The Things I Do for Love

The second installment to The Hunger Games trilogy is Catching Fire. We continue to follow Katniss Everdeen's life which has now evolved into that of a victor. In this movie, she encounters more challenges as she re-enters the arena for the 75th Hunger Games, or now known as the 3rd Quarter Quell.  Photo credits: Lionsgate, Entertainment Weekly, as tagged. The movie plot seems to focus more on Katniss Everdeen. Well, the movie is more faithful to the story than any other book-to-movie franchise I have seen. Since the book was from a first person perspective, it was more on Katniss there. The first movie, being in the third person perspective, was balanced in terms of character development. But the second one is not.  The other actors performed excellently. I got to give two thumbs up for all of them. Every actor, main, supporting, or extra, were all superb. However, their performance were shadowed by Jennifer Lawrence’s ability in portraying Katniss. Her emotions were very co

As I have mentioned before, Catching Fire is my favorite book in The Hunger Games trilogy. So I made sure that I will be one of the first to see it on the big screen. When I found out that Astroplus , MCA Music , and Hunger Games Philippines were to organize an advance screening , I literally jumped for excitement and spent out some moolah for the tickets!  Last November 20, fans head off to SM Megamall Cinema 12 for the most anticipated movie of the year! Sorry I don't have photos guys, our cameras and cellphones were confiscated for the moment. (T_T) So just take my word for it. (^_^) But I do have a few photos of the things I got which I took at home.  The deal was to buy a Deluxe Edition Catching Fire Original Soundtrack and you get a ticket for free! That was a steal.  The ticket and the Catching Fire OST  I arrived at the venue at around 6:00 PM, but the queue was way too long for comfort already. I didn't expect to see a lot of fans an hour before the screeni

LOL! This is not me at all! I love food. I explore all cuisines and savor flavors. I especially adore chocolate. But then came the shock of my life last Saturday, when I went to a Nutrition Club and had my body analyzed. I found out that I have body fat at 27.4%! Females ages 25-29 have body fat data at: Excellent 18.9%, Good 22.0%, Medium 25.4%, and Bad 29.8% . So with my data, I'm almost at boundary of the bad side. Ugh.  It came as a surprise to me because, I don't look fat at all.  Well, maybe in some angles I do. LOL! But it is quite alarming to know about it.And in the future, who knows what it may lead to? Maybe diabetes or even high blood pressure. Both of these are present in my family history. Scary. Then I was given a diet to follow. Ugh. Nooo! In a day, I only need, give and take, 1452 calories. So here it is.... I'm not really sure if I can do this. LOL! But discipline is the key word here. I do hope I can pull this through. I do know someone, the

CNN Correspondent Anderson Copper has brought me to tears with this report... News footage courtesy of CNN and shared by Gugma Ilonggo  on YouTube We’ve seen people with every reason to despair, every right to be angry, instead find ways to laugh, and to love, to stand up, to move forward. -Anderson Cooper It is difficult to get up after life has brought you down. When something uncontrollable happens and you feel so powerless. I admire the strength of my fellow Filipino in the affected areas. Amidst the struggles, they accepted the will of God and still put their hope in Him. He gives them the strength to rebuild.  This gift of accepting suffering with my whole heart and surrendering to the Divine Will, is something I still need to learn and master. 

After seven hauls of skin care, I finally grabbed the chance to get samples for the hair. Sample Room offered Vidal Sassoon products weeks ago. But I didn't get them when they first came out because I got excited to have samples from VMV Hypoallergenics and The Body Shop. LOL!  I made a promise to myself that I have  to find the perfect product to fix my very dry wavy hair . It made my day when I heard that Vidal Sassoon samples were given away.  There are a lot of skin care samples available in the website and quite little for our crowning glory. And of course, most of them are gone.  Vidal Sassoon has two hair care series: Premium Base Care and Color Care. Since my hair is not colored and needs moisture, I chose to have the Shampoo and Conditioner of the Premium Base Care Series. The set cost me 104 SR points. Vidal Sassoon Shampoo and Conditioner Premium Base Care Series Plus, more happiness is here as full sized bottles were given away! Yay!  The shampoo came in a 19

Photos and videos alone can speak for themselves. Here in Manila, I, too, have experienced heavy rain and strong winds on that day, and to think it was only the tail of the storm Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) wreaking havoc. The droplets of rain was huge. You could feel how heavy the volume of water is in every raindrop once it hits your skin. It hurt. The wind was roaring and scary, my umbrella broke that day. In a matter of minutes, the streets gushed out flood.  That day, I was lucky enough to get home from work safely. But other people weren't. To see those aftermath photos are heart breaking enough. One just can't feign blindness to the situation. (T_T) The victims of the typhoon need our assistance.  People lining up for help. Photo by Julianne Love de Jesus/ Inquirer.net There are a lot of ways to help. You can search various charitable organizations if you want to donate items or money. But me, I choose Caritas Manila . They are not as popular as other institut

