texted cathy about what a big splash she made to the anime community. everybody's been approaching me with "omigod! you know pakunoda no kawaii???" she's been the topic of pinoy otaku anime chats everywhere! she replied saying she saw beerkada's strip last friday where leroy drew her (but of course, how can that loser possibly resist her!? ;) hehehe! she told there's gonna be another cosplay event march next year and she plans to dress up as Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop. Here's what faye valentine looks like, by the way...

business as usual... literally threw a bum outta my fastfood because she's stinking up the place and picking fights. it's times like these i actually appreciate my intimidating height :)

as for the people who wondered how exactly cathy(hunterXhunter cosplayer, friend from UST theatre) looked like, here it is boys! ;D



what did you say? "...yeah, she's cute, but what's the big fuss all about?"



does THIS answer your question?

merry xmas!!! presenting, my christmas drawing for 2002 :) whee!

friday, december 20

i practiced driving again (nonoy, what a brave guy, heheheheh!). i even drove my bro to school where he's a T.A. Then i drove on to the tindahan to deliver the kalderos of food for selling.

i was soooo nervous the whole time! i was also running out of gas! when it's time for me to mind the store i sent them to refill the car. then it's usual business. man the cash drawer, help the employees serve the food and clean up tables if need be. strangely though, my employees look at me more as a bouncer.

we get the usual share of beggars and the like crashing into the fastfood place to pester the patrons into giving them food, alms or just plain money. when i say "pester" i MEAN "pester"! most of them are even deliberately offensive. sheesh, we're supposed to feel charitable to people who get other people's hard-earned money by sympathy??? anyway, my employees are usually too scared or simply not forceful enough to get them to clear the place. so i used to use my "theatre-voice"(yeah, the kind that's supposed to carry out to the end of the friggin' auditorium) to tell them NICELY to get the heck out. getting their attention, they get the "dargon-glare", which usually sends them scampering. effective, yes. but it scares the heck out of the poor customers, too.

why not just give em what they want, you ask? look, i can be as charitable as the late mother teresa herself if i want to, but we already know the facts of life here. you give one pulubi something, that pulubi will spread the word, and soon, we'll be running free soup kitchen before we know it, everyday. you let em hound ya today, they'll hound ya forever. besides, i'm one of those people who'd rather teach a man to fish than give them one.

the main point here is that we work. they don't. which is why i'm less... scary to street vendors. i let them in the tindahan so they could sell, drink, and even eat. i secretly watch their stuff as well as the customers' belongings, since i heard that thieves may lurk inside. anyway, the vendors do honest work, just like the rest of us, unlike the beggars.

and lately i don't raise my voice anymore. i just tell them NICELY(in caps, due to effort at self-restraint) to leave my customers alone, at least until they've finished and left the establishment. if it gets any worse i personally escort them out. i eventually had to learn to hold one arm and shoulder to be sure they walk with me. gently, though, or it would be really rude. most of the time though i don't have to go through all that. the 'glare' alone works magnificently. 'glare', hmm, that could be a superhero name, heheheheh! jk ;D

going back to the rest of the day, i hurried home at 1pm, having to help with a catering job in an alcatel office party. in my rush i forgot i haven't eaten anything all day. i made a makeshift brunch while fighting the urge to pass out. i'm cursed with a tiny stomach that gets full too quickly and gets hungry constantly.

we eventually found miramonte where the alcatel guys are holding their christmas swimming party. i hauled the trays, kalderos and stuff up to the second floor, helping the others (yup, in my semi-formal catering whites. i guess i'm weird that way.) we helped serve too, while they try and hit on my younger sister. can't blame them though. i also tried counting how many actually came. because half of them came in late. i got so exhausted i took my turn to sleep at 10pm in the girls' cottage. i woke up at 11 to pack up and go home.

saturday, december 21

we arrived the gates of our home by 12:30, then managed to wake up someone to open the darn gate at 1am. we unloaded our stuff and got ready to bed. i slept at 2am.

i woke up 6am, proving my theory that i pass out in no less than four hours. i hurried to get dressed because i know my friend geoff is waiting at the station. since 530, in fact! and i got there at seven!

we reached megamall by nine am, going the alabang route. we bought the tickets at comic quest because we read that's where we can get it. i was surprised when i found that they also sell tickets at the place itself because no one told me so. i was more surprised when i found that only people who bought tickets at the place itself can get free tammy tamaraws! I mean, c'mon! the deal said we get 'em if we're the first 100 to get there! what did i wake up at six for?!!? cathy(girl i befriended back in the theatre days) was ranting right along with me. derrick and geoff saw two ballistic babes that day!

derrick was excited to see one of his entries make it into the exhibit, the one i named "Saka" for the mecha that wears a salakot. we were also surprised when randell texted us saying he was there too! i met a lot of people there.

ryan spotted me from their booth as we passed by exploring. he was giving out ashcans of "Stricken"(check out his art!) and "Class"(ariel's strip!) lyndon was busy signing books as i also met ariel and later on azrael, with a videocam.

a guy suddenly called my name approached me, introducing himself as roy afable. i asked him how he knew me since i only knew him by email. he said he saw my pic in one of the komikero sites. he's with blitzwork.

i was glad to finally see tintin again. we agreed to all go to lunch together(me, derrick, geoff, azrael and her) and went out to jollibee where we found some miakas and sakuras eating there. i was looking for keroberos, but no, i guess he didn't make it. tintin told me bout a cosplayer who dressed up as one of the villains in hunterXhunter, the woman in the suit whose blazer and open shirt has a neckline baring down to practically her navel. "who would have the guts to do that???"

back at the con, i saw cathy in... the exact costume we just talked about at jollibee!
Me: "I should've known!"
Cathy: "hey, we're actresses! of course we got the guts!"

we watched the cosplayers on the ramp. some of them are pretty good. the guys predictably cheered at the hot babes in hotter costumes. i also saw two mina's (from pasig, culture crash), one girl and one guy! and there are LOTS of slamdunk cosplayers!!! the best came from blitzwork! i saw two kyo kusanagi's, but the first one got to burst fire from his hand, which everyone thought was cool :)

we were all looking forward to the choreographed fight scenes. the first one really took us by surprise when he decided to stage a wrestling match with himself! man, he looked so weird it's funny! and we loved the original concept, which raised our expectations for the next contestants. another memorable scene is "Crouching Wolf, Hidden Rooster" it was great because it featured JM Chua, who totally in character, and the soundtrack was really from Rurouni Kenshin.

there's another group called the Yaoi boys or something, and the rest was just a bunch of boys trying to look like they're kicking ass without hurting anyone with the mostly the same jpop song playing in the background. geoff, a martial artist, was in utter agony as he watched them. he looked like he was trying to stop himself from storming up the stage screaming "that's not how you do a friggin' chinese get-up, you bleep bleep bleep!!! And you call that a kick???" yes, we all had fun :)

we left the con at about 3pm, where geoff said his good bye and went back home to san pablo. i was supposed to go to the class christmas party with randell and derrick when derrick went back in. we waited until he was back with a tammy tamaraw.

"how did you get that?"
"i bought it."
"that's three hundred friggin' bucks!"
"i know, but it's so cute and adorable!" ^_^

his exact words, ladies and gentlemen. i was surprised when he later on gave it to me as a christmas gift. i was so happy i was willing to make him all the friggin' nata de coco he wants.

Hello to all my friends who attended c3con!!! hi geoff! hi derrick(thanks for breakfast ;)! hi randell! hi cathy(been awhile, girl!)! hi ryan(galeng ng drawing mo!)! hi azrael(pinag-aagawan ka na naman ng mga girls mo a!)! hi tintin(missed you, girl!)! hi roy(i loved the slamdunk cosplayers! galeng!)! hi ariel(CLASSIFY! whee!) ! hello to carlo vergara, arnold arre, lyndon grogorio and budgette tan! whee!

and hello to the lifesize tammy tamaraw that we loved to poke and play with, however much the big blokes in black begged us to keep our hands off!

during that phone chat(where he was singing "super-cali-fragilistic-expia-lidocious!" over the phone) i received a call waiting and ended the call. it turned out to be kuya gerry. been awhile since i last talked with him. understandable because he's very busy. he's getting jitters :) but i'm sure he's more excited.

since i've finished the Sherlock Holmes Volume One i dared myself to break a code one my employees use. before i never even thought of attempting it. but my employee(gabby) left me quite a long note in a code he devised himself and he was confident i'll never be able to read it, or even try to.

remembering the methods mr holmes used, i managed to start slow. but as i read the rest of the note some of the letters look similar to conventional letters and i made guesses. most of them correct. soon enough i was deciphering the whole thing. i only gave up when i couldn't translate the tagalog parts (because of its heavy bicolano accent.) when i told him what i could read of it in front of his girlfriend, she got annoyed because some of it was unknown even to her. he had to fess up in no time. i guess he learned his lesson.

i finished all twisted books (thanks johnny!). if i ever get to face her, i expect i won't be fazed. if she's nice, then good. if not, then great, she's being her column character again. personally, being a publicly-professed bitch still doesn't give anyone an excuse to be a bitch(at least to undeserving people). the restraint she so often admires in directors, actors, artists and the like should be displayed by herself as well. sure, you wrote about how bitchy you are. it's more interesting and fun to read about it that way. but you don't have to be a bitch in real life. yes, you have the license. but at the same time, do you have the restraint? it's not about being afraid to be different or deliberately offensive. it's about being right.

there is no excuse to being an offensive bitch. we don't give a bleep how such a sob story your past is. everyone goes through tough times. everyone has their own (excuse me) shit. don't ever think you have it worse than everybody. that's vain. and whiny. snap the heck out of it and get a life and treat people right. there is no excuse for maltreating or abusing or hurting people. there are much better things to do with your time. i catch you giving anyone of my friends hell (or even me, but my enemies have since learned to scamper out of the way when they see me). don't be stupid. run. if you can't, apologize. if you can't or worse, refuse to, i'll throttle you.

no wait, i won't throttle you.

i'll beat the crap out of you.

whee! me so excited! me going to c3con!

derrick called last night(yes, long distance). we talked about where we could meet since we're going to ching's annual class reunion which we simply call xmas party :) i told him that azrael suggested that i go there 10am saturday so i could be sure i'm early... and hopefully be able to get one of those cute Tammy Tamaraw stuffed toys!

