BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS
Sunday, February 29, 2004
The OSCAR Upset of the YEAR for animation nerds like me
HARVIE KRUMPET won the animated shorts Oscar! HAHAHAHA!
Harvie Krumpet is an Australian stopmotion piece by Adam Elliot. Although narrated by Geoffrey Rush, it is a small film in terms of budget and influence compared to Destino by Disney (with the late Dali), Boundin' by Pixar and Gone Nutty by Blue Sky (the Ice Age guys)! The only other small piece is Nibbles, but I don't even know why that got in, I can think of a lot more amazing indie animated shorts. Anyway, the best thing is Harvie is hardly animated! It's a lot of voice over narration and blinking puppets. Of course those are hilarious well-timed blinks but in terms of movement that's about it. What the film does have is pathos and character, it's a million times more mature and nuanced than Destino or the other films which are basically gag cartoons. This just goes to show that the non-animation Academy voters don't give a rat's ass if the animation is crafty. The writing still carries the day for viewers who aren't animators.
The Oscar for the animated short, I feel, is the most accessible Oscar of all. I have to confess, I have dreams of being nominated before I die (I have no dreams of winning, just being invited is enough then academy members can shoot me dead). Imagine you can make a film in your room with a pencil or puppets or your computer, alone with little or no money, and have a chance to walk the red carpet. That's why I hate it that these big studios are doing animated shorts (mainly to test technologies) and they're being nominated and I love the fact that they let a smaller film with lots of personality like Harvie Krumpet win.
'Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. And then there are others .'
While posting the drawings, I came across this from Donna's gallery in our joint Pbase account...
Galing, ang ganda. Nakaka-gising.
Today's doodles are brought to you by the letters P (for procrastination) and S (short-attention span)
1. a new superhero named 'The Shit.' As in 'I'm the Shit.' (after remembering Kati say 'When you present you're work you gotta act like you're the shit!')
2. Intergalactic Low-rider Police... protecting the galaxy from exposed butts (well, the ugly ones at least)
3. 'I look just like Buddy Holly...'
4. I couldn't remember what Robin's new costume looks like. The old one's cuter.
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Sabi nga ni Morrissey...
But that joke isn't funny anymore
It's too close to home
And it's too near the bone
It's too close to home
And it's too near the bone
More than you'll ever know ...
Friday, February 27, 2004
marc and a jet streak
my favorite picture from our old Joshua Tree trip, proudly walang retoke
Thursday, February 26, 2004
I am so out of it. 4 hours of sleep or something always takes me out. I can't focus on anything. Should've gone home an hour ago after my TA-ing. But I'm waiting for the free Cinema School Oscar Week barbecue. I don't know why we have one of those but it beats eating another frozen pizza. I've been eating a lot of microwaved food these days, I really have to go back to my salad diet soon. 30 minutes until the free burgers, then I want to go home, read the next chapter of Down & Dirty Pictures, sleep and dream of being Steven Soderbergh.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
kelan ako susunduin?
Monday, February 23, 2004
Friday we went to this fancy grill around Silverlake for Virginia's birthday. It had a nice big bar at the side of a homey but posh restaurant. The service was terribly slow and bitchy, we got there at about 9 and got served around 11 I think. That was probably because we were a group of 12 or something and a lot of us, being budget-conscious starving artists (mostly asian girls who are the most budget-conscious of all, I find) , just ordered salads so the waitress wasn't too happy serving us. Well, not me, I got the trout with couscous. The fish wasn't bad after a dash of salt although I didn't like the couscous since it seemed a bit wet (The last time I ate couscous was at Katre that small fancy restaurant off Timog and that was a lot better). But anything tastes great to me when paired with Newcastle from the tap. The bill came at midnight, they overcharged us a salad, and tacked on an 18 percent service charge on top. The good thing is that Virginia paid for all of us with her dad's card. Now, that's really rare around here, birthday celebrants are usually the ones that are treated out not the other way around like we do back home. And that was like a 400 dollar bill, so that's no joke. Damn, I should've ordered more beer, and a salad, and dessert.
