After this horrible week, I deserve to be a sloth. My model creatures are my cats. I envy my cats in this regard.
Kimchi’s safe place is under my table. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Sushi’s favorite place is always above my head. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I cooked for a bit, simple but hearty almondigas. This is similar to the Spanish or Mexican albondigas but the difference is the Spanish/Mexican one has tomatoes/tomato sauce. One pot dish that is perfect for sloth day.
I wanted to express my sorrow again in some form so I tried a sad sunset. But then again I need more practice blending complementary colors with analogous ones. Watercolors are really unforgiving.
Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m waiting for this to dry up again. Drying times take hours so in between I sleep. Then layer again.
Still far from being done. Need to blend the muddy colors. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
Let’s see what this looks like later. I may end up just making pink peonies and be heartbroken all over again.
With Fabian Ver‘s daughter and Loren Legarda‘s son disowning what their parents did, I am hopeful that this generation and the generation of my daughters will continue to side with what is right.
Screen cap from Rappler.com
This story of Wanna Ver’s discovery, education, and later acceptance of the evil her father did is very powerful. I want to cry.
Wanna Ver is offering one apology at a time for the crimes her father helped commit, and stands by the accounts of victims and survivors
Fabian Ver is the second-most evil man after Marcos during the latter’s reign. He was the the berdugo, the executioner, during Marcos’ reign of terror.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo Leviste’s rejection of his mother’s political choice tore him apart and had to denounce it publicly.
‘My mother is an example of how fascism takes hold, is made acceptable, normalized, facilitated, ushered in’
I don’t like his brother (I interviewed him a couple of times), but this Lorenzo sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders.
Only a few days away…
My stomach is in knots.
To ease my anxiety, I continued with my bookmark painting.
Art of photo by CallMeCreation.com
The board paper does not absorb watercolors well so it was hard mixing colors and the gradation is quite messy. But it will do. Plus I’m legally blind. My contact lenses do not allow me to work at close range and I couldn’t take it off like I do with my eyeglasses. I had to take my contacts off when I lined this with Uni pin 0.5.
I can’t wait for my eyeglasses so I can go back to normal.
Speaking of anxiety, I went to a spa near my apartment to have a deep tissue massage on my shoulders, back, and neck. I could feel that I would be having a stiff neck tomorrow because my muscles in these areas are frozen. This despite having a 1.5-hr Zennya massage in Makati this weekend. The knots on my shoulders and back are so tight that it was so painful sleeping on my side.
At the neighborhood spa. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I and my S.Korea boss were the only editors today so I had to edit some stories from Australia because of this. I submitted a story I wrote and of course no one picked it up. I guess everything has to wait until next week. If I remember it right, this week is Japan’s Golden Week as well, which coincides with China’s week-long holidays.
I doubt if I can work well next week when my whole body would be contorted with anxiety due to the elections.
Rough sketch. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.comArt and photo by CallMeCreation.comBuilding views, Makati central business district. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.comPoolside. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I decided to make bookmarks and use urban sketching style to draw pictures as I have a lot of board paper off-cuts here.
When Kr and I met last Friday, I gave her the 400 pcs of business cards I ordered for her, the Baguio City pines painting I promised her, and a print out of the yellow bell I painted for my mom. She was surprised that the print was not a real painting and she said I can make Christmas gifts out of such prints. I said I will try making book marks and the original ones I will give to special bookworm friends and the prints will be given to other bookworms. I will have them plastic laminated.
I was inspired by this urban sketcher last night so I went back to drawing again today, even if these are just quick drawings.
I’m not proud to say that I again procrastinated today and was just busy emailing and chatting with people online. Well, it’s still work, right? There are days when creative juices just don’t flow and I needed to seek it elsewhere, hence, the drawings today. Besides it’s a holiday today here in Manila (and the rest of Southeast Asia) so my brain knows I really don’t have to work that hard today.
I read somewhere (I don’t remember if I already blogged about this) that executives and creatives have different workflows. Executives function well if they divide their day according to chunks on a per hour basis. They can easily finish daily tasks like that. Creatives, however, cannot block time like executives do. So when visual artists or writers block their days, they do it by how many hours it takes them to finish because you cannot just cut thought or creative drive like executives cut their calls per hour. That’s why a lot of writers tend to skip meals because it’s hard to cut their train of thought when they’re deep into writing.
It’s the same with starting a creative process like writing. I need to be in the zone to write so there are days that I really procrastinate—which is bad since I’m a manager too. So my days now are filled with executive work that involves talking to a lot of people and emailing, fixing admin stuff, etc. So the more I procrastinate doing executive tasks, the more the creative process gets delayed.
I have to fix my workflow better. This blog entry gives good tips on how to manage your daily tasks. Since I was a semi-manager in the past, winging it was ok. But now I have my entire ass on the line, I cannot just wing it like I did before.
To complicate matters, I must still manage my household like a chief executive, including weekends. Single mom manager and super journo—I don’t know how but I will get through this.
Presidential bet Manny Pacquiao wants all candidates to stay the course, according to his campaign manager, as Manila Mayor Isko Moreno asked Vice President Leni Robredo to withdraw from the race. #PHVote#WeDecidehttps://t.co/eVmAYtsxkT
I really, really wanted to do house to house campaigning but my number one duty as a Filipino is to abide by journalism ethics. I have to restrain myself like the rest of my colleagues. We can express our political leanings but we cannot actively campaign for any personality as part of our sworn duty to be fair and just.
