital!

you mean ritchie actually kept his promise and updated another section of his site?

yes folks, it's a small update but hey we all have to start somewhere right? so i got the idea for this section a while back when i was trying hard to do something cool to the site (something artsy). i decided to take my old digital camera out with me from waking up all the way to getting home after work. it turned out to be this really cool looking section (with a funky orange color). but this update is a bit different, see for me i have a million things going through my head everyday. to add the fact that i have to take pictures of the places that i'm going to and where i've been is just close to impossible. so when i do remember that i do have a camera in my glove compartment (please don't steal my camera) i snap a quick photo. so these pictures are actually pasted from different parts of the week (or month).

but i did sneak in a little secret. there's 2 people that i wanted to include in this update. 2 of my closest friends in the world. practically my family, i wouldn't trade them for the world.

headache? lack of sun? cubicles suck!

i've been in the office for a good few hours now and i didn't even know that the sun was out and shining bright. don't you people think that the big problem with working in a cubicle jungle is that the people don't get enough sunlight? when it's as nice as it is outside, everyone should be given a laptop with wireless lan access and everybody should be working outside. some people can be working the whole day and not see a glimpse of sunshine. is that really healthy? i'm sure that people need sunlight too. as much as my allergies bug me, i still love feeling the warmth of the sun.

so what can we do? for people who practically live inside a cubicle maze. for people who are close to the window all isn't lost, if you can cut a "window" on your walls. i'm sure that cubicle walls aren't solid inside. if you can get the maintenance department to change your walls to a lower wall then that might be the easiest way to go. personally, i heard a suggestion where you set up a series of mirrors to reflect the sunshine onto your desk area. do it only if your co-workers don't mind having mirrors around their work station. if they're nice and they get bothered think twice about doing it. if they're mean, don't even think just do it!

who in their right mind reads books from their palm?

the screen is small, the font's all weird and pages are too small. so if you take a 300 page book, it turns into a 2000 page palm book. i don't know about you but seeing that discourages me from reading it. i think of pages and i visualize thin paper, small print and zero pictures. who would want to read a book like that? take in to account that i am a 23 year old, artsy fartsy wanna be web developer who loves to read. sometimes my high school hard core days where reading a 170 page book was one of the biggest challenges faced in english class. so take to mind that the palm does offer features that books can't even begin to offer. one would be auto scrolling, where all you have to do is hold the palm in front of your face and it will scroll text for you. can we get any lazier? how about automatically implanting the book in my brain? of course the simple things like changing the font size. of course changing the font size means you can only fit 10 words per page. what good is that?

but honestly, i can't find the appeal but i still do it. i guess it's the convenience of carrying around an ebook along with your palm. it lets you read a novel on the side. of course they need to get better titles out on ebooks. because who really wants to read carrot top's biography on it?

see what did i tell you? i updated!

let me put my disclaimer on this. it's not really the fact that i wanted to write a piece that feels so personal. i found inspiration in something that i thought was an issue that was worth mentioning. thats all. when you read it, don't think of anyone in particular because i'm talking in a general sense and it wasn't ment to attack anyone's character. it's how i feel about it, and it's the how i'm going to deal with it. honestly, it's my site and not anyone else's so why am i even trying to explain my actions?

i have something to write, really i do!

i have ideas, beautiful awsome ideas but i've hit one snag. i can't seem to translate them and get them into this word document (and eventually to html) for everyone to read. but i will, today i promise (i know i know, a lot of broken promises) and this time it will happen.

social skills people, social skills!

what is it about working in a corporation that turns people into mindless zombies who use the cliche grunt and 1 word syllables to communicate? it's like theres a sign at the front door telling people to check in their verbal coherence and pick it up when they leave. for example this morning, i haven't even been seated for 2 seconds when this guy walks up to me an taps me on the shoulder with a 31/4 floppy disk speaking in a dialect of english that i couldn't seem to understand. he might as well have grunted and clicked his teeth together, i probably would've understood that more. then i spend 15 minutes looking at this program and 10 more minutes explaining it to him what he was doing wrong, and in mid sentence cuts me off and just sticks out his hand. so i assume that he's asking for the disk, so i pop it out and hand it to him. he says something like "forget about it, i thought it would've taken your 5 minutes to figure out" and starts walking away.

the only thing i could think of to answer was "are you sure?", he responded "yea" while scurrying away. i was left at my desk baffled (and a bit insulted). given 2 more minutes i could probably have re-wrote that whole program. but honestly, i spent 20 minutes thinking about what i should've said to him while walking away, but i was just shocked at his reactions and his (lack of) social skills.

