Weekly Ketchup 43 - The More They Stay The Same

I've had friends tell me that I'm "masipag" when it comes to maintaining this blog. I tell them it's really not that hard since: a) I stick with a regular schedule as much as posssible; and b) there really isn't all that much to do or think about since this is mainly just a recap of the week's events. Most of the time I just react to or recall seemingly random events and find some connections and commonalities for the sake of cohesion.

There are times, though, when do I let the need to deliver content drive my actions for the week, which mostly results in me sharing the latest book, game, or movie that I'm checking out. I haven't done any of that these recent weeks either because there are more pertinent matters that I felt were better to discuss or because I don't really have anything new on those fronts to share. For example: I'm still playing Zenonia, Age of Wonders 2, and Heroes of Might and Magic Chronicles. I did get started on Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys" a few weeks back but I haven't finished it, though I am liking it far better than "American Gods". I haven't seen any new movies in a while and my taste in shows have just merely carried over from the previous shows. I haven't been checking out any of the new shows for fear of them getting cancelled just as I was getting invested. I'll see if the shows I'm interested in make it past December before I dive right in.

All this pretty much highlights what I've known all along: That sometimes I just got to let things plateau and just chill. I started this blog announcing all sorts of changes and challenges, all in the hopes of finding something new and exciting, of pushing myself forward, and all that jazz. Sometimes, I just got to let things stay the same.

I do have to point a couple of things out though:

I saw "Book of Life" last Tuesday and surprise! I actually liked this movie far better than "Frozen". However, I do feel like the story could use some restructuring so that we spend more time in the Land of the Remembered. We seriously didn't need 15 or so minutes establishing their childhood. I also didn't understand why there had to be a framing story with some kids in the museum. But other than that, I thought the film was perfect and really wins in animation and voice direction.

And yeah, this trailer, which I already wrote at length about already, so I'm not gonna bother anymore.

Of things that stay the same, I found myself back in my habit of compulsive spending, which is only notable because of last week's blog. If I've been Instagramming a lot more than usual lately it's because I got myself another cheap-ass droid last week mainly for the mobile Internet and the camera. I also got new more expensive eyeglasses last weekend because the plastic one I've been wearing breaks easily (at least once a year). Here's hoping the investment pays off and it stays with me for at least ten years. Lastly: A quick errand at SM yielded a shirt and new jeans (something that's been known to happen to me A LOT in the past). To be fair, they were on sale and I do need new jeans. Also: A sideline job paid a couple of weeks ago but not enough for a party (yeah, I'm being defensive).

New shirt, jeans, and glasses and taken with a new phone.
I look great, okay!

I'm also back in the habit of unconventional dieting where I would eat a lot in the morning, a little during the day, and nothing but water in the evening. Of course, that also lead to my habit of breaking that diet when geek friend Tobie treated me to his special pasta recipe and milk shake from Ludo last Friday evening. This was his late birthday treat for me, which is just really sweet of him. Of course, Tobie being Tobie, we played some games! I surprisingly won our game of Carcassonne Wheel of Fortune at his place and Ludo co-owner Jay won the two "engine-building" games we played there.

Splendor
Image credit: BoardGameGeek.com

Diet be damned again come Saturday evening because a friend I thought I've lost is back in my life. Beejay and his fiancee Din invited me and Din's friend Karen to dinner. I haven't seen or spoken to Beejay since a spat we had over Facebook messenger early last year so I was surprised to get the call sometime ago (briefly hinted at here) inviting me to be a groomsman at the wedding. I'm also to be a host at the reception, along with Karen, which was what the evening was really about. What I thought would be an awkward dinner turned out to be quite enjoyable - like no time at all has passed (I am disgusted at my own cliche but it is what it is). Even if I feel like I've changed a lot since the last time we saw each other, and he most certainly has, there's still that sense of familiarity and it's wonderful.

From Din's Instagram

I suppose going back to the comfortable and familiar in a sea of change is a good thing every now and then. Yet before I even get to big change I've been planning for myself, I now have a problem: The wedding is in February. I wasn't planning on hanging around these parts by then. What do I do?

Whatever happens, I wanna be able to vote in the 2016 US elections in person. I mailed my absentee ballot for this year's local elections last Thursday and I felt like cheating. Why am I voting when I don't even contribute taxes there (something I feel strongly about the voting populace here)? And, no, this isn't a new experience since I've already voted in absentia back in 2012.

Weekly Ketchup 42 - Money/Talks

It was my birthday this past week. I wanted to have this Broadway-themed Halloween costume party where me and my friends would dress up as characters from Broadway shows and sing songs from the musicals. I had a venue in mind already but, obviously, that didn't happen because, well, money and that I didn't have enough of it. I was hoping to score another gig a month ago, which I obviously didn't get as well, otherwise this would be a totally different blog altogether. The thing is: I have been saving money since the year started, which has been great, but I'm also not making enough from my day job and I'm not scoring enough moonlighting work to splurge on a birthday party. A big consideration is that I am also leaving soon.

When I was younger, say 15 years ago, I thought that I'd be financially okay by this age. That I'd have all the money in the world to splurge on my hobbies and interests and that I wouldn't ever go hungry. To be fair, those expectations were met, except that I also imagined I'd be living in an apartment and paying rent but that didn't happen either because the reality is that I can't have my cake and eat it too.