Dady Az! ipagkuha mo naman ako 'pag mas maaga ka o! :) i'll buy you a drink if you do!

then geoff invited me to go with him. if it's ok for him that we be there by 10am then great! i won't commute the three-hour bus ride alone. too bad i couldn't go back to laguna with him though, the christmas party goes 'til late night so i'm spending the night in manila.

Whee! I've finally connected to the net! For some reason the pc keeps having errors. it's annoying to the point of insanity.

My sisters and I went shopping for christmas gifts to give to our godchildren. I still wonder why godparents are reduced to buying them gifts and toys every christmas when the original role is to raise the kids spiritually, like supervising their spiritual growth and stuff. hm, so what am i supposed to do? give 'em rosaries or something?

sigh. well anyway, i just hope they like the gifts. my financial resources is pretty limited. I'm still racking my brains on what to get my friends this christmas! I'm thinking of forgetting about buying that scanner and use the money to buy them gifts.

they've all been wonderful to me all year. How can i let them know that I am aware of the fact that i wouldn't have made it through my hardest times without them?

my strip website is updated! check it out!

http://komikero.com/jac/strips.html

and my newest strip! i'll start making a website just for them! whee!

whoever the "genius" who thought up of rerouting and detouring my poor Wawa jeeps (poor, na Wawa pa! kawawa talaga!) should be dragged to the streets and shot.

i had such a hard time finding a friggin' Wawa jeep i ended up having to walk all the way from the tindahan to my house. bad trip pare! kainis! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

plan to make a batch 72 fan art. una nahirapan me kasi andami characters. Then i went on to tindahan to make bantay. while doodling i accidentally realized that i could draw the band in my chibi style! whee! i'll show you guys here when i'm done. hopefully may scanner na me. i plan to buy a scanner 21 or 22. and see C3CON! az said i should see it on sat, bacause that's when PMJR and the others are there. naku, e wala naman time si derrick samahan me kasi may pasok sa sat! hmmm...?

whew! ting visited last sunday! we had so much fun! we did ddr, played tekken and stuffed our faces(whee!). she agreed to leave her dancepad here we can make fools ourselves two at a time (hahahah!) then they left for home at 4pm, one to meycauayan and the other (vincent bea) to subic. yeesh, ain't it sweet how friends from the north end of luzon go to laguna for a visit? :)

i picked them up myself by driving there, because they came right after my driving practice. they witnessed my obvious display of progress when i ground the gravel as i pushed the brake a wee bit too hard, making the gravel scream(oops). they were laughing their heads off, and we switched drivers.

i'm still not sure if i can get online as often as i want. i'm still torn between using my cash to buy gifts or to buy a net card, i got my wedding invitation from kuya gerry na! whee! i'm still deciding whether to wear the blousedress i bought last saturday or the black chinese outfit dad took home from hongkong. the invitation is entirely handmade! we were all blown away at the craftmanship of it. it's so pretty! ate ilyn(the bride) made it herself, i heard.

whee! still coloring the last one tho :)

another strip! whee! two more to go and i'll put them in my website!

Miho fanart

i'm presently enjoying Frank Miller's "Sin City" books! Miho is definitely my favorite character! right up there with maki otonotachibana from hiroaki samura's "blade of the immortal". here's a fan art i made of miho. i'll see if i can improve it a bit. the sailor school girl uniform is my idea ;)

Another Jac Strip

and here's another. i've colored another, but i haven't saved it for web yet. when i color the final two i'll modify the index :)

Jac Strips 1

ok! You can now view the earliest Jac Strip I have! You can check out my strip website if you wanna see more ;)

Pilya cover pin-up

ok, you can view the pin-up here. the zine's name is "thought market". Pilya is soon to be downloadable in all Java-enabled Smart mobile phones! You can also read PILYA as a weekly webcomic in this blog!

woo-hoo! someone lent us a PS1 and dancepad. I spent most of tuesday night making a fool of myself trying to figure out the friggin' dancepad. The highest i could get is a lousy D (for dumb, i guess) if not E (for effort?). I only got an A when i used the joystick (wahahahahah! daya!) but of course that doesn't count!

I spent the rest of my PS time playing the alisa story of front mission 3. then i tried playing kartia again, but fm3 is faster-paced :)

oh, about geoff's character, i can't post it after all, for copyright reasons. I'll post a pilya pin-up instead :) if there are any punks (or anyone familiar or interested with the punk culture) out there email

acidcowagency@hotmail.com

as for today, nothing much happened. minded the store as usual, then paid a water bill (where, predictably, i got lost trying to figure out to pay the friggin' thing), and went home home to color the pilya pin-up i was talking about. then i went out again to see mikko get nebulized. the poor kid's developing asthma, i think. hopefully he'll lick it.

there a pretty girl talked to me, saying she recognized me from high school. she turns out to be a girl of my batch. i find it funny how a lot of people still recognize me after all these years, even when i never knew personally (nothin' like bein' distinctively ugly ;9 hehehehe!). in this case it was thje first time i actually seen her, but i've heard of her name before, as being one of the prettiest girls in school. she still is. and she introduced me to her 5-year old kid. she said she stoipped schooling at third year college and now minds the family business, like me. i think she felt kinda shy admitting she married early, but hey, she's pretty, can't blame her, especially the guy ;9

after the nebulizing thing (no, my nephew was not examined by aliens), we went out to buy street foods like siomai, kweklet, and 8-peso barbeques. i was so hungry i ate one on the way home. i was careful not to spill onto the car interiors though, i love my dad. and my neck.

Good Monday morning! as i minded the store geoff came by and lent me "kingdom come". i have just finished reading it last night. the ending kicks ass. before we left the shop though beho passed by as well so i was able to hand to him pugad baboy 14, culture crash 2, 5, 5.5, and 8 (i'm still looking for the rest) as well as two issues of kuya gerry's chbs so he can be updated about cats and dogs and chickens (and lizards and...).

geoff told me about a character ric and he were developing. i'll give it a try at designing the character. i already made sketches last night, but it was a bit of a challenge. i'm having fun though :) i can't wait to have it scanned, colored and posted :)

derrick posted new wallpapers! check it out:(copy and paste to browser)

http://groups.msn.com/putingkutingskittybasket/derrick.msnw?Page=1

PILYA punk1

You can view the very first PILYA strip here. It was first published in Beho's punk zine Thought Market. more coming soon, but not necessarily published indie ;)

FRIDAY

my mom and i went to megamall. to pick up a package again. hopefully next month i'll be driving instead of commuting :)

we went around megamall, as usual, where mom bought some baby clothes and stuff, while all i bought are some manjo's and a culture crash nine. i read that they ran out of back-issues, so i plan to sell mine, for a hundred each!!! mwahahahhaah!

yipeeee! comic quest has blade of the immortal, "blood of a thousand"! at last! sayang wala me pera :( aaaargh! oh, well, at least nabasa ko na, i'm happy enough. i just wanted to buy so i can give it to someone this christmas :)

SATURDAY

finished drawing one page comic strip for beho's zine. minded the store, bought some corn shakes, scanned and copied minigames off the pc shop. he(the shopboy) let me do the last one for free! wheeee! heheh ;)

SUNDAY

rushed to finish rendering the one-page when i got interrupted during my last panel by nonoy who came over today (instead of the usual friday) to teach me driving. i went off and in no time found myself driving up to 40 kph from Tikew to Bayan and back and forth a lotta times from 9 to 11am, all the time with nonoy gripping the car interiors a suspiciously-too-tightly.

i finished the last panel, saved the psd file in a diskette, and hopped into the shower. but i rushed out that i forgot the stupid disk. (d-oh!) we had fun in the komikero meeting though :) the afternoon was perfectly sunny and it was as breezy as i liked. it was the winds i liked best :) from last time we met three new guys, johnny, mico and beho(ok, so i met two people). t

he meeting ended with us walking to rizal avenue along the lighted streets (the rest are dark due to some kind of blackout). we watched some fireworks from the church then kuya gerri and ate ilyn went on ahead while the rest of us went to dunkin. ric mysteriously disappeared, though.

at dunkin geoff treated the rest of us(yay!) and talked some more. mico went ahead earlier 'cause he lives in alabang. at about eight we all left for home. beho went off to his sakayan while geoff saw us off as jon n i got in a wawa jeep. i told them about the shoip i mind on lunchtime so they could contact me in case of comicbook trading and stuff.

