Today I learned that my favorite house chore is cleaning the bathroom.

(Yeah, i know i should have spent my morning washing my jeans, but cleaning the bathroom was a lot easier. And more satisfying.)

In other news, i spent the rest of my morning checking out Nice-n-Fun. It's nice and fun AND it rocks. Tonight i'll go there and make virtual plum jellies. Even though I don't use plum jelly on my sandwhich. She's that kewl.

dream | 10.22.03
I was in a small enclosed space, which looked like an extension of a house. (Back porch, or something similar.) A white goose was attacking me. There was a voice trying to threaten me. (Now I'm not sure if it was coming from the goose..) I was a bit scared of the attacking goose, but I was trying to scare it back by spreading my arms.*



------------------------------
*This works in real life.

For a while I have forgotten how much i enjoyed Plumb's music. Last night i listened to her old-ish album, candy coated water drops, and that was when i remembered. The voice that switches from strong to whispery in a beat, the pulse-like electronic background, the lyrics..

I can still remember the first time i heard Phobic. I was staying over at pentuna's place after working on giqc backdrop. Her bed was so comfortable, the room just the right cold temperature, the only light in the room was the fading glow in the dark stars on her walls, and the song was playing on her cd. The setting and the music was just so nice. I instantly loved the song.

I got hold of Beautiful Lumps of Coal, and i may have to listen to the album several more times before i get attached to the new songs.

Plumb trivia: She co-wrote the onlyMandy Moore song i like.

So my parents did get my message that i was heading home. They said the phone was probably on a deadspot when i was trying to call them up. Whew! I didn't have to use my Super Ninja Hopping Over the Fence Skill last night. Hiya!

Some things went wrong today:

. The blade of my electric fan was wrecked.

. Woke up with a pain on my back, right side.

. I have my camera on my bag, minus the memory stick.

. My parents don't know i'm heading home tonight. (They've been having problems with their charger. It probably died again.) I'd get there at around 12 midnight. The gates will most probably be locked.

I love coffee. Yummy coffee. But i don't like spending money that could buy me lunch (with dessert) just for a 16oz cup whenever the craving gets me (which is every 4 hours or so). So my coffee loving practical soul rejoices when new instant flavored coffee are out in groceries.

The instant frappe line are yummy but bad for my tummy. It feels like my intestines and stomach are so happy with the foam that they dance around and hop and splash the foam inside my body. Not a fun experience.

Now they have an instant caramel mocha and mocha java. The mocha java tastes like coffee with ground chestnuts. And chestnut shells. It's like drinking kamote juice with a bitter aftertaste. >_<

The instant caramel mocha tastes better. I can't exactly remember how yesterday's first cup tasted like, but it was ok. Not bad. Only slightly better than the regular 3 in 1.

Oh well. Maybe a yummy cup of coffee is never meant to be cheap. Or instant.

It was only recently that I was able to use my Big Sister Priveleges on Becca, which includes the following:

- Calling her up to find out if she's busy with schoolwork.

- Finding out she's busy (it's almost the end of the semester. Busy time for college teachers.), but still sending out some data that needs statistical anlysis.

My sister however used her Younger Sister Priveleges, which has the following:

- Meeting up at megamall and getting a free coffee treat at starbucks.

- Sporting a mad scowling face when she thought i was using the Making Fun of Younger Sister Privelege which i was sure was listed under my priveleges.
- Being understood when she became cranky and irritated (with her older sister).

When we've exhausted these limited privileges we had our dinner and went gallery-hopping. Saw Monsters INKed at The Crucible, the latest exhibit by my favorite kiddie book illustrators, which was a kewl surprise coz i wasn't aware of this show. Still no Pepper Roxas and no Paolo Lim, but there were pieces by Abi Goy and new favorite Bernie Sim so it was still kewl. I also liked the works of Jomike Tejido and Brian Vallesteros and Panch Alcaraz and Sergio Bumatay III.

dream | 10.02.03

i was standing near the sink at the semihome's kitchen. in our dining room/sala were becca (sister) and Kuya*. it's mid-morning and we just woke up. Kuya was cranky. he was complaining about breakfast.

i opened the fridge and took out some cheesedogs. there were several packs open, and i couldn't tell which was mine and which belonged to my roomies. aside form the cheesedogs there were also corned beef packages.

i told Kuya that the rice we're eating were roomies' leftovers. we couldn't afford to buy our own. i told him he should get money to buy some rice if he won't stop complaining. while telling him this i was getting cooked rice from the stove. it was lsat night's leftover. very cold and dry.

i placed a pot on our two-burner stove. later there was another burner, and another pot cooking on top of it. then another. and another, til there were six burners and six pots. there were suddenly a lot of women going around the stove, but we were in a panic. some pots were unattended, which caused the sauce to overflow to the other pots.

i took a spoon and tasted the dish which looked like it was overcooked. it was a tomato sauce-based dish. it still tasted ok, not salty or burnt.

i looked at the stairs and saw my brother going down the semihome. he was still in a bad mood. he was wearing a hawaiian shirt and white pencil cut pants. i realized Kuya is gay.** then all the women started talking about the rumors they heard about my brother's gay-ness.



-------------------
this was the night before i met my sister at mega. it crossed my mind to invite her over to the semihome.
*it's been a while since i dreamt of Kuya. in this dream he was still with us, like he never left at all.
**the outfit and gay-ness was probably from watching The Birdcage, which was on tv some weeks ago.

Several times these past few days i started writing an entry and ended up deleting it. I just wasn't in the mood. Or I can't find the reason why i'm keeping a blog. (I still don't have the answer. Somehow the reasons I had before are gone now.)

I have to remove that little tagboard at the side of the page. Zonkboard is taking away my free board. They'll give it to the rich paying masses. (Too bad. I liked that tagboard much than any tagboards i've used.) So now i'll just be sticking with the comment box. So much free stuff are being taken back these days. dA has removed the thumbnails feature and they admins decided to offer it to subscribers only. Portland (my site host) has removed the cgi features for non-paying users. Soon there won't be any really good free stuff out there. The end of the world is probably near. (For the non-paying masses, anyways.)

The only free thing that's getting better is blogger. Just recently they offered most of their members-only features to non-paying users. God bless Blogger.

On other news, there's nothing much happening here. (why i called it 'news' i do not know). Still struggling to attend at least 3 aero sessions a week (i'm ALWAYS one session short), still checking lina's job alerts and but never really sending out my resume, still figuring out how the heck i'm gonna get out of this pathetic sad mood. (I'm starting to believe i crave sadness. My heart has turned masochistic. How did that happen when i so much enjoy being happy?)

I'm hoping keeping a grateful journal and getting some dose of Bo Sanchez's lovely and funny renewal and spiritual stories and trying NOT to think about my feelings all the time will help. (The last thing is so hard, especially when that's all that my "free" time allows me to do.) (Whew! So i'm not a masochist after all. Just a celf-centered person.)

It's great that I have friends I can call when i finally get to stop myself from thinking and self-analyzing and being depressed for no reason. Thanks dublin and Kit. :)

Last saturday night was my first time at Greenbelt after it got rennovated. All i can say is "Wow!"

