I know you have struggled and that I may never truly get to know you but know that I was once very fond of you all. In my mind, I now very seldom think of you when for a period of my life, the mere mention of your name, the hint of your form, even the slightest thought of you enchanted me. You sparked a deep longing inside of me at a young age and I wanted you. To touch you. To be around you and feel your coldness against my warm skin. I longed to have you bad.

I know it’s not just me, that there are others just like me, and that I never had you and neither did they. Nobody did. You had a way of distancing yourself with a vast expanse of when more than the where that we are so used to. Know, however, that that time when I wanted you so much, I really did. I wished we could be together then. For always.

It pained me that you suffered. Of late, I heard somebody-who-wanted-to-be-you say that you hoped of making it big someday. In the end, that somebody realized that hoping to at least be remembered was an even harder feat to shoot for. I never understood your penchant of going from place to place with the little ones, believing that the next place would hold more promise than the last, and running on instinct rather than a long-term goal. I never took to heart that life hadn’t been kind to you.

As I was listening to that somebody-who-wanted-to-be-you hope “to be remembered,” the voice of reason inside my head started talking. Loud. “That can’t be it,” the voice of reason said. “For one, he‘s too clean! And too mild, too weak, and too small. And you could not have been that smart!”

I remember having held your bone. It felt like a cold lump of fake. Like a slab of granite that’s not even shaped like a bone. I just kept that thought inside my head instead of telling Ma. (Bless her for taking me to you despite her busy schedule, just because I wanted. She understood the longing. Maybe she wanted me to realize that I was wasting my time with the fanaticism. Maybe… she wanted you as much as I did.)

When I saw that somebody-who-wanted-to-be-you frolicking under the sun, bearing children with tails, surrounded by creatures with horns, and wailing in triumph that sounded more like a cry of agony, I thought, “dude, you may have won in this scene of the movie and it may look like you made it but, man, life PWND you. You and your kind died. You, those like you, and everyone else with you. During the Ice Age. Your celebration brouhaha had been all for naught! As for wanting you and being with you, the hell was I thinking?!”

[author's note: This I wrote after I saw "Dinosaurs" for the first time on the Disney Channel LOL. I'm sure you also had that "ZOMG I want anything and everything that's dinosaur related" phase, admit it! Back in the 80s, there was a dinosaur exhibit somewhere in the Metro where people may have their photographs taken while touching a real dinosaur bone for a fee. I was even given a certificate saying "Fritz has touched a real dino bone, huzzah!" but I don't know where that piece of parchment is right now. Bummer.]

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For the women, buy any one from Ipanema’s Gisele Bündchen (GB) Seeds line of flip-flops or sandals and you automatically get the chance to actually do the environment some good. See photos below from the GB Seeds line launch to get a feel of how durable and attractive these slippers and sandals are. I mean, those ballerinas did dance and jump using them, right? If that’s too lame an excuse, IMHO those sandals would look mighty good on women’s feet. Take a look at them.

“Haribon Foundation, the environment conservation organization, in partnership with ELRO Commercial and Industrial Corporation, the exclusive distributors of lpanema flip-flops, take a green stride by organizing a Walkathon to benefit the Philippine Rainforests called Walk the Green Mile slated for March 21, 2009 in front of Le Soufflé, The Fort, Taguig.

You too can play an active role in this campaign. Purchasing a pair of lpanema flip-flops allows you to not only walk the streets with fellow advocates in the much-anticipated Walk the Green Mile Walkathon; part of the proceeds from your purchase will also contribute to ROAD to 2020 Projects on planting and growing native trees in 1 million hectares of our local rainforests until year 2020. Haribon Foundation is likewise accepting donations at the event.”

If helping the environment and getting a great looking pair of footwear aren’t enough to persuade you, these might:

“Register now and grab exciting prizes and freebies at Walk the Green Mile! The first 30 persons who finish the walkathon get a free pair of lpanema GB Seeds flip flops of their choice! Be amoog the first 300 people to join and register on March 21 and get a limited lpanema Gisele Bündchen baller ID while the first 100 participants to register at the venue and get a limited Walk the Green Mile shirt.

