About a week or so ago, I tagged along Stick’s shoot. It featured a few of the Azkals representing a sports brand, and I was told it was for school. I know very little beyond that. I went along because I thought I would be able to get in a few shots of these people in a nice studio setting. But a bunch of things happened and I got there pretty late, along with Sarie and Bia.

(These photos have no captions because I have no idea who’s who. Lessons would be most welcome!)

The shoot was wrapping up by the time we got there, and I couldn’t really get much on my camera, as I brought the 35mm. In any case, I got in a few good pictures (in my humble opinion) anyway. Not of the Azkals, but of the people who were behind-the-scenes.

It turns out that the owner of ACME Studios, Sir Ocs Alvarez, has been into photography for quite a while. We were admiring his collection of vintage cameras, when he slowly started bringing out his babies.

And then we were introduced to one with a Polaroid back attachment and all hell broke loose.

(This was the first one taken.)

(This was the last shot.)

It’s kind of funny to take photos with people you don’t really know. The polas I did manage to smuggle out of there (to scan, not to steal!) are of me and people I do actually know, though, so it’s OK!

The following photos are of me, Sarie, Bia, Stick, Chiara, and her boyfriend, Jack.

Worst at synchronized jumping.

Worst at conga-lining-up.

It was a fun afternoon. We had dinner at Pancake House after and I tried their fried chicken for the first time! This is one instance where I actually enjoyed meeting new people (including a Karina with a “K”!) and getting to know some of those I already knew a little bit better. I also had fun taking photos and looking at the cameras people used to use for photography.

Did it make me feel small? Maybe a little bit. But more than anything, it just made me want to be better at taking pictures. To really learn what it means to understand light and how to react to it. I am no photographer—I get by with loads of guesswork and intuition. I think it’s about time I learned how to be better at it, though. Not for any reason other than me wanting to be.

Anyway, what I am saying is that: it was fun. It was fun & I’d like to do something like that again.

Click for more fun photos!

A friend of mine told me that he liked it best when I blogged about my day. I used to lug my (dad’s) Nikon D70 around school and would systematically pick out the day’s highlights, resize each photo and upload all 50+ of the selecteds on Photobucket, to be uncovered by the clicking of a cleverly-worded LJ-cut.

It’s safe to assume that I don’t really do that now. I actually have way too many photos that I don’t really know what to do with. I suppose I’m just saying that I sort of miss doing that, and I sort of miss updating for no reason. Having an open space like this kind of makes me want to look for something profound or intelligent or beautiful to say, and I grow silent when I don’t have any of those things to share.

But sometimes, I forget that I have also learned how to tell stories using photographs that could very well mean nothing at all. In any case, a few photographs of the continuation of this day. I spent the night at an exhibit in Pablo Gallery with my brother.

Then we went to Mercato Centrale to meet up with Sarie and Therese. After a failed attempt at getting to taste the infamous beef belly (with steak rice!) from Rodrigo’s, I was finally able to that night. I loved it a lot. Everyone ended up getting it.

… except for Sarie, who got “cheese steak.” (IDK, that’s all she told me that it was.)

I don’t have photos but the ice cream from Merry Moo (get it?) was frakking awesome. I’ve tried Honeycomb (it had actual honeycomb bits!), Strawberry Basil, Sea Salt Caramel, and Candied Bacon (which is less tasty than it sounds), but the best flavor was Earl Gray.

Sometimes I wish I could breed bees.

As most of you (who have been reading this) know, I’ve been freelancing since the beginning of February. I had been working for six months at Lomography, but it didn’t work out, so I’ve been trying to make it out on my own since then. It’s been somewhat difficult, but I know that God will take care of me, and I’ve got a family who does, too, so I’m not too worried about it.

A group I’ve been working with (for about a year and a half or so now) is Greater Good. It’s a clothing line that pushes social awareness. It’s pretty young, still, and it’s a nice experience, growing with the brand. I usually operate on a per-project basis, but I’m blessed because they seem to like what I’ve been doing for them, and they get me when they need stuff done, yay.

Edric.

Kasey & Mike.

I get to work with Kris! We went to school together, and every Wednesday feels like a tiny catch up, which we haven’t really been doing anymore. Cough, Paulina. Cough, Dave.

Here is a picture of post-apocalypse a collaborative aftermath.

I really like being alone and working alone, and sometimes I forget how great it is to bounce ideas off of people. I’ve long decided that I didn’t like going to the office (waste of gas, energy, etc) but now, I’m thinking that a few days out of a week isn’t so bad, especially when you get to talk to people with the same big ideas as you.

I am, by no means, a gamer. In fact, I suck so much, I have to elect myself out of team-games because they can do them so much better without me. What I have been quite addicted to are Flash Games, beginning with the Facebook application, Pet Society. Here is a conversation I had with Petra about Pet Society and Philosophy in 2009:

petra magno: omg hahaha ang cute
petra magno: he looks so dissatisfied with being barechested

P.S. We were studying Structuralism (see tab with “Scholes powerpoint”). I know this makes us look smart, but truthfully, I do not remember very much from that class.

Ahem.

Anyway, this obsession grew and I developed attachments to a game called Happy Island and then, horrifyingly, It Girl. It Girl was introduced to me by Karen and Cat, and I am saying this right now because they should share my secret shame.

I like “quest-based” games (that’s probably not what you really call them), and I find the hours ticking away mercilessly as I try to gain more XP and re-sell stuff so I could get more money to get more stuff. Partly because they seem to load a lot slower on Macs.

It’s kind of sad that all of these games, in one way or another, revolve around status and consumerism, and it’s even sadder that I bought into all of it. One day, however, in a fit of Facebook profile cleaning, I deleted access to these apps, and I have never been suckered into paying more attention to a virtual character than my real life ever again.

Until now.

Sarie told me about a cool game called Glitch. It’s Flash-based as well, but exists independently from Facebook. I liked it a lot because it reminded me of Little Big Planet, which is a game I played a lot with my brother. (Funny: for two-player quests and tasks, he would sometimes get mad at me because I was really so bad, we would die. It wasn’t very funny, then, but it is super funny now.)

Glitch is a multiplayer game where your Glitch co-exists with other Glitches in the minds of eleven giants. You choose how to build and shape the world, by learning new skills and participating. It’s really awesome because you are given a lot of creative choices and mostly free will—but you can also choose to do destructive things (e.g. stop mining rocks so they don’t regenerate, poison and kill trees, steal from community gardens, harvest trees without petting or watering them, make and sniff “No-No Powder,” which is basically like an upper). Not that it’s particularly violent. I’m just saying—you are given the option to be.

I signed up for beta testing a couple of months ago, and received an email last July. I played with it a few days and didn’t really get into it all that much. Until about a few days ago, that is. In less than a week, I’ve managed to wrestle my way to Level 15. (This is my profile page! I have 76 badges and 34 skills, and I am beaming like only a proper nerd can beam.) I kind of dreaded that I was back into this Hole of Non-productivity, but I liked the way Glitch is structured (you can chat with players like in, presumably, WoW. I say presumably because I never played it) and how it is designed.

I decided to turn in early last night, and thought about writing an entry about how Flash games continue to ruin my life. I even elected next week to be a Glitch-free week, as I needed to focus on getting things done. Before taking a screencap of the game interface, I thought, “Eh, I can just do it tomorrow.”

AND THEN I WOKE UP TO THIS:

The Glitch world is currently closed! I checked their Twitter account and they closed beta testing seven minutes before I woke up. Imagine my horror. Imagine my grief.

Now, I know this is not the worst thing that could happen. It could very well be the best thing that could ever happen to my career right now. But, I just really, really want to nibble on my pigs.

So, this Friday, I found myself in two new (and somewhat peculiar) situations, one of which was a shoot for co.lab. The idea behind co.lab is the raising up of a shared space for “freelance professionals, home office workers, startup businesses, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and graduate students.”

Arriane would mention it a lot in her blog, so I knew about co.lab, but it was nice setting foot in the actual place. Here’s her post on the shoot! She has loads of great photos, and is apparently pretty sick right now, so I’m sending her get-well-soon vibes from over the Internet. Will it work? I sure hope so.

I’d first heard of this concept from Swiss Miss, who works in a similar environment called Studio Mates with the likes of Jason Santa Maria and Frank Chimero (!!!). It’s so nice to see a similar place opening up in Metro Manila, so I’m hoping it takes off, and that I somehow find a way to be a part of it when it does. I currently live quite far from this place, so I don’t even know if I will get to, but it’s such a nice space filled with positive energy and great, creative minds.

There were a number of rooms, but we mostly stayed in this one. I met a few interesting people like Chiara, who is a graphic designer, but who is also brilliant at makeup.

They have a well-stocked pantry!

And it seems to be a puppy-friendly place.

Full room! Gabby, Stick (the mind behind Anouck), me, Sarie, and Chiara…

…taken by Bia! She’s making a full-length film now on modern-day heroism. I can’t wait for it to be done, so I can watch it. HEH.

The shoot was done by WYD Manila.

It was a nice change of scenery. I had gotten used to working by myself (with the exception of something pretty collaborative on Wednesdays—which I will talk about soon), it was nice being able to just hang out with people. I’m not so good with offices, but maybe it’s not really the office-environment that is stifling. Maybe it’s the type of work I used to do. With this set-up, I would be able to go to work with great people, on my own projects.

It’s refreshing, because I think I really am starting to experience a bit of cabin fever, and this scheme is something I’d really love to look into. You’re left alone to do your own thing, but when you feel like going crazy, there are people around to keep you from going crazy and/or talking to yourself.

I’m not exactly the most social person, but this seems pretty perfect, if you ask me.

More photos under the cut, clickety!

I’d like to think that I can work independently of silly factors like how messy my room is. But, the truth is, I am neither as fortunate or put together. Sometimes, I like to blame it on ADHD, which I don’t really have. The truth is, I am just easily distracted and also quite messy, a combination of traits that resemble a metaphorical Molotov cocktail for, you know, my life.

In any case, this is the sorry state of my room as of 5:45 PM on this wonderful day, June 3rd:

It’s perfectly okay to be disgusted.

I’d like to think that I will spend the remaining hours of the day cleaning up, and chucking useless things into a garbage bag, and emerge gleaming and shining with a sheen of sweat, raring to go and do some Actual Work That Pays, but we all know better.

I’ll do my best, in any case. Sometimes, it just sounds good in my head, and then I give up midway and get distracted and do other things, like read bits of books, or sob to Friday Night Lights. Sometimes, I just kind of wander around the house, looking for something to eat.

Which maybe explains why I’m kinda fat, but that’s another story (that I’d rather not get into).