Planning Session

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended my first management planning with the top guns of the company (letting it settle in quite nicely that I'm very much in the director role) as we collaboratively discussed what the best plan of actions would be moving forward for 2014.

Not that I'm allowed to divulge anything from that session, so I'll just talk about the vague details of that trip. Our destination was in Rosario, Batangas, the location of a farm owned by the family of our CEO. It was a massive space and was a 3-hour drive from Makati. Upon our arrival, the place was gorgeous. The air was clean, there were dogs, chickens and some deer or two, and not to mention a big spacious living area where we held our round-table discussions.

All in all as we identified the issues, attempted to find their root causes and come up with solutions, we did indeed have some fun here and there. Sadly though, we weren't able to play Star Trek Catan since we were behind schedule. Maybe next time.

In any case, having been part of that made me appreciate that the group was firm in the goals we wanted to reach, and everyone was imparting suggestions to help each and every department grow, which I think is a great takeaway from all this.

Looking forward to the year ahead for our company.

January TV Series

Some returning titles this month after a long hiatus!

BBC's Sherlock season 3

The first two episodes of Sherlock aired last January 1 and 5, and it's been nothing short of spectacular! I love the twists, the drama and the wit it's managed to bring this time around. I can't wait for episode 3 this coming Sunday! And did I mention Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are just so pairable?

To commemorate, I decided to continue a drabble I made for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman before, which I posted on my Ao3 account. [Implications]

ABC's Castle season 6 continuation.

Castle came back from hiatus last Monday with the 11th episode of their sixth season, and boy did it come back with a punch! It's pretty amazing how 6 seasons in, this series is still going strong, and I can never get tired of taking time out to watch it because crime dramas are always so cool. But if you put in the factor of the casting, it just makes it much better.

I've got a couple of ideas in the works drawing inspiration from episode 11, and I hope to get more as the succeeding episodes air.

The 2014 Project

Everyone's got their goals for the year. Whether it be to save more money, lose (or gain) some weight, read more books, watch more movies/series or write more stories, everyone has their own little goals to set for themselves, and by the end of the year, they consider whether or not they've accomplished heaps or fell short of disappointing themselves for not pushing themselves harder.

As for me? Well, goals are good to have, but I want to look at things as a whole, so I'll just wrap it up neatly and consider it all part of one big project for the year. Not so much physical (but that's not to say everything will just be up in the air!), but I hope you get what I'm saying.

The end product of this project can be summarized like so: CARPE DIEM.

That's what I want for myself, and everything can just fall into place as all these little goals. Mine are jotted down below:

