Impulses

I know that you guys are well aware of my impusles, but allow me to reminisce the time I was fascinated with stringed instruments--double bass, piano, guitar, cello, viola, and of course, the violin. I was around fourteen then when I came to visit my dad in Davao (that's where he lived then). While I was strolling around the mall, I happened to stumble upon a music store's sale. Despite having a nonexistent background in music, I went in anyway and was mesmerized by an electric violin. And yes, I'm allow your imagination here.

Of course I had to buy it. It was shaped like an S! (for those of you who don't know, my real name starts with an S) And I was going to learn how!

WRONG!

Five years later, today, I still haven't taken lessons because of: (a) procrastination (b) sloth (c) unreasonable reasons. You might think 'oh, what a waste!' but WRONG again! I lent it to church! So Serenity (its name) is lodging there now. And you thought I'd learn my lesson right? In fact, after looking at wind instruments at wwbw, I'm thinking of getting this Alto Sax (did I mention that I DON'T do sax? and my having an alto range doesn't help at all) but it's a good thing I was able to slap myself.

Yes, I can be very stupid at times but it all works out most of the time! (God is good!)

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Wednesday Night Disaster

Don't try this at home. Seriously, don't. Wait, what am I talking about? Let's start from where it all started (duh). It began with a 1.5 liter bottle of Coke, that someone (God knows who) left in the freezer for more than 12 hours. Your narrator, after having abstained from Coke for more than a week, decided to pop the bottle open. That's when trouble hit. Harder than a mentors' volcano effect (even champagne), the contents flew open, and everywhere. And guess who had to clean it up?

Yep, your narrator who just had a bimbo moment (not that I'm even hot enough to qualify for bimbo status).

Even worse, I had to clean it off the wall, the ceiling, the counter, below and above the counter, everywhere--with a mop that has a rotating head. Worst, I knocked off the door bell receiver when I was working on the ceiling. Greeeeaaaat.

You know those big parties that popular kids throw whenever their parents go out of town? Yeah, I'm never going host those. After catching a glimpse of what the afterparty might look like, I'd rather be a nerdy geek all my life than suffer being a real-life afterparty Cinderella. It just ain't worth it.

Of course, you may not be able to comprehend why stuff like this happen to me. The thing is, I'm sorta kinda not-in-so-many-ways-hopefully a klutz. The fact that I almost never wear white, bump into people on the street (sometimes not even realizing I did), bump into random objects (that may or may not be lethal), never look before crossing the street (thank God for best friends) are just some of my charms. I've been told I'm a danger even to myself. Well, what can I say? I live an exciting life of constant peril like 007!

So.. how was your Wednesday?

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Versatile Blogger Award

Yay! I got the Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you to Aian for nominating me! Sorry if this is weirdly a very late post (she nominated me around April).

VBA Rules
 If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.

1. Thank the person who gave you this award. 

2. Include a link to their blog. 

3. Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!) Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site. 

4. Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Here are seven irrefutable things about me:

1. I love Milktea, the Japanese-sounding flavors :D

2. I have a BFF (best female friend) and a BMF (best male friend) in the persons of Page and  David (respectively)
3. I want to branch out to designing stuff online, precisely why I've been eyeing the sibelius 7 from musicians friend
4. I have a love/hate relationship with coffee, most of the time it's the latter.
5. I want to adopt a panda when I'm older, I want to feel like I'm helping save my brothers :D
6. Seafoods hate me.
7. I used to speak bad French. As in bad words, in French. The literal, "uhm, excuse my French." (Hey, it's a PAST LIFE!)

Here are the 15 lovely people I'd like to give this award to:

Elilea, Gilbert, Kima, Vien, Liz, Dana, Faye, Je-ca, Kristen, Valerie, Hannan, Chelsea, Ice, Eka, Chia

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HS: Senior Year

I don't know about you but by the time I hit senior year and got the most coveted position on the school paper, I got myself butlers (a.k.a the male population I bullied) and constantly chatted up juniors because I could do it. I was pretty close to everyone in my batch. Oh, gosh I miss it so bad! I graduated 2011 you see, and we had this alumni homecoming last year, but even then I felt like it had been 20 years since we last saw each other, and terribly, I missed those guys! I've kept every T-shirt we've printed, and even held on to my uniform that everyone vandalized on! On a pretty sentimental day, I even went as far as looking for some place that made Class Rings! In fact, I think I might as well convince my class to check out http://www.joyjewelers.com to see if there's any hope in that.

