Guess what? Our belen lost. To CHK's. I can't effing believe it. It was the signal for the block to pack up and drink abundant amounts of alcohol, but then my mom showed up and smuggled me home. After 4 senseless, sleepless nights on cold, littered floors, Greco burns, headaches, animosity, and manual work, we deserve to be drunk. It could've been fun, but we all had to go home.

Haha losers.

The thing with FA's Parade this year is that, it's pretty boring. Well, the block thinks it is, with the freshies' floats just passing through the crowd. The energy level's way too low, or at least relatively too low than the past few years, when we had the floor to ourselves. Nothing beats the horror train routine on freshman year.

Somehow I don't want to show my face to a16nine and the other org members, because I was useless to them during the parade. Sure, I did some of their masks, but my excuse (not having a flowing blue dress) is pretty lame. All I did was to hold bamboo poles and lose my photo-snapping entourage en route to Beta Way, on heels. Go me.

Mom and Nix watched the parade, after calling me up at 8 in the morning to tell me they couldn't come. I wasn't really expecting them, until they called during the middle of the parade. I haven't prepared my stuff in the dorm; all of them were lying around, waiting to be picked up on check-out day. My family was in a bad mood by 9 pm, when I just got in the dorm, collecting bed sheets after grueling hours emphasized by walking around the Acad Circle on heels. They didn't bring the camera. Go visuals, yay.

But the day had its moments. The Oblation Run at lunchtime was boring (and since when should the sight of 10+ naked men running around campus be boring?), but it’s also fun to see pundits and self-righteous, Catholic-school-bred freshies yelling about how ‘yucky’ naked men look like. Unfortunately, all gay men were at the lobby when it happened, and we’re deprived of all the fun. Leeaww and I were sniggering at Chad’s, Mar’s, and Crisel’s shocked reactions. The hilarity was infectious that everybody had a green joke or two (dozens) when we came back to FA during lunch (Leeaww, Cielo, and Jorick = bad for your health). I also bought T. H. White’s The Once and Future King from the AS Books Stall. I was surprised that the guy running the stall remembered me, and promised to reserve Vonnegut and Dahl books for me next year.

The old AVCOM crowd was in FA after the parade, and it’s fun to see all these wacky ad people out of the office on a lam. By this time we can’t find the rest of the ID block, and decided to go home. I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to Chad, Iona, Guia, Boom, and to everybody else. So this space goes out to them:

Enjoy the Holiday Break, People! Merry Christmas!

(To Iona and Chad: OMG why, why, why?!)

I got home at 10. Was shocked to see a new printer/scanner/copier attached to the PC. Was hyperventilating when I heard that it’s ours. I’m now scanning my old Adarna storybooks that are slowly falling apart, and will scan my stack of old 1930’s photos later. Right now I’m ogling at the CSI group photo that Nix printed.

Also, you can't imagine how happy I was to find this last night: http://twistedbyjessicazafra.blogspot.com . That, and Letterman. Yes.

I just realized that I love my ID blockmates better than ever. It's not a mean feat to stand beside me and my looping concepts and bouts of insecurity and doubt. I feel like I actually have friends. Gasp. God, I need to treat all these people.

Time of the season, huh?

mood | apathetic

2 bottles |uncork one

This journal is totally neglected.

It's been a while since I wrote something un-fangirlishly obscene. I guess I got to busy to care about writing stuff. I'm really, really tired right now. My legs are killing me.

So...

Nah, I really can't update. Not now, when I just realized I have no photos from the Lantern Parade. Goddammit.

Come back tomorrow. Cells should rest, you know?

mood | aggravated

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Halloween's coming around the corner and I have not done anything productive. On tangible materials, anyway - most of what I've done is in this computer, and I think I'm mutating from the radiation. I think I'm getting fat again, whihc is a painful ordeal after spending the whole time into thinking that I actually shrunk for the past few years.

I've checked the CRS website. Seems that I didn't get an elective again. Dammit, I should've got the web design class, I heard it's easier. Anyway, I got my target grade for D150, so I'm well in the black again. TFA, don't fail me now.

I'm substituting for my mom in my brother's PTA meeting again. I'm worried about my mother: ever since she was promoted to a corporate position, she's always about to give up stress. One day, it'll be about work, next day it'll be about those snivelling corporate asswipes she has to meet in a regular basis. Such an ordeal a single mother should do. You know, I'm completely worried about our family, and I'm pretty much pressed to get a job as soon as I get out of UP. It's not a financial thing, mind you, it's a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive thing.

Some people actually suggest that I should get a regular part-time job. That means serving coffee in Katipunan, or doing call center jobs. Thinking about getting a job like those, I'm laughing my ass off. I'm more apt to throw steaming coffee at a bitchy conyita's face, and recite buckets of Tarantino quips on the phone. But it's a hilarious proposition, until I get fired. My mother would've laughed, too.

When I grow up, I'm gonna have a job in a museum, or pretty much anywhere I can make money out of doing research and art. If I were able to teach well (like most of the family), teaching would also be an option. See, I don't care about earning big - it's what I do, that counts. That's what my mom taught us.

As long as we're happy.

***

I miss the UP people - AVCOM people, ID people, and the G-30. I'm doing the G-30 magazine for quite some time now, and I feel guilty of not finishing it on time. I hope I can finish it before the 9th. Ger, help me. 80.


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1 MRT Ticket gets a makeover. For TFA:

( CLICK HERE )

Wow. I'm actuall spending my weekend resting at home. I made sure I got everything done this week so I wouldn't have to do anything today. Well, I have to make some Powerpoint slides and phone calls, but those are nothing. Hooray for Un-Pinoy-Big-Brother TV weekend!

