Interior Design - Lobby

This is an Interior Design for a Redevelopment I did a few months back. Looking at it again makes me realize that there are hit and miss in this design. I do like the play of lights and shadows for the textured back wall for the reception area. I like the choice of materials, a mix of dark wood stained accents, a glossy marble flow and even the 2-tone reception counter. I like how it all came together and set a cozy relaxing mood.  What I didn't like is the display cabinet and seating area under the stairs. A seating area would be fine, but that display cabinet is absolutely horrible. It should not be there, the scale is wrong, the placement is wrong, the ergonometrics is wrong.

I realized one thing, that for me to get better in what I do, I should criticize myself more. I should go back to the things I did and try to learn from it.  If we think about it, the same rules apply when it comes to life. We will only learn and get better as a person if look back and try to see the mistakes that we did, to understand it more and to analyze.  In lieu of that, I would like to set Friday as my day to look back at my previous Interior Design works and criticize myself. I am excited of the things that I will learn.

How about you? What do you think are the hit and miss in this rendering? Which part do you like and what are the things I should improve on. I appreciate your comments. Let me know your thoughts.

My Answer to Maria Kang

This photo has gone viral on facebook, a picture of a 23yrd old mom of 3 boys, fit and sexy in her skimpy exercise gear.  I would have not noticed this since I am busy with work but my own boyfriend posted a this on his wall which forced me to take a look at MariaKang. I dont know what other moms feel about this, and usually I will just let this pass me by. But since my own boyfriend, who is the father of my child posted this, I felt I had to answer.

Rough Translation: Filipina's are extraordinary. Maria Kang you are a legend. Hope a lot of moms will follow you.

First of all, I am not offended by the "whats your excuse" tagline on her photo. I admire her that she has kept her body looking like this. In my own experience, it is not that hard to look this good after you give birth. I myself looks this good when I just gave birth.I gained weight years after that.  A lot of moms, was giving negative comments about her posing like this and with that tag line. It is as if, other moms who doesnt look like her is just giving an excuse to not look that good. She is proud of her body, and she should be. It entails a lot of work to look that good. I am happy for her.

Since my boyfriend posted this on his facebook wall. I would like to answer her tag line. "whats your excuse?" and this post is specially dedicated to my boyfriend.

1 year after giving birth

2 months after giving birth

1. I looked this good when I was 23. In fact, I just gave birth to your daughter at 23.  You cant expect my 32 year old body to look like that. Yes age is a big factor, as we grow older our metabolism slows down, thus making it more difficult to lose weight. Just look at my 23 year old pictures, I can wear that same skimpy gear and look as sexy, only I am prettier than Maria Kang.
2. If you have 3 kids in 3 years, like Maria Kang did, yes it is much easier to keep that body. Breast feeding is a natural fat burner and if she was breast feeding non stop for 3 years yes she will still look that good. She didnt even had to exercise that much. What the exercise did was the body toning for her 6 pack abs, but breast feeding will keep the weight off even without exercise.
3. Since you are an "absentee dad" , i had to work to keep our baby alive. That means, I dont have time or money for gym or other exercise, make myself look good stuff. Heck, I wasnt even getting a hair cut for a long time. So spa, mani/pedi, facial, make up and getting a photoshoot is not in my budget list. Maybe if you were there to support us. I could have pampered myself.
4. In my opinion, yes she is pretty and sexy in that photo. But I am as pretty and sexy as her, some some say I am sexier than her, even if I gained weight. Just check out my photo below.

This is me Now! If I am not pretty and sexy for you, then there is something wrong with your eyes!!!!

I still have a lot to say, but I have to go now and spend time with what matters most, family. I will continue this post soon...

Advice from Tony Perez

Your PM: "Good evening. I hope you can help me get a better view of my relationship. I am in a crossroad, i dont know if i should split up with him or keep going. We are not together now, i am working abroad. My bf is suppose to join me here soon, but i dont know if it is a good idea. He doesnt have a work here so thats a big risk. We have a kid together and i really want it to work out. My questions are the following: does he really love me? We'll we be happy together when he gets here? Are we going to be happy as a family? Is he the man i am going to marry? I hope u answer my questions. If there are other things thay you sense about us, hope you can also share with me. Thank you.

My answer: "Hi _______! Yes, allow your boyfriend to join you there. He will eventually find a job, and working together to save money is always a good idea. You will be doing this not only for yourselves but as a duty to your child, whom you are both responsible for and who deserves a good future. You took the risk of falling in love and having a child. Venturing forth in a foreign country is yet another risk, but one worth taking for the sake of your family.

"At this point 'Does he really love me?' is immaterial because you are a family, whether you are married or not and whether you like it or not. It is not romance but a deep friendship that bonds together a healthy family, and that is something you have already.

"Yes, you will be together as a family. Whether you will be happy or not is not up to me but up to the three of you. You will eventually have two more children.

"Yes, he is the man whom you are going to marry, keeping in mind that marriage is not a bed of roses but a commitment that entails many sacrifices."

