Styling by Almi, props from Lawrence. Candy and biscuits and ice pops from the three of us!
Happy Halloween!
Lights out!
BEDLAM.
Ate Malou’s daughter! Ang cute!
<3
Category: photos
toy day!
Yesterday, Jaykie and I went to the Philippine Toys, Hobbies & Collectibles Convention held at Megamall. It was the 9th Toycon, but it was the first one I ever attended. Entrance was at P100 per. The line snaked around the banisters, and I was already drenched in sweat before we could even step through the entrance.
But I had fun hunting down the accessories I failed to buy at the Komikon, and ogling the toys I’ll never be able to buy. Ha! Here’s myself wearing my new robot necklace. Whee!
Here’s the rest of my haul:
I also bought a DVD compilation of Genshiken. I read the first three volumes of the manga and enjoyed it terribly. I hope the anime version’s just as fun.
While inside the venue, I bumped into EK and saw Pao (read his account of the event here), and walked around a bit with Juabe and Guiz.
After Jaykie and I left the con, we had dessert at Bubble Tea (which seemed to attract a lot of cosplayers, for some reason) and continued our self-imposed celebration of Toy Day by watching Toy Story 3. The line was long and we waited almost half an hour before we could enter the cinema, but oh, it was worth it. (I reviewed the film in a previous post. Just go one blog post back, if you are so inclined.) After dinner, Jaykie and I sat down and played Magic. Yes, you read that right. (But I’m definitely the slowest Magic player, ever. I still don’t have a good grasp of the rules, I have to read every card played carefully, and I suck at Math, so it takes me an eternity to figure out how much life I still have. LOL. We played two rounds and I lost both!)
Good times! I’ll most probably go to the Toycon again next year.
And now, pictures! I love these little hats.
I pose with the ladies:
Tons of old Coca-Cola merch:
Wigs and more toys:
Avatar merch:
Jaykie: “Here I am! Rock you like a hurricane!”
Bats. He is not pleased.
Cosplayers:
Spot the Stormtroopers:
I love Toy Day! (I don’t know if there is such a thing, but let’s call it that.)
held at Megamall.
hotel staycation
It rained like crazy over the weekend so Subic was no-go. But didn’t you just love the weather? Cold, gray, cuddleweather. It was a welcome respite from the long string of 38-degree days.
Jaykie’s parents opted to spend Friday to Sunday at the Marriott Hotel. We shared a room with Jaykie’s sister, brother-in-law, and littol George.
Forgive the touristy photos, I love taking pictures of hotel rooms. (Because they’re so clean and pretty! How come I can’t make my room look that clean and pretty, despite all my efforts in scrubbing and un-cluttering?)
Look at me green toesies!
Day 1 Jaykie and family treated me and the HGC peeps at Mercado in Resorts World Manila, which is right beside the casino so NO PICTURES! But we took a walk after eating and Jme whipped out her camera:
Jaykie and I lurve this gift from Jme.
Day 2 was spent just lounging around, playing Monopoly (Monopoly! I haven’t played you in ages!), watching TV, and admiring the rain. Staycation!
My thanks to the Lazarte family for their kindness and generosity. :D
scenes from last night’s book swap
Read about our first book swap here!
Book swap last night at Starbucks 6750 with m’lovelies Andrea, Kate, and Kat. I invited Jaykie (so he could finally meet Andrea and Kat) and he was nice enough to drive Kate and I from the office. (LOL proper name overload sorry.) We stayed till midnight for some late-night coffee, cake, Pinoy Henyo (yes) and quality tsismisan.
I lent Kat Joshua Ferris’s excellent Then We Came to the End and Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. Andrea ended up taking Revolutionary Road and Big If. I got er so many books I forgot to take note of them all haha. Will sort through them next week. Oh, God have mercy on my TBR pile now quickly turning into a mountain.
I loved the girls’ accessories last night. Pictures!
weekend zombie
After I got off from work on Thursday (and what a crazy week, jumpstarted by the national elections whew), I just decided to stay in one place and fry my brain with Lost (first season), Mad Men (first season), and some Family Guy and The Simpsons. By “stay in one place” I meant “eat my meals in bed”. It was too hot outside, I was too lazy to write, I was too lazy, period.
Jaykie and I did go out on Friday night to have dinner with my high school friends. Topic? Politics, politics, politics (which to me sounds like work, work, work, but it can’t be helped, what with the current political climate), and Ghia’s stay in Quezon province, where the mall closes at 8:30 p.m. (in Palawan, according to Kuya Wendell, the mall closes at 7:30 p.m. – SURPRISE!) and where you’ll have to suffer a one-hour ride to buy halu-halo.