It's a giant leap from its old design. I can't even remember how it used to look. (It was that ordinary and forgettable.) Now it has an ultra kewl architecture and has greens ad fountains galore. Thanks to Lhala and Cliff for deciding to meet me there for our Show and Tell.

What I brought : The Wedding Pics. A book for Cliff's birthday (which was 4 months ago) - Ireland by Air (Aerial shots of Ireland). A camera.*

What I told : A deja vu story I've told myself a hundred times already. The one with no climax and a lot of sad endings.

The book got a nice reaction. :) As for the photos, it looks like my first ever "client" for this newbie photography stint was unhappy. Or if he did like them, he's good at hiding how happy he was.

We ate at kitchen, and i tried the sandwich this time. Filling and good as it was, i didn't find anything really special about my order. It doesn't have that yum factor that will make me go back to that place just to have another bite of that sandwich. But of course, i'll go back if only for the nice artsy look of the place. And the nice and artsy look of Greenbelt. And the nice and artsy Lhala and Cliff.


----------------
*Because it's easier to upload the photos there than on my site. (Uploading 10 pics at a time! Instant gallery, too.) I'll still put some pics up at the cam page, when the No space Left on Device and Login Failure problem gets resolved.

Today was Meet Eloi and Catch the InK Exhibit Day, and the day went well. (yep, we got to the right exhibit this time ;p)

Sadly, there wasn't any work done by Pepper Roxas or Paolo Lim or Lyra Abueg Garcellano or Jason Moss, but there were still works there that were very much worth the visit. Bernie Sim's Chinatown collage was an instant favorite. Her work, made of labels and maps and doodled with little charaters and meteor garden faces, was so pop and hip and nice. Conrad Raquel's Halabira was great too, very original and fun to look at. The thing I liked most about it was the flame eating guy with the word "fire" inside his mouth. Abi Goy's work was lovely and funny, which featured kids in a playground. (yes, i took pics, but i don't know if it's right to post them here without their permission.)

One little complain: the place was so hot. We were perspiring and wiping our foreheads the whole time we were there. The venue was not air conditioned - that's ok, we can live with that - but it wasn't even well-ventilated.

Anyways, still hoping I'd catch it again next year. :)

One great thing about being a Bulakeña is getting to watch amazing fireworks every year, not on New Year's day, but on Bulacan week. Particapants are mostly from Bocaue, Bulacan's (Luzon's?) biggest fireworks and firecrackers producing town.

The annual pyrotechnic display competition was held last night and i watched it, even if it meant not going back to work city last night and waking up at 3am this morning just to get at work at 6am. It was very much worth the sleep deprivation.

Six fireworks makers competed this year, and 2 of them made us Oooh and Aaah and Wow and clap our hands for the whole duration of their 5-minute slot. I felt sad about the others, i wanted them to make a really a good show too, coz even though their fireworks looked like those used during Santacruzans i know they spent a lot. Maybe they learned their lesson from last night's competition (1. Do a lot better next year, or 2. Save the money for other things. They were probably teary-eyed as they watched their good money shoot up and sizzle in the night sky and turn into smoke before our un-impressed eyes. I hope they choose to do No.1)

I liked the ones that spiral their way to the sky. And the ones that are like spinning disks. And the ones that burst into thousands of lights that move in random directions (so kewl!). And the ones that burst into tiny lights that burst again into tiny circles, much like a huge boquet of small flowers.

dream | 9.11.03

i was riding a boat with another woman, and we were heading to what seemed like the end of our backyard.. no, much farther beyond. there's a construction site that's all-steel. we're heading to the direction of the rising sun. its colors are warm, more like a sunset, really. only that it's morning.

as we were riding the boat the woman asked if i have another pair of slippers with me, something i can wear while i'm there. she's from there, so she doesn't have to bring a pair.

when we got there, she took off her shoes and stepped on the shallow water. at the floor are pairs of colorful slippers, placed neatly side by side. i found this quite ordinary, the water not moving the slippers at the bottom. i used my leather sandals and waded in the water.

while walking, my memory suggests that where we are is a small island with old wooden houses. it was like that for a short while, then the things changed. All i could remember is that i'm wishing i can bring my friends there. I was thinking i'd tell my parents about that place, and maybe in dreams thinking is the same as what's actually occuring, coz after that my parents were there and they were showing me the small property that we own there.

inside a brightly lit structure, with walls only a little better than that of caves, there were shops. in the shop i was in i saw a very nice bracelet with sun charms, its chains antique. the saleslady told me the price, and said it's perfect for baptisms.* she also told me the price of the bracelet another guy was wearing. (it's cheap.)

in "our" property, we have a small shallow indoor pond with lots of huge fishes swimming around. i saw a pair i instantly liked, huge fish with perfect spots on its sides. the fishes become bigger the more i stare at them. i pointed at them to my dad, and he said they were worth 24,000 when he got them.

i looked out the window and saw lots of piranhas. the window was at a level of a small strip of land, and the piranhas were tring to go to the other side of this strip, hopping on the grassy land. there was a man standing on this strip (i can only see his feet) and he was a bit scared of the piranhas. the piranhas look like punk rock fish-types. mohawks on their backs.



---------------
*on saturday i'll be a godmother on the baptism of an operator's son.

I was at a wedding yesterday from morning til the afternoon, and I got only 3 hours of sleep and rest for the graveyard shift. From 10 pm to 5:50 am i was wishing it's 6am already so I could head home and sleep for maybe nine or eleven hours. By 5:50 am i was in semi-panic mode coz the next engineer wasn't around yet.

To make the long story short, a little misunderstanding of the schedules here and there resulted into 16hrs straight work for me.

(Oh, same here, I don't get it too. )

Currently Enjoying:

+ Rikcat's Gallery
+ Granny's Mail Art
+ Collage Artist : Caludine Hellmuth

yummy sites through the Archive of Curiosities.

Kung wala ka ng gustong sabihin
Wag ka ng tumingin ng ganyan
Kung bukas ako'y kalilimutan
Sana naman ngayo'y di mo na isiping ako'y tawagan
At habang may panahon wag na nating hintaying
Lumalim pa at masakit ng tanggapin
Ang pag-alis ng iyong liwanag
Na gumising sa mahabang gabi
Ika'y langit pero baka masanay
At di kakayanin ang iyong pag-alis
Kung wala ka ng gustong marinig
Ako'y aalis at mananahimik
Ang kahapon na nais kong limutin
Sana naman wag ng manumbalik at bigyan pansin


Pag-alis
barbie's cradle

HmHm Hhm Hm Hm-hm
HmHm Hhm Hm Hm-hm
HmHm Hhhmmmm Hmm
HmHm Hmmm Hmm
HmHm Hhm Hm Hm-hm



(yeah)

And Another!




Delight | Delirium was fun to do, so i made another work in that style.
(I always get a semi-heavy feeling when i try something new. It's fun to go a different way, but something in me says that there's something wrong. Maybe there is. Maybe there isn't. Right now what it's telling me is that my solid inking and the flowing watercolor don't go together. But it's just so fun i want to do a lot more heavily-inked watercolory works.)

