I'm not sure whether I should start my intro with a defensive speech as to why I got 39 new books (not including the children's book I got for Rhett) in less than two months or should I just accept my fate that I always get defeated in a battle against impulsive book buying.

Supportive. As always ♥

Here’s the thing, when you are in front of a million new books priced at 50-90% off, there's no way you could ever resist that. Not me. And it's not all the time you can get big book sales like this, that's why you have take advantage of it.  Meaning, you can’t just go barging in a book sale and NOT buy a book… because that’s just stupid. And besides, I don't really have anything to spend my money on.

Today is 11.11. Every online and physical store is on a HUUUUGE sale. Tempting, yes. But I wasn't really psyched about it because:

1. I'm broke. And even if I had the money,
2. The internet has been fucked up since Thursday.

So instead of wasting precious bandwidth, loading websites that will only make me a thousand more poorer, I'll blog about last month's National Book Store's Book Binge Bazaar book haul instead.

Even though I go gaga over Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, or Linkin Park, it has never been a secret how much I love boy bands.

I guess you can blame that to the curtain haircuts made famous by Nick Carter back in the 90s. That pretty boy look definitely won too many hearts. But more than the pretty face, they got the phenomenal stage presence, smooth dance moves, cheesy songs, and the voice that definitely made teen girls fall head over heels. And I guess, I have not outgrown that stage until this very day.

I was 12 when I fell in love with these guys. I used to watch them every day on MTV. And even though I claim to be a huge boy band fan, I've never seen one group performed live.

I remember during my freshman year in high school, I saw a batch of seniors who were standing in neat rows under the heat of the sun. They looked cool in their combat boots and fatigue, except, they were more like puppies to me than soldiers. They're pretty good at obeying commands. Sit, roll over, drop and play dead, or whatever the commanding officer tells them to. I watched them every Friday and told myself I've already been potty-trained since 2, I don't need new tricks, and I'm never going to be a trained pup. And the only way to elude the comedy and horror of Preparatory Military Training (PMT) is to be part of a varsity team.

I’m not claiming to be an interesting person but new and seemingly interesting things happened lately. Plus, I need more entries for this blog, so here goes.

"Hey, I got a new badge on my blog."

"Congratulations! You deserve that!"

"Thanks! But I want to add something right there."

There was a pause.

"I want to win a Palanca," I told Jan flat out loud.

He gave me an eager look as he continued to listen to me and my absurd dreams.

I rolled my eyes, gave out a soft sigh, and blurted, "I just do not know how to do it."

You see, I've read this year's winning entries - mostly from established writers, journalist, and columnists - and I certainly do not make the cut.

For the first time in my life, I wished I have the singing voice and be in a musical.

Everybody knows that I am into arts and crafts. I can DIY whatever the hell I want. It's just that... I am lazy. And I don't have a lot of patience for it.

Today, I installed a new cork board and a whiteboard for my workstation - which is pretty boring. And even though I am lazy as can be, I can't have it that way. So to add a little pizzazz to it, I created a pen holder that will hold my whiteboard markers so that I don't have to reach far if I want to write something on it. I saw this somewhere on Pinterest and decided to make one myself.

And bam! My cute DIY pen holder:

Materials you need:
- Cutter
- Scissors
- Empty shampoo bottle
- Art paper
- Glue
- Double-sided foam/mounting tape

I really don't have to make a detailed instruction on how to do it because the crafting part is pretty straightforward and I will leave the creatives up to you. But if you're feeling crafty and looking for something to recycle, I hope this post helped. :)

P.S.
You might also want to check the other pen holder I created last year: DIY Pen Holder

I was known to be a sleeper in class back in college. And when I wasn't sleeping, my classmates would find me scribbling absentmindedly. Half of the pages of my notebook (if I even had one) were filled with doodles and the rest were just clean empty pages.

I might have offended some of my professors back then. Doodling is frowned upon not just in class but also in any occasion that requires attention. What they do not know is that when I am doodling, contrary to what most people think, I am actually focused and interested.