resurfacing (yet again)

I swear, if my blog was a person, he/she would've condemned me by now. I'm a bit surprised that I let go of my blog for so long to think that I'm still unemployed (big surprise there). But since my current freelance job is on hiatus and will resume in a few weeks, I have no excuse not to write more here.

My last post was October 1, today is December 15. And some people know this about me: October-November are Twilight months. So yes, that's what I'll blame my lack of blog posts at.

In retrospect, preparations for the promotions of The Twilight Saga: New Moon is less hectic than last year's, mainly because we've learned our lesson last year to not overexert and just focus on things that will be of most use to us (TCP). Since I rarely talk (nor post) about my TCP exploits outside of those involved in it, I'll just gloss over what happened related to this in the past two months.

Sam Bradley in Manila

Sam Bradley (co-author of 'Never Think' in the Twilight OST) could possibly be the closest celebrity connected to Twilight that will land in our shores, so we got a rare opportunity to interview him in an episode of Danag Podcast. It was a fun interview (and the succeeding days watching his mall shows), and my English skills were REALLY stretched to the limit LOL. We also gave him a barrel man which was quite cheeky of us but was greatly appreciated, hehe.

TCP Events

October and November were also filled with meetings with various partners for the promotion of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. For TCP, we hosted a screening at the first day of regular screening. Also conducted several discussions on behalf of Powerbooks and a launch party for Warner Music Philippines.

It was fun to have to be in the less busy mode when it came to the fandom, and yet able to meet again old and new Twilighters for these events. Minami and I are almost joined to the hip for these two months since we both have the most flexible schedules among the admins (not to mention, a guesting in Unang Hirit, which I won't post here haha).

So that's the Twilight-related "work" I've been doing for the past two months. Hopefully I get to post within this month on the other stuff that's on my mind. Won't make promises though, I think ever since I resigned my previous job, I've been lazy like crazy.

Happy Birthday TCP!!!

Whoa it's TCP's 1st birthday! I'm happy that the site and the community is still up and running for about a year. To think that I really thought Daene was crazy about starting this in the first place (we really have no chance dude if it weren't for Minami and Meann). So here's a big thank you to all the people I've met and all the fun stuff that I've learned and enjoyed because of this whole experience.

1. First off, to Daene, Meann, and Minami: thanks for putting up with my craziness and accompanying me in the cyberworld while i work...i still remember our gchat sessions...especially the SHAVING part! hahahaha
2. To Echo, Rome, Gary, Paul, Tobbie, Caz, Paolo, and Ronald...thanks for the continued support and for lending your talents to TCP :D
3. To all the other TCP-ers you guys rock!

Here's to more Twilight years!

25 Random Things About Me:

Since Daene tagged me regarding this and I had this unusually light day at work, why not? Apparently it's been going around in Facebook (although I don't usually check mine, mostly I just approve friend requests hehe):

25 Random Things About Me

1. I accidentally swallowed a mentos when I was in prep and didn’t eat a mint mentos for my entire grade school year.
2. I’m addicted to nuts and seeds (hence my column name when I was writing for the school paper in HS). Favorite: pistachios and squash seeds (dragon sid all the way)
3. I had this bishounen (for anime) obsession my entire HS year—I’m known by my HS friends as the girl who likes 2D men.
4. I can rap in Nihonggo—well actually, I just liked this one song in Taiho Shichauzo’s OST that has a rap part in it, and I sing/rap to it (in the confines of my room…alone…)
5. My favorite sport is table tennis and I loved it the moment I played it – my sister taught it to me and I played nonstop from 8pm to 2am that first day.
6. No matter how tired I am when I get home, I still have time to sort the TCP twilight pins, hehehe.
7. We presented a spoof of “Spice Up Your Life” for our Music class in 2nd year HS and I’m sporty spice (with matching kick in the air)
8. I can say the tongue-twister “Peter Piper” perfectly.
9. I know ‘Sound of Music’ by heart and I pretended to be Julie Andrews while she was singing “I Have Confidence” while walking through the CSA covered courts.
10. There was a time that I thought being able to drink Cali Shandy was cool (haha, THOSE were the days!)
11. I LOVE L’arc~en~Ciel… and they’re the only ones who can spark my inner Rockstar.
12. I named my gun (before you fret, it’s a pathetic M1 I use in ACP training) Aoshi (after RK’s Shinomori Aoshi), my violin Lei (as in Hua Ze Lei, MG), and my laptop Hyde (of Laruku).
13. I’m a big romance novel addict, McNaught and Garwood ruled the past 10 years of my life.
14. …and as a casualty of romance novels (historical and regency ones mostly), I had a Scottish what-could-they-be-wearing-under-those-kilts? phase. Oh, I also want to own a castle.
15. I want to go to Japan even just to frolic under the cherry blossoms
16. When I was young, my siblings along with our cousins made this “group” and we would perform songs and dance at our relative’s parties and weddings (yeah, nauuuto pa kami nun)
17. I was a squadron commander in HS
18. I just want to have ONE picture that looks like the Wuthering Heights cover
19. Hydraengas --- I want those flowers at my wedding (yeah, wala pa ngang groom may flowers na ko hehe)
20. I mourned for a day when Wowow was pulled out from cable (no, not because of the porn) since they have all the updated animes and their movies are earlier than HBO or Star Movies
21. I usually have weird dreams, i.e. St. Augustine (as a statue, not even the person) going up our makopa tree
22. I hate having my picture taken when I was young. Almost all of my childhood pictures are of me crying (ngayon na ko bumabawi)
23. My videoke playlist: Superwoman (Karyn White), Total Eclipse of the Heart, Luha (Aegis)
24. My mom ran over my foot with our car before…and she got mad at me for being in the way!
25. I want to be an accomplished musician but I’m just plain lazy…much to the frustration of Lei just sitting at the corner of my room.

