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Day 18 – Your favorite: Childhood books

Published by Justine

The only childhood books I ever remember really loving were the Sweet Valley Kids series. I’m pretty sure I was exposed to a lot of books as a child but Sweet Valley really stuck with me, up until Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley University, The Unicorn Club, SVJH (Sweet Valley Jr. High), Sweet Valley Senior Year, and even Sweet Valley Confidential, in which I posted about here and here.

I remember getting this book during my 6th or 7th birthday. I was so happy. The Sweet Valley series were really a big part of my childhood. Other books that I remember really loving were different kinds of Enid Blyton books and a bit of The Babysitter’s Club as well.

In my early “tweens” I also got into a lot of the Mary-Kate and Ashley franchise which includes their books like Two of a Kind, The Adventures of, and So Little Time collections and TV shows and DVDs. I think I was probably part of driving force on the twins’ rise to fame, stardom and money. Those were simpler times for me and I miss it so.

I probably shouldn’t fail to mention that I read a lot of Encyclopedia when I was young because my mom bought me a condensed version, then at one point I got a full blown collection that was about 26 issues or something. There were A LOT of them and we still have the books up to now. They are very heavy and take a lot of space. Encyclopedia may not have helped me much in the “knowledge” department, but I think it helped a lot with my ability to take in information really quickly and made me a fast learner for some reason. I’d like to attribute my swift learning to that.

Day 17 – Where do you work?

Published by Justine

I work in the world’s largest self-publishing company. This is my third job and I’ve been working there for 2 and a half years now. Suffice to say, I’m enjoying it! I’m in Corporate Marketing, particularly in Product Development where we come up with different methods and ways for our authors to publish and market their books, to easily explain it.

I like how my work is so closely related to what I studied in uni and I’m glad it’s something I enjoy as well. It’s an office job without strict hours because we cater the whole world. I guess what I like most about it is despite being a desk job I don’t do the same shit every day, there are different ideas, lots of conceptualizing involved, market research, communication etc etc that if I explain further I’d just be rambling.

Aside from the things we usually do, we just finished developing a magazine app (with a 3rd party developer). It was one year worth of work but there’s still so much to be done and improved. It just doesn’t stop at one point. None of my teammates have a strong background on app development so we had to learn from the ground up. It was pretty fun and a really good learning experience.

Day 16 – What’s the ____ thing you’ve wanted to do, but haven’t yet?

Published by Justine

Sometimes I hate answering questions I have to figure out the question to. This is so weird. What’s the BLAH thing I’ve wanted to do, but haven’t yet? Let’s see.. I think this is going to take a while.

“What’s the sweetest/most romantic you’ve wanted to do, but haven’t yet?” There you have it.

I’ve always wanted to declare my feelings for a guy without having to think about my pride, or what people think, or what my family thinks or what MY MIND thinks. The issue here is, I’m not much of a romantic girl. I can’t act selflessly towards the opposite sex and can never rely on JUST my feelings. I feel like I always need external reinforcement if I wanted to make a decision on matters of the heart. In the near future I hope to be able to do this. Just act selflessly without any fear.. because I don’t think it’s even about rejection because that, I can handle. Showing that I am vulnerable and void of any trait that enables me to show my true feelings is the bigger issue, I think.

Phew, this has becoming more deeper than I thought but one of my goals with doing this blog challenge is to be able to communicate myself better in terms of translating my feelings into words in which I usually have a hard time doing because there are just too many things going on in my head it’s quite hard to keep up with any of it.

Day 15 – Tell me: How are you like your parents?

Published by Justine

Writing this post is sort of difficult, but not in the way you think it is (maybe coz I’m doing it from my iPhone?). I feel like I’m so similar to my parents because I am so close to them and think they’re the best, but at the same time I can’t justify it because I don’t think I can ever live up to their greatness.

