2006 May archive at blog.chesca.net

Archive for May, 2006

29MayMigration

Bulaga! Surprising Eloi at her house.

My friend Eloi and her family are leaving for the States tomorrow and will be staying there for good so my friends and I threw in a surprise despedida dinner for her last Friday. I’m not quite sure whose idea was it originally. Way, Tiff and I just found ourselves one night calling and texting people up to inform them of our impromptu get-together. Oh it was nothing big.. we just spent the evening hanging out in a cozy restaurant, eating pizza, taking pictures, sharing stories, laughing at each others’ craziness and reminiscing about our past. We had a great time! I wish we’d do things like this often not only when someone’s going away.

To Eloi: Good luck! I wish you and your family well! Be good, ok? Don’t forget to drink lots of milk! Haha! (I found out that her relatives were also telling her that milk in the States tastes good. I found it funny cause it’s the same thing our relatives had told us before we went there. What’s with the milk? But yeah, it really tastes good. Just a side story. Hehe. )

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Migration part 2
In other news, my migration from Windows to Linux is going pretty well. I already found a calendar program to replace my Rainlendar—Google Calendar. It integrates nicely to my Evolution (a software similar to MS Outlook) and also syncs to my Palm. It also emails me notices for upcoming events. I like it because I like integration. Adobe Photoshop CS though, is still irreplaceable. While there’s Gimp Image Editor, I find it lacking of the essential tools that I use in PS. But it’s ok—I’ll just borrow my brother’s computer every time I need to edit some photos.

Which was what I did with Eloi’s despedida pictures that you can view under the cut.

How’s that for an integrated entry.

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in Friends, High School, Photos and Tech. 0 Comments

26MayGotta Start the Day Right

two slices of toasts and a glass of soya milk–my breakfast this morning.

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in Cooking, Food, Photos and Recipes. 1 Comment

24MayBefore I start working..

I’m counting the days ‘til I start working. There is no definite date yet, but hopefully, it’ll be around June. In the meantime, I’m stuck at home doing some cooking (among other things of course). The picture above is my take two of the Baked Teriyaki Salmon I prepared about a week ago. I was able to take a picture of it this time so there’s no need for me to “borrow” photos. I served it straight from the broiler. Because 1) the pan was too hot, I didn’t bother transferring it to another plate and 2) I may cause the salmon to break making them unphotogenic.

Yup, I do most of my baking using the trusty turbo broiler. Since our oven hasn’t been working for more than fifteen years, we bake our goodies using other means. Hey, whatever works.

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Geeking
Speaking of the “other things” that I do, I was bored yesterday so I downloaded an ISO of Ubuntu and installed a second OS. Yes, I’m officially a Linux n00b. I played with it for a while—customized my desktop, installed stuff, chat with it, surfed with it—I actually had a blast trying it out. But at the end of the day I realized that I miss my windows. So I’m back to my sluggish, bulky and problematic XP. It’s only here that I get to use my Rainlendar and experience fully my Yahoo! Messenger (can’t get enough of those pinoy audibles—weird voices and all. ). So until they develop something like those two, I guess I’d be switching back to windows.(or probably get myself a Mac. Muahaha! :wink

* * *

Congrats CPA’s!
Kudos to my beloved friends who passed the CPA Board Exams. I knew you guys would do well. I’m so proud of you!

LIBRE! LIBRE!

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in Cooking, Food, Friends, Photos, Recipes and Tech. 0 Comments

16MayFinger-lickin’ good

I happened to stumble upon a recipe of KFC©’s Crispy Chicken Strips. Since my brothers are KFC addicts, I decided to try it out for dinner. I kinda deviated from the original marinade recipe since I didn’t have Potassium, Bottled Chicken Concentrate and MSG. I instead used 5 chicken bouillon cubes to compensate for the chicken concentrate.

Tasted almost the same as the original except that it’s less spicy. I’ll just try to adjust the recipe the next time I cook this. The only drawback of this meal is the lack of KFC’s gravy. But overall, it was delish.

