misstinapie

Hey a new watermark again! + Preparation + I want to make it a thing for me and Reagan to always travel on my birthday. This would be the 2nd time. I would really like to go to Taiwan (cheaper air fares, colder weather, quick travel time) but it's already September and the Taiwanese embassy still have not released a final guideline for free visa for Filipinos. I've been meaning to have Reagan and I get visa for Korea or Japan (to make Taiwan visa-free) but I don't want to press him so much with all the expenses I would like to incur with all these travelling I would like to do. This is in fact, and should be, the last time we would travel as boyfriend and girlfriend. We really ought to get married next year. We are, after all getting old. And he's already planning to get us a house as well. So yeah. Visa countries or any travel plans for that matter would have to wait. Unlike most of my peers I still have a lot of places on my checklist. One of which is Malaysia, specif...

FAQs. (I may have some spoilers!) How long? So far 10. I am worried at the ending because it felt like they are going to introduce a 4th timeline... or worse 2 more. But why? Because time travel. nuff said. Quick Plot Starts "innocently" with a missing child case. If without the trailers or what you can google, you would never have guessed you are dealing with sci-fi tv series that would truly challenge your brain both in processing who you are currently seeing and what timeline you are currently on. Is it worth it? Yes. But you have to invest yourself into it to fully appreciate. You see the show has 3 separate timelines and you need to keep on remembering which face is grouped to which name. I don't know about you but seeing so many new faces at a time (I only know the character Ulrich from the Hitler movie) and attaching names to those new multiple faces is a feat. I realized I have issues with older people too I kept on mistaking different characters as the same guy. ...

  When I was younger, I have applied for a Citibank credit card. I know I am trusty when it comes to finances but for reasons only Citibank knows I haven't had any feedback from them. Since then I am always scared when it comes to applying for things that involve background checks on financial capabilities. Luckily for me I didn't have to apply for a credit card and my home loan was easily granted. But I didn't forget that Citibank thing I am led to believe I will have the same fate of rejection when we applied for a Japan Visa. I didn't know that my boyfriend would agree to this since we've already talked about going to Malaysia last and then we'd restart saving for our wedding. I know he's torn about doing this (and me too) but we believe it's the best time for us to try the application while we can. There are already tons of blogs regarding Filipinos getting a Japan Visa but in case you dear reader has stumbled upon this entry of mine, I'll jus...

  FAQs  How long? Just finished Season 2 this morning in less than 2 weeks I think. There are 13 episodes per season and on my first time I actually finished 7 episodes in one go. Trailer was also dropped a few days earlier for Season 3 which was slated for March 2018. Why would I watch this / Who should watch this? If you are not yet tired of watching fantasy series, this is a go. But I have a disclaimer on the quick plot below. If it was me reading this I would not have taken a second look. The only reason I did was because I accidentally watched S01EP01 it piqued my curiosity. The villain there was solid. This is also best watched by adults. Don't let the fantasy genre fool you, some scenes/topics are not exactly for the kids. Quick plot? Quentin is a nerd who have loved a fictional series of books that revolve around a magical world named Fillory. One day he and his bestfriend Julia found themselves taking an exam to be accepted at a magical school called Brakebills and that ma...

Honestly I am not a fan of french macarons. I don't over hype it to anyone even. But what I do know is they are gorgeous to look at and whatever taste it has is over in two or three bites. I have always loved it when my bakes are uniform and macarons have a huge tendency to be because you get to have templates. Oooppss I'm getting ahead of myself. I have only found one out of a dozen articles I've read so far to have been able to perfect it on the first try. I did mine (which I still have to prove on the next bake) on my third even with a few lapses - some macarons have become lopsided but not too much to prevent it from standing on it's back. But! In this third test I was able to have feet, no burnt edges, not hollow, no cracks nor sticking on the paper (except for one!). It had even held it's shells beautifully even if I left it in room temp. The outer appearance was so good I was able to distribute it in the office FINALLY. I never had a single macaron thrown out...

After more than 7 years of being with my trusty Asus K42J I have now bought a new laptop-- an Asus X540! And even though it wasn't a flagship gadget, boy, what an upgrade! + The Backstory + (If you're not a fan of my endless ramblings go skip to the actual review part) It's been months of me planning to get myself a new laptop but I don't have the heart to do so. This is officially (not including my condo) the most expensive purchase I'll be doing but even so, I would like to keep my price list between 30-40k PHP which I think is good enough for a mid range laptop. I know I could go as high as 50k if need be but that is stretching it. I might need to detach my head from my body while swiping my card! For gadgets we all know that cash is always good but I feel like I shouldn't because I'm prepping my finances in case the Japan Visa is a go (crossing my fingers BF's docs to be released soon). Besides, my credit is really good. I rarely need to pay anything...