***
Saturday we saw some 16 versions of the same scene for editing class. This is our first proper assignment and my first edited live action scene in a long time since I've been so focused on animation the last two years. I've been editing since high school even before the desktop editing revolution although I've mainly been doing music video-y type of things for school and work. Cutting straight narrative is a discipline that's very different from creating short music-driven spots, you are called to rely on your internal rhythms more, I think, than being guided by the score, also you rely on how you understand the scene's purpose, what important dramatic points should be accented. So I was surprised at how I cut my scene compared to other people and compared to my normally mtv-ish, frenzied and cut-happy editing inclinations. In the middle, I included a dramatic pause, a cut that slowed the scene down and emphasized the story beat. To do that I took out lines of dialogue that I found extraneous, lines that I felt, as I was editing, didn't have to be said and could have been better gleaned through the characters' behaviors and through gestures. A number of people expressed their appreciation of that flourish, nobody else had a cut like that (not to say that there wasn't a lot of great editing all around). Personally, I was happy because I saw how the last two years changed me. My rhythm's less frentic, I pay more attention to performace, gesture and silence. I find myself these days less literal, more visual, more in tune to dramatic beats, less inclined to do self-conscious tricks. Man, I'm growing old.
***
Saturday night was a party at Greg's. First time I was at Greg's place. As someone else in the party put it 'this is a house with taste.' Greg has a great cartoon yet punk rock type of aesthetic, and pairs it with a great love for quirky kitschy things like Mexican wrestling. Julie his girlfriend is a store designer at Anthropologie, a store I've always found interesting for its homey, earthy, yet dainty aesthetic. A match made in heaven and the plain yet tastefully decorated apartment proves it.
***
Sunday afternoon, Charles and I hung out at his Glendale apartment trying to figure out the schedule for my thesis project. Seeing if we need more people, if the deadlines are still reasonable. He has MS Project on his pc which is a great program I find for figuring out resources for a project. The schedule scares me but proves that the deliverables aren't impossible. Besides, impossible is an opinion, as the new Addidas campaign puts it. Impossible is nothing. So what more the possible?
The requirements to get a diploma are full animation on the whole film plus four colored/ finished scenes. That's not impossible. Am I graduating with a diploma? I'm pretty sure about it. Am I graduating with a totally finished film? Maybe. But that's why I've decided to hang around through the summer anyway.
Charles has a lovable yet makulit terrier named Jasper. Our old Irish Setter was named Jasper. I wonder why people have the inclination to call dogs 'Jasper?'
Sunday night was the finale of Sex and the City. It ended fine, the way you'd expect it to end. The story/character arcs are closed especially if you know how they started the series. Sure, it's trite, but I guess all closure is trite. And closure is what they teach you in scriptwriting class. A Chekovian zero ending would have been unsatisfying to mainstream viewers, Americans don't like ambigious endings, especially on tv. My complaint is that the ending wasn't brave, the writers didn't do anything brave, and Sex and the City is known for being brave, for pushing the envelope of television. In the end it just reinforces my belief that for all the wit and intelligence this series has exhibited it's still at core an american sitcom.
Friday, February 20, 2004
If you haven't noticed the new title of this blog is a song by Aztec Camera, the basically one-man-band that is Roddy Frame. I'm a Roddy loyalist even if Roddy's dropped the Aztec name and has been churning out less than stellar albums as of late. He's mellowed and his lyrics aren't up to par with the stuff he used to write when he was a teenage boy wonder touted as the next Elvis Costello. Although he does still put out great songs with elegant guitar work and some eloquent poetry, he never got big after some 80's hits. So I'm always amazed when Aztec is mentioned anywhere apart from the usual fangroup circles and I was very happy to read, of all people, KC Concepcion paraphrase a song by Aztec at the end of her piece.
She doesn't quote from the old popular Aztec songs that are staples in every New Wave remix, she paraphrases from the song 'Sun' from the post-New Wave-era album Frestonia, probably the most obscure, least loved, most sentimental album in Roddy's discography.
Ok, so the article is one of those rich-celebrity-abroad-griping-about-how-hard-life-is pieces which usually makes you roll your eyes and say Ay kawawa naman siya, nasa Paris siya. Aww. And I wish she quoted from a better song and a better album (I always thought Frestonia was the worst and although I sang along to Sun a lot, it's just an ok song in a weak album.) But I get where she's coming from and at least the writing shows promise and well, she's quoting obscure Aztec Camera and that's news to me.
KC's a chong! And if you know what that means, you're too old for KC :P! Well, if you're a guy.
I therefore conclude that people who quote Aztec Camera are good looking. Haha.
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Bading ang dating
Tangina talaga yang si John Osmena, nung nasa Manila ako meron siyang ad na ipinapakilala siya bilang yung senador na nag pass nung telcom bill para maka-pag text ang mga tao. Kala mo utang na loob ng mga tao sa kanya na nakakapag-text sila. At naalala ko pa, mga two years ago, sa Cafe Havana sa G3, hindi kami pinapansin ng mga waiter, wala kaming table, tapos dumating si Osmena at ang kanyang mga boylet tapos una silang naka-upo at pinagsilbihan. Saan nga ba nag-gradweyt yan?
