Joy of Luck - Day 05: What Brings Me Luck

There are only seven days to this class, and I am still not finished. :) Well, am slowly catching up...




Day 05 - What Brings Me Luck.

For a person who has this small fear of dying while sleeping, waking up to brand new day is something I consider a big luck, or a big blessing. Mornings are my favorite time of the day - breathing the fresh cool air and greeting people (even the cats) good morning is something so special to me, which is why if I wake up very late, like 9am late, I would feel really down as if a part of me was taken away. Waking up to a new day gives me a fresh start... to correct my past mistakes, and to do things that I needed and wanted to do.

This sunrise picture was from my files; I love seeing the sun rise, and I was so lucky to see one when my sister and I went to Colinas Verdes to walk and jog. I never really realized that seeing one is just a kilometer (or so) away from our place, and now that I know, I have another reason to love the morning.

*** Jenn ***

5MinFri - Waking Up

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I am going to do photo memes here that could impart a personal side of me. For Friday, I am going to do "Five Minute Friday," and this will be a challenge becauseit normally takes me 30 minutes, sometimes 1 hour to do my blog posts (distractions included), but for this meme, I am going to time myself and see what I can come up with in 5 minutes.

Topic for this week is "Waking Up."




Go.

I used to start my day early, but for sometime now, I am waking up later than I should have and at times I do feel guilty about it. Guilty because I somehow neglect fixing my mom's breakfast - she's the main breadwinner here in the house and it pains me that I just couldn't get up to heat some water and prepare something for her. Mom wasn't complaining at all, but of course, being the eldest daughter, I know I have my own responsibilities.

I am actually thinking of setting the alarm so I could wake up as early as 6am. Another change, but I know that if I put my focus on it, I could do it.

Please extend your understanding, mom, alright? The coming week, I will surely wake up early for you. I love you mommy.

Stop.

Whew... I didn't know five minutes could get off as fast as that! Well, I want to become a bit poetic about my post - talking about the significance of waking up as a sign of hope and to correct previous mistakes, but I guess I could write about that next time.

Hmmm... looks like I am going to enjoy this meme.

*** Jenn ***

ps - One thing I look forward to waking up is breakfast. A day is not a day if I don't eat breakfast, and yes, I do love the classic Filipino breakfast, complete with rice and a cup of coffee.

Joy of Luck - Days 03 & 04

The Joy of Luck classes are moving forward and I am trailing, so today I will do a two-in-one post so I could catch up with the classes.


Day 03 - Lucky Symbols.

There are a lot of lucky symbols, including the four-leaf clover and blowing fallen eyelashes, but I personally haven't seen a real four-leaf clover, and I never really believed the eyelashes thing, so I really thought hard what MY lucky symbol is. I want this class to be as personal as it could be, and when I checked my wallet, I saw this piece of earring, and it brought back memories from not so long ago, and felt this is my lucky symbol.

Last February, my sister and I went to Manila City mainly to do church hopping, and after hopping through three churches, we found ourselves walking to Divisoria, a well known market place in the city. Known for its low prices, it is also known to be one nasty place, and people going there are always advised to wear as casual as they can (if they can roam around wearing house clothes, the better) and to not wear any piece of jewelry. It never crossed my mind to take out my earrings - maybe because it looked silver and no snatcher would take interest in it because silver jewelry don't have much value (my earrings are actually made of real white gold). However, after making a stop from walking, I just felt somebody running from behind, and the next thing I know his hands were already in my ears. It happened so fast, yet so slow - as soon as I felt the hands in my ears it seemed my whole world froze and that my life flashed before my eyes.

When it dawned on me that I have lost the earrings, I tried my best to move forward and to never look back, but someone shouted "miss," I looked back and saw a man reaching out and gave me back this. He told me people got ahold of the snatcher but he wasn't able to get both of the earrings. I thanked the man for his kindness, and even if I lost the other piece, having this one to hold on to was something that makes me satisfied to say the least. I am lucky that day... I brought my camera, cell phone, and some cash, and I know that things happen for a reason. I know being robbed was something that would happen to me that day, and contemplating about it, I was thinking: what if I took off my earrings?

I then felt lucky I had my earrings on. Let half of the earrings go, at least I still have my life.

... and my camera and my cell phone. :)




Day 04 - Seven Favorite Things.

I am a person who take delight in many little things, so to think just seven of my favorite things was quite difficult for me. This picture has seven of the oh-so-many favorite things in my list... not necessarily my seven topmost favorites, but seven favorites nonetheless.

1. Yoko, my netbook - Something I acquired July last year with the help of my dearest K. I only had limited money that time, so I really had to think which among the netbooks will pass my standard without breaking my budget, and in the end I chose to buy the Lenovo Ideapad S10-2. I was hoping to get the purple one, but the black one was the only thing they had, so I just went with it.
   
