A Break.

Okay, I kind of took a break from blogging ever since I got into Twitter. But that wasn't the only break I took.

After more than 5 years of being with the same company, I finally resigned. Yes, you heard me right. Some people actually didn't expect it since I've been with the same company for an eternity already. In my first job, I stayed with the company for 5 months only, so it was actually my second job, but it seemed like the first one.

A lot of people asked me why I resigned, I actually have nothing against the company (omitting names so it doesn't show up in Google) I got a lot in terms of career, salary, perks (Japan trip, 2 Ipods, 2 promotions), but I needed growth. Growth in terms of learning, not necessarily moving up the ladder. After being with a company for 5 years or so, you eventually 'get' everything and there's really nothing left to learn. Well maybe there is, there are more to learn, but I'm already honed and ready to move on to the next chapter of my career. I am not closing my doors to mobile, but for now, I need a break from it. I need that fresh new start. I need to be shaken out of my comfort zone.

And I am finally getting it.

And I am actually loving it.

Welcome to corporate world, dressing up, wearing closed shoes *gasp*, wearing slacks *gasp*, trainings, knowing only a handful of people, adjusting to the company and work, adjusting to a new set of people and teammates. It's like being a newbie in a new school. Sort of what a freshman would probably feel (completely forgot about it, after 10 years ).

Earning Through Blogging Part 2.

I wish I can also earn a lot by blogging! This is my second post about it already, (first here). I thought about it, I mentioned before in my blog that I wanted to be a food blogger, but I'm usually lost for words when eating really good food, so I can't do that. I don't have other passions in life, hmm baking could be counted but it's not like I bake every week or every single day so how am I supposed to put entries on that, right? I usually just blog on random things :)) And I had a stand before that I will try to minimize entries on my personal life since this blog is Google-able, I don't want people that I really don't know know a lot about my life :) Just snippets of stories but I don't think I'm ever pouring my whole story in my blog. Well I'm no celebrity so my life isn't really that much interesting, the usual interesting blog posts I have are about travels (well these are the ones that I like), but then again I'm not really no Richierich to be able to travel all the time :D

And so far, since placing the Google Ads, I've never earned a single dollar at all :( Oh well, I guess my blog will never be money making thing. I have to come up with something else so I can earn my first million!

Fixed.

I finally figured out a way to fix my blog, instead of tweaking the html codes, which might result to another disaster, and for the lack of time in my hands to start from scratch (making a layout, thinking of a 'theme',etc), I've decided to use a blogspot template and just edit my way from there.

I don't really mind having to use a blog template, keeping it clean(the codes), simple(the site) and easier to use(for me), but I've always enjoyed having to study the html codes. The filling up my own 'template' from scratch edited in notepad, reminiscent of high school days, with the blogger codes so it's accordance to the blogspot html codes so the entries would actually appear.

And now since I'll be using the blog template, I'll start maximizing the usage like using 'tags' for the entries :) And if I get really that OC, I'd probably end up editing all my entries to add those tags per entry :D

I even enabled the comments! :p People can now leave comments hahaha.

Crap.

Crap crap crap. I enabled the links to the title of my posts but when I click on the Archive the titles disappear for old entries.

Shit. Time to revamp the blog and get the latest blogspot codes for the postings.

This is a whole lot of crap to deal with at 1:14 in the morning. It's so stupid of me for not backing up the html codes before doing the slightest change on it. What the F. I should have learned my lesson after college, back up back up back up.

Blogs.

I wonder if a lot of people have secret blogs, I mean aside from keeping one for public consumption,it's another blog for writing anonymously, about you know, the rest of the stuff in between. Somewhat like having double identities online.

I just realized I actually have 4 blogs, this one, a surprise gift blog(this one's anonymous, I wrote in it for more than a year and gave the url as the gift), a blog with some recipes of some of the stuff I baked(so I don't lose them), and the IG blog for polls(the one for fun).

I still like writing on paper, so the rest that's not for public consumption, those things 'in between', it's still in my journal.

I'm still kind of iffy with blogs because what if one day, blogspot.com shuts down and everything's just gone, right? My old free domain/hosting just shut down before. Without even sending an email. I mean it could happen.

Scurry.

