photodiary | neko nikki 01

Kitten! What're you looking at??

Obviously, I love cats. And I love taking pictures of them. I actually have a rather special talent with stray cats. Usually when I call out to them, they turn to look at me for a snap shot. When I put down the camera, they walk away. Isn't that cool? .... no? Whatever, I think it's cool.

Near my workplace, there are a lot of stray cats. I like taking pictures of them when I'm done with events.

random rambling monday | crawling towards the sun

I almost forgot that it's a Monday today.

Which means: time for more meaningless ramblings from a bored idiot!

-- To begin this week, I tried following along the exercise video above. It was so. effing. tiring. My legs were screaming bloody murder when I was done! I think this is a pretty good indication that I'm severely out of shape! I've never been athletic or even a physical sort of person, but I always made time to at least walk around campus during my university days. But after this workout I was positively winded! I'm glad I found a really good fitness channel though. I don't want to look like a Victoria's Secret model ('cause that is the most impossible of goals!), but I'd like to be less flabby and more active.

photodiary || a lazy, sunny day for cats and dogs

Hello Wifi! (don't ask the origins of her name)

I recall a few entries ago, wherein I boldly declared that I would make a weekly photo diary. Well, it's only the middle of February but I'm afraid I must take my ambitions down a notch.

Firstly, I'm working with a really cheap camera that has a loser for a shutter and is primarily an underwater camera. Next, I'm dealing with quite a lot of time constraints that prevent me from making a full-blown post. Finally, I realized my life isn't really that interesting that I could compile a sizeable amount of photos for a photo diary every week. 

I think I'm going to step back and reduce it to a twice a month sort of thing. Minimum of one photo diary per  month. The important thing is I keep on practicing my photography as I go by.

So today me and my sister went out for a walk under the scorching sun, because we're idiots like that. Example of being idiots:

Sis: Ate wala akong dalang cellphone (I don't have a cellphone with me)
Me: Di bale, ako din. (Don't worry, me neither)

It was super hot and not really the best time for walking. All the cats and dogs around the neighborhood were definitely feeling the heat! 

I need to mention it was SO HOT and the sun was up really high that I couldn't even see the LCD of my camera properly. It was a lot like shooting with an old school disposable camera, as I only saw the shots properly when I got home. 

grateful, excited, inspired, challenged, amazed, and curious

Happy Valentine's Day from my homeboy, Enjolras!

To be honest, I'm not really big on Valentine's. Not because of bitterness, but it's more like, "what's the goddamn point?" I'm not a sentimental person to begin with, so I don't really see the point of dedicating one day to mushiness and adding to the profits of chocolate companies everywhere.

Here's a paraphrased/modified version of M. Bison's most famous quote from legendary (loltastic) Street Fighter movie:

For you, Valentine's Day was the most important day of your life. But for me... it was Thursday.

But don't mind me, enjoy your Valentine's as much as you wish! No significant other? Have a Galentine's instead, by commiserating with other single girls. I don't know if a Guylentine's exists, but who says you can't be the first?

In the meantime, I'm going to answer a mini-blogging challenge from Wanderrgirl as part of my Valentine afternoon.

Random Rambling Monday | Cats and fats

In my former LiveJournal, I used to do this thing called Random Rambling Monday. It was a way for me to kick into gear and just write, no pretenses, no pressure, no sense. I'm going to try and revive that in this blog. So once a week,  you can expect the random ramblings of a fool. Fun!

I'm gonna write an entry about things that are too short to dedicate a blog entry to, but too long to be tweeted.

Spilling the Beans on my Greatest Fear

Today, let's talk fears and courage.

I actually had a bit of a hard time starting with this entry, because I felt like my fear is not that scary compared to other people. I thought that I'd just look like I was whining. However, I think fear is an arbitrary notion and I think I have a right to fear what I want to regardless of judgement. So let's get on with it.

To be honest, I'm not much of a scaredy-cat. I don't easily get scared with horror movies or ghost stories, or scary rides or big dogs (as long as they're on a leash, haha). I'm pretty OK with most scary situations.

But here's the catch: I am deathly afraid of talking to people. 

You probably don't think it sounds so bad: we all have our moments of clamming up when socializing, right? But I take this issue to a crippling degree. When I was in 3rd grade, I remember almost crying because I didn't want to talk to the lunch lady and buy lunch. I remember putting off a phone call at least 5 times because I didn't want to talk on the phone. I remember crying during Foundation Day because I didn't speak up when they were handing out our uniforms, and a girl who was absent the day before took mine, therefore I didn't get to be in the celebration. That's how scared I am of human interaction!

Granted, I am a lot better now than the blubbering, snivelly mess that I was in the fourth grade, but I still have miles to go when it comes to proper human interaction.

My journey towards proper social interaction is a long and tedious one, but I think the event that finally pushed me over the edge and made me embrace my fear is my speech communications class in college.

A bit of random musing and a look inside my bag

I haven't posted in a while because I took a bit of time off to think about this blog and what I really want to do with it.

First things first, the name "Patchwork Owl". I picked out this name because I wanted it to contain a lot of different things (hence, "patchwork") and aside from cats, I feel like owls are my symbol. Hence, the birth of the name. But upon reflection, I feel like it sounds more like an arts and crafts shop than a random art blog. I don't really want to change the name, but I don't know how to make it sound like more of a personal blog.

Another thing I've been pondering on is the blog content. I made a lot of promises to myself while writing my kick-off post for the year, and a lot of them involved some sort of documentation in this blog. My dilemma is: how do I keep my promises to myself while keeping this blog cohesive and uncluttered?

I hope I can give answers to these questions in due time.

Meanwhile, I needed some motivation to clean out my bag while watching Natsume Yuujinchou (a series that I might write about sometime!), so I decided to do the What's in my Bag tag and show you my bag's contents.