Just learned from aie: Steve Irwin is dead.

Cause of Death?

I'm not really into photography. Why?

1] Cameras, flashes, lens and all the shite you need to go "PRO" is expensive.
2] Commuting whilst carrying a camera is a bitch.


And anyway, I prefer drawing. But once in a while somebody leaves their camera unguarded... particularly, abbey and her N3250.

I tried to get a shot of my face plus the full length of my hair. I want to know what my damned profile view looks like. I expect that it's AWESOME. Here's how the "shoot" turned out.



I spent 30 minutes taking photos of myself and came up with just two pics. In the first one I look stoned and in the second I look like I have cerebral palsy. Crap.

Di ako marunong mag photo pag di nakatingin (but I know someone who does). Next time, patulong nalang

[break="Click to play 'Guess that object!'"]

I also took a few pictures of stuff around the house. Can you guess what these are?




Click for answers!

This week, I've been either attracting or repelling women. It's crazy.

TUESDAY
- At night, I receive a surprise YM from an old flame I haven't heard from in months
- Things get hot and heavy in a weird kinda way

WEDNESDAY
- Old flame sends me a sweet text in the morning
- Then in the afternoon, she tells me that things have to end, and promptly stops replying to me
- Old flame's boyfriend (who might now be an ex-bf) sends me a very sarcastic hate e-mail. It's a lovely little piece of prose. Have a read (edited to protect parties involved)

Thats SO weak dude. R u really THAT hard-up 4 female attention, u gotta resort 2 'jumpin anotha guys fence' 2 get ur little jollies? Wel anyway whatever. I hope u've got the balls 2 act on this pathetic fantasy the 2 of u r tryin 2 liv...shes all urs. Show her a 'real' man. lol!

THURSDAY
- After the gang leaves Starbucks, I stay behind to do some drawing for work
- Several hot chinays come up and ask if they can take my extra chairs. I tell them to go ahead. But instead of getting the chairs and moving to their table, they sit down at my table instead. Unexpected, but I got no problems with that!
- Two of the girls (who would later introduce themselves as Laise and Denise) peer over my shoulder, see me drawing and start asking me about what I'm doing
- Fifteen minutes later, Denise (who has really sexy legs) is asking me to do some Flash Animation work for her company
- Fifteen minutes after THAT, Denise is helping me ink my sketches
- One of the chinays turns out to be Jen, an old college classmate, who I see around but never really get to talk to. This time she sits down beside me and we do a little catching up
- Somewhere along the line, though I don't remember how, I promise to treat Ria to lunch(?)

FRIDAY
- In the morning, I get a surprise text from Deej inviting me on a Baguio outing. If my sched is clear, I think I'll go along
- In the afternoon, Van, who I assumed would never ever ever never ever never talk to me again, contacts me over YM. She calls a truce. She then spends the afternoon talking about how her life has gotten better
- In the evening I go to Starbucks to do some work again
- I play several rounds of cards with Ralph, Ram and another guy (who was introduced, but I can't remember the name)
- The guys leave and I'm left playing cards with Alyssa, the sister of one of the baristas
- Over the next hour, her friends start arriving one after the other. Suddenly I'm sitting at a table full of girls, chatting and playing pusoy dos. Funny thing is that I was only introduced to one of them (Julz)
- They finally leave to go partying and I get back to drawing
- Fifteen minutes later, two very young and very cute girls (LOLI!!!) occupy the tall chairs by the window. Now, since I'm sitting outside the window on a normal chair, and they're wearing mini-skirts, I catch an eyeful of... pink and yellow stripes... and blue flowers on white!

Pft. The weeks not even over yet. We've got a gig tonight. Who knows what that'll bring...

