As promised, a film photo dump from the farm trip from Sunday. I still have a few shots on an as-of-yet unfinished LC-A+ roll, but I couldn’t wait to post these! The first semi-successful roll from my Sprocket Rocket (the first one yielded only 2 exposures), so I’m pretty glad. Used an expired film roll from Sarie—Kodak GC, 400 ASA. Colors are not too vibrant, but I’m just happy they turned out.

I also have some stragglers from an old LC-A+ roll, Kodak Gold, 200 ASA. They made the farm look extra spooky.

Click the cut for the rest. Can’t wait to try this out when I go traveling. Some of my favorite travel photos were the ones I took with my old Supersampler! I have to use nicer film, though. I think. I’ve been using Lomography and Kodak films… Any suggestions re: the best you’ve tried? :)

Continue reading LOMO DUMP: Herbana Farms….

Last Sunday was spent on some organic farmlands with Sarie and her (ex-)officemate, Jason, who’d taken up farming recently. She was shooting a film for it and I tagged along. I’d been interested in it ever since partially reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals.” I learned about organic produce and community-based farming, and had been interested in it, but never really saw it in practice. Also, I was sort of in the mood for an adventure detached from the city.

The pretty photos are by Sarie. I took some with my iPhone, but I brought some film cameras, so I’m still waiting on them to be developed. Hopefully, they don’t take too long/that they actually show up. I don’t know if you know, but I’m kind of a bad estimator, so they will probably be crappy.

We ate carrots directly from the ground. Don’t be fooled by my face.
It was a lovely carrot. Might be the sweetest I’ve had.



Jason!



Sarie!



We met a guy who started an non-profit about farming called A Growing Culture. His name is Loren.
He’s been backpacking around the world for the last four months, taking pictures and exploring farms.
It’s super cool; they have essays on different farms and farming techniques from all over the world.

The farm’s pretty cool. When we got there, Gil Carandang, who owns and manages Herbana Farms, was giving a seminar to people who were interested in growing their own food. I’m not really well-versed in food technology, or you know, food in general. I just like to eat it. It’s nice to get to know the processes and the work that goes into making the food that you eventually ingest so that you can continue to exist.

It’s strange how controversial food has become (I have more to say about this, but perhaps another day, when I’ve finished reading “Eating Animals,” or when I have been more enlightened, as I’m now pretty much a n00b at it). I would love to learn how to grow my own food, though. I guess there’s something strangely thrilling and fulfilling about actually growing something that you eat.

During the interview that Sarie and Jason were filming, Gil was saying that when you give to the earth, it gives back. There’s something so noble and rousing in that statement. I think that because food is generally readily available to us (in the sense that we don’t have to grow it ourselves), we tend to forget where it comes from. That thought alone really makes me want to grow my own food, for some reason I can’t articulate.

Herbana Farms has a community garden where you can lease a 10-sq. meter long plot of land that you can plant food in. Since it’s pretty tedious to drive back and forth everyday, they take care of your plot while you’re away. You can just come by when you want to harvest your food. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting my own plot, since I have always intended to eat healthier and be more smart about buying food. It’s just so hard to do it in the Philippines.

Going to Herbana Farms, though, I saw that it could be done. It’s maybe a little more inconvenient than just going to the market to buy your produce. But I think it’s worth the extra mile to be conscious about the way we eat.

The rest of the pictures (my crappy ones) are under the cut. I’ll post the film photos in a separate entry, just because.

If anyone is interested, most information regarding Herbana Farms can be found on their website. If you want to get in touch with them, or some directions to the farm, click here.

P.S. The title of this blog post is from the shirt Gil was wearing. I’m sorry I am such a thief.

Continue reading Don’t Panic, It’s Organic….

The past two days, I have been somewhat successful in my attempts at being zen. These attempts have been crucial, because I have been a nervous ball of nerves (!) the past few weeks. My somewhat-zen-ness been accomplished by:

• Watching Sports Night and Arrested Development before and during work.
• Backreading blog subscriptions! I can’t tell you how happy I am that the unread count is 0, and it’s not because I “mark[ed] all as read.”
• Not taking things personally.
• Talking to good people whenever I feel like freaking out.
• Collaging!

