Nothing Prolific

I know I have been neglecting my blog for quite some time now, but really, I'm out of school and have nothing else to do except read, and I know that reading countless book reviews would be boring to some. For those of you interested though...

Here's what I've been up to:

I braved the rain and had coffee at Starbucks with 2 of my bestfriends, Mack & Maria, last Sunday at Julia Vargas. Maria picked me up at home and then we got ourselves lost on the way to Mack's. After about an hour of roaming around, we were finally able to locate the elusive address and hauled ass to get our caffeine fix. We settled down, caught up, and talked about friends from back in the hell hole we call High School before parting ways.

Mack decided to sleep over at my place, a ploy to get me to "help" her make a reaction paper about a museum they had to visit - which of course, we did at the very last possible minute. I introduced her to Veronica Mars, a show which I still mourn for, and now she's hooked as well! We watched half of the first season the entire night, before meeting the sand man. Once we've woken up and broken our fast, we decided to take a jog around the village but found ourselves on the swings instead. After deciding that we were too lazy to exercise, we just decided to go home and read. She borrowed some of my books, a fact of which I am proud because I was the one who got her to appreciate reading. Right now, she has with her my copy of Nicholas Sparks' "The Notebook", and the entire e-book collection of the Bridgertons by Julia Quinn.

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I have a fan page in facebook now! Haha! I don't know what compelled me to make one, probably the lack of face-to-face socialization. Anyways, click HERE to become my fan! Don't be shy, click click!

I'll be updating my layout, adding my fan page widget and twitter widget (thus letting you all know that I am very much alive) after publishing this post. I've been more active there because it enables the scatter-brain in me; random musings, a seemingly never-ending flight of ideas.

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Once every blue moon, I venture beyond the confines of my home and join the real world. Tonight was one such night. My friend, Juice, celebrated her birthday a couple of hours ago and I found myself putting on a dress and donning some killer booties. Bare-faced, I bonded with my gliteratti friends and enjoyed immensely - of course, being myself, I only did this for 3 hours (really, that's quite a feat for me. And yes, 3 hours isn't nearly enough time to go clubbing if you're my age.)

I saw my college buddies, reminding me of how much I missed them and how much I missed. Every one is part of a couple now. So happy for them! Also, ran into a childhood friend of mine, Ral, and met her lovely bestfriend, Isa.

Had Drei and ate Iyay pick me up immediately after Maria left with Keiko and Bianca and ate longsi from Goodah! Yumm. My favorite midnight snack.

Overall, I'm still enjoying a life filled with ennui.

Peace & all good things,

Essa.

The Secret of a Good Relationship is...

You have to keep the fights clean and the sex dirty.

- Kevin Bacon

This quote reminded me SO much of Kate Sheffield & Anthony Bridgerton from The Viscount Who Loved Me and Christine Derrick & Wulfric Bedwyn from Slightly Dangerous. Haha!

Photo is from: crazybeautiful@tumblr.

With Love,

Essa.

HP On My Mind

All thanks to brother dear, I got to watch the advanced, no ticket-sale screening for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.


In light of recent events, finding out that I would be able to watch the first-ever screening of the latest movie installment in the Harry Potter franchise has been quite the pleasant surprise. I've been antsy the entire day, looking at the clock every 5 minutes, willing it to move faster. Finally, the time has come for us to leave the house.

Now if you know me at all, you'd know that I'm a die-hard Harry Potter fan. The first Potter book was the first ever book I finished reading by myself back when I was 11 (and even then, I finished it in one sitting!) I personally feel emotionally attached to the series, and every year, during my birth month (YES! FATE! I even share the month with Harry and authoress JKR), I would bug my dad to get me the latest HP book. 4 Books into that, the first movie came out and even whilst I found myself disappointed, I've always had a special place in my heart for them. I grew up with these kids. They are my memories. When the 7th book came out, I read it in record time and I found myself crying and applauding, basically looking like a lunatic, after turning the last page. I felt robbed and bereft of something I anticipate all through-out the year, annually. Nevertheless, I consoled myself with the fact that I would still be waiting for 3 movies. Now the list has been cut to two, and again, I'm starting to feel the coming of the end of an era.

The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie has been the most different out of all 6 movies. This time around, the movie focuses more on the teenagers than the adults. Indeed, they hardly had any screen time at all (except for Michael Gambon's Dumbledore and Jim Broadbent's Slughorn). The kids are older, experimenting more with relationships. The book, probably the darkest of all 6 books, differ a lot from it's movie adaptation. The movie has been the funniest so far and I kind of enjoyed that feel to it. In contrast to Ron and Hermione's and Harry and Ginny's relationship (or lack thereof) woes is Draco's thirst to prove himself in the dark side.


