Shooting the Moon

I was doing my usual light jogging in our village when I suddenly stopped to check out the sky. The stars were out and the moon was just beautiful.

The poet in me wanted to just sit and stare and let the good thoughts flow in hoping that Jaye would be looking at the moon as well.

The photographer in me wanted to run home to set up the camera+tripod and take plenty of pictures. Since the jogger in me gave up and wanted me to just go home and have dinner that’s what I did.

I set up my tripod and camera just outside our house, updated my camera settings and fired away. For the next few hours I was just there taking shots and changing settings. Shoot, change, shoot, change, shoot, change. Every 5 minutes I had to change the setting of the tripod since the moon was moving faster than I thought and the higher the moon went, the brighter it became. Finally at around 1am I got the shot I wanted:

I love taking pictures of the moon. I guess when you think about it, everyone else is taking a picture of the same thing just from a different angle. Some will have better pictures. Some will have worse. As long as you worked hard for a certain picture to make it look exactly the way you wanted it to be, you wouldn’t trade that with anything else in the world.

Full moons make Arn sentimental. :D

The Pacquiao Fight Commentary

Finally I was able to catch a replay of the Marquez – Pacquiao fight last weekend. I was out with my family the first time it was aired and though we were able to watch bits and pieces of the fight, I wasn’t really able to observe (and I was more concentrated on finishing off the big plate of baked mussels I ordered). After watching the replay, for the sake of my friends who totally missed the fight, here’s my full analysis of the fight (and everything else):

Round 1 – With every Filipino expecting Marquez to fall down in the first round, Manny gets hit by a 1 – 2 punch square right into the jaw. Manny looked awful as he was hit hard in this round. Give it to Marquez for a 1-0 round lead.

Oh great, here comes the Manny ads. "Pag masakit ang massel at parang pinipilipit na tale, i-Alaxan mo lang!". Manny sure could use some right there.

Round 2 – Both Manny and Marquez landed solid blows and this round would have gone either way but in the final 10 seconds Manny gets hit by a three hit combination making him slightly losing his footing. Before he could counter the round ended and so the round clearly belonged to Marquez. Don’t you hate it when that happens? It's like meeting the perfect girl - pretty, smart, funny then you find out she likes girls too...

Funny thing about that CDO burger ad as they sing all the things you can do with a burger patty - burger steak, hawiian burger and adobo burger. They didn't even mention hamburger sandwiches. The test if you're truly pinoy? If you didn't get the joke and you found nothing wrong in this paragraph.

Round 3 – The commentators were obviously panicking after seeing Manny get pounded the first two pounds and get hit by combinations early in the 3rd round. Late in the round they both switch to Manny’s “away kalye” style and surprise surprise, Marquez gets hit and lands on his back. He gets up and he’s greeted by more punches. You should see his facial expression as he uses his face to block the punches.

I just love the way referee Ken Bayless counts. Hey, he just counts 1 to 10 but he puts emotions into it as if he’s shocked with his eyes wide open. Hey, if you see someone like that, wouldn’t you stand up right away?

End of the round and Marquez and Manny both walked towards the same corner. Does Marquez want to sit on Manny’s lap on the same stool? Happy round for Filipinos since the knockdown just put Manny back in the fight.

Round 4 – The commentators are now predicting that Manny will finish the fight in this round. For the 105th time they mentioned that Marquez is a counter puncher. Manny punches and he gets punched back. The round dragged on and there was nothing.

