Another Niceprint Gripe

I saw a bride's blog about how she wrote down all the places and shots she wants the pictures taken. She even had her sister print her inspiration shots so she can show her photographers. I wish ever again I have done just that. Maybe then my photographers wouldn't have forgotten to take those precious photos. I wish I have splurged more on photos by hiring a back up photographer maybe then my photos will not be incomplete. I feel sad once again and for the nth time regarding this matter. This is the biggest regret I have on our wedding. Such a beautiful wedding but poorly documented. Imagine the big bucks we have spent just to have it just the way it is and not have enough beautiful photos to show from it. I just wish the video will be better. I dunno if I can ask Niceprint to get pictures from them, heard the quality is not that good thou. If I can just re-enact the entire thing believe me I will but unfortunately I can't. I just feel so cheated. My husband said we can get married again after 25 years so I can get the photos I want but I will be 52 years old by that time and I'm sure won't be so pretty. Oh well. Maybe that's the reason why I haven't finished with the photos for the album yet. Seeing them just pains me so much.

A Child and Her Dog - a touching story for animal lovers

Found this on my inbox:

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last

month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith

was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey.. She asked if we

could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got

to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she

dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in

heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog

even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am

sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my

dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our

return address on it. Then Meredith

pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would

take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon

she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she

asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in

gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith'

in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith

opened it. Inside was a book by Mr.

Rogers called, 'When a Pet

Dies..' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God

in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey

&Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey

right away.

Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me

just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved

being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any

pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this

little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey

by..

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you

write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her

especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,

God

Touching, isn't it? Sorry for the uneven sized letters, just cut and pasted.

Niceprint...HMP!

We are finally sorting thru the photos from the wedding and I am getting angrier and angrier everytime I see how many photo ops have been missed! I am so dissapointed with our photographer, Rupert and Weng of Niceprint, that I am really regreting getting them for the wedding. Edmund's work, our photographer for our prenup pictorials was great and I wish everytime that it was him that I requested. Now I have to ask a graphic artist to do a photo of us in the famous lagoon area of Fernwood Garden Venue 1. I got Fernwood for that view and I didn't get a photo documentation of it! Imagine paying P115,000 for nothing. Hate it, hate it! Will give them bad ratings really!

The Murder of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince The Movie

I was so disappointed in the last Harry Potter movie and here are my reasons:

1. It was boring. This can be attributed to the fact that the events are so undeveloped that it kept jumping from one scene to another. If you are not a reader you will have a hard time grasping the importance of things shown in the movie.

2. Oh course as expected, a lot of scenes are not consistent with the book. I stopped comparing on the first scene. But can't believe it was a different script altogether! Nothing same with the book. And the characters are acting so out of character. Since when did Harry became so obsessed with girls that he will be picking up random strangers in pubs in such dangerous times? Harry also looked so stupid when he just watched Dumbledore die without doing anything. In the books Harry was seen as someone who is so vigilant that he cannot sit still if he knows a wrong is being made. He is also so protective of others that he often disregard his own safety just to save others. And now in the movie he just watched and do nothing as Dumbledore was cornered. He didn't even questioned Snape when he told him to stay where he is. Harry hated Snape so much that he automatically says and does the opporite he say and tells him to do and now he just follow him without any questions? Come on!

3. A lot of important things has been skipped in the movie like the memories about Gaunt and Batshiba. How will Harry know that they are hunting for objects related to the founders of Hogwarts as the next possible Horcrux? Will they just be touching every random object as Dumbledore said that you'll know a Horcrux because it will leave a trace of magic? The importance of Harry's staying with his Aunt and Uncle was also obliterated since he was fetched by Dumbledore at a train station pub. Does this mean that the very action packed and important chase scene in Book 7 is going to be obliterated as well? The importance of the Half Blood Prince has also been overlooked and undeveloped. We wondered why they bothered naming it "And the Half Blood Prince" at all. And so on and so forth. Just too many to mention.

