Worst Day for 2006-2007 and Footprints in the Sand

I guess this is timely for holyweek. But I do believe this is something to Blog about. I was suppose to go to singapore last monday afternoon. After coordinating other travels including mine, I did my usual rounds of preparations at our home in quezon city...., packing, buying toiletries, checking travel docs. I left my passport at my apartment in Taguig , so when I got there at around 1130pm, I readied it and checked it as I usually do.. To my shock I saw my passport expired. I feld numb.. I mean I'm the one who nags my staff before travelling to get the travel docs ready etc. Worst case, my Boss , had to fight for me to get the travel opportunity so it was really embarassing , lastly there was the the travel cost. I felt really down and felt so dumb to have missed it. I was totally out of it, I just sat there stunned for 5 min... then I tried to gather my wits and used my training at work to get myself together. I texted some friends who could help me with my passport problem, no answer.. then my good friend randy called, he wanted to check if I needed a lift to the airport, I told him my problem then he gave some suggestions and best one was to talk to Mark (one of the guys from my department who I was coordinating travel for). Mark had to go the US, kaso ang passport nya umaangat so pumunta sya DFA para magparush ng passport. OK , silver lining, possible magparush passport. I called Mark and got some directions. Ang main requirement is to get to the DFA early and have a letter prepared why I needed to expedite my passport processing. Before all of this , I was in a hike to Mt. Pinatubo kaya pamatay sa sakit ang katawan ko at nasira pa ang Nike Shox ko paakyat palang. kamahal na sapatos AMPAO!

Anyway, I was actually thinking of going to the spa kaso puno. Then I was thinking of meeting up with a friend kaso busy. So buti din if not baka di ko na check in time ang passport ko.

So Ayon.. pinilit ko mashakeoff ang pagkatulala ko, Sinulat ko in true project management spirit all the steps I had to do until I get my passport , did a small what if scenario if I got it and if not and what are the other things to consider..syet ang geeky.

Slept almost 3am and woke up at 5. Got to the DFA around 6, nagpapicture sa bwitre sa labas and filled up the form. Paalala pala wag kayo papabulas sa entrance ng DFA, biruin mo me mga ugok na nagaabang sa entrance me stick pa tapos tatanungin ka "Sir complete na po ba ang requirements, pwede ho ba makita?!" , bigla ko nga sinagot "Eh bat mo ba ako tinatanong eh ang ID mo eh Photography?".. sabay ba naman tumalikod ang hayup.

Anyway ayun.. mega sorry ako sa boss ko, nahihilo pa ako sa puyat , no breakfast tapos medyo mainit at mahaba ang pila sa DFA. Pero infairness maayos ang pila, talagang dahil lang sa volume kaya mahaba ang pila. Paid and went to the directors office to plead my case. Waited for quite a while, then sa wakas natawag ako around 10 , buti talaga mabait yung andon and handled it quite professionally. I met up with my friend Mike for lunch kasi malapit lang bahay nya don. Siguro nakita ni mike na mukhang latang lata ako kaya nilibre ako. Yung mga close ko na barkada tumawag agad for support and nagisip kung paano makakatulong. Grabe napaka loser ng feeling ko non, One of the things I hate is failing without trying. Failing is ok for me as long as I tried.. eh yun magulo ko ang sched and gumastos then papalpak dahil sa .. sa wala..that sucked for me. I felt it was the worst day for 2006-2007 for me.

Luckily pumayag ang DFA kaso indi same day..ok na rin. Kaso 2nd challenge, nacancel na ang flight ko at may penalty pa. So magkakapassport ako kaso wala ako flight. I went back to the office , I checked my email kaso wala expired na rin ang email login ko .. I wasnt suprised kasi nga bad day . Tapos pati ang hotel ko dahil no show ako, me no show fee na almost the same as the daily fee.haaay.

Chineck lahat ng flights kaso no luck, tapos naalala ko bigla I was researching how much ang singapore flight sa tiger air..so pinatry ko sa office namin.. ayon .. Tiger air na ako.. so ang loser don.. sa Clark ako .. it meant after getting my passport at roxas blvd , I would drive directly to Clark. Then tumawag ang secretart namin, kaialngan daw ng passport number to reserve a flight .. labooo eh wala nga ako passport eh. Buti tinawagan ang Tiger Air so nadaan sa pakiusap. 30 min later ng akala ko ok na.. ayaw daw gumana ng company credit card .. buti di pa ako nakaalis.. so we had to use my card. At last na ticket na ..ready to go. Before that nagtext out of nowhere yung taga DFA to tell me to fax the copy of my passport receipt. Ang galing nito kasi wala naman akong iniwan na cell num sa DFA. Luckily my luck turned the next day, I got my passport in time and flew out from Clark as sceduled. Our secretary also called to tell me that she was able to persuade the hotel not to charge for the no show. Also since im flying Tiger, the entire cost of my travel is still the same even with the penalties. When I got to singapore, the organizer told me I could join the special sessions the next day so I would still get a 2 day programme instead of just one. Thing were fine again.