I am a sucker for those who go up the bus and ask for money. I don't give to religious groups though (Except for one. Years later I still remember that guy who deemed sincere in quick gospel. I mean the bus started tinkling with coins) and rare times even to beggars on the street (Rarely to those at the overpass and never again to that one who snubbed her nose up on me DISGUSTED EVEN when I gave her good food). On some Fridays that my jeans have pockets and have bills on it I just give them to whoever (I walk home on Fridays) is asking for alms. Basically I give when they are in luck I have some to spare. And don't get me started on death related donations! I feel compelled in giving no matter how it happened. Being able to experience first hand to deal with the burial of a loved one, I know how expensive it would be. I am not being sanctimonious or even being religious about it to be honest. It's me finding out later that I do this only because I can. If you see m...

FAQs Q. How long ? A. 8 episodes around 1 hr each Q. Why do I need to watch this? A. David Tennant and his thick accent. There are also familiar actors here as well for you to watch out for especially if you're a Doctor Who fan. Q. Is the reveal worth it? A. Not if you're going to watch it right after Big Little Lies. The killer is a bit of a letdown IMHO. It felt like our killer came out of nowhere. The only consolation is that it didn't have a buildup like the Night Of setting the expectation of a result too high and ending up too bleh. To me the first season felt like a spring board for our main characters to be introduced and prepped for the next season. I am also lenient on this since I'm watching this years later when it was first aired. The crime(s) committed here are quite shocking and gut wrenching when you think about it. Q. There's a second season?! A. And a third now. Will have to watch them first though. There are tons of similarly themed TV series but ...

FAQs Q. How long will I stay in the couch for this? A. 8 hrs tops! Just 7 episodes so hurry up and be a hermit for a day! Q. Is it worth the 8 hours? A. Absolutely! It's fast paced, no unnecessary back stories. Tons of flashbacks that would make sense eventually. The actors are perfect for their roles in an unexpected way. Where else would you see Nicole Kidman as a battered housewife? How about Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz as moms? Q. What genre is this? A. Murder mystery. This is reminiscent of How to Get Away With Murder Season 1 when the first scene started with a mystery corpse being found and the entire season narrates how everything culminates to that point. What to love: 1. Chloe. I rarely like kid characters because they are either too annoying or they're easily frightened or too naive. Chloe is the complete opposite. SHE IS THE BEST. She's also the Baby of this series (Baby Driver). Her music taste is so good there are tons of playlist in S...

I don't know what has possessed me to check out HMR again only this time, ONLINE. They have an app (browser works just as fine) that allows you to bid for items with the exception of meeting your competition and that last for a few days. I was only browsing until I saw lots that made me eventually bid. Funko Pops! Who knew they have these too! There are 7 items which I have all the intention to buy and resell that's why I was intent in getting it all even the crocodile one which I've no idea from where. At the end of the bid I was lucky to get 3: Groot, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Too bad 2 of the ones I liked slipped: Loki And Jack Sparrow! I was too busy in the office I haven't noticed the notification that someone just outbid me. It was the last 6 minutes. Sayang! I was able to get my winnings the day after (Sat). From what I understood, payments should be done within 5 days, picked up in 7 (with 25PHP up additional each day). It's either I get it this wee...

It may not be a first world problem but it's a normal everyday ordeal for any office worker. Where to eat? What am I going to eat? WHO AM I GOING TO EAT WITH?* Downloaded this app as a recommend and had it tried to eat on one of their participating restaurants today: KKK (Megamall branch) Wednesday I was attempting to book for 5 people on the 12 am sched at 30% off by Friday. 1130 would have been a better choice because they offer 50% but our break is exactly 1130 and I doubt we could make it on time. I was trying for 12pm but the app refuses me to book any more than 2 people. That's when I ended up with booking for Thursday / 12pm / 30% / 4 people. When we arrived I asked if it's possible to add 1 person and were told that instead of the 30% it will be reduced to 20%. As to how the manager came up with that reduction I don't know but since this is my fault we went with it anyway. We have eaten here a few times before but somehow today the food came out real quick. I gu...

Move over LGBTQ, there's also another long sounding acronym we Filipinos have to remember, NDRRMC. It's so long halfway towards the half of the acronym you suddenly enter a state of denial whether the next letters are still correct. It's as long as your BDO pin yet somehow this is harder to remember. It's mouthful. It stands for National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council. OMG there's an "and"! Honestly if i was in the council I would have gone with NDRRAMC and would have begun calling it "endramak". It is easier to pronounce no? But then would I have remembered what it stood for? Nope I wouldn't have. I have already forgot the earlier name it had but it has become something one less thing we haven't protested as a nation. We just accepted it, even the silliness of the men and women who had to endure saying it out loud on live TV. Never have they become so heroic. One of their projects is a nationwide text blast to (hopefull...

I don't know why I resisted so long to go. I wasn't that much excited even though History and FYI are one of the few channels I stay on the TV. But the sisters are quite insistent so here we are attending. The entrance is quite cheap and I haven't been out for the weekend so what the heck (250PHP for a day pass). We arrived around lunchtime so the line is not as long going in. Obviously the first thing we did was get the freebie bag (literally just the bag with nothing on it, lanyards just ran out). It was on a separate hall where all the food and some merchandise where situated, a few exhibits (livestock petting, exotic pets, Tiny House sample) and a stage. On this hall we were able to spot Simon Yin shooting a video and John Weisbarth and Zack Giffin on stage (on a later part of the day). The variety of food also smells awesome but the lack of tables and seats opted us to eat outside instead (just Shakey's. They're the only ones that are completely shaded from the...

