I couldn’t finish what I started.
But so far I’m loving this. It has some characteristics of gouache but it’s watercolor l. Doesn’t need much water to activate it so I don’t have to be heavy-handed when doing washes.
Not yet done. I’m sleepy. I’ll finish this later.
I shared on FB the piece I wrote here yesterday and made it public. One of the family members thanked me for putting his family’s story to light and as of this moment this is being shared (now more than 450 likes and 390 shares).
Thank you, CallMeCreation.com, for sharing my family’s story. To add to this, we used to MANUFACTURE VolksWagen as well, long before China did. Take note: MANUFACTURE, not IMPORT. Sinira rin nina Marcos and his cronies yun. Not many are aware how much more damage Marcos caused while he was in power. Let us not let any of his children try to regain that. #MarcosNeverAgain#MarcosMagnanakaw
I knew about his family’s story because of one of my broadcasting courses. My father was also telling me about Radiowealth before. I remembered it when we retired that TV and replaced it with a Samsung, which was then a cheap copycat of Sony. But look at how South Korea grew into what it is now. Take note, we were very much ahead of S. Korea then. We could have been S. Korea now if not for Marcos’ greed.
As I mentioned here before, Manila was more modern than its neighbors before, with tranvias snaking Manila and neighboring towns. Escolta and other areas of Manila could be mistaken for any other cosmopolitan cities of Asia in the early late 19th to early 20th century.
It pains me that it’s only now that people learned about what I wrote about the Guevaras. Theirs is just one of the many devastating stories that the Marcoses produced.
But as Tricia Robredo–Leni’s medical doctor daughter–said, we should get out of our comfort zones and talk to communities, to those in the C,D, and E markets and tell them why this election is important. That they are just being misled to believe the lies by the Marcoses’ propaganda machinery. We shouldn’t be elitist and call those who are supporting BongBong Marcos as bobo (stupid); it was just their misfortune that the truth doesn’t reach them because we are confined to our echo chambers. As I said during my TV interview a few weeks ago, we are employing the wrong communication tactics to reach these low-income segments. Focused engagement at the grassroots level is the key and fact-checking shouldn’t be confined to online media because accessing information requires money. These low-income groups do not read newspapers because our periodicos are in English. It should reach TV and radio–the most accessible form of mass media that speak the poor’s language.
This is the role of journalists like me, put to light the truth that has long been buried by history revisionists. So people will learn and not commit the same mistakes. For people to take action.
YEY! My Kuratake Gansai Tambi finally arrived!
I enjoyed making the color swatches here as I was able to test the brilliance/opaqueness/translucence of each color. The colors are easy to activate by minimal water. I can see why this is preferred by some manga artists. I’m looking forward to using this tonight. I feel giddy.
I can confine now the portable palette to urban sketching and use this for more serious coloring. I’m trying to do a Chinese botanical tonight but it’s kind of hard to finish the sketch.
Let’s see what I can do tonight.
I had been looking at our metrics for two days now and something is wrong with our database. I contacted the person in charge but he hasn’t responded. I need to elevate this to HQ IT. It seems like I’m the only person in our bureau doing this 😤
So many hurdles that we/I are/am facing for changes to be implemented. I told my APAC boss if things don’t change, people will be resigning. Including me. Competition is actively hiring.
It was so hot today that whenever I go downstairs, I get knocked out by the heat. Later in the afternoon I didn’t realize I fell asleep while reading on my bed after finishing an edit. I felt I was being woken up by one of the girls but I couldn’t understand what that was about.
Then a Lazada package was on my table.
I bought this for less than PHP 200. I can have a hardbound sketchbook for less than PHP 1,000 via Lazada! Thank goodness for that. Moleskines are like PHP 1,500- PHP 2,000. I can’t keep forking out that much money for practice sketches.
I quickly put it to test.
