6 Things About Childhood That We Miss Terribly

June 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Children rides

Children avoid it and adults will give everything to have a piece of it --- rest, staying still, a moment of nothing. When we were kids, our parents would force us to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon and we would do just about anything to resist it. We escaped to the neighbor's, pretended to sleep, or just lay there with our eyes closed thinking about what our friends and playmates were doing. Now that we're adults, how we wish we be told to doze off at midday and just have some rest. And peace of mind too if we could find it. Being in the twenties is difficult. It is that … [Read more...]

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Top 5 Facebook Pet Peeves

February 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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Mashable created a list of 20 annoying things people do on Facebook and most of them do not even bother me. I don't mind being bombarded with food porn; if anything, it gives me ideas on what to have for dinner or lunch. I don't mind seeing 10 consecutive vanity shots on my feed. I don't mind frequent check ins on GetGlue or Foursquare. Surprisingly, I have learned to not mind being tagged on marketing images; I just simply untag myself after. I guess I'm just the type who doesn't get annoyed easily or maybe, after years of Facebook-oriented work, I've grown immune to them. Yet, I clearly … [Read more...]

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My Top 20 Most Unforgettable Travel Moments of 2012 – Part 2

January 28, 2013 by 2 Comments
Some of the best destinations I visited last year

If you had met me ten or even five years ago, you'd probably see me as someone who was not the traveling type. And you would be right. Now that I think about it, if my past self were to see me now, he would be totally shocked, repeatedly hurling judging questions at me such as "What the hell are you doing outside the house all the time?" And more importantly, "What the eff are you doing with your life?!" The obsessive-compulsive in me had always kept me within the great indoors. I had always been the type who would rather stay at home than do silly things like traveling. I would … [Read more...]

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My Top 20 Most Played Songs of 2012

January 1, 2013 by 16 Comments
Some of my favorite singles and albums of 2012

Woohoo! It's the first day of the year and I'm doing two of my favorite things in the world --- blogging and sound tripping. While I appreciate all genres of music (yep, even Gospel despite my being atheist), there is a big hole in my heart that only good pop music can fill. And I'm not even ashamed of it. In fact, when I was in high school, I used to have a notebook on which I just list down my 20 most-liked songs of the week. It was like my version of Billboard Hot 100 except it was my own, personal singles chart and only I could read it. (And it is no secret that I love lists so much that I … [Read more...]

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My Top 20 Most Unforgettable Travel Moments of 2012 – Part 1

December 10, 2012 by 9 Comments
Driving a speedboat for the first time. Sorry, blurred. Blame Kuya driver.

Year 2012 has been action-packed! I quit my full-time job and visited eight countries and territories. Eight is still a small number and many of them are within the same time zone but I see it as a good foreshadowing of a 'round the world trip that I plan to do in 2014. This year, I tried solo backpacking in Southeast Asia for the first time. I say "tried" because I really intended to just see whether this form of traveling is really for me. Now that it's done, I'm still not sure if this is really for me, but I am surely up for it. I hope I'm making any sense. Anyway, if you're a … [Read more...]

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What I Think About When I Think About Blogging*

October 29, 2012 by 10 Comments
yoshke blog diary

My scriptwriting professor failed to show up in class that Wednesday afternoon because of a schedule conflict and I was left in between two choices on how I would spend the rest of the day. The left side of my brain was trying to persuade me to go to the mall and watch a movie. The right side, the lazy side, was convincing me to just walk into an Internet shop and kill time surfing the web. In this "what to do when you're bored" battle, the latter won. It was the best decision I had made in my life. Minutes later, my web surfing would lead me to a blogging platform and I would sign up for … [Read more...]

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In Search of the Best Cheap Tom Yum

October 24, 2012 by 15 Comments
Yoshke's Tom Yum. Well, I cooked this one. Haha. When I was in Thailand, I figured I absolutely had to learn how to prepare one myself so I took a cooking class at a farm in Chiang Mai. It's not as good as I was expecting. Haha. But this was my first try.

The picky little guys on my tongue called tastebuds were singing Hallelujah in unison when they first soaked in the weird mixture of sour and spicy that came from a bowl served by a woman I had fondly called Mama Thai. It was the summer of 2004 and I was a college sophomore finishing my last two PE classes at the University of the Philippines. My friends dragged me to a hole-in-the -wall type of restaurant along Katipunan Ave, just behind the campus, for lunch. The place was called UP Thai Canteen and it did not make a good impression. The place looked rather dodgy, the tables were small, … [Read more...]

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My Top 20 Travel Moments of 2011 (Part 2)

February 2, 2012 by 12 Comments
Bacuit Bay, El Nido, Palawan in black and white

It's already February and here I am still counting down the best moments I had while traveling last year. Late, I know. But haaaaaay. When you got too much on your plate, you will learn to munch on them bit by bit so you wouldn't die of overeating. So let's continue. Here's the second half of my list of the most unforgettable times I have had as a nomad in 2011! 10. Overnight Camping at Dampalitan Island, Quezon Overnight camping trips aren't my thing. But it was not the trip per se that I loved about my trip to Padre Burgos, Quezon last summer; it was the people I was with. My … [Read more...]

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My Top 20 Travel Moments of 2011 (Part 1)

January 15, 2012 by 11 Comments
Photo by Mr. Boom Boncan who was with us on the trip

You might be thinking: Why the hell am I posting a year-ender countdown in mid-January? All I can tell you is that I had been too busy with work lately. But better late than never, aye? Too busy or too lazy. Take your pick. 2011 was my most travel-heavy year ever. Considering that I am a holiday/weekend traveler, I still can't figure out how I managed to go places given the hectic work schedule and limited leave credits. In 2011, I somehow neglected this blog Yoshke.com so I could focus on my travel blog. Don't ask me for a link to my travel blog; I'm not yet ready to reveal 'coz I'm not … [Read more...]

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My Top 100 All-Time Favorite Love Songs (Part 6)

April 2, 2011 by 5 Comments
michael-buble

Just this morning, when I opened up my laptop and launched iTunes, it randomly played Leigh Nash's Need to Be Next to You. And in an instant, I was reminded of this list and that I had not posted a follow up since August last year. So here it is. This is the sixth installment of my list of 100 love songs that I am completely in love with. This batch includes singles from number 21-30. Again, this is a personal list — songs that have touched me in many ways. (Click on the title of the song to listen to it.) 30. Leigh Nash - Need to be Next to You I still haven't seen the movie Bounce, … [Read more...]

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