Babbling Point

:) Godsend Around 1am, I got a text from my mom that Migs, my 10-year old godson, was at the house and didn’t want to go to bed till I got home. So, I excused myself from the team, who was still finishing some materials for an 8am presentation, and I went home. I arrived to see Migs sitting on my mom’s bed. He looked tired but kept himself awake by watching something on the Disney Channel. I asked him what he was watching and he said he didn’t know. He watched with the volume off because he didn’t want to disturb my mom who was already falling asleep. I told him and my mom that I still had to go back to the office to check on the work and that I just went home to take a bath and change clothes. Migs followed me to my room where he began to point at stuff and ask what this or that was for. I gave him a JLA/JSA comic book to read while I went to bathroom. But before I could even step out of the room, he began a barrage of questions about all the characters on ...

+ Spiral Everyday, when I get to work, I bring my car to the basement parking. The moment I enter Level 1, my radio starts to fluctuate and noise starts to interfere with the songs. So, I shut off the radio as I completely loose the signal by Level 2. I usually up finding a parking space at the one of the lower levels. As I spiral down in silence, I begin to pray. Every time I turn a corner I pray that it would be good day, that everything will be fine. I pray that we solve whatever problems come our way, that I smile more and shout less, that I laugh more and yell less. I then take the elevator to the 11th floor, get my coffee, and proceed to our office. In less than 60 seconds I find out that client wants something changed in the ad and that just ruins my morning. So much for the power of prayer. But as things go, we get work done, we get stuff approved, so it isn’t a bad day after all. After work (which is usually a little past midnight) I go down to the low...

- And after five days of sleeping, eating, reading, and other "-ings", all it took was the first five hours of work to drain me. Wonderful. It's Monday. Tuesday is two hours away. Great. Be back later. I hope.

:) TAGG! After the three week "hell-week", finally got some rest. Mom woke me up around noon. Ate lunch. Crashed back into bed. Haven't had the chance to read all the comic books I got from Comic Quest. Woke up around 6pm. Got a call from Dang. He mentioned something about FREE BEER and I quickly said, YES! Found them in Kiku Fuji. (Did I get that right?) Which is behind Makati Cinema Square. Bow and Taps were already wolfing down various raw seafood. It was my first time to taste sea urchin. It was peculiar. Delicious in its own strange way. Of course, I had to try their tempura, which turned to be quite good. They also had this liempo on a stick that glistened with oil and just melted in your mouth and just quickly went for your heart. We ordered several of that. And, as promised, the beer just kept on flowing. So, after we had our fill, we ended up at Old Swiss Inn and talked till 2am. Despite the fact me, Bow, and Taps all work in the...

:) CAPT. KIRK'S SECRET STARLOG She tasted like metal. Most probably due to her alien physiology. (Which is just a guess and I'm sure Bones would give a better diagnosis, but it's something I wouldn't bring up since he still won't let me forget the time I got that sentient skin rash from the majestrix of Alpha Ceti Three.) She tasted like metal, like a cold spoon after you lick off the chocolate ice cream. I still wake up with that tin taste in my mouth. Must. Make. An. Effort. To. Forget. Because Spock might do that Vulcan-mind-meld-thingee (he hates it when I call it that) on me again and he'll definitely mention it during some inappropriate time and Bones will find out and I'll never hear the end of it. END LOG

:) USAPANG LASHENG The following are new Advertising Content Regulation Committee (ACRC) policies formulated and approved by the Main ACRC Policy Making Body and subsequently ratified by the AdBoard Board of Directors during their 1st Board Meeting last March 17, 2004. The new rules and policies shall take effect thirty (30) days from the above-stated date. 1. Allow use of Tagalog and dialect translations of the mandatory government tag for Alcoholic Beverages: “Drink moderately.” a. For Tagalog, the allowed translation is: “Uminom ng katamtaman lamang.” b. For regional dialects, the following are the allowed translations: i. Bicol – “Mag-inom ning tama sana.” ii. Cebuano – “Inom ra sing gihustong kadaghanon.” Or ”Inom sa husto gidaghanon.” iii. Chavacano – “Toma husto husto.” iv. Ilocano – “Uminum laeng iti kalalainganna.” v. Ilonggo – “Inom sing Insakto lang kadamuon.” Or “Inom lang sing Insakto” vi. Pangasinense – “Uninom labat na duga.” Or “Unin...

+ crush “So I have the biggest crush on Chris, a drummer that I met last night at our gig. And I want to die because I only went to Alex's jam session today to see him again. And when he got there i didnt talk to him at ALL! I just ignored him, like the powers of my ignoring him would eventually be strong enough to make him understand that I am dying inside to hold him.” -- LILLE, (http://hickypox.blogspot.com/) I know exactly what Lille is talking about. I used to attend the gigs of Color It Red, just hoping to get the chance to talk to Cooky Chua. After their set, I’d hang around and thought that if I just stood there in one corner she’d eventually notice me. Years later, I realized that the best way to get noticed by her is to just say hello. (duh! I know!) So, during those nights of the blue moon when I do get to watch Color It Red, I go up to their table, say hello, and even get a free drink from Cooky. Cool! (I am such a fanboy.)

! FINALLY! After six months since it first began, the final issue of JLA/AVENGERS arrives in stores this Wednesday. Ahhh... I'm a fanboy again. :) (And I still like the JLA more than the AVENGERS.) I just hope I can go to Comic Quest this week. Haven't had the chance to go these past two week due to work. My weekends are spent recharging in my cryo-chamber.