Footprints in the Sand...
The story of footprints in the sand in gist is that Man was blaming God why during the times of trouble there were only 1 set of footprints on the sand , Man said God left him, God said he was carrying man . I believe this always , I actually had a blog about God's great intricate plans way back, in appreciating the times he carries me , this was again another time. I strongly believe that God would always throw in stuff if things are really going bad to help you get through it. Para mainda mo ika nga. Buti na lang puno ang Spa and may lakad ang friend ko so maaga ako nakabalik sa apartment to check my passport. The friends who called me to check how I was and tried to help as much as they can, they made me strong. Mark needing to get his passport ealier as well so nagkaidea ako what to do. Me remembering Tiger Air , me not leaving the office although I wanted to which enabled me to give my credit card info. The DFA officer working on my case was so good she called my office and asked for my cell num which is how I found out I needed to faxt my receipt, plus all other breaks and stuff that I didnt see. I thank God for all the help.. He is always there for us, carrying us when we need it.

Movie Review: 300 Version 2.0

Salamat sa isa kong reader na nagmention na mababaw ang review ko sa movie na 300 . I believe I owe it to my small but fabulous group of readers to give good blogs lalo na sa mga movie reviews.. so eto ang review ng the Movie 300..version 2. Although sensha na Ms. Anonymous at hindi pa rin sing in-depth ng ineexpect mo na review that would deal with the emotions, subtext and technical aspects of the movie.. kinda.. this is gonna be an indepth GUY - Movie Review.. which is what Ive been doing with all my other movie reviews.. Feeling ko talaga si myra yung nag comment na yon eh.

The Movie 300.

The movie was taken from a graphic novel that heralded the historic battle between the greeks and the persians. Kinda West vs East. Sisirain ko na , sasabihin ko ang ending para sa mga di pa nakakapanood, same as what I did for the movie The Passion of Christ , and Jose Rizal.. mga dude patay ang mga bida sa 300. Pero the way they fought and died is definitely something to see. I saw on AXN ang the making ng movie, at hindi ako yung geeky guy na pati the making at lahat ng comments pati lights man eh nireresearch ah! nagkataon lang natapat don ang channel, according to the director didnt want the old Spartacus type 2 mountain filled with men then clash in the middle fight scene, he wanted each scene to be concentrating on the individual, sort of like a ballet. They incorporated martial arts in the fight scenes as there were no indications how the ancient armies fought before. The movie started off showing the culture of the Spartans, how from childhood they were trained to be fighters, how the spartans would castaway deformed babies. Talgang kinukuha nila best of breed. Then it traced the rise of their king from childhood to the present. A messenger from Xerces arrived , during these times, the great persian army was marching over europe and conquering everything in its path. The Messenger went to sparta to compell the king to bow down to the persian empire.. eh syempre parang sinabi mo na rin kay hulk hogan mag bowdown.. so ano ginawa nya.. sinipa nya ng isang malakas na tadjak yung messenger pahulog sa balon habang sumisigaw "THIS IS SPARTA!!" ..sabi ng isang friend ko kaya nya tinadjakan at sumigaw ng ganon eh kasi makikita sa dibdib nung messenger "Spartan" .. baka spartan slippers pala yung king..wala lang.

The king consulted a group of Evos(tama ba spelling ko?) sort of like wisemen nanakatira sa taas ng bundok and the oracle(one of my favorite scenes). They told the king , they couldnt go to war kasi feast of something yun.. and it would be against spartan law to do so. Pero mabalik ako, sabi ng friend ko naman isa na yung scene with the oracle played by a beautiful red head na starlet at maraming breast exposure was shot underwater explaining the unearthly girations the actress did. Feeling ko lang talaga malamig ang tubig kasi... nyahahaha. Anyway ayon dahil nga di pumayag ang mga evos.. di pwede ipwersa ng king gamitin ang spartan army. So dahil na buburaot ang king sa politics ( na hanggang ngayon eh prevalent) kumuha sya ng best 300 of the army and marched off to war.

