Photo Editing

I was looking through some old photos and I tried my hand at editing again. Nothing better than to kill the boredom, right?

Old picture from a photoshoot taken 2 summers ago

I've also created a new email for anyone who wants to send me any questions, suggestions, requests or anything under the sun. And also because I'm to embarrassed to give that email account I made 7 years ago (LOL) Please refer to the blog description on the right for my email account. ☺

The Apparition review

Can I just say that this movie sucked? Because it did.

Since it is Halloween season, I have been constantly searching for great horror movies. I'm a big fan of the genre and I seriously love a great scare. However, this movie was just insulting. I mean fine, my heart jumped a few times because of a few scenes that were fast paced but this movie was just that. Surprising at one scene and then boring after that. It failed to meet my standards of a good movie. The kind that would keep me awake at night. 

May 21, 1973: Six people are conducting The Charles Experiment; a para-pyschological experiment. They look at a drawing of a deceased man, Charles Reamer, and with all of them concentrating at the same time, they hope to be able to summon his spirit into the room.

Years later, four college students, Patrick (Tom Felton), Lydia (Julianna Guill), Greg (Luke Pasqualino), and Ben (Sebastian Stan) attempt to recreate the Charles Experiment on a larger scale by using modern technology to amplify their concentration over 400 times the original. Not only is the experiment a success but also a hazard. As things start to go wrong, Ben tries to run way from the mistake he made. As Ben and his girlfriend Kelly (Ashley Greene) move into a new house, they witness bizarre occurrences and think that their house is haunted. Ben has tried to keep the secret of the experiment from Kelly until one day, she finds his trunk of gadgets. This unleashes the truth and a series of events that will be too much of a spoiler. This movie doesn't even involve a lot of chasing, killing, change of setting or what not. 

I still don't recommend that you watch this movie. It is seriously a waste of time. 

**A few parts from the summary were taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apparition ☺

My Best Friend's Wedding review

I know I said I'd blog more as soon as my sem break starts but I've been out practically everyday for the past week so I haven't had a lot of time to post my pending reviews. I'm sorry!

"If you love someone, you say it right then and there, out loud. Otherwise the moment just passes you by."

HBO has been replaying My Best Friend's Wedding for a few days now and I caught this move in a waiting area once but I never had the chance to finish it so I was excited when I found out that HBO would be running it. Yes, I'm a sucker for old movies and I think that Julia Roberts is gorgeous. ☺

When Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) receives the news that her life long best friend Michael O'Neil (Dermot Mulroney) is getting married to Kimberly Wallace (Cameron Diaz), she flips. Julianne has always been in love with Michael but she never had the guts to tell him because she is not one to be sentimental. With her 28th birthday coming up in 3 weeks, she is depending on the promise that she and Michael had sworn on. That if they were still both single by the time that they reached the age of 28, they would marry each other. However, when she is asked to be the maid of honor at Michael and Kimberly's wedding, she teams up with her gay friend George Downes (Rupert Everett) to device a plan on how to win Michael back. The ending of this movie is utterly heart breaking and it just brought me to tears. A movie about love, loss and friendship that will put you through so many emotions.

Julianne tries her hand at sabotage after she learns that Kimberly cannot carry a tune

A must watch!

Taken 2 review

I don't have much background on Taken as a series because I haven't watched the first movie yet. What a loser, I know. (LOL). However, I was still able to follow the story of the second movie. It's not that hard to understand because Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) mentions a few things that happened in the first movie that led to the events in the second movie. 

Taken 2, set mostly in Istanbul, is about revenge. Mainly because Mills (Neeson) and his wife are captured by the father of the man that Mills had killed while rescuing Kim (his daugther). This man kidnapped Kim during the first movie. As Mills is deemed helpless, he calls to his daughter for help. His uncanny ability to measure distance is amazing. I don't know if it is actually doable but still. UNREAL. This fast paced movie is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. There is a lot killing, yes but not as gory as I expected. There were some squirm-in-your-seat moments but I think it's tolerable. ☺ I'm a little annoyed by the ending though. All that running and killing for such a measly fight between Mills and the father of the kidnapper. I was setting up myself for something great. At the end, all I could say was "That's it?"

