umm, ok, adjusting my clothes ban :D

So, let me be realistic - a blanket clothes ban was definitely too much to reach for a clothes-aholic like moi. So, I am adjusting my self-imposed ban to a goal that I can actually realistically achieve - a one-time quarterly purchase from one place only. This will (should?) include both online and offline purchases. Ok, I'll be strong - it will cover both online and offline purchases.

Before this I said that I can buy offline, no questions but I've decided that shopping for clothes is still just that and totally defeats the purpose of a no-clothes-ban. And just to be completely transparent, I have not gotten anything apparel-related even with the caveat. Since I realize that a complete and total lockout would just drive me C-R-A-Z-Y, I decided that for me to be able to succeed, I will need to scale back the, umm, scale of the ban and go for a more achievable target. Hence the new quarterly buy rule.

So, Feb is ending in a couple of days, I'll only have a month before I can make my Q1 purchase. Hehe, you know it won't take long - I have a cart of F21 stuff ready to get checked out. I do, however, want to wait till March rolls around so that I can legitimately claim this as a birthday get for myself :D I am truly hoping the pants I have in the cart will still be available come March 1st since that's the item that's driving this whole ban change. If it's gone, I can possibly go without anything for Q1. Possibly :)

i have no clue what's going on with me

Now this might seem weird or perfectly normal, I personally just can't tell. Ever since I turned my milestone age last year, I noticed that my preference in men has changed dramatically. I have no clue why I have a sudden appreciation for older men. Seriously, I am completely surprised by the times I've found myself thinking, "Well, I would sleep with him", when I'm watching a show or something. Yup, I'm putting it out there, I'm hypothetically slutty, lol.

I realized something had changed when I was watching Deadliest Catch last year and found myself thinking that same thought when I was watching Sig Hansen and later Andy Hillstrand. Well, then I just went gaga over Johnathan Hillstrand. And I'm watching all these new shows of late and I find myself gravitating towards the older characters. For instance, I'm following The Firm starring Josh Lucas whom I completely loved in Sweet Home Alabama but now I find myself looking at the guy playing his older brother (and Juliette Lewis's lover) and thinking that I'd rather go for him than Josh Lucas.

But it was today that I felt compelled to write about my "older men fetish". I mentioned a while back that I was doing some Apple R&D for the company cos we wanna start doing some iOS development. Since I'm heading up the team and I need to know what I'm doing, I've been following the Stanford computer science course 'iPad & iPhone Application Development' via iTunes U. Aside from being enlightening from a technical standpoint, I found myself truly appreciating the lecturer in ways that I did not expect. I was watching the third lecture from the course when I found myself thinking, "If Paul Hegarty was available.....he's cute and funny too".

Let me be clear, I do realize THIS IS ALL ONE-SIDED - and I'm aware that the other party would need to know I even exist on top of needing to be interested as well - am not that delusional that I don't recognize these as facts :D

appsolutely nuts about.....Disposable Hipstamatic

So I've been on the Apple train for a while now and aside from talking about the devices I have, I don't really touch upon the stuff that I have on my toys. And some of the things that I've played around with are worthy of blog mentions. I thought I'd come up with blog posts on some of my must-have apps of the moment and to start it off, I have the Disposable Hipstamatic!

I got it free off of the App store. It works like an old fashioned disposable camera. Of course there's different types to choose from but for my first try, I went with the D-Fault camera. The cute/irritating (depends on your preference) feature about this app is it takes pictures EXACTLY like an old skool film camera. Meaning, you have to finsih shooting the 'film' before you can see the finished product. No instant gratification here :)

I'm completely in love with retro-style photos/videos and apps like Instagram, Hipstamatic, Disposable Hipstamatic, 8mm Vintage and Incredibooth has allowed me to go completely bonkers playing around with image/video manipulation. A sample of an image from the first roll I took using Disposable Hipstamatic:

Yup, that's moi, big nose and all :P I like how the image came out looking like it's aged - as in taken circa 1960s or something to that effect. Excuse my awkwardness as the one thing I do have to complain about both the Disposable Hipstamatic and Hipstamatic app is that there's no way to switch between the back camera and the front-facing camera. All pictures are taken using the back camera. So taking self-portraits, like how I was trying to do, is a bit of a pain and could be hit and miss. I had a few pics in my roll which had me cut in half :) But the overall feel of the photo, how retro the processed image looks, that's what I love about this particular camera in the Disposable Hipstamatic range.

And that concludes this inaugural post of 'appsolutely nuts about'. Lol, I'm just too dorky for my own good!

the voice S2 starts

Ok, so it's actually been a week already and we're actually 3 episodes in right now but I have been really swamped with work to blog concurrently.

