Please note that daftology has already been migrated and hosted in another site. This wed blog shall be reverted to its original address (http://21jan2007.blogspot.com). I will still do some final posts here regarding our wedding, but my main blog will be on the new daftology site. Kindly update your links! :)

Labels: techi stuff

I've been wanting to enroll in photography class since I got hold of our very first digital camera. I wasn't able to pursue this plan earlier because most of the photography seminars require attendees to have a manual SLR camera. I tried to look for ways to borrow one but obviously I didn't succeed. I'm just so glad DSLRs are "in" these days, hence cameras became relatively cheaper and digital photography classes likewise became popular. I learned through photography forums that there are actually a couple of good workshops being held around the Metro. I was really interested to attend Jo Avila's workshop but his studio is just a bit far from our place. So, in the end, I settled with the FPPF in Intramuros which is more accessible to me.

I enrolled in the Basic Photography Workshop which runs for 5 Saturdays. Today's my first day in class and boy, I was surprised to see almost close to 50 people in our class - different age group and profession - all gathered in one room. It's really fun to make new friends! And they all thought I'm still in my early 20's *cough*. *LOL* Anyways, most of the lecturers are already over 60 years old in age, but they do know their craft really well. Ika nga nila, dami nang pinagdaaanan. And it's quite interesting to learn about the technical side of the camera/lenses to understand fully how each component works to capture that perfect shot. The topic earlier today focused mainly on the different elements of controlling exposure. Since I've been scanning through different photography tutorials on the net, I kinda have a head start already compared to my other classmates. Siyempre, etong si nagmamagaling naki-tutor naman kunwari sa ibang classmates na kala mo ang galing galing *LOL* I kept emphasizing though that I just know about the theories... that's it! I dont' really know how to put every theory into practice. Trigger happy lang ako. And I doubt it if I can replicate the shots I've done in the past. *LOL* I also learned the difference between camera bodies with full-framed sensor and those with 1.5 or 1.6 cropped sensors. Hm... enabler eto for future camera upgrade. *LOL*

The classroom lecture was quite long and we weren't able to shoot much since it was practically raining the whole day. *sigh*


Tried shooting in between session breaks and I was trying to search for lines and patterns. Not really very satisfied with my shots but this is the best among the crap. *LOL*


I hope to do shoot more in the next few days since we were given assignments before the session ended. Pressure pressure! I've been randomly going through photos in flickr since I got home hoping to trigger some inspiration.

Before I end this post, I just want to share this cutie gift my friend gave me for my birthday. I was wondering why she asked for our pictures a couple of weeks ago. I thought she's cooking up a photo AVP for her son's 1st birthday this coming October na featuring the ninongs and the ninangs. Eto pala ang surprise niya *LOL* I sooooo love it!!! Cutie diba?? :)

Labels: blabs, photography, techi stuff

Thought you're lost? No, you're not. :)

Finally got our own domain name - http://www.daftology.com.

Name derived from hubby's online nick:

---

---

daftster is the evolved variation.

Setting this thing up literally made me a real "daft". Even with hubby's explanation and all, I just couldn't understand how everything works (domain, host, etc). More reading and learning for me to do in the next few days.

P.S. I noticed a lot of google references to this blog lately... somebody's pinning us in google eh? Same with glo, full name pa namin ang sinesearch. hehe mare, pahiram ng linya mo ha - "psst searcher... paramdam ka naman!"

Labels: blabs, techi stuff

I started receiving gifts weeks before my birthday. Boy, I'm speechless. Totally gadget-packed! :)

This one's from my sister-in-law. Oh so happy to finally get a book on photography. Imagine after days and hours of reading at Powerbooks, wala man lang akong nabibili ni isa. :) Thanks Achi! :)


This one's from my ever-dearest hubby. Muah Muah Muah!!! Finally a new phone after 3 (or 4?) years!! This is my first ever non-Nokia phone after what? 9 years? I chose this over other hi-end Nokia models coz I so love the built-in camera of the K800i! It's a good substitute to our 5 year-old point and shoot camera. Takes a while to get used to the keys though. And I love it's capability to support animated themes! Cool! Here's where I download stuff for my mobile phone. Oh by the way, got the Allure Brown edition which is totally ME! My stuff nowadays are all in brown - Shoes, bags, shirts, whatever! *LOL*




And here's what I got for myself - a 17-40mm wide angle L lens!!!! *LOL* Ok, I know we just added a couple of stuff in our bag a month ago. Here's the story. 2 days after we bought the 28-135mm lens, Canon announced a mega sale and they're selling it for thousands of bucks cheaper than the price we got (considering super mura na kuha namin). IMAGINE!?!? So, to even out our loss, I decided to purchase my next target, which is an L lens (which is also on big big sale)! A lot of pro photographers were raving about it's performance - image quality and sharpness are superb. I got to test it when I was purchasing my other lens. Just as my photography guru was telling me, it's a lens for keeps. And it has a good resale value if I decide to upgrade later on (naku, wag na mag-upgrade!) So, ayun - pikit mata nalang. Iiyak nalang ako next month when we get our credit card bill *LOL* Btw, I was hoping hubby will stop me from splurging on another gadget (as he always do). Surprise surprise, he didn't object! Alam niyo naman ako, mahina sa suhol *LOL*

Labels: events, photography, shopping, techi stuff

We've been waiting like forever for PLDT to respond to our request"S" for DSL connection. Not that we're happy with they're services (sucks big time) but we just don't have any other alternative coz they're the affiliated provider of the condo we're currently in. What's wrong with these guys? Don't they want business?