Earning through Blogging.

Ever since I've come across with some girl's personal blog, who stopped working, and whose spouse stopped working as well, because she's earning so much from her blog, I've been totally inspired of thinking ways on how the hell would I earn so much from writing my personal stories online. How cool is that? I think the girl posts one entry everyday, and posts one picture everyday (of random things!) and she gets so many hits a day. I think the story was that she was a web designer and she blogged bad stuff about her work, then they read the blog and she got fired but it turned out for the best because she became a stay home mom. (I forgot the link, I lost the url when Mozilla automatically updated my Firefox.)

Then I was surfing yesterday, I came across a pay-per-post site, then the top earner for the month earns something like $500. That's P20,000 already, I mean for extra cash, it's not bad right? So if you've noticed something, I already have the Google ad sense in my sidebar :) And I would appreciate it if you guys, the readers, would click on it. Haha, because I'm not supposed to click it myself because that would be kind of cheating :)

And then, I also read this last week, it's one of the blogs I surf, our awesome planet, then he earns 6 figure blogging income annualy, I'm not sure if its USD or in Pesos, but still, right? Something that you do for fun, earns you some extra cash.

Hmmm, but I've got to write some interesting posts to do that, that's one problem. I have to have a following, that's the second one :P Third, I have to write a lot of posts, and with the rate I'm going, I don't think I'll have enough hits in a month.

I'm getting there, STEP 1! I think I'm getting into the writing thing again, it's my 1st post for the month :D That's a start :)

Talk about sheer optimism!

Eons Ago.

Yes, it's been ages since I last wrote anything here. But I've been planning to write something for a long time, like I wanted to post the pictures of the stuff that I baked in the past few months, or even write an entry about a recent trip to Baguio.

But I've been busy.. I guess people have been busy these days, because this isn't the only blog that's not updated. Hahaha. Or maybe there's something with the summer heat that suddenly made writing one's thoughts a conscious effort. It used to be effortless, I mean for me. I used to have free flowing thoughts and I can easily just blab about anything under the sun. But how can I blab on anything under the sun when I'm drenched with sweat while I'm on it. :P Okay, I'll stop being literal. Hehe.

For the meantime, I'll just enjoy what's left of the summer heat and go back to blogging really really soon.

Lazy blogger signing off. :)

Currently Raving.

2005 Entries Back. Thank God for Google, I swear I owe the guys behind Google! Thanks a bunch. Even if my reecah.coms.ph entries are practically non existent, I was able to google them. Uhu. Their system cached the old entries and I was able to view them and copy paste to blogspot. I guess that's also a drawback if you want to delete your entries completely, like emptying your recycle bin. But na-ah, doesn't work online because deleted stuff can possibly be recovered and found :)

White Chocolate Croissant. I'm a big fan of white chocolate. I loooove this croissant, I tried it from Breadtalk, and man, it's a piece of heaven on earth. Manna! I love the bear filled with white chocolate also, but this one's sooo damn good. After heating it up in the oven toaster, the white chocolate melts and it's ooooozing with white chocolate goodness. I used to eat the pizza, floss, ham and cheese, etc on Breadtalk, but now I'm trying to explore their dessert pastries.

Taco Jolly Hotdog. If you know me very well, you'll know that I'm a Mcdo baby. CERTIFIED Mcdo baby,and that's even after watching Supersize Me. Well, Supersize me then! Haha. Anyway, I like chili dogs, and this one's yummy because it has that chili dog taste and ground beef. Well it's basically yummy.

The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm not yet done but it's a really good book. A lot of people are raving about it :) I guess the title says it all. It would really be an interesting thing to time travel. Oh and to clarify, book's different from Buttefly Effect, different sort of time traveling. Both are equally interesting though. Oh and tips for people who love books, wait for Powerbooks' 20% off sale. Then hoard! That's what I do, I list down the titles of the books that I want to read(in my small notebook mentioned in an earlier entry haha) then I buy it during the sale. I had to reserve this book twice before getting a copy of it during the sale. I guess a lot of people really wanted a copy of this, huh? :) And one more thing that I do, I go to barnesandnoble.com then I type the book I recently read then view the "people who bought this book, also bought these books". So that gives me ideas on what other books to read. I guess books have demographics also. Readers are inclined to certain books even if they have totally different topics, writers or stories. And searching on Barnes and Noble apparently works for me, because when the "people who bought this book, also bought these books" list shows, I see that I've read some of the books mentioned on the list.

