The Mysteries Have Been Revealed

Perhaps what I like about Mr. Sunico is not only his practical knowledge of publishing but his wit as well as his awareness of all sorts of gossip.

One of the talks last Thursday involved National Bookstore and Goodwill Bookstore, of the strange ties the two have, and how all corporations mess up in one way or another when it comes to passing it to the next generation.

On My Publication

One of the most difficult things to handle in our thesis is the fact that we're a group, and it's a democracy.

Right now, after several talks with some of my groupmates, I managed to persuade them to go with the print-on-demand method (i.e. the risograph or photocopier method).

But knowing that the editors and groupmates are fickle, and some don't even like me anymore (I am not know for finesse or tact, and please, we've known each other for four years), well, I won't be surprised if things go differently by next week.

Not-So-Endless Nights

Actually managed to see a few dozen copies of Neil Gaiman's Endless Nights, although all of them are accounted for. Nearly a hundred copies are circulating around Metro Manila, each at $25.00, and people have all bought them.

Cockroach

I put on my shoe yesterday and I felt a prickling on the right one. Later, when I checked what it was (expecting it was a pebble or a straw), it was a dead cockroach. I had killed it. And it made a stain on my sock.

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The Early Morning Blog Update

At the rate I'm going, maybe I should rename this blog...

Rain Rain and More Rain

As if life changes here in the Philippines...

Workshop!

Spent last Tuesday with workshops, workshops, and more workshops with poetry: one for my thesis, the other for my writing for children class.

Virus

I've been receiving virii from my email again, but this time, it's more obvious, since the ones sending the file claims to be from Microsoft.

As if Microsoft would do a free service.

Or what happens if the one receiving the email uses Linux?

Professional Hitchhiker

Didn't have a carpool yesterday because he was going to attend the batch pictorials. After class, spent some time buying taho and while waiting in a corner, lo and behold, an acquaintance who was heading for Greenhills...

You Can Only Hit Buddha Three Times Before He Gets Angry

Witnessed Vin get angry yesterday after a security guard didn't let the shipment in despite a permit.

Vin: What use would a permit be if I had to wait like the rest? That's why I have a permit!

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Ooops

Apparently, the last award during the Ragnarok convention was the boss's choice, rather than game boss winner. When you look at it, the whisper did have some cheap ingenuity in crafting the costume...

Eeeek

Woke up early in the morning just to cram (one of the most overused words I use) revising a poem for my writing for children class. Never mind that I'm at a total disadvantage because 1) it's poetry, 2) it's target audience is children, and 3) it's in Filipino.

So I'm actually giving up because I honestly can't think up of something and write it in less than fifteen minutes, at least something that's better than what I previously wrote. I'll get back to it before next week, the "real" deadline for the poem.

Argggh

It's Tuesday. 7:30 am - 7:30 pm class. It'll most likely rain.

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It Always Rains

Which is why I usually bring an umbrell and a jacket, because honest to God, you can't really tell what the weather is going to be like in this country of ours. One moment you have a sunny morning, then there's immediately a brief downpour. With accompanying lightning. With weather like that, it's not surprising that anyone caught the...

...Flu

Apparently my philosophy teacher Mr. Bulaong caught the flu so we didn't have class last Friday and Monday. There's a make-up class, which'll occupy my Saturday morning.

It Happened Again

I was at the library, reading Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time, when one of my pretty classmates from theology approached me and asked me what I was reading. Next thing you know, she's asking me if it's anything like Harry Potter.

Meteor Garden Fever

While at Copytrade, the photocopiers at Katipunan, the salesladies there were talking about the Meteor Garden concert the other day, from the stampede, to their appearance on TV the next day.

I wonder when this phenomenon will be saturated.

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Things Go Wrong

During the Ragnarok's launch last Saturday, few people brought cameras (at least on the cosplayer's side). I brought one, but it ran out of battery before I could begin taking pictures. On Sheila's part, she brought a camcorder, but her brother forgot to load it with a memory stick.

Last Sept. 3, Wednesday, was supposed to be the batch's pictorial. Unfortunately, it rained, hence it was cancelled.

And cancelled again for the same reasons last week, Sept. 10. It's rescheduled to this Wednesday.

Interesting Email for the Week

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that frist lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a toatl mses and you sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

"F2" Concert

Here is a friend's account of the Saturday event, in case Dean is curious.

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'Nuff Said

The Two Towers Extended Edition features.

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The Other Half of My Life

Spent last evening with the people who usually hang out at Comic Quest, like Vin, Dean, Nikki, Marco, Jason, Dino, Andrew ("Youngblood #1") and Ralph ("Youngblood #2"). Leinil Yu did drop by and some photographs were taken by fanboy Andrew, who also got a sketch among other things.

It's not Magic!

I just explained to Dean how an abacus works. He was just shocked that it wasn't a calculator that does all the computation for you but merely heightens your existing mathematical talent.

Of course the irony is that despite having four Chinese in the shop, no one knew how to properly operate the abacus, including the multiplication and division calculations.

F2

Ken and Vanness had their concert yesterday along with two females from Meteor Garden. Yes, I know people who went to the concert. Moving on...

The 7 am Meeting

Woke up as early as 5:15 am since I was supposed to meet to those who went to the immersion in Montalban at 7 am. Dropped my sister at the Ateneo high school since she was having her ACET today and I waited at a bench starting 6:20 am. Unfortunately, they didn't arrive until 8:15 am, and that's only because I had to call them up to wake them up at 7 am.

Times like these, I'm happy I brought a book.

