Ruins of Fort Santiago series, a photoshoot with Aja Lapus, Isai Martinez, and Tina Ortiz as our model last June 12, 2009. It’s an Independence Day inspired shoot. It’s like a filipiniana thing with a modern twist. :] We originally planned to use Paco Park as our location but it was closed that day so we ended up shooting in Fort Santiago, Intramuros.

You can view the whole set on my flickr account. :] Comments, suggestions, and violent reactions are welcome.

one sweet afternoon by pam salvador; taken last 061209 with a nikon d90

Like my previous month, June has been pretty loaded for me. So far so good. It has its ups and downs but nonetheless I’m pretty okay with what’s happening with my life right now. I was going to say that I’m pretty okay with what’s happening right now but I decided to be more specific about it — that I was referring to my busy life just to be clear. :] It might mislead people / readers that I’m actually happy with the fiasco that’s happening in this country right now… well, I’m not happy with it. Who would anyway? Headlines are still all about the month-old issue of biggest and grandest sex video ever created that once again merged politics and showbiz in a big circus, the A(H1N1) virus growth chart / update, the CON-ASS thing which made me dislike Gloria some more, etc etc… I often wonder when will I hear some good news (besides hearing Manny Pacquiao winning a match)?

That’s what I get from watching my favourite show on tv — the evening news. Hahaha! You see, I don’t really watch tv these days and if ever I do… the only thing I catch on tv’s either Boy Abunda and Kris Aquino’s SNN and/or the Evening News. I get home from work around 8-9pm and of course I still have to eat dinner and stuff so I get in front of the tv around 10-11pm already. Haha.

Last Friday was the Philippine Independence Day. For most people, it’s just another day to rest, be on vacation and have fun, have picnics and stuff, etc. I have to admit that I’m guilty of doing that myself. So last Friday, I was with Aja and Isai for a photo shoot with Tina Ortiz as our model. :] We were supposed to shoot at Paco Park but it was closed so we resorted using Fort Santiago as our alternative location. It wasn’t really as bad as we have to change themes or something, instead it made me feel the independence vibe some more and I love it. :] The photo above can be considered as a teaser for the entire set I’ll post-process soon or whenever I get the chance to. Haha!

I’m thinking of re-doing and re-post-processing my previous photos. I suddenly wanted my photos to have uniform watermarks. :] With that, I think I have to re-upload my entire portfolio too? We’ll see. :] I aim to be a better artist this time around. Hopefully, no more mediocre works from me.

May was perhaps one of the happiest and saddest months I’ve had so far. It’s just something like that. I mean what’s up with my months anyway? If it wasn’t so damn busy and full of rants, it’s something with happy events almost the whole month and ends drastically sad. Honestly, I enjoyed May… it passed by so swiftly that my oh-so-happy world really halted when it ended. It was like a sudden bounce back to reality…. like an almost complete happy ending in a dream then you’d suddenly wake up just before it ends. Blissful but it sucked in the end. Don’t you just hate bad endings?

Like what I’ve said, May was a happy month. My curfew was lifted and so I have spent my fridays in Metrowalk with friends till  whatever time I want to stay. My previous entry started it. It was followed by an OT-week but it wasn’t really as dragging as before and ended with one of my classmates’ birthday. It was one of the busiest fridays I’ve had having two lakads with two set of friends at the same night. I was supposed to watch Angels and Demons with JV and Eiya that friday night but somone came in an hour late so I wasn’t able to watch the movie because I needed to rush to Metrowalk for Chi’s birthday inuman around 10pm. I had a nice Teriyaki Boy dinner with Eiya instead. I love Teriyaki Boy forever. Hahaha! We talked about EK plans and the some upcoming conventions because Eiya will be cosplaying. Hahaha! How cool is it to see your teacher cosplay?! :]] After dinner, I went to Metrowalk to meet my classmates and to my surprise, I was the only girl present. Lol. It was ok with me anyway. I mean, I know them naman… so no harm done? Hahaha!

It was the first time I saw them in a very long time. I was supposed to go to Anawangin with them but I got sick so I wasn’t able to go. It was really sad because I miss my college blockmates so much and not being able to to go with them to Anawangin made me feel so left out. I mean most of them are in Anawangin and I was stuck home drinking medicines. Boo!

It was followed by a semi-light loaded week and the said last day of some office people too. //BRB. have to sleeep. It’s 4am na pala. hahaha! // I’m back @5pm// Okay the following week was Kurt and Ate SJ’s last week (well, Ate SJ extended until thursday this week for her turnover). Uh…. Okay, Kurt’s our OJT and Ate SJ’s our traffic btw. The week started a bit sad for me for some odd reason…. it was full of sablay. It eventually turned out ok and on the 29th we had a very late dinner and supposed to have karaoke thing with my officemates but I wasn’t able to get to that part unfortunately. It was like we stayed in the office to wait for the OTers before somewhere to eat. We originally planned to like eat + karaoke at the same time but the place was full so we have to resort to an alternative place and thanks to Armi’s suggestion, we landed in a cozy bar near Home Depot and we occupied the whole 2nd floor all to ourselves so it was really fun. Hahaha!

