Belens

Ok, so this is a tad late an entry for a year end blogging, but there were some pictures that I just wanted to share.

This was the Belen at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Roxas Boulevard. Today is their last day for the year literally as they will be close for several months. Yes, the entire hotel will be closed because it will be renovated. I like this belen because it used native materials to create its theme!

 

 

This one was is the Belen at the office, which is pretty small and really cute! It’s also a bit expensive, so all the parts of this manger scene was glued to the table, so that those who visit the office delivering mail and other stuff won’t wisk it away.  Anyway, I will upload some pictures of the Christmas party later. It’s New Year’s Eve and I am still in my room just resting. I wonder what 2007 has in store for me?

 

Yearend Reflections

Wow, 2006 is almost at the end. It has been an exciting year for me. And yet there were a few things that I wasn’t able to do as well.

For one thing, I wasn’t able to work abroad. Oh yes, ever since I was a kid I always desired to work and live abroad even before our country had a mass exodus of Filipinos and before the term OFW was coined. But unlike most people who are leaving for abroad, I do not see that this country is going nowhere. Opportunities abound here, and a case in point to think about it is that the Philippines has a large number of illegal immigrants coming from the mainland China, India and yes — even Koreans are now becoming a great number here throughout the country and a lot of them are illegally staying here as well.

In fact, there are several local newspapers printed in Korean and Japanese! And these are circulated throughout Manila in major financial districts that have a concentration of Japanese and Koreans!

Isn’t it a bit ironic that there are many foreigners that are coming here, and a lot of them staying here for good — while a lot of Filipinos are leaving in droves as they see opportunities elsewhere?

Well, for me, I think that there will always be opportunities here. It’s just that our people aren’t disciplined enough and also  I notice that we complain too much.

But then, I think I will take a break from my reflections and just think about a few things. Then I will come back and write some more.

Merry Christmas theme

WordPress just uploaded a Christmas blog theme! What do you think of it? I love it! Although I wish that somewhere out there a blogger from a tropical country would do a beach Christmas theme since that is more appropriate to a country like ours.

Let’s face it guys, traffic here in Metro Manila is at its worst during Christmas time. I took this picture from the overpass at the MRT Ortigas station on route to Makati. Whew! There are times that I wish I had a car, but there are times when I look at the traffic like this and I’m grateful that I could be spirited away easily from one place to another through the public train system. I wish they would really build more trains and routes throughout the Metro though.

On the same overpass, I came across this lady selling candy. Although the shot is a bit blurry, I like the effect it had on the people that passed by who looked like ghosts. Makes me wonder, do we see people living on the street as ghosts? Or do these people think that we are the ghosts and they are the real people that experience the true grit of life and other mysteries? Reminds me of the depressing story Little Match Girl of Hans Christian Anderson as well.

While other people starved to death during this Christmas season, kids like this one just anticipate toys from their parents and uncles and aunts. This is the kid of one of my friend’s sister, who I happened to tag along at The Podium last night. Did I mention that one of the aunts actually bought the kid a gift right there after looking around? Talk about one lucky kid!

“Wabi Sabi”? What kind of a title for a book is that? Well, it did get my attention when I went inside National Bookstore at The Podium last night. If there’s one thing that a friend of mine could give me this Christmas that won’t fail is that of a good book. I just love reading books and comics! I wish more people are into it so that it also makes them smarter people! You’d actually be surprised at how many things you could learn on your own just by reading — stuff like hacking the internet, disarming a bomb are just a few of the skils that might prove useful someday.

And the best performance of the night goes to — Fahrenheit! They were the ones who performed at The Lounge at The Podium last night. Half of their performance was stellar, the other half is something you would wish to forget as the lady who is singing here gets out of tune at times. I’m not that musically gifted, but my friend Bartok was with me who was a pianist and she was making these strange reactions like someone just pulled her leg when she hears a tune go off the charts.

Nevertheless, kudos to the band! I wish they performed Christmas songs though. How come I hear less Christmas songs these days? The only place I have consistently heard Christmas songs played are the mallwide PA system which one could barely appreciate and hear amidst the cacophony of blabber around.

So that was my day yesterday. It was fun meeting with friends, but it was also sobbering knowing that living with traffic and the urban poor around us is something to think about. Sometimes I feel that offering a prayer isn’t enough. I miss getting involved in socio-civic activities. I used to donate money to a group before, but recently stopped. Perhaps I better do something about that too.

Chrismas is literally just around the corner, and it just breaks my heart that in my own life it has brought more pain than happiness. But when I put my focus on Christ, it puts a smile back in my face that reaches heaven.

Druid’s Keep

Today, Fanatical Teacher went to Makati to accompany Vertivus Bartok to gether certificates at two airline ticketing offices. After that, he went straight to Druid’s Keep. It’s a small comic book and hobby shop for geeks like me, whose kid within full of enthusiam and life them didn’t die out with the advent of adulthood.

It was an exciting day because three filipino artists dropped by to get their comics and toys. The owner – Felix Cua [a story that I would share in another blog entry], informed me thru text yesterday and in my excitement and I modified my schedule just to be able to go there and see them!

Whew! It wasn’t a disappoint at all. I got one comic book signed, and the new shipment of comics also arrived! But what really made my day is that when one of the fans asked if they would be willing to do a sketch, they didn’t hesitate and made ones for those who wanted one and was there at the time! About five of us grabbed this opportunity, and the three artists also made a few for some diehard fans who was still on the road to Druid’s Keep. Here’s just one of the many sketches I got from them!

I know, I know — some of you are probably wondering why I didn’t take a better picture of it. Perhaps I will upload another version later. But for now, this will have to do and I just wanted you guys to see it. This one was done by Leinil Yu, of Wolverine and X-Men fame. He is currently working on the New Avengers of Marvel Comics, and he was featured a few years ago in the television program The Probe Team. He drew a sketch of Wolverine, one of my favorite characters in X-Men.

Another artist who went there to DK was Carlo Pagulayan. He is the illustrator for the comic book HULK, also from Marvel Comics. He is doing a sketch of Wonder Woman, a request from Atty. Tracy who is a big fan of it. She left the shop on cloud nine with two Wonder Woman sketches, one from Carlo and another from rising star Harvey Tolibao. Man, if Diana were real, I’d like her to be like the one drawn by Carlo over here!

Isn’t she fabulous?

Here are the artists doing the sketches at Druid’s Keep. The one on the bottom right of the picture is Harvey Tolibao. He’s currently doing a fill-in for an issue of Star Wars published by Dark Horse Comics. He’s doing a sketch of Conan that I asked. His dream work is to do fantasy comic books. Below is the picture of other comics afficionado ata Druid’s Keep yesterday.

The only lady in the picture is Atty. Tracy. And the big guy with The Flash t-shirt is Felix Cua, the owner of Druid’s Keep and the guy with the eyeglasses next to him is Leinil Yu. The guy wearing another black shirt is Harvey Tolibao. Below is the sketch of Elektra, the flame of Daredevil.

Hmm, it seems that I am getting the hang of taking pictures up close. This is the best picture I’ve taken so far. But get a load of this one! Talk about getting a geekasm!

And here’s the sketch of Harvey Tolibao of Conan The Barbarian. He did this for me.

 

So what do you guys, think? Hope you could drop by here and click on the comments on the artists rendition of popular comic characters. For me, this has been on of the highlights for 2006! Wow! To become a geek again, and enjoy life. This is definitely one of the many things I thank God for. Merry Christmas, guys! Felix, if you’re reading this — thanks for info! It was great to hangout at DK!

More on Civil War

As most of my friends know, I collect comic books. So this particular entry are for those who are into it. But for those who aren’t I will give a little background.

Marvel Comics is currently having this crossover in most of its titles entitled “Civil War” and it has been running for more than half a year now. It’s about the Superhuman Registration Act — all those with superpowers or those who plan to do heroic stuff should reveal their identities and also get registered, otherwise the government would crack down on you and they would put you to prison cell. The series has heroes divided on the issue, with Iron Man leading the Pro-Registration and Captain America with the Anti-Registration.

The following comic strip is a reaction to it. Or rather, what the characters would think. I find it hilarious because in the current Civil War storyline, Iron Man is really out of character. In the following comic strip, we see Iron Man complaining to the editor and then at the last panel Green Lantern butts in. For those who are wondering why Green Lantern said that — well, about a decade ago DC Comics didn’t know what to do with the character Hal Jordan Green Lantern and so they made him destroy an entire city and killed several GLs in the process as well. This was about the same time Batman became paraplegic for some time and Superman was killed by Doomsday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today’s my mother’s birthday. Ever since I went to college here in Manila, it has been rare that I have been able to go home to visit her and spend time with her during her birthday. So I just send her a greeting card and call her up during her birthday. I will do that later during the day — call her up that is. I wonder how is she going to spend her birthday today?

DGroup Christmas Lessons

Ok, I haven’t actually written down notes during the actual bible study, but I do remember a thing or two on what transpired that night. So let me try to transcribe the event as I remember it:

First, our DGroup leader gave us a mental picture of the busyness of Christmas, making us recall how people look during this season — people looking stressed out and working on their shopping list, looking for gifts to give to their colleagues, friends and also to those kids as they happen to be godfathers and godmothers to these tots.

Yet for all the frantic pace, sometimes we forget the message of Christmas is that Jesus Christ is the ultimate gift. Well, I think that even I am guilty of this. For at the moment, all I could think about is just getting through the year. Being a freelancer is tough, especially since it has been less than a year since I formally launched my career. Anyway, getting back to the message, I was reminded, whom have I actually shared the Gospel this Christmas season? Come to think of it, I haven’t done that lately either.

Ickoy then mentioned a few tips on what we could do this Christmas season. He mentioned ten items, although I only recall two distinct things:

1. Give yourself a gift that you cannot buy

Hmm, that’s a tough one. But he mentioned something like making a commitment not to become a workaholic anymore, and not doing unnecessary overtime at work, or spending more time with family members or aging parents. Going to work on time is also a commitment that could be made as well.

2. Be nice to the sales ladies and security guards.

This is sooo true. Check out the latest blog entry of Constipated Diva in my blogroll. He mentions a story of how a nursing student was getting angry at this security guard at the LRT/MRT. Whoa!

Well, I guess that is all for now. These are things to think about. I like what Joan shared in the group, about being nice to the security guards and to the messengers of their company. She gives them gifts during Christmas and she shares how these people value the gifts given to them. That’s quite understandable considering that these people live on less than 10k salaries a month. It was even more heartwarming that these people are even willing to volunteer to help her during her wedding! Now, isn’t that something? Kindness begets kindness. A little gracious act goes a long way indeed. And I guess that is enough of a reminder for me, that Christmas is truly worth remembering. “When you think of Christmas lights – think of the light that God has given through Jesus Christ” and when you think of the Christmas tree — think of Jesus that he was nailed on a tree as well…” these are the words from our DGroup leader. Although they sound a bit sadistic to mention death at this time of Christmas, it’s really true.

So I end this entry with a riddle — ever wonder why one of the gifts of the Magi was Myrrh? This was something used for embalming dead people. Isn’t that strange to give to a newborn baby?

Christmas Lights!!!

Check out the video below!

Or how about this one!

DGroup and Ginger Breads

Here’s a few pictures of the gang last night.

This is my second time to join this particular bible study group and already there’s a ‘despedida’. The big guy on the left is our DGroup leader, Ickoy and the girl next to her is Chris [did I get here name spelled correctly? I hope somebody could inform me about it -- thanks Dads for the correction and comment! Hope to see you next year for our first meeting for the year!]. She’s leaving for the United States to get married. She’s leaving on the 25th and getting married on the 26th! Imagine that! What a tight schedule!

Fanatical Teacher is the one with the black polo shirt and eyeglasses. This is the rest of the group. From what I heard, this is only half of the group as the rest are busy with other Christmas parties and obligations. This was held at Bonifacio Ridge, at The Fort. It’s a really nice place, the house of Vin’s sister [ Vince is the one with wearing the pink stripes]. The neighborhood reminded me a lot of the new condos of Singapore.

What are these girls laughing at? Well, they are taking a look at the grunge look of Ickoy during the company Christmas party last Friday. According to him, he won best costume last year, so this year he decided to invest and become more wacky. He was impersonating Bob Marley, with matching Afro dreadlocks hairwig[man, where'd you source out this wig?]. I wish I had the digital file to post here. BoJims was wearing a chain, kinda similar to the chain that dogs wear .

As with our bible study, it was about Christmas [kelangan pa bang i-memorize ito?] . I wasn’t able to share it with the group [due to lack of time], but Christmas has been for the most part of my life traumatic and depressing. If I were to count the happy times that I had in reminiscing the season, I can barely finish counting the fingers of my left hand. Anyway, I won’t spoil the season for these folks and to be reminded of the real reason for the season is a good thing.

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Last sunday I went out with two of my mall buddies, let’s call her Mandy The Shrink and Bonita. Mandy is a psychologist and christian counselor. She specializes in marriage counseling and also in helping people with addictive behavior. She’s very good at it as well. She’s currently working for Asian Center for Missions, which is part of the mnistry of CBN-Asia. Bonita is currently a freelancer like Fanatical Teacher. She also professes to be a vegetarian, but sometimes she still eats chicken — unlike Fanatical Teacher who already gave up on it for almost five years.

This is an authentic gingerbread house! It was created by the Mandarin Hotel Cafe that is located at Gateway Mall in Araneta Center in Cubao. Man, some parts of the house is already missing [probably eaten already]. It’s really interesting! I was tempted to take a bite out of it! That’s Mandy The Shrink on the picture with Fanatical Teacher! But speaking of bites, take a look at Bonita!

Yum! You go girl! I tell you, if you have seen that house, you probably would drool over it as well!

Anyway, I’m so happy right now because it is the first time that I uploaded pictures correctly here! Previously, the pictures were thumbnail sizes, until Constipated Diva taught me how to. Speaking of which, did you guys know that TIME Magazine has chosen the ” Netizens” to be the Person of the Year? Wow! That includes you and me, and anybody who uses the internet for that matter. I haven’t read the article yet, but I sure will get a copy for myself. It’s something that I could use to discuss for my class in Science, Technology and Society at the start of 2007.

Until then, do hang around and enjoy the holidays guys!

48 hours

Unplugged from the internet for 48 hours! That’s the longest time in about six months now since I actually stayed away from a computer to just take a break from work! Well, there’s really nothing much to say at the moment. So I guess this would be it for now.