my online life

Tuka is asleep and I don't want to wash the dirty dishes yet. We have lazy weather today. ^__^

Everyone is on the internet and that includes me. I don't know what most people do online and I'm not sure I even want to know but it's an interesting subject so I thought I'll blog about where I 'hang-out' when I'm online. I know most people stay logged-in in Facebook for hours but I don't. Especially nowadays, so many idiots online it makes me wanna cry. Hehehe.. Kidding! Well.. not really.  ^___^

Anyhoo, when I was still employed, every time (and I mean EVERY TIME) I open my laptop, I usually check my e-mail (gmail), then log-in to our company's pipeline, then open google translate, google define and google images. All of these for work.

Once I'm settled, then I do a more personal online surfing. Now, that I don't work anymore, all my surfing activities are personal. I haven't opened my gmail for months. Feels good. Hehehe..  :) So, here are some sites that I frequently visit...

BLOGS

I like blogs and I'm an avid blog hopper. But there are 5 blogs that I visit and check almost everyday. That includes my own. Hahahaha!!  ^__^ I like boosting my own site meter. It's like patting my own back. Ngek! :)

1. YOUNG HOUSE LOVE - I'm obsessed with this blog. YHL is a DIY home improvement blog owned by a young couple with 2 children. They live in Virginia. You could say I have blog envy, their site stats are off the roof, you can tell from the entries they receive every time they have a giveaway. They're probably earning mucho moolah and all they have to do is blog about their everyday lives. The envy feels! Ugh! The main reason why I really like this blog though is because of the DIY projects. I want to do that too. Someday.. Someday..
2. DOOR SIXTEEN - Another DIY home improvement blog but with a very different style from YHL. Her DIY projects ain't as many as YHL but I love her style more and the pictures in her blog are really beautiful. 
3. JOY THE BAKER - Yup, you guessed it - a food blog. Hahaha!!  ^_^  A baker chef from New Orleans. Love the food, love the pictures and love her writing. 
4. BOWER POWER - I like this blog for 3 reasons. 1 is because she has 3 hunky looking little boys and I like reading any advice regarding them. 2 is because of the DIY projects. 3 is because she's BFF with YHL's Sherry. Yup, I have loyalty. 
5. MY MUSINGS - Last but not the least, my very own blog. Despite the fact that I don't update very often, I actually log-in to my blogspot account almost everyday to check things out and as I've said to boost my site meter. Also, I believe I'm an interesting enough person so sometimes I re-read my entries and go: "Wow! Ain't I smart or what?". I don't do humble brags here, I brag period and I own it. (snaps fingers)

YOUTUBE

I watch a lot of YouTube videos. Who doesn't? And I have some faves I usually check out. I also wrote an entry in the past regarding YouTube channels that I frequently visit, you can check them out here. But my tastes have changed since then. So, here are my current favorite YT channels..

1. ERB - Epic Rap Battles of Historeeeeehhhhh! It's fun, educational in a way (?) and the lines and the songs are actually quite good. In fact, the whole production is really well-made. From the costumes, to the graphics to the acting - really nice.
2. TEENAGERS/KIDS REACT - It's a segment by The Fine Brothers. I don't know why but for some reason I enjoy the kids' reaction. Besides, I feel like I'm learning more about their generation, more about pop culture and it might come in handy in the future when Ilaya starts high school. 
3. HONEST TRAILERS - These videos were made by Screen Junkies. They are hilarious! Check them out, they're epic.
4. MUSIC VIDEOS PARODY - Videos made by College Humor. Not all of their videos are good though, in my opinion, but I really like the music videos. Especially the one about instagram. :)
5. SNL - Who doesn't like Saturday Night Live, right? All though I have to admit some of their sketches are pretty bad. However, I love digital shorts featuring The Lonely Island, I love their parodies on political figures/events (Sarah Palin parodies are the best) and I love the segment Weekend Update. I watch SNL via YouTube because we don't have cable. Awwww.  :(

ARRRRRRRR!

Yes, I'm a pirate. I'm pro open-source/open sharing in online communities. So here are the sites that I use to advance the cause. 

All though, cyber laws are becoming more more solid especially against piracy so I'm having doubts in giving out links here. So, here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna describe the site but I won't post the name nor will I link it to the actual website. Since I usually plug my entries via FB, if you want the site/link PM me. Ayt? Arrrr!