2. Cysho, my cell phone - I didn't own that much cell phones in my life, so in 2007, when my old Nokia 3210 cell phone died, I was hoping to purchase the Motorola V3x, something my sister used to own because it already has a camera and I already tried having pictures printed in 5R sizes and it looked just fine. Luckily, as I check shop after shop to see which has the lowest price (it was priced 12 thousand pesos that time), I got to enter a cell phone shop selling cell phones with NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) seal - something new that time, and it somehow assured me that I will getting a real phone, not just some fakes circulating here and there. They didn't have the Motorola V3x, but they had the Sony Ericsson K800i selling at the same price, so I just went for it. It was a lucky choice, because it had a great camera (almost like having a real digital camera), and up to this day I am still using it.
   
3. Zoe, my iPod Nano. Late 2009, I joined a Facebook contest sponsored by Coke Zero. When I joined, I just joined for the sake of joining it. I never expected to win, but I did! It took nearly a year before I used it; I just let it sit inside my closet because I was hoping to sell it (MP3 players aren't the type of gadgets I took interest in since then), but nobody took interest, so I decided to use it. It has 8GB memory and I already filled half of it, and although I rarely use it, I was happy that I decided to use it.
4. Zooma, my digital camera. While on a holiday last November, an accident came when the tripod where my old camera was sitting on tipped over the beach shore and the lens caught a lot of sand. I survived the rest of the holiday by using my cell phone as my way to capture images, but a few weeks after, I felt a bit depressed because I felt crippled by losing my camera. I was having financial problems that time - and with Christmas coming, I felt I could use money to get some other important things, and K understood my situation. He felt it was partly his fault because it was his tripod and he did lose one of his old cameras because the tripod tipped over, too, so he sent me some money so I could purchase a new camera. It wasn't much, so even if I have been dreaming to own a DSLR camera, I still couldn't. I am pretty much confident using a point and shoot camera, but I also wanted some sense of growth, so I chose between a Canon Powershot SX210is and Canon Powershot SX130is. In the end, I went for the SX130is - the one with the shorter zoom level (12 times optical compared to 14 times), cheaper cost (8,900 pesos compared to 12,900), but the one with a much greater review from different sites. I still am not fully embracing this camera (I felt its image quality wasn't as good as my old camera and that I hate that the flash wasn't giving me much help because the light bounces from the protruded lens), but it's my baby now, so I have to love it. It's not at all bad, though. I am loving its macro function and yes, the longer zoom level did help me a lot.
5. The Piggy Socks. I always wanted to own socks with toes because I own flip flops and it would be difficult to wear flip flops going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I wear socks (after giving it a good rub of petroleum jelly) before I sleep to help in moisturizing my soles, and when I saw this pair of socks at a shop while in La Trinidad, I knew I just have to buy it. :)
6. Nail Polish. Before, I could only apply nail polish in my toenails because I didn't know how to apply nail polish in my fingernails. Late last year, I decided to grow my fingernails and started practicing in applying nail polish in my fingernails. I still am not good, but now I know I can decorate my nails without having to go to the salon.
   
7. Baby Oil. Much cheaper than lotion and much better in moisturizing the skin. I am very happy now that baby oil comes in different scents, and since my favorite color is purple, it's the one I am using now. It smells so good! I don't think I would like to use lotion anymore now that I have this.

I still have a lot (and I mean a lot) of favorite things, but for now this will do. :) The picture in this prompt was taken using my sister's Nokia C3 cell phone, then processed in GIMP by adding some lomo hues.

*** Jenn ***

My Supermoon

I have two photo blogs, and with so many great photo blog memes, I am having a rather confusing dilemma as to which blog will use a particular meme. Currently, I am using the other photo blog (http://shutterhappyjenn.blogspot.com) as some sort of a "technical" photo blog - using photo challenge memes, and this one would be my photo blog with a personal touch, and will do photo memes which I can impart a personal side of me as well.

For Tuesday, I will be doing "Sweet Shot Tuesday," because its aim was to showcase the best picture taken from the previous week. I figured that is something quite personal, because I had to choose which I think was the best photo for me, right?




My photo share for this week was taken the night of 19 March. I have already read in several articles and heard in some news programs about the "Supermoon" happening this day, but its schedule here in the Philippines will come at 2AM of 20 March.

I checked the sky around 9PM of 19 March, just to see if there would be something different to the regular full moon. Well, the moon wasn't as huge as I hoped it would be, but what amazed me was that I could see the moon's dark spots from where I stood.

Figured I might not be able to wait 2AM and worried that the "supermoon" will hide from our neighbor's roof, I decided to take the tripod out and take pictures of the moon at that moment, just because I don't want to miss the moment. In case the moon would be shy of showing itself at 2AM, at least I already have a picture of the moon. :)

I took this picture using the 12x optical zoom of my camera at shutter speed 1/1250. I have always wanted to take a "good" picture of the full moon ever since I had my camera (which I named Zooma), and now some three months later, I finally have it.

*** Jenn ***

ps - My brother waited for 2AM, but decided not to wake me up anymore because he said the clouds were blocking the moon. Well, I may not have caught a glimpse of the actual supermoon, but I am definitely happy I have a picture of the moon that night.

