:: Tears of the Moon ::

:: Sunday, July 24, 2005 ::

For some reason, it reminded me of you. I hope you listen to the song - not just the lyrics, but also the sound. It never fails to make me ache:

Ever the Same
(Rob Thomas)

We were drawn from the weeds
We were brave like soldiers
Falling down under the pale moonlight
You were holding to me
Like a someone broken
And I couldn't tell you but I'm telling you now

Just let me hold you while you're falling apart
Just let me hold you so we both fall down

Fall on me
Tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you forever in me
Ever the same

We would stand in the wind
We were free like water
Flowing down
Under the warmth of the sun
Now it's cold and we're scared
And we've both been shaken
Look at us
Man, this doesn't need to be the end

Just let me hold you while you're falling apart
Just let me hold you so we both fall down

Fall on me tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same
Call on me
I'll be there for you and you'll be there for me
Forever it's you
Forever in me
Ever the same

You may need me there
To carry all your weight
But you're no burden I assure
You tide me over
With a warmth I'll not forget
But I can only give you love

It's either the hormones (maybe), or I'm sadder than I would like to acknowledge. Maybe it's the sadness - coz I'm not singing this to you. I'm listening to it with the thought that I hope you did. So now, we're working on not being too dependent, being not so sad about it.

Call on me
I'll be there for you and you'll be there for me

That is, if you ever were-? I certainly hope I was.

Inexplicably sad post over.

:: D said @ 8:52 PM [+] ::
...

Day Three

Potter fans would love these:


Pictures of Gaiman Gathering, Day Three:

Crowd Pics



New-found friends, Niner (what a cool name) and Kris


Me and Angel


Froggy, Val and Angel

:: D said @ 6:42 AM [+] ::
...

Me and Chi



Autographs!

:: D said @ 4:59 PM [+] ::
...

Day 2
Chi and I were thinking of going to Greenhills for the signing at Fully Booked Greenhills. We got there at 10am, and there was a line already. It was entirely expected, I think, coz given the day before, people who didn't get a chance would definitely go early. (Yep, I heard a story where people started lining up at five am)

Got to see Kris, a classmate from college. She was holding the line somewhere in the middle. We joined her and had a little chat. After a bit of time, Chi and I went to watch Fantastic Four instead. I mean, hey, we already got our books signed, better give other people a chance. The signing was at 3pm, and there were clearly about two/three hundred people already lined up at 9am.

Had lunch instead at Dencio's. (recommend sisig and pork spareribs)

Fantastic Four
Funny movie. Not much for the actual storylines though. I kept on expecting the guy who played Reed Richards to start talking with an accent. The American accent just kept on throwing me off. It was weird, I couldn't place him. Also odd to keep on looking at Jessica Alba with blonde hair: non-Caucasian looks with veryblonde hair. Sad about The Thing, though. Made me realize that the comic writer probably wasn't really thinking of repercussions in a person's life if they really became The Thing. I really liked the Torch character: funny wiseass.

Post-movie
After the movie, went to see the signing place again. Neil did another reading for Anansi Boys (yay!) He read off another section of the book, entirely different from yesterday's. He also answered a couple of questions. Again, Neil is amazingly generous and gracious. I'm sure he was still feeling very tired from yesterday, but he still came. If he felt tired, he didn't go off on the fans, on the people who were there.

The owner of the bookstore himself pleaded with the people to really keep their books down to two. He also added that if people bought books from his bookstore specifically for this signing only, they will be accepting returns. Which is very nice of them, I think. But then also, if you were to line up for a signing for a veryfamous person, you should understand that ticket stub things are no guarantee to have your books signed. No. Guarantee. But then maybe that's the fan in me: I have some small experience in these things.

Saw a lot of other people: classmates, forum community people.. May, Jam, Cam and Meg. Ariel from ROT. Ivan, Timito, Nick, Gabby, Miguel. Saw Ali from work. Twas incredible to see Meg again after an insanely long time. And May, after some time of not seeing each other. Talked at length with Ivan, Nick. Got to meet Nick's friend, Jaime, who was apparently more obsessive about the Gaiman works than I am (got to see his copy of Death, the High Cost of Living; limited-edition, bought from the US, I suppose). Also talked at length with Ariel, who had his friends talking about going to the Day 3 signing at the break of dawn. Because it's a free for all.

Speaking of which, I better get ready.

:: D said @ 4:56 PM [+] ::
...

I think we also broke Neil's own record for 1)number of people in one signing, and 2)number of books signed in one day. Woohoo, Philippines!



Neil!