I have been really enjoying following the show as it airs this time around. And that Blake Shelton is still very easy on the eyes :D

However, as much as I love Blake, I think he's having a tough time getting great people for his team. A lot of the ones I wanted him to have, those he chose to turn around for, usually ended up with the other judges.

I feel like his selections so far haven't been too diverse though the Alicia Keys backup singer was a surprise get, I'll admit that. A great get.

I'm hotly anticipating the episodes. Possibly more so that I can see Blake Shelton :) Going off tangent, I've been rather great about keeping the posts less wordy. Proud of me, hehe.

my naked2

It's arrived!

I'm pretty excited to get my hands on this palette. The 'range' of colors really look interesting. I'm pretty into shades that are earthy and neutral for the eyes and I love the cooler tones of this palette. I usually gravitate towards shadows that are more warm but something about the Naked2 made me feel like I could definitely spend $40 and make it worthwhile.

My cousin/colleague will be coming up for work in a week or so and I hope he'll bring my palette along so I can play wit it :)

SURVIVOR ONE WORLD STARTS!

I am back on the Survivor train! For the past 2 seasons, I've been seriously getting into Survivor again. I think the last one that I watched prior to the introduction of Redemption Island was right before the Survivor All Stars season. The one with that hippy dude Rupert, I think his name was.

I followed a little the All Stars but the moment Ethan Zorn/Zohn got booted I stopped watching - it was pretty early on too. It didn't hurt the franchise anyhow that I stopped watching but they got me back with the gimmicky reveal of the Redemption Island angle. I thought it put a fresh spin on the show.

After two seasons of RI, the Survivor franchise is morphing itself again. This time, instead of two tribes trying to make it in two different camps - it's two tribes trying to make it in ONE camp. Lol, doesn't sound so impressive all typed out. And honestly, who knows if this reboot will be a success or otherwise. I think it will but you just never know.

It does have me wondering if RI will be a feature now that they've come up with this concept. I have no clue but I think they'll still keep the RI angle. Honestly, I have not done any googling at all. I'm actually wanting to be surprised :)

i'm just so broke!

Though it is my own doing so really, should I be complaining at all? But anyways, despite my financial woes, that are of my own making (2 Balenciaga's, a YSL, a MJ Stam and a Miu Miu Coffret plus a LP Dylan, a Fossil bucket bag and a Corso Como Payson will attest to that :D), I am seriously contemplating a November trip Stateside!

company retreat destination 2012 is.....

CHINA! To be specific, we'll be visiting Beijing and Xian. Yay! Great Wall of China AND Terracotta Warriors - WOOHOO!

As usual, the trip is in May and will be a 6D5N affair. Much as I am excited about the trip, I am rather swamped with a lot of deadlines in these coming months, it's going to be tough to get into any sort of holiday groove considering the holiday itself will be a jam-packed physical extravaganza. I seriously need to get fit, I have been totally and utterly lax in the exercise department - I have gotten FAT! Harsh to see the words typed out in caps but I need to call it as it is. Le sigh. Anyways, hoping to start the 'Get Fit for China' campaign this Saturday. Need to work on stamina in particular - the Great Wall will not defeat me :D

so Kimi Raikkonen stuff is overtaking my life

What else is new? When the Iceman is back in F1, I rejoin the crazy train. Aside from the mountain of work I've been assigned this year, I have been non-stop google-newsing, forum-lurking, youtube-ing all things Kimi Raikkonen.

Currently I'm following the start of 2012 testing in Jerez. So far, his re-assimilation into F1 seems to be going better than expected. The Pirellis have not been the performance hindrance most expected him to have. The whole F1 community was pleasantly surprised when he actually topped the time sheets on the first day of testing. Unofficial as those times were, nonetheless, it surely silenced more than a few of his detractors.

I am not going to be an unrealistic fan and say that based on how well he did during his two days of testing that he'll be fighting for podiums from the get-go come Australia next month. However, at least it's looking like he hasn't lost his touch :)

gosh, i wanna shop F21.com soooooo bad!

I am trying to remain strong. I am. And so far I have not buckled. I checked my account and the last time I got something from them was in November 2011 during Black Friday. It's been a couple of months since and although I have visited the site from time to time, I have not been tempted to get anything till today.

There's a couple of items that I would really love. A pair of black stain cuffed hem pants, a peach blazer, a swiss dot blouse, a cable knit long vest and a black swing skirt. I put them all in my cart then immediately x-ed out of the site. The urge is so strong to buy, I dunno if I can keep the temptation at bay :)