The Triumph of Malice
A Report to the UP Community and Alumni
Francisco Nemenzo
President
University of the Philippines
When the Senate adjourned last February 6, we saw eight months of intensive lobbying for a new UP Charter gone to waste. It was not the opposition of a loud minority that brought this about, but the masterful filibustering of a single senator and the ineffectual Senate leadership. Politicking of the most despicable type shelved what could have been the legislature’s singular gift to the University of the Philippines. Malice triumphed over reason.
Senate Bill 2587—an act amending the Charter of the University of the Philippines—was the culmination of over a decade of efforts by successive UP administrations to introduce long-overdue revisions to the UP Charter. The initial consultations started near the end of the term of President Abueva. President Javier continued the process. I merely inherited the bill my predecessor had drafted and submitted to both houses of Congress. SB 2587 is substantively the bill drafted by the committee of President Javier, minus the provisions that provoked much controversy during the consultations, such as my proposal for a University Senate.
Our Charter, framed in 1908, is badly in need of an overhaul to recognize our status as a national university—distinguished from the 110 other state universities and colleges by the level and quality of our teaching and research—and accord us the level of support a national university deserves. I specified these revisions and the reasons behind them in an earlier document, “A Charter for Our Times,” a copy of which you can still read on our website at www.up.edu.ph.
Improving our capabilities
The most significant provision of SB 2587 exempts UP from the Salary Standardization Law (SSL), which inhibits UP from using its earnings and savings to improve the salaries of faculty and employees. Our inability to do so has resulted in the exodus of many of our best and brightest people, and in demoralization among those left behind.
We sought tax exemptions for imports of materials we need for teaching and research, and greater institutional autonomy to enhance our ability to compete with the best universities in the region.
SB 2587 also aimed to improve University governance by providing for a Staff Regent and for a better selection process for appointive members of the Board of Regents.
An earlier and similar form of the bill had passed the House of Representatives unanimously, and we had every good reason to expect that it would—with some minor amendments—pass the Senate as well. Senator Francis Pangilinan, the bill’s chief sponsor, took pains to conduct many consultations with the UP community and with his fellow senators to ensure that all points of view were represented and considered.
We received resounding support for the bill not only from our own constituents, but also from UP alumni here and abroad. The bill was certified as urgent by the Administration. Some questions were raised by some students and senators about our plans to make commercial use of our assets for our needs, but we answered these questions squarely.
Today, however, I must inform you that our campaign to get SB 2587 passed has, in this particular Congress, failed. The Senate adjourned its session without passing the bill or even bringing it to a vote, and we gravely doubt if it will be taken up again when the Senate meets briefly to canvass votes after the May 10 elections.
I say this with great sadness, as I had hoped that a new UP Charter would have been one of my administration’s worthiest legacies to the University. But I must also express my anger and dismay over the cavalier manner by which our bill was doomed to die on the Senate floor, largely on account of one senator’s utterly unreasonable objections and demands.
Between June 2003 and February 2004, UP’s chancellors, vice presidents, other University officials, and I dutifully attended the Senate sessions, ready to assist Senator Pangilinan in fielding questions on UP’s programs and plans. These sessions started in mid-afternoon and often went into the evenings, without any absolute assurance that our bill would be taken up.
At every interpellation, we performed well, providing the needed answers and prepared to cooperate with the Senate in crafting more mutually acceptable provisions without compromising our fundamental positions. We made reasonable concessions, introducing more safeguards against any possible abuse or misuse of power by the Board of Regents, but we held our ground on our designation as a national university, because this was our premise for requiring more support from government.
Publicly and privately, senators from both the administration and opposition parties expressed their support for the bill. We had the votes, to put it plainly, without even having to presume or to depend solely on the allegiance of the nine UP alumni among the senators.
One man’s instransigence
But Senator Pangilinan’s efforts to move the bill forward were conssistently thwarted by Senator John Osmeña, who would either suddenly disappear when it was his turn to interpellate, or otherwise make demands and claims so outrageous that it took every ounce of forbearance on the part of our University officials to suffer them in the hope that our bill would pass, regardless.
John Osmeña claimed, for example, that UP had become a rich man’s school, catering only to the needs of Metro Manila. This is an old canard easily disproved by all the facts—which we presented, but which the senator blithely dismissed.