(Click to see mushroom hatted women seducing Mario and his crew)

Most people who know me, also know that I've got a foot fetish. The arch, the bridge, the heel, the toe... it draws me more than any other feature in the human body. But not everyone wears sandals and strappy heels. When I can't see feet, I look for something else... THE EYES Almond shaped brown eyes so dark that they're almost black, accented with a stroke of eyeliner starting thin, then drawn thicker as it reaches the outside corner of the eye. Light eyeshadow blending the skin colour to make the creases of the eyelid disappear. Or else a gradient of dark eyeshadow making the whites of the eyes seem to shine out of the shadows. A look that begs... nay, DEMANDS attention. Some will argue that the "natural" no make-up look is best. It's hard to pull off, but relies more on your genetics than anything else. Let's face the facts, The chance of getting a perfect "movie-star" face is one in millions. It's something you can choose or buy (unless you can afford surgery). For any one whose face is asymettrical, oddly proportioned, marked, scarred, blemished or "flawed" in some way, cosmetics are a respectable solution. But you've gotta know how to put it on. It's hard to do, and you'll catch a lot of flak if you do a bad job. If you do a good one however, you can hold your head up with pride. Revel in the looks and stares, the ooh's and ahh's. You deserve it.

If you were born beautiful, you're just lucky...
If you MAKE yourself beautiful, you're a WORK OF ART.



Chiharu Niiyama - In my entire image library, this is my favourite. The image is playful yet provocative, with its sunny beach theme and warm colours. She sticks her tongue out, playfully, innocently. But her eyes... a stark contrasted against her pale skin... her eyes look enticingly into your own.

Playing by the rules isn't as fun as making your own.

How to Play
- Pick a theme for the words you'll be spelling out
- No scoring. No turns. All players help each other
- Actual words are encouraged but not required
- Use as many of the scrabble letters as you can

So while everyone else played pusoy dos, Charlie and I came up with these scrabble boards. Click to see them up close!


theme: PORN!!!
read and see how many words you recognize. my personal favourite is GROUPSEXTOY, courtesy of Charlie's twisted mind!


theme: IDENTITIES
what we call each other within the barkada. some descriptive, some insulting, some private jokes, all for fun

- across -

WHORE : Bruce - cuz I am
MEATSUIT : Martin - cuz he's fat
BITCHASSWIPE : Louie - can be read half a dozen different ways
GODDAMNBOX : Luis - tae, highschool pa tong asar na'to
AFANDRAYVER : OB - read as "a fun driver" blame mariesonn for crap spelling
NUTCAZE : Jon - cuz he's crazy

- down-

NUN (x2) : Charlie - don't ask why
HERMITBLOG : Jigs - no need to ask why
SAD : Mariesonn - her perpetual emotional state
MONKEY : Abbey - cuz she likes bananas
TAES : The Group - cuz we are teh shiets
JOGA : Martin or Abbey - need I explain?
FATPIG : Martin - again. he's so fat he needs to be described thrice
QUEERLOVER : Krys - girl who likes guys who likes guys

So I found this old publication from Xanadu Writing Club dated 1999, the year that I was a member. Inside were many old poems mostly written by my peers, as well as two of my own.

Back then, I was fascinated by the lack of conscience that people portrayed. I could not understand how some people could be so selfish, so inconsiderate of others...

But over the years I've developed an intimate relationship with sin. I don't encourage it of course, but neither do I condone it. It's difficult to be a good and honest person. Sometimes you can't help but slip...

(click to read two old poems)

Tonight we played at Purple Haze Bar (Tomas Morato) Dunno why but when we were threading our way through the tables on the way to the stage, people looked up and grinned and said "YEAH!" like they meant it.

That doesn't happen very often.

We don't play "IN" music. Pogi rock, emo, screamo, punk, pop, acoustic... we're none of the above. Our songs are not aired on the radio, we don't have an EP or an album, we don't play big concert-type gigs, we don't get paid to play, we don't rank high on the prod priority-list, we don't have a label and we don't have that many fans (as far as we know)

So when people I don't recognize look up at us, grin and say "YEAH!" like they mean it... to me



Hmmm... I feel pretty good!

