INFLUENCE INGRID

So, I was given the opportunity to host my friend’s Debut, and I was thrilled and accepted the challenge. Other than being horribly late, I must say I did a very fair job and I was really happy for the moral support my friends gave. I was thrilled beyond compare that I could do this in a grand scale. Thank you to her family for trusting me with the job!

This was me trying to do a selfie before going to meet up with my friend Aiko at the 7-11. I really liked the way I look here, to be real honest. But the fact remains that I was nervous about my very tight top. It was seriously deciding on ripping through the seams.

Apparently, this is the only decent picture I have of hosting the event, and it is with my eyes closed. Why thank you so much, Joey for the picture, because I’d rather this than my other shots.

Read More →

Soooo… It’s been quite a start of the week, actually. I haven’t realized how tough being strapped for cash is these days. I practically (almost and by a hair) don’t have any money left to spend this week, so I guess this would pretty much be the last trip I run before school starts.

I looked around a bit at the Department Store of SM Bacoor before I continued with my errand to buy my Eyebrow Kit from e.l.f. so I had come across these bags from Kultura. They look so perf, but of course I couldn’t buy them, they were much more expensive than my own budget that day. Oh well.

Read More →

Before I had the wonderful opportunity to show off my absolutely amazeballs new things for this Saturday, my daughter was deep in her new dictionary, which is found in the following photo.

Isn’t she just the craziest thing? She told me to take the picture exactly as she said, when she said it I felt like I was being demanded a photo shoot.

So let’s move on, shall we?

Read More →

Earlier today, I was really waiting for any answer (no, scratch that, make that inkling) that this friend of mine is still my friend, and that he wasn’t ignoring me. Unfortunately, until today, I haven’t had any messages or tags, mentions, the whole etc. It made me sad. It made me discouraged. I have never felt this rejected in my life. I didn’t know what had transpired for him to completely ignore me, but I really didn’t even know what reason he was ignoring me for. I had suspected it was because there was this moment when me and a couple other of my friends were at my place, and there were these sudden “slip-ups” where I acted too giddy when I recieved one of his messages. I think my friends noticed, and put two and two together, so.

I had no more interactions with him after that day, not even likes on any social networking site, and usually, we did that. I have never felt so stupid all my life as well, because I should’ve just shut up about him when my friends were here. I was so ignorant and I hated that part of me.

So, yeah. I was browsing through facebook, and I saw his profile. I saw him replying to other people, and I had this impulse to just message him to get it over with, but I didn’t. Instead, I told myself, “Okay, I’ll go to YouTube and watch some Joel [Osteen], and the first result that comes up, that’s what I’ll do about the whole situation.” So I did. I went to YouTube, and searched for the term “Joel Osteen”. For those of you who don’t know, Joel Osteen is a pastor who does sermons and has his own ministry. You can check him out at JoelOsteen.com. I found out about him from my mother, who is an avid fan of his sermons, and I am very much an avid fan of him as well. Anyways, I clicked the first video that came up, and it was entitled, “Joel Osteen - The God That Closes Doors”

The first part of the sermon, Joel always says a joke. It was a familiar joke from a pastor that sermoned last Sunday. It was still funny though. I then proceeded to listening to the sermon and boy, was I absolutely befuddled. I can’t understand how God knows what I’m going through and what I’ve been thinking, because it is exactly the sermon that I needed. He said at one point, “If God wanted that person to stay in your life, then he never would have left. Just shake it off. Someone better is coming to your future.”

I just don’t know how I lived without listening to his sermons, they’re really eye-opening. I can’t think of ways to explain the trust I feel right now. I now know that if my friend doesn’t want to be friends anymore, then I don’t need to be friends with him, because maybe God is making me avoid hurtful situations with dire consequences. I am very thankful that God closed this door, and I fully trust Him for the next door he opens.

Skulls and Crosses have been symbols of death, and have been around for a very very long time (since its beginning). The trend for skulls and crosses were originally used by (and still mostly used by) the goths of the 80s-90s, and in that junction, the trend for Skulls and Crosses now borders with Hipsters. Inverted crosses and skull designs are now all the range, even in jewellery.

I bought these two earrings at the market for cheapo prices, and though they may look like they’re made of silver, they’re actually made of plastic. Yes, I can be attested to the fact that these earrings are made of plastic, which are less likely to be irritating your skin at such cheap prices. These cost for P10.00 each, and they’re a definite bargain. They come with rubber stoppers for a more secure fit. Even if the earring on the right isn’t a skull or a cross, it still looks really fab when worn on both ears.

This Skullheads bracelet was from a shop at Greenhills, and it cost me about P80.00, which is a definite bargain. It is made of a really heavy material, which I’m scared of to research on because it might turn out to be real bones. But no. Doesn’t feel like bones. I’ve been keen on looking for these because I’ve seen them for so long and they look so chic.

