ARC Review of Nalini Singh’s Mine to Possess

 

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Grade: A

I’ve just finished reading Nalini Singh’s 4^th novel in her Psy/Changeling Series entitled Mine to Possess, and all I could think of was, ‘So when is the next book coming out?!’

Chinese Ghost Money

My great grandmother passed away 2 weeks ago, and we had the burial and the wake last week. She died at the ripe old age of 92 for her real birthday and 108 yrs old for her Chinese birthday.

The whole week during the wake, we had to prepare and fold these yellowish papers (about 2-3 sacks, so imagine how much we had to fold!) which represent Chinese money. These would then be burned during her burial, so that my great grandmother would have a lot of money and be prosperous in Heaven.

Now I don’t have anything against Chinese traditions and all, but I was wondering, what’s she going to buy with all of that so-called money? A new car?

The Green-Eyed Monster Strikes!

I just saw an old batchmate of mine in High School while I was browsing through National Bookstore. We got to talking, and apparently, she just came back from studying in a culinary school in Australia after college. She’s been here in the Philippines since September and is on vacation. All the while I was talking to her I was thinking, some girls have all the luck! Her parents can afford to send her to Australia, while mine are barely scrimping to send my siblings to school.

Studying in a prestigious exclusive girls school such as ICA, you get to rub shoulders with the daughters of the elite Chinese living here in the Philippines. People who live in really, really big houses in upscale villages, whose idea of school breaks usually meant traveling to another country. Most batchmates of mine with rich parents don’t even have to worry about money.

Galvanize your Face, Hair & Body

Nu Skin has just launched the coolest gadget ever!!!

It’s called the Galvanic Spa System II… Guess what it does???

Stephanie Laurens’ The Bar Cynster

I have just finished reading most of Stephanie Laurens’ books– particularly the Cynster Series, also known as the Bar Cynster, which is about a group of men, cousins to be exact, who have unique nicknames like Devil, Scandal, Vane, Gabriel, Lucifer, Demon… who all happed to be marriage-phobic. And it’s only when they do meet the women of their dreams, that they actually (in the usual male hero arrogant way) put all of their willpower in driving the women to the altar!

Stephanie Laurens’ Cynster novels are very funny and witty. They’re actually very good to a certain extent. However, the plot is ALWAYS the same, just with different characters and different situations… A bit more originality, please???

I mean, it always revolves around this kind of plot: boy meets girl-they have sex-boy wants to marry girl but girl refuses because she wants to hear boy loves her-boy admits he loves the girl-then they finally get married…

Don’t get me wrong, the books are entertaining to read and all. But come on, don’t you get sick and tired of reading the same plot device over and over again?!?

*Gasp* Chivalry Does Exist!

Yes, chivalry really does exist in this remarkable day and age! And I have just had the experience to prove it! I haven’t really updated this blog for quite awhile now, but trust me, this experience most definitely needs some blog time!

Being in such a hurry yesterday, I parked my car in a no-parking zone just behind Octagon building. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking! I used to do it before in the late evenings when I’m just gonna get something quick from the 15th floor, and I never got caught!) This time though, things were different.

After getting something upstairs for just like 15 mins, when I came back down, my car had this orange contraption strapped to the wheel, making it immovable. And there was this red notice on my windshield wiper, telling me that I had to go to this municipality to pay the fine because of illegal parking.

After endless seconds of trying to get the damned contraption off my car without any luck, my knight in shining armor finally arrived!!!

Working at V8? TOTALLY NOT GR8!!!

It has been exactly one month since I started working at V8 Commercial, and I hate every minute and every second of it! I have already wanted to quit like so many times!

It is so not the kind of work that I imagined I would be doing at all when I left my former company to work here.

I am currently handling V8 Commercial’s molasses division of the company. Being a trader of molasses as well as other commodities that cater primarily to farms and feedmills, I am in charge of the selling, the monitoring, the deliveries, and the collection of payments. I interface with different customers whom I have never even met, who happen to be scattered all across Luzon.

It all started when my godfather invited me to work with him. He said that he needed someone to be his eyes and ears, since he lived in the US. He told me that he was going to train me in terms of business, and that he’d tell me trade secrets that he’d only tell his children. And that if I’ve already learned all I needed to know about running his business, he’d also offer profit sharing. That was initially what attracted me to work for him. That, and the possibility that he’d sponsor me in the US.

My official start in V8 Commercial was in January. But wanting to learn as much as I could, I spent the last two weeks of my December in his office, trying to absorb everything that I could, even though I didn’t get paid. I was still connected with my other company at the time, and so I just spent my free days there. Since my godfather, “the boss”, was in the US, he oversaw everything through a camera in the office, and issued his orders by calling in the VOIP phone and through chatting in the MSN Messenger.

So far, working there has made me so utterly and completely depressed. I have never in my life felt like I was completely inept, as if I couldn’t do a single thing that was right! I dreaded every single moment that I have to talk to “the boss” in the VOIP phone, knowing that it would more or less result in his becoming angry with me. I also dread seeing the MSN messenger chatroom with this dog picture he has, not knowing if it will result in something bad that was gonna happen again.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Mugged

This morning, at around 5-6am in the morning, across from our home, a woman screamed. Apparently, just as she was either leaving her house or the sari sari store after purchasing something, a van pulled up alongside her and snatched her valuables. Obviously, those thugs got away with it. I dont know what happened with the woman after the incident, whether she reported it to the police or whatever, but I hope that she’s ok.

My cousin told me this an hour ago after I got back home. She actually saw the incident from our house since she usually gets up early to go to school. Since I do leave the house and walk a few blocks to commute going to work, she told me to be extremely careful, because it’s no longer safe to be out on the streets nowadays.

Just this morning, also, before I was about to leave the house, I got a call from my mom. She told me to avoid wearing any jewelry as well as wear anything sleeveless, because her officemate’s husband was held at gunpoint and was robbed. It happened just last night, as the husband arrived home in his garage, four thugs entered his car. They held him at gunpoint for around 40 minutes, demanding his ring, his money, etc. He finally gave it to them, and when the thieves were finally leaving, he rushed to his house, locked all doors and shouted for help. The thieves left evidence in his car– an ID or something like that, and it turns out that the husband actually knew one of the bad guys. He happened to be their former mechanic, whom he invited to eat and even treated very well. And this was how the mechanic repaid his gratitude.

Imagine, someone getting mugged as early as 5-6am, when practically everybody is asleep?!? And getting mugged by someone you know?

AskMeAnything!

 

This is my second month working for AskMeNow.com, and it will be my third month this coming November. Well, it’s been a blast! The people are fun and nice, and the work (so far) is interesting and exciting…

Exciting in the sense that you have to get everything answered within 3 minutes, so there’s always the thrill of finding everything within the time limit, although there are certain questions which you’ll find irritating to answer, like a person asking who they are! For example, a guy named John Smith would ask a question like, ‘Who is John Smith?’ when it’s obviously him and he just wants to test the system. It’s easy when there’s like a lot of John Smiths on the Internet, but then if it’s an unusual name, like a foreign name such as Vladimir Stanislausky for instance (believe me, I got those questions sometimes), it’s extremely hard to find info on it and it frustrates the hell out of you to look for it when there’s none, and those that actually are there you cant understand the info since it’s in a foreign language!