My Blog.

how's it on a sucky friday?

I accidentally hit my head on the chart cabinet's door (shit happens, as I was scurrying, thinking, and hurrying that time).  Think damned physics. Good thing the bump's at the parietal area.  At least the bump is not visible, but it hurts still.  I hurt my head on a lousy friday---unlucky day.  That day totally sucked and I was just thankful that the people from the next shift were merciful. 

Life will be better soon--- please.  Oh, please.

finding myself.

I was missing the comfort of my previous shift.  I know I should be happy for landing in a daytime 12 hour shift.  But it just feels so different.

Just the breaktimes are crazy.  I don't have much appetite for food.  I only eat to function well, otherwise I'm good skipping.  I would rather sleep than eat.

I should be happy.  I don't know. I'll try hard. I'll see if I will learn to love it eventually.

Shitty-shit-bang-bang

Tomorrow, wake up and go to Spanish class.

Return stuff at the lib.

8 pm pilates.

I feel so shitty lately.  Must be the consecutive 12 hours work shift.

Missing kind, sweet, honest and simple people back home.  Give me a hug, guys.

The twelve hour shifts.

Working twelve hour shifts is shitty. 

Today i was sent to relieve another unit (damn it), realizing then that I would be in charge of a unit I am not familiar with, with an emergency to cap in the 8th hours. Whew!

Then to go back to the original unit.  I was praying if I can get the lighter area...ended up doing the front.  At least my partner helped out with the charts and assignment, etc...thank God. At least we worked together without stirring any conflicts ( can we be at least human and be kind to each other?  I miss the old times and I hate experiencing the nasty when it should not be---shit happens).  Anyway, thank God really for it made the rest of the hours a bit forgiving to this beat up kalabaw.

I got out, walked towards the station.  there were few buses running cos it was sunday. I felt so shitty walking. That's why when the nurses from A14 stopped to gave me a ride, I was so touched by their kindness and somehow felt a little good and warm inside.

I slept the entire way home.

mid 2008

Oh, great! It is almost June!

So many things I want to do, and it is mid 08 already.

Lately I have taken up pilates, will have to work more on that.  I am thinking of getting fitter this year.

I am still crazy wanting to do trapezing.  i want to go white water rafting.  Even fishing. Yup, this girl knows to fish! (trophy sitting at home in Manila)

I will learn to drive.  target: before June ends.

I will drill my sister, Luni, to start her baking. I have still to send her my drawings, as promised.

I have to read again and brush up my nursing knowledge.

And draw, draw. That's what I have to do.

Things i learned and proud of: Standing up for myself, Thinking twice before acting, fighting for what I believe in and for what I am.  Thinking 10 times before reacting, knowing reserve, caution, and action when needed. Learning that life is too short.

lately i am at odds with someone, and i am not regretting what i did. it is very rare of i to come to that state and that, according to my good friend goldie, when i am in that state---take care.

I am still a sucker for shoes...I want the samba white shoes and the veja sneakers... =)

Cravings lately.

Sigh! I would love to have a good pair of boots! and other cool shoes...check this out (article from goethe-institut):

Treading quietly and comfortably in Germany

Doc Martens and Birkenstock: Legendary German footwear manufacturers   

Reformists and protesters launched comfortable footwear from Germany on its way to fame. In 1945 Klaus Maertens, a young Bavarian doctor temporarily handicapped thanks to a skiing accident, began thinking about how he could re-model traditional footwear by inventing a particularly comfortable shoe with a shock-absorbing sole.

Together with the engineer Herbert Funck he developed a shoe with air cushions in the sole that acted as shock absorbers. The idea was utterly unique and was later copied again and again. Yet while they were ideal for health and work shoes, for a long time the ‘orthopaedic’ Dr. Maertens air-cushioned sole technology was not used for fashion footwear.

Shoes as a form of protest

However, this was to change drastically with the advent of the punk movement in England in the late 1970s. Skinheads and punks alike considered a rough work shoe, as worn by England’s dustmen and postmen, to be just right for their protest outfits. It represented a protest against the consumer society as well as Birkenstock-toting hippies and environment freaks. That shoe - the Doc Martens shoe- was to become the cult youth footwear.

Today it still features the German Dr. Maertens air-cushioned sole, the license for which British footwear manufacturer R. Griggs purchased in 1959 to use for his army and work boots.

From cult youth footwear to an all-round shoe for everyone

Under the name Dr. Martens Air Wair the range of Docs, or DMs, stretches from the actual cult shoe itself, the 1460 boot with eight eyes and yellow stitching, via the 'classic' 1461 Oxford style to the 'elegant' brogue with its typical hole pattern. With some styles sporting a steel toe, Doc Martens shoes enjoy high quality workmanship with a welt sewn sole, are exceptionally robust and - as work shoes - are VAT exempt. Rock and pop groups love Doc Martens, including pop icon Madonna who once matched hers with sexy corsets and fishnet stockings.

