Please be careful (with my heart)

The show's title card
(from http://en.wikipedia.org)

For the past year, I've been on night shift, meaning that I'm normally at home (or at the gym) in the morning. While working out in the gym I normally see shows from different channels being shown on the numerous television sets. One of those shows is "Be Careful with My Heart".

"Be Careful With My Heart" is a morning drama show in ABS-CBN. The main cast includes Jodie Sta. Maria, Richard Yap, Jerome Ponce, Janella Salvador, and Mutya Orquia, with a number of supporting cast. The story revolves around Maya Dela Rosa (Sta Maria) who goes to Manila to pursue her dream of becoming a flight attendant to help her family. However, due to unfortunate circumstances her dreams were put on hold - instead she becomes the temporary nanny for Richard Lim's children (Yap), a rich widower who owns an aviation company, with the agreement that he will assist her in pursuing her dreams. Over the course of time, Maya becomes endeared not only to the Lims but to all that she interact with, most especially to Richard (whom maya has dubbed Ser Chief).

What makes the story endearing to a lot of people (making it one of the most watched shows in the morning), is that it steers away from the typical dark and heavy themes of most dramas and soaps that are locally produced. The show follows a light theme - no gun-pointing, kidnapping, and such. Yes it does have fights, but it only shows what is necessary for the story. For example, the most "violent" fight would be the brawl between Luke and Inigo over a girl. For the most part, conversations are light and funny. Even in the serious scenes, someone would still inject a bit of humour.

Another thing that makes it endearing is the chemistry between the characters, not just with Maya and Ser Chief. Although there is the usual "kilig" moments between the two, the show doesn't shy away from other things as well. For example, it follows the lives of Nikki and Luke inside the school campus, along with the typical high school crushes and first love. It also follows Maya's family in Mindoro, as well as the comical banter between the Doris, Sabel, and Joma.

Being a family-oriented show, you could expect that the show likes to inject a couple of values to its readers - most specifically, the importance of family and helping each other. Similar with how Maya introduced "kapit-bisig" (to link arms with each other), the show emphasizes the importance of helping each other out in times of need.

"Be Careful With My Heart" may be extended for another period - it was supposed to end last December but has been extended to February and then extended again until June. Although the story get to be slow at times (probably to extend the story as long as possible), it still makes sure that there is something that happens within every episode. I just hope that they don't stretch it too far that it compromises the quality and the story as a whole.

All in all, "Be Careful..." has a lot of elements which makes it like a breath of fresh air for a lot of people. It shows that we don't need violence to make a show successful, nor does life need to be dark to make it interesting. The show has been able to create a light drama which doesn't look farfetched from reality. Yes, it does look like there are only good people in the show, but then again, maybe that's the show's strong suit - that there are a lot of people that are good, and like the show's characters, we can be more good than bad. :)

Sources:
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Careful_With_My_Heart
http://www.iwantv.com.ph/TV/Video/Be-Careful-with-my-Heart/390

Homescreen Evolution

Since I had a lot of free time since I resigned mid December last year my Galaxy S3's homescreen has gone through some pretty interesting changes. I can't say that all of them are cool and the it gets better incrementally - you be the judge to that. What I do know is that I've been having fun customizing my homescreen so far. :)

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First Homescreen:

My first attempt at customizing my homescreen was very vanilla, in a sense. First, I changed my home launcher to Nova Prime Launcher (app given to me by +Kirk Andrew Monasterial since he already bought the app). I did some minor modifications, most of which stem mostly from the launcher end (i.e. number of screens, number of rows and columns, default icon pack used). The layout was based from a homescreen I saw in MyColorScreen.

Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher
Icon Pack: iDear Theme
Widgets: One More Clock Widget
Another homescreen that I created along with the one above is my HTC Desire S' homescreen. Inspiration for the design came from the Ubuntu, which has the applications on the left side. To make the app list scrollable I used Folder Organizer, and adjusted the rows and columns to make it look more pretty.
Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher
Icon Pack: iDear Theme
Widgets: One More Clock Widget, Folder Organizer (Using the free version doesn't allow you to sort the icons)

Second Homescreen:

The second homescreen wasn't that different from the first one as it utilized the same widget. However, the ratio of the rows and columns was adjusted to even out the spaces in between icons. Additionally, the App Drawer icon (which is located in the intersection of the icon grid) was changed to fit more with the icon pack used.

Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher
Icon Pack: iDear Theme
Widgets: One More Clock Widget

Third Homescreen:

The third homescreen was one of the drastic homescreen changes I've done. It didn't feature any icon themes, but I did use another set of icons for the App Drawer. The homescreen consisted of three widgets - one contains the clock and weather, the other is the calendar, and the third is a simple text widget that has a link to the Messages, Phone Log, and the App Drawer. All Widgets were created via UCCW. The biggest challenge for this homescreen is making the circular pattern in the wallpaper fit perfectly with the circular clock series widget. It took me a while to actually get it right, and I can't seem to replicate it since. This is also the first homescreen not to sport the notification bar, relying on gestures to display it.

Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher
Icon Pack: DCIconz Icon Pack
Widgets: created via UCCW

Fourth Homescreen:

The fourth homescreen went back to first wallpaper as background design. It also has two widgets - one which has the common shortcuts I use (email, dialer, camera, etc), while the other one shows the clock/calendar. I created the clock/calendar widget based from One More Clock Widget . Same as the third iteration, I removed the notification bar from the home screen (which can be viewed via a gesture)

Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher
Icon Pack: DCIconz Icon Pack
Widgets: created via UCCW

Fifth Homescreen:

The fifth homescreen was by far the most tedious homescreen I've done. It used the same wallpaper from the previous one (although cropped differently). I had to edit the wallpaper in photoshop so that I could get the exact dimensions for the phone. I also created a psd file for the application icons (which was separate from the background). I used ICD Plates HD as a base for the app icons, then added my own tweak to create my own hotspot (all created using PS - base PSD file can be viewed here). I then set it up in UCCW - one for each icon (this is where the tediousness came in). There were some minor tweak added to it later on (i.e. modified the number of rows/columns for the home screen), also when adding a new app icon (i.e. added Tweetdeck, and then later Plume).

Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD (modified using PS)
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher (10x6 grid)
Icon Pack: DCIconz Icon Pack (for App Drawer), ICS Plates HD (base for home screen icons)
Widgets: created via UCCW

Current Homescreen:

My current homescreen is sporting the same set of icons (for the simple reason that I can't think of a layout for them yet). I did change the background (from the more common wallpaper I was using to the Megaman wallpaper as seen below). I created the clock/calendar widget using Minimalist Text, while I used UCCW to create the battery percentage that looks like a barcode (I opted to use UCCW as Minimalist Text adds a ">" when the phone is charging).

My current homescreen is far from complete. It is currently a hybrid of the previous iteration and what I envision to create (so maybe we can call it 5.5 or 5S? lol).

Wallpaper: Cool Wallpapers HD
Launcher: Nova Prime Launcher (10x6 grid, enable overlapping widgets)
Icon Pack: DCIconz Icon Pack (for App Drawer), ICS Plates HD (base for home screen icons)
Widgets: created via UCCW and Minimalist Text


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One of Android's strength is it's customizability, enabling users to customize almost any aspect of their phone as they see fit. This is something that I haven't really delved on for the past year and a half I've been using an Android phone (from my HTC Desire S), but after discovering homescreen customization it became sort of a hobby. It's always the question of how I can improve my homescreen. For sure there's still a lot for me to explore, such as multiple screen setups.

Are you using an Android? Have you done any homescreen customizations for your phone? I'd like to hear about it in the comments section. :)

Changes

Something is brewing in the horizon. I can't give any details yet as nothing's final, but if it pushes through then there would be a lot of changes in my plans for the next couple of months (or years maybe).

It was the first time in a couple of years (or probably as far as I can remember) that I really wanted something. Based from my initial assessment I find it very interesting, and at the same time a good avenue for me to learn. If it pushes through, I don't think I won't be disappointed. But of course, it'll still depend on what God has in store for me. I just can't force my way through it.

If I pass, I'll take it as a sign. ^_^

[2013-03-23] UPDATE: Yey, I passed! All that I'm waiting for is the offer. Let's hope that it's good. Well, still a week before my personal deadline. :)

Las Ventanas

As I have nothing better to do I decided to go out and take a trip at least once a month. Last January it was in HK. February was Tagaytay.

How did Tagaytay happen? Well, I was looking through some group buying sites and I noticed a deal for a bed and breakfast in Tagaytay. Since I haven't done any picture taking, and the deal was pretty okay, I decided to buy a voucher and go with a friend.

The voucher included the following:
- 3d2n stay at Las Ventanas Bed and Breakfast
- Welcome drinks
- Breakfast and Dinner included
- 2 sessions of 1 hour massage
- Use of the pool

Actually, seeing the massage was all I needed to buy the voucher. :P