Me and Chi in line (12pm)


Me and Bry at 5pm


The crowd at 11pm


Neil!


Me and Chi with Neil!


Me and Chi (roughly 9am)

:: D said @ 5:20 PM [+] ::
...

Hello Neil!!
Went to the Neil signing!

see Neil's thoughts from Day 1 of the Manila visit

Got off work at 5am , conducted a meeting at 7am. Took a nap at the office 8:30-9:30am and met up with Chi and Bry at 10:20am or so.

Got to Rockwell at roughly around 10:30am. I wanted to get there early coz I wanted good numbered signing tickets. We got to the line at 11. Out of the 700 tickets they allotted for the signing, Bryan and I were 522, and 526 respectively. WTF in the hour and a half that the ticket things were being given away, already, five hundred people went ahead of us-?!

Which wasn't too surprising, though, coz there was a line for the signing line (a line to get to the line, which should be too much given the circumstances, but there you are). It looked roughly like the same set of people I see for the LOTR and Star Wars premieres. There were already a couple people who goth-ed up for the occasion. Don't you just love fans?

Chi went to a training thing at her office. Bry and I went to watch War of the Worlds to pass time. We got off at around 2:30pm. The moment we got out of the mall area (they set up a tent for The Gathering activity), there was a line so long that it looked exactly like the kind for Star Wars premieres (or, you could say if they did a first-come, first-served thing for the Potter book, it'd look roughly the same).

Since Bry and I had numbered signing tickets, we didn't need to line up. Saw a couple of familiar faces: Reese from FF with her boyfriend, Cha, Timito, Gabby (and companion?), Karen (from work). I also saw a couple of familiar faces from the SciFiCon (it's a relatively small community of fans, so you remember the same set of people). One of the Star Trek command officers from Via Astris turned out to be part of either Fully Booked's staff, Nocturne, or the volunteers.

They opened the doors at roughly 3pm. Cha went with us coz the crowd surged forward the moment the doors were opened. Bry and I rushed to the front of the free section (they had cordoned off four rows of seats for VIPs). I made it a point to stand smack in front of the stage. It turned out we had to wait till 5pm; being entertained by a band called The Late Isabel four about an hour. It would've been good, had the band 1)not been a goth band, 2)sung familiar songs. I can vouch for the fact that near everyone had been in the mall area since late morning. I know that particular band had won MTV awards for their genre.. two goth songs I can take. But six? She was basically waiting, caterwauling.. yodeling. The crowd didn't understand her lyrics and the bass sound for the speaker sucked. We (the crowd) were ready to throw things after three songs. But Neil was late, and the band had to fill the dead air.. poor band.

Arrival!
They gave off raffles for posters, and the winners for the Gaiman drawing contest. There were a couple of really good ones. We saw the trailer for MirrorMask (to which the crowd cheered when Neil's name came up, and Dave McKean's- true fans!). Neil came around four or so, to the relief and jubilation of the crowd.

It was funny, coz the crowd reaction was as if he was a rock star (he was in all black, including the leather jacket he wrote about in his journal, pre-departure from the US), curly hair, day-old's growth of beard. He gave us an intro to Anansi Boys (oh joy! Sneeky peeky!), and I too a video from my Palm. He's a fantastic read-aloud person. I imagine his children getting the very best whenever he reads to them before bedtime. Gave a backgrounder for when he wrote Good Omens with Terry Prachett, and his desire to write a funny book (what, the critics don't think he's funny?). Apparently, American Gods wasn't funny, "which is why it won the Nebula, the Locus.."

He took to reading off his laptop, since he had a Printing Malfunction (hence the lateness of the arrival to begin with). Yes, the excerpt was hella funny. I can't wait to buy the book when it comes out in September.

He took a couple of questions from the fans (they just allowed three out of ten, pre-selected from the yahoogroup). Someone asked a Miss Universe-type question: what did you sacrifice to get to where you are right now? He said he always wanted to be a writer; he had a really bad night one time when he was twenty or so and had a eureka moment: he wanted to be a writer, thought he could be a good one. He said he didn't want to be eighty and look back into his life saying, I could've been a writer. Which struck me on a personal level. He also said that no one really gets a doorbell one day with a JKRowling lookalike, a Stephen King or a JRR Tolkien on his doorstep saying, "Here you are, the keys to the secret of being a writer. You must sacrifice your cat and burn her bones in offering.."