In the late 1990s DMs liberated themselves from the traditional connotations of high fashion and politics. Today they are once again valued as comfortable, traditional shoes. This is true also for the authentic Dr. Maertens air-cushioned shoe which is still manufactured in Seeshaupt, a small town on Bavaria’s Lake Starnberg, and sold also on the internet.

Birkenstock in Woodstock

Similarly, reforms and protests also triggered the invention and subsequent popularity of an entirely different kind of health shoe. 'Many visitors to Woodstock wore our sandals,' states the manufacturer Birkenstock. This orthopaedic shoe, or ‘Birkenstock sandal’, experienced an astronomical rise in popularity thanks to hippies and proponents of the alternative lifestyle. It finally became a fashion item with the ‘68 protest generation who declared this dedicated health shoe to be a prime example of 'anti-fashion’, a perfect accessory with which to express their socially critical opinions.

During the late 1980s, when perfect styling determined the fashion on the street, the Birkenstock sandal lost some of its outsider attraction. However, as the name had long since become a symbol for health shoes the brand was subsequently used for a number of new products and continued to maintain the upswing. Today, the Birkenstock range includes elegant ladies and men's shoes, boots, sneakers and hiking shoes as well as clogs and hiking sandals.

Sandals for stars

In 2003, to mark the 30^th anniversary of one of Birkenstock’s most successful styles, the Arizona sandal, several celebrities including Cindy Crawford, Robin Williams and Whoopie Goldberg were invited to design their very own version of it. The highlights of the campaign included the Birkenstock as designed by supermodel Heidi Klum, an elegant suede leather sandal with studs and stones, and another trendy style made of denim with frayed edges.

Behind the name Birkenstock are almost 230 years of development and a product philosophy which can be summed up as follows: deep heel cups, medial and lateral arch support, toe grips and foot bed edges of light cork/latex, all covered in suede leather. The successful family business is headquartered in Bad Honnef on the Rhine.

Comfortable shoes conquer the fashion market

While Birkenstock and Dr. Maertens Air Wair are the best-known comfortable German footwear brands, they are not the only ones. For instance, in 1992 the Munich-based traditional footwear manufacturer Eduard Meier launched the Peduwear collection, a range of modern business shoes manufactured using asymmetrical lasts. Later, asymmetrical lasts were used first by trendy fashion label Prada, then by producers of mainstream fashion footwear. For the first time in footwear history orthopaedic shoes broke away from their niche existence as health or 'protest' footwear and conquered the mainstream fashion mark.

Dr. Ingrid Loschek
is a professor of fashion history and fashion theory at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Pforzheim, Germany, and author of several fashion books

online-redaktion@goethe.de
June 2003

Corny Taho in downtown nyc

walang sago. Corny. Dinaan sa dami, mahal pa. Hmmp.

Managinip! Dreamboots

Addictus!

Ajvar, masarap itow!

I was getting tired of the usual eats, so I decided to pop in one of the euro delis around here. 

Eto---Ajvar. Kung tipid ka at tamarichi ka minsan magluto, here.  It works like pesto.

Ajvar or ayvar (IPA ['ajvar]) is a relish made principally from red bell peppers, with eggplant, garlic and chili pepper. It is predominantly popular in the Balkans, chiefly in former Yugoslav republics. Depending on capsaicin content in bell peppers and the amount of added chili peppers, it can be sweet, piquant (the most common), or very hot.

Ajvar can be consumed as a bread spread, an addition in sandwiches, a condiment (often used with grilled or roasted meat), or a salad.

Preparation of ajvar is somewhat difficult, as it involves a great deal of manual labor, especially as regards the peeling of the cooked peppers. Traditionally, it is prepared in mid-autumn, when bell peppers are most abundant, conserved in glass jars, and consumed throughout the year (although in most households stocks do not last until the spring, when fresh salads start to emerge anyway, so it is usually enjoyed as a winter food). Often, the whole family or neighbours gather to bake the bell peppers, peel them, and cook them. The principal cultivar of pepper used is called roga — it is large, red, horn-shaped, with thick flesh and relatively easy to peel. It typically ripens in late September.

A jar of ajvar

In order to produce ajvar, bell peppers and eggplants are baked whole on a plate on an open fire, a plate of a wood in a stove, or in an oven. The baked peppers must briefly rest in a closed dish, to allow them to cool and to allow the flesh to separate from the skin. Next, the skin is carefully peeled off and seeds removed. The peppers are then ground in a mill or chopped in tiny pieces (this variant is often referred to as pinđur). Finally, the mush is stewed for a couple of hours in large pots, with added sunflower oil and garlic, in order to condense and reduce the water, as well as to enhance later conservation. Salt (and sometimes also vinegar) is added at the end and the hot mush is poured directly into glass jars which are immediately sealed.

Birthday on solo

Ma will be out at work.

So will everyone else.

What to do, oh.

On my birthday.

To make it special.

Oh, oh. On solo.

Maybe hit the train down to Coney Island

or get a tan in Central park.

Eat a slice of cake in a coffeeshop.

Or go about in a museum.

Oh, oh. To be happy.

Mik, have a happy birthday.