I honestly don't know how to be wise or smart with money or even how to make them other than to work, be productive, and create something I can be proud of in the future. For me, that's always been in stories - whether in photos, in videos, or in words. Yes, even in ads and design & layout. I've been offered to change careers into something more lucrative (*ahem*BPOs*ahem*) or engage in different schemes of multi-level marketing, which, more than anything, offers "financial stability" but I just didn't see the value in any of it other than the money. I've also been offered long-term investments with the already little money I make but that would mean giving up on theater, movies, books, and everything else that I enjoy.

Money today just makes me happy but money in the future would just make me less miserable, which are two totally different things. This mentality of mine scares the living shit out of me because, as much as it makes perfect sense, it's also not practical or sustainable. I realize that the solution to all of this is to move to a bigger, higher paying  company, which I'm not willing to do as I've already discussed here, or get promoted, which my current company isn't willing to do. And now I'm back to square one: Spend less and make more money elsewhere. Seriously, if I had been born incredibly good-looking, I'd whore myself out to the highest bidder. Yeah, I'm that kind of person.

Yesterday's new haircut plus today's new frame.
I thought I looked hella good until people said I look more like Olaf.
I just can't win!

Yet, despite unmet expectations, I can't really complain. I always say I'm still better off than a great number of people, I've always managed to stave off emergencies despite my limited means, and what I currently make is really more than enough - if only I wasn't me. But I am who I am and, as was evidenced to me this birthday week despite the absence of a big party, people like me well enough, which is something I wouldn't have been able to say 15 years ago so I still win in life!

Which brings me to my next thought.

I'm not really sure what I enjoy the most about engaging in conversations or interactions in general: That they let me get to know another person or that I get to know more about myself. This entire ramble about money was borne out of a conversation I had with geek friend Paul over pad thai and pho yesterday after checking out Uniqlo (another thing that was borne out of a particularly interesting conversation over Facebook). I already knew that he fared a little better than me in the salary department (though he does pay bills and rent that I don't), but he is also incredibly prepared. The word "mutual fund" figured into the conversation. There's just something so adult about it that's just not me and I find it fascinating.

Me at Uniqlo before Paul arrived. Didn't much care for it.

Another conversation that got me thinking about my status in the universe is one I had hours after that with geek friends Denice and TJ at Uno Morato about, well, porn. I'd like to think that I'm well-versed in the perverse but apparently porn and porn stars are something that people talk openly about now - as if they're regular summer blockbusters. Denice and TJ bandied names and words with the crowd at Uno Morato and I was like, "WTF?" I have never felt more like a prude my entire life. To be fair, I have seen my share of porn and I find it disgusting. I don't understand how disproportionate body parts and bad production can be titilating. Short Bus, though.

Checked out the Saturday morning cartoons thon.
I arrived really late though.

I suppose this shouldn't really be any surprising given last week's revelation (do they go hand-in-hand?), which my teammates (Nabs, Marge, Kai, and - for the first time - Nina) at last Tuesday's Relik Trivia Night (where I ended up celebrating my birthday) pulled me aside to talk further about. Questions like "Do I fancy anybody at the bar?", "What's my type?", and other questions but I was fumbling for answers! It was so awkward! I felt like I was improvising a role that people were forcing me to play and I was talking out of my body (to be fair, I was also a bit sloshed)!

From Jovan's Facebook. WE WON!!!

My reaction to these scenarios obviously speaks volumes about me more than the other party. Like I've already established, I relish my oddities because I'd be boring without them. It's the adaptive nature of evolution at work, I guess. With no looks or money smarts to bank on, I'd need talent and an ebullient personality to survive. One, I can work on (and have been working on); the other, I either have or don't - and nature has at least given me that.

Now if only I can make money off of my neuroses. Hmmm.
Maybe a sitcom or webshow about me and my equally eccentric dog?

Weekly Ketchup 41 - My One Regret About Growing Older

No, I'm not about to go on a ramble of insecurities, mistakes, and regrets about turning another year older in a few days, though I very well should. This past week alone, social media has brought to my attention that a couple of org-mates from college who pretty much received the same education as I did were now either teaching or being deployed to other countries. I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm just a tad envious but they got it going on and good for them! Meanwhile, I'm still crawling through, learning on the job and celebrating every little gig I get. Just today, I got to cover another baptism/birthday combo with my trusty new camera. Just a few days ago, I sent in a new article for Planet Philippines. While either doesn't really make me much money (none of what I do or try to do really does), that I get to do both, among other things, is a dream enough come true. Maybe someday whatever I do will take me places. Maybe someday I'll be so good that I'll be invited to teach. Or maybe not. But right now I'm happy that I can tell my 23-year old self that "you're doing exactly what you would imagined you would be doing ten years after college graduation - writing articles, making videos, taking photos, etc".

Boho Quiz Night. Our team, the Candlenicks, won! 

No, I'm also not about to begrudge time and nature for aging me. Yes, there is gray in my hair and my hairline has receded a bit (my bangs have all but disappeared). My face has gotten a bit gaunt, my lips thinner, and I wrinkle. I say bring it on - it means that I made it! I'm still here and I'm healthy. As unfortunate as it is, I've already outlived some friends from college. So yeah, let time do its worst! I'm prepared, though if it could do it in little increments over a long period of time, that'll be great. I don't wanna make wearing sunscreen a daily habit - something that I started doing this week. Also: If my body would just let me enjoy life without breaking down easily, that'd be great too. I'd like to enjoy more of last Wednesday's Boho Quiz Night, which was followed by an impromptu YouTube karaoke. I'd also like to get more from my day. Yesterday's Star Wars Reads at Glorietta 5, while fun, left me exhausted that I didn't have energy to go out and party some more.

