BRIDESMAIDS AND BESTFRIENDS

My beautiful sisters and bridesmaids ----------> <3 PAKACHAK

***Note: We shot these photos in the middle of a Callanta COLD WAR. (Love love to the ever-talented Dianna Jeraldine Capco and Rayms Fabul for capturing me with these wonderful girls... despite the chill. =)

That day, we all just had to accept the fact that Mika was a bitch and Roni was a douche. HAHAHAHAHA!!!

THE E.N.D.

In the end -- and it will end -- your life will seem to have sped by like a fleeting dream. Much of your story will be the age-old but ever joyful human experience: romance, family, satisfying work, and happy completion. I wish you a great fountain of successes. You will also be provided with all the failures and tragedies necessary to deepen and widen your soul -- sufficient, I hope, to make you wise and forgiving of all human frailties. I pray that these necessary troubles will never long crush your optimism nor your love for this magical life.

The greatest danger before you is this: you live in an age when people would package and standardize your life for you -- steal it from you and sell it back to you at a price. That price is very high.

You have already been selected for this program. You have its credit cards and designer labels already expensively around you. In the months ahead, you will find yourselves working long hours, too exhausted for community life or even good friendships -- too compromised to take a stand against the abuses of the system you serve. A great treadmill has been devised for you, and its operators do not care much if it wears you out or kills you. A system is in place to steal your life from you, if you will let it. Don't let it.

Read, study, meditate and think for yourself. Let your most serious education now commence, if it has not already done so. Refine and hold your own values, and pay the high price necessary to live those values. Decide what is important to you, and hold your ground against all temptations and tortures. From the pink granite of your own values, build a fortress against the world's ethical compromises, or you will soon be among those dead of eye who stand next to you in elevators but who are not alive. Don't let them steal your life. This is the only warning you will receive.

I wish (part 2)

In this episode...

Bride Wars. (Hahahahaha!)

Ok so maybe it's not easy for sisters to have their weddings only months apart and to compare notes and not try to step on toes or outdo or outshine the other as well as come up with something unique and different whilst avoiding biting off the other's style, motif, theme, whatever.

So as a loving sister to my younger sister... let me make this clear:

She will have her GREEK-inspired theme. She will be the goddess... and we will be her lesser nymphs and muses.

And since she called dibs, I am happily going to settle for the previously posted Famosa wedding dress as a bridesmaid dress... in purple. =)

.....

Fortunately, this mix-up finally compelled me to find a more fitting theme for my wedding (taking into consideration practicality, comfort, cost, etc. etc.). But since that won't happen til next year and I don't want to set anything in stone just yet, I'll just call dibs on OLD HOLLYWOOD (maybe a mix of the 40s, 50s,60s,70s)... and see where I go from there. I just like so many little things from each of the eras that it's hard to decide let alone choose just one overglorified theme. But I'm having fun with it. I mean, I guess I was just overwhelmed with all the excitement of this and this and that, picking out colors and googling wedding dresses and attending wedding expos. But all of that really doesn't matter considering... I AM GETTING MARRIED. In two weeks.

In front of my family and his family and very few close friends...

After 500days, I finally get my intimate romantic wedding... and reassure my daddy that his "favorite second," his "pakachak" is in good hands.

Ergo...

I'll worry about the real deal church wedding plans in October... exactly one year before our scheduled Oct. 26, 2012 date.

All this crazy unnecessary planning is stressing me out. Shoot. I should just worry about making money.

But I did google a potential (halston) dress (something I chose calmly and objectively)


Totally rockable, yeah?



Coming soon:

The Bachelorette Party.

Let's see what my little sister has in store for her ate. =P

I wish...

I go to Barcelona... and they give me this wedding dress...

For free...

                                                            Famosa


I just recently went from wanting to look like a Disney princess to a Greek goddess. I mean, it was either "Belle" or "Aphrodite." Though my first dress was really just as beautiful...


I'm just afraid I'll look short and frumpy in it (not to mention the amount of money and cloth it would take).

*sigh*

Maybe I can write Pronovias a letter? Yeah. I'll do that. Or maybe I should just go to Spain. Been wanting to do that for quite some time now.

