The last hurrah before turning into a slave again

Posted on April 10, 2023 by admin

Again, I didn’t have the patience to do sketches before watercoloring. I just stayed loose because I’m lazy and I was just going with the flow, with what I’m feeling. I just followed where the water was going.

I wish I could be like that in real life. However, I can’t because I’m in charge of the lives of two people who are completely dependent on me. I have to be organized and responsible so I won’t fuck up their lives and end up therapy. The only time I can be loose and free is when I watercolor like this. Even when I travel, I say “whatever, I’ll just go with whatever I feel like,” but in truth there are a lot of planning involved there. I’m just not rigid.

So this is my last hurrah before I go back to work tomorrow. Put my nose on the grinding stone again. Then pack our little things in between so I can drive these stuff to my house in bits and pieces…

Speaking of my house, my contractor gave me the bill for the construction work for my laundry area and a separate bill for the waterworks i.e. pressure tanks, etc. I hope these are the last of it because anything more than that means I would have to draw down on my moneymarket UITF. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Good thing I still have enough free cash/retained earnings to tide me by without touching my investments again.

It’s hard to adult.

Happy Easter!

Posted on April 8, 2023 by admin

Since I had my brain rested, I was able to make fresh art again.

I’ll probably make more complicated ones tomorrow.

Broken cat and a heat gun

Posted on March 1, 2023 by admin

*My cat must be broken. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I snuggled with my cat, Sushi, before I had that call with my APAC head this afternoon. We leveled off and I told her that I was so close to quitting, among other things that I had to tell her, like I was being poached by another publication and that competitors are also hiring all over for Southeast Asia so there is always a threat that

Anyway, that is that. I just have to struggle with nobody in Singapore office, at least for the next six months or so. That means I would have to travel there frequently.

I relaxed a bit today so stomach acids are less bothersome today so I have no diarrhea. Hopefully, this continues so I won’t be harassed when I travel next week.

Meanwhile, my heat gun finally arrived.

*This heat gun makes my life easier. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I don’t have to wait overnight for my watercolors to dry completely. The drawback here is that the hot air from the heat gun pushes the liquid too much so it makes the color marks look messy.

*Recreated the Metro Manila view from Padi’s Point Antipolo. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I have to practice using the heat gun. It tends to wash out some colors so I need to layer a lot.

*I’m not happy with this one. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com*

More practice. More practice. More practice.

Signals

Posted on February 28, 2023 by admin

My body was full of knotted muscles so I had booked a two-hour Zennya massage last night. At the end of the session I was already snoring so I just went straight to bed and forgot about everything else.

Today, I was bombarded with edits (which was fine) and hiring chores/issues (which was not fine) that I had suffered through diarrhea the entire day due to too much stomach acids. I think I had been going to the bathroom 10x already. It seems like my proton pump inhibitor (esomeprazole) is not doing its job. If by next week I’ll still be like this (geez I’m in Singapore 🤦‍♀️), then it seems like I need to have that endoscopy to see whether I already have peptic ulcers.

I think I need to decompress for a bit.

Let’s see what I can come up with later.

*This is why I bought a heat gun from Lazada last night*. *A small desk fan cannot dry washes in an instant. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com*

*Yes, I repeated an old image. Art and photo b*y *CallMeCreation,com*

I redid this Binangonan sunset that I drew last year. This time, I did not resort to using fine liners to define plants and I am now more light-handed when it comes to sky colors compared to the first drawing. This paper is still very wet so I will just revisit this tomorrow when it’s completely dry.

Why did I do this?

Nothing. Just to track my progress when it comes to technique i.e. showing the opacity and how to do reflections on water. The first time I did this, Laguna Lake didn’t look like a lake at all; it was just a muddy valley. Now at least there’s a semblance of water reflecting the sky. I also mixed cadmium yellow + cobalt violet and cadmium orange + cobalt violet to produce different browns for the lake shore that would go with sunset and the lake. For the other part of the lake, it was a mixture of imperial violet + blue gray deep of varying degrees. Using the pre-mixed browns and grays made my first drawing muddy and it lacked opacity that is needed when sunlight changes every second. Watching other artists on Instagram is helping me to rely less on pre-mixed colors and create my own.

