going bananas

bananas from the vacant lot in front of our house, quezon city

two more weeks before the exhibit. dont know how to deal with the intervening time. arrgh.

on a different track. october 20, 2005. thursday, last week. found myself in a situation i thought will never come true.

thank God for giving me inspiration.

break...

2350 frames of animation, still have not reached the half way mark...

anyway, i'm giving myself a break. feel the onset of a headache, hope the medicine i took will stave it off.

in my surfing the web i ran across this website of the band stellastarr*. they have some of their songs playing while you browse thru their site and one of the songs - 'lost in time'- is an instant favorite of mine. i also recommend the track 'sweet troubled soul'. reminds me of those freshman years sitting on the main library steps...


U.P. main library, sunday


the bad news is, their cd 'harmonies for the haunted' is not yet available here.

temporay solution

would you please give me a shout if anybody is having trouble accessing this image post? am trying out the bloggers' image uploading capability.

tired fingers

this is my 2nd day of making facial shapes for a 3d model. anyone who works in 3d animation would know that it is a time consuming job. got stiff fingers from grasping the mouse too tight. all those points to move and adjust...am grateful for the 'snap to points' button. yet still got stiff fingers. must be old age, he,he.

as for my image hosting problem, well i still haven't found a solution yet. i could change my service provider; there are still lots of companies offering freebies in the internet. but i'm lazy (all those pictures to resize and link to this blog). besides i know that, given some time, those companies would start charging for the server space again and i will be saddled with the same problem all over again.

as i used to scream while playing counterstrike: aaaarrghh!!

all about image

i started this blog so that i could post pictures and artworks. but my image hosting site is no longer offering free image hosting services and, even though i am willing to pay the subscription fee, it has to be paid thru paypal. and i found out over the weekend that there are no paypal service here in the philippines. somebody told me that one could receive money from paypal thru xoom ( another internet based money tranfer firm ) but i don't know if xoom accept philippine peso to pay to paypal accounts. complicated isn't it?

so that means for the time being, no pics to accompany my blog posts.

kindness continued

my parents and their friends used to go to tagaytay for 'picnics' ( now that is a word you seldom hear nowadays. 'outing', 'gimik' seems to be more commonly used ). they were still in the dating stage then. in our family photo album, one would encounter sepia toned pictures simply captioned 'picnic grove, tagaytay'. but they won't recognize the present picnic grove today. the covered tables ( for rent! ), the nature walk, the numerous souvenir shops and ( of all things ) the videoke booths. talk about communing with nature with a badly rendered gun's and roses' knocking on heaven's door for background music.


again taal lake seen from our lunch table at leslie's



sunset, picnic grove, tagaytay. knock-knock-knocking on hibenns dooooar. ay-ay-aaiiaaayyy!


the gang by the bridge

we ended the day tired ( and for my part - a bit low on funds, he,he ). but the trip gave us all the break we needed from work. thank GOD, and my fellow adventurers.

kindness part 1

well it seems that God heard my wish to go somewhere and slack off...by giving us the chance to go to tagaytay. it was raining most of the morning, but on our way to tagaytay we came to a part where the road is bone dry and the weather is clear though cloudy.


view of taal volcano from leslie's restaurant

the first time i went to tagaytay was way back in 1993. and due to budget constraints my friend just parked on the roadside overlooking taal lake. if memory serves me right, it was somewhere near the radar station.


'pastor' carlo laying hands on the view


fellow adventurers

custom job

notice the changes? with the help of a friend, i was able to change the text title of my blog into an image file. and if you click on the links, it will now open in a new window. nothing major mind you, but i had fun learning something new in html.

aarrrgh

last night i arranged the paintings i've done along the walls of our apartment. in my desire to finish the whole set, i haven't seen all of it together until last night. it's not all that bad, but i decided to do some changes in tonal value to some of the 'finished' paintings. am also thinking of totally redoing one of it. then again, maybe i'll just let it go as it is. as much as possible, i try to think thru my paintings before hand - the layout, the colors, and such. but i admit that all of these changes during the act of painting. and as much as i enjoy losing myself on the process of coaxing the colors along the canvas, i also need to step back after awhile and ask myself if i am happy with the result.