1. YIFY videos. YIFY is like the new aXXo or the new FXG. Maybe they're the same person, I dunno. Anyway, this site contains all YIFY videos. It's available for downloads or for streaming.
2. Anime episodes or Manga strips. This site contains all released episodes including specials of One Piece, Fairy Tail, Dragon Ball and Naruto. Good print, Japanese audio and English subtitles. Manga is also available in English. 
3. This site is like a search engine especially made for torrents. It's the pirate Google. 
4. Another site for anime. H and I discovered this when we were looking for good copies of Ghost in a Shell. 
5. Last but not the least, the mother ship. I think you already know what this site is. Hahaha! ^__^

AND MORE... 

Other websites that I visit don't belong in 1 specific category thus the title 'many more..' coz I'm very imaginative. Anyway, here it goes...

1. CLICK THE CITY  - I usually check this site for available movies in Robinsons or SM City. They give the cinema number, the time and the quality of the print (whether it's 2D or 3D).
2. YAHOO SHINE - I got this habit from H and it sort of stuck. Besides, my daily extended is always crazy accurate. 
3. WATTPAD - It's a guilty pleasure. Hehehe.. :)  Most writers are amateurs and don't proof read before publishing their updates but I'm no grammar Nazi so I can put up with it. Majority of the stories are sappy and under teen fiction which is not very appealing to me now that I'm turning 26. There are some well-written stories in this site though, rare but they're there. 
4. 9GAG TV - 9gag.com was the site I frequently visit before, maybe 2 years ago but nowadays the tv version is much more enjoyable and interesting.  
5. LISTVERSE - I'm a list kinda girl. I make a list to make more lists. Yup, I do that. So this site is right up my alley. 
6. EPGUIDES - This site is to monitor TV shows that I'm currently hooked on. They show the number of seasons, number of episodes and their titles, release date, a mini-summary of the show and a preview for every episode via TV rage. Also, it's structured as a search engine so it's very user friendly and internet speed friendly (the site isn't fancy looking so it loads up pretty fast).
7. BPI - Yes, I do online banking. It's convenient especially for someone like me. 
8. Facebook - Last but not the least Facebook. I use FB for many reasons. To plug my blog entries, to contact faraway friends, to brag about my son, to spy and stalk people without getting arrested, to check out shared links, to get depressed and envious, to feel 'connected', to be 'in', to do hacktivist activities and many more.

So there you have it, my online life. 

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tuka update - 1 year and counting!

We're officially a toddler. Booyeah! Break it down! ^___________^

As I've promised in the past, I will do as many Tuka updates for as long as I can. I'm thinking maybe until Tuka starts grade school then I'll stop. So for now, here are Tuka's most recent stats..



HEALTH and NUTRITION

Weight: 10 kilos as of June 11, 2014 - he was 1 year and 11 weeks.

Milk: We are currently drinking Enfagrow A+ Lactose Free by Mead Johnson (same maker of Nutramigen). We are drinking an average of 24-30 oz of milk everyday.

Suam: Yes, we are still using suam. We mix it daily with his milk. We are still using organic brown rice.

Our feeding formula goes like this:
-2 oz of water
-7 scoops of milk (Enfagrow milk to water ratio is 1:1; so that's 1 scoop for every 1 oz of water)
-5 oz of suam

Our feeding schedule usually looks like this:

4-5AM:    4 oz of milk
7-8AM:    breakfast
9AM:        4-6 oz of milk
11:30AM: lunch
1PM:        6-7 oz of milk
3-4PM:     snacks
6-7PM:     dinner
7:30PM:    7-8 oz of milk
12MN:      6 oz of milk

I usually adjust the number of oz depending on his solid food intake. I usually just give Tuka whatever food is available on the table unless the dish available has coconut milk. I also don't give him dried fish because it might cause allergies at this stage.

Tuka's current faves are:
-Chuckie (the chocolate milk drink)
-long hair pasta dishes
-Cheezee spread
-plain Skyflakes
-crab and corn soup (by Knorr)
-fish cardillo
-fried tilapia
-TJ hotdogs
-junk food (Nutri Star & Chiz Curls)


MEDICINE and VACCINES

For multivitamins, we are taking Poly Vi Flor drops and PedZinc drops daily.

For vaccines, the only additional shot that we got was for MMR. I gave a list during my last Tuka update entry. You can view the list here. I just use the term shot but some of the vaccines were taken orally but most Moms already know that so moving on..