Click here for more beautiful wedding gowns.

Little Boy Big Boy

Instead of going out Saturday night, Pao and I decided to stay in and veg... and I found myself watching the Pinoy Box Office channel until 2am because of this:





I didn't get to finish the entire movie but man was I enlightened! (Pao refused to watch with me even though he did mention wanting to watch "I Love You, Man" AGAIN - the first time, his eyes were closed for most of the movie)

Little Boy Big Boy... because there is happiness in every boy within.

Makes me wish I were in an indie film. =P

Click here for full review (cuz it's frikkin' hilarious)

PSYCHE'S VALENTINE'S REACTION

BACK AND FORTH

Next year, I will remember to take a leave of absence on Valentine's day so Pao and I can take a road trip to UP Los Banos and show him how we Feb. Fair in the boonies.

I am deeply saddened that I cannot go this year... or that I haven't gone in several years.

Maybe I'm just overreacting. Then again, I was at La Salle (Main) yesterday FOR THE FIRST TIME for an event... took the LRT FOR THE FIRST TIME just to get there... and only figured out yesterday that La Salle University was just across the street from CSB.

Made me miss my own alma mater... even though apparently, UP is helluh corny now, unlike back in MY day when you can just light up pretty much anywhere and drink just beside your class. (Why I found that to be the highlight of college, I do not know)

So yeah, next year. Feb. Fair. It is on.

Moving along...

I have to remember to alter my taffeta dresses this weekend. They've become too long for my taste.

Also...

I'm leaving for China next Tuesday for an HP event (it's a good thing my passport hasn't expired =). I hope to score a couple of rare Star Wars Mighty Muggs when I'm there (now I'm not really into the toys themselves... Hell, I don't care much about overpriced toys THAT YOU CAN'T PLAY WITH --- I mean how can it be a "toy" if you just display it???? --- but ever since I gave Pao a Mighty Muggs Luke Skywalker, Asajj Ventress, and C-3PO to add to his collection last Christmas... I figured I'd help him collect the entire Star Wars Mighty Muggs cast... for the sheer "project" of it. (So if anyone wants to hook a girl up... HOOK A GIRL UP.)

And...

I need to buy a dress... for our wedding. A nice, simple one to commemorate the occasion. =P Maybe I can buy one in China.

And this post is beginning to sound really trivial but whatever. These are just things I need to do.

Besides, I don't wanna get too caught up in the BIGGER, MORE IMPORTANT and SOCIALLY RELEVANT things of everyday.

I just wanna party.

'Cause it's Friday...
and I'm ready to sing
Pick my girls
and hit the party scene
Tonight, oh it's alright
So get up and let this funky mellow groove
get you in the mood
'cause you know it's alright... (been singing that hook since this morning)

Because I'm supposed to come up with something cool to post everyday...

Gay-Marriage ------> Human-Robot Marriage

......

I'd like to think I come up with the cooler posts when it comes to our Gadgets Magazine website. =P

(Thanks to my fiance for always hooking a girl up with new stuff to check out and share... My one and true partner fo'sho. ***Hell, I even make him LIKE my posts on our Facebook page and he does it with such ready willingness. =)

Why the iPhone is awesome.

This just in...

http://asiancorrespondent.com/48529/filipino-techie-is-new-asia-editor-at-the-next-web/

Way to go, Francis Tan (our online editor at Gadgets).

.....

But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

Though it is somehow ironic when after poking fun at my Nokia C7 review unit for being helluh slow (compared to his phone), I decided to see for myself...

Ergo...

I grabbed his phone, ran outside and out of reach, and posted a status message on his Facebook.

And he was right. It really IS easy to use! Hell, operating it was a breeze!

It was so fast and easy in fact, I was able to leave a status message BEFORE he had time to lock his phone on his macbook. (Although that was also partly because our other colleague, Chad disconnected his internet, hahahaha! =)

And this is apparently what happened: (Click to view)


***Note: One of the comments actually came from our CEO.

See. I told him he could get a date for Valentine's if he just asked someone on FB.

LEAVE TACT AND TASTE AT HOME DAY.