Chaos at Star Wars Reads Manila

And no, this is not a spree of tired cliches and pretentious adage about what "growing up" means (because really why?) but I do want to point out some things. I am now roughly the same age when my mom had me (my dad was way older) so some things do bear thinking. Having been surrounded by families and children this entire weekend, maybe it's also a thematic question to ask: Marriage, family, and children? I guess same with success, aging, and maturity, I could care less about having any of them (Yeah, I say it now).

Here's the thing: I don't know if these things will ever be in the cards for me. I'm certainly not closed to the idea. Maybe I'll grow into the role of a family man someday but it isn't something I'm actively working towards.

Obviously because it also takes more than just my efforts.

While I think I've made peace with the various aspects of my personality so much that I feel like a complete person who can take on anything, this is the one area where I fail completely. Heck, I'm 33 and I've never even once gone on a date, flirted, hooked up, much less been in a relationship. I just never really saw myself as good enough for anyone. To be fair, people have gone up to me to make me believe otherwise but I just got creeped out most of the time. And yes I've known infatuation as well but I just dismissed at that: Infatuation. True enough, whatever it was I thought I was feeling went away as quickly as it came.

I'm obviously an incredibly strange person, which is one of two reasons I've always had in my head about why I've refused to let anyone else get intimately closer; the other being that I didn't like the idea of my life, my time especially, being intertwined with another person's (people in relationships call it "compromise"). Now I'm thinking "strange" means "interesting" and maybe "intertwining" isn't so bad after all. So if there's one thing I do regret about growing older is that I wouldn't know what it's like to be young and "in love" enough to write about it. I've let youth and beauty lapse without having lived the complete experience.

Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, it's the things I didn't get to do that I regret the most. Now having put this nugget of information out here, what next? I guess I'll let you know once I've figured it out.

Weekly Ketchup 40 - When It Pours

After relatively quiet weekends with virtually no social obligations to meet, I decided that I was gonna go to EVERY EVENT I was invited to this past week. This after many months of skipping conventions and other events, which, to be fair, has done wonders for my wallet and my time (being definitively "anti-social" allowed me to advance in the many games and ebooks I acquired the past year).

While tiring myself out in pursuit of geek activities (remember Geek Week?) isn't really new to me (lord knows how I feel about repetitive activities, especially conventions), something just clicked into place earlier this week: A sudden burst of motivation, inspiration, and productivity.

The team at Relik's Trivia Tuesday. We lost by 2 points. Bummer!

See, for a long time now I've been thinking about launching a vlog series about geek life in Manila. I actually shot some footage a couple of years ago (in standard definition) but never got around to compiling them into a watchable (and hopefully shareable) video. So yeah, it's been a long time coming and the footage have just been gathering virtual dust on my hard drive.

Now that I have a better high definition camera and with so many geek events happening back-to-back, I thought it would be a great idea to restart and actually pursue the project. This would all have been pretty dandy but, as with any good story, there must always be conflict. Unfortunately, inspiration isn't the only thing that came pouring in heavily this past week. I'm talking about the effin' weather! On more than one occasion, the rains have (literally) dampened my plans. Our house was also flooded in TWICE this week! It's ridiculous!

Winners' selfie after Amici Quiz Night last Thursday

Also: Being out every night wreaks havoc on my budget and diet (yeah I said it). I've been trying to cut back on my gluttonous behavior because my pants haven't been fitting well these past few months but I just can't help it when I'm out with friends. And when you eat, you spend! I didn't get to attend Geek Fight Wednesday because of the rain and because I spent too much the night before at Trivia Tuesday. But that's just on food!

Since most of the events I attended ran well into the night, another consideration and reservation I had was security. The entire week I was worried about going home with my expensive camera that I won't be able to replace anytime soon if it gets stolen. I don't drive and I can't afford to take a cab every night (I had to take a cab Tuesday evening because I wasn't feeling well) so I was risking a lot to pursue this project.

Pirates at Ludo! Got to play Pirate Fluxx, Walk The Plank, and Munchkins!

Rain and limited money were the reasons why I had to walk a long way to get to Ludo for Play Like A Pirate Day on Friday evening. Come CosplayMania the next day, I had to deal with EVERYTHING - keeping my camera secure from the rain and theft, not feeling well, and working with a limited budget!

Was it all worth it?

My only picture from CosplayMania. From geek friend Adrian's Instagram.
That's other geek friend Alec as Starlord.

Well, all throughout the week, I had to remind myself why I was doing this. Aside from hanging out with friends and the satisfaction of completing a personal project, I was thinking I could use the experience to beef up my portfolio in case an opportunity to earn money from doing similar projects comes along. I'm subscribed to many YouTube channels right now (the Buzzfeed channels and John Oliver are my latest favorites) and I would love to participate in that industry as well.

Hopefully, I'll have fewer things to stress about in the next few events I plan to cover. Star Wars Day, Komikon, and the Christmas ToyCon are all in the pipeline but I'll start working on editing the footage I already took this week! As always, the chief motivation is just to be able to say "I've done it".