I was determining here how to show depth since I took the photo directly on top of the food bowls so there’s no way I can show the depth of the bowls. That stumped me so much.
It’s really posing a problem. It’s a puzzle that I still have to solve because the ramen bowl is white. I’m trying to color a bit with ecru. I also added shadows under the bowls but another issue with the original image was that there were many sources of light there. The restaurant had multiple lights overhead so my light source is confused.
I need to give up for now to let the paper dry. The 150 gsm paper of this sketchbook is holding up and is not bleeding. Not bad for a hardbound sketchbook for less the PHP 200. I’ll solve this conundrum tomorrow.
Today I battled my way into reserving hotel rooms in Makati for the April 30 rally. And OMG the other Leni supporters are really fighting with me for the rooms! Everytime I clicked, Agoda told me that somebody else beat me into it. I even tried booking 3 bedroom suites but to no avail. Manila Peninsula was already fully booked yesterday. I tried the ones in Valero St. and Salcedo Village. I was able to book rooms in serviced apartments but on the first night it was in Valero and the second night is along Salcedo Village, a block away from Paseo de Roxas. I had to cut the reservation dates because there was no way I could book two nights in a row.
My mom is excited. Her friends have been having a difficult time booking rooms, too, and she’s happy I was able to snag rooms.
I’m also ordering pink shirts online. Will put click “buy” on Friday once I get clearer idea about the dates exact dates.
The girls are coming with me, too. I want them to see how people are gathering to push for change.
Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, we were manufacturing radios and televisions even before Japan started doing it.
The brand is Radiowealth and we had a unit of that huge TV at home when I was a kid.
We were a manufacturing hub before. Japan was devastated after the war. Korea was the same. China was deep into Maoism. We used to make watches during the later years of the Spanish colonial period. We had a thriving economy that was the envy of our neighbors.
But then Ferdinand Marcos Sr. came. And grabbed power.
When Martial Law was declared, Guevara’s business plan was jeopardized, especially since he was one of 7 delegates who voted against martial law. Because of this, he was pressured by the Marcos government which wanted to take over his successful business. Knowing it was futile to fight Marcos, Guevara—whose health has been affected by the turn of events—together with his wife, fled to the United States.
isamunangpatalastas.blogspot.com
RADIOWEALTH eventually closed, signaling an end of a shining era of industrial revolution. But Guevara’s legacy remains in Mandaluyong, where a busy, bustling street on where his manufacturing plants stood-Libertad St.–has been renamed after him—Domingo M. Guevara St. the self-made industrialist died in the 1990s.
isamunangpatalastas.blogspot.com
This is the reason why the economic powerhouse that was the Philippines fell and crumbled. Because of one man’s greed. We became the laggard of Asia as we continued to be dragged down by dollar debts that were stashed into Swiss bank accounts. We never recovered.
That is why this show of support to the opposition—Leni and Kiko—is not only a petty knee-jerk reaction against Duterte-Marcos. This is a fight for my children’s future. We must not let the Marcoses be back in Malacanang.
This is why we are sparing no expense in showing to the world that we are ready for change. For cleaner government, for public servants in the truest sense like Leni and Chel Diokno. And there are stories of people being converted during and after the Pasig rally because they saw how people are there on their own volition, without being bribed, without being forced by their LGUs.
We might never get back that economic status before Marcos Sr came. But at least we are trying to change our course to a better one.
Hearing this many people sing the national anthem in unison made my skin crawl. A lot of my friends and even my sister said that being there was surreal, something that you would only experience in extraordinary times.
That’s why when they said (social media is abuzz) that the next grand rally will be in Makati, along Ayala Avenue on 30 April, I told my sister we should book a room in Manila Peninsula for two nights to have a good view and at the same time my mom can also experience this.
I was asking my friend from my old TV network if the Makati venue and date is confirmed (he’s covering all campaign sorties/rallies of Leni nationwide), he said we can only know a week before the event because this is only arranged by the volunteers.