There is some bad ju-ju going around today. I dunno whether it's the post-valentine's hang-over or the allergies floating around... but definitely, I am not liking how some people are just giving me this nasty ass vibe and it's annoying the living shit out of me.

Makes me wanna just get up on outta here and go home to watch Law & Order reruns.

And can I just say that TACT is a fucking SKILL!!! Seriously.

Hay whatever. And for times like these, I wanna call up my college bestfriend and ask her out. I need a change of scenery. Familiarity is beginning to breed contempt.

....

(An hour after posting the aforementioned)

Now I get why our CEO put a feng-shui "treasure bowl" on MY desk. According to her, the west (where my desk is) is a place of prosperity. But since I'm facing the east (where all the bad juju is due to "the killing star," I have to repel it... with a bowl. of treasure.)

Obviously, the annoying people are from the east.

(the ox and the pail I got a couple of years ago. it's supposed to bring you financial fortune)

.....

In lighter news, Jollibee allowed a lucky few from the media to try out their new Choco Crumble Sundae yesterday at the Blue Water Day Spa. (They're available today, y'all.)

Maybe I'll go grab one later cuz I sure as hell need me a pick-me-upper and nothing beats bad juju than icecream with a bit of coffee and peanut butter syrup, cookies, peanuts, and my Lord, brownies. *melts*

Reminds me of my favorite Baskin Robbins' flavor MAUI BROWNIE MADNESS. *giggles*

ValentiMe's

We didn't have dinner until 10pm but his knack for perfection knows no bounds... or time.

Hands down... it is the best lasagna I've ever tasted.

And finally...

He made me my mixtape (well, it was a cd with pictures of cassette tapes on the album cover. =)

From: michelle kay callanta <michelle_kay_callanta@yahoo.com.ph>
To: switchtrik@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 5:37:46 PM
Subject: MICHELLE'S 90S PLAYLIST

These were just some of my favorites but let me know if I forgot any pivotal 90s jams. =)


Groove Theory - Tell Me
Mary J. and Method Man - All I need
SWV and Wu Tang - Anything
Lucy Pearl - Dance Tonight
Musiq Soulchild - Love
Brownstone - Cant tell you why
Changing Faces - Stroke you up
TLC - Something you wanna know
D'angelo - You're my Lady
En Vogue - Givin' him something he can feel
Shai - Baby I'm Yours
Maxwell - This Woman's Work
Tribe Called Quest - 1nce Again
New Edition - I'm Still In Love with You
Total - Kissing you oh honey remix
Something For the People - My Love is the Shhhh
Mya feat. Blackstreet - Take Me There
Aaliyah - Back and Forth
Mary J Blige - Sweet thing
Quincy Jones (feat. Babyface and Tamia) - Slow Jams
Monica - Why I love you so much
Brandy - I wanna be down
Jodeci - Freek n You
Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah (I got you all in check)
Fugees - Fu Gee La
Lost Boyz - Renee


.....

Psyche and I made him a Valentine's card (she wrote that all by herself, I just dictated the spelling to her =)

I gave him the book LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (last time it was LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA whilst he gave me THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY... and I had this brilliant idea that he and I could become that couple who gave each other books every anniversary, birthday, holiday, whatever, and we'd fill our home with books from every one of those special occasions and bequeath them to our children ---- a library of LOVE.

But hot damn, Mr. Paolo Toledo can make a mean lasagna, y'all. =)

TO ALL OF MY SINGLE FRIENDS ON VALENTINE'S DAY

(And this was inspired and prompted by our "single and so ready to mingle if only he weren't such a coward" online editor...)

If you don't have a date today but would like one (like deep down inside you wish you had a date but you're trying to play it off as if you don't but you really do cuz whatever people say about single people being awesome on valentine's day and you being able to save and do what you want because you're unattached and all of that self-empowering shit... let me tell you now...

It's just not true.

Valentine's day is a day for couples to be cooler than usual. There is no room for single people today.

So if you don't wanna be left out, I'll tell you the same advice I gave our colleague...