This week's newest discovery is John Oliver.
I plowed through his entire playlist.
So informative and entertaining!

Weekly Ketchup 39 - Three Things

First thing: Late last week, there was a typhoon. Been there, done that.
Along with the rising flood waters came the sudden swelling of my lower lip. I suspect it was either the pin prick of a sore I noticed a couple of nights before (either I bit on it or an insect did) or the unsanitary way I shaved that part of my face just the day before (yeah, it's a thing). Either way, it was itchy, heavy, and painful and, once again, another medical emergency that I couldn't afford to have at the moment.
Both unfortunate circumstances threw a wrench at last weekend plans, which should've included Play Like A Pirate Day, the Manila International Book Fair, and game night with a bunch of geek friends. I did see a doctor when the sky cleared up and was prescribed an antibiotic. Thankfully, no surgery or needles were required.
While I spent the entire weekend feeling feverish (maybe my body's reaction to the rather strong medication), the rest of the work week was just me going through my normal daily routine, except with a comically large lower lip (and a bit of puss). Thankfully, the damn thing has healed now and life is back to normal.

I was glad that I didn't have to see people; then I snapped this selfie.

Second thing: I received an unexpected but very welcome call last Monday from someone I haven't heard from in a couple of years. The nature of our conversation has immediate ramifications for my plans to leave. It may derail them, in fact. On one hand, I don't want months of planning to unravel. On the other, the opportunity offered to me happens only once in a lifetime. Sorry if I'm being vague but I've been sworn to secrecy but I'm sharing a bit of it here because I kinda wanna track the progression of this story as well, Hopefully, I get to dedicate an entry to this situation in the coming weeks.
Right now, I'm trying to focus on the solution aka to have my cake and eat it too. It's a dilemma, to be sure, but I find that focusing on the problem is just gonna weigh me down (like that time). But this new development is gonna involve plenty of sacrifices on my part but, hopefully, it forces me to grow and evolve. So challenge accepted (I guess?)

Lastly, this past week is memorable for the number of pitchforks slung. I agree that rape is not funny and leashing a performer is distasteful (notice I did not say "female"). However, the number of opinions and discussions surrounding both incidents are already staggering plus I already spent last week on an overarching ramble about another societal issue so I'm not gonna get into them here. I will just point out three things:
a) The irony of timing as both issues went viral at the same time that Emma Watson's speech at the United Nations did.
b) Watson, of course, emphasized the responsibility of males to take up the feminist cause as well. The thing is: As someone whose earliest memories happened during the time of a female president; whose parental figures were my grandmother, my mom, and my aunt; whose earliest comic heroes were the X-men and their powerful female characters; and who has worked with more female bosses, the idea that women are inferior in any way have always been alien to me. While that may not mean much coming from a guy with a queer identity, I look at my closest male friends who've had a traditional hetero-normative upbringing and I think we see women the same way. Must be a geek thing.
c) I do wonder: If rape did not exist or if it wasn't a prevalent crime, would joking about it be simply cathartic? After all, Greek dramas were all sprung from exploring aspects of the human experience that were not realized at the time. Similarly, if male patriarchy or slavery were figments of our imagination, would the image of a man holding a woman on a leash just mean to satisfy our curiosity? And to tie this matter off with last week's conundrums: If it had been a black woman holding a Filipino man (two cultures with no common histories) on a leash, can it just be art?

Obviously, I didn't really see a female being ensnared by the patriarchy. I just saw another human being and it is disturbing (but was it also cathartic?), especially since the concept did not call for it. Writing this just now made me realize I wasn't as offended by the imagery as my friends were.

Just like racial and cultural issues, matters about sex, gender, and representation are important to me not just as a person but also as a would-be creator. Unfortunately, our lot in life is that we're born either one or the other, so the "write what you know" principle is harder to follow when you're talking about the opposite sex or people of other cultures so it helps to collaborate as well as to keep the dialog open.
In the age of social media, however, there is the added challenge of sifting through wanton activism and knee-jerk reactions to get to little nuggets of enlightened opinions. Thankfully, there is an abundance of smart people in my life to mine them from.

Weekly Ketchup 38 - Racial Ramblings

As soon as I finished last week's catch-up, I immediately had an idea what this week's blog was gonna be about since the thought weighed heavily on my head days after posting it.

When I made the jump from talking about 300: Rise of an Empire to the Islamic State, I did not mean to imply that modern-day Persians (aka the Turks and the Iranians) are in anyway related to the terrorist group. I actually had to research about the difference between Persian and Arabian people because for the longest time, and I'm sure I'm not the only one guilty of this, I thought they were one and the same mainly because of geography and religion. I guess it's the same how some people can't differentiate between Koreans and Chinese (or even Japanese) and assume that the cultures are interchangeable. This doesn't necessarily mean that lumping unrelated peoples together is racist but I do understand how the ignorance can be offensive, regardless of the intent.

Though I wonder why everyone else but white people seem quick to cry "racist stereotyping". Since I talked about my love of the fantasy genre last week, allow me to make examples of elves (a Norse creature) and satyrs (a Greek creature) or, more similarly, fairies and nymphs being lumped together in games and books. Why is noone crying foul over the homogenization of European culture?

I also wonder: People were up in arms when Ziyi Zhang, a Chinese woman, was cast as the lead in Memoirs of a Geisha but I don't remember a single protest raised against the "Indianization" of the Fire Nation, which had a more Japanese inspiration in the cartoons, in "The Last Airbender". The latter, of course, had bigger problems when it was accused of white-washing peoples that had distinctively Inuit and Chinese origins.

