Monday, August 30, 2010

The New Reading List

Because the Book Hoarder struck again, I now have a new reading list to contend with:

From the old list
1. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
3. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
4. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
6. Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

From the Powerbooks Powerbarter (aka the Guilty Pleasures)
7. Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steel
8. Up Close and Personal by Fern Michaels
9. The Long Walk Home by Will North
10. The Debutante Divorcee by Plum Sykes
11. Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding
12. Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself by Judy Blume
13. Diary of a Mad Mother-to-Be by Laura Wolf
14. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
15. Wives Behaving Badly by Elizabeth Buchan
16. The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith

From the Fully Booked sale
17. The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld
18. Brown Owl's Guide to Life by Kate Harrison
19. The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax
20. Why Men Want Sex and Women Need Love by Allan and Barbara Pease

From the Powerbooks sale
21. The Position by Meg Wolitzer
22. Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

From the National Bookstore sale
23. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
24. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

On the borrowed list
25. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella


Whew! Now that I've struck out two out of 25, I wonder what I should read next. I need some light reading-- Her Fearful Symmetry turned out to be a tad disturbing. :O

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Update: 101 Things in 1,001 Days

It's now August, and the last time I posted an update was in April. So it's high time that I reevaluate this list!


START DATE: 01 January 2010
END DATE: 28 September 2012

READING AND WRITING
1. Write one journal entry every day for two weeks. (0/14)
2. Write one blog entry per week for one month. (0/4)
3. Finish my reading list. (7/12) --The list has grown to 24! Oh no, oh no!
4. Write a short story.
5. Write a poem.
6. Read "Pride and Prejudice" then watch the movie again. --I just bought myself a copy of the book, so that's a step!
7. Read five books I already own on TIME's All-Time Top 100 Books list
- Animal Farm
- Catcher in the Rye
- The French Lieutenant's Woman
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
- To Kill a Mockingbird
8. Read three books from my Gabriel Garcia Marquez collection. (0/3)
9. No buying books until I've completed my reading list. --I broke this. :( See previous entry.
10. Come up with five books I would recommend to anyone. (2/5) --I would recommend "The Time-Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult.

MOVIES
11. Finish watching my VCD and DVD movie collection.
12. Watch the whole series of "30 Rock". --I ended up finishing the first season of "Modern Family" instead, and buying the first season of "The Mentalist" and a boxed set of CSI NY. Yikes!
13. Watch "Terms of Endearment", Academy Award winner for Best Picture on the year I was born.
14. Watch five Academy Award winners for Best Picture:
- Casablanca
- Gone With the Wind
- Kramer vs. Kramer
- Amadeus
- Rain Man

PHOTOGRAPHY
15. Own and maximize the features of an SLR camera --This is almost happening, hopefully this month! *crosses fingers*
16. Learn something new from the Digital Photography School once a week for six months. (0/24)
17. Have photos from travels printed and organized in an album per trip.
18. Join Project 365.
19. Take more pictures of family and friends.

Still unsuccessful with Project 365, and I haven't been able to take photos lately. But I'm working towards getting that SLR, and it's not even going to be a joint purchase anymore! I'm looking forward to photography dates with M though, who is equally excited for me and is talking about going to parks and other places where I can practice shooting. :)

ARTS
20. Re-learn how to play "Tarantella" on the piano.
21. Learn a popular song on the piano.
22. Be able to play three pieces from memory. (0/3)
23. Learn more Photoshop tricks.

Still nothing from this part of the list. :(

TRAVEL
24. Visit three new places in the Philippines. (1/3) --Bantayan, Cebu
25. Go on at least one trip abroad.
26. Go on a beach trip. --Check! I went to Boracay over the summer for work, and to Batangas with M and the girls!
27. Explore a city I've never been to.

