Babbling Point

. wanna see more? :-) Ahhh... the things you miss while you're stuck at work. Well, two of my office mates were able to go and watch UNDERSTATEMENT (Bench's yearly fashion show). Good thing Eddieboy was there to give us these up close and personal pics. More pics at Eddieboy's UNDERSTATEMENT album

. Weekend Reading " ‘BERTO, ON THE CORNER OF AYALA AND MAKATI AVENUE " is now online. This was recently published in the Philippine Graphic. :-)

. they who make great things possible TEAM GLOBE circa 2003 I am now the "eldest" in the team. This is my fifth year in the Globe Team. Most of Team2003 are still with us. Some have moved to other creative teams. Others have completely left the agency and are now doing the thing that they've always wanted to do. It is 2:49am and we're still working on several materials that need to be presented later. Today I realized even after my five years here, there is still much to learn. Thank God it's Friday. We have the weekend to look forward to. And then we start all over again. Making great things possible.

PHLOGGIN' UPDATES!!! Nanni starts her own phlog Brandie goes on a road trip! Rachel got to meet a Viva Hot Babe!

. gblog! gblog! gblog! I'm now testing myGlobe's new G-BLOGS service . So far, so good. The nice thing about this blogging service is that you "earn credits to send SMS and MMS for every journals or pictures downloaded from your G-Blog site".

. I was in Filbar’s yesterday. In the store was a dad with his eight or ten year-old kid. The kid wore eyeglasses, spoke 50 words per second, and had this nasal voice. He was just like that brainy kid in “Jerry Maguire”. When I stepped in the store, the father and son were trying to decide which alternate cover of “InQuest” magazine they were going to get. The kid picked one and the dad said, “Great choice!” “Why is Superman carrying the hammer of Thor and the shield of Captain America?” asked the kid as he pointed at the cover of JLA/AVENGERS #4. “Wow! You’re right! That’s a good question,” said the dad, and asked to see the comic book. “It’s number four of four. Why don’t we just wait for them to release the compilation and then we’ll get it, okay?” The kid agreed. “Okay! Change topic! What about….” and the kid launched to another series of comic book related queries, all of which were answered by the dad. It’s nice to see that there are dads like that. A lot ...

. WIN! WIN! The National Book Award for Comic Books goes to “Mars Ravelo’s Darna,” edited by Zach Yonzon, published by Mango Comics. Like any other big super-hero, Darna undergoes reincarnation every now and then. But Mango Comics’ newest avatar for Narda with the magic stone is by far the flashiest and most effective so far. With Boboy Yonzon updating the heroine’s setting and plot, artists Ryan Orosco, Lan Medina and Gilbert Monsanto breathe glossy, four-color plus life to this Filipino komiks icon. But it goes beyond resuscitating Valentina or having Darna flying over modern Metro Manila. It’s about according our heroes the proper respect, giving them five-star treatment and that Mango Comics has certainly given Darna. It is a treatment that also honors the boundless contributions of Mars Ravelo to our collective consciousness. Mango Comics’ considerable efforts have brought Darna back into the hearts and minds of young Filipino readers, to whom she was little more tha...

. The Summer of a Million Tutubis by Dino Igancio and Budjette Tan Her name was Celeste. We met back in the summer of `82. I was nine years old and she was eight. She was Rey’s cousin from San Francisco. She came to visit and was the flower girl in Rey’s older sister’s wedding. It was a hot, dusty summer in Marikina. We spent it playing in the streets all day and eating halo-halo at Aling Ninding’s store. She would always put more lanka in the halo-halo than Manang Lety from across the street. Every day after lunch, my Nanay Loleng would make me take a nap until the afternoon sun went away. I would twist and turn in my bed until I was allowed out to meet my friends. It was a true test of patience but it always paid off once I was allowed out. It was the summer of tutubis. The summer of the million tutubis. We must have caught over a hundred of them that day and they just kept on coming. We chased them and put them in jars, and no matter how many hole...

. I love you. And not, not in a friendly way, although I think we're great friends. And not in a misplaced affection, puppy-dog way, although I'm sure that's what you'll call it. I love you. Very, very simple, very truly. You are the epitome of everything I have ever looked for in another human being. And I know that you think of me as just a friend, and crossing that line is the furthest thing from an option you would ever consider. But I had to say it. I just, I can't take this anymore. I can't stand next to you without wanting to hold you. I can't, I can't look into your eyes without feeling that, that longing you only read about in trashy romance novels. I can't talk to you without wanting to express my love for everything you are. And I know this will probably queer our friendship - no pun intended - but I had to say it, because I've never felt this way before, and I don't care. I like who I am because of...

. So, last week I went to the doctor because of a cold that had been bugging me since the week before. She prescribed to me P3,000 worth of medicine and after taking all of that, not only do I still have my colds, I now have a terrible cough. It's just wrong. Doc, I'd like a second opinion.