I also started dabbling with food photography. After seeing his portfolio, I was inspired to do the same. While mine aren’t as beautiful as his, I’m still proud of my first shots though they’re quite amateurish.

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Ai5 Top 3!
The final 3 will perform three songs each. It was already confirmed the Elliott will sing Bobby Caldwell’s What You Won’t Do For Love which was chosen by Paula. Taylor Hicks will be singing You Are so Beautiful by Joe Cocker, chosen by Randy Jackson. Katharine McPhee will sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland picked by Simon Cowell.

For the remaining two, they’ll sing a song of their choice, and a song chosen by music producer, Clive Davis. While there were rumors as to what the three would sing for these categories, those have not been cofirmed yet. Guess we shall just have to wait and see.

I mentioned in my previous entry that my early favorites this season are Taylor and Kat. I’m happy that the two are part of the top 3—but, I’ll be totally ecstatic if Elliott Yamin would get the title. I’ve grown to love him as the season progressed. He’s humble, genuine, goofy, dorky plus he sings soooooooooo damn well I get goose bumps! So yeah, he’s my pick to win this thing! GO ELLIOTT!! ♥♥

Hope he’ll do well on tomorrow’s show. And I hope the voter’s won’t screw up by voting for the wrong person. C’mon! Vote like YAMIN it! ♥

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in Cooking, Food, Photos, Recipes and TV. 2 Comments

16MayNew Look

After tweaking with Mr. Andy Peatling’s gorgeous Word Press theme, I was finally able to customize it to my own liking. I totally dig this shade of green and pink! Still need to fix a few things though, since I can’t seem to make the “torn look” work in Internet Explorer. (so get firefox now and save yourself from the suckiness that is IE :wink I hope I’ll figure that one out eventually.

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In other news, Tinay and I will go ~~shopping~~ hunting for a potential graduation dress ~~tomorrow~~ (change of plans! ). There’ll be no spending involved, since I’ll only be trying on dresses to see what style is suitable for my built. (..that is devoid of sexiness) I was told to bring a camera so I could take pictures of myself in those dresses and see how’d I look in them. Now I find that weird at first. But after she told me that the other purpose of that is so we could look for a similar dress supporting a much reasonable price–I changed my mind and now think that it was a brilliant idea. (cheapskate! )

Speaking of graduation dresses, I remember Cynthia and I browsing through prom sites a few weeks ago looking for dresses. I came across some pretty cute ones

like this,

this

and this.

I personally like the third one cause I like that it’s simple yet elegant at the same time.

And I thought once your done with all of your subjects and passed all your requirements, you’ll no longer worry about school. Boy was I wrong. I never imagined my graduation to be this demanding, not to mention expensive.

in College, Friends, Shopping, Tech and Webdesign. 4 Comments

12MayOnion Rings, Beef with Broccoli

Yesterday, I made onion rings for merienda. I just found out what makes it so tasty and crispy. And that’s half a can of San Mig Lite. Thank goodness my brothers didn’t get drunk haha.

As for dinner, I tried cooking beef with broccoli. Had to marinade it first for 5 hours so the meat will absorb all the flavor. I also learned that par boiling vegetables (boiling it for about a minute) will make the colors brighter. Also, incorporating egg whites in the marinade makes the meat tender (I just theorized this). The result, beef w/ broccoli that almost tastes like the ones we have in restaurants.

The pictures aren’t mine by the way. I just borrowed it. It’s hard to take photos coz once I place them on the table, they disappear immediately. Maybe next time I’ll take pictures of my concoctions.

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11MayBaked Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon

Saw a recipe posted at an LJ community. I tried it for lunch this afternoon and it turned out really good. My brothers loved it! Will definitely prepare this again, this time for dinner so my parents could have a taste.

See more progress on: learn new recipes

in Cooking, Food and Recipes. 1 Comment