New Artwork Alert!



Heh, it feels so good just to say that ;)

Browsing dA and nick bantock sites tapped a few creativity-ended nerves in my system and ended the long dry season. Worked on it for days, using old materials and an old unfinished portrait. Inspired by Delirium, my favorite Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

After writing the older post, i realized something..

It's a huge blessing to have friends who are artists and art-enthusiasts. A sweet one that turns my works into stationeries and miniature magnets, one who i can go to artwalks and exhibits with, ones who enjoy receiving my works (one of them has lost all of the works i have given him! ack!), one who uses my photographs as wallpaper, one who has a looong wishlist of prints but the first prints that she bought were from my gallery, one who encourages me to keep painting, one who said i should resign from work so all i can do is paint all day (while she works so she can feed me. imy, M.), one who's always interested on projects i'm working on, one who has a girlfriend that checks my works all the time and informs him whenever i have a new work of photo up, far-away friends that leave heartwarming words on my works, ones who link my page.

Blessings! ♥

What sucks about being on graveyard shift is you get home too early that you have to stay up and wait for hours before the malls open, and what sucks more is that the particular mall you want to go to opens at 11a.m.

But I guess I'm the only one having that problem. Others on graveyard shift would probably sleep when they get home and wake up late in the afternoon to hit the malls. I can't do that. No matter how hard I try to psyche myself that I'll wake up early and go somewhere my eyes refuse to open and my back can't be pulled out of bed. They won't cooperate til I have exactly 2 hours left before work, just enough time for me to eat and take a bath and sit in traffic.

Yesterday morning I went home and stayed up and waited for the mall to open. Then I waited two hours more for the print processing. Prints turned out ok. The edited ones (auto-balance) had noise. The black and whites were kewl too. Also had some film developed, and I had them with me last night. Some people got to see them, and i got a lot of "Why aren't there any people here?? What are these for?! You're wasting film!" comments. It's a good thing I'm in a very good mood because of how the pics turned out so I didn't bite their heads off after they said that. I just smiled and focused my attention on this one person who appreciated the photos.

I think it's good when you like what you do and enjoy the outcome of what you've spent time and energy on. But I think it's also essential that you find one or two who you can share your works with. They don't necessarily have to praise you or your talents. It's enough that they look at it long enough to show interest.

It's been months since i last saw dublin. Too many things has happened the last few months and we've only been catching up through notes and aim and the occasional calls. So last wednesday morning, after my overnight shift and before heading to malolos, we remedied that by having breakfast near his office.

Being the one who has the camera I became the official photographer of the Post Birthday Breakfast, and since he's the only participant other than me he became the lone subject. He and his curls. Longish curls. The type that will soon look like July's. He was proud of his hair.

And as it is the PBBreakfast, he has with him the gift that his girl, l.bebe, gave. A gift that plays polyphonic tunes. And it has the very nice Crash Into Me polyphonic ring tone. Sus!

The Breakfast was great and yummy. I wanted to stay and wait for l.bebe and turn the PBBreakfast into the dublin-l.bebe Post First Year Anniversary Lunch but dublin has some work to finish and had to return to the office. Maybe next time.. ;)

If you live near makati, or far away but you've got lots of free time, go watch a movie. Or movies. Good ones from foreign lands.

To celebrate the annual festival in my own way some 40 minutes away from the Makati i watched Finding Nemo last saturday night. It's fun and kewl and hilarious with a bunch of unforgettable characters. Dory with her short term memory but knows how to read and knows whale speak and the sharks that are abstaining from eating fish (Fish are friends, not food!) and the laidback 150-yr old turtle named Crush and his supercute son Squirt made me laugh and giggle. Pixar rocks. 8)

There's this state when you have a lot of things happening around you and your breath is on hold for the things that are gonna happen next and it's like being in the middle of storm, only that the aftermath probably won't be as bad. I feel as if i'm in that state right now, but only coz i've been very comfortable where i am, living life as it is, moving and growing slowly. Very slow at times, maybe even stagnant. And now that i'm doing something about it i'm filled with anxiety and fears and hopes and more fears and worries. amireadytoleavedo iknowenoughwhat willhappenwheni stepoutistheresome whereicangoto willitbebetterthere? Sometimes the fear gets a lot bigger than i am that it's so easy to step back and say i'm grateful and contented with what i have right now, and i know it's not a hundred percent true.

Sentences that start with 'I':

I went to BloodyMary and Mantis' place this morning to borrow their slr (for a month and a half! :D).

I got up early but still got caught in the saturday traffic.

I tagged along when they went to the site that will soon be their home and our (t.e.) tambayan.

I am not afraid of heights, but I didn't make it to the near-future roofdeck of their near-future home because I wasn't sure how I'd step down the makeshift ladder without a makeshift hand rail.

I sat on their floor back at their present home and ate lunch with them while BloodyMary watched Meteor Garden rewind and Mantis tried to watch Ripley's Believe It or Not in between breaks.

I was 48 minutes late for work today.

I wanted to stay at BloodyMary and Mantis' place the whole day and eat crosslegged on their bedroom floor.

I will start tinkering with their slr tonight! :D

Things that happened in the last 26 hours or so of my life:

+ I taught tats how to play tong-its with a brand new Hello Kitty deck of cards. It's been so long since i played it, so i called my sister at 12 midnight to have my Knowledge on The Rules of Tong-its checked.

+ Around 10 minutes after playing the game tats developed this habit of licking her thumb before picking up the top card from the deck. Around 10 minutes after she developed this habit i developed the habit of reminding her Hello Kitty does not need the lick. Pwera balis.

+ We played and played and played until 2.30 a.m., when she has finally and whole-heartedly accepted the fact that she'll never win against me. Well, ok, she won once.

+ Set the alarm to go off at 9.

+ Woke up. Pressed the Snooze Button. Woke up. Pressed the snooze button. Woke up. Pressed the snooze button. (Repeat several times til fade.)

+ I finally woke up at 1.40 in the afternoon. Played ScrabOut.

+ Did a teeny weeny bit of exercise to make up for the session i missed when i was defeated in the Snooze Button Struggle.

+ Surprised eloy by showing up in the internet cafe where she's typing her assignment. Bugged her. Had dinner.

+ Went to her house where we checked out all the little and the chunky glass beads and wires and trinkets that she uses for her little bracelet making business. Went home with lotsa freebies.

+ Now I'm at work. How anti-climactic.

The addiction is causing headaches. I guess thinking bruises my brain or something.

Just between you and me:

I'm addicted to ScrabOut.

Stuff

Last night i set the alarm clock at 8.30. I have to attend mass and wash a shirt and that would give me just enought time in the morning before I have to hurry for work. This morning i got woken up by Tats' knock on my door, at 9:40. Found out that I've set the alarm at 8:30 PM.