More and more and more ads... Filipino ads can be categorized into the following themes:

A) A pretty face tells you to use this product. They have lines but it doesn’t make any sense. Take that Samba Corned Beef ad for example. A pretty girl knocks on the door and tells the guys in the room the she brought her friends. They party and they eat corned beef. Look closely and in that party, everyone is holding a can of corned beef instead of beer. What will they use for shots? Knorr bouillon cubes?
B) A jingle or a song. Again it doesn’t have to make sense but it should be catchy. There must be dancing too with plenty of backup dancers. Remember old comedy movies where the ladies would get kidnapped, rescued then they would all dance in Luneta?
C) Attempted humor aimed for the early grade schoolers. They use puppets and ultra corny jokes.
D) The direct approach. “Use this”. Wala lang. Basta use it.
E) Utter nonsense ended by mentioning the product name. A couple couldn’t sleep and so the husband goes up to the roof to lie down. Suddenly it rains and his wife shows up with an umbrella and they kiss. “Boysen: shelters you well”. Ok where do I start?
a. If he was lying down and checking out the sky, wouldn’t he sense it will be raining soon?
b. It wasn’t the roof paint that sheltered you, it was the lady’s umbrella.
c. Rain doesn’t pour just like that.
d. When was the last time you woke up in the middle of the night and decided to sleep on the roof since it's more comfortable and relaxing there?

Round 5 – They say in this round, Manny switched to a “Counter the counter” technique. He punched Marquez but it was blocked. Marquez countered with a right hook to Manny's jaw. So he plans to counter the counter with… his teeth? Marquez gets this round and leads 3-2.

Hey whatever happened to Manny’s flame shorts?

Round 6 – Really? Ginebra San Miguel has been here since 1834? Manny starts up by just standing and blocking. The commentators explain that Manny doesn’t want to punch since Marquez will just counter it anyway. Marquez comes in and punches Manny on the left cheek. What a weird technique. That's like saying you don't need to take baths since you'll end up dirty again anyway. Marquez now leads 4-2 thanks to Manny’s wet paper towel defense.

Round 7 – Marquez gets hit by a head butt and starts to bleed. A few punches here and there but nothing really exciting. Marquez now leads 5-2.

My brother called me over and showed me Abalos’ hamburjer clip in youtube. Now THAT’s comedy.

Round 8 – Both fighters are bleeding. Marquez started by hitting Manny’s left eye until it was closed and with just one eye, Manny couldn’t defend himself. No surprise there, he was fighting as if both eyes were closed the past 4 rounds.

My brother came back from the kitchen with a bottle of “Cobra” energy drink. He says he saw it from an ad on TV. This guy drank it while shouting “COBRA!”. Funny how these ads work for Filipinos.

Ah they showed that Boysen “nagging wife” ad. Finally, a quality ad.

Round 9 – Marquez gets a HUGE cut on his right eyebrow. What did Manny do? Stuff his gloves with razor blades? There was still no defense from Manny but at least he inflicted enough damage to win this round. 6-3.

Round 10 – Pacquiao starts the round by charging him and raining him with punches just like what you see in basketball games in village leagues or in congress. It should be enough to give him this round 6-4.

Round 11 and 12 – Marquez looked tired in both rounds and so did Manny. Ok I'll be honest, I missed round 11 since I was busy looking for corned beef. There were no more techniques in the final round as it was now a drunken brawl. Punches were barely connecting and both fighters looked real silly. After hitting each other with counter punches all night, both would punch each other and immediately, both would cover their faces at the same time. The bell rang and automatically, you should act as if you won the fight. Manny tried to grab Marquez but Marquez ignored him. Manny just laughed.

The fight was over and Manny won split decision. Based on my scoring it should have been a tie but since Marquez was knocked down on the 3rd round, Manny gets an extra point and the win by an eyelash. Marquez claimed he was cheated (as always). When the fight was aired live, we were having a family lunch over at Dampa near Mall of Asia and when they announced Manny as the winner everyone just cheered and jumped. I even high fived this shirtless guy beside me who smelled like feet.

They showed more replays of Marquez falling down. Minutes later, everyone was quiet as they saw Manny suffering from a bad nosebleed. Was it from Marquez’s punches?

Nah.

They were interviewing Manny.

...in English.

