Is it any help that I am reading this book currently? I mean, for the 4th time? Anyway, I am reading the one translated by Princess Alexandra Kropotkin with a foreword by Leo Tolstoy's own daughter, the Countess Tolstaya. I'm doing it three chapters per day and it seems like I'm reading it for the first time. It may sound absurd, but I hardly recall having read certain parts of it (I must have read a different translation the last time). Or could it be that I may have ... fastforwarded? Egad!

AAAAAAAARRRRGH!

I am beginning to find my day offs tiresome instead of restful. I do not know why or what's wrong. I slip and out of sleep, thoughts run through my head as I lie in semidarkness. The wind hardly moves my curtains (which are thick and not exactly sun-friendly). I am like a mole during Mondays and Tuesdays. I forage through my near-empty fridge looking for something decent to eat. I find a half-empty bottle of cucumber pickles and as I bite into one, childhood memories rush into my head like a flood. And it's not making things better. I down Royal, iced tea, water and milk like they are all water. And it's not helping me. I want to unpack my stuff, throw many things away and tie them in black plastic bags. So far, only my mind is willing. Aaargggh. What's bothering me exactly?

This entry says it was made on Wednesday, but the truth is it is 3AM (Thursday) and I'm still in the office. The event has no plans of packing up. I actually dread the thought of going home.

DREAM TEAM

From top to bottom and left to right:

1. Seagull 105 TLR
2. Paper Pinhole
3. Pinhole Art DIY
4. Holga 120 CFN
5. Diana 121
6. Lomo Action Sampler Flash
7. Lomo Oktomat (one down!)
8. Lomo Super Sampler
9. Lomo Kompakt Automat (LC-A) or an LC-A with a Colorsplash Flash / Diana Flash or the LC-A + (which I personally like better)
10. Lomo Fisheye v1
11. Smena 8M
12. Kiev-4
13. FED 5B

While you're at it, why not get a Zorki 11 produced between 1964 - 1966? Russian cameras are so way cool, ano?

This one is cute, a Holga Multicolor, pero I think it's too much already.

Ah, this is really just too much! (Note to self: it also comes in green)

DIANA IS A NOT JUST A PRINCESS

So here's how the story goes: back in the '60s, a small firm in Hong Kong created an inexpensive camera called the Diana. Crafted entirely of plastic, each camera cost only a dollar at the time of its release! Although it was only produced for about 10 years, Diana became a favorite with avant-garde and lo-fi photographers. They loved its soft & dreamy images, super-saturated colors, unpredictable blurring, and random contrast. Diana shots were raw & gritty, with a character all their own. They couldn't be duplicated by any other camera on Earth! But after the camera was discontinued in the '70s, functional examples became difficult to find and increasingly expensive to purchase. Dianas were in high demand! And given the cameras exceptional images and retro good looks, the fine folks at Lomo decided that it was time for a comeback!

Not satisfied with a simple reissue, Lomo decided to add something to the original. That meant adding all-new functionality to the camera and dramatically expanding its creative potential. They called it Diana+ Edelweiss. Its body was re-cast in pure white plastic using a duplication of the original mold. The lens was balanced to obtain those "perfectly imperfect" dreamy, gorgeous, color-drenched, sometimes-blurry, and often mind-blowing images. And this Diana knows a few new tricks, too! Features include 2 shutter speeds: one for day and one for night; the ability to shoot multiple or partial (overlapping) exposures; two image sizes for 12 square shots or 16 square shots on a roll of film; new Pinhole function: remove the lens, set the aperture to a super-small pinhole and shoot a super-wide-angle, severely old-school image through a tiny hole; new endless panorama function: shoot a long, concurrent, and unlimited panoramic image, with almost no space between each individual frame. Imported. Wipe clean. (Text by UrbanOutfitters)

CURRENTLY PLAYING

Come In From the Rain (Words & Music by Melissa Manchester & Carole Bayer Sager, 1975; Recorded by Melissa Manchester, 1983, on "Greatest Hits")

Well, hello there, good old friend of mine,
You've been reaching for yourself for such a long time;
There's so much to say, no need to explain,
Just an open door for you to come in from the rain.

It's a long walk when you're all alone,
And someone like you will always choose the long way home.
There's no right or wrong, I'm not here to blame,
I just want to be the one to keep you from the rain,
From the rain.

Bridge:

And it looks like sunny skies,
Now that I know you're all right.
Time has left us older, but wiser -- I know I am.

And I think of us like an old cliché,
But it doesn't matter, 'cause I love you anyway -
Come in from the rain.

