Goddess, I Am.

I have lost the will to live, really I have. All because I think Nestle might have discontinued my favorite milk. And yes, this is a very big deal for me, folks.

You see, I’m an insomniac. And it doesn’t help that I normally get hunger pangs just when I’m about to go to bed. In fact, the slightest sign of hunger will keep me awake till kingdom come. On the other hand, eating before bedtime makes me feel so porky that I end up staying awake and obsessing about it all night. Honestly, I can’t win either way.

So I drink milk. Lots and lots of milk. And my milk of choice is Nesvita Pro-Weight Management. In fact, I’ve refused to drink anything else since I discovered it 3 (or was it 4?) years ago – save for the year I spent in Thailand, that is, when I subsisted on that lovely Foremost chocolate milk . . .

But I digress. I love Nesvita Pro-Weight Management because it tastes so good without being sinful. A glass of which only has about half the calories of a glass of ‘normal’ milk, which means I could drink it anytime I want without feeling guilty.

I drink about 2 or 3 glasses a day, which means a big box usually lasts me about a week or less. That’s not a lot, is it? I couldn’t have possibly consumed every single box there was in Cebu, could I? Because I cannot find a single box anywhere now. And believe me, I’ve looked and looked and looked in every grocery, pharmacy, and convenience store I could find every single day for nearly 10 days now.

Out of desperation, I picked up a box of the Pro-Bone variety, hoping that it would allow me to enjoy the same milky goodness that I’ve come to know and love, but I took one sip and flushed the whole lot down the toilet. I’ve tried going back to Nido and Birch Tree (the milk brands of my youth), but I only succeeded in eating them the same way that I used to as a child. I’ve tried various brands and kinds of fresh milk, too – none of which do it for me because I’m a powdered milk kind of gal.

Maybe I should write to Nestle and beg them to bring back my milk. Surely they won’t ignore me, right? After all, it’s not like I’m demanding an all-expense-paid trip somewhere complete with Myrtle Beach vacation rentals or anything ridiculous like that. I just want my milk, sleep, and my sanity back.

A Plea for Help: If anyone has seen a wayward box of Nesvita Pro-Weight Management, do let me know. Better yet, buy it for me. I’ll pay you back, of course, with interest. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in 10 days!

Let’s see what he’s been up to so far.

He’s played ball.

He’s gone a’traveling with Daddy.

He’s made friends with strange creatures.

He’s gone swimming with Nana.

He’s made faces with Mommy.

He’s smiled for Auntie’s camera.

He’s (kinda) caught butterflies with Uncle Steve.

He’s discovered a love for walking.

He’s kissed a girl.

Maybe he’ll get a haircut next?

But then, he’s had worse.

Happy birthday, Xabier. Auntie loves you, little man.

The Husband, he doesn’t read my blogs. Or at least, I don’t think so. I’ve never found any indication that he does, so I suppose it’s safe to assume that he really doesn’t.

Here are 5 things that I really want for Christmas, anyway, on the off chance that he might read my blog. Who knows? He might stumble upon my list while looking for worthwhile Christmas gifts for her – that is to say, ME.

Of course, I could always just tell him, but then, the rest of you, my beloved readership, won’t know what I want for Christmas. I figured I’d make it a bit easier for you, just in case I’m on your Christmas list, tee hee. Hey, a girl can dream!

1. A White 32GB iPhone 3GS.
I love all things Apple. But though I’ve come close to buying one of these several times, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy myself another gadget when I’ve already bought so many this year. I still want one, though. In fact, I’m wanting it more and more every day, preferably one that’s already jailbroken.

2. A 64GB iPod Touch.
Okay, I admit the iPhone is a tad too pricey, but I’m reasonable. I would happily settle for technically the same thing without the phone and camera functions, among others. Naturally, I want the model with the most storage because how else will all the I, Caesar documentaries and Dexter episodes I downloaded fit?

3. An 18-200VR lens, also known as the ‘all-around’ lens.
I knew photography was going to be a really expensive hobby to get in to, so I’m not going crazy on accessories for Caesar, nor do I plan to. I do know, however, that I’ll need to invest on lenses eventually. Of course, it’ll be a lot better to just get one for Christmas.

I want an 18-200mm lens because it’s wide enough for landscape shots when I travel, yet it also takes decent macro shots, which I do more often, anyway. I’m thinking getting a good ‘all-around’ lens for Christmas will help me stop blaming my bad shots on my poor kit lens.

4. A Tenba Messenger Bag in Plum, size small.
I have been longing for this bag since September. It’s a messenger bag that’s designed to carry a laptop, an SLR and 2 lenses, and just about any other stuff one can think of throwing in there along with these gadgets, such as chargers, cables, external drives, portfolios, etc. I’m so sick of having to carry different bags when I’m out with Octavian and Caesar, so this is the bag of my dreams.