1. Save more. Granted, I'm in a position where I love my job and get paid for doing it, which doesn't happen to most people. But if I splurge too haphazardly I won't be able to set aside anything for myself. So to remedy that situation, I decided to come up with a little saving scheme for myself (which eventually blossomed into adapting the 52-Week Money Challenge) on top of the 50-30-20 rule of thumb that I plan to invoke this 2014. 
• Last year, I made it a habit to always deposit a set amount when every payday comes along. But I always end up needing to withdraw a small portion of what I deposit shortly afterwards, and that's something I hope not to make a repeat with this time around. 
• As for personal goals, I want to have a goal to focus on with all these saving up. What do I want for myself anyway?
• A space to live in with Kai (one that gives an easier access to work prominently). A studio or a 1-bedroom will suffice. (We joke how Kai is eager to Feng shui it once we do find a nice spot.) It's a nice statement to mean that we're not joking around and are actually taking all this seriously. We wanna be together, and that includes living under one roof eventually. So be nice 2014!
• An iPhone 5 (I've caught the iPhone bug. But I've decided I want to get my own instead of relying on our carrier services.)
2. Plan, plan, plan. Not that I'm against spontaneity, but as far as keeping to budgets are concerned, I want to be able to properly assign an amount to spend on and nothing more (but less is better!). That's why it's always great to invest in knowing when things happen,so you can allot an amount of your spending budget when necessary. Say an upcoming movie watching day, so time it accordingly. 
3. Commence Active Blogging. Much of the reason I made a blog was because I needed an outlet to chronicle the little things in my everyday life. Every day has a story, so I would definitely have something to blog about, especially if something incredibly interesting (or irritating) has just occurred. 
• The great thing about technology nowadays is that I can write something on paper and just snap a picture of it and post it on my blog to serve as my blog entry. And because I frequently carry my trusty Moleskine with me, I have no excuse but a lack of time to write it.
4. Lose weight. Admittedly, I'm a little overweight, according to my BMI. I'm heavier than I should be for my height, so I want to try and get into the ideal body type without sacrificing too much. We (Kai and I) always keep telling ourselves to go out and do some jogging or go to the gym, but we never actually did that once last year, so now is definitely the time to do just that. Her rubber shoes are still rather pristine here in my shoe cabinet as if to emphasize the point. 
5. Read and read some more. Since I asked for quite a few books last year, now is the best time to crack some open and get to reading. The number of my "to-read" list has increased, and will increase by 1 since I'm (still) patiently waiting for a hard bound copy of Deadly Heat to arrive at our book stores. That might be the catalyst that sparks my reading bug to return, but we'll see.
6. Learn something new. Kai said she'd teach me to play the guitar, so we're eyeing to get a nice little one to replace the one she lost in the flood back in 2009, and as a way of teaching me the bloody instrument I never bothered to learn (unlike my siblings who are quite good at it).
7. Get inspired to write. I do this sporadically throughout the years until now, and most of my inspiration comes from talking through scenarios with Kai. My little fanfictions will always be here when I find inspiration, so I just want to get more of that forever. But a bigger project is always more interesting. That's not to say we're not already brewing one at present, but that's for us to know and you to find out, yeah? ;)

So much luck to me this 2014! And when February arrives, more luck should come in as it'll be the Year of the Horse! :D

Sanada Genichirou

Sanada Genichirou

Shin Tenipuri, Volume 11, Chapter 108, Page 5

(click on the image for the full image preview!)

The funny thing about manga coloring is once you start on one thing, you want to go on and do another one or two before you put yourself on hiatus and find some inspiring page that makes you want to color it and start the cycle again. 

As I did mention at least once a month, I'm going over my personal quota hours after posting that entry with this second work to kick off the season. As it stand, I've already started scouting the manga for other scenes to color in, and this one was one of those pages that came up. 

This of course is Sanada Genichirou, vice-captain of Rikkai Dai Fuzoku. He was portrayed in the first season of Tenimyu by "Mr. Tenimyu" himself, Kanesaki Kentarou, which quickly became one solid reason as to why I chose this particular page. 

While I'm happily content finding inspiration in this one manga, I'll see if I can find any interesting pages to color in other mangas that I'm currently still reading. Hopefully the list will branch out as the year carries on.

Atobe Keigo

Atobe Keigo

Shin Tenipuri, Volume 2, Chapter 11, Pages 74-75

(click on the image for the full image preview!)

So I decided to start the year rekindling an old, nearly forgotten hobby. After all, I barely got anything done for the entire span of 2013, so I told myself to do something at least once a month to keep myself busy. Besides, doing these keep my dexterity, patience and aesthetic sense on its toes, and not to mention it works well as a stress reliever.

And because it's officially 2014, welcome the Year of the Horse (wait for Chinese New Year at the end of the month! That means it's my year! Here's to fountains worth of good fortune and prosperity. 

Why did I decide to color this particular spread from the early chapters of the Shin Tenipuri manga? A few reasons:

1. Kubota Yuki. Did you know he's part of the cast in the current season of Kamen Rider? And for those who aren't aware, he was the second actor who portrayed Atobe Keigo in the latter half of the first season of the musical. The best one among the bunch, I'd say.
2. Refer to #1.

That was pretty much my excuse really. xD I actually colored this with him in mind (hence the eye color being brown instead of gray). You can consider this a bit of a dedication to him.

Night!