Babbling Point

Went to the Itchyworms album launch last night at the Republic of Malate. Can’t believe I was watching the same band that was doing Beatles covers way back in 1999 in Ora Café when we were there trying to promote PANTHEON. (Ended up selling a grand total of one copy to Ernest, the manager of the I-worms). Can’t believe that Eric aka Jugs, their guitarist and one of the band’s vocalist, was the same Eric I met in Galleria way, way back in 1995, showing me his Xeroxed “Shadow Comics”. And like most kids, Jugs “grew up” and away from comics and ended up in a band. Seems like he made the right choice, while some of us are still trying to make our comic book dreams come true. Last night, the band was just pure fun, fun, fun! When we got Republic, I immediately made my way to the stage area. Jason was able to get the CD (which came with a free “little monster” and a poster). So, by the end of the launch, there were no more CDs just cassette tapes. It was nice to see the parents ...

Took the day-off to work on B72. Geez, using one of my VLs (vacation leave) to do... work. Well, it's for the book, so it's worth it. But just goes to show that a day is not enough. Still have more stuff to do for the book. The first leg of Rockology will be this Friday at P.W.U. Must have all the promo materials ready by Thursday. Got to talk to Francis Brew. Asked him about... a project I'm wroking on and trying to figure out if it's worth the headache. He also told me that the Dawn might have a U.S. Tour, five weeks, five cities (or something like that). Wow! Cool! Road trip! Anyway, must focus on B72 for the moment before pursuing other projects. hmmm... a road trip... :)

It was definitely spectacular... NO! It was spectular Spectacular!!! MOULIN ROUGE , definitely the best movie I've seen this year! What a flashy site , too. Must watch it again!

BACK-BLOG August 2, 2001 It’s 12:06am on my watch. It’s 11:55pm on my computer clock. And I’m wondering if it’s already safe to go online. I wonder how much damage the Code Red virus has done. I haven’t gone online today. I fear that will experience withdrawal symptoms soon. I was doing my timesheet yesterday and calculated that for the month of July, I spent 220 hours working on this . Today is the formal, public, blah blah launch( and even Mark was dragged on it. God, I hope all that… that… work is worth it. I wonder what people think about it. I wonder what the competition thinks about it. And there are times during the day when I just don’t care about what my wonderful client has to say and just wish I can get to work on B72. I just finished my editorial to the first issue. Still waiting for Mark to finish his foreword. Still waiting for the chance to go online… damn…. Maybe later today it’ll be okay to surf again. Well, if you’re reading th...

I was about to call it a slow Tuesday when the J.R.s started to pour in. Well, I exaggerate... only had to do some scripts, check on the print ad, and it's all done... at least for the moment. Excited about the books coming out tomorrow. After how many months, PLANETARY is finally arriving. Also can't wait for part 3 of DAREDEVIL: YELLOW . Loeb and Sale are really the team supreme. Wonder if there's a "Tim Sale" here in Manila? Just miss that feeling of being able to create and collaborate on stories. There is a certainly thrill when you're working on a print ad or an idea for a TV commercial and you're idea just clicks with you art director... but the feeling is different when you click when collaborating on a story, comic book or otherwise.

Signs that it is a Monday. I get to work in good minute (less than 20minutes) only to find that some moron had taken my parking space. I get to my desk to find three J.R.’s (job requests). Then one of the A.D.s tells me that the AE’s are looking for an additional study that would make the ad look exactly like what my C.D. doesn’t want them to look like! Yup, it’s a Monday.

I'm now at the Power Plant at a place called Paperclips, where they have internet rental, and thank God for that. Waiting for the others to arrive, going to watch JURASSIC PARK 3. Across from Paperclips is a Dunkin Donuts. Got some coffee and donuts before walking over here. While munching on my Choco Caramel Donut and sipping on their not-so-strong brewed, I couldn't help but think about all those nights we spent in Dunkin or Mr. Donuts during the mid-90s. We usually ended up there after a movie where we talked about movie, other movies, comic books, and came up with many fantastic and inane stories that will never see print. The people in the Alamat mailing list were talking about meeting up and having a tambayan . Gerry was the one who mentioned about CyebrCafe, that it was almost a guarantee that every Saturday there would be at least two Alamat people in that cafe. God, I miss those days (and nights and early mornings). But life goes on and so do we. Last ...

Been reading the reports about this year's San Diego Comic-Con … nakakainggit! Went there in 1994, which was when I was giving away copies of COMICS 101, the very first comic book which I got published. It was at that convention when I gave Whilce a copy of our comic book, which reminded him to include me in that little meeting, which lead to the formation of Alamat. But that’s another story… Went back San Diego in 1995, giving away the Alamat Comics Package to every editor we could corner. Was able to meet Neil Gaiman. Got his autograph. Saw this girl dressed up a Voodoo... :) Hopefully can go next year.

btw, I've updated Dave's site (in case anyone out there is interested)

You think you're kung-fu is better than my kung-fu?! I am master of the Farting Snake technique! Attack me and try! Well, not really a kung-fu style, but the Sonoran Coral Snake does, well... fart when threatened. Now, I'd love to see that Croc Hunter -dude from Animal Planet try and catch a Sonoran. "Oh, what a beeeeooootiful snake..." PPRRRRRRRRFFFTTT!!! "Blimey!"