Goodbye 2008!!!

I remembered at the start of 2008, I was chatting to my friends (particularly Eds) that there’s something about this year…and while that might have implied that there might be some “progress” regarding my static love life, not that I was expecting it (as Kit wisely put it, nag-order na ko, kaso out of stock!), this year steered me to a whole different direction, one that I didn’t expect but grateful for. So here are some highlights of the year that was…

Jetsetter?!?!
I love to travel and one of the best things from having a steady income is that I don’t need to ask my parents’ permission and money to go on my planned trips. I had a blast with all my travel buddies (you know who you are) and I hope we have more trips in 2009!
• Hong Kong (Day 1&2 and 3&4): this was the most notable since I got to go there to watch my beloved L’arc~en~Ciel. Hay it was a full circle moment for me since I was fairly obsessed with this band since I was in high school.
• Snorkeling spree – went to Puerto Galera and Dive and Trek, Batangas with the gals for leisure partying (if there’s such a thing) and snorkeling…have to buy an underwater camera sometime.
• Kota Kinabalu (Day 1&2, Day 3&4) – hay I had an awesome time with my friends on this one. Highlight was of course getting lost in Mt. Kinabalu, wahahhaha.
• Road trips – couple of road trips (indebted to Daene’s car!) marked the year, like the maiden voyage (I swear guys, ang dami nating nadaanan ng araw na yun!) and that trip to Tagaytay for my birthday

Target for 2009: Avail that Osaka promo fare from Cebu Pacific…!!!

Major fangirling
I really had some serious fangirling moments this year… Edward Cullen, James McAvoy (the whole image of him towards the end of Penelope was soooo dreamy), Cam Gigandet (won’t expound on that, the Danag episodes are enough to incriminate me), Wu Chun (Ics, why do you have to be in China when he came here?!?! Buti na lang hindi si Mike He!)…and fine, let’s throw Prinsipe Leonard and Shinomori Aoshi in the bunch. Dang, listing the links made me sweat already…

Twilight
Hay, what would my year be without Daene pushing me to read this book? It probably won’t be as interesting as it would be otherwise. This has certainly expanded my social network and became my ultimate creative outlet (as Meann would put it) for this year. I’m so happy the four of us (you know who you are) clicked at the onset and made my experience with TCP as thrilling as it could be. Here’s to 2009!!!

Personal milestones
Daene and I were joking that we always share glasses of Weizen whenever we achieve a milestone, and we really drank a couple of glasses, hehehe. I resigned at my first job and got another one (where I’ll start next week *nervous*), which is a pretty big move for me since I do not easily adapt to new situations. Nevertheless, I will really miss all my friends in my first job, they’re the most entertaining group of people and going through all the stress (and boredom?) was bearable because of them.

I also got a couple of personal dramas, but that was due to my imagination again so I’ll just keep them to myself and laugh about it occasionally, hehe. My lolo also passed away this year which is a big blow to my family…may he rest in peace.

So there, pretty brief recap of 2008…this year was one of the busiest I had so far but I’m not complaining. I’m so happy that this year has allowed me to try a lot of new things…to which I appreciated given that I’m THIS close to the impending quarter life crisis (25 y/o in 2009!!!). Thank you again for all the people who spiced up this year for me and here’s to being 25 (gasp!) in 2009!

Postcards for Stephenie Project - Pinoy Twilighters Show Your Support!

Reposted from the TCP blog:

We are calling on all Pinoy Twilighters to showcase your creativity and show your support and appreciation for Stephenie Meyer! Create your own homemade postcard with a message to Stephenie, send it to us, and we'll include it in the Postcard Book that we will send to her. Our goal is to collect 108 Postcards by November 2, so we'll need everyone's support. :)

Click on the icon in the sidebar for more details. I really hope we get to reach the target.