***

We celebrated blockmate Iona's birthday last Tuesday. She treated us 14, stressed-out, ID gluttons in a buffet restaurant in Kalayaan. Food was great, my tummy had a hangover. Blockmate Guia and I snapped some shots, and we never realized that we got 120 pictures of the party in her digicam.

I'm trying to compile at least half of the pics, but my mom insists I shut this down. The newly-reformatted computer needs some sleep, she thinks.

Here's what I've done so far (and it's not nearly two-thirds through, either):


The fonts are not installed yet, so I had to make the most of the defaults.

( Another one... )

***

One of my design teachers think that I am clearly incapable of making an oral presentation. Well, in her class, yes. I can't stand of talking about promoting shoes and stuff - marketing presentations, pitching things I don't understand, or doesn't seem to make sense to me. I feel that I shoud show her how I can talk about the things I'm most passionate about.

Just don't make me do sales talk.

***

I'm actually excited to do a portfolio presentation. I'm eager to collect my works (the better ones, at least) and share my fascination in doing them, how I came up with them. Sure, I suck as a verbal communicator, but once I started blabbing about things I love, I'm yammering it up like Tarantino.

I want to have an ID entry, an Illustrations entry, a Packaging entry, a Photography entry, and a Digital/Web entry.

mood | content

2 bottles |uncork one

Hmm. People might think I'm neglecting my Blurty. So, here's a new layout. I was digressing about doing homework last night, so I made this.

I just don't want to worry too much. Ah, but here I am. I would be off.

mood | anxious

6 bottles |uncork one

Suddenly I'm off to yet another adventure, and it always started with a nudge, a dare, or caused by boredom and monotony. Suddenly, I'm in La Salle Taft, I'm in CCP. One random day I went to Quiapo and had my camera fixed. Last summer I almost got killed by cargo trucks while crossing the industrial zone in Batangas. Some years ago I went to Palawan and was finally convinced that a part of Narnia exists in the Philippines.

Today I faced my fears and walked around Makati. I hate Makati, not so much about the location, but about the people they represent. I always thought that Makati had always been the country's annoying yuppie, pseudo-intellectual, back-scratching capital populated by Trump wannabes. Well, I can't rule out the annoying yuppie, pseudo-intellectual back-scratching folks, but the thing is I realized that not all of them are. Some people are just honestly successful, and have a lifestyle totally different from mine. Some people I could deal with. And, in fact, some of these people are my friends.

But that doesn't mean I wanna work there.

I've reread The Hobbit last week and heck I can now totally relate to it. I got a knock on the door one day, and realized I had to travel to Diliman - a huge deal from someone who hated commuting and never went out during high school. And since then I've been trekking. The next time you hear from me, I'll probably be making maps.

( Gacked survey )


3 bottles |uncork one

Had a wonderful interview with Ms. Maja Olivares-Co (of SS Olivares and Associates) this morning. Ms. Co - if you're a hopelessly clueless nobody cooped up under a rock (like me) - designs the retail displays and interiors of almost all Rustan stores for almost 15 years (including Marks & Spencer, A Different Bookstore, and Xara). One glance at her portfolio and you'll gape - she had been designing interiors in high-end stores in New York and Canada. She believes in the power of business, good design, and proper discipline - and she's a Filipina (of course, she had far more opportunities than us, but hey).

Ions (whose mom drove us to Rockwell), a classmate, and I were tasked by Prof. Colayco to introduce her to the class in our class forum on Sept. 7. Hence, the interview. Now, I'm not one of those oh-so-trendy people loitering around Rockwell and having lattes while studying. But I braved the fashionable streets, had designer coffee, and tried to shut myself up just to do the interview.

Ms. Co is frank, spontaneous, funny, and aggressive - the perfect person to have a coffee and an interview with. By asking the right questions, you get loads of information, insights, and occasional gossips - more that what you've expected. We were hesitant when we started asking her questions, but as the interview progressed we felt at ease talking with her. We were then suddenly talking about New York and the state of local retail stores, and laughing at anecdotes. I'm actually proud of the fact that I've interviewed one of the design bigshots in the country - even though I'm not proud of my inability to talk audibly (and I asked most of the questions, too). Suddenly, Starbucks feels right at home.

Reading about people, talking to important folks and hearing about their successful lives, I've realized that I should be more aggressive, especially when dealing with people, career paths, and practically everything. I've been cursing the day the nuns taught us about humility - the kind you give as an excuse for not taking bigger opportunities and settling with what's asinine and... small. We were taught not to be the class president simply because we're flaunting our leadership skills, that it's pride messing you up - yes, let the rich/popular/smart kid be the leader, because God gave them something the other kids do not have. Don't even give the regular kids a try. (Sure, they didn't say/teach this explicitly, but that's how I've experienced it.) It had been in me for so long, and I want that nagging thought to go away, dammit.

There's something to be said about everything we've learned from her, so far, about design and businesses. But then that's for our presentation. Ions and I are challenged by these designers - first, there was the Ewan McGregor character in The Island, and now, Ms. Co. There's a future in design, and it's us. And we should work really, really hard, and have the guts to put our best works out.

After the morning in Powerplant, I got into a train, was nearly smothered by the heat, and went straight to Diliman. My dorm room smelled like smoke - they've been fumigating. I missed lunch. And I'm back in reality.

music | Red Bowling Ball Ruth - The White Stripes

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