Christmas in Different Places

Merry Christmas everyone. Yeah, these days have been about preparing for the New Year but as long as the Christmas spirit is alive, it's Christmas. This post, I'll just be sharing some pics of places I've been to so far during the holiday season. Christmas is a great time to go to places, like the malls, because of all the decorations, ornaments and lights all over. It's only at this time of the year wherein almost every place looks attractive because of the decors contributing to the festive spirit of the season. Hope you enjoy some of these pics and apologies if they're not very good. :)

Of course, UST is one of the best places to visit this Christmas, you can check out my post on UST's Christmas decors here.

Here's the rest of my pics...

Trinoma, Quezon City...

SM North EDSA...

 Now, the next two are that of a house somewhere in Marikina. I took them during a bike ride with dad and a bike group he joined. The house was so nice I just had to stop and take pictures of it. It's all complete... and includes a dinosaur made out of lights!

Next are from Araneta Center. Haven't been here at night yet, though I've seen it while passing by. Maybe one of these days as long as the lights are still up.

 SM Megamall, Centris, Fisher Mall and Greenhills respectively...

SM Megamall

Centris

Angels and a Christmas tree in Centris

Santa Claus at Fisher Mall, Quezon Ave.

Greenhills. We weren't there for the Christmas on Display.

 And finally, Robinsons Magnolia...

And of course, churches are definitely worth visiting during the Christmas season. You can check out some of my pics of them at my Simbang Gabi posts and at my account on flickr.

While the decorations in different places are still up, its definitely worth visiting them before the holidays come to an end. :)

To cap off the pics, here's a picture of the most important thing to put up during Christmas: The Belen.

Belen at Sto. Domingo Church, Quezon City

This is also going to be my last post for the year. 2014 has been a good year although there were definitely some low points. I hope that 2015 will be a better year. I gotta admit, this year went by so fast... Nonetheless, no doubt there were blessings through the year. :)

Thank you Lord for every blessing this year and continue to guide and accompany us in the coming year of 2015 and in all the days and years to come...

Thanks for reading everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

Update: made some additions and added Greenhills.

Simbang Gabi 2014 - Day 5 and 6

Simbang Gabi really isn't an easy task to fulfill, waking up very early in the morning and going to church to attend mass and preparing for Christmas. Even going out at the late hours of night for the anticipated Simbang Gabi isn't easy as well. But the experience is definitely worth it and there is a sense of fulfillment and blessing when you attend even at least one time. Whether you complete the days or just attend one, it's always great to go and keep this tradition alive.

For the last two Simbang Gabi masses, I attended the anticipated masses so I didn't wake up early in the morning.

Day 5 - Santuario de San Pedro Bautista

Experiencing the Simbang Gabi in other churches is fine, but it always pays to be careful (especially at dawn) and its best to go to a church that's near your place (such as Christ the King), accessible (such as UST) or both. San Pedro Bautista isn't that far from my place but it's not that accessible and going here at dawn might not be that safe. I wanted to go here though and I went here for the anticipated mass for the 5th day. It was the second mass I attended that day since earlier in the morning, I attended dawn mass at UST. The church was full, like always but not as filled as in the dawn mass. The readings though were the same as in the dawn mass. The priest emphasized on the power of prayer. We have to be consistent in prayer, be humble and God would bless us in due time. Good thing that with this, I finally went here for a Simbang Gabi. :)

Day 6 - Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord, SM Megamall

I usually go to SM Megamall whenever I'm in the Ortigas area or if there's a cosplay event and very few times, I go to SM Megamall's chapel for Mass and this was the case when I went there for the 6th Day of the (anticipated) Simbang Gabi. It was also an anticipated mass for the 4th Sunday of Advent. Since it's the last weekend before Christmas, many people flocked the mall and before the mass began, I went around. Like in many Simbang Gabi masses, the chapel was filled. The gospel focused on the event of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she would become the mother of Jesus. The homily for this mass was the best one yet. The monsignor said that for those who put God above everything, nothing is impossible and we will go through many difficult moments, and yet God will always be with us as we go through them. He also made people laugh as well. The choir was amazing. Overall, a great setting to attend Simbang Gabi. Unlike last year I went, I took the MRT on the way home. Dropped at Quezon ave. Station, near Centris and checked the place out before taking the bus home. Good thing, the traffic, especially near Araneta was bad.

Monsignor Roberto Canlas, main presider and homilist.

With this, only 3 days of Simbang Gabi to go then it's gonna be Christmas. Not to mention, 2015 is fast approaching. Are we ready? :)

Searching the City for the Needed Books

It's not easy when school asks a lot from you. Be it for homeworks, papers, exams or stuff like that. You've got a lot of requirements to fulfill in order for you to get good grades or at the very least, pass the subject... or at least make an effort to do so. Once you have schoolworks, you've gotta do it eventually... even if the deadline's far off.

Now, in my case, I'm a college student majoring in literature, meaning I deal with books, writing and more than just that, theories and stuff pertaining to history, philosophy and issues in our world today. In relation to this, as per requirements, I've been going all over the city last weekend to find certain books that I need for schoolwork; 1) graphic novels/comics (locally made ones) for my thesis and 2) another novel for a paper in one of my subjects. I know that it's not gonna be an easy task since it's finding a few needles in a haystack known as Metro Manila. (speaking of which, I think I should change my blog title. Maybe on my blog anniversary... Weird how I'm not good with titles and I'm majoring what I'm in. OK, I'm already going off topic.)

So let the search.... begin!

