I know I should have done this 3 weeks ago when the term already started but things got a little out of control and I ended up lacking the time needed to write a very good entry for The CSB Experience.

Well if you ask me, this term have been “productive”, given that I have the benefit of time (academically) to focus on nearly every class that I have this time. Most of my classes are set in the morning which gives me the opportunity to make the time useful prepping for PROJ1, finding an image that “moves” me for GRAPDES, putting some a liter of fixer for my film negative in BWPHOTO.

On the other hand, I’m glad i finally have the whole weekend off for me to capitalize on studying the 101’s of marketing for BIZ1. Even if it means having to learn how to hit the books again, I’m all for it. And besides, I love wearing corporate every Monday. Who wouldn’t? Hahaha…

Before I leave school for good, there’s still a couple of things that I still want to do in CSB, things that I haven’t. For example, I still haven’t tried out whatever’s cooking over at the Solomon Guesthouse. I have noooo idea where it is but I’m making sure I could at least see it before it’s too late. And just last week, me and several friends from school had lunch for the first time at the much-fabled Chicken-Chicken, near AKIC. We went there thanks to CSB’s very own innovative e-CAR (another first!).

Another interesting thing to note, is that I’m seeing people I haven’t seen in a long while, many of them from my old FILIP13 class. Those I’ve seen so far were Mhelay (almost done with FMD), Ron and Donn (serving food at Chef’S Station in Main).

Worth mentioning is Mr. Santiago who’s as lively as ever and Miss Portia who I occasionally see somewhere at the 9th, 10th and 11th floors. (Last term it was Sir Rizali, Sir Dangat, Ms. Perez among other ex-profs).

Surprise moment of the term right now, seeing Franzi for the first time in 45 years. He was in a hurry when I saw him leaving SDA so we haven’t really had time to catch up with what’s been going on. I guess he’s been LOA this past year? Just didn’t notice.

The challenge for me now is that I have to make good of what I set as my goals from way back. PROJ is going to make or break me as my stay in CSB is at stake here. If I fail, I’ll stay longer, but if I pass all the way the home stretch, I’ll be done with school sooner.

JULY-AUGUST 2011 IS THE DATE TO BEAT!

So wish me well and I wish you well. This is our time, our experience, our spotlight*!

*LOL on the Ad Astra reference.

The clock is slowly ticking, the sands in the hourglass going pass one more day, and the PC-generated e-clock is telling me the 30th of August is near. To some, it is just an ordinary day, a civil holiday at the least in the Philippines. But for someone like me, it is more than just a civil holiday, it is the last day of my teenage life.

Yes peeps, I’ll spend the last 24 hours making the most of what is left of me being a teen.

Scary thought that afterwards, I’ll be hitting the big 2–0, BEINTE or what I’ve been branding this since I started my birthday countdown last July, 20@10. I’ll age a year more, a year more wiser, a year more experienced, and so on.

So what I’ve been up to for the last 10 years? Nothing much except maybe had some of the most wackiest things to ever happen in my life during that period. I could list it all down if I could but so far…:

1)Wore my first pair of eyeglasses
2)Went and lived abroad for a year
3)Became a school athlete
4)Participated in a musical recital
5)Went “gala” all by myself which led me to places like MOA, to Paragon Plaza to the Philamlife Theater in U.N. Avenue.
6)Went to a school trip to Mount Banahaw being the only high school freshman in a batch of seniors.
7)Traveled to Singapore alone
8)Was dance partners with his Grade 6 crush for a charity event
9)Knocked out but ended up winning a medal in a competition anyway.
10)Became an intern of a radio station

Crazy huh? The list goes on and on and I could not remember them all.

I always fear that I’ll reach that point in life that the end of my life is drawing near as I don’t know if there is life after death. Being a devout (but not necessarily a really zealous) Catholic, it’s hard for me to accept that everything has an end date but I know there’s a reason so I have to suck it up and face it.

Like what my kuya said to me 10 years ago, “live life to the fullest”.

I need to live a life well lived, I need to make sure that I lived a life that fulfilled my purpose on earth. Because after all, we only have “ONE LIFE TO LIVE”.

I think I’ve already gone far from being this kid who loves to read history books and being a geo-know-it-all to someone who still loves to read anything  historic and still somewhat of a “know-it-all”. It really helps that I am with people who continue to support me, to love me, and see me as what I am and what I will continue to shape up to be what I am in this lifetime.

As I enter my 20’s, everything will change. May it be for better or otherwise, I’ll face it, I’ll conquer it.

20 at ’10 baby!

I’ll be posting a casting call real soon but for now, here’s the lowdown on what the story is about and the characters dictated by love, passion, devotion and betrayal.

A story about love challenged, a story about views in contrasts, a story about relationships rekindled, a story about trying to forget the past in order to move on to the future.

At a time when family dynamics is in the middle of a major overhaul in modern-times, a recently-married couple sits in the dilemma of going either against or along the flow. A husband who tries to be supportive to his wife whom he encourage to do what she wants to do in life thinking that settling downy and start a family can wait.

The wife however is the complete opposite, who despite having a very promising future ahead of her, decides that being a housewife and a mother is what she wants to do as she tries to be the perfect wife to her husband: loving, caring, loyal, and everything else. Despite their differences, their love for each other have helped on keeping their marriage an almost unbreakable bond…until she came.

A brief encounter with another woman led to events that served as challenges to the husband and wife. The “other woman” is a co-worker of the husband whom he barely notices until the day they crossed paths. The husband saw in her something that his wife isn’t, things that he wants to see in her and yet doesn’t. He and the other woman became very close to each other, but unknown to the husband, the woman hides a past that continues to haunt her.