I clicked on blogger.com, knowing that the site would be blocked but hoping websense is down on a sunday. It's not down. Clicked on new.blogger.com and found out it's not blocked. woot! I'll be able to update the kam page more often (i think). I don't have to upload the pics somewhere then go online at home then guess or try to recall the names of the photo files which i forgot to write down and couldn't check coz xam's account doesn't allow ftp-ing. And no more trying to go online at night after work when the line is always so busy that i can only get online at past 12, and by that time i'm too sleepy or tired already and in no mood to write anything.

Life is good.

There's a slight pain on my back and it's not much of a bother but i don't like it coz it makes me believe the infection is still there. >_<

Another week passed and i headed to malolos again. The break wasn't as long as last week but it was still a Frank McCourt / Angela's Ashes trip. I just slept and read and still amazed that the book is very different from the movie. Stayed up with it last night til i reached the last page and McCourt's picture at the back and i kept staring at it looking for the scar between his brows and the redness of his eyes. It doesn't help that it's a black and white photo. ;p

Tuesday night was spent watching Amelie and i loved it! The humor and the story and the AllyMcBeal-ish animation and the look and everything is just so wonderful. I do believe it's the Season of Really Good Movies which is followed by the Season of Watching Really Good Movies Over and Over and Over.

Ah, and there's another good thing about this shift. On the single day in the week i have to cover the graveyard shift i get to talk with Dublin and Crughmie and send waiting messages to Mantis over aim. It's been a loooong time since i last touched messengers and it's so kewl to talk to them again. :D

It's been daaaayys since i last updated this thing. I'm blaming it on the afternoon shifts, the infection, the line issues and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.

Afternoon shift started this week. The sked allowed a lot of time for sleep, and join an activity at work which they have everyday at noon time for an hour. It's a fun thing. Exercise. ;p

The infection got really bad while i was at Home taking my day off, which gave me an excuse to take another day off. (Which is good.) Got to watch the Frank McCourt movie. Twice. It's great. Funny and sad and real and has a happy ending. Right now i'm reading the book, and it's like reading something which i haven't watched twice. The book is waaaay different from the movie. Very very different. But i still love the movie.

I hate it when i'm away from the plant for two days and the machines start missing me so much that i get back two or three of the machines are being attention-hungry whiny machines and the whole 8 hours of work is actually spent working. Then i go home and sleep and try not to dream of the horrible line issues and defects and when i get back the next day the same problems await me. Then again on the next day. It sucks. Not fun at all.

Maybe tomorrow will be different. (I hope.)

Blogging from Kit's pc. I have to mention that Blogger looks different on this one. A lot better too. Hmm.

We had the Anime Fest from around 8pm of last night til around 1pm today! A total of 3 dvd's and 10 hrs of sleep. (We're real human beings. We needed the sleep.) Spirited Away was as amazing and beautiful as described by friends. I liked most of the short films on the Animatrix. Kiki's Delivery Service is cute and fun. :)

Conclusion: Having an Anime Fest is the perfect way to end a week. ;) [Thanks Kit and Mike and Kit's wonderful family :)]

It's July. A month of heat and rain and hunting.

Everytime i go to festival mall, whether it's to window shop or to meet kit and mike for a movie or stroll or visit the bookstore and booksale, i enjoy walking really slow on the covered path, sometimes even stopping, to watch the fishies as they swim the shallow parts of the pond at the front of the mall. When i passed by last tuesday afternoon to meet Kati i saw a turtle! A pond slider probably, with a shell around 8 inches in length. The many times i passed by that pond it was the first time i saw one there.

A different story this afternoon though. As tats and i were walking on the covered path, we noticed something strange. The pond was murky green, with a thin oil film on some parts. There were still fishies, and huge ones too! But instead swimming around they floated. Dead.

It was a heartbreaking sight.

I wonder where the toxic material came from. Tall corporate buildings stand around the mall. A market and a hospital hundreds of meters away.

Hmmm.

see that little new link at the menu bar, the one that says 'kam.'? yep, it's what you think it is but not exactly what you think it is. ;)

slow person that i am, i haven't finished updating every single html page on this site, so that link is available only from the mindswap and the cam page. heh.

Ah, so the portland servers are up again. 8) Lots of things to do 'round here..

Some ultra kewl and wonderful people are celebrating their birthdays.. like rajiv and ryan on the 21st, and sweet friend Kit today.

I wish you guys joy and soul-felt laughter and love and more life.

While hauling 11 to 16 lb balls with minds of their own wasn't exactly my idea of having fun, i actually had a great time at gameworxx with tats this afternoon after work. I missed, scored some strikes and spares as few as the apostrophe's in this paragraph, laughed, acted and made myself believe i'm actually improving at it. Nope, i didn't score high, but at least the balls i throw (let go..? delivered..?) followed a straight line most of the time, even though sometimes they ended up in the canals. Fun!

So far this week has included the following:

Rain. Postponed volleyball games. A missing-in-action volleyball team which gave us one win. (Team standing is now 2W-1L. No more games for the rest of the week.) Out of the blue trips to megamall. Sweating in a non-airconditioned company bus. Belly flop (grilled salmon belly. yum.) and pandan iced tea. Huge headache. A sony digital camera at almost 50% off. Woot! :D

I didn't make it to Kit and Mike's place to watch spirited away. Hmm, maybe i jinxed it by listing it right away on The Things That Make This Week Great List...? Kit came down with a flu, and I'm not at my best state of health right now so i can't even go there to see how she is. I'm afraid I'd make her situation worse if i go there with this week-old cough and sniffy nose. Hope you get well soon, girl.

The things that make this week great:

a. fracture guy went back to work and is now the ex-fracture guy. no more daily back-to-back-to-back 12 hr shifts!
b. winning the second volleyball game (team standing is now 1-1. heehee!). bruised and purple and deep red all over but happy. oh, yeah!
c. getting promoted to second level. smallish salary increase with the promotion, but better than nothing really. knowing that the boss is on my side.
d. spirited away on saturday at kit and mike's place. :D


--------------------
reading / hearing nothing lately. feeling ache-y and sore all over.

Was finally able to catch Matrix Reloaded last Tuesday night with Kit and Mike and it was sooo amazing! The fight scenes were the best. While Neo was fighting all the Agent Smiths i kept thinking 'Oh, do the superman thing already, Neo!' coz those Agent Smiths are tireless and poised with their dark glasses on during the whole fight and i'm just so glad that Neo didn't hear me so the fight scene lasted a whole lotta minutes and did i tell you that it's the best fight scene ever? If i'd ever go back to the cinema to watch it again the only reason for doing so is for me to see that whole amazing fight scene again.

Another Matrix Reloaded note that I really have to mention: when Neo was at the room with the architect and all the monitors on the walls showed Neo's face the first thing that came to my mind was "Neoprints!" and that it was just so kewl and clever coz it just fits so perfectly! Ok, i'll stop the nonsense now. ;p


......


We had our first volleyball game yesterday. We lost. Totally unprepared and lacking of practice. There were only 8 of us, so most of us were at the court for the whole game. Oh, and the other team was better ;p


......