some weeks ago, a friend ask me if we should pray for the success of my exhibit. i told him sure, please pray for the exhibit. but even up to now ( two months before the event ) i still don't know what it means for an exhibit to be called a 'success'. if 'success' means having all my paintings sold, well, i would rather keep them. hmmm...i guess to enjoy the act of painting and being happy with the result is success enough for me. ha,ha, am not going zen or anything about it. i admit that i also enjoy gathering my friends in one place and showing them my works.

sounds like am rambling on this blog entry. maybe i need a break from the office, spend my time sitting on some coffee shop or park bench and dream...zzzz.


greenbelt park.

imagine

nope, am not speaking about the song by john lennon. 'imagine' just happens to be one of the names we call our former company - imagineasia inc. saw this picture while i was sorting thru my picture cds yesteday. it was taken at the batangas sea port on our way to puerto galera during our company outing a couple of years ago.

sometime sunshine

don't know about your place, but there's been some respite from the rains in quezon city over the weekend. last sunday afternoon, i overheard the neighborhood kids talking about a rainbow in the sky. didn't get to see it when i got outside, but the number of kids playing outside, even in the still wet streets, is a testament that they've been cooped up for so long. a bit of sunshine, no school next day ( national heroes day ) and a friend or two to play with - a perfect day for a kid.

well, like i said i didn't get to catch a view of the rainbow. despite my rush to finish my chore, it was gone when i went outside. guess that seems to be the story of my life. i've always been chasing 'rainbows'. my sister once told me to learn how to temper my dreams with reality. and i guess i've learned to do that over the years. BUT there are still dreams that i still strive for, which some people may consider need a miracle ( or a series of miracles ), to achieve or come true. it's the occasional ray of sunlight, a glimpse of the rare rainbow that gives me hope from whatever path my life takes me.

like they said, God is good to fools and little children.

amazing grace

a month or so ago, i happen to pass by megamall and found my friend carol and her band ( pinikpikan ) performing at the lobby. it's been years since i last saw her. carol bello is a small woman, but once she gets behind the microphone and sing, her voice exudes so much energy and power that you'll only notice her height once she steps off stage.




there was a time when we had bible study at our home. we were sitting just inside our gate and during the closing prayer, a friend started playing the intro of 'amazing grace' on the guitar. carol started singing the melody and the rest of my friends began humming the tune in the background. we got caught up so much on the hymn that when we opened our eyes at the end of the song, we were surprised to find a passerby standing on our gate and clapping his hands. it came about that he was on his way to one of the houses in our neighborhood when he heard carol singing and was compelled to seek where it was coming from. from then on, we have a nickname for carol - amazing grace.

so in case you ever meet her in person, and there is a guitarist near at hand, ask her to sing 'amazing grace' for you. the lyrics, the clean acoustic sound of the guitar strings and the power of carol's voice that evoke equal parts longing and passion will surely blow you away.

formula tech

i used to assemble plastic model cars by tamiya. there was a time when i spend hard earned money buying car magazines for reference in detailling my models. i can't say that i got good on making models. but i sure wish i found this site. back when i was still into plastic models.

hmmm...then again, i think i still have an unopened box or two of formula1 model kit at home. he,he.

hello...i'm austin powers

i was at the counter at mcdonald's this morning, waiting for the staff to fill my orders. looked around and saw a familiar face on the line next to mine. smiled at her thinking that i seldom see people from our music dept. outside the office. she smiled back and a beat later i realized...she's a stranger! to cover my embarrassment, i turned back to the counter guy and ordered a lemonade in addition to my order of coffee ( two sugars no creamer ) and sausage mcmuffin. walked away with as much panache as i could muster. hey i'm cool, it was not that bad...at least she smiled...