i can't get my head around the fact that people don't seem to interact well with other people around here. it's like a whole different world.

a bright light in my otherwise dreary day.

last night i violated my promise and stayed infront of my computer the whole day. what was i doing? well, i was developing a system to work with blogger so icemag can have some user interaction. it took me a few hours to get everything working like a "normal" log, then i remembered one of the no-no's in webdesign. which was no pop-ups! and i used a popup window so that people could comment on posts just like how a "normal" weblog would work. so i kicked myself in the nuts, and started re-coding (at this point it was already 9pm). i changed a few settings in how we get the information from blogger and revamped some pages. in other words, coded some more to make it work similar to metafilter. honestly it was a lot of work, but hopefully worth it. at one point i was struggling with the fact that people might not even be looking at icemag or reading it. which is probably why i've been hesitating building a user interactive area on it.

but hey, we got nominated! last year it was macapinlac.com, now its icemag for the news and zines category. so i guess there are people who are reading it, and there are people enjoying it.

i just realized that i wasted half my morning.

talk about bumming around, i just stayed in my bed under covers for a bout 2 1/2 hours reading a book. now how is that different from every sunday where i just bum around? well, it's probably because this was the first sunday where i didn't feel like accomplishing something was a major priority. today, i sit, relax, maybe lie down and read with no apparent task at hand. i know i promised the world an update, but i haven't been myself lately and i'd rather stay away from anything electronic and requires brain power.

but to give people something to read...
yesterday, i saw that final fantasy movie. i was in awe of it all, the story, the characters (although some might argue that they're all pretty one dimentioned) and of course, the animation. every frame had great awsome detail. the character movements differ from other computer generated animation. they moved like real people, but keep in mind that they aren't. anyone who says that the animation is good, needs a good beating in the head to dislodge that crayon stuck in there. of course the animation will never compare to real people acting, but that isn't the point of the movie. it's all about how good the animation is... period! the story (i thought) had the similar story lines to the games. in terms of how characters were built, and how characters were developed. just think of it as stepping into the game with 2 hours left. i admit that it was a bit "thick" in terms of science fiction. but thats how final fantasy is. that's how all the games are and that's exactly why we all love it (well only the people crazy enough to invest 50+ hours playing it). i loved the fact that it did take a bit of thinking to understand the plot and story as it developed. and is it really wrong to have a crush on a computer generated girl?

i can't believe that i'm actually up and running today. and this early too.

busy busy day today. and it all started in the morning. but don't worry, i got plans for you guys to see whats happening today. sometimes i think that i'm very much neglecting other parts of the site. like the moments section, or the journal section. i know the photoalbum page hasn't been updated in a while either (and here i am planning new sections). i love my site, it's been the reason for many friends and the reason for a few enemies (oh wells c'est la vie). i've been so inspired, and discovered areas of myself that i wouldn't have discovered before i had it. i read books! before this site, you wouldn't have caught me with a book for leisure. now look at me, i'm reading 3 at a time and i'm loving it.

did i tell you i had aspirations to be a writer? yes folks i'm going to write and get published! i'm determined! it will happen soon too! i'm refining my style and i'm going to reach my goal. but like i said, today is a busy day for me, and i have to finish reading a few things, here and there. but wait for another area of the site to get updated as well.

yes folks i've jumped head first into the deep cove that is called cell phone hell.

it took 15 minutes to find the best deal (thanks to friends and co-workers). it took 3 minutes to set up the plan and the phone. and it took 5 minutes to pay and start calling people on my new phone. so basically it took less than 30 minutes to get myself into a 1 year contract. but hey, i got my phone and i've already hacked into it. i've changed to ring tones and my phone says "ritchie rocks" in big bold letters. the wonders of the internet.

so now what do you think i'm doing? i'm trying to find a way to "sync" my outlook phone numbers to my phone, but it seems like i'm going to write my own program to do it. am i a geek? i think so!

as more and more electronic toys tools come out, i find that i have to carry a backpack just to bring all these tools with me and make them useful.

now i know people are working on consolidating a lot of these tools. like having a palm combined with a cellphone or a cellphone that plugs into the palm. personally, i need to have a cellphone that can handle 2 numbers. let me explain. i have a work phone where the primary purpose is to alert me via email what is happening with the server and when there's problems, it's the phone that people call me from. also, i want need a personal phone so i'm not using the company cellphone to make personal calls and plus i'm planning to use it for a lot of things like a business line for me "consulting" job (when it actually takes off). but see i also need to have my palm somehow talk to this super 2 in 1 phone, so my telephone numbers are all in one list.

