Happy New Year
Decided to repost a greeting considering my last post sounded more somber and pissed-off at the world. Here's to a more wonderful year 2005. There have been many achievements and depressions for 2004 but as a whole, it has been great. I only hope that there is no major nuclear/asteroidic/supernatural catastrophe coming our way anytime soon.

Today is...
The 29th of December, 4:10pm. Twenty eight hours ago, I arrived to work on three projects. Today, finally, I will be heading back to my apartment to rest. In a few minutes, possibly an hour or two, I will be leaving for Paranaque to spend some time with my family and friends.

In some ways, it is a good day.
Even if I had nary a peep of sleep. Even if my breath probably sticks and my body feels liks slimy salami that's been left in a vat of sisig fat. Even if my eyes now have this tendancy to close at any pont in time I stare at a stationary area longer than five seconds.

I need sleep.
But I don't want to yet.

Haven't had lunch
but I'm not really interested in eating.

Still, since I'm going to be bad and will run a game tonight, I might as well eat. One out of two at least, eh?

Happy New Year.

Christmas Celebration ABS-CBN style
Okay, okay... since no one demanded it, I'm volunteering them anyway! Heh. Here are some choice pics of the recent Christmas parties I was in.

(L-R) Marianne, Joey, Jen, Gabby and Me in TGIFridays!

Party people posing with The Showdown of the Global Champion!

(L-R) Marianne, Jen, Gabby, Me as Mr. Suave, Joey as Sayaw Kikay!

(From upper left, clockwise) Rixxx, Me and Joven dancing. Maan leading the song and dance number (notice the multo watching!) The contestants of The Showdown of the Global Champion. Uh yes, I had the biggest tiyan, kaya nga tinago no!

Me an Jen posing with the big bosings!

Let's see if I get their names right: Oli, Me, GOD (GJ actually) and Carlo.

May sikreto ako
Walang magagalit ha.
Walang kukurap.



Diliman 13 is now online.
Had to cut the 60 pages into a 41 page issue
and move the remainder to the coming issue 14.
As always, comments and feedback are extremely appreciated.

Rainbow?
Ever heard of this old 70-80s tv show?
If not, be prepared. Who would have thought such innuendo-filled scripts and ideas would be existing in such an innocent show?
Check here.
Do watch the movie clip. It's around 4MB to load up, but damn, its funny and worth the wait!

"Well, have you got your twangers out? And remember, you can bounce your balls at the same time. If you haven't got any balls, ask a friend if you can play with his!"

A brief respite
Spent the day recovering from a hang-over, strained muscles and tired brain cells. Johnboy dropped by to spend the afternoon with me watching Chasing Amy and later on Velvet Goldmine (which we didn't get to finish since the movie or the DVD player began coughing and skipping every few seconds. Damn, it was near the climax of the movie too!)

Tomorrow, or rather, later, its back to work with me heading to a Color Grading session at Road Runner in Makati for the commercial we just shot two weeks ago. And hopefully, if Fate is kind, I get to get out of the office early to actually celebrate Christmas.

Another Aswang note from Vampire: The Requiem
The chat with the new Vampire developer just had some interesting things to say in the chat. I wanted to post this part which I really felt good about:

Soonmot (Dec 21, 2004 4:30:38 PM)
Going off of that "non-Western" statement, are we going to have another Kuei-Jin, or will all vampires have the same sort of supernatural background, whatever that may be?

Will Hindmarch (Dec 21, 2004 4:32:17 PM)
Without being able to see the future, my answer is this: All vampires the world over are, at their core, the same creatures. That said, take a look at the Aswang, I think it is, in World of Darkness: Antagonists. That's a great example of another culture's vampire myth adapted to the World of Darkness. For player-character vampires, though, I plan to have all the world's undead...

Will Hindmarch (Dec 21, 2004 4:33:07 PM)
be different breeds of the same stock. Bloodlines: The Hidden, for example, has vampire lineages from all over the world. One day I hope to exaggerate the way that's done (in an optional system), but generally, all vampires are the same kind of monster.

This is me eating my own words
Got back from the ABS-CBN Global Christmas party which I had to suddenly also host, sing and dance in, strip my shirt off and try to nurse a warm beer with. It was tiring. It was taxing. But it was fun. And yes, I got to bring home $100 as a raffle prize too!

We lost the song and dance number, but that's okay. We had fun and we broke boundaries more than people would ever expect.

Lastly, there's HIM who I was kind of hoping was. But looks like it ain't happening, so that's that.
Gwah.


Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Now I see why I am having such a SHITTY Christmas

A Caganer (ka-ga-neh) is a little statue unique to Catalonia, a region of Spain.

In their Nativity scenes, the Catalans have added an extra character that is not found in the manger scenes of any other culture. In addition to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds and company, Catalans have the character known as the Caganer. This extra little character is often tucked away in some corner of the scene where he is not easily noticed. There is a good reason for his obscure position in the display, for "caganer" translates from Catalan to English as "defecator", and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating.

