Monday, September 28, 2009

Constant Vigilant

Woohoo! I'm high. I just finished sending an Invention Alert (a preliminary step for a patent) to our internal patent office. The process is rolling and might take a few...years? LoL. I'll be really happy and grateful if it is really awarded, heck, I am happy and grateful now.

It's been quite an experience and a solid teamwork for us to come with the idea (with solid evidence and some more claims in the making). To make it even bombastic, the bosses put me as the primary inventor. Back in grad school, the equivalent of this euphoria is getting a paper accepted to a prestigious journal (read: significant Impact Factor, > 1? LoL), even as a second author.

Thank you, God, and keep me blessed with a constant drive at work.

Friday, September 25, 2009

All Sales Are Final

It's been two days since your 30-day no question ask return policy expired...I guess I pass my probation period? LoL.

yeah you pass lol


Happy belated engagement lunaversary, Fiance.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

A Portrait of the Gander as a Young Goose

I finally had the first painting of me commissioned. The artist was a borderline genius in style but had not enough self-esteem on his capability as a painter. "Koko masih kecil," he said when I asked him. Can you see the resemblance between the painting and the model? LoL...

Friday, September 18, 2009

Zydeco Mix

I finished up burning the mix CD for Il Divo two days ago. At first all the songs sounds alike to each other. I did a little research on most reputable artists of the genre and went on from there to pick songs I like. It was like finding needle in a haystack, but it was enriching. Here is the playlist.



I went kinda crazy and had so much fun on making accompanying booklet of lyrics last night and this morning. The accuracy of the lyrics are questionable, though. I can't even totally catch the English part much less the Cajun French thrown in freely on some of the songs. It's an interesting genre of music, this Zydeco. I can't help to be thrown into experiencing the life of the Cajun/New Orleans people from the way of their music, playful and free-forming.















Monday, September 14, 2009

Deadlines

Oh my, a couple of deadlines coming really close:
1. October-December bulletin--need to start up this baby like right now.
2. Zydeco CD mix for Il Divo--need to actually find a safer downloading source (PC might have just gotten infected with lsas virus). Lucky, I have connection to installing XP, forgot to bring CD from CS.
3. Costumes making for All Saints' Day, I'm in charge of embelishment

I am questoning my ability on time management these days. There were an extended period of time when I played Sudoku till 4 in the morning. And now these deadlines are haunting me (not to forget the wedding related thingie!).

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Wedding Prep

So we took the plunge. We are doing this!

I took a moment and a deep breath and promise myself that I am not going to be obsessed with having too high an expectation on having a grandeur wedding reception, it should be simple and intimate. Planning for the reception should not be something that takes away sleeping time and creates yet another monster. Ultimately, I want us to focus more on the marriage preparation (and ceremony).

So to kick off, I have done a couple of preliminary things.

-Date and place

I have just emailed an old friend at St. Mary's with a picture of fiance and I to announce our engagement. She is the secretary. She then directed me to contact the new associate pastor. I drafted an introductory email to him. I am having a good vibe with the Father after reading his bio. My first choice for a wedding mass celebrant was Fr. Mike Sis, but it seems that arranging all of our schedules together will be leaning towards the impossible.

We are leaning toward a March-April 2010 timeline. Of course, it all depends on the church.

Edited to add: We might change city venue to San Antonio, TX instead of College Station, TX. This seems to be a good solution to help us with planning and for the convenience of flying in out-of-town guests. My sister and brother won't be living in CS anymore when we will have our wedding, which takes out convenience out of planning. Bibi's sister and mother live in San Antonio and thus we will be able to ask for their assistance with the wedding.

Finally, check out our wedding planning blog for an idea of how far we are in preparation.

-Budget

My sister called with a good news on Sunday. I have just consulted a certain tax estimator today. What I found from both is that we might have more chunk for our wedding budget. Bibi and I need to talk more about the whole thing.

-Support (emotional and otherwise)

I am pledging the full support of the fantastic Andas, Bu Didi, Donna and Megan. So girls, help me organizing this budget friendly wedding. I love you all.