Venue Booking

Last weekend, Chelsea and I have decided we will get married at Lakeside Inn. We went ahead and put a deposit down booking our date. The date is more than a year away. This means that we’re way ahead of schedule… again. First was the cake, and now the ceremony and reception place. I will say that the thought of it being too soon has cross my mind. I won’t be going a round about way with this. Anyone who’s settling down paying for a wedding and etc that comes with it should have second thoughts when it comes to finance. But what keeps me going is that I know through it all, in the end, it is all worth it. Money spent that is worth a lifetime cannot be measured. In this case the happiest face in the world, my wife-to-be.

In regards to this post about last weekend, it’s because I didn’t feel the need to update anyone who reads on what I did last week until today… or maybe I was just lazy and prefer playing games and relaxing than writing an entry about what I’ve done.

Situation gets from bad to worse, but I’ve always heard that keeping the hopes up and heart upright will get me through this valley and I’ll come out the other side stronger. I wonder how many of those people who has said that has been going through the valley deeper and deeper every month for more than 1 year straight? Cause I know I have. I don’t think I’m going any deeper, but I’m still in the same valley in the same depth level as I was 3 months ago. Not going back up though, but I can only hope right now.

Please keep in mind that the world will hand you anything and everything you want on a silver platter… oh wait, that’s not true. It doesn’t! So you know what, work hard for it and remember to share with your loved ones. It is always better to love and to share and also to have hope and faith.

Cake Testing/Tasting

This past weekend, Chelsea and I got a chance to do some cake tasting for our wedding cake. For us to book our cake this early just means we’re preparing as early as possible WAY ahead of time. It’s about 15 months away. You hear people say do this and do that within such an amount of time. Well, if I do it early, doesn’t that mean I have more time freed up for those “unexpected” last-minute thing that could come around? I always hear people say within 2 months, there’s so much to do. I really don’t understand why we can’t do those things an extra month or two ahead of time? For example, why do I have to pay for everything 10 days before the ceremony? Why can’t I pay it 1 month ahead of time? That way, that’s one less thing I have to remember to pay. Maybe it’s a way of thinking that doesn’t work for wedding? Then again, maybe it might. I’m sure it’ll come up again in 13 or 14 months. Until then, I’m keeping my hopes up for everything to be set in stone early.

This brings me to the next point, agreements and disagreements. It’s pretty famous that people believe a relationship is a compromising situation. I can see certain things being compromised, but it should not be for the worse. If it’s a compromise that’s not for the worse, then it’s not a compromise at all. I really have no idea what that word is. As adults, lives should be co-dependent. A friend’s mom gave me a book some time ago about living life co-dependently. We start off as kids being dependent, then young adults wanting (or do end up) being independent. Later on in life, when we decide we want to have a spouse and live together, it should be co-dependent. This isn’t just between spouses. It’s done all the time in the work place. Compromises between two people shows co-dependency. Sure there’s a way for both to win, but that’s up to the two to decide.

From cake tasting to co-dependent people. I don’t know how they come about, but thinking about the future for me means more than just myself now. There will be my future wife and kids, hopefully. Not only that, there’s a whole different story for in-laws and out-laws. Well, no out-laws, but thought they would sound great together.

Another day, another job well done. I’m coming long well with my goals… I haven’t started on any. No, doesn’t mean I’m giving up, because I did do several sketches to get my drawing hands wet again and back in action. Gotta do some testing first.

A New Year’s Weekend

This weekend has been thoroughly enjoyable. Spending time with my sister, her bf, and Chelsea makes it the more memorable. Roller skated in the eve of the new year, drank sparkling grape juice, and watched some mini fireworks.

Chelsea played Borderlands with me and that was super awesome. She gave it a chance and now she enjoys playing it.

The start of the year was a good one and I intend to continue keeping on this track throughout the year.  Every once in a while, a rabbit hole might pop out here and there, but I’m sure the scenery will not take my sight off the tracks too much, and if it does, I’m sure someone will be there to point me in the right direction.

Sharing this new year with the ones I cherish and the ones closed to me meant a lot to me.

Oh yea, we also played Cranium and it was fun. I’m sure the pictures Chelsea and I drew would show up somewhere on the internet. She kept the pictures that we drew while our eyes were closed. It sure was fun to play board games with fun people.

The start of the work year calls for me tomorrow. I wish everyone a great year to come and to work your hardest and give it (whatever it is) all you’ve got.

New Year, New Decade, New Season, New Resolution

It’s a new year. This also means a new decade. Come February, I’ve been living here in the US for a decade. 10 years of my life dedicated to this country, and for the past 10 years, I never had real resolutions.

A new season of my life has begun last year, and for the first year of the new decade, I will still live in that season, the engagement period. This means financial budget, looking fit for my wedding, and also preparation for a new full-time commitment. The way I see it, resolutions are not easy, but they are essential for making oneself a better living being in this planet we call Earth. Striving to better myself also means striving to better others around me. Everyone effects each other in life whether we accept that fact or not.

Resolutions

Me having many resolutions is usually a tough thing, but I’ve decided to shoot for that goal. Is about time I challenge myself, even if I were to be behind on some projects, to have a goal is better to have none. Just like bad news is better than no news (Yes, I strongly believe in this statement since I’ve been ignore more than enough times in my life with no news). I have broken up the year 2010 to quarter period of time. This makes it easier for me to keep track because many businesses uses quarterly reports.

Goals

2010 will be a year of challenges for myself and if I do not succeed in all of my goals, I still hope to achieve 75% of it. This does not mean I’m giving myself a chance to get a “C” grade n 2010. These goals that I’ve come up with are all goals to better myself as an artist and a web designer. Here goes…

• 4 Web designs
• 4 Photo manipulations
• 4 Illustrations
• 4 character sketches

One of each in 3 months. This is not something that I’ve ever done before, thus challenging myself by putting a bar so high, I probably would never see it.

Explanations

I have not done Illustrations in over 4 years. This means I’m very rusty on it, and re-learning them is going to take a while. This could also mean that one or all of my illustrations could be my character sketches. This would make my characters really come to life, if it’s possible for me to do.

I want to do some “WOW” photo manipulations. I’ve some  simple ones that could be done in less than 2 days and those are the ones that I’d like to leave out.

The 4 web designs I’ve decided to put up there does not include web designs for myself. Which means I will be producing more than 4 this year alone. These other clients include anyone else besides me, this means family included if they so wish to have me design one for them.

Now that I have mapped out my artist/designer resolutions, it’s time to put them into action. My final thought to put out… this is only to better myself in my career and to really look for my real true passion in what I want to do professionally. I still feel a little piece of me missing in my currently position as a web designer. I might enjoy web designing a bit more if I actually design more web rather than HTML and CSS the designs that aren’t really built by me ^_^

I have other resolutions to better myself as a person be it physically, mentally, socially, or spiritually, but they’re not the aspect of me that I want to share in this entry.

I wish you all a happy new year and blessings to all of you for 2010 and the years to come.

God bless you all!

Warm Water

I enjoy drinking warm water with my meals. Not only that, I enjoy getting weird looks from waiters and waitresses when I ask for hot/warm water. I also enjoy cutting their tips to a lesser value because of the “this guy is crazy” look, because it’s rare that a 24 year old guy orders hot/warm water.

I just want to put it out here… I love warm water.