Some (supposedly candid) pictures. We’re already in Trinoma Conti’s here, after feeding at Pizza Hut:
(Conti’s turtle pie is my favorite.)
* * *
This weekend: Bohol. I’m so looking forward to two quiet days at the beach (no stress, pleaaaaaaaase).
hello psf, we meet again
A lot has happened since then. Quite frankly, when I attended the book launch of Philippine Speculative Fiction’s fourth volume, my first publication in the anthology, I was more apprehensive than excited because I didn’t know anyone. I’ve never met the Alfars in person, and it was obvious a bunch of the writers there already knew each other, making fun of each other as they gave their speeches, and calling each other by their first names and what the hell am I doing here. Thank God Eula came with me, so I at least had someone to talk to during the event.
Compare this scene with the PSFV launch yesterday (April 24), where Kate [Aton-Osias] told Jake that she’d seen pictures of him and our dates (all hail Facebook, sorry Jake for your girlfriend’s online exhibitionism heh) and Dean Alfar gave a heartwarming speech in addition to my introduction, calling me a “hot writer”, i.e.”She’s been published practically everywhere.” (Can also be i.e. “She looks hot.”) (I’m kidding Nikki.) The book launch felt like home, so when I gave my speech I was at least coherent. I mean, I gave a public speech and actually made sense! What an accomplishment.
Also, I discovered something while I was walking around the U-View Theater shopping for autographs: PEOPLE READ MY STUFF. This is a revelation! When I post plugs for my new fiction/poetry I usually don’t get responses, but at the launch co-contributors Isa Yap and Tin Lao actually approached me and said they’ve read my poetry online and loved it. Tin even said she’s a big fan, and that she was glad to finally meet me. Me! And I’m not even wearing my fuck-me shoes! How surreal. That made me feel warm all over. :D
Thank you to Jme, Beej, Phil, Juabe and of course Jake for coming with me to the event and for not insisting on the original plan of lifting your shirts to bare your torsos painted with the letters E-L-I-Z-A.
Thanks to the other authors for signing my copy!
Much love to Nikki, Vin, and Dean for the successful event. I am in awe of all your efforts to promote the spec fic field, I really am. (I just can’t articulate that in front of a large crowd, that requires more charm and more brain cells.) And look, you got two fourteen-year-olds this year. Amazing! Can’t wait to read the book.
(Semi) group pic! Sorry for my sucky phone cam resolution. Let’s see if I can get the names correctly. Seated: Tin, Kenneth Yu, Dean Alfar, Andrew Drilon. Front row: Isa, Nikki Alfar, me!, Kate, Charles, TJ Dimacali (na boyfriend ni Ders! UJP-UP peeps? Remember Ders? Maganda hair niya. LOL.), Mia Tijam. Back row: Ejay, Alex Osias, Joseph, and Vin.
Outside the gates after the event:
After that we headed out for dinner and then had dessert at Xocolat.
“Well I didn’t know the churros would arrive on a hell plate,” Jaykie said when this appeared on the table. I said it’s not a pentagram, but a Star of David. Jewish churros!
LOL. Good times. :)
geeky monthsary
Jake and I were celebrating our sixth month together (half-year, w00t) on the 17th, so of course we went to the Summer Komikon.
Of course.
The Komikon is primarily a celebration of Pinoy komiks. Also, some stalls sell jewelry:
This year’s was held at the Bahay ng Alumni in UP. Entrance fee is P50. There’ll be another one in November. :)
While walking around, I said at one point, “Ooh, cosplayers.” And Jake laughed and said, “First time you saw one up close?”
As a matter of fact, yes. LOL.
I don’t think this is Pinoy komiks though:
Anyway, I only had enough money to buy a copy of Manix Abrera’s 12 (Jake and I were going to have dinner later). The lady at the Visprint stall said I should come back in a little bit and have Manix sign my copy. So I did:
12 is a collection of twelve wordless stories in comic book form. Since all you have are images, this is a book you can read in one sitting, and the kind you can share to a wider audience. The collection, like most short story collections, does not stick to a single genre, mood, or emotion (funny, sad, existential, horrifying, just plain weird); this makes the stories unpredictable. One of the stories here won the grand prize (but was disqualified for getting published before the results were announced) in the recently concluded 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, sponsored by Neil Gaiman. It’s one of the most heartbreaking stories I’ve ever read, and there aren’t even any words. Brilliant.
/end review
There’s also a comic cover re-creation contest. Remember these?
Dinner at Jack’s Loft in T. Morato. We really just wanted to try their famous iced tea.
I like it! And I love their dessert selection. They call this I Declair. Killer.
Here be the remains of my apple pie a la mode:
Smile! :D
Eliza Victoria 