The Fault In Our Stars: Review

The Fault In Our Stars(TFIOS) by John Green is a young adult fiction that tells the story of Hazel Lancaster, a sixteen year old who is a victim of terminal cancer. She meets Augustus Waters in one of the meetings she had in a Support Group she was attending. Basic teen love story of boy meets girl only with the added fact both characters are within grasps of cancer.

The entirety of the story was enjoyable. Both characters exchange thoughts that are out of the usual sixteen to seventeen year old's grasp. Though these thoughts may only be "one of the effects of dying". The story was also well-written as it shows the reader the experiences of a cancer patient and what may be going on in their head.

However.
I found the writing quite pretentious as it referenced on different arts and some of the thoughts that went through the characters minds. One instance was Gus having cigarette but doesn't light it. I also hated the part they got to go to Amsterdam, it was kind of a selfish gesture despite the attempt at romance.

Many people are going to disagree with me but to each their own. For instance, my favorite character would have to be Van Houten. The author of , An American Affliction. His character was shadowed as a mean old man who has "Churchillian relationship with alcohol". Despite that I saw him as a lonely misunderstood old man who was escaping reality in his own way.

Sad to say, unlike many others, I have not fallen in love with the book. It was an 'Okay' kind of book but not the "Okay" Gus and Hazel shared.

The new iPad

2 am Philippine time, announcements for the new iPad began. I followed websites such as Gizmodo, Engadget and Reuters to follow the news. Before going into the new iPad they first announced things about Apple TV, iCloud and how much iPad2s they were able to sell.

Moving on.

This new iPad basically bragged about the amount of pixels it is able to hold together. True enough, the display looks quite amazing. Add to that Retina Display, which the iPhone 4s has. Here are some of the other features the new iPad gained.

This new iPad is compatible to all sorts of bands. The fastest of which is the 4g LTE. Sad news for us, there are no carriers supporting it yet in our country. One of the things that amazed me, or to be exact the most amazing thing, I found worth pointing out was the iPhoto application. Looking at the features it included the iPhoto included it seems that it is one heavy application for mobile photo editing. Kudos to the new iPad for being able to run such an app.

Personally, I am not a fan of Apple and their products. The only Apple product I own is the iPod 3rd Gen which I am already too happy to live with. On the other hand, my brother owns an iPod Touch and our family shares an iPad2. I would not suggest rushing to buy the new iPad unless you are able to distinguish with your keen eyesight all those tiny pixels.

Gizmodo has provided a comparison of tablets released or to be released that may have fighting chance against the new iPad. Asus' Transformer Infinity seems to be its top competitor, beaten by a few pixels.

Disclaimer: Pictures not mine. They are from the websites I monitored and I do not know which image belonged to who.

Songkran - Review

Songkran is a Thai festival that is celebrated from New Year's Day up to the 13th or 14th of April. Along Aguirre Avenue inside BF Homes, Parañaque a restaurant named after this festival is found. Known for serving spicy Thai food, our family tried eating here.

Being a known Thai food service in our place we were expecting that same Thai food experience and taste. We were looking for food that tasted Thai and with the same spicy feel. It personally didn't reach my expectation of hot spicy food but I can say that the food tasted great.

They serve one of the tastiest bagoong rice, but not the best. I ordered this red beef curry expecting it to burn my insides and it barely singed my tongue. The rest were good enough but none exceptional.

A great concern of mine though is that there was too little servings. My stomach still is not satisfied and I swear I did not starve myself before going there.

Anyway, if you are not a heavy eater and just after the experience go ahead and take the opportunity. If you are someone though who looks for the specific spicy goodness at a great amount then don't get your hopes up when going here.

Family in Pansol

Family, meet my girlfriend. It was a weekend spent in a private resort we rented in Pansol, Laguna with my family and girlfriend. From the usual singing the karaoke, eating and preparing food, playing games and of course swimming, the weekend can be summarized as a great success.

First of all, we haven't went swimming in a pool for quite a long time.  We may have went swimming on a beach the last time but being on a swimming pool with just these people you know is quite a different feeling. This was a great chance since many of us had the time. Aside from swimming, we also get to do things we didn't have time to do such as hear each other sing in karaoke and drink alcohol, that isn't beer.

Second, spending time with the Estuesta side of the family was a great experience since we don't always have outings such as this. Every one is usually busy and only get to see each other to eat. At last, we get to work out body too through swimming. Although eating will never be separated from our family. It some sort of a tradition to gobble up.

Such a blessing it is to have my family together. It is a great experience to spend a day and a night with them. This experience is quite exciting and makes me impatient at the possibilities to come to have them again.

I'm a photographer nao!!!

Yes, because many people around the interwebz that photography is only for those with (d)SLR, so I got myself one. I kid, father asked someone to look for cheap second hand dSLRs  in Cebu for quite some time. Months passed and yesterday was the day among the days of all the blessed days. (what) It is an old  EOS 350D that went with Tamron SP AF 17-50 mm lens. It also came along with

For starters it is a good set for my brother's and I to practice and see our way through how SLRs are used. This would be the first time I would get a hold on one and I'm really looking forward to using it.