Nonetheless, I still think you should watch this movie. It's entertaining in so many levels. 

WHAT NOT'S

I'm dragging myself to finish the week because I know in a few days, I'll be enjoying 10 days of no school. It's short, I know but I'll take whatever I can get. Beggars can't be choosers, as they always say. 

I haven't really been doing anything substantial lately because one, there's not much school work to keep me preoccupied seeing as exams are over. Two, I'm really really bored and the lack of things to do around my house is depressing.

What I have been doing is designing my journal a lot. I'm actually looking for a good brand of coloring pens so if you know any, please comment below for any of your recommendations. 

Yes, I still keep a journal and I write in it almost every night. Don't judge me (LOL). I've actually missed scribbling my thoughts into paper whenever I have no one to spill the beans to. It helps if I need to rant.  ☺

There is this really great brand of notebooks that I discovered a few months ago. PaperLuxe/GrandLuxe  is a Singaporean brand that offers a variety of office supplies.

Visit them here: 

http://www.grandluxe.com/whats-new/ 

for a list of their products. 

The abstract journal that I have has thick and smooth pages. I'm not quite sure how many leaves there are but I can say that this notebook could last you a year or so. One thing that peeves me a little are the lines. They are spaced a little too far apart from each other and my writing is a little small so it look weird sometimes. Other than that, I love the design and the quality of the paper. 

Pages from my journal ♥

Seventeenth Summer review

I have finally finished this book after like 1802304710287 years!! Took me an especially long time reading because I was too busy. 

The thing I found most interesting about this book it that it's really old. As in it was published at around 1942. Woah right? I have this habit of checking the publishing dates of the books I read and I do not know why (LOL). Anyway, the fact that the term for a real relationship used in this book was "going steady" is further proof that this book IS old. I was a little hesitant in taking on a story that was so out of touch to the point where I thought I might not even understand it. But Maureen Daly is a great author and it made me realize how much our generation has changed. At the age of 17, Angie is still a little scared to go on a date with Jack. She wonders if it really could just be summer romance or true love. This book will take you on a short journey with Angie who is trying to find herself and understand what love is really about before her summer is over and she has to leave for college. However, I think this book could have used a little more spice even though it was dated back all the way to the 40's.

REVIVED

Periodical exams are finally over and the stress of the 2nd quarter is finally behind me! Less than 5 months left of my senior year☺ A few more days and it's finally sem break. I'll either be asleep for the most of it or be out and about. Yesterday, I spent most of my day in my friends house making a Rube Goldberg machine for my physics subject. We tried it out today and it wasn't a total failure. Atleast it worked!

"A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, invention, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction."

My groupmates + classmates in Gay's house! Picture (c) Ea Mojica https://twitter.com/i/#!/_mariaandreaa/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FKGhL9ii

I'm just glad that the week is almost over. I've had enough of the sleepless nights!

GETTING BUSY

My periodical exams are starting tomorrow and I don't even know why I'm using the computer. I'm supposed to be studying (lazy child). I'll probably be out of the internet world for a week or so. Just to make sure I don't distract myself. I just wanted to do an update of what I've been up to during the weekend. I've also watched Taken 2 so I'll probably do a review of that after my exams ☺

Getting ready for sleepless nights with my iPod, papers and journal

New earrings from Forever 21! (Hoarder lol)

Another book on my pending list of books to read. The Selection by Keira Cass

KitKat green tea flavor. Available in Japan and in some japanese stores here in the Philippines!

See you soon!

TIGERS

So the 75th season of UAAP is over and Ateneo took home the 5 peat for basketball!☺ But I honestly think that the applause should go to UST. They played fairly and with all their heart. I have never seen so much dedication from a team. Now I'm not an expert in basketball so don't expect me to insert terms in my post. Just no (lol) I guess it is true what they say. Tigers may fall but they will get up. and STRONGER. And lets not forget to give the chops to the coach of the team, Pido Harencio. I'm sad to hear that this is Jeric Fortuna's last game. I loved to watch him play. Despite not being as tall as everybody else, he was a good team player. I think he deserves to be the MVP. Fortuna baby right here ♥ A season well played, UST!

