Snippets: Don Salvador Benedicto

Taken November 11, 2009...this is undoubtedly one of my favorite views of Negros. I remember driving all the way here last October 11, almost exactly six years after this photo was take, just to sit and stare at the view. I had to drive for over two hours (because I got lost along the way since I was alone and refused to ask for directions) before I managed to park the car at the side of the road and breathe in the moment. Despite my feet hurting from the non-stop drive, just to sit still and listen to my roadtrip playlist made it all worth it. 

To get lost in the moment and find myself staring into the world in silent mediation are times that's a little hard to come by these days. Especially with a landscape like this. A contemplative moment of appreciation for the world is always a good thing to do, every now and then. To get away from it all and live for the moment, a different perspective of the term YOLO...no adrenaline rush, rather a subtle way of realizing that it's good to be alive, even for just one lifetime. That was how I felt that day.

I've passed by here a couple of times, mostly with friends or family for a trip to a resort or Dumaguete. Ever since the first time I passed by the area and looked out the window, I promised myself then that one day I'll be returning to this very spot on my own just so I won't be in a hurry; to no longer just see this place as a stretch of road but a temporary stop where I created a memory. That moment finally happened, and it was bliss...a stark contrast of what I felt like arriving back home after five long hours of driving in total that day.

The road sits at the foot of Mt. Talisay, just a few kilometers from the start of the zigzag incline going to San Carlos city. Considering that the car I brought then was a Grand Livina...I was not willing to regret the decision if I fall off the cliff because the engine cannot sustain the steep incline if I went on further the pass. What you're seeing is a horizon full of sugarcane plantations, subdivided into haciendas. It's usually around the last quarter of the year when farmers begin to cut down the crop for the milling season, hence tall lush green hues emit in the scene, the sign of a mature cane.

Snippets: Armi Millare

Taken April 26, 2014 in BGC for the first Satchmi Vinyl Day...it was one of the most awesome night of free music under the stars. The event composed of eleven bands which started from 4pm down to midnight. It was indeed a good night of great music. 

I went with a couple of friends who willingly came when I showed them the lineup of bands that would be playing in the event. It came as a shock when Up Dharma Down came up on stage as the front act–no one saw it coming, especially my friends who decided to arrive late that day. Bwahaha! Some arrived only to hear the last two songs, while there were those who completely missed it. Good for them! It was also a pleasant surprise to hear the band play an entire set and not just two or three songs. That moment was surreal, especially when I was standing so close to the stage that the rest of the world felt like a blur; just the music and Armi as she sang through the lines of their songs felt present that day. Yep, Tadhana is one of my favorite local songs EVERRRRRRRrrrr!! And of course, I consider UDD as one of the coolest bands around, up to par with other bands I like internationally.

Lately...like the past several days, I've also been amused by their feature song on Oreo's Sing With Me together with Zee Avi of Malaysia and GAC of Indonesia. I have been intently looping the video several times now because it's just not long enough to satisfy my ears. I love Oreo's new advertising campaign by the way.

Optimist vs a Realist

Here is a random conversation I had with my mom years ago:

Me: My best friend is planning the wedding of her aunt, she said the guy she'll be married to is foreign. 

Mom: Where are they getting married?

Me: Well, the guy and his family will be flying over to Bacolod for the wedding. Ain’t it sweet?

Mom: Smart girl, she knows there’s no divorce in the Philippines. 

At first reaction in my mind then went something like, "What are you talking about!? Why are you thinking like that? Can't you just be happy for them!? You're being too negative." 

Now, looking back...girl's got a point. A valid one at that. 

Am I becoming my mother!?!?!? 

For now, I'll just say that I'm still an optimist; maturity just happen to have taught me to try and look at the other side of the coin as part of becoming a logical adult.

Designer Blooms Cafe

I realized that it's been a while since the last time I managed to post about a cafe. There have been quite a lot of new ones and a couple of those that I've been to, it's just that I haven't gotten around into taking respectable photos of them. In any case, Designer Blooms Cafe is one of those cafes that have been around for a while and I've been wanting to go to, but the idea of travelling all the way to Alabang has cut my interest short...until my brother managed to convince me during one of his visits to the house he'd be constructing in Calamba. How? Because I like the location of the house and I wanted to see the view again, plus the company car was available to service us. Yey!

Designer Blooms Cafe in an offshoot from the actual Designer Blooms flower shop in Megamall. The charm of the cafe is that they also sell their beautiful flowers in the coffeeshop. The interior of the cafe is bright with mismatched furniture to give it that foreign appeal, especially with the use of rustic decors.