. Parang wala ako nagawa buong araw. Nagpunta sa meeting ng alas ocho ng umaga. Pagbalik sa opsina nagmeeting hanggang tanghalian. Pagkatapos nun, nakatulog sa lamesa. Nagising. Naglakad-lakad. Naghanap ng kape. Bumalik sa opisna. Nagmeeting ulit. Pagkatapos, nakatulog ulit. Parang wala akong nagawa buong araw. At hanggang ngayon wala pa rin maisip na kwento para sa ad na ito. Bad trip.

Ahhh, the things we miss when we're too busy working. More pretty pics from SUPER'S 1ST ANNIV PARTY at Eddieboy's pretty site .

. I didn't get a copy of PLANETARY #20! AAARRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH! What a great way to start the week! Anyway... The Filipino Comic Book Portal / blog is now online. The Philippine Comics Art Musuem is also another site to visit. The new komikeros on the block are Abono Comics . Please check them out and their comic books (when they eventually get it in the stores). Now in stores are the stories of Nautilus Comics . It's just great to see the local comic scene to alive.

achoo!!! Last week, when we went to Hong Kong I developed a cold while on the airplane. As the plane was landing, my left ear got clogged and it felt like I was losing my hearing. Cut-to: Today. I still have that cold and my left ear has this weird dull pain. So, I went to that doctor. Waited an hour. And spent a grand total of 3.5 minutes in her room. She took a look at my nose, my ears, and my throat and said, "You have a bad cold." Duh!  Really, doc? The weird sensation in my ear is because of my eardrum, somehow affected by my colds. So, she pulls out her prescription pad and scribbles down what could've been the secret of eternal life, but no one can really know. To my surprise, the guy at Mercury Drug actually understood it (and it wasn't the secret to eternal life). He punched up all the drugs I was supposed to take and the digital read-out told me that it all cost P3,000! I think that made me more sick. P3,000 for medicine. It just m...

:-) Been watching WEST WING again. I just get this strange comforting feeling when I watch that show. Not sure why. Anyway, Sorkin just loves to pepper his scripts with little stories. Here's one of them, from the episode NOEL from the second season. This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, "Hey you. Can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, "Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on Then a friend walks by, "Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I kn...

3:13am In an almost empty internet cafe. Suddenly, I miss the noise of the kids playing net games. And right now, I'm not so sure what I want to write about. It's like I ran out of words. Or maybe, there's just too many things I want to say. I don't know.

:-) CAUGHT IN THE WEB I went online around an hour ago. (Or was it thrity minutes ago? I'm not sure anymore.) Anyway, I went online with the intention of research a particular topic for this print ad I'm trying to crack. In the process of that so-called research, I followed one hyperlink after another and ended up in a place far, far away. So, now I forget why I went online in the first place. Anyway, here are some interesting things that I found: 1. Warren Ellis is writing another online column at the Pulse. 2. Neil Gaiman's speech at the Harvery Awards: Where he gives some advice about creating comics. Read outside of comics. Learn from places that aren't comics. Don't do what anyone else is doing. Steal from places that people aren't looking. Go outside. Many years ago, when it was almost unheard of for foreigners to write American comics, people used to ask why British Writers were different. I had no idea. I did notice that when I ...

:-) Below is an email I got from Brandie, in reaction to my HACK AND SLACK entry. The Hack by Luke Sullivan The first warning sign you're in the presence of a Hack is that he'll somehow bring up his One Good Ad from Way Back. He won't tell it that. In fact, he'll show it to you and say something like, "This is the kind of work we do here." That's when you notice the ad is on brittle, yellowing paper from a magazine called Collier's. All Hacks have one of these ads. They made their name on it. They've been riding its tired old back for decades and look about as silly doing it as Adam West now looks in his old Batman suit. It can be a great ad. Doesn't matter. Ask yourself, what else have they done? Talented people with a gift for advertising keep doing great work, time and again, for variety of clients. Another sign that should send your Hack-O-Meter into the red is how they talk. And how they do talk. In fact, talk is all ...

:) HACK AND SLASH I spent the whole morning and afternoon trying to crack this radio script. I just had a sandwhich for lunch because I wanted to get back to the computer to try and write something. Around 3pm, I showed my boss the two scripts I made. As I entered her office I said, "This is what you call a dry spell." She shot down one script and told me to change the punchline of the other script. The meeting was at 4:30pm. I sat back at my computer and was stumped. While all of this was happening, the printer started to go berserk, so our other presentation materials were not coming out right. Our Business Director came over to check my radio scripts and I told him that I had nothing. He looked like a deer stuck in the headlines. I told him I'll try to come up with something, but if not, we could at least present the other materials. 15 minutes before we had to leave, I started to hack away at the keys, not really sure what I was writing.....

:) Click-click and check out Carl's interview in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine. I also posted the interview in the KOMIX101 site .