COMPLIMENTS

image of Maria Sharapova taken from www.sheisallthat.com

Earlier last night, I was sitting on the ledge outside of FullyBooked, finishing a cigarette. Then suddenly there was this lady.. with impossibly long legs. Maria Sharapova Legs. Legs that turned my brain into mush... ...Moving on. She came up to me and borrowed my lighter. As she handed it back to me I said "You have gorgeous legs." I didn't really mean to say it. I was thinking it... Out loud. To my surprise, she said "Thanks." After thinking for a moment, she added "You have sexy eyes." She smiled at me, then casually walked away. - - - When a guy drops a compliment, most girls will automatically go into defense-mode. They suspect that the guy is just trying to get into their pants (which is often, but not always, true) Flattery has been equated with sexual harassment. Say something nice, and you're branded a pervert. Say nothing, and you're a callous, insensitive pig. What are we men to do? Last night, when my tongue slipped, I expected a stern glare, a verbal insult or a slap on the face. Instead, I got a compliment in return. Cool

CALENDARS

So I've been looking for an online calendar. Something with multi-user access, email & SMS notifications, public sharing options, HTML embedding, time settings, verbose event descriptions and disply for weekly, monthly and agenda lists. And it has to be free... and reliable, too. I've spent many internet hours looking for the perfect solution. And here it is...



And it's integrated with Gmail to boot. Got an email about some new event? Just click the event icon! Damn. My respect for Google kicks up another notch.

NOTE: Google wins over Yahoo for having multiple calendars, thumbnail views and support for SMS reminders through Globe.

GOOGLE-FU

A couple of months ago, if you Googled the word "mahasa" you'd get a bunch of websites about muslim religion and Pakistan events.

Google "mahasa" NOW and the result is our band'syahoogroups site. -sniff- I'm so proud.

if you don't know why this is the win, you are the LOSE
go to youtube.com and search for "hard gay ramen"
...
NOW!!

Short version: We went to Nasugbu to celebrate's Mark's birthday. Ate tons of greasy food, drank bottles of liquor, swam in a salty ocean and played frisbee on a rocky beach! It was a helluva lot of fun!

(Long Version)

My only regret is that I didn't have a camera with me. Wala man lang nag-document nung trip! The people with cam phones were all busy drinking, eating or talking. The photographers were busy taking snaps for their devart galleries. Pft. Sana hindi burahin ni Abbey yung mga videos I took with her phone. Para kahit papaano may memories kami.

The GIG
Last Friday, we played at Bridgeway in Sta. Lucia under Sebastian Bach Productions. Unlike our usual Freedom Bar and Purple Haze gigs, this time we played to a really young crowd. Like, fresh INTO high school young.

Most of the bands who played sounded really raw, especially on the vocals. Most, were doing covers from current popular bands like Sugarfree and Kamikazee. Some of the songs were so mangled, I had to grit my teeth through 'em. Still, they get the benefit of the doubt. Ika nga ni Louie, they're young and have a lot of time to polish their skills. See ya in a few years kids.

As for US, we had a really good set. A few slip-ups here and there, but that's normal for any band. We played four compos...

- Strong, Proud, Free
- Starstruck Honey
- Vita Bella
- and Neneng

plus a cover; Giyang from Razorback. I could tell that the crowd was mainly punk and screamo since the most applause we got was for Neneng (our noisiest song thus far). The fact that Louie used his violin bow during the adlib, made it a real crowd pleaser. After our crappy set last Wednesday, this gig was a great boost for the band's morale. That night, we left the bar smiling.

Us? VIPs?!? Freaky!!!
Thanks to some good feedback from Dax and Vito of P.Haze, we got a little taste of V.I.P. treatment from organizers Jun and Tintin. They were asking people to vacate their tables so we could sit down. 'Course we told them to leave the customers alone, to let 'em sit back, have a few beers and enjoy the show. Besides, booting people out means less people get to watch us play. After our set, Jun and Tintin bought us a bucket of Red Horse. Score!

The PEOPLE
That night we met a guy who offered us an interesting gig: to play at an event along with Manny Pacquiao (pambansang kamao!) and Lito Camo (composer of such hits as Spaghetti Song, Otso-otso and Bulaklak) If we DO play at that gig, it'll make for good PR... but it'll be damned weird. Our music isn't exactly pang-masa Dunno how we're going to handle this one. Just keep an open mind...