because i don't really mind carrying 2 things, it's when i have to carry 3 or 4 things around. thats when it gets tiresome.

now what use is my camera at home?!

now i'm stuck here with no camera. let me explain, today is department bonding day. the day where we're booked in a meeting the whole day. to play golf, mini golf to be exact. i brought all my gear today, even the shirt that says "i want to get in your pants.com" and my funky plaid shorts and my ultra uber custom shoes. so the plan is to have an actual planning session for the first half of the day, stroll over to metrotown, eat lunch, then it's off to the pitch and putt for a few hours of mini golf. where's my sun block lotion?! i was supposed to document and post up pictures for my blog about how funky cool i am golfing and getting my hole in ones. but what good is a camera when it's sitting beside on your desk at home?

sometimes having too much stuff with you sucks! at least i didn't forget my cellphone, my palm, my minidisk and my cds.

bonding time with my moms.

last night was cool. i got sleep, sat in the bean bag, read my book, downloaded some palm programs and chatted with my mom. i talked to her about how it was before me and why i'm the only kid. little things like how they were conditioned to save their paycheques. i was intrigued and interested. we made midnight snacks and chowed down. it was one of those moments that could compare to watching a television family bond. laughing and just talking over a snack. it was fun. i should do that more often.

one thing that i got from the conversation last night was an understanding. there are things that we just tend to dismiss automatically, especially when it comes from our parents. sometimes it's good to have a civil conversation with them to understand where they're coming from. (notice i said you understanding them, not the other way around because that's a totally different story)

i'm going for the messy hair typical asian tourist look.

it's just a really sad sad thing that i can't seem to figure it out. i can't pull the look off. my hair is just to stubborn straight alien-like to be styled in this way. some days it's straight and nice, in this case styling it would be hard because it naturally falls down and creates the typical asian bowl cut effect. i gel and use hairspray but nothing happens so i walk out of the house looking like jet li with a dead animal on my head. then there are the days where it's just frizz. uncontrollable and forget about even styling it. so in these cases i walk out of my house looking like the asian carrot top.

so how to achieve the look? not quite sure, sometimes i'll just settle for something that looks decent and won't scare the rats when i step out of the house.

cellphone vs. pagers?

i want a cellphone but i don't want to spend the money. pagers are cheaper, and smaller than any cellphone could be. pagers give you the ability to choose to call the person back (but then again voicemail and caller id lets you do that too). with a phone you're reachable anywhere in the world and it's easy to get yourself out of tough situations. i've already completely ruled out the fact that i'm going to be carrying 2 phones with me (one for work and another for me). it's the fact that i'm cheap and the idea that i'm going to have a bill hanging over my shoulder every month along with car insurance.

'k fine, it's the money. i don't like parting with my money. i'm cheap and i know it!

i'm here, still awake. let alone not in my own house. where? melo's house.

i have a long ways to go. but i'm fighting off allergies. sorting out some feelings and playing some big 2. what do you think? i'm crazy i know, and it's not just because i have insomnia but it's cause i have soo many things going on my life right now. so many emotions hanging around my head i'm just about to drop all of them. life is life, life goes on and i still need to put myself into a metal institute.

it sucks when your sweat is soo thick that every particle of dust just decides to stick to your body. it sucks more when those particles of dust are the very same dust particles that you're allergic to. i'm totally going off. further proof that i'm nuts!

i actually made it to work today. a little late but still here...

i think if you're a programmer, by nature you have to be an insomniac. or at least have some sleeping disorder. by being true programmers we keep weird hours therefore a 9-5 job isn't really the best thing. we have sporatic sleeping patterns when sleeping at night. we don't really have a way to fall asleep like the rest of the world. we don't just drift over to sleep land like the rest of you people. we toss, we turn and basically not sleep but spend 2 hours of our sleeping time attempting to.

so i did a quick research on the internet to see what exactly causes insomnia. apparently one of the causes is acute mental illness. maybe it's being depressed (not that i am or anything, i'm just trying to find a way to take some prozak).

or maybe it could be the 4 cups of coffee last night....