The wife feels the pressure of trying to please her husband, thinking his is slowly slipping away from her.

What follows after is a tale of decisions leading to events that will either break the bond the holds the husband and wife forever or give them a reason to find the will to trust each other again.

Character characteristics are as follows (No final names for the characters just yet):

1. “Husband” = In his mid-to late 20’s. Married for three-four years. Liberal-minded. Does not expect to form a family just yet and encourages his wife to become a career-woman. He led a crappy life before meeting the “wife”. Knows how to drive.

2. “Wife” = In her mid-to late 20’s. Married for 3-4 years. Highly educated with a promising career ahead of her but gives it all up to become a devoted housewife and mother.

3. “Kerida” = Late 20’s to early 30’s. Liberated working girl. Shares a lot of things in common the husband. She has a mysterious past that continues to haunt her despite her efforts to move on.

Instrumental characters:

1. “Magnanakaw”
2. “Little Boy”
3. “Little Girl”

*This will be an interative photo-based web comic where visitors have the power to dictate the events of the story by voting what will happen next after every chapter’s cliffhanger. Chapters will be updated every 1-2 weeks until it leads up to the final story arc. Past issues can be viewed on an archive webpage.

The entirety fo the project will be unraveled later on. 😀

Supposedly, if I have taken MMAOJT in the summer, I would have been taking MMAPROJ1 this term. But unfortunately, circumstances forced me to take long break from proceding with my thesis and at least put focus on my OJT first.

Proj1 is the second stage for my thesis. The first is getting into the planning stage via MSCIETY. This is where you start production on your project based on your chosen topic and medium. In my case, I’m making an interactive web comic with a topic that addresses marriage-related problems. The tentative title of the project is “An Almost Affair”, based on a 20-page manuscript I wrote as my finals work for VIDPRD1.

In Msciety alone, I took me half a dozen topic revisions and several changes in medium to finally have one approved across the board. The hitch? I won’t be making illustrated panels but will instead make use of photographic stills as panels for my comics. The web comic will be more than 30 “pages” long so I’m planning on dividing it to 10 “chapters” of 3 or so.

 I still have to make my storyboard though as early as now before I formally take my Proj1 class next term as well as start assessing the story itself. It’s fortunate that my basis of the whole project, titled “Ang Pagmamahal”, is still stacked up in my room. Hehehe…

Nonetheless, there’s still a reason for me to fear Proj1. No preparation is enough for me if in the end my fate lies at the hands of panelists that can either make or break you. Just yesterday, I found out my friend didn’t make the cut and was forced to repeat everything from scratch. It made me more fearful and careful on what to expect on the second trimester.

As if it’s not bad enough, this whole “tri-media” thing is driving me crazy. Why couldn’t I have thought of something more simpler, more easy to do? I blame not just myself for ever conceiving such an idea and for my old Msciety professor, Ms Javier who makes the process all the more confusing.

So okay, here’s what I’m planning for “An Almost Affair”. I’m hoping of making use of shooting exteriors outside school, and I need at least several locations to do the shots: A house, an office, a cafe (hopefully outdoor), a neighborhood street, a cemetery and a mall/palengke.

Casting models is also a priority. Basically, I need three models to portray the story’s three major characters. Supporting characters will be needed depending on each “chapter”.

A lot of details though is needed to further explain what I intend to do so I’m putting the discussion further on my next blog. Here’s to hoping I could survive this next storm.

This month have been a bit rocky at the start for me when things got out of hand but I managed somehow to fix it to some degree. I’ve been thinking at the time of doing the ultimate sacrifice but at the last minute, decided to see what happens next.

It didn’t took long before everything I worked for in the past couple of weeks all went to waste. What occurred definitely hit a nerve and I was in this state of sadness and loneliness. I began to think about the things I want to do in my life, the things that I want to be a part with, the things that I wanna be with and the things that I want to learn from the very best.

And then there’s the thought of graduating. It’s so close yet so far. I can’t even give a sure guarantee that I’ll manage to weatehr the storm once I’m in thesis mode. The medium hat I’ll be doing seems okay but because of that dang tr-media thing that TPTB wants to impose on us, I’m forced to put a spin on that medium so as to appease my advisors. Boo….

I wrote this on my Facebook not to long ago when I was inspired by that mountain hiking trip I participated last weekend:

“College is like a mountain: From the bottom, you have to climb up until you reach the very top…“

I feel a bit burned out already after more than 3 years in CSB but it doesn’t discouraged me from going further to reach my goal. Whatever blockades I face, I know I could overcome them if I have the will and strength to live the life that I want to live.

The real world is harsh, the powers that be can be ruthless, the promise of youth is drained when you’re sucked into this vortex of no return. I get it, I’ve seen it but I’ve yet to experience it. I see friends already dealing with it, having to resort to being around with a guy who wears a black shirt and they never seem to want to let go of him.

But I know I can get through it, I know the odds are against me but I don’t care. Even it means losing everythng I worked hard for, every hope and dreams that gets stashed away. They can never take away my continuing will to dream, to look on the brighter side of things. Critiscism are what shapes me into what I am, what I will, what I want to be.

They see my qualities as my greatest weaknesses, but I say that these are my sources of strength. I could blab about this all day but I stand by my principles, if you call them principles that is.

I’ll strive when I’m down, I’ll shout for joy when I’m yelled at, I’ll smile when I am scorned, and I will walk when I get screwed.

The blues are hitting me like crazy but that’s what I get when I feel the need to make myself happy now that in a few weeks, I’ll be celebrating 20@10.

🙂