PORTED FROM VOX: QotD/Vox Hunt/Hand Of God: Call to Action

 I count myself as lucky. Those who have heard my origins normally continue to disbelieve the dire circumstances we once came from. I guess that that's what ultimately pushed me to contribute actively to charitable causes through financial and voluntary efforts.

I am for children's and women's welfare, the rights of the transgendered, the disabled and the terminally ill. I'd like to support the rights of the aged and WWII veterans plus animal rights, but I've still got to get my act together and actually go vegetarian. (*Author's Note on 2010/09/04: This blog lists all my causes. Please check the left-hand side.)

Let me tie this to today's Vox Hunt question, since the documentary in question is one of the things that inspired me to become a volunteer: Minsan Lang Sila Bata (Children Only Once, 1994), by Ditsi Carolino and the Ateneo Center for Social Policy, in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Manila Labor Centre. It's quite graphic with its portrayal of child labour in the Philippines, with its feature of children working for more than 10 hours with little food or monetary compensation at slaughterhouses, warehouses, meat markets and shipping yards, among others. It shows child labour in all its ugliness, and what makes it even sadder is that the children involved are very much resigned to their fate, but continue to be rather cheerful in their work.

How very timely the appearances of these questions are, right when I'm about to embark on relaunching RO2.

PORTED FROM VOX: QotD: My Dream Room

In your ultimate dream house, what does your favorite room look like?

Right now, I already live in my dream house, and I have my favourite dream room! \^0^/

Only, it's not just as clean and as organized as I dreamed it to be. XDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Photos after the cut! (If you're wondering why I'm here, it's because I was camwhoring for some LJ-based fashion communities. :P)

{points down}

I put on a BOX widget at the bottom of the page! v^~^v Yahooey!

...Wala lang. XD

PORTED FROM Vox Hunt: Weekend Results

Show us something you did, made, saw or bought this past weekend.

Race Queen Haruka. View original at DeviantArt.

I made the little photo at the right. XD;
How do you like it? :3

...I really, REALLY wanted to post a photo of the blue-and-white striped halter summer dress I found on Lulu Castagnette, but I'd been unable to take a photo of it. ;_; I didn't even get to buy it! {weeps}

PORTED FROM Vox Hunt: Just Doodling

Do you doodle?  Show us.

Here are some of my doodles! XD I'm not too proud of anything I draw since I have never had formal education in fine arts, but I rather like these the best. :3

More of this can be found on my deviantArt account, ~ligaya. ;)

Pit Stop 23

Race Queen-Paddock Girl Haruka

Well, seeing as tomorrow today is the start of another lap in the race of my life, let me look back at everything I've gone past so far.

Checkpoints:

1. Graduating from college
2. Eurotrip!!!
3. Getting a job pretty quickly - twice
4. Getting in touch with old friends especially from Poveda
5. Making many new friends especially through cosplay and RODCon
6. Getting in touch with more senior college friends
7. Learning more about myself and my capabilities
8. Making the decision to stay fit and healthy - and actually keeping it
9. NOT getting too sick, yay
10. Remembering that many other things, and not my whims, must command my attention
11. Reviving Reach Out Otaku, bit by bit
12. Enjoying my job, finally (well it's not all THAT good, but I'm finding it much better now)

Chicanes:

1. Choosing to be an accounts manager in the marketing-advertising field, instead of a journalist, a writer or a production assistant
2. Becoming the family breadwinner and taking over my older sister's duties (I didn't expect it to happen MUCH sooner)
3. Being forced to confront my shadows (since the one thing that occupied my faculties enough to keep them in check and not remind me of them was school)

Roadblocks:

1. Being an account executive in one of the crappiest below-the-line marketing companies alive, where I was hardly paid at all for all the work I did
2. Lack of time or memorable bonding moments with my blockmates, some other college friends and ICTUS
3. Never having enough money for myself or my loved ones
4. Never having enough time for my loved ones
5. Not knowing enough of the chores to do around the house (my sisters and I pretty much divided chores among ourselves and never really switched responsibilities)
6. Spending my birthday working, and with very few of the people I wanted to spend it with so badly

Pit Stops:

1. Turning 22
2. Graduating from college
3. Working and earning money
4. Turning 23

Though I'm still not as recharged as I'd hoped to be, I'm definitely ready to go through the next lap of my life.

PORTED FROM VOX: QotD: Secret Family Recipe

What's one family recipe that you wish you knew how to cook?

Actually, there's a whole lot. XD

As a few of you already know, I am proficient in cooking leche flan, a velvety custard made of milk and egg yolks, so much so that I know how to substitute egg whites in the recipe without anyone ever knowing or tasting the difference. XD This recipe I learned from Mama, my late father's mother.

But there's one other dessert I wish I learned from her, and that's to make ube (oo-beh) jam. My dad would describe how Mama would cut up and then mash the purple ube yam, before boiling the mixture, adding water while she stirred. It sounded easy, but then I learned that she cooked the very sticky ube mixture in large batches of at least four yams, in a gigantic saucepan that was half her size. And judging from her pictures, she was always a petite woman, so it was amazing how Dad told me that "stirring the mixture was difficult" in such a nonchalant way.

It's an acquired taste, sweet yet bitter, sticky yet grainy. I'm a HUGE, HARDCORE ube jam fan (I can finish TWO large jars in one sitting!), and so is my mum. That's why I want to cook it.

And I'm drooling on my keyboard now. XD;;;

I love you Jollbee, kahit sa graduation ko~! {hum hum}

Proud father! ^_~
Originally uploaded by Ligaya Diwata.