More delays involved eating at Jollibee, taking the LRT2 to Cubao, only to return to Katipunan since the FX heading for Montalban passed through the normal route. Of course when I got there, things got worse.

The Immersion Return Trip

While the families were very happy to see us and engaged in conversation, my companions were mainly interested in taking pictures for their theology report. They bought black and white film to make the setting seem more pitiful, asked our foster parents to pose even using as an excuse that those who weren't able to come were looking for pictures, and oogling at the babies (some needed rest) and coddled them since they were cute and they wanted to take pictures. Get my drift?

It was like watching a film director romanticizing a certain aspect of Filipino life. Except my companions weren't as overt. And these are people who are involved in the socially-oriented orgs at school.

I just wondered that if it they didn't have a theology report and didn't need to make a scrapbook, would they have come back? If the babies weren't as cute (as if there's a baby that's not "cute"), would they still be as persistent?

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7 Days of School

Not really, but for the past seven days (including today), I've been in Ateneo (despite the fact that it's the ACET). Yesterday, after all, was Carlo Vergara's talk on paneling for comics. Had to leave early though because I had to meet a friend for her cosplay.

1 Apartment, 6 Residents Who Smoke

My natural reaction to that is to cough, even though no one was smoking at the time.

Ria was there with one of her dormers applying makeup on her face. I suggested taking the LRT2 and MRT to the cosplay at Glorietta but Ria, in a black tightfit suit (not including monster props), didn't want to get seen by people. And of course, her "cosplay defense" is that in Glorietta, she'll be with other people dressed up in similar costumes.

The Taxi Driver

He's currently in love with that girl from Endless Love, has a discman connected to his speakers, and has a cellphone holder connected to the aircon so that they're all facing him.

Level Up's Convention

The place was tightly packed since it is the activity center of Glorietta where there are a lot of walk-ins and probably even more gawkers from the 2nd and 3rd floors.

I must admit, they do have a budget with all the technological equipment around plus the models they hired to dress up in costume.

Said models involved skimpy outfits not unlike those of I Dream of Jeanie. There was also something like half a dozen of them in the same outfit dancing on stage. Not that they were synchronized but the rest of the people were just oogling, especially at the hostess.

Small people were also there, one of them from local TV if I'm not mistaken.

It was probably the smallest cosplayer turnout, since people were limited to Ragnarok costumes, plus the fact that some of the existing cosplayers are part of Level Up's staff. It's probably the one with the biggest budget though, even surpassing C3 last year.

Anyway, there were five prizes: one for best male, female, best monster, best craftsmanship, and best boss. I was pretty happy with the winners, except the last one, for even though I know the guy, the costume wasn't exactly the best one since he was dressed up as a whisper (a kind of ghost) and his costume involved only a mere drape (with a hole for him to see plus eyes and ears) plus an umbrella inside. Of course it so happens that he was the only one who dressed up as a monster so...

People were from Korea were also there, with the head honcho saying "magandang gabi" at the beginning and "maraming salamat" at the end. His entire speech was in Korean though and the nine-system monitors behind him showed the translation.

Left at around 7:30 pm though, before Moonstar 88 could perform. The friend I accompanied won twice, one for best monster, and another for best craftsmanship.

Read more!

7 Days of School

Not really, but for the past seven days (including today), I've been in Ateneo (despite the fact that it's the ACET). Yesterday, after all, was Carlo Vergara's talk on paneling for comics. Had to leave early though because I had to meet a friend for her cosplay.

1 Apartment, 6 Residents Who Smoke

My natural reaction to that is to cough, even though no one was smoking at the time.

Ria was there with one of her dormers applying makeup on her face. I suggested taking the LRT2 and MRT to the cosplay at Glorietta but Ria, in a black tightfit suit (not including monster props), didn't want to get seen by people. And of course, her "cosplay defense" is that in Glorietta, she'll be with other people dressed up in similar costumes.

The Taxi Driver

He's currently in love with that girl from Endless Love, has a discman connected to his speakers, and has a cellphone holder connected to the aircon so that they're all facing him.

Level Up's Convention

The place was tightly packed since it is the activity center of Glorietta where there are a lot of walk-ins and probably even more gawkers from the 2nd and 3rd floors.

I must admit, they do have a budget with all the technological equipment around plus the models they hired to dress up in costume.

Said models involved skimpy outfits not unlike those of I Dream of Jeanie. There was also something like half a dozen of them in the same outfit dancing on stage. Not that they were synchronized but the rest of the people were just oogling, especially at the hostess.

Small people were also there, one of them from local TV if I'm not mistaken.

It was probably the smallest cosplayer turnout, since people were limited to Ragnarok costumes, plus the fact that some of the existing cosplayers are part of Level Up's staff. It's probably the one with the biggest budget though, even surpassing C3 last year.

Anyway, there were five prizes: one for best male, female, best monster, best craftsmanship, and best boss. I was pretty happy with the winners, except the last one, for even though I know the guy, the costume wasn't exactly the best one since he was dressed up as a whisper (a kind of ghost) and his costume involved only a mere drape (with a hole for him to see plus eyes and ears) plus an umbrella inside. Of course it so happens that he was the only one who dressed up as a monster so...

People were from Korea were also there, with the head honcho saying "magandang gabi" at the beginning and "maraming salamat" at the end. His entire speech was in Korean though and the nine-system monitors behind him showed the translation.

Left at around 7:30 pm though, before Moonstar 88 could perform. The friend I accompanied won twice, one for best monster, and another for best craftsmanship.

Read more!