A stroll

Or, an attempt to get rid of the blog backlog before the year ends.

the view from the hotel room


from a window on the opposite side


the hotel lobby


motel area


the road outside the hotel


the adjacent building


across the road


10 meters down


30 meters down


beach mode


Janie Walker (tagline here)


"Keep the beaches beautiful, sexual violence will not be tolerated"


MINI


eatery


shopping street


cafe

Repurposed greetings from Adobe + The MuseBox

Need a holiday soundtrack? Here's the free-to-download The MuseBox Festivus Mixtape. Donations to the Humane Society accepted.

Careful Guy

It took me two views to realize what the song was based on. Did anyone get it?

Meet the team

Meet my new fighting squad in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakenings. Not quite as engaging as the original, but I'm curious enough to know the ending to finish this over the holidays (I hope). Not that I'm in a rush. Dragon Age II (trailer below) won't be out until March 8.

This made my day

Received this in my work inbox today: a message from Bob Greenberg. It might be a simple Send To All message (and another R/GA contact sent the exact message to the general editorial address at work), but I still can't get over it. Lesson: kids, never forget your business cards.

Victory

Feeling like a Korean with Koreans in Korea.

For Jayjay, so that he will stop asking me to do the "V" sign.

Missing you

It's crrrunch time. And yet I cannot focus. Today was especially difficult. Aside from rehearsing for a Shakespeare play, I missed so many things: hearing Danish, watching the spectacular show (and spectacular flop) Lord of the Rings onstage, looking at the rapeseed fields and waiting at the Leicester Square red carpet. Even the German Christmas market in London is calling out to me.

I only have to look back at my blog archives and I am back in my room in Trekroner, in Hackney, in Islington. In the spare rooms of the Viv and the Bakers. On a plane over the offshore wind turbines. On a train system that actually works. Lugging around my huge red four-wheeler bag on the Tube and onto a red bus. Wandering around on my own in an unfamiliar city. And loving every minute.

I blame the costumes for the play for taking me back. I could dress like that every day again, but the reality is that I am riding trikes and jeeps in smoggy Manila, and queueing for bag inspections, too. If I had won the big lotto jackpot, I would improve the public transportation system before buying anything else.

I chose to be here, I know, subject to the frustrating commute and systemic violence. And yet I wish I could be somewhere far, far away.

Europe, I miss you.

Midnight musing brought to you by the letter M

Dear M,

I cannot live without you. What would I do if I lose you?

Me

Thought of You

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Award season

When I was the proxy recipient of an award at ADSTARS, I told Ross, "This is probably the only time I'll ever win an advertising award." He said, "Never say never."

Our recent big win at Quill may not exactly count as advertising, but it was close. And it was a huge surprise, too. Never say never.

August: with Tony at ADSTARS, Haeundae Grand Hotel, Busan, South Korea

September: with Thirasak at the Esplanade Theatre for Spikes Asia, Singapore


November: With Angel and Lech at Crowne Plaza Manila for the Philippine Quill Awards

Joey Ayala has a song for it

3D and 3 art events

Manila Bulletin, through its PR agency Thinline and blog ads provider Nuffnang, invited bloggers to its event at the Picasso in Makati City last night, so I was curious to find out if they had something new to announce. Credit goes to the paper for being the first newspaper to come out with 3D images. I had actually been following this closely from day one. A combined version of my writeups (here and here) appears in our November-December issue, which features the world's top commercial director on the cover.

I was skeptical about 3D at first (and I guess I still am, a bit), but with advertiser support, the concept has proved so interesting and viable that even the Philippine Daily Inquirer followed suit. And there lies the challenge. To call itself a leader in innovation, Manila Bulletin has to continue coming up with firsts because as soon as the innovation is copied, it becomes yesterday's news.

MB's iPad app is also available now. It's a smart and relatively easy move for the broadsheet, as their digital facsimile is already on the web. But as app versions become standard across dailies, apps should deliver richer content to maximize the functionalities of tablets.
The challenges remain: getting people to keep their 3D glasses and to ensuring that the photos work well in 3D, requiring stricter quality control in the photo manipulation.

Being at the Picasso already, K and I stopped by Art Cabinet and looked at the pieces on the ground floor. We had just been to Manila Contemporary the day before, so I was very thankful to have art back in my life. To cap the night, I went with R to the opening event of Fete dela WSK, which I enjoyed despite my tiredness.

I actually have photos and videos, including scenes that are more appropriate for a bridal shower, but since it has been a while since I last put up a long text-only post, I will keep things simple. Adieu.

This says exactly how I'm feeling now

[via CR Blog]

For your MP3 Collection, part 36

ACR: "Intro"-space funk

Asaguare feat. Lisa DeBenedictis:"Black Is The Colour"- Scottish folk song update

i AM esper: "The Winter Path Part 1"- best for this weather

Matt Duncan: "Heart and Arrow" - short harmony

Twin Shadow: "Castles in the Snow"- nowhere near Camelot

A Life on Facebook

Life is increasingly looking like this.

