Archives for Thoughts and Musings

There’s really no need to introduce Watchmen. For any fan of comics, Alan Moore’s creation is coming to the big screen in 2009. Watchmen symbolized the pinnacle of graphic novels and turned the tide for a comic book series to actually win a Hugo Award and a Time Magazine 2005 “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.”

So the behind the scenes Flickr page is up and we have some character pegs of the costumes for Ozymandias, Rorschack, The Comedian, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre. I do want you to decide for yourself but as a fan of Moore’s original work, don’t the costumes look a bit too bad ass? Part of why I loved Watchmen was how crude and realistic everything looked. Like okay - in the original, Nite Owl looked like he was going to fall over his huge ass armored cape (and looked rather silly with the utility glasses) while Ozymandias was a perfect replica of Alexander the Great. In these pegs, Nite Owl’s costume looks too kick ass like Batman’s while Ozymandias is screaming emo.

I kinda like The Comedian’s leather armor get up (played by 300’s Leonidas!) though he’s reminding me more and more of The Punisher. I guess Rorschack’s costume is the safest - because you can’t really be too creative with an ink-blot mask and a trench coat.

Too bad ass? Or it’s just a realistic way to keep up with the times? Would love to hear your thoughts on how this novel-to-film adaptation will come to life and speculation is all we have.

On the flipside, we have another set of Watchmen character pegs you may also enjoy. :)

I recommend Stowe Boyd’s post on PR Spam. In the Philippine context, what he’s saying is that PR practitioners should engage bloggers and journalists through social tools like Twitter or Facebook, and not through the email inbox. That way, it looks more like an invitation to join in on the conversation, with our time well spent in listening to a pitch. Stowe wants PR practitioners to stop spamming inboxes:
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This morning, “Big Brian” Ligsay made me listen to a radio drama he read titled Kawatanan ng Rentas Internas which is the sad yet humorous reality of applying for a TIN or tax number at the Bureau of Internal Revenue in this developing country I’ve come to love. Now that I look back into my professional life, I’m glad that I jump started my career in a reputable corporation so as not having any problems acquiring my TIN and not being subject for questioning for my credit card application. Personal advice — work for a company first to get your act together, then quit your job to become an entrepreneur.

Paano pala kung kailangan mo ng lisensya para magsulat? Isang physical manifestation ng concept ng poetic license? Kung sa drivers license may mga restrictions tulad ng “vehicle - up to 4500 kg GVW” [...] paano kaya yung sa poetic license? (1) haiku and short essays only (2) essays up to 500 words and free verse up to 5 stanzas (3) essays above 500 words and free verse above 5 stazas (4) critical essays, short fiction, poetry, etc.”

[What if you needed a license to write? A physical manifestation of the concept of "poetic license?" If in the driver's license you have restrictions such as ...]

You can listen to this well read radio drama. The show is entirely in Taglish, an amalgamation of English and our local language Filipino. Highly recommended for us freelancers!

A few chapters through The Perfect Thing, it was revealed that one of the factors that made th iPod a huge success was the feature that it could hold your entire library of music. Looking into one’s iPod was almost like baring that person’s soul as taste in music revealed a lot about a person. You’re naked.

So what’s on YOUR music player? It need not necessarily be an iPod that you own, or heck it may not even be a portable music player. Grab your iTunes or equivalent desktop music player and follow these instructions:
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Songwriter Jonathan Coulton dedicates this song to anyone who has served as a code monkey in a software corporation. The song is great stuff but what really struck a chord was when he performed an unplugged version that turned the entire thing into a ballad.

So yeah it struck a chord, so I decided to transcribe bits and pieces of the song into tabs for all your guitar folks to try out. For reference, this is the plugged in version of the song and this is the unplugged version. He also has a YouTube video up for the acoustic version of Code Monkey.

Code Monkey Tabs
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Here are some personal observations of my FaceBook habits. Are yours similar or completely different?

  • Deleting and ignoring apps can be a tedious process. Do you add every application that’s sent to you? The process is so tiring, it can be similar to writing off an entire cheque book or signing papers.
  • Some apps get old quickly. Some don’t. I’ve deleted WarBook, but kept my Big Photos. Yeah, it’s a matter of preference. As to what I’m more fascinated about is what makes an application stay in someone’s page. What are the benefits involved?
  • More of amusing really - that I’ve been using Facebook’s Inbox messaging system to conduct meetings with two or more people in threads. I’ve been finding it easier to use for managing conversations between three or more people as compared to using a group email system. What you can’t do however (at least from what I’ve tried) is add another person midway into the thread.

In the Philippines, a number of bloggers I know have begun contribution stints for magazines because of their blogs. In the same light, a number of contributing writers for print have also begun writing blogs.

Here are some of the publications I have written for in the past. I currently write for some of these till today:

Mobile Philippines
PC Magazine Philippines
GAME! Magazine
CHALK Magazine (umm long story!)
Rogue Magazine
MANUAL Magazine
EPSON Vision Corporate Magazine
CANON Images Corporate Magazine

Do you also write for print publications? If so, which ones are they? Do they allow you to place your author bi-line with your blog address?

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You’ve probably heard about this from a few days back. But still.

A mural depicting the history of press freedom made by the Neo-Angono artists in the Philippines was censored by the National Press Club before it was presented to President GMA. How ironic that the NPC’s “press freedom” commission was censored by none other than themselves. Truth be told, the word is not “censorship.” It leans a little bit more closely to “defacement.”

The final mural, which was submitted to NPC on October 24, shows a man reading the latest news on journalists’ killings while press freedom icons from the past and present converge around him. In one scene, Marcelo H. del Pilar is seen with fellow editor Mariano Ponce while rooting for cigarette butts in a garbage can under the streetsign La Solidaridad. Near the two, Filipino revolutionary Emilio Jacinto sells copies of the newspaper “Ningning o Liwanag” whose headlines proclaim the declaration of martial law while an incensed Eggie Apostol walks past. Perhaps the most arresting image is that of the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. talking to National Hero Jose Rizal while the latter reads a newspaper article on the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, son of press freedom icon Joe Burgos.

“Isn’t it ironic that an institution such as the NPC would cause the censorship of a work that they themselves commissioned purportedly to promote press freedom? Isn’t the freedom of expression of the artist bound up with the very press freedom that they supposedly uphold? Aren’t these alterations a clear violation of the rights of authors/artists protected by the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines?” the group said in a statement.

[source]

I can’t believe it. More photos of the alterations here. Neal Cruz’s piece talks about it more here.

You know, one of my favorite blogs on the tech channel is The Craigslist’s Curmudgeon. The “Curmudgeon” exposes the @$$ side of Craigslist, a site dedicated to online work mostly related to copywriting. But really though, Craigslist can help you earn a few hundred bucks on the side if you’re a freelancer. As an alternative to blogging, Craigslist can become a good source of online income for us starving artists.

Have you ever browsed through Craigslist’s job board? Have you ever taken up any offers from there? What was it like?

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