"Get on your goddamn facebook and post something like 'It's almost 6 o clock, and I still don't have a date. Anyone wanna be my valentine?' or if you wanna retain some sort of pride, you can post something that goes 'Not that I don't have plans or anything but I was just wondering if anybody wanted to go out with me later.' --- YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING???!!!!

Though he argued that he was the type to pursue just one particular pre-destined target, I simply replied, "Dude, do you think you can catch more fish with one fishing rod or if you cast a huge-ass fucking net? That's why they call fb a social NETwork. And it's the biggest net you've got."

I think Confucius said that.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, Y'ALL!!!

......

Nah but seriously...

Single people should date their bestfriends. (Not fuck em, ok? That's not what Valentine's is about and I don't encourage it.)

But if your bestfriend doesn't wanna go out with you or has other plans, go out with a facebook friend and see if the friendship feels different and more genuine online than in person. =)

That would make a great case study.

CROWN OF LOVE

They say it fades if you let it,
love was made to forget it.
I carved your name across my eyelids,
you pray for rain I pray for blindness.

My Valentine's

A Valentine's Gift for Psyche

From her Papa, with love.

Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla. ~ Jim Bishop

If this is a glimpse into the future, I just as easily understand how much letting my baby grow up would hurt. *sigh*

The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, "Daddy, I need to ask you something," he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan. ~ Garrison Keillor

THE READER

"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course..."
-- Homer, The Odyssey



This is a beautiful movie.

Kate Winslet deserved her Academy Award for this role.

....

"I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love."

And for all of the technology... for all of life's extra convenience and efficiency... there is nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) more romantic than reading... and being read to. Accompanied by the harmony of turned pages flapping, the licking of fingers, the deep breaths in between commas and periods and punctuation marks, a book closed, hands together in a prayer of gratitude. And no greater achievement than by learning through loving... as a man reads, so she writes... as his voice guides her hand.

It's almost divine.

On my never-ending quest to slow down the aging process.

Love love love to KIEHL'S for hooking me and our art director up with so many products to get our beautification ON this summer. (about 10,000pesos worth of stuff... each)

And that's on top of the samplers we got in order to review KIEHL'S entire ANTI-WRINKLE REGIMEN. (Find out if it works in our March issue of Gadgets Magazine with Ms. Michelle Ng of The Amazing Race 4 on the cover.)

Or you can come out and see for yourself when I see y'all around. =P

Say no to photo-aged skin and wrinkles and looking 10years older than you are.

FOR THOSE HARD LOVE TYPE LOVES.

For those who love hard. (Get ready to cry your motherfucking eyes out.)

Holla, we want prenup! We want prenup!

(Though prenup don't exist here 'cause their ain't no divorce.)

Although I did (like the f*cking realist that I am) read up on the grounds for annulment... so unless homeboy can prove that I'm impotent, underaged, or really crazy (like mentally unstable, I'm missing some sort of chromosome type crazy and not I-just-wanna-fucking-fight-with-you-cuz-I'm-bored type crazy) then we in it for the looooooooooong haul. Or if I have an incurable STD.

***INFIDELITY: is not grounds for annulment. (The Hell it ain't. It is however grounds for murder and I will straight PTSD murder his ass if I catch him trickin' like it was Halloween.)

Or unless we burn the NSO down to the ground. That was another escape route I had in mind.

*smiles innocently*

.......

This whole wedding thing is fun. Furrealz. Especially with all the help I've been getting. I can see why people just want the wedding and not necessarily the marriage. Man, if couples could just plan their weddings everyday, I think more marriages would last.

*shrugs*

29 more days before I become Mrs. Callanta-Toledo. *sigh*

Such fun. =) I mean I was trippin' about it AT FIRST (shit, I'm only human and it wasn't like I was one of those girls who felt they could only have a life if they were married or attached.) Apart from the romance of it all, there was a lot of reconciling that had to be done... sort of like some schizo-induced preparation that required me to conduct an entire discourse in my head. I mean, there's no seeing what the future will hold... but that doesn't mean a bit of foresight can't be exercised. And if you know what you want, you'll get it. That's how it is. That's where the energy will go.

That's my theory, at least. And if it ends up being wrong, then fuck it. I'll make another one. It's that simple. =)

.......