Call me Mud! Just wanted to write down some stuff before it all escapes me, before fatigue and aching muscles get the better of them and I’d rather not write at all. Yesterday (THURS) had a team building seminar or sorts. The whole Globe Handyphone Team played Gotcha!, that paintball-war game, against the Coke-Jollibee Team of McCann. Definitely lots of fun! I spent most of the time lying down on the mud. Slipping, sliding, crawling on the mud, trying to gain a foothold on anything. Felt really helpless. My protective goggles kept fogging up and for safety purposes, I couldn’t remove my goggles and mask while I was on the battle zone. We played three games. During the first game, we were the defenders of Hamburger Hill. The Coke Team had to capture our flag. Five minutes into the game and I was already breathing heavy, felt like I could move my legs, and just couldn’t stand up due to the slippery mud. By this time, my green pants and black jacket had turned brown...

1:20am Still at the office. Yesterday, went home at 4am. Got to work at 4pm. Rushed to the recording studio. Back at the office by 5pm. Yesterday, went out for a two hour "lunch break" and finally finished reading Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS . Yes, finally got my Gaiman-fix. :) Past couple of years, I've had to get my Gaiman-fix by reading those 8-page Endless stories that would come out in Veritgo's WINTER'S EDGE. Course I also got that SANDMAN: DREAM HUNTERS , which was nice... not thrilling, but nice. But AMERICAN GODS definitely gave me my fill of a great Gaiman story... of stories within a story... most of the ideas presented in the novel would be very familiar to the typical SANDMAN reader, but it's all good... good to see familiar characters and see them from a different point of view. Will be going home in awhile... New comic books arrive later today. Happy day. Then again... there's work...

Roche, one of our A.E.'s at the office, has been reading my blog (Hi Roche!) and says she skips the parts where I talked about comic books because she's not really into that. She even asked me is "Gaiman" is one of the X-Men, pronouncing Neil's name as "Gay-Man". Hmmm... what kind of comic book would that be? Talking about the X-MEN, (sorry, Roche), I finally got the latest issue of NEW X-MEN. I'm afraid it didn't really blow me away. It was okay. Fun. Nice. But it didn't blow me away. Not in the same away I'd be blown away by certain issues of THE AUTHORITY. Anyway, at least the next issue comes out next week. It's Marvel's way of making up for its lateness. After that a new artist comes and I'm not really to happy about that. Goes to show that even big shot companies like Marvel can't get their artists to work any faster... My cab gets here in 10mintues... Listening to the E-heads CarbonStereoxide... ...

Loi Ejercito is a MUTANT!!! Check out the Top 20 XMEN players and you'll see that the #5 mutant is Loi. Hmmm... so, she must have used her mutant powers to win the elections! She might use it to rescue Erap and son from prison! Summon the Sentinels!!! Geez... I really need my mutant-fix... good thing NEW X-MEN arrives today. :)

10:48pm, still in the office, no I don't love my work this much... it's the only place where I can surf/email for "free"... I really need to get a new computer at home... ...on my way home... in a while... So, I get back to reading AMERICAN GODS ... yup, I finally got it... already half way through it... damn, Gaiman's good... ...Finally getting my fix of dream dust,,, oooooooooohhhhhhhhh yyeaaahhhhhhhhhh... Was hoping to stay and get to work on the text pieces for Batch72, but I'm tired and hunrgy. Foooood.... hmmmm... Got to watch David Blaine last night. Damn, he's good. Was familiar with some of the illusions he has doing. It's just amazing that he can do it on the street. Jobert, the Jedi Master, feels that David Blaine might not all be smoke and mirrors. He felt the the force in that boy. (Or maybe it's the Dark Side!) I wonder if I should dig my old box of magic tricks and start practicing again. The lead charac...

July 9, 2001 At this writing, I'm now two years and a day in this job. I've been writing copy for cellphones for the past 731 days. Wow! Didn't know I could last so long in one place. Considering I'm still trying to make comic books after 6 years (more, if you include the comics I made when I was a kid), then I guess I shouldn't be surprised I can last so long doing one thing. I guess it just goes to show that I do love what I'm doing. It's a fun place. With crazy people. And wonderful clients. Thank God for crazy places like this.

C O L O N Y Ants in my car Lately noticed that I've got ants in my car. Today, when Brandie opened the door, he saw what looked like a colony of ants making a mad scramble to move their food from one part of car to another. There were grains of rice and the ants were moving them to God knows where. Then again, those little white pods could have been eggs. I really need to get my car washed. Radioactive Mirco Office Roaches Our office is infested with this tiny roaches. Not the big brown roaches you usually find at home. But little greyish roaches. The other day I saw one of them enter this crack on the microwave oven. My God... the cockroaches are living inside the microwave oven! Can you imagine what kind of mutation they're undergoing? They must be impervious to all kinds of insecticide by now! I even saw one roach go inside the keyboard of the computer. Talk about bugs in your computer! These roaches have adapted to office life. One time, saw ...

Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS now available at Comic Quest!!! P1,500 ! ! ! Must Stop Myself from buying that expesive Book Somebody... please... Pray that bookstores get it soon... NOW!!!

In the Tristan romance, when the young couple has drunk their love potion and Isolde’s nurse realizes what has happened, she goes to Tristan and says, “You have drunk your death.” And Tristan says, “By my death, do you mean this pain of love?”—because that was one of their main points, that one should feel the sickness of love. There’s no possible fulfillment in this world of that identity one is experiencing. Tristan says, “If by my death, you mean this agony of love, that is my life. If by my death, you mean the punishment that we are to suffer if discovered, I accept that. And if by my death, you mean eternal punishment in the fire of hell, I accept that, too.” Now, that’s big stuff. Joseph Campbell from “ The Power of Myth ”, chapter VII: Tales of Love and Marriage

left my phone at home. had to go back. crap! not a great way to start the day.