What I enjoyed on Halloween

After visiting my grandfather's "apartment", this is what I watched. Not exactly the same as the 2000 musical, but musical nonetheless. It's politically incorrect, but good fun still.


Look at John Gavin, Julie Andrews and James Fox now.

sportyshorty91 sez

"Do you think that...?"

"I do..."

"You dont mean...?"

"I'm afraid..."

"But by now then she could..."

"Yes."

*GASP*

haha that has to be my favorite part in the movie that and jimmy in a dress

I agree!

The writing on the (Facebook) wall

NYT's tech guy David Pogue, a funny geek who can accompany himself on the piano (summa with distinction in Music from Yale), has written a love letter to the Canon S95. My brother has been talking about this for months. Must. Upgrade. Soon.

Why does this matter to me? Read Pogue's bio. You know I have a soft spot for former Broadway accompanists. If you haven't seen them yet, go look for his performances on TED.com.

Halloween greetings

It was crazy at the office today, but we still found time to do this.

Alone in Bora

July 2010 - Being alone in Boracay made me realize one thing: I don't want to be alone in Boracay.

the green scourge

The last five months: the food

It's my first non-working weekend in a long time, so here we go. Food shots from the last five months.

I had dinner with fellow CoMundus alumna Cheryl at a resto close to the Bund area in Shanghai. We had a lot of food for two girls, but then it's mostly chili. (Of course my nose ran afterwards.) We walked off all the pounds by the riverside, nearly end-to-end on the walkway, and back.


lumpia in Shanghai


puto in different colors


sampler at Bigby's Megamall, because the boys wanted it


Risotto at Il Pirata, Eastwood City


office food: Brooklyn pizza




a delightful eight-course Japanese meal at the exclusive Taka on Arnaiz Avenue


my first authentic Korean meal in Busan, a hot and flavorful lunch


a disappointingly tasteless lunch, also in Busan


the standard drinks in Korea


an unforgettable Japanese meal in Busan: cold gazpacho, among other things


at Thursday Party bar in Busan


Why fly PAL? The food is still good (forgot the macro, sorry)


excellent spicy mushroom noodles and cold Milo at Bedok Market, Singapore

Unfriendly

My Facebook account hit 1,000 friends over the weekend, so I thought it was time to downsize and keep only the ones I actually knew. I ended up only unfriending 13. Couldn't bear to lose more, but I wish I had the guts to remove non-friends.

What counts as a friend? Is it someone you must have met personally? No. There are people I have never met face-to-face who I consider good friends.

Is it someone you must have met more than once? No. Sometimes you get to know a person that one time as well as you do some other acquaintance over a lifetime.

And then there are people you are embarrassed to delete because you will run into them again. Distant relatives, for example. (Sorry, distant relatives.)

Now I don't feel like accepting friend requests anymore.

We all have the right to be selective. So go on, unfriend me if I don't mean anything to you. It's totally ok.

Seen on the road

What made my day yesterday? Passed by the Spacebook Internet Shop. It is beside Jollibis Tapsihan at Bulalohan, Mami at Gotohan, at Burgeran.

All these appropriations must be contagious.

Three and a Half Seconds About Life

This might be the wrong thing to post while waiting for a Category 5 storm to hit, but see how you react to it. Keep safe, everyone.

Indulge in geekiness, trivia freak

Go

Still my favorite campaign of the year

I mean the original, of course. But I do love all the parodies, too.

Here's last week's obsession. I'm naming our street's resident stray Wilson.

Solita Monsod's last lecture: Honor and Excellence

"The Philippines needs you more than you think."

You do not have to be a University of the Philippines graduate to appreciate this. You can object to what she says, but she has valid points. And a frightening threat to go with it.

Happy 10/10/10, everyone! Now I have to go back to work. Crrrunch time!

Disclaimer

Here's my answer to the question you failed to ask: no, I do not delight in breaking hearts or turning people away.

I don't see you any differently simply because I hardly know you. And I still don't.

You could not have been serious when you asked me to kill you. An emo-ment, I take it. Besides, I'm pro-life (defined as pro-choice but anti-abortion, in case you wanted to know).

It would have been wise to learn from your friends, who know me in some way or another a bit more than you do. You know me mostly from second-hand accounts, possibly like a mythical figure.

Facebook is part of my job. It counts for very little. But it's too late for this, isn't it? Un-friend me if that makes you feel better. But only if.

At times like this, paintings fail me. I am glad that for any occasion, I have both words and images at my disposal. Which brings me to what I hope this leads you to.

If there's anything I want from you to take away from this experience, it is the challenge to draw from what you feel now and do the best work you've done in years. If you think I am harsh and unfair, focus the energy on your canvas.

Go on. Paint your blues away. Then I'll see you at your show. Maybe then we can have an actual conversation.

Someday, you will look back at your message and smile at your young self. And that's just ok. :)

[UPDATE: He saw this note on Facebook and took up the challenge]

Weekend of ultimate misery

Happy 25th birthday, Les Miserables the musical!

[via Gibbs Cadiz]

Vintage outtakes