So let’s see if I can book with free cancellation, just in case they change.
UPDATE: It’s Paseo de Roxas, Makati
Today was so hot that my Twin A bought me an ice cream cone ❤️ while I was working this noon.
And it’s still March. It would be a lot hotter in the coming weeks. I’m already melting.
I don’t know how I spent the rest of my day but the time flew fast and I didn’t even do much. I just edited one story and for the life of me I could not figure out what else I did. Mostly admin tasks that really eat up my Mondays.
I just cooked egg drop soup with mishua and leeks for K and sent it with the Himeji Castle Gardens gate sketch tonight. He said he gets bloated with certain foods after his surgery but he can slowly take in rice in the form of rice porridge.
Tomorrow I think I’ll do bulalo since I bought beef shanks. I will make a clean soup out of this and lots and lots of veggies. I’ll cook it for 4 hrs on high or 8 hrs on low on the slow cooker.
The board under my desk’s drawer became loose so I had to repair it. I had to take out a lot of stuff and among the found stuff lurking in there were plastic pictures of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro I bought from Donguri Republic in Taipei in 2016. It’s only now that I was able to frame it after hoarding frames from Ikea yesterday.
It took me 6 years to have this framed and see it up. 😂 At least it would be there to lift my spirits when I am having a basura day.
I created a sanctuary here. When the world throws shit at you, you can retreat to your sanctuary and be surrounded by things that you love. That is the essence of home. Home is a place where your heart can rest, soothe your ruffled feathers, and feel protected. This is the first real home I had since I left my hometown. I never felt safe and really comfortable in all the houses that I lived when I got married. I never considered those houses mine because I never had a say in those houses. This apartment was truly a sanctuary for me, even if it’s just a rental. I created this home with my own hands.
I found my Sony Walkman mp3 player and I got to hear my playlist that had so much history for me on my Edifier speaker. 8 GB worth of songs. At this moment I’m listening to Porter Robinson‘s Shelter and before that was Yoko Kanno x Aoi Teshima’s Because. These songs brought me back to the a time and space I thought things were just right. When I was happy.
These songs also tugged at my heartstrings when I was broken.
When we transfer to our new home, I will have the freedom to play music as loud as I want. I don’t have to deal with neighbors. Especially when I play Soundgarden 😄
It’s that time of the month that I have to deal with finances. This is the amount of receipts that I have to tally and check where my money went.
I don’t throw away receipts quickly because I need to check them and record them on my daily diary to track spending. I have an Excel file of my monthly budget and I have to adhere to it. That’s how I get to have room for spending for frivolous things because I have earmarked xx amount for “fun money”. Sometimes I go overboard (like this month) but I have enough wiggle room as not to destroy my monthly spending.
When I was growing up, I often saw my mom hunched over the tocador (Spanish – dressing table) with a calculator and a little notebook, balancing the household budget. She’s very careful with money, which I think I and my older sister inherited. Whatever I spent for the month, it has to come from somewhere i had budgeted. This is the reason why I have many bank accounts—I treat them like my wallets where I distribute my income, including investments.
I’m teaching my children self-control and they are somewhat successful with it. They hold off spending the money they received from aunts/uncles (they just received advanced birthday money from their paternal aunt and uncle) when they are saving for something bigger, like the rollerblades that Twin I wants. For the little things they want like milktea via Food Panda/Grab or stationery from Shopee, they use their chore money (money they earned for doing chores). At least they know the value of the money they’re spending. When they pick up an item from the grocery store or mall, they equate it to how many hours they will spending on doing chores just buying that thing. That’s time value.
You got to start them young. That’s how my mom taught me while I was growing up.
I was dead until 12 noon today. I just slept. I woke up because I was hungry and I forgot that today is the political rally of Leni Robredo-Kiko Pangilinan at Ortigas Center.
My sister and a lot of my friends are out there. I was thinking whether I should try to join but then we still have Covid.
