Babbles of a Lover and a Fighter

The littlest of the Reyes’ living legacy of 4 generations had her first birthday party today.  This was my first family party since the beginning of January, Christmas if you only count parties with the “real food,”  (you guys know what I’m talking about.  Pansit, adobo, lumpia, rice, ube, an entire roasted pig…you know…the “real food.”) and in all of the hubbub of work and job searching and time away from the family, I found how much I really miss gatherings like the one today.

I got to meet my aunt-in-law’s side of the family.  They’re all really friendly, and damn, can they cook.  They’re right up there with Ninang.  I think they used to own a restaurant.

Talk about food coma.  They had already started cooking before we got there at 4, and they were still cooking when we left at around 8:30.  Of course, we had to bring home the obligatory 5 1-gallon bags of food.  Leftovers, anyone?

So, the reason for the party was this little princess right here:

And the main reason for this post is to share the pictures.  Indoor photography with dim lighting is pretty frustrating, especially without an external flash.  I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas, and the built-in flash tends to cast a shadow when it’s zoomed all the way out.  My indoor pictures tend to be blurry and awkwardly off-white-balanced, but hopefully with a bit more practice, they’ll turn out better in the future.  Just to get an idea of the whittling process, of the 141 pictures I took, I kept 73, and I’m posting 7.  That’s the way my photography has always been, I think.  I’m only satisfied with about 5% of a set, if that.  I guess that’s the beauty of digital photography.  No wasting film, no waiting for development…instant critiques.

I love taking pictures of people, I love learning new techniques with my camera and with Photoshop, so here’s to more photography posts in the future.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my photography page to get a feel of my psychedelic photoshop side and pic-taking style.

Stay classy!

A few days ago, I decided to get some Betta fish.  I’ve kept a couple of plants alive the past few months, so I suppose the next logical step would be something more…animated?

Betta fish are apparently pretty resilient (they can breathe air…? All you really have to do is keep them wet…but I doubt that’s very good for them for any length of time), and I have found that I can keep myself entertained for quite awhile just watching them swim around and/or eat.  And they also look pretty cool sitting on the desk.

As you can see from the (awesome) name tags Brandon and I created, the one on the left is Finnegan: Bearer of the Caudal Flame, and the one on the right is Regulus: Harbinger of Destiny.  Naming them was a pretty big ordeal.  I mean, Betta fish are aggressive and will actually fight to the death when placed in the same bowl as another, so we thought that their names should be warrior-like.  The squiggly divider keeps the carnage from happening and allows for both of them to be tank-mates.  It’s quite cute.  And the tank also doubles as a vase, which to me, makes the cheap-o plastic tank more appealing to the eye.

I never thought that fish would have personalities, but these guys are interesting.  Finnegan…I should have probably named in Sleepy or something because that’s pretty much all he does.  Regulus is the feisty one, darting around his half of the tank if someone gets close.  Finnegan likes to sleep on the floor, and Regulus tends to catch his z’s near the surface.  And they actually yawn.  It’s pretty weird.

Apparently, you can train them and play with them and even pet them.  I’m not sure how much a fish likes to be petted, but I’m guessing not too much.  I’ll let you know if they try to bite my fingers off.

Spending a minimum of 8 hours running around a hotel (12-14 when you’re working a double) takes a ridiculous toll on your feet and lower back.  I had no idea how much shoes make a difference in that department until I got a pair of these babies:

Three cheers for Dr. Scholls!

I saw them at the store and I thought, hey, why not.  They feel pretty squishy.  But alas!  Tricky packaging stacks them so they feel twice as thick as they really are.  However, this didn’t seem to make a difference, because 10 hours later, no back pain, no arch pain, no pain at all.  I felt quite fantastic, like I could go on for another 10 hours.  Dr. Scholls has pretty much saved my life and I’m totally gellin’ and will be gellin’ forevermore.  Thank you, Dr. Scholls, whoever, wherever you are.  You have made my everyday cute shoes into working cute shoes so I don’t have to wear those black no-slip bricks-strapped-to-my-feet-looking shoes.