Of course, the difference between "Geisha" and "Last Airbender" was that the former was explicitly set in Japan - a real location - whereas the former was set in a fictional world, so I can maybe give the producers a little leeway when it comes to reinterpreting the source material for the big screen to appeal to a wider domestic audience (same thing that happened with the Dragonball movie).

I admit I'm also given to a bit of bias. I really don't mind if a traditionally white character gets made over into a totally different race in a reinterpreted adaptation. Michael Clark Duncan as the Kingpin? Sold! Fan Bing Bing as Blink? Loved it! Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch? Well, let's see how this goes but I'm open. There really isn't much room to wiggle here since these are characters that have been canonically illustrated as white people with a back history set in an idealized "real" world that specifically establishes such but I'm still all for it! But hell will be raised if War Machine or the Falcon were depicted as white.

That being said, I do wonder if a reinterpretation of "The Lord of the Rings" or "A Song of Ice and Fire" set in a more Asian-inspired fictional world, going directly against the authors' visions, would work? I wonder if I would be open to the idea. Right now, I'm a little curious about it as that sounds like an awesome production, travesty to the source material aside.

Admittedly, the modes of pop culture I consume - fantasy novels, comics, cartoons, even the CGI-laden summer blockbusters, and games (possibly) are all constructs of white people's imaginations, so it makes sense that some of the early works, even some of the current ones, in those genre were about them. I guess noone's crying foul about the homogenization of European cultures because the perpetrators are themselves white. We, as non-white consumers, cannot feign ignorance either because our education system has been Euro-centric from the get-go, which is why it's easier for us to accept the Greeks as heroes and the Persians as villains. Heck, I knew more about Greek mythology from high school than I ever did about Filipino lores. And no, it can't be that empire-building just leaves a bad taste in our mouth because the Romans and Alexander had empires and are venerated for it.

Why all this matters to me has to do with what I intend to leave in this world as my life's work: A fantasy epic that has gods, monsters, magic, heroes, and all sorts of creatures. One of the original ideas for the story was a desert-dwelling, moon-worshipping tribe of villainous ogres, which was immediately dropped after 9/11. I also wanted to present a human race that was far more diverse than what JRR Tolkien had in his legendarium, so I had main characters that resembled and were based on American Indians, Chinese, and Persian peoples. Meanwhile, the human halves of my humanoid creatures (aka harpies and minotaurs) are black. And yet my main character was a white boy. Even the gods I imagined then were Greek-inspired so they were naturally white.

As time wore on and my knowledge of the real world increased and deepened, the fictional world I have in my head also evolved, albeit somewhat conflictingly. The gods are no longer white humans but magical creatures instead. I have now added more humans into the world, including those based on the East Indians and the Africans. All of them inhabiting the same world as elves, fairies, djinns, dragons, and vampires! I feel like in the effort to not be racially biased, I have created this rather colorful but convoluted world and lost track of the story!

Another question that have plagued me in recent years was whether to write my Filipino ancestry into the story. After all, Tolkien drew much inspiration from his Irish ancestry for his Hobbits. I tried to rewrite the story in this vein when I joined NaNoWriMo a few years ago but I ended up with a totally different story than I originally intended! This got me thinking: Regardless of whether I find a large enough audience, should I bear the responsibility of bringing my world into this genre that I love and aspire to participate in?

On a related story: This past week, some of my friends from UP have been accusing the NU Pep Squad (and other squads) of "cultural misappropriation" in their choice of themes following last week's cheerdancing competition for which the UP Pep Squad, despite their strong advocacy theme, placed second. While I don't doubt my friends' objectivity about the matter, it can't be helped to taste bitterness in their objections. The same can be said about me expressing this observation coming from the school that placed third.

Now all was on my mind a few days ago when I thought: Maybe the only way my work would not come of as Euro-centric, racist, ignorant, culturally misappropriated and not worry about representing my ethnicity was to instead create a whole new race of humans that are far removed what exists now - like people gray skins with blue hair. I can take what little tidbits about real cultures however it would serve the story. How cool would that be to have samurai-like warriors headquartered in a pyramid, for example?

Of course, I'm rambling about a piece of work that doesn't exist yet but as my life's work, I need to really think hard about these things and educate myself.

Anyway, I'm currently feverish, fighting off a lip infection, so I apologize if this week's edition isn't studded with links and images. I'll update when I feel better, hopefully this coming week.

Weekly Ketchup 37 - Flight of Fantasy

Geekdom is a vast realm of varied interests and I have long cast my lot with fantasy and mythology. Last week alone, I found myself gorging on as much magic and fantasy as I can handle - and somehow found some connections between my hobbies, current events, and existentialist questions.

First things first: I finished the entire second book of Avatar: The Legend of Korra and, while not awful, it just didn't quite capture my imagination as much as Legend of Aang did. Its world of automobiles, "movers", mechas, etc. were just alien to me. In fact, the only episodes I fully enjoyed were the saga of Wan (spin-off please?). I would've appreciated the world better if bending somehow explained the new technologies. That being said, I'm sure still gonna follow book three.

