Lost in Transactions
:::The Month of Papers:::
So I arrive from Manila last week to find my desk, literally, abound with papers and documents. Stacked as high as the leaning Tower of Pisa, I stared with horror as I realized the amount to things I have to do to catch up on my work. After a frenzied couple of weeks of head scratching "workyness", my desk has been reduced to looking like a landfill: papers strewn here, a couple of reports there, balls of crumpled paper everywhere ( because someone took my wastebasket! wtf?! ).
There's nothing in the world that says I miss you than a tablefull full of backlog.
:::Long Delayed Manila Recap:::
Here's top 5 things that I did and done in Manila last week.
1. Got involved in the Mooncake Festival game, which to my surprise, involves dice rolling. Basically, you roll six dices to see what prize you get, a mooncake of course but with variable sizes depending on what you roll. The aim is to get six 4's to get the largest one, all sixes, all fives etc. Now being a tabletop gamer I definitely have a slight edge because of years of dice rolling has thought me certain tricks that to get a certain number ( Leadership 5! --- inside joke ). Not cheating of course, but praying like hell mostly. In the end. I got a single semilarge Mooncake. All the others? They got three or four pieces of them, both big and small. The hand is rusty in rolling dice.
2. Got into this weird incident after the girlfriend's BarOps. Sunday, Taft Avenue was closed and the street was awashed with drunk lawyers and judges, to celebrate the final day of the Bar examinations. As I was walking towards their area, I saw a couple of guys with blood on their shirts. Then a block more, there's a group of guys with blood splatters. Then finally a police ... er ... jeep rolled into view carrying a couple of wounded students. Ah, frat boys, I thought when I saw the bloody frat shirts used to stuanched the bleeding, same as the other guys were wearing. What's worse then frat boys? Drunk frat boys. And what's the worse of it is when I finally get to meet my girl they came rolling downt the street and showering every pedestrian with beer, which with my considerable girth, able to shield my girl and thus drenching me with San Mig Light.
After giving the idiots the old fashioned sign for stupidity, we hiked ourselves to the LRT station.
Now comes a funny moment. People were staying away from me because, well, I stanked of beer. IN THE AFTERNOON. And it gets worse in the MRT Station, because of the aircon, and finally going to my place passing through Glorietta, Landmark and Greenbelt. The security guards were giving me the Raised Eyebrow Stance, and I responded with the Floor and Roof Inspection Stare. My girl couldn't resist a grin though, and laugh terribly afterwards, and that, I think, says it all for chivalry.
Next time, I'll be chauvanistic.
3. One of the highlights of the trip was going to the National Archives and looking the Juan Luna Exibit. We started the wrong way, up the second floor first which were Luna's painting and several busts of various people. There were even several famous paintings, like the Bataan Death March. I forgot which painter though. Anyhow, I keep wondering when I'm going to see the Spolarium when the guard informed us that the painting is on the first floor. So we went down, opened the huge heavily carved door and lo and behold, Luna's famous painting, the Spolarium.
Here, I can't find the words to do it justice. IT WAS HUGE! It stands almost two stories high, and almost two minivans both in width and lengthwise. And the colors ... wow. Anybody who tried painting, be it a hobby or a profession would understand what I mean when he "captured the light and the darkness equally, creating a point in the scene where it draws the eye, but somehow encompasses the whole painting. Wow.
And here also I got lectured by the guard 'cause even though she told me that I can't take a picture, dumbass that I am got my camera out and tried to take one. But it was too big, and while getting a good angle the said guard caught me and got me a tounge lashing. Ah well, at least I tried. But the trip was definitely a look-see. Maybe I'll go back there someday and just stare at the painting.
4. I bought two old style cameras ( read: cheap and film(!) based ), this one for a bit of fun. I've heard about this a lot from my girlfriend and had a look-see at the net to find some specs. One is an Oktomat, basically a 8-shot camera, where there are 8 pictures in one frame. Nice. Another is a Lomo Fisheye II, with the widest angle lens, at 170 degrees. Very Nice. I'll post some pics when I'm done developing them and scanned them afterwards ... a term I thought I would never use, hehehe.
5. Played my very first game of Warmachine against Romy's Menoth. Interesting game, I keep thinking in the lines of six turns and other Warhammer tactics. Must need to play some more. After that, had pizza and beer at Shakeys and talked the night away. I think I got a little tipsy that night, and judging from the blurred face of my girlfriend when she opened the door at midnight ... well I guess I drank a little too much. I think I slept in the couch that night. Hmmmmm...
:::Sharpening Pencils and Stocking Paper:::
It's nearing the end of October, and I've been waiting for a long time for November to come. Because on November, NaNoWriMo comes around. National Novel Writing Month, wherein participants all over the globe gather and pit themselves against time to write a novel. 30 days, 50,000 words, 1 deadline. No prizes, no awards, just plain speed and creativity. It was created to inspire would be writers and novelists to utterly ignore their inner editor ( mine has a big ego and a perfectionist to boot ) to just let go and write whatever comes to mind. Quantity not quality. Plot comes second, or third even, just that the story moves forward. Then, if you finish the 50k mark, you can polish your story in December. So why bother joining, you ask, if there are nothing in it for you? Well, there is the sense of accomplishment that you finally finished writing your first or fourth novel. Even if it's a lot of crap, and believe me, it will be crap, it can still be polished in the end, and perhaps among those crap a gold nugget could be found.
I'm joining for the first time, and maybe from this I will get to have my fondest dream: to get published someday. Wish me luck.