TEETHING

As of now, tooth #9, #10 and #11 are out. But they're still very tiny but they have broken out of the gums so I'm hoping they will grow a bit faster now since Tuka is more suplado when teething.

We think a #12 and a #13 might follow very soon but we can't really be sure until they break out of the gums.

#9 and #10 are canines and they look so dang adorable. I dunno why but I used to think H's canines were adorable too. Really sharp and very (for lack of a better term) vampire-ish looking. Unlike mine. My canines are dull, not as sharp as Henden's.

Down side though, Tuka doesn't like his teething materials anymore so he just nibble on whatever object he fancies for the day. Like the chair, the table, the broom and many more. I don't stress out over it anymore, it's exhausting. I just brush his teeth really thoroughly 2x a day to make me feel better. Hehehe..  :)

Also, I will start deworming Tuka in August (1 year & 6 mos) to make sure he doesn't have any parasites. All that nibbling might lead to some really nasty worms. So, that's my game plan. Hihihi..  :)


MOTOR SKILLS

I also gave a list of his motor skills during my last update so I'm just going to list the additional skills that he has now.

-Can walk.
-Can run. Sometimes he stumbles.
-Can climb up on things. If it's too tall, usually he falls down.
-Can open and close doors (without locks of course).
-Can climb up on small-spaced stairs.
-Been trying to jump for weeks now without success. Maybe he's too heavy? >_<


On intelligence and fine motor skills, it's a bit hard to describe much less measure. Or make an intelligent calculation on what he can and cannot do. What he knows and doesn't know at this stage.

For example, I once discovered that Tuka was able to lock-in the security straps on his high chair. He only did this once so I'm not sure if he just got lucky or what.

Tuka was also able to arrange his stacker toy (it's a tall toy) in the correct order ON HIS OWN. Without anyone helping him or telling him what goes where. Correct order. Again, only once.

I've also seen Tuka experiment on how to use the remote as if he's really trying to learn how to use it. And many more.

So for now, I don't know and I'm not gonna jump to conclusions. For now, I'm okay with the fact that he's in good shape and usually in a happy disposition. There are a lot of opportunities in the future to train his intelligence. Besides, I believe H and I are smart enough to raise a witty enough child. I mean, H explains dialectical materialism via chemistry. Beat that. ^__^


INTERESTS 

RAIN! Tuka loves the rain so so so much! He loves to look at the rain, take a bath under the rain or walk under the rain wearing a jacket or using an umbrella. RAIN - FTW!

Swimming. Basically, Tuka is half fish. Anything with water is interesting for him. Unfortunately, Tuka doesn't enjoy beaches that much because he can't stand the salty water. But he can swim in a pool for hours. Seriously.

Bugs. Tuka loves all-thing buggy or insect-ty. (Did I use that term right? Somebody google this!) Tuka loves ants, caterpillars, butterflies, beetles, horseflies, flies, termites etc.. His all-time favorite are ants.

Tuka loves our dog - Lucifer. He is also fascinated by cats.

Likes mud. Hates semi-wet or dry dirt and sand.

Ghibli films, Mother Goose Club videos, Winnie the Pooh films and Shaun the Sheep episodes.

Fave books as of now - My First 123 Glitter Book, Colours by Jan Pienkowski and a couple of touch & feel books that I got from Booksale.

Monster trucks and dozers. Also, balls. And dinosaurs esp. the T-Rex.

__________________________________

I think that's all for now. I wanted to add Nanay Peeves but I don't want to end an entry negatively. I'll save that for another post. xx

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an update, instagram, blog makeover and a little more in between

Okay. This entry is like a little bit of this, a little bit of that all jumbled up together. Hehehe..  :)

I haven't been blogging for a while. (So, what else is new?) :) Forgive me my dear (1 or maybe 2) readers. I've been.. well.. a bit down (that's putting it mildly) lately and I just didn't have it in me to write any entries even though so many things have been happening. So, this is what this entry is for.. The holymother of updates. It's gonna be a bit long, stay with me. ^___^

First off, I have officially resigned from my job of 4 years. I know, I know. Seems like a bad move since I have a son to finance but H and I agreed that it is our best option as of now. By resigning, I get to focus on taking care of Tuka, up-keeping the house (the house was a mess for the longest time), and de-stressing. Also, this will give me an opportunity to find ways to take up political work again which has been my plan since the beginning of the year. Of course, me resigning would mean less income (that's 20-25K/month gone. huhuhu.) but I have already paid off all of my major loans and H promised to work his ass off to tide us over so I am hoping things will work out.