There was one band that did some glam/prog rock which we didn't really expect to see that night. They even mentioned our name; pretty cool since that's the first time we played with them in a gig. Around the end of the night, the vocalist caught me at the door and we chatted about music influences, bars we've played in and bands we follow. Sucks that I can't remember his or his band's name.

Another interesting acquaintance was Angela, a friend of Martin who's looking for someone to teach her guitar. Somehow, in the span of three hours, she became good friends with Abbey, developed a crush on KC and Louie (our two guitarists) and even got invited to our Nasugbu outing (which she politely declined despite constant urging and threats of kidnap)

Post-Set Pictures
Anyhoo, Angela's responsible for uploading five new pictures in our band album. Here's a sample...


Inigo with the sultry look and me in the sando blowing a french kiss

Tae, ang gay nung pictures namin! Then again, we do a lot of stupid shit when we hang out. Not the most wholesome bunch, but certainly fun to be with. ;-D Click here to visit our Yahoo!groups page where you can check our gigs sched, see affiliate gig scheds, chat with other members and see more incriminating pictures!

I never got into the profile-site/friend-network thing. Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, etc. Nakakatamad kasi mag write and re-write ng personal data, tas upload ng photos at maghanap ng contacts and so on and so on. Pero ngayong andami nang features, na-tempt na rin ako mag join.

So sa lahat ng may Multiply, add me!
http://revolverroach.multiply.com/

So as of now, I'm a member of...

Multiply

Just joined up so I haven't really explored the features yet. But what attracted me in the first place was the clean GUI design and the drag & drop photo upload.

BEST FEATURES
- User Interface : In Yahoo360 and Friendster, you have to plod through half a dozen screens to upload your shite. Multiply on the other hand has sub-frames that refresh and expand with each click, similar to the way Gmail's system works. Takes longer to load initially, but once it's done, navigation is a breeze.
- Drag & Drop Upload : Clicking the "browse" button then hunting down your image file is a pain. Sometimes, I won't upload pictures just because I'm too lazy to go through the process. With Multiply, I just drag and drop files from my photo folder to the browser window. It's a cakewalk.
- File Sharing : Photo, video and music upload with email notifications, commenting, title & description. Meta-tags (for search engines) is a big plus. YouTube support is even bigger.
- Save as draft : When I'm writing an entry, I type it out, do some research, edit a bit, think it over, do a total revamp, check my sources, edit half a dozen more times and THEN post. So when the browser crashes and I lose all my data, it's a lot of work down the drain. With a "save as draft" option, I can reduce the risk... as long as I remember to save

Friendster

Because pretty much all of my friends are there. And besides, Friendster is the pioneer of all these pages. It's grown leaps and bounds, with better network support, faster loading, templates, blogs, more photo storage and more.

BEST FEATURES
- Friends Network : As far as I know, Pinoys favor Friendster. MySpace is slowly gaining popularity, but more as a place for picking up dates and fubu's rather than keeping in contact with friends.
- Bulletin Board : Lets you do shoutouts without flooding people's inboxes. Also a good place for picking up surveys and quizzes if you're into that sort of thing.
- Testimonials : The place to be when you need an ego boost! Let's be honest here, reading praises from your friends makes you feel a little... no, a LOT better about yourself.
- Photo sharing & grabbing : You can only upload one photo at a time. This really sucks. But being able to share and grab photos from your friend's galleries kind of makes up for it.
- Update Tracker : One of the newer friendster features. A simple and concise display of blog, photo, testimonial and friend adds across your entire friends network. It's no big if you're a regular Friendster lurker, but a big help to people like me who only check once or twice in a month.

Yahoo!360

Yahoo has a ton of services; YahooMail, YahooGroups and YahooMessenger being the top of my list. And for the heck of it, I activated my Yahoo360 account. It's pretty easy to set up and ties in nicely with all the other Yahoo! services.

BEST FEATURES
- Feed Support : Lets me RSS feed my favourite blogs and sites, although I'm only limited to 3 of 'em. MyYahoo is still better for Feed purposes, but at least in 360, other people get to see what I'm reading. LiveJournal, Xanga and other such sites have got RSS support. I wonder when Tabs will, too. (or maybe it already has and just don't know it yet)
- Cross-Service Integration : I just log into yahoo and I get access to my e-mail, YM, 360, avatar and MyYahoo home page (for news, weather and info feeds) That's damned convenient.