Do you think you know Micheal Jackson's nose? I scored 12 out of 15. ;p

Typhoon Chedeng is on out of the country now. While it was still here it made my two-hr trip turn to 4.5 hrs because of the huge traffic at the North Luzon Expresssway due to flash floods. But I really can't complain. I know others suffered a far worse fate because of Chedeng. Today, on the tube, I learned that the typhoon took 19 lives, and many are still missing.

 


Pics from the Tagaytay Trip are now at the know section.

Oh, and some more semiHome pics there too.

[ Excuse: Office scanner still busted. Had the pics scanned at the cafe. Poor quality. ]

On the tube:

The reporter went around and asked kids which of the Meteor Garden stars they love. One kid answered Jackie Chan.

I almost got to see Matrix Reloaded today. My phone/alarm died so i was just waking up around the time i should be meeting Kit and Mike at the cinemas. My old mobile just turned into a phone/alarm/life-planner.

My body is a huge mass of pain. Walking is a repeated series of "step-ow!-step-ow!" as the muscles on my right leg are sore. I have a headache that won't go away. I don't think the ibuprofen/paracetamol i took is working. ;\

I was still able to head to malolos earlier today, and got there at noontime. In the three hours i was there all i did was sleep and shake my head "No" when they tell me to eat and speak softly when the questions asked cannot be answered by shaking the head. Wish i could head home and sleep.

Which reminds me.. after my 16hr shift i have to stick around for a while and wait for the secretary so i can talk to her about my salary complaint. She was probably too proessured and out of focus when she updated my attendance. My last slip reflected two absences and some OT hours didn't get paid. Ugh.

[12:19 AM]

Tagaytay Trip
Tuesday, 9 :45 pm

Last night tats and i decided we'd go to Tagaytay today. Coz we can. So that's what we did.

Headed to the city terminal and met tats there after a now rare 8hr graveyard shift. The trip lacks all the needed planning and we lack the necessary how-to's of getting there but tats had been on the phone with a friend for the directions, so i went to sleep during the trip like she suggested. When i woke up we found out we're two cities and forty five minutes past our stop already ;p

After several jeep and bus rides we arrived at Olivarez. The driver suggested the People's Park in the Sky* as a must-visit, so that's where we headed first. It's a place waaaay on top of a mountain, overlooking the cities on one side and the the tall lake on the other. Unfortunately, the place is poorly maintained, and there's not much there worth seeing. Not worth all the travel and climb.

Next stop: Picnic Grove. This place is definitely much better, well maintained and there are always some staff going around. They have a lot of roofed tables and the view of the taal lake and volcano is kewler too. They have a very tiny butterfly garden that has some 2 or 3 butterfly species ;p We stayed there and just talked for some hours, and good thing it was cloudy so it was ok to stay there even though it was noontime already. They also have an eco-trail, whatever that is, that we didn't try out coz we were too tired from climbing already and we were hungry and the sun peeks out of the clouds every now and then.

We went back to Olivarez for a late lunch, then headed to our last Tagaytay trip destination: Residence Inn and Mini Zoo at Halfway Drive. Mini as it is, i think it has more animals than the dying manila zoo. It would have been a lot nicer too if it wasn't so smelly. It's at the side of a mountain too, so there are huge concrete stairs one has to take to get to see the lions and potbelly pigs and the eagles. Some hyper tigers, a sleeping crocodile, mating mini horses, a llama, a huge fake gorilla, lazy malay civet cats, a bear, monkeys, monkeys, an ape, huge (bloated..?) fishies, birdies, turtles were checked out before i got to gather enough courage to touch a snake. It was like holding cold rubber, but it was still freaky.

My tired sleepless head and body gave up on the way back to alabang. Was unconscious during most of the trip. Now i'm gonna close this and head to bed coz i've been up for more than 24hrs already. Gonna head to malolos early tomorrow morning and head back later in the evening for a 16 hr shift. Ayee.

Oh, and i won't forget this lady who pronounced Twin Popsies as Twin Popsize while we were at the park in the sky, like i won't forget the saleslady who asked me and my college classmate how much "paper twinee" (paper twine) we needed. ;p



*took some pics, which i'm afraid were overexposed coz i forgot to correct the film setting on my camera. still, gonna have them developed and added to the growing pile of pics that i'm gonna scan when the office scanner gets fixed. I was gonna add some links to the places we visited too, but i'm... tooo... sleepyy.. already. zzzzzz.

My right eye is still a bit reddish from my stupidity accident last night. I was collecting samples from the cell of a plating bath when the container got hooked to the conveyor belt and got dragged (with me still holding on to it). Instead of pulling the cable that's connected to the emergency stop, i panicked and yanked the container, and doing so made its contents fly out and hit my face. *bows*

Oh, and i have the pics already. But the office scanner is busted. Will put some of them up soonish.

Thursday, May 15, 2003


So websense is back. it means it's gonna take a while before i get to check this and that out. The wonderful mind behind the mirror project has great pictures at her sites, and i'm gonna miss seeing them. Oh, and blogger is blocked too, so this thing is updated using notepad.

Another thing i've been enjoying for weeks is dooce's blog updates. The way she writes makes other blogs, including this place, more dull than the dullest bog in the world, and makes me wish jessica zafra has her own twisted blog.


Yesterday, when i got back from my restday, a lovely surprise was waiting for me at my office table. Kit printed stationeries with the butterfly print i gave her, and she made several sets for herself, and sent me some of them. :) They're lovely and nice. Kit made enough sheets, so i won't be torn between using them and keeping them for myself ;] Thanks, Kit :)



11:01 PM

I headed home earlier than usual this morning, around an hour after my regular shift. I endorsed the line to the other area's engineer, submitted some documents at the control center, and sent my boss a message that I'm on my way home (which i found later she wasn't able to receive coz she changed her number already. woops.). Too sleepy and too tired and my room needs to be cleaned and my laundry needs to be washed.

When tats and I got to the semiHome i got some rocky road ice cream, grabbed my camera and stayed at our smallish porch. Tats followed me there, holding a ripe mango and a chair. It was a nice morning. It drizzled a bit during the night, so the air was pleasantly cool. That smallish porch is facing east too, the bay area, and it was still nice even though the sun was high already.

The rest of the day was spent sleeping. The only room cleaning I was able to do was get my trash out. As for my dirty clothes, they ended up being packed and brought to the cleaners. Tomorrow, instead of going straight to malolos, I'll be going back to the apartment to get my stuff and the pics i brought to the developer. Can't wait to see the pics taken with the cheap polarizer. ;p

Still reading: An Empire of Women by Karen Shepard

It's taking me more than a week, and I'm still a lot of pages away from the end of the story. Good in a way coz it's a joy to read. This is the first time I've encountered the style, alternating between third person and one of the main character's (Celine's) point of view. The book takes its time, each chapter about the events of one day, with lots of little interesting details given. I just wish I have longer time sitting with the book so that I'd enjoy it more.

I'm now at the part where a lot has been revealed but not too much that i can't start over again. I just feel that there were little things my sleepy head wasn't able to give enough attention to, and that those little things are necessary for me to be able to appreciate the story more. Or maybe it's the political/historical details in the story that my mind refuses to take in that I feel I missed, and unfortunately those parts are significant too.