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What's Your Wildest Dream?

My BFF's sister joined a pageant last week and her preliminary question was along the lines of "what is your wildest dream?" When I heard that, I immediately thought for myself and spaced out a little while. Wildest dream. Hm.

I'm a pretty impulsive person (you might have figured that out by now). Every time I see a movie, I always imagine myself as a character from that movie. Each and every time. It doesn't matter if it's Sherlock Holmes (detective) or .. I don't think it's just me, I think everyone in the world can relate to this. Right? Right?! I guess I'm easily impressed too so that might factor in in what I'm gonna talk about in the next paragraph. Not to mention, a very vehement reader.

Impulsive. Easily impressed. An aggressive reader. These three characteristics are just proof to my broad imagination that entitles me to, you guessed right, wild, possibly unattainable dreams. Some of which include being a astrophysicist, over-achieving Nobel prizeman, a kpopstar, an Amazing Race contestant, a politician's wife, a chef, a fairy princess betrothed to a handsome and kind prince, a CIA agent, a tennis player on par with Sharapova, a child star in Barney, a golf superstar, and yes, a concert cellist/violist/violinist.

After I saw that Hilary Duff movie with that violin solo at the end, I immediately filled up a form to buy distortion pedals from musicians friend. Good thing I hadn't really sent it because who knows who'd have paid for them. Yeah. Intense. I even bought an electric violin after that movie (and I didn't even know how to play it then).

But back to the point! After I saw The Nutcracker by the Royal Ballet, I thought I wanted to be a ballerina. Yes, a flutterbying ballerina! And my being a 70kg block of dead weight shows you why it's pretty wild. If you're not convinced yet, I'm going to go as far as saying that I'm as flexible as a Pocky stick. So that beats every one of the aformentioned impossibles. My wildest dream!

How about you? What's your wildest dream?

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BREAKING BOOK NEWS, PEOPLE!

Last February, I blogged about The Fault In Our Stars the movie, and just last week / 2 weeks ago, they announced that Shailene Woodley will star as the Cancer-struck protagonist, Hazel Grace Lancaster, and Ansel Elgort will playing opposite her in the much coveted role of Augustus Waters.

Ansel Elgort as Augustus "Gus" Waters and Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster.

They should've gone with Brenton Thwaites! He was one of the five that the production considered for the role of Gus, along with Nick Robinson, Noah Silver, and Nat Wolf. Well, I can't say I'm not disappointed, because I am. And weirdly enough, both Woodley and Elgort are also cast for another book-to-movie, Divergent (by Veronica Roth), wherein they play the brother and sister roles of Beatrice and Caleb Prior. Can you say awkward?

Well, I think it's too early for me to be that disappointed, considering these books  practically rocked planet earth to the core last year by winning Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Young Adult Fiction (The Fault in Our Stars) and Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction (Insurgent, Divergent's book 2). I'll keep my fingers crossed! And I cant help thinking Shailene Woodley must be one heck of an actress to be bagging both leading roles of these amazing books. Well, we're going to find out soon enough.

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What's Down at The Penn's

I'm doing the classic girl next door pose. It's not working, isn't it?

First of all, there is no way that my real name is actually Penda Penn. Only guys like Phillip Phillips are lucky that way. To what it is, I shall not tell. Not a word, not a syllable, not even a letter to break the spell (unless you already know what it is). Yeah, get that, I'm suddenly rhymy. Anyway, this summer at my house has been fantastic. I like to pretend I'm Cinderella and that my sisters are my evil step sisters and my mom's the evil step mother. My mother, for her part, melted to the role quickly. She constantly yells for me, "Moo-chaha!" (Servant girl during our Spanish colonization period--yes, I can't spell it). I've insisted that she calls me "butleress" but to no avail. She's too into the role. And I like to chuckle (why? Is chuckling too manly for you? You sexist now?) at her orders because she giggles after she barks them at me. Not that convincing of an evil step mother, I say!

