via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

via Instagram

fog it

via Instagram

My Melody Toys

Wow.. Been a while since I last posted here in my blog.. Gosh.

But yeah.. just posting here a few pics now of some of my toys... Lol!  Think I've found a new hobby... which I'll explain further in another blog entry.

The one in front is a My Melody Home playset...

Behind it is a collection of Re-ment My Melody miniatures in a winter theme.. inside a display box.

I bought the above from eBay.

I've the Hello Kitty version of the above.. Hello Kitty Home playset, as well as Hello Kitty Playground and I think the Hello Kitty Convenience store playsets.  I haven't really opened nor set up the Hello Kitty ones..  I first got the Hello Kitty Home playset way back when I was still in Manila several years ago.  Lol!  Whereas for the other two Hello Kitty playsets: one got from a store here, while the other one was from eBay.

I think I'm slowly accumulating junk but at least it's some fun junk nonetheless.  :D  And probably why I haven't really opened nor set up most of them yet.. Need space, and time.

A List of Stuff I'm Planning to Blog About...

... but not sure if I'll find time to make room for all of them.  Lol!  Why not one might ask? Well I've the following reasons.. or excuses.. Lol!

• I hate having to use Instagram each time and make it easier to post online.  I think I'm still the traditional photo blogger in that I want original copies of the images I shot then decide which media they get published on eventually, if they ever do.
• Because of the above, I still use either my smartphone, or my real camera to get shots.  Which means I'd still have to select, then transfer them to my computer so I can blog about it here.  That takes time and effort.  And I find I haven't really much time nor energy for that anymore I find.  I find I enjoy doing other things more.
• I'm not a Facebook junkie. And don't really enjoy having things published in several different places online.  I don't have time nor patience for that I'm afraid.  That just makes my supposedly leisure time blogging become a chore.
• I thought I'd make blogging easier by having bought the iPhone 6 Plus tablet when it first came out but promptly lost it about a month after buying it.  There goes that plan.  I didn't turn on the Find My iPhone option too 'cause I kind of value my privacy or at least am trying to be as smart about it as possible.   That phone was just too big I can't easily stuff it in my pockets and so it wound up getting misplaced/or forgotten about taking it with me (after laying it down somewhere since I can't easily stuff it in my bag or pockets) more than once while I had it, until finally I totally lost the thing.  *sigh*  Oh well.

So given the above, I was hoping to blog about the following or at least publish them elsewhere online like in Facebook.. But not sure if I ever will get to do so.  Here goes the list:

TV Junkie

I have the following shows recorded by my PVR this winter...

• This is Us
• Mercy Street (season just ended this past weekend)
• Victoria
• Walking Dead
• Elementary
• Wallander
• Vera
• Hinterland
• 24 Legacy
• Designated Survivor (about to start again this March after a winter hiatus)
• Emerald City (season just ended last week)
• Madame Secretary (hasn't been playing this February...nothing in March)
• Grey's Anatomy
• How to Get Away with Murder (season just ended last Feb or March)
• Speechless
• Sleepy Hollow
• Timeless (season just ended this March)
• Survivor (season beginning again this March)

That's a lot of shows!  Lol!  Some of them have just finished their season finales while some have just started or are about to start again though so it's not like I'm following all these all at the same time.  But it's still too many shows that I can't even begin watching The Man in the High Castle yet.

I'm also waiting for Better Call Saul to start again this April.  Hehe!

Beads

While out to pick the most suitable Longchamp shopping bag last spring.. came across this interesting dress with lots of beadwork at another shop.  Interesting enough to photograph. :D

Weekend Wildlife

 male hummingbird near the fig tree, blurred squirrel in the foreground

One spring weekend while in the country.... we wake up to these furry and feather-y friends as viewed from the patio doors from the breakfast table.

 squirrel munching on seeds

 those tiny little paws and the mad munching.. Lol!

 she couldn't get enough!  Lol!

 red feather-y buddy.. A groesbeek (sp?) on the fig tree

 seems to be looking at me, or the lens, curiously

What's Up There

housemate checking out the lamp

The Stare

the housemate last winter.. snuck in a cozy corner of the settee

TV Junkie

K, the more interesting shows are back and I don't know if I'll ever find time to watch them all.  Geez.  These are on my PVR:

• Sleepy Hollow
• Walking Dead
• Vikings
• The Good Wife
• Madam Secretary
• Downton Abbey
• The Amazing Race
• Survivor
• American Idol
• Better Call Saul
• Gotham
• Elementary
• How to Get Away with Murder
• The X Files (now over with only 6 episodes)
• Vera
• Wallander

Then I have the downloads:

• The Affair
• Homeland
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
• Project Runway seasons I had not been able to catch

It's crazy!

Destinations on My Mind

So many celebrities seem to have passed away this month, and only in their 60s, younger than my parents too.  David Bowie (69), Alan Rickman (67), Glen Frey (67), Natalie Cole (65), etc. that it made me think that life is really short.  So much so that I think I cannot just plan around waiting to travel to some countries once I'm in my 60s or around retirement age.

Anyhow, I was in Greece (Athens and the islands), Turkey, and visited some friends in France kind of right before the refugee/migration crisis in Europe.. or before the Paris attacks.  These were before I bought my new home.  Anyhow, below are some destinations on my mind that I'd like to visit sooner or later and hopefully before my knees can't handle all that walking anymore. Lol.

• Christmas season in Germany
• Iceland
• Scotland
• New York (if it meets expectations, I'd like to go there annually.. Lol)
• New Orleans
• Spain and Italy again.. Especially Cinque Terre in Italy and try to avoid the shopping.. Lol!
• my friends in southern France again
• Chicago
• Bergen, Norway
• remote part/s of Canada where the northern lights and sled dogs are plenty.. woot!
• the more exotic places - Sri Lanka, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, etc.
• the rest of the world.

