Out With The Old

As of this writing, there’s less than two and a half hours left until New Year arrives in the Philippines and, surprisingly, I was able to finish what I set out to do today.  That is, of course, to finish giving both Oriko Mikuni and Kirika Kure the lineart treatment, and adding them to the Puella Stampede.  As expected Oriko took some redrawing, but I’m still mostly happy with how things turned out.

Adding the two to the stampede makes it now look like this:

So with that last bit of fanart, I think I’m mostly prepared to face the New Year.  Hmm, well okay, I still need to take a bath, but that’s kind of expected right?

Let’s see, usually one has to say something prior to the turning of the calendar, so to speak.  Last year wasn’t perfect, but it’s still a sight better than what many other people had to experience.  Sure, I’m still single at my age, but at least everyone in my family is still alive and healthy, although nanay is as usual absent (though there’s nothing we can do about that one).  Definitely looking forward to the year ahead, ignoring the new semester (workshop, noooo) and the eventual Comprehensive Exam. 

Hmm, that’s pretty much it.  All that’s left to say is that I wish everyone as grace and blessings once it’s their turn to greet the New Year.  So long 2011, welcome 2012!

It’s All Been Said Before

As the title says, I’m not really sure if there’s anything I can add that my cousin hasn’t already said in her post, so I’ll just go with the tried and trusted fallback of greeting everyone who’s somehow managed to stumble unto this little online journal that we share a very happy (and hopeful) New Year. While it won’t guarantee that one will continue to be happy throughout the subsequent year, at least that person can welcome the upcoming year with their best face, so to speak.

So what do I have planned? Well it would have been nice to drop by Yssa’s house for New Years, the neighborhood is already resounding with the explosions of firecrackers, which more or less means that I’d be crazy to even think of going out tonight. I’ll just have to comfort myself with a nice dinner and a call to the folks overseas, before staying up late for the midnight countdown.

Then after that? Maybe another jog so I can capture the first sunrise of the New Year on camera.

Raining Away the Old

It’s been raining since I got home from work, and while it isn’t exactly what might call a steady downpour, it was enough to coat many of the surfaces outside, from the sidewalks and walkways to the roofs of the houses around the apartment in a layer of moisture. I makes me wonder if it’ll rain like this tomorrow as well, on the eve of the arrival of the New Year, because in a way it seems fitting; the skies cleaning much of the dirt and grime left over from the old year, in preparation for the new.

It’s a romantic notion, to be sure, but I think I’m more interested in the fact that, should it rain tomorrow evening, there’ll be less people lighting up firecrackers, which means that there would be less noise from all the explosions going off. I understand it’s tradition and all, something to drive away all the bad luck spirits (something brought over by the Chinese), but is it too much to ask for a relatively quiet welcome to the New Year?

I suppose not.

While I won’t have any work tomorrow (as it’s my scheduled rest day), we’re really not sure if my sister or her boyfriend will be able to join us for the late-night dinner and count-down to midnight, so that would mean that it’s just me, my father, and my cousin in the house tonight. Knowing my sister though, I’m sure that she’ll find some excuse to not go to work, and given the fact that she’s a quality assurance officer, she’d get away with it too.

Speaking of the New Year’s Eve dinner, I wonder if the closest thing I have to a osananajimi (kind of an ‘adopted cousin’ at this point, and she lives next door too… technically) will be able to join us. I’d be lying if I said that we’re still close, but after all of the family problems she’s been having, well, being able to sit down with people who she’d be able to have a relatively normal dinner with, and not have it escalate into a shouting match, might be good for a change. That is of course, unless she makes another excuse to go to her friend’s place.

Hmm, come to think of it we have a few bottles of red wine left over from Christmas. It’s been a while since we’ve shared more than a friendly drink with ate, and frankly I want to see if she can still drink me under the table.