He positioned the army in a gorge that would force the persian army into a funnel , which would lessen the pesians advantage on the numbers game. The rest of the movie showed a series of kickass fight scenes. Meron scene where it rained down arrows , kinda reminded me of the rain of arrow scene from the movie Hero ni Jet Li. Actually yung ibang scenes parang pagsamahin ang cinematography and camera effects of the matrix with the fight scenes form the Fong Sai Yuk Movie ni Jet Li where he killed 99 men ng naka blind fold. Ang other fave scenes ko is yung tumayo ang king at pinagpag ang arrows sa shield nya, reminds me ng mga stance ni voltes V after nya gamitin ang laser sword.. mga killer astig Stance. There was also the berserk scene of the captain which reminded me naman of the berserk scene nung uncle ni braveheart..astig. Actually bawasan mo ng story ng braveheart , dagdagan ng martial arts at more action scenes.. yun ang lalabas sa 300. Ang favorite kong scene eh yung natawa sila during the rain of arrows which you have to see the movie to truly appreciate. Yung friend konga na kasama ko nanood eh napapalak pak sa mga ibang scenes and sabi nya kulang na lang daw eh playstation controller during fight scenes dahil ang astig. Ang maganda pang nagawa for me is yung cinematography na parang halong matrix meets lord of the rings meets spartacus. Parang semi animated environment kaya ang bloody battles eh mukhang fabulous. Kinda reminds me of comic book pages na ginamitan ng color seperator.

In the end of the movie , the sheer bravery of the 300 men was what fueled the spartans to defeat the mighty persian emipire. Bravery was the main theme of the movie ,one theme which it showed well. A true blue guy flick. Nasa number 1 guy flick ko na sya pass lord of the rings 2, speed 1, braveheart, matrix 1 and 2 and Jet Li Flicks. After ng movie , dahil me hangover pa ako ng spartans, nag timezone pa kami ng friend ko. Langyang movie yan.. dabest manood nyan bago magbadminton, boxing or mag gym.Parang kaya mo magbuhat ng ref after non.

Movie Review: 300

Syet! This just went straight into my all time favorite guy movie list. Kickass tong movie na to, pure adrenaline rush. Great feel with the semi CGI environment, great casting and sound... I definitely recommend watching it.. even my sister and mom loved it.

Some of my favorite guyflicks are Lord of the Rings 2, Braveheart, Troy, Speed 1, Matrix 1..this movie just made it to #1.

The story is based on the Frank Miller novel of the sandman fame. Which I think is based on a historical event. The gist, the great persian empire is threatening to invade Greece. Sparta , the great warrior nation with its very strong king refuses to heed . Due to politics and betrayal of its politician, the king sets forth to fight the 100000 strong persian army with only 300 of his best men .

The king utilizes an array of tactics to fight back the legions of persians. Then the movie goes from one kickass fight scene to another. The fights scenes were very imaginative and well choreographed, and really showed the fearlessness of the characters. Warfreak ang mga spartans, this was carefully established at the start of the movie , spartans were bred for war and it is their greatest honor to die in battle. As history goes , they all died, but it was how they died that made the story great. Astig to, after namin manood ng movie eh naglaro pa kami sa timezone ng shooting game kasi hyped pa kami sa movie.

Following Your Dreams

My Idea of a perfect career is when you do something and earn a living doing what you really enjoy doing, sabi nga Labor of Love. Before I decided to start my IT career I was deeply in a cross road where I would follow my IT career or an Artistic career. I ended up in an IT career and I think I fairly did well but my artistic side was always lurking in the sidelines. I kinda improved and went the next level in my arts career when I started doing my photography sideline but my IT career is still what gets food on the table.

Recently my partner in photography , also from an IT career , moved to dubai to follow his wife quitting his IT career in the process. Kinamusta ko sya and now he is super busy with photo gigs and earning well , enough to pursue a full time career he said. I felt really happy for him, he did it. He was actually the winner of my bad day contest. Nainggit rin ako as in, how I wish I could do the same ... walk away from my IT career and pursue a quieter and happier career track in photography.

Sabi nila you have to be broke once to be a millionaire, you would have to lose everything to get everything... I dont have the balls to quit everything yet so I'd have to think of doing something else to reach my career dreams ... damn 30 na ako I really got to focus more.

