shooting target

The thing I don't like about the BRs I said I liked here, is how you tend to be the shooting target during your BR presentation. You are the one that gets questioned and challenged by top management. It's a good thing I recently learned I might have an alternative career!

Yes, this is me at a firing range (thanks to my co-worker D who treated us to this unique exhilarating experience!).

At first, it was pretty unnerving... From the ear-piercing sound when a shot is fired by the other shooters, to the pressure of trying to follow the Armscor instructor's direction of a 30% grip with my right hand and a 70% grip with my left (how do you calculate grip strength in percentages??), to the gun recoiling after each shot - against my will (haha! control issues!). But by my 2nd round, I began to enjoy the thrill.

My very first time to fire a gun...

Not bad for my very first round, right? 

Now I wonder if there are any openings in The Avengers. I wouldn't mind rubbing elbows with the arrogantly witty Tony Stark and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans is just too cute to be hidden under Captain America's mask! Though I still like him better as the Fantastic Four's Torch.). Can my target-paper serve as my resume for Natasha Romanov's job? 

Photos are from here and my own, edited via pixlr.

Click here for the of-dots-&-things version of this post.

Today, I am unloving...

Last Friday, I went shopping for Noah's big school bag since he starts Grade 1 tomorrow. So more accurately, last Friday, not today, I was unloving... the school bag options I had before me.

I came from the Grade 1 orientation that morning and they recommended the big, rectangular trolley bags versus the backpack-looking ones with a trolley. This was because it could both fit the 7 long plastic envelopes which held the materials (books, notebooks, etc.) for each subject, and pulling them out & packing them away would be easier for the kids with the rectangular bag (If you don't know which bag I mean, check out this post from mymomfriday here where she dissects the anatomy of a trolley schoolbag.).

First, I was unloving... that there were no non-cartoon-character designs like the prints above from Dwell Studio (incidentally, it's home/table end-of-season sale time at Rustan's from June 1 to July 31). I would have loved for Noah's bag to have cute elephants and giraffes (Maybe two of each animal for an apt Noah's Ark theme?). Or a print with generic (vs. branded like Disney Cars) cars, trucks, bikes and airplanes like the one above.

Then, I found out how much the trolley bags were and I, not only unloved it, but loathed it. Almost P4,000!!! Unbelievable! Just a little more and you'll be able to buy an old model of Samsonite luggage! It just seemed excessive for a school bag! 

Surprisingly, each character (Justice League vs. Disney Cars vs. Batman vs. Ben 10 for boys) was made by a different manufacturer. So there was an eager salesman ready with his salestalk with every character trolley I inspected. Since every one of them were priced anywhere from P3,000 to P4,000. I ended up listening to each salesman's spiel and decided what to buy based on who gave the best reasons to buy their trolley. Every salesman talked about:

1. what could fit into the bag (legal size folders),
2. what could be placed in each compartment (like extra clothes in this pocket or pencil case & crayons in that pocket),
3. a raincoat for the bag,
4. a free lunch box, and
5. six spinner wheels (Yes, even more than my Samsonite! Seriously!).

But one salesman's spiel stood out - the Lightning McQueen one - because he talked about:

1. the durable plastic material of the cover & the sturdy board material of the bag's sides - strong enough for the child to sit on the bag,
2. the rivets that were lined with a waterproof material because, he said, kids spilling liquids on the bag was unavoidable,
3. the rubber material of the straps' clasps which prevents them from breaking off or pinching a kid's fingers (he would bend the clasps to show it wouldn't break and gave me a tip that a peeking white line signaled plastic),
4. rubber reinforcement on the back of the bag that is aligned with the trolley bars so banging of the bag's back on stair-steps will not lead to the trolley bars getting stuck or destroyed, and finally,
5. the lining of the free lunchbox was thermal to keep food hot. 

So Noah will be going to school tomorrow with a Disney Cars 2 trolley bag. Based on the salestalk, it seemed like it was the best one at the store. But I would have loved better-looking non-character prints or a much lower price. So today, I am unloving... the school bag trolley options in SM last Friday.

Photo from the Facebook page here of Quirks Marketing, distributor of Dwell Studio in the Philippines.

Click here for previous posts from the Today, I Am Unloving series. Click here for the non-schoolbag bag I also bought last Friday. 

oops, my neurosis is showing...