The Prestige. I saw this movie last weekend, and after watching it, I can only say one word, WHOAH. I loved the movie :) Batman vs Wolverine! Haha.

That's basically it :) Happy Halloween!

BusyBee.

I've been super busy with stuff, well work mostly, that I don't have time to blog or surf anymore. Either I'm busy or I'm just really trying hard to make myself busy (so I won't miss Ian to much). I guess that's the irony of it, you have all the time in the world.. but you when you think hard about it, you have so little time.

Okay, so there's this OCness in me, I have this little Jordi Labanda notebook that I have in my bag with my list of 'stuff to do', 'movies to watch', 'stuff to buy', etc. It's not that I live by this small notebook, but when I have random thoughts I write them down so I won't forget. I really have short term memory. And you'll never know, my random idea could be the next big thing right? Who knows, I might even be thinking already for the next innovation. Anyway, I have two pages in my notebook that says 'stuff to do' and I don't think I'm halfway through the list. Like bake the two bags of chocolate chips in the ref, write my Christmas list (which is badly needed to be done asap), clear the old study table in my room, etc. I don't even go out that much, I'm not even out now and it's Fri night. I'm not complaining haha, I'm too tired and sleepy to go out tonight. Hay, I wish I had the next episode of Grey's Anatomy, I'm watching season 3 already. That would suffice as Friday treat for myself. :) Mcdreamy..

For the meantime, I guess I better start doing my Christmas List. Crap, it's November next week. I start shopping for gifts by November, and I absolutely still have no idea on what to get people :D Good luck to me!

Blog's Demise

I just found out a few days ago that my old site isn't working at all. Even worse, it's just not working per se, everything's gone. I had reecah.coms.ph since 2003, and since it's been filled up with ads all over early this year, I had to switch to blogspot and have the url redirect the user here. Thing is, it's not working at all, and I don't think I can ever access my old entries again. I'm keeping my hopes up that maybe one day it will go back. I'm not agitated at all so it's okay. Although I have some entries there, I think I'll be okay.

When I signed up for my old site, I just wanted to design a site, practice my HTML skills, not primarily to write stuff. After a while, I guess blogging grew on me. Well the stuff I wrote were meant for public consumption, it's not like I wrote some juicy details about anything that's not meant to be read or entries that I wanted to keep forever. Well I guess for posterity's sake, like it would be interesting if my mom had a blog back then, and I'll be able to read it. I still have years ahead of me to write(I hope blogspot doesn't shutdown, I read that it's owned by Google) Plus I have a real journal that's handwritten and kept safe in my room. The entries online are more of like stories we tell, stories and experiences we tell our friends, stuff that we share. I mean the fact that people were able to read it, I guess it already served it purpose. And I have another journal with me, so it's okay :) But if people are attached to their entries and it's the only journal they have, I guess they have to learn to back up their entries. Back up back up back up. One of the lessons I learned when I was in college, back up all your files.. one day your PC just might crash. Same thing with blogs, who knows, one day everything might just crash. Okay I sound too pessimistic, but it's a harsh reality because it happened to me.

Gizoogled.

Vanilla Filled.

I've always had a knizzack fo` bak'n, I think I started bak'n since I was in gradeschool sho nuff. Bizzy then I J-to-tha-izzust use those instant thingamizzles where you're jizzay supposed ta add cracka n eggs like this and like that and like this and uh. S-to-tha-izzort of like tha instant pancakes that everyone buys in tha grocery. And while mah pusha tha chizzef, prides in different dishes he can cook, I'm proud of pastries I bake. I can't differentiate tha taste of Paprika, Oregano, Rosemary n tha rizzle of tha herbs stacked in our kitchen, I'm only certain wit tha taste of Basil leaves coz it's tha one used fo` Pesto. But terms like
"Chocolate Ganache" sends tingle in mah body, confectiona's sugar is mah bestfriend, n chocolizzles can be mah boyfriend (izzy kidd'n)

Hmm even better, click on this. This is soooo funny.

