- Last week I found an old copy of The Flame. I flipped through the pages only to find, at the last page, my first published comics page. It was titled Omega.

I couldn't stop cringing as I looked at it. I didn't know much about the craft. I did it using Pagemaker, but the lay-out sucked! I was a terribly storyteller.

So now I've decided to rehash the darn story into what I tentatively call V2.0. I'm planning to make it a 10-page storyline to give the character, Vega, an actual background.



- Since the Noah project I was working on with NeoParadiso has been pushed back, I am now working on a project I tentatively call American Accent. It's about Simon, a 19-year old Call Center trainee plagued by speech defects.



- As you can see, I now acknowledge the fact that I can no longer write decent verses, so these scripts are merely exercises to get me into writing again.

I had the most unfortunate accident of staring at Krystala for five minutes...well, it was both annoying and enlightening. ANNOYING because that very same night, between sleep and awake, I saw an image of her in that blasted costume and now...and now it's embedded into my consciousness. I even see it whenever I close my eyes. I hope this affliction is temporary.

However, on the other hand, it made me think of my superhero era, where every conversation I make involves a DC or Marvel character (my friends also refer to it as my X-Men stage). And now I am rethinking my script-writing style. Though I have preferred to make realistic stories (that never even reached pencilling stage), the storytelling method -from my point of view- is still decidedly superhero-ish.

It's not really a new thing, but at least I'm becoming more conscious regarding my writing, which I now take a little more seriously. Back then, I just write stories out of the blue, without designing the characters first or plotting the outline or even planning the general direction I want the readers to take. Before I knew it, I was inking pages without knowing what'll happen in the next page.

LABO.


--And maybe, once I've mastered writing, I'll try writing screenplays.

HELP

TANING

Imago

sa'n mapupulot ang pag asa

may katuwiran ba ang sana

ngiti ko ang iyong galak

langit ko ang iyong kandungan

permiso sa isang araw na

makasama ka

abiso ng pusong bulag

na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may taning itong pag ibig natin

dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit sa bulag na pag ibig

san hihingi ng patawad

kung walang dahil

antangis ko ang yong luha

nais ko ang iyong kalayaan

permiso sa isang araw na

makasama ka

abiso ng pusong bulag

na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may taning itong pag ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit sa bulag na pag ibig

today is GAY DAY?

This afternoon I went to my sister's office over at the Philippine Stock Exchange to claim the resume I had asked her to type for me (I've been job-hunting for a graphic artist position - tell me if you know of any, by the way). Of course no trip to the Ortigas area would be complete without walking in front of the Raffles Bldg -where I spent a good amount of my time when I was still working for that call center- and then flunging myself to Megamall to kill some time.

And as always I found myself strolling through the galleries on the 3rd flr. I've been doing this since I discovered there actually was a slew of art exhibits there. I then went to the car park (i heb no kar!) to reminisce, it has been the tambayan hump of both L and me. I then went to the toilet (malamang para umihi); the moment I swung by the door I knew there was something wrong, THE MEN DOING THEIR THING BY THE URINALS WERE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER'S DICKS...WHATTDAFU--???!!!

EVACUATE. I forgot how I needed to urinate badly and evacuated over to the basement, where I spent a good 20mins staring at both COMIC QUEST and FILBAR's.

Ahh...sanctuary!
-of course naglaway na naman ako sa mga comics that I could never afford in this lifetime, but at least no gays.

memo to myself:
never go to the BLUE ORB on a Thursday night. What's the Blue Orb, you ask? It's the computer shop I am in right now!!!
Why? Well, there seems to be an unwritten law that every homosexual in Mandaluyong must congregate here.
Just my luck, these are not silent types - these are FU--ing SCREAMING FAGS!
Just beside me, a huge, macho fag is viewing a caucasian guy through a webcam chat.
On my other side there's a cross-dresser. If there's one thing I hate, it's a cross-dressing fag telling his/her tales of woe to smaller fags surrounding him, as if he's some kind of celebrity.
I have got to be the only heterosexual in this room!

But before you -whoever you are- accuse me of being a homo-phobe, let me just shed some light for you: I am not. I have nothing against gays.
It's just that doing the George Michael at the mall is WAAAAY beyond me. And I hope you don't persecute me for being so uneasy in being probably the only heterosexual in this floor of the internet shop surrounded by screaming fags.

Their presence is the least of my concerns, it's just so annoying to hear one of them shrieking about his Papa and/or any obscenities worse than of my sexually-deprived friends could ever think of.

Imagine what a whole pack of them would do to your sanity.

I haven't been posting for the longest time.

personal newsflash:

I have just resigned from work.

I had my sister print my resignation letter printed out and passed it to my team leader.
As of now I am officially a bum, nagpapataba, as they say.

And now I have separation anxiety banging my guts. I mean, the pay may not be as high as some call centers offer, but geography has always been my primary concern, and is the easiest and most accessible one I could find. I did spend a year mulling around its corridors, in all its buildings, I met some of the best people I could hopefully meet in this lifetime and spend many sleepless nights either accepting or making calls. I am allowed to miss it, am I?

So I'm no longer a graphic artist trapped in the body of a call center agent (eh, BELS), I'm now the ex-call center agent trapped in the body of a bum pretending to be a graphic artist; because until now my PC is still horribly busted, so I can't really have any of my recent line artworks scanned and posted here. So until I get that damn thing repaired I guess I won't be posting any artworks or pictures here. And that is also why I am here in Cainta, renting a pc in a Computer Shop and checking overloaded email accounts and re-acquainting myself with technology.

Oh, well. I still am an insomniac.
And by the way, I've recently developed a liking to green tea. I used to think of it as a glass full of colored, tasteless liquid. Dunno why, though.

Elle by the sidewalk

This was inspired by the sight of Elle after lunch, sitting outside MiniStop in Ortigas...I twisted the image and i dunno what else I did...

Last Sat, I dragged Kenneth, Tua and Dar's asses to Freedom Bar to attend this month's first Admit One. We got to the venue about four minutes before the first band started.

The first two bands were no-namers and I wish I didn't get to see them. I was little down that night because I didn't get any sleep at all (I went to Kenneth's house directly after my shift) and I was a little jumpy and the first band's band playing didn't help at all. Unfortunately, the second act was sorta the in the same field.

Stone Free... I was never a fan. And the only Stone Free song I ever liked was Listen, that theme from Single and their entry to the RX Band Breakout.

Radioactive Sago Project... This band really rocked the house. They started their set with an instrumental, followed by Hello Hello, Astro and Para Sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan, Bisikleta ang Kailangan.

Twisted Halo...was always a great set to watch. But because of an out-of-town Cambio gig, Buddy wasn't there so Richie Ramos took over the bass.

Sugar Free...did a splendid set made up of Mariposa and Burnout and three new songs - Sinta, Tulog Na and Prom.

Chongkees...Was an a huge pleasant surprise. I've never heard of this band and I knew nothing about their sound, so imagine my surprise when they started their set with a cover of a Long Beach Dub All-star song. And they kept on doing hilarious tagalog reggae original music, after that.


Too bad, Elad wasn't able to come. And too bad Wacko -who discovered Admit One with me- is in Cebu.

Ehehehey!

hey greyweed,

you like Drunk? we might include that in our 3rd album, a new re-arranged version. we realized there are quite a few people who like it very much and maybe we can produce a better version. i didnt quite like that version, it gets a little boring in the end. and regarding ring back tune for globe, we'll try to work that out. we have a pending thing with them for Vacuum My Inside and there is no end result yet. anyway, we'd love to have you here in cebu..

stay cool.
catt