Here are a few of the ones I’ve made for We Are Triangle, a pop-up shop running next week:

If I manage to finish the stuff I have planned and hand them over to Mick (hehe), then some of my stuff will be up for sale. So, if you’re free between February 3 and 5, please stop by Cubao X. A lot of people have a lot of great stuff for sale. The last run of We Are Triangle, I got awesome pinback buttons, poetry books, and the music compilation. I handed out a few copies of Steve Roggenbuck‘s chapbook, “i am like october when i am dead.”

(Speaking of whom, he has another project you guys might be interested in: please direct your attention over here.)

RSVP HERE. It’s going to be really awesome, I promise.

Months ago, I joined Art House Co-Op‘s The Sketchbook Project. They give you about three months to fill up a sketchbook according to a theme, then you send it back to them, and they tour it around a few cities so that people can look at it and borrow it (like a library).

I was very excited to do this (the theme I chose was Things That Changed Other Things), but true to form, I put off doing it at the last minute. The journals needed to be sent and postmarked by January 15 (which fell on a Saturday!) so my deadline was the 14th. By the 13th, I had three pages done. I was ready to give up and sleep, but I remembered my post and decided to get as far as I could with it. In a span of about ten straight hours of making collages and trying not to die, I managed to fill up a Moleskine!

Not too so adherent to the theme; at least, not in an obvious way. I’m excited to do this again, although I think I’m going to try out their other project, a new one called The Fiction Project, which seems a lot more up my alley anyway.

In the meantime, there’s this, and while it’s not the best I could have done (I was really operating on a sort of zombie, auto-pilot mode), especially considering the amount of time I had, I’m glad I didn’t give up on it. At least I won’t feel like a liar whenever I wear this shirt out:

More photos are under the cut, but you can view the entire thing over here. The ones I’ve posted up are a few of my favorites, though. My sketchbook’s on its way to New York now. I hope it finds its way to one of you. :)

Continue reading The Sketchbook Project, 2011….

I’m sure you all know how much I like reading. I have this (maybe obnoxious) belief that not reading really takes away a certain kind of quality from your life. Of course, people who exercise or sing or take care of children can say the exact same thing to me about what they do that I don’t, so I guess that’s neither here nor there.

The point of this post: A-HA! Learning Center Needs Volunteers!

What is A-HA!, you ask. According to their Facebook page:

A-HA Learning Center is a free tutoring center for street children who belong to communities living in the South Cemetery and Catholic Cemetery along Kalayaan and Reposo Streets in Makati. The center started in May 2009, and currently services 65 school children from grade 1 to 3rd year high school, offering English, Math, Science and computer classes.

A-HA Learning Center also takes care of the yearly school supplies, tuition, and shoes of the children, along with educational fieldtrips.

A-HA Learning Center is a partner of Binhi English Literacy Foundation, and is currently using the Binhi English Literacy Program for children 6-12 years old. It is also a partner of Got Heart Foundation.

Basically, my friend Jaton, his sister and a bunch of other good-hearted people have been tutoring children and helping them with their education. While they teach them much more—I think they also hold other alternative classes—I think that helping children read is incredibly important, because it will help them along with their schoolwork, and also their futures.

I have been asked by Jaton a few times to volunteer, but I haven’t found the time to, yet, but I figured that this is the least I could do, while I haven’t been able to help out as a volunteer yet. If you are interested, or know of someone who would be, please contact Jaton at 0918-979-3629.

Please also feel free to re-post and spread the word. :)
Poster is by JP Cuison.

Volunteer sched is M-TH, 4-5pm, and Sat from 8:30-10:30 AM,
10:30 AM -12:30 PM, 1:00-4:00PM.

A-HA Learning Center is located at 9708 C Pililia St, Rizal Village, Makati.

Meritxell, Marikina has been housing marginalized and abandoned girls ages 3 -16 years old since 2007. Those who are old enough to study are sent to private schools for education. Ateneo has recently listed them as one of their NSTP areas. In order for them to further improve their studies, they need more educational books for review. This Saturday, there will be a book swap event to collect books for the girls. If we gather more than 200 books, 3 more orphanages will benefit.

What is Book Swap?

• To participate you need to bring at least 1 educational book or children’s book + your unwanted books.
• The educational books go directly to the abandoned girls of Meritxell
• You may choose from books other people bought and you can bring home the same number of books as the amount of unwanted books your brought.

When? October 23, Saturday, 10 am – 6pm
Where? “The Balcony” 110 Dona Angela Bldg., Carlos Palanca St., Makati City

See you there and Spread the word!