uselessness

it's always great seeing your friends after a reeeeeeeeeeeally long time of isolating yourself from the world. last night was franco's birthday bash at V-bar. i wasn't exactly supposed to go but mother and chichi somewhat convinced me to. how i've missed people! grabe. it was great seeing my dearest friends from blue rep and college. very nostalgic. i dragged mike along so that they could meet him too. so much fun.

meanwhile, i am having the hardest time trying to finish our homework for screenwriting. waaaah. please God. save me.


on with the uselessness........

20 minutes or 20 years

Just wanted to share something that my mom sent me through email... a very rare thing for her to do.
To my dearest jiru, eynchel, reg and chichi... :)

When I was little, I used to believe in the concept of one best friend, and then I became a woman. And then I found out that if you allow your heart to open up, God would show you the best in many friends.

One friend's best is needed when you're going through things with your children. Another friend's best is needed when you're going through things with your mom. Another when you want to shop, share, heal, hurt, joke, or just be. One friend will say let's pray together, another let's cry together. Another let's fight together, another let's walk away together.

One friend will meet your spiritual need, another your shoe fetish, another your love for movies, another will be with you in your season of confusion, another will be your clarifier. But whatever their assignment in your life, on whatever the occasion, on whatever the day, or wherever you need them to meet you... with their gym shoes on and hair pulled back or to hold you back from making a complete fool of yourself ...those are your friends.

It may all be wrapped up in one woman, but for many it's wrapped up in several ... one from 7th grade, several from high school, several from the college years, a couple from old jobs, several from church, on some days your mother, on others your sisters, and on some days it's the one that you needed just for that day or week.....that you needed someone with a fresh perspective, or the one who didn't know all your baggage, or the one who would just listen without judging.....those are good best friends.

I thank my girlfriends, those who honor intimacy, those who hold trust, and those who hold me up when life is just too heavy. The special bond we share is unique. Thanks for the words we've shared...... the prayers we've sent up. The laughs, the tears, the phone calls, the emails, the shopping, the movies, the lunches, the dinners, the talking, talking, talking and the listening, listening, listening.

So whether you've been there 20 minutes or 20 years, I appreciate you.

what key signature are you?

C major - the simplest key. You are content with
where you are now, you have what you need. Some
people are happy in C major, but it is up to
you to decide to push yourself further if you
want more from your life.


what key signature are you?
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iz da shizzle...

before i do a mini(?) recap of the pampanga escapade, you guys gotta check out this site my sister, gab, discovered. it translates other sites to niggah linggo. try it! if you have your own blog, type in your URL on the blank gizoogle field, and it'll display your blog in shizzle language. heehee! it's so much F-to-the-U-N! :P


OKAY.
so the class had a field trip to pampangga yesterday for the hot air balloon festival. our goal was to master still photography composition and time precision. some of us drove to clark right after class the night before (thursday), and checked in a hotel to rest for a couple of hours. the opening was scheduled at 6:00 AM on friday, WHICH MEANT that we HAD to be at the grounds by 4:00 AM. heehee. fun. the sleepover gang had quite a ride. we didn't know that there was a new toll gate entering angeles, so you can imagine our confusion upon reaching it. tapos, when we got to clark pa, there was a frickin' brownout. at first, it kinda annoyed me cuz we had a hard time finding our hotel, which totally smelled like my "victorian" jacket, by the way (ugh. the jacket i brought smelled like it was stuck in a baul for ages. bad move. i ended up smelling like a lola from the victorian era tuloy...). but then the brownout didn't turn out to be so bad din 'cuz it set the mood for someone and i to have a pseudo serious talk by the pool. wahahaha. *blush*

we got to the air field at mga 4:30 AM, and caught a bit of press vs. base guards comotion. hehe. saya. the actual event hadn't started til about 7 AM so a lot of the class ended up hanging out by this bulaluhan stall inside the event grounds and rested (while eating bulalo and drinking beer, of course. swear. my classmates are such tomadors). at about 5:30, people began setting up their hot air balloons, and we (the "photographers") were stationed meters away from the field, ready to shoot and conquer. it was my first time to use a film camera in ages (after mom accidentally dropped our old canon SLR, i switched to digital technology. my former photography projects were taken using dude-mera. it takes good pics anyway, and it's cheaper... in the long run.). i totally love the clicking sound of an SLR film cam, though. it makes me feel like a pro. hehe. i'll know when i have my rolls developed if i did a good job or not. sana talaga. *cross fingers* kung hindi, eh di next time ulit (thanks chichi for lending me your camera!).