But this was the least of our worries. John Osmeña reserved his worst diatribes for my person, privately calling me a communist, blaming my relatives in Cebu for his political misfortunes, and vowing to make UP pay for “demonizing” him during the bases debate more than a decade ago. Once, he informed UP officials that only my immediate resignation from the UP presidency could secure his support for the Charter bill. When he realized that I was resolved to serve UP to the end of my term, he proceeded to do his best to achieve the same end and to maim SB 2587 in the process by demanding, for example, that the UP President’s age be limited to 65. Over a period of almost eight months, he maintained this peevish and puerile posture, managing to delay substantive discussion of our Charter to the end.
I relish intellectual debate, and am used to the insults of the ignorant and the desperate. But this is not an argument between John Osmeña and myself. This is not even an argument, but petty tyranny at its worst, with brute political power prevailing over any possibility of reason. It is patently unjust to hold the future of the country’s leading university hostage over some personal differences, no matter how deep they may be. I would have no hesitation leaving office for the right reasons—but humoring John Osmeña is hardly one of them. I have a university to lead, to manage, and to defend—and I will do so to the end of my lawful term to the best of my ability.
A failure of leadership
In the meanwhile, it is a tragedy that we came this close to seeing our ten-year labor of legislation succeed, only to be foiled in the end by one man’s intransigence.
But perhaps I should not have been too surprised by the machinations of this one senator, whose pettiness and petulance are legendary. What I am more deeply disappointed by was the abject failure of the Senate leadership—which had publicly promised to support the bill—to exercise its legal and moral prerogatives to bring the matter to a vote, taking cognizance of Senator John Osmeña’s tediously familiar objections.
Senate President Franklin Drilon—who was named our “Most Outstanding Alumnus” not too long ago—publicly promised the UP alumni reunion in Iloilo last July that we would have a new Charter by the end of the year. I reminded him of this personal pledge just a few days before the end of the session, and he urged me over the phone to accept further modifications, in deference to John Osmeña’s caprices. We addressed those concerns—clarifying, for example, what we meant by a national university. We fielded questions and considered constructive suggestions from the many senators who took time to interpellate us or express their support—including members of the opposition and non-UP alumni—whom we thank for their interest.
But no vote was ever called or taken, and the Senate leadership let valuable time slip away until it was too late, for reasons we can only divine. Despite Senator Pangilinan’s valiant effort—for which we are deeply grateful—to keep the bill alive, what triumphed in the end was malice, misinformation, and petty politicking.
I realize that the Senate had many other important bills to consider, and that its legislative agenda was upset by such distractions as the Jose Pidal exposé and the Oakwood mutiny. I do not question the right of any senator to interpellate any measure before that body. But I have no doubt that something could still have been done by a truly committed leadership to save SB 2587. With the election of a new Congress in May, we have no assurance that the new senators and congressmen will be so favorably disposed toward our measure.
We will fight on
Those who opposed SB 2587 may be pleased by this delay and even claim an albeit hollow victory, thanks to an improbable ally. That pleasure will be short-lived, as the realities of our resource constraints set in, something that our new Charter could have helped relieve.
But we will fight again, and we will fight on. We cannot yield to demagoguery and intimidation. As disappointing as the results of this struggle have been, we also learned many things, and will employ those lessons in a fresh campaign to get a new Charter—perhaps one even better than the current version—drafted and passed.
Among those lessons is my conviction that just as our legislators have always held UP accountable for its programs and its funds, so should UP hold the legislature and its individual members accountable for their acts of commission and omission. We can only pray—and mobilize—for the emergence of more responsible lawmakers and leaders who can truly help UP and Philippine higher education.
I thank all our faculty members, students, staff, and especially our alumni who gave their unqualified support to the new UP Charter, as well as the more enlightened senators and congressmen who fought for its passage. I hope we can continue to depend on you, as we face even tougher battles ahead.
We should find solace in the thought that, as long as we keep true to our core values and ideals and maintain our fundamental union as a community of scholars, the University of the Philippines will survive the worst of politics and politicians.
Where did John Assmena get his degree anyway?
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Polaroid Warns Film Users Not to 'Shake It'
Tue Feb 17,12:41 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!
LONDON (Reuters) - Outkast fans like to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," but the instant camera maker is warning consumers that taking the advice of the hip-hop stars could ruin your snapshots.