Speaking of journalists and elections, I just attended this webinar by Twitter for us journalists and the measures they put it place to prevent manipulation of the political discourse by preventing trolls/certain political candidates with well oiled machinery to manipulate public opinion (hello, Facebook!). Since this is a private webinar, I cannot disclose the things they have shared with us except for those they have already shared with the public such as 300 Marcos-related accounts (i.e. troll farms) taken down. This active policing of tweets has incensed Elon Musk so much that he is busy with his hostile takeover bid for Twitter. He is angry that Twitter is muzzling freedom of speech. Well Elon, if you go by Facebook, which has destroyed the Philippines, then I wish you just go to Mars and stay there. Don’t be an instrument in destroying democracies like ours.
Mr Musk has said he believes Twitter is limiting freedom of speech on the platform and he reiterated this at the Vancouver event. He has said his primary motivation would be to expand free speech – a US Constitutional right – on Twitter.
Was busy today with admin work that I barely had time time to edit and no time for writing three stories that I must finish until Wednesday. Because on Thursday, we will be leaving here at 5 am so that we would be in Anilao at around 7:30 am so we can dive early!!! Then work I start working at 10 am.
My head is pounding now, damn this headache. My psychiatrist’s secretary has not yet confirmed my schedule. I think this is a withdrawal symptom from stopping alprazolam ahead of schedule. I keep forgetting to take that thing. Maybe because I’ve been very calm the past few weeks that I keep forgetting that I still have to cure my anxiety. I haven’t been triggered since March and that’s a good thing and I hope it stays this way.
This is what I get for giving too much of myself to a man who doesn’t deserve me. Never again. Yeah, I’m hormonal right now and I’m angry again.
Meanwhile, aside from art, my other sources of serotonin are:
Kittykats keeping me company! Photo by CallMeCreation.com Making our rooms cuter by installing shades to make the lighting cozier. Photo by CallMeCreation.comMy gallery wall. Look at the cat on the stairs on the upper part of the photo 😄 Photo by CallMeCreation.com
A lot of people online (myself included) have declared that the male presidential aspirants have lost their balls/eggs with their stupid press conference today. If I were the journo covering this event, I would be cursing up to the high heavens for disturbing my day off.
We witnessed them scrambling their eggs on national TV on Easter Sunday. Yuck.
The nerve of these men. They probably have received orders from Bong-bong Marcos to tell Leni this absurd thing because he is already so threatened. Those who are politically savvy know that Marcos (ultimately, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) is behind why these men are running for president—to divide the votes among those who do not like Marcos.
Only three weeks away. This is the most important election I have witnessed, save for the snap elections of 1985 that led to the Edsa Revolution because Ferdinand Marcos Sr cheated.
Another widow is running against a Marcos. And this Marcos is also threatened big time so he is employing all the dirty tactics to bring his demon of a family back to Malacanang.
But this time, the widow is not a clueless housewife. She is very capable and has a good head on her shoulders.
I’m scared.
Since it’s the end of Lenten Season, we had red meat today.
Korean barbecue for dinner. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
As I planned, today is a lazy day—Not actually. I did some carpentry job as it’s Twin A’s turn to have her table repaired. Good thing I already bought the Fixa cordless electric screwdriver from Ikea so I can reinforce the table with its existing screws and new screw.
It’s taking forever to charge though.Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I love my my Bosch impact drill but it’s too heavy and powerful for small jobs like screwdriving because you need two hands to operate it. Plus it’s not cordless so it’s cumbersome to use for furniture repair or assembly. But it’s perfect for heavy duty jobs drilling through masonry like when I am attaching curtain rods and shower heads.
I have now in my Lazada cart a cordless drill (for light jobs) and a jigsaw. One day I will have my own workshop/studio where I can confine all my DIYs and art projects. But one thing at a time. In the meantime, I will let those power tools stew in my online cart because I blew my budget this month because I bought too many frames. In true artist (wanna-be) fashion, I am surrounded by frames and art materials.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Speaking of art materials, my mechanical pencils were delivered. The Staedtler one has 0.5 B leads while the Monami one has 0.5 HB leads. I can get away without outlining drawings using micron pens if I use B lead. For situations that I need to erase the sketch, I use the HB.
Staedtler mechanical pencil. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Meanwhile, this crazy initial practice sketch of Manila Cathedral is driving me nuts all because I took the photo from a weird angle.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is why architecture and engineering students are never without their mechanical pencils. It’s annoying to constantly sharpen your pencils for drawing things like the one above.
Because I’m the queen of procrastination, I diverted myself into doing a manga-inspired drawing because I’m stumped with this Manila Cathedral one.
Another Himeji Castle Gardens scene. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
And because I am swimming in frames, I decided to give these manga-inspired drawings some dignity by putting them in cheap Fiskbo frames. I made the matting myself because, why not? I no longer have walls to accommodate these so they would be given away.
Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
The yellow bell that I did the other day is framed and will also be given to my mom. Since I liked this one, I scanned it, printed it, and hung it near the kitchen sink to replace my old cross-stitch project. Not bad.
Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I don’t know if my hobby is cheaper than my sister’s because I keep buying frames. Oh but wait…she keeps having her acrylic paintings framed professionally so…I think hers is more expensive. Her paints are also more expensive on a by-inch/cm basis. While my watercolors are expensive (and I will be buying more expensive ones because they do make a lot of difference), they last forever because I’m not painting on huge canvases like my sister does. The painting that hangs above my bed headboard and the painting of farmers near my stairs are already too big for me.
I should also try to get back to pencils and charcoal. 🤔
Ah, I should sleep earlier. I have an interview at 10 am. Then a call at 11 and 2 pm. The 2 pm one is with Twitter—they selected me among the many local journos for their experimental program for this election. I wonder what this would be. 🤔🤔🤔