yep, here's mikko. he's exactly nine months of age today :)

let's see, wednesday i was invited to kuya gerry's place for more of his world famous chili. he sid he ran out of tabasco, but it's really ok... it would be unfair if he cooks his chili only to find he can't handle it himself (yabang ko! charing!!! hahahah!). anyway, the chili kicks ass, whatever he said.

we watched some dvd's, and he scanned my drawing and pics for me. it was 5 strips, 1 sort-of strip, and two pin-ups. oh, and a pic of mikko reaching his toe... as soon as i'm done coloring the drawings i'll upload them, and i'll give the links here, okay? :)

i left his place at about six, it think. i got off the tricycle realizing i'm one peso short of a fare. i decided to walk the rest of the way home, for i never minded the walk anyway. halfway to the railroad tracks i heard my name called. i made sure it was my name, then i turned to see my younger sis and mom in a jeep of one our jeepie(jeep equivalent of cabbie?) friends. they asked me what i was doing walking at night. i told them i'm short.

when we got home they fussed over how i shouldn't have said that i'm short when i had to shout it over the noise of the jeep engine. they said it's embarassing when the others in the jeep hears it. something about people thinking we don't have money and stuff. thay said i ruined their entrance after they got on the jeep with their numerous shopping bags after their shopping trip. i thought it was ridiculous that they're scared the people would think we're penniless just because i said i'm short despite their shopping bags full of new clothes and shoes and stuff.

i got annoyed until they admitted they were just more worried about my walking alone at night, since they know i'd have to cross the rail tracks. we were ok after that.

last night i watched the moon out of my window. i remember last sunday when my lil sis and i went to get papu's siomais after mass. she pointed out to me the moon, saying it was so bright she thought it was one of the street lights at first glance.

the moon's real pretty ok? let's leave it at that ;) i'm not in a poetic mood right now to spout mushy lines about it heheheh!

speaking of lil sis i heard that they were celebrating their second anniversary. before i could send my congratulations though, she told us that she broke up with him. i asked her what he did that she should dump him. she said the cake he bought wasn't big enough or something. go figure.

my poor nephew got sick for the first time. ah, the joys of early life. he's hating every moment of it. especially the medicine. i did a little acupressure, though i was a bit worried i'd hurt him but he sat perfectly still the whole time. i could see how it's giving him a hard time but he still manages to laugh and play with us whenever we get too worried. we appreciate how he handles it pretty well, with minimum fussing. other kids might've bawled their lungs out, but not this guy :)

i also did some acupressure(AP) on lola. since last night when big sis asked for the same AP services i'm being paid for it. someone told me i have to be paid for the AP or else something baaaaad will happen. yeah right. but hey, i get paid so who cares! heheh, kidding. actually i tell them a few cents will do, 'cause it's only for the sake of paying.

not much happened today, minded the store, cashed a check, made a deposit, robbed a bank... ok, ok that last one is a joke.

XMAS art 2001

i made this last year as i greeted then merry christmas. i hope i'd make a new one in time for this year :)

wheee! ive watched Harry Potter 2 this afternoon with my two sisters. we enjoyed the movie, but the stupid reel operator must be sleeping on the job 'cause the movie kept stopping. aaaargh! it's almost enough for me to throw a bomb at the mindless cretin!

driving lessons got cancelled. could the driver be making excuses after i scared him with my fast driving last week? i hope not heheheh!

ok, ok, komikero thingie is happening on nov 24, 2pm, sampaloc lake park! whoopee! uh-oh, i have to finish the comics that's supposed to appear in beho's zine! aheheheh, but i get distracted by the sherlock holmes book! eep! that's it! i'll borrow only comics from now on! unless it's lord of the rings or harry potter...

arrrgh! christmas is coming! i have to buy everyone gifts! uh-oh! there goes my money.

so what happened so far? nothing much. last sunday i went to church. last monday i minded the store. last tuesday i went to nova with mom for my uncle's birthday. i used the phone to get in contact with my friends in manila. i got to talk with old college classmates like Ching, Deng and Derrick. And Az called me from a payphone. I tried to call up Ariel but he was out.

last wednesday we were supposed to go home early but due to color coding we had to wait 'till after six pm. to pass the time i tried to call up ting to invite her to harry potter 2. absent daw. waaaa! miss ko na siya! passed the day watching tv and chatting with nova fam. watched anime. mom laughed at how two cousin toddlers who were kuliting me one moment suddenly turned into well behaved kids sitting beside me as soon as anime starts. the ride came after dinner. mga nine pm na ata. we went to my other cousins' house and checked out the newly built buildings. i was impressed :) makes me wish i can have a place of my own. soon enough we were on our long way home. i slept most of the time, if i wasn't drinking blue pepsi. it tasted like sprite. na may halong tinta. JOKE LANG! hehehe ;)

when i got home i was told that derrick called at 10:30. i got home 11:30. sayang. i fell onto the bed. the morning after derrick texted. i replied. we wished each other a good day. then i went on with my life again. beya stumbled upon a few sites about dollz. i was interested in making some of my own. we checked it out. i still have to learn how to make a website with movable images though.

Blue Flame Lillith

i made the artwork for last halloween. including that wallpaper with my nephew in it. As for pic of that wallpaper, I have to find it first ;)

http://groups.msn.com/putingkutingskittybasket/

check this site out, i uploaded my works here.

great... i still don't get how to post pics up here... grrrrr.

last friday i met up with elem friend. And kuya announced last thursday that the next komikero meeting is on novenber 24. i forgot what time and place though (d-oh!).

and practiced driving as again. i was made to drive from the conducto bowling place to concepcion. our driver flashed the hazard signal to let 'em know it's my first time out on the street. and they showed their sympathy by overtaking three at a time while blowing their horns. i was going so slow i could hear a tambay in a gas station laugh his head off. the engine died when i tried to go forward again after being stalled by an unloading jeep. grrrrrr. that's when the driver and i switched back because the practice place can only be reached by crossing a highway. he thinks they're too fast for me yet.

after literally driving around in circles i let mom give it a try. sher came along so we could show her the place. it's very pretty. lotsa trees and shade. so i got burned less :) mom, by the way, turned left too slow on a T on the road where if she failed to turn we'd drive ourselves off a ravine. i suddenly knew how the driver felt when i did the same thing and he pleaded with me to let him jumpo outta the car first. I wanted to jump outta the car myself when mom took the wheel! hehehehe!

but all in all we had fun. and the driver said mom drives slower, which i should. he enjoys it when i drive fast, 'cause it makes breezes in that hot day when our aircon's busted. his complaint is that i don't slow down when i make a turn. so i should practice more on starting again from a full stop without killing the engine. mom got that part, but she insists on driving slow. he's not worried about it. he knows we'll pick up speed when we get more used to it.

uh... kuya, please help me fix the image? i kinda ruined it (blush)

oh, and i uploaded a new site. DRIFTER is a little sequential i made back in college. check it out:

http://komikero.com/jac/drifter.html

if i still don't get that asian girl script i'll post my stupid poems instead wahahahahah! ;D

my fam laughed their heads off when they saw the attachments i downloaded of "BIG reasons why beer na beer is better than smb". then i worked on the halloween cards so i can send them tonight :) hopefully you'll see them. please don't criticise too harshly! i only had a day to do them!

then i went to mind the store after a hurried brunch of hotdog and rice (i'm NOT COMPLAINING :9) things went smoothly, if uneventful. being a holiday and all. Happy halloween by the way!!!

geoff came by to lend me some pc game cd's. he caught me drawing a halloween caricature i'm supposed to give to my friend when we meet. And i didn't recognise him until after he paid for his meal! ack!!! if i knew he wouldn't have had to pay!

anyway, he lent me Sims (we've been playing it and us three sisters had been having such a laugh i forgot getting online to chat with derrick. he had to text me to remind me!), fallout2, dogz, Master of orion II, and a book about tai-chi. just in time. i'm done reading kuya gerry's books (with the exception of sherlock holmes). i'll enjoy reading this as well. hopefully i'll learn plenty.

when i have the time i'll downlod mp3's like "Colorblind" and "When Doves Cry" by the kids' choir in romeo+juliet. and maybe that song by ashanti, "Happy" or something.

my boring life so far:

i measured the floor area of our diner so we could figure out how much linoleum we should get. we should've gotten 8m for the looks of things, but the 7.5 worked out. Me, my mom, and our two employees went down and got dirty as we went through 4 bottles of rugby gluing the darn thing onto the floor. (Aaaaaack! the fumes! the stink! the... whoooooaaaa.... heavvyyyy man! wrehehehehhe)

we checked accounts and found some cash unaccounted for, after a wild goose chase of asking everybody we found it. i got my suweldo for the week (ha-ha) enough to buy me netcard. And shampoo. and conditioner. And lightbulb for mom's table lamp. and extension for that, too.

wanwan minded the store with me. and drove all the guys and boykids crazy when they found out how gorgeous the diner's namesake is. sometimes she enjoys it (when cute guys adore) sometimes she doesn't (when un-cute guys do) and scampers at the back of the store.

i still drive at fridays, and it was so hot outside with me wearing long-sleeves(remember the sunburn last time?) that i practically jumpoed out of my sweaty clothes as soon as i got home. as for driving progress, i can go to segunda(second gear) now, and mydriver still complains(between screams of "STEP ON THE BRAKE! STEP ON THE BRAKE! YAAAAH!!!") that i drive too fast for a beginner.

i've read all of kuya gerry's comics again, including this new batch. i've enjoyed them all immensely :) if not for these i'd be bored out of my mind!!!

i finished both stories of battle realms. i'm seeing to installing new games, but i can also use my pc-time reading "arabian nights" and "grimms' fairy tales" in their undiluted forms. and aesop's fables, too :)

net vampire is positively mystifying me!!!! i went back to using DAP (sowy kuya!!!)

i'm thinking of getting a some corrective glasses. years ago( ! ) i had this free check-up who told me i don't have 20-20 vision. just 25-25. and astigmatism. that ain't so bad right? so i put off getting myself the glasses.

what the heck is astigmatism anyway????

anyway, i can ask my dad for the frames from the shop he works in, in china, it would slice off the price a bit.