It began last Friday with my first stop being Araneta Center in Cubao. The place was suggested to me by my dad because the National Bookstore branch there was big. Since Cubao's a commercialized area, seemed like a good place to start. Before going there, I went to school at first but the teachers I had to meet weren't there so I left immediately. I headed first to the National Bookstore branch along Quezon ave, since it's along the way. Didn't get anything good there, though I've seen stuff I remembered from the Manila International Book Fair (wow, it's been over a month already). From there, I went to Cubao. I spent a while at the NBS brach there, next to Gateway. Again, nothing good. Although, there was one comic that I've been seeing a lot and checked it out but I decided not to buy it yet... until I bought in on Sunday in TriNoma. There were other comics I could've used, but sadly, the other volumes weren't available. After that, I got lost in Araneta and checked out some Christmas decors near Farmer's Market. I went to SM and TriNoma after but didn't find what I needed. All in all, the Cubao trip ended up with getting nothing. :(

Christmas decors in Araneta

Next day, Saturday, I stayed within Manila. Saturday's a class day for me, but it's only one subject and it's an hour long. Before getting to the books, I searched some places where to get books and since Recto is a place to go, I decided to go there first. After class, I changed clothes and headed to Quiapo. Man, Recto sure did have a lot of books. I haven't seen that many in one place since the MIBF. In the end, despite the number of books, I didn't get a thing. After walking around Recto, I headed to the City Hall since I read there was a book shop in the underpass that sold some books (Books from Underground. Check their page). Since it seemed promising, there I went. Sure enough, it has some things that I was looking for and it was there where I finally got the novel for my paper. With that done, only the comics were left. My next destination for the day was Robinsons Manila. Didn't see much there really... :/ All I did was have dinner, checked their NBS branch, wandered around and that's it. Before going home I headed to SM Manila... Again, nothing, though it had more variety than the other malls I went to so far. At least I was able to get something at the end of the day

Fountain at Robinsons Manila

Sunday was probably (if not definitely) the most promising day. This time, I headed to Greenhills, SM Megamall and Robinsons Galleria. Good thing this time I only had to look for the comics since the other's done. Since there were comic book stores in all three locations, I'm sure I'd get something out of it. I thought that if things went well, I'd get at least 3 novels when I finished searching. First, I went to Greenhills and the first place I went was Fully Booked. The place looked amazing and in addition, there was a Comic Odyssey branch there, which sells comics, both local and international. After being there for a bit, I headed for the main mall. Finally found a good comic that I could use at the NBS branch there. By the way, it was the last one and it was by Francisco Coching, a national artist whom I recently just learned about... (Maybe I should familiarize myself with these people more...). Before leaving Greenhills, I made one last stop at Fully Booked/Comic Odyssey before heading to my next stop which was SM Megamall. Nothing too special there but the Filbars branch had some locally made comics that I've seen back at, again, the MIBF (It's like it's coming back to haunt me... o_o). I just went around SM and headed to Robinsons Galleria since there's another Comic Odyssey there. The one at Galleria is bigger so chances are, I'll definitely get something, which I did. Even Galleria had some titles I saw from the Bookfair and since I bought the first two volumes of a title back then and the last ones were already at the store, I may as well. With that, it makes it two titles down. After that, I went back to Megamall and just went around, but I did check the bookstores before heading back to TriNoma. Just saying, there were cosplayers at Megamall since there was an event (didn't attend, though I knew about it...). I decided to buy the first part of another graphic novel in TriNoma. Sunday ended good.

Some pics from Sunday.

At Greenhills.

Greenhills, San Juan.

At Robinsons Galleria. Comic Odyssey is right there next to Trust Trade.

Po from Kung Fu Panda at SM Megamall. This wasn't the cosplay event I was referring to though...

So, all in all, I found the novel I needed near Manila City Hall. As for the comics, I found one at Greenhills, more volumes at Galleria and bought the last at TriNoma (though it's just part 1, part 2 is always available and I've seen it and I can buy it anytime, hehehe...). That makes it three. Good thing the teachers were fine with them. I'm steps closer to getting the goal. :)

But once all my school stuff's done, not sure what will happen since, chances are, I'll not be needing the books anymore. Maybe I could keep them for myself as good entertainment. Or maybe I could give them away. No good wasting books, right? :)

School ain't easy... but I sure hope I can pass... ^_^

With that, I'm done. Thanks for checking! :)

ToyCon 2014 - Scenes, cosplayers, merchandise et al.

My main post and more pictures of the event

It's been almost two weeks since ToyCon ended and here are some more pictures and moments of the event that I captured. It's been said many times but again, better late than never. :) It has been a fun experience. Next year, there were plans of moving this event to a bigger venue, such as SMX in MOA. Not sure if it's gonna push through but whether it moves or stays at SM Megamall, until then I cannot say yet if I'm attending ToyCon next year (I mean, it's still next year). But if I can and will attend, then I will attend. :) It's been a good event and now that I think about it, it might not be so bitin after all. :) I wish some of the pics were better, but they're good enough. ^_^

Little charms

I think I've seen this guy before... or probably someone who went as that character...

I wish I was that good in drawing...

Toys everywhere...

Justice PH cosplay group. Pic isn't good though...

Siksikan sa labas ng hall. Puro cosplayers at photographers...

One of many photoshoots

Cosplayers as characters from BlazBlue and an Iron Man figure

Left: A little cosplayer as detective Conan (I think?) Right: Pokemon trainers

Otaku groups all over the place, looking for new members

Convention in sepia

Events stage.

X-Men cosplayers. Maybe I should've had a better pic...

Gotta catch 'em all! :)

Models

V for Vendetta...

Keybies from the Keybie Cafe. Just out of curiosity, no Spongebob, Ben 10 or Hello Kitty?

Overall, ToyCon was fun. 'Till next year's event (maybe) and the next events in life that may come. :)