When in doubt, read.

The books I still have yet to read this summer and most of these were a part of my book collection for almost one year. It's either I always doze off when reading these or I simply get lazy. Just don't ask me why but I'm determined to finish all the books in my mini-library with much comprehension.

Anyway, from left to right are "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffengger, "Rant" by Chuck Palahnuik (this man and his books, I have known through Ate Patti and The Fight Club), "At First Sight" by Nicholas Sparks and "The Winner Stands Alone" by Paulo Coelho.

For the past 3 nights, I've been reading this book: "Summer Lovin'" by Carly Phillips which title matches the summer season quite well. And, nights? Yes, I have this really good cycle going on around me during vacation... morning 'til afternoon, I'm so much of an internet lurker while at night, just before I sleep, I simply just read books!

Whatever, I just wanted to share this with you guys, that's all.

Few photos from a hundred.

The other day was yet another girl bonding time with 5 of my high school friends. A photoshoot, dancing sessions for my friend's debut, Shakey's pizzas and a taste of GSM Blue. It has been an awfully long day of fun and laughter... no doubt.

Finally managed to do a mini hair flip!

Some lamp post I took a shot of when my friend got
her turn during the game we were playing.

Check out this video we made! My friends even had to do impromptu acting during the whole song. Our random choices of songs included "The Climb" and "Shots "at first but then we decided to just have "Flavor of Life" by Utada Hikaru because the first two were so common already.

(c) Jec Canaberal and Frances Lim for the pictures

Cars and the repairs

Cars were never my thing and I wouldn't care more about them. I barely even search the net about the latest ones compared to my friends who are so updated with this topic.

On another note, I'm more interested on how to tinker mechanical objects since one of our cars , a Toyota Camry, is only a second-hand one and usually, my father would take it to the auto repair shop every weekend because it's engine is failing lately. During the first time I ever went there, I was quite fascinated on how these employees of the shop work and one time, when I was a just a kid, I wondered how these things work especially that thing where cars were put and raised in order for the technicians to work on it.

Moving on, this site, RepairPal, which is designed to help car owners understand about their car problems have been, I think, based on my observations on the website, very helpful. And putting endorsements aside, it's very much accessible and to know what I'm talking about: (sorry for the blur! You can visit the site here.)


A wide variety of common cities which has updated contact numbers of various auto repair shops and, of course, the common auto repair problems. When I showed this website to my father when I opened the website the second time around because of Blogvertise, he said, "Okay ah! (This is cool!)" He immediately checked out the "check engine light" which was the most usual car defect we can get these days next to the car doors malfunctioning.

With these repairs that seem to go on every weekend, I advised my father to just buy a new one... perhaps the newest Camry model?

Excuse the fangirl.

(top) The four of us: Glenda, me, Aly and Jamie
(bottom) With me are Aly and Glenda

I never thought a KPop gathering would be so much fun-filled especially if it's a first time.

Last Saturday, my friends and I went to our first ever gathering, one that was organized by the U-Kiss' fan base here in the country, KissMePH. The gathering's purpose, mainly, was to unite all U-Kiss fans all over the country before First Kiss, the very first concert of U-Kiss. KPop fans here are really lucky that they choose the Philippines instead of Korea as the venue of the concert.

The program did not start immediately at 1 PM, the proposed start time, but it was a time for the fans, like my friends and I, to view the booths present there who, at the same time, were selling KPop stuff. There were these big posters of each of the members and fans were just crazy to take pictures of themselves with it.

At around 2PM, the hosts of the event had games and icebreakers. Aly and I joined one of the games which was the infamous "Pinoy Henyo." We were the fourth team to play it and Aly was made to guess "NH Media" (U-Kiss' entertainment company). At first, everybody (we had eyes to see everyone's anxious expressions. Haha!)

Aly: Tao ba 'to?
Frances: Nope (it wasn't just a person but a group of people, I thought)
Aly: Grupo ng mga tao?
Frances: YES! (imagine my face when she asked that! Anticipating to win the game)
Aly: NH Media?
Frances: OO! OO!

She guessed it for 12 seconds! As winners, we got a CD and a button pin.. each. The program went on for more hours. Song and dance contests were part of it.

1 The U-Kiss CD that we won during the "Pinoy Henyo" game. (The pin isn't in the picture.)
2 The U-Kiss shirt that I won from the raffle.
3 Gathering ticket
4 The bookmark with Ki Seop in it (the guy who gave the lootbag was just nice!)
5 The lootbag where the freebies were put.
6 Pin that was included in the lootbag.
7 Some card that was like a "thank you" card which was given to us.

And so, moving to the highlight of that day... we made a shoot for a video that's supposed to be sent to U-Kiss in Korea! How awesome was that? It started with my friend's friend who works in PEP. He asked her to produce some ideas on how the video would go and we're just all game for it that we immediately thought of some concept. So watch out for the video! Teehee. I just don't know if they're gonna post it or something before the concert.

Frankly, though, I didn't feel any confident that day because of that monthly visitor but that video was such an opportunity to have more "exposures" (MEHGANUN?) so screw it! This is for U-Kiss!

Oh, and by the way, if you still don't have tickets yet for the concerts, call Ticketnet now @ 911-5555! I wouldn't post those ticket prices here... what's the website for!

