2 days and counting

i'm so sleepy and i'm so lazy.

i went out with anne last night to bitch slap boys (anne) and bosses (me) while we shopped, ate dinner and had coffee. on my part, i'm glad i got this off my chest:

i am in a job where i'm not exactly inspired to excel, since that is mostly measured by the ability to get songs onto the different media - and that's basically schmoozing-plus-payola tactics. i schmooze with one writer, that's all. they can fuck the rest. so i'm feeling kinda stuck until i know what i want to do with my life. and most probably i will have to study it. time, money and effort. tsk, i can only hope it pays off.

i am glad that despite all the horrible things anne has been going through, that she is basically set in her job (or non-job). of course i also think it's lucky to kind-of extend her student life as an apprentice, but i think she's really learning to deal with the life of a d.o.p. and freelancer - something that i know takes a lot in terms of attitude. a nice discovery also is that she worked with merv in sarumanggi (?), a cinemalaya entry. small world discoveries are starting to feel nicer.

things are moving along fairly quickly and it's nice to look forward to the weekend again. ah yes, karl time.

moping

it's weird. i kinda miss posting but i don't really have anything to say. lemme see... there's:

walking home from ever gotesco from wednesday to friday because both my parents have been sick with pneumonia, acute respiratory infection and very bad bouts of hyperacidity.

buying a 4 megapixel kodak easyshare camera during the big yearly sale. it used to be 19,900, but i bought it for 9,700. except of course that i still need a rechargeable battery & charger plus an mmc/sd card. my uncle bought it for us since my parents couldn't drive me to the kodak office, and they got it from his house last sunday.

watching pam's short blood bank, which was actually the best out of the 6 that were playing that night at cine adarna (two of which we ditched). though of course whether des was really acquainted with cleto remains a mystery.

dragging karl along for the robinson's angeles mall show. i really seem to have tired him out that day. he was more helpful than anyone else that day, and i wish i could have been more attentive to him. but what can i say? it was work. i have 4 more weekends to go and this is really heavy on my heart. plus the new sampler is out and i'm trying to remember routes and rides and it's giving me a headache...

hating billy corgan's new album for all its coldness, its machine-driven 80's sound. he really needs bandmates. i dunno how i will stand buying an original copy.

counselling anne through a horrible break-up. with work eating up my weekends, i dunno how i can really get the girls together (and actually be there too).

i miss karl, i miss the girls, i miss the poochers.

sounds spot on!

~*~Result nr 1~*~

src="http://live.quizilla.com/user_images/P/PainfulBliss/1117239037_Power_Clairvoyance.JPG">
Your power is: Clairvoyance

Explanation: Your power is that you can
look into the future and see what is coming.
How far and long you can look is all depending
on your skill level. This can, as all powers,
be used in both evil and good. Even if it may
seem like a boring ability it is a huge
responsibility for the carrier, becase they are
constantly tempted with doing the wrongs deeds
(e.g. cheat on a test). It takes high morals to
not be brought down with it.

Therefor you fit with this power quite well.
You take responsibility and do what is the
right thing to do. This does not make you a
saint, since you're only human after all. But
it makes a trustworthy person and you are loyal
to camrades and/or team mates. In school you
were probably a good student. If you were
social varies from person to person, but most
clairvoyant people tend to prefer their own
company or that of close friends and family.
That is because you are wise and knows how to
treasure the reliable in your life, since you
know popularity can be a false element. You are
also not that big on taking risks and prefer
what is already explored. That is because you
don't like suprises, they can turn out bad and
then you won't be in control.
Negative aspects: Since you're always
doing the right thing and being trustworthy all
the time you can become frustrated. Also, all
that you carry on your shoulders may stress you
out. You need to relax to be in good mental
shape.

What Power is Compatible With You?
brought to you by Quizilla

elegantly wasted

seems to be the look my friends think i'm sporting nowadays. yes, i am officially the model for stresstabs and i hate it. there seems to be no other alternative than abusing the body. i also happen to be following a new show called rockstar inxs. i do wonder how they could ever replace michael hutchence. a frontman is key to a band, contributing more to its identity than almost anyone else. to top it all off, he was a very good one. but what the hell, it's entertaining. it's like watching american idol and all the contestants are bo bice and kelly clarkson with good grasps of rock history.

anyway, it was karl's birthday yesterday. due to his regular chemical imbalance on this day of the year, we have decided to celebrate on the weekend instead. he dropped by to pick up his gift (an adidas day pack from me and boxers from my mum) and nastily told off my bosses because they were getting in our hair. well, my hair, at least. whoohoo!

the poochers miraculously appeared in the afternoon, making after-dinner coffee plans. after much waiting at jollibee philcoa for ais and leo, we headed off to metrowalk to drop off tita nep at work and meet jun and isbel at starbucks. it was nice to catch up with everyone. we all had some sort-of shockers (ais especially). mine was just horror stories from last weekend and jun was sadly oblivious to the whole thing despite his love for the author's work. we even made plans to take up pilates and/or yoga at UP-CHK next sem through the extension program (that's 1,200 for saturday morning classes for one sem - not bad!). the prospect of getting into something out of mere interest is exciting. it's something new and unnecessary, but still contributes some improvement..

sullying dreams

i am starting to think that it was a mistake to write that fiery letter to fully booked and proceed to post it in our yahoo groups because suddenly all these hardcore gaiman fans (not that i'm not one, it's just that i'm not rabid) have all these opinions about my opinion. one even wrote me personally instead of continuing the thread. anyway, i'd very much like to tell everyone off, everyone who disagrees with me, that is, because i hate being told i'm wrong. i personally think i have good judgment and that when i choose to speak up in a public forum, i make sure i make sense. this is one of those times.

nevermind all these people getting touchy-feely about the graciousness of neil gaiman, how he's a total, absolute sweetheart who cares for his fans, taught us hope and gave us the right to dream blah blah blah. i'm all for it. for cripes sakes, he gave me a hug and a kiss too. what reeheeheeally gets me is that there are people who contest the fact that being issued a book signing pass is a promise to a consumer that the item bought will be signed, and goes so far as to say that it's just a marketing strategy, but not a guarantee. CLEARLY this person is NOT an entrepreneur and has his business instincts up his ASS! making marketing decisions like that certainly does not rid you of an obligation to your customer! if anything, it ladens you with it! Fully Booked tried to weasel out of this obligation by changing the rules repeatedly and confusing the early bird buyers! Though it's a low blow, i'd very much like to label all those who refuted me on this (and did not buy books) as utter cheapskates. how could meeting neil gaiman come for free? even the sandman asks everyone for a boon (to put it in rabid fan-speak).

as for neil requesting the signing to be open to all, this is the remedy: only people with passes will be issued numbers. everyone who doesn't will have to form a second line, which will be serviced after all numbers have been exhausted for book pass holders. duh.

i appreciate though, people who completely agree with me, and people who openly dissed Jaime Daez. thank you for doing the dirty work of personal insult for me.

following gaiman/ to fully booked (i will not be censored)

it's been a very exhausting weekend for me and karl, following the great neil gaiman around the city. despite the lack of sleep after friday's agaw agimat gig, my sister and i arrived at 10:30 am at rockwell to get our numbers (427 & 429). after lunch, shopping, coffee, an anticipated mass, dinner and what must be like going 5 or more times around rockwell, we lined up at around 11 pm and finished with a hug and kiss from neil at 11:45. my calves hurt till yesterday. i also screamed my lungs out, much to my throat's chagrin. today i have a sore throat. karl went to the opening of the gathering last saturday, and got something signed at his interview the following day. he gave neil some amulets from quiapo, while my sister and i gave him chrysanthemums (or something like that, he wrote in lana's book). yesterday we went to the presscon/writers' forum where many people asked stupid questions, so we ditched that eventually. upon arriving at gateway, we saw the impossible line that probably reached aurora blvd. sadly, rica and karen were there, and they limited the number of books at one point, and many other unfortunate, unnecessary decisions that could have been avoided had fully booked prepared better. up yours, beotch!

---
I am deeply disappointed in some of the decisions made by Fully Booked in the handling of the recent signing events. First of all, I do not appreciate the announcement of one set of rules, only to be replaced with several major changes. I think the biggest lapse of judgement on the bookstore's part is opening the signing to the general public instead of limiting it to the store's patrons. As someone who bought a Gaiman book from Fully Booked, having it signed is part of your promise to me as a consumer, and to all other customers who patronized your bookstore. Opening the signing to the general public, some of whom arrived earlier in line, caused some of your customers to forfeit their book signing privilege. I think it is very unfair for one to not be issued a number if they have several book signing passes while others have a number and yet did not buy anything from the bookstore.

Also, giving out numbers for Sunday and Monday DURING the Saturday event is also very unfair to those who have planned to arrive only on Sunday or on Monday. We all must take the risk of going to one particular signing and sacrifice the same amount of effort in securing numbers. Instead, people who were LATE ON SATURDAY but GOT A NUMBER FOR SUNDAY DON'T EVEN HAVE TO ARRIVE EARLY THE NEXT DAY BECAUSE THEY ARE ASSURED OF HAVING THEIR BOOKS SIGNED- they are late TWICE OVER!! What about those who made an effort to arrive early on the second or third day? NAISAHAN NA SILA! In addition, you promised that people will be issued only one number, hence stamping our arms with your logo. This control truly failed because I know of people who had a number for Saturday and was able to secure another priority number for Sunday.

I am quite sure that several industry standards would have been available to you during the preparation of these events: a) that signings are limited only to those who buy from the hosting bookstore; b) that it is also limited to ONE TITLE being promoted by the author. I truly believe that IGNORING these standards resulted in the DISSATISFACTION of many of your clients, as well as the UNNECESSARY EXHAUSTION of Mr. Neil Gaiman.

I hope you can remedy these lapses, and keep in mind this sad incident the next time you host a book signing.
Sincerely,
Tanya Tiotuyco