Sunday, December 31, 2006

The best to you and yours...

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Procrastination to the nth level!

Yup...that's what I said...looking at my watch which reads 6:15pm...and I haven't done one invitation yet today...none yesterday =P

Gotta love it!

I needed a break...so I made some cards yesterday. I'm participating in the 12th Night Presentation with the EK Stationer's Guild. I aquired some Indian textile woodblocks this year. I used water soluable ink and made some prints with them for notecards for the presentation next week.

Here is a pic of one of the stamps:



Here are some cards:



This is a closeup of two cards made with one big stamp:



All set to go out...I ended up making 12 cards...so they are packaged in 2 sets of 6 =)



For complete pics, check out my multiply site here.

ok...enough of this...going to wade through some invitations now...will cook food in a bit.

Happy New Year, if I don't get a chance to say so again before next year.

Ciao!

Friday, December 29, 2006

Cool thing of the day =)



I got this as a favor for a wedding I went to this past year...and I finally found them online.

Cool, huh?

Thursday, December 28, 2006

I so want this!!



If you need an idea for something to buy me...here it is! I would love this, but would never spend $32 on it.

Here's the website about it.

How cool is this! Every slice is guaranteed at least 2 sides!!!

*la de da* Nifty things like this make me happy =)

Note to self: REMEMBER HOW TO SAY NO!

I have to say that I am regreting that I agreed to do some invitations for my friend for her friend's wedding! And I am way under charging her...b/c at this rate it will take me over 10 hours to do all the work...now if I charged $50-$100 and hour...I'd make a killing *g* but at this rate I am seriously losing $$$ as I'm only charging about 20% of what I should be.

So...lessons learned.
1) Never agree to something until you've seen the materials.
2) NEVER undercharge...over estimate and come in under if necessary!
3) Phantom Line 100 is my long lost friend!
4) Rotring pens don't work well on Cold press paper.
5) Dip pen needs to be throughly blotted beforing coming into contact with hot press paper.
6) NEED Deep tissue full body message after every 20 envelopes (should be including in the price quote)!!
7) NEED more than 2 weeks to complete over 100 envelopes!!!!

So this is what I've done so far.



So...here's my set-up...



Another view (tools from left: Brause nib (1 1/2 mm), Phantom Line 100, good lighting, and template plotter on my drafting board, practice sheet, calligraphy book and scrap paper.)



See how you can see the "lines" through the dark plastic which is reflected from the left (template attached to the clear plastic).



In my possession I have half of the invitations and I've I've only completed about 20 so far!!! I've got another 50+ coming. I'm suppose to meet my friend today to pick up the rest of them. Guess what I'll be doing over the weekend. Did I mention that the bride wants these to be mailed out the first week of January!!!!

Big THANK YOU to Joan for helping me keep my sanity and lending me her "Phantom Line 100". I don't know what I would have done without that gizmo!!!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Deep Breathe...



This is how decorated I got for the holidays...

*deep breathe in...deep breathe out*

I'm much calmer today than I was yesterday!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas (or whatever holiday you are celebrating). I had a very nice Christmas: both in Florida and at home here in Queens, NY.

Florida was lovely. I had a great time visiting with my grandfather. I took a few pics and they are up on my multiply site. Click here.

I have a ton of things on my To Do List...I am currently in the process of deleting and organizing my inbox (left over from my return from Asia).

I had a lovely surprise yesterday...around 2pm Manu called me from India =) We had a nice little chat...asking me how my holidays and trip was and him telling me about his trip home and when he'd be back. It was nice to hear his voice...it's been almost 3 weeks *who's counting right* since I last spoke with him.

Anyhoo...back to work...have a great day!

Monday, December 25, 2006

F*cked UP!!!!!

**Caution: Do not read any futher if you have a weak heart or you can't stand profanity 'cause this shit it full of it!**

I was having a good day up until this point. I can recap the good points later...right now I am PISSED that I fucked up my iPod! I had over 2500 songs on my iPod just a few moments ago...then b/c of all the iTunes messed up and shit I was using ephPod...and I accidently DELETED all my songs on my iPod.

Right now the SHIT IS FUCKING EMPLTY!!!!

DAMN IT!!!

What the FUCK! I am so pissed off right now...all I'm thinking about it how I can recover my songs without downloading each and every fucking song one by fucking one...and I don't think I can go to sleep right now! I have to get up in the morning and go to WORK.