Joy of Luck - Day 2: Green

My posts for the Joy of Luck classes are a little delayed because my Internet connection is not so good this weekend and it was becoming a bit of a burden to me, but I am still okay - there are things I cannot control, so I will just let it pass. :)






Day 2 is about "green," and I decided to take pictures of my rosary. Many years ago, parents came home after hearing mass at a different parish, and my dad was very excited to show me their new rosaries (mom and dad had one each), something they bought from the visiting nuns. Dad was happy about it because profits gathered from selling the rosaries will be used for charitable causes. The rosaries for sale was of different colors and each was labeled according to the colors of birthstones. I expressed how cute the rosaries were, so dad told me that if the nuns will still be there come next Sunday, he'd buy us a rosary each, too.

Luckily, the nuns were there, and dad gave me this rosary. I was born in May, so my birthstone is Emerald. Green isn't one of my favorite colors, but I was happy to receive this - which pretty much was my first rosary. Well, I am loving my rosary because it was very distinct - my siblings' rosaries had a hint of blue (so is mom's), and there is no way we could accidentally exchange each others' rosaries. :)

I am not as religious as my late father was - I don't put a rosary in my pocket and I don't place it under my pillow when I sleep... but being a Catholic, I do know the importance of the rosary, which is why I am taking utmost care of this one. I would see to it that I would place it in my jewelry box after using it, so I won't misplace it. This rosary is one of the few tangible gifts my dad gave me, so I am really cherishing this one.

*** Jenn ***

Joy of Luck - Day 01: Gift

My post for Day 1 was delayed due to Internet problems... but anyway, Day 1 is all about "the Gift," with a question being, "What is a gift that you often take for granted."




The first thing that came to my mind was my feet. Being the bottommost part of my physical self, I often take it for granted - I rarely wear flip flops when at home (I love walking around in bare feet), and the only closed pair of shoes I own are my rubber shoes, which I only wear when I jog. I do own another pair of flats, but I don't get to wear it now as the material already stretched and my feet don't fit good in it anymore. My feet don't receive a whole lot of pampering - I do wash my feet before I sleep at night, but I don't really do much about it - no foot spa, no moisturizing, no massages. Just water and soap at night and I am good. I did get to wear socks before sleeping, but when I forgot doing the routine twice in a row, I was back to my old lax self.

I know I need to give my feet some lovin' because this gift was something I use everyday. I love to walk (whenever I have the chance), and being a traveler, having a pair of feet was one of the best things I have. Heck, my feet were one of the best gifts I received when I was born, come to think of it. I love that I was able to explore places because of my feet, and I love that I am free to go wherever I want (even around the house) without any problems. With everything my feet has given me, it was just right that I give it the love it needs and deserves, but at most times I was totally taking it for granted.

Late February to early March, I went to my paternal hometown and my feet suffered a whole lot of blows. It got dry, my soles got thicker, and on my last day there, I injured my big toe (right foot) because I was stupid to do a jump shot on a hanging bridge. I had to dress my wound time to time and yes, I had to go to the clinic to have a shot of tetanus toxoid... and the whole thing was such a hassle. Still, with an injured foot, I continued walking and traveling.

Realizing that I have taken my feet for granted, my feet are currently on rehabilitation. My toe is now healed - but I still can't cut the nail (main reason why my feet are wearing socks in this picture). I have also started applying petroleum jelly on my feet (including the soles) to soften the skin, too. Just after a day there was an improvement, but of course, I still have to continue moisturizing it. I know my feet won't be as soft as baby's, but at least I know in time my feet will be much better than it is today.

For the gift you've given me feet... I am giving you my gift as well. Thank you for the miles and the experiences, and here's to many more years of walking and discovery!

*** Jenn ***

ps - My cute socks were bought at a shop in La Trinidad, Benguet last 04 March. I really wanted to own socks with toes, and I was very lucky to see a pair while traveling. The socks are now my feet's best friend.

Day 28 - Future

So here it is.... the last day of Joy of Love. It has been a great month of recognizing the love and joys of loving, but yeah, before I close up, my last picture first:


Day 28 - Future.

My sister is currently unemployed, so definitely, one of her primary goals is to get a new job. I know my sister is hoping to get a job overseas, but currently she is trying to get more knowledge and training here. I know my sister has high hopes about things, and I am praying that she will be able to fulfill it all.

Whatever's in store in the future, all I can say to my sister is to keep moving forward. Somewhere along her way around life she will stumble, she will fail... but the true measurement of man is how he gets up after a stumble, so to you my sister... don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to try something new, don't be afraid to risk. Should you fail, get up and use the lessons to make you a better person.

Your family will be here to back you up with any decision you will make. I love you.

Twenty eight days of lovin'. I am so happy I took part of the Joy of Love classes - aside from learning different camera tips, the biggest lesson which I am happy to learn is recognizing the different facets of my family, and be reminded how much they love me as much as I love them.

Cheers to everyone who joined the Joy of Love classes!

*** Jenn ***