Hmmm.

There's a huge possibility my Ina will never get to see this, but i still want to put this up :) Happy Mother's Day. ♥ (And yes, she was aiming the water hose at me, and almost got me too. ;p)

By the way, hi-way, some pics are up at the visuals section.

Looks like portland ftp is good and running again. Finally.

Was in a crappy mood when i headed home after work. The poor jeepney driver got a share of steam when he started his vehicle while i was getting off. I'm not naturally masungit. But i become one when i'm too tired, or when my life is placed in a bit of danger.

On my way home i had a bit of an idea on a piece of work. There's this urge to draw or paint or do anything these last few days, but i haven't been giving it much attention coz there was no idea, just the urge, and by experience i know that won't amount into anything. So now there's the concept, and the urge is still there. There is a huge emotion involved in it too, and it was so huge and deep that i find it hard to breathe normally while cooking up the idea in my head. If things go smoothly i'll start working on it soon. Soon.

16hr shift.. i can't remember the last time i stayed this long at work.

Today, fracture guy's wife sent some papers and medical certificates at the clinic. When she got back she handed me a white slip that says fracture guy is officially on leave til the end of the month. Haaaay.

Some days websense blocks blogger so i can't update mindswap. Other days, blogger gets through websense, but portland is down so updating is useless. These past few days, it's either one or the other. Crazy sites.

Was too sleepy when i got home from work, was only able to read a few pages off the book i'm reading. I'll probably read those pages again. It's the type of book with a lot of little details that is unsuitable for someone who's sleepy and who gets distracted immediately, and i'm both these days. 'Fell asleep as soon as i closed my eyes, and got woken up 6 hours later by the heat. One of the disadvantages of being on graveyard shift during summer: Too hot to sleep in the afternoons. If i wasn't so tired i probably won't get that much sleep.

The heat probably got Tats too, coz she went out and got us some halo-halo. ;)

I'm now back at work, and since portland is still down i don't know when this entry will be posted. La la la..

My boss acutally clapped her hands in relief when she saw me arrive at work before ten pm last night. She said i was seldom late (or she's just unaware that i sometimes arrive late for work), and she thought she'd be doing a 16hr shift.

I'm at my laziest whenever i'm getting ready to leave malolos. It's just so easy to do every little thing slowly in getting ready to leave for work. It takes me around two hours to travel from my parents' house to work, and around two hours before i have to swipe in, i'm still walking lazily around the house, opening and closing drawers, looking around for stuff that i might need, giving my dad the chance to enumerate the things i might forget. "..celfone mo... susi mo... charger mo... atm card mo... i.d. mo..." Sometimes i'd go along and recite them with him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . An Empire of Women - Karen Shepard
_ hearing . Without Me - Claire Marlo
_ feeling . lazy

It's sunday. Gonna start graveyard shift tomorrow and still no word from pixelcatalyst when the eb is gonna be. Too bad. They (pix & nizzy, junel & marie, and diwa) were supposed to meet last weekend but they moved it, and i thought it was gonna be held last night, but it looks like they had a change of plans again, and i might not be able to join them if they meet anytime soon.

Been getting almost seven hours of sleep since friday night, but i still feel super sleepy. The kind with a little headache that won't go away.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . An Empire of Women - Karen Shepard
_ hearing . nothing
_ feeling . headache-y

You know it's a bad day when 2 hours after the start of the shift you get into a shouting argument with a hard headed hot-tempred techinician who thinks the only thing that a process engineer knows how to do is sit in front of the pc the whole day. And you know it has gone worse when you get so mad that you can't stop yourself from crying when you get back to the office.

And if you think it can't get any worse, a few hours after the incident, when you've calmed down and stopped sniffing and your eyes aren't red and puffy anymore you find a one inch long reddish line between your eyes where you've pressed a while ago while trying to stop your eyes from shedding more tears.

I feel like a baby.

I'm sleepy. This work sked is throwing off my system. Today I found out that the fracture guy will be on leave for another month. Another month. A whole month of 12hr shifts. Just saying it makes me tired already.

Had fun watching Johnny make a charming fool of himself last night. The role fits him perfectly. ;p It seems Kit didn't have much fun as i did, though.. she's so kind she can't bring herself to laugh at his misfortunes ;) Mike wished we watched XMen 2 instead. Heh. Had a great night :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe - yep, back to the kiddies!
_ hearing . nothing
_ feeling . not so ok.

Sometimes there's just no point.

I'm tired. I want to stop. But maybe stopping is not the answer. Maybe it's in going on that one finds strength. Does strength come with a cold, unfeeling heart? Or does one need that cold heart to be strong? If that's the case i'd rather be weak than callous.

Weak and broken. But I'm tired of being broken. I need to be whole.

and sometimes i forget.

Went to Quiapo yesterday afternoon with my Ama. We brought with us our old old old 35mm p&s cameras with the hope that they would be fixed.

We got off the jeep at rizal ave and walked the busy streets. Its streets are filled with every electronic-related stuff one can think of. Speakers, diagrams, IC's and parts. My dad walks soo fast. It felt like I was halfway through the 8-minute tae-bo work-out when i got to take a rest at the store that sells diagrams. Then we continued walking and walking til we started seeing vendors with all sorts of potions and labelled bottles and herbs and fluids, and sure enough we were near plaza miranda already - the wide plaza in front of Quiapo church.

A few more steps and we're at Hidalgo, the street where the camera supplies and repair shops are. We went from shop to shop and none of them wanted to repair my sister's p&s camera. They said it can't be fixed. A sidewalk camera repair guy said there's no fixing needed, and it only needs to be cleaned. So in the end, we left it to a repair shop for cleaning. The shops also rejected the pentax rangefinder. For my p&s camera i got a polarizer.

I bet i'd still get crappy pics, with or without the polarizer :p

Kit arranged a get-together at megamall yesterday afternoon at starbucks along mega strip. Kit and Mike and I were the only ones who showed up ;p Dublin was still at Boracay, pentuna was at a family reunion, bloodymary was at the hotel, and the others, i'm not sure..

After coffee / chocolate drink we checked out the galleries at the fourth level. The main gallery featured an exhibit called Freakshow, abstract expressionistic works by seven ust fine arts graduates. I liked the works by a lady named marga!. She paints stars and concentric circles and ringed dots in nice oranges and blues and beiges and matte gold.

After checking out the galleries at the artwalk we headed to powerplant. I finally got to see the place. Unlike the sm malls, this one is not convenient for commuters, but surprisingly the place is packed. A lot of people everywhere. (And i thought .ph is a poor nation..)


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
_ hearing . nothing
_ feeling . tired

Back. And it looks like I'm not the only one with the short break coz there was a huge traffic along the north express on my way here.

I didnt have the chance to get out of town or go on a trip somewhere outside my parents' place, so i spent my almost-three-day break reading the books i brought home. When i got tired of reading I looked for the sheets of logic problems i used to spend time on years ago while waiting for a potential employer's call and when i found them erased all the answers and started answering them all over again. No, my break wasn't boring. Can't wait for the next longish break so i can erase the answers and do them again. arf!