I'm such an ASSHOLE!

FUCK!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

iPod quick fix?

Recently, my old computer crashed...and I ended up buying a new one (yeah me =)!) but all my files were lost =( My friend let me use some software to try to save some of the files from my hard drive to an external drive (which I am now finding out was also corrupt! *doh!*

So now I have a new computer and iTunes, but I can't synch my iPod to it!!! *damn frustrating!!!*

So here I am today, chit chatting with Rob, my cousin Lisa's husband, and he tells me about ephPod! See article here...

I will try this as soon as I get home...I sure home it works!! Just thinking about it is making me really happy!!!

Friday, December 22, 2006

I'm in Florida =)

Amd I am throughly enjoying the 70 degree weather and the company of my grandfather =) ...and Aunt Joyce, Lisa and Rob =) It has been quite nice...

Tomorrow, Aunt Joyce will be having a party at the house...it should be nice...I think she said there will be about 30 people here.

Then, going back home on Sunday =(

WOW, my time here is short...

If I don't get a chance to say so beforehand...HAPPY HOLIDAYS =)

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Damn!

You know...this jetlag thing is CRAZY! On Monday into Tuesday, I slept from 2am to 5am...and from Tuesday into Wednesday, I slept from 1:45am to 4:30am...so I was totally shot yesterday...I had some stuff to do yesterday...well...never got done, b/c I sat on my bed yesterday around 7pm...and didn't wake up until 4am this morning...so here I am...bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:36am...showered, cleaned room, drinking big cup of tea...and will be leaving for work shortly!

I hope this means I'm back to normal now =P

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The rest are up...

Hong Kong pics are up ~ 37...

Japan pics are up ~ 120 something!

Enjoy!!

Below is a cool pic of me and my brother...look ma, we're not fighting *lol*

Philippines pics are up...

Check them out here. There are about 70 pics here...

I'm using a program called "Multiply"...you can upload your pics from other places like Kodak Photo Easy Share, Flickr, Shutterfly, etc. so that everything is in one place.

Later I have to upload the Hong Kong and Japan pics...

Enjoy!

Monday, December 18, 2006

A sampling...

Here are some of my dad's pictures...

Enjoy =)



My family (from the left: my dad, my brother, my mom's cousin (Edward), my mom, my mom's brothers (Uncle Juanito and Uncle Tony) and me)




The Happy Couple (my cousin Gwen and her husband, Karlo)




First cousins (Sidney, Shelly, Emily, my brother, Gordon, and me)




Visiting my gtandparents




THE STEPS *that almost killed my mother*




The Survivors

Sunday, December 17, 2006

I'M HOME!!!!

Hey everyone,
I'm back...but I am totally JETLAGGED! I left Japan at 6am their time, which is 8pm EST...and I couldn't sleep on the plane! So I was awake for like 17 hours straight...then took at 6 hour nap =) So now I'm wide awake! I am trugging through my emails...can you believe a person can get 1220 work emails, 1000 yahoo emails, 190 gmail emails...and I can't possibly look at all this right now!!!!

So please...give me a few days to either write you back...or call you...but for now...I have to unpack from this trip...and pack for my Florida trip (to visit my grandfather) on Thursday...so that means I have to wrap all his gifts and pack those...wrap all my family's gifts and pack those (b/c I land at home on Christmas eve)...so I have so much ahead of me...tomorrow I have to do last minute Christmas shopping (not looking forward to this!) and pick up my mail from the past 12 days!

So much to do...so little time!

I hope everyone is well...

Miss ya!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Buddist temples are cool...

...but not for my mom! There was a lot of walking today, and my mom got tired really fast! So...she was complaining that her feet hurt and she wanted to sit down and there wasn't anywhere for her to sit down...let's just say that it was a long day, but I had fun. I walked alot and went to the top of the temple...I'll have to post pics later when I get home. The view was spectacular...it was really beautiful. Today we were in Kyoto, Japan.

Tomorrow we will be in Kobe, Japan. Hopefully I will find some goodies tomorrow...where we were today was pricy. (Mind you everything in Japan is expensive, but usually things in the street are cheaper) Today we were mainly in a tourist area...tomorrow we will try to find a better deal =)

Sayonara!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Touring in Japan

So today we are going to visit Kyoto proper...touring around...visiting a temple and perhaps doing a little shopping. Then we will be having dinner in Kyoto tonight.