See how we’re really kept on wanting Skulls and Crosses? So I’ve been lurking around google and found two reasons on why we like this trend so much.

http://hellogiggles.com/ defends the Skull trend. “The release of the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2006 saw a large increase in the skull-wearing movement. It was no longer a symbol of death and darkness – it was just cool.”

PandaAgenda from a forum said, “Anyways some churches, like mine, do not believe in image worship. So when I wear cross accessories and stuff it is not because I think it brings blessing or protects me, but just because I like it. In that sense, I don’t think you should have to be a Christian to have cross accessories.”

There’s that, people. We’re duly influenced.

A few days before I left my first year of college, I compiled quite a few remnants of Finals inside my mini portfolio. I used to bring a ton of knick knacks to school, and I really hated the fact that I didn’t take too much time to clear them out, because I was suddenly bombarded with triangularly-cut pieces of magazine pages. And they were tiny.

This is my mini Portfolio. It’s about 3x5.5 inches, and it can easily be held in my hand to carry around while I was switching classrooms (which isn’t often, I can assure you). It held some of the most surprising things, and it was definitely a funny sight.

Look at all those hotties! I must’ve forgotten that I was cutting triangles for my mini-banderitas because look at those fine young men! Warm Bodies was really a hoot back in those days, which explains the whole Nicholas Hoult article.

These are some of my exams that I carelessly folded and placed in my absolutely danky portfolio. Some of here are slips to the guidance office (trust me, it’s not what you’re thinking).

My friends from college had this really funny way of making morbid things seem un-morbid. This, for example, is my homage to the term they made famous at our class. It’s a visayan word that’s pronounced as “Yuh-Wah” and it means demons. I swear. It’s just too much or a privy joke to understand, but I showed it to you anyway since I painstakingly made this during our Filipino Thesis lecture.

Very sketchy, indeed. These are only some of the many many writings that I did during Finals alone, and these are mostly made-up stories or to-dos for that certain day or that certain week during finals. It was really a hunk of hot mess, but I really admired the way I penned them, down to the scaling, since I had to compensate with small pieces of paper. Oh, before you finish reading this, of course you have to realize how much of a frustrated writer I am. I have an artist’s temperament, but am not an artist.

Keep being influenced.

This week’s books that are out of the shelf include John Green’s and J. K. Rowling’s masterpieces.


The Fault In Our Stars is one of the most raved and acclaimed books by John Green, and I got my copy from my cousin who was generous enough to give me books she was finished reading. It was in a huge box, and believe me, there were a lot of titles I was excited to read. TFIOS is based on a love story between two teens who have the big proverbial “C” word. They meet and fall in love, but of course the story isn’t that simple. I haven’t finished reading, so I’ll keep you guys updated on what the story unravels into.

The next book out of the shelf this week is J. K. Rowling’s thickest concoction, Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix. I’m a hardcore Potterhead, eversince I’d learned that I had the same birthday as Harry. The main thing about this book is that it feels more like two normal-sized books in one big literary masterpiece. Of course, this only makes me want to read on further and then start to create my own novels.

So I reckon you should definitely read these two aforementioned books. They are absolutely entertaining and if you haven’t started a book collection yet, I suggest you do. Reading books makes me feel very different, and every time I would finish one, I would become changed by the afterthought a finished book leaves me. I hope you can feel the same way too.

Be influenced.

I am 39-half-years old. I turn the big “Four-Oh” on the 31st of July, just like Harry Potter, my first love.

There are quite a number of things that I am interested in, and one of them is blogging. I’ve been a blogger since 2006, blogging about my life as a scorned teenager with moody tendencies. I’ve been admiring architecture and interior design since I saw a book about signage and modern schools when I was at the uni library last school year. This blog is a reflection of all things that I love, and my life here in the Philippines.

Some of the things I admire include music, journals, John Green, Dan Brown, and transformations using make-up.

For any concerns about this site or personal matters, please feel free to contact me at influenceingrid @ gmail (dot) com. Thank you for your cooperation with this matter. I highly recommend not contacting me via social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, the like) since I do not log on very often, and it is a hassle going through my accounts for either personal or business issues.

If I would get a penny for every time I’ve welcomed people into some new blog or website that I created, I would definitely be rich by now. Somehow, it doesn’t shed off the fact that this is the very first time since 2009 that I would create a blog by this name.

During the year 2009, I started Influenceingrid, which was a sort-of run-of-the-mill tumblr that had a ton of reblogs and none of the posts there were originally made by me. I unfortunately had to delete it during the year 2011-ish? I think? The important thing, however, is that this year, I’ve taken on the challenge of creating a blog based on my interests, and moreover, a blog based on my life.

I’d like to welcome you to Influence Ingrid, my life. All in one blog!

Here you’ll see everything and anything going on with my life, and maybe some added extras. I always end these things with a hope and a wish of people looking to this blog and checking back again, but for now, I’ll leave you with this -

Prepare to be influenced.