Gel Ink Illustrations

We Are Forests Series (Gel Ink on Paper/PostProcessed, 2011, Liza Macalandag)

I was furiously pushing gel pens through paper starting the previous weekend, trying to create some sort of illustrated advocacy material carrying youth-targeted sustainable forest management principles. This, after about a month past due, my tutor-marked assignment (TMA) for my ENRM 222 course (Socio-Cultural Perspective on the Environment) for my Master of Development Communication program at the UP Open University. (Too much explanation, that.) Anyhow, after barely making it to the Final Exams in UP Cebu last month and with all that's gone down since then (the Baji Exhibit, that bungled up Interior Renovation Project Management work), ELA stuff, and life, in general), and seeing that I had breathing space (actually, none, since I got other abandoned works waiting to be reincarnated) for about a week, I jumped into working on this long overdue project, even at the risk of it not being admissible any longer.

What I thought to be an overnighter job, took about 4 days to finish. And that's not even finished finish. If I had my way, I wouldn't submit this work at this stage because it's not coherent as yet and needs more panels/pages (even a redo) but that would entail 2 more days and there's just no time. And so I polished a truly (shallow) series of illustrated banners that could have been a compact graphic novella of sorts and submitted them in the TMA dropbox (online). The online classrooms are practically empty and just a few seconds after I submitted my work for marking, it struck me that this was probably for naught, this work that I did. It's just too late already, I think. But I push away that thought. And then shamelessly relish the idea that I did that - for zero points, zero points at all.

I need coffee and gel ink, lots of gel ink.

The young couldn't bring down the house just yet.

One Flew Over the Bird's Nest (Graphic Art, 2008, Liza Macalandag)


It could get really embarrassing, and frustrating - to be young, hopeful, foolish.

At the United Architects of the Philippines - Bohol Chapter GMM today, elections was the priority agenda. We've been wanting too much to be involved in the organization as we've found management real crappy or at least direction-less and purposeless, quite frankly. But then election time, we learn that there's some screwed up rule that prevents newer architects from getting elected into certain positions. So there goes our chance of affecting change.

So we proceed to Plan B, then.

Sketch: International Women's Day Centenary

What We've Been Doing the Past 2 Weeks: Baji Exhibit

It is done. But it ain't over.

There's so many reflections/learnings/lessons to be had on this endeavor. Like serious, serious stuff. But 2 things I'd like to explore on is the role of social media and the power of the "process" in advocacy building, with Baji Arts Exhibit specifically.

[I'll definitely find time to write further on this. Something like: The Baji Experience. Why not?]

This is what I didn't get to see when I was still in the Arab World.

The green leaves are coming back. They always do.

This tree is as gnarled and broken as I felt last night & earlier.

It's barely 2 months into the year, and the amount of regrettable events in my life and around me are already mounting up, like it's November already.

For the first time, I woke myself up, screaming from a bad dream. It was real. I heard it. I felt it. I can't remember the dream now but the pain was just so vivid. Still is. 

I am amazed. And disturbed. 

Now those coconuts, they're a pretty sight and all,
 but they could fall at will and crush your skull, you know.

But there's gotta be some thing better that's coming. For sure. And I'm holding on to that.

Meet Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima. Bahrain's Feb14 Martyr.

Ali is a very passionate young Bahraini Shia, who loves Arabic music, fizzy drinks and over-speeding. The only western music he claimed to like are Bob Marley's and Michael Jackson's. Ali is a former co-worker. He was about 19 when I first met him 2 years back.

5 Days Without Rice: An Experiment

I did it, all the way, as in, absolutely no feckin' rice for five days straight, make that, absolutely no feckin' rice, 15 meals straight.

But that didn't mean no carbo, I had bread and noodles and sweet potatoes and pasta. Day 1, it was like normal. Like I was busy (and I was) and couldn't be bothered with full meals. I had noodles for carbo. I would've had more but I wasn't prepared. I only decided that day. I woke up, and told myself, hey, what if I went riceless for the week? And that I did.

Days 2-3, I was more prepared. I bought bread. I had cheese. And fish mostly. Days 4-5, was the toughest. I felt week, lithe and rickety at the same time. And these days were when I had to write the hardest. I had deadlines to catch.

But that's all history now. I'd probably not do it again. I just can't eat well without rice. I can't eat viands that must be paired with rice, that was a conscious decision I made from the start - or else I'd just go into a rice frenzy. In essence, I was barely, eating for 5 days. No, I don't think I need to do this again.

Gong xi fa cai!

I've got to have a Chinese New Year/ Spring Festival post, why not? I just remembered, because the greeting card from our friends at the China Guangxi International Youth Exchange Institute lying on my desk keeps poking me. So, gong xi fa cai! There.

That China experience, I've never really gotten to writing lengthily about it. I've set up a blog and all (I was even feeling ambitious enough to imagine it as a book, a novella or something in the making - ha!), but it just keeps on getting pushed back, by stuff, life, ennui, Bahrain, heartbreak.

I stand with the women and men of Egypt in their fight for genuine freedom and democracy!

I don't know much about modern Egypt, which is sad, in a way. I only even heard about this Anger Revolution in the 29th of January from Devi. Three days I'm not on Twitter, and so much has happened already. And I didn't even know the background of this revolution. I didn't even know there was a background to this revolution! (Same with Tunisia's, but that was worse, because I didn't even know where Tunisia was, or that there was a modern Tunisia, as I could only associate it with the shroud of Tunis?)

From Wikipeda: "The 2011 Egyptian protests are an ongoing series of street demonstrations, marches,rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, and violent clashes that began in Egypt on 25 January 2011, a day selected by 6 April Youth Movement organisers^[10][11] to coincide with the National Police Day holiday.^[12]"

"I don't want to walk this earth if I gotta do it solo."

I should be somewhere in Malaysia right now, in a train pushing towards Thailand, the moving images of eerily familiar homes and greeneries, fluttering past, and fast, while my eyes flicker as quickly, in both awe and wonderment. That, or I'd be in a half-sleep half-awake state, still relishing the adventures of the days past, the sights and sounds of Singapore, the food and groove of Kuala Lumpur, while excitedly anticipating Souther Thailand, Bangkok, possibly norther Thailand and Laos, definitely Cambodia, and of course, Saigon.

But this is all fiction, now. Just like that, because I can't travel alone. Because my travelling companion cancelled. Abruptly. Without prior notice. (3 days is not prior notice). Because he couldn't run away from responsibilities at work. Because I, too, can't make him do that.

Because. It's. Just. Not. Happening.

(For now.)

Bummer.

[Nair: Let's see you make it up to me. It better be good, 'Dong. It better be.]