Currently stressed since we're kind of in limbo still regarding the promos for the movie...hope it all irons out by next week. Not to mention other projects by TCP! Hehehe

Breaking Dawn Pre-Launch Party!!!

This is probably one of the rewarding nights of my life, hahaha...I barely got to work the past two weeks for this events (priorities? haha) but it was all worth it. Daene and I a few months ago were constantly talking about such an event and thank God He created Meann and Sheila for we would not be able to accomplish much without them.

We held the Breaking Dawn Pre-Launch Party on August 2 at Powerbooks. Thanks so much for Powerbooks and Hachette for collaborating with us. It was pure adrenalin rush, it was such a blur...there are SO MANY people....I mean, I expected a lot, but I didn't visualize this many...too bad for those people who were expecting a peaceful session of reading at Powerbooks, hehe. Still can't get over the screaming girls (and boys? haha), I kind of lost my hearing for a while (and I doubt that I had a decent interview, which btw, dapat si Daene na, I suck at interviews, because of the noise). I'm so happy to meet other Twilighters, especially fellow TCP members.

Went home with a sore throat (from talking to all those people), sore shoulders, suffering feet...yeah the list goes on. Again, it was all worth it, seeing all of them revel in something we all love. Thanks so much to my fellow TCP admins, and to all of our friends who rescued us literally.

Other pics

Edward Cullen is the new Mr. Darcy (well for me anyway…)

It’s about high time that I write something about my recent obsession, which hopefully would fade in time (as most of my obsessions usually do) since it’s seriously not healthy…seriously…

Daene told me about this book called Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and how she’s interested in reading it, and I was like, “yeah sure, go ahead and let me know how it goes” (this knowing that her taste in books and mine don’t usually meet). It was vacation during Holy Week, and Daene’s texting like crazy telling me that I just HAVE to read this book (and that she can’t help feeling all gushy about it, it’s already driving her insane), and e-mailed me a copy of the book since she couldn’t possibly wait to see me and then wait a few days for me to finish it before talking about it. So anyway, fine, I read the book anyway…

Upon reading the first few chapters of the book, I was again texting Daene, and telling her, somewhat accusingly, “this is a young adult book, isn’t it?” Haha. This is what I get for reading something with an only “it’s about vampires” as a background and someone telling me she’s all mushy about it when in fact she hasn’t read a lot of romance books (and believe me, I have). But, somehow, I got on the Twilight zone (pardon the pun) and soon appreciated it for all its teen love angst. Just got me reminiscing when I watched Underworld and I really thought that being a vampire is so cool. Well, being a vampire is definitely cool in this book. What really hit the nail for me in this book was when I found out that this book is going to be made into a movie and Robert Pattinson’s playing Edward Cullen, the vampire hero of the book. And I, to put it succinctly, am hooked.

As of now, I’ve read the other two books of the series, New Moon and Eclipse. Granted, I’m still hooked to the series as ever, although my usually obsession now runs with the movie. Maybe it’s because I’m really all in for the action in the second half of Twilight, and of course visualizing how Edward could be in the widescreen. Nonetheless, I’m all for Edward Cullen being in my list of ideal men, even head to head with Mr. Darcy (and that’s already saying A LOT about the fellow). Or maybe Edward is the teenage (well technically not since he’s more than a hundred years old) version of Mr. Darcy (well, why not? Meyer mentions Pride and Prejudice in her series so there could be a character reference). The overall plot so far is definitely gripping, although there are a few lulls for me (is it obvious that I want every page to be eventful?). Upon finishing the third book, I’m totally in love with Edward, and I’m kind of not liking Bella, hehehe. I mean I’m all for character flaws, but crap, sometimes I can’t handle the indecision. Edward also has some characters in a guy that I don’t like, the possessiveness for one, but damn, if it’s him, I’m game for anything. He’s an intense guy, that’s for sure. He makes me gooey sometimes it makes me sick.

Hence, this obsession, although I expect it would lie low for a while, will probably run through August, when Breaking Dawn comes up and until December, when the movie will be shown. As of now, I’m trying to do some serious withdrawal techniques, i.e. watching other romantic series, reading other romance novels that don’t deal with creatures, getting immersed with my HK trip to tide me through the coming months. Good luck to me.

* to drive home the point of obsession, my friend put up the Twilight Coven Philippines, aimed to serve all Filipino Twilight fans out there. So please drop by if you have time!!! (link also located at the sidebar)

* my brother FINALLY finished the new look of my blog…although he says it’s a work in progress, so yeah, I’m celebrating this new look with this Twilight entry. Thanks Dale for finishing this :)