We finished eating and drinking around 2am. Armi and I decided to go home but the rest of the guys went to continue with their karaoke thingie. My friday dinner after work continued last night when Ate Marian dropped by the office to get her back-pay cheque. Wooot. We went to Mega and ate dinner at Teriyaki Boy. We had the most dried Oyako Don meal ever. They must have forgotten to put the sauce and leeks before giving it to us so we have to ask for extra sauce which didn’t really completed the meal. I wished I had Yakimeshi with something else instead. :/

It’s been raining hard these days. Rainy days started so darn early this year…. and I haven’t fully enjoyed my summer yet. I’d normally rant about this since rainy days make me feel like hibernating but with these goodbyes, I’m not minding the heavy rains at all. I find it so hard to move…. :/

I wonder what’s in stored for me this month this time.

Photospam 051509: Shakey’s El Pueblo + Dencio’s Metrowalk

Yesterday was perhaps one of the happiest payday I’ve had. After days of almost unpaid ot work and more office rants, it finally paid-off… well, paid-off in a sense that we’re all having fun. We may not be as happy with what’s happening in our office and what we’re doing but at least we’re happy with each other’s company? Haha, Okay, okay that sounded so CHEESY.

Actually, I was in panic-mode the night before payday because my payroll ATM’s missing. I must have drop it somewhere on my way home one night. I must be so exhausted that I didn’t notice it. So on thursday night, I tried looking for my ATM and couldn’t find it so, I have requested for a replacement card and luckily, I got a replacement card just in time for lunch. Hahaha! We decided to eat at Shakey’s yesterday for lunch with the IT boys but they were seated at the next table it was like we’re separately with them. I think it’s the first we took photos during lunch? And yes, we just used my phone to take them. Hahaha!

I worked overtime last night too and I was torn between my lakad with Ida & JV and a dinner with my officemates but since I’m ot, I decided to just eat and drink with my officemates instead. Surprisingly, Kurt joined us. Oh wait, wala pala akong pics na nilagay non Metrowalk time na

Overall, payday friday was a fun day and amusingly, it wasn’t a badtrip saturday work day for me either. It was pretty light though the load wasn’t as light as the atmosphere.

Photospam 050309

Yes, finally a new entry!!!! I’m so sorry for the sudden hiatus. I never really thought I’d be super busy this month. First of all, thank you so much for all the comments I received on my previous entry! Thank you for the warm appreciation of my vector. =D I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to comment back in return. Hopefully, I can bloghop today after writing this.

Anyhow, my April was rainy and I’m not just talking about the rain showers we had recently. My work has been pretty stormy lately too — and that’s not just with all the workload I’ve received the whole month but also with the whole office too — which was quite sad. Two of our colleagues resigned already…. more are planning to resign in the coming months too… including me perhaps. Our boss wrote a memo some new rules which we all think was… unfair. A few of those new rules are whenever we came in late for work and if ever we had accumulated a certain number of hours a week like 1 hour for example, we have to come to work on a Saturday to spend an hour’s work to make up for the late hours we have accumulated the entire week, then whenever we file a sick leave (or vacation leave), we also have to come to work on a Saturday to make up for the leave we filed… like….. what’s the sick leave for in the first place? I understand the late thing, they just don’t want us to come late everyday but how about the sick and vacation leaves? If we are entitled to have leaves, then why do we have to make up for it on a rest day? Plus, they blocked every single site we visit… okay, I understand why they blocked sites such as friendster, facebook, multiply but blocking even deviantart and other art/resource related sites? Isn’t that a bit too much? They even blocked flickr, imeem, last.fm, plurk, twitter, and can you imagine this? — even my domain! They also deleted my mp3s and itunes and made my account limited — meaning I can’t install anything, even a single FONT on my office computer.

I can’t believe! I got so disoriented that I can’t design properly. I want my music and fonts back damnit! Why can’t our boss understand that he’s already suffocating us? Designing without inspirations, music, and a decent resource stock is like…… HELL. I feel so limited and it’s suffocating!!!!

My workload’s hellish as well. See the first photo above? I took the first photo on a Tuesday night before going home…. at the end of the week the whiteboard became a white and red striped board! Apparently, our boss doesn’t want to see any white space on our board too. Sad…. plus, we are being timed as well. According to our boss, he wants us to be efficient…. efficient to the extent of working on 2 projects at the same time. The funny thing is, my boss wonders why I easily get sick these days. I’m coughing for 3 weeks already and I’ve been getting migraines every now — STRESSSSED!

Aside from all my work crap, I’ve tried dying my hair red (well, reddish brown to be exact) but it was a failure!! I got a little bit reddish brown though… hehe! Plus, the flower on my photospam is a glimpse of my last shoot. I’m excited to shoot again….. sana may kasama ako magshoot. *wink wink* Hopefully I can have my film developed this coming week. I’ve posted a screencap of my almost done portfolio too!

So to sum it all, APRIL = WORK SUFFOCATION MONTH! haha!