Wan/Raava vs. Vaatu
(Source)

On the gaming front, I'm still on Warlords Battlecry 2 and Age of Wonders 2 (yeah, it takes a while). I've been playing WB2 on a daily basis since Geekstractions and I've now conquered three quarters of the world (with a sad win-loss record of 1:2). Meanwhile, I've been spending my free Saturdays on AoW2, playing a couple of really long levels at a time, and is now one level away from finishing the game! Yay me!

Book-wise, I started Daniel Arenson's Firefly Island. I didn't remember the premise of the book and why I bought it so I went into blindly, not certain if I liked it a couple of chapters in. But the more I unraveled Arenson's world, I became so much more invested that I plowed through about eight chapters last Saturday! The narrative is easy enough to follow, the characters are likable, and the world-building was wonderful! It reminds me a lot of David Eddings' and Brandon Sanderson's works!

I also caught up with some movies that I deliberately missed because of bad reviews: Wrath of the Titans, The Immortals, and 300: Rise of the Empire. Titans was just plain awful in every conceivable angle while Immortals and Empire were serviceable enough - they were at least pretty. My main problem with the mythology in Titans and Immortals, though, was that the "twilight of the gods" was a Norse concept and not Greek. Can somebody just make a film about Ragnarok and be done with it?

Coincidentally, I saw Rise of an Empire last Thursday - exactly the anniversary of 9/11. Just the day before, Barrack Obama addressed the ISIS situation. It was then that I acknowledged (internally) that I am afraid, especially at the prospect of another world war (thinking about Russia and North Korea as well). While violent conflicts are par for the course of any fantasy epic in any medium, I don't think I'm prepared to handle such a situation if it hits close to home.

Gorgo and Artemisia were the best part of the movie!

While we're on the subject of fantasy and religion, I've always wondered what it said about me that I am now averse towards the magical and fantastic doctrines of organized religion but sold on anything with dragons, fairies, avatars, titans, and the like. Then again, fantasy doesn't force me to believe that wizards are real the same way that religions venerate their saints and prophets. Then again, I'm no atheist. I'd still like to believe in a powerful unknowable force that permeates the universe. Maybe that's why I haven't lost my sense of wonder? Or maybe they're not connected?

Anyway, I also had the pleasure of teaming up with Paolo and Denice, both members of the Geek Fight committee, at last Wednesday's Boho Quiz Night hosted by Jon (one of my usual quiz night teammates). We didn't win but it was a fun evening nonetheless. I got to participate in Paolo's impromptu mini trivia game at our table since he was showing us some of the questions he used before. As usual, if it's not related to fantasy and mythology (or comics), I'm useless.

In other news:
I went to my college friend Hanna's kid's baptism way up in Bulacan yesterday. It's always good to see the old gang, especially Tintin who's been based in Singapore for more than 5 years. Of course, I found something deplorable about the priest's sermon. It's the thing I hate most about religious doctrines: The divisiveness.

We tried to catch the livestream of the UAAP Cheerdance Competition on the road but eventually our feed was cut off just as it was getting interesting. And while the general Thomasian community is glad that the UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe finally made it back to the top 3, I'm glad they delivered a performance that I can get behind because the past few years have just been mediocre at best.

Weekly Ketchup 36 - Overcoming Depression?

Last Tuesday morning, while on the train to my office from the printer's (ie, not my usual daily routine), I was suddenly and unexpectedly overcome with an overwhelming sense of grief - for no apparent reason.

Every time I get this way, I just keep thinking to myself that it's a chemical imbalance and proceed to busy myself and do something - anything - to get out of that state because it's an awful place to be! Even daydream!

Of course, being stuck on that train meant I had nowhere else to go. Thankfully, I had my sunglasses on to hide any external manifestation of that inexplicable despair. But for some reason, I didn't have music blasting in my ears like I usually do (then again, that morning was not my routine).

And so I scrambled to find songs to play and hopefully drown out my unseen foe. It was then that I remembered a couple of things I wrote a while back: one, when I wondered why I'm suddenly allergic to being idle; and two, the wandering and wondering voices in my head (figuratively, of course; I'm not insane - yet).

As I calmed myself down, I began to wonder whether my interests in a variety of things, most recently my search for new comics to follow, and my entertaining these "voices" are my means of subduing or coping with this unseen enemy. My hypothesis is that in those moments of complete stillness, when I don't think or feel anything, that's when it strikes. Of course, I can't really confirm that since I didn't keep records of previous episodes and there's no way to test it conclusively moving forward since I am now aware of it.

If there is indeed a correlation between keeping my head busy and fighting off what I can only describe as an anxiety attack, then this blog is a liability. There is a certain catharsis about putting thoughts into words. It frees my head of clutter, which could either leave space for more vapid ramblings or, as I have now theorized, leave me open to irrational bouts of depression.

(As I write this, it occurs to me that something else might also be at work here. If it's just a random chemical imbalance as I rationalized, why is it so easy for me to stave off with various distractions?)

Outside of this brief episode, I did have a good week.
Or maybe I'm just overcome with distractions?

First of all, I finished Mistborn: The Final Empire. I liked it well enough.

Read a few more FREE comics from Kobo: Midnight Nation (didn't like; set up mysteries I couldn't care about) and Hunter Killer (didn't think I'd enjoy it but I did).

Started watching Legend of Korra season two. I have yet to make my mind whether I love it (the steam punk may have a lot to do with it but that's a carry over from season one) but I do think the conflict Korra had with her mentors in the first couple of episodes felt a little forced.

