::. I'M A (SHAMELESS) LITTLE TWIT STAR .::

Abbie gave me the heads up on this one last night... Apparently, one of my twits has been immortalized in The Bivings Report article about American Idol: Using Tweets and ImpactWatch Tools to Predict American Idol.

It's quite funny though how Abbie discovered it... She was reading The Twitter Hall of Shame: 50 Tweets That Will Echo in History. Under the "Pop Culture" heading, this article pointed to the Bivings Report, with a premise: "These tweets focus on shameful pop-culture conversations."

Haha, yes, indeedy, I have participated in "shameful pop culture conversations" :p All for the love of American Idol Season 7!

Are you on Twitter? Follow me there.

::. JUNE FAMILY OUTINGS .::

It's a stormy day today due to typhoon Frank. Boy, I am sure glad that we had a chance to go to the beach in the last coupla weeks!

Spent the last two consecutive weekends with my daddyo & mommyo -- first was at White Corals, Morong, Bataan wherein my most fave part was when we visited the Pawikan Conservation Center (so hard to find since there weren't really any signs pointing to where it was!). The beach at White Corals wasn't exactly that inviting so I opted to float around at their salt water pool instead. It's the same beach feeling minus the pesky sand getting trapped inside your swimsuit :-) Their room was okay -- with aircon and tv -- though hooks/rails to hang your wet clothes or bath towel are lacking. The food was so-so and there were a LOT of pesky flies competing with you as you eat. That was my major peeve about the place.

Coming from the Pawikan Conservation Center, we had a yummy lunch of pesto pasta and pizza at Xtremely Xpresso, Subic. We passed by Duty Free and then stopped over at the Lighthouse hotel to take its photos.


A week after, we went to La Luz, Laiya, Batangas. I liked the beach at La Luz :-) There weren't much sand coz it was practically tiny beach stones/corals everywhere... what's great about it is that you won't find any sand trapped inside your board shorts hehe :p The water was pretty deep even if you're just a few feet from the shoreline. The waves were a bit strong. It's high tide in the morning and low tide in the afternoon. When it's high tide, the water swallows most of the huge rock by the right-most (far) end of the beach. I went to that part of the beach to snorkel during the early morning (before 9am) and it was awesome! I saw lotsa fishes going about their own business, not minding me at all. They swam through the deep crevices of the stones -- black & white striped cichlids, yellow and black striped ones, deep blue ones with yellow and green streaks, tiny dilis looking ones.... gaah, i don't know what kind of fishes they were but anyway, they're all so wonderful to watch =) In the afternoon when it was low tide, we climbed the same huge rock and snapped away with our digicams. No sunset though at that part of Batangas :( We woke up early for the sunrise but it's not entirely visible as we would have wanted... we still managed to get some good sunrise shots though =)

I liked our room at La Luz, I think ours was one of the premier rooms. What's great about it is that it had separated the toilet, sink and shower so it's ideal for sharing with roomies. There's aircon and a ceiling fan; the only bummer was there was no tv. Good thing my dad brought his portable dvd player and I had my trusty iPod nano :-) Guests aren't allowed to bring in food and it is compulsary to pay for the Php950 buffet meals which include lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and breakfast the next day. Food was fine but I think my mom's cooking is way more delicious than that! ;-)




more bataan (and subic) photos at my multiply...




I enjoyed Photoshop'ing some of the artsy fartsy photos I took...

more la luz photos at my multiply...

::. I LEFT MY LONGGANISA IN VIGAN: THE JOURNEY .::

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I say, I am just too lazy to churn out words to narrate my Vigan experience last May with my friends Abbie, Tin, Charo & Jako.

We left Manila via the 11:30PM Partas bus trip last May 15. Arrived at Vigan 9 hours after on May 16 and immediately checked in at the oh-so-vintage Grandpa's Inn. Went to Chavit's Baluarte, ate the overrated bagnet at Cafe Leona, rode the charming calesa to the famous Bantay Bell Tower (which we climbed) at St. Augustine Church, dropped by Villa Angela, checked out Hidden Garden, ate dinner at Cafe Uno (yummy chicharon dipped in dinuguan!), had a night stroll through Calle Crisologo, chilled out at Sitio Bar, ate Vigan longganisa for breakfast at Grandpa's Inn, went to the Syquia Mansion (I'll never forget you lolo tarush!), ate Vigan empanada at the town plaza, shopped for souvenirs at Calle Crisologo, visited the Vigan Cathedral, bought Vigan longganisa at the palengke, tripped out on this el cheapo jukebox at the carinderia beside Partas bus station. Took the 9pm Partas bus out of Vigan on May 17. Got stranded somewhere in uhh I don't know where (pangasinan? tarlac? who knows where the hell we were?! it was pitch black outside... no electricity!) due to the terrible typhoon Cosme. Got to Manila around 2:30pm of May 18 after 17 freaking hours of stop and go travel. Ate a super late lunch at Yoshinoya Park Square Makati. Rode yet another bus (at that point, we HATED being inside buses) to San Pedro. Got home around 5ish pm.

Such a swell time. Long live the PPG! I love you gang! That was quite an adventure for the books! The forces of nature jinx is still alive hehe :p

Here are the visuals to tell the story of our trip...