Design Against Throwawayism

Now if only Apple (and the likes of it) with its millions of iPhone sales each year would practice more of the meaning of the text of this blog entry's title and it'd be perfect.  Right now I just think of them as designing for the sake of selling, not necessarily to improve my life (despite all that marketing), and the environment around us.

I mean what's the point of buying a new -- and might I add costly -- smartphone when a new version of it comes out some months later anyway?  You pay so much only to find next year there'd be new features your device can't possibly have. And the year after, and the year after it, and the after that, too and so on.  I mean really, do we really even need those?  And all the while, your first device actually still works fine.  They just make it so that it's not compatible with some app or other that you're forced to get a new one. 

And what happens to last year's models then if each iPhone owner changed models each year?  And these are millions of owners.  Not just 5 million.  It's the size of many individual countries' populations. Do they get recycled?

Do upgrades mean surrendering them to the provider for recycling.  And is it actual recycling or a type of recycling where they only get shipped out to a developing country for it to take care of the toxic side of things.. like outsourcing the dirty side of it?

Does anyone even care to ask before they go get a new model the next year?  Does Apple (and its ilk) even have a system or process in place to manage these and be a more responsible manufacturer/designer of such goods?

Since I moved to a place in the northern hemisphere some years ago, I do notice many things that should probably be done away with.  Other cases in point:

• Ikea's probably millions of candles in glass being one of those.  So same goes to Bath and Bodyworks (and the awful cheap smell coming out of their candles). Gah.  I find they're really such a waste.  They should sell the candles without those millions of glass.  Are they even recycled glass?

• Cushion throws are another... Pilllows  or throws should be designed so that you can change the covers.. not be forced to get rid of it 'cause you don't like the cover anymore.

• Fashion - there's only so much seasonal items one must get each year and thereafter.  I've enough summer items so far so I don't really bother adding anymore

Anyhow, I guess I'm just one of those people who prefer living with less clutter.  And that influences my purchase decisions.  I'm sort of a minimalist but not that extreme.  I have my fair share of design junk, but I don't make it a point to change them regularly nor get the latest this, or latest that.  I tend to think that people who do really don't have anything else to do and must be bored with their lives.

Even now, I don't generally buy books anymore.  When I do, it won't be the throwaway sort.  They would have dual purpose  Art, design and architecture books for example (usually hardcovers).  You get knowledge yet at the same time, they're good decors in the home. Hehe.  Unlike paperbacks that I probably would throwaway if I didn't think it's wasteful since I don't reread books I bought, or donate them.

And my home decor or fixtures, usually are from trips overseas.  Then it feels like they've more significance and thus worth the buy, or splurge.  There'd be stories behind them.  And that's fun and gives the place more character.

screenshot of an image search online

It's good to see that Helsinki's Iitala has similar design thoughts.  And sometimes, ironically, Ikea.  But the technology ones, not really.  In the end let's just say it's always better to spend money on experience than on another item one doesn't really need or has no special meaning or importance to oneself.

Filming

One weekend in the country... turns out filming was also going on in the street of the house where I was staying.  So of course we went to see it.. It was for a TV series, I think for cable.

The scene was an action scene by a water tower.  We were standing on the front lawn of the neighbor's house/property, behind the crew, watching them shoot and do several takes.  It felt like camping, just with more light.  Lol.

Food Truck Lunch

Some Fridays my colleagues and I eat out, other days, we get our lunch at one of the food trucks that come to our area comprised of several science, pharma, engineering, and technology R&D office buildings.  Below are pics of the popular Indian food truck.

 that's the line of us office people.. yup, I was in line too. :P

 some of the kitsch in the truck

A Foggy Day Last Year

Some foggy morning pics of my old neighborhood.. I like foggy scenes.. makes things seem moody/dramatic.. have more character. hehe.

Lunching

I must be bored... I'm now posting some pics of the lunch meals I've had at Asian restaurants where colleagues and I go for meals some Fridays.  All yummy!  It's like I never left Asia at all!  Tea at each place is on the house.

ramen at the Japanese ramen place

lovely fried rice at the northern Chinese/Taiwanese place

Japanese beef teriyaki and california roll bento.. the miso soup is 

missing in the pic as I had finished it already. :P

 a spicy hot pot soup of fish with a little vermicelli.. Yummy on really cold days!

Thai fried rice.

seafood noodle soup at a Vietnamese place

some sort of chow mein with wonton soup at the Malaysian Chinese place

another lovely noodle dish (and it was huge!) at the Malaysian Chinese place

 kimchi fried rice at the northern Chinese/Taiwanese place

Damn Twitter

Sorry but it's getting tiresome.  Account was hacked, I changed passwords, cleaned it up, and yet it's still locked.  Gaaaaa.  Appealing with Twitter to finally just unlock it and not have me keep having to change passwords each time their locked message appears in my email or account each time I attempt to post a tweet.  I'm getting sick of it.  What a hassle and waste of time.  And time is money.  Maybe time to just quit it altogether?  And no, this post isn't getting a "just chillin'" tag 'cause I'm definitely not chillin'!!!

Peek a boo!

One afternoon in the spring of 2014, somewhere in a little nook in my abode.. potted daffodils on top of the cabinet.

I chose the pastel robin's egg blue paint on the wall... similar to Tifanny jewelry packaging.  Calming...
Yeah that's a fireplace in brick, covered by/behind the white cabinet...
Blue thing on the leftmost is the back of a director's chair.
And I love my Tiffany floor lamp. hehe!