The alternate ending to How I Met Your Mother had been leaked ahead of the DVD release. I already shared my views on the matter but it's an interesting timing for me since I just saw this video a few days ago and I thought it was pretty spot on. It's from a channel I subscribed to not too long ago but not in time to catch this as it went live.

Lastly: I went to Geek Fight after a long while along with my usual teammates and placed second. We're pretty split actually as a bunch of us were also in Amici for the monthly quiz night there (they won). We could've won but there were so many instances when someone had the answer but was unsure and someone else would suggest another answer and it would turn out the previous answer was already correct.

So that's my week. Hoping for a good week ahead!

Weekly Ketchup 35 - Comics and 4DX!

I had a completely different idea about how this past week was gonna unfold and what this blog was gonna be about. When I said last week that I was gonna have something more coherent for this week, it was because I expected that, by this time, I've already seen 9 Works Theatrical's staging of "The Last Five Years" and gotten sized up for a costume I was gonna wear as a member of Enchantment Ph's Disney cosplay group in time for CosplayMania.

Well, life happened. Tickets to this weekend's show were sold out and it's the last one. And, as it turned out, Enchantment Ph wasn't gonna be at CosplayMania. So why bother?

While neither is a complete loss (I mean, I can live without either), I was really looking forward to them. For pretty much the entire year, I've been shaving off some of my regular activities and declining events for the purposes of saving money, so it was kind of a big deal for me that I got excited about the show and cosplaying enough that I considered dipping into my savings. It's musical theater and Disney after all!

Thankfully, I have other interests and this week I had some time to delve into my comics-adled self.

For starters, I spent a great deal of the week going through Comixology, the Google Play Store, and Kobo looking for new worlds to discover and explore. I've been actually doing it for months and so far the only viable DRM-free digital platform (similar to Kobo, CD Baby, and GOG.com) is ImageComics.com, which obviously narrows down my choices to those offered by that publisher. Comixology's recently unveiled DRM-Free backups, however, has opened my choices up to other publishers like Zenescope and Top Cow. Both companies offer free but DRM-locked #0 or #1 issues of their respective titles on Google Play (for Zenescope) and Kobo (for Top Cow) but, as much as they dabble in the fantasy genre, what little I've glimpsed of their universes in the past few months have so far failed to excite me.

I tried to broaden my horizon this past week by sampling some of Arcana Studios and Aspen's free offerings on Comixology. Both companies also dabble in the realm of fantasy but I just can't get past the DRM restrictions despite liking what I've seen. Some of Aspen's titles are also available DRM-Free from DriveThruComics. If the site can just sign more publishers up and offer more file formats, I feel like the company will be my go-to site for digital comics but at the moment I'm only test-driving their services by availing some free issues.

Pretty impressive list of publishers already

That being said, allow me to deviate from the topic of digital distribution to the actual content that these publishers offer, especially as it relates to the recent controversy surrounding Milo Manara's variant cover to Spider-Woman no. 1. I feel like some of the anger towards Manara is unfounded considering that drawing women in provocative poses is what he's known to do. I think the problem really is that Marvel commissioned him to do this variant cover in the first place, which makes me wonder why this particular cover is gaining so much heat when this is just the latest in a long line of Manara-commissioned Marvel variants. My take is that, as much as it pains me to admit this in 2014, there is still a segment of the market that gets off on sexified women in comics and, I guess, this is a variant cover to attract that market. Nobody has to buy it - the regular cover is just fine and I'm sure the rest of the actual story in the issue puts Jessica Drew (one of my all-time favorite Avengers, by the way) in very good light.

Which brings me back to the publishers I mentioned above. With the exception of Image Comics (whose 90s incarnation had so much to atone for), it's hard for me to take their titles seriously because just look at these. I'm probably being unfair as I'm sure their comics is brilliantly written if I really give them a chance but the prevalent imagery in their books sure looks like they're intended for a particular market.

There is, however, a shining beacon in the form of Dynamite, which is one of the publishers that are part of Comixology's DRM-Free back-up program. They also recently launched their own DRM-Free digital comics store, though their selection is not that extensive yet. With luck, they become as viable as Image Comics come Cyber Monday later this year and offer up their entire back catalog at a discount because I've perused their titles and I'm already interested in quite a few. when Comixology's DRM-free back up program was launched a few weeks ago, I sampled Project Super Powers with a couple of free zero issues and I'm in! I want to read the entire thing! I've also been thinking about Masks and King's Watch for a while now (they're like the Justice League and the Avengers but with pulp characters), so I'm looking forward to those. I just tried Kirby Genesis today via the free zero issue and I'm also game but, for some reason, the DRM-Free back-up isn't available. The series is currently on sale on Comixology but until I'm certain of the DRM-free back up, it's a no-go for me.

The best thing about these titles is that they're finite miniseries, so the stories draw to a close instead of goes on (much like Watchmen) so there's no need for me to follow them for years on end. Which brings me to another title I'm attraced to: George Perez's upcoming 6-issue miniseries Sirens. Remember last week when I said I've been daydreaming about Avengers stories? Well, one of those was an all-female Avengers squad and this lineup looks a lot like the one I have in my head. I see the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Jocasta, She-Hulk. Obviously, that's not them but I wouldn't be surprised if these characters are Perez's analogues to Earth's Mightiest Heroines. Boom! Studios, this comics' publisher, currently doesn't offer any DRM-free digital comics, nor is it part of Comixology's backup program so I might just pick up the physical copy or wait for the trade paperback.

