It's a Cold Rainy Evening
Posted at 11:59 AM in Days in her World

I am actually enjoying my job at the electronics store. Sure, I'm on my feet all the time, except when I'm on my 30 minute break, but still. Manning the cash register is new and still interesting. Only downside is, we don't get discounts on laptops. Booo! Then again, that's probably a sign. I was planning to buy a Mac, Vista is making me give up on Windows. I might just give Windows 7 a chance...it's cheaper than buy a Mac.

My department store job on the other hand is a bit boring. I'm in the linen department and well, I never gave linen much thought. As long as there are sheets covering the bed, pillowcases covering the pillows and warm blankets then you're good to go...so I thought. Now, I have to know about threadcounts and different cloths. For now, I don't want to bombard my brain with all these facts. My gameplan is to just learn about them as I go along. That's a pretty good gameplan. Well thought out eh?

I'm starting to save money for my plane ticket back home. My dad conceded in letting me go home, we're getting along fine now because of that. Actually, I don't think it was a matter of conceding maybe it was just a matter of letting him now my reasons. I hope he doesn't change his mind, he did say that he know my life is in the Philippines. Thank you for realizing and supporting that dad.

So I'm just typing whatever is running through my head. Speaking English used to be awkward for me eversince I started living in the Philippines. I got so used to speaking in Filipino and speaking English was unncessary, except for my last job that is. I've always thought it was so hard to make someone laugh when I lets say, joke in English but now it became second nature to me again. Funny thought, I couldn't speak tagalog to save my life when I first got to the Philippines.

I took some random pictures and there's no point posting them on Facebook or Multiply due to the randomness. So, I'll just post them here.

So this is a building. Nothing special. It just looks nice in black and white.

 

Mom at the bus stop where we take the #8 bus going to downtown Vancouver.

 

*sigh* Now if only this station connects to the Gilmore station on the LRT 2 line. I'll be a few hops away from home.

Yummy pizza. It's basically ham and mushrooms.

 

 

I wonder how this jacket got up there. This was taken about 3 weeks ago and it's still there to this day.

 

This just happened this morning. I have always hated using a manual umbrella. The one you use your hands to push the umbrella up to open. So there I was opening my umbrella when my finger got caught when the umbrella locked in place. It bled and I was too scared to look at it. I had my mom clean it up and put a bandaid because it was way too early in the morning to see blood and a deep cut. This picture doesn't show just how deep the cut is and it's not even bloody because my finger is all pruney from wearing a bandaid all day. This serves as a remembrance. I gave up on using manual umbrellas once and I am giving up on using it again.

 

Retail Worker, the Canadian Dream.
Posted at 02:55 PM in Days in her World

So, I landed a job at an electronics store and possibly another one at a department store. I'm working part time at both jobs and I will be working 7 days a week.

I am going to save up money so I can go home but I need to be patient. As much as I'd love to book a ticket now, I'm broke. I'm being paid almost minimum and I will be working less than 35 hours a week so I will be earning less than $1000 per month.

I will sacrifice all my "wants" even if I would have to buy them in the Philippines at a higher price.

What really sucks is that I know that from here on out I need to take each day at a time. Tiny steps until I reach my goal and it is actually scaring me because I feel it would just take longer and longer. 

If I wanted to stay here and I felt life was better here then I should be feeling that now since I have already been here for more than 2 months but I don't.

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful that I have 2 jobs but I just don't want to be here.

We do what we have to.

"Pop Has Freed Us" - Papas Fritas
Posted at 05:20 PM in Music

Every now and then, I go to record stores and buy a couple of albums from musicians I've never heard of before.. Partly to broaden my musical taste, and partly to "see what I've been missing".. I'd check the cover, then the back, then the price tag, then I'd but it if I felt like it..

The first time I tried this was with SOS JFK by The Children's Hour.. This was also the day I found out I wasn't that into folk.. Or at least their kind of folk..

Then I tried my luck with Rachel Loshak's Mint, with which I only liked two songs (and not by a lot).. I know.. Two in a row.. Bummer, right?

Having almost struck out, I nearly gave up.. Suddenly the cover-back-price-tag-buy-based-on-gut-feel strategy wasn't looking so good.. It was like throwing a bunch of noodles at a wall to see which noodle sticks, only not nearly as fun.. Or the blind eating Skittles.. I didn't know what I was getting.. Why bother spending P500 on something I'm not sure of? I could have used the same money to buy half a graphic novel..

Then came this album.. I looked at the band's name, then the album title.. Then I bought the album as soon as I got the joke.. And I am SO glad I did..

The Album: Pop Has Freed Us is the fourth full-length album by indie band, Papas Fritas.. released in 2003 under Minty Fresh Records, the album is a compilation of the band's greatest hits.. it contains eight of their most popular songs and nine previously unreleased songs..

The Good: the album is a great intro to a great band.. the eight "greatest hits" draw the new listeners in and show them what to expect, while the other nine songs show us just how fun, and just how far, Papas Fritas can go (spoiler alert: it's WAAAAAAAAAY out there).. tracks like Holiday, Say Goodbye, Questions, and the indie-pop delight, Way You Walk, are sure to make instant fans out of casual listeners..

The Bad: while the album certainly is fun and would make a perfect addition to anyone's personal soundtrack to his or her life, Pop Has Freed Us is not for everyone.. the whole world may love Way You Walk, but anyone who isn't "in on the joke" might have a hard time getting into the other songs in the album..

The Verdict: 8/10 --> from now on, I think I'll stick to whole numbers and steer clear of the decimals.. even I don't know what I mean by adding a couple more numbers after a point..

*pick up your very own copy at Music One.. not sure if all branches have it, but I got mine at the one in Greenbelt 3..

"TV Movies" - Papas Fritas