State of Mind: "AAAAAAAARRRGH! NO! NO! NO!" Madness
Song of the Day: Smoke by Ben Folds Five
Book of the Week: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clark
Want or Need: Extra WoW Time
So I arrive from Manila last week to find my desk, literally, abound with papers and documents. Stacked as high as the leaning Tower of Pisa, I stared with horror as I realized the amount to things I have to do to catch up on my work. After a frenzied couple of weeks of head scratching "workyness", my desk has been reduced to looking like a landfill: papers strewn here, a couple of reports there, balls of crumpled paper everywhere ( because someone took my wastebasket! wtf?! ).
There's nothing in the world that says I miss you than a tablefull full of backlog.
:::Long Delayed Manila Recap:::
Here's top 5 things that I did and done in Manila last week.
1. Got involved in the Mooncake Festival game, which to my surprise, involves dice rolling. Basically, you roll six dices to see what prize you get, a mooncake of course but with variable sizes depending on what you roll. The aim is to get six 4's to get the largest one, all sixes, all fives etc. Now being a tabletop gamer I definitely have a slight edge because of years of dice rolling has thought me certain tricks that to get a certain number ( Leadership 5! --- inside joke ). Not cheating of course, but praying like hell mostly. In the end. I got a single semilarge Mooncake. All the others? They got three or four pieces of them, both big and small. The hand is rusty in rolling dice.
2. Got into this weird incident after the girlfriend's BarOps. Sunday, Taft Avenue was closed and the street was awashed with drunk lawyers and judges, to celebrate the final day of the Bar examinations. As I was walking towards their area, I saw a couple of guys with blood on their shirts. Then a block more, there's a group of guys with blood splatters. Then finally a police ... er ... jeep rolled into view carrying a couple of wounded students. Ah, frat boys, I thought when I saw the bloody frat shirts used to stuanched the bleeding, same as the other guys were wearing. What's worse then frat boys? Drunk frat boys. And what's the worse of it is when I finally get to meet my girl they came rolling downt the street and showering every pedestrian with beer, which with my considerable girth, able to shield my girl and thus drenching me with San Mig Light.
After giving the idiots the old fashioned sign for stupidity, we hiked ourselves to the LRT station.
Now comes a funny moment. People were staying away from me because, well, I stanked of beer. IN THE AFTERNOON. And it gets worse in the MRT Station, because of the aircon, and finally going to my place passing through Glorietta, Landmark and Greenbelt. The security guards were giving me the Raised Eyebrow Stance, and I responded with the Floor and Roof Inspection Stare. My girl couldn't resist a grin though, and laugh terribly afterwards, and that, I think, says it all for chivalry.
Next time, I'll be chauvanistic.
3. One of the highlights of the trip was going to the National Archives and looking the Juan Luna Exibit. We started the wrong way, up the second floor first which were Luna's painting and several busts of various people. There were even several famous paintings, like the Bataan Death March. I forgot which painter though. Anyhow, I keep wondering when I'm going to see the Spolarium when the guard informed us that the painting is on the first floor. So we went down, opened the huge heavily carved door and lo and behold, Luna's famous painting, the Spolarium.
Here, I can't find the words to do it justice. IT WAS HUGE! It stands almost two stories high, and almost two minivans both in width and lengthwise. And the colors ... wow. Anybody who tried painting, be it a hobby or a profession would understand what I mean when he "captured the light and the darkness equally, creating a point in the scene where it draws the eye, but somehow encompasses the whole painting. Wow.
And here also I got lectured by the guard 'cause even though she told me that I can't take a picture, dumbass that I am got my camera out and tried to take one. But it was too big, and while getting a good angle the said guard caught me and got me a tounge lashing. Ah well, at least I tried. But the trip was definitely a look-see. Maybe I'll go back there someday and just stare at the painting.
4. I bought two old style cameras ( read: cheap and film(!) based ), this one for a bit of fun. I've heard about this a lot from my girlfriend and had a look-see at the net to find some specs. One is an Oktomat, basically a 8-shot camera, where there are 8 pictures in one frame. Nice. Another is a Lomo Fisheye II, with the widest angle lens, at 170 degrees. Very Nice. I'll post some pics when I'm done developing them and scanned them afterwards ... a term I thought I would never use, hehehe.
5. Played my very first game of Warmachine against Romy's Menoth. Interesting game, I keep thinking in the lines of six turns and other Warhammer tactics. Must need to play some more. After that, had pizza and beer at Shakeys and talked the night away. I think I got a little tipsy that night, and judging from the blurred face of my girlfriend when she opened the door at midnight ... well I guess I drank a little too much. I think I slept in the couch that night. Hmmmmm...
:::Sharpening Pencils and Stocking Paper:::
It's nearing the end of October, and I've been waiting for a long time for November to come. Because on November, NaNoWriMo comes around. National Novel Writing Month, wherein participants all over the globe gather and pit themselves against time to write a novel. 30 days, 50,000 words, 1 deadline. No prizes, no awards, just plain speed and creativity. It was created to inspire would be writers and novelists to utterly ignore their inner editor ( mine has a big ego and a perfectionist to boot ) to just let go and write whatever comes to mind. Quantity not quality. Plot comes second, or third even, just that the story moves forward. Then, if you finish the 50k mark, you can polish your story in December. So why bother joining, you ask, if there are nothing in it for you? Well, there is the sense of accomplishment that you finally finished writing your first or fourth novel. Even if it's a lot of crap, and believe me, it will be crap, it can still be polished in the end, and perhaps among those crap a gold nugget could be found.
I'm joining for the first time, and maybe from this I will get to have my fondest dream: to get published someday. Wish me luck.
State of Mind: "AAAAAAAARRRGH! NO! NO! NO!" Madness
Song of the Day: Smoke by Ben Folds Five
Book of the Week: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clark
Want or Need: Extra WoW Time
posted by Big Hamster at 8:42 AM
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