As far as I know, only Digital Walker in SM carries these in Cebu. I was about to buy one one day, but they only had the larger size in black. After that, I kind of lost my nerve. At $108.95 (a whopping P7,500 from Digital Walker, for some reason), it does require a bit of courage. But watch the video, do! You’ll know why it’s worth every penny (or centavo).

5. Books aplenty!
To be perfectly honest, I really am probably one of the easiest people to get presents for. Sure, I could harp on about how I’d like to have every single gadget known to man, and sure, I would be very happy to get any one of ‘em, but really, I will be just as happy to get a good book or two.

Because I’ve spent the last 8 months reading ‘em stories of Rome and Caesar, however, I’ve got very specific books in mind because I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on my reading. I’ll probably post a list of the books that I really, really want soon-ish. That is, of course, assuming I don’t get sidetracked.

Goodness, how did my 5-item list get so long? Off to bed with me, methinks.

Because people can’t seem to stop talking about New Moon (which premiered last Friday, the 20th, in the Philippines), I might as well write a few words about it for lack of better things to write about.

Probably the most remarkable thing about the movie was the crowd. The unruly throngs of people – mostly pre-pubescent teens, I might add – nearly gave me a coronary. Thankfully, I reserved our tickets nearly a full month before (seriously). So while hoards of teenage girls moaned how their seats were close enough to the screen to see Edward’s brain matter through his nostrils, I was smugly gloating about the fact that we literally had the best seats in the house – the first row of the premiere section, right smack in the middle where there’s leg room aplenty (not that my short legs needed the room, but you get the picture).

The movie itself was so-so. I didn’t have high expectations, so I didn’t leave disappointed. The book was probably my second least favorite (I liked Breaking Dawn least) because Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) reaction to Edward’s leaving was way too pathetic and was a tad corny, even for me (and I’ve had my share of high drama, mind you). Predictably, the movie was just as melodramatic, even to the point of being somewhat dragging.

It did have its redeeming moments, though, namely the scenes where Jacob (Taylor Lautner) strutted around half-naked. And because this happened quite often, some may argue that his pectorals saved the show. You can count me in, if you must, tee hee.

However, I think the guy who played Paul (Alex Meraz) was even hotter, if that’s at all possible. (That’s him on the left, growl!)

Photo Credit: Ace Showbiz

Of course, not to be outdone, Edward (Robert Pattinson) had to go topless, too. Is it just me, though, or is Rob becoming more and more of a letdown as the series progresses? It’s either that, or I’m just really disturbed with how his nipples looked way too much like P10 coins. (And yes, I do notice these sort of things.)

One thing about the movies that I’m really starting to hate is how Edward comes off as a bit of a pansy. I don’t know if it’s Rob, or how the films are directed, but really, the doe eyes are too much for a vampire movie, even a vampire love story. In the book, Edward is supposed to be romantic and brooding, but he’s also quite a bad ass. In the movies, on the other hand, he broods more than a teenage girl (which makes him more cheesy than romantic), and he’s about as bad-assed as Rainbow Brite.

Case in point, will the vampire lover of your wildest fantasies be caught dead in a gag-worthy scene such as this:

‘Nuff said.

All in all, though, it was good fun, New Moon. Eye candy never hurt anybody, so if you’re a fan of the series, it’s definitely worth watching, even just for curiosity’s sake. Whether you watch it at the cinema, or curled up on a couch in one of those Outer Banks beach rentals when it comes out on video, it’s entirely up to you. But if its box office earnings so far is any indication, I think almost everyone opted for the former. I do know we’ll be getting it on Blu-ray, if only to add to my burgeoning share of the collection.

On a side note, I wouldn’t want Robert Pattinson to be my Edward Cullen, if I were Bella Swan. I would want him . . .

Christian Bale

Or him . . .

Michael C. Hall

But most definitely, him . . .

The Husband

Won’t my version of New Moon be so much better (and slightly porn-y)?

It can’t be any fun being my laptop. I don’t spend my days surfing, or watching videos on YouTube, or even playing games on Facebook. All I do is work, work, and work some more. And don’t get me started on the amount of work I do. Let’s just say that in any given day, I have about 3 days’ worth of work to do IF I do everything manually. Fortunately for me, my boss loves buying me software, so most of my tasks are automated, which is definitely the only reason why I actually manage to do everything that I’m supposed to do every day.

Now, most of these software run on – surprise, surprise! – Windows. My darling Octavian, however, runs on Mac OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard). This means that to be able to run these software, I have to run Windows on a Macbook Pro somehow. One way to do is to install it in something called Boot Camp and choose Windows when I boot up Octavian . . . Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen! Running Windows on its own on a Macbook Pro is like playing a shitty VCD on a perfectly good Blu-ray player – it’s sacrilegious, to say the least.