Repeat Bridge:

And it's good to know my best friend has come home again;
'Cause I think of us like an old cliché,
But it doesn't matter, 'cause I love you anyway -
Come in from the rain, come in from the rain,
come in from the rain.

PHOTO NA, FUN PA

I've been noticing my friends' sites carrying these unusual manipulated photos and it occured to me it may be some website or program of sorts. Not to be left out (don't you just hate being left out?), I searched the sites and discovered the fun and wonder of Photofunia.com! Nakakaaliw! Obviously it's meant for people who do a lot of self worship (haha! Not guilty!). It also has effects for those who harbor delusions of grandeur or have the messianic complex bug. Anyhoo, here are my intial attempts at self perpetuation.

Technology courtesy of photofunia.com Thanks, Grace P., for the tip!

IDIOTIC, THAT'S WHAT IT IS

We never saw it coming, but the establishment of the Juridical Entity in Mindanao is a slap on the face of the Philippine nation. It is spitting on our history. The long, hard work of uniting these islands and its peoples have come to naught by a mere Memorandum of Agreement.

I first became aware of these separatist moves when I moved to Cagayan de Oro to study, most especially the quest for a Mindanao state led by former City mayor Reuben Canoy but this eventually fizzled out. Establishing a separate state does not a solution make. If only local leaders know the extent of their powers under the Local Government Code, there would be no need to be so dependent on Manila. Instead, local and national leaders have focused so much on the padrino system that local managers have lost their capability for greatness and greater local development and independence.

I hope the towns which were proposed to be part of the Entity reject the agreement during the plebiscite and I hope the Commission on Elections and the Philippine National Police make sure that no coercion occurs among the residents of these areas during the voting. After the exercise, the liberation armies involved in the agreement should accept & respect the will of the people and abide by the results of the plebiscite.

There is no doubt that we owe so much to our Muslim brothers. They have been ignored for so long, but the gargantuan failures of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) authority should have served as an example of the zero capability of the liberation movement leaders for self-rule. Let's review this agreement again, please.

IT DOESN'T TAKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST...

The aim of the race was simple: establish the fastest and cheapest way of getting around the Metro. The project "would also provide the public with baseline data for comparing the costs and travel time of the various modes of transportation in the metropolis of some 12 million people."

Honestly, for a constant metro traveler like me, the answer is so simple: without a doubt, the light rail transit system is the sure winner! It costs only Php 15 from end to end in airconditioned comfort ("comfort" is a relative term here and it doesn't apply to MRT 3).

Anyway, I suppose what the Philippine Daily Inquirer's The Rush-Hour Commute Challenge really wanted to establish is a scientific proof that this is so so they let loose several teams all over the metro to take the trains, bus, jeepney, a private car and cab. Not surprisingly, Team Jeepney came in last. In Manila, the jeepneys there take their sweet time. Napaka-walang sense of urgency! In Marikina, Laguna and Antipolo, however, one has to hold on to the railings for dear life because the jeepneys hardly touch the roads - they are already flying! Is this enough proof that jeepneys should be phased out of Philippine roads and replaced with more fuel-efficient buses? I hope so. Let's give up that old, cranky thing! It should go the way of the calesa - put them on specialized routes if only for the eyes of the tourists.

let's wait for the results of the Wednesday race. Follow the race here.

WOMEN = CREATING: A SOLO EXHIBIT AND POETRY COMPETITION

From the pre-colonial babaylans to the present-day career women, the Filipina has been highly regarded as leader, community organizer, setter of agenda, commander of the purse strings and source of caring and love. What beats at her very core, however, is creation – that primordial need to bring into the world forms that inspire and encourage.

WOMEN = CREATING shows us the faces – and facets – of women who have lived their dreams and impressed us with their greatness and innate humility. Our life stories are inevitably woven by the work of their hands - from the bewitching colored strings of the lumad loom, that memorable new novel, awe-inspiring pieces of art and that endearing television show we enjoy as friends or family. They write, sew, capture on film, carve & weave our history, capturing on their chosen medium all the travails and triumphs of our spirit as a people.

They may not be women of Tatarin or Darna proportions, but full of guts, grit and gumption nonetheless by setting out into the deep (Duc in altum!) in the name of creation and the practice of their craft.

Vivian N. Limpin - poet, photographer, graphic artist, writer, film director and painter - is honored to give tribute to some of our women-creators in this solo exhibit.


Women = Creating by Vivian N. Limpin
Conspiracy Garden Café
August 8, 2008 8PM
www.femlink.org

For details of the poetry competition by LIRA, click here.