Petrichor

The gloomy weather unfolds outside (Of course, sun never reaches the window but the rain always does). There is a slight drizzle and I smell the rain. 

I am back to when I first came to stay in this dingy room I've spent so much time in & learned to call home. I remember dragging my feet, unwanting to part with my (old) bed-- the move was a product of circumstance, a necessary change. I remember being in a room empty save for a mattress on the floor. I remember staring at the blank walls.

I am still here. Each foot, each inch now etched with experiences-- the space has already filled up with two years of rest, readings, and feelings. 

I sit inside the room with the window the sun never reaches but the rain always does. The walls are not blank anymore.

It may be time again for a necessary change.

Make or break: My freshman law story on Rappler's iSpeak

READ the whole article HERE. 

Make Up Store: Marble Eyeshadow (Rosso Asiago) & Cover All Mix (dark)

A few weeks back, WhenInManila.com was invited to the Make Up Store, Podium so we could learn about their brand and their products. I went with another WIM writer, Mimai, and together, we navigated our way through the trove of make up we found ourselves in. For someone who isn't into make up much (I find the whole application process taxing, usually), I had a lot of fun trying out their private course and learning about application. 

The Vikings Independence Day Feast

On June 12, the country celebrates Independence day. Of course, what comes with a holiday in the Filipino context would be a whole lot of feasting. 

Choco Pili Tart; Vikings Buffet SM Megamall

Vikings Buffet, a name that has fastly become familiar to the Filipino foodie, invited me and a few blogger friends to sample their Independence day menu. Feast your eyes on this spread.

On pedigree

Upseting to see how ignorant we can be about animals and how much we devalue dogs simply because of breed— standards of beauty set for these animals that even they are completely unaware about. 

There is no less love that an askal can give and no more love that a purebred dog is willing to give you. Sure, a dog’s pedigree may be responsible for certain traits but it does not define that animal, nor does it limit its capacity in any way. Every single dog has his or her own character and temperament which is, most of the time and more often than we know, attributable to the dog owner. Believing a silly notion that a dog, just because of breed, is better than their mixed breed counterpart is a sweeping generalisation. Believing that a dog is such because he is a certain breed is tantamount to believing something like Filipinos, just because they’re Filipinos, all are discriminatory idiots who assign value depending on pedigree. I’d like to think otherwise.

Moving out, moving on.

I thought that I'd never get you out of my system. You were in my veins and in the air I breathed. But, one day, I woke and there was nothing left-- just the dark dingy streets and unfamiliar corners. The city had ceased to be mine.

So I whine and wonder about how I could've lost this love for you, a place I was so enamored with, a place I was so convinced I belonged to and belonged to me. I walk these unfamiliar roads trying to remember how you smelled, how you tasted, but there is nothing but the sounds of a different city and the sun on my face.

And I think: I could get used to this.

21st Century Fairytale

Cocomo maxi dress

Photographs by Camille Rodriguez and Jun Rodriguez

Intellectual Property: Why we should care.

I remember explaining to a very confused classmate that piracy was bad and it was stealing. I remember getting very frustrated because he could not seem to grasp what I was saying, It seemed odd to me that he had no idea that he was stealing intellectual property. “How could he have not known?”, I was asking myself the whole time.

Turns out, most everyone in this country either do not know, do not care, or do not bother to think about it. Having a parent whose work dabbled in IP, I was not part of that majority. Having lived with random lectures on the topic and a strict no pirated rule in our house, I grew to understand and care about this issue.

Why does it matter?

It's a walk in the park

Dress from Sam's Station.

Photos by Jun Rodriguez 

Guess who's back!

 ..and with so much time in her hands for the next few weeks!

It's been forever since my last post and so much has happened since then. I never really understood how people could be too busy to tell their stories up until the last few months.