Jeric Fortuna, graduating player from the UST tigers (My personal favorite ♥)

Karim Abdul, sophomore. A great player as well!

PAINT THE TOWN RED

I hadn't noticed that the days are drawing nearer and nearer to the 22nd of October. With 11 more days left of waiting, I couldn't help but do a pre-review of Taylor's new album, RED.

Based on the four singles that she has released, mainly We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Begin Again, Red and I Knew You Were Trouble, I'm expecting that this will be her best album yet. When I first heard that the peg of this album was 'moving on', I first thought of sad, melancholy tunes. I had not expected these upbeat rhythms full of emotion, hatred, anger, passion and mostly love. On top of that, her singles have spent their fair share of time on the top of the charts. I can't wait to hear the rest of her album. Grab a copy of RED out in stores October 22, 2012!

The Jerk Theory review

To catch up with all the time I missed in updating my blog, I think I have to post everyday. ☺

I had no clue what I was getting myself into when I watched this movie for the first time but I do remember that it was love at first sight ♥ This movie isn't really known. I even had trouble looking for a DVD copy (I had to download from torrent). And it isn't really a story about boy meets girl. More like the guy is a jerk so the girl will reject him until he changes. Adam Dynes (Josh Henderson) was heartbroken from a recent relationship when his girlfriend, Cynthia broke up with him for a football player. ever since then, Adam vowed to treat all the girls he dated badly to avoid the same kind of pain again. His theory of acting like a jerk worked until he met Molly (Jenna Dewan). The scenes here are really cute and I find myself head over heels for the couple. Truly a sweet movie! 

Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy review

I'm trying to catch up with all the reviews I need to do of the books I've finished reading. I guess I'll start things off with The Fifty Shades Trilogy.

The Fifty Shades Trilogy

They say this is the series everyone loves to hate. It's either you like it or you don't. To premeditate what I would think of this book, I read reviews of the books online before I bought the box set. A lot of what I read was more of "it's a low form of literature" "This book sucks". However, a book that took it's time on the bestseller's list should be of consideration so I went and tried it out for myself anyway. I was surprised. I liked it ☺ Although there are redundancies (it does get annoying sometimes), if you look beyond the sexual tendencies (I'm still 15 I know lol) of the book, there is actually a story. A story of a tortured man who seeks to control the women he is linked to. Christian Grey is CEO of Grey enterprises and one day he stumbles upon Anastasia Steele. Anastasia interviews Christian as a favor for her friend Kate, who is editor of the school paper. From there, things started heating up. Christian Grey is well.. Controlling.

It's not as bad as everyone says except for some parts that are just too disturbing to handle and again for the repetitive words like the inner Goddess of Anastasia and stuff like that. I don't want to delve into the gist any further in case I might spoil. I don't suggest you read this book if you're not absolutely curious about it.

WHY NOT?

So a few months have passed since I last posted something. I'm sorry for my absence ☺ School has kept me busy enough with the loads of schoolwork I've had for the duration of the time that I've been gone. Nothing much has happened because again, I have no social life due to the fact that school is eating up all my spare time. I haven't done much that is interesting though. Lol! I did however, finally get around to changing the look of my blog. Simplicity is beauty! But I'll probably get sick of it soon and change the appearance again.

It's kind of my book month so I've been hoarding books for sem break. Plus, more books means more reviews!

From Left: Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E.L. James. From up: 1) Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder 2) Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott 3) Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly 4) Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan 5) Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

A scene from 'The Jerk Theory'

I also found a copy of my favorite movie, The Jerk Theory after months of searching! When I'm not reading or finishing anything that needs to be done for school, I'm constantly replaying this movie because it seriously never gets old ♥ Stay tuned for my review of this!

Taylor Swift merchandise!

Lastly, I'm still fan-girling over Taylor Swift. No surprise there. And that is why I'm so broke right now. And her fourth and up coming album is going to be released in 15 days! Be sure to grab a copy of RED on October 22, 2012☺