Manny struggled through the questions and you can see the viewers feel the pressure and the pain of knowing perfectly what to say in Filipino but have no idea how to translate them directly in English. Poor Manny. Too much English gives you nosebleeds. Funny comment from the crowd during the interview: "KAYA MO YAN MANNY! YES KA LANG NG YES!"

Flight to Manila Random Thoughts

I flew back to Manila! It was a grueling weekend for me from packing my stuff until surprising my parents who had no idea I was flying home. While I could write the whole story how it went, I took the liberty of summarizing the interesting events:

- You can call it "luggage science" I guess. I had two luggages for check in with one weighing 70 pounds and the other at 75 pounds (the limit over at Northwest is 70). I moved some stuff from one luggage into the other and weighed them again - both now weighed 67 pounds. Go figure.

- My carry on gym bag weighed 45 pounds since it contained all my camera equipment, my Wii, my external drives, documents, wires, PSP, iPod and two big books. This gym bag was different from my laptop bag which contained my laptops, photo magazines, jacket, cap and laptop accessories. How did it feel? Well, both my arms were sore, my back hurt a lot and I was just past the Chicago customs on my way to the gates. I gave up and paid 3 dollars each in Chicago and Detroit for luggage carts. Good thing the carts in Nagoya and Manila were free.

- The most gruesome part of the flight is the Detroit to Nagoya. Good thing I had an aisle seat with no seatmate. Wow! My “babies” (my stuffed monkey, penguin and turtle) had their own seat. Sosyal!

- Chicken or Beef? Beef or Chicken? What's the point? They all taste the same.

- One thing I noticed, Filipinos traveling from the US to Manila always wear something that tells them where they came from in the US. There was this guy wearing a University of Hawaii shirt. One had a Bulls shirt. One had a Golden State Warriors shirt. Pinoy na pinoy.

- The first “taste” of the Philippines is really when you walk from the plane though the tunnel and into NAIA and when your skin suddenly becomes damp. The bag was too much to carry and since my wrist, my hand and my forearms were already sore, I lifted up my bag and carried it on my shoulders ala kargador.

- I was in line for immigration. The center booth were reserved for OFW’s. Some guy appeared and announced that “IF YOU HAVE A PHILIPPINE PASSPORT, YOU CAN FALL IN LINE IN THE CENTER BOOTH”. Of course this was followed by a stampede. Me, I stood still because of my uber heavy bag. Once the line was set, the guy followed “… IF YOU ARE AN OFW”. Hay… Manila.

- I waited for my bags in the carousel. When I finally saw one, I grabbed the handle but had no strength to reel it in. I was extremely tired, sleepy, hungry and thirsty. I had to let go and the guy on my right was laughing. After standing back up, my second luggage whizzed by and I just started at it. I’ll catch them on the next round.

- Next round, I grabbed a bag and tossed it to my right. It wasn’t mine but I had to get it out of the way. I grabbed my heavy bag and wrestled it to the ground as if it was an alligator. After I pinned my bag down I stood back up as fast as I can since I knew my second bag was next. I grabbed its wheels and dragged it to the floor as well hitting the guy beside me in the shins. A minute ago he was laughing and now he’s in pain. I'm such a jerk.

- While at the car and my brother driving, there was this truck filled with chickens being transported to somewhere in Pasig. Suddenly, one of the chickens was able to escape and fell off the truck, tumbling into C5. Really now, when do you think can you experience something like that in Chicago?

- Dad was asleep and I sat down on the bed. Using my mom’s voice (I can copy them both), I asked him where my brother was. He woke up, answered but was shocked that mom was too fat. He screamed like a girl (again).

- Mom was in the bathroom cleaning up and I came over and knocked. I told her I needed to use the bathroom (using my dad’s voice). She believed at first however something gave it away and she recognized me. She opened the door and hugged her long haired fat baby.

- I went to Jaye's place and pretended to be the landlord. She opened the door and had no idea what was going on. She saw me and stood there with a blank stare. She cleared her eyes then tried to look at me again but I hugger her til she turned purple.

