::. THE NEW SUBIC ORDER .::

I was in Subic for almost a week -- from Tues Nov 20 up to Sun Nov 25 for the 20th Phil. Advertising Congress (PAC). My officemate Vic and I had to be there as an advance party to ensure smooth ingress and make some last minute arrangements at Yacht Club for our industry lunch come Saturday. We also had to deal with some inefficiencies and non-coordination amongst the PAC committees *rolls eyes*. Last week was super exhausting to the nth power!

As luck would have it, Murphy's Law was upon us as we had to make last-minute changes in our booth location due to some misinterpretation of the PAC-issued booth measurement. I almost cried with all that mistake about our booth size! I had visions of Donald Trump saying "You're fired!". Thank God, there were some more empty unsold booth spaces wherein we were able to transfer. To top it off, we were pressed to conduct our judging for our technical excellence award for cinematography (Kenny Rogers "Nourish" TVC won. Coincidentally, Victor Basa -- my fave PBB housemate -- was in the TVC) the day before Vic & I were Subic-bound.

The newly-built convention center wherein the PAC was held was huge and nice but parking was horrible! By the 3rd day, all I could text to Abbie (who was on her way to Subic for PAC) was "I hate this Ad Congress!" The horrible parking plan for the venue was so unfriendly for us who had no drivers to drop us off right at the entrance. We had to walk one freaking block away from where we parked... depending on the weather, it was either a horrible walk in the muddy grass while it was raining or an equally horrible walk amidst the hot sun and dusty street. I didn't even get to use my heeled sandals which I packed! I wore my trusty Nike old skool sneakers all week. The only time I wore heels was during the Araw Awards night.

Didn't really enjoy much of what PAC offered for this year. Totally a big hassle. I wish they'd bring the PAC back to Cebu!

Anyway, here are some snaps:

our nice booth which overcame murphy's law :p

our oh-so-elusive bus that our aussies failed to see... so they kidded us & told us it might have been just a figment of our imagination.

at the Phil Star booth... right before heading to our Yacht Club luncheon

gasp! we almost thought Akon would be attending the Araw Awards! :p

now this is the problem when i'm the only one being masipag with taking pictures... i don't get to be IN the frame :-(

waiting for the awards to start...

~* SMACK THAT *~

So Trillanes tried to do an Oakwood 2 again. My officemate (Bianx) and I have just finished a presentation at UP Film Institute when we were told by the faculty that Trillanes has just walked into Manila Pen. Whaaaat the....?!? Trillanes again?!? That was around 11ish am.

We had dessert at Chocolate Kiss in Roces Ave. which was near ABS CBN coz we were supposed to get an MMFF movie artwork from Star Cinema around 1:30pm. I then received texts from my mom, my dad and my boss. My dad's office had already let them go home so I was pretty worried that the situation was getting worse in Makati. My mom told me what has been happening in Manila Pen. My boss told us to be careful since we were out of the office. Still, there was no official announcement that work has been suspended.

So anyway, Bianx and I headed back to Makati where our office were. Traffic was horrible in EDSA due to the non-stop rains and due to the Trillanes chaos. We left QC around 1:30pm and by the time we reached Makati, it was nearing the 3:00pm ultimatum for Trillanes to surrender. It was raining, we sooo needed to pee and there we were at the EDSA-Ayala intersection. I was talking to my boss over the phone when I saw -- not one -- but two (gaaaah!!!!) freaking tanks roll right in front of us. There was also a military jeepful of armed forces that drove by, heading to Manila Pen. I have never seen a tank THAT close so I started to feel really nervous --most especially when I saw the guy atop the tank preparing to aim the huge gun! A totally nerve-racking sight! :-\

Traffic was so clogged at that area so we decided to turn to McKinley and go inside the Fort. It was an extremely tense atmosphere along the Marine Corps Headquarters. We saw armed men on standby along the perimeter fence of the HQ. And then I got totally scared when I saw this bad-ass HUGE tank double the size of what passed by our car back in Ayala! Very scary!