Good thing channel 2 aired some really nice 70's classics to cover their regular programming. Himala was one of them. It's not exactly nice, but it's surely a classic. Who doesn't know Nora Aunor's line "Walang himala!"? The other good ones were Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon, which reminded me a bit of Forrest Gump, and Lino Brocka's Insiang.

Back to work tomorrow. Bleh.

Went out last night with tats and had dinner at la tienda. I had paella negra. Hmm, it was ok, but not as good as the one i ate years ago. Their iced tea tastes like lipton's instant tea. Not good.

It's fun to get away from canteen food every now and then, but that would probably be the last resto-eat-out this month. If i don't stop myself i'll be broke soon.

I had lots of moping free time after work last saturday. Eloi was at home cleaning her new room so i invited myself over. Their new place has a little porch facing the bay. It's a nice view if you'd tiptoe and deliberately miss seeing the shanties at the foreground.

We went out at around 7 and had dinner at the town center, then did some browsing and drooling at powerbooks. When i was in college my wish was to own jolis or a national bookstore branch so i'd have a huge supply of art materials. Now my wish is to own one powerbooks branch. Having both would be kewl too.

Back to reality.. I was able to get Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart at a discounted price. A little more time was spent on browsing basic photography books and Gaiman's sandman collections. Wish wish.

I was able to borrow some more books from eloi. Lots of books to read. Can't wait for the 3 day break.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . Coraline - Neil Gaiman
_ hearing . Waiting in Vain - Annie Lennox
_ feeling . better

Days and days and days spent here and there. Stopped at smwest on my way to malolos and had dinner with my sister. She was as talkative as ever. It's the end of the term and she won't be seeing her students anymore, and she had all these stories about what they answered for the bonus part of the exam. Every now and then I had to remind her to put the spoonful of chili con carne into her mouth and finish dinner.

And again, that silly girl overspent the last few days and will have to use up her coin savings til the next payday. It's one silly trait I have too, sometimes, spending the last money i have on things that are not really necessary til I have nothing left even though I have to wait a few more days to get my salary. The sense of adventure! The adrenaline rush! It probably has the same effect on me as with people who enjoy extreme games.

Spent most of the malolos trip sleeping. Went to town center at the mid of the day to get some medicine for my parents and went to the bookstore to check out the photography book i saw the last time. It wasn't as good as i remember, and it's too old already, information wise. I checked out the other books they have and got C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter for 10 pesos each and a beautifully illustrated A Ride on the Red Mare's Back for 65 pesos.

That was a good trip. :)


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . mtv ink's latest ish
_ hearing . If You're Not the One - Daniel Bedingfield
_ feeling . better

The 10 pm update: Re-computed most of the data. The report is 80% done. Did i mention that it's needed tomorrow?

Gonna head home now and eat some ice cream. And return to work at 6am tomorrow. Yayy! Work is fun.

Back to back 12hr shifts on a sunday and a holiday could be fun. Not too much load and not too many people around. But when you're consolidating 5 months worth of cost data, and when the bosses want the cost details per vendor per machine, and when you have 8 machines working in the line, and when the cost data that was provided is wrong and you have to find out what went wrong by re-computing and re-analyzing huge excel worksheets, and when the other data that you need are in another pc which right now cannot find its excel.exe even if you've turned the whole cpu upside down, and when you can't open the files through the network because the ics disabled sharing of its drives because the drives have a virus, and when you can't copy the files in a disk because they're a bit huge, and when you can't send it via notes coz the mail servers are down, it's NOT fun. Not fun at all. >_<

And then, just now, as i was reading what i've written, i remembered i installed ws ftp on that pc and i can upload those friggin' files somewhere. bling! bling!


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . data and some more data and more data and
_ hearing . Linger - The Cranberries
_ feeling . angry ok confused
_ thinking . Ranting rules.

Went to pansol laguna yesterday together with the senior engineers and their families. Eight hours was not enough for the swimming trip, specially coz it's during the day. Half the time the sun is high that it can bake and toast anybody in the pool. That time is good for eating in the nipa hut and listening to the videoke singers and entertaining the senior engineers' kids though, so it was still kewl.

~

I hated the trip back. Everybody was tired and sleepy, and I wasn't. My mind is not a good companion on quiet trips these days. I don't like the conversations that it starts up.

Hmm.. so maybe now it's safe to update this again. Last tuesday a different template shows up everytime i push the publish button. Hrmp.

Headed to mega after my 12hr shift yesterday and waited for kikay a bit. We had a really filling dinner at kitchen, thanks to their huge delicious servings of dishes called 'egg on' and 'grounded rice' and bottomless pandan iced tea. I've only been there once and i already love everything about that place, from their stainless steel-covered tables to the red-chilli-pepper-on-powder-filled-glass centerpiece to the salt-dish-that-serves-as-table-napkin-holder. Nice.

I've been missing my t.e. friends so it was really good to have an impromptu dinner with one of them. I think it was almost 11 when we said our goodbyes.

I wish I'd see the others soon too.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . The Umbrella Man and Other Stories - Roald Dahl
_ hearing . nothing
_ feeling . tired and sleepy.

the silly april fools trick is messing up my posts.

umm.. it IS a trick, right?

What my sister thought was an exhibit of children's books illustrations was actually an exhibit of the works done by the participants of a kiddie book illustration workshop. And the participants were kids. And i went all the way to u.p.'s vargas musem just to check it out. And eloi took a leave from work just to see it. Owwwkay. Darn false advertising. Silly sister ;p

The trip to the Chocolate Kiss at the alumni building made up for the blooper. It's a smallish place with walls covered with kiddie book type drawings. Neat little place that serves yummy cheesecake. We could see all the works from where we were sitting, but we changed tables before our orders were served just so we could check out the other works ;)

To satisfy our craving for art, eloi and I headed to megamall and checked the galleries at the 4th level. I was a bit surprised that she likes seeing paintings too. I've known her for quite some time and have stayed with her and her family for more than a year but i thought she was only interested in kiddie type drawings. Heh 8)

That was a kewl afternoon. We should have something like that every week. Hmmm...

I tried to write.

Also called the not-so-fantastic-works-of-last-night. Written from july 6 to 10 last year.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . nothing
_ hearing . idaial - barbie's cradle
_ feeling . broken
_ thinking . leaving me is easier than loving - b. almabis

[teaser]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
like a reed..

you breathe life into me,
your gentle movement gives me Soul.
your whisper becomes my voice -
a soothing music that echoes in empty space.


to.the.Muse
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[/teaser]


three text poetry pages are now up.

I found a copy of Hungry Young Poets album. woot! :D It was more expensive than barbie's cradles new one too. bleh. But it seemed i didnt have much of a choice so i bought it. I listened to bc's playing in the fields then hyp over and over and there are a few ones form the new album that i instantly liked but i'm still missing their old sound a bit. Or maybe it's the familiarity..


A totally unrelated observation: my recent dreams are more interesting than real life.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . Skin and Other Stories - Roald Dahl
_ hearing . Playing in the Fields - Barbie's Cradle
_ feeling . missing my te friends.

