Jac's Flickr Photostream

www.flickr.com

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Brooks ♥ Liz

I just realized that I stopped blogging after my new "job" in Wan Chai Tea House started last October 2011. :-/

Anyway, here's a long overdue post from my shoot last February 11, 2012 at La Mesa Eco Park + UP Diliman combo where I did a prenup shoot for my dear friend Liz. When I was invited to this shoot, I was under the impression that there would be a lot of photographer friends who will be shooting them. Then the night before the shoot, I was told shoot that I would be the lead photographer of the shoot (:-O). Of course things couldn't get any worse when a few minutes before the shoot, I was told that I would be the only photog that day. What?! Jac = nervous wreck, that's what!

I did love the shots I got though, so that was an achievement. Did I also mention that my trip to La Mesa Eco Park was also my longest solo drive without GPS ever? Double achievement high-five!

Friday, September 30, 2011

The Cereal Diet

Every time I go to the supermarket, I always head over to the cereal section because I love eating cereal in the morning. It's yummy, healthy, super easy to prepare (no preparation needed actually) and it keeps you full until lunch time! :-)

I've been noticing those diet cereals for a long time now, and I've been wanting to try it out since it seems like an easy diet to do.

Kellogg's Special K and Nestle Fitnesse

The diet is fairly simple to follow, the 14 day program is as follows:
  • Breakfast: Cereal + Skim/Non-fat Milk, Coffee/Tea, Fruits
  • Lunch: Eat as normal
  • Dinner: Cereal + Skim Milk, Fruits/Veggies (or switch Lunch and Dinner)
  • Eat fruits and veggies for snacks in between meals
What I like about this diet is that I can eat and enjoy one normal meal. This makes me feel less deprived and makes me look forward to lunches everyday!

I decided to switch between Kellogg's and Nestle because I don't want to get tired of the cereal's taste. Here I've discovered that Kellogg's tastes better. It does have more calories than the Nestle ones though - nothing in this world is free. Ha! Recently, I also discovered that I don't really need to stick to those diet cereals, any cereal will do for this diet! Try to get those "grown-up" fiber-rich cereals though - none of those fruity sugar-coated ones!

Now, I'm at day 8 and 4 lbs lighter! Not really hoping to lose much weight at this point but I'm sticking with the diet until day 14. Will keep you updated when I finally end my diet! Fingers crossed on losing more weight!

Hubby and I agreed that I deserve a cheat week (no-diet week not binge week!) after the diet and then try doing the 14 day thing again. I'm still thinking about this because I don't know if it'll work the second time around. I hope it still does though!

If you are thinking about starting this diet or any diet, I suggest the following:
  1. Inform EVERYONE you eat with about your diet before you start it and get everyone to agree to help you. The worst part about dieting is the people who keep telling you to cheat "just this one time", because let's admit it, it's never going to be just that one time. Hubby has been very supportive of this diet and has been the one to stop me from grabbing chips and unhealthy food when I'm not supposed to. :-)
  2. Stock on lots of fruits and veggies before you start your diet. Stock to share! Having other people eat the same food as you decreases temptation to sample what they're eating. At the same time, you're also helping them to eat healthier!
  3. Avoid processed/pre-mixed food. Don't use 3-in-1 mixes for your coffee (they're around 100 calories compared to the measly 20 calories from instant coffee and a teaspoon of sugar). Natural yogurts are healthy, flavored are not. Check the labels, you'll see that even though some products are branded "healthy", they're actually full of sodium or sugar. It's healthier to buy unflavored yogurt and add in the fruits yourself than buying the flavored ones. On second thought, eating fruits alone will make you more full with less calories! 
  4. Track what you eat. Write down what you eat or track it online with sites like Calorie Counter. Calorie counting sites are wonderful because they do the math for you and even provide insights about how healthy you are eating. I've discovered that my sodium intake is WAY more than I need through this tool, and now I'm cutting back on my salt (Chips and instant noodles! Noooo!). I've also discovered that I don't eat as much fiber and vitamin A as I'm supposed to.
  5. Be mentally prepared. Dieting is a battle between will-power and fake hunger pangs. The first few days into the diet, I always felt hungry after just 2-3 hours post-meal. If you haven't prepared yourself, you'll soon be giving up to your hunger pangs.
I hope this post helps you jump start your diet. Happy dieting peeps and see you in a few days! :)

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Living Room Inspiration

Grabbed from: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6). Made using the Mosaic Maker from Big Huge Labs.