Tomorrow, we are suppose to go to Kobe and visit a festival called Illuminations...it's a street festival and is suppose to be a lot of fun. Then I am suppose to meet up with my friend Jon Ho, he's from RI and friends with Danni and Tim. He's here in Japan teaching English in schools. He's working today, but has the weekend off. He had plans for us to tour in Kyoto and Osaka, but I couldn't get out of my plans with my family. Dr. Ohkawa insisted that I invite Jon to dinner with us tomorrow in Kobe. Jon is going to the tattoo convention in Osaka on Sunday and was telling me about it (part of our plans) but I can't =( b/c my flight leaves on Sunday at 8:30am so we have to leave the house at 6am!!!

I'm a little bummed, but it's cool...I get to visit with him for a little bit so...

That's the plan for now...

I’m Japan!!!

Hey there!
I made it to Osaka, Japan...and now I’m in Kyoto=)

We finally made it to my dad’s friend’s house in Kyoto.  It rained for the whole time that I was in Hong Kong =( and there wasn’t as much shopping that I thought because we were staying the in the equivalent of 5th Ave in NY.  All the stores were upscale (Prada, Gucci, Armani, etc) and I couldn't check out the stuff I was looking for.
At the moment I am typing on 毛yボアrdてゃt伊s keyboard that is in Japanese (as you can tell from the characters above!). All the shortcuts are different and the colon, @ symbol...everything is mixed up!

Anyway...I can't go back and change it now...I'm beat and am about to go to bed. This is the first place that I've stayed that has had internet access! So I hope to be able to write a little more again before I come back =)

Sayonara!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I'm in Hong kong!!!

And boy are things expensive! It's costing me $50 HK for 15 mins...at 7.7 exchange rate it's roughtly costing me over $6 buck? I don't know...I'm rushing so I don't go over =P

Anyway...things are nice here...360 change from Manilia...and I'm having a nice time...getting on my parent's nerves and vice versa...but I don't have the time to check email or anything! It's killing me.

Talk with you later.

G

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Raining in the tropics...

So here I am about to eat dinner at my aunt's house...with a houseful of cousins. It's been raining for the past day or so...and in 2 days we will be leaving the Philippines and heading over to Hong Kong.

It's really fun visiting with all of my family...and I'll have to write later about my cousin Gwen's wedding and the night club we went to last night =)

And...the news about all my cousins and what they have been up to...

At the moment my mom is calling me for dinner...and this dial up is KILLING ME!

Until next time...

Thursday, December 07, 2006

I'm here in the Philippines!

I got here at 12:35am (Philippines time) yesterday...

So now we are going out and they are rushing me out the door...at my cousin's house.

I'm staying with my uncle that doesn't own a computer so I don't know when I'll be able to post again.

Caio.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

GONE!!!

I'm 10 min from leaving for the airport!

WHOO HOO!!!

I'll try and email as I go along =)

Take care,
G

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Going...going...

...almost gone...I'll try and post tomorrow before I leave, but I might not get the chance so...

SEE YA!!!!

I'm off to the Orient =)

I'll try and touch base if I'm near a computer...

Take care!

me =)

Monday, December 04, 2006

Me too...(taken from Laura)

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits.
Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle.
Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it.
You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

I'm on vacation...

...in my head...but will really be on vacation in 2 DAYS!!!

WHOO HOO! I can't wait =)

So much stuff to do in the meanwhile...
1) PACK! EEK! I have so much to do!
2) STUDY and take a FINAL...it's technically due on Friday, but I'm leaving Wednesday morning...so I've got 2 days to do it. (*NOTE= I'm a little behind b/c I was away Fri/Sat for SCA stuff and Sunday was spent finish up my final project for my other class.)
3) Final project for same said class.
4) Finish writing up my Christmas cards (just got the stamps today).
5) Mail a couple of gifts tomorrow.
6) Semi-pack for Florida trip so when I get back from Asia - I won't have much to think about.
7) I would love to squeeze in a workout tomorrow b/c I'm surely not exercising while I'm on vacation *g* - but that is being very ambitious of me and it all depends on how much I get done tonight!

When I get back I've got to:
1) Book my flight to CO.
2) Book my flight to TX.
3) Complete registration for RT convention!
4) Book hotel for RT in TX.
5) Figure out when I can squeeze in a quickie trip to Paris...it's been forever!
6) Do 2 scrolls =P

Today I leave you with a fabu pic of me and the Fluers...Feb is just around the corner! I love you guys =)