PS: Lookie who got her Super Junior photobook already!

Mothers to the right, elections to the left

These paper cards the kids made (yes, including me) for our mothers.

This year, Mothers' Day seemed like a rest day for all of us except, well, for those who work in malls and those from COMELEC who are organizing the much-awaited 2010 elections.

Our family had a small celebration of Mothers' Day. The irony, though, was, it was the mothers who prepared our delicious food when it should be practically the fathers and the children who should do them. I didn't take pictures of the food (carbonara, chicken, steak and tiramisu! xD) because of the glutton that took over me. (WHUUZZ)

We visited our grandparents' grave. Yes, grave... ok. I'm missing my grandfather a lot since my grandmother was gone a long time ago already. And as for the evening part, we had to go through the traffic that clogged Mall of Asia. During the long ride, I tried to take a picture of that huge globe-figured thing over there and here was the result: (so much for a globe eh?)

I was slightly fascinated by the result, though, since it was a first time.

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This shouldn't be a reason for voters to lose patience, though. It's very touching how the people who're already in the voters' line for 2 or more hours now... it just shows that, in one way or another, we (not only those who are capable of voting today) are knowledgeable of what are country is going through and that we want change.

And since I'm so tired of voicing out my political opinions to my parents, here's an election humor @alexderossi (Alessandra de Rossi, a Filipina actress) retweeted from @kbrosas (another Filipina entertainer).

Is it Villar, Noynoy, Gibo or Gordon? My family says Noynoy, I say Gibo.

To the beach, we went!

So, last long weekend our family packed our summer clothes and went to the beach for once! To.. Morong, Bataan! I really love it there: clear waters, white sand and beautiful scenery.

Anyway, I posted some pictures I've taken during the trip. (Gahh, I'm such a frustrated photographer)

Dambana ng Kagitingan

I had too much fun experimenting with the aperture mode of the camera.

My trying-hard bokeh

The crab-like figure my cousins made and played around with at the beach.

The calming beach.
(Note: the two people there are both guys just in case you'll
call them opposite-gendered couple or.. whatever xD)

Hungry for Words

While my father was picking out stuff in the grocery store just hours ago, I couldn't help myself but to think that another school year's coming up and I, still, cannot believe I'm already stepping up to my second year of college.

There's so many reasons why I can't believe that I passed my first year. I barely couldn't even pass my Algebra and Calculus long tests during the first and second semesters, respectively. Thank you, though, to these considerate teachers who have noticed my efforts during boardworks despite failing my test papers. Then there's English wherein I had the strangest teacher ever. Physically, she's normal, very normal but everyone in my class (and in others' too) think she's crazy or some word nicer than that. She gave us three papers to work on during each semester during the year so we had six. We blamed her for everything. Who wouldn't anyway? But when I look back on it, I still think of her as someone crazy, inconsiderate but really, on the brighter side, I think she's just helping us cope up with what college has still to offer us in the coming years.

Moving aside those low-unit subjects (those only had 3 units each), my course was never easy. At first, during that summer before, I thought "chicken lang yan!" Modesty aside, I thought I was so good in any computer work: I was one of the fast typers in my batch when our teachers had some contest about it, I finished my final projects in our Computer subjects in each year level in high school easily and I made good presentations during class. I just loved the computer that much. Those thoughts were put down the drain when I entered the middle part of the year. Information Technology was all about Logic, Math, constant programming practices, help from upper class men and strict-but-very-considerate teachers combined. Of course, there were also my friends who still managed to laugh with me even though we're all having the tough times of our lives.

I was on the verge of shifting courses and schools when I thought of quitting. Throughout the second semester, there's this side of me who couldn't help but "meditate" on my deeds: what have I done wrong, why am I failing and... the most painful question of all, am I really go to turn to someone more stupid as I grow older? But there were also the thoughts of pushing myself harder to my goal at that time which was only to pass my first year in the university. "I CAN'T QUIT!!!" That statement helped me to realize that if I quit, one way or another, I'm going to be a quitter. So, everytime I thought about leaving the school and my course, there's those three words that seemed to always follow.

The months passed and summer came. I couldn't enjoy the first few days of April because I was anxious for the release of my grades. Not to mention that I had a hard time accessing my grades online for two reasons: I haven't passed that paper the registrar's office asked the people who had warnings during the first year for their grades (I got 2.74 during the first semester. Only a 0.5 less from the retention grade for the whole year.) and I wasn't able to pay my library dues before summer. I couldn't sleep during those days, worrying that I might receive the first huge shock of my life when I see my grades. Finally, I got over being lazy in paying those library dues and went to school a day just before Calculus remedial classes started and on my way home after, I was that nervous (the kind that would give someone a heart attack) to see my grades and my parents' reactions.

Fortunately, though, as I've seen my grades, I felt relieved and I immediately computed for my GWA which was the most important other than my parents' reactions. I passed Calculus, having a passing grade, a higher grade in English and a programming major subject and a far GWA from the retention grade.

Now, I'm more than thankful. I made through my first year, my supposed-to-be adjustment period for college and second year is a few months ahead of me. Moreover, I was able to prove to myself that I can't just quit in just a snap. I still have got to try harder! And besides, as our ate's and kuya's from IT would tell us... "Wag kang mag-shift. Phase lang yan. Kaya niyo yan!"