It worked! Derrick suggested I right-click desktop to go to properties display. Eventually i clicked RESET and DEFAULT in exasperation (newbie!!!) and wa-hey! it worked! it fixed the problem :) I can use my photoshop 7 again! wheee!!!

and now my site is an full color! and fixed! check it out!

http://komikero.com/jac/strips.html

and explore around

http://www.geocities.com/jactinglim/

for any new links i've put in.

i just found my site has a lot of messed up links! use the index to read the strips for now. i'll fix it tomorrow! have to go beddy bye now!

i finished playing battle realms! and kuya gerry lent me more books. I've finished reading Daredevil Year One just now, all five books of them. and Neil Gaiman's Alice Cooper.

the picture below is taken from my nephew's baptismal. I'm one of thirty godmothers. And yes, the lucky kid has thirty more godfathers. If you're still wondering which one of them I am, just sing this song:

"Alin? Alin? Alin ang naiba? Isipin kung alin ang naiba? Isiping mabuti! Isipin kung alin! Isipin kung alin ang naiba!"

muheheheh! oooodiba! saulo ko pa!!!

i finally uploaded my website!!! check it out!

http://komikero.com/jac/strips.html

sigh... it's still too bright. i'll see if i can reset the settings or something without losing any files. anyway, i'm getting addicted to battle realms! i've reached that level where i have to defeat the lotus clan with the help of the monks. i played until 2am. then when i tried shutting down it was taking so long i pressed the reset button. the reset button didn't pop back up.

i mean where there was a reset button, there was now only a hole! good thing the reset worked and i successfully shut the pc down. after that i pulled the plug off power supply, disconnected all the cables to my cpu, and checked out its back how the casing is attached. i found 'positive' screws, so i tried sneaking downstairs to get my self a philipps screwdriver from dad's toolbox. of course, my mom and sis noticed me sneaking around so they knew i'm in trouble somehow ahehehehhe!

"hey, you've been playing there for hours! you didn't damage the pc did you?" EEP!

i found the tool and went back up to take off the casing. i peeked in and found to my dismay that there was a secondary casing for the front of the cpu! might as well, good thing it can be taken off by the same tool. after releasing the screws i carefully lifted the front casing to see it connected to the insides by a buch of umbilical-like wires, well duh! it WAS the power switch!

so anyway i can't place the casing far enough for easy access in fear of tugging the wires too much, but i saw the problem, and i figured it out. the button fell off the switch, and the switch fell off it's notch that keeps it in place. by then my sis found came in and saw that something WAS wrong, because her pc newbie younger sister who wouldn't dare to change window settings was found dismantling the cpu to its bare wirings and boards. i told her what i found so far. she just wanted to be assured that i know what i was doing. "So far," i just replied.

she got me some super glue from the ref (mighty bond and stuff lasts when put in the fridge. it just does. do it) which i used to glue the button to its switch. then i put the switch back to the notch in the hole. it was snapping on its one side, but not the other. it was why the button fell off in the first place. i tried to have it snap onto the other side but all i got is hurt fingers. so i just put the casing back on ang tried the button. it was working fine. but i'm still careful when i press it. i slept at 4am.

which is why i woke up at noon, and kuya called. i'm happy he's home safe, and he said i could scan at his place. whee! all day sunday it was basically play battle realms, watch the kid play half-life, eat, go to church, play more battle realms, help with the dry laundry, play with the baby nephew, and sleep. in random and repeating order.

i plan to limit my battle realms on weekends, so i can do photoshop during the week. the stupid monitor is still too bright though.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!!!!!!! my monitor is too bright again!!!!!!!!!!! i dunno why but it really sucks when it does! it got like this too before i had my stupid pc hard disk reformatted! I don't like this at all! it screws up my photoshop dargummit!!! curse ABC Computers! I've had it with having to go all the friggin' way to the third floor of friggin' megamall!! they suck! big time, man! darn! bad trip!

I was tapped awake again this morning at 8am by mom, saying the driver’s here to teach me driving again. I was puzzled ‘cause big sis told me that I’m not taking driving lessons this week because the driver shall take mom and lil sis to nova. Now mom’s saying that they’ll commute so they don’t need him at all.

Turns out that dad suggested big sis to stay home while the driver takes the two to nova. But big sis wants to go to Batangas, while mom doesn’t want to have a driver ‘cause they plan to overnight. Hmm, conflicting goals.

Anyway, it’s too late for me to learn driving anyway ‘cause the sun would be too hot too soon. So big sis hired the driver to take her to Batangas while mom and lil sis commutes. I just got ready to go out and get my student driver’s permit.

Mom lent me the originals for my birth certificates and gave me some money to pay the phone bills before she left. After my shower I braided my wet hair, pulled on a tank top and denim jeans, and a denim jacket. I had a breakfast of instant beef noodle soup before I hauled my brown backpack and went on my way.

I walked to the corner where I could catch a Tanauan jeep to LTO, then looked for a Xerox machine there. They said it wasn’t available yet so they suggested I go to the one across the street. It cost me P2 each. Rip-off.

I crossed the street again back to the LTO office and went back up the stairs where I eventually asked a girl how I could get my student permit. She asked for my birth certificate (I gave her the one from the hospital. I thought the one from census is too dark in the copy) and gave me a form to fill up. She then stapled the papers together and told me to go to Window 1. I passed the papers there, where I was told to wait for my name to be called.

The wait wasn’t as long as I expected. But I didn’t expect them to take my picture either. I thought they don’t need pics when you’re below the non-prof level, but I learned the hard way when I hurriedly put my braid to the side, wishing I had time to let my hair down instead. I also wondered if it would be better if I took off the jacket.

The lady then told me that it’s already 11am so I might have to come back for it after lunch break. I paid P170 for the whole shebang and asked them what I was supposed to do next. She said the next step is to go to the cashier. I was unsure if I should wait in front or sit down somewhere. But since there weren’t any vacant seats I was left without much choice.

Not too long after my name was called again and the lady was a bit surprised when I popped up in front of her, since I have been waiting all that time anyway. She fixed up the papers and gave me some receipts and told me to proceed to the Window 3. This time I found vacant seats, probably because it’s almost lunchtime. When I went up to the window I was given this little piece of sorta-stiff paper stapled to a bigger paper.

That was my license. I looked at the picture: as I expected, my eyes looked like I was shocked out of my wits, my skin was too shiny, and I wished like hell that I put on some rouge. I could hear my mom and sisters saying, “We told you so!” because I rarely bothered to put on makeup. Well, at least my lips are still shiny. And I was glad I kept my jacket on.

On the jeep back to San Pablo I found the expensive Xerox machine left me one peso short for my fare. Okay wait… I found three quarters… nuts! Still a quarter short : 6 I asked the kid sitting beside me if she could spare a quarter (embarrassing!). She dug around her pocket ‘til she pulled out an old P10 bill and gave it to me. I gave her my 3 P1 and 3 25-cent coins and thanked her.

I got off at the market place and walked to our store. Good, I wasn’t late. And the people followed our advice to make preparations for the rush hour, and things went more smoothly than before. I had lunch of giniling but managed to eat a little. It soon got pretty warm that I took off the jacket. I was somehow feeling a bit ill but I just concentrated on getting the job done.

I’m enjoying my helping out at the store more because the people I work with are more comfortable with me now, and I’m more confident with managing what I can. I separated the money from the cash register for the bills to pay so it became easier for us to decide which accounts to prioritise and stuff.

Everybody’s counting on me for decision making because the rest of the family’s out. I’m glad I’m more confident with how I did, without having to call or text mom. I was supposed to have an employee pay the phone bills, but she had to do the groceries which is out of the way, so I decided to do it myself so I’d know how. Besides, it’s on the way home.

I paid bills for rice and soda deliveries and gave the manager a cash advance, and took the rest of the money home with me. It’s pretty far; I should’ve ridden on a jeep, but I walked from the market place to the PLDT office, where I approached one of the ladies to ask how to pay the bills. She asked for the bill statements that they send over the mail, and then gave me receipts that I was supposed to bring to the cashier.