MindSwap finally changes its look after a looooong time. I'm still attached to #333333 and oranges and reds and verdana and small fonts and "almost" everything is the same except the look. "Almost," coz a few things have been updated and removed and a few will be brought back and some other things will be added soon. If only I'm not lazy enough to stick to promises... ;p

Thanks to ms for checking things out and for giving suggestions while i re-design. :)

Look around, enjoy, and tell me where the busted links are ;p

It's Leche Flan Fiesta Season!

Umm, but yeah, there are fiestas every month the whole year. This is the Fiesta Islands after all. But the ones that matter are those I can go to, yeah? :p I was at Alfonso, Cavite last Saturday, and Padre Garcia in Batangas yesterday. The fiestas in these towns are not as grand as big time festivals with huge parades. This is just the typical town fiesta with marching bands in the morning and small processions at night and almsot the same good food in every house. Another thing that's becoming common in these fiestas these days are the videoke's in every other house. I'm not sure if this is a good thing :p Videoke machines enclosed in small sound proof rooms are ok. Sing April Boy's newest single (which sounds like his every other song) or do a Macarena number and I wouldnt care. Ones outside houses, with people insisting they are great singers by singing as loud as they can, are not.

I'm being mean :p I should just let them have their fun...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . script codes
_ hearing . Tear in Your Hand - Tori Amos
_ feeling . a little sick. too much fiesta food >_<

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . nothing
_ hearing . Floor Pile - Shannon Wright
_ feeling . lost ;\ loved :)

Teeny-weeny updates.
   Transferred the links to the right page.
   The lovely Joy has a new home for her poetries and stories.
   Barbie's Cradle has a new album and an ultra kewl site.

Yup.

The template finally updated. It took several picking and a hundred F5's.

And as promised, pics from the butterfly sanctuary trip.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . instructions
_ hearing . Simple and Clean - Hikaru Utada
_ feeling . OK

Last night, a few minutes before six i said i'll take a short nap, then get up to watch tv and eat dinner and read. Has anyone of you taken a 12-hr nap? That's what I had.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . a huge pile of print-outs of stories and poems and notes collected the last few months.
_ hearing . Room for Squares - John Mayer
_ feeling . fine

Last saturday night I was at a despedida-party-for-Ishq's-Mike slash grand-eyeball-of-sorts slash Dublin's-dpsi-officemates'-reunion ;p Mike arrived a few weeks ago from the states to visit Ishq, and he'll be leaving tomorrow. Dublin's kewl dpsi officemates cooked the food. I was there to meet them and say Hi to MIke before he goes back to nc. He said he like Manila, and that shocked me. :p How can something so crowded and noisy and dirty be appealing? *kamot ulo*

Great yummy food. Fantastic superfunny people. And (no) thanks to work I left them just as they were getting the hard drinks. Not that its the alcohol I feel bad missing, coz I dont drink. Because of work I was not able to see how superkulit and funnier they'll be after several shots of gin.

Haaay.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . reviewers for the technical exam i'll be taking tomorrow
_ hearing . Puro Tori - a collection of Tori Amos songs sent by Mari
_ feeling . sleepy

Butterflied

Was able to make some more butterfly-sanctuary-looking-prints last night while at my parents' house. I still feel that the photocopy transfer was not the best idea for the text, but my old old old speedball nibs were nowhere to be found. And my calligraphy is probably as rusty as the lost nibs anyway, so I still used the photocopy transfers. Hmm hm hmm..

Tats spent the night at our place and she wanted to visit the butterfly place so that's what we did this morning. Unlike my first visit, the place was packed this time with super kulit students on field trip. There were kids catching butterflies >_< moms running after their kids and taking pictures and kids running away from the winged creatures. Heh. The nice friendly person guarding the exit (*nfpgte) showed us how to approach a butterfly so it would stay still on our hands, so Tats and I and the kids I scolded for trying to catch the butterflies spent a good half-hour or more doing what the nfpgte did. The nfpgte also insisted that we take pics of the mating butterflies. This is one thing I didnt understand... why do I have to take a pic of the butterflies while they are sharing a 'private' moment? But he was nice with us, I wasn't able to protest. Gonna put up the pics soon. I've uploaded some pics here. ;)


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . old issues of MTV Ink
_ hearing . Passenger Seat - Stephen Speaks
_ feeling . sleepy
_ needing . -

I'm a Pepsi fan. But Vanilla Coke rocks my world.

I'm thinking of re-designing this place... maybe put more focus on the art and words sections, or maybe just do another lay-out for mindswap so it wouldnt look as cluttered. Then I remembered I dont know much html and tables and frames and php and a lot of other stuff.


Bleh.

I got interested in carving eraser stamps some few weeks ago. Got to try my first butterfly stamp last week.



butterfly sanctuaries

   



butterflies

NeWS!

Prints of some of my works are now available here: daprints.com/~skyorange.

                > seashore girl | watercolor
                > seashore girl | oil
                > glow
                > MetaForest
                > half angel


More prints coming soon :) Huge thanks to Kit for letting me use their scanner.

I'm at Kit and Mike's place right now. Finished watching HP2 a while ago. :) And now i'm scanning old works so i can put something up (and maybe even sell ;p) at dAprints. ms got me the account many months ago, and it's high time i replace the blank space with thumbnails.


Update as of 7.57 am:
Haven't slept yet. The prints i submitted are now waiting for approval. I hate thinking about the price >_< I dont know if I'm overpricing or not... so many things to consider.
Headache.. headache..

Artsy postcards and creature-filled postcards and fly trap postcards and a lot of good works at the postcard project dot net. And now some post card wannabes:

     

remembering..

Joan Marie Ramos
poet . artist . friend
1976 - 2002



Mari at dA | Mari's bkaro | a.speck.of.Mari

Lovely days and lovely moments and such

# 224 Eye glasses. My last pair was barely two moths old when i lost it a year ago. The one before that didnt even last a month. So careless. *slaps forehead* Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor to get a new pair. We'll see if this one will break any records...

# 275 The Mystery Package There was a little pick-up notice at my drawer when i got home 2 nights ago, so I went to te post office with my mom to pick up the package. It came from the lovely lady Joy :). It's a small porcelain figure of two ladies holding a heart.If my image host is ok right now, a scan of the lovely gift would appear on the left of this page. She also wrote me a card. Heartwarming. Touching. I brought them with me and the sweet ornament is now hanging on my shelf.

# 279 Pizza With Ina Just coz I always enjoy eating out with my Mother. It's something that she enjoys and appreciates, even though it's just fast food meals most of the time ;p

# 281 My Parents' 30th Wedding Anniversary last Jan 14. It's a sweet blessing. :)

# 312 Talking with MS over the phone :) I missed hearing his voice, and it was so good to finally hear it again. His voice. His chuckle. The whispers. They make me glow. He makes me glow..

# 324 Movie night Hehe, this is an advance post. Gonna catch lotr 2 with Kit and Mike tonight. I know i'm gonna have a great time. I always do when I go out to meet them.. :).