Random Advice on Secrets

It's one of those random moments when your system is longing to let something off your chest but you know it could get you in trouble someday if done unfashionably discrete. My friends would always say, "I just want to go away, scream at the top of my lungs and shout all the frustrations away." There are sentiments that can be shared, but there are certain secrets that should not be kept within the confines of the visible world...and so saying it out loud for the spirit of universe to hear is ultimately safer than keeping it in your blog or journal. What if someday, the world will conspire and reveal it just because you have kept an existing proof of that supposed secret? Will self-loathing and eternal regret be a worthy option?

***

On a side note, the background is a photo I shot on top of the Shwesandaw Pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar. It's one of those things that when I look back in reflection, I still could not believe that I managed to stand in that place sometime in my life. Just one of those items in my bucketlist that seem to have gotten a check sooner than I thought...and to think I only came to know about Bagan last year. It's just a feeling of gratitude and disbelief whenever I stare at the photos I took. 

I Was Made For Loving You by Madilyn Bailey

It was around last week when I noticed a new-yet-familiar-sounding song being dubsmashed in Kalyeserye...I never got to catch the lyrics during the episodes, yet the melody and the voice of the singer got me curious. After some time spent aimlessly browsing on Twitter yesterday I saw what I was hoping for, the title. It's "I Was Made For Loving You" by Tori Kelly feat. Ed Sheeran...and a whole night of looping the song started from there. 

Tonight's my second night of LSS...and it's wrrraagggghhh! when you listen to the same song a dozen times over but cannot stop that need to repeat it one more time. I was actually on the MRT when the urge to listen to the song came to me that I hurried back home because I don't have it on my cellphone. I know, it's just a temporary addiction. At one point I started to search for covers of the song, and there were some good ones–but this–THIS–gave me goosebumps, like real GOOSEBUMPS that I have to twitch my neck when she reaches certain parts and notes, especially right at the end when she unhumanly belches out the lines, "But I was made for loving you." Urghhh! I feel like the hairs on my arms have been raising and falling in chaotic symphony for the last several minutes now. 

I am forever grateful to YouTube that artists (amazingly non-linear ones) are now being discovered without being screened with repetitious formulas by capitalists industries. The music scene is now immensely diversified as compared to pre-YouTube times. And I am just happy I get to drown myself in their music (original and covers alike) as much as I want to.

Here's the chorus of the song that I love so much by the way:

I was made for loving you

Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through

Every bone screaming I don't know what we should do

All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you

Too much feels. So serendipity-driven.

Snippets: A Farewell Shot for Penang

I posted this photo on my Instagram last August 22 as a quick update of our Malaysia-Myanmar trip since I knew uploading other pics will take over a month after our arrival. It's actually the 4th photo I uploaded on my IG account since it took years of convincing before I finally decided to add another social media account. I posted it with no caption, just the hashtag "wanderlust".

The pouch is one of our products under Teacup Ideas. The horse is an original artwork I did for our coloring book. It's one of those few pieces that I'm actually proud to show off and claim as my own. I did a lot of research as reference, but the steampunk idea with an industrial city thriving in its belly is one of those out-of-the-blue moments after a self-pressured brainstorming activity. It took me three days to finish the artwork, and it's actually a full body short of a horse with a blimp chasing after it from behind, but I cropped it down for the layout of the pouch.

The background of Two Kids on a Bicycle is actually one of the more popular murals in Penang. I also have a picture of me on the actual wall getting a back ride with the little boy looking squished by my ass, but that's for another post. I was on the plane and we were about to land back to Kuala Lumpur after staying for three days in Penang when I decided to snap the photo using my cellphone, hence the grainy quality. It's the in flight magazine of Air Asia and they did an article on Penang with the title Appetite for Travel. I can still remember the panic I had when the concept popped into my head only after the captain had made orders to ready ourselves for landing. I had to briskly turn the page, set up the pouch with my passport and ticket peeking out for drama and take a couple of quick shots before the flight attendant could catch me with my table unsecured. 

Pet Peeve #025

SOME. PEOPLE. JUST. DON'T. GET. IT.

There's an art to sarcasm, and those who don't get it I label as people with dry humor. 

And I'm not even gonna explain myself.

QLC Moment #4

One day, you wake up and start asking the question over and over again...only to do nothing in the end. It's a question that I try to justify with excuses every freakin' time, but at the end of the day, whether I deny the truth or not...the answer is something I have to face at the end of my life.