Just as we're starting to lose hope, here comes SMART 3G to the rescue! 10 pesos for 30 minutes, hey not bad! The lowest DSL plan of 999 is almost equivlaent to 50 hours of 3G connection. At least, we get to save a couple of bucks if we don't consume more than 50 hours each month. Speed wise, not bad in my opinion. Enough for surfing and downloading kits. I get a download rate of 35-40k/sec. Well, at least. I only get half the bandwidth with the office network! (oooopps! *LOL*) Not fast enough for torrent downloading though. But what the heck! Who am I to complain when all we have is dial-up? *hurray*!

Labels: blabs, techi stuff

(non-wedding related)
Let's do the funk... let's do the first day funk...

Excuse me, this song keeps lingering in my mind the whole day. Why? Because today's my first day at the new company! When I stepped into the new office, wow.. ano ang binatbat ng office ni Gloria? Haha joke. But the workplace is really very nice! My bad, when I was introduced again to my teammates (which I met at the teambuilding before), I can't recall their names anymore! Wala na kasing name tag! haha Siyempre smile smile ako.. sabay "uy!" para hindi maobvious yun "???" sa utak ko. *LOL* Everybody gave me a warm welcome! Parang family ang dating. I hope pag dating na sa trabaho e ma-maintain pa rin namin ang pagkapamilya namin. :D

Another thing that's worth mentioning... The PC that was assigned to me is really magnificent!! Rotatable LCD monitor, Pentium 4 3.0GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 150GB Hard disk, DVD/RW drive... waahh.. the most powerful PC I've touched (at work) to date. In fairness, the previous machines assigned to me in the previous companies were also powerful (I miss my Dell D600 laptop pal). Man, this machine has enough power for me to do digiscrappin and DVD muxing/encoding in a snap! Haha.. oopss.. non-work related na naman. :D
But really, I love me new workspace kahit na manager ang katabi ko. Heaven din pala kasi may softdrinks vending machine sa office - for free! waaah.. tukso talaga! Napapatingin ako lagi sa button ng Coke tuwing dumadaan ako dun! :D Meron rin palang vending machine ng coffee tsaka freshly brewed coffee. GRABE! Overload of caffeine talaga 'to! Test of will power talaga! :D

I have yet to join the photography club... I'm so excited :D

Labels: blabs, techi stuff

Tagaytay Trip

Went on a roadtrip last Sunday with the hopes of finding a perfect location for our outdoor prenups. MIL2b and SIL2b went with us as Dex needs a navigator to point the directions. By the time we reached Tagaytay, it's lunchtime already. So we had lunch at "Breakfast by Antonio's" -- yeah, we had lunch there not breakfast. :) The place is nice, view is fantastic, but the food? Hm.. let's say it's just so so. What I ate doesn't match the raves I heard. Not bad, but not too good. After lunch, we headed to Balay Indang. The place was highly recommended by a friend. Indeed it's a nice place to stay. If you want some quiet space, this is the best hangout. I heard the food is good also. Price is reasonable. Will trying the eating next time. In the meantime, we just checked the place if it is good enough for pictorial. I like the cottages especially the white swags and curtains... will definitely add that dreamy feel to the pictures. As I mentioned, it's a quiet place... hence, not a lot of people. We heard that the owner just built the place as their family rest house, which explains why there isn't much advertisement to promote the place. Very good I must say! At least, we won't be bothered with "killer" stares from strangers. SHY AKO! (bwehehehe... so not true). :D Balay Indang is only 1.5-2 hours drive from Manila. If you need to relax and unwind, this is the place to be (parang jingle to ah..) :D Below are some pics we took at B.I.










Team Building

I believe my "current" boss doesn't know this site. So I think it's safe to spill everything out here. hihihi... I'm moving to another company this coming July. yeehee... The "future" boss organized a team building (sort of outing) and she invited me and a couple of new hires to join. So nice of her. So there... I celebrated Independence Day with a bunch of strangers! haha. I was so nervous at first coz I don't know any face at all. I'm glad they're all friendly. By the time we reached Pansol Laguna, I already have friends! hehe... It was a fun trip! What excite me the most was meeting a couple photography enthusiasts.. and I was told that the company has a photography club where experts and newbies exchange know-hows and organize photography escapades or trips! Wow!! I gotta join that club! They said I need not buy an SLR at once... there are lots of people in the club who are willing to lend their unused cameras to the beginners. I can just buy one when I get the hang of it. WOW! My dream of learning photography isn't far away! :D And oh! I was able to try one of the SLRs they brought.. GRABE! My Golly! ANG BIGAT!! I was really afraid of dropping the fully geared camera... wala akong pambayaaaad. hihi...