Movie Review: Sarong Banggi

Hopefully I spelled it right. The movie starred Jackielyn Jose (syet tama ba spelling ko?) and a new actor, sorry Im doing this from memory so medyo fuzzy ang details.. But I would definitely recommend this movie but just make sure you add a little touch of patience when you do watch it. The movie is about a young man being given a gift by his barkada on his birthday. Naghire ng prosti ang barkada nya para mafirst time nya.. Kaso nung nakarating sila sa meeting place, nakita nila si Jackielyn who is old for their taste, sing tanda na nung tita nung celebrant sabi nga nila. They tried to ditch her kasi nga gusto nila mas bata kaso wala rin so the boy ended up with Jackielyn again. And thats when the story really started to progress. The story could have been completed in 70% of the time pero the movie really showed the acting prowess of Jackielyn , ang galing !, the range of emotions she went through when she found out facts about the boy..astig. The story of the movie was good but the pace was a bit slow during the start I guess meant to endear us to the characters. The movie was good and is worth seeing.

Film Review: Rome and Juliet

Ang galing ng pagagawa ng movie, the buildup of the characters, the way the story was told ..ang linis. My friend quoted saying parang hindi local movie.. My opinion naman, ang galing eto na ang bagong local movie. The movie wasnt melodramatic, pero it tried to show love in its true pure form, sexuality aside. Parang sinasagot ang age old question paano mo malalaman kung sya na nga even touching on notions of soulmates. I found the story telling and the pace well done, hindi nakakabagot, parang kikiligin ka as long as you keep an open mind. It helps as well na I found both stars , Mylene Dizon and Andrea Del Rosario, truly hot. And yes for the guys reading ,they have a gratuitous kissing scene yeah baby. There were some so-so performance gaya nung kapatid ni Andrea na addict but passable since it was the story itself that drove the movie. Sorry I forgot, movie review 101, the gist... Well the story is between 2 women , 1 bound to marry ,the other a free spirit hurt by a pass love. Juliet(Andrea) set to be married to her long time boyfriend and hires Rome(Mylene) to be her coordinator. During the time Rome and Juliet spends time together they find things uncanny between them, like knowing what the other would like , or being the perfect complement for the other. They start to grow an attraction with one another until because of a certain incident with Juliet they finally gave in to their emotions. They got scorned by society for their love but in the end their love prevailed. I dont believe the movie is a social commentary on how lesbian love is still taboo in society..although it did touch the subject , I think the movie setout to show love in its purest form and it did so with aplomb.. A must see.

Damn Weather!

Sorry, ill try to keep this rant blog short. Last saturday most of my friends where out and for some reason I ended up with nothing to do on a saturday. Plus , after cleaning my apartment I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon so I was wide awake all evening. Then the worst part came, it rained. I really get all emotional and stuff when it rains, my creativity starts to kick in, I get more emotional, crap it was one of those nights that it sucked to be single and nothing to do... tinamaan ako ng lungkot. Bwiset talaga summer na summer biglang uulan.

Last Days of Cubao X

The past few years the marikina shoe expo became a hangout of artists and and collectors , sort of like a small colony of people living in the bohemian lifestlye. A place where creativity and culture thrive and evolved. Last year I rediscovered Marikina shoe expo a.k.a. Cubao X while meeting up with a model for a shoot. I heard a few stories about it and went to check it out. I found a treasure throve of arts and collectibles. There where thrift shops and vintage shops, New age bookstores, A worldclass Italian Restaurant, a recording studio and cafe for Indie Bands, Small shops and of course the regular shoe stores where I grew up shopping for School shoes.

I remembered walking there either every december or every may before school starts shopping with my parents looking for shoes. The place really endeared to me. I was really glad to see the place evolve, from the place that displayed Filipino artistry of shoes in the 80's , during a time when local products where frowned upon, to a showcase of filipino culture and artistry now in an era of globalization where we struggle to keep those which are truly filipino.

Last weekend I went there, strolled along to see whats new... whats new was that shops where beginnning to close and even some of the old shoe shops have disappeared. Then today I was researching in the internet looking for the website of "Big Sky Mind" , instead I stumbled upon another blog saying Cubao X is closing. The rent for the shops have increased so the stores and galleries have started to close up. Well the whole cubao area have spruced up , new buildings and malls have sprung , progress has catched up and is not given cubao a much needed facelift. So I guess it is just a matter of time where the old structures get torn down or bought off to makeway for a new nicer , shinier and high tech buildings. Im hoping the place doesnt become a parking lot that would truly suck.

I like malls because they comply to a certain standard, theyre built the same way to make sure in all the malls you go they give yo the same feel. But I really hope they still leave space for places that allows new things to grow, new things that becomes new standards later on. I've seen these art and culture centers sprout out like Malate, Timog, Cubao and now most of them have become commercialized, theres this new area near Kamuning near the snackaroo steak house which looks like its slowly evolving hopefully it does. Baguio would probably be the next place to be the new cultural mecca, or maybe Angono , places far from Manila to stay clear from Progress' way, hopefully not too far though..mahal na Gas eh.