FOOD AND HEALTH
28. Eat in a new restaurant once a month. --The tight budget still rules. :(
29. Eat vegetables once a week for a month. (0/4)
30. Sleep before midnight every night for a week. (0/7)
31. Enroll in a gym and work out for a minimum of three months. --Still zero motivation for gym, but I'm now trying to start a routine of walking in the village at night for 30 minutes.
32. Try eating kare-kare. --I tried it once when we stopped over for lunch on the way to the Batangas beach trip. It was okay.
33. Learn to make five different fruit shakes. (0/5)
34. Finish my jug of water everyday. --There are days when I get to finish my jug!
35. Have some cotton candy on a random day.
36. Learn how to swim.
37. Cut down on sweets. --This has been working, largely because my tummy doesn't tolerate chocolate anymore. :(

FASHION AND BEAUTY
38. Buy ten dresses. (5/10) --3 dresses for the Boracay trip, 1 for date night, and a black dress for an event.
39. Update my wardrobe. --This has been happening steadily.
40. Grow my hair to ponytail length before getting a drastic cut. --It's at ponytail length now!
41. Wear my hair differently once a month.
42. Learn how to put on eye makeup.

ORGANIZATION
43. Clean up my office email.
44. Clean up my personal email.
45. Do a general cleanup of my room quarterly. --The first quarter cleanup happens tomorrow! :)
46. Do a general cleanup of my office space monthly. --I was able to a massive cleanup when my allergologist told me that the number one culprit for my allergic rhinitis is dust mites.

INTERNET
47. Get all dishes on Restaurant City up to Level 10. --This is becoming more difficult to do, as the game keeps adding new recipes to learn!
48. Use the computer for only two hours a day during the weekend, twice a month for a year. (0/24)
49. Go for an entire day without Facebook once a month for six months. (0/6)
50. Submit a secret to Post Secret.
51. Greet all my Facebook friends a happy birthday-- even the ones I don't know. --I've been doing this as best as I could, although there are some days when I neglected to check the birthdays section.

WORK-RELATED
52. Get to work by 9:00 A.M. everyday for one week. (0/5) --I've been coming to work everyday before 9AM, so I think I can strike this off my list. :)
53. Update my resume.
54. Get promoted. --CHECK! :D 
55. Get a raise. --CHECK! :D

FINANCES
56. Get my bank account to 100K by the end of this list.
57. Save all spare change for 1,001 days.
58. Make a budget and stick to it.
59. After computing for my expenses budget, withdraw everything and deposit into my savings account.

DRIVING
60. Be able to drive the big cars.
61. Take a different route to work once a week.
62. Take a different route home once a week.
63. Conquer my fear of driving in Makati by driving around on a Sunday for no reason.

FAMILY TIME
64. Get home in time for dinner twice a week for one month. (0/8)
65. Treat siblings out to lunch/dinner, just the three of us.
66. Have a sleepover with my cousins.
67. File a leave on my parents' birthdays. (1/2) --Didn't file a leave on Dad's birthday because he wasn't home anyway. I would've ended up hanging out with my mom, haha!
68. Go on five random weekday mall trips with my mom. (0/5)
69. Bring home pasalubong for my family on a random day. (0/3)
70. Have a Scrabble night with the family.

MELBERT
71. Go on an arcade date.
72. Watch DVDs together for an entire afternoon.
73. File a leave that coincides with his day-off and go on an unplanned, spontaneous date.
74. Go on a videoke date.
75. Go on a fancy dinner date. --CHECK! We got a little more dressed up than usual and had dinner in "The Chocolate Kiss" in UP Diliman. :)
76. Go on a trip together. --CHECK! We went to Bantayan with my officemates and Batangas with my college girlfriends. We hope to hit Bohol someday.