Outkast's number one hit "Hey Ya" includes the "shake it" line as a reference to the motion that amateur photographers use to help along the self-developing film. But in the "answers" section on the Polaroid Web site, the company says that shaking photos, which once helped them to dry, is not necessary since the modern version of Polaroid film dries behind a clear plastic window.
The image "never touches air, so shaking or waving has no effect," the company said on its Web site.
"In fact, shaking or waving can actually damage the image. Rapid movement during development can cause portions of the film to separate prematurely, or can cause 'blobs' in the picture."
A Polaroid spokesman added: "Almost everybody does it, thinking that shaking accelerates the development process, but if you shake it too vigorously you could distort the image. A casual shake typically doesn't affect it."
Polaroid said its film should be laid on a flat surface and shielded from the wind, and that users should avoid bending or twisting their pictures.
Of course, "lay it on a flat surface like a Polaroid picture," doesn't sound nearly as cool.
wala lang
I feel sorry for Jackson Pollock, and the other abstract expressionists, who are so maladjusted, so tortured in ways they can’t resolve, that they have to express themselves with violent gestures, with aggressive chaos or sudden glaring gestures haphazardly colliding with other spills and spasms of anxiety. I make abstract expression, too, but for me, I feel such inner peace that I can reach out calmly and draw a perfect circle or a straight line in a gesture of serenity.
Oskar Fishinger
I wish I could draw a perfect circle or a straight line and find joy in it.
Monday, February 16, 2004
more old sketches
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Did a quick design for Mike this week. It's the logo for a stand-up comedy club in his film. I'm really pleased with it considering the fast turnaround.
Damn I didn't even plan on doing this whole new layout. And now it's 4:30 am. Oh well.
Compiling the images made me realize how messy my files are in my drive though. And I discovered this great Groo-ism site while looking for a quote to put on top.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
These are the people in my neighborhood, in my neighborhood... the people that you meet, when you're walking down the street...
It's around 8 a.m. I'm walking to school, using my normal route. A tall black guy in SC sweatpants, not scary looking at all and seeming like your average student, comes up to me and asks me for all the money in my pockets. I shrug, pat my front pockets to signal that they're empty (they really were) and walk away from him. He walks with me saying things like "Hey I can see your wallet, man." He could see my wallet because it was bulging out my back pocket but I wasn't even sure if I actually had money in my wallet normally it's just full of cards and receipts. I thought he was joking, I have never encountered a bum who has asked for more than spare change. Apparently he's not your normal bum. So we reach the intersection towards school where there are ordinarily a lot of students milling around but strangely at this moment there was no one there except me and my friend. "There's no police around here and I can just knock your ass down here and take your wallet." Again, I wasn't sure if he was joking. I cross the street at the first go of the walk sign. Bewildered at this point, I cross the street towards the mall side not the school side erasing my chances of an easy escape into campus. He crosses the street with me. "I'm asking you to give your wallet or else I'm just gonna take it... Are you just gonna keep walking? Coz I'm just gonna keep walking with you man wherever you go." I am walking faster now, I attempt to walk into the nearby Yoshinoya. "You can walking into that Yoshi-whatever but I'm still gonna tail you. Look I can just take your wallet right now." My next goal was to walk over to the the fire station where some tall white guys can possibly beat his ass up if he attempts anything. Midway there he grabs my backpack and tries to get my wallet. I shout "Don't fucking hassle me!" I run. He chases me for a few seconds, acually I don't know how long he chased me because the next moment I was in the fire station already, he was nowhere in sight and I was telling this fireman about him. I get my bearings, catch my breath and walk to school in a paranoid state, looking over my shoulder every few minutes. Just before going up to the lab I swing by our local coffee cart and discover I have 2 bucks in my wallet, not even enough for a cookie.
Damn, I'm booking Donna in Santa Monica, or Pasadena, somewhere nice. Fuck, I do not want to stay around here over the summer. It's crazy I walk around here at 4 a.m. and I've never gotten hassled until now. I should've just stayed in my apartment and continued drawing like I've been doing the past few days.
Sunday, February 08, 2004
The Canon Powershot is proving to be indispensible for me when drawing. When I get stuck with perspective on a character or when I'm trying to either determine a pose or solve for timing, I just take a quick picture or movie of myself in my room and watch it in the camera's small screen. Then when I have referenced myself enough in my drawing I erase the movie. Of course I look like a fool in all of these pictures, which is good there isn't a physical print of the pictures or a taped copy of the movies which would be the case if I was using a film camera or a camcorder. And to think, my dad just bought this camera on a whim. Indeed, animators are closet actors.