See how different the women in this cover is.

Lastly, there is another comic I'm currently interested in, mainly because of last night's new experience. Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero is on Comixology but is neither DRM-Free nor on sale. Unfortunately, it's also not available on Google Play or Kobo. I might have to scour the world for a physical copy, hopefully on sale. And, yes, I'm only interested in it because I just saw Pacific Rim last night with a bunch of friends. I didn't see it when it came out last year because the premise just didn't tickle my fancy. It was just another CGI-laden summer blockbuster as far as I was concerned. But, having finally seen it, in 4DX no less - I find that the movie actually did something not even the Marvel movies could do: elicit a physical reaction from me in the theater that doesn't involve laughing (or crying for that matter). I was literally at the edge of my seat grabbing hold of my armrest and clenching my jaw as the jaegers and kaijus duked it out. It was definitely an intense experience.

As much as I enjoyed 4DX, though, I don't think any amount of special atmospheric effect is going to save a bad movie (*cough*Bayformers*cough*). I'd like to see another 4DX movie again as long as I know the movie's good to begin with, though I can't imagine what other movie would be perfect for this format? Gravity, perhaps?

Oh, and just to connect the movie to something I said a few paragraphs ago, gratuitousness goes both ways in 2014 and I think the filmmakers knew what they were doing when they hired Charlie Hunnam for the movie.

It looks like I ended the week on a pretty high note, despite the disappointments, so I'd like to think it's still a good week!

Weekly Ketchup 34 - General Updates and Addenda

Lest my current work problems turn into a three-episode arc, I'm just gonna append the experience of the past few weeks with a simple "things had a way of working themselves out". So, yeah, I'm slowly creeping back to my hopeful self.

Thankfully, the rest of the week passed without much fanfare, which brings me to the subject of this week's blog: What to write about? I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some thoughts that have been buzzing around in my head for a while now. These are mostly ramblings that were in drafts of earlier entries but had to be cut off because the blogs were getting too long. Either that or there just hadn't been an impetus to share them in a given week. Until now.

Changing Social Behavior

A couple of weeks ago, I ran this list of geeky distractions. What didn't make the cut of that rather long blog was the behind-the-scenes dilemma I had throughout that entire week about whether I should share the movie, music, book, or game I've been checking out. In real time. On all my social networks.

The thing was that I didn't want this blog to be a curation of what I've been sharing on social media the past week. I didn't want it to be like an extended edition of what I've already shared. That's just too much time sharing, opining, and talking about the same set of subjects.

And so I resolved to keep quiet about my new interests until I can blog about them. It's not in real time and I don't even get a lot of views but I do get to archive my thoughts, which is why I still prefer blogging in long form as opposed to sharing random bursts of opinion or activity.

Waging A Silent War

One of the earliest entries on this series was about random thoughts I had while walking home from work. In another blog not too long ago, I briefly mentioned how jeepneys have never been part of my reality. I'm aware that they're there and I do take them on occasion, especially late at night when buses and trains are no longer available but, until the Manila bus ban, I've never had to take them on a daily basis.

These past few months I've devised ways to cope with my current predicament. One way, as one might guess, was that I've been walking home. Thankfully, the distance between my house and office isn't all that great and I could use the bit of exercise given my sedentary lifestyle.

Another way I've been dealing, especially in the morning on my way to work, is holding on to my payment until I'm near the office and satisfied with the journey. Because the worst part about taking these piles of scrap metal are smoking drivers, everytime a driver lights a stick, I get off - without paying - and transfer to another jeep. I will also transfer if the driver plays really loud awful music. I realize that this sounds cruel but as a consumer, I need to get this satisfaction from a service I'm paying for.

Consumer vs Creator

Another earlier post was how everything seems to be accessible online now, which has been rather good for me since I got to open myself up to new and even old books, games, and comics.

Not too long ago I also wrote about some first world problems I had during a recent storm that took out our power and Internet. What I cut from that entry was my hypothesis that I was much more creative and imaginative back when I didn't have much access to anything. I remember one stormy and blacked out day when I came up with an entire X-books crossover. At the time, there was nothing else to do and I also didn't read many X-men comics because I couldn't afford them.

In all my years as an Avengers fan, most of which time I've been able to afford everything, I've never once imagined a single storyline, let alone an entire crossover epic.  However, recently, now that I'm not following the comics (not because I can't afford them, rather because they weren't coming up with the type of stories I want to read), I've been daydreaming about fantasy story arcs I want to see! I even like launching a fan fiction series - but I would still like for it to be graphic, even if I'm not an artist. I just gotta iron out the story!

I shared this on my Instagram a few months ago.
I actually imagined a war game back when I could only fantasize about playing one.

That's just three of the most badly written ramblings ever but I do enjoy putting my thoughts into words, however haphazardly, otherwise they would just fester in my head. That being said, I'm looking forward to a more coherent blog next week!

Oh, and this blog was delayed because of two very important people:

Yesterday, I was recovering from a party we had the night before to celebrate geek friend Hank's birthday!

Photo from Lynn's Facebook

Earlier today, I was at lunch to celebrate the birthday of another geek friend, Carlo!

I'm sure there's a better photo somewhere but this will do for now.
From Tania's Facebook