4. The movie left a lot of unexplained things and gaps that they will have to make up to big time if they want movie goers to understand Book 7. In my opinion, they can omit movie 6 and it won't matter in the storyline at all. THe only good revalation here is Dumbledore's death which was anti-climatic. I was left saying, "Yun na yun?"

5. The overall theme of the movie was "Nagtipid" or budget cuts. We kept saying it over and over all through out the movie. "Nagtipid" that's why there is no fight scene before the death of Dumbledore. "Nagtipid" that's why there was no funeral before the ending. Oo nga naman, you need to get hundreds of extras for that. Nevermind what it will signify. Again, so on and so forth. Too many to mention.

I could go on and on and on with the list. Bottom line is, I HATED IT. At least Book 5 has a saving grace. It has a very cool fight scene in the end. Good luck naman sa Book 7.

One Word Meme

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It’s not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s really hard to use only one-word answers. Be sure to tag the person who sent it to you!
thanks to Carla for this tag!

1. Where is your cell phone? table

2. Your hair? black

3. Your mother? stubborn

4. Your father? crazy

5. Your favorite food? sisig

6. Your dream last night? none

7. Your favorite drink? coke

8. Your dream/goal? happiness

9. What room you are in? office

10. Your hobby? traveling

11. Your fear? death

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? nirvana

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something that you aren’t? back stabber

15. Muffins? blueberry

16. Wish list item? moolah

17. Where you grew up? pampanga

18. Last thing you did? blog

19. What are you wearing? uniform

20. Your TV? sony

21. Your pets? loads!

22. Friends? selected

23. Your life? perfect

24. Your mood? unstable

25. Missing someone? yes!

26. Car? soon

27. Something you’re not wearing? socks

28. Your favorite store? SM

29. Your favorite color? pink

30. When is the last time you laughed? kanina

31. Last time you cried? kanina

32. Who will resend this? me

33. One place that I go to over and over? UPD

34. One person who emails me regularly? w@w

35. My favorite place to eat? loads!

passing it on to lenj and lorna.

Concerns

I received again an email about an abused animal. This time, poor Murphy (the name of the dog) was dragged for 1.5 kilometers from a pick up truck by its owner! Good thing Murphy survivied but his owner only got a fine of R1,500. The injustice! Intend to kill and get a fine. Tsk. Also, why the hell is he being dragged in the first place? For fun? That is not how a sane human being thinks! Is the world really over populated by cruel beings? Why do you have to inflict pain knowingly to others? I can't really fathom the answer to this one. I will just pray for Murphy just like I pray for the cats and dogs in China who are victims of the fur trade.

Speaking, I just had an inspiration yesterday while going home from work. I was reading Newsweek and it occurred to me to write to Newsweek and Reader's Digest as well for them to cover the fur trade in China. I hope they will pick up the story. Everyday that passes by is a wasted day for this cause.

I was also very sadden yesterday while looking at the old trees that lined up the roads of my hometown. DENR has just given permission to DPWH to have them cut down for road widening. These trees are way older than I am and they give shade and clean the air in these roads that they cover. I just can't help thinking that their days are now numbered and soon I will go out of the office and see them cut down already. Some of the trees have already been cut down and it really pains me to see their deep roots now being unearthed for this road widening project. The distrcution we do to nature to continue with progress. I vowed to sponsor a tree planting activity in our org to help make up for this at least.

