Babbling Point

Aaaahhh-choooo!!! I'm sick again. Been sick since Saturday. Didn't get to go to work Tuesday and Wednesday. I went back to work today. Brain feels clogged by the mucus. Hope Friday will be better. Hope next week will be better. Sorry folks, I've got nothing coherent to say right now. So, here's something from Joey, age 8 . "Lord, Thank you for helping me pass the La Salle text. I ask for forgiveness for guessing, but thank You for helping me to guess right. "

Back when I was very young, when I was in grade school, when I was watching too much Johnny Carson and David Letterman when I should've been sleeping because it was a school night, I made a joke about Mother's Day. I think I cracked it during some dinner with some relatives. I said, "What's the big deal about Mother's Day?! Every day we kiss them and hug them. So, isn't every day Mother's Day anyway?" Nobody got the joke. I thought it was funny. (I was a sarcastic little kid.) That night I saw my mom crying in the bedroom. She told me that she got hurt with what I said. I tried to explain the joke, but that didn't matter. I said sorry and hugged her and kissed her. I stayed up the whole night putting together a crayon-drawn card. On the front, it showed a little kid holding up a placard that said, "Mother's Day? No way!" And when you opened the card, it showed the same kid, but this time the copy on the placard said, "Celebrate M...

The day before you left for New York, Kuya and I were playing ball in the house. It happened so fast. The pass I gave Kuya was so strong, the ball bounced off his hands and found its way to the living room mantle. Time seemed to stop as your favorite plate fell to the floor. Tears flowed down my cheeks as you walked in the room.I closed my eyes expecting you to shout in anger. Instead, I slowly felt the warmth of your embrace. I’ve kept that plate ever since. Every time I see it and every time I call you on my Globe, I’m reminded that someday I’ll feel your arms around me once more. Client: Globe Agency: Harrison Communications CD: Joey Campillo Copywriter: Bow Guerrero Art Director: Ronnie Tres Reyes

. Mango Jam #2 now in stores! New Image comic book with art by Filipino comic book artist John Toledo. Click here for more preview pages of BLACKLIGHT. No. 1!!! The look for the latest issue of FUDGE which has a pretty pic of the sinful Jessica Alba from SIN CITY. This issue contains the first two-pages of Gerry's HUMANIS REX . SILENT DRAGON #1! Preview this new miniseries from critically acclaimed writer Andy Diggle and the superstar art team of Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan! Full-color preview pages here .

Holiday Schmaliday! I'm at work today! :-(

. A problem with the dilithium crystals? I drive a 1990 Nissan Sentra. When I go to work, I start the engine, turn on the radio and wait for the engine to warm-up. Then I turn on the aircon and head-off to work. When I go home, I start the engine, drive out of the basement carpark, then switch on the aircon-- and then, I switch on the radio. After driving down a couple of block, the radio sputters and spits out white noise and then just dies. So, I drive home in silence. The next morning, I start the engine, turn on the radio-- AND IT WORKS AGAIN! So, any electrical engineers out there who might have a theory on what's wrong with my car? Of course, my brother would immediately say, "It simple means, it's time to buy a new car!" This reminds me of the story of the car that was allergic to vanilla ice cream. (which I found by Googling the words " car engine vanilla ice cream ") Seems like it's a really famous story. Click here if you want to read it. Oh, a...

. Tick-Talk Grace texted: A friend woke me up hapi abt new Rolex. I just realizd what's d generation's Rolex? What product today will stand d so called "test of time"? what's r chocnut? I replied: Don't know. Wth today's Baby-G's and Swatch watches, seems like kids arent interestd in what will last, but more with what looks great on them now. Decided to forward Grace's text and get Mark's take on it. Mark texted: None. Everything is meta. Diamonds r artificially priced. All marketing. Everything is in planned obsolesence. Why pay 4 a 20k watch when nxt month theres a new model? After a while sent one more text: Only love lasts. :) Nakanaman!

. TOP 10 VIDEOS Based on Music One and Tower Records videos sales from February 1, 2005 to January 27, 2005. 1. Asia Agcaoili's SEX GURU 2. Exotic Belly Dancing 3. Imelda 4. House of Flying Daggers 5. Meet the Parents 6. White Chicks 7. Magnifico 8. Catwoman 9. Man on Fire 10. Passion of the Christ Looking at the list, it seems like they gathered their info by travelling back in time. How can this be the record of videos sales from February to January? Maybe Music1 and Tower use a different kind of calendar. Maybe it's a musical calendar? It seems like lots of Pinoys got the "Sex Guru" and "Exotic Bellydancing" videos in order to prepare for their Valentines dates. Later on, they felt guilty they ever went on that date and decided to get "Passion of the Christ". Then there were the poor saps who decided to get "Catwoman". Why? WHY?! Would would they do something stupid like that? Maybe they couldn't get any dates during V-day and jus...

