Sit back... Relax... And Do A Puzzle....

Well as most of my friends know ever since my Dad got sick, I've been busy with a lot of other things that I admit I am not used to doing. It's not that I do not like responsibility but it has always been everything is Dad's job, so it's not surprising that when he got sick, my world literally gone upside down and I have no choice but adjust to it and GROW UP! I will not say my carefree days are over but lets just say I had to get a little "older" faster so that I could tend to what needs to be done.

In the movie, Spiderman, Peter Parker's uncle, told him that WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. But in my case, WITH RESPONSIBILITY, COMES EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM. I honestly think I learned a lot more in the last three months than all the years I've been living all my life.

With everything that I've experienced and learned also came the pressure and stress to deliver what they expected of me. In addiction to that, I feel "alone" most of the time with nobody and no one to rely on. So I needed to do something to relax and relieve myself of the the pressure and stress that seems to automatically pile up on me.

As a kid, I remember doing jigsaw puzzles as one of my favorite past times. My mom and dad would often buy me puzzles with Candy-Candy, Ron-Ron and many of the Disney characters on them! I LOVED THEM.

But of course, I grew out of doing jigsaw puzzles because as a teen, music, books and video games came into the scene...(and probably a bunch of other stuff I don't even remember anymore.) then much later on, cross-stitching, computers and internet. So doing jigsaw puzzles became a thing of the past for me... UNTIL THREE WEEKS AGO... when I cleaned out my closet and saw the puzzle.

A few weeks ago my sister told me to empty some stuff out of closet and found this old jigsaw puzzle I bought years ago but I never got around to doing it due to lack of space (where to do it) and time. I remember buying it because of it's unusual design, shape and size.

So even though, I still lack the space to do the puzzle, I thought I want to see it finished before I decide to keep it or donate it to the Salvation Army. So I started sorting and putting pieces together until a week and a half later.... (on and off on my spare time)



Here are the specs :

Manufacturer : Sunsout
No. of Pieces : 1000
Artist : William Ternay
Puzzle Size : 26x33 inches

Isn't it beautiful? My mom wants to frame it but I doubt if we'll ever find a frame that will fit, unless we order a customized one. and in doing this puzzle I discovered that doing puzzles are a perfect "stress reliever" other than reading. It was fun and challenging too. This was the very first puzzle I did categorized for adults too. (Trust me, THIS was a lot more challenging to do than the kiddie puzzles I loved to play with as a kid!)

I wonder what puzzle I'll do next...

Family Day!!

I spent today with the rest of my family and a couple of friends... yes even my dad. (even if it was just for 4 hours) Today is my sister's birthday. The family had a simple lunch celebration at Brazilian Churrascaria at nearby Torrance. CA. We were supposed to go to church today too but as it turned out, there isn't a mass celebrated on Maudy Thursday. So Dad just settled in here (at home) and he had a chance to do a video chat (better for them to see and hear each other) with a couple of his siblings from Madrid, Spain and Montreal, Canada respectively. It was funny and fun to see Dad happy and kidding around with family. It's where he should be.

But I could not help myself feeling sad when he was about to leave to go back to the care home facility (Vermont Care) He was THIS CLOSE to staying here again. I swear I don't mind if he is persistent sometimes but I'll never ever complain about it again just as long as he is back here at home. WITH US....

He said he has to stay at least 2 more weeks because of the antibiotics he's having every six hours everyday administered through an IV...

I hope two weeks really is TWO WEEKS this time around!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Starting Over..... Sort Of....

It seems like ages since I last posted something here. I have not forgotten this blog. It's just that had other more important matters that I have to attend to ever since my dad has suffered an aneurysm attack last January 4

A lot has happened since then, although my Dad is still not home with us but is staying at a care home facility, he's doing a lot better and I am praying that he will be sent home really soon. I miss him so much.

I was planning to have a fresh clean start at this blog with the little spare time I have now, But I do not have the heart to delete the old posts I've written and therefore erasing memories of what is noted on this blog through the years.

Changing the layout is one thing I could do to start things up again. As much as I am very satisfied with the old layout I had before, this new layout is not that bad. I did not make it.... I don't have the means and time to make one right now.

My desktop has finally "retired" last month suffering motherboard failure so now all my chores and transactions are done via phone and laptop. So it's plain to see that making a layout on my own using photoshop is out of the question. I don't want this computer to get fried too...