There she summed them all up, and I paid for it. And it’s done. I walked out and hailed a jeep home. The reason I walked was that I’d pay double if I rode a jeep to PLDT. And besides, the walk made me feel better and cleared my head. I got home and peeled off the sweaty clothes, assured that the house was empty. In a cool cotton housedress I walked over to my pc and played…

I still can’t figure out how to install “warcraft3” so I uninstalled it and tried figuring out how to install “battle realms” instead. It took me an hour to install it, and then I bungled it and took me another half-hour to fix it (am I a newbie or what?). After testing and repairing it thrice I managed to make a working desktop shortcut. Whew! Ahehehe!

i woke up, did yoga, took a morning shower, ate breakfast, watched tv, and got dressed to mind the store.

at least, that's the order i wanted it to be ;)

at the store i had lunch and did my job. had some bills paid, errands run, and items bought. oh, and took some lunch food home for the fam waiting at home.

whick leads me on a merry trail from the store, to the photo center, to the supermarket, to the cable company, to the net office, and finally home, with me tired and broke after paying bills and buying stuff. at least it ain't my money. yet.

i got home, colored another strip, and watched anime. yep, all those tagalog dubbed things! from detective conan to hunter x hunter to inu-yasha. as much as their voice acting annoys me. why? because the cable company (yes, the one i paid earlier) shows axn anime in japanese(good) but without subtitles(bad!). for a while i tried watching it and guessed what the story is about by context clues...

"dame! dame! dame yo!!! yamete kudasai! seresturonu! omae o korosu!!!"

yep, back to the darn tagalog dubbed anime.

watched younger sis' bf play our half-life. geez, it looks a lot harder than i thought! do i have patience for this? i know i can be stubborn, but is this worth it? sheesh. it looks good though. maybe when i'm done with my personal projects. i'm enjoying the game enough for now just cheering the poor guy while my sis becomes an award-winning back seat gamer. she kept shoving and slapping his shoulder and scolding whenever he dies in the game. "better not die again, she's kill you." heheheh!

had dinner. corned beef just the way i liked it. ginisa. with sabaw. with lotsa onions. good thing i brush my teeth.

then more half-life. then sleep. then my older sis woke me up 'cause she was downloading something and she wants me to surf while she go do something else so her card won't be such a waste.

and here i am. bye-bye! ja!

I'm listening to the demo cd right now, the one az gave me :) he put in the songs he and his friends wrote and performed. and he printed my fan art along with the rest in the cd cover! whee!

you see, my mom and i went to manila to pick up something dad sent from china. we had to pick it up in mandaluyong because his boss comes to the Philippines often, and figured it's cheaper to bring it along instead of sending it by post or something.

after that we went to megamall. we bought 3 retro tops, those things that are light and have these flared sleeves, for me, mom and sis. we also bought a pillow for mikko. and two wall clocks. one's green(my favorite color) to match the sofas(my choice) and a funky bright candy yellow(think iMac) to put near the pc. a-heh, mostly so we could time how long we've been online. especially me! I'm getting to be a net addict! uh-oh!

it's when we were choosing the clocks that az caught up with me. we're glad to see each other again and i had it cleared up that the movie they made was a sort of pet project so they thought it wasn't such a big deal that they have to ask permission or anything. I dunno. i suggested they mail him a letter apologising for having to make the movie with or without his permission because they were pressed for time. and at the same time formally asking permission in the probability that the short half-hour film would be shown. az was also kind enough to accompany us to the bus stop and stayed until we got on a bus.

hmmm, hope i remember to get a student driver's license tomorrow. have to study driving this friday. oh, and friday is also lola's bday. mom wants to go to novaliches for the bash. we all would like to go but the car is not exactly in perfect shape so we don't trust it enough to transport the baby with it. >sigh< soon, i hope i can be skillful enough to drive them to nova myself. to anywhere, for that matter :)

Oct 15 was mom's birthday! I managed to send birthday cards last night, one of them with johnny bravo saying "happy birthday hot sexy momma" hehehehehhe!

morning, mom thought she's gonna have a bday that she has to prepare for herself...

afternoon, we surprised her with a custom made cake (my sis designed it), gifts, flowers, and more pizza!

at the end of the day she said she had a happy birthday :)

finished coloring my 8th strip. learning to use photoshop7 more and more :) fun! 'one guy' asked me to do a caricature of him in wolverine style... hmmm. i wonder where i can get pics of him...

installed half-life! wheee! my first major pc game! i only finished 3 video games in my entire life: super mario land in gameboy, starcraft in pc, and front mission 3 in ps1. this will be the first game i'll play with my own hardware!!! whee! i was hoping it would be warcraft 3 but i still have to figure out if my pc meets the requirements...

not much happened this week. bought own net card. finished autocad learning assistant. finished reading all comics lent to me. hunting new books to read. finding more things to do. decided to color my comic strips for uploading. thinking of selling anime caricatures to students. or chocolate shake. or both.

went to driving lessons this morning. scorching sun burnt my left arm to raw red. gonna be golden brown tomorrow for sure. mental note: wear long sleeves. or sunblock. eyes still hurt from glare. didn't stop me from enjoying my photoshop 7 tho. watched jacky chan's the tuxedo for P40 for de luxe seats. sounds are crappy, can't hear what they're saying over the whine of some machinery. aircon or something.

went grocery shopping with mom after. then had snacks. macaroni and brazo de mercedes in liana's supermarket.

Sunday

used autocad learning assistant. fun :) went to church. prayed. bought new netcard. met with mom at liana's supermarket after. went grocery shopping with her. after that we had pizza and pearl coolers in greenwich at the 'mall'. had a long chat and learned lots of things. went home. wanwan served me dinner by bringing it upstairs. then she kissed me goodbye and left for university.

Monday

went to mind the store. kuya gerry picked me up so i can tag along at this art contest he's being a judge for. met a lotta people. had a little fun. walked from water district office (where the contest was) to palengke. he then helped me with the pc again. when he left i invited him for dinner.

Thursday

called ABC Computer, 3rd Floor Megamall A, to confirm that I'm going there tomorrow to have my hard disk replaced 'cause it got a bad sector less than a month after i purchased their pc package. Last time I went back because they didn't give me the proper power cord for my printer. My patience is waning...

Watched "the clerks" 'cause I have to return the vcd to azrael tomorrow.

sent one of my people to remind our driver that i'm hiring him for tomorrow's mega trip. i have it told that he should be in my place by seven am.

Friday

woke up six, packed up pc for transport, ready to get out by seven. by eight we're in sto. tomas batangas, by nine we're in alabang, by ten we're in mega. had breakfast. sent for ABC people to retrieve pc from car. hard disk replaced. formatted done when azrael came. glad to see him again. been a while. returned vcd's "DANCER IN THE DARK" and "THE CLERKS". he joined us for lunch with mom. had the monitor checked out too. seems ok now. backed up 'my documents' files. went around mega to canvass treadmills for bro. mom got az to try one of them out, too :) cute.

Saturday

called up beho to say that the pc is fixed and that i can install his programs now. he said he can drop 'em off at the resto. when he did we left together and caight up with each other, 'cause we sorta lost touch of each other since grade school. he's doing this punk 'zine or something. i lent him my cd of art samples so he could decide whether i could help. i offered to help him with his thesis. he offered to help me with my pc. i think it's a fair deal :)

Tuesday

finished reading all other comics i lent. that would be bone, death, saint of killers, black orchid, winter's end 2, and neil gaiman's midnight theatre. Aaaaaah :)

tried to do first few pages of a comics i thought up, then trashed it. i think that's how lucien gets to keep them, when we get unsuccessful at retrieving them.

Wednesday

tried to just write a darn script, instead of the whole comics itself. trashed it too. i told my younger sis about it. she asked why tell the same story we've been taught since grade school? everybody knows that! I began to feel doubts deep inside...

then fought it. I said I'd like to try and tell it in a different way. to let everybody realize that it's actually important to know. I wrote again, this time like my private journal, sorta like a poem... I finished it.

Sunday

went to abc driving school to compare prices with technical school. not much difference. AND i get one-one training. AND my own training car. i have to present the whole cash up front, though.

oops, my card ran out! just went to church and had pics developed. ran short of cash though so i sent someone to get it for me instead.

i finished reading all the comics i borrowed. bored! draw. two new strips, another new concept i'm trying to yank outta lucien's library.

Lucien is a character in neil gaiman's 'sandman'. he is the librarian of a VAST collection of books that are never written, only thought about or dreamt about. y'know, those stories you have in your head all these years, but never got around to write? I'm sure Lucien's holding a lot of my comicbooks in there by now. been writing them since i was in grade school. only in my mind though. sigh.

Monday

woke up when i'm told i have a phone call... gonna meet with kuya gerry.

minded the store. kuya gerry came. showed him my latest doodles. he lent me another batch of comicbooks! whee! lent him my drawing journal, and gave him a comicpage. he bought a new netcard for me, and we paid him for him :) so i'm back online!

finished reading frank miller's elektra/daredevil and elektra lives again. I also finished reading promethea by alan moore before i went to sleep. heheh, promethea... doesn't everyone want to be a story? to get away from harsh reality? I'm sure everyone has, at least once in their lives.

Friday, September 27, 2002

I woke up at 5am. I planned to go online last night 10pm, but I slept at nine. So.

I went to the pc to find my sis and mom emailing. Big sis made mom an email account J If I hadn’t slept I would have done it for her. Anyway, they were done in an hour.