TONY PEREZ is a creative writer, playwright, poet, lyricist, painter, portraitist, fiber artist, and psychic journalist and trainer. He is one of the 100 Filipino recipients of the 1898-1998 Centennial Artists Awards of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Filipino Beggar in Brunei

OK! He is not a beggar, in fact he is a scholar, but their strategy makes him look like a beggar.

His name is Nino, I met him while having a quick lunch at The Mall, Gadong. He approached me while I was eating my chicken joy. He introduced himself as a Filipino Scholar, now in Brunei to raise funds for other scholars.  He asked me in english and I answered him in tagalog, so he will instantly know that I am a Filipino as well. As he explained to me why he is in Brunei, I asked him, is your story true? He said, for me to help out, I can buy the pens that he is showings for a whopping $10 for 2 pens. That price is really high for pens, meaning 1 pen is almost Php200? With that story and with that price, who would believe him. So I asked more questions, where he is staying, how many are them in Brunei, how long are they staying; and he was able to answer all my questions. He even showed his ID and all. I asked him, who's idea is it to go to other countries just to roam around and beg people in the mall to buy their over priced pens. He said, it was the school director's idea. To which I answered, it is a stupid idea.

I told him to tell that director/ mentor that his strategy of begging people to pay for over priced pens in a foreign country is not only stupid but also degrading for the Filipinos.  There are thousands of Filipinos working here in Brunei and we are working very hard to get respect from locals and other nationalities. I am proud to say that Filipinos here are regarded as smart, hard working and very good with whatever job we are in. In fact, Filipinos are favored for all work positions, and compared to locals and other nationalities we are also one of the highest paid in this country. Simple because we are good in what we do and the employers  know, that even if they pay a little higher for a Filipino employee the money there are paying us is worth it. We are regarded the smartest and most reliable in any field of work here in Brunei. Some may even say, that Brunei cannot function well if Filipinos are not here, the palace itself has about 90% Filipino employees, that's how much respect they have on Filipinos when in comes to work.

So to see a Filipino, roam around the mall asking people to buy overpriced pens in simply ridiculous.  We have worked our as* off to show to everybody here that Filipinos are professionals, smart and very good in what we do, and as we show them that, we also gain respect from locals and other nationalities.
Seeing a Filipino "beg" for money is degrading and shameful. There are a lot of other means on how to raise funds, if the director/mentor has commonsense I am sure that there are a lot of other ways to raise funds.

Filipinos are intelligent and talented, something that we can showcase all over the world. Im sure if they have done their homework and coordinated with the right people they will get a lot of support from the Filipino community. If they coordinated with Philippine Embassy, I'm sure they can point them to the right direction.  They could have staged a show, I mean I would rather dance "tinikling" in front of a crowd rather than beg for money. If they only did their homework, I'm sure the whole Filipino community will be more than eager to help them out. They can get support from Expression Music which are mostly Filipinos, or some refreshments from Reyni's or Jollibee which is  known Filipino Restaurants. Even the children from SMS-IS are mostly Filipinos. This way we could have shown Brunei and the rest of the world (since there are a lot of other nationalities here) what "Bayanihan" is about. I am sure they could have raised more fund doing it this way, with so much pride, rather than going around the mall and begging for money.  Worse, if people would think that it is just a scam and they are trying to trick people into giving them money. 

Life Cycle of a Choco Chip Cookie

Okay, the caption in the picture is not the typical caption you expect to see on a Choco chip cookie recipe, but if you think about it, this caption is true in comparison to our life cycle. Let me discuss further below:

Conception - the ingredients are prepared but still needs to combine together to form something. Very much the same as on people. The eggs and sperm needs to bind together to form something. No need to discuss in detail.

Childhood - ingredients are mixed together but still not looking quite there yet. It is like when we are kids, the parents, school, environment are trying to add instill something to us. We are still trying to learn, about ourselves, about life, about everything. But we are not quite there yet as we still don't know for sure what we want to be, whats our goal, whats our purpose. We just try to absorb everything we can absorb, and hope that whatever we absorb, will help us to be a one wonderful person.

Puberty - This is the actual baking process. I believe, puberty is very much like this process. At puberty we are exposed to a lot of peer pressure, we are forced to face a lot of changes in our body, our life and everything else. In baking, the heat is giving this pressure and the cookie is going through a painful change, and although it maybe hard to go through, most of the time. If we we're "mixed" with the right ingredients we turn out ok.

Adulthood- Let the cookie rest. After baking, we let the cookie rest on a drying rack to release the heat and let it cool down a bit. In reality, Adulthood is the same. Yes we can still feel the heat, but little by little we let ourselves cool down. We have to let our self relax a bit, or else we may crumble. This is the time that we are still under pressure, but the heat from the "baking" process made us mature enough, so we can handle the pressure gracefully.

Retirement - Cookie Stored - After the painful process of baking and resting. We then go to retirement (although im not there yet) I am still in the "let the cookie rest" period. Sometimes I fell like Im still in the "baking process", or in deeper thought I may still be in the "mixing process". Retirement is the time, that we go into seclusion, stay somewhere quiet, something we are comfortable with and relaxing doing nothing but stare outside the cookie jar and watch the chaos of the outside world from within.

