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Showing posts from July, 2006
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The D.I.Y. Issue - Real Living August 2006 In the August issue of Real Living magazine, you'll discover: 1) Easy ways to clear kids' clutter; 2) How a living and dining area gets a makeover for less than P40,000; 3) The basics of online shopping for home items; 4) Seven ways to doll up a sofa and coffee table, courtesy of each member of the Real Living team; 5) Four fine homes, including that of fashion designer Frederick Peralta; 6) How to add drama to a plain wall with stencils; And a whole lot more! This is the second time I've ever tried "styling." The first time was when I temporarily worked in an ad agency and had to help a stylist dress and accessorize a model for a mobile phone print ad. That experience evoked "necessity is the mother of invention," as more than half of me didn't quite know what to do. But the results came out okay, I think. I didn't get any rough feedback. For our August issue, the assignment was for each of us to cho
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Revisiting: Choose Your Own Adventure This was the series I voraciously read up until I entered high school before comics took over my world. Apparently, the Choose Your Own Adventure books kept going until 1998. My brother had first bought The Cave of Time and The Abominable Snowman . I got hooked, and found myself saving my allowance to get more of them. We collected most of the first 45 books in the series. (It was during one of those sojourns to the bookstore in Ali Mall where I was held up, as I mentioned in my "Stolen" post below.) I guess this series catalyzed my interest in role-playing and storytelling. You start reading the tale, choose where to go, and end with any of over 20 possible endings. I found a lot of magic in that. This series is special to me because of two things. First, I totally admired the art style of Ralph Reese, who illustrated Prisoner of the Ant People and Escape , and a number of covers. Come to think of it, I remember lazy afternoons when I
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'NSync with Himself The Web recently exploded with news that Lance Bass of 'NSync had come out of the closet in a People Magazine interview. And... that he's in a "stable relationship" with Amazing Race hunk Reichen Lehmkuhl. Yup, some guys have all the luck. Bass, who I think has one of the better boyband voices, joins the ranks of Mark Feehily (Westlife) and Stephen Gately (Boyzone) in the boyband-member-who-comes-out-with-a-bang league. Now all we need now is someone from the Backstreet Boys. Hmmm... make an obvious guess. The next trend should involve the girlie groups. Or maybe hardcore rock bands and ghetto rap stars. And, please, bisexual doesn't count.
Getting Organized: The Nth Attempt One of the great things that resulted from my wallet theft is the resurgence of my desire to get organized. I've made extreme attempts in the past to keep my stuff in order, but have mostly failed. As I grow chronologically older, the urgency to effectively manage most aspects of my life gets stronger, particularly those aspects that involve some kind of paperwork. There are the contracts, the major purchases, the membership dues and subscriptions, the reference library, computer files, the project archives, the asset management documents, tax and other government forms, etc., stuff that I never did bother with a decade or so ago. So here I am, starting again. And I've made good progress so far. Step 1: The first step to any organizing effort is, according to Barbara Hemphill in her book Taming the Paper Tiger , setting up a central station to sort things out. And I've found that in the large dining table we have at home. We only use it d
Stolen Today, my wallet was stolen by expert pickpocketing. There was some cash in there--not a whole lot--and tons of receipts I had accumulated. The receipts accounted for about 75% of the wallet's thickness. No biggie. Just have to be extra careful in the future. (The last time some kind of thievery was personally made on me was when I was in sixth grade. The bloke wanted my watch, but decided to forego it the moment tears filled my eyes.) I had just come from a doctor's check up. I decided to make some purchases in the supermarket and renew my love affair with the Lotto booth. It was fun getting reacquanited with the outside world. But on the way home, just before I reached the trike terminal, a young woman and her boyfriend approached me and said they had witnessed the deed. And, yes, my bag pocket was unzipped. Of course, when two strangers would approach me with that kind of news, the first thing in my head would be, "Aha! So that's your M.O.!" But they lo
This has been online for some time now, but... If the only movie cast pic you've seen was the one I posted here, check out this page on Zaturnnah's Multiply site. Thanks so much to Penny and Zee for putting it all together! Ang gandagandaganda ninyo!
Wellness I'm getting bored with this blog. It's less about the look and more about the functionality. I like the blogs of Wordpress where you can categorize your posts, but the free account doesn't allow HTML editing. There's also Blogdrive that has nice and simple blog layouts, but I'm going to have to find my way around that. Since I already have some webspace for my personal use, making my own blog template should be the way to go, but I'm not well-versed in CSS yet. I could always go for the old-fashioned way circa 1997, but that might take a lot more work. Might. Maybe you guys have any hints on how I could go about this. - - - - - - - - - - I have herpes. It's called herpes zoster, or shingles. Despite its name, herpes zoster is from the same producers as chicken pox. The difference here is that its not itchy. It's painful. Supposedly, after chicken pox, the system creates antibodies that prevent a recurrence. The virus doesn't really go away
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About research When something really interests me, I research the backstory. If I wasn't a graphic designer or a comics creator, I'd be a market researcher or a business developer... or a librarian, which isn't such a bad thing when I think about it. In my early student years, the only kind of research humanly possible would be through the library, the textbooks, or the thick and deadly encyclopedias at home. I liked the idea that knowledge came in humongous tomes--they really looked like they had a stamp of authority. But researching on the Web takes the task to a wholly different level. Not only is there too much information, not every source has a seal of authority. So it's the wading and sifting that proves to be both taxing and fascinating at once. I wouldn't trade other sources of information for the Web, however. There's still the joy of the old-school search. Unfortunately, it would be really difficult to find solid sources of costumes and architecture o
Having older brothers a factor in boys becoming gay Men's Health News Published: Tuesday, 27-Jun-2006 New research says that boys have a greater chance of becoming gay if they have older brothers. Anthony Bogaert, of Brock University, Ontario, Canada, says a man's sexual orientation may be determined before he is born by the maternal response to carrying male foetuses. Bogaert says the research provides the strongest evidence yet of a biological basis for male homosexuality and supports the theory of a pre-natal origin to sexual orientation development in men. A decade or so ago researchers discovered that the more older brothers a boy had, the greater chance he had of being homosexual. This was put down at the time to the psychological effect of having older brothers on the family dynamics, which possibly affected sexual orientation. According to the Canadian researchers for each brother that precedes him, a boy's likelihood of growing up gay increases by a third. Read mor
Other News California man makes bad writing judges cringe with delight RON HARRIS Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO - A retired mechanical designer with a penchant for poor prose took a tired detective novel scene and made it even worse, earning him top honors in San Jose State University's annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad writing. Jim Guigli of Carmichael submitted 64 entries into the contest. The judges were most impressed, or revolted perhaps, by his passage about a comely woman who walks into a detective's office. "Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean," Guigli wrote. Read the rest on Mercury News. - - - - - - - - - - Corporate giants flock to Gay Games Well-he
Zaturnnah on YouTube A couple of nice folks posted these on YouTube . The first one--posted last 6/13--is a snippet of the last scene of the musical. The second --posted 2/25--is "a short clip in memory of Ada, the alterego of Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah," according to the description. (Sounds like an obit, heheheh) To citizenkram and alliteration , mucho thanks. And thanks to my bro for the heads up.
My brother's in the Middle East right now. He's been there for a little over a day and will stay there for some time. This is a dream opportunity for him--designing and programming games--something that he had wanted to do a long, long time ago. I admit that back then, I didn't know how it was possible for him to do that. But the Web and related technologies emerged, and now his talents have been tapped for Flash-based games. I pray that it'll open great new doors for him. I'm beginning to miss him.
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Real Living: The Budget Issue The July issue of Real Living magazine marks the magazine's third birthday, and my tenth issue as its art director. This month's features include: 1. The readers' favorite Real Makeover where we transform a kid's room for P30,000; 2. Creating a stylish living room for less than P8,000; 3. The shopping secrets of Laong Laan and Dapitan Arcade; and 4. Budget-friendly party tips and recipes! You can get the country's bestselling home magazine for only P125! Bili na!
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Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Movie: Class Picture Bottom Row, from left to right : Rustom Padilla (Ada) , Zsa Zsa Padilla (Zsazsa Zaturnnah) , Chokoleit (Didi) Middle Row, from left to right: Giselle Sanchez (Sharon C.) , Say Alonzo (Vilma S.) , Pops Fernandez (Queen Femina Suarestellar Baroux) , Director Joel Lamangan, Pauleen Luna (Aruba, a new character) , Glaiza de Castro (Dina B.) , Kitkat (Nora A.) Top Row, from left to right: Paolo Paraiso (Badong, a new character) , Christian Vasquez (Mang Justin) , Carlo Maceda (Lester) Not in picture: Alfred Vargas (Dodong) , Alwyn Uytingco (Poldo, a new character) , Bella Flores (Aling Britney)