Hi dearies! I would like to dedicate this post to one of my favorite bloggers, Emily Marysia , from the UK. I love to read her blog because she writes about K-Pop and J-Pop fashion and makeup. It's nice to be updated with the current trends, especially from Korea. The only Korean that I'm addicted to is Rain. LOL! So it's nice that I am able to read about Korean fashion and makeup through Emily's blog. I am broadening my knowledge about Rain's country, too. (^_^) And tadah! She is having a blog giveaway right now! My contest loving self just couldn't resist to join. LOL! You can also join by checking out this link:  http://emilymarysia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/150-followers-giveaway.html The prize? An Etude House Pink Play Party Mask Set! I mentioned before that I am obsessed with face masks . So I am loving this prize! The box of the Etude House Pink Play Party Mask Set. Photo by Emily Marysia Love 'em all! Photo by Emily Marysia I have seen t

Follow my blog with Bloglovin My teen fiction book is got to be The Hunger Games Trilogy! My favorite in the series is Catching Fire, which I only finished in one seating. So you can pretty much feel how excited I am for the movie franchise. All these photos and trailers are generating hype. From the looks of it, everything looks promising. But we know that there is more to a movie than just aesthetics. Plot, character development, and some philosophical ideas should be present to make sure it will be unforgettable.  Photos posted herein, without my watermark, belong to Lionsgate. Other credits as tagged. Catching Fire is about the Quarter Quell, much like your ordinary Hunger Games but this time around, it will be champions vs. champions! So it's more lethal and scarier. The district champions battle it out for the 75th Quarter Quell Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen shines more beautifully in the movie! I look forward to her performance in the film as these

Aside from my favorite smoothies, I decided to try another type of food in Jamba Juice. This time, I tired the Fruity Yogurt Parfait menu and chose Berry Topper among the list. Why? Because the color and the texture reminded me so much of my favorite Berry Bitten . I miss it a lot now. (T_T) The fruity yogurt concoction is topped with granola and bananas! It broke my heart to destroy the beautiful piece of art crafted by the Jamba Juice barista Majoy. I met her before in the EDSA Shang branch but I don't know if she still remembers me. But I didn't remind her. LOL!  I like how the bananas are at just the right level of ripeness. The granola add crunch and texture to an otherwise plain drink. The flavor is quite sour and bland. Well, it is healthy so it's okay if it lacks sweetness. The whole flavor is all about fruits and fresh juices and nothing else.  I even saw chunks of strawberries and whole blueberries in there. But it is the sweet bananas that overpowers them

Psalms 145 I will extol you, O my God and King; and I will bless your name forever and ever. Everyday will I bless you; and I will praise your name forever and ever The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord, and let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might. The Lord is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The Lord lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. In times of need, our hope is in the Lord.  Life and suffering go hand in hand I guess. And I ask God to alleviate the pain.  Whenever my request is fulfilled, I always pray to not forget to give thanks to God. And for this, I give him praises, my never ending gratitude for always encouraging and motivating me whenever I'm down.  Praise the Lord

I visited the J.Co store in Makati and tried something new. I wanted donuts too but the queue, as usual, was long. I wanted something sweet so yogurt was out of the list. That left with only the beverage line! The Chocomint Frappe (PhP150) got my attention and so I ordered it. My purchase came in with a free Glazzy donut. Yay! So I didn’t miss out on savoring a J.Co donut that day. I don’t know the duration of the promo, though.  Chocomint Frappe in Duo Size (PhP150) + Free Glazzy donut Unfortunately (or fortunately), the City of Makati forbids the usage of plastic cups. So we can’t see how the Chocomint Frappe looks like for real. However, the J.Co paper cup and the graphics on it is so cute, it makes you want to say “Awww..”.  Cheers!  Only the whipped cream and the chocolate caviar topping is seen on the drink. It is a thing of beauty, too.  Does it look yummy or does it look yummy? Let me say this, the whipped cream is thick and fully charged. Unlike in anoth

Playing the Yutnori game in the Too Cool for School booth last BDJ Box Beauty Social  got me three skin care samples as a prize. One of the things that I got is a sachet of Jean George Llong Sun Block for Women.  My sachet is of Jean George Llong Sun Block This is the first product that I have tried from Too Cool for School. So I researched about this and I am satisfied with the description: Jean George Llong Sun Block. Photo source: www.roseroseshop.com Hmmm.. So, it is a sun block but doubles as a makeup base or primer. Cool! It is kinda like BB or CC Cream in that sense. But it is labeled as sun block so let's stick to that. Ooh... the packaging of the full bottle is very lovely too! Heehee ~ (^_^)  Here is the sample that I got from the event. It is a small sachet but it lasted for two weeks with once a day usage. See, I only road test one product at a time up until I use up the whole sample. It is in this way that I can fully observe the effects an

Have you watched Thor: The Dark World already? Well, I just watched it last night and I give it a rating of 80%. Watch out for my review about it. But yeah, it's worth a watch.  But the topic now is not about the movie but something related. Weeks ago, in anticipation of the second Thor movie, Jollibee promoted the new Cheesy Bacon Mushroom Champ Burger and a Mjolnir USB Flash Drive that come with it.  If you want to avail of the flash drive (LOL! It was my motivation in the first place), all you need to do is buy the meal worth PhP165 and pay another PhP95 for the Mjolnir 1GB USB. Remember, you must buy the meal (burger+fries+Coke) to avail the flash drive So the burger... I give it a rating of 5 out of 10. The buns were good, the patty was tasty, but the bacon was salty. And because of the overpowering saltiness, I couldn't taste the cheese well.  Being a Champ , this one is pretty heavy on the stomach.  Jollibee's Cheesy Bacon Mushroom Champ Burger It&#