This is still ugly in my eyes so I need to continue improving this. Probably next year.

Odd

Posted on February 25, 2023 by admin

I had to make an advisory to other editors that our Philippines reporter and I will take the day off because idiot president hastily declared a holiday late Thursday afternoon. We could have made better plans for the long weekend.

Despite the declaration of a holiday, the event at the central bank pushed through. Of course, you can’t reset a thing like this without making a mess of bank presidents’, CEOs and conglomerate owners’ schedules.

The good thing here though is that the roads are less congested. Wohoo!

*On the way to Makati to pick up another journo. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I worked for a bit at Starbucks in G5 because of companies (or rather pushy PRs) that insist on their own way, forgetting that there is such thing as editorial independence. Diva execs, pushy PRs, and unreasonable company policies–what a way to end the week.

*A bit of a pain to work with MS Outlook on Android because it doesn’t have a search function and html formatting editor but it will do because my Samsung* *tablet is much lighter than my laptop.* *Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Upon arriving at the central bank, I noticed there were new paintings at the 3rd floor lobby. One staff member told me they have just acquired the collection of UCPB and that is now scattered all over the main building. Unfortunately, I only had time to see three paintings when there must have been hundreds of them. I had to work my butt off last night.

*I will never probably understand or appreciate an HR Ocampo piece. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

*1898 by Edwin Wilwayco. I like this take on the Philippine flag. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

*Jose Joya, an artist that I could not appreciate when I was younger but now I do. It’s not about what you need to see but how an artwork makes you feel. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

One time I will tell my friends at the BSP comms dept I will drop by to see the sculptures and paintings in their collection during one less hectic day. It’s not easy to gain access there and I had been going in and out of their premises regularly for years as a reporter. Might as well take advantage of that.

They gave me this uncut live currency to add to my collection of like items and commemorative coins. I’m still looking for the uncut 20-peso bills where I had former central bank governors sign their names. Two of them sadly passed on. That item is one of the, if not the most precious souvenir I had kept as a banking reporter. The girls’ dad must have it with him, including my analog cameras.

And now back to…

Posted on February 19, 2023 by admin

Now that these tests are out of the way, I can concentrate on other tasks now such as scheduling my appointments with other doctors 😑 which is the hardest part.

I forgot to get my results 😑 before leaving for QC. But I guess they’re the same from last year. The fact that I suspect it was pancreatitis that pushed me to see doctors this weekend, it’s no doubt the trigger are my triglycerides that are likely much more elevated now. 🫠

I now have to prepare my own food since I have to lower my bad cholesterol and triglycerides…no more processed carbohydrates for me. Complex carbs and fish. Steamed, grilled, and broiled/boiled. Salmon, mackerel, tuna, and chicken. 😭 Sigh. I have to look for ways to make vegetables more appetizing. Sweet potatoes. I’ve already refrained from eating sweet stuff. I have to hoard smoked salmon when I see them.

Ageing is hard. But dying is harder. Choose your hard. 🚩

*Back in the city. Waiting for Twin A who was having a haircut. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I wanted to drop by at Art Fair Manila this afternoon coming from the south but I had an inkling that people may be swarming the area. I just went straight home to do the usual weekend errands.

Good thing I listened to my gut feel. A journo posted on FB that it took him 15 mins to get out of the 3F parking area of Greenbelt 1. The volume of cars was more than the usual. He said it seemed like a lot of people don’t care about the 8.7% inflation rate. Or everyone went to Art Fair Manila, as one commenter said. 🤔 Hmmm, I haven’t realized that the local art scene has become more mainstream and is no longer the exclusive territory of the artsy fartsy crowd. I mean, that’s good. But then, there’s the sad reality that people go to art exhibits just to do their Tik Tok videos there and not to appreciate art, as one local artist lamented in a social media post. He/she caught some kids carelessly putting their stuff on his/her work so they can do their Tik Tok videos. 😢

I wish BDO would open up its art collection to the public because they are beautiful. I am only one of the few who got access to their collection when I attended one party there in 2018. I only was able to take a few photos of the paintings I liked for future reference. There were a lot to take in.