Disturbing the Universe v.2.0

Here it is... my new blog! Please click on the photo above to see it. Hope you'll visit often. Cheers!

Farewell, Dear site, who accompanied me for a year and witnessed my joys and despair and boredom. Close your eyes now—go to sleep. Rest peacefully in Darkness, deep.

The end in the beginning & the beginning in the end (Part 1)

In many ancient cultures, Samhain (Halloween or All Hollows Eve) marked the last day of the year. They celebrated the last sunset of the summer and welcomed the rise of the first winter moon. It was not only the most opportune time for settling and reckoning, for throwing out old ideas and influences, but it was also the perfect occasion to commemorate the cycle of life and death, the beginning and ending of things.

I celebrated my first year as a blogger on the 19^th of October. I haven’t been a good one lately; 377 days was not nearly enough to train me to write and post everyday. I shall make an effort to improve on my record during my sophomore year.

To celebrate my anniversary and to mark the beginning of another year of being a webnaut (you know, like an astronaut), I have decided to change the look and feel of my blog and migrate it to another site. I am still tweaking parts of it, so you will have to wait till the last sunset and the first moon rise to see it.

I hope you enjoy the eternal turnings of birth and rebirth that today brings. Remember, you can’t have room for anything good and new if you don’t cast out the devils of the old year.

Happy All Hollows Eve!

He's here!

Nakata
Originally uploaded by Bealtaine.

My uber crush, recently retired Japanese footballer Hidotoshi Nakata, is here in Manila. He arrived late last Friday and went to Payatas Saturday. His visit made it to the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Sunday edition. Imagine that! :) His trip was organized by the UNDP and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.

Now why did I not hear about this till now?!?!

Early last Saturday he signed some autographs at the Starbucks 6750 (does that mean he's staying at the Shangri-La Makati???) and was whisked off to Pasig City to kick off a series of Football clinics organized by UNDP, Futkal, and Rock Ed Philippines called "Sipa sa Masa." For more info go to this site.

So is he still here? I was not able to go to Germany to see him play... maybe I'll get to meet him here. Yeah right. With my luck, he is probably boarding a plane right this minute to go to another Asia country. Lovely.

I should really pay more attention to these things! :) It's great though that football is being promoted in this country. Hooray! :)

Wake up

I have something to confess: I've been binging. I feel as if I have been forcibly put on a sensory diet for the past couple of months, so now I am gorging on every photo, website, news, art blog I could get my hands on. Ahhh.... it's so good to be alive again. I credit this sudden awakening to the following events:

1) Milenyo: Much has been said about the storm that ravaged Manila a while back. I was inconvenienced by its passing (no electricity therefore no aircon, no TV, no mobile, etc, etc), but was basically left untouched and undamaged. I survived but… what was I to do with my time? I was weaned from the telly and texting and was able to read, write, sketch, and WORK. We still do not have cable at home, but I don't even miss it. And my mobile phone? I honestly can't be bothered to text unless it's really important. I am not a slave to Globe's UNLIMITXT anymore!

2) My old computer crashing: If my old computer didn't die on me (may it rest in peace), I wouldn't have been forced to buy a new laptop, the one I have been planning for months to get. Since I now have a faster, more efficient machine, I get to work more and I get to do extensive art research online. BTW, I christened my laptop "Brighid." B was named after the Irish Goddess of all sacred fires. She's also a healer and guardian of the Arts. She doesn't get along with my iPod , though. "Cerridwen" (from the Welsh Goddess of inspiration and providence) is a Mac Girl; I'll have to reconfigure her, change her settings to Windows, in order to connect to B. I lose all of my songs if I do that, so I just have to keep the two gals separate. I got Cerridwen ages ago when I still had my Mac "Precioussssss..." Long story.

3) Getting sick: I have been stressing over a major personal project for two weeks and when I finally finished the first part, chronic fatigue set in, my body turned into a sack of sand, and I had no other choice but to rest. This spell wasn't as bad as my usual, but it kept me from spending my energy on trivial things. It made me see the things that were important to me.

4) Unexpected messages from friends: several midnight calls from NJ to help me (no, push me!) get my project rolling again, a simple, quick text from a friend jet-setting in Davao or Cebu or Bacolod (she travels a lot so I forget!) saying that she believes that my plan might work, an early text after a football match from a friend who was watching it in Singapore--my favorite team lost but she saw it as a good omen for me, and a pancit palabok for dinner (hmmm... this isn't exactly a message but you get the point!). It's amazing how real friends just know when to catch you.

5) Revisiting my other friends: re-reading old novels and comic books, listening to my favorite bands from high school, dyeing my hair back to my natural hair color (I know... that's another blog altogether!)... I start to remember myself again without all the static and white noise.


Okay, I am getting sleepy and I am already finding it hard to concentrate on this entry, so I am just going to leave you with some inspiring images I found on the net. They are photos of sculptures made by Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz. They remind me of the type of art I can make.