anyway... here are some snappies from my digital camera.


four sleepy folks from the sleepover gang... tere, nice, tim, pinky


you know how every event starts with the raising of the philippine flag and the singing of the national anthem? the hot air balloon way was so cool. some astig dude dove from the sky and held out the flag, while the army band played the anthem. ang cool talaga! this pic sucks. there should be better pics of this in one of my rolls.


some of the balloons being set-up. they were so nice and colorful!


and they take off! wheeee!!!


hey chard! wassap for you!??!


teeneenee! doble and joseph. whatta lovely couple. wahaha.


the european all stars (without china and seema)... and... is that you, micah??? abbaaaah... alis sa pustiso! :P hahaha!

i was pooped by the time i finished my third roll of film. went back to the hotel and got some shut-eye for two hours, and then drove back to the school with the rest of the gang, where there was a scheduled showing of Oro, Plata, Mata at 1:00 PM. we were required to watch it for the industry seminar (instructed by production designer, rodell cruz) later that day. it's a looooooooong movie. some found it boring (if i wasn't so sleepy, i would've watched it with both eyes open talaga. promise.) and joked that the film's all about "boobies and bahay kubos." haha! while that was partly true, i understand why it's considered a filipino masterpiece. the film's about a rich, spanish-influenced filipino family and how they dealt with war and the japanese invasion after (or was it during?) WWII. true enough, the production design of the film was fantastic. no wonder rodell cruz was oliver stone's art director for platoon. and it's no wonder din na direk abaya chose him to teach basic and advanced production design in APFI. ang galing galing niya talaga!

so he was there yesterday for the introductory lecture, and while we were all excited to have him there, it was sad that we were all too tired to give our full attention to him. buti nalang he understood that fact, and that he didn't call on anyone for mandatory recitation. kundi... wow... sobrang walang sense siguro yung mga sagot namin. hehe. despite everything though, was able to absorb much information from him. and more importantly, he invited us to visit the set he's been working on for an international client in bulacan. i think we'll be going there next week. ought to be fun.

so there... long day yesterday. medyo nagkatampuhan pa kami ni arturo... hanggang today, actually... pero at least ayos na yon. hehe. iba na talaga pag... mmmmm.... wahahahaha. :)

hmmm.

If you read this journal, even if I don't speak to you often, post a memory of me. It can be anything you want. It can be good or bad -- just so long as it happened.

Then post this on your journal. See what people remember about you...

moving on with the good stuff

last week was crazy tiring, but it was also the most fun since school started. we finished shooting three of our one-minute silent films. i know. you're probably thinking... dude. that's just one minute. how hard could it be? VERY difficult, apparently. or more like... challenging. i think the hardest part about it was having to cramp everything we wanted in just one minute and in just 6 shots (as we were instructed). the second most challenging thing was staying sane for about 6 hours (at least) just to shoot material for one frickin' minute. hehe. kakaiba. ang hirap pala talaga. pero it was also one of those things that just push you to your limit and say na KAYA MO YAN! it felt good.


at the hotset of "Snug", tim's house in ayala alabang. that's robi right there being flashed with lights. heehee.


debriefing at the hotset of "Happy Thoughts", Libreria Coffee Shop, with bea and elber


at the hotset of "Combination", tahanan village, with ikeypoo smothered in "blood"! ack! :P
there's not much else to share, except for the fact that things are getting better and better in school. our class is getting closer by the day, everyone's bonding... our group is getting really comfortable working together... it's been great. we're totally excited for the upcoming projects. we were already given our second production assignment which is due in two months. this time, it's a 3-10 minute film with sound and musical scoring. excelleeeeeeent! really looking forward to getting whipped in the ass while working on it. hehe.