Food Blog Part 2.

This is so funny, my blockmate Lawrz, is launching a food review site, and I'm gonna be part of it ;) So my plans of being a food critic is running it's course, yeahba, I'm getting there. Ramblings to reality. I guess I'd have to hone my writing skills for that. I think it's an exciting endeavor and I'm gonna support his project.

Actually he told me about it a long time ago, but I never really thought that it would push through, but now he already bought the domain and the site's on it's way. I'll post the URL here once it's up and running.

Food Blog.

I've been kind of busy lately, that I don't even get to surf the net at work or at home during weekends. But before that 'busy' time, I started surfing through food blogs. Yes, for someone who eats every 2 hours, you can only imagine how much my mouth watered looking through the sites. (Okay, that was kind of gross.. Not really a pretty picture.) Examples are Our Awesome Planet (although this has a lot of other things) and Dessert Comes First(my favorite food blog).

Then *boom*.. I suddenly want my own food blog :)

Haha, but then I'd have to change everything else, because I can't suddenly insert my own thoughts or other experiences if I suddenly become a food blogger, right? :p Hmm but I soooo love to eat, I love the whole dining experience, I love dessert, and even with my family/clan after our lunch or dinner, we get coffee or dessert after because for us it's just more than food but it's also quality time with the family, I just love the whole experience.. but I don't think I'm fit to write food reviews. Haha, because well for me I don't think I have that peculiar taste bud where I can differentiate the food, I don't even think bland food is bland, and it's also kind of subjective. And I don't want to discourage people from eating in a resto because I didn't enjoy my food there, let them try for themselves right? :) Plus I don't have pictures hahaha. Well I used to take dessert pictures in my phone, but I dunno I might have deleted them because I just found the one I posted, it's a dessert from UCC, and the other pic is me pigging out in the office. Oh and I'm so bad at remembering the names of food I ate.

Okay so in my attempt to blog about food, here's my take :) I'll just write about some restos in the South. Because I tried to google some of the new restos in Westgate Alabang, and nobody has written an entry about them yet. And when it comes to food, the only words that come out of my mouth usually are either "Heaven" or "Yummmmm". So forgive me if I'm not as descriptive :p Hahaha, if you want descriptive blog food entries, visit those mentioned above. I think mine's gonna be brief :D

Here are some on the top of my head in Westgate Alabang:
1. French Corner - It's formerly known as Voulez Vous, I read that it's Billy King's, the former executive chef of Le Souffle. It's the one in the corner, in front of Total, the building that was supposed to be Country Waffles. Anyway, it's definitely a date place, ate there with family and when we got in they immediately asked if there was any special occasion like if it was anniversary or birthday. I dunno what they have in store if it's your anniversary, for birthday I think there's cake for the celebrant, dunno though if it's for free. I can't remember if they sing for the celebrant :) Food is yummy. Here's the part where I realize that I can't be a food blogger because I actually forgot the exact stuff that we ate. The organic salad of some sort was good, lamb's good too, salmon's good, pasta's good also :) Chocolate souffle - heaven :) It's a bit pricey though.
2. Poquito Mas - Splatino cuisine, and this one you can find also in other places, I think I saw one in Sta. Rosa. Food's cheap, I think I expected the prices to be a bit high that's why I thought it was cheap, but the food's well.. just okay. I liked the taco like dumpling :)
3. Zong - This is comfort food, well for me chinese food = comfort food. It's family food :) I like Zong because it has better ambiance than North Park in town(town = ATC, in case someone not from south comes upon this site haha). Chinese food is generally cheap, right? I mean compared to other cuisines. I love the Singaporean Sweet and Sour Fish, it's the best sweet and sour fish I've ever tasted in all the Chinese restos.
4. UCC Cafe - I've only tried their desserts, and they're really really good :) HEAVEN. Nice place to chill out.
5. Hula hula - This one's new, there's even a new Oyster resto beside it, it's located after Zong and I've been wanting to try to eat here since I saw it open, and I even tried to Google it so I'll know the reviews on what's good here :) But when Ian and I planned to eat here, I was late and we ended up eating in Pizza Company because we might miss our movie, so it was postponed and we just ate there recently. Funny because I was looking for an affirmation that they serve good food, and day before we ate there, Russ texted me. :) So there, I loooved Mess of Steaks, they said it's good for just one, but it's actually good for two people. Yummy good food.
6. Cafe Breton - Yummmmmy crepes. Nuff said :)

So how's that for my first attempt to do a food review? Okay, I guess I'm not as good as the other blogs, so I'd probably stick to my thoughts and other ramblings :) Guess I'm better off with that :)

What's In My Bag.

