[Blog Entry] Grounded, Events, Happy Birthday

Grounded

Phone line's busted again, so it seems that any Internet for me will be relegated to pre-office hours (thankfully, the office has a broadband connection, something which my home is missing).

Events

The next few days has lots in store for people if they choose to take advantage of it. I mean tomorrow is the Animax Convention entitled Robo Dream at Glorietta. I really wish I could go but I have work here at the office. Also on the same day will be Cast's comic workshops at the Powerbook branch in Greenbelt (which is walking distance from the convention).

On Saturday, there's the blogging summit entitled iBlog. But more importantly, it's also Free Comic Book Day. Normally there'd be hype about it since CCHQ gives away free comics but alas, I mourn an old friend. Hopefully Druid's Keep, one of the newest comic book stores in the South, keeps on the tradition. In the meantime, I'll probably enjoy FCBD at my favorite local comic store, Comic Quest.

Happy Birthday!

It's my dad's birthday today. Actually, April and May are busy dates for me because the birthday of my parents and sister fall under these months.

Spent the traditional practice of eating miswa (noodles with egg) for breakfast to commemorate long life and to celebrate the birthday of my dad. It's probably been a long time since I said "I love you" to my dad, which I quicky amended. Despite my father not being a man of many words (except when he's in sermon mode or drunk), he clearly loves his family.

For the Guys: Zhang Zhi Yi or Aubrey Miles?

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[Blog Entry] It Comes Naturally

I was at a photo shoot the other day and idle chatter was never my strongest suit. But I managed to break the ice and one of the questions I couldn’t resist asking was what made her decide to take up photography as a vocation.

“It best expresses myself,” she said. Which I think is a valid answer. Come to think of it, the reason I continue to write (and continue to blog) is because of that.

Perhaps what caught my attention was when she mentioned that during her path of self-discovery, she took up a lot of other art forms such as writing and painting.

“What made you choose photography?” I asked. She answered that it didn’t come naturally when it came to the other forms. Writing, for example, made her struggle.

I think back on my own experiences and well, writing didn’t always come out naturally. In fact, some of us writer struggle to write. It’s actually not as simple as handing us a blank sheet of paper and we start churning out material. It’s actually the opposite. We might sit down for half an hour, looking at a blank sheet of paper (or in my case, a blank screen). Writing isn’t always easy. True, for the most part, blogging comes naturally (at least for me). But for something like book reviews, essays, prose, and especially poetry, it’s a struggle to write every word, every line, even every punctuation mark.

Of course I’m not saying this to debunk what our photographer thought. It’s actually the opposite. I believe that photography was one of the paths most valid for her. For me though, it’s writing. But it’s not for the same reason she took up photography. I think more than anything, it has to do with passion, with interest. Our photographer found passion in photography. Perhaps for me, it was writing, even if it didn’t always come out naturally, even if it wasn’t always easy. I think the moment it starts becoming easy, we fall prey to stagnation. Thankfully, the talented writers I know are always struggling with their work (which is a good sign, despite the frustration it might cause some of us). I’m not saying it doesn’t come out naturally for them, but there will obviously be instances when the road is far from easy.

So what if it doesn’t come out naturally? In any vocation, there will be two types of people who will excel in what they do: the geniuses, those with innate talent, and those with passion (not that both are mutually exclusive to each other). There’s nothing wrong with being the latter. In fact, they’re perhaps the ones most respected, because of the bigger hurdle they managed to overcome.

Food for Thought: Neil Gaiman’s Death (from Sandman) or Terry Pratchett’s Death (from Discworld)?

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[Blog Entry] World War 5

And that was the title of this year’s Pulp Summer Slam. And in certain ways, it really was.

Coming in as an employee for Summer Slam V was a totally different experience, at least compared to spectators. I mean I never got to see the stage (except when it was being constructed) since I was in charge of food distribution . Not that I minded since I’m not really a rock fan, much less a music fan, so I didn’t mind staying in a room all alone performing the tasks that was assigned to me.

I arrived at Amoranto at 10 am since duty calls, and I left at 1:30 am the next day (the other employees have it harder since they probably left later than that). As for food, I was supposed to be in charge of the band’s food, but circumstances didn’t permit it and I was coordinating with the food of the police, the tanod’s (equivalent of city watchmen ), the bouncers, and any other unexpected food requirements. Suffice to say, despite my buffer, supplying food was a big problem. It also took a lot of willpower on my part to resist eating the pizzas we were providing for people, despite me being the one who delivered a few hundred of them.

Duty was mixed with moments of calmness only to be interrupted by sudden panic. Lots of problem popped up, and not just in my department. I mean dishonesty was rampant, such as one person who was claiming the food of certain bands he wasn’t part of (but strangely enough, he did have a food stub) so that when the real members of the band came to claim their food, none could be given. There were also people who were selling counterfeit tickets to the Summer Slam, and of course, the ones who were injured the most were the fans who bought those counterfeit tickets and didn’t have enough money left to buy the real ones.

Thankfully security was tight, but I guess future Summer Slam fans would be warned not to bring items that could be used as potential weapons. A lot of people gave surprised looks, especially when they were banned from bringing in ballpens, perfumes (or rather, the bottles that stored the perfume), and cigarettes.

It’s been an exhausting experience (but I was conscious the entire time, thanks to my previous gaming experience which entails long sleepless hours and overnights) and other people might have enjoyed the holiday that is Labor Day, but alas, duty calls, and half of today is my only rest day.

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