And so was I. In one hour I managed to check both my yahoo and msn emails, posted my all my blogs, and finished another page in my geocities. I have to update the others though. Anyway if you wanna check it out here it is:

http://www.geocities.com/jactinglim/jac1.htm

I think I worked faster because it’s less likely for anyone to chat with me in the morning via messengers. Mercifully my internet worked despite the physical errors in the hard disk. I hope it would hold on until I can bring it back to the shop to get it fixed on Tuesday.

Then I basically spent the morning bumming around, looking after my baby nephew while his mom helps my mom with the laundry. The laundrygirl took the day off ‘cause she had allergies or something.

Soon after we had brunch at 11am. Then I got dressed and went to our fastfood by 12pm. I was dressed in jeans, hiking boots, and a camouflage t-shirt. They complained about it and suggested I change. I thought the outfit fits my moods at the moment so I stuck with the ol’ boyish look. I mean, there just isn’t enough cute guys to give me reason to bother prettying up :6

And whaddaya know, on the very day that I looked like a troglodyte this elementary crush appears, his hand clasped to another hand belonging to some ponytailed girl in a spaghetti strap top! Lemme guess, his gf? Bingbingbingbingbing!!!! Wonderful timing, huh?

Surprisingly, I found myself less annoyed than amused. I can’t help laughing that he was hesitant to introduce the girl to me. What, he was scared I’d snatch his girl away from him? Heheh, I know I was giving off boyish vibes but I’m never lesbian, as much as the idea intrigues me.

We talked about his exams, and my ailing pc. We gave each other updates on both subjects. Needless to say my moods didn’t improve one bit. Then the lunch hour mania starts, and I get swept up in my job, THEN my moods started lifting. Ah, productivity!

In an hour I counted the sales. At first I thought it’s gonna be a bad day, but it turned to be pretty good after all. I hope things get better. Since it’s still a hot day I decided to buy some ice cream on the way home: ube for mamy and lola, melon for big sis, choco for me!

I got home and distributed the ice cream. I found mom hanging the laundry to dry, so I helped her some. Much as I complained of the high temperatures, mom was glad of the sun for the laundry. When we’re almost done we ate the ice cream, then I went out to the school across the street to confirm about this rumor I heard about them giving lessons for diesel/automechanics.

At the technical school I just found some guys tinkering with a passenger jeepney who told me to try coming back tomorrow morning to get my questions answerted. All they knew was that the school holds such seminars on Saturdays and Sundays.

Saturday, September 28, 2002

I woke up 6am. I wondered if I would get online, then decided to do it tonight instead. I got up a few hours later and found big sis and mom in the room next to the pc. They said something about the mother hen rising to check the netchick, amusingly defensive about how I keep watch whenever I can on how much of my net card have been used.

I lazed around around watching over the baby and the tv. When it’s finally 8am I got dressed and went out to the technical school again. Again, I found no-one to help me with my inquiries. I opened a door to an ongoing seminar, apologized for my intrusion, and asked where I can find people to answer my questions.

One of the people from the seminar got up and showed me the annex building I was looking for. Along the way he caught some guy to help me, and he went back to his seminar. The new guy WAS pretty helpful, showing me registration forms for courses such as “Diesel/Auto-Mechanic” and “Driving and Troubleshooting”.

Each course had a total fee of almost 3thou. But they said I need to pay only 300 bucks for registration. The classes start Oct 6, every Sunday 8am to 12pm. If I am interested I can come back tomorrow and register with P300 and a white t-shirt for uniform.

I asked if I’m the only girl to ask about these courses. He said I would be the second girl in mechanic, but there are more girls in driving. I still can’t decide. Sure, the mechanic course could teach me enough to make it less likely for grease monkeys to rip me off, but I also want to learn how to drive. Ah well, if only I can find someone to teach me driving…

hmmm, i swear i posted i poseted a lotta blogs after that last one... anyway, my dad's back in china. and he happily emails us every chance he gets! of course, we happily reply.

i finished drawing all that my boss needed so i can stay home and draw my personal projects until he calls me again.

I'm invited to this year's UAP inductions again, I hope I can bring my sis there. And it would have been a lot more convenient if I know how to drive.

found errors in hard disk. will bring it back to shop this tuesday. God grant me patience and wisdom... those guys are causing me a LOT of inconveniences. I'm beginning to find it annoying. might as well have them check out my monitor. It's still too bright. Sheesh, how i wish I know a pc expert I can kidnap to my place and zap all my pc problems away. So i can play all the pc games i want!

my dad doesn't want a fax machine anymore. My uncle explained how email can be cheaper. as for me, i text everybody using the net.

went to mooncake festival last sunday. forgot to go to church. hope God forgives me.

worked in our fastfood. bought ice cream on the way home. baby mikko stuffed his face with ice cream. literally.

remember that elementary classmate? he just offered to be my pc expert. he said i can call him anytime i need help with my pc. can't kidnap him though, baka magalit yung gf nya hehehehehe!

finally read all ten books of sandman! so kewl!!! bitin pare! woo-hoo!

heheh! Well, whaddaya know! my dad woke up again! I taught him email 'til he understood it enough for him to do it himself when he gets back to china. Yipee! another productive day!

THURSDAY

After finishing 4 drawings, my boss changed his mind about some stuff like finishes and had me erase and redraw the sheet. He apologized. I don't feel bad about it in the first place but i appreciate it :) I just don't mind drawing at all.

FRIDAY

Finished all revisions. Went on to make another new drawing :) Thankfully, my pace picked up, as I predicted. I'm supposed to teach dad the internet, but he fell asleep. If he wakes up while I'm online I'll ask him if he still wants me to teach him tonight.

ah, what a week :)

TUESDAY

Dad's home. I'm happy :)

WEDNESDAY

As the US of A commemorates 9-11, we celebrate my elder sister's birthday :) i hurried home as fast as i can but i got home after six because i blueprinted my drawings and made copies for estimates. we had a nice time. i still owe my sis a japanese dinner date though :)

THURSDAY

went to office as early as i could so boss could bring blueprints and copies to manila that day :)

FRIDAY

dad announced that he'll help me buy my own pc! yipee! he told me to ask my boss for a day off tomorrow.

SATURDAY

boss let me take the day off. off to megamall we go! kuya gerry was kind enough to come meet me there to help me shop for the pc. i know it's a biggie 'cause he's busy doing his movie :) ok, so good news: i have my own pc, printer and internet. bad news: my celphone got plucked out of my bag by a female thief! sometimes i still wanna kick myself for hesitating to go after her just because she's a girl. by the time i was positive she was the one who took it, she has ran. fast. i learned the hard way to watch my belongings when in an escalator in a megasale. so now i have these to save up for: a scanner, a celphone, and maybe a fax machine. my dad wants one. i'm hoping to help him get that as he helped me get my pc :)

SUNDAY

went to church. learned to forgive thief. feel better now.

MONDAY

printer comes withOUT an adaptor! had to take half the day off to go 3 hrs to megamall, get the right power cord, then 3 hrs ride back home. truns out they forgot to tell me that i had to buy an adaptor. sheesh, silly people. due to the inconvenience they let me have a new power cord for free. though honestly i think they should've given me that power cord for free in the first place.

TUESDAY

had brownies for snack. Kuya gerry dropped by the office to help me install programs like MS Office. couldn't install diablo II though. puzzling.

WEDNESDAY (today)

had ham sandwiches for snack. Kuya gerry dropped by again to install photoshop and other graphics programs. and dad got the phone line ready for internet! wheee! warcraft didn't run either. curioser. we guess it's due to not having enough memory. mine's 128. it's within minimum requirements but we hear they won't run on minimum sometimes.

okay, so it's been MORE than a week! been busy lately...

SATURDAY:

friend came! he hung out in my office where he spent his time singing and pestering me about how slow i do my drafting these days. well i'm a bit rusty! gimme a break :) i still enjoy my job though. i get to listen to any music i want in the office's surround-sound system.

i was happy to hear him sing along with my old savage garden album. the song's "truly, madly, deeply". mega-mushy! but we used to sing it back in our college days, when we walked around the campus. among other songs.

MONDAY:

i received a message from a 'prodigal friend' (whatever 'prodigal' means). he was my friend. then he used me. then he abused me 'for using him'. needless to say i was pissed. but all the same i'm relieved. i didn't have to explode at him. he did to me. he cut off the friendship for me.

anyway, to go back to monday, he invited me to meet him because he wanted to give me something. i said i can't go. it's too far and i'm too busy. he said he'll send it and asked for my address. i gave him my office address.

"after everything that you told me...?"

"aw, you know i didn't mean that! well, not EVERYTHNG... only SOME of the the things..."

jerk.

TUESDAY:

i was in the office when the package came. by courier. i was wary to open it, but when i finally did i found a green powerpuff girls buttercup backpack. i cried.

i wanted one because 1)buttercup is my favorite cartoon character 2)my favorite color is green, and most of all 3)i NEEDED one.

i used to own a backpack that was so dilapidated (may its soul rest in peace) i had to keep sewing it to keep any of my stuff from falling out of its numerous and multiplying holes.

i was holding the holes closed all the while i was running after the prodigal friend when he accused me of many things of which i couldn't even make sense. i bought a needle and thread on the way as he continued to verbally abuse me with the most painful words i never thought would come out of an otherwise seemingly intelligent person.

back when we were friends i volunteered to help him with his book. i never expected he was serious when he said he's gonna buy me that backpack for my efforts. apparently he was. i still cried. i don't want his backpack. i want his apology.