This is one of my favourite graduation photos for so many reasons. The main reason is that as a family, we didn't eat at the grad lunch buffet (to the sadness of my friends in the graduation and yearbook committees XD;), but had lunch at good ol' Jollibee Katipunan instead since we were in a rush for the university commencement exercises (in my case, both the college and university commencement exercises had happened in the same day). It was terrible that we were only given around two hours at most to have lunch, since we spent the rest of the time that was supposedly going to be the start of the exercises suffering under the summer heat. XD;;;

When I logged in today, I saw this comment from Flickr user dffcao: "This can be a Jollibee commercial! Don't know if JB already thought of featuring important events like graduation meal at Jollibee. You can pitch the storyline to JB's advertising agency. Just some wild idea."

Now seeing as I actually work in a marketing company and have friends that work in the agencies, I'm thinking this is a great idea. XD More so because I'm also a Jollibee fan and our family has had some connection to Jollibee, employment- and career-wise. But I don't want to take credit for this idea since it simply isn't mine.

That said, who among you buddies at the agencies want it? I just ask in behalf of dffcao that he gets any form of credit or recognition for the pitch. :P (And, well, me for the photo since it inspired his pitch. XD)

Ah well, it's just a thought anyways. XD But if any of you ever take this seriously though, thanks! ♥

Oh, and you can still browse through the graduation set here. You may also add me if you're a personal contact (meaning, you want to see more of my non-cosplay photos and chances are you're actually in those non-cosplay photos XD) here. v^_~v

PORTED FROM VOX: QotD: Recess!

What was your favorite game to play at recess in grade school?
Submitted by Elisheva Chana.

Now as many people know I'm not really a very sporty person, but there was one sport I always loved to play even if it meant scraped skin, twisted joints, dizziness, and tons of sweat.


It was patintero.


As far as I know, it's a uniquely Filipino game. The playing ground has to have a series of solid lines, either drawn or built-in (in our case, we played this at the school driveway). There are two teams, composed of at least two players each. One team is the "it" or "taya", and this team has to guard the lines on the playing ground as hurdles. The other team has to outwit and outplay the taya, avoiding their every move as they go through each area, and then return to their starting position. If one of their members is touched by the hand of one of the opposing team members, the entire team becomes the taya and they switch places with the former taya. (I'm sorry if it sounds complicated. I'm translating the mechanics in my head as I go along, and it's not as easy as I thought it would be.)


It was in my generation that we introduced new innovations to the game. We grew crafty and created all sorts of schemes to ensure that we would effectively catch the other team and extend the entire playtime. The biggest change was the installation of the patotot, who would guard the lines perpendicular to his or her playmate's line-areas. In time virtually every single line in the driveway was used as more and more of my schoolmates (and by this I am including members of the kindergarten AND high school levels) joined in the fun. It came to the point that the school authorities decided to close a section of the driveway during recess and lunchtime, and then re-open it during dismissal time; it's been that way ever since.


I loved playing it, even if I was often caught (to be fair, I was pretty good at catching the other girls). It was one of the few games that allowed you to get away with being cheeky in all good fun. It also actually encouraged me to keep running for fun and fitness, since prior to that I was pretty much anti-exercise because of my weak system.


It makes me a bit sad though that right now, most of the girls in my alma mater would rather play football (soccer) or dance as cheerleaders. There's nothing like the excitement and camaraderie that only patintero can bring.

Long-Awaited Workout Update: Feb-Mar 2007

Holy cow, has it been THAT long? @_@

Well. Since so many things are keeping me busy, I'm making this post short and sweet.

Good:

1. I can do crunches now, as so many of you already know. XD
2. I can actually TOUCH MY TOES. Granted, it's not without a lot of some effort, but it has never been so possible. And I can actually do it with little strain on my back, which is a plus.
3. Some of my clothes fit again! (Well, not all. T^T But some!)
4. I can walk briskly for 15 minutes straight without getting winded. Found that one out on Friday night when I walked from my house to McDonald's on Jupiter Street and back again.
5. I actually have the discipine to continue doing this. I've passed the 21-day mark for forming a habit out of exercise, and now I try to turn even common activities into mini-workouts. Fun fun fun. d^V~b

Bad:

1. There's no real difference in my weight. I'm still 128.5 lbs according to the gym scale, which I consult for consistency's sake. O_o
2. Mum's birthday came up (on the 26th) and the whole house is doomed has been tasked to finish the large rectangular chocolate mousse pie that her subordinates and colleagues gave her. I've been good with the fruits, but I've never been good at resisting sweets, so this is instant death, almost literally. X__________x
3. Ever since I had to discontinue my sessions with Sir Rommel, I've been kinda lax on some exercises in terms of execution. Not to mention that with the variety of exercises he made me do, I don't quite remember how to do each one.

Ugly:

1. My knees HURT no matter what exercise I do. I can compare it to when you pull a piece of string (or even rope) on both ends too hard that it threatens to split in half. Do you guys think it's because I went to the gym religiously every day up until last week, which was when I forced myself to NOT go every day because of the pain? And does anyone know what I can do to minimize possible injury? I want to be fit and get thinner but I don't want to break my knee joints and make my knee muscles split in half. T^T
2. My birthday's coming up. And as you all have noticed, diet regimen pretty much fly out the window when someone's birthday comes up at home. I will love anyone who can suggest something that's delicious and sweet, but doesn't pile the calories and carbs heavily.