But before all of that... Prenup bridal/bridesmaid photoshoot with Ms. Dianna on deck and the sisters on Sunday at Ninyo Fusion Cuisine (Thanks Nins! You da you da best!) then prenup couple/family shoot with Paolo and Psyche at the condo. =)

Gonna document the sh*t out of this.

I did say I'd be married by the time I was 28 (now I can look back at my 8-year old self and say, "I did you proud, right?")

And my 8-year old self would say, "You sure did, girl..."

"Just don't fuck it up."

TOP OF THE MORNING!!!!!!

I think I found the secret to a good day.

....
....

Waking up early.

Uhm yes, preferably sleeping early as well.

Like waking up an hour, hour and a half before you're supposed to get ready. (Although in my case, today, I've been awake since 2 in the morning... but only because I was asleep by 10pm (out of sheer laziness to do anything else except get back to reading the Iliad ---seriously, I find the Trojans way hotter than the Greeks---, straight killing it at Kirby on my DS and... lack of cable).

Also because I was jolted into consciousness when I found Paolo wasn't sleeping soundly beside me yet (he was supposed to be home by 12 from practice *ahem*)... I gave him 30mins. before I miss-called his ass for an explanation of his whereabouts... only to find that he was just downstairs eating whilst watching Family Guy. (I like to keep tabs like that.)

Then it was 2-hours of playing some more Kirby and tossing and turning until finally, I just gave in, got up, and decided to fix my shirt drawers. (Because I find fixing my clothes are never a waste of time.) So by 5am, I was up folding clothes and I even managed to make a little do-it-youself 80s flashdance shirt by cutting it up (I learned it on youtube). Which explains today's ensemble.

But that's really not the point I'm trying to make (even if I did come up with a cute-looking outfit).

I was able to make ham and egg sandwiches for both me and Pao to bring to work as well as breakfast for Psyche WHILST listening to nothing but JANET on my iPod.

Took a bath.

Woke up the fiance.

Rode the MRT to work (hell yes, AGAINST the mad rush of people due south). Then the jeep. Then power walked on over to the office. Nay, "bounced" (try walking whilst listening to Missy Elliot's "For My People" and you'll know what I'm talking about).

But I still haven't gotten to my point.

So... ok, you know about how walking (or exercise in general) helps you release endorphins, those mood-enhancing enzymes that make you feel awesome? Well, waking up early enough to be able to walk to work does just that... as opposed to waking up 30mins. before you're supposed to be at the office, jump in the car, drive like a crazy person, and scream to yourself things like "Ay por favor, drive with a purpose!" or "Hurry the f*ck up, man!" or some other dumb sh*t like that... with the windows closed, of course. I mean, you wouldn't wanna offend anybody so early in the morning. People get shot for sh*t like that.

That's one.

Oh and yeah. Being able to chill (chillax, hahahaha! I use the hideous term loosely), drink ginger tea, cook eggs (with that Magic ginisa mix for once), prepare food for those you love...

I swear, it's absolutely fulfilling.

And though it's probably nothing like the kind of fulfillment you'd get from building a home for the homeless or knowing that the kidney you donated will save the person who will one day find a cure for herpes...

It just helps to know that you can take your time living... despite the demands of the day.

Nah mean? =P

Ok enough with this drama, I'm falling asleep.

(Is it lunch yet? I wanna eat my sandwich.)

Facebook really is the devil.

As time went by, and the fake profile came up next to the real one every time I Googled it, a slow rage burned in my heart.

Who were these people at Facebook? I visualized them throwing darts and eating pizza behind impenetrable walls. The difference between the fake profile and mine was clear. Mine has quotes from Goethe and ee cummings. The fake profile was slimy and disgusting. All someone had to do was pay attention. Press one small button in an office cubicle someplace in Palo Alto. Click. And the fake profile would be gone.

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/02/01/my_fake_facebook_profile

.....

