derpinsel.com - pixels, stories and texts by angela solis

Allergic to stupid

Hay naku, with all these news going around about the upcoming Eraserheads concert on Saturday (sadly, di ako aabot), it still irks me na people can actually manage to give irrelevant, if not stupid, comments.

I don’t think the government will be getting ’something’ from this event, though it’s nice to know that they are trying their best to enforce this law about cigarette companies, promotions and such. Although sabi ni Kuya Jaemark, “it’s not going to cost the government a centavo if you get cancer twenty years from now, so there’s really not much incentive for them to stop you from smoking now (or from making lots of babies, for that matter).” Pero ang point ko dito bakit kelangan pa ring i-blame sa government ang pahirapang pagkuha ng tickets, ha ha.

Hay naku, sa mga ganitong pagkakataon my faith in mankind is slowly slipping away.

Andrew’s “Newport Biatch” Birthday

Leah invited me and Satomi to her friend’s birthday. She said to dress fancy. When I came to Peregrine Room at Radisson Hotel yesterday, man, it’s so damn posh, alavet!

It was my first time attending a very, very formal dinner (please exclude 18th birthdays), tulad nung napapanood sa TV. Ha ha. Para tuloy akong nasa Gossip Girl, nyehe. More »

Shoots, Food and Friends

I managed to catch up with my friends during the past couple of days. Aside from me and Jaq, all of them are getting ready to go back to school, so I thought that it’ll be best to hang out with them before they slip in to toxic mode again.

Thursday, I had a scheduled photoshoot with Elsa and Ralph. The shoot was very delayed since we planned it earlier this year pa, but because of our work and school schedules, we weren’t able to push through right away. Anyhow, it went well despite of the minor setbacks (we didn’t know the exact location where we were going because we thought that it’s just across Ralph’s previous workplace; got caught in a very strong rain just when we were about to start shooting, we got mosquito bites) and the photos turned out really well than I expected.

Friday, I had another scheduled shoot with my friend Satomi. She’s an exchange student and will be leaving Canada next week so I told her if we could have a shoot. After that, I was supposed to meet with Lem but I saw Jona, Charrie and Fae first and so we hung out and waited for Lem and Agnus to finish their exams. I met Ann and we all went to Wallace Building (University of Manitoba’s Clayton H. Riddell
Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources). More »

Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance

If you’re buying Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance because your main reason is to feel kilig while reading, sorry, but this book doesn’t really tackle about romantic love. Well, book did cover a lot of love letters, but not all letters are about one’s lover(s). There are letters for one’s father, mother, stepmother, a friend’s daughter, etc. It shows that love comes in many forms.

Unfortunately for me, I bought the book because I wanted to familiarize myself again with the feeling on how to get the shivers when reading a love letter. Sadly I didn’t really get that. Some of the letters here though, are quite funny, as they go from being silly to downright insane. And they’re amusing because some people do write funny, silly and annoying things (and then later on they regret it big time).

I think Douglas Coupland’s letter in this anthology sums up what love is all about, and what I was looking for in the book (emphases are mine):

People say that when you’re in love you enter a new parallel universe that runs alongside our everyday world — a small universe where nothing else can intrude — a republic of two, hypnotic, exclusive and bubbly, like you’re living inside a punch line that just won’t end. But I don’t think this is true. I think that being in love simply makes you feel even more connected to the rest of the species — it makes you belong to the world as fully as do birds and animals and flowers. I think that the real other universe is the one that erupts when the love goes away — what remains when the world crumbles and you’re left floating with nothing real to grab on to, and this is the world I’m living right now. It’s a place where the rules are different. It’s a place where the only things that make sense are gestures that frighten or confuse people who live in the real world. (p.243)

I guess when you’re in love, regardless of what love it is, the place where one is standing have different rules. I might be standing on a different ground right now, so I wasn’t able to connect really well with the majority of the letters.

Tarot

I was pretty skeptical about fortune telling in general just because I do think that we do make our own destiny. Nonetheless I do wanted to have my future told (or at least have my questions answered) by tarot cards for the sake of curiosity. I think I have to pay $30 to do that here.

Anyway I got the chance to be tarot-read by Bruce, who happens to be Satomi’s friend (Leah)’s friend. The reading was very accurate, it came to a point where I thought that there must be some conspiracy going on, ha ha (yesterday was the first time I met Bruce and Leah). These are the stuff I got: More »

Folklorama 2008: Belgian Pavilion

Wikipedia entry on Belgium can be viewed here.

First time kong pumunta sa Belgian Pavilion. Aside from my ’shooting gig’ I was actually looking forward to tasting Belgian Waffles and Belgian Chocolates, but ayun, I ended up not getting any. ;__; Ang liit kasi ng location nila tapos ang daming tao so parang nakakatamad na kunin yung food, haha. More »

Folklorama 2008: Brazilian Pavilion

Wikipedia entry on Brazil can be viewed here.

I know, I was at their pavilion last year, and you are probably wondering why I went there again this year. Well, I think the Brazilian Pavilion is worth visiting again. They had a bigger location this year I think. The food was amazing as usual and the performances were a lot better too.

And of course, what couldn’t be better than seeing the show up close! More »

My family’s citizenship oathtaking

My family just got their Canadian Citizenship last Thursday. Remember that I got mine earlier this year? They followed and fixed their application after that. Bilis nga ng process ng kanilang citizenship eh, didn’t even take a year.

Folklorama 2008: Chile-Lindo Pavilion

Wikipedia entry on Chile can be viewed here.

Personally, I think the Chilean Pavilion has the best cultural display. I am pretty sure that the Pearl of the Orient Philippine Pavilion had an amazing cultural display (last year I was at Russell High, and their cultural display occupied the big gym), but when I saw the Chilean Pavilion and when the adult ambassador (I guess it was Jairo Alfaro), gave us a brief tour of the cultural display and stuff, one thing crossed my mind: Man, I must visit Chile. More »

In the dark

I just thought that at my age, I felt like I haven’t really done something, uhm, amazing. Or anything spectacular. I’ve seen and heard people who have done really amazing things for themselves, (i.e. travel the world, make a name for themselves, etc.) and I thought, hey, I could do that too, you know. Pero nothing’s happening right now. All I do is, well, work, spend money, hang around the computer. I wrote stuff, yes, but right now everyone claims to be a writer so I don’t know if I should even call myself a ‘writer’ and if ‘writing’ is an amazing thing to do (unless you completely change a person/country/society with the things that you write).

Am I just lazy to find those opportunities lying around? Or maybe there aren’t enough opportunities for me. I don’t know. My current crush has done a lot of things when he was my age. And now what? He’s probably 24-25 years old and is probably on his way to make his life more interesting than ever. I mean, do you guys ever feel this way? I just noticed this awhile ago; I never really cared, really, because I am too busy worrying about things that I need to finish now (i.e. my Folklorama shooting gig for Filipino Journal, articles due for the said newspaper, my trip to the Philippines, back to school gig to University of Alberta, etc.). But yeah, it just occurred to me that I really haven’t done anything BIG in my life. Maybe I’m bound to do it in the future, but who knows, really? I don’t know. But I do want to accomplish something that will make me proud of myself (graduating from University is one thing, but I’m looking for bigger things).

Or maybe I’m just an annoying braggart who really wanted to do amazing things to inflate my ego? Ha ha. Or I might have done something already but I’m just stupid for not even noticing it?

Oh well. Hopefully I’ll be able to accomplish something by the end of the year. Let’s see.