P.S. no pictures to share yet. Siyempre mahiya naman akong ilabas ang (cellphone) camera ko, kita mo naman mga dala nila Digital SLRS with Telephono Lenses, extended battery pack, and extra large horse-shoe flashes! oh my. Nanliit ako. hehe.. Joke.. siyempre ba't pa ako kukuha ng pictures knowing that I'll be more happy being the model. HEHE... Excited to see the pics.

New Gadget











It's not mine.. it Dex's! After more than 6 months of begging (Hehe exag)... I finally agreed to Dex's plead of buying a new cellphone in replacement of his ever reliable 3650. Haha.. I'm proud to say that's my gift for him for the past X birthdays, anniversaries, and christmas. haha.. I'm so bad talaga... I think I need a little tutoring from my wawie sisters on how to make surprises. I'm really bad at it! Anyhoo, Dex seems to love his new phone.. I love it too... it's sleek, got nice sounds (heaven talaga compared to nokia).. and the camera with it is nice. Siyempre, being the photographer (wanna-be), picture picture kaagad. Would you believe, the pictures we took sa Balay Indang were from this cellhpone's camera? Grr talaga... the batteries for the digital camera really needs to be thrown away! I charged it for more than 10 hours the day before! By the time we're starting to take pictures, low batt na sya! Grrr talaga! Buti nalang we already bought the Moto. Anyways, here are some of the testing shots I took using the Moto. Not bad eh? Siyempre majority Black and White pics.. feeling Dino Lara kasi. HEHEHE...

Labels: blabs, photography, techi stuff, travel

Alas! I was finally able to give this blog a new look! I'm so god damn proud of myself for being able to tweak around the blogger templates available on the web. And I so love the banner I made out of my digi-scrap collection! Looks like the hue of this site is a bit on the earth colors (aka kulay lupa)... the pink tone is kinda minimal. I love it anyways! :)

Update on wedding preps. I was able to go around Tutuban Center today (pretending to be sick and didn't go to the office). Surprise surprise! I saw a lot of stalls selling ready to wear bridal and ento gowns. And also barong ang suits too! They also offer custom made gowns at a slightly higher price. Me gosh, a fully beaded wedding gown starts at 4,500 only! For more complicated design, they charge at around 10,000. Me gosh talaga! Laglag baba talaga ako. Bridal packages I have quoted so far ranges from 65-80K! The only thing I noticed was that the gowns don't have inner lining. I remember a friend of mine was complaining once na yun inner part ng flower girl dress ng kanyang anak (labo) was so makati... she had to force her daughter to wear tights or jamies inside just to make sure there won't be any scratches. Yun lang ang down side. Otherwise, hindi mo talaga mapapansin na cheap gown lang siya. Meron din silang mga pina gowns at mura rin. I asked na rin if they do home service for the fittings and delivery. Meron daw for a minimal charge -500 I think. Kapag dun ako kukuha, importante na maghome service sila so that my ento won't have to make siksik with the people at Tutuban (lalo na tatapat sa Christmas rush). Tempting tempting talaga. But then again, I'm afraid of the outcome. Baka hindi pulido ang gawa, o baka hindi maganda ang fitting. O baka naman mastress ako sa process ng negotiation. Actually I was already considering Alden Chua to make our gowns. He was referred to me by our friend who just got married last year. Maganda naman yun gowns nila. May wow factor naman yun gown nung bride. Tsaka naka suit na yun groom and the dads. Alden quoted me a cheap price na rin. Yun complete set - bride, groom, parents, male ento, female ento, accessories, and flowers - is only 73K... may tawad pa raw. Super happy na ako sa price na yun coz considering na suit na ang suot ni daFt at mga dads. I was also considering na gawin na rin suit yun para sa male ento with extra 7,500 to be added to our package. Pero natuliro talaga ako sa prices sa Tutuban!

We still have a meeting with Veluz this coming friday. She will give me the quotation of the design I sent her. At first she quoted me around 39K. Puwede pa naman daw babaan kasi ni-base lang niya yun sa beadwork na nae-envision niya. Dream designer ko talaga si Veluz. But when reality and practicality come knocking at your door, you would really think twice. I don't really want to spend much on our apparels coz we only get to wear them once. Except for the males of course, puwede pa nila ulit-ulitin mga suit nila. Pero for the gowns, most likely once lang talaga masusuot. Well, bahala na... let's see if we can accomodate Veluz's new quotation in our budget.

Ganda talaga ng blog ko!!

Labels: techi stuff, wedding