. My mom hoped that her second child would be a girl. That’s why she was planning to name her Franchesa-Bernadette, I honor of her two best friends. As fate would have it, her second child turned out to be a boy. And that’s why he got named Francis-Bernard. My dad’s favorite drink, til the day he died, was Fundador Brandy. That’s what he usually drank when he got home at night, while watching TV and smoking his cigarettes. He’d take a sip of brandy and a sip from his tall glass of water. And that’s why Francis-Bernard got the nickname Brandie. When we were kids, my mom would always point out to guests that Brandie’s a Taurus and I’m a Scorpio and that’s why we’ll always clash. Maybe it was because I kept hearing that spiel over and over again and that’s why I didn’t want Brandie around me. (Or maybe baby brothers always have that amazing power to annoy you-- at whatever age.) Anyway, I remember the times when I’d try to keep him out of the playroom so I can have all the toys to myself...

. The Princeling Who Ran Away Jessica Zafra Some months ago, a beautiful white cat took up residence in my building. He appears to be of some foreign breed—larger than the average male cat, white, with black ears and a long, thick black tail. Most cats have an aristocratic bearing, but this one has the air of a foreign princeling who escaped from his retinue to go slumming among the common people. Sort of like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, except that she didn’t eat mice or poop in the yard. The story of his arrival varies according to which security guard is telling it, but apparently everyone witnessed the great event. In one version, the cat was crouching in the back seat of a moving SUV when he suddenly leapt out the window and dashed towards our building. In another version, he was sitting on the lap of a woman in a white maid’s uniform, and the vehicle was a late-model Mercedes Benz. The accounts vary, but they all mention his grand origins, or as they put it, “Sosyal yang pus...

. Sympathy for the Mutant Jessica Zafra (July 2003) When my mother died two weeks ago the general reaction was one of surprise-- surprise that I even had a mother. It is easier to think of me as a product of spontaneous generation, or of some hideous experiment that escaped from a laboratory. I did in fact gestate in a womb and not a Petri dish. My mother¹s name was Araceli. I am told I look exactly like her, although I hope the comparison is based on how she looked when she was alive and in excellent health. My mother always seemed more alive than most people. She fairly crackled with energy; her presence set up a force field that took up every available inch of space. This is why I had to move out of the house twelve years ago: there simply was not enough space. Even when I was alone in my locked bedroom at 3 a.m. and she was asleep in another part of the house, I could feel her reading over my shoulder, making suggestions. She had a gift for vivid description, and a well-developed s...

. Faster than a speeding... While hanging out at the studio tonight, I finally saw her! ANGEL LOCSIN in the Darna costume for a grand total of THREE SECONDS! What the heck?! The scene then cuts to a shot of Mambabarang/EddieGarcia swooping down some street. He lets loose his swarm of locusts(?), flies(?), black-spotty-bad-SFX-thingees(?). Then it cuts to a commercial! ARRRGH! Two more bloggers bloggin' about the show... 29 Thoughts About the Apparent Sexiness of Angel Locsin's Darna Ding! Mahiwaga Ba' To?! (Links found thanks to Mark .) I recently installed Statcounter on my blog and I've noticed that several people end up at my blog looking for pics of Angel Locin in the Darna costume. Nope. Not here. Try over here please .

. She's baaack! Anvil Publishing has just released the 7th book of the best-selling Twisted series, written by columnist and TV host Jessica Zafra. In Tw7sted, Zafra writers about her quest for world domination, mortality, art and urban life with her usual acerbic humor. In her piece entitled "Sympathy for the Mutant" she writes: "I hate death by sickness... It is not noble and awe-inspiring... it is as abrupt and banal as the flicking of a switch. This is not what death should be. Death, the reason for religion, the subject of great literature... the giant mystery that looms over everything we do,... should be spectacular, not pity-inducing, a bang and not a whimper. We have no power over life and death, we are subject to pain and misery, but we command words. When you think about it, words are all we really have." There will be a book signing on April 13, 6 p.m. at PowerBooks, SM Megamall and on April 20, 6 p.m. at PowerBooks, Greenbelt 4.

. Where the heck was Angel Locsin? So, I sat through the entire premiere episode of MARS RAVELO'S DARNA and only got to see a still picture of Angel Locsin in the end credits. IT'S NOT FAIR!!! If you happened to tune in a couple of minutes late, you would've thought you were watching some test episode of "Tabing Ilog", with all the shots of kids running around the river and all that crying and flirting going on. If you did happen to catch the start of the show, which I did, you would've seen the fantastic effects used by GMA to render the Planet Marte-- which looked like it was shot in a sandbox and the city was made of left-over Lego parts. Anyway, the show opens with the planet being attacked by some evil people. Maureen Larrazabal, who plays Aio, was given this glowing stone which seemed important to the Queen, played by Lorna Tolentino. The stone also seemed important to Celia Rodriguez, who plays Braguda, some evil woman wearing a rip-off of Deathbird...