FRIENDS
77. Catch up with an old friend over dinner or coffee. --CHECK! Still need to work on keeping it up though.
78. Make a personalized gift for friends this Christmas.
79. Have a videoke night with the girls.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
80. Give 12 "saw this and thought of you" gifts to people who are not Melbert. (0/12)
81. Treat an officemate to lunch for no reason.
82. Buy fries and a drink at a drive-thru and give to a street kid on the way home. If not, to the neighborhood guard.
83. Leave a very generous tip at a restaurant.
84. Send a "just thought of you and hope you're well" text to ten people. (0/10)

ME-TIME
85. Take a birthday leave. (1/3) --Granted, the birthday leave wasn't exactly on my birthday, but still.
86. Have a massage monthly for a year. (0/12)
87. Pray every morning and every night.
88. Write down something I'm thankful for everyday.
89. File a leave just to stay home three times. (0/3)
90. Go to Ateneo on a Sunday for some quiet time. (0/3)
91. Take an afternoon nap during weekends twice a month.

THE FUTURE
92. Decide if I want to take graduate studies or not.
93. Have a list of things I would like in my future wedding.
94. Have a list of random things about my future.

MISCELLANEOUS
95. Write an entry for each day in my Starbucks 2010 planner. --CHECK! My Starbucks planner has my daily to-do list, and I feel naked without it.
96. Watch a concert. --CHECK! Watched Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Jojo last March. If all goes well, I'll get to watch Boyz II Men with M this coming Friday!
97. Finish a coloring book.
98. Vote wisely in the 2010 national elections. --CHECK!
99. Get braces removed.
100. Join the lotto.
101. Get a henna tattoo, just because I've never tried it. --CHECK!

Monday, August 2, 2010

The return of the book hoarder

It was bound to happen: I finally broke my promise to not buy any books until I was done with my reading list. In fairness, here's where my book list stands:

1. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
2. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
3. The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes

4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
5. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
6.The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman
7. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

8. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
9. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
10. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
11. The Diary by Eileen Goudge
12. Old School Ties by Kate Harrison


So I had four more books to go before all hell struck loose. By "all hell", I mean "before all bookstores decided to go on sale and have 80% off bins". Gaaaaah...

I kinda already cheated with the Powerbooks Powerbarter, which had me trading in eleven of my old books for eleven new-old books, whose titles I don't even remember now. (Classic sign of a book hoarder.)

Then I hit Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street, which held an exclusive sale for discount card holders in honor of its anniversary. I was able to get The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld (hardbound edition) and Brown Owl's Guide to Life by Kate Harrison (trade paperback edition) from the 80% off bin and The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax and The Don't Sweat Guide for Couples at 20% off. Thank goodness their anniversary sale ended yesterday!

Powerbooks was up next, where I ended up getting two books again, The Position by Meg Wolitzer (hardbound edition) at 80% off and Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner (trade paperback edition) at 40% off. The Powerbooks sale ends on August 15, so it looks like I should steer clear until then.

Then I dropped by National Bookstore in Shangri-La yesterday and was surprised to see that all imported books have a 20% discount. Apparently, the annual Cut-Price Booksale kicked off last July 30 and runs until August 22. I already had My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares in my hands, and I was really thinking if I should get it already (trade paperback at P420?! A steal, my mind screamed). Good thing my parents called to say we were leaving, so I dropped the book like a hot potato and ran out of the bookstore before I could change my mind.

Thing is... I can't get that book off my mind! Waaaah! And it even has five star reviews on Amazon! That's totally not helping! Granted, the cover available in National is different from the one that's on Amazon (which is also the trade paperback edition available in Powerbooks), but it's also P224 cheaper. Oh no oh no oh no!!!

That means that with my new acquisitions... 11 books from Powerbarter, plus 4 books from Fully Booked, plus 2 books from Powerbooks, plus the 4 books carried over from my previous reading list... my book list is now up to 21!!! Thank goodness I'm starting to read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger!

[Edited 07 August 2010] So I couldn't resist. I ended up getting a copy of "My Name is Memory" by Ann Brashares because I saw a copy in National Bookstore SM Megamall: it was the last piece, had the same cover as the one in Amazon, and was still cheaper than the one in Powerbooks. Original price was P675, so with the 20% discount, I was able to get it for P540. Then I also took the chance to get the P99.00 edition of "Pride and Prejudice", just so I could somehow move along on my list of 101 things in 1,001 days. So... that brings the book list to 24, including the book I received for my birthday! Yikes!