Still on Animal Cruelty and Doing Something About It

I am still so bothered about the situation of cats and dogs in China that I decided to make it my mission to let as many people know about it. I wrote yesterday to the producers of The Oprah Show to urge them to make a story about this cruelty. Being an animal lover, I am sure that Oprah would want to do this show but the decision for now rests on her producers. I hope that they will take notice and reveal this hurrendous act to the world. It is just so senseless and cruel and sad! Everyday that pass without something being done is a day wasted. I am always praying daily to God that he clears the mind of these people and save the animals.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, or her senators at least, are thinking of putting a greyhound race track in Luzon and Cebu. Can you believe this stupidity?! The country is plagued with problems and all they could think of and put their precious time in is weather to put a racetrack that not just kill and torture a lot of dogs but also promote gambling in the country. I am not paying a freaking P3,000/month on taxes to pay these people to do this!!! I just don't know what they are thinking! Good thing, five senators are already voting NO. Please help convince the others by signing in the petition located here. Please do sign and spread the word. We don't need this is our country! Update: the poll is now on its 298th petition signer. Yey!

I will rant about how Harry Potter 6 stunk later. Will have to tend on my farm for now.

Please Sign and Spread the Word

Friendship Chain

Thanks Sis Lorna for the tag.

This is the easy way and the fastest way to:

1. Make your Authority Technorati explode.

2. Increase your Google Page Rank.

3. Get more traffic to your blog.

4. Makes more new friends.

Rules :
1. Start copy from “Begin Copy” until “End Copy” to your blog.
2. Put your own blog name and link.
3. Tag your friends as much as you can.

I'm tagging Carla and Lenj. :)

Please Help Stop China in Skinning Cats and Dogs ALIVE!

I came upon this site when I was surfing the PAWS website. It is a website that urges people to sign a petition to stop China from skinning cats and dogs ALIVE. Oh, imagine the horrors! Cats and dogs being skinned alive then tossed in a corner to die! I cannot bear to think of it much more. The thought made me cry. Being an animal lover, I can feel the pain these poor creatures has to go through for what? For fur? Fur used for toys, clothes, shoes...these things won't ever, ever equate to the lives of these animals! I hate the Chinese for being so barbaric. Why are they so heartless and cruel? I guess it shouldn't be so surprising that they can do this thing to animals. After all, they knowingly put poison in baby's milk didn't they? They just don't value life! Anyway, that displeasure will just have to be discussed in another blog post. I don't want to rant and rant but in the end do nothing. I am not just type of person. And so I urge everybody to please sign the petition to help make the lives of cats and dogs in China better. The site is http://www.animalsaviors.org. Also, please let everybody know about this horrible horrible act by blogging about it, forwarding the website address to all the people in your contact book, friendster, facebook, multiply etc. This must stop! Please help make this stop!

My Fave Song as of Date

I'm a creature of habit. Meaning, when I like something I tend to repeat it over and over and not get tired of it even if people would tend to find it weird already. Like in UP, there was a time I ate sisig from Gloria's in CASAA every single day until I palpitated one fateful morning from too much cholesterol. I also ate shawarma for dinner and dunkin donut for merienda. And now, my "obssession" fell on Secondhand Serenade's song Fall for You. I just love the strong guitar rifts and melody. I've been playing it over and over since 4PM today and J is now even learning how to play it in the guitar. I'm sharing the video here:

Enjoy!

MJ Laid to Rest

Michael Jackson was finally laid to rest last Tuesday. A memorial was held on his honor by family, friends and fans at LA. The venues were jampacked as a lot of people wanted to share this last day with the great MJ. The outpouring of love and support was great and everybody was choked with tears when little Paris told the world how much she loves her daddy. Michael Jackson's life has been full of controversy. Now he can finally rest in peace.

Discrimination Incident on Filipinos at Cotton On Singapore

I was surfing some blogs when I came upon the blog of Jiki, an accomplished Filipino TV Producer now based in Hong Kong, as she narrates how she was discriminated in Cotton On Singapore by a Malay and Indian woman. Apparently, they were called "Stupid Filipinos!" before getting thrown out of the store. Here is the whole story as cut and pasted from Jiki's blog narrated in a complaint letter to the store's country manager.

1. I have been based in Hong Kong for a while doing TV production work and am currently in Singapore working on a project. While on a window-shopping date with my friend, Daphne, a banker holding a respectable position at Standard Chartered bank, we entered COTTON ON which was having an underwear sale. I was already queuing to pay when another item caught my eye, so I asked Daphne to hold my place while I checked it out. Behind me, an Indian lady, who seemed to be upper-class (and cranky) let out a sigh of impatience as I left the line to look at the piece.