- Everything was just the way I left it. Well almost. We don't have Solar Sports, ETC or Basketball TV anymore. :-/ There's also an entire station for crime stories called "FoxCrime" which airs CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, CSI and ... more CSI. I wanted something less gorey and dramatic and all I found was this new channel called "Balls" which I was glad that it wasn't what I initially thought it was.

- Curious about how everyone reacted to my "new look"? I have an entire entry for that ;)

Chicago Short Stories

That’s got to be the gayest cement mixer truck I’ve ever seen. I won't be surprised if this was driven by two cowboys.

When you see something interesting, you know who to call. May, my Chinese friend from Chicago, IM’d me and told me Lake Michigan was frozen and that the ice was breaking up. She showed me a picture and it looked like the lake was full of floating broken glass. I went to the lake the next day and saw the melting ice but it wasn’t as dramatic as May’s pictures. Darn. Photography is about lighting, technique and a little bit of luck.

Déjà vu? Maika, my Filipino friend (who looks Chinese), called me and told me that the Chicago river was frozen. I grabbed my tripod and my camera and ran downstairs. While at the revolving doors, I ran into Norman and Byron and asked me what was going on. I told them “The river’s frozen! The river’s frozen!” as I blew past by them. Somehow they didn’t find it weird

You know what would be perfect? An “Arn” signal that works like the bat signal.

Nothing as simple yet as special as dinner with friends. It was Lei’s birthday and she treated us to Lawry’s Prime Rib restaurant. It was so good and the steaks were so tender. The place was also so posh and while our total bill cost an arm and a leg (actually, it costs 20 arms and 15 legs), Lei took care of the bill. Thanks Lei! I had fish and a bowl of peas for lunch the next day and my tummy was extremely disappointed after tasting lobster and prime rib the night before.

Lunch isn’t that bad as well. Mags and Jen asked me out for lunch over at Cheesecake Factory since they wanted a more personal farewell event. Awwww, so nice of them.

A “scouring pad” cake. Rache cooked me lunch while Lei baked me a sponge cake and it was her first stab at baking. The chicken with mangoes and cumin was good but the sponge cake was a bit tough and so I called it a scouring pad instead of a sponge cake. What a jerk… she goes through all the trouble of baking me a cake and I insult it…

What’s Going On? While taking pictures over at Millenium Park, a group of college students approached me with a video camera. They asked me to just say one line: “What’s going on?”. Immediately, I knew what this was for – they’re doing a music video like the one released back around 2000 where people would sing “What’s Going on?” from people of various gender, age, race, looks etc. That time I was carrying a camera bag and had my hair down and facial hair untouched for a week. I guess they needed a bum in the video.

A Pat on the Back. Work has been brutal and I’ve been working for eight straight months with no vacation. I worked through sprained ankles and various illnesses. The worst was when I collapsed and fainted in my apartment after work. I gained consciousness right away but I couldn’t move my legs. I remember reaching out my arms, grabbing my running shoe and using that as a pillow. Though I know how to pace myself in work, I always work until the wheels come off and unfortunately, a week before my assignment ended, the wheels came off… all the way off.

When you sit and stare outside the window and ask yourself what the hell I’m doing, you’re fine… you’re just stressed.

When you sit and stare outside the window and ask yourself who the hell you are… shut down the laptop dude, you need a break.

Look Before You Leap. Funny thing about this picture. While walking along Lake Michigan on my way to Target, I decided to setup the camera on a tripod and take a picture of myself here. With the camera set, I pressed the shutter release and the timer started. I ran towards the edge and jumped. While in mid air, I suddenly thought if this was actually pavement covered in snow or if it’s already the river – iced up and covered in snow. Because of this last minute thoughts, my form was wrong and I landed on my butt. The answer? It was pavement (whew!). I stood back up quickly and posed.

Sum up work in a picture.

My last "suppper" from my previous apartment: