iPad 2

I can't wait to go to the States, mainly because I'm getting an iPad 2 when I go! My parents already agreed to half with me. HD apps and Architectural reference books in full color, here I come!

The reason to why I'm getting this aside from a Kindle is because I noticed that the Kindle is only for reading novels and the like. It's not so good for full-color, graphical books like my architctural reference books because

a) it's black and white only,

b) it's kind of slow when showing graphic photos,

c) zooming in is kind of hard and

d) its capacity is only 4GB and one architectural book is almost 500MB. So yeah, I really need an iPad for my architecture books. :)

Look at the iPad vs. the iPad 2. Super big differences:

iPad

iPad 2

Display	9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD	9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD
Resolution	1024 x 768	1024 x 768
Processor	1GHz Apple A4	1GHz dual-core Apple A5
Graphics	PowerVR SGX 535	?
Memory	256MB RAM	?
Storage	16GB / 32GB / 64GB	16GB / 32GB / 64GB
Front camera	none	VGA
Rear camera	none	720p
Cellular radio	EDGE plus triband HSPA	EDGE plus quadband HSPA or CDMA / EV-DO Rev. A
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n	802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	2.1 + EDR
Accelerometer	3-axis	3-axis
Gyroscope	No	3-axis
Thickness	13.4mm	8.8mm
Weight	680g (WiFi), 730g (WiFi + 3G)	601g (WiFi), 607g (Verizon), 613g (AT&T)

Table c/o Http://engadget.com. :) As you can see, it's lighter, faster and has two cameras, one in the front and the back. AND another thing to look forward to is the Smart Cover!What is so impressive about this Smart Cover? First, when it's covering your iPad it automatically locks it, and when you lift the flap, it automatically wakes it up. It also doubles as a stand for your iPad, and of course protects it from all the other objects around it in your bag.
Of course I'm going to get one in pink, but I'm quite sad that the genuine leather ones are all the boring colors only! I wish the fun colors were made of leather as well and not polyurethane. :( It better last me long!
So there, hello iPad in more or less a month! :)

Kindle post

I'm on a short break from school (finally!), so now I can't believe it, I can actually choose what I read!

Hi everybody, meet my Kindle reading device! With all the talk going out and about with the iPad 2, I must say I am tempted to get one for reading my architectural reference books and HD apps, but I'm still an original Kindle girl. It's strictly for black and white text reading only. I love reading from it because it really looks like a printed page.

I received this Kindle for Christmas from my parents, and from my godfather I got its Kate Spade cover. I love my case! It's made of patent leather with canvas inside. It's plain but pretty and makes a statement every time I pull my Kindle out. :)

This is my favorite screensaver. One amazing thing about the Kindle is that its battery can last up to 30 days! Also, anywhere I go that has 3G, I can surf for free! But of course it's black and white and navigation is not so good. It works though, and is very handy especially when you need to Google something quickly for reference.

The back has speakers, in which you can use the text-to-speech function that it offers for most books downloaded from Amazon. It's pretty cool if you ask me, but audiobooks don't work for me because they put me to sleep. Haha! I chose the white over graphite because it looks more clean-cut and futuristic. :)

If you ask me, the Kindle is a great buy if you love reading novels and printed books! Imagine not worrying about messing up the cover or spines of your books, tearing or folding any pages and lugging around heavy hardbound books? Up to 4 GB worth of books can be stored in your device, and one book is just 125 KB, more or less! But don't expect much out of this device if you want to use it to surf or play games. It's really just for reading. But it's really amazing, how it looks like a printed page. The eyes don't strain at all :)

And I leave you with this photo. Spot the odd one out? :P

Mogu Celebrations

Ladies and gentlemen, I am now a sister of a Kagawad! :D My baby sister ran in the Sangguniang Kabataan special elections in my district, and she won :) Fr those who don't know, SK is a youth council per district in the Philippines, run by the government. This was a great cause for celebration, so we decided to eat at a restaurant of her choice. Mogu has been on her mind because she tried it with a few relatives without us, but we wouldn't listen to her when she would suggest it. So she took this time to choose Mogu so that we would see how yummy it is, and I must say that we were indeed very impressed!

The new thing nowadays is that while we're on summer, before going out and running errands my mom likes to eat out. But since she takes FOREVER to get ready (and I MEAN forever!), we end up eating at around 2 already. So one super hungry and grumpy family ordered up a storm that day! And even though Mogu's lunch hours end by 2pm, even though we arrived at 1:50pm and the doors were closed, the chef, who was sitting at the bar having his lunch still let us in. Thank you so much! Haha :)

I noticed this decorated wall right away with the specials, and we ordered most of our things from there.

This was the main reason to why we came here, for the Harami! It's their house special of house specials. Flavorful strips of thinly sliced beef drenched in a sweet barbeque sauce. Yum! We order two of these to share between four people. :)

Asparagus wrapped in bacon is my usual order in any place that has it, so I decided to try their twisted version of it. This is tempura-battered asparagus wrapped in bacon. It was good, but I don't think I could eat just that with rice. It's too oily, and when something is too oily, you usually can't have too much of it. I only had about two pieces and poor daddy had to eat the rest. Haha :)

My sister likes tempura, and though I don't eat it I just had to post a photo. It looks really good and crunchy! And I'm betting it was good, because there was none left by the time lunch was over!

Because I spotted this on the board, I decided to try their mixed mushroom spaghetti, which used 3 different kinds of spaghetti in a stir-fry sauce. I wasn't too entranced by this, but kagawad loved it and finished most of it. Haha!

My sister and I had our meal with a side of Wagyu rice each. I didn't like it so much because it was all the pieces with fat :( Boooo. But it was a good siding! I think I would prefer white rice next time, though. photo courtesy of foodspotting.com :)

I really loved the canvas lanterns hanging around the place. They weren't your ordinary lanterns; the geometric patterns were so unique! I wonder if they're from here. :)

Time for dessert! My sister ordered the Strawberry Napoleon which was really good but so super creamy, and my order is coming up ahead!

Mine was the Mango Tempura. I didn't have much of these because everything I had was so oily already! So more cream or tempura anything did not sound like a good idea to me. Haha! We had to place all of our orders the moment we walked into the restaurant because the kitchen was doing their last full orders already. :)

Mogu was really good, and I'm glad that Kagawad forced us to eat here. Haha! Congrats, baby sister! :)

Mogu is located at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City. :)

A Pretty Splendid gadget

Hello everybody! It's my first gadget post on Pretty Splendid, and I'm so excited to talk about it :D

So I'm finally ready to partition my Mac hard drive and adding Parallels to my system interface so that I can use AutoCAD :) Along with my nail polish, I got something else!

A new 1TB external hard drive that I am very, very happy with. I got it on Amazon.com for 117 USD, which is an amazing price, compared to my last hard drive that I bought and sold within 2 months. Though the WD My Passport Essential (the PC version) was cheaper than the WD Passport for Mac, I decided to trust my instincts and get the Mac version because after my major problems with my old hard drive, I wasn't going to take any chances with an iffy hard drive. I really researched about this guy before getting him, took a chance, and here he is!

Compared to my old hard drive, the 500GB LaCie Rugged, this one is SO TINY! The dimensions are 4.3" x 3.2" x 0.7", and placed beside the iPhone, they're roughly the same size.

It's also a little thicker than the iPhone, but still tiny! I was very impressed that for 1TB of space, it's so tiny and light! Definitely not a hassle at all to take around with me. :)

I chose silver over dark blue and red because though it's a boring color, it matches with my Macbook Pro and was cheaper than its colored siblings. Though it doesn't come with a firewire or power cord, backing up all of my files using Time Machine was no problem at all. It was easy, fast and pain-free :D It took about 4 hours to back up all 200GB of my computer.

So there, super happy me signing off! Hope you guys enjoyed this post. More to come soon!

Essie Matte About You

...and the quest for unique nail polish continues! Look at what I finally got in the mail today:

Essie matte finisher! I had seen matte polish before on Tumblr, and ever since I saw it in black, I knew I had to at least try it, though we've already established that my color isn't black. Haha! So i looked around online, placed an order for my polish and waited patiently for it to arrive.

I was a little disappointed though, because as you can see in the photo above, it leaked around the container! Boooo. But I didn't get discouraged, I peeled it off and went straight to my mom's parlor bag to look for a shade that I was feeling today.

This is what I came up with. (L-R) OPI two-way base coat, OPI Red, OPI Didgeridoo Your Nails, Essie Matte About You. The Didgeridoo Your Nails is actually my very own shade, it's the shade I usually have one when I'm not feeling very loud or red.

This is how it looked on my nails. (L-R) OPI Red, OPI Red with Essie Matte About You topcoat, OPI Didgeridoo Your Nails, OPI Didgeridoo Your Nails with Essie Matte about You topcoat. Huh, they look so good in photos! I didn't like the look of the red so much in person, but instantly fell in love with the pink! :) So pink it was.

It's very important to always follow directions, especially with a new product. I learned that if you apply too many coats, and thick ones at that, the colored polish sticks to the brush of the Matte About You. So I learned to remember where I painted already and to make nice, even strokes.

So, here's the look! Without flash:

And now here with flash:

The downside of matte nail polish is that it works exactly like matte lipstick, that if you have cracked or chapped lips, it will definitely show! I must admit that I removed this right away because even though it's not so evident in my photos, I didn't apply the polish very well. Since I'm in a course that requires a lot of hand-work (Architecture), I'm always looking at my nails and am often OC with them. So I'm sorry, I just had to remove this manicure. Haha!

So the final verdict: do I like it? I love it! BUT I won't ever apply it myself. So I'll have to wait for my next manicure at the parlor to have this done again, even though it's my polishes they'll be using. :)

'til my next find! xx

Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?

When I went to Cebu 2 years ago, I had heard that there were these cookies that were a must-try. I ended up buying about 6 containers to give to my relatives back home, and 3 for my family.

Finally, I found some at an extremely good price :D Apparently, they bring them in cheaper than the deli in Cebu! Our cookies were wiped out within two days, and I don't think my parents even got to taste them, I ate most of them, but my sister and cousin had some too. I just couldn't help myself! I love sweets, especially cookies and chocolate!

These lace cookies aren't your ordinary lace cookies. They're two super-thin cookies sandwiched with chocolate in the middle. You can buy them in separate flavors of mint chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate, but if you buy the big 600g container they have it in assorted of milk, dark and white chocolate.

My personal favorite kind of chocolate is dark chocolate, but for these lace cookies I'd have to say that my favorite is the semi-sweet chocolate because it doesn't overpower the taste of the cookies. When eating the dark, all you taste is crunchy dark chocolate. At least you can feel the flavors of the cookie and the semi-sweet chocolate blending in your mouth. It's like a party in your mouth!

And that just reminded me of ratatouille, when fireworks would go off in the mouse's mouth while he was eating. Gotta love that movie! :)

'Til the next post!

Hedgie House

Hello again, everybody!

Say hello to my pet hedgehog, Koosh! :D

Koosh is an African Pygmy hedgehog. There are two kinds of hedgehogs, the African Pygmy hedgehog and the European Hedgehogs. African Pygmy hedgehogs are the ones that are allowed to be kept as pets and only grow to be about 6 inches long, whereas the European hedgehogs can grow to be as big as a jackfruit!

Ever since I saw my first hedgehog when I was 16, I really, really wanted one. They're so cute and very low maintenance. I researched on them for 3 years until I finally got my own! I knew everything about hedgehogs, from what they eat to how to give them baths, and their housing requirements even before I had one! Can you say addict? Haha :)

Hedgehogs do not bite nor do they make sounds. Their defense mechanism is to roll into a ball and/or puff out their quills to scare away unwanted creatures. Aside from the hedgehog being a low-maintenance and quiet pet, they're also so super cute! Haha. :) On holding them, their quills are pretty sharp, but when relaxed, they're laid down in rows so it doesn't hurt at all to pet them. :)

My sister and I were shopping at Book Sale when I chanced upon this! I really thought that it was a book about hedgehogs, but grrrr it's a self-help book on how to become a successful businessperson. HAHA We were on our way out already when I just found this and dropped it at the cashier. I don't have a single book about keeping a hedgehog as a pet, so it would be nice to own one. :)

Koosh is also very photogenic. Look at how he posed with me! Sorry for the icky face, I was about to sleep already and decided to take photos with him. Haha! Hedgehogs are nocturnal by the way, which makes it the perfect pet for a busy person who works during the day. :)

'til next time! Watch out for my next leading man in the family :D Clue: he has the same nose as my Koosh. Hehe :)

Rajo Laurel for Plains and Prints

Last Friday, March 11 was when Rajo Laurel's collection for Plains and Prints (finally) came out in stores. If I could have gone as early as the time in the morning when the mall opened, I really would have! But alas I had school. :( I breezed though all of my classes and arrived in Glorietta 5 by 5:30pm.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the tiny rack at the side containing all of the clothes. It was maybe only 1 1/2 meters long and had only about 5 styles with 3 different colors in each style. But I decided not to judge, and continued looking. After about an hour of trying on almost all 5-ish styles, I walked away with a smiling, happy face and two new items of clothing!

This entry is an official milestone for me because I'm finally showing my face to the world! This is my first buy...

Doesn't it look so slouchy and just not? This is another reason to why my mom always tells me to try things on, they look so different on you!

Hello everybody! This is me and how I wore it to my sister's birthday dinner. I paired it with my black pumps, a string of pearls and my black Prada. I first tried this dress on in berry, and decided right away that I wanted it in black. :) You can't see it but it has gorgeous draping in the front, from to the left shoulder blade to the hips. I almost didn't buy it though because the skirt was so short, but heels saved the day! As usual. Haha!

Here's my second buy. it doesn't look like much, but I loved it right away when I found out that it could be used in six other ways, aside from this one! Here are two other ways, aside from the one pictured above.

This one is when everything's draped at the front...

And this one is when everything's tied into a knot near the neck. :) It looks so much better when played around with, I don't think I'd ever wear it the normal way. Haha!

The great thing about my splurge is that each piece was under P2000, which is pretty affordable for a Rajo piece. And I got a free canvas bag :D yay for free things! Haha. :)

So there, 'til my next fab find!

Back to Mercato

Even though I said I probably wouldn't ever go back to Mercato, look at where I would up tonight! Haha. My friends and I went out for dinner and we got a sudden craving for Mochiko, so we waited until 10pm to go to Mercato. But to our surprise, they moved!

Personally, I don't like the new location. It's really far and less developed. I think I ruined my Sam Edelmans walking on the gravel and sand. :(

Sorry for the blurry photo, but I think that the people in this photo (whoever you are) will be happy, because their faces aren't seen. Haha! Anyway, the setting was very... barrio fiesta much? But this was the outside cooking area where smoke was allowed, because everything was open air.

Booo the floor.

My friends made a beeline to the airconditioned tent because that was where all the baked goods and desserts were. It was also better for me and my shoes because it was paved already. But boo hoo! Look, Mochiko wasn't there :( We were so tempted to unveil it though to at least see the ice cream balls. Mahaha!

While looking around, we bumped into a Xiao Long Bao cooking station. I'm a sucker for Xiao Long Bao so even though I was quite full from the dinner we had, I decided to split 6 pieces with a girlfriend. :)

I must say that I was really impressed! Though they didn't have the soup inside, it was still really yummy. :) It did taste authentic which impressed me very much. A good teaser for my friend Kim's birthday lunch at Shang Palace, which I will definitely blog about after :D Hope I don't forget to take photos of my food! I always forget because I'm so excited to try it as soon as I get it. Haha!

'Til the next post! Sorry, I'm in the middle of a really bad week. 10 more days of school and I will be DONE!