So as an alternative, I’ve chosen to purchase a software called VMWare Fusion, and this is, by far, one of my best investments yet. VMWare Fusion allows me to run Windows as a virtual machine (I named it Lucius Cornelius Sulla, tee hee) so I won’t have to leave OS X to run Windows applications. This means that I’m actually running two computers simultaneously on one. Add the fact that I’m also running another half a dozen apps on the native OS X system, and I’ve got an extremely overworked laptop. Very few laptops will be able survive such a beating without crashing, and Octavian’s one of those – he’s never crashed once. Rather, he valiantly takes whatever demands I put to him without complaint. Yes, he’s a good boy, that’s why I love him to bits (no pun intended).

Octavian came with a 2GB DDR3 RAM, which was a big deal for me, considering the crap that I had to put up with before I bought my first Mac. Though it’s sufficient to run both my systems simultaneously, I do suffer lags every now and again, which is really a bit annoying when you’re trying to get things done yesterday. I knew a RAM upgrade to 4GB would take care of this, but since the DDR3 technology is fairly new, the chips weren’t readily available locally – and I felt that I had to purchase it from an authorized Apple store/service center to get their techs to install it for me. Unfortunately, there was a 2-month waiting list to order ‘em chips, plus it would be about twice the price of getting it from somewhere like TipidPC or eBay.

Now, for as long as I can remember, the guys at the PhilMUG forums have been insisting that a DIY RAM and hard-disk upgrade was as easy as pie. It’s so easy, in fact, that these sort of upgrades do not even void the warranty! I’ve been toying with the idea of doing it for the longest time. I’ve even watched videos of how it was done, and they all made it look so easy! I’ve always chickened out at the last minute, though. I don’t know what came over me this week, but I suddenly fancied that my poor Octavian was coming down with asthma from all the hard work (the real Octavian was asthmatic, after all) and that I needed to do a RAM upgrade stat! So I ordered a couple of 2GB Team Elite chips from a TipidPC seller, who came highly recommended from ‘em forum guys, on Tuesday. I paid P4,700 (about $100) for both chips plus shipping on the same day, and got confirmation that it was en route to Cebu.

The chips turned up the next day, Wednesday. The idea of opening up poor Octavian sickened me so much, though, that The Husband ended up doing it for me that afternoon. First, he tried to get the screws off with a really old #00 screwdriver that he found buried amidst his old junk. That didn’t really work – 3 of the screws won’t come off!

So we hurriedly took a trip to True Value in Ayala to get a new screwdriver and ended up with a set. This time, Octavian was successfully opened up. The Husband removed the old 1GB sticks and replaced ‘em with the new 2GB ones (there’s two of each). The process took no more than a couple of minutes. He then closed up Octavian, and I re-booted. To my horror, it showed that I only had 1GB of RAM from the 4GB I was expecting! I nearly cried. I did a test using memtest, and yep, there’s definitely only 1GB.

So The Husband opened up poor Octavian again, and sure enough, one of the chips was loose. He fiddled with them somewhat, and they were finally in nice and tight. I booted up Octavian again, and scarily enough, he only had 3GB! By this time, I was definitely in a panic. The Husband opened up Octavian again and removed the chips. We both checked if they were identical, and they were, right down to their 2GB DDR3 warranty stickers.

The Husband had the brilliant idea of trying to isolate problem. He installed just one chip, rebooted, and checked the system – definitely a 2GB. Off came Octavian’s back case yet again, and this time, he installed just the other chip. Lo and behold – it was a 1GB!

So it seemed that the problem was with that second chip. I thought it might have been mislabeled or something, but the guys on the forums believe it’s a faulty chip. I contacted the seller – who was really nice, by the way – and he asked me to send in the faulty chip yesterday so he can replace it. I thought he was going to wait until the chip got there before he sent me a new one so I was resigned to the fact that I’ll have to wait a couple more days, but no, he sent it straight away, the moment I confirmed that I’ve sent the faulty chip. I’m expecting it sometime today.

Right now, Octavian is running on 3GB RAM – the new, working 2GB chip and one of the original 1GB sticks. I have not experienced a single lag since, even when I’ve got Windows running, too. It takes a bit longer to start up (about 30 seconds), though, but that’s perfectly understandable. It’s the actual working time that matters to me, anyway, and a longer start-up time just means that I have more time to get breakfast ready.

With the favorable experience that I’ve had with the 3GB RAM so far, I can’t wait to see what the 4GB would be like! I’m getting stuff done even quicker than usual, too. A happy Octavian means a happy Mommy Iris.

Now, if only LBC would turn up with that chip already . . .

LBC turned up just as we were about to head to the mall to watch New Moon. Once again, Octavian was reopened, and in less than 2 minutes, he was sporting a spanking new 4GB RAM. (Check out the wallpaper. Cute, huh?)