WEDNESDAY:

my mind's in total emotional chaos because of the package. luckily i got distracted...

i was mopingly picking at my lunch in our 'sorta open-air' restaurant when someone called my name. my OLD name!

i looked up to see my elementary classmate. we have long since parted ways, as i pursue an artist's path while he took up engineering. i had a crush on him when we were twelve. so i'm REALLY happy to see him! especially since he let his hair grow long again. i've always liked long-haired guys since i first saw it on him.

too bad i don't have a crush on him anymore. after more than ten years of not seeing each other, we found that my height totally clears him! i mean, i think he's only up to my shoulder! tough ;9 but i'm still glad he called me. i'm surprised he still remembered me. since we weren't that close back in grade school.

FRIDAY:

'm happy :) my 19-yr old younger sister hung out at my office. i really appreciate it. i'm usually alone at the office, so i always enjoy the company. she spent the afternoon rifling through my boss' cassette tapes and cd collections, and proceeded to play 'the beatles' on the stereo. she got disappointed when she couldn't find the bee gees. she always enjoyed that band. it makes us laugh when they do that high-pitched voice when they sing :) anyway, we enjoyed beatles too...

"you miss dad, don't you?"

"i guess. hm, yeah: i got hooked into beatles because dad has a complete collection of their albums."

well ok, so do i. so i'm really glad he's coming home tonight from china :)

YESTERDAY:

my kuya gerry and i somehow brought up 'baked chicken' in our converstaions. i mentioned that i never tried it. he said that he makes it! so invited me over to his place to sample his recipe of baked chicken. i'm only too happy to sample his cooking. i still couldn't forget his chili con carne!

he picked me up from the office to have lunch at his place, then went with me back to the office after. he even lent me more sandman books by neil gaiman! darn kuya gerry! i'm getting addicted to the sandman series! :) anyway, at work, i finally finished the three pages of my 20x30's so i can move on to making the perspective page!

TODAY:

started inking perspective page! i even incorporated my favorite big man, vin diesel in the foreground, heheheh!

sigh. still no reply from the game designer. i hope i didn't scare him away...?

started redrawing an entire 20"x30" ink sheet. sir garry taught me to draft properly. as well as shortcuts for newbies. hope it works :)

oh, i see my post yesterday wasn't published. y'see, the pcshop experienced connection problems. i checked for the gamer's email yesterday, too.

the only reason i made myself check my email everyday is that i was hoping his reply would come. i guess he could call me, but the reply i was asking for is something i'd like to read and think over. hopefully he'd call when he replies, so i can check it then. i don't think i can afford to get online everyday any longer.

maybe i shouldn't worry :) maybe they're just taking the time to think it over themselves. i really hope this pushes through. i look forward to working on it.

i'm happy 'cause my friend's coming from manila(3hrs away) to visit my nephew. he was chosen godfather by my sister 'cause they got to be friends, too, i guess. i'm happy. it's been awhile since i last saw him.

(Squeals and cartwheels and jumps for joy) EEEEEP!!!! They called me! Long distance! overseas! the people from soulcollector called me up!!!

my mom woke me up at eleven monday night. i was still half asleep when i heard the game designer's voice in my ear. bythe time it sank down on me i was so overwhelmed all i could do was giggle like an silly kid, he wondered if i thought i was joking or something. i still couldn't believe it that they really were inviting me to commit to the project... longterm! wow... my first overseas gig and they want it longterm :)))

he asked me what i 'wanted out of it'. i had no idea what he was talking about. experience? acknowledgement? ummm ok... compensation. yeah, that sounds right, i guess. money. and car. and stock options. and a condo. and green card? hahahahaha! of course, i know i'm going overboard! i really have no idea about this. it's the first time i got a job by the net. i'm emailing him now asking all about this. i hope his reply would be helpful and informative :)

and he sounded so nice! he even said he's really serious about lending me his books! you see, we found in our email exchanges that we share a love for reading and good literature.

i'm really glad that he's being patient with my naivete. he's very clear and honest on telling me the situations that we're gonna face once we start working. i can hardly wait! :D

arrgh! darnit! i tried to send artworks to the soulcollections people last saturday but the attachments just won't work! turns out that the jpeg files have to be 72 dpi (kuya gerry told me just now :) 'can't stay long for now... maybe better luck next time! bye!

woo-hoo! I'm finally done with the friggin' fence! i have since drafted an 18-meter diameter fountain (AND designed my own, too!) and plans of a two-storey house. he also got me to design a t-shirt for kids when he found out my artist backgroud by reading my resume. i also told my architect boss that kuya gerry is helping me land a gig as an artist thru the internet for the guys who made "soul collections". i like the story. the concept is original and the characters are interesting. i would like to know more about them, findind their backstories a delightful read. right now i'm crossing my fingers that they like my work! :)

anyway, my boss is glad for me too, and wishes me luck. I'm pretty happy that i'm actually working(sort of) without having to live in a boarding house or anything like that. i get to go home to my family EVERYday and i don't have to buy my food all the time. i can cook whenever i want to! and i don't have to scrimp on my paycheck :D

and the office totally rocks! it's airconditioned, and i have my OWN stereo, tv AND fridge! whee!!! i can stock up on all the chocolates and food and juice and... more food!!! :9 i can finally listen to all my cd's and tapes however loud i want, from hip-hop to heavy metal, and i can really draw in peace. it's so enjoyable working alone!

of course, it's also great when sir gary(my boss architect) is around because i can ask him all sorts of questions regarding architecture and drafting. I love learning! and he's very helpful, though he sometimes laughs at my antics. he said he finds it amusing.

And today is my second day of work. It's gonna take a lot of getting used to, but I ghope I get the hang of things pretty soon. I can't help feeling frustrated with my speed in drafting, though. I'm still working on the architecturals of a friggin' fence! sheesh, i haven't even been able to start on the fountain yet. It's just that I couldn't figure out exactly what my boss wants, and he has to be away most of the time so i could only guess. when he gets back and we find i guessed wrong, i start over.

so i guess that explains it :p but other than that I quite enjoy it. like i said. i enjoy drawing. i just feel guilty when i feel i don't draw fast enough. there's so many things i want to draw, but i had to keep redoing the first drawings... oh well :) I'm just glad I'm finally training.

yahoo! it turns out an architect right here in the small town i live has been looking for me 'cause he wants to train me as an architect's apprentice! goodbye bumsville!!! I start training friday. wish me luck! hehehe!

Just had my ref pics printed out, not without help from Kuya Gerry. Whee! He even lent me this big comicbook called 'The Essential Wolverine' or something. Yep, plenty to do for me, now that I'm jobless.

...What? I didn't tell you? Oh.

Well, let's just say I've worked beyond my contract. According to that magical piece of paper, I'm supposed to work in the company until June 15, this year. For some reason they asked me to stay beyond that date. So I did. Then at the end of July, I packed up and left. You see, there's STILL no sign of a NEW contract. So I don't really have any reason to stay anyway.

So here I am, back in my hometown Laguna. Um, more like home province. Anyway, I've been looking for new jobs eversince. I'm quite looking forward to my future, uncertain as it may be for now. I always view my life as an adventure. So I just do my best and face whatever comes my way in the best way possible.

hello! it's monday again. i don't wanna talk about days past anymore 'cause i'm tired. hehe! i'll just say what happened today, or whatever I want!

Right now, I'm trying to draw these long overdue sample scripts, starting with wolverine 'cause it's just a three-pager. the reason I'm online right now is to download pics i need to make the comic. Like wolvie pics and stuff :)

hi! I'm supposed to get online only once a week, but I forgot my diskettes yesternight so I never got to download those vin diesel wallpapers hehehehehehe!

and what happened since last time I blogged in?

JULY 22 2002, MONDAY

Tapos I went home. Nothing interesting happened. Just the usual: us girls read, chat, watch tv, then we all clean up, undress, and go to bed.

Okay! If anyone thinks about lesbian orgy-fantasies I'm afraid you'd be disappointed! We are doing absolutely NOTHING out of the ordinary!

...at least not while the lights are still on.

JUUUUST KIDDING! Hah! Gotcha there! ;D

JULY 23 2002, TUESDAY

Anyway, usual drill when I wake up: alarm rings at 4:30, I trudge half-asleep to the showers to get (my stuff) in line, then I get back to sleep 'til 7:30 'cause that's when it's FINALLY my turn. I hurry to office to reach it by 8:30 and finish my morning rituals AFTER I logged in (like combing my hair and getting breakfast). Then work. Then Warcraft III (while eating lunch). Then work ulit. Then Sir Sam announced that we're taking the day off tomorrow 'cause all them Korean bosses have to be at the airport to take the Bigwigs from Korea to Subic for an English language seminar or something. I don't care! I'm getting the day off! WHEEEE! I texted Ting to say we could meet and find the friggin' pie we've been craving since we watched MIB II. Ryan wanted to come along so I told her to meet us at Glorietta, McDo. Ryan and I got there early so we roamed around first, peeking around Filbar's and stuff. Eventually, we met Ting shortly after Ryan got his McDo meal. We helped ourselves to his fries (with his permission, of course!). Then we got our (mango cream) pie at red ribbon, while Ryan had chocolate mousse, being makulit all the time. We don't mind at all. We can be more makulit anytime! :) Then we went to Timezone arcade where Ryan played this virtual game where he wins by committing massacre. Ting and I played air hockey.