. And now, a word from our sponsors... We are pleased to finally and officially announce that Russel Molina, Maira Catacutan, and Manny Martinez are now E-Heads, joining Teeny Gonzales, Maricel Pangilinan Arenas, and Dino Laurena, as Executive Committee members and officers of Harrison Communications , and that Budjette Tan has been promoted to Creative Director. . . . . By all human, and in fact, quite possibly divine standards, one might say Budjette Tan has been on Globe forever and we are thankful. The newest Creative Director on Globe is our resident techie/geek, born to write for telco (and write beautifully he does) and he has been doing so for Globe since July 1999. Part of the original team that conceptualized the ground-breaking (G) campaign, part of all the teams that launched and relaunched my Globe, Budj cannot stay away from the account at all – even surfing for telco developments during his leisure time. If for the longest time, Globe VAS, Postpaid, and IDD ads made it t...

. Tongued-Tied Three I recent blogged about a Journalism student who sent me a list of questions that had a whole lot of grammatical mistakes. Several people reacted to my blog and the most recent one was Vicky. Here’s what she posted: *Ouch* I was researching for some information about comic books in the Philippines too when I came upon this blog. Talking from a college student point of view, do you really think it's that important to learn correct English grammar, especially when you are not an English major? I admit that my English is also not too good, but not having a perfect knowledge on correct grammar doesn't make a person brainless, especially if they can express themselves in other means. I also think it's quite unfair to say na "katamaran" lang kaya sila nag-email. Sometimes even if we had researched on the material, i.e., considering the lack of papers written about a topic, we need a resource person to back up our claims. Yun lang po, I wish you coul...

K.I.A. - Kai: Indomitable Assassin She has no memories of her past, no friends to count on and no fear of death. She's the Unkillable Agent K, and her targets have no chance to escape. From the pages of Marco Dimaano's Angel Ace comes Kai, the tough and sexy femme fatale in her own stand-alone comic. Some of the finest names in local Filipino comics come together to bring the bikini-clad superninja to life. For action-packed adventure laced with dark humor and manga-style sex appeal, look no further than K.I.A. K.I.A. features the work of the following comic book creators: Taga-Ilog, Gerry Alanguilan, Arnold Arre, Wilson Tortosa, Jennyson Rosero, Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Jeremy Arambulo, Elbert Or, Jon Mallari, Karen 'Katch' Cheung, Michael Seludo, Joel Chua, Honoel Ibardolaza, Chad Cabrera, Michael Banting, Carlo Vergara, Anthony Yap, Marvin del Mundo, Edgar Tadeo, and of course, Marco Dimaano. K.I.A. Vol. 1 160 pages, B/W, Php 195.00. Available at Comic Quest branches...

FROM THE INBOX: Budj, Finally got a chance to read some of the books you sent over. Been so busy these days on a film project, great to sit back and read some comics. 1. SIGLO : I think the production values, especially the graphic designs were gorgeous. The cover is a visual poem. Enjoyed all the strips and the variety of line and styles. I hope this consolidation of talents continues on for quite awhile after the second book. Maybe I can do something more significant in the future. 2. WASTED : I got a copy from Gerry awhile back and what can I say? It's a standout book that captures the promising talent that has been delivering ever since. 3. BATCH72 : Thought this had a wonderful sense of fun that's missing in many books. The humor is terrific and the art matches the writing. Even with different inkers Arre's talent is consistent. Nice work Budj! So again, thanks so much for the books Budj, and keep up the great work! best regards, -- Rafael Kayanan -- I first noticed Ra...

. Easter is a very special day for us sisters. Every year we'd drive back home, to the river where we learned how to swim. We called ourselves the Mango Tree Gang, in honor of the big tree by the banks. We'd jump in the river and yell, "Green Mango One! Yellow Mango Two! Red Mango Three!" But you, being the panganay, always wanted to be different, so you'd shout, "Karabao Mango!" Easter just hasn't been the same since you moved to Canada. So, this Sunday, we'll take turns calling you up with our Globe to greet you, "Karabao Mango!" and a happy Easter. Client: Globe Agency: Harrison Communications Inc. CD: Joey Campillo AD: Argem Vinuya Writer: Budjette Tan :-) Yesterday, got the following text about the ad: From Emily: Nice copy in Globe horizontal ad today with kids in pier. :-) Great copy, Budj! Love the ad... could feel the pull of memories... have lots of similar ones. You are an excellent writer; keep writing, Budj. And I don't...

And I Quote... From Jonathan Carrol’s GLASS SOUP "There are people we meet in life who miss being important to us by inches, days, or heartbeats. Another place or time or a different emotional frame of mind and we would willingly fall into their arms; gladly take up their challenge or invitation. But as it is, we encounter them when we are discontent or content and they are not. Whatever they are, we are not and vice versa. Two trains going in different directions that pass for a few powerful moments at full speed, blasting noise and wind but then they are gone. Whatever serious chemistry might have been possible if, isn't. "She knew he possessed a quality few males do. It was an instinctive thing that most of the men who had it didn't even know was there. Yet it was the most formidable part of their arsenal: They made you feel totally comfortable when you were together with them. On the street, in bed, having lunch, having sex, having a laugh, a walk or whatever-- it...