Well first off let us acknowledge the amazing wordplay. Years of Japan pop culture knowledge tells me that they too love word plays as well. If you're a native English speaker Kita both means see and you (hence the english title). It's at the same level with Bukas bukas (Open tomorrow). Ingenious. I bet their Japanese cast approves + Quickie Plot + Lea is a Filipina tour guide based in Sapporo (less known vs Tokyo or Osaka unless of course you are kind of obsessed with Japan) who, after years of waiting for her fiancé to finally marry her learns she was being cheated upon with another friend of hers. The story with her past ends there and hers with Tonyo starts as soon as she loses her sight* (temporarily). Living overseas with no one around and blind is just too much to bear, transforming her amiable personality earlier to a grumpy loner. One day someone came to her life (literally) a man named Tonyo, her new neighbor who kept on bringing her food and futile attempts to make ...

It's the 2nd day of the internal issue that unfortunately happened to one of the banks I like, BPI. Till now I still have no access online nor was able to successfully withdraw from an ATM. I can still go on for a few days without withdrawing from them BUT, I do not want to have any issues this payroll (it's next week!!) since I have important bills to pay (amortization, and taxes, to name a few). As someone from IT, and from a bank too, we're quite familiar that this kind of scenario would happen at some point, luckily not caused by one's self. That's why we have testing environments, QA testing, UAT and multiple deployments in different instances to prevent something like this to happen. If it was indeed caused by their IT department and someone (or more) got sacked, well if that ain't traumatic, I don't know what is. So that's my theory other than my not so far fetched one which is someone ran their batch process twice erroneously and their programs h...

It's our annual staycation! We would have gone to Bataan but I was baffled at the pricing provided for us plus it's quite hot. We will go there though, probably after the summer. I was advised by officemates that there is a long line at the counter. It wasn't when I came but it just took them a long time to assist a guest. When we were up we we're unfortunately told to wait since our room is not yet ready. It was such a long wait that my phone is almost drained when our key cards we're handed over to us. The room is not jaw dropping but I am digging the color scheme. All browns and muted. Everything has it's storage, even the mini ref and bar is inside a cabinet! The beds are firm as I want it to be and even if they have already provided a good number of fluffy pillows, there's still a pillow menu! I got Igusa and Reagan, Kapok (?). Mine is a hard long pillow that I enjoy resting my head on. The faint smell of grass and the support of my neck is welcoming. R...

I have gone completely mad. I have become what most girls are like with their male celebrity crush-- They love them. Like stalk all their social media-you can't help but swoon phase. I'm even posting a confession blog damnit. I do have a lot of crushes but not to this same level. I literally have to find AND LIKE all the pictures of his on those social media accounts* I found and find myself grinning silly at the photos and GIFs posted all over the internet.  I mean look at this handsomeness** here And here I am retweeting his GIFs: I fondly recall how in the last episode of Sense 8 I was hanging on to his every word (especially that scene with his character Wolfgang and his co-actor, TINA who plays Kala). My mouth was agape, my heart beating too fast. What the f*ck is going on with me?!! Ok so obviously it's impossible for us to meet, but I don't know how I would react if it's remotely happening in the future. I mean, there are no plans of me going to Germany for t...

*Before you get all worked up, I don't think that's officially what it's called but I would just name it like that anyway. To the uninitiated here's the 3 books: To All The Boys I've Loved Before (2014) P.S. I Still Love You (2015) Always and Forever Lara Jean (2017) The first book have all the elements for a producer to green light this for a teenager romcom. It even had a good hanging ending which will encourage you to read the sequel. I'm not much of a fan of romance novels but it's hard to dismiss a novel that is not even 300 pages and easy to read, hence when I finished the first book I really must know if Lara Jean truly chose Peter. ...which she did on the sequel and that's pretty much it. The rest of the book was meh. Everything I liked about the character of Peter was stupidly torn down by a weird reason (he kept on going back to his ex) and surprise surprise: a love triangle with yet another handsome blonde (Question: if Lara Jean was able to c...

First thing I did after turning off the A/C! (Oh hey I have too much time to even add a watermark!) Like I said earlier, our breakfast at Destination Hotel WAS AMAZING. It wasn't your typical silog. I might book one just to get another amazing breakfast. ( I'm not sure if I could replicate this matte look hmmm) + Picnic Grove + Entrance 50PHP each | Fare from Terminal 11PHP each (?) I was hoping we could have been there earlier but it took us a while to prep. Because of this, that Tagaytay breeze is nowhere to be felt. We walked around the park and at this early, we would have tried the cable car but was told they're still waiting for their techs. We figured the sun would be harsher if we waited. It rained the night before so it's a bit annoying that they didn't think of cleaning some part of the wood planks that are extremely muddy. When we reached the cottages some of them even have mud on the seats! Speaking of the cottages you might think that with that rental o...