2. I returned to my place at the line in front of the Indian customer while Daphne stayed on the line with me, which in good faith, I had not considered to be a problem.

3. Things remained normal, though, and when we finally reached the counter after about 5 minutes, the Malay girl behind the cashier nicely reminded me that Sale items could not be refunded. There were actually no reactions until a new counter opened up and Daphne was invited to pay for her purchases there. This must have really upset the Indian customer because this provoked her to prod the Malay girl with a long tirade obviously directed at my friend in strong words saying: "ASK THAT GIRL TO HURRY UP! FIRST SHE DOESN'T LINE UP AND JUST SQUEEZES IN WITH HER FRIEND. NOW SHE'S TAKING FOREVER TO MAKE A SIMPLE PURCHASE! SHE SHOULD HAVE CHECKED THE STUFF BEFORE PAYING!"

4. This has me in complete shock. Daphne asked me in Tagalog what the Indian girl said and when I told her, my friend proceeds to defend herself. What really upset and agitated me was when the Indian customer blurted out a painful remark that is derogatory to Filipino maids in particular and to Filipino women in general, to wit: "FILIPINOS! NO WONDER THEY'RE JUST MAIDS!"

5. While my friend is a banker she could not of course let this insult on Filipino maids pass. As a matter of principle -- whatever one's position in life -- this woman had no right to talk down on people. A heated exchange naturally ensued.

6. Things took an ugly turn, however, when the Malay girl at the counter, prompted by the Indian customer, snapped and told my friend to take it outside. My friend, who was by then fully worked up, proceeded to leave but angrily started tossing the underwear on display along the way.

7. Even as I stared dumbfounded, thinking that it could not get any worse, the Malay girl at the counter chased after my friend and screamed at us: "BLOODY STUPID FILIPINOS! GET OUT!

The story made me so angry! Too bad I can't comment on Jiki's blog because I don't have a Livejournal account. Where the hell did these people, who are also from Asia and is living in countries with almost the same financial situation as our country's (even worse! India is a wasteland! The culture there is sooo backward that they believe it is still okay to douse their wives with acid when they displease their husbands!) to call us stupid? They are so ignorant! I justw ant to whack them! They should have sued those b******!

Anyway, what more dissapointing is the way the country manager of the Cotton On Store responded. He failed to see how the gravity of the ssituation thinking that a few gift certificates and retraining the Malay staff will do the trick. What a shame. So I decided to repost this so that many will know what kind of management that store has. II urge the readers to do the same so many will know about this thing. I also urge the Filipino readers of this blog who live in Singapore to boycott the store. Stay away from it if you don't want to be discriminated. As of press gtime, I think Jiki already wrote to Today for media exposure. This kind of thing shouldn't be taken sitting down after all. We Filipinos have a dignity to maintain!

Hmp!

I am getting sick and tired of people asking about my status in ym. For everyone's info, I've put "on house arrest" as my status symbol on ym and I am getting very irritating questions aboout it mostly from people who doesn't understand what it means. The most recent one is, "pwede ba magtanong? why on house arrest ka parin?" I dunno why but it made me feel like I'm Erap and I'm on a real prison. Well, that's not what it meant!

I'm feeling really cranky all of a sudden.

Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince The Movie

I have always been a Harry Potter fan. I would always eagerly wait for my roommate to finish reading her book because that time I can't still afford to buy my own copy. Then came the movie remakes and I am crazy about them too even if some parts are so far from how it is in the book. I love the casting and the action! It's enough to keep me at the edge of my seat! I was dissapointed when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince's showing was moved from November 2008 to July 2009 but now the showing is near and I'm super excited! I surely won't miss watching it on its first day like my usual tradition!

A teaser for all of us:

Can't wait!