The paper of this sketchbook absorbs color instead of half-repelling it so that’s why the watercolors bleed. I couldn’t make it behave the way I want it so layering is difficult. The gray on jaune didn’t blend so it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Ah well, this is a practice notebook anyway. It’s ok if my sketches are bad. I need to fill up 20 sketchbooks before I improve. π
Maybe I could try sketching Manila Cathedral now or Fort Santiago.
Today is a public holiday and I’m not supposed to work but I did. I had an interview with this firm that the Singapore PR I blogged about the other day was promoting. It was a hard interview because I tried poking from different angles and I’m not able to penetrate his wall so I couldn’t get what I wanted. I don’t know if I just wasted everybody’s time since there is no actionable angle I could write about π
This left me exhausted. Hard to interview lawyers if they’re not drunk. π«
I want to visit an art gallery or watch somebody create art so I can be inspired and restore my mojo. Creativity can be drained and I tell you I’m so dry. I’m running on empty now.
You see, I used to cover her at the Philippine Competition Commission when she was still a commissioner there. She was one of my favorite commissioners to put on a hot seat during press conferences (the other one is Comm Joey Bernabe). I used to love covering both of them and she once told me that I keep them on their toes whenever I attend their presscons. She was really good and made sense. Her specialization at the UP School of Economics was health economics—everything that concerns private healthcare funding, universal healthcare, public health finance, etc.
Then she ran for congress.
She’s now swallowed by the system (or maybe there was a corrupt politician hiding in her all along) and has co-authored the bill that would create the Marcos slush fund a.k.a. the 1MDB 2.0.
What are sovereign wealth funds? These are created by states so that their excess reserves can go somewhere more productive instead of sitting in the national treasury. What states have excess funds in an age of budget deficits? Oil countries. Malaysia, Norway, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern states.
A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund or entity that is commonly established from:
Balance of payments surpluses
Official foreign currency operations
The proceeds of privatizations
Governmental transfer payments
Fiscal surpluses
And/or receipts resulting from resource exports
And as a public finance and macroeconomy reporter of 8+ years, let me tell you this:
We used to log BOP surpluses but that changes month on month. I used to do magic and produce news articles just from a table of national current accounts (oh the pain of writing BOP stories)…. BUT it’s more frequent that the numbers are in ( ).
We privatize government assets because we are always short on cash.
We didn’t have fiscal surpluses. We never balanced our budget and the smallest budget deficit that finance reporters of my time recorded was PHP 60bn (if I remember it right) and that was before the global financial crisis. Arroyo had to backpedal on the zero-deficit plan because by 2008 our economy went shit.
Receipts from resource exports? We don’t have OIL AND GAS to export, unlike the countries I mentioned above. Our mineral resources aren’t generating enough receipts for us to create an SWF. Indonesia has coal and nickel, while we have the low-grade variety of these minerals.
(Not well versed in govt forex operations and transfer payments as source of funds for SWF so I won’t touch on those).
Tapos obsessed na obsessed tong gobyernong to magtayo ng SWF, kala mo may excess funds tayo. HOYYYYYYYYYY we have always operated on a deficit. Kapal ng mukha netong mga to!
HOY STELLA! Slush fund ng Marcoses ang tinutulak mo. Di kami bobo.
To calm me down, I resorted to sketching this scene at the Singapore Botanical Gardens before I started editing today.
This government is driving me nuts.
I bought more frames when I was at the Mall of Asia/Ikea. Just because. If I produce a decent sketch or painting of something, maybe I can frame it and give it as a gift.
And I bought a wok as a gift to my cousin who wanted a paella pan (but I couldn’t find it.
My mom stayed with me overnight because she is attending the ordination of priests at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Cubao. One of the new priests is a family friend.
Just like anything that has something to do with the Catholic Church, the ceremony is ornate and full of pomp. And loooong. So is the church itself.
So here I am, 2 hrs into the ceremony, outside the church and sketching my way out of boredom.
It’s drizzling now so I’ll just finish this later. At least the entire pencil sketching is done on-site. π€£
Where shall I bring my mom after this…
After church, we went to SM MOA so that my mom 1) can buy new underwear (her excuse to go to a mall); and go to St. Paul’s to buy her 4 volumes of 2023 prayer books. Along the way, we encountered a guitar center. Twin I is saving up for an acoustic guitar.
And I thought I found the perfect guitar for her. Not too big, sounds ok and has an inlet on the side to plug it into an amplifier.
After ticking off everything in my mom’s checklist, we drove to my hometown.
The welding works will be done in January so my stainless steel staircase, water reservoir tower, and fire exit platform will be made. February will just be cabinet works and finishing like painting and installation of shelves. By that time I can pull out my books from my apartment so I can put them in the shelves. That way I would know if I need to install more.
My stomach is knotted right now as I would be going back to work tomorrow. I have a call at 9 am. Then I have a ton of emails and story backlogs to attend to. Then I must make my final arrangements for my trip to Singapore.
Count my blessings. At least I still have a job. I would have a fully paid home by February.
I just need to hurdle these last few issues then I’m off to another holiday vacation for Christmas.
I just realized UP Masscom building is boring.
At the rate I’m going, it will be 10 years before I see any improvement. I need to sketch everyday so I could train my eyes to be more observant and to teach myself how to translate things that I see on paper.
Meanwhile, I just completed our application for Philippine Science High School and paid the admission fee online. I’m not confident ok if they would NOT pass the final screening but at least they would have some kind of practice exam before the girls take the real entrance exam that we are really targeting—my high school.
I’m also preparing some stuff for work tomorrow and some deliveries that I should attend to, like my online purchase of more Holbein half-pan watercolors.
Gee, I promised myself that I would be more disciplined with money while I am having my house constructed but here I am…buying unnecessary stuff.
I have to keep myself from shopping in Singapore. The peso has sunk further against SGD (now at 41) and it’s madness to go shopping there. I just bought a new luggage from Suntec City and two handbags at Tangs in July. Electronics? I have everything I need. I don’t need to buy a new laptop and the current one I’m using now as my desktop is still fast and there is hardly any hiccup at all.
I should just go to Botanic Gardens and sketch there. Or stay at a coffee shop near heritage buildings and sketch. Anything that could keep me from spending unnecessarily.
While I complete some tasks at my desk, my kitties are insisting that they should be part of my work, too.
My girls are probably bored to death at their dad’s hometown now…
I’m not going anywhere. My daughters passed on to me their colds. π So after we fetch their aunt from Terminal 1 and drive them all to Terminal 2 for their flight to Cebu, I think I will be going straight home.
I was initially thinking of going to MC Home Depot to buy a range hood for my kitchen. My contractor has been sending me photos of tiles for my bathroom and kitchen backsplash. We’re still waiting for the granite countertops that will match the tiles.
But I’m not feeling energetic at all. I just want to sleep.
Maybe I’ll do it on Saturday?
Meanwhile, the contractor said the drywall will be thicker (fiber cement will be 6mm instead of 4.5mm) to ensure soundproofing. This will also help me when I begin hammering picture frame hooks for my paintings and whatnot.