My "evil" stepsisters are actually doing most of our chores. I've been a chore the whole summer, not being able to help out because of summer class but they've been considerate about it and put me on dinner dishes duty everyday. Quite generous, no sarcasm there. (They've been working really hard.)

As you might have known, the whole family took a one-week vacation to Singapore and Malaysia last week, where I, dutifully maintaining my role as damsel in distress, was kicked mercilessly by my presumed prince in rugged jeans at a theme park while gripping to the ropes of the ride we haphazardly met on. Yes, I know that was a phenomenal run-on sentence, even for me. I have lots of stories to tell, mostly what I saw and who I met. All of which I will be telling you about in my other blog, The Traveling Spoon (who's name and URL are mine to change because of branding reasons). Be sure to drop by there and read what other crazy things (aside from being physically harassed by a prince/stranger) I did on that visit.

Thanks for wasting time reading this thing, I hope it's entertained you the way it entertained me while writing it.

Oh and please please please leave links and replies on how your summer went. Would really like to know. Find me on twitter and instagram too: @ohpenda.

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Saturday is Fashionable Saturday

Guess you what, guys! Not only is Sophie having a soiree this weekend, Centrio's Style Origin is also hosting a fashion show. With Julia Barreto gracing the catwalk, Robbie Carmona lending out his catwalk directorial expertise, and Phoemela Barranda hosting, what more can we ask for? The show will start 5pm this May 25. VIPinoy and Amore cardholders can get passes to the show.

See you guys there!

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Sophie Paris' Fashion and Beauty Soiree 2013

Holler at the beautiful and confident ladies of my city! I've got great news for you all, Sophie Paris, an international direct-selling company dedicated to bringing you the latest of fashion trends, is hosting a fashion and beauty soiree (hence the title of this post) on Saturday, May 25, and you're all invited to come! This will be at Mallberry Suites, Cagayan de Oro City. Registration starts at 10 in the morning, and booths open at around 12:30pm. Tickets are sold at Php150, very cheap given that aside from a fashion show (featuring last year's Bb. Pilipinas 2nd Runner, Ali Forbes) and a very possible boothathon, they'll be giving away goodie bags and their folle d'amour perfume for everyone registrant.

I personally am going and will be expecting a lot of things in store! Like-minded individuals are encouraged to share this post through twitter, facebook, instagram, and every other social media you're on!

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On Being Straight Edge

Hey guys! I just would like to take a moment to declare my Straight Edge-ness. That means at nutty nineteen, I am totally drug-free, alcohol-free, smoke free (not even an e cigaret), and living life without promiscuity. I'm just putting it out there, I ain't judging those who are already out there. I really don't have any right to that, but I'm not saying that I don't care if people are doing it, because I do, really do. I know that our generation are often misunderstood for being reckless, lazy and extreme. And really I'm sad that adults think that way of us, but looking at it rationally, aren't we giving them reason to think of us that way?

Just so you know I've been straight edged for a while. I made this decision not because I'm following a rule, nor a trend but because I deeply believe that not every young person out there has to drink or have a vice to survive the pressures of our own teenaged society. I mean, a good number of my friends started drinking after college because people are pressuring them to. We have a choice, we can say no.

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Philippine Traditions: Pasalubong

Let me start by defining to you non-Filipinos what pasalubong is. (Native Filipinos, please skip this part). A Pasalubong is a token or a gift or a little something something (souvenirs, food, random items) given to a loved one or just about anybody usually after a trip (a vacation or return from abroad). A pasalubong is also used to denote the food (famously donuts or pansit) the head of a family takes home for his children after work. It is an integral part of the rich culture the Philippines continues to practice even today, regardless of wherever they may be.

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Hello, Cebu!

Airport food in all its grandeur.