The reasons for placing a man who is in the act of excreting solid waste from his posterior in a scene which is widely considered holy are as follows:

The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth. Thus, he is considered a symbol of prosperity and luck for the coming year.
Finding the Caganer is a fun game, especially for children.
Humor

The exact origin of the Caganer is lost, but the tradition has existed since the 18th century. Originally, the Caganer was portrayed as an eastern peasant wearing a traditional hat called a barretina — a red stocking hat with a black band.

The Catalans have modified this tradition somewhat since the 1940s. In addition to the traditional caganer design, you can easily find other characters assuming the caganer position, such as nuns, devils, Santa Claus, celebrities, athletes, historical figures, politicians, Spanish royalty, and other famous people past and present, including Pope John Paul II, Salvador Dalí, prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Princess Letizia and even Osama bin Laden.

The practice is tolerated by the local Catholic church. Caganers are easiest to find before Christmas in holiday markets, like the one in front of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, which has tables and tables of caganers. Caganers have even been featured in art exhibits.

The caganer is not the only defecating character in the Catalan Christmas tradition—another is the Tió de Nadal, which also makes extensive use of the image of human waste production. Other mentions of feces and defecation are common in Catalan folklore. One popular Catalan phrase before eating says "menja bé, caga fort!" (Eat well, shit strong!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caganer

Gah. Don't care right now.
Good bye, To Covet.
No one cares anyway.
Dean, I know you do, but right now, I don't feel that's enough for me to write it further. If it were a kid, I'd do the unthinkable. But since its a written thing, I'm placing it back in the brain for incubation.

Thanks for the support.

Another Christmas party
And yes, another song and dance number. Going to have a Gloria Estefan medley to do with Conga, 1-2-3-4 and Get On Your Feet as part of the repertoire. At least this one isn't that embarassing... other than the fact I will be performing it bare-chested while wearing a malong, body paint and beads.

Oh, and a silver-foil covered tambourine.

Yowich....
Yeah, she's engaged. And I'm, well, stuck doing the "Are you okay with that" "Yes, of course I'm happy for her" exchange so often I'd probably be on The BUZZ if I wasn't the nobody I am. Still, I will admit here though that it does feel sort of hard to still hang out with the old office troupe and have lunch with them.

Gah... Never start romances at the workplace.
Better yet, never start romances that you can't actually end with marriage.
Or you can't really give commitments to make them work out in the end.

Ang lapit na
Christmas is so close now, you can feel it everywhere except around you. Well, for me, that is. With work piled so fucking high that I got to be at the office on the 27th to the 29th, I only pray that all this "making the rank and file employees fail to feel the Christmas spirit" gives bad karma to the people it should.

Maybe its just stress
Just went blog-hopping for a bit now that were on a break here at the office. Visited some blogs and suddenly realised I felt left out again. I guess my lifestyle really clashes with the desire to hang out with certain people more often. Christmas parties left and right, and to my surprise, some people whom I have hung with, been friends with, helped through the rough and tumble of their lives pretty much forgot to even invite me over. The thought would have counted.

The weekend was a hyper-exhausting-happy one, but now, it seems to be ending in a more somber mood. Maybe I just am gelling burned out being here in the office for what would be the THIRD weekend in a row. Or maybe its another moment of realisation that there are again more friends whom are demoting into the position of familiar people in my life.

Drama-moment again? Maybe. Or maybe its just that the amount of attention, concern and sensitivity I devote to those I consider friends really goes way beyond what certain others are willing to give me back in return.

I'm too nice.
Too generous.

Maybe next year, I should be selfish.

Sunday Morning at 11:00a.m.
Guess where I am.
Starts with O and ends with something that sounds close enough to feces.
Groan...

I survived.
Oh yes. And I even got compliments.
Still. I shrudder to recall I did the Mr. Suave, Jumbo Hotdog and Sasakyan Kita song-dance routine for the company Christmas party. Sira na image ko!

Update on my Torture
Okay, it is 10:50p.m. and the shoot continues on. We finished more than half the storyboard so far and its going great. Had it not been for the added fact that I am just soooooo exhausted, I would be energetic and happy right now. Had to squeeze in so many things to do today that I pray I do not get down with some sickness tomorrow for the Christmas Party.

And yes, I have a solo dance number (with my compliment of back up dancers) too.

So please, someone up there.. don't have ABS-CBN consider broadcasting the party tomorrow. Please please don't...
I can humiliate myself in front of the whole Kapamilya family since its me laughing WITH them. But I don't think I can take being seen world wide dancing and singing like an idiot.

(Kung may talent fee lang sana, puwede pa!)

Week Update
Okay.. first of, the TVGuide week was moved to next week. Which is actually NOT a good thing. There's a commercial shoot tomorrow and I will have to be at the location by around 9:00a.m. The shoot is supposed to end around 4:00 or 5:00a.m. the next morning, which gives me enough time for some rest, then to be in the rehearsals for the upcoming ABS-CBN Christmas party presentation where I will actually sing and dance in front of the whole Kapamilya family. Egad.

I still can't believe I am doing this.