This set-up isn't permanent, I know I'll have to find a job again in the future when things are a bit settled. I need Tuka to have a stable sleeping routine, I need to find a good housekeeper to help me out around the house, I need to organize my schedule so I can take up political work (this is a must since I need something to keep me sane and not feel like an idiot in this fucked up society of ours) and I need to learn how to handle a teenager since Ilaya seems to be becoming one - a teenager! (gasp!)

So, basically that's my life as of now. It's a bit of a mess, so many changes, so many adjustments, so many 'let's try this.. nah.. how about this one? nah..' moments, so many mistakes and screw-ups. It is exhausting but still surviving. 

Next, I'm thinking of doing another blog makeover. Just like the one I did last time. Remember this? My header and footer were made by me via Office Paint but it only shows two people. Since, we have Tuka now I was thinking of adding a little boy in my very artistic stick figure painting. But I have a feeling it won't look cute this time around. I don't think I'll get lucky twice. :)  I've also been visiting online portfolios of some graphic artists and I really like their online samples. Sadly, they don't give out free samples. Huhuhu..  :( So maybe I'll just keep my header and footer for now and just change the lay-out of the blog. Like, my blog roll list, add an instagram feed on the side, change my about me, make my archive more content specific. Add a bit of this, a bit of that.

I've also been thinking about the content of my blog. It's been very mommy-ish these past 2 years and I'm very happy with that but I want it to be mommy-ish and MORE. Because as a Mother, my life ain't just about cleaning and changing diapers. I want to write about social issues again and how I see it and handle it and most importantly, WHAT I'M DOING ABOUT IT now that I'm a Mother. Again, on top of the usual mommy-ish posts and maybe a little DIY home improvement projects (feeler ako!), and some narcissistic rants. Hehehe..  :)

AND speaking of instagram, I WANT ONE. I seem to be the only Mom who doesn't take constant pictures of her kids. I have missed so so so so mannnyyyy "my kid is awesome" moments and I don't want to miss any more. So for the first time, I am finally thinking of purchasing a smart phone. Yup, I still don't own one. I'm still using an old Nokia model. In black and white and it has a flashlight. Very practical if you live in the Philippines (great for black outs and floods) and if you're a new Mom (Tuka can throw and drop it over and over again and it still works).

So, I am thinking of buying a Sony Xperia. For many reasons.

• Waterproof - again this feature for me is important. Flood, rain, rainy rallies and many more.
• Scratch-proof is also an important feature because -- Tuka.
• Instagram - as I've said, I want one. I will bore and annoy everyone to death by posting so many pictures of Tuka, I'll probably need to post a naked picture of Piolo Pascual from time to time to keep my followers.
• Smart phone features (net, email, skype etc) - I can finally do some work via phone like most yuppies do. Very "in" of me.
• Touch screen technology/technology period - apparently, studies say that in this day and age it is very important to expose and educate your child to technology as soon as possible. I can't really do that if I don't even know how to use recent and modern day technology.
• Lastly, it's Sony. I'm a fan.

Once my smaller financial issues are settled i.e. backlogged bills (guilty!) then I might buy one. Hopefully by the end of the year. Hopefully. If Pnoy isn't an ass it could be next month but alas we have a douche for a president. 

Speaking of ASS, did any of you listen/read Pnoy's speech regarding DAP yesterday evening? I did. It was BULLSHIT! 

No facts, no figures. WTF?! The only time he mentioned figures was when he was dissing other projects that were questionable. Also, remember that line when he said PDAF and DAP were different? How? He didn't give a factual reason. His only reason was that DAP funds were used in good faith unlike PDAF. Weh? Good faith? We're suppose to take your word for it? Fuck that. Give me proof. Give me figures. Also, that line that started "Wala naman sigurong magdududa.." somewhere along that line, is he dense? I mean, he had to make 2 speeches already because people are doubting. Nagdududa kami BIG TIME. 

When people were interviewed later, majority of them said they didn't understand anything about DAP or his speech. You know why? Because that speech was purposely made to confuse the people. And to wage war and threaten the Supreme Court. Hehehe.. >_<

Anyhoo, pol talks will be reserved for later entries. Much longer, angrier and with correct political lines because that's how I roll. 

_________________________________________________

Yay! A new entry. Hopefully, I can do a Tuka update very soon. He's very much a toddler now. It's amazeballs. ^____^  xx

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