I got this from Russ' post before, this is interesting.. posting what's inside your bag. These are all the things inside my bag yesterday, Friday - last day of work week. Just poured everything out, I didn't add anything, didn't take out anything. I'd love to see what's inside your bag - especially in Len's ultra big bag hahaha, and Mish's bag. The weird thing is, I bring a small bag sometimes, or a really big bag, but the contents are still the same :)

• umbrella - I bring an umbrella all the time, got this from my Ateneo days because of walking back and forth from condo to school, and transferring from building to building. I just have to have an umbrella, in case it rains? or in case it gets really really sunny. I just got used to it. Plus mine's so small, it's even smaller than my brush. Haha, got it from the MNG sale.
• brush - Well obviously for my hair
• glasses - Yep, I wear one, wear it only at work, don't have a perfect vision anymore, it's 100-50
• red coin purse - For coins, it gets bulky in the wallet
• black wallet
• petroleum jelly - The only kikay thing in my bag, believe it or not, for chapped lips. Contrary to what other people think, because they think that I have all these make up stuff in my bag, I just bring only this one. Because people ask me for stuff like blush, etc, but I really don't have it in my bag. I don't bring my kikay kit with me, I leave it at home.
• Smint - I love spearmint Smint!
• Tissue - Can't live without a pack in my bag
• Hand Sanitizer - Can't live without this either, Bath and Body Works' Hand Sanitizers are the best
• Jordi Labanda Notebook and Pen - Yup, I carry this with me for lists, etc. I write stuff, no matter how important/unimportant they are. And I loooove Jordi Labanda small notebooks. I scribble a lot, movies I missed, stuff to buy, stuff to do, stuff to pack... I have all these check lists. Haha. I thought about having a PDA way way back, but I nothing beats personalized notes :)
• My 2 phones - One's my personal phone, the flip top phone's my office phone. I'm supposed to be monitoring the services, like logos wallpapers infotext etc pushing out so I have to have my office phone, and for other work related emergencies. So I carry two phones all the time. Although I don't want my notes to be techy, that's why no to PDA, I love my personal phone, it's 6230i, it's small, but it's 1.3 megapixel and plays mp3s. My digicam's only 2 megapixel, I've had it for 3 years. Now phones are the same level with cameras. Development of technology is sooo fast, I can't keep up with it.
• Ipod Nano - I thought about it for a looooong time before I got one, because sayang pa rin money. But I figured, I owned a walkman during it's time, and a discman as well, and I download mp3s all the time and burn cd's all the time. So I firgured that getting one is gonna be worth it :)

Web Crap.

Okay, so after more than two years of free webhosting at coms.ph which was ad free that started as a free trial for 6 months that continued over the years, it finally had come to an end. My old site is now filled with crappy ads that are so distracting that made wanna pay the monthly fee or move to a free blog site. Who wants to pay $2 or more a month for ad free web hosting? Haha. Although I was really tempted, and I was tempted to get reecah.com for only P800 a year. I'm that geek with the web stuff, not so much but still, to pour a considerable amount of energy thinking about what to do with the ads and figure out the next move for my blog, well.. I guess I'm a semi-geek, because I practically spent half of my day yesterday figuring things out.

The result?In case you haven't noticed, you landed in blogspot from my original url. I'm keeping the reecah.coms.ph but the main page will redirect the user to reecah.blogspot.com so there's no need to change url's, and my site would still be ad free :) No need to shell out cash per month. Yey. I just had to copy my html codes to blog's template thing, and figured out how to adjust according to sample blog templates.. although there was A LOT to transfer like pictures and entries for January, i left the other entries because it's hassle to copy paste everything so old entries are still there, but it's all good baby :)