Babbling Point

~ McCann-Erickson won, for the fifth time in the past six years, Agency of the Year. YEEEEHAAA! McCann also won four other business-related awards. BBDO-Guerroro-Ortega won the Best in Creative Award. So, everyone got drunk at Nuvo on red wine, white wine, and... TEQUILLA! Bad move on my part to drink that one shot. ONE SHOT! AND THE ROOM STARTED TO SPIN! OH NOOOOO! I already had several glasses of red and then they started to pass around tequilla shots. And that was that. Some of us retreated to Old Swiss Inn and attempted to sober up with coffee and Coke and fondue. Bad move! Next thing I know I was best friends with the toilet bowl. Managed to get home around 3am... or was that 4am? It's now 4pm and I'm back in the office. Work. Work. Have to rush to Megamall later for the National Book Awards! :0)

Posted a new article in the KOMIX 101 blog. It's listing of "Pinoy Comics Online". Too bad they didn't include Gerry's site and message board. Thanks to Arvie for the copy of the article. :)

FWD EMAIL FROM ROACH >>> The science-fiction author Ray Bradbury celebrated his 83rd birthday with this wish: One night, 100 years from now, a youngster will stay up late reading The Martian Chronicles with a flashlight under his blanket -- on the Red Planet. "That's the dream I have and that's the reason I'm here," the author of the 1950 classic said during a birthday party organized by the planetary society. The space exploration advocacy group presented Brandbury with a mammoth birthday card printed with messages from 4,000 fans. The actress Angie Dickinson gave him a kiss, and the director Peter Hyams, whose movie version of Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" is due in April, called him a "national treasure." ++++++++ Just came back from Bizu, Greenbelt. Outside the restaurant, the Philippine Astronomical Society set-up two telescopes for people to see Mars. We got in line and finally saw... this white ...

_ Some sites I found when I should've been working Who's more pretty, Cindy or Iya ? I'd have to stay loyal to my brand and say Iya. :) But that Kurleto girl certain does have a lot of oomhhp! (tama ba spelling nun?) Talking about pretty girls, last night I saw Aubrey Miles walking around Greenbelt with Troy Montero-- who now looks like Tau Lava because of his long, curly locks. They were definitely attracting attention. Maybe they're promoting a new movie. By the way, you can make Aubrey your textmate! Just text AUBREY to 2978 and start getting text from the sexy star herself. (She's actually one of the few celebrities that sends you a text everyday. Sometimes, twice a day. The other celebs only send text once a week, sometimes less.) Have you seen THE MISADVENTURES OF ARIEL AND MAVERICK ? I've been told it's funny. Maybe it is, because I saw Ariel and Maverick are now part of Dolphy's new HOME ALONG DA AIRPORT. Guess the gods of ABS...

:) Grace and Belai did their own Amazing Race last week when they went whitewater rafting in Kalinga. PICS HERE .

FWD EMAIL FROM GRACE >>> From a book entitled Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life by Joe Robinson (Perigee) "To let the free time ring without guilt, you need to change the word in front of the famous ethic that is pinning you to the wall. The operative ethic in your life should be the Worth Ethic. Measure the madness around you by whether it has worth for you, instead of whether you are worthy enough to take the ceaseless beating. Does it bring you significance, satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, contribution, challenge? Or does it cut you off from sources of internal worth, isolate you, and sabotage your health? That's not worth it, no matter the dough." (People with kids, house payments and sick parents view work much differently. I owe, I owe it's off to work i go.)

+ My Tito Jay in Canada recently emailed about that big black-out that put everyone in panic mode again. Yo bros! The power went out at around 4:15 pm EST, Thursday afternoon, and I was in a conference call with our biggest wholesale customer. Thir head office was 10 km away from ours and their power went dead and before I can even react to their cursing cuz they were building a spreadsheet during the course of the meeting, our systems went down as well. In short, we all left the office pronto after making calls to all our branches across Ontario and had the same problem. The traffic was bad due to people leaving all at the same time and all subway and streetcars (running on electric power) went dead. Complete chaos as people started walking like 5 to 20 km to get home as all the trains and buses were filled up quickly. I managed to drive home without a hitch. All the gas stations shut down but the few that opened had cars line up like a half a kilometer away. The gas stat...