Cream, chocolate brown and blue themed living room inspiration pictures grabbed all around the internet. Don't you just want to live and chill out in them?

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Roan ♥ Cindy

Second time to shoot for RedSheep; this time though, I was actually shooting "officially" as opposed to the last time when I was just tagging along the shoot. Heh!

Here's the official release of my shoot from RedSheep; and thanks again Roan and Cindy for allowing me to take part in your special day. It was awesome, and I learned a lot! :-)


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Reviving My To-do List

While trying to clean-up my cyber footprint, I chanced upon a very old blog post I did last December 2007. That's almost four years ago! Wow! Anyway, its a list of the things that I want to do in life - not necessarily things I want to do before I die or before a certain deadline; just things (big or small) that I want to accomplish period.

This is not a bucket list. Maybe a bit like it. Okay, it's a bucket list. Image grabbed from here.

Here's the old list I made from before (and my current comments/reactions):
  1. Pass the first-level actuary certification exam (exam P) - Yeah, this hasn't happened yet and I actually forgot about this. I'm 50-50 about wanting to pursue this and wanting to give this up.
  2. Finish a non-stop 10km race -  Went as far as 5k and then I stopped or gave up, not sure which. Ha! Anyway, I want to keep this is my list! :-)
  3. Climb the Great Wall of China - Hasn't happened yet! But this continues to be one of my aspirations!
  4. Play a solo double bass piece on stage in front of many people - Hasn't happened yet, as well. Thinking about it now, I don't think I'll be able to pull this through anyway. I'm thinking of scraping this out of my list and add "learn to play the electric bass" instead.
  5. Get a cartoon published - I currently have a six-month old comic blog that I'm still actively maintaining. Hopefully it will lead to this dream's reality. This to-do item actually made me very happy, seems like I unconsciously still know and maintain my dreams from years back! :-)
  6. Get paid to lomo - SUCCESS! Finally one item that I can tick off my list! haha! I'm currently part of RedSheep Photography's film/analog/lomo leg, and I'm happy to say that I'm getting paid to lomo! Woohoo!
  7. Drink Alamid Coffee - Another Success! It's a small task anyway, so it will eventually happen. I remember that I asked an office friend (thanks Cip!) to buy a small jar of coffee for me when he went to Baguio. So yes, another item I can tick off my list.

From this 7-item list, I've already successfully completed 2 and scraped off 1.5 (still thinking about item #1).  This leaves me with 98 things to do! And off the top of my head, here are some things that I want to add to my revived list!
  1. Travel to Korea
  2. Travel to Japan
  3. Travel to London
  4. Go back one more time to New York and watch Broadway and eat again at Grimaldi's
  5. Have at least a kid *awww*
  6. Sell 100 items in my etsy store!

    an anglerfish plushie that I designed and made! :-)

  7. Open an online clothing shop (at least in etsy) that sells clothes that I design and make.
  8. Earn money from a side job that involves paper. Paper animal crafts, invitation, etc.
  9. Learn how to make a decent pancake from scratch - my current from-scratch pancakes suck big time!
  10. Lose 15 lbs off my current weight and maintain it for at least a year. This is a tough one!
That's it! I don't want to overwhelm myself from all my aspirations/goals. Will keep you posted. And by "you" I mean myself (because I'm the only one who reads this blog). *ends blog with self pity*

Ha! :D

Monday, August 15, 2011

Jac's Chaotic Mind

I finally took up my friend's advice (thanks Nelly!) of setting up one central blog for all my mini blogs. I have a GREAT tendency to take up and leave new hobbies and interests which results to many mini blogs centered around a specific topic of interest. :-P

Anyway, I'm trying to clean up my cyber space by organizing all these information into one place. That means I deleted mini blogs which I didn't update much, and I won't be creating anymore new blogs. I will continue to update my other existing blogs which of this one last blog space though. ^_^

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Andy ♥ Mela

Wow! It took close to 6 months before I was able to have a shoot again; this time it's for my close friend's sister. I have to admit I was scared out of my wits for this shoot.

I was initially volunteering to help in their prenup shoot. Never expected that they would ask me to actually do the shoot! I knew I wouldn't be able to pull it off alone. Good thing my photographer friends helped me in the shoot (Thank You Nell, Lolo and Rjay!) In the end, we were able to form a four person team to take photos for the couple.

I really hope they like how the pictures came out. I personally did, but then I know I'm biased. hahaha!
  

PS. All photos are from digital scans of my film negatives.
PPS. I played around with the 3 6 second videos that I took from the shoot. A very very very short teaser video at the bottom. :-)