Once, a stupid ex (in all of his blind rage) hacked into my Friendster account and put up nude photos of me. I had to implore him to give me the password so I could take it down, saying if he had any decency for my family who took him in, he would give it to me. Funny too, it was my younger sister's then-boyfriend who saw it. Good thing they were only up for a day or two... but I did get some replies from my male contacts (fortunately, they were more kind than sleazy). Still, it was humiliating.

Hay.

This internet thing... it's eating me alive.

And you know what I just realized? I think people have become less superstitious with the bombardment of all this information, useless or otherwise, so readily available to them. More knowledgeable, more disenchanted.

People used to just believe in things, you know? In people. Now, you can do background checks on everybody, cross-referencing that sh*t like they do on Criminal Minds. And why??? Because you CAN. And not everything you find out will make you happy. Hell, you don't even need 90% of what you find out. But you do it anyway.

Where the Hell is the goddamn library in this country??? People should go to libraries and read Walt Whitman.

I need to read. On paper.

I need to start using my moleskine notebooks. They're collecting dust.

And I need a black pilot pen.

MONOGAMY IS SUCH A LONELY WORD.

By Almie Rose aka Apocalypstick

I’ve said this before, so I’ll say it again, because it’s my fucking blog: I want a wedding but I don’t want a marriage. At least not the way my country (or is it culture?) defines marriage. The problem with marriage is the whole, “‘Till death to us part” thing. Name one thing in your life that you are confident you will love from this point until you die. For the longest time I thought I loved cheeseburgers, then I briefly went vegan. Now I’m back to eating meat and loving it, but I am still surprised that there was a period in my life in which I detested it. However, I think there is one exception. I think that people can have lifelong friends, and here’s why: you don’t have sex with your friends (or you have sex with your friends like once or twice and only because you’re both hung up on other people). Once you bring sex into it, everything changes. “I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS.” Me too, Mugatu. Me too. That’s what sex does.

I hate people who break up and say that they’ll always love the person they broke up with. Oh, okay. I guess love is not all you need. You think I’m naive for saying, “If you love each other, why isn’t that enough”? Well I think you’re naive for saying marriage vows and believing in them. I think the best way to ruin a relationship is by marrying someone. And now you’re going to tell me, “You’re wrong, I’m married and I’m happy and I cry rainbows and blah blah blah.” Okay, fine. I’m sure that’s true. But what about ten years from now? Twenty? You know those earnest wedding toasts where the young groom tells his young bride how excited he is to spend the rest of his life with her? Yeah, I don’t think he realizes what the rest of their lives could entail.

Here’s how I think marriage should work: it should be like leasing a car. You’re with a person for a set amount of time, maybe a year or four. Then after that period of time you decide whether or not you want to extend the marriage. And if you do, you sign a type if marriage lease. I think that this would help eliminate divorce. Marriage is a contract anyway, so why not make it something you can decide to renew or cancel?

What is so crazy about that? There’s a dude who married a video game character and yet God forbid gay people get married. It’s because marriage is a completely fucked institution.

Look, here’s the thing: I am not saying I will never get married. I’m young and I have no idea what my life is going to be like. I can’t even picture what next week looks like. But if I marry someone, I want to make damn sure that it’s for the right reasons and that I am aware of all the things they do that annoy me and that I can handle it for 10+ years before I sign up. And fuck I want the dress, I want the party, I want the photos, I want the ring. I’m thinking about buying my own engagement ring. Yes, I know that’s sad. I don’t care. Kanye probably has diamond fucking Adidas, I should be allowed to wear my own diamond engagement ring without being pitied.

Or what I will do, when I really find the right person, is to have a non-wedding wedding. We’ll have the party, the dress, the photos but we won’t sign a certificate. We’ll call it an “Us” party or an anniversary party. We celebrate our own birthdays, so why not celebrate our own relationships? Unless you’re an asshole. If you’re an asshole and you’re inviting me to your “look-h0w-happy-I-am” couples party, go fuck yourself.

I don’t know. I just think it’s all so fucking serious. Monogamy doesn’t have to be serious. It should be fun, it should be wonderful, it should elate you, it should be goddamn fucking Disneyland, and if it’s not, I am peacing the fuck out.

http://apocalypstick.com/

.......

PREACH. IT, YOU LOVELY LOVELY WOMAN!!