Someone also asked he makes really good female characters - the most interesting characters he ever wrote about were women (Death was one, and another that I didn't catch). He said that in comics then, women all seemed to be men with huge melons in front of them and carrying guns. "Those writers surely must've men women in their lives.. Their mother at least..?" (Someone in the crowd yelled, "No!" and we laughed). He said he wanted to make real women characters, because the women were the most sensible characters in the stories (much cheering from the females). He said that Death was too sensible a character to be dragged into a story.. which is why he never really wanted to make a comic series about Death - if there was a story, she'd more likely step aside instead of being caught up in one. Whereas Dream took on crap as it came along. He wrote the Endless with three-and-a-half men and three-and-a-half women characters (what wit! He rocks!). He wanted them to be real and human.

The Signing!
In short: it was LONG. He signed for about seven hours. Seven. Hours. I saw him fix his pen twice. They gave him a whole box of pens and I think he went through the entire thing. Imagine running out of pens for simply writing your name. The poor man's right hand must be absolutely numb and swollen by the end of it.

He was entirely gracious and generous. He took a bit of time that was humanly possible to try to have a one-sentence chat, or a little squiggle with the signings, the dedication. I can't explain the extent of his generosity for all of us - 700 people to sign books, and all of us had at least two (max 4) each. Seven hours. The crowd was appreciative and cooperative. By ten o'clock (yes, at night, we were still there. A lot of people sitting on the floor, reading, chatting, keeping vigil. Neil started to look really tired. His eyes started to hurt because of the number of flashes from the cameras. There were times when he'd be smiling at the camera and he looked wasted. But still, he kept on. He was simply fantastic.

I have been awake for 36 hours (with a one-hour nap from when I was still at work). I have been sustained by coffee, excitement and sheer adrenaline: I have never thought it'd be possible to actually meet him in person, and there he was.

Our turn!
Our turn finally came by midnight. Everyone waited this long - although privately I would understand if his energy simply gave out and he was incredibly tired. I've been thinking of what to say - if I would be conscious enough to still say something coherent. Or if Neil was still coherent enough that whatever I'd say would still register.. Chi came up first, and I took some pictures. Then, my turn came:

Me: I know you've heard this before.. I'm sure you've already heard this over and over.. but I've been waiting for this for seven years, Neil.
Neil: Well I'm glad I came, and I made a lot of people happy.
Me: You have quite a following here. I really hope you have a good night's sleep!
Neil: I surely will, because I think I already deserve it! (smiling)
Me: You do. You really really do.

I thanked him for the autograph. (He signed the front of Seasons of Mists (book 4 of Sandman), and the first page of A Midsummer Night's Dream from Dream Country - the story that won him the Locus, if I remember correctly. I couldn't resist - I gave him a hug (day's growth of beard - hee) and thanked him again.

I got down the stage with my knees feeling a little weak. When we got out of the tent, I started weeping - a delayed reaction from meeting someone I've reallyreally wanted to meet for a really long time. He's on one of my life's To Do list (a list that includes going to the Parthenon, going to the Louvre, meeting Nora Roberts, the Smithsonian.. meeting Neil Gaiman!) Bry was so mortified in what he thought was such a girlish emotion. Chi looked a bit amused and appalled, and attempted to crack jokes to lighten the mood. I think she knew how badly I wanted to do this, so she let me with my emotions. I was exhausted, and have been awake 36 hours. I wiped out my Palm's memory to be able to record videos of the talks, the reading.. and take pictures for posterity.

I really didn't imagine being able to do this.

:: D said @ 5:17 PM [+] ::
...

Damn
FF is down again. But then after five years or so of going to this community, I've witnessed many FF slowdowns already. Why should I be surprised? :)

Out of whack
Slept 7am this morning, woke up 11pm today. Which would be.. sixteen hours. Sixteen hours of sleep for me. Am I really that tired? Have I really been that tired with everything?

Woke up with the cotton-ball-type headache. Which meant that I slept over my limit. Dad watching the TV coverage of Gloria's scandal. I wonder what he's doing still up at 1am watching TV, or playing Minesweeper on the computer. I also wonder why I still find it weird, given he's never worked 8-to-5 in his whole life. I was tempted to say, "It's a school night, why are you still up?" I don't want to ask.

ANYway, back to the weird sleeping hours. Evidence that working this way has 1)wreaked havoc with my body clock (one time I told our client that I wouldn't ever have jetlag going to the US, I'm already acclimatized to their hours - lol), and 2)I better get a handle on the stress management. Still trying to figure if I'm either finding the workload too much for my job description (which means, it's me), or that it really is too much for my job description (in which case, I gotta ask around if I'm being underpaid for the kind of work I'm already doing - haha).

