Reading the Funnies

Technically, this is not a post about the Comics section that I usually read first when I get my hands on the day's the newspaper. This is about funny signs or 'karatulas' posted all over town... we have a lot of these in Dumaguete City, but I've never really gotten to the point of taking pictures of them and posting them online. I should probably start looking and post whenever my collection reaches a reasonable size.

Two of the blog posts that gave me the giggles came from thecebulife.blogspot.com and pagchur.com.
Pagchur is Visayan slang for 'seriously' and is usually what comes to mind when we see funny, wacky or just plain ridiculous stuff, which, fortunately, abound in the city. I'm sure there are a lot of these signs making the rounds in cyberspace but I just had to make a post about them. Tomorrow is the start of my hunt for funny signs, so wish me luck!

Milestones: Cooking in Dumaguete

Living in Dumaguete City makes cooking just an option, with all the cheap food places around. Most of the eateries and restaurants are pretty cheap by big city standards. Dumaguete is a university town ,after all, so most establishments tailor their services according to what struggling and hungry students can afford. It is no surprise then that I do not know how to cook, save for the basic poached or fried egg and all its variations.

Anything that can be fried I can cook, but there are times when the whole exercise ends up looking like a skirmish with cooking utensils, with me using the pan cover as a shield as I try to protect myself from flying droplets of cooking oil. It was indeed a milestone of sorts when I managed to cook fried pork ribs coated with an egg and flour mixture... your typical fried chicken save for the fact that this was pork. It was just like cooking anything other type of raw food with oil, but this did not involve eggs, hence the incredible sense of achievement (I happen to know that cooking with pork can be really tricky).

Plus, I did not forget to sprinkle a little bit of salt, which I tend to do with food that aren't eggs.

I promised a friend I'd post the fruits of my labor.

Doesn't look like much now, but it sure tasted pretty good!

Buglasan 2009

The 2009 Buglasan festival ended last week, one whole week of frenzied activities, crowded streets and the various municipalities converging at Sidlakang Negros to showcase the various attractions that make their town unique. Friday, October 23, saw the streets swarming with colorful costumes and bands, street dancers and floats. Saturday and Sunday were marked by fireworks competitions that drew everyone to the boulevard.

I managed to get out of the house long enough to get some shots. Had a jolly good time chasing after the colorful street dancers and even met a few people from my hometown of Bindoy.

Saturday and Sunday, fireworks nights, drew people from as far as several towns away. Fireworks were lit from the pier where they exploded over the water in full glorious view from the Rizal Boulevard.

Animal Justice

I was Googling about dogs and teary, swollen eyes when I came across a news article about a burned dog who was getting the chance to see his torturers in court. His name is Mambo, a brown mixed breed dog who got lost and was eventually found by a young woman and her male friend. But instead of getting Mambo back to his owners, the young woman held Mambo down while the guy poured gasoline over the poor pooch before setting him alight. Thankfully, good Samaritans were able to take him to the hospital and since then he has been under the care of the Society for the Protection of Animals while his tormentors awaited trial.

Meet Mambo. *(photo courtesy of http://www.pajamadeen.com)

It makes me happy to think that there are countries like the UK (where this happened) that takes its animal cruelty laws seriously and that people there do not think twice about sending animal torturers to jail. Section 6 of Republic Act 8485 is the law against animal cruelty here in the Philippines and I know of some groups like PAWS who have used this law to bring animal torturers to justice. But we are so behind when it comes to reporting these cases, partially because most Pinoys think that it's ok to hurt animals, or because reporting crimes like these takes too much time on our part. The worst part is most Pinoys don't even know that there is a law against animal cruelty and they don't know who to call when they want to report this crime ASAP ( the number is 117, same for other crimes). In some cases, even the police don't think it's such a big deal that they halfheartedly respond to calls or don't respond at all.

Dogs and other animals like Mambo are tortured and even eaten in the Philippines everyday and rarely do they make the news. It's time we all learn to see animal cruelty as something as offensive and as inhumane as domestic violence or homicide, because in truth, it is.

Back to Siomai

I've always had this love affair with siomai, but it has been ages since I've eaten some. Twenty-two mouthwatering pieces--- that's my personal record. So when my friend Cris called to say she had ordered 25 pieces from Manang Gloria (best siomai maker IN DA WORLD!) and would I care to eat along, I jumped at the chance. We ate the siomai at the side of Luce Auditorium under the acacia trees, listening to Jennifer Paige from Cris' car while watching two high school sweethearts giggle quietly a few feet from us. Coupled with Royal Tru Orange, my favorite drink to go along with siomai, the eating session was probably one of the best I've had in months. Of course, we had gotten older, so we couldn't gulp down 22 pieces of the porky treat just as easily as we did a few years back. Now, ten pieces along and we were huffing and puffing. We managed to eat everything just the same. You cannot order siomai and have anything left over. It simply does not happen.

Siomaaaaaaiiiii! Flanked by two cans of soda and Manang G's special sauce.


Siomai eaters.

First Model Photoshoot

I had the best of luck to join my very first model Shoot/EB with the Dumaguete Flickr group sometime back in September. There I met Dumaguete photo bigwigs like Sir Phil Calumpang, Dr. Robert Tan, multi-awarded photog Hersley Ven Casero and his other half, Alma Zosan Alcoran, Aye Gapasin, Luigi Anton Borromeo and his girlfriend Michelle, among other friends, both old and new. The shoot was held at the ACSAT grounds, first at the small forested area behind the school and then on the stairs that led to the ASCAT lobby.
Felt so out of my element at first, since I arrived late and I had no idea how to work my camera. Fortunately, everyone was handing out tips and they were kind enough to let the newbies and first-timers try their hand at strobe photography, which turned out to be quite addicting, as Sir Phil had warned.

Aesha Villanueva

Outdoors... my first strobe shot.

Sir Phil doing his thing.

With the recent creation of SNAP (Sidlakang Negros Association of Photographers) which was timed to coincide with the opening of the Buglasan 2009 Festival and the group's first exhibit, here's to hoping for more creative photographic outputs from these guys!

An Attempt at a Pear

I've always enjoyed browsing through the works of various artists over at Inspire Me Thursday and Illustration Friday but didn't think I could find time to work on anything and finish it before the next topic for the next week began. But the thought of suffering through a lazy Saturday night prompted me to get my acrylics and start drawing...the topic for IMT was about pears, so I did my best to come up with something that resembled a fruit that was pear-shaped and here's the result.

Pear. Acrylic and ink on 9"x12" paper