According to friends, at least 140k people joined.
Ortigas Center was a sea of pink.
In other videos you can feel the energy of the crowd, everybody was happy and this was not chaos.
I would have loved to be there but I’m scared of getting Covid again. I got Covid even I was fully vaccinated. But I’m happy that a lot of people are coming out supporting the opposition.
Marcos will make sure that there will be cheating on May 9.
Hmm I should contact PPCRV and see what I can do to help at HQ.
The reason I was asleep half of the day was because of this.
I was drawing until 3 am. First off, I cut the watrcolor drawing I did that is no longer working for me. I did that to recycle the 300 gsm watercolor paper.
This sketch will go to my friend K as a get well present along with the food I’m gonna send tomorrow.
Since I didn’t go to the rally tonight, my girls and I just went to Ikea to buy their chairs because the ones I bought from Ofix are beyond help. The girls’ backs are suffering and the chairs are really falling apart.
I also bought bins to corral my sewing stuff and painting stuff, a floor lamp for the living room, and lots and lots of frames.
Then we went to SM Department Store to buy the girls their birthday T-shirt dresses. The clothes I bought them a few months ago can barely fit them now. 😩 They grow up really fast.
Got home at 10 pm. We had to take C5 because of the huge traffic jam caused by the Leni rally at Ortigas.
I’m tired. I don’t think I can draw tonight.
I’m kinda stupid. I’ve been driving all over Metro Manila chasing the instruments I needed for my new obsession when Art Whale is just right at my doorstep. I didn’t have to drive to Manila, Makati, or even to Q. Ave just to get the right brushes and individual half pans of artist grade watercolors. It’s just right there—a bike ride away.
I finally found that elusive #000 brush that is 10x better than my current one from Scriva. I could barely make lines with the Scriva #000 (the hairs are all falling apart) while this da Vinci is right on the money. And it’s only PHP 75. They carry Escoda (the very expensive kind) and Princeton brushes but da Vinci is fine with me.
I was also able to buy the Holbein Jaune Brilliant which has been in my Shopee cart. I can finally quit mixing my own colors for skin, which always turn out yellowish (that’s why in my sketches the people there look like they have Hepatitis).
I’m not happy with the single Winsor & Newton Cotman pan I bought; it’s quite chalky and it needs a lot of water and dipping before I could get the color. I found that I’m quite happy with Tokyo Finds Bento Picasso Pro and I’ll just fill it with Holbein colors now that I know where to buy these elusive things. Bento Picasso Pro have brilliant colors and enough transparency and can easily be reactivated with water, I can even reactivate the blots of colors on my pans that have dried up and use them up again.
When it comes to paper, they only have Strathmore in the “affordable”/non-professional line, which is quite pricey. So I can buy the 300 gsm papers from Art Bar (Cansons, MontMarte) and Tokyo Finds from Shopee Mall.
They have good brands for other medium (oil, acrylics, gouache) but they’re the higher end ones.
Here’s to my art therapy. It has been 15 months but I’m getting there. I have setbacks but I will get there eventually.
The girls are with their dad so I have solo time today. I went all Japanese today again for my dinner after discovering the Kewpie sesame soy sauce for that is perfect for shredded napa cabbage.
I had tuna sashimi (surface pan seared a bit) with the last of my wasabi paste, omurice (the rice I seasoned for sushi), shredded napa cabbage with sesame soy sauce, and tonkatsu ramen. It’s too much for dinner but I didn’t have lunch and barely had breakfast today so it’s kinda ok. I’ll just have to walk off the calories tomorrow. Save for the trip to Art Whale and grocery shopping at Puregold tonight, I didn’t do anything much but sleep.
Let’s see what I can create tonight.
Two of my botanicals have been reserved by my bff L so I’ve touched them up before I would give them. So I was able to make room in my two frames for one botanical and for the Himeji Castle Garden.
