the perils of

When thesis work means visiting 174 homes in the depressed areas of a barangay named Holy Spirit, you can never wake up in the morning and know exactly where you'll be in four hours. To illustrate, my day started with this: Just your usual 8 am street parade. And ended here. Roch is looking sad because she doesn't wanna drive. In between it all, we saw some pretty sweet sights... ...right next to a literal hole in the wall. This was in a computer shop, where we stopped to print our materials. It was next to the bakery above. A good sense of balance was essential because solid ground wasn't always that solid. Our ability to minimize was tested. by walls that threatened to close in on us. We reached a dark time but the light was never too far away. If you think this was enough for one adventure Try two. End.

WARNING: This post contains stuff that you probably will not be interested in unless you 1.) Watch Ouran High School Host Club and 2.) like half-baked feminist analyses of pop culture. Why why why WHY do I always get the urge to write a blog post just when I'm about to work on something important. I've got a Physiology mini-thesis review of related literature waiting to materialize in the adjacent browser tab, and it's due on Monday already, but DEAR LORD am I fired up and ready to write something completely unrelated on my blog. Maybe it's the coffee float I just ingested. I got if from Jolibee for an extra twenty five bucks, and its resemblance, in terms of taste, to Kopiko instant coffee is unignorable. Anyway, I'll stop the rambling and proceed with that thing that got me fired up in the first place - no, not coffee (well, it's partially that), but Ouran High School Host Club. If you are either Jules or Rap, I know what you're thinking: How unchar...

This is the second of three greeting cards that I made for my design class. The challenge was to pretend like I was hired by Ateneo to design some cards. I really don't want to explain this card any further. I finished this one a few hours before it was due, so I didn't think through the concept well enough.  Now I'm contemplating going to the Manila International Book Fair. I'm hesitant because I'll probably find deals that are just as good at Booksale anyway. Maybe I'll go over to Booksale then. Anyway, have a good weekend!

" Looks like someone went too magis on birthday cake." This was one of three greeting cards that I made for design class. The catch was that I had to pretend like Ateneo hired me to design greeting cards for them. Yeah, I know the caption sucks.  This is probably the first time I've ever actually illustrated something from scratch. Most of my previous work I based off pictures from the Internet. So this is a design milestone! Yay! In other news, I've been meaning to read The Great Gatsby for a long time now. But I couldn't get my hands on a copy. The library's sole copy was missing, and it's too expensive to buy from bookstores (it sells for like P600. There was a version that was less than P300, but that was the freaking movie cover book. I avoid movie cover books). Anyway, fortunately for me I found a copy that was only P90 at the Zeitgeist book sale in Ateneo! God bless you, book sales. 

It's been a busy design week for me, meaning my butt's really sore from sitting down the whole day. But I shall reserve a separate post for this week's design theme (greeting cards) and I shall instead backtrack to some old plates. Last week in design class, we took up negative space. The best way to explain what negative space is is through examples, courtesy of the negative space artist, Noma Bar (click to enlarge): Spock Charlie Chaplin I don't know what this ad has to do with IBM, but it's an IBM ad. This week's design challenge was to create negative space illustrations of a celebrity, a political issue, and a pun. Fortunately for me, I was among the three winners of last week's album art challenge, so I had to do only two! I feel silly now for showing you my work after having shown you those examples from Noma Bar. But anyway, here it is: Guess who. Everyone wants a piece of that pork.

My life is so full of things. I use the word "things" here not to mean events, like when we say "I've got a thing tomorrow". When I say "things," I mean actual objects, material possessions, things that you can pick up and own. I have too many. Clothes, gadgets, toys, junk. My condo is getting smaller and smaller from all the clutter. My real home in Cagayan de Oro is much worse. It makes me feel like a horder. It makes me feel claustrophobic. I wish I could let go of a lot of my things, because the spaces that I inhabit are becoming so small that there's barely enough room for people anymore. This is the reason why I don't like buying unnecessary things. I don't like spending money on things with no real use, like jewelry, or keychains, or decorations. (That isn't to say that I don't like receiving these things.) Practical is what I like. I look for practical when it comes to the clothes that I buy ("How often will...

You know what, one thing that's been bugging me lately is that I haven't been getting any free stuff. I mean, I'm a blogger. I get readers. And bloggers who get readers should also get free things, right? Strangely, nobody's been sending me anything! What's up with that? It's customary, you see, to send bloggers things. Cosmetics, food, clothes, phone cases... You name it, a blogger has been sent it. It's practically canon. Tricia Gosingtian gets free things all the time. So does Saab Magalona, and Vernice Enciso. Companies scramble over each other to send these bloggers wonderful, wonderful things. These girls probably have enough free stuff to last them lifetimes. And here I am, free stuff-less! What's wrong with you, marketing deparments of companies! Can't you see that my blog is worth reading? That I am a seasoned blogger who writes interesting blogs that people like to read? Can you not see that I am in desperate want of a free macaron, o...