- - -

Eh kayo? Which profile site do you prefer? Why? Penny for your thoughts!

BTW: Salamats sa lahat ng ng-add sa multiply. Anyway, here's the news...

!! Takeshi's Castle !!

Ang bad trip lang dito, wala na si Anjo Yllana (takeshi) at Smokey Manoloto (Iwakura). Ang kapalit, si Joey De Leon. Pft... Nakakatawa parin yung host jokes pero... basta, iba na.

WIKIPEDIA SAYS: Comedians Joey de Leon and Ryan Yllana (Anjo's younger brother) appear in the show as fictional characters shogun Shintaro Gokoyami (Takeshi's right hand man) and sumo wrestler Kakawate Takehome (leader of the Takeshi's forces) respectively, fictional in the sense that there are no such characters in the original.

Right to Left: Anjo Yllana, Smokey Manoloto, Joey De Leon. No available picture of Ryan Yllana 

 - - -

 

FAVOURITE CHARACTERS! 

Count Takeshi Eto yung original Takeshi. Kung mahilig ka sa Japanese films, malamang ma rerecognize mo eto. (hint:Zatoichi) On a side note, Takeshi nga talaga yung pangalan nung actor.	General Tani Arch-enemy ni Takeshi na si General Tani, leader ng volunteer rebel forces (a.k.a.:contestants) He reminds me of Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef. O-ay lagi ang mga kilos, kaya nakakatawa.
Kibaji Tankobo Eto yung monster sa maze na huhulihin ka at sasalpakan ng uling yung mukha mo. Or iihahagis ka sa tubig. Hehe. Panalo talaga sa akin yung mga monsters. Sa mga maze game, it's them I'm cheering for!	Strong Kobayashi Sa Square Maze, medyo boring si Strong kasi abangero. Pero sa Honeycomb Maze, siya naman yung nambubuhat ng contestant. Ilang beses na kaya nang-chancing sa female contestatnt ang mokong na eto?
Konishiki (Hawaiian Sumo Wrestler) head Ang pinaka-panalo sa lahat! Basta sa sumo game, pag yan ang kalaban mo, guaranteed win! Martin! Itchyu!	Shin Sugimura Yung payatot na kalaban sa Sumo Rings. Nung kaming magpipinsan naglalaro, yan ang character ko. Bwahaha! Tuwing nananalo si yatot, nag ch-cheer ako

 

PINAKAPANALONG GAMES

(click pictures to see full-sized images) 

	Honeycomb Maze Maze of doors na may one exit lang. May mga monsters na huhulihin ka at ihuhulog ka sa tubig. Bwahaha! Go Blackhand monster guards!!
	Bridge Ball Kelangan ng contestants saluhin yung golden ball from General Tani habang pinapa-ulanan ng canyon ng kalaban. Laugh trip nung may nalaglag sa bridge dahil sa golden ball. Kamot ulo bigla yung General.
	Avalanche Paakyat mga contestant s narrow alley and every once in a while may gugulong na boulder. May mga niche sa tabi na pwedeng pagtaguan kaso minsan may kalaban. Gusto ko ma try na gulungan nung boulder.

I just finished reading Anansi Boys (thanks for the lend Krys!) Finished it in one sitting. I felt like I was reading American Gods all over again, except that the characters had different names... But maybe that was the point.

All the stories are Anansi's.

I enjoyed this book because of Spider. Weaving tales to charm and amuse (and sometimes manipulate) Walking into a bar full of strangers. Walking out of a bar with a group of new friends. Staggering from nightspot to nightspot. Drinking 'til I can't see straight. Singing 'til the sunrise. Waking up in an unfamiliar bed.

It wasn't so long ago that I lived like that, yet it feels like years have passed. I don't regret leaving it. Life is much simpler now, much easier to handle. But I do miss it sometimes. And it's so tempting, knowing that I can always go back...