I've heard of a few people who don't start reading a book unless they know they will like the end of the novel. They peek at the last few pages to see how the story ends.

I am the exact opposite. I cannot know how a book ends and still keep on reading it. In fact, when I had just started reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I saw a shirt that read "Dumbledore dies on page 596 (I just saved you 4 hours and $30)" and that spoiler ruined it for me. I stopped reading Book 6 and couldn't even bring myself to read Book 7.

Sigh. Is my neurosis showing again?

Photo from annnniegirl.

Click here for previous posts from the Oops, My Neurosis Is Showing series.

unreal

As I sifted through my Legoland photos for the ones I would include in my Legoland Details post here, I came across this one unexpected photo. Because Legoland's attention to detail has been so unparalleled -- creating unique people on the Daytona bleachers with Lego bricks instead of mini-figs, I guess my expectations rose to unrealistic levels.

To the point that I expected them to create the Pier 39 carousel horses out of bricks rather than the regular Lego horses.

I know... Give someone a hand, and they take your whole arm. Tsk tsk, unfair.

Legoland Malaysia is opening on Septemer 15, 2012 (check out the countdown here). I can't wait to witness Legoland's unmatched awesomeness again here in Asia. Brick horse or not, I am unequivocally still Legoland's #1 fan. 

Photos are my own.

hahahappy

Lately, I haven't been inspired to write any posts for this blog. Maybe it's because I'm happy. After all, this blog was meant to be an outlet for when I am down in the dots, -er, dumps.

Maybe I've been post-less because I've been getting more than my usual dose of sunny days...

Of bubble tea, cupcakes and chalkboard walls...

Of color...

And polka dots...

Even horses...

But it's possible... that I haven't been posting because I'd really rather not push down that post below of the man in a suit who allegedly tweeted me...

Because he's just so incredibly cute.

Okay, I may be going completely insane... Or I could just be insanely hahahappy!

Photos from annnniegirl.

Click on the yellow fonts throughout this post for links to posts you may have missed.

delightful dinner dysfunction

I grew up eating dinner in front of the TV. We did it as a family. We would eat in our den with trays on tables like these (ours weren't as pretty though) and watch TV together. We watched dramas like Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. We watched comedy shows like Three's Company, Who's the Boss?, Punky Brewster, Cosby Show, Alf and Perfect Strangers. I also remember watching Buck Rogers, Greatest American Hero, Moonlighting and Scarecrow & Mrs. King. We talked about our day during commercials, but once the show started again, we either laughed together, groaned together at annoying cliffhangers or playfully teased those that bawled during sad episodes. I didn't have a TV in my room and I never felt I needed it. Perhaps because TV time was family-time rather than alone-time for me.

I realize now it was odd not to sit at the dinnertable at dinner. And if you're wondering how my brother and I learned good table manners with this dinner-in-front-of-the-TV habit, I think it's because our mom used to take us out to lunch every weekend. I remember how when we were kids, we frequented Cafe Rizal in the old Rizal Theater, the Manila Garden coffee shop, SM's Cafe Elysee and Trattoria Uno in Ali Mall (see related post here). I also remember how my little brother would even pull our chairs for my mom & me at these restos. I'm sure the other lunch patrons who saw us kids with our napkins on our laps and scooping our soup away-from-rather-than-towards-us wouldn't have believed we ate our dinners on cafeteria trays in front of the TV.

I guess I have to admit that growing up, our dinners - maybe even our lunches - were not very common. Some would probably even frown upon them and call them dysfunctional. But for me, they were delightful family-bonding memories. And I wouldn't have had them any other way. 

Photo from FYNCT. 

This Twitter's a tease!

Loko 'tong Twitter na 'to! Got an email today with subject: Josh Duhamel has a Tweet for you.

I have to say it's the first email I checked in my inbox of 20 unread emails! Because isn't he just the absolute cutest?

I am so crushing on him that I've watched most of his movies - including When In Rome which, I have to say, has one of the silliest plots ever. And I mean silly-bad, not silly-good. And yet I've watched it an unbelievable amount of times. Just because he looks awfully good in a suit!

Josh Duhamel has a Tweet for me. Haha! I wish!

Have to say, even if it wasn't true, that email from Twitter made my day!

Photos from here, here and here.