***
And speaking of closet acting. ..
I wasn't able to animate last week; I only started to get back to it last night. Last week I was surprised how much of my time was eaten up by doing layouts for other people working on the film (and I still wasn't able to crank out all the layouts needed), writing emails to more people asking them if they want to work on the film, and finding out what needs to be done business procedure-wise to get people paid. I never really expected all this managing and directing to take that much time. It doesn't help that I write slow e-mails and it takes me some time to actually send it to people. It also doesn't help that I find it hard to switch from doing things like this and animating. My ramp up time to get into animation mode is slow. When I get going it zips by pretty quick but I usually take a whole day to get into that zone. Not that all this e-mailing and 'directing' didn't bear fruit, I roped in two key people and my two main guys have agreed to basically work full time on the film and do more stuff. Still, the organization is still pretty much of a mess. And I can't even imagine hiring a manager because, well, since so many things are just in my head it would take so much work to actually tell the manager how things should be managed. Right now, I'm happy that it's moving, that people have work to do alongside me. But all I want to do right now is shut myself in my room for a week and just animate. No meetings. No preparing things for other people. I feel like a director acting in my own movie (well, I am really). I want to be in the moment, but who's gonna yell 'cut?'
***
My editing teacher mentioned that you should never cut while an actor is blinking. Then he said that a lot of professional actors hardly ever blink and control their blinking to suit the acting. He mentioned Glenn Close particularly. He said that blinking connotes a thought process. Funny, that's one of the first things you learn in character animation - to control blinks. In fact there's a whole science as to how to use blinks in animation, the right blink in the right place can be a punchline, it can also be meant to 'anticipate' a thought or reaction, and if you're having a character look from one direction to another it's best to have the character blink as you shift the pupils...
***
Yet another sign that old Disney is on it's last legs is the fact that Mr. Hench died. Our studio is named after him because he's the one who said that animation students need their own space and gave the money for it. Destino the short film which he worked on with Salvador Dali is going to win the Oscar for animated short for sure.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Weight Training and Life Questions
A paraphrased conversation with Sterling in between bicep curl sets:
"Now that Pixar's out of Disney a lot of studios will be pitching to be distributed. There are a lot of studios going into pre-production... what do you plan to do after we get out of here?"
"I think I'm going back home."
"You should be sending out your portfolio really soon. You're good, man."
"Eh, I got to do my time back home."
"No, you just need a company to sponsor you here."
"No, I can't work here for two years. I have to physically be in my country for two years."
"Can you do anything there?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"So, you go back home, get a bunch of guys and create pitches. Come back here "on vacation" pitch some projects around. Come back home with some deals and produce it for 2 years. Come back to the States, see if you can get it distributed. And, if you want to stay here and get work you can always show them that you produced this project. And you're the man... And you can be the guy the studios there talk to as liason to people here."
"Yeah, that's kind of the plan, although you seem to have laid it out better than I have in my head."
"No, dude, that's totally the plan."
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Why do these things always happen to me?
Last night while walking to my apartment, I was hit on the butt by a water bomb. At first I didn't realize what it was, I wasn't wet I think it didn't explode on my ass, but on the ground afterwards. It did feel like someone slapped me on the rear real hard. Then I saw these two jokers in a second floor balcony across the street. They were still trying to hit me again as I walked away. Along with a guy on a bike who passed me. Fucking undergrads. It reminded me of when Hen and Rach dropped me off and the car was hit by waterbombs too. For a second there I wished I had a gun... a real gun... or even just a huge super squirter. The annoying thing is that I don't even have a good-sized butt, and they were able to hit it straight on.
***
The other day I discovered that my answering machine message has been "Hi, I'm in the shower, please leave your name..." since December. I'm surprised no one alerted me about it except Marc recently when he left the message "Hi, Reggie, hope you enjoyed your shower..." See, when I left for Manila during break, I had to take a cab to LAX, and the cab driver usually calls to say that he's there in front of your house to pick you up. Well, I had to prepare and shower and I didn't want him to think that I had ditched him if I didn't answer the phone. So, well, I left that message, left for the airport in a huff, and totally forgot about that stupid message on my machine.
***
These pathetic geek stories seem to gel with the fact that I'm very excited to watch They Might Be Giants at UCLA, and to see Ira Glass and Chris Ware there too.
TMBG - April 17, tickets sell March 1st
Chris Ware - April 10, tickets sell Feb 23
Monday, February 02, 2004
What's cooler than being cool? Charlie Brown!
