You know Friendster? Check out my page there – http://friendster.com/verabear.  You won’t see much there though. I seldom update and I rarely log on.  Because of my non presence in Friendster, I distanced myself from social networking sites like it.  I figured it just wasn’t my thing. There was Hi5, and MySpace, but I ignored both.

Then a few months ago, I finally signed up for Facebook, and life has never been the same. Haha!

I love how easy it is to see updates from friends and family, and how easy uploading photos could be.  But the best thing? The applications.

Restaurant City!

And now – Guitar Geek!

I don’t care much for Mafia Wars, but so many of my FB friends are hooked.

I got hooked on Restaurant City probably a week ago. It’s just cute, and fun. It’s tough deciding what to spend hard earned RC money for. Should I get porcelain tile or glass ones?  Do I fix the outside, or spend all my money for indoor improvements?  What makes them cook faster?

Do you FB?   http://facebook.com/verabear

**I had this all typed up last night, why didn’t it publish?

Hay.

This morning, I woke up to the sounds of children playing, and then later on, of pig being slaughtered.  Those are always sure signs that something festive is happening within the day, or the next.

I thought of checking them out and taking photos, but decided against it. Laziness.

It  did prompt me to checkout some wedding cakes again, though I must admit that has nothing to do with the occasion.  :)

And guess what I found? This:

They are beautiful aren’t they? The image is linked to the baker’s blog so go ahead and check her out.  I’d love for my bouquet to be in this palette. And I’d love for my wedding cake to be something like this. I love the look of fondant, but I don’t know about the taste. Real icing is the one for me, I think.  There are so many other beautiful cakes on display on her site.

Tomorrow, I shall bake something. Nothing motivates me like looking at beautifully baked goods.  I don’t know what to make yet, but I will. I have truffles waiting to be chocolated (is there such a word?) in the fridge, I can do those later or tomorrow morning.

On Thursday morning after work, Alfred went with me to Humana, the Medicard clinic that takes care of the company’s annual physical exams.  Right next door to it was a motorcycle shop. I wanted to peek in because my brother and my dad have been pointing out how practical it would be for me to get one to shuttle me back and forth to the office.  Now the only reason really to get one is so I don’t have to wait for a cab to bring me to work every night. It’ll be so much faster to get to work. I can also use it to go to St. Luke’s, or to the grocery for a few items for baking or for making truffles.

On the other hand, there are many reasons not to get one. What if it rains I have it parked outside the office building? Oh okay, I guess that’s what motorcycle covers are for.  But it I also can’t ride when it’s raining, can I? Or when it’s too hot? Haha. Kaartehan, I guess. I am considering it though, because it is way cheaper to get a bike than a car. Oh well.

We didn’t go in that Honda bike store though – Alfred breezed right past it ignoring my request. He was already hungry I guess.

I just want to say to you all that I may not be on your top droppers list, but I do enjoy visiting your blogs and hope that you do like what you see here too.

Looking forward to receiving comments from you all as well!

On the way to the grocery, I saw that the House of Praise was already open. Though I was across the street from the open doorway, I saw the rack of Kids Praise and I was drawn to it.

We went in, then out five minutes later with this:

As a kid, I grew up listening to and singing along with Psalty. How many albums were there? I forgot. But we must have had all of them! Everyone at Sunday School knew the songs and we’d often perform them in the annual shows we’d mount.

I must admit, I still could not help but remember my Aunt when I started listening to this album, but that need not mean sad thoughts.

One of the dreams I’ve had, or one of the things I listed as stuff I’d rather do, may soon start to happen.

I intend to start teaching my nieces and nephews the songs in this album, and if they want to, we’ll mount a mini performance for friends and family. What a wonderful way to learn about Jesus, and cultivate their talents right?  Today our kids, tomorrow Sunday School. Haha.

And what a coincidence too. While I was baking cookies today, I heard the kids singing outside. And they weren’t singing their usual picks – Love Story, Jai Ho, etc – they were singing tunes they learned from Vacation Bible School. Yay!

So I can’t wait til we can start doing this, but I’ve got to map it out first, have some sort of schedule. I hope they’d buy into this, the big girls too.

Recently (before their deaths), they were on the public eye once more. Farrah’s Story premiered back in May. It’s a documentary of her battle with anal cancer.  At the time of the premier, there was some buzz about it. I was hoping to watch the whole documentary on YouTube but only found part 5.  Even with just that part though, one can already be moved by her story.  I hope they show the full docu in the Philippines.

Here are two video montage of Farrah’s, both prepared before her death.  There are many tributes posted by fans but I chose to showcase these two because the music wasn’t heavy, and the photos of Farrah show her just the way I see her in my mind.

Oops. The embed feature is not enabled for the other video, so here’s the link to it instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJSDU3eyIaA

The Jacko was also in the news recently as there’s a scheduled World Tour signaling his comeback. His life was riddled with controversies and I must admit, it was the issues involving kids that had me turning away from him.  But no matter how he led his personal life, it cannot be denied that he made great music that has influenced many many others.

There are so many video tributes for MJ, but this is probably my favorite acoustic rendition of Thriller:

I didn’t know Emily Elbert, but I like her and will try to find more of her music.

Here in the Philippines, the YouTube famous Dancing Inmates also prepared a tribute for MJ whose Thriller music video was their inspiration for their most popular performance:

But it isn’t for any cause or charity. It is something that will benefit me, and well, you too. Wouldn’t you like to see me post even better photos?

Well the gang at JessicaSprague.Com is celebrating their second anniversary in DigiLand.  And one of the surprises announced today is a special summer offering of one of their online classes that I’d been anticipating:Candice Stringham’s Oh Shoot! Beginning Digital SLR Photography class.  I’ve wanted to sign up for this class since I saw it on their store, but I just couldn’t justify the costs. But now… I really really want this.  There are other classes available here that I can physically attend, and would cost a little less (though with transpo and food expense, maybe it will cost more after all). But if you read her class description, you’d understand why I want to sign up.

The thing is, the registration will open in a few days and I only have about 70 USD in my Paypal account, and the class costs 126 USD. So what I’m asking is — could you help me make up the difference? Please? I don’t know if anyone will actually donate, but it wouldn’t hurt me to try would it? Click on the button to donate! And don’t forget to leave a note so I can thank you properly

*The Paypal website seems to be having problems. If so and the button above doesn’t work, please try to send your donations to verabear (at) msn.com. Thanks again!

Ohhh… I almost forgot about posting pictures! I decided to join in for a picture meme called You Capture:

This week’s theme is SUMMER.

It’s my favorite time of year.

First off – our beach side photo from Baler. My niece Hannah snapped this for us at around 8 in the morning.

Later that morning, we hopped on a tricycle, just the boyfriend and I and we were taken to this wonderful place. The water was so cold! A welcome respite to the heat of summer.  This is about 45 minutes away from the beach.

This boy was with us in the trip. He’s the son of one of my childhood friends! Isn’t he cute? He loved swimming in the kiddie pool at the resort!

Summers are the perfect reason for team outings. And what are summers if not for goofing around?

The boyfriend and my nephew Esban are perfect companions for outings like this!

Every summer we realize how fearless E becomes when in the water. Because he knows how to swim now, he wasn’t afraid of tackling the slide! Alfred was waiting to catch him of course. Hehe

And here’s one more photo from Summer of 2009:

Happy birthday Ma! (today’s her birthday!)

Go visit the other participants to You Capture:  Summer