Anyway, it's good to be back...
Even though I cannot promise an update everyday.
Thank you so much for bearing to e-mail and call me when my blog was technically outdated due to my lack of time to update stuff...

I don't like the idea of writing something depressing and personal.
so I decided to leave it out of this blog.

Ebooks... Ebooks .... & Still More Ebooks!!!

I've been scouring the net for e-books since my Dad bought me a Kindle 3 last week. (an early birthday and Christmas present) Yes, I chose Kindle 3 over the Kindle DX, which has been on my wish list for ages now. Why? Because it is more affordable now than it was before. Kindle 3 is out with 2 flavors, with wifi only version ($139) and a wifi with free 3G version ($189) while Kindle DX almost has the same features as Kindle 3, except that it has a bigger/wider screen (9") than the kindle 3 has 6" is prized at $379.

I liked Kindle 3's size and portability and according to the many reviews I've watched in Youtube, it can hold about 3,500 e-books and a battery life of one month (with wifi and 3G off). And Amazon, the company who produces it has the biggest e-book selections than it's other e-book reader competitors.

Although, one downside of the kindle ebook reader line is that it has limited e-book file formats that it can accept unlike other e-readers in the market. But that really isn't a problem because there are a few third-party applications that can convert different file format e-books to the Kindle's AZW file format.

I'll be posting more about Kindle 3 as soon as I receive mine and have checked out it's features myself, but for now, I think I've downloaded enough e-books to read to last me a lifetime! (Literally!) I would have gotten a lot more if I didn't stick to Romance and Fantasy themed books only. Who knows I may not have to buy a single e-book ever with the number of e-book collections I've already downloaded in the last couple of days!

Christmas Carolling....

A group of sisters/missionaries visited our house for some caroling. They seemed to be based around the San Francisco Area, coming from different cultures.... their pianist is Singaporean, the guitarist is from Long Beach (LOL, we're practically neighbors!) Their percussionist is from Carson and the rest of the group are a mix of Mexican, Argentinian, Guatemalan.Filipino, Australian, etc.
It was so cool! The songs were a mix of our traditional Christmas Carols and some contemporary ones and some Filipino Carols too (which is quite understandable, we are a Filipino household, afterall...)

There had been a pause in the middle for a bit of prayer and deep contemplation, while holding Baby Jesus in our arms, just be thankful for all the blessings we had this year and hope for more blessings to come in the coming year.

Having them this afternoon was just so enjoyable and very reminiscent of this holiday season!

I'm Still Here....

It has been exactly a full month since my last post... I must apologize but I've been both rather busy and sometimes just lazy and more so have nothing to write about at times. The holidays are just around the corner and it's probably one of the busiest days of the year, not just for me but for practically everybody!

I'm pretty sure, it almost always starts around before Thanksgiving and goes way past New Years! Gotta love the Holidays! It's my favorite time of the year! Next week, our traditional "Simbang Gabi" (Night/Very early morning Masses) Novena would be starting and I'm hoping and praying that I'll be able to complete all 9 masses to start out the new year. I'm not exactly praying for anything specific but I'm very thankful to have my family happy and healthy this year and throughout the years to come, can't really ask for anything more....

Christmas is definitely in the air....

Veteran's Day

Today's been rather quiet, given that it's actually a not working holiday. Boring actually. But then again it isn't actually all that bad. I had the time to organize a bit. Oh I finally finished downloading He's Beautiful - Director's Cut (19 D5 discs) It's originally 10 D9 discs (19 if divided to D5). If the original D9 comes out for download for ADC I wouldn't think twice to get it into my K-Drama Collection. Next on my "To Download List" is Glory of Family. (also known as Family Honor)

It's a 54-episode K-drama aired last 2008. It wasn't as catchy as the other k-dramas at it's time but it did very well in the ratings in South Korea (so I've heard) and if that wasn't enough to spark my curiosity, a few of my friends and online k-drama friends recommended it to me back then, problem was that none of the English fansubbers wanted to release English subs for it (It's probably too long to sub.) so I wasn't able to see it then. And when it finally came out on DVD as a set, it's pretty expensive because it has 15 discs.

A couple of weeks ago I saw it while browsing on ADC so I finally might see this one at last, I just hope there will be seeders who will stay long enough for me to finish the whole series.

*FINGERS CROSSED*