More often than not, I believe in zodiac signs. Both my parents and I are Geminis so in a way I feel like it has always been my basis for so many of our similarities. My mom has always been the purveyor of tough love and I know that I definitely got it from her. When I need to motivate, guide or help someone out I empathize with them in a matter that’s quite rough and with a bit of motivating criticism and “reversed psychology”. It depends on how that person takes it. On the other side of the parental spectrum, my dad also gives great advice to people and always seem to have the best words to say, except with matters that are not his own which is something I definitely got from him. If you need advice, come to me, but I can hardly advise myself.

I’m sure there are so many things that I am like my parents, like our obsession with shoes, and comfort + style approach to clothes but I don’t think I can elaborate any further without writing a whole book about it (maybe I should?) so let’s end with the phrase that’s so close to all our hearts whether it be negative, positive, loaded or not, “the apple doesn’t fall from the tree.”

Day 14 – Memories: Been to any concerts?

Published by Justine

We’re almost halfway! I quite like this entry because it’s going to make me re-live some awesome moments. I haven’t been to a lot of concerts but I can say I’ve seen my favorites live.. two music acts that belong in completely different genres: Incubus and 2PM.

I saw Incubus in 2008 with my best friends in Jakarta, and I saw 2PM live twice, both in 2011. First was with my best friend, and the second time was during their full fledged concert in Jakarta with my sister and this was the most I’ve ever paid for a concert. Worth. Every. Penny. There’s something about K-pop stage production that blows you away. The amount of work and effort and thought they put into it better than worth it in itself. Incubus, there’s even no need to mention what it’s like seeing your favorite band from 6th grade (up to now) live and singing ALL YOUR FAVORITE songs. My first and forever love. Brandon Boyd and his voice. Jose on the drums. Mike and being his guitar God self (and pipa for Aqueous Transmission!). DJ Kil and ALL HIS equipment and of course, Ben on the bass.

I’ve seen Jason Mraz live, and two very talented acts Corinne Bailey Rae and Sondre Lerche, all at varying Java Jazz events. Very very talented musicians whose music I appreciate and love. They are so good live. I’ve also seen Taio Cruz and Shontelle, but I don’t have that much to say about them. I can proudly say I’ve seen English alternative royalty, Suede, and there’s nothing like listening to (and seeing) Brett Anderson sing live in flesh.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a few more acts live. Let me remember. For Filipino acts, I’ve seen Hale and Orange and Lemons during their hayday in 2005 here in Cebu, Rivermaya (new lineup, not Rico Blanco on vocals anymore, sadly) and Bamboo back in Jakarta. Bamboo, I definitely enjoyed a lot. Though I was pretty young back then but it’s one of those intimate settings that I really love where you’re in a bar and there are only over 100 or 200 people. We also got to hang out with them after their gig which was a whoa factor for me back then. Nathan was drunk as heck but he was such a trip. I miss them as a band now. Oh, I also saw Anne Curtis (the most I paid for a local concert) and I admit, I had loads of fun. I almost forgot about that, it was when I was only in back Cebu for about a month or so last 2012.

The latest one I saw was Jonas Brothers when they played in Cebu about 2 years ago. That was definitely something. I’m never ashamed of my music interests and JB is no different. That was a last minute decision and I even had to drag my mom and pay for her ticket so I’d have a concert buddy. Being in a sea of tweens and screaming girls was not a problem to me. I am glad I got to see them live because I had no idea then that it would be one of the last shows they’d ever do as a band now that they’ve disbanded. They were so good! I did not expect that level of amazingness from Jonas Brothers, especially their entourage of backup singers and full-fledged band that are just as talented and awesome. It’s funny how I enjoyed that show more as a music appreciator standpoint rather than a mindless headless screaming fangirl. Though, I had my moments as well.

That’s it for now! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a couple more acts.. especially Indonesian ones that I haven’t really discussed but that’s all I can remember for now and I think this is getting too long. Heeeee.