I'm baaack! It doesn't make much of a difference to you whether I post from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Cebu but I just wanted to express my happiness on finally arriving home. I mean, both cities were fun but the good and bad thing about vacations is that they always come to an end. Okay, being extremely optimistic here, but nonetheless, it's good to be home! Not quite home yet but the gatorade water bottles littered on the sidewalks tell me I'm back to the land of my pride and glory. Elections are over too and I can say I'm pleases with how most of the things turned out. Rama just got elected as mayor here in Cebu and Moreno in ours, replacing the then-reigning "veteran mayors". But perhaps it really is time for change. I will be praying for our installed leaders and will see how things go from there.

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Goodbye, Merlion!

We leave for Cebu today. After a whole week of running around chasing buses like a madman, I can finally rest. Or am I being too optimistic here? In reality, I have yet to finish my final exams for the subjects I took this summer. It was a bad decision on my part as I could have been alright without taking them. But yeah, as I am jotting this thing down, I come to three conclusions: One--I couldn't find a single cigars magazine; two--carpeted airports are awesome; and three--it's my last full hour in Singapore and I'm speding it on a free internet zone at the airport (my nexus is being a pain by not working). Anyway, it's been really great and I'm really excited to go home. Taking a vacation with thirteen people is fun but it has its downs (especially when your with girls and all of them are on their period). So much for this totally random post, I hope everyone's having a great May ;D

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Shopping

We were at Genting, Malaysia when my mother spotted this Polo handbag from TANGS. She's been looking for a new bag since last week and finally decided to settle for this. I had to console her afterwards which was very funny. We told her this was her Mother's Day gift from us that she has to pay for herself. When the sales person heard that, he laughed out loud. He also showed us a good pair of women s english riding boots which I liked but couldn't afford, not that it's practical. The only relationship I have with horses involves me sitting on the backs of their innanimate brothers during a merry go round ride.

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First Impression of Singapore

We arrived at Changi at around 23:30, (+08:00, which is basically the same as MNL time). When I saw the heavily lighted city from afar, I was giddy with excitement! So there I was, snapping here and there.

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Vacation 2013

Hey guys! It's been a week and I know I didn't tell you but I'm telling you now, I'm on vacation! It's summer in my beautiful country (Philippines) and my family and a couple of our friends decided to visit our neighbors Singapore and Malaysia (truly Asia). I am having the time of my life while we're here, satiating my need for food and milk tea explorations. I promise I'll post our itinerary on my food/travel blog when I get back. But for the mean time, I will tell you about the recent(?) change of currency I noticed that happened in SG and MY. If you're a OhPenda.com regular, you'll remember my hobby of currency collecting. And you'll be able to guess that I already have RM and SGD bills (not to mention coins). But when I came here in Malaysia, I noticed that my coins and some of the ones in circulation are different. The more foreign ones (at least to me) have a more stylish feel to them. So I guess I'm keeping the modern coin in my purse to add to my growing collection. Aside from that, I'm upgrading my paper Ringgit to the new plastic ones that weren't available 2 years ago.

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Philippine Traditions: Weddings

The Philippines, I must tell you, has so many wedding traditions and I only realized it at my ma's and da's wedding. Weddings. Our marriages here are mostly God-centered and Love-bound, Fidelity and Monogamy are emphasized because we're mostly a Christian nation. Our Muslim lot do things differently I guess but I wouldn't know because I've never been to a Muslim wedding (will someone please invite me?)

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Site Updates: Getting Social

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Hey guys! I'm afraid I've failed you again by being a lazy bum, but before you judge me, I've updated the site to lessen your hostility against me. Please put down that fork now! Okay, I guess it's quite obvious to see that I've linked my instagram, twitter, foursquare, and facebook page to my blog. I have been giving it a lot of thought though and I realize I can't live without this blog. It's where I pour out the unsung melodies and innate weirdness of my life. So I'm going to try again if you'll allow me.

Meanwhile, going back to the original topic of this post, I've updated the sidebars and put in fresh content in my pages. Still no fortune cookie game though, but feel free to browse around and see if anything catches your eye. The pages I've updated are About and Layouts.

And for the information of anyone who wishes to know, these are the social operations I used...

• AddThis
• SnapWidget
• LinkWithin

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