Join the walkathon and purchase lpanema GB Seeds slippers at the lpanema booth set up during the event and get a 10% price off! Up to 3 pairs of lpanema GB Seeds flip flops signed by renowned supermodel, environmentalist and slippers designer Gisele Bündchen will also be raffled off to participants who buy during the event.”

“Be one with fellow environmentalists and take a green stride! Share in the movement towards a more lush Philippines with lpanema and Haribon Foundation’s Walk Green Mile Walkathon on March 21,2009, Saturday at the parking lot near Le Soufflé Registration opens at 3pm, while the Walkathon starts at 5pm.

For more information on the upcoming walkathon, Walk the Green Mile, contact ELRO Corporation Ms. Maricel Mabalot at 7533647 to 48 local 103 or email cel.mabalot [at-sign] elrocom.com.”

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I can’t put a finger on how people generally succumb to this peculiar behavioral pattern: buy new board shorts even if last year’s had only been worn twice, get aqua shoes even if you’ll only use them thrice in your lifetime, or buy stuff that we already have.  Its manifestation is particularly high and evident during summer. I have four flip-flops, two of them gifts, every single one of them in great condition because I never use them to go out of the house unless I have to go to a nearby convenience store and get ciggies. See, the reason I’m blurting this out in this article is, no matter what state our economy is, there will always be a market for new slipper/flip-flop/sandal designs because indulging in them will only set you back a little over or a thousand bucks or thereabouts. It’s a price people are willing to pay to look relevant and current. Besides, if others notice, I’d already gotten a full return on my investment (my gauge and yours might be different LOL).

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Saw these from Ipanema fact sheet:

“Aside from being comfortable, Ipanema flip flops are highly eco-friendly as it only makes use of recycled materials and supplies such as industrial residues, painting residues, and surplus PVC. As a result, you not only make a safe investment for your feet with Ipanema. Rather, you invest something for the future of Mother Nature whenever you buy Ipanema flip flops.”

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Given that the Mocha girls kept moving a lot to their rendition of covers that actually gave out a we-REALLY-want-to-be-THE-penultimate-Pussycat-Dolls-knock-off vibe while the Brazilian models stayed put most of the time, the true test for a camera to warrant my upgrade could well be its abhorrence of blurred photographs and its ability to mute most instances of digital noise, moreso when there’s not much light to play around with. I’ve been disappointed far too many times when around 90% of only a handful of my photographs turn out worthless owing to these modern problems confronting many digital photographers. I don’t know which one deserves a special place in hell more: heavy digital noise or out of focus/blurred photographs. I hate them both equally with an intensity like the force generated by a wide horizon full of angry, rampaging mammoths. (Boy, does this post sound angry!)

The third and last of a triad, this set made me realize best what I’ve been missing when it came to having a contraption that can actually (and almost) totally “freeze” subjects that move rapidly and in very random directions. Think rock stars who do highly unpredictable movements to intensify their performance. I can associate this failure with a more recent chance I had in taking photos of Bamboo and his band. If you’ve seen him live, you must agree that this guy covers the entire stage area in a blur. The only time I got a good shot of him was when he was doing a slow reprise off a number. It was also when my cam’s auto-focus got totally confuzled owing to the intense lighting. Talk about bad luck.

Not this time.

Maybe it’s a universal phenomena with current DSLR brands but whoever thought of implementing ISO levels 3200 and over coupled with the fastest shutter speed options available on these things deserve all the best things in life (and for free, pardon the cliché). Loving the fast auto focus wizardry, too.

Without much ado, friends, I present to you Kamikazee.

For the black and white versions of three of the photos in this set, please visit My tumblr. Believe me, you’ll like what you’ll see. Kthnx.

As with the previous two posts, I took these with the Sony Alpha 300 DSLR. Thanks to San Miguel Beer for the VIP pass. You guys rock!