We managed to get back safely to our office in Pasong Tamo around 4pm. My problem then was how to get home (our office announced suspension of work around 3:30pm). My usual shuttle terminal was the one behind Intercon/beside the MRT SM station. I was afraid to go there coz it was quite near to the Pen. Anyway, I had to finish a fascia and billboard artwork that was supposed to be picked up by our supplier over this weekend so I didn't head home immediately. Traffic was horrible at SLEX anyway and I was told by our GM that I could call for a cab service if I couldn't find a way home. I have even told Bianx go ahead and go home without me coz I told her I'll just call up an AVIS cab. However, when I called AVIS, I was told that they stopped operations in Makati (oh no!) and so they refused to pick me up:( Gaaaahd. Good thing Bianx called me up a few minutes afterwards and told me she's been hearing the gunshots on her way to the office of her husband at RCBC. She then offered to come back for me in the office. Traffic was hell so they only managed to get to the office around 6pm.

Rode with them up to Alabang... Traffic was extra-horrible at SLEX and we got to Alabang around 8:30pm. My dad (who was already home after a 3-hour drive fr Makati to San Pedro) offered to fetch me at Petron near Festival/ATC. We got home around 10pm.

Such a tiring day it was. With the 12mn-5am curfew imposed last night, I wonder whatever happened to the people who went to Akon's concert? Hmm. A Konvict night it was indeed.

::. A THOUSAND WORDS .::

Working for an imaging company, we employees have been encouraged to submit our photos in our company blog "A Thousand Words". Themed photos submitted by employees worldwide are picked and posted every other Wednesday. I submitted mine around mid-year and was notified of my photos' acceptance and posting date lots of months ago. Finally, November 14 has come and gone... and I finally saw my photos being featured =)

They're a bunch of photos I took during our family's Visita Iglesia and I'm really happy that the blog admin in charge of "Picture Wednesday" back in Eastman Kodak accepted my entry =) Yey!


Here's the link: http://picturewednesday.1000words.kodak.com/default.asp?item=683669

::. NOW PLAYING: Fade Into You by Run Run Run .::

I love this version of Mazzy Star's Fade Into You. Run Run Run is an indie band from LA.

I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take the breath that's true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth

You live your life, you go in shadows
You'll come apart and you'll go black
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what's not there

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

A stranger's light comes on slowly
A stranger's heart without a home
You put your hands into your head
And then the smiles cover your heart

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew
I think it's strange you never knew
I think it's strange you never knew

::. OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW .::

Finally! I got my new laptop! =) Got it last Sunday fresh from the States. I super super owe a lot to my sis who had such a hard time getting it for me in NY. And thanks too to my cousin Maricar for handcarrying it for me when she got back from her sembreak vacation in the States=)

After 2 different Toshiba models, I finally decided on getting this one. It's such a steal for its price! I couldn't believe the big disparity of laptop prices there in the US vs. here in the Philippines--the difference is so insane! I was lucky that the exchange rate had been in the Php44-ish range when my sister got it in Oct so I bought it at such a great price.

The last time I checked back in Sept., there were still no 2GB RAM-Core2Duo Toshibas around here. And the most insane thing is, the 1GB model here was already selling at around Php70K+! Indeed, if you really have the chance, it's better to buy a laptop in the States than locally.

I would have gotten the dream Macbook but (a) my budget's limited! and (b) it's hard to get umm "inexpensive" software for Mac OS! ;p Upon Mitzi's and our office IT guys' recommendation, I chose to get a Toshiba laptop. Mine is the Toshiba Satellite A205-S7464. It runs on Vista Home Premium, Core 2 Duo 2GB RAM, with 200GB hard disk, with built-in webcam, wi-fi capable, HD DVD-ROM/DVD SuperMulti. No built-in bluetooth though but that's alright coz I already have a bluetooth dongle.

It's such a pain in the ass though to migrate all my 15.1 GB worth of mp3s plus my 4GB photos and all other docs :( Since I could not find a portable hard disk to borrow (wala si Tin dito eh!) Abbie suggested that I use my humble iPod nano to migrate my files (still not done! a few more file transfers to go...). Did not have to pay our IT dude to migrate stuff for me! I already installed iTunes and the Kodak EasyShare software... next up would be to install my Adobe Photoshop CS2... So much stuff to do... Anyway, after I copy all my files from my PC, I'll hand it down to my nephew =) And I'll be freeing a big space in my room when my PC's gone=)

Meanwhile, the new Windows Vista would take a lot of getting used to! Argh, that paranoid pop-up thing just reminds me of that funny Mac ad on apple.com... so true! haha!

my Toshiba ROCKS!!! yey! =)