Nothing much

1. This morning, I was about to wear a top that I bought in the Philippines (but had not tried on, because I was in a hurry then) when I realized that I could not get it through my head. I kept thinking that there was a button somewhere that I missed, hoping in vain that I will get to wear it. Alas, it seems that it will be an impossible feat, and I will never get to don it unless I rip the neckline to fit my gigantic head :(

2. Star Trek Into Darkness is one of the movies I'm looking forward to watching soon, but at the same time I'm dreading to see it. Why? Because my current favorite actor, Benedict Cumberbatch (from "Sherlock," "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "The Hobbit," to name a few), is the villain! Will I spew bile at his mercilessness or smile at the deep timbre of his voice? Ah, I guess I just need to remind myself that he is an actor by trade, and while he is amazing at it, he is but another person living on the other side of the world. (Watching Sherlock is making me want to try my hand at forensic chemistry, though.)

3. I used to hate my hands - or more specifically, my fingers. I would stare enviously at other girls' units, wishing they- what people describe as "candle-like", long and elegant - were attached to me, too . Mine are shorter and stubbier compared to my Ma's, and there were times when I was a kid that I would secretly give Pa the stink eye for dominating over Ma's genes and passing them on to me. That is, until I saw that the very same ones were on Pa's mother, my Lola Annie. She who bore 8 daughters and a son with my Lolo Manny, who cooked all their meals (with Pa as her constant companion at the wet market) and made sure that their school uniforms and work clothes were washed and pressed and neat. Not to mention, whenever I went to visit my paternal grandparents during my recent trip to the Philippines, she would always have food that she knew I missed laid out on their table, and with a smile would urge me to have some more. One of the best days I had was when I took the family out to Laguna for lunch. On the way home, she remembered that there was a store famous for its Buko (coconut) pie, and she stood in line, out in the heat for a long time just to buy boxes of it, while all of us waited in my cousin's van. The next day, I was greeted by more food prepped by Lola Annie, and like she promised, one of them was a dish I sorely missed and longed to eat for years (escargot and fern in coconut milk). "We already had some last night, and we saved this portion for you because you said you love it!" Squeals and thank yous rushed out from me, I kid you not. Now, whenever I look at my hands, I no longer scrunch my nose at them and try to superimpose those of hand models on them (I still appreciate nice hands though, but I'm ok with mine! In fact, I'm blessed to have them). Now, I smile and remember how thankful I am for Lola Annie. I may have inherited Lolo Manny's love for writing, but it is with the hands I inherited from Lola Annie that I write and type with.

hitRECord

Just stumbled upon a new site - hitRECord, which encourages artists from all over the world to collaborate on projects and make awesome and original videos. I think I spent hours just going through them, and actually was able to make a text record based on their 10minute challenge (where they give you a word, which for this challenge was "repeat",

and you write continuously for 10minutes). I'm pretty proud of it, and it was very apt for me as I am going through an artistic rut. As a fellow contributor said, hitRECord is a procrastinator's nightmare. My username is juliebee, and here's my first textrecord:

http://www.hitrecord.org/records/988876

On Procrastination

Repeat after me: Stop procrastinating. Start doing. Nothing happens if you procrastinate, you just end up wasting your time, you end up doing nothing at all. You end up more frustrated than before because whatever you need to do still needs to be done, and now you have lesser time to do it. Want to be a blogger? Set aside time for blogging. A photographer? Take pictures, for crying out loud, look at websites for inspiration, don't let your camera gather dust in a corner! A writer? Get your pen and jot down your thoughts, interesting or not, they might be the next blockbuster movie for all we know. Don't listen to your pathetic excuses, they are just roadblocks. You hold the key to your future. Not anyone else, just YOU. Start doing. Stop mumbling. I REPEAT. DO. JUST DO. No excuses. No bumbling, no head-scratching, no filler activities that won't amount to anything. Make the most out of the time you have. Take control of your situation. Count how many times I mentioned the word YOU. Why does it matter? Because YOU create YOUR future. I know I'm repeating myself again, but until you remember that, until that is ingrained in you, you will never stop procrastinating, you will never get things done, you will never amount to anything other than a mediocre person who whines about how life sucks. Because YOU have been given all the abilities to be what you want to be. It's all a matter of harvesting those abilities and nurturing them. So I REPEAT. Stop procrastinating. Go. Go after it. Go after your dreams before it is too late. Go, go, go!