Updated my resume: my professional life summarized in three pages. I don't know if I should feel happy that I got to hit three pages, or disappointed coz they're three pages. Helped Acie out with her presentation; I hope it turns out well.

Was struggling with the lack of skills I've acquired with the stuff I studied for in college: I guess that's what everyone who didn't get into their industry struggles with. Chi put it in great perspective: "I have a strong marketing background, you have a strong customer service background." Chi has her own eureka moments, and manages to get me out of my funk at surprising times. I find comfort in the notion that the best kind of people are the ones who found their own way through life, not the ones who travelled the way set for them. Not that I begrudge them that: if you're doing what you studied for, good for you, congratulations. But as someone who isn't doing the same, there is a sense of adventure, risk, excitement and heartache in not being part of your industry.

I guess it's different for me, because I found out later on that I didn't have the fortitude and faith in my chosen course to sustain me through the rest of my professional career. Neither would I have been happi-er with the alternative course that I could've taken before (PolEco). I can't stomach selling things. Neither am I brilliant enough to be able to survive the cutthroat industry of advertising. I don't think I would've had the patience and enthusiasm with selling, say, detergent liquid, to the masses with the same enthusisasm I have with smacking down anti-Catholic zealots in the ROT. I don't think I would've been happy with the ivory tower that was PolEco. Either the teachers would flunk me for not willing to fit the norm, or I would've flunked out of sheer frustration.

So, the sense of adventure. Yes. Because there is nothing that I learned in school that I'm using here, right now. Sure, I studied the value of customer service, care and retention in school. But it wasn't part of the structure and syllabus of Comm. I had to learn that on my own, and how it equates to the actual business need, client satisfaction and company obligations. Dollars, cents, pesos, etc. Looking at my resume, yes, I think I do have a strong Customer Service background, with a specialization in call center in/outbound environments.

Not bad for a bunch of bullshit words, eh?

:: D said @ 10:35 AM [+] ::
...

Went to Mass, ate lunch at home, and Chi and I headed to Gateway mall to pick up Book 2 of the Ender series.

Books, damn it, more books
Bought the second Ender book, Speaker of the Dead. Am amazed that Orson Scott Card made this series in the late seventies/early eighties. It still feels fresh and futuristic.

Also got Book 5 of the Sandman series; picked up my pass and ticket for the raffle. Also got me another Greg Iles book. I never really took to suspense/mystery-types, but after reading Black Cross, I realized that I loved his writing.

Movie!
Went to Teriyaki Boy with Chi to wait out the 3:45 showing for War of the Worlds. I can see why not everyone would 'like' the movie. It's a short story by HG Wells, done in the 30's talking about an alien invasion.

The alien conspiracy fan in me loved it. Was chuckling all throughout the first appearance of the tripods.

Some similar stuff, though: (this is when you might want to stop reading due to spoilers)


Some of the scenes there looked like they were from Signs (M.Night Shyamalan). Spielberg used less music - in fact he did the opposite; the silence only heightened the tension (something M.Night has been using with his recent creations). He also used his old production company, Amblin, instead of Dreamworks - nostalgia, maybe? (And as Chi commented, you know you're a movie geek when you notice stuff like what's actually in the credits)

Kathleen Kennedy! I've been watching Spielberg movies since I was a child, and I have seen her name climb up from Associate Producer to Executive Producer. It's also a fun thrill to see a namesake do so well in the movie industry.

Also nice usage of windows to add tension. I think he deliberately put empty/dark windows in his most tense shots because historically in suspense films, you're used to expecting the creature/horror to jump out of it/into it to surprise the characters. This time around, the windows were there, but he never put the creatures in. But subliminally, you're tense coz you expect them to pop in any moment.

Also realized some trademark Spielberg scenes:
Creature running through trees, chasing main character on the road. Very Jurassic Park-like.
Upside-down car in the mud, creature crushing the car with it's foot, child inside. Again, reminiscent of Jurassic Park.


My MP3 Player!
Creative Zen Micro, in case you were wondering. All-white, which might pose a problem since I can get it grubbied up easily. Turns out that I haven't (so far) in the week that I've had her. Also managed to successfully transport my music into the thing - I have 5gigs of space, so I can put as much stuff into it that I can. And, I can also record songs off the radio, which is something the iPod can never do. Still having a REALLY hard time with the touch-pad thing, though. I'd've thrown it to the wall if the damn thing didn't cost as much. Lol.

I wonder what's a good name for the new toy? Something that starts with L, to go with the L-theme.

All in all a good day. Was relaxing. I'm going to check in with my re-sked first thing tomorrow to confirm my appointment.

:: D said @ 10:59 AM [+] ::
...