found myself a table, arranged my breakfast before me. took the cover off my coffee and lemonade. took a sip of my lemonade, the coffee still hot. the girl and her companions arrived and sat on the table diagonally across mine, the girl facing my way. she looked my way, and trying to be cool i held her gaze, opened the packets of sugar with a flourish and promptly dumped the contents...on my lemonade!

rainy days

like?

do you like role playing games? do you like reading comics? check out this site. or click the 'order of the stick' on my 'surf sites'.

college

Palma Hall during UPCAT, afternoon of august 7, 2005.
several hours before, the traffic on this road could be compared to that of edsa.

last sunday, i drove my nephew to UP diliman to take his UPCAT ( U.P. college admission test ). due to my work in alabang, i seldom have the chance to jog there anymore. a fact that my belly fat could attest to. one of the things that strike me during that day is the proliferation of vendors lining the academic oval. the occassion ( at least outside the test rooms ) seems more like a fiesta or fair. i think i even saw a globe or smart telecom booth there, which made me wonder if they allow celphones inside the test rooms. that is something we don't have to consider during the time i took my UPCAT...which was a looong time ago. what stuck to my mind all these years is the fact that my test room was in the second floor of UP integrated school and that the english essay test was taken from an old issue of readers' digest ( karate: weapon of the empty hand...naks ) that i read the day before by chance. aside from that, i don't recollect anything else from that day.


the kiosks in front of the B.A. college and Vinzons hall

3 months to crunch time

ahhh, i somehow managed to give myself sometime to post a blog after several weeks of silence. it's not that i am no longer busy, in fact if anything, i think i just got more things to do now. we have this 3d modelling exercises in the office and my scheduled one man show is getting nearer.

but i need to take stock of my progress ( or lack of it ) or i might have a breakdown while running in place. lately i've been doing color research for my paintings. i have this tendency to use the same set of colors in a series of paintings that even i myself get bored with it. i've also been making studies for the paintings. i am not lacking in subject matter. but i do need to make it diverse enough to be interesting while at the same time conveying a common underlying thought. ha,ha, am i making sense here? that previous sentence reminds of those exhibit notes that takes three or four paragraphs to clearly explain nothing.

in other news...finally found the courage(?) to join a discipleship group. we usually meet during fridays. i don't know what is in store for me on that front but hey, am glad that i've joined.

in between the pixels

i've got an eclectic taste in reading materials. many the times i've gone to work with bleary eyes because i spent the whole night reading some books. a lot of the concept and ideas for my art comes from the things i read. and as someone who respect the written word, i often ask myself what i have do to be able to write as well as the people whose works i admire. what pain or sacrifice, what kind of life do i have to live to help me choose words and combine them to form sentences and paragraphs that will not make the reader roll their eyes in disgust.

as a fine arts student ( waaaay back when ), i have my share of free time spent reading the graffiti in the college walls. drawings and prose, with anger, angst, and love as the usual topic, could be found on those walls. evidence that the font of creativity - as my lit teacher once said - are often based on the pursuit of/musings about love, life, sex and death.

and if you're wondering what brought about this rumination, it is because, in my search for reading material in the internet, i came along this site countingyellowcars.com. mind you, the content is far better than the graffiti in our college walls. it just also happen that the webmaster is also a ( recent ) graduate of UPCFA. i asked and got her permission to link her site ( see side bar ).


tree, madrigal park saw this scene as i walk tired and hungry from boxing gym.

sci+fi

pictures from the sci-fi convention, glorietta:


glorietta activity center, testing my new ( or should i say used? ) 18mm lens.


giving darth vader a hand. the marshalls allowed me to stay near the stage. perhaps they thought i'm part of the official photo coverage. he,he.


storm trooper interview:

interviewer: how do you feel right now? being a part of this convention?

storm trooper: well...i feel hot.

interviewer: oh so your costume is not well ventilated...

storm trooper: no, i mean, i feel hot because you're standing close to me and i could smell your perfume thru my visor.

he,he.
they didn't really say that. but i guess that is what i would have felt if i was the storm trooper, he,he.




and lastly:

yoda: old i feel. old i look. because of jedis like this klutz.