2 hours left and still sneezing! actually i do have my air filter on full and i think i'm going to "rice" out the motor, if you see smoke coming from my house call 911!

damn it! heat, allergies and drinking too much coffee sucks! i have to wake up in 3 hours and i can't seem to have a good rest.

remember those old school tamagotchi's? i loved those things.

i admit to be one of the people who bought 5 and gave them names (i think i even babysat some of my friend's). the reason why i'm blogging is that i saw my old yellow tamagotchi and it just brought out pathetic old memories. it was amazing how much of a fad it was, or how many fads branched out from it. lets face it, pokemon grew from it. it appealed not just to kids but adults alike which is probably why it took off. i remember co-workers playing with it, beeping every 10 minutes asking for them to change their diaper or something like that. even my mom got into it. i remember searching for tamagotchi websites trying to figure out how to get the secret characters out (damn it, i even did sugery on my unit).

i'm a kid at heart and a sucker for annoying little keychains i know!

so who have i been hanging around with? what exactly has been going in my the dull life that ritchie has?

we haven't really done anything remotely interesting, most of the things that we do is drink coffee somewhere or just hang out somewhere very inexpensive. i usually find that before i leave the house i look through my penny jar for some change (exactly $1.77, because thats how much bottomless coffee costs). sometimes i go through the penny jar and couches upstairs too in hopes to find exact change. but what is it that we do in our little coffee house?

absolutly nothing if it was a seinfeld episode it would be perfect cause it's all about nothing!

we talk, and we let the conversation take us where ever it takes us. but one thing that our conversations aren't, is dry. all of them are so funny and entertaining to watch as it develops. it's actually funny that sometimes it's the boring sessions are the ones that's very memorable. why? well because we'd find a way to amuse ourselves. we make up games or we start thinking about the old days. things like that. i love my friends.

there is really nothing in the world that could make me trade them for anything in the world.

now i'm probably dead cause i just posted all their pictures on my website. i hope you guys know how long it took me to find decent pictures that i can post!

so what makes today special? what makes it different from yesterday?

well, today is another day where i take the time to reflect back and take a look at how much the internet affected my life. how many things have started because the internet is there and ready to help me. how many times it has helped me out with a term paper or research. i want to look back and see how many friendships i've started through the net and how many of those friendships help me cope with everyday life (not that i find it hard or anything). because to me friendship is important and i've build a lot of stable and great friendships through (and exclusively to) the net. so today is special because i get to pay tribute to one of these friendships.

happy birthday kevin!

my weekend? bizarre would be an understatement to describe my weekend.

watched a few movies, played a little tennis, bought a few things, did some laying out of some accounting things and basically stayed at home with a little bit of bumming around mixed in there. my car is broke again (hopefully fully functional before thursday)! but an interesting discussion happened between my friends and i yesterday that was a bit unexpected. and it had something to do with cybercrimes and (hacking into and) tagging websites with team-swollen!

so i came to work today and i could swear that theres some weird phenomenon going on here in the office. it seems that most of the second hands on the ceiling clocks decided to fall off. canada day bug? i think so!

i can't believe that the whole crew tried out to be on the weakest link. i would definitly fly down just to see ernie play. i think it would be a funky experience! this is exactly what i get for not reading during the past few days.

Hi, I'm Ernie. I'm contestant #520, 24 years old and a webmaster from Cupertino, California. I'm applying for The Weakest Link because I'm too fat and slow to be on Survivor.

today is a special day for me. it's my 10 year anniversary here in canada.

does this mean that i can't be called on by kathy lee to make shoes in a cargo boat? i remember coming here and thinking: "uugh! it's so cold, how is mr. tropical boy going to survive in weather like this?" but i did. look, 10 years and i now have the ability to wear shorts. i've learned so much, since i spent a good part of my life growing up here. going through rough and tough experiences and sharing it with my friends, who without hesitation helps me out whenever they can. i can't really say that i grew up in the philippines. my whole childhood was there, the part in your life where you could never make decisions for yourself. the part of your life where it just seems as if the umbilical cord hasn't been cut. where you didn't really have a say in what you wore or what you did on your spare time. it was like being a robot connected to a central computer.

but, i moved to canada just in time for me to hit puberty. it was honestly hard and a horrible experience (you know, the usual finding hair in places you haven't [and having to shave your armpits]). but i guess i chose my friends right, they helped me out (and they still do). like hanging out and laughing it up and comparing stories. my life has been quite the rollercoaster to this point. i'm not quite sure what the next 10 years have in store for me but i'm glad to know that i'll probably still be alive and still have the same people to rely on, no question.

happy canada day!