• SMB Barkada Valentine Party: Brazilian Models
• SMB Barkada Valentine Party: Mocha
• Look what I got from the mail!
• Paparazzied: Third Eye Blind Graces SMB’s 2008 Octoberfest

I’ve this apprehension that this post will bring my site negative reviews with scantily clad beautiful women with pannies peeking here and there but, heck, OGC away fellers! LOL

Mocha‘s number came after the Brazilian models’ segment so my rapport with the DSLR pretty much bordered on the we-can-be-best-friends-ya-noes level. One thing I was liked with this gizmo is the LCD monitor with LiveView doing just that: give you a live preview of your shot. It’s just like holding a point and shoot camera, only that it’s bulkier and of course more powerful. With it, I can see instantaneously how a tweak in shutter speed, ISO, and aperture will affect a shot, overall, in an instant. Also, the LCD can be made to tilt upwards so a shot on the hip can be possible without you needing to do much trial and error with the composition. I would have used the view finder but it was only last night that I got to calibrate it to match my eyesight (yes, friends, we even thought it was really blurred and useless but the user, as explained by in the manual, can adjust the focus of the viewfinder to match their eye condition).

Again, these photos were taken during SMB’s barkada Valentine Party on February 13, 2009 near the SMC compound somewhere in Ortigas.

Next up, Kamikazee!

• SMB Barkada Valentine Party: Brazilian Models
• SMB Barkada Valentine Party: Kamikazee
• Paparazzied: Third Eye Blind Graces SMB’s 2008 Octoberfest
• Alodia’s Fantasy Sneak Peek Rehearsal Photos!
• Cosplayers of Cosplay Mania ’11 Day 2
• Figutto! Ryuk Action Figure Review and Photos
• Photos of the Better Cosplayers at the 10th ToyCon 2011 (Cosplay Day 2)
• Photos of the Better Cosplayers at the 10th ToyCon 2011 (Cosplay Day 1)
• Some CosPlay Photos from the 2010 Xmas Toycon
• Cosplay Mania X’s TOrCH Manila Preliminaries 2010 Winner

I don’t thing all eight of them are Brazilians but, yeah, they call them that. This is the first of the three sets of photos I’ve taken during SMB’s Barkada Valentine Party held on February 12-13, 2009 near the SMC Compound somewhere in Ortigas. The girls were called up on stage to show the audience their favorite San Miguel manufactured beer. It was quite convenient that each of them had a different favorite from the variants. Whodathunk, yes?

Sorry for the quality of the images because it is the very first time I got to use a Sony Alpha 300 DSLR (OK, I kid about being sorry for the quality of the images because there’s nothing to be sorry about, really). I charged the battery the night before and had to work in the morning so I did not really get to play around with the a300 prior to show time. I made it a point, though, to read which button I should push to adjust the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO so I can easily manipulate the most important basic elements in composing a shot.

The dilemma in shooting events like this is you can’t make your subject stay put and hold their pose. That and lighting would almost always fuck up the colors, most importantly of skin tone. I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing, since it was really (honestly) my first time to use the cam, but I jacked up the ISO to 3200 and used shutter speeds with variying values between 1/100 to 1/250. I was under the impression that this way, I can freeze whatever movement the subjects are making. Having the shutter speed lowered to these levels would also limit the light coming into the lens thereby making an otherwise bright ISO background look just right. I might just be blabbering like a crazed loony case here but it does sound logical, come to think about it. Advise from well seasoned DSLR users most welcome here. I also used Manual because I’m snooty like that. I have set the lens to function in automatic, though, so it does the focusing of my subjects for me at blinding speed when I do a half-press on the shutter button.

More on the cam in my next posts. Meanwhile, I give you permission to drool over these schmexeh ladies’ photos. Enjoy!

Thanks to Juned and Stella of SMC for the event invites. I had a blast. Next post will have Mocha.

• SMB Barkada Valentine Party: Mocha
• SMB Barkada Valentine Party: Kamikazee
• Paparazzied: Third Eye Blind Graces SMB’s 2008 Octoberfest
• Look what I got from the mail!
• Elation Buffet Launch Photos
• Off for a taste of “Elation” this 11.14.08