Wow.. Who would have thought...
Faith/Wrath, Morality 7 guy stands above an Aswang who had taken a chunk out of his forearm, shoulder and neck with the hot muzzle of a flare gun inches away from the back of her skull. It is only luck that got him here, as he was moments away from being another corpse in a desert cave full of them. She's crying and cradling the body of her unconscious lover who tried to take out the gunsel's friends. She had been fleeing but after taking a few shots that also spattered on her lover, she stoppped and made a plea for their lives. "Please, let us be, we'll leave you alone!" she howls, crying.

He fires the flare into the back of her head and simultaneously she cries, "We're pregnant!" The flare turns her head into a living Jack 'O Lantern.
by RobNJ from the White Wolf Forums.

Who would have thought we'd see foreigners using the concepts of Aswangs as monsters in the role-playing games to actually come to pass! Heheheh! Mabuhay!

Oh poop.
Going to be another taxing week.
This is, yes, the dreaded TVGuide week. And guess what, I got a 9pm to 3am meeting to attend tomorrow evening (Tuesday) and a television commercial shoot to handle come the 16th which most likely will stretch to around 7am as well. And, add to that the need to attend some rehearsal for some Christmas presentation on Sunday...

Then, this weekend, its my parent's Anniversary, which isn't really a bad thing. Heck, I am happy and proud my parents have stuck together through thick and thin, better or worse and all that jazz. But it does mean the weekend will have some chunk of it shafted to that, and hopefully have enough left behind for me to run a game.

... (must focus on Avenue Q)

For now....
For now.... but only for now....

Second weekend I'm actually at work.
Sigh.

Everyone's a little bit unsatisfied.
Everyone goes 'round a little empty inside.
Take a breath, Look around,
Swallow your pride,
For now...

Nothing lasts, Life goes on,
Full of surprises.
You'll be faced with problems of all shapes and sizes.
You're going to have to make a few compromises...
For now...

For now we're healthy. For now we're employed.
For now we're happy... If not overjoyed.
And we'll accept the things we cannot avoid, for now...


For now.

Yes, they're as messed up as you and me.
Source: Oddly Enough - Reuters

Concussions Kept Tintin Forever Young -- Study

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Comic book hero Tintin never aged during his 50-year career because the repeated blows he took to the head triggered a growth hormone deficiency, according to an analysis in the Christmas edition of a Canadian medical journal.

Claude Cyr, a professor of medicine at Quebec's Sherbrooke University, said a study of the 23 hugely popular Tintin books showed the intrepid Belgian reporter suffered 50 significant losses of consciousness during his many adventures.

"We hypothesize that Tintin has growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (a disorder of the pituitary gland) from repeated trauma. This could explain his delayed statural growth, delayed onset of puberty and lack of libido," Cyr wrote.

His article was in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which has a tradition of publishing studies into the ailments of fictional characters in its Christmas edition.

Tintin was created by Belgium's Georges Remi under the pen name Herge. The teenage character first appeared in 1929 and despite the passing of almost five decades was as fresh-faced as ever in the pages of the last book to feature him, which appeared in 1976.

Cyr, who wrote the study with the help of his two young sons, noted that Tintin had been knocked out 43 times by serious blows to the head.

"We identified the cause of the trauma, the length of loss of consciousness (calculated by the number of cartoon frames before Tintin returns to normal activity) and the apparent severity of the trauma (indicated by the number of objects e.g., stars, candles revolving above Tintin's head)," he said.

Among the main reasons for Tintin's injuries were blows from a club, bullet wounds, explosions, car accidents, chloroform poisoning and falls.

"Unfortunately, no brain imaging was performed," Cyr lamented.

Tintin traveled all over the world with his white terrier Snowy as he battled foes as varied as drug dealers, Incan priests, slave traders and the Abominable Snowman. The books have been translated into 60 languages and have sold 200 million copies.

In 2000 the Canadian Medical Association Journal caused something of an uproar by revealing that Winnie the Pooh's continuous search for honey was caused by obsessive compulsive disorder, Piglet needed anti-panic medication, while Eeyore was massively depressed.

Another study surmised that Beatrix Potter's ever energetic Squirrel Nutkin character was in fact autistic.

I really hate it...
...when the DSL connection acts up. Its sort of like all the speed on most days, then some days when the sites you can visit are so limited, you feel like they're making up for the generous download times.

Ah. Me just ranting.
Most of the time, though, its great!

Serendipity or is it Amusing Chaos
Remember my post down there on Angryman Johnboy himself? Recall that pic of him with another old schoolmate? Well, this time was on the phone with the old schoolmate. His name's Mike and he was once our resident Malkavian (unless of course you knew me) and as fate would have it, we're back in touch again. Coolness! Its like fragments of my college life are coming back to make things more interesting! Let's hope its limited to good memories reawakened though. There are some parts of my college experience I would rather not relive.

Ah...
So... He is. And He's not but jokes about that. And He's most likely but remains to be seen for sure. I get it. Ahh... the things you learn when you go to work a day after a super typhoon. Then, there's the They are like that and Those were actually that. And even It was always actually doing that.

Whoa.

Fair Folk really, really, really opened my eyes to what the Wyld and the Raksha can be.
And how vital everything else is compared to Creation and the Underworld.


Asteeg.

Part of me is still more shocked that He is though. Damn. I should have. I could have. Now its too late. Bummer.