Ryan learned and kicked both our a$$ses in air hockey!

Then I walked home again.

Ooops! Wanna tell you more, but my time's limited. Bye!

yess! I'm back! so what happened since the last time I blogged in? Nuninuninuninuuuu...

JULY 19 2002, FRIDAY

Ganito 'yon, the three of us met up with this guy Edgar Tadeo, who colors Leinil Yu's "High Roads". Leinil(Nil) does pencils (and sorta the creator), kuya Gerry Alanguilan does inks. Ryan Orosco, whom I am in honor to work with(nyacks! Bola! Hehehe;), is the penciller of Darna- Anniversary Special first issue. Now, the four of us are going to Nil's place! :)

...Where everyone tried to draw but ended up stuffing our faces with KFC(Kwestyonabol Frayd Chiken) and Coke. Lots :9 I think only Nil and kuya Gerry succeeded in drawing anything that night. The rest of us watched tv 'til the radiation turned us into gorgeous mutant superheroes(we wish).

We watched this b movie in Solar called Blood Surf. They watched only for this Maureen girl. I spent my time trying not to get too disgusted with the flatchested girl who's trying HARD to be sexy. And then we watched Shallow Hal, I think in special dedication for Edgar. Go figure :p After that I got sleepy and tried to sleep on the floor with a beanbag as my bed, pillow, and teddy bear in one. Kaso I think nakatapat sa akin yung pusanggalang aircon kasi malamig pa rin kahit nagkumot ako ng, um...tuwalya.

So lumipat ako sa couch kasi bakante na(whee!). Dami pang unan ^_^ Tulog muna ako hanggang magsawa si Ryan maglaro ng Warcraft III...

Hindi na pala ako ginising ni Ryan! Kaya tinapos na n'ya! Daya!!!

Anyway, skip na tayo sa:

JULY 20 2002, SATURDAY

Pasok kami ni Ryan sa ofis. Trabaho. Basa ng Swamp Thing(by Alan Moore) na pinahiram ni kuya.Uwi sa boarding house. Empake. Text kay kuya Gerry. Tawag. Ok, sa Megamall kami magkikita. Naiwanan ko kasi ofis worx ko. Dinala nya :)

A&W daw. Buti natandaan ko kung nasaan 'yung pusanggalang lugar na 'yon. 'Di ko mahanap si kuya Gerry... uy! yung portfolio nya! hawak nung mama... ok, kakilala pala ni kuya. Tiyempo namang lumitaw si kuya Wasted. Pinakilala na ako kay Oliver Pulumbarit. Oy kewl! 'yung gumagawa ng "Lexy, Nance & Argus" sa Pulp magazine! Pina-autograph ko 'yung Pulp na pinahiram sa akin ni Ting Caisido. Mukhang naaliw naman siya. Whee!

Tapos, sakay na kami bus ni kuya Gerry! Umuulan tapos wala kaming jacket o payong. Pareho kasing matigas ang ulo heheheh! Nang makapunta kami Alabang tumayo si kuya, dungaw ng dungaw sa bintana ng bus. baka daw kasi makita niya si ate Ilyn, sasabayan na daw nya. Uuuuuy! :) Sweeet! Si ate Ilyn Florese nga is an architect(like kuya!) and they're gonna get married this December. Pwera bati :) Kuya! marami ba handa? Kung marami, imbita mo 'ko!!! :9 Tutulong ako! Ako taga-tikim!!!

Ay bait! Hinatid pa ako hanggang gate ng bahay namin. Libre pa bus at traysikel! Sarap ng libre! I'll make sure to return the favor, syempre :)

And home again to mamy, achi Beya, lola and baby Mikko! As usual, all smiles si baby boy pagkakita sa akin. Matalinong bata 'to, marunong nang kumilala ng maganda, wrehehehe! Kaso I've been cold, tired and sleepy. I barely managed to undress before I collapsed onto bed.

JULY 21 2002, SUNDAY

Kaya pala ang lamig... kobrekama ang pinangkumot ko! Saka... NYE! Sa kama pala ni lola ako nakatulog! Eheheheh, nagkaroon tuloy ng transient bedspacer si lola ng 'di oras. Thanks, lola! ;D

Anong ginawa ko sa bahay? Binasa ko Daredevil ni kuya, saka The Hobbit ni Ting. Basa basa basa. halos sakalin nga ako ni mamy kasi hindi daw ako makausap. may sarili na naman daw akong mundo ehehehe! Haaaay! sarap magbasa! Meron pang Pulp ni Ting! tapos pwede kong basahin uli yung High Roads 1-3... naaah. kakain na daw me e.

Yeheeey! Favorite ko: Bacon and hotdog!!! Ewan ko ba pero 'pag pinagsasama ko 'yung dalawang 'yun e hindi na ako maawat sa pagkain!!! VORACIOUS!!! ;9

Tapos, Empake. Tapos, tawag kay kuya. Nag-text siya e, mahal mag-reply. Buti libre local calls, whee! tried to watch Men of Honor kaso hindi ko na tinapos kasi hindi ko rin naman nasimulan. Tapos, tulog.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

JULY 22 2002, MONDAY

Nag-alarm noong 3:30am. Dineadma ko. Paggising ko 4:30 na!!! Yikes! 5am na ako nakaalis! Dumiretso na me ofis...

Nyeeeee, seven ako nakarating sa ofis??? Okay lang, drowing habang kumakain ng Mister Donut twister na favorite ni Ryan.

Walang kwenta 'yung drowing. Tinapon ko na rin. 'Yung twister, ok. Pero favorite ko pa rin swiss mocha :9 Nagpa-alarm ako ng 8:45. Umakyat ako. Sina sir Sam lang nandun. Late daw ako ng five minutes. Hel-loo!! Kaya nga may 15 minute grace period e! Duh!!! Dyosko! 'Di pa tumigil! Hihilahin pa chair ko 'pag uupo na me. Sheesh, nakisakay na lang ako sa ka-praningan n'ya. Absent kasi 'yung dalawang mokong e, sina Ryan saka si Allan Soriano, 'yung 3d artist namin. Sus, ako tuloy pinagti-tripan. Pumunta kasing Subic 'yung mga koreans e. Pero iwan sina sir Sam saka si sir Kwon. Tama, baka binubuhos na lang sa akin 'yung inis nila kasi hindi sila makasama, hehehe ;)

uy, si Ryan, pumasok! 'Kala ko ba maysakit 'to? narinig lang na pupuntang Subic ang mga bantay, pumasok na! Gusto lang 'atang mag-warcraft e! Heheheh, joke lang 'pre!
So anyway, drowing uli kami buong araw. Si Ryan ayaw daw kumain. Kakapangilabot, malala na nga 'ata ang sakit ni Ryan! Nawawalan ng gana e, usually ang takaw-takaw n'yan! Nag-warcraft na lang kami habang kumakain. Si Ryan, naghahamon na naman ng LAN. Yabang! Porke natapos ko na kina Nil 'yung campaign e! Patapusin mo muna ako ng campaign noh! Saka maga-show-off ka lang naman by slaughtering my base before I could even build it ;p

Pwedeng bantay ng pc shop si sir Sam, five minutes before tapos ng break time nagsisigaw na siya ng warning para i-save na namin 'yung games namin(anlakas pa man ding sumigaw ng malaking mamang 'yun). Pero 'nung 5:30 na pinayagan kaming mag-stay until 6:30 para maglaro. WHEEEEE! Nakaabot ako hanggang sa nakuha ni Arthas 'yung Frostmourne. E duh! bago pa naman nakuha 'yung pusanggalang espadang 'yun praning na si Arthas e! Ayaw kasing makinig sa raven-prophet. Antigas ng ulo!

Tapos, nagyayang mamasyal sa glorietta si Ryan. Nagkwento ng lovelife n'ya(as usual). Sus, kung hindi ba pusong mamon si ryan e di siguro ang konti na ng problema niya. Pero minsan, ako rin naman e. Hay, ayoko na nga e. It would take a LOT of convincing for a guy to win me over after all the sh*t I've been through(and all the creeps I've met).

Anyway, nagpaalam na si Ryan na sasakay na raw siyang MRT. Sabay na raw ako sa kanya kasi may sakayan din daw papuntang bhaus namin. Sabi ko lakad na lang me. So as soon as nag-part ways na kami...

Dumiretso me sa Diesel where I saw this really sweet super-low cut dress and tried it on. Syempre nang makita kong pitong libo ang presyo ng pusanggalang dalit na yun umalis na ako. Ok lang, masaya na ako na sinukat ko yun. Saka, as if naman may pagkakataon akong suotin ko yun noh! Kelan ba yung last time I ever went anywhere worth dressing up for??? Hay. So anyway, since nagsisi-sarado na rin lang ang mga tindahan e naglakad na ako along dela rosa walkway pauwi. A few blocks from home may namataan akong internet shop. P40/hr. Sure, P30/hr 'yung nasa kina Ryan pero P20 pamasahe dun noh! So here I am :) typing away... 'til next time!!!

oooookay! i finally started an online journal i could keep :)

you guys can come over here if you're still interested with the mundane things in my life. next time na ako magsusulat. inaapura ako nina ryan at gerry e.

BABAY!