Books, Nook and cranny

I have been obsessing over books these couple of weeks. I think it already has been a month. I have been reading non-stop. I open my reader whenever I can: while travelling, while working, before sleeping. It takes up most of my time now. I get super obsessive if I want to be. For now, reading is like breathing.

There is nothing like getting sucked into an author's world. It is so amazing how they create this whole new world (especially dystopian themes). Plus you get to imagine that characters, the setting. Makes me feel like I'm there. I get lost in words. I get lost in their world. It feels like an escape for me; from everything that has been going on with my life. While I'm there, nothing could touch me. Nothing I need to worry but what will happen in the next chapter or in the next book.

May be what I'm really doing is drowning my sorrows. May be I am afraid of facing my fears. May be I am searching for something in these books.

For now, nothing beats the comfort of knowing I can skip to the end.

And I am putting that obsessiveness to work! I will be posting book reviews from my other blog (Chocolate Dump). Hope that it would be awesomely awesome. Looking forward to more posts! Be sure to visit my blog when I do!

The 101 of HPV Vaccine

There are only a few things that makes me really mad. One is of arrogance. And two, thinking that you are correct because of your arrogance.

I am writing this blog to inform. Inform women and girls who are considering taking HPV(Human Papilloma Virus) Vaccine.Why am I doing this? Well, I had a very hard time doing some research about it. There just was not any good, straightforward, and honest information about it around the net. So what I did is that I went to my doctor, asked about it and got my shot. Here is what I can tell you:

What is HPV? HPV is a virus that is associated with the development of cevical cancer, genetal warts and other less common cancers.

What does the vaccine do? It is like your normal vaccine shots. For example Hepatits A or chicken pox. The vaccine contains an agent somewhat similar to the disease (that is weakened or killed forms) that gets injected to the body. Then, from there your body builds up an immunity from it by attacking the agent. The HPV vaccine protects you from selected virus strains of HPV.

What kind of vaccine should I get? There are two types of vaccines for HPV out in the market: Gardasil and Cervarix. These two vaccines are a lot a like but not quite. Their main difference is the protection that they could offer.

1. Cervarix protects against two (2) strains of HPV
2. Gardasil protects against four (4) strains of HPV that protects against 90% of the genital warts.

Gerdasil is usually offered to girls that are around the teenage bracket because it offeres much more protection than Cervarix. Because of this, Gardasil does not come cheap. Cervarix is definitly more affordable than Gardasil.

If you were to ask me or other doctors, they would recommend Gardasil because of the benefits. But if you do not have the budget, Cervarix is your next option. It does not give you the same benefits as Gardasil but it protects you against two strains of HPV that causes 70% of cervical cancer.

Any side effects? Well, I took Gardasil. My arm just hurt the whole day but other than that I am fine. I didn't feel nauseous, feverish or any of the said side effects in the internet.  So I also asked the nurse about it. She said there is no side effects. Not any that she is aware of whom she injected the Gardasil with. I will get back to you to follow up the side effects of the remaining two shots.

If you are considering getting one. Talk to your doctor. That is what I did. 

Cheers!

Reunions

I was not expecting last night that my high school friends will have a sort off reunion. Sort off because they really didn't tell me that it was a reunion. I thought that it was just an ordinary dinner with some of my high school friends, may be 5 or 7 people would be coming. I really was the one surprised to see them than they seeing me because officially I was not coming but my best friend pushed me to go.

Anyway, it was a nice night. I got to chat with them again. Maybe not all of them, but most of them at dinner. We joked around, talked, took pictures and ate. I was observing our table and listening as they talked. It was funny how it struck me that out last reunion was when we were fresh out of high school and our reunion this time when most of us are working. This time around we talked about shares, work, work life, experiences as opposed to last time where we talked about missing each other and how high school was so much different from college. Our conversations are more mature, we got a little less rowdy, and how some had changed and some stayed the same.

After eating, we went casino! It was my first time! We played the slot machine, the horse thing and roulette. My best friend and I had 100 credits free from registering at Resort's world as a member. We played around 10 credits for the slot machine and my best friend played 90 credits in the horse thingy that we did not even understand! Then we played the roulette which we also did not win. But it was a fun experience. Somebody ought to teach us how to play casino games next time!

We also went home early compared to my other high school friends. I was also tired and so was my best friend. But, I did really enjoy our reunion. Everyone was nice and I really missed them. Of course I hope they don't make it a habit because I might go broke with dinner and casino after! LOL. Kidding

Twins

100th post!