:) A WASTED REVIEW * * * * * ** * * Check out Randy Lander's review of WASTED at The Fourth Rail . Astig! Congrats Gerry! Now, if only we can find a way to give WASTED major distribution. (By the way, for those living abroad, copies of WASTED can be ordered from Cold Cut Distributions .) WASTED is still available in comic book stores and any magazine shop that sells PULP and MTV INK. Just ask the sales girls because WASTED usually ends up in some upper shelf or bottom drawer. If they say that don't have it, INSIST THAT THEY DO!!!

:) IT'S AN AD, AD, AD WORLD! “Sanely applied advertising could remake the world.” --Stuart Chase “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” --Stephen Leacock “I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.” --Ogden Nash “Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century. “ --Marshall McLuhan “You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.” --Joseph E. Levine “Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission. “ -- Fred Allen “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” -- Stephen Butler Leacock “Advertising promotes that divine discontent which makes people strive to improve their economic status.” --Ralph S. Butler “Advertising is the foot on the accelerator, the han...

- (Here's something I wrote last month but didn't get to post because our workload went completely insane. Which is what's happening now and I have nothing new to say expect work-- which I can't talk about because it's all top secret-hush-hush-blah-blah.) Good morning. It is exactly 11:11am Dino once told me that every time you look at a digital clock and see it’s 11:11am, it’s a sign that aliens are trying to send you a message. Then someone else said if you look at a digital clock and it reads 1:43 it means you’re falling in love. But sometimes 11:11am just means you’re late for work and 1:43 means you’re really, really late for work. I’m supposed to be working but just wanted to give my fingers some stretching exercises and hopefully get my brain going. On the way to work, I kept falling asleep behind the wheel. Took me an hour to get to work. At 2am, it would probably take me just 15 minutes to get to work. Then again, it’s a bad sig...

+ THINGS THAT GO BUMP DURING LATE NIGHT When we were kids, we used to watch THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON and LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN on the very snowy FEN17. I guess that's were I got the crazy idea that I could be a talk show host when I grew up. Years later, when I got gigs to interview celebritries for glossy magazines, I always imagined that I was behind a desk and that my mini-tape recorder was a mircophone. That was the closest I got to fulfulling my crazy dream. Well that, and everytime I got the chance to be the emergency co-host of Jessica Zafra. Of course, I'm still waiting for some sexy celeb to flash me. That dream has yet to happen.

+ BLOCKED Deadline for the stories is 12 days away and I still have no idea what to write. Made worse by this ad I'm supposed to be writing but I can't seem to get past the instructions to "make headline bigger" and "make headline more direct". Two very simple instructions which I can't seem to bring myself to doing. I should. And move on to the next ad. Move on to writing my stories. But I'm stuck. Help. There. Just wanted to say all that before I go back to writing this ad. BIGGER HEADLINE. MORE DIRECT. Sure. Okay. No problem.

:) What I Should've Done Many summers ago, I fell in love with a girl who I thought was the girl of my dreams. Towards the end of May, the girl of my dreams met the guy of her dreams. (To my surprise, it wasn't me.) The night she told me about, I stood outside the gate of her house and grovelled to be let inside. (Well, it was more like whimper to be let inside.) I beeped her using my Motorola StarTac Analog celfone. She didn't reply. So, I sat down the sidewalk of her street and called up Mark and begged for an explanation why the hell the girl of my dreams would leave me. We talked till the battery of the StarTac died. (Good thing I had a spare battery-- which was the side of a cigarette case.) How I wish I had seen RICHARD CURTIS' LOVE ACTUALLY before that devasting summer night. I should've come up with a plan-- a gimmick that she'd remember and make me oh so endearing, instead of being oh so revolting because of all my grovell...

:) !Click! Eddieboy's excellent photographs are now online. How I wish he'd also upload the pictures from Club Dredd. And I still think Karen should write about the glory days (and nights) of that club and call it THE BOOK OF DREDD.

:) SUPER STUFF Check out the Maritess' online store ! Your favorite, friendly OFW is back! Lots of crazy little merch that will help a whole lot of people. All proceeds will go to the Save Bindlestiff fund . For more info on Bindlestiff please go to http://www.bindlestiffstudio.org .

+ a clean, well-lighted internet cafe 3:20am I'm in an internet cafe. No one in this place is surfing the net. Well, maybe two or three more people are checking out Friendster. Everyone else is playing some netgame. (Mostly Counter-Strike, so every is yelling and shouting that they've been shot, need back-up, need more money to keep on playing.) How I wish there were a a 24-hour internet cafe where the kids didn't come to play games. That it would be a real cafe with real coffee. Where they didn't play loud hiphop music. A Starbucks with internet access. I'd love that. Can't we have that? Unfortunately, such a thing won't make money in this city, which is why every so-called internet cafe has become gaming central. Nothing wrong with that. The rest of us poor surfers just have the suffer the explosions and shouting matches while checking mail and blogging. I've been driving around. Ended up here. Try...

WWW :) Alright! I got in Ellis' World Wide Wednesday !

:( HAUNTED BY HER And your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones Turn into something beautiful D'you know? For you I bleed myself dry For you I bleed myself dry COLD PLAY "YELLOW" Can somebody please tell me which female vocalist covered Cold Play's "Yellow"? I keep hearing on JAM 88.3FM, but the DJ never gives an intro or extro to it. I tried to Google it, but I don't seem to be typing in the right keywords. Who is she???

:) THE CUTTING-EDGE KID Check it out, baby! Brandie's ads got featured in the new edition of Jim Aitchison's CUTTING-EDGE ADVERTISING . "A new full-colour edition of the world's most highly regarded book on print advertising. Following the success of the first edition, Cutting Edge Advertising II has become the standard global text on print creativity for professionals, marketers and students. Dozens of new cutting edge print advertisements have been included from the US, UK, Australia and Asia. But that's not all. For the first time, readers will get to see the latest work from the Philippines, South Africa, China and Eastern Europe."