Shutter Happy

This is how we look like in genuine love with photography.
(even while using a digi-cam that’s not an SLR ^_~)

I use a camera phone for most of the pictures in this blog.

I love whipping the phone out and pretending to text message somebody…when in reality I’m already shooting candidly.

Emo

…in Mcdo colors.

Parks and Wildlife Laundry

Fortunately the canal did not smell like a stinky, nauseating canal from where I was standing some two feet away.

Would their clothes come out clean after that?

Fashionista Mommy

How would it feel if you had a mother who wears clothes like these..

^_~ It’s not mine–she owns that frilly frilly skirt all to herself!

And it feels like we’re back in the 80s-early 90s again when we used to wear matching outfits– All white! All red! All polka dots! All plaid!

Like these:

Anyway

This is the happy happy nanay, attempting to take a picture of her daughter with a point-and-shoot camera (and was unsuccessful at it).

I think I got the more effective photo between the two of us trying to take a picture of each other!

Uy, Acetate Projector!

This is from my CommRes 120, Quantitative Analysis, class. Hello classmates!

Yes, we still use projectors where we use text/pictures printed in acetate/transparency paper…

(But I’m still lucky because we have a working projector (for PCs) to use! Rich ang commres department ng UP!)

Hello Angelo!

Other than that:
Today, nakalusot pala ako from being marked off as one of the delinquents in the class..because of my super nice Commres Curlies friends! (haha, cool nickname!)

Me, flops down on a seat, anxious in having to attend a statistics class I can’t understand.
Annali: Aei, may homework ka?
Me: ….@#$%…HOMEWORK!?>@#$
Annali: Oo…
Me: …@#$%%!!!!!!!!
Annali and Mai: Ok, pahiramin ka nalang namin ng tables, and charts…mag-imbento ka nalang ng sasabihin..

An hour later…

Annali : Mag-pa-cute nalang tayo sa harapan.

10 minutes later…

I pulled it off! I explained some examples of tables and graphs and charts using some leftover trivia from my Economics 11 class last year…

Harhar!

Yay for generous, smart, studious, responsible friends in UP!

Save the Environment…by Drawing!

Here’s something doodlers like us can do to maybe help save our environment!

Draw anything in ‘GREEN’ and send it to us before 7/7/07 to join artists around the world in combating global warming!

Theme: Anything as long as it’s GREEN in colour!
Deadline: 7/7/07
Format: 800 x 800 pixels (72 dpi)

Send all completed entries to:startdrawing.liveearth@gmail.com
and include the following info:
- Name
- Country
- Website (if any)

Send in your entries today!

(post from StartDrawingforLiveEarth)

Just a thought: the drawing doesn’t have to be necessarily green at first. You can just draw whatever, scan it, and then edit it in Adobe Photoshop for the greenery.

I hope we can finish those drawings in time for 7.7.07!

Saturday Lull

Even the security guards take a break on a Saturday.. yet some students like me still have to go to class for the whole day!

I guess it’s too early to decide whether I regret taking these Saturday classes or not. ^^ Maybe I didn’t like the idea of weekend classes so much because I have to attend something as tedious as Media Law class for three hours! Nyyyarg! I just don’t appreciate law/politics!

(Photo locations: in front of UP theater, and CAL building, UP Diliman)

(cross-posted at SunnyHillTrio)

Let’s Sit in the Bookstore

on the floor.

Let’s read expensive books for free.

Some of you guys might think that this is illegal/unfair/unethical/whatever.

I think that the bookstores of our country are earning enough money, that’s why it should be ok to share at least one unsealed book of a title to the public. They do that in other countries, so why not ours?

Sure, those countries are first-world and we’re in a lowly third-class standing. The first-class countries have generally more books, more people who buy books, more income for their books—the Philippines has less of every material thing I just mentioned.

So what?

Well, did you know that some local bookstores earn money by selling “second-hand” or “marked-down” books…which they got for free? Those books were supposedly donated to us Filipinos, but the merchants are depriving Pinoys of resources by putting the books out for “sale”.

Imagine, if there are accessible books, more of us will be able to read.. more of us Filipinos will be smarter!

If the stores don’t make profits, they should be closed, right? Well they’re not…so they’re making money. I thought, okay they can sell those second-hand books…as long as they share at least a tiny portion of that profit to the people..by allowing them to read/browse/scan the other books without buying! (for goodwill and less karma for those stores too!)

So salesladies, please don’t discourage people from reading books up for sale; please don’t shoo away that rare spark of interest to gain new knowledge out of even scanning a book!

Kudos to bookstores that don’t seal knowledge in plastic!
^_~

Dinner with Lola

Honestly, it was the young girl whom I first noticed. I was seated beside her in a Megamall foodcourt bench last saturday, sitting in a similar indian-sit manner. I thought, “What a cool kid!” (parang ako! jk!)

I turned to check out the adult with her, to see if her parent was the sort of artsy/boho person who would allow their child to sit in public that way.

I was happily surprised to find her eating out with her Lola. And just the two of them–no parents, yayas, ates. They weren’t the type who were chauffeured around. I imagined them commuting together to Megamall.

The beautiful thing here was the way they were completely at ease with each other depite their ages, and amidst the noisy public crowd in the foodcourt. My friend and I almost had to shout to understand each other over the noise like we were in a rock concert but these two people beside us were in an undisturbed aura, of relaxed pace and peace.

It’s probably because of my great attachment to my grandparents, or these two’s refreshing contrast from the crowd, or maybe the many things in my mind. Whatever the reason was, I felt strangely illuminated just by being there beside them.