Lastly...

Death - ultimately, we all die a horrific death... haha..being eaten. If you think about it, even this part is true. In time for our death, we get eaten and swallowed in earth, six feet under. During this time, we just hope that when that happens, we are mixed right, baked right, rested enough, to give a delicious and satisfying treat to the earth that swallowed us and to those we left behind.

My Pandesal Recipe: Hit or Miss

Being in Brunei for almost 3 years now, there are some things that I miss about Philippines. One if this is the hot pandesal every morning. I grew up in Sampaloc eating pandesal with butter almost everyday of my life when I was a kid.

Nostalgia scene in my mind: My lola and Tyang me and kuya, eating that hot pandesal early morning before my dad picks us up from lola's house to send to school. Miss my lola so much. Miss Tyang too, I should give her a call.

Moving on with my story. We can easily buy pandesal here, but it is not hot anymore. As is already packed in plastic and probably was baked hours before I finally her my hands on it in the groceries. So I am craving for the "hot steamy pandesal". So I searched youtube and found a lot of pandesal recipes and gave it a try. Contrary to what I expect, it wasn't that hard as all. This is my first time to bake anything, and I almost sure that I will fail. Gladly, it turned out well. It didnt turned out as a perfect pandesal, mine is a bit heavy, more on a monay rather than a pandesal. But I am happy with it. It tastes great, and very filling too.

So, in conclusion. My pandesal is certainly a Hit. I love it.

Recipe from Panlasang Pinoy 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 5 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 cup fresh milk, warm
• 1 pouch rapid rise yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 piece raw egg
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
•  
• Procedure
• 1. Combine the yeast, sugar, and warm milk and stir until the yeast and sugar are fully disolved
  2. In the mixing bowl, combine the dry ingrdients starting with the flour then the sugar, salt, and baking powder . Mix well by stirring
  3. Add the egg, butter, cooking oil, and yeast-sugar-milk mixture in the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients then mix again until a dough is formed. Use your clean hands to effectively mix the ingredients.
  4. In a flat surface, knead the dough until the texture becomes fine.
  5. Mold the dough until shape becomes round then put back in the mixing bowl. Cover the mixing bowl with damp cloth and let the dough rise for at least 1 hour
  6. Put the dough back to the flat surface and divide into 4 equal parts using a dough slicer
  7. Roll each part until it forms a cylindrical shape
  8. Slice the cylindrical dough diagonally (These slices will be the individual pieces of the pandesal)
  9. Roll the sliced dough over the breadcrumbs and place in a baking tray with wax paper (makes sure to provide gaps between doughs as this will rise later on)
  10. Leave the sliced dough with breadcrumbs in the tray for another 10 to 15 minutes to rise
  11. Pre heat the oven at 375 degrees fahrenheit for 10 minutes
  12. Put the tray with dough in the oven and bake for 15 minutes
  13. Turn off the oven and remove the freshly baked pandesal.
  14. Serve hot. Share and enjoy!
   

Topics for Blogs

Wahhhh! I have so many things to say. So many things to blog about. I've been gone for a looooong time, and now that I am back to blogging. It's as if I am so excited again to tell everybody or one person who accidentally stumble onto my blog. I have so many stories to tell. So many photos to share. While my adrenalin is still on peak. I will write them all in one sitting and schedule it for publishing. So here are the topics that you will expect to read on my blog.

My pandesal recipe: Hit or Miss
How I Got a FREE House. (and everything in it is free too/ including rent)
How cheap it is to live in Brunei. (This will shock you! Stay tuned!)
My New Work.
Accident!!!!
Filipino Beggar in Brunei
Life Cycle of A Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Stay tuned!! I will be writing all day today. Leave me a comment.

Long Hiatus

Hi, I know I haven't posted a blog for a long time, the reasons? I got busy, depressed and lazy among other things. Now that I have a little bit more extra time, I would like to get back to blogging.  I know, there are very few people who reads my blogs since I wasn't active for a very long time. This is perfectly fine for me. I started this blog years ago to find solace, to express myself. I didn't intend to earn on this blog, nor have a vast readership. Now that it is back to that again, meaning no more readers, no more pay blogs, no more advertisements. I don't need to worry about statistics, pagerank, etc.

But my blog is still open for public, and if there is somebody else in the world who bumps into my blog every now and then. I will appreciate if you will comment on the post, I would love to interact to with you. So this is me now. I must admit, I do miss blogging, I miss interacting with the bloggers. I miss going to events and meeting new people. I wonder if blogging is the same here in Brunei. I wonder, if there are many supporter for bloggers as it is in the Philippines. What I know, is that they do love to go online. Everywhere you go, people have their faces glued to a tablet,or a phone. I just don't know if they recognize the power of blogging here. If they know how to use is for marketing, for media exposure. Hmmm! Interesting subject. I will soon discover, if blogging effective as a marketing device and if it is applicable to the Brunei market.

For now, I am leaving you guys with my recent photo.