The verdict? The movie was okay. Just okay. Nothing spectacular, but not completely disappointing in it's entirety. Jim Broadbent made a wonderful Slughorn, coming alive in every scene. Tom Felton's performance, in my opinion, was the most outstanding. He was fantastic! He really captured the inner conflict Draco was struggling with -- wanting to prove he can avenge their family name but at the same time, realizing that being the regular school jackass is a lot different from being an actual death eater. Another great performance was that of Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix LeStrange, but that needn't be said. She is terrific in everything. This movie is a refreshing change from it's predecessors. I daresay the fans of the book may have contrasting feelings (such as myself) about the movie, but overall, it wasn't a complete waste.


And I have to add, EVERYONE GREW INTO THEMSELVES. The movie is full of beautiful people. Even creepy Cormac MgLaggen stole my heart. :P

Wizard kid,
Essa.

Polaroid Madness

In this new age of state-of-the-art digital cameras, Polaroids have become a thing of the past. And while I scour ebay for a Polaroid camera that has my name written on it, I have to make do with photoshopping an endless stream of photos I wish to add to my Polaroid wall. The authenticity isn't there, and the exposures and rawness of form of Polaroids are lacking, but beggars can't be choosers. Nevertheless, here's a few I'm having printed and adding to my wall. Hopefully, they aren't that bad.



















Voila! Polaroid Madness for the moment.

Pretty happy,
Essa.

4:56 7/8/9 -- 10

An idea borrowed from the Wizard of oohs and ahhs and falala's, Mr. A-Z.

Precisely at this moment, my clock says 4:56 07-08-09. In honor of this momentous event, I, probably along with more than half of Jason's readers, offer up 10 things I'm grateful for:

1.) Books, books, and more books.
2.) Post-birthday high (along with the birthday gifts!)
3.) My very loud, very boisterous, very rambunctious clan (and our love for each other)
4.) Very good music from incredibly great artists
5.) Non-stop soul searching
6.) Coffee (because nothing is more calming)
7.) The weather
8.) Dogs!
9.) The premier tickets for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie (no matter how shallow some people might think that sounds)
10.) Thrifting -- because one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Take, for example, these glasses I found:













The grade of the lens aren't a match to my eye grade, but that can easily be remedied. All I have to do now is have the lens changed and voila! New Vintage (he he! oxymoron...) Glasses. The last person I can remember seeing with glasses this huge is my Paternal Grandfather who passed away almost a decade ago. Here's to you, Gramps.

On cloud 9,
Essa

P.S. Forgive the quality of the photos, they were taken via my laptop having just woken up from sleep -- with no shower, teeth unbrushed, face unwashed.

My two pennies worth.

From the mind of a keen observer of the human condition:

I find it strange how people are more affected by death when a public figure dies than when someone they actually know/ knew passes away. Just because they didn't have the same range of impact doesn't make it any less tragic.

I'll say it one last time and that's it for me -- RIP MJ.

We've all paid our respects. We've all paid our dues. Stop being hypocrites -- he was capable of terrible things and you were all ready to hang him before his death. He left a debt of 400 million to his children -- where's your sympathy for them?

Not to say that he wasn't great. He was a great performer. Really, it was a loss to music, a very sad day for music. His talent was unquestionable, unfailing until the end, but this does not mean that he was a devastating loss to the human race.

What really irks me is that his swarm of admirers seem to have taken little to no account of all his sins. We are not all immediately fated to be either sinners or saints. I'm sure Hitler had done some good deeds in his life, were those taken into account? I'm sure Nero didn't just think "Hey, I think I'll take the Roman empire down" the minute he was able to think for himself -- does anyone care about that? Why is it that we so readily want to put a stamp in their epitaphs -- good or evil? Can't we accept that these are PEOPLE, all of which has had some good points and some bad points? Do we always have to label? Can we feel sympathy for him but not pretend like we didn't give a rat's ass about his misgivings (because really, that's what everyone is doing)? Why is it that you don't see normal, regular people spam their pages with tales of despair when someone they know dies? Is it just another case of people jumping to join the band wagon?

This entire thing just seems to resemble a charade than an actual time of grievance to me. I'm sure emotions were not faked, but why does it have to be broadcasted world wide?

It's a terrible terrible state of affairs when one is only exonerated after death (not to say that he deserved or didn't deserve to be vindicated.) Just my tuppence worth.

Confuzzled,
Essa.