Sailor…Aei

Sunday: From four to after dinner time and while attempting to finish sewing a new bag for school, I’ve been watching Sailor Moon. I realized I’ve never been happier popping any other Divisoria-bought DVD compilation :D (I love Divisoria! Saka torrent-downloading! Lahat ng gusto mo panoorin, nandun! Long live Net Pirates like me!).

My parents said that I went a bit crazy as a seven-year-old girl while waiting for Sailor Moon in ABC-5 some years ago. I was jumping, screaming, probably even rolling on the floor as I watched it. It was the first anime I ever watched (and obsessed about). Of course I’d love it, I was seven-year old girl back then. Like I said in my comic book writing class, I’m still attached to it because it introduced to me all the Japan culture I’m loving today.

Watching it now that I’m nineteen (o twelve years later) I guess I AM reliving that excitement of the S-Moon anime again. I still know the theme songs by heart, and almost all the other crazy things and trivia only true moonie fan girls would know. (Alam nyo ba na birthday ni Usagi at ni Chibiusa ay June 30? I almost wished na “pinanganak” sila some days later, para ka-birthday ko sila! Haha!)

So I guess I’m still an “anime person” as some might say. And a big hearty Sailor Moon fan at that. Honestly, I don’t really care. I like what I like..and no matter how I’d outgrow it someday, I’m probably coming back to it later. (Though I don’t see myself ever liking Britney Spears again haha!)

Back-to-school shopping, Ninang-style

Before every semester begins, Ninang Arlene takes the “malalaking bata” out to shop-all-you-can-and-want for a day. The malalaking bata includes me, kuya, Lean, and Nigo–all college or high school level kids from our Gaddi family. Last friday, we did this trip!

Ninang who works practically 24/7 in their crafts export business loves these trips as much as us financially-disabled kids in summers of no allowance.

I love going to malls to see things but I usually dislike buying them. One reason: I feel guilty spending money. Second: I just know that I don’t really need those things from malls. Third: I’d rather explore book sales and thrift shops for the need to buy something. Fourth: I really can’t afford malls. Fifth: I don’t want to acquire more kalat. Etcetera.

Special trips like these where practically “everything I say I like becomes mine” feels weird but it’s definitely a lot of fun.

I think I now understand my grandmother when she told me “basta magtrabaho ka kung san ka magkakapera para di ka mamomoblema sa pera” and “…para makapag-shopping ka!”. Heh. Elay, I work hard and play harder so please do not immediately criticize me for being a faggin’ workaholic. It runs in the family.

The lucky mall was SM North Edsa’s The Block, and the lucky store was Folded and Hung. As usual, everyone was happily able to buy shirts from F&H, and as usual nothing there fit me right. In fact, almost nothing ever fits me right in mall stores so I gave up trying to wear mall-bought clothes. Sapatos lang sakto sa kin from the malls (so I got three new pairs).

In rare occasions in malls I might see something I like, but something incredibly stupid pops up so I still don’t get to buy it. Much like:
“Wow, parang strawberry!” I pointed out to this cute cute graphic dress. Ninang pulled it a bit from the mannequin to check out the print and then this have to happen…

Hell no way am I going to wear something so easily taken off! (Plus, the saleslady was so masungit anyway. I hate buying from people who hate their jobs.)

My darling male relatives are professional branded-clothes-shoppers on the loose.

At the end of the day, we reached a refreshingly deserted Tiendesitas.

And then to Eastwood for food.

Ninang gives us a lot of freedom to become a little bit materialistic because in our family at least, I think it helps us progress more in many things in life. Life things like self-esteem, sanity, inspiration, careers, and relationships.

Being there with my cousins and my tita today created this dream bubble in my head and it now makes me all light and airy and happy again to do anything I believe I’m capable of.

Sunny Hill Trio

My high school barkada pretty much dispersed throughout the country (and the world) when we entered college. When people you grow up with are suddenly physically far far away, sometimes it does get a little lonely (despite the fact that I have other people in my life).

I want to revive this legendary trio I was part of in highschool. It probably started with drawing, Pokemon, anime, having long hair, being height challenged, recess breaks, and T.H.E. classes–I’m not really sure. One’s the uber-friendly acads girl, the other is the quiet geek, the other is the shy heartthrob…the list of our widely varying self-stereotypes is long so it’s pretty miraculous how we still grew up to be very close friends.

After our warm, gushy, and carefree childhood in Sunny Hill School, we were suddenly catapulted into the real-world in college! And to top it off, we started living in different places!

Sure there’s YM and cellphones and email to keep in touch, but they’re probably never enough to answer the question “Kamusta buhay mo dyan?”

So out of a whim, we decided to start a photoblog because “photos speak louder than words”.

And all of us are really lazy in typing those long narrations of our lives anyway…hehe.

In this blog, we’re shooting pictures using our camera phones everyday, from our own point-of-views, wherever in the world.

…Will a photoblog be enough to deepen the connection of us three childhood friends?

One month from my birthday

Hi! I wonder if there are still people checking out my stagnant blog. Heh. XD
I’ve been a little busy this summer with work that involved arranging boxes, shooting pictures, documentation blah, and a lot of time away from the internet.
And the funny thing is, I want to do more.

I planned to make a portfolio site this summer but I lost the energy when I started doing the CSS for the layout. I’ve been accumulating dusty little things to post and I’ll just dump them here at blogger by the time school starts (where I have more control of my time, with the use of “I have to go to school” as the perfect excuse).

Finally, there’s that picture up there. :D Let’s say that mild depressions convert into impulsive bursts of creativity with me.