I was wondering around the mall today alone. I had a heavy bag and it was so tiring. I just sat for 2hrs maybe or more and then there was this girl with 2 baby strollers stuck together for twins. They were 2 baby girl twins about 2 months old. They were so cute! but one was crying so the girl carried the one crying to hush it. My heart just melted then and there. I also wanted to carry the other one in my arms. I have this soft spot for babies that aren't walking yet especially twins. I always wanted to have twins someday. It is just so heart warming to see these baby girls so close.

I made a new art that has been pending or a few months now. comments would be apprecieted. thank you~

Girl Friend

This past month I have been thinking how little to none I have with having friends that are girls. The type of girl friends that I would have liked to ask to go shopping or the ones I would have asked to come with me for a summer get-a-way.

I blame my college for having more boys than girls and I blame myself in picking a college that boys are more interested in than girls. I could have went to somewhere the ratio of girls and boys is 1:1 instead of 1:10. I also blame myself being unsociable and timid around girls. I tend to shut up, stay quiet and keep to myself especially when I really don't know the person.

I get jealous at times when people don't ask me to go out. And at times I feel really really bad that I can't go even if I wanted to because of other obligations. Look at me, writing on my blog that I pretend somebody reads.

Now, my world feels so tiny and I want to extend it somehow.

It's not that I don't want to have friends that are mostly composed of boys but instead I wish I had more close girl friends (and I emphasize on girl friends being plural) instead of having just one to even it out.

When Reality Hits

Hello again blog world. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. I just passed by because I thought about you from time to time and my last blog entry was last October 2010. Look how time flies. It's April 2011 and it's almost half a year after my last blog entry. Well, I'm here in front of my computer typing this entry. As we speak, there is no particular topic for this but just an update of everything.

Everything is fine so far. I did manage to get a job. It's not lavishing as I thought I would have but as old people say (and I am counting myself as old already), "what the heck, it pays the bills. I can't complain!"

I have read past blog entries because from time to time people leave comments for me to publish. I really thank you for reading my blog posts and at the same time share some thoughts with me. I don't know if there is such a thing as getting too old for blogging. But I hope I don't ever get too old for it. I don;t know if it's just me but when I read past blog entries, it's just interesting to know what I was feeling at that time of my life. And sometimes, I remember past experiences that I had forgotten. It really makes me smile.

On the other side of things, while I was looking for a job, I did lots and lots of art. You can always go to my deviantart site anytime (do tell me if you liked something from there ;) ). I updated my business card (link). I also did a Halloween theme for halloween 2010 (link). Then I got obsessive with playing cards and made a character out of Ace of Spades. Then I saw this art from another deviant and I tried to do my own version of pepsi and coke, ofcourse my own style (link). Then my last art entry was for Christmas which is the Christmas Angel. Lots lots more if you care to visit.

It's just amazing what you can do when you have so much free time. And I only had less then a quarter. I do have pending art pieces waiting to get finished. I am halfway or maybe less with them. I have lot of stuff going on and when I do have the time, I just feel tired and don't want to finish them. When I have the heart again to paint, I will. I hope you will be looking forward to them as I am. Well, 'til next time.

Dessert Escape

This cold rainy night, I was craving for a dessert. I don't care what, I just need to eat a dessert. So I searched online something easy to make. The big problem is that we don't have most of the ingredients of the desserts especially berries. I mean you know, berries here in the Philippines are crazy expensive so we don't have it in our refrigerators. And the dessert craving was driving me crazy. I was telling my bf I would eat our sugar if I don't find something to eat for dessert.

I keep on stumbling on s'mores online. We did have chocolate and we did have graham crackers but no mallows. And heating the chocolate or mallows would not be a problem with the microwave.

Well then, I wanted to share this quick and easy dessert if one night, like me, you are looking for a quick and easy dessert and something you would most likely find in the kitchen.

You will need:

1. microwave
2. graham crackers
3. sugar
4. chocolate
5. Mallows (if you have mallows hanging around the house)

Steps:

• Take a piece of graham put it on a microwavable plate (something that would fit your microwave. DUH)
• What we had in the kitchen were chocolate chips, so I sprinkled the chocolate chips on my graham. If you don't have chocolate chips, bar(s) of chocolate would be fine.
• Sprinkle on some sugar. You can skip this if you think the chocolate you have is sweet enough.
• (optional) If you have mallows hanging around the house you could also put that. The microwave will melt the mallows I just don't know how long but you can experiment on it and get back to me how long you microwaved the mallows with chocolate(s). I'm not exactly a culinary expert just a person who has great love for food :) and I got it form my mom. haha
• Put in the plate with the graham in the microwave and heat it for 40seconds. You can experiment on this until the chocolate looks like its melting and when you touch it, it feels soft and squishy.
• Take another graham and sandwich the chocolate and sugar (and mallows).

TADA! Easy! Now you have a dessert. YUM. Let's call this s'mores that fit whatever you have lying around the house. haha! take that!