~ My Saturday BLAH BLAH The talk was supposed to start at 9:30am. Of course I was late. I’m really not a morning person. Whenever I have meetings at Globe at 8am, I definitely cannot survive that without Coffee California’s Perkins Perk-up, which is brewed coffee with a shot of espresso. Anyway, finally found Room 215 of the SEC building at 10:30am. So, because I ran (well… walked really fast) to the SEC Building (which didn’t exist when I graduated from Ateneo) I ended up doing my talk panting and sweating like a pig. (Not a pretty sight.) I flubbed some of the jokes in my talk. (Lesson… never ever read the punch lines of your joke.) I just hope the kids picked up something from my little talk. Anyway, I picked up a few tips and words of advice from Dean and Kensai. Will now start using Pantene PRO-V! Dean, should really turn that into a self-help writing book and I’m sure Pantene will sponsor it. Forgot to ask the students questions about what they thought of...

:) Several reasons to visit Norway DTHPROD's phlog shows some very good sights in his homeland. Seems like the view is always like that every time he goes out for lunch or coffee break. What a happy place! Here are some examples of the friendly people you will meet in Norway . :) :) :)

BLAH BLAH BLAH Hey kids! I'll be part of a panel this Saturday, giving a talk about writing for comic books. It's the first part of a workshop session by the the Ateneo's Comic Collective in cooperation with the UP Grail. Dean Alfar of Kestrel Studios and Zach Yonzon of Mango Comics will be part of the panel. It will be held at the Ateneo de Manila University, Science Education Complex Bldg A, Rm 215 (SEC A-215). 9am to 12nn. Here's the sched of the other workshops: August 16 - Writing for Comics August 30 - Illustration Basics and Character Design September 6 - Timing, Framing, and Acting in Comics Illustration September 13 - Panel Composition and Page Composition September 20 - Digital Lettering and Coloring And it's all for FREE!

~ Better Living Through Phlogging You'll never know what or who you'll find online. Check it out! Even my high school chemistry teacher is now phlogging! Hi Malen! She's now teaching in the U.S.

> HOT OFF THE PRESS! Hot Manila compresses news. And dissatisfaction. It concentrates anger, condenses plain speaking, flavors it with irreverent humor and presents it with the sort of good writing that's been pansified and adulterated by the growing influx of suck-up lifestyle text producers (I quail at calling them "journalists" or "writers"). This is journalism without hangups or pretense.

~ AVID FAN Congrats to Direk Avid “NINJA BOY” Liongoren for winning best video is this year’s MTV PILIPINAS VIDEO AWARDS! Click here to view Avid's videos. Congrats to Dean for winning 2nd prize in this year’s Palanca Awards for his one-act play "The Onan Circle". IN OTHER NEWS… Shiloah ’s back in Nowhereville. Hurray! Digital bloggin’ postcards . Very nice. July would like these. Party MMS shows how to have real fun with the phone. Got this link from Rachel who asked why she doesn’t see these kind of pics in my phlog. Must get out of office more often. My phlog is just full of pics from our florescent-lit office. Bummer. Eh! COMICS! The very, very first issue of Batch72 is once again available and this time it’s online! “BAD TRIP SA 7TH HEAVEN” was first released in ashcan / risograph format. Jason has now put in online along with other comic book stories by Gerry , Wilson , Hai , Vinzo Ngo , and of course, Jason. ...

+ Click to open album If you're bored with the pic in my phlog , then you might want to check out these more interesting photo-logs: My cousin Carla in New York. Sonny Orange in sunny Dubai. Rogue's Gallery in Ortigas (and sometimes she's in Makati). Jason D is blogging and phlogging again. Mark's photo-log can actually be viewed on the left side of his blog. (Should really learn this HTML blah.) Comic book writer Warren Ellis phlogs with his Nokia 3650. (Still can't believe this phone became a best-seller in Manila, despite it's wacko "rotary" keypad. Goes to show that Pinoys really love to do Kodakan.)

~ Congratulations to Filipino comic book artist LAN MEDINA! 2003 EISNER AWARDS Best Serialized Story: Fables #1-5: " Legends in Exile ," by Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, and Steve Leialoha (Vertigo/DC) Best New Series: Fables, by Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha (Vertigo/DC)

~ The Trouble with Dying This was one of Joey's bedtime prayers when he was four years old. JOEY: Lord, I'm wondering why we have to die to go to heaven because I don't want to die but I want to go to heaven. I want to see Jesus but I don't want to die forever. More of his musings at: The World According to Joey .

~ I DIVORC U! I DIVORC U! I DIVORC U! KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysian (Reuters) -- Malaysian Muslim men can divorce their wives through text messages on mobile telephones, the New Straits Times daily reported on Saturday, quoting a religious adviser to the government. Hamid Othman, adviser to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said divorce via SMS or short messaging service was in accordance with sharia law if it was clear and unambiguous. "SMS is just another form of writing," the daily quoted Hamid as saying, following an Islamic court decision on Thursday that ruled in favor of a man who served divorce on his wife using SMS. Islamic law permits a man to divorce his wife by declaring "I divorce you" three times. I wonder if this is a service that the local cellphone companies would like to promote. Text DIVORCE and send to 2333 and get a divorce now! I'm sure this will be a big hit consider the level of promiscuity in this country. (Thanks...

~ Good morning Or should say good afternoon. It’s already 1:16pm according to the clock on my computer. Was not feeling well this morning but I managed to drag myself out of bed, into the car, and to work. Not a great experience all together. At least there was not much traffic. Maybe people are still avoiding Makati. But when I passed by Rustans, there were already several cars parked in the lot that was cordoned off by bombs just the other night. The malls are back in business. Makati is back in business. And I guess the Philippine military is back in business. I do hope that something gets done. The so-called Magdalo Group made some heavy accusations that cannot be dismissed just because they’ve been send back to the barracks. I do not have a whole lot of hope and trust in another Senate Committee investigating another anomaly in the government system. At least the military and these personalities will be put in the limelight and will hopefully shed some real light o...

~ While playing WARCRAFT last night, got a call from my mom to come home quick. News broke out about 20 soliders / officers who left their posts due to grievances about the government. It's funny that as you wage war against orcs and elves, there was a bigger war happening down the street. Couple of hours later, around 2am, I got a text from a friend who was trying to get a cab in front of Rustans department store in Makati. He texted that there are soldiers there and that there was talk of bombs being planted around the area. I quickly switched on the TV and saw the coverage of military men with red armbands planting bombs around the parking area that's in front of Rustans and the Intercon Hotel. Later on, the TV station started to air the video message of the so-called MAGDALO GROUP. According to the news anchor, they got the video in the form of a VCD, which made me wonder... is the pirated copy already available along Ayala Avenue? The Magdalo Group's cl...

> I'm the only one left in the office. (Well, Roach just came back.) Still trying to figure out the headline of this one ad that needs to be presented on Monday. So, decided to check email and just this link from Brandie. At least, it made me laugh. Check out the heroic adventures of KIKKOMAN !!! I love Kikkoman... the sauce... not the hero. I think I can eat anything with Kikkoman. Yes, I will eat ampalaya with Kikkoman. I'll eat just rice with Kikkoman. Ice cream and Kikkoman? Ummm... maybe will give it a try. 11pm... still haven't had dinner. Time to go home. Need to buy some Kikkoman.