A Love Letter To Japan

Dear Japan,

I’ve been thinking about you a lot for too long. I don’t know if you’ll believe me but it seems that I just can’t get you out of my mind since the first time I saw you 12 years ago. You might think that I’m being cheesy about saying stuff like these, cause I know a lot of people are also into you that you might think I’m just like everybody else, they may even be writing the same love letter as of this very moment, but still, here I am, hoping, hoping that this simple note maybe enough for you to notice me.

You know what, I can still remember it clearly up to this day, it was during the days when my passion for travel and adventure was nil. Back then, I never thought of exploring different places and experience different culture or even thought that I’ll have the interest in doing so. Then one evening, I just happen to catch a documentary about you, your people, and your culture airing on the now defunct ‘RPN 9’. The show was very simply made, very plain and boring actually, and the monotonous commentary was just uninspiring, yet your natural beauty shone through. Your unique and rich culture was enthusing and your proud and highly disciplined people, admirable. These were enough to stimulate my imagination without the need of any special effects. And then guess what, from that very moment, I started to love everything about you, and my love for you just grew and grew, and until now has never faded. I’m writing you this letter to let the world know why I do. To let them know the things I found so attractive about you, these will serve as my inspiration and I’m hoping you’ll hear it too.

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Tres Marias: A Photoshoot with Meri An and Twins

This will be part of a new personal photography project that I'm starting. I'm calling it 'Project Many Me', what do you guys think? :D Jump for more to see BTS shots :D

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Looking Back at Year 2011's Wish List

I know its a bit late for a year end post so I'll just try to recap my wish list for 2011 if indeed I accomplished the things that I wanted to accomplish last year. It all started way back late 2010 with a trip with fellow bloggers in November. That trip changed my life after meeting people my age doing the things I thought only rich people can afford. It opened my eyes on budget travelling and got bitten by the travel bug. So by the start of 2011, I made a promise to myself that I'll travel more, see the world, challenge myself more, and live my life. and then I got this idea of writing down a wish list from one of the blogs I follow, much like a bucket list, but with a touch of magic, :) so just read on and see how far the magic went.

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The Lost Diary of Rizal by Scy Sze

I received my copy of the Lost Diary of Rizal almost over four months ago from the author herself, yet only had the chance to start reading it during an 8-hour butt-numbing trip to Laoag City earlier this month. I finished almost half of the book during that trip and by then I was already captivated by the interesting concept and was deeply engaged with the story line. Yes, the author is a dear friend of mine and yes, that is my artwork printed in the cover, but these doesn’t change the fact that I’m not really fond of books, especially thick novels such as this, my boredom would easily take-over just after a few pages. But somehow, this time it was different, I found myself wanting to finish the story, I was tempted to just read the end part but did not want to miss any details of how it happened. The details were beautifully written that your imagination would go on auto-cruise and somehow find yourself transported to the story’s setting. That’s what I felt.

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My 7 Links Project: Turning Back the Pages

I'm glad I can be part of this project started by TripBase.com which, according to them, aims to unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

Rules are simple:
1) Blogger is nominated to take part
2) Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category.
  - Your most beautiful post
  – Your most popular post
  – Your most controversial post
  – Your most helpful post
  – A post whose success surprised you
  – A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
  – The post that you are most proud of
3) Blogger nominates up to 5 more bloggers to take part.
4) These bloggers publish their 7 links and nominate another 5 more bloggers
5) And so it goes on!

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Fact you Bob Ong! Fact you!

Book 1 to 5 (image from http://hisashi26.multiply.com)

Just recently I was able to watch a documentary on a local news channel about discovering the true identity of the infamous writer, Bob Ong, And though I am a big fan of his works, I wasn’t really aware that he maintained his anonymity through out all these years given his legion of fans and a bunch of best sellers to boast for, and I guess that made me respect him even more.

Bob Ong is a true-blue Filipino writer who writes in Filipino with a bit of Taglish for flavor, as quoted in one of his books “Kung ako ay isang walang kwentang manunulat, english ang isusulat ko, para kahit anu anu ang sabihin ko hindi na nila mahahalata.. Kaya nga ako nagsulat sa tagalog para maintindihan ng mambabasa ang lahat ng sinasabi ko.”. He has such a simple and relaxed style that makes it easy for me, who’s not very fond of reading, to get hooked and even be inspired to write as well. I’m sure many were.

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An Amateur's Portfolio

I finally decided to print some of my photos and maybe have them framed and build up my portfolio. If I'm gonna take this up seriously, I should at least start now. So, here's the first batch :)

see more photos after the jump :)

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Jump Shots at Patar, Bolinao

Summer heat has now fully shifted to high gear, a good thing though that I've been spending my May weekends cooling off. First week, I was at Surip, Bani for our office unit's summer outing; second week, I was at another unit's summer outing (sabit lang) at Leisure Coast Resort; then after that its two straight weekends at Patar Beach, in Bolinao with different set of friends, just chilling with a bottle of Tanduay Ice in hand, what more can I ask for, right? :)

For the moment, let me just share some of the most unusual jumpshot photos I took of my friends during sunset at Patar :)

I know... hindi siya jumshot, the jumpshots after the jump :D

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from UK, with Love....

Today I received my very first post card from abroad and I'm just so thrilled about it that I need to share it here /XD

/blush It was sent to me by my good friend Micamyx when she was in the UK and though she's back here in the country prior to the delivery of the card, just seeing London in front of the post card and reading the first line 'Greetings from UK! =)' , parang gusto ko na bang tumambling :)) ganun pala feeling, sorry, its my first time to receive one, kumbaga, virgin pa ko sa ganyan :P anyway, her message reads:

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Super Moon Phenomenon: March 19, 2011

Yesterday, there was "supposed" to be a super moon phenomenon where natural disaster "should" have occurred. Well In fact there was a super moon last night, the time when the moon is closest to Earth by something point something meters and while people still being paranoid over the recent destructions in Japan, they kept on convincing themselves that this natural occurrence is a premonition to another devastating natural calamity. Come on now, it was just a full moon, it happens every month, sure the tides are going to be high but that's about all the moon affects things on Earth.

A lot of people were told to stay indoors before dark, but I was at my friend's house drinking tequila til 11PM (guess I was indoors :D ). During the drive home, I didn't actually notice the difference in size of the moon but it sure was bright that you cannot really look directly into it, or it was just me? :) I also noticed that there was a multi-colored halo surrounding it, so after I got home at around 12MN, I grab my tripod, set it up on the balcony, and charan! see photo below :D I thought, this wasn't a premonition for a natural disaster, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see something beautiful :)

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Coming Back to Life

It's been three years since I got to taste an Indian mango fruit picked from the lonesome tree in our backyard. Because of the typhoons and some man made occurrences, the flower never bloomed for three years. I thought that would be it, I'll never get back the days when I crave to eat mangoes and all I have to do is go outside and jump and grab some. So I'm a bit surprised and ecstatic after seeing these :)

:D more photos after the jump

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Scratch off D90 from my Wish List

The Unboxing! /wahaha

I finally got my dream camera two weeks ago, woooot! :D If you've noticed in my navbar above, there is a wish list for 2011, I got that idea to list down all my wishes for 2011, like things to buy, places to go, and things hoping to achieve this year, from reading Aileen Siroy's blog, and imagine that, it works, it really does.

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Painting with Lights: One of the 'Fun' things about Photography

Ringing in the New Year! :)

Wooott...I just got home from a drinking session with a couple of my best buds and I really feel like blogging at 1:12 AM in the morning. It seems that I really am suffering from a disorder where I feel the effects of things in reverse (well that's according to my girl who's in the field of medicine) its just like how alcohol keeps me awake and energize while coffee tends to make me sleepy. :) Anyway, I was scheduled to meet my two friends at a Bar and Resto for a couple of drinks, but I was a bit too early. So while I was waiting for them, I did a little tinkering with my camera and did some light painting to kill time. I've been meaning to this stuff after reading this post from Adaphobic.com late 2008, but never really had the chance or the willingness to do so... well not until tonight. :)) check out my other shots after the jump :)

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Whenever I get bored, I start to play with myself.

Yup, you read it right. What else can you do on a weekend being all alone in the house with lots of free time? you play with yourself, right?... While you sit around, you get bored watching TV and playing the same movies over and over. Then, suddenly some thoughts enter your mind. Stimulating thoughts that make you helpless to resist. Suddenly you feel the urge to do something. Then without knowing you just reach out and grab your…

